he cannot expect any assistance from them, even if he has need of it; and besides, the Parliament deprives him of the means of giving them the same subsidies with which that prince supported the league during the last war. He knows, on the contrary, that by entering into engagements with me, they bind him to nothing but what he is able to do, and that, if iny assistance becomes necessary to him, he may be sure of finding it always ready.

I know that he has no reason to place the same. reliance upon the disposition of the House of Austria towards him; and that if the face of affairs in England should change, he would find but few resources in the alliance which he has always had with that House. I will tell you also, and you will make such use of it as you shall believe to be the most suitable, that the partisans of the Emperor in Spain propose to him now to apply to the Parliament, rather than to the king of England, to secure the assistance of the nation against the time when he shall support his pretensions to the succession of his Catholic Majesty. It will soon be seen whether the ministers of the Emperor in England will really take some steps to conciliate the minds of the nation. If they pursue this line of conduct, it is impossible that it should not be justly suspected by the king of England; and that prince must see that he can depend on the alliance of the House of Austria only so long as the Emperor shall believe that it suits his interests.

You have informed me, in one of

your preceding letters, that a Frenchman named Bussy has been

arrested in England, as suspected by the government. His relations affirm that he is gone there only because he was married there; that he possesses some property in the country; and that he never was implicated in any intrigue. You will inquire into the truth, and if it seems to you that he is innocent, and you can demand his liberty without giving pain to the king of England by this step, I permit you to do so.*

WILLIAM III. TO THE PENSIONARY HEINSIUS.

Kensington, May 17-27. 1698.

I much doubt whether the convention made with Lillieroot will be able to prevent the alliance between Sweden and France. There is every appearance that it is already concluded. It is certain that Piper, who has the most credit, is entirely devoted to France.

Nothing has happened since my last, relative to the great work of the negotiation concerning the succession. I think the regulating and securing of the commerce, as well in the Mediterranean as in the West Indies, will be of infinite difficulty;

"M. de Bussy was acquitted upon his indictment for coming out of France without leave. The point that brought him off was his being sent away by order of council, from whence it was argued that he did not go voluntarily into France. He might have had another indictment laid upon him, for being in arms in Ireland; but that Mr. Baker omitted." Mr. Vernon to the Duke of Shrewsbury. June 11. o. s.

and I find myself but little instructed in what Secretary de Wilde has said to you in this matter: and even were one agreed with France about it, I do not well see how to reconcile the interests of England and the Republic, which will be no small difficulty.

JEAN Hérault, who took the name of Gourville from an estate which he purchased in 1656, was born at la Rochefoucauld on the 11th of July, 1625. At the age of seventeen he entered the service of the Abbé de la Rochefoucauld as valet de chambre. From this humble position he rose to be the friend and confidant of the greatest noblemen, and, on several occasions, the secret plenipotentiary of Louis XIV. "Il était né," says Madame de Motteville," pour les grandes choses, avide d'emplois, touché du plaisir de plaire et de bien faire; il avait beaucoup de cœur, de génie pour l'intrigue; il savait marcher parfaitement par les chemins raboteux et tortueux, comme par les droits; il persuadait presque toujours ce qu'il voulait qu'on crut, et trouvait les moyens de parvenir à tout ce qu'il voulait." All the contemporary memoirs and the letters of Madame de Sévigné confirm this testimony, and agree in allowing him singular merit and excellent qualities. St. Simon with his masterly pen completes by a few strokes the portrait of that strange personage. "Il avait été laquais de M. de la Rochefoucauld, qui lui trouvant de l'esprit en voulut faire quelque chose. Il s'en trouva si bien pour ses affaires domestiques et pour ses menées aussi, à quoi il était fort propre, qu'il s'en servit pour les intrigues les plus considérables de ces temps là. Elles le firent bientot connaître à M. le Prince, à qui M. de la Rochefoucauld le donna, et il demeura toujours depuis dans la maison de Condé. Gourville, par son esprit, son grand sens, les amis

considérables qu'il s'était faits, était devenir un personnage; l'intimité des ministres l'y maintint, celle de M. Fouquet l'enrichit à l'excès. L'autorité qu'il acquit et qu'il se conserva à l'hôtel de Condé, il était plus maître de tout que les deux princes de Condé qui eurent en lui toute leur confiance, tout cela ensemble le soutint toujours dans une véritable considération. Il n'oublia pas en aucun temps qu'il devait tout à M. de la Rochefoucauld, en ce qu'il avait été dans sa jeunesse ; et quoique naturellement assez brutal, il ne le méconnut jamais, quoique mêlé toute sa vie avec la plus illustre compagnie. Le Roi même le traitait toujours avec distinction. Ce qui est prodigieux, il avait secrètement épousé une des trois sœurs de M. de la Rochefoucauld. Il était continuellement chez elle à l'hotel de la Rochefoucauld, mais toujours, et avec elle-meme, en ancien domestique de la maison. M. de la Rochefoucauld et toute sa famille le savaient, et presque tout le monde; mais à les voir on ne s'en serait jamais aperçu. C'était un

fort grand et gros homme, qui avait été bien fait, et qui conserva sa bonne mine, une santé parfaite, et sa tête entière jusqu'à la fin." Gourville, who had acted a great part in the administration of Fouquet, was obliged to go into banishment for several years to escape the prosecution which Colbert instituted against him, on account of the share he had taken in squandering the public money, towards the end of his life, which was a long one. He died July 7th, 1703. At the age of 78 he wrote his memoirs. It is a very interesting book, and written in a very agreeable style. A few passages, which are here extracted, throw some light on the character of William III. and account, in a certain degree, for the interest which that prince took in him.

"Towards the beginning of the year 1665, I went to the Hague, where I made some stay. M. de Montbas, who belonged to the court of the Prince of Orange, presented