Factum, or Rehearsal of the whole Cause, with Proofs and Reasons to maintain and defend it.  
FOr William Noel, Substitute of William Willaston, Robert Hove, Citizens of the Town of Morlais, Matthew Harvey, Richard Beavais, james Goult, Edward Blancare, Thomas Helcott, and other partners, English Merchants, both Plaintiffs, and Defendants. Against Andrew de Launay, both Defendant & Plaintiff, and Marteau substitute to the right and room of Helias Fruit, lately deceased, joining and interposing himself to this 〈◊〉; The said Noel and Hove being Denizens and naturalised in France; and the rest of their partners being Englishmen, who have daily traded there fifteen years in the Town of Morlais: the said Noel and Hove, are housekeepers, and the rest held as Inhabitants of the Kingdom, did in October 1620. Fraught & furnish a Bark, called the George, laden with whole packs of linen cloth, to be transported into England, the said Launay of Roscoff, with his complices, to the number of twelve Robbers, by him armed, did follow her with a Pinnace the nineteenth of the said month, and by force and violence, took, robbed, and ransacked her at the going out of the river or Haven of Morlais, and stripped naked, the Master, and four Mariners, which were in the same, without any weapons, and set them forsaken, in a desert Island, barren and dry of any sweet water, but only with a loaf of rye bread of six pence, with a wicked intent, to starve them with thirst and hunger, as no doubt it had happened, had not God in his providence sent by chance a Fisherboat that way the fourth day, that took them up, and set them to land almost ready to perish. And as for the said Wares, the said Pirates did unlade many packs of them by night, at the said Roscoff, and ile of Bas, whereof the said Launay, his wife, and children, did dispose at their pleasure, transporting and hiding them in diverse places, and there caused the said Bark to be sent and set aground, at Angel's Haven, where it was again pillaged, and finally forsaken, whereof the King's Attorney taking notice, caused an Inventory to be made of the said Bark, and goods, and did examine the said Mariners, yea, some of the very Robbers, making his report of it, and seizing upon the residue, to be kept and preserved to the use of the right owners, by which report it is to be seen, that the English did lay claim to the said Bark, and goods, thereupon making their complaint, and requiring that they should be set free; and delivered into their hands, whereupon the said judge being fully informed of the said Robbery and Depredation, and that those goods did belong to those English and French Merchants, by his sentence the thirtieth of October, did fully discharge and restore them into their hands, having first given good and sufficient Sureties for the price and value of them, by expert and skilful men, and chosen by virtue of his place, as judge for his own discharge and security, and so in consideration of the said Sureties, they received their Bark and goods, and sent and sold them in England, upon which Informations, there went forth an Order against Laun●y, and his Complices, and they were so appeached and indicted, as that they were condemned by a sentence the thirteenth of june, 1621. Daniel Rowland, Mandoux les Marec, Father and Son, Covault and Conefer, for to be hanged and strangled, and the said Launay with two other men, Galls and Loges, banished for five years, and solitarily all together, or one of all condemned to restore to the said English, nine packs and farthels of the said Wares, which had been landed and set ashore to the same Town of Roscoff, or else the just value of them, and over and above to all their costs and expenses, and as for his other Complices, Querovarts, Pallu, and Enhabasque, who had broken the Prison, and made an escape: it was ordered, that they should be publicly summoned to appear within three short days. But to make these pursuits and judgements void, the said Launay fled to the Council, where disguising the fact, and against all truth, informing them his proceedings had been but by way of seizure and attachment against the English, and by right of some Letters of Mart, for a Ship of his which he pretended to have been taken from him some nine years since by some English Piratts, which he himself termeth to be such, in whose taking, he pretended to have lost some 1200. pound Sterling, and so making himself a Plaintiff, and requiring a discharge of his pretended and imiginary Attachment, or extent of the same goods. Whereupon the parties being called, and appearing before the Council, the said Launay (to give a better colour to his cause) did practise, and got the said late Helias Fruit, a Dutch Merchant, to join and interpose himself to him in this cause; the said Fruit having been once Master of a Dutch Ship, whereof Sir john Fernes was Captain. And again, the said Fruit calling, and intituling himself one of the Directors of a Company established in France, for the Trading into the East Indies; which Fruit this Launay did set of purpose, to require, that the rest of the said goods belonging to the said English, might be sold for his satisfaction, and repayment of the sum of 9200. pound Sterling, which he pretended to have been taken from him four years before by some other English Pirates, for which he said, he could get no justice in England.  
