(5) Zurich fears that, if Charles is not represented at the next Diet, Bale and Saint Gall will be intimidated, and not dare to join the Triple Alliance of Spain, Holland, and England.  The best plan will be for Marsilly to represent England at the Diet of January 25, 1669, accompanied by the Swiss General Balthazar.  This will encourage friends “to give His Britannic Majesty the satisfaction which he desires, and will produce a close union between Holland, Sweden, the Cantons, and other Protestant States.”

This reads as if Charles had already expressed some “desire.”

(6) Geneva grumbles at a reply of Charles “through a bishop who is their enemy,” the Bishop of London, “a persecutor of our religion,” that is, of Presbyterianism.  However, nothing will dismay the Genevans, “si S. M. B. ne change.”

Then comes a blank in the paper.  There follows a copy of a letter as if from Charles ii. himself, to “the Right High and Noble Seigneurs of Zurich.”  He has heard of their wishes from Roux de Marsilly, whom he commissions to wait upon them.  “I would not have written by my Bishop of London had I been better informed, but would myself have replied to your obliging letter, and would have assured you, as I do now, that I desire. . . .”

It appears as if this were a draft of a kind of letter which Marsilly wanted Charles to write to Zurich, and there is a similar draft of a letter for Arlington to follow, if he and Charles wish to send Marsilly to the Swiss Diet.  The Dutch ambassador, with whom Marsilly dined on December 26, the Constable of Castille, and other grandees, are all of opinion that he should visit the Protestant Swiss, as from the King of England.  The scheme is for an alliance of England, Holland, Spain, and the Protestant Cantons, against France and Savoy.

Another letter of Marsilly to Arlington, only dated Jeudi, avers that he can never repay Arlington for his extreme kindness and liberality.  “No man in England is more devoted to you than I am, and shall be all my life."[1]

[1] State Papers, France, vol. 125, 106.

On the very day when Marsilly drafted for Charles his own commission to treat with Zurich for a Protestant alliance against France, Charles himself wrote to his sister, Madame (Henriette d’Orleans).  He spoke of his secret treaty with France.  “You know how much secrecy is necessary for the carrying on of the business, and I assure you that nobody does, nor shall, know anything of it here, but myself and that one person more, till it be fit to be public."[1] (Is “that one person” de la Cloche?)

[1] Madame, by Julia Cartwright, p. 275.

Thus Marsilly thought Charles almost engaged for the Protestant League, while Charles was secretly allying himself with France against Holland.  Arlington was probably no less deceived by Charles than Marsilly was.

The Bishop of London’s share in the dealing with Zurich is obscure.