Briefwisseling en aantekeningen. Deel 2

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335
Willem Bentinck aan de gravin van Portland

[B.M., Eg. 1714]

Den Haag, 7 mei 1748

I arrived here yesterday morning at seven from Breda. I left Aix wensday¹⁾ and went to the dukes quarters near Roermonde, to communicate what had passed the day before at the signing of the preliminarys²⁾, and after having taken his opinion and that of marshall Batthyani about Maestricht³⁾ my design was to go on The Hague, but hearing that the Prince of Orange was at Breda, I went thither and arrived friday night, for want of horses on the road to go on faster. I staid at Breda with the Prince till sunday afternoon. Everybody here is so intoxicated with the notions of peace, that they are overjoy'd without knowing what terms they can expect it upon. I own I dislike what is done, and still more the method with relation to our allys. But there was no possibility of carrying on the war with any hopes of success; and I own that if I had had any hopes of any amendment in time, I should never have done what necessity has now forced me to consent to. What hurts me most is, that the disagreable situation I am in, and the melancholy prospect of affairs in Europe, is occasioned by those I had put all my hope and trust in on one side, and from a general contravention on all sides, to what was promised, and which now is reproached by one to t'other. But the fact is that all the forces together actually in the field do not amount to much more than what ought by the convention to have been the contingent of one of the contracting partys singly⁴⁾.

I have been received by the Princess Royal with the greatest marks of distinction, and joy, and whish this may turn to her

1) 1 mei.

2) St. Séverin had Sandwich tot een overhaast sluiten der preliminairen overgehaald door het verzinsel dat Oostenrijk en Spanje tot een overeenkomst waren gekomen. Vlg. Bentinck II, nr. 332.

3) De Oostenrijkse opperbevelhebber. Maastricht werd door de Fransen belegerd; de wapenstilstand zou volgens de preliminairen pas over zes weken aanvangen.

4) Er ontbrak heel wat aan het aantal troepen, overeengekomen bij de conventie van 26 januari 1747. Zie D'Ailly, p. 102 en Bentinck I, p. 476.

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satisfaction, and the advantage of her family and the Republick. But I cannot yet see things in that light.