longer remain with him, unless his Majesty sent me other orders, which I should wait for at the army; and I took my leave of him. I am sending to Milan the effects and equipages which I had at Turin.”
From the Camp of St. Mazaro, Sept. (5) 15, 1696, Lord Galway wrote to the Duke of Shrewsbury:—
“I have described to you the manner in which I withdrew from the Duke of Savoy after the declaration he made to me that he would sign his treaty with France at the end of August, and denounce war against the allies on the 17th of September, if the neutrality were not accepted. It seemed to me that his Majesty could no longer have a minister in the court of that prince, after a treaty signed with the enemy, and a resolution taken to declare war against the allies, unless they accepted a neutrality to which his Majesty is adverse. Since I have quitted his states, his Royal Highness has sent me a present, which, not thinking proper to accept, I refused with much submission, desiring the master of the ceremonies to keep it until he should know whether the king would permit me to receive it.”
Luttrell states — “His lordship refused the Duke of Savoy’s picture set with diamonds, offered him by that duke.”
On September 16th, the Duke of Savoy, as generalissimo of the enemy, marched into the Milanese, and the siege of Valenza was commenced. We observe Lord Galway full of plans for harassing the invaders. We detect him looking out at the heavy rains, and rejoicing in them as obstructions to siege-works. We encounter him in his correspondence shocked at the idea of Austria making a separate treaty with France, and hoping that those imperialists are not going to desert next. The Duke was bent on taking Valenza; but at the end of thirteen days he had lost 2000 men, and had made no progress. The heavy rains would soon have compelled him to raise the siege, and to allow the allies winter quarters in Italy. However, both the siege and the vigorous resistance were terminated by the peace, known as the Convention of Vigevano, and dated October 7th.
The contracting parties were France, Savoy, Spain, and Austria. The French agreed to evacuate Italy, on condition that the same was done by the other allies, except the Spaniards, who were to remain in possession of the Milanese. England was not mentioned. When a sketch or draft had been prepared for circulation, it was said that the pacific document would have been suspected as spurious, if the name of such a fire-eating warrior as William of Orange had been inserted. The Duke directed his envoy, President De la Tour, to announce the ratification of the treaty to King William at the camp in Flanders. William received the message with contemptuous silence, but wrote to Lord Galway to remonstrate with the Duke in such terms as his ingratitude and duplicity deserved.
In November 1696, Lord Galway, with his contingent, joined the army in the Netherlands; but matters were now ripe for the negotiations which ended in the Peace of Ryswick, and he very soon returned to England, where he arrived 11th January 1697. The general conviction that peace would soon be proclaimed was the occasion of a heavy pecuniary loss to our hero.
The Duke de St. Simon states, that although Lord Galway’s estate was confiscated, there was a large sum of money for him in the custody of a friend of his father. The old Marquis, having been permitted to retain all his wealth, had left this sum in the hands of President Harlay, who evidently could take the deposit with unquestionable loyalty to his king. And after old Ruvigny’s death, the President had honourably regarded the father as surviving in the person of the heir. For about twelve years, old Harlay had shown himself a true man. At length peace was to be proclaimed between France and England. Lord Galway’s position as a naturalized British subject would be recognized by the French government, to whom he would no longer be amenable on the charge of treason. The money then could be openly paid over to him. But Harlay had looked on the precious treasure too long, to be able to endure the pangs of parting from it. So, believing that Louis would like to hear of an opportunity for taking revenge on Lord Galway, he waited on the Monarque, and said, “Of course your Majesty knows that old Ruvigny left some of his money as a deposit in my charge; it ought to be handed over to your Majesty.” The king replied, “I give it to you.” And thus did Harlay appropriate his old friend’s property, and overreach his friend’s son. Although the transaction gratified the king’s spite, it caused a burst of indignation and execration all over France.[1] The king comforted his avaricious servant with marks of his favour, and
- ↑ The Duke de St. Simon stigmatizes the President for his conduct in this affair — “Get hypocrite de justice de vertu, de désinteressement, et de rigorisme n’eut pas honte de se l’approprier, et de fehner les yeux et les oreilles au bruit qu’excita cette perfidie.” Professor Weiss has missed the point of this anecdote by not adverting to the Duke’s opening sentence: “La Paix s’approchant, le Roi la prevint par un trait de vengeance contre mylord Galway, dont il n’aurait plus étè temps bientot après.”
