overturned into one of the canals; while their infolence and brutality were fuch, that they prevented, by force, the gentlemen in the other carriages from going to her affift

ance.

They were then conveyed as prifoners through the country, without knowing for fome time whither they were to be carried, until their arrival at a small town about seven o'clock in the evening. At this place they were conducted to headquarters (we fuppofe an inn) where the princefs and the gentlemen were conducted to one room, and her attendants in another adjoining. Centries were placed at all the doors, and the most ridiculous precautions ufed to prevent an efcape. The captain of the free corps accompanied the princess in her room, with his fword drawn in his hand, but upon a remonftrance of the impropriety, civilly put it in the fcabbard; and, fitting cross-legged by her fide, he ordered wine, beer, pipes, and tobacco, as a refreshment. Some of the circumftances, which are reported to have accompanied this novel fcene, were highly laughable; particularly that three foldiers with drawn fwords attended one of the princefs's women upon a private occafion, from which all male fpectators are ufually fecluded.

In fome hours the commiffioners from Woerden arrived, who endea voured to palliate what was paft by the ftrictness of their orders, and the danger and neceflity of the times; but pleaded their inability to fuffer the princefs to proceed on her journey, until the return of a meffenger whom they had difpatched for inftructions to the ftates. In the mean time they recommended VOL. XXIX.

neighbouring town where fhe could meet with proper accommodation for pathing the night. She accordingly fixed upon Gouda, as the neareft; but they apprehending an infurrection if the went to that town, Schoonhoven was at length determined upon, where he arrived about midnight, accompanied by two of the commiffioners, and efcorted by a party of horfe.

The princefs had immediately difpatched letters to the grand penfionary, and to the fecretary, upon her arrival at Schoonhoven; and waited there the following day for the anfwers to them, as well as that which was expected from the ftates of Holland. Thefe not arriving, the fet out the morning of the 30th on her return to Nimeguen. The expreffes, however, came up before the had repaffed the Lech; but as they contained nothing fatisfactory, nor in the fmalleft degree tending to encourage her in the purfuit of her object, of going to the Hague, fhe continued her journey. That adventurer the Rhingrave of Salm, who is a younger brother of the actual prince of that title, and who has made himself so notorious in the courfe of thefe troubles, having in the interim fpread a report, with a view of exciting the people to fome extraordinary violence, that the prince of Orange was travelling poft with an army of 12,000 men, for the refcue of the princefs from her captivity. All the arts of chicanery and falfehood, however liable to detection, however thort the poffible duration of their effect, and however deftructive in their operation, are practifed without fhame or remorse, by thofe who hope to profit by in[C]

creafing

creafing the flames of civil diffenfion, in whatever country is thus unhappily a prey to their defigns; and the conduct of this perfon affords an ufeful leffon, that to be without fcruples in the profecution of a canfe is by no means a proof of fidelity and zeal.

While the princefs was in durance, the prince of Orange difpatched a letter to the ftates general, claiming their immediate interference for her liberation, as well as for proper fatisfaction for fo unprecedented and extraordinary an infult.

But the bufinefs was now to fall into more effective hands, and to be taken up by a power that was not to be trifled with. A ftrong memorial, as foon as it could be done, was tranfmitted from the king of Pruffia, through Mr. July 10th. Thulemeyer, to the ftates of Holland. His language was now confiderably changed from that which he ufually held. He exprefsed the deepeft fenfe of the affront, violence, and injury to his fifter, as if offered directly and perfonally to himself. He infifted accordingly upon immediate and ample fatisfaction, and particularly upon the punishment of thofe who had committed the outrage; and concluded by giving them to underfiand, that he fhould eftimate the value which they placed on his friendship and good-will, by their conduct upon this occafion.

In the intermediate time, the ftates of Holland had paffed a refolution, juftifying and approving of the conduct of their commiffioners, in, what they called, "this extraordinary, unexpected, and dif"agreeable affair." In the debates upon this fubject, they feemed

to throw the whole blame of every thing that happened upon the princels, by her adopting the rafh meafure of fuddenly entering the territories of Holland, after fo long an abfence, and in to critical a featon, without previously acquainting the ftates with her defign; a measure which could not be confidered otherwife than dangerous; for that if the conciliatory motives affigned had been the real caufes of the journey fach a preliminary application was indifpenfably neceffary to their fect, that it could not poffibly have been overlooked.

