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Flanders, which was confined to the city of Bruges, rather as a prince incognito than as a king whofe quarrel and intereft they had wedded. As foon as they were engaged before Conde; finding that there were fome Irish regiments in that garrifon, they fent to the king to defire him that his majefty would fend the Marquis of Ormond to the camp, to the end that by his prefence fome of the Irish in the garrifon might be wrought upon, the which his majesty confented to, and fent the marquis accordingly, of which Don Juan found the benefit; for the jealoufy the garrifon had of the Irifh, made the French commander and governor treat the fooner upon the furrender; and though the Lord Muskerry, who was nephew to the Marquis of Ormond, and commanded a strong regiment of Irish in that town, pofitively refused to bring over his regiment to the Spaniard upon the furrender of Conde, which he conceived would not be honourable for him to do, yet he declared to his uncle, that as foon as he came into France with his 'men, he would repair to the court, and bare faced demand from the cardinal a fafe conduct for himself and his men to march into Flanders, 'according to the ftipulation agreed between them, That whenever the king should require his fervice, he fhould have a pass to march to him with his whole regiment; that when he had done his part, and the cardinal fhould refufe to comply with his engagement, he would take himself to be at full liberty, and would with all speed repair to his majefty, and made no doubt but that his regiment would quickly find themselves with him, which fell out accordingly, and after the cardinal

had endeavoured, by all the ways he could, to difpofe and perfuade him to continue in that fervice with great promises of reward and preferment, finding at last that he could not be wrought upon, he gave him a licence for his own departure, but refused to licence his men ; saying, That they were readier for the king of England's fervice whilst they remained in France, than if they went into Flanders. Whereupon Muskerry himfelf, with his fervants and equipage only, repaired to Bruffels, where he was received with great applaufe, both the colonel and the regiment having made themfelves very fignal in very remarkable fervices; and Don Juan no fooner affigned him quarters for the reception of his men, but the whole regiment, by tens and twenties, repaired with their arms to him, infomuch that there were not above one officer and very few private foldiers who were not prefent with him, and there they continued till the making of the peace.

About the fame time, and towards the end of the campaign, there was a ftrong garrifon fixt and poffeffed by the French at St. Gillen, within five miles of Bruffels, under the command of Monfieur Schomburgh, who, having been poffeffed thereof by the space of above a year, had with great pains and care made it very ftrong, and was a thorn in the fide of Flanders, and exceedingly difcommoded their whole affairs. The Spaniard had attempted the furprize of it before it was thoroughly fortified, and made afterwards feveral attempts to recover it, but were always beaten off with great lofs, and left hopeless of fuccefs. The major part of this garrifon were Irish, whereof moft of the

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officers were of one family, and nearly allied to a gentleman who had long ferved the Marquis of Ormond in the place of a fecretary. They found means to let this gentleman know that if the king thought it would be for his fervice, they would undertake, whenever they fhould be required, to put it into the Spaniard's hands. The fecretary quickly informed his lord of the overture, and his majefty approved that the fecretary fhould refort to the army, that Don Juan might know and confider the propofition, and whether it might be practicable; and the marquis rather chofe to commit the conduct of it to the gentleman who had made himself fo gracious to Don Juan, than to referve it to himself, his wisdom and his honour raifing many fcruples in him concerning that negociation; and he was still unfa. tisfied that the benefits his majefty received from the Spaniard were not proportionable to the advantages they received from the king.

The secretary no fooner communicated this affair to the other gentleman, but he received it with open arms, and looked upon it as a thing done which his ftars had contrived for the raifing and establishing his fortune; he made all the promises imaginable of managing it for the particular benefit and preferment of the officers and foldiers, and then communicated it to Don Juan, as an affair that wholly depended upon him, and upon the entire dependence those officers had upon him.The overture could not but be very grateful to Don Juan, the reduction of that place being the moft derable thing before them, and to be purchased at any price, and therefore all the conditions were readily VOL. XXVIII,

confented to, promifes made for the payment of fuch and fuch fums of money out of hand, fuch and fuch penfions to be granted upon funds which could not be disappointed, and all other things to be done for officers and, foldiers which they themselves required; and to this purpose a treaty was entered into and figned with all requifite formalities.

