241 



commodation or the information of some other party. There is no 

 introduction or preface of any kind, the writer commencing his narra- 

 tive abruptly with the sentence — ''Le guerre qui commenqa en 1672 

 entre la Prance et la Hollande," &c., as at p. 9 of the Yillars '^Me- 

 moires." The differences which exist between the Arsenal MS. and all 

 the other known copies of these ''Me moires" begin at the very begin- 

 ning. They are sometimes trifling and verbal, like those between the 

 Stirling MS. and the volume of 1733, but generally they are far more 

 important. The Arsenal MS. seems to be the first outpouring of the au- 

 thor's mind ; the whole truth, as he believed it, is spoken frankly and 

 fully — too frankly, it would appear, for the unknoAvn editor of the vo- 

 lume of 1733 or his censor, either of whom, doubtless from the fear of 

 giving offence to the royal family of France, has omitted some of the 

 most interesting of its passages. The most curious of these refer to the 

 conduct of the young Queen of Spain, the first wife of Charles II., who, 

 it will be recollected, was the niece of Louis XIV. These suppressed 

 passages betray an amount of hostility, and almost hatred, to this prin- 

 cess, who, if she exhibited little strength of character, appears to us so 

 amiable and interesting in the charming letters of the Marchioness de 

 Villars, as to create a strong disbelief that these ' ' Memoirs" could have 

 been written by the ambassador of France and the husband of the 

 writer of these letters. I shall take the passages as they occur, by no 

 means offering them as a complete list of the differences which charac- 

 terize the Arsenal MS., but of such only as I was able to note during 

 the short time I had the opportunity of examining it. None, however, 

 that are really important have, I believe, been overlooked. 



The MS. commences, as I have said, at the words, ''La guerre qui 

 commen^a," &c., Stirling MS., p. 8, "Yillars' Memoires," p. 9, "Me- 

 moires" of 1733, p. 8. The passage at p. 12 of the Yillars' "Memoires," 

 " Le Eoy tres Chretien ne jugeant pas qu'un Batard du Roy d'Espagne 

 put avoir droit de prendre de tels avantages sur son Ambassadeur, luy 

 commenda," &c., reads thus in the Arsenal MS., folio 1 — "Le Eoy tres 

 Chrestien ne jugeant pas qu'un bastard duRoy d'Espagne deut avoir sur 

 son Ambassadeur des avantages que les princes du sang de la Maison de 

 France ne prennoient point sur celai d'Espagne, luy commanda," &c. 

 On the same page the following passage is omitted both in the Paris and 

 London editions — " Pour trouver un milieu a deux interests si contraires 

 Le Marquis de Yillars proposa a D. Geronimo d'Egliya Secretario d'Estat 

 qu'il verroit D. Juan sur le meme pied que les autres Ambassadeurs, 

 pourveu qu'on luy donnast un ordre par escript du Eoy d'Espagne a son 

 Ambassadeur en Erance, de voir les princes du sang et les Enfans na- 

 turels des Eoys^' de la meme maniere," fol. 1. In the line "avoient 

 signe che% Le Due d^Alhe,^^ Arsenal MS. fol. 1, 2, the words underlined 

 are omitted in the Yillars' "Memoires," p. 20, 1. 24, though given in 



* This allusion to " les Enfans naturels des Roys" as a settled institution in France, 

 is rather amusing. 



