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one ready to seize it, but fearing an attack
from the other two.
The praise of great prudence in managing
their négociations and concerns with
other states cannot be withheld from the
government, during many periods of extreme
difficulty, and if this prudence sometimes
degenerated into servile flattery of
the stronger power, great allowance should
be made for the spirit of the age, and the
critical circumstances with which the Republic
had to contend. Thus in the reign
of Louis XIV. the Genevese refused to
receive an accredited resident agent from
William III. who was at the head of the
Protestant interest in Europe, while they
flattered, to the utmost of their power,
the French monarch, the great enemy of
the Protestant faith ; but the friendship
of the English kin^Ö O could have availed
them nothing against the enmity of Louis,
who might have annihilated their republic
before the news could have reached England.
Of their flattery to Louis XIV.
on the peace of the Pyrenees, in 1660,
and his marriage with the daughter of
the king of Spain, Picot, in his Histoire de
Geneve, has given us the following amusing
specimen, well worth preserving, as an
instance of the adulatory style of the a g e ;
it is a rambling rhapsody of incoherent
metaphors, which, from their extravagant
absurdity, might have made the Grand
Monarque forget his dignity and gravity,
to indulge in a hearty laugli. Andrew
Pictet was the orator sent from Geneva to
Paris ; and as this was a very tedious
journey in those days, it gave him ample
time to collect all the flowers of rhetoric
for the occasion. Part of his speech, given
literally, is as follows :
“ Your Majesty, all powerful and in-
“ vincible, having conquered yourself by
“ this amorous peace, has brought off the
“ prize o f a victory, which surpasses the
“ value of all the rest, and which crowns
“ all your former triumphs ; for this great
“ princess, who constitutes the principal
“ trophy, was the apple of the eye of the
“ enemy’s country, and the first blossom
“ of the Spanish crown. Her virtues and
“ graces surpass all my thoughts, and the
“ expressions of man, and are oniy com-
“ parable to the august splendour o f the
“ emperors and kings from whom she is
“ descended, and to the majesty of that