258

A Sketch of the His tory Let. 8. Ul

grounds, my lord, that the French had resolved diseto defend their country' inch by inch, and that “daLewis the fourteenth had determined to retire í aniwith his court to Lions or eîsevvhere, and to de- “là i

fend the passage of the Loire, when he could no M

longer defend that of the Seine , rather than submit iiia.to the terms imposed on him : what íhould vve jdmi 1hâve done in this case? Must we not hâve a c- irhocepted suc h a peace as we had refused ; or hâve Uriprotracted the war till we had conquered France few,fnst, in order to conquer Spain afterwards? Did motwe hope for révolutions in France ? We had thaïhoped for them in Spain : and we íhould hâve the

been bubbles of ou r hopes in both. That there in <

was a fpirit raifed against the government of mo

Lewis the fourteenth, in his court, nay in his mifarnily, and that flrange fchemes of private am- Gei

bition were formed and forming there, I cannot foi

doubt: and fume effects of this fpirit produced lh

perhaps the greatest mortifications that he fuffered foain the latter part of his reign. ifo

A fiight instance of this fpirit is ail I will vear

quote at this time. I supped, in the year one à!i

thousand seven hundred a'nd fifteen, at a houle in of pFrance , where two * perlons of no small figure, j atÊ

who had been in gréât Company that night, arrived 0 |f o

very late. The conversation turned on the events àeof the précédent war, and the négociations of thelate peace; in the process of the conversation, one !iIei]

of them t bioke loole, and laid, directing his j [oc

* The dukes de LA FEUILLADE and MORTEMAR, ffiittl

4 LA FEUILLADE, i„U