He said they took notice that what the King said to Monsieur Van Lewen was not so strong as what my Lord Sunderland writ; he is still of opinion that if France speaks high, we must do so too. In the morning Monsieur Rosbone, who is Viscall (Advocate General) to the army, was with me; the Count de Noiall and the Marquis d'Aucourt.
16th.I was with Monsieur Van Beuninghen: he told me he thought I was satisfied with their proceedings, and also he told me that one of their
having first visited the frontier and made the necessary preparations for its defence, in case of an attack, and the States having also made a grand regulation of their finances, a formal answer was prepared in the most courtly expressions that could be used to the several Memorials of Monsieur D'Avaux, importing in effect that the States found themselves obliged to decline the defensive Alliance which his Most Christian Majesty had done them the honour to propose to them. Nor did they fail to return their acknowledgments to his Majesty of England for the many testimonies he had given them of his great kindness to their State, in particular for his repeated assurances of assistance as their occasions should require, and the regard shewn to their interests in his late speech to his Parliament.
"And thus the Public was to understand that a hook was once more put into the nostrils of the French Leviathan, and that the interests of the Court of England and the House of Orange were the same. But how deceitful these appearances on both sides were, the sequel will demonstrate."—Ralph, i. 496.