This negociation was attended with other conveniencies; he had hitherto appeared only in the quality of a volunteer, which title would be at an end as foon as the army retired into their winter quarters, and he had reason to apprehend (though there continued all fair weather in Don Juan's countenance) that the Spanish council would not be fo well pleafed to fee him frequently in the court, and in private with the prince, upon whose temper and inclinations he was already thought to have fome afcendant; but this affair of St. Gillen, which was imparted to the principal counsellors, added infinitely to his reputation with them, and made his prefence at Bruffels to be even abfolutely neceffary, there being many difficulties which were in view for the execution of the defign. Schom, burgh was known to be an officer of great vigilance and courage, and it was very probable that the daily refort of fo many Irish into Flanders, who withdrew from the French fervice, would raise a jealousy of all thofe of that nation who remained in that fervice, and therefore if the defign were not fpeedily executed, they muft expect that the garrifon would be reinforced with other men, and the Irish removed; and the truth is, this was in Schomburgh's purpofe from his natural jealoufy of

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the inconftancy and infidelity of that nation, without having discovered the least circumftance of the treaty. But from the time of the taking of Conde, which administered the first fufpicion of the Irish, it was not in his power to draw new forces to him, or, to difmifs thofe out of his garrifon whofe company he leaft defired; thereupon he only changed one refolution he had, which was to make a journey himself to Paris, the knowledge and time whereof was the first ground that difpofed the officers to this undertaking, as his prefence made the work the more dificult; but they were too many, and those too far engaged, to give over the defign, and therefore the officers within were as folicitous for the execution of it as the Spaniards themselves.

In the depth of winter, about Christmas, in a very great froft and fnow, Don Juan affembled all his army before St. Gillen, with which Schomburgh was very much furprifed, and knew well that the army could do him no harm if his men were true to him, and therefore concluded that the enemy without depended upon treachery within, and he quickly found, by the frequent affembling of many of the Irish of ficers, and by the neglect of his orders, and fometimes changing the guards, that there was a confpiracy against him, and that fome religious men had been fuffered to pafs in and out; and he intercepted one letter by which he found the lieutenant colonel of the Irish regiment, of whom he had always had a very good opinion (and he was indeed much fuperior in abilities to that kind of people) deeply engaged in the defign, and indeed the whole conductor of it. Whereupon he

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caufed him fuddenly to be apprehended, with a resolution as fuddenly to execute him, but the officer advifed him not to make too much hafte, and refolutely told him that his own life, and the lives of all who adhered to him, fhould expiate for the lofs of his; and in the fame inftant all the Irish betook themfelves to their arms, and posfeffed themselves of fome of the outworks, and of a place of fome ftrength in the town; and a trumpet was fent from Don Juan with a letter to the governor, in which he let him know that he was very fure of the place in fpite of all that he could do, and therefore if he should take away the lieutenant colonel's life, himself and all his friends fhould fuffer, but if he would prefently treat for the giving up of the place, he would give him conditions worthy of a foldier; in this freight the governor found it abfolutely neceflary for him to treat, and quickly confented to the conditions propofed, and marched out with all those who had a mind to follow him, much the major part remaining in the Spanish fervice. And fo Don Juan returned triumphantly to Bruffels, where he was the better welcome for having reduced fo mischievous a neighbour in the depth of winter, which they durft not have attempted in the spring or fummer.

This action fo profperously carried on gave great advantage to the affairs of that country, and the dexterous conduct of it, much reputation to the perfon who had been fo inftrumental in it, who was likewife liberally confidered by the Spaniard for the fervice he had done, befides the confideration he took for himself out of the monies affigned for the officers and foldiers;

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upon himself as to his father, not at all meddling with the business of the office, nor believing that it would ever come to be an office in England, he being at that time poffeffed with as full a defpair of his majefty's ever being reftored to his dominions, as Cromwell himself was with a confidence that it could never come to país, and fo modelling all his defigns to live in a good condition abroad, in which he had hitherto prospered so wonderfully, and all places being alike and equal to him.

