P. 765. Burnet. Lord Churchill [afterwards Duke of Marlborough] ... was a man of a noble and graceful appearance, bred up in the court with no literature: But he had a solid and clear understanding, with a constant presence of mind. He knew the arts of living in a court better than any man in it. He caressed all people with a soft and obliging deportment, and was always ready to do good offices.... It must be acknowledged, that he is one of the greatest men the age has produced.—Swift. A composition of perfidiousness and avarice.
Ibid. Burnet, still speaking of Lord Churchill:—He was also very doubtful as to the pretended birth. So he resolved, when the Prince should come over, to go in to him; but to betray no post, nor do anything more than the withdrawing himself, with such officers as he could trust with such a secret.—Swift. What could he do more to a mortal enemy.
P. 769. Burnet. [Skelton's] rash folly might have procured the order from the court of France, to own this alliance [with England]; He thought it would terrify the States; And so he pressed this officiously, which they easily granted.—Swift. And who can blame him, if in such a necessity he made that alliance?
P. 772. Burnet. The King of France thought himself tied by no peace; but that, when he suspected his neighbours were intending to make war upon him, he might upon such a suspicion begin a war on his part.—Swift. The common maxim of princes.
P. 776. Burnet, speaking of the Declaration prepared for Scotland, says that the:—Presbyterians, had drawn it so, that, by many passages in it, the Prince by an implication declared in favour of Presbytery. He did not see what the consequences of those were, till I explained them. So he ordered them to be altered. And by the Declaration that matter was still entire.—Swift. The more shame for King William, who changed it.
P. 782. Burnet, three days before the Prince of Orange embarked, he visited the States General, and:—took God to witness, he went to England with no other intentions, but those he had set out in his Declaration.—Swift. Then he was perjured; for he designed to get the crown, which he denied in the Declaration.
P. 783. Burnet, after describing the storm which put back the Prince of Orange's fleet, observes:—In France and England ... they triumphed not a little, as if God had fought against us, and defeated the whole design. We on our part, who found our selves delivered out of so great a storm and so vast a danger, looked on it as a mark of God's great care of us, Who, ... had preserved us.—Swift. Then still it must be a miracle.
P. 785. Burnet, when matters were coming to a crisis at the Revolution, an order was:—sent to the Bishop of Winchester, to put the President of Magdalen College again in possession, ... [But when the court heard] the Prince and his fleet were blown back, it was countermanded; which plainly shewed what it was that drove the court into so much compliance, and how long it was like to last.—Swift. The Bishop of Winchester assured me otherwise.
Ibid. Burnet. The court thought it necessary, now in an after-game to offer some satisfaction in that point [of the legitimacy of the Prince of Wales].—Swift. And this was the proper time.
P. 786. Burnet. Princess Anne was not present [at the Queen's delivery]. She indeed excused herself. She thought she was breeding: And all motion was forbidden her. None believed that to be the true reason.... So it was looked on as a colour that shewed she did not believe the thing, and that therefore she would not by her being present seem to give any credit to it.—Swift. I have reason to believe this to be true of the Princess Anne.