The enemies of France failed not to exclaim against this violence, exaggerating it with the most odious appellations.
On searching his house, it was found turned into an Arsenal. He had arms enough to stand a siege in form. It was talked at court that he had determined to fight singly himself against a whole regiment, and then set fire to a barrel of powder, which communicated with others, and thus blow up himself, with all that belonged to him. The King, on being told this, said, “A very ill-timed bravery, indeed!”
The peace, however, spread an universal joy through all ranks. There were only two men in the kingdom who were not satisfied with it, the Marshals Saxe and Lowendahl. The former expressed his discontent to the secretary of war in this manner: “After the battle of Fontenoy, said he, we were in a fair way of making ourselves masters of Holland, and putting an end to that troublesome republic; for these merchants, with their shipping and their wealth, are the mischief-makers of Europe; they are the necessary allies of our natural enemies the English. The great work of their destruction was nearly finished; why did we not go through with it? If we again give the republicans time to fortify themselves, they will be as daring as before; and the time may come when France with all its forces will not be able to bring them to reason. Destroying Holland is cutting off England’s right arm; and every body knows, that all France’s policy should center in weakening Great Britain.
“Of what consequence has the victory of Fontenoy been? What is France the better for the taking of Bergen-op-Zoom? All those efforts of courage, all the lives of so many gallant officers who fell in Flanders, were purely thrown away. If these places were to be restored, and the Dutch and the house of Austria to be put on the same footing as each of them was before the war, it had been much better there had been no war at all. France’s giving back its conquests, was making war against herself; her very victories have ruined her; her enemies have retained all their former strength, whilst she alone has weakened herself. Her subjects are fewer by a million, and her finances reduced to little or nothing.”
These speeches reaching the King’s ears, he said, “I understand the language of those generalissimos; they are for ever dwelling on red-hot bullets.”
The count de St. Severin d’Arragon, who had made the peace, undertook to demonstrate the fallacy of such reasonings; and the King has often repeated to me his arguments. “Sire, said he, the conquest of Holland made no part of the plan of this war. All France aimed at, was to keep the Dutch from declaring. The end of our many sieges and battles, was not to destroy their republic, but only to bring it to pacific terms; so that in forcing them to lay aside their arms, the council of state’s view is fully answered.
“Your Generals will have it, that after the battle of Fontenoy, and the taking of Bergen-op-Zoom, the United Provinces might easily have been overrun, and the States-General have been brought under the dominion of France. They are mistaken; the weapons of despair are invincible. To compel a people to the necessity of being conquered, is the ready way to lose a conquest. The sovereignties once settled, are no longer subject to destruction; they are reciprocal counterpoizes; should only one fall under the power of another, the whole balance of Europe would be destroyed. It is long since war has afforded any of those decisive blows, which, in the time of the Romans, changed the face of the political world. A province may be mastered, but the invading of kingdoms is out of date.
“Granting, Sir, that the ardour of your troops, breaking through the common ways, had reduced Holland, it would have been a conquest not only useless, but have thrown France into fresh troubles; all Europe, in a body, would have declared war against you. The great powers, jealous of the house of Bourbon, have long been watching an opportunity of giving it a decisive blow.
“Right policy, instead of making a noise, silently takes a bye-way to its ends; let us insensibly weaken the Dutch, but never think of destroying them. They are a barrier against the great northern powers. They secure us from the incursions of the Germans, whom the Romans themselves could not check, and who at last overthrew the empire of the Cæsars.
“But a great deal is said about the easiness of our conquering, and not a word how easy it was to conquer us. What induced me, Sire, to put the finishing hand to the great work of the peace, is the disorder of the finances, the depopulation of the state, and the scarcity of provisions.