and he now looked fettled in the fervice of that crown, and in the particular affection of Don Juan, of which he made daily ufe. From the time of his first approach into Don Juan's good opinion, he used all the ways he could to inculcate into the king the great benefit would accrue to his fervice by the reputation he had gotten with the prince and in the Spanish councils, where he would employ all his talent and his time to promote his majesty's pretences; and therefore he propofed to the king, that he might be restored to the character of his fecretary, as he had been to his father, and the place had never been yet difpofed of, there being always two fecretaries of ftate, one of which, who had been joint officer with him, being then attending upon his majefty, and fufficient to dispatch all the bufinefs of that office. The arguments which he used to the king to gratify him in that his defire, were, that he fhould be thereby enabled to do his majesty great fervice by the reputation that character would give him; that he would not intermeddle with his counfels, otherwife than as his majefty fhould think fit to communicate them to him, in reference to the tranfactions which were to be made with Don Juan and in the court of Spain; that when the king fhould find it ne. ceffary, by the advancement of his affairs in England, to difpofe of the place of the fecretary to a perfon who might merit it by any notable fervice, he would willingly put it into his majesty's hands to difpofe of, and betake himself to any other office he fhould be affigned to.By thefe inducements he prevailed with his majefty to admit him into the fame relation he had formerly

Hitherto he avouched nothing more than his being a proteftant above temptation, frequented the exercise of devotion in the king's houfe, and gave all the evidence of his affection that way as could be expected from a man who was long known to have great latitude in religion; and he had lately committed a younger fon to the care and education of the jefuits in France, upon fome promise the queen regent had made to him when he was in credit with her, that she would provide a liberal fupport for him in penfions, and church-livings, the receiving whereof he thought no religion could oblige a man to be averfe from. Soon after his first coming into Flanders, and as foon as he found he had got credit there (which he ftill believed to be greater than in truth it was) he fent into England for a daughter he had there, of a full growth, who lived not eafily with her mother, in order by his authority to compofe fome domeftic differences, and to finish a treaty of marriage for her with a gentleman of the fame country, who had long made that addrefs. As foon as the arrived in Flanders, he provided a private lodging for her in Ghent, which being in the middle between Bruges, where the king

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refided, and Bruffels, where the Spanish court was, he thought to be a place where he could probably fpend most part of his time; befides, having a great reverence for the lady abbefs of the English monaftery there, he had a particular devotion for that city; not without a defign to have his own devotion the better thought of, his daughter remained very few days in the lodging he had provided for her, before he removed her to the English cloyster for her more honourable accommodation, whilst her ftay fhould be neceffary in thofe parts. The young lady was as averfe from a monastery, and from the religion that is profeffed there, as is poffible for a daughter who had been bred from her cradle under the fevere difcipline of a mother of another faith, and in an age and region where the Romish religion was perfectly detefted, and the herself had always been taught very sharp objections against it; but her father eafily perfuaded her that there fhould be no attempt made upon her religion, but that the lodging fhould be very honourable, and the converfation fuch as fhe could not but take delight in, and that she should always be with him when he was in town, only lodge in the monaftery, and eat there when he was away. And it cannot be denied but that the accommodation was very good, and prudently provided for her, the abbefs being a lady of great reputation and wisdom, and the whole community confifted of ladies of noble extraction, great beauty, and unblemished virtue; and it was a great refpect in the abbefs towards her father, and her dependence upon his great power at court, that perfuaded her to receive his daughter

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into the monaftery, where none of any quality had ever been admitted into the inclosure who did not profefs the Roman religion. But the had been there very few days, when a half-witted man of a good family and a competent fortune, meeting this young lady at fome house whither the ufed to accompany her father, made love to her, and there being a great friendship between the abbefs and the mother of the young gentleman, who was a widow of very great reputation and esteem in that place, the matter was quickly proposed to the father, who, according to his natural alacrity, prefently looked upon it as a new manifeftation of providence, that he and his family fhould never fall to infupportable neceffity; and tranfported with the vanity of the reputation he fhould acquire, that being defpoiled of his eftate, and banished from his country, he should raise himself to fuch a reputation with a neighbour nation, as to marry a daughter into one of the best families of it, adorned, as he would believe, with an ample revenue, and without any other portion than a promife to pay a competent one when he fhould be able. Without long deliberating on the bufinefs, and without confidering the weak spirit of the young man, which was in truth contemptible, or fo much as examining the value and yearly revenue of the eftate, which was not the twelfth part of what he himself gave it out to be; he first perfuaded his daughter to renounce her own religion, and become a Roman catholic, which was a condition without which the marriage could not be attained to, and then frankly gave her up to perpetual mifery, which fhe entered into from the day

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