But if the late K. of England, did not approve of my Conduct in the affairs of Nimeguen, which in effect he declared at first in Publick not to be pleased with, in which he play'd his part to admiration: If against his will, I had truly inform'd the several Deputies at the Hague, how that the two Kings of England and France were intirely agreed upon Conditions of Peace; if this accident changed the Destiny of Christendom, and what endeavours soever the English Court had made, there were no ways to repair the Breach. If I was a Fool, a peice of an Agent, or a Knave, How comes it that the King suffer'd me to stay in England near a year? nay, as long as my Master thought fit. Why was the King so civil to me? Why did he recompence me for my Voyage from Nimeguen? Upon what account did the King bestow several other Favours upon me? How comes it, that I haveing made a great Entertainment and Fireworks, to shew my joy for the Re-establishment of the Duke my Master to his Teritories, that the whole Court should do me that Honour as to be present thereat?
It was not my quality of Envoy Extraordinary of the Duke de Gottorp, that hindred the King to express some kind of resentment against me, and thereupon to bid me avoid the Kingdom. I do well remember the King was just upon the point of making Mounsieur Van Beuningen Ambassador to the States General, to withdraw and get him out of the Land, because he had got the word Connivance, to be foisted into a Memorial he presented to the King, for the recalling of the English Forces, which bore Armes in France.
Don Barnard de Salinas was the Spanish Envoy; the King made much of him, yea and loved him for the particular care he had in Flanders of the education of the E. of Plym. one of the Ks. Sons, He did nothing but report up and down, that the King gave the Authors of the Address, presented to his Majesty, by the House of Commons no better name than Rogues. The King had his liberty to reject this Address, as indeed he did, and no ways apprehended the Consequences of it at that time; yet for all that, he banished Don Bern. de Salinas, not in the least considering his Character, nor the Kindness wherewith he had always honoured this Minister; Yea and he Banished him too, without any respect to the King of Spain.
But, for me who had abused and deceived the D. of York, My Lord Treasurer, ay, and the K. himself, who had overthrown all those fair and vast Projects, which the Confederates had contrived at London and Nimeguen; and Sir W. T. at the Hague, which had disclosed the Kings dispatches, a master piece of Secrecy, who was the cause of quite changing the Fate of Christendom: for me, I say, against whom the P. of Orange had written, and caused to be written so many thundering Letters, against whom all the Ministers of the Confederates called for Vengeance; against whom Sir W. T. levelled more of his endeavours to destroy me than the Court did to repair this Breach, and patch up the business, it lets me alone, it does not make the least complaint to the Duke my Master; the K. does me a great many favours, and laughs in his Sleeve at the Surprise, at the Sorrow, and Complaints of the Confederates, and Sir W. T.
After all that, can any body reasonably believe that the K. of England might have lookt upon me as a Rogue: And when he told Sir W. T. after a droleing manner that I was a Rogue and had out witted them all, may it not be probable, that he had a mind to jeer him, and to make him sensible that he was taken but for Fool? It was very like so to be.
I have not gone about, My Lord, to say in this place what I might say, to wipe of all those scandalous impressions that Sir W. T. hath such a desire to fasten upon me; I suppose I have given your Lordship sufficiently to understand, that what he hath been pleased to say upon this Theme of me, proceeds from inveterate Spite and Malice.
But, what way is there to get clear of one of the most Haughty, and most Revengeful of men, who in his Memoires falls foul upon the reputation even of the greatest Minister, who casts aspersions on the Duke of Lauderdale, that most Zealous, and most Faithful Minister, that ever the King was Master of; on My Lord Arlington whom Sir W. is bound to respect as his Master, who was his Benefactor, that raised him from his sordid obscurity, and as it were from the Dunghill, to bring him into play, This ingreatful person forsooke him, that he might catch at the shadow and appearance of mending his Fortune; he would not have stuck to ruin My Lord Arlington by base indirect means: This is no hard matter to make out, even by Sir W. T. his own Memoirs, but yet I am acquainted with some particulars upon this Subject that make my hair stand an end, nay, and I have not only learnt them from My Lord Arlingtons own mouth, but also from a noted Minister of those times.
What a piece of impudence to call in question and tax the Principal Ministers, and the soberest Magistrates of Holland, viz. Monsieur de Beverning, Monsieur Valknier and others, generally esteemed by every body. To arraign them, I say, some for Avarice, others for Partiality, I had almost said for betraying their Trust. But above all, to give such disadvantagious representations of the E. of Rochester, and of Sir Leoline Jenkyns; that, it would have been all one if he had said, that Sir Leoline, was a man of the other World, a plain downright Ideot, void of insight and Experience: And that Law. Hyde, now E. of Rochester, was a Lord altogether unacquainted with, and no ways fit for the imployment the King gave him at Nimeguen; nevertheless, Sir Leoline was made Secretary of State, and no notice at all taken of Sir W.
As for Laurence Hyde, Sir W. speaks first of him, as if he were a Youth, that should have been sent to the University, I plainly perceive, saith he, that the chief design of that Commission was to introduce Mr. Hyde into this sort of employment, and to let him understand the manner how the men behave themselves in the same, then he adds, He excused himself out of modesty, to have any thing to do with any Conference, and Compiling Dispatches. Was it out of the respect he owed to Sir W. T. or for want of Capacity, that My Lord shewed so much modesty, that he would neither make Dispatches, nor meddle with Conferences, what, he who had been ingaged already, as he was afterwards in very important Affairs; who had been Embassadour in the principal Courts of Europe, who was chosen as Chief of the Embasie at Nimeguen, one who in all respects is so far above Sir W.T. for all these great qualities; yet My Lord, affords Sir W. just as much difference, as a petty Scholar does a famous Pedant. And to reward him, Sir W. T. would make him pass in the world, for an Embassadour that was but at best his Scholar.
I make account to tell you, what Sir W. dare not acknowledge. Mr. Hyde, being more subtile, and of greater Abilities than Sir W. and of that quality too, that was not to be exposed, would not intermeddle in a Mediation, which was like to suffer so gross Indignities, as the Mediation of England suffered at the Treaty of Nimeguen. One time or other I shall publish those indignities in my Memoires, together with the weakness, and tameness wherewith they were content to suffer them.