Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/242

234 days; and in the mean time, pressed the Dutch to finish the new treaty of barrier and succession between her majesty and them, which about the middle of January was concluded fully to the queen's satisfaction.

But, while these debates and differences continued at the congress, the queen resolved to put a speedy end to her part in the war. She therefore sent orders to the lord privy seal and the earl of Strafford, to prepare every thing necessary for signing her own treaty with France. This she hoped might be done against the meeting of her parliament, now prorogued to the third of February; in which time, those among the allies who were really inclined towards a peace, might settle their several interests, by the assistance and support of her majesty's plenipotentiaries; and as for the rest, who would either refuse to comply, or endeavour to protract the negotiation, the heads of their respective demands, which France had yielded by her majesty's intervention, and agreeable to the plan laid down in her speech, should be mentioned in the treaty; and a time limited for the several powers concerned to receive or reject them.

The pretender was not yet gone out of France, upon some difficulties alleged by the French, about procuring him a safe conduct to Bar-le-duc in the duke of Lorrain's dominions, where it was then proposed he should reside. The queen, altogether bent upon quieting the minds of her subjects, declared, "She would not sign the peace till that person were removed;" although several wise men believed he could be no where less dangerous to Britain, than in the place where he was. The