St. James's Coffee-house, May 23.
Letters from the Hague of the 23rd instant, N.S., say, Mr. Walpole[235]
(who is since arrived) was going with all expedition to Great Britain,
whither they doubted not but he carried with him the preliminaries to a
treaty of peace. The French Minister, Monsieur Torcy, has been observed
in this whole negotiation to turn his discourse upon the calamities sent
down by Heaven upon France, and imputed the necessities they were under
to the immediate hand of Providence, in inflicting a general scarcity of
provision, rather than the superior genius of the generals, or the
bravery of the armies against them. It would be impious not to
acknowledge the indulgence of Heaven to us; but at the same time, as we
are to love our enemies, we are glad to see them mortified enough to mix
Christianity with their politics. An authentic letter from Madame
Maintenon to Monsieur Torcy has been stolen by a person about him, who
has communicated a copy of it to some of the dependants of a Minister of
the Allies. That epistle is writ in the most pathetic manner imaginable,
and in a style which shows her genius, that has so long engrossed the
heart of this great monarch.
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