第57章 LETTER 7(12)

Since I have mentioned this league,and since we may date from it a more general,and more concerted opposition to France,than there had been before;give me leave to recall some of the reflections that have presented themselves to my mind,in considering what I have read,and what I have heard related,concerning the passages of that time.They will be of use to form our judgment concerning later passages.If the king of France became an object of aversion on account of any invasions he made,any deviations from public faith,any barbarities exercised where his arms prevailed,or the persecution of his protestant subjects;the emperor deserved to be such an object,at least as much as he,on the same accounts.The emperor was so too but with this difference relatively to the political system of the west:the Austrian ambition and bigotry exerted themselves in distant countries,whose interests were not considered as a part of this system;for otherwise there would have been as much reason for assisting the people of Hungary and of Transylvania against the emperor,as there had been formerly for assisting the people of the seven united provinces against Spain,or as there had been lately for assisting them against France;but the ambition and bigotry of Louis the Fourteenth were exerted in the Low Countries,on the Rhine,in Italy,and in Spain,in the very midst if this system,if I may say so,and with success that could not fail to subvert it in time.The power of the house of Austria,that had been feared too long,was feared no longer:and that of the house of Bourbon,by having been feared too late,was now grown terrible.The emperor was so intent on the establishment of his absolute power in Hungary,that he exposed the empire doubly to desolation and ruin for the sake of it.He left the frontier almost quite defenceless on the side of the Rhine,against the inroads and ravages of France:and by showing no mercy to the Hungarians,nor keeping any faith with them,he forced that miserable people into alliances with the Turks,who invaded the empire,and besieged Vienna.Even this event had no effect upon him.Your lordship will find,that Sobieski,king of Poland,who had forced the Turks to raise the siege,and had fixed the imperial crown that tottered on his head,could not prevail on him to take those measures by which alone it was possible to cover the empire,to secure the king of Spain,and to reduce that power who was probably one day to dispute with him this prince's succession.Tekeli and the malcontents made such demands as none but a tyrant could refuse,the preservation of their ancient privileges,liberty of convenience,the convocation of a free diet or parliament,and others of less importance.All was in vain.The war continued with them,and with the Turk,and France was left at liberty to push her enterprises,almost without opposition,against Germany and the Low Countries.The distress in both was so great,that the States General saw no other expedient for stopping the progress of the French arms,than a cessation of hostilities,or a truce of twenty years;which they negotiated,and which was accepted by the emperor and the king of Spain,on the terms that Louis the Fourteenth thought fit to offer.By these terms he was to remain in full and quiet possession of all he had acquired since the years one thousand six hundred and seventy-eight,and one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine;among which acquisitions that of Luxemburg and that of Strasburg were comprehended.The conditions of this truce were so advantageous to France,that all her intrigues were employed to obtain a definitive treaty of peace upon the same conditions.But this was neither the interest nor the intention of the other contracting powers.

The imperial arms had been very successful against the Turks.This success,as well as the troubles that followed upon it in the Ottoman armies,and at the Porte,gave reasonable expectation of concluding a peace on that side: