WE have received Your Majesties Letters Dated from St. Ger­mains the Sixth of February last, by the Earl of Carlingfort, Your Envoy in Our Court: By them We have understood the Condition Your Majesty is reduced to; and that You being Deserted, after the Landing of the Prince of Orange, by Your Army, and even by Your Domestick Servants, and those You most Confided in, and almost by all Your Subjects: You have been forc'd by a sudden Flight to provide for Your own safety, and to seek Shelter and Protection in France: And lastly, That You desire Assistance from Us for the Reco­vering of Your Kingdoms. We do assure Your Majesty, That as soon as We heard of this severe turn of Affairs, We were moved at it, not only with the common Sense of Humanity, but with much deeper Im­pressions, sutable to the sincere Affections which we have always bore to You: And We were truly sorry that at last that was come to pass which (though We hoped for better things, yet Our own sad thoughts) had sug­gested to us, would ensue.

If Your Majesty had rather given Credit to the friendly Remonstrances that was made you by our late Envoy, the Count de Cannitz, in our Name, than to the deceitful Insinuations of the French, whose chief aim was, by fomenting continual Divisions, between you and your People, to gain there­by an opportunity to Insult the more securely over the rest of Christendom and if Your Majesty had put a stop, by your Force and Authority, to their many Infractions of the Peace, of which by the Treaty at Nimeguen [Page] you are made the Garand, and to that end hath entred into Consultations with Us, and such others as have the like just Sentiments in this matter, We are verily perswaded, that by this means you should have, in a great measure, quieted the minds of your people, which were so much exaspe­rated through universion to our Religion; and the publick Peace had been preserv'd as well in your Kingdoms, as here in the Roman Empire. But now we refer it even to Your Majesty, to judge what condition we can be in, to afford you any assistance, we being not only engaged in a War with the Turk, but finds our selves at the same time Impertly and Barbarously attacked by the French, contrary to and against the Faith of Treaties, they reckoning themselves secure of England. And this ought not to be conceal­ed, that the greatest Injuries which have been done our Religion, have flowed from no others than the French themselves, who not only esteem it lawful for them to make perfidious Leagues, with the sworn Enemies of the Holy Cross, tending to the Destruction both of Us and the whole Christian World, in order to the checking Our endeavours which were undertaken for the Glory of God, and to stop those successes which it hath pleased Al­mighty God to give us hitherto: But further, have heaped one Treachery on another, even in the Empire it self. The Cities of the Empire which were surrendered upon Articles signed by the Dauphin himself, have been exhausted by excessive Impositions, and after their being exhausted have been plunder'd, and after plundering have been burnt and raz'd. The Palaces of Princes, which in all times, and even in the most Destructive Wars have been preserved, are now burnt down to the Ground. The Churches are Robbed, and such as submitted themselves to them, are in a most barbarous manner carried away Slaves; and in short, it is become a diversion to them to commit all manner of Insolencies and Cruelties in many places, but chiefly in Catholick Countries, exceeding the Cruelties of the Turks themselves; which having imposed an absolute necessity upon Us, to secure our selves and the Holy Roman Empire, by the best means we can think on, and that no less against them than against the Turks: We promise our selves from your Justice, a ready assent to this, that it ought not to be im­puted to us, if we endeavour to procure by a Just War, that security to our selves which we could not hitherto attain by so many Treaties; and that in order to the obtaining thereof, we take measures for our mutual defence and preservation, with all those who are equally concerned with us in the same design. It remains that we beg of God that he would direct all things to his Glory, and that he would grant Your Majesty true and solid Comforts under this your great Calamity, We imbrace you with the tender affections of a Brorher. At Vienna, the 9th of April.