hold off a little, they should see an unexpected turn in the British parliament: That the duke of Marlborough had a list of the discontented members in both houses, who were ready to turn against the court: and to crown all, that his grace had certain intelligence of the queen being in so ill a state of health, as made it impossible for her to live above six weeks." So restless and indefatigable are avarice and ambition, when inflamed by a desire of revenue!
But representations which had been so often tried, were now offered too late. Most of the allies, except the emperor, were willing to put an end to the war upon her majesty's plan; and the farther delay of three weeks must be chiefly imputed to that litigious manner of treating peculiar to the French; whose plenipotentiaries at Utrecht insisted with obstinacy upon many points, which at Paris mons. de Torcy had given up.
The emperor expected to keep all he already possessed in Italy; that Port Longue, on the Tuscan coast, should be delivered to him by France; and lastly, that he should not be obliged to renounce Spain. But the queen, as well as France, thought that his imperial majesty ought to sit down contented with his partage of Naples and Milan: and to restore those territories in Italy which he had taken from the rightful proprietors, and by the possession of which he was grown dangerous to the Italian princes, by reviving antiquated claims upon them.
This prince had likewise objected to her majesty's expedient of suffering the elector of Bavaria to retain Luxembourg, under certain conditions, by way
of
