Observe now, if you please, my Lord, the Malice of Monsieur T. in Relation to Monsieur Williamson, on whom he would give in this place, the Character of Perfidy, as he hath done in diverse other parts of his Memoirs. Monsieur T. ought to have had at least, some respect for the King, whose Orders Monsieur Williamson did Execute.
I never talkt of it, says Monsieur T. to the Secretary of State Williamson, as if he would lay that he was sufficiently perswaded that Monsieur Williamson was a Man altogether for France, and that he was intirely devoted as well as my self, to Monsieur Barillon, and that he was the Author of this Dispatch.
Is it not clear that Monsieur T. would make us imagine that Monsieur the Chevalier Williamson, Secretary of State, the French Ambassador, and the Dutchess of Portsmouth promised these Orders. As for me, tho' I had the Dispatch given me, yet he does not accuse me openly in this place of bearing any other part in this Affair, than only as a Messenger entrusted with the Conveyance. And not only so, but I never went to the Dutchess of Portsmouths Lodgings, she having an irreconcilable aversion for me, and I for her.
Can there be a greater absurdity than this? To endeavour to perswade his Readers that the most important affair of that time, on which depended (says Monsieur T.) The Fate of Christendom was concluded and made up, in one hours time, in the apartment of the Dutchess of Portsmouth, by the Intervention of Monsieur Barillon.
Monsieur T. is accustomed so little to spare the King's Reputation, that he fears not on this occasion, to prostitute it, in a strange manner. He does not only charge him with partiality and connivance, in suffering Valentiennes, Cambray, St. Omer, and several other places in Flanders, to be taken, without Murmur or Opposition; But the King of England obliged as much as could be, in the Quality of a Mediator, and more through the Interest of his Kingdoms to procure the Repose of Christendom, yet corrupted by the French Ambassadours, and by the Charms of a Mistress, Sacrifices all Europe, and his own Estate, to a Power that is naturally an Enemy to England. And this without Ceremony, in an hours time, without the advice of his Council, and hides himself in the Apartment of a Woman, as if he was sensible that he went about an action the most unworthy of the Majesty of a Prince, and the most opposite to the Felicity of his People that could be. For what other Construction can any one make of what Monsieur T. says, and can any man conclude, otherwise when he reads this worthy passage in his Memoirs?
Certain it is, that this Dispatch was made up by Monsieur Williamson, and by the Kings Order. And since the King was pleased to avoid opening his mind hereon to Monsieur T. giving him no other answer, but that I had been more cunning than all of 'em; Monsieur T. might possibly Address himself to Monsieur Williamson, who, it may be, might tell him, by whose means, and how Du Cross had obtained this Dispatch.
'Tis plain that Monsieur T. despairs of penetrating into this Affair; that he knows not where about he is when he speaks of it; and that he only seeks to blacken the Reputation of the King and his Ministers. If the Peace of Aix la Chapelle is his Favourite, because he hath the Vanity to believe it to be intirely his own work; 'tis easie seen that the Peace of Nimeguen is his Aversion, because he is ashamed to have had so small a Part in it as he had, and that the most glorious part of his Life is not to be found in that Negotiation.
I would have this Complaisance for Monsieur T. though he treats me so ill; I would, at least, in some part, draw him out of this great incertainty, on the subject of the Dispatch which I brought him.
He is deceived, when he imputes this Resolution to the Intrigues and Perswasions of France. It was neither managed, nor taken, nor dispatcht, at the Dutchess of Portsmouth's; nor was it by the means or intervention of Monsieur Barillon. That Ambassadour had no part in it, but on the very Instant when the affair was concluding. He was not so much as present at the Expedition, as he had not been at any time at the Deliberations. The Marquiss of Ruvigny, the Son, carryed the first News to the King, his Master, the same day that I parted for Nimeguen. Monsieur Williamson knew well what was contained in the Dispatch to Monsieur T. in which there was nothing very mysterious. But he was never privy to the secret of the Negotiation, and tho' he was present when I took my leave of the King in Secretary Coventry's Office, yet he was then ignorant of the true subject of my Voyage, and perhaps he never knew it.
