The allied army under that prince was
approaching towards Mons, then blockaded by France. A considerable body
of English, under the duke of Monmouth, was ready to join him.
Charles usually passed a great part of his time in the women's
apartments, particularly those of the duchess of Portsmouth; where,
among other gay company, he often met with Barillon, the French
ambassador, a man of polite conversation, who was admitted into all the
amusements of that inglorious but agreeable monarch. It was the charms
of this sauntering, easy life, which, during his later years, attached
Charles to his mistresses. By the insinuations of Barillon and the
duchess of Portsmouth, an order was, in an unguarded hour, procured,
which instantly changed the face of affairs in Europe. One Du Cros, a
French fugitive monk, was sent to Temple, directing him to apply to the
Swedish ambassador, and persuade him not to insist on the conditions
required by France, but to sacrifice to general peace those interests of
Sweden. Du Cros, who had secretly received instructions from Barillon,
published every where in Holland the commission with which he was
intrusted; and all men took the alarm. It was concluded that Charles's
sudden alacrity for war was as suddenly extinguished, and that no steady
measures could ever be taken with England.
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