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[Lett. lxxviii Letters Historical and Galant.]

Letter. lxxviii. From Paris.

The Beginning of your Mercury pleases me infinitely, and encreases my Curiosity. I dont doubt
but the Little Stories inserted in it are very pretty, and seasoned with the Salt of Satire, the use of which is permitted
by the Liberty of the Country, and stirs up the readers Appetite disgusted with nauseous flattery. They give me in
finite pleasure. Continue therefore, if you please, Madam, what you have begun; I approve the way you have thought
upon for it, and dispense with all my heart with all the news of war: An Adventure of Gallantry told with spirit gives
me more pleasure than the Account of a Battle or the Detail of a Siege: everyone ought to talk of what belongs to them
and keep within their Sphere. If the unfortunate Guiscard had followed this maxim, he had not perished as mi
serably as he did, and instead of taking upon him to run away with Girls, had minded his Breviary. You know
doubtless that the beginning of his troubles was the running away with a Girl that belonged to Madam de Main
tenon. This was a very unlucky Scrape for him, caused the disgrace of his brothers and obliged him to leave the
Kingdom, and quit very good Benefices. After this, forsaking his Order and habit, abroad, he had a mind
to form a Party; he boasted he had fomented a Rebellion in France; and pretending that he left it out of Zeal
for the good of the Publick, imposed for some time on those that did not know him, who when they came to find
out his past Irregularities, and were doubtless very badly edified with his behaviour among them, had not the
same Esteem for him any longer. I can't comprehend any more than you, how he could have the Impudence after
what he wrote against the King, to pretend to get into that Prince's Favour again. But all that I can tell you is
that his Memory is as odious here as it can possibly be in England. his Epitaph is very good. I think he was
very happy that it was not fulfilled, and that he avoids the Infamy of the Punishment by his despair. There are
many, notwithstanding that say, that they never would have had sufficent Evidence to convict him, and that knowing
himself to be guilty, he immediately thought he was lost, and precipitated himself to his ruin.

The same thing happened formerly in Constantinople. A Swede threw himself into the Arms of the
Ambassador we had then at the Port, who, if I don't mistake was Mr. de Chateau-neuf-la' Houssais. This
Suede seemed full of Zeal for the Interests of Tekeli, who, you know was our good Friend. He complained highly
of the Allies gave advices against them, and by all this behaviour gained the Ambassador's Confidence, who thought
himself the luckiest man in the world to find such a man, and took him to be a very proper instrument for carrying on
his affairs in that Country, the situation of which the Drole knew very well. But the Ambassador was the Dupe of
the Adventure: for the Swede was entirely devoted to the late King William; and it was for his Interests he stay'd
at Constantinople, and entred into all this management: but he did it with such Circumspection that no body sus-
pected him. In the mean time as a leaf seems to be a Constable to a Robber that hides himself in a Wood, when this man
saw the least Cloud upon the Ambassador's brow, he thought himself instantly convicted and almost as soon impaled. For
he knew very well that the Turkish Messieurs were not people to pardon persons recommended to them by a good hand.
So that he was always upon his guard to try to discover whether he was not discovered himself. One day being under
one of those alarms, he saw the Ambassador talking Earnestly with his Secretary: and lending his Ear, heard the secretary
say, raising his Voice: "If I was you I would arrest the Droll immediately" ---- The poor devil thought they were talking
of him; this Alarm'd him, and fear depriving him of judgement, he fell into despair, which is all ways the last thing one
ought to fall into: and Charging a Pistol with ball, let fly at his head and killed himself, for fear he should be put to
death, without reflecting that that was the worst that could happen, and that he might have got off much Cheaper if
there shou'd not have been proofs strong enough against him. But what was the saddest thing fofr him, he did not dye
immediately, and had the regret to see he had killed himself for nothing, and had taken the alarm very improperly
since he had nothign to do with the Affair in Question. Twas a Kind of Vagabond that had arrived some days before
at Constantinople, under pretence of demanding the Ambassador's Protection that they had been talking of, and it was
him the secretary meant when he said, You ought to arrest him: However this mistake sent the Swede to the
other World, and that by as severe a way as Empaling. For they roasted his feet, and made him undergo a thou
sand Tortures to oblige him to discover his secret: but all they could get out of him was that he cryed out from
time to time in the midst of the most lively torments: "Ah! had I thought, those Villains had known no more, I
had not been in this Condition! He declared he was devoted to the late king of England, and called him with
his last breath his dear Master, but never would, for all they did to him discover how he served him, nor what
Intrigues he had in that Country. Such Constancy is to be admired: And it was a terrible thing with
so great firmness to dye for a Panick Terror.