The King was not at all precipitate, and the affair was not concluded and dispatcht in an hours time. It was treated on, and deliberately considered near Three weeks. There was time given to the Ambassadours of Swedeland to resolve themselves, and make their Answer. The King's design was doubtless aimed for the good of Europe, and the publick tranquility, but in truth, he had not in his Eye, nor did he certainly believe that happy Fate of Christendome, for which Monsieur T. labours so earnestly in consort with some particular Persons, Enemies to the State, Seditious, and Disturbers of the Publick Repose.
But the King said pleasantly, adds Monsieur T. that the Rogue (Coquin) du Cross had outwitted them all. If Monsieur T. had not made the King say this, and had said it himself, I might have applied to him, with as much Justice as any man in the World, these Verses which I have read somewhere,
Coquin, he calls me, with mighty disdain.
Doubtless, I should answer Monsieur T. thus,
Seek your Coquins elsewhere, you're one your self, But the Person of Kings is sacred. Besides, Can that be an abuse, which is spoken pleasantly, without the least design perhaps of offending. For Coquin is a word which the Late King of England often used, when he spoke of People for whom he had notwithstanding Respect and Consideration. 'Tis true, he used the word also very familiarly, when he was angry, but at such times he spoke with indignation, and not pleasantly.
The Parliament presented an Address to the King (as Monsieur T. reports) in which they represented the Progress of the French Arms, and desired him to stop it before it became more dangerous to England, and the other Neighbouring Countries. Don Bernard de Salinas (continues Monsieur T.) said to certain Members of the Commons, that this Address had so exasperated the King, that he said those who were the Authors of it were a Company of Coquins.
I remembred at my Arrival in England, in 1675, before I was to go into France in Quality of an Envoy, whither I acknowledge his most Christian Majesty would not permit me to come, either because they had informed him that I had embraced the Protestant Religion, or it may be because the King of France would not receive his own Subjects, in the Quality of Ministers of other Princes. It happened, I say, that the King of England (to whom also I had a Commission) bid the Marquiss of Ruvigni, one Evening, bring me to his Cabinet, and himself come in with me.
The King enquired of me, at the first, what news I could tell him of the Condition of the Swedes Army in Pomerania, through which I past, and exprest much concern that the Constable Wrangle, not minding to pass forward into the Empire (as Monsieur T. says) had thereby different pretences, had attacked the Elector of Branderburg as vigorously and with as much success as he could. I told the King the reason, which concerns not my present subject to report here.
Afterwards, I having informed the King of the State of Germany, the King believing that I was to pass into France, spoke to me in these very words. Monsieur, tell the King, my Brother, that it is much against my mind that I have made Peace with these Coquins, the Hollanders, Monsieur the Marquiss of Ruvigny, who stands here, knows it well.
Sometime before the making of this Peace, the King talking with Monsieur de Shrenborn Envoy from Mayence, told him also, in Relation to the Hollanders, In a little time, Monsieur, I will bring these Coquins to Reason. Monsieur de Barillon writ to the Count d' Avaux, the French Ambassadour at the Hague, certain Discourses which the King had concerning the Hollanders. The Count d' Avaux made use of this to encrease the just Suspitions of the Estates. He carried the Letters of Monsieur Barillon, to Monsieur Fagel. Whereupon, the States made a terrible Complaint, and the King of England said on this Occasion to the Duke of Lauderdale, that Monsieur Barillon, and the Count d' Avaux were Coquins.
Had the King called me Coquin, seriously, I ought not to think it any very strange thing; since he hath treated in the same manner the most powerful and wisest Republick of the World, to whom he had so great Obligations; two Ambassadours of his most Christian Majesty, of extraordinary merit, and as honest Men as France ever had; and also the greatest Lords of his own Kingdom who were Authors of the Address which the Commons presented him.