Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/252

244 Strafford gave notice to the ministers of the several allies, "That their lordships had appointed Tuesday the 31st instant, wherein to sign a treaty of peace and a treaty of commerce, between the queen of Great Britain their mistress, and the most christian king; and hoped the said allies would be prepared at the same time to follow their example." Accordingly their lordships employed the three intervening days, in smoothing the few difficulties that remained between the French ministers, and those of the several confederate powers.

The important day being now come, the lord bishop of Bristol and the earl of Strafford having assumed the character of ambassadors extraordinary, gave a memorial in behalf of the French protestants to the mareschal d'Uxelles and his colleague, who were to transmit it to their court; and these delivered to the British ambassadors a declaration in waiting, that the pretender was actually gone out of France.

The conditions of peace to be allowed the emperor and the empire, as adjusted between Britain and France, were now likewise delivered to the count Zinzendorf. These and some other previous matters of smaller consequence being finished, the treaties of peace and commerce between her majesty of Britain and the most christian king, were signed at the lord privy seal's house, between two and three of the clock in the afternoon. The ministers of the duke of Savoy signed about an hour after. Then the assembly adjourned to the earl of Strafford's, where they all went to dinner; and about nine at night the peace was signed by the ministers of Portugal, by those