Chap. IX. 'Ihe H I S T 0 R Y of the Pt.Ht JT ANS~· " cy to be faithful, for which being called to many prifons, . he was· King " there tried, and w~uld not accept delivera_nce, expeetin~ a· better r~- Ch;6le~.II. "furreetion." He d1ed Otlober 27, r67 r, m the fifty tlmd year of h1s ~: age, and the 11th year of his imprifonment, C H A P. IX. From the king's declaration of indulgence, to the popilh plot in the year 167 8. T HE french king having prevailed with th<t englijh court to break The french the triple alliance, and make war with the dutch, publilhed a de;lare war declaration at Paris, fignifying that he could not withou t diminution of;{mhbthed his glory, any longer di!Temble the indignation rai fed in him, by the 0~,\~_,.;; unhandfome carriage of the States General of the Unitrd Provinces, and tbeir (atmtry; therefore procbimed war againfl: them both by fea and land. In the beginning of May, he drew together an army of on"' hundred and twenty thoufand men, with which he took the pr~, c.pal places in Flanders, and with a rapid fury over-ran the grea te r'- 1 "' t of the Netberlands. In the beginning of July he took poifefiion of Utrecht, a city m t e heart of the United Provinces, where he held his court, and threatened to befiege .Amflerdam it fe lf. In this extremity the dutch opened their fluices, and Pr. oj' 0laid a great part of their country under water; the populace rofe, and rangejladt– having obliged the fiates to eh'!: the young prince of Orange ftadtholder, ;h~dD~ w1ts they fell upon the two brothers Cornelius and John de Wit, their late pe11- murdered. fionary, and tore them to pieces in a barbarous manner. The young prince, who was then but twenty two years old, u(ed all imaginable vi. gilance and aCtivity to fave the remainder of his country; and like a true patriot declared, he would die in the !aft dike, rather than become tributary to any foreign power. At length their allies came to their afi}ftance, when the young prince, like another Scipio, abandoning his own country, beiieged, and took the important town of Bomze, which opened a paffage for the germam into Flanders, and ftruck fuch a furprize into the french, whofe enemies were now behind them, that they abandoned all their conquefis in Holland, except Maejlricht and Grave, with as much , precipitance as they had made them. Thefe
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=