But now, if Sir W. T. hath not spared such Illustrious persons as these: No, not so much as My Lord Treasurer, at present Marquis of Caermarthen, laying something to his charge, whom also he does not do that right and Justice, which is due to so great a Minister of State, one of the greatest Wits of the Age, for business; a person so Loyal to the King his Master, that he sacrificed himself for his sake; and after all, so full of zeal for his Country, that he hath bethought himself of all expedients, and hath not feared to expose himself to peril and utter undoing, that he might deliver it from the mischiefs that threaten it; If Sir Will. hath not spared the Kings person, whose Dignity and Reputation he so often sacrifices, can I hope to escape his foul mouthed Language.
Peradventure he had better have done something else, & something wiser; great Confident of Princes and Ks. the sole preserver of Flanders, as he is, than to have entred the list with a Monk, with a kind of an Agent, and with a cunning Knave. But his desire of revenge hath prevailed, he believes himself cruelly wrong'd, and he is in the right on't, for that at the Hague and at Nimeguen, which he was confident would be the Theatre of his Glory, they made him act a disgraceful ridiculous part. He imagines I am partly the cause of it, either because that my Voyage to Nimeguen might have been the effect of my Negotiation, which he might have gathered by the Kings answer, or, because I might have done nothing in Holland, but administer cause of Suspicions and Umbrages, that hasten'd on the Peace, in spite of his Teeth, and Reverst the Treaty he had but lately concluded at the Hague.
My Lord, If I be not mistaken, here is another occasion of Sir W.T. being vext at me. There was a Treaty a foot between England and Spain, for which purpose Sir W. was employ'd without any other design in reference to England, but to abase the Parliament, and no other on the Spaniards side, but only to add a little more reputation to their Affairs. Now the Parliament got nothing by it, and the greatest advantage accrued to the Spaniard, who upon this occasion made him really believe it, and so took him for a Cully. A sad acknowledgment for having alone saved Flanders for Spain! I ridiculed this Treaty, I made observations thereon, that were published in Holland, and men judged that the observations were well grounded: After that, and after the business of Nimeguen, I was not to expect any Encomiums from so unjust a person as Sir W. T. but still he might have writ more like a Gentleman, and have spoken of me without ever loosing the respect which he owed to my Master, without doing so great an injury in my person, both to my Name, and Family out of a merry humour, for in whatsoever past, I performed the duty of a Minister, both zealous and most faithful; Nay, and I did nothing but even by concurrance and good likeing of the King of England.
I beseech you, My Lord, conserve for me the honour of your gracious favour, and be fully perswaded, that I shall be all my life long, with much respect.
Your most humble, &c.
FINIS.
AN
ADVERTISEMENT,
Concerning the
Foregoing Letter.
It is now some Months ago since the Foreign Journals gave us to understand, that Mousieur de Cross, the Ingenious Author of the foregoing Treatise, was meditating an Answer to Sir William Temple's Memoirs. As nothing more sensibly touches us, than to have our Reputation wounded by those Persons whom we never injured. We are not to admire that our Author who thought himself unjustly attacked in these Memoirs, took the first opportunity to justifie his proceedings to the World; and if he sometimes falls out into severe or indecent Language, it is to be remembred that he was not the first Agressor, but that his Adversary taught him the way. How well M. de Cross has acquitted himself in this Affair, I will by no means take upon me to determine. Let the Reader, without prejudice or partiality, consider what both Parties say, and then let him judge for himself.