Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/367

 pageantry of engagements. If an occasional battle was fought in earnest, it was only with the view of extorting more tempting offers to himself from the French king. When I say that this is well known, I mean that this is our present knowledge. From the confederates he concealed his duplicity with great cunning and address.

The Duke of Savoy had, through fear of Louis XIV., issued his persecuting edict against the Waldenses, dated 31st July 1686. But the Duke, by a secret article, dated 20th October 1690, had revoked that edict, and restored to the Waldenses their property, civil rights, usages, and privileges, including the exercise of their religion. What Lord Galway desired was a public edict to the same effect.

As to the year 1694, an anonymous biographer of Prince Eugene says:— “Everybody expected, and not without good grounds, to see a glorious campaign this year in Italy, and took it for granted that the Duke of Savoy would make ample amends for the loss at Marsiglia. Prince Eugene, during his residence at Vienna in the winter, had obtained a large reinforcement of troops with this very view. And the King of Great Britain had sent my Lord Galway to supply the place of the Duke of Schomberg, that nothing might be wanting on his part.”

Besides this, the British fleet was ready to co-operate in any enterprise on the coasts of Italy, Spain, or France. And the French forces were diminished by drafts to the Netherlands, and by troops required to protect Toulon, Marseilles, and other maritime ports. Victor Amedeo, however, negatived all the plans of councils of war. Nothing was done this summer except the taking of the fort of St. Giorgio, and a little skirmishing. The only important event was announced on June 3d — “The Duke of Savoy, at the instance of England and Holland, issued a declaration allowing the Vaudois the free exercise of their religion.” Concerning this Act, which was dated 20th May 1694, Burnet says that it was “a very full edict,” “restoring their former liberties and privileges to them, which the Lord Galway took care to have put in the most emphatical words, and passed with all the formalities of law, to make it as effectual as laws and promises can be. Yet every step that was made in the affair went against the grain, and was extorted from the Duke by the intercession of the King and the States, and by Lord Galway’s zeal.” On one occasion he, by the Duke’s permission, assembled a Protestant Synod at Vegliano, where his quarters were. Durant, chaplain of Aubussargues’ regiment, was president; the members were the almoners of six refugee regiments, and twenty-four eiders, of whom he himself was one. The business was the reformation of the morals of the soldiers. During a recruiting expedition in Switzerland, he met with a deputation from the Waldensian refugees in the Cantons, who wished to emigrate to a less circumscribed region. He promised to endeavour to find a home for them in Ireland. On the 20th December Queen Mary of England died. A letter from Lord Galway to Mr. Blathwait, now in the British Museum, comments on this bereavement:—

“Turin, 22d Jan. (1st Feb.) 169. —, — May it please God to comfort the king, to bless him in all things, to grant success to all his designs. All England has suffered an irreparable loss. Even by those who knew her Majesty only by reputation, and never received her bounty, our good and great queen is regretted universally. What, then, is due to her memory from those who from experience can testify to all her great and admirable virtues and who have felt the effects of her extraordinary bounty?”

The Duke of Savoy having imposed upon his army a melancholy inaction, we need not regret that no letter of Lord Galway dated before June 1695 has hitherto been printed. Here is the first, dated Camp before Casale (May 31), June 10, 1695:—

“Viscount Galway to the Duke of Shrewsbury. — I am much obliged to you for the honour of your information that the affairs of this country are at present in your department [as one of the Secretaries of State]. I shall have great pleasure in sending you an account of what passes in this court, and in receiving your orders — for I hope you will have the goodness to give me occasional instructions.

“You know, my Lord, that the Duke of Savoy is a prince of great application to war and politics — very penetrating, and very difficult to be penetrated. This last peculiarity of his character would make me very bold, if I ventured to answer for his inclination not only to a separate but also to a general peace. But I judge of the sincerity of his words and actions by his own interests, with which he is well acquainted; and I think I can assure you that all the princes of the league may rely certainly on his firmness. He is a prince who wishes to be master; and nothing pleases him like the command of a large army, and many troops at his