this kind will be taken, without consulting your Grace, I take the freedom to tell you, that, in my opinion, we should close with those terms, unless it were in our power to oblige the French to better them. Since the taking of Barcelona they are entire masters of Spain; and the best we can hope from this kingdom is a neutrality. It will be impossible for the Imperialists to do better than they have done they have made no recruits this year for want of money. The Prince of Baden was not able to take the field in time, for want of 300,000 pistoles from Vienna, which at last the commissary of the Dutch troops was obliged to advance him: their officers in Hungary are driven to the last extremity for want of pay. You will judge, my Lord, if these people are to be relied on, and if England and Holland will not bear the burden of a new war more than ever.

Your Grace does best know how England would like it, for the sake only of Strasburg, of if the Parliament would even think we were in earnest for a peace. I hope all this will be considered on this side the water, and that means will be found to overcome this last difficulty; but it is natural to fear while we are in doubt, and to complain to those who we think can prevent it.

Sir,

MARSHAL BOUFFLERS TO THE EARL OF

PORTLAND.

Camp at Soignies, September 8. 1697.

I have but this moment received the letter which you did me the honour to write to me on the 5th of this month. I assure you, that I shall be delighted to have the honour of seeing you, and of conversing with you; but as I cannot do so without the express permission of the King, I take the liberty of immediately despatching a courier, through whom I have the honour of informing his Majesty of what you communicate to me. soon as I shall be honoured with his instructions, I shall lose no time in letting you hear from me at Brussels.

So

LOUIS XIV. TO MARSHAL BOUFFLERS.

My Cousin,

Versailles, September 9. 1697.

I have just received, by the courier whom you have sent to me, your letter from the camp of Soignies, of the 8th of this month, inclosing M. de Bentinck's letter to you, and your answer to it. I am willing to allow you to have the conference with him for which you ask me, either at Tubise, or at such other place as you may think proper. The copy of the letter which I write to my plenipotentiaries will inform you of the manner in

which I desire that you should reply to what the Sieur de Bentinck may say.

If, as I am persuaded by the tenor of his letter, he speaks to you in the same polite terms he has hitherto made use of, it is my intention that you should employ, in reply, those which I have indicated to you in my preceding letters. If, on the contrary, he should use arrogant language in this conference, you are to answer with all the dignity that becomes me.

Sire,

MARSHAL BOUFFLERS TO LOUIS XIV.

Camp at Soignies, September 12. 1697.

Agreeably to the letter dated the 9th of this month, with which your Majesty has honoured me, I had yesterday a conference of four hours and a half with M. de Bentinck, who, like myself, came to the rendezvous at Tubise about noon.

After mutual compliments, he expressed his pleasure at seeing me again, saying, however, he was very sorry and much hurt that it was such a subject which obliged him to come back to these parts; that, after the account which he had given at Loo to the Prince of Orange, on the subject of the new declaration of your Majesty's plenipotentiaries, the Prince had told him that it was necessary he should come and see me; that letters could not explain matters like words, nor could they be so easily answered, and that, therefore, in his sincere desire to concur, with

all his power, in promoting peace, it was necessary that he should come and see me, to inform me more particularly of every thing, and to show, at all events, that if, unhappily, peace should not be concluded, it would not be the fault of the Prince of Orange, who had fully and exactly fulfilled all the engagements into which he had entered for that purpose with your Majesty, in the conferences which M. de Bentinck and I had together; that I might have the honour of reporting the whole to your Majesty, still believing that the plenipotentiaries of your Majesty do not, perhaps, give you so correct and faithful an account as might be wished of his good intentions, and of the uprightness of his conduct respecting the peace, and whatever may be agreeable to your Majesty.

That, according to the terms which M. de Bentinck and myself agreed upon at our last conference at Coppegheim, on the 2d of August, conformably to the commands with which your Majesty had honoured me by your letter of July 30., your Majesty left it to the Prince of Orange to decide on the conduct which he should pursue with the allies, to induce them to peace, and the steps which he should think best calculated to obtain that object, he being better acquainted than any other person with their disposition; he had proceeded to the Loo, to be nearer the seat of the conferences, and, consequently, more at hand to deliberate with the ministers of the allies, and more promptly to remove all the difficulties which might impede the conclusion of peace; that he had not neglected any thing that might have

depended upon him, effectually to labour for this purpose during the very short time which remained from the 3d of August, the day on which he left the army of the allies, till the last day of the same month inclusive; that he had been so fortunate as to see all the principal points agreed upon, which would even have been done sooner if it had not been evidently remarked that the plenipotentiaries of your Majesty sought only to delay, in order that the term prescribed might expire before any thing was concluded, and that they might have a pretext for delivering, on the 1st of September, the new declaration; finally, that the 30th of August having arrived, the Prince of Orange, to prove his good faith and sincere intentions to conclude peace, had caused an offer to be made by the ministers of England, Spain, and the States-General, to sign the peace that same day, the 30th, or on the 31st, engaging to oblige the Emperor also to sign it, on the terms laid down in the preliminaries, and the proposal for peace, which the Prince of Orange, Spain, and the States-General accepted, actually and in fact, for the Emperor and the Empire in their name; only requiring, as has always been the custom, that the Emperor and the other allies should be concerned, after them, if they thought proper, in the treaty of peace, and that the necessary time should be granted them for sending a courier to Vienna, who should stop three or four days in that city, to allow time for deliberation, and then to return, with all speed, and bring back the answer of the Emperor; and, in case he refused his consent, he should be excluded