Moreover, the said Laun●y and Marteau, substitute in the pretended right of Helias Fruit deceased, being so joined together, did demand the second time, the cassation and disannulling of the said criminal proceedings, and sentence of the judge of the said Lesnevers, to the end that Launay might have a discharge or release for his own goods, which were seized and extended by virtue of the said sentence and judgement: whereupon the said Launay and Marteau got so much favour, that although the English did proceed in the said Council but declinatorely (that is to say, standing upon exception, and refused to be tried by that Court) desiring that the cause and parties might be sent back into Britain, before the natural and ordinary judges, for execution of their former judgements, and in case of Appeal if need were before the high Court of Parliament of the Province.  
Nevertheless, without appointing that the parties should ever write or enter into any proofs in the main cause or principal: yea, without so much as hearing them at all theretn, the Privy Council was pleased against all forms of justice, to pronounce and enact their Decree in the main cause, the 27. of january, 1622. which Decree contrarying and contradicting itself, doth award that the whole criminal proceedings, should be brought to the office of the Council, to do right unto the parties, according to reason: and in the mean time the former sentences of death and banishment to surcease, with full leave and power to the said Launay, to reside and dwell in the Country as he might have done before those judgements, yea with a general discharge, and freedom for all his goods seized by virtue of them, of which the Commissioners or Depositaries shall make him just account, and give him the residue or surplus, and without any regard to the said sentence of the thirtieth of October, 1620. whereby the English had a discharge and a release of their Bark and goods, they did order that without any prejudice or hindrance to the main cause and principal, and rato prevent the decay and perishing of the wares, both the wares and Bark should be sold at Saint Malloes, to the uttermost, and the price thereof put into the hands of sufficient Merchants, on whom the parties should agree before the Commissioner; who should transport himself in those places, and that as well the English parties, as their sureties, and Depositaries should be constrained to represent the said Bark and goods in pain of imprisonment.  
Against this so extraordinary Decree, both the said English and French parties sought their redress by petition, as well because that Decree is all forms and custom, because they did contest; but declinatorily, and by way of exception: a difficulty which was first to be discussed, and yet it doth pronounce and decide at once upon the main and principal. Whereupon there was yet no contestation: as also that it is wholly contrary to itself. First in so much as it being ordered, that the whole criminal cause should be brought, that right might be done unto the parties accordingly, if followeth, that there could no right be done to them till it had been brought and answered. Secondly, is there any thing more contrary to itself, then to order that without prejudice to the right of the parties, in the principal, and to prevent the decay and perishing of the seized goods, and without any regard to the sentence of the thirtieth of October, by which the English had got a discharge and release of their own goods and Bark, in giving good and sufficient sureties. Now all those things shall be sold, and the moneys issuing out of it, sequestered into the hands of sufficient men, and that as well the English as their Sureties shall be forced to represent all those old goods, even by restraint of their own persons, or can there be any more hurt or prejudice done to the English, and French parties, then to force them mere impossibilities, in representing that which was sold, and gone a whole year before, by virtue of their discharge and release, or else to force them to bring back again and consign the value of their own goods, and that the Commissioner shall transport himself so far, with great expense for the execution of all this: was it not sufficient that the English had given Sureties, and was not that equivolent to an evaluation and consignation of the price of the said goods, and what greater decay and deperishing could happen more than the costs and expenses, for the execution of the said Decree, and the great losses and damages that the said English have suffered. For the Commissioners being come to the place with Launay and Marteau, and at their suit (who for their part confined not any thing for the journey) finding that the said Bark and goods were no more to be found, in stead of contenting themselves with their former Sureties, and of a new supply of others, offered by the said English, whereof he should have made his report to the Council, he caused out of hand many other Ships to be seized and stayed, laden with store of merchandise, belonging as well to the said English Merchants, as