1672. would have had a very tragical conclusion, if a happy turn of weather had not saved them. Stoupe was then with him, and was on the secret. By many feints, that amused the Dutch so skilfully that there was no suspicion of the true design, all was prepared for an invasion, when a frost should come. It came at last and it froze and thawed by turns for some time, which they reckoned makes the ice firmest. At last a frost continued so strong for some days, that upon piercing and examining the ice, it was thought it could not be dissolved by any ordinary thaw in less than two days. So about midnight Luxemburgh marched out of Utrecht towards Leyden with about sixteen thousand men. Those of Utrecht told me, that, in the minute in which they began to march, a thaw wind blew very fresh. Yet they marched on till day-light, and came to Summerdam and Bodegrave, which they gained not without difficulty. There they stopt, and committed many outrages of crying lust and barbarous cruelty; and vented their impiety in very blasphemous expressions, upon the continuance of the thaw, which 336 now had quite melted the ice, so that it was not pos sible to go back the way that they came, where all had been ice, but was now dissolved to about three foot depth of water. There were causeways: and they were forced to march on these. But there was a fort, through which they must pass. And one Painevine, with two regiments, was ordered to keep it, with some cannon in it. If he had continued there, they must all have been taken prisoners, which would have put an end to the war. But, when he saw them march to him in the morning, he gave all for lost; and went to Tergow, where he gave the alarm, as if all was gone. And he offered 1672. to them, to come to help them by that garrison to a better capitulation. So he left his post, and went thither. The French army, not being stopt by that fort, got safe home. But their behaviour in those two villages was such, that, as great pains was taken to spread it over the whole country, so it contributed not a little to the establishing the Dutch in their resolutions, of not only venturing, but of losing all, rather than come under so cruel a yoke. sentence. Painevine's withdrawing had lost them an advan- Painevine's tage never to be regained. So the prince ordered a council of war to try him. He pleaded, that the place was not tenable; that the enemy had passed it; so he thought the use it was intended for was lost and if the enemy had come to attack him, he must have surrendered upon discretion: and he pleaded farther, that he went from it upon the desire of one of their towns to save it. Upon this defence, he was acquitted as to his life, but condemned to infamy, as a coward, and to have his sword broke over his head, and to be for ever banished the States' dominions. But an appeal lay, according to their discipline, to a council of war, composed of general officers: and they confirmed the sentence. The towns of Holland were highly offended at these proceedings. They said, they saw the officers were resolved to be gentle to one another, and to save their fellow officers, how guilty soever they might be. The prince yielded to their instances, and brought him to a third trial before himself and a court of the supreme officers, in which they had the assistance of six judges. Painevine stood on it, that he had undergone two trials, which was all that 1672. the martial law subjected him to; and in those he was acquitted. Yet this was overruled. It was urged against him, that he himself was present in the council of war that ordered the making that fort; and he knew, that it was not intended to be a place tenable against an army, but was only meant to make a little stand for some time, and was intended for a desperate state of affairs; and that 337 therefore he ought not to have left his post, because of the danger he was in: he saw the thaw began; and so ought to have stayed, at least till he had seen how far that would go and being put there by the prince, he was to receive orders from none but him. Upon these grounds he was condemned and executed, to the great satisfaction of the States, but to the general disgust of all the officers, who thought they were safe in the hands of an ordinary council of war, and did not like this new method of proceeding. They were also not a little troubled at the strict discipline that the prince settled, and at the severe execution of it. But by this means he wrought up his army to a pitch of obedience and courage, of sobriety and good order, that things put on another face and all men began to hope that their armies would act with another spirit, now that the discipline was so carefully looked to. It seems the French made no great account of them: for they released twenty-five thousand prisoners, taken in several places, for fifty thousand crowns. Thus I have gone far into the state of affairs of Holland in this memorable yeard. I had most of d Why, you called it so but just now before. S. See p. 335. mistress made duch ess of Ports mouth. these particulars from Dyckvelt and Halewyn. And 1672. I thought this great turn deserved to be set out with all the copiousness with which my informations could furnish me. This year the king declared a A French new mistress, and made her duchess of Portsmouth. She had been maid of honour to madame, the king's sister, and had come over with her to Dover; where the king had expressed such a regard to her, that the duke of Buckingham, who hated the duchess of Cleveland, intended to put her on the king. He told him, that it was a decent piece of tenderness for his sister to take care of some of her servants. So she was the person the king easily consented to invite over. That duke assured the king of France, that he could never reckon himself sure of the king, but by giving him a mistress that should be true to his interests. It was soon agreed to. So the duke of Buckingham sent her with a part of his equipage to Dieppe; and said, he would presently follow. But he, who was the most inconstant and forgetful of all men, never thought of her more: but went to England by the way of Calais. So Montague, then ambassador at Paris, hearing of this, sent over for a yacht for her, and sent some of his servants to wait on her, and to defray her charge, till she was brought to Whitehall: and then lord Arlington took care of her. So the duke of Buckingham lost the merit he might have pretended to; and brought over a Montague told sir William Temple, he designed to go ambassador to France. Sir William asked how that could be; for he knew the king did not love him, and the duke hated him. "That's true," said he, "but they shall do, "as if they loved me." Which, 338 1672. mistress, whom his own strange conduct threw into the hands of his enemies. The king was presently taken with her. She studied to please and observe him in every thing: so that he passed away the rest of his life in a great fondness for her. He kept her at a vast charge. And she by many fits of sickness, some believed real, and others thought only pretended, gained of him every thing she desired '. She stuck firm to the French interest, and was its chief support. The king divided himself between her and Mistress Gwyn: and had no other avowed amour. But he was so entirely possessed by the duchess of Portsmouth, and so engaged by her in the French interest, that this threw him into great difficulties, and exposed him to much contempt and distrust. The affairs of Scotland. I do now return to the affairs of Scotland, to give an account of a session of parliament, and the other transactions there in this critical year. About the end of May, duke Lauderdale came down with his lady in great pomp. He was much lifted up with the French success; and took such pleasure in talking of De Wit's fate, that it could not be heard without horror. He treated all people with such scorn, that few were able to bear it. He adjourned the parliament for a fortnight, that he might carry his lady round the country; and was every where waited on and entertained with as much respect, and at as great a charge, as if the king had been there in person. This enraged the nobility. And they made great applications to duke Hamilton, to f Lord Sunderland once stopt her going to the Bath, by asking of her, if she would be so silly as to show the king that he could live without her. D. |