pais
bas, quand meme son parlement ne seroit point assemble. M.
Barillon lui repondit en termes generaux par ordre du roi,
que sa majeste n'avoit point intention de rompre la paix, et
qu'il n'engageroit pas sa majeste Britannique en choses
contraires a ses veritables interets."

It is here we are to fix the point of the highest exaltation which
the power of Lewis, or that of any European prince since the age of
Charlemagne, had ever attained. The monarch most capable of opposing his
progress was entirely engaged in his interests; and the Turks, invited
by the malecontents of Hungary, were preparing to invade the emperor,
and to disable that prince from making head against the progress of
the French power. Lewis may even be accused of oversight, in not making
sufficient advantage of such favorable opportunities, which he was never
afterwards able to recall. But that monarch, though more governed by
motives of ambition than by those of justice or moderation, was still
more actuated by the suggestions of vanity. He contented himself with
insulting and domineering over all the princes and free states of
Europe; and he thereby provoked their resentment, without subduing
their power. While every one who approached his person, and behaved with
submission to his authority, was treated with the highest politeness,
all the neighboring potentates had successively felt the effects of his
haughty, imperious disposition. And by indulging his poets, orators,
and courtiers in their flatteries, and in their prognostications of
universal empire, he conveyed faster, than by the prospect of his power
alone, the apprehension of general conquest and subjection.

{1685.} The French greatness never, during his whole reign, inspired
Charles with any apprehensions; and Clifford, it is said, one of his
most favored ministers, went so far as to affirm, that it were better
for the king to be viceroy under a great and generous monarch, than
a slave to five hundred of his own insolent subjects. The ambition,
therefore, and uncontrolled power of Lewis were no diminution of
Charles's happiness; and in other respects his condition seemed at
present more eligible than it had ever been since his restoration. A
mighty faction, which had shaken his throne and menaced his family,
was totally subdued; and by their precipitate indiscretion had exposed
themselves both to the rigor of the laws and to public hatred. He
had recovered hi