Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/195

Rh any peace, where the queen must act that part, which they had intended for themselves. These politicians, who held constant correspondence with their old dejected friends in England, were daily fed with the vain hopes of the queen's death, or the party's restoration. They likewise endeavoured to spin out the time, till prince Eugene's activity had pushed on some great event, which might govern or perplex the conditions of peace. Therefore the Dutch plenipotentiaries, who proceeded by the instructions of those mistaken patriots, acted in every point with a spirit of litigiousness, than which nothing could give greater advantage to the enemy; a strict union between the allies, but especially Britain and Holland, being doubtless the only means for procuring safe and honourable terms from France.

But neither was this the worst: for the queen received undoubted intelligence from Utrecht, that the Dutch were again attempting a separate correspondence with France; and by letters intercepted here from Vienna, it was found, that the Imperial court, whose ministers were in the utmost confidence with those of Holland, expressed the most furious rage against her majesty, for the steps she had taken to advance a peace.

This unjustifiable treatment the queen could not digest, from an ally upon whom she had conferred so many signal obligations, whom she had used with so much indulgence and sincerity, during the whole course of the negotiation, and had so often invited to go along with her, in every motion toward a peace. She apprehended likewise, that the negotiation might be taken out of her hands, if France could be secure of easier conditions in Rh