Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/200

192, "How hard it was, that they should be kept in the dark, and have no communication of what was done, in a point which so nearly concerned them." They concluded, "That the duke must needs have acted by orders;" and desired his lordship to write, both to court and to his grace, what they had now said.

The bishop answered, "That he knew nothing of this fact, but what they had told him; and therefore was not prepared with a reply to their representations: only, in general, he could venture to say, that this case appeared very like the conduct of their field-deputies upon former occasions: That if such orders were given, they were certainly built upon very justifiable foundations; and would soon be so explained, as to convince the States and all the world, that the common interest would be better provided for another way, than by a battle or siege: That the want of communication, which they complained of, could not make the States so uneasy, as their declining to receive it, had made the queen, who had used her utmost endeavours to persuade them to concur with her in concerting every step toward a general peace, and settling such a plan as both sides might approve and adhere to; but, to this day, the States had not thought fit to accept those offers, or to authorize any of their ministers, to treat with her majesty's plenipotentiaries upon that affair, although they had been pressed to it ever since the negotiation began: That his lordship, to show that he did not speak his private sense alone, took this opportunity to execute the orders he had received the " evening