The Queen’s Commissioners insisted to have the date of these articles 11th of April, because then they were fully agreed, and the time after was for engrossing and preparing them to be signed and sealed; and Whitelocke did not oppose their desire herein.
Thus, after a long and intricate (it might be said vexatious) transaction of this great affair for near five months together, all bitter oppositions, cunning practices, and perplexed difficulties being removed and overcome, through the goodness and assistance of the only wise Counsellor, the Prince of Peace, it pleased Him to give a good issue and happy success in the conducting of this treaty by him who accounts his great labour and hazards in this transaction well bestowed, and humbly prays that this treaty may prove to the honour of God, the interest of the Protestant cause, and the good of both nations therein concerned.
April 29, 1654.
Whitelocke’s passport through Flanders. Though Whitelocke received no letters this week from England, yet he had some from Hamburg and from Flanders, among which was one from Don Piementelle full of civility and compliment, giving Whitelocke notice of his safe arrival in Flanders, and advising him to take that way in his return; and in it was a letter in Spanish from Piementelle to the Prince of Mamines in Flanders, to be made use of by Whitelocke if he should have occasion there, for the more safety and accommodation of his journey. This letter Whitelocke caused to be translated:—
“Most excellent Sir,
“My Lord Whitelocke, the Lord Ambassador Extraordinary of England, having finished his embassy in this Court, is resolved to return through this province, having passed from Hamburg to Cologne, and that he may go to Brussels with better security, he desires a passport from your Highness to the Lord Archduke. I, having written that it may be despatched, and added that it may be remitted to your Excellence, do entreat you to order that the said despatch may be delivered to the party whom the said Lord Ambassador shall send from Cologne for it; and that, he passing through this town, his Lordship, by his civil entertainment, may understand the favour your Excellence doth afford me, I owing to this honourable person many and singular respects, which I desire to manifest and acknowledge. I am confident your Excellence will assist me herein, and will be disposed to employ me in many services of yours in Madrid, whither I am commanded to go, by order from my Lord the King, and shall begin my journey within three or four days, by way of Brussels, where I hope to find your Excellence’s commands, which I assure you I shall esteem in all places and obey with the highest punctuality. God preserve your Excellence the many years of my desires.
“Your Excellence’s greatest servant,
“Anto Pimentel.”
In the letter which Whitelocke wrote to Thurloe, after an account of the passages since his last, he wrote thus:—
Report of the signing of the treaty to Thurloe. “Having received no letters by the post yesterday from England, I was contented to seal the articles of our treaty; for if but a few days should be intermitted, they could not have been signed at all, because upon Tuesday next the Ricksdag, or Parliament here, is appointed to meet, and within two or three days after their meeting the Queen intends to resign her Government, and it will be some time after before the Prince be crowned. I shall have much to do to despatch the necessary ceremonies here of my public audience, to take my leave of the Queen, with the many visits I am to perform, according to the custom to which I am to conform, in regard of the honour of his Highness and our nation; for he who neglects these ceremonies here is censured for a mechanic or a boor. I intend from hence to go to the Prince of Sweden, to salute him from my Lord Protector, as I am advised that the Prince expects and desires it. From thence I purpose to go to Stockholm, where I am to take ship for Lübeck; and from thence to Hamburg, where I shall attend his Highness’s further commands, or some ships to be sent for my transport into England, which I earnestly entreat you to procure in time.