268 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

chap. by France. A considerable body of EnglifliI.XVI. under the duke of Monmouth , was ready toisrs. join him.

Chaklbs usually passed a great part of his timein the women’s apartments, particularly those ofthe dutchefs of Portsmouth ; where, among othergay company , he often met with Barillon , theFrench ambassador, a man of polite conversation,who was admitted into all the amusements ofthat inglorious , but agreeable monarch. It wasthe charms of this sauntering, easy life , which,during his later years, attached Charles to hismistresses. By the insinuations of Barillon and thedutchefs of Portsmouth, an order was , in anunguarded Four , procured , which instantlychanged the face of affairs in Europe. One duCros , a French fugitive monk, was sent toTemple, directing him to apply to the Swedisliambassador, and persuade him not to insist on theconditions required by France, but to sacrifice„ to general peace those interests of Sweden. Du, Cros, who had secretly received instructions fromiBarillon , published every where in Holland thecommission with which he was intrusted ; and all„mcn took the alarm. It was concluded, thatCharles’s sudden alacrity for ,war was as suddenlyextingtiiflied , and that no steady measures couldever be taken with England. The king after-wards, when he saw Temple, treated this im-portant matter in raillery; and said laughing,> that the rogue du Cros had outwitted them all.

Tiie . negotiations, however at Nimeguen still