Cabals of the Duke de Rohan in Languedoc, and the Succours wrought by means of the Duke de Soubize his brother in England for the Rochelois.

THE Duke de Rohan was by his brother assured of the English assistance; and long before their landing in Ree, he did nothing but contrive Cabals in Langue∣doc, Page  204that he might place Consuls for his own turn in the Hugonot Towns, and engage considerable persons in his private interests. Presently after their landing, he openly declared himself, strengthned his party with Men, perswaded some places to rise, and sollicited others to do the like. He gave them great hopes of high and mighty advantages by the inundation of strangers and he provoked them the more by insinuating into them the ruin of their Religion and divers other imaginary evils. That he m••ht the better strik these Panick fears into them, he sent them a Manifest, filled with all those specious apparencies mentioned in the beginning of this year; But may it not be said, that he imitated those Pirates, who seeming to instruct the course which Ships ought to keep in the Sea, set up Lanthorns upon the tops of Rocks to draw Pirates thither and so to wrack them? For thus did he lay before the sight of them, who were sufficiently enclined to •action, diverse seemingly fair reasons of the preservation of their party and Religion; by which means he drew them into that revolt and engaged them in those misfortunes, which have since been the cause of the ruining of their Towns and of levelling their Wals and fortifications with the ground. Now that he might the more strictly bind the Hugonot towns to his designs, he •ound means to make an assembly in the Vi•e d'Ʋsez, where diverse of their Deputies met together, and as he had no lesse eloquence then courage, he perswaded them to whatever he had a mind to. They approved of those succours, which he had negotiated in England, as just and necessary, they commended his prudence and zeal; and gave him a thousand thanks for it: But this was not all; They assured him not to enter into any Treaty of Peace with his Majesty, without the King of Englands consent, and his own in particular. Hereupon they deputed some of the most seditious of their faction to go to the Towns of Languedoc and Guyenn•; withal they writ to those of Dauphine and Vivarez to encourage them to unite with them, for the good of the cause: They drew up a form of oath to be sworn by the Consuls, the Governours of Towns, Lords and Gentlemen who would engage with them. An union very strange, which divided the members from the head, and so separated subjects from their Prince. After the Duke of Rohan had used all his devises, and seen the En∣glish Land at Ree, he took up arms and appeared in the field. He summoned the Duke of Savoy to send those Forces, which he had promised, but he could not ob∣tain them, because the Spaniards, who never wanted a good will to fall upon him, had at that time an Army in Milan, as we shall here after declare, which made him jealous: besides desiring to attend the English successe, he saw them ruined in their designs at Ree; All that he could draw from him, was a promise of fifty thousand Crowns. Those Towns; which delivered up to him, were Nismes, Ʋsez, St. Ambrose, Alets, Anduse, Le Vignan, St. Hippolite, St. J•an de Granda∣m•nque, Samens, La Salle, and other smaler places; and joyning the devises of his prudence with those Forces, which they had drawn together, he took during his year Realmont, Renel, Naves, Mazeres, Pamiers, Castres, Soyon, and other Towns upon the Rhofere and in Vivarez, and more he had done, had not the Car∣dinal by his care under the Kings authority prevented him. It cannot be imagined with how much care and trouble, he kept those together, who were engaged in his party; how low he was fain to stoop to work upon the meaner sort of people; how many impertinencies he was forced to bear; how many inconsiderate discourses he was necessitated to hear, and yet seem not to understand them, and to how much constraint he was compelled to subject himself. He hath since protested to diverse of his friends, ingeniously confessing to them, that there is no care like that of re∣tayning a mutinous people in that order, which is necessary for him to make them follow, who would raise any advantage to himself by their revolt.