ve left out Disorders, for Misfortunes is enough; _and that in my
Opinion wou'd not be fair and honest_. Why the bare mention of a
Petticoat should engage him in such a Narration, is hard to conceive;
and yet this blind Insinuation is infinitely more malicious than if he
had wandered into a large History. There the World would have been
satisfied what these Misfortunes were, with which Monsieur _de Cros_
so brutally refreshes Sir _W. T_'s memory; whereas this blind
_Innuendo_ leaves open room for the Conjectures and Surmises of all
people, who in such Cases generally imagine the worst. _I have no
Occasion_, says he, _that I know of, to complain either of his Wife,
his Son, or his Daughters_; why then all these invidious Hints? Is it
not enough for other Persons to condemn our Author, but must he pass
Sentence upon himself.

_But suppose_, says Monsieur _de Cros_, p. 23. _that I had quitted the
Frock, for the Petticoat, what of all that? 'Tis no more than what an
infinite number of Persons of eminent Worth, such as Nuncio's,
Bishops, Cardinals, Kings, and Popes have done in their time: Nay,
there have been some Princesses in the World that have changed a Veil
for a pair of Breeches, whose Posterity I don't question are held in
great Veneration by Sir_ W. T. All this may very well be; and yet I
cannot but observe how natural it is for your great Persons to excuse
themselves by the Example of their great Predecessors. And thus the
poor Ant in the Epigram that unfortunately tumbled down the Precipice
of a Mole-hill, comforted her self with the Precedent of _Phaeton:
'Tis true_, says she, _I have had a damn'd Fall here; but what then?
Sic cecidit Phaeton_, Phaeton _had one before me_.

_If I had been a sort of an Agent for Sweden_, says Monsieur _de
Cros_, p. 24. _as Sir_ W. T. _has represented me, I should not have
defended my self upon that score; I should have taken it for a great
Honour to be employed by so mighty a King_. I wonder then where was
the hurt if Sir _W. T._ conferr'd a _Swedish_ Agentship upon him.
_But at that time I was at the Court of_ England _in Quality of
Envoy-Extraordinary from the Duke of_ Gottorp, _whom Sir_ W. T. _never
so much as mentions in his Memoirs, although he had two Ministers at
the Congress, and_ France _stipulated for his re-establishment in the
second Article of the Peace_. By Monsieur _de Cros_'s leave, the Agent
was some Years older than the Envoy; and if Sir _W. T._ has omitted
th