estimate of the Country Mouse and City Mouse1 removed the temporary estrangement engendered by Matthew's refusal to go to Christ Church. To Shephard he appealed in another rhyming epistle, which ended with a postscript: Our friend Charles Mountague's preferr'd, That one Mouse eats while t'other's starv'd. It can be scarcely rash to conjecture that it was through the interest of these powerful friends that Prior was brought to the notice of the King as a promising young man of letters, with the result that in 1690 he was appointed to the post of secretary to Lord Dursley, the English Ambassador at the Congress of The Hague. To have risen in eight years from errand boy to secretary to an embassy is sufficient testimonial to the power of his patrons and their opinion of his ability. With this great advancement, Prior's life begins in earnest. 1 Cf. his words to William III on introducing Charles Montagu. Chapter II APPRENTICESHIP AT THE HAGUE F all great European wars, that of the League of Augsburg is undoubtedly the dullest. Battles with stirring scenes which appeal to the imagination are few and far between, and we have to look to the surprise of the French at Steinkirk for an incident which in any way caught the attention of Europe. It is a war of sieges and bombardments, in which the French try to advance over the Netherlands like a rising flood, while the Dutch do their best to check their enemies by a solid dyke of fortresses. On the one side is Louis XIV, face to face with a coalition such as he had never yet encountered, gradually losing his great generals and administrators, relying more and more upon his own favourites, and finding it increasingly difficult to realise his proud mottoes Sufficit orbi and Nec pluribus impar. On the other side is the Coalition, kept together chiefly by the diplomatic genius of William, but, even when moving most easily, proving itself a machine which creaks and groans at every turn. It was at the central cogwheel of this cumbrous engine that Prior found himself posted. On November 10, 1690, he announced the fact to the Secretary at Whitehall—so at least we may conjecture, for Prior at this time in unbusinesslike fashion gives no hint of the person to whom his letters are addressed. "I succeed Dr Aglionby," he wrote, "as Secretary to his Exce my Ld Dursley; I have sent you the Gazette as usual, and when anything extraordinary occurs I will be sure to advise you of it1." It was not a post of great responsibility: the main duty, if we may judge from his somewhat fragmentary correspondence2, was to pass on to Whitehall the news-letters sent to The Hague from Germany. Twice a week he forwarded these résumés of the struggle between Austria and the Turks in the south of Hungary. His humour was tickled by the story of the relief of Esseck, where the Austrian forces were straining every nerve to repel the Turkish advance, and the Grand Vizier with all his army was reported to be preparing to begin a siege3: The siege was begun the 29th of October, the next day about noon the Enemy marched with all forces to post himself conveniently, hoping the Emperor's forces would have abandon'd the Place at his arrival: after most hideous howlings, he began the assault upon the Counterscarp, but perceiving the besieged in a better condition than he expected he retired and began to open the Trenches regularly.... P.S. A Courrier arrived from the D. of Croy with advice that that Prince commanded all the Trumpets and Tambours to sound from the Fortress: that the Enemy thinking some great succour was arrived to the besieged were so surprised that they raised the siege in confusion, leaving all their baggage behind them and 3 pieces of Cannon which was all they brought before the place1. But it was very rarely that Prior had such amusing pieces of news to tell. Generally the work was the 1 P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Holland, vol. 221, fo. 271. 2 We have seventeen letters of Prior in 1690 from Nov. 10 to Dec. 29, 1690, contained in P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Holland, vol. 221; two of 1691 of Dec. 7 and 14, in ibid. 222; three of 1692, in Holland, vol. 222; three of the same year, May 6, Aug. 9/19, Dec. 16/26, in the De la Warr papers (Hist. MSS. Comm. IV. 280). From 1693 onwards the Correspondence is fairly complete. 3 On the Drave, about twenty miles from its junction with the Danube. 4 P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Holland, vol. 221, fo. 277, Prior to Warr, Nov. 21 [1690]. ordinary routine duty of a diplomatic office. He had to exercise his mind on the characters of the persons to whom he issued passports, to notify the officials at Harwich and Westminster should any "disaffected" persons try to slip over into England without passports; an office which he found difficult to keep free from abuse, for the number of officers and soldiers, Dutch and British, and of persons provided with passes was so great that no effective supervision was possible1. But Prior went further than mere complaints and descriptions of the trouble, for he drew up a "little scheme" which was designed to remedy the evil, and, 1 "Concerning my Lord Dursley's giving Passes. That it is impossible to examine all Dutch, Germans, &c. and particularly French, who come in Companies of 20, 30 or more, as Refugees who would establish themselves in Ireland and England, or to know if the attestations or Testimonials they bring be valid. That the Dutch have no attestations, being Merchants, Burghers, &c. of several towns, and think it a hardship that they are detained so long from their affairs, as to be obliged to take a Passport, even at the Brill, for their sake chiefly it is that such passports are left in Mr Vanderpoole's hands. That all officers, soldiers or persons concerned in the King's service, think themselves sufficiently warranted by their Commissions, orders or letters, and most of them coming from Flanders would lose at least one Packet if they come from Helvoetsluys or the Brill to the Hague for a Passport. That all English and Scotch who come from England with my Lord Nottingham's, Sir John Trenchard's or the Scotch Secretaries' pass leave their passes at Harwich, so that upon such Person's application to my Lord Dursley for his pass back again, it is impossible for his Lordship to know if they had such passes from England as they pretended. That only the Packet-boat and Yachts observe this order of taking on board only such Persons as have passports, and Multitudes of all sorts of People come over in every convoy, in all Men of War, Merchant Ships and small vessels. (Indorsed): Mr. Prior concerning My Lord Dursley's giving Passes." (S.P. Foreign, Holland, vol. 222, fo. 461.) he told Adam Cardonnel, had been approved by Secretary Trenchard1. Later on indeed, incidents occurred in Holland which Prior thought worth recording. The trial of one Walten for heresy and blasphemy in maintaining "Beckar's opinion concerning the Devil2," the whipping publicly of a servant maid for secretly conveying letters to prisoners who are denied all sort of correspondence3, a fire at Amsterdam arsenal and the blowing up of a frigate at Enkhuysen, such is the small beer which Prior chronicles to his masters in England. And whatever other people may have thought of Holland, where the Crown Prince of Denmark "seemed mightily diverted5," or of The Hague, which Cresset justly describes as a "sweet places," Prior, to judge from the flatness of his correspondence at this time, found it the reverse of interesting. Persons in subordinate posts, even at the central knot of a great European combination, are apt to find life of less enthralling interest than the general public supposes. Not only this, but the cumbrous alliance was not obtaining even a fair measure of success. In December, 1690, the French went into winter quarters at Mainz; in 1691 they continued, in spite of William's presence, to hold their own in the Netherlands; in 1692 they won the battle of Steinkirk and captured Namur, a feat which was celebrated in a frigid and pompous ode by Boileau, which Prior did 1 See Bath Papers, III. 7. 2 P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Holland, vol. 223, Prior to Vernon, Hague, March 20/30, 1694. Becker's opinion concerning the devil was that there is "but one Devil." (See Bath Papers, III. 22.) 3 S.P. Foreign, Holland, vol. 223, Prior to Vernon, Mar. 23/Apr. 2, 1693/4. 4 Ibid. Prior to Vernon, June 11/21, 1695. 5 Bath Papers, III. 6. 6 Hist. MSS. Comm. x11th Report, App. v. 152, Cresset to Lexington, Oct. 13/23, 1693. |