"
"No, indeed," Mr. Jervoise agreed. "It may be, Sir Marmaduke, that
it would be better if we had talked and thought less of it, during
the last twelve years; better for ourselves, and for these lads. We
might still have been ready to join His Majesty as soon as he
landed, but as, till then, we could do nothing, it seems to me now
that it would have been wiser had we gone about our business
without worrying our heads, to say nothing of risking them, about a
matter that may not take place during our lives; as we know, well
enough, the King of France uses the Stuarts only for his own
convenience, and at heart cares nothing for them or their cause. It
is convenient to have the means of creating trouble here, and of so
weakening William; and it may be that, some day or other, it may
suit him to send over an army here to fight William, with the aid
of the Stuarts' friends, instead of fighting him in Holland or
elsewhere. But whether he may think fit to do so in one year, or in
twenty years hence, who can say? It is a question solely of
military policy.
"The Stuarts are simply used, by the French king, to pull English
chestnuts out of the fire. I would that they had established
themselves anywhere rather than in France. It does them harm with
vast numbers who would otherwise be their friends, at any rate in
England.
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