Translated from the ORIGINAL at Paris.

[Being his Publick MANIFESTO, in Vindication of Himself, and the late King James, from being any ways Aiding, Assisting or Privy to the late intended ASSAS­SINATION of King WILLIAM.]

WHereas by Our Advice from England, We have receiv­ed Information of an In­tended Assassination design'd upon the Person of the Prince of Orange; and, That the false and scandalous Suggesti­ons of Our Enemies have industriously endeavoured to insinuate, That Our Self, and Our Dearest Brother James, King of Great Britain, have been Aiders and Abettors to the said Assassination, at which We are the less surprized as being but highly sensible, that the Lustre of the Great is but too often shaded by Slander and De­traction from the Mouths of Malice and Envy.

Nevertheless, to dispel that Empty Cloud, We think Our Selves obliged, in Right to Our Traduced and Injured Honour, to Publish this following De­claration.

And, that the Guarrantee of Our Royal Word, Our present Onely Vindication, may carry its just Weight, and obviate all that Spight or Obstinancy may, or shall object, against that Vn­question'd Authority; We think fit, First, to Remonstrate, what constant Veneration We have ever Paid to Our Vows and Protestations; such as Our Publick Oaths against Infringing the EDICT of NANTS; and Our no less Publick Sacrament at the High-Altar against all INVASION of FLANDERS: As Our constant well-known Tenderness therefore for the Peace of Christendom abroad, and the Conservation of the Rights, Religion, and Liberties of Our Protestant Subjects at Home, both so Sworn, and so Per­formed, stand the ever Living Monu­ments of Our Inviolable FAITH: So We have no Reason to fear that the Misdoubts of our Foes, or the Jealousies of Europe, with any shadow of Justice, should dipute the Honour and Inte­grity of Our present Royal Word on this humbler Occasion; when, in a more Important Cause, under those Higher fore-mentioned Obligations of Oaths and Sacraments We have so [Page 2] Gloriously Signalized Our Vnshaken Veracity.

Directly and Indirectly, We therefore Declare,

WE are those utter Strangers to this Murtherous Design, (as indeed Blood­shed has always been Our greatest De­testation) That,

First, to right Our Vnhappy Bro­ther of England, whom it more nearly touches (Our Greatness and Reputa­tion being above the reach of Calum­ny) that it is altogether so impossible for Him, even in a Wish or Thought, to assent to so Barbarous an Assassina­tion; that on the contrary, he dares, (in so vile a Condescension) no more violate His Royal Honour, than He durst His Royal Faith.

Even the very Breach of a Corona­tion Oath is not His greater Abhorrence: Insomuch that He Publickly Declares, He equally Shrinks at This, as He has always Trembled at That.

And, for the further clearing Both Our Royal Names, from that hideous Imputation; It is not only inconsistent both with the Characters and Professions of the Great Lewis and James the Iust; but even contrary to our very Natures; 'Tis Baseness and Cowardice dare only stoop to a Shameful Act, when true Bravêry and true Courage even start at the Horrour of It. Can WE whose Whole Lives have been one Scene of Glory, Nurst up to hardy Virtue, Bred in Camps, that have Faced Death and Dangers in their nearest and hottest Front, Marcht always Foremost in the Boldest Van of Honeur; Led Our own Battles, Fought Our own Fields, and only, with Our own Personal Valour, Planted all our Groves of Law­rels: Can WE consent! WE to this vile Stroke? No; 'tis a Work, a Task, a Villany for Slaves and Vagrants: And if 'tis possible a King can stoop so Low, 'tis only the Crown'd-Head with the Poor Spirited Soul, the Mars ad opus Veneris, that hears his own Martial Thunder only at the Safe Distance of a Danaes Arms; Tyrants who break through all Laws; Perjurers that break through all Oaths and Sacraments; NEROE'S that only Sing to Groans & Conslagrations; These are the Hands and Hearts for such an Undertaking.

Nay, for a yet more particular Vin­dication of Our Injured Brother of England, He declares himself so far (e­ven in his common Principles of Hu­manity) from Aiding, Abetting, or Arm­ing a Cut-Throat, an Assassinate, a Massacrer, or any such Wolfe or Blood-Hound, that His whole Four Years Raign has amply Confuted that Malicious A­spersion; witness his Generous Hiberni­an Reformation, under His ever Sa­cred Representative TYRCONNEL, the truest Image of the Britannick Majesty; who instead of continuing the Sword, the Power, and Trust, in dangerous Unconfiding Hands, He con­ferr'd the Gentler Reins of Sway to those Tenderer Native Favourites, those ever celebrated Sons of Mercy, Children of Peace, that truly Venomless Race, so Canonized for Saints, in his Great Fathers Raign: That this sin­gle Testimony alone must confront all the Snarls of Defamation, and every Hissing Snake against Him; and too notoriously testify, That neither a Poin­yard, a Stiletto, a Butcher, or a Ruffian, yet ever were, or ever shall be his En­couragement or Protection; Insomuch, that to summ up his whole Compurgati­on, He Avows, from his Heart, and desires the World to Believe Him, That any thing that touches his Honour is a Point so Nice, that he would han­dle it with the very same Tenderness as he would a Colledge, a Bishop, a [Page 3] Charter, or any thing yet Dearest and Nearest to him.

