the old suspicion of a combination against
Holland, and against the Protestant religion, a suspicion which had
already produced such discontents in England. These were the views
suggested by Sunderland, and it must be confessed, that the reasons
on which they were founded were sufficiently plausible; as indeed the
situation to which the king had reduced himself was, to the last degree,
delicate and perplexing.

Still Lewis was unwilling to abandon a friend and ally, whose interests
he regarded as closely connected with his own. By the suggestion of
Skelton, the king's minister at Paris, orders were sent to D'Avaux to
remonstrate with the states, in Lewis's name, against those preparations
which they were making to invade England. The strict amity, said the
French minister, which subsists between the two monarchs, will make
Lewis regard every attempt against his ally as an act of hostility
against himself. This remonstrance had a bad effect and put the states
in a flame. What is this alliance, they asked, between France and
England, which has been so care fully concealed from us? Is it of the
same nature with the former; meant for our destruction, and for the
extirpation of the Protestant religion? If so, it is high time for us to
provide for our own defence, and to anticipate those projects which are
forming against us.

Even James was displeased with the officious step taken by Lewis for his
service. He was not reduced, he said, to the condition of the cardinal
of Furstemberg, and obliged to seek the protection of France. He
recalled Skelton, and threw him into the Tower for his rash conduct. He
solemnly disavowed D'Avaux's memorial; and protested that no alliance
subsisted between him and Lewis, but what was public and known to all
the world. The states, however, still affected to appear incredulous on
that head; [*] and the English, prepossessed against their sovereign,
firmly believed, that he had concerted a project with Lewis for their
entire subjection. Portsmouth, it was said, was to be put into the hands
of that ambitious monarch: England was to be filled with French
and Irish troops: and every man who refused to embrace the Romish
superstition, was by these bigoted princes devoted to certain
destruction.

* That there really was no new alliance formed betwixt
France and England, appears both, from Sunderland's Apology,
and from D'Avaux's Negotiations, lately published: see vol.
iv. p.