The Pruffian memorial drew a very long and laboured, but diffatisfactory answer from the ftates of Holland. They denied all intention of infulting the king's fifter; attributed to her fudden and unexpected entry into the country, without any attention to the usval and neceflary forms, whatever had happened; palliated fome, and denied others of the circumstances relative to her treatment: from all their information it was conducted decently, without the fhadow of any thing injurious, or of any want of refpect thewn to her royal highness; juftified their commiffioners; if they had acted otherwife, the laws of their country would have affixed fome penalty on them. They renewed the topic, though in a lefs lofty train, of their own fupreme fovereignty; declared their great refpect for the king, but infinaated that refpect between fovereigns fhould be mutual; and observed, that with the greatest respect and regard which they held for the perfon of her royal highness, they cannot think that his majefty means, that the fhould be exalted above the fovereignty. They conclude, that

the measures purfued on this occafion were neceffary for preferving the peace of the province, by preventing thofe popular tumults and violences, of which they had fuch frequent and deplorable inftances; and finally imputed the king's interference to partial and unfounded reprefentations.

The Pruffian minifter had likewife prefented another memorial from the king, on the fame subject, to the ftates general; but their anfwer was fo fatisfactory, as to produce a return of acknowledgment, and thanks from the king. Their high mightineffes declared, that they had made repeated applications, without fuccefs, to the ftates of fiolland upon this unfortunate occafion; that they must therefore leave it entirely to them to abide the confequences, as they would not themfelves be in any degree answerable for them. The king of Pruffia loft no time in ordering a reprefentation of the outrage offered to his fifter to be laid before the court of Verfailles. In order to counteract the effect of this reprefentation, the ftates of Holland were no lefs alert in laying before that court their answer to the Prufian memorial, together with their juftificatory detail of the tranfactions, included in refolutions which they paffed upon the occafion. It could not then but be to their unspeakable mortification, that they found the French king, their boafted ally, and the great fupporter and friend of the party, had in ftrong terms condemned the treatment experienced by the princefs. He declaring, that he conceived it to be a grofs infult; that it was carrying matters to too great a length; that the king of Pruffia was therefore certainly justified in

demanding ample fatisfaction for the affront; and that it ought undoubtedly to be given.

The aufwer of the ftates of Holland drew Auguft 6th. a memorial from Baron Thulemeyer, expreffing in ftrong terms the mixed furprize and indignation which that anfwer excited in the Pruflian monarch. That it was with the utmost aftonishment he found, that, instead of an offer of juft fatisfaction, proportioned to the infult, they had returned an anfwer fupported only by evafive and infufficient arguments. That his majefty would not admit, that the pretended ignorance of the motives which carried her royal highness to the Hague. and the apprehenfion of a popular commotion, thould afford any excufe or colour to the conduct of the commiffion at Woerden. That fuch a fufpicion, oftentatioufly publied, was a new infult. That the word of the princefs, and her folemn declaration of the falutary motives by which the was excited, fhould have afforded the most perfect conviction to thefe deputies of the ftates; while the prudence with which the concealed her journey, in order to prevent the people from hewing thofe demonftrations of zeal and joy on her arrival, which their affectionswould otherwifehave rendered inevitable, thould have been confidered as a freth caufe for the gratitude of government. That the king will not trouble himself with enquiring into the legality of the right of refufal which the com miflion at Woerden attributes to itfelf upon this occafion; but he will confider the more attentively the manner in which it was given and executed. That proceedings fo outrageous and offenfive have made a

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deep impreffion on the mind of the king, who looks on the injury as offered to himself. "It is by the exprefs orders of that monarch, "that the underwritten again de"mands from your noble and great mightineffes, an immediate and "fuitable fatisfaction for the in"fult; and his majesty further enjoins me not to fuffer you to re"main ignorant, that he will per"fift invariably upon this fatisfac❝tion, and that he will not content "himself with a difcuffion of de"tached circumftances, vague ex"cufes or further thifts and eva"fions."

This was followed by a note from Mr. Thulemeyer, containing the forms of the fatisfaction with which the king was willing to be contented-That the ftates fhould write a letter to her royal highnefs (to be firft approved of by the Pruffian minifter)difavowing the fuppofition that he had any views contrary to the welfare of the republic-That they should apologize for the oppofition made to her journey, and for the treatment of which fhe complained-That they fhould punish, at the requifition of the princefs, thofe perfons who were culpable of the offences offered to her auguft perfon-That they fhould revoke the erroneous and injurious refolutions which they had paffed with respect to this journey-And that this revocation fhould be accompanied with an invitation in thefe terms," That her royal highnefs will come to the Hague, "to enter into a negociation, in "the name of the prince ftadt"holder, for conciliating, by a "fuitable arrangement, the dif"ferences which fubfift at pre"fent."