But if the Infidel World either obsti­nately will not, or poorly dare not be­lieve our own Royal Protestations, That Treachery and Baseness are Our vilest Scorn, WE call the very Powers above, for Our great Attestators, Our St. Coleman, and St. Granville, the Im­mortal Witnesses of Our never Dying Renown.

Having thus amply asserted and e­vinced Our whole Royal Integrity, and Combated and Conquered the whole Rancour of Malice it self; ne­vertheless WE acknowledge We had design'd and purposed an Invasion of England; and that in no less Cause than Our Brothers Restauration; and for that, and that Only Great End We had firmly Resolved the Attacquing of the Prince of Orange in his Winter Camp.

And here, We farther De­clare,

In all the Measures and Movements, taken and made, in and towards that Design, WE were so far from any Clandestine or Unprincely Steps or Ad­vances, that on the contrary WE pur­posed nothing less than all the Fair Hostility of an Open and Generous Enemy; so Fair, that from Nostroda­mus his Propheticks, and some other Gal­lick Prognosticks of Our Success, WE had already Before Hand Blazoned Our whole Triumph and Glory in Medals of Gold, having resolved to give that Ec­ce magnus Ahsalon the very same Ho­nourable Personal Treatment, as WE have already done in Effigie.

And here, to silence another too po­pular Jealousy,

We likewise firmly Declare,

That the said Invasion of England was so far from any Private or Sinister Ambition of Our Own, But only Our Free and Voluntary Service of Our Exiled Brother, His Britannick Majesty, that on the contrary to take off all Umbrage of any such Suspicion, the very Forces VVE lent Him, were whol­ly composed of Our own Native Ve­teranes, Our ever Tryed ever Faith­ful, and ever Sworn Domesticks and Vassals; by this, and all other Repeat­ed Demonstrations, desiring to Manifest that VVE had no other than this Gene­rous Design, viz. That as our Sister Bri­tannia had so long worn Our Lisses in Her Scutcheon, we could not, but in Common Civility and Gratitude, return Her the Honour of wearing Her Lyons in Ours.

And here WE cannot but with Sighs reflect, what Inexpressible Blessings, has England lost, by the Defeat of this Glorious Expedition; when that e­ver Truly Indulgent Father of his Coun­try, their Pious James, that Sway'd with that Righteous, that Mercyful, and that Moderate Administration, under the Restriction of a Limited Scepter, the Shackles of LAVV; to what tende­rer, softer, and serener Raign of Good­ness and Mercy, had Our Sword re­stored Him, when Reseated on His Throne, under those Unbounded, all Halcyon, all Gentle Despoticks of CONQUEST.

Nor, in Justice to Our Dear Brother, can VVE less than Remonstrate what Thankful Acknowledgments, and what Ample Retributions & Rewards His Protestant Subjects, upon their Re­turn to their Duty and Allegiance, should have Received from His Roy­al Munifence, especially those that sig­nalized their Loyal Affections in any Assistance or Service towards his Re­storation.

For Ingratitude, that unkingly, nay unmanly Shame, was ever the na­tural [Page 4] Loathing and Aversion to the ve­ry Name of the STUARTS: wit­ness the whole Long Raign of His, and Our late dear Brother, the Second ever Illustrious CHARLS: For Instance, To those very ROYALISTS, His Freinds, His Champions, and Resto­rers, what Titles, what Honours, what Preferments, at his Recal to Empire, (like a kind Jupiter in Showrs of Gold) what generous, nay what unspeakable Returnes of Gratitude did He heap and pour upon them, as the Fair Reward both of their whole exhausted Patrimo­nies and exhausted Veins: A Record in his Chronicles, that must keep his Memo­ry Fragrant even to latest Posteri­ty.

And in the very same Current and Channel of Glory, what equall Re­turns did the no less Grateful James make to his ever Faithful Church of England, the only Hands and Hearts that stood in the Gap of his EXCLUSI­ON, and stemm'd the whole Torrent against him. And consequently what yet, if Possible, more Grateful Re­turnes, even to a Profuseness of Royal Smiles, must they have expected from this second Redoubled Merit. His Gratitude should undoubtedly have so eminently shined, as not only to have Crown'd his Living, but even his Dy­ing Freinds; when not a Protestant Life layd down, or one Vein let out, in so glorious a Cause but should have been Rewarded ev'n with a Mausole­um, no less then the Sepulcher and Monument of a Cannon, and a Dum­ferling.

For indeed not only his dear Friends, but his equally dear Country, have in a manner been the Spouse, and Wife of his Bosome, whom (as Chastity and Fidelity have been always Famed his fairest Twin Virtues) he has ever Loved and Cherisht with that Jnviolate Con­jugal Affection, even to an Vxori­ous Fondness.

And Lastly.

To summe the Sincerity both of Our own and Our Dear Brothers Protestati­ons, together with all the Great Truths containd in this Publick Manifesto, We need but adde this Single Memoire to his ever Shining Royal Virtues; viz. That as 'tis so eminently known to all Mankind, that Our Brother of En­gland has constantly imbibed his whole Rudiments of Glory, from Our Fountain of Honour, and made it the whole Study of his Life to Pattern from Our Example: So; 'tis not to be doubt­ed, but his Late Seven Years Abode with Vs, has rather improved then im­pair'd those Generous and Genuine Principles, and by an opener View and fairer Light, only taught him to copy yet nearer his Great Original.

Dated from Our Court at Versailes, April the First, 1696.