cities. This was a case when the slow procedures of the government might have been fatal. We will talk of it in six weeks, said the French ambassador, speaking of the projected alliance; so much did he reckon on the means of breaking it off, before the ordinary formalities were gone through. Van Beuning mortifies the king. Treaty The haughty conqueror stopped short. He proposed peace, and dissembled his vexation. He saw a burgo-master of Amsterdam, VanBeuning, an inflexible republican, in a manner of Aix-labeard his imperious haughtiness, and negociate Chapelle. with his ministers without fear and without complaisance. Do you not rely on the king's word? said they one day to that Dutchman. I do not know what the king will do, replied he; I consider what he can do. In a word, VanBeuning dictated the terms. The treaty was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle; and Louis kept Flanders, restored Franche Comté, confirmed the treaty of the Pyrenees, but still retained his resentment. disgusts Spain, though freed from so dangerous a F. Nitard war, was not yet at quiet. The regent, or Don John of rather her favourite, Nitard, maltreated the Austria. man with whom it was, above all others, necessary to keep fair. Don John of Austria, pushed to extremity, revolted, stirred up Arragon and Catalonia, and forced the queen to part with the Jesuit. She therefore sent him in quality of ambassador to Rome, where he obtained the purple; and the government was shared between the regent and the prince. The pride and incapacity of the confessor had turned the monarchy upside down; an important lesson, though little regarded. formidable to Buccaneers At the same time, the Spaniards were afflicted with a dreadful scourge in America. A Spain. body of pirates, lawless, dissolute, and irreligious, who thought life nothing when put in the balance with freedom, equally intrepid and cruel, known by the name of Buccaneers, a mixture of English and French, had seized upon the isle of Tortuga, near St Domingo. Though only furnished with canoes, they took large vessels. Nothing could resist their desperate impetuosity. The mortal hatred which they had sworn against the Spaniards made them exert more than human efforts to do them an injury. Their enterprise against 1669. Six hundred, or, at most, a thousand Buccaneers, under the conduct of an Englishman Porto Bello. named Morgan, ventured to attack Porto-Bello, a strong town, defended by a good garrison, and which contained immense riches. They scaled and took the citadel. The town ransomed itself for about a million of piastres. Their boldness still increased, and heroic actions are recounted of them; but having neither rule, prudence, nor government, and giving themselves up to every imaginable excess, it at last became necessary that they should be dissipated, when Spain roused from her shameful lethargy. Prosperity of After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, France France. continued equally to increase in strength and splendour. Her commerce grew with her navy. Colbert and Louvois laboured with emulation for the glory of the monarch; and that kingdom became an object of admiration, as well as jealousy, to foreigners. John Casimir, king of Poland, having abdicated his crown, from a taste for repose, chose it for his place of residence; and was presented with the rich abbey of St Germaine, which was sufficient to have made twenty Frenchmen happy. He had been a Jesuit and cardinal. He had no relish but for the sweets of society, of which Paris was the centre, where pleasure and urbanity had fixed their throne. 1669 Succours sent to Louis XIV. set another glorious example to the Christian princes, which was not imitated. The Turks besieging Candia, ancient Crete, Candia. one of the principal possessions of Venice, to which some succours were sent by pope Cle. ment IX. and the order of Malta, but too weak to oppose so great an empire, seven thousand French were despatched, under the command of the duke de Beaufort, to fight against the Infidels. The duke de Rouanois, afterwards marechal de la Feuillade, had already conducted thither, at his own expense, a troop of more than two hundred gentlemen. The heroic spirit of the crusades seemed to be revived, for an object worthy of rousing its activity. But that assistance came too late, or was not sufficient. The other nations remaining inactive, it only retarded the taking of Candia, which was reduced to extremity. The duke de Beaufort fell in that expedition. The town capitulated after a siege of three years, Francis Morosini, afterwards doge of Venice, captain-general of the fleet, immortalized his name in the war; and Montbrun, a Frenchman, who commanded the army of the republic, shared the glory of the Venetian. The grand vizir, Cuprogli, a man of distinguished abilities, used parallels in the trenches, which were invented by an Italian engineer. The Turks, on that occasion, set the first example of a method, which has since been generally adopted as of the greatest utility, CHAPTER II. COM WAR AGAINST HOLLAND FOR INSUFFICIENT REASONS. Louis desirous of being on LOUIS XIV. was irritated against that triple alliance, which had stopped him short in the career of his rapid conquests, and could not for- revenged give Holland. After having generously succour- the Dutch. ed them, both against England and the bishop of Munster, Bernard Gallen, a warlike and enterprising prelate, he looked on their political endeavours to curb his ambition as criminal and injurious. In a word, he thirsted for revenge and conquest. Being resolved to subdue Holland, he took every measure that would have been requisite for the boldest enterprise. Alliances, warlike preparations, profound secresy, and vigorous activity, all contributed to insure him success. The most important point was to gain the king of England; and it was effected. Charles II. had but little authority. The English, in general, were discontented; and their turbufence was fomented by religious animosities, His measures. |