That if these moderate conditions are without difficulty complied with by the ftates, her royal highness will interfere with the king, her brother, to forbear any further requifition for fatisfaction on this fubject. But that in the interim, until the negociation takes place, his majefty expects, in the moft exprefs manner, that the ftates of Holland will, at least, let things remain in their prefent ftate; and that they will not proceed to any fufpenfion, deprivation, or other measures, offenfive or prejudicial to the person of the prince ftadtholder, captain and admiral general, as by fo doing they will render all conciliation illufory, impoffible, and will add to the offences.

It will not be fuppofed that conceffions fo mortifying to the pride, and fo inimical to the defigns of the republican leaders, could have been fubmitted to. Indeed the domineering language, and the haughty arrogance, which they had fo long been in the habit of ufing towards the ftadtholder and his family, feemed to render them incapable of any conceffion however moderate. Their reliance upon France, in the laft refort, was likewife ftill unimpaired. The ftates of Holland, in their deliberation upon Thulemeyer's memorial, refolved not to enter into any verbal or written difcuffion of the fubje& there, but to depute two of their number to Berlin, to explain matters upon the spot to the king. But when the exprefs arrived in four days from that city, with the precife terms of the fatisfaction, not onlydemanded but infifted on,they thought it neceffary to prepare for the worst, and immediately itfued an order to have every thing in readiness for

laying the country under water, the moment any foreign troops fhould enter the territories of the republic.

In the mean time every thing carried the face of immediate war at Berlin. Troops affembling, field equipage preparing, magazines forming, and councils of war frequently held, at which the reigning duke of Brunswick conftantly prefided. In the interim, gooo Pruffian troops lined the frontiers of the duchy of Cleves, bordering on the territories of the republic; the governor of Wefel received orders to prepare accommodations for the reception of an army of 60 or 70,000 men; and all these preparations were avowedly defigned for obtaining fatisfaction from the ftates of Holland, for the infult offered to the princefs of Orange.

During these transactions the ftadtholder had taken, by a coup de main, the fortified town of Wick, otherwife called Duerftede, in the province of Utrecht; a place eminently noted, in the courte of thefe troubles, for its early rejection of the authority of the provincial ftates, the adoption of violent republican principles, and for the animofity which it bore to the ftadtholder; being in all these refpe&s fcarcely inferior to the capital itfelf, under whofe protection it was foftered and fupported. This town was, particularly from its fituation, an acquifition of great importance to the ftadtholder; it is fituated on the borders of Holland, within 24 miles of Amfterdam; commands the course of that part of the Rhine, here called the Lech, on which it ftands; poffeffes the command of feveral fluices; and may be conSidered as the key of that province

on the fide of Utrecht. This was fo well understood by the stadtholder, that, notwithstanding the smallness of his army, he placed a garrison of 1000 men it. The confternation and alarm which the furprize occafioned at Amfterdam, fufficiently fhewed the juftnefs of his eftimate.

This firft fuccefs was foon followed by the taking of Harderwycke, a town of Guelderland, important likewife from its fituation, which is on the Zuyder Sea. At the fame period, whether these fucceffes were inftrumental to it or not, the city of Middleburg, and the whole province of Zealand, declared without referve in his favour. The prince then advanced with his army towards the city of Utrecht, where he encamped at a league's diftance, and, fpreading his pofts to a confiderable extent, began greatly to ftreighten the intercourfe of that turbulent people with the adjacent country.

In this ftate of things the Rhingrave of Salin, who was confidered as the hero of the party, and was befides governor of the city, and commander in chief of all the forces, whether foreign or domeftic, employed in its defence, thought it neceffary to make fome attempt for the fupport of that high reputation which, without danger or fervice, he had fo fortuitouily obtained. For this purpose he adopted the fcheme of making a ftrong tortie from the city at night, with a view, if not of beating up the prince's quarters, at leaft of furprizing and carrying fome of his detached pofts; which, from their extent, feemed a very feasible defign.

The force which he led out upon this occafion, nearly included all orders and defcriptions of military [C] 3

men.