The Duke of Ormonde thought, that considering the present disposition of the States towards Britain, it might be necessary for the Queen to have some pledge from that republic in her hands, as well as from France, by which means Her Majesty would be empowered to act the part that best became her, of being mediator at least; and that while Ghent was in the Queen's hands, no provisions could pass the Scheldt or the Lys without her permission, by which he had it in his power to starve their army. The possession of these towns might likewise teach the Dutch and Imperialists, to preserve a degree of decency and civility to Her Majesty, which both of them were upon some occasions too apt to forget: and besides, there was already in the town of Ghent, a battalion of British troops and a detachment of five hundred men in the citadel, together with a great quantity of ammunition stores for the service of the war, which would certainly have been seized or embezzled; so that no service could be more seasonable or useful in the present juncture than this, which the Queen highly approved, and left the Duke a discretionary power to act as he thought fit on any future emergency. I have a little interrupted the order of time, in relating the Duke of Ormonde's proceedings, who, after having placed a garrison at Bruges, and sent a supply of men and ammunition to Dunkirk, retired to Ghent, where he continued some months, till he had leave to return to England. Upon the arrival of Colonel Disney[14] at court, with an account that Mr. Hill had taken possession of Dunkirk, an universal joy spread over the kingdom, this event being looked on as the certain forerunner of a peace: besides, the French faith was in so ill a reputation among us, that many persons, otherwise sanguine enough, could never bring themselves to believe, that the town would be delivered, till certain intelligence came that it was actually in our hands. Neither were the ministers themselves altogether at ease, or free from suspicion, whatever countenance they made; for they knew very well, that the French King had many plausible reasons to elude his promise, if he found cause to repent it. One condition of surrendering Dunkirk, being a general armistice of all the troops in the British pay, which Her Majesty was not able to perform; and upon this failure, the Maréchal de Villars (as we have before related) endeavoured to dissuade his court from accepting the conditions: and in the very interval, while those difficulties were adjusting, the Maréchal d'Uxelles, one of the French plenipotentiaries at Utrecht (whose inclinations, as well as those of his colleague Mons. Mesnager, led him to favour the States more than Britain) assured the lord privy seal, that the Dutch were then pressing to enter into separate measures with his master: and his lordship, in a visit to the Abbé de Polignac, observing a person to withdraw as he entered the