to divers others of their nation, their Chambers to be locked and sealed, hindering the transport of all merchandises, and causing all trade and commerce to cease, during his abode of six weeks long in the town: yea more, caused the said English and French Factors, and their Sureties to be arrested and imprisoned, for not representing of the said Bark and goods, so that as well to redeem themselves and their Sureties, from the imprisonment of their bodies, and to procure their liberties again, as also to have a release and discharge for those ships and goods newly seized upon, that were constrained to suffer a new rate and valuation of their old Bark and goods, to be made to the smmme of 1854. pound sterling, and to deposet the said sum (though most impertinent) seeing the first estimation made of the goods alone, was 1714. pound sterling, and that the interest of Launay in his pretended loss, by the English Pirate was by himself claimed to be but 1200. pound sterling. Now upon this sum of 1854. pound, the Commissioner took some 300. for fees and taxations, as well for himself, his Clerk, and Register in the said Commission, as for the Counsellors, and Attorneys of the parties, & even for those of Launay and Marteau: yea, for the very Sergeents which were employed for the imprisoning of men, seizure and sale of the goods of one William Baskrvile, lately deceased, being one of the English partners, which goods were sold for the said consignation, by this means the Commissioner caused only the English to bear the burden, notwithstanding all their former losses almost inestimable, which amount to more than 5000. pound sterling, only in this last seizure and retention of their ships, discontinuation and cessation of trade and Commerce, which rigorous kind of proceeding did so seize the heart of poor Baskervile, one of the most interressed in the business among the parties, that he died for the mere grief of it, within two days, as is witnessed by the very report of the Commissioner, who upon complaints of the rest of the English, had sent back again all the parties to the Privy Council. Whereupon, to witness the lawfulness of their just plants, and the whole truth of all the premises, the English have caused the said criminal cause and sentence against Launay and his complicies, to be brought, together with the report and relation of of the said Commissiover, which doth prove and justify all that which is aforesaid, and shows that the fact of Launay and his Complices, is but a mere robbery and piracy, not any action of Mart or reprisal, and that the said Decree of the Counsel, with the execution thereof, hath been such a great and notorious hurt and damage to the English, as it cannot be coloured nor maintained. Moreover, to prove that this robbery cannot by any means be cloaked with any title of Mart, or reprisal. The English do represent three things.  
First, The Peace and Amity between the two Kings, during which, and the liberty of Commerce and Trade; it is an absurd and contradictory thing, to talk of Mart or reprisal.  
Secondly, They produce the Articles of Peace, agreed upon between their Majesties, whereby it is most specially concluded, That all Letters of Mart and reprisal, which before then had been granted by any of the two Kings, shall absolutely surcease, without being put to any execution, as well of one side as of the other, and that for the time to come, there shall not any more be granted, but that the Ambassadors shall respectively have warning of it before hand, and those Letters be seen and well considered in the Council of both Princes, sealed with their great seals, and generally, all the solemnities in such case required be well observed.  
Thirdly, Launay, and his complices cannot pretend any right of reprisal, since they are not bearers of, nor upheld with any such Letters at all, granted either with any of the former solemnities, nor in any other manner howsoever, so that this fact cannot otherwise be called, but mere robbery, and piracy, for all these reasons, therefore the said English do conclude, and require by their said Petition, that the said Decree of the Council of the twentie-seaventh of january last, and all that thereupon is ensued, be altogether revoked, cashiered, and disannulled, and in stead thereof awarded, that the said sum of 1854. pound Sterling, which they have been constrained to deposet, as well for their liberties, and their Sureties, as for the release of their Ships and goods seized, and from them detained, shall be wholly restored unto them, as well by the said Launay and Marteau, as by their Sergeants, Advocates, Attorneyes, Depositaries, and others, which have any ways touched any part of it, every one according to their several rates and portions, and so doing it may be ordered, that the Depositaries and Snerties shall remain fully free, and altogether discharged, as also the said Launay, and his complices, with Marteau and his partners, condemned in all the cost, damage, and interest, of the said both English and French Merchants, and so all with Launay, and his complