King's Bed-chamber, who receiv'd them bare-headed and standing before an Arm-Chair. As the Audience was only to compliment his Majesty upon his Arrival, it was very short; and the States returning to the usual Place of their Assembly, went afterwards and din'd with the King.

Some days after this his Majesty set out for Honslaerdyk, a Place two Leagues from the Hague, which he enjoy'd by Inheritance from the late K. William of England. Thither I follow'd the King, who staid there till he had receiv'd Advice, that the Prince of Nassau, Governor of Friseland, was to come from the Army in Flanders to the Hague, there to make an end of the Differences betwixt him and his Majesty about the Succession to the Family of Orange, of which that Prince took the Title, by virtue of the last Will and Testament of the late King of England, the last Prince of the said Family. The King had been expecting him for some days, when a Courier arriv'd with the News, that the Prince was drown'd in the Passage of the Moerdyke. Having embark'd there with his Retinue to pass the Stryen-Sas, he was not got above thirty or forty Paces from Shore, when a furious Gust of Wind arose, by which the Vessel was overset and lost. As the Sea swell'd at the same time, and the Prince knew not how to swim, he could not get ashore. Colonel Hilkes who accompanied him was drown'd with him, and none but his Domestics escap'd. The unfortunate Prince was seen to hang by the Mast of the Vessel for some Moments, and there were some hopes of relieving him, had it not been for a Wave, which drove by a Blast of Wind carried him off from the piece of Wood he clung to, and cast him away. The Body of this Prince,

who was very much regretted, was not found till about a Week after, in the very same place where the Vessel happen'd to be cast away. 'Twas carried to Dort where 'twas embalm'd, and then remov'd to Lewarden, there to be interr'd in the Tomb of his Family.

The King was the more afflicted at this sad Accident, because the News was told him too hastily, by a foolish Courier, who, for want of knowing his Master's Temper, thought that the News of the Prince of Friseland's Death wou'd not be disagreeable to him; but the King gave public Demonstration how sorry he was for his Loss, and sent a Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to the last Princess-Dowager of Nassau, to assure her how much he sympathiz'd in her loss.

The Death of the Prince of Friseland interrupted the whole Treaty of Accommodation. The said Prince left a Daughter, and the Princess his Wife pregnant, who wrote to the States to desire them not to do any thing in prejudice of the Infant of whom she hoped to be deliver'd; and that as they were Executors Testamentary, they would preserve the Bulk of his Inheritance entire; and that otherwise she openly protested against every thing that might be done. This Demand did not hinder the States from granting the King a provisional Portion; and it was agreed, that his Majesty, as well as the Heirs of the Prince of Nassau, now deceas'd, should be paid 150000 Dutch Florins a year, out of the Estate of the Orange Family: That the Palaces of Prince Frederic-Henry, of which the King was already in Possession, shou'd continue his; but that the Dieren Palace shou'd be common both to the King and the Prince's Heirs; and that the rest should be referr'd to a definitive Accommodation,

which is the Thing that still remains to be done. I had the Honor to pay my Court punctually all the Time that his Majesty spent at the Hague; and when he set out, I went with him to Dieren, where I took leave of the King, little thinking 'twou'd be the last Time I should see him.

I went thro' Dusseldorff[32], the Capital of the Duchy of Berg, which was then the Residence of the Elector Palatine, who, it must be noted, was the first of the Palatine Electors that liv'd here; for the Electors commonly resided heretofore at Heidelberg or Manheim. The Elector John-William had preferred Dusseldorff to all other Places, from an early liking that he took to that Town, of which he was Master, even in the Life-time of the Elector his Father; who when he married his Son to the Emperor Leopold's Sister, yielded to him the Duchies of Juliers and Berg, of which Dusseldorff is the Capital City, and wou'd have been one of the finest in Germany, if the Emperor had liv'd long enough to put the great Projects which he had form'd in execution. This Prince had already begun to augment the City with one entire Quarter, the Streets whereof were as strait as a Line; and I saw the Plan of a new Palace that he intended to build, which wou'd certainly have been one of Europe's Grand Structures. As to that now at Dusseldorff, the only beautiful part of it is that call'd the Gallery; tho' why it has that Name I can't imagine, since nothing resembles a Gallery less. It contains five Rooms, three of which are much bigger than the others. One of these

Rooms is quite full of magnificent Paintings by the famous Rubens. In another there's a great number of Paintings by Van der Werf, a Dutch Painter who died lately at the Hague. If a Man has ever so little Taste or Skill in Painting, 'tis impossible for him to be indifferent for such Pictures, which may be said to be all Master-pieces. Such are those representing the good old Man Simeon holding the Savior of the World in his Arms; our Lord teaching in the Temple; and the Pictures of the Elector and Electoress, in two particular Rooms of the first Story of this Gallery, are the Models of the most magnificent Statues of Italy, sent for by the Elector from all parts of that Country at a vast Expence. The three others are full of modern Statues of Marble and Brass, which are for the most part done by the famous Gripilli an Italian, and an excellent Artist, especially for Busts that require a Likeness.

In the Court-yard of the Palace there's an Equestrian Statue of the Elector arm'd cap-a-pee, with the Electoral Bonnet on his Head, and mounted upon a very fine Horse of yellow Copper. In the same Court there is likewise a very fine Fountain, the Group of which is of Brass very curiously wrought, but so incumber'd with Works of different Kinds, that 'tis difficult to distinguish them.

Five Leagues from Dusseldorff there's a Hunting-Seat call'd Bensberg[33], which is built in a Forest on a Hill, from whence there's a fine Prospect of the City of Cologne, the Rhine, and all the flat Country. To this Castle there's a large Avenue, by a gradual Ascent, till one comes to the Grate of the first Court, on each