THE DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE RIGHT HON. RICHARD HILL, (L.L. D., F. R. S., &c., &c.) ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY FROM THE COURT OF ST. JAMES TO THE DUKE OF SAVOY, IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE: FROM JULY 1703, TO MAY 1706: SUPPLEMENTAL TO THE HISTORY OF EUROPE, AND ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SECRET POLICY THE CEVENNES, PIEDMONT, AND LOMBARDY, With Autographs of many illustrious Individuals. EDITED BY THE REV. W. BLACKLEY, B. A., DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE VISCOUNT HILL. PART II. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, Sir, From Mr. Hill to Mr. Secretary Hedges. Turin, the th January, 170 I did myself the honour to write to you the 4th inst. S. N., and acknowledged the receipt of your letter, of the 17th November. I have been since then at Crescentin to see the wonderful effects of courage, constancy, and resolution. It is this day three months that the Duke of Vendôme is tormenting himself, and us, before Verrue. It is more than five weeks that he is lodged upon the counterscarp of the castle, which had no outworks; in which five weeks, he has not got one inch from us, above ground. We reckon he has fired above 100,000 cannon-shot upon the place, and thrown 20,000 bombs, besides infinite quantities of stones upon us. He has had time to wear out one set of artillery, and to consume all his powder, and to have recruits of cannon, mortars, and ammunition from France. We have had the good fortune to kill him five of his General-officers, his chief engineer, and the commander of his artillery. We have stifled a great many of his miners, and have reduced five companies of his cannoniers, which were of 45 each to 46 in all. Five of these cannoniers deserted yesterday, and came to us at Crescentin, and gave for the reason of their desertion, that their officers grew peevish, and impatient, and charged them à coups de baton, because the cannon did not make more impression upon our breaches. We have, indeed, two large breaches upon two of the bastions; but the care, which we take every night to clear away the rubbish which falls into the ditch, leaves an escarpe of six or eight feet high, which hinders them from attempting to lodge themselves upon these bastions, till they can throw them quite into the ditch by their mines, which they had carried almost under them. We have had the good fortune to spring one of those mines, and to blow up their gallery; and we are very hard at work to meet with the other. This long laborious defence is very expensive, as you will believe, in all respects, to his Royal Highness; but the immortal honour which he gets by it; the hindering a superior enemy from taking winter-quarters in Piedmont; the wearing out an insolent enemy; and, above all, the gaining time for a slow ally to come to our assistance, are the great advantages which are due to his Royal Highness's virtue, and patience. Mons. Belcastel, who served our late King, [who] is a pensioner of her Majesty's, and a Major-General in Holland, is with us at Verrue as a volunteer, and is of great use to his Royal Highness, by his experience, his zeal, and his mettle. I found the soldiers and subjects here all clothed with French cloth, which comes very easily from Lyons hither. I found this commerce was also very much encouraged by the customs and duties which have been always higher upon the English than upon the French manufactures. His Royal Highness has now done us justice, against the malice, the inclination, or the interest, of some people, and by making a new tariff, or book of rates, has made it worth while to our English merchants to send English cloth hither, which, if well pursued, would help to destroy all the woollen fabrics in Languedoc. I do not yet find any recruits coming for the French armies in Italy, except about 40 of the Queen's subjects which are come for the Irish battalions, who are deserters, marauders, or prisoners, from my Lord Duke of Marlborough's armies. It is a great advantage which the enemy has over the allies by recruiting their troops in Italy by the deserters, or prisoners, which they send from the Meuse, or the Moselle; and they send our deserters and prisoners from hence down thither, and into Spain. I cannot yet find that the Duke of Vendôme does want money to carry on his works at Verrue; but I am assured, that the French garrisons at Suze, and Ivrea, are very ill paid, and that money does grow very scarce in France. I am well persuaded that Mons. de Chamillard does give 12 per cent for all the money which he sends to Italy, for which he gives assignments to the bankers of Lyons, Genoa, Milan, or Geneva, upon which assignments he allows one per cent interest per month until they are paid. Besides this, the King loses 20 per cent upon all his expenses made in Italy, because he pays the louis d'or there on the foot of 12 livres, which goes in France for 15. I have been sorry to see the printed gazettes in Switzerland and Italy full of a speech which is supposed to be made in Parliament by the Lord Haversham. Perhaps, no such speech was made: perhaps, it might be a good thing at Westminster; but sure I am, we had no need of it abroad: no need of it in print: it is good for nothing here. "His Royal Highness does complain to me sometimes, that his "treaty is not yet signed at the Hague, nor ratified by King 66 "Charles the 3d, as it ought to be. I think I may resolve to "go meet P. Eugene so soon as I hear he is coming, and desire "you will please to send me a letter of credence to him from "the Queen, or from the Duke of Marlborough, directed for 'me under cover to the Consul at Venice." I find, by the common newspapers, that a gentleman is gone to the Hague, and, perhaps, to London, in very good company, concerning whom I did write to you, the 25th September. I did not give any encouragement to his journey thither, and have nothing to add to what I did say to you concerning him in my said letter. I am, &c. To Mr. Secretary Hedges. HILL. From Mr. Hill to the Duke of Marlborough. My Lord, Turin, the th January, 170% I did myself the honour to write to your Grace, the 4th inst.; since then I have been at Crescentin, and Verrue, where our castle holds out bravely still. If I live to see such another siege, and to make such another long campaign as this has been, I shall desire your Grace to give me a commission. I do not trouble your Grace with any account of this famous siege. I leave that to Belcastel, who is still a much better officer than I am, and is so good a man that I hope you will not lose him. I give Mr. Secretary the best account I can of ourselves to day; but I must tell your Grace a little more. We do not yet feel all the benefits of your Grace's treaty at Berlin. I am a little in pain lest "the exceptions which we "made here to the ratification of that treaty, and the delays "which are made at Vienna to the ratification of the same, "should hinder the march of the 8000 men, which can only 'save us by their diligence and expedition. His Royal High'ness will impute all the delays, which are made at Vienna, "to the malice, or impotency of that Court, or to the ill will "of P. Eugene, with whose conduct, for the last six months, "he is very ill satisfied. His Royal Highness makes the most "he can of Comte Guido, and about 4500 of his Germans "who are left; but I have been afraid to tell your Grace how uneasy and vexatious these two Generals have been to each "other all this year. It is now come to this, that Guido has "desired his congé from the Emperor, and swears he will be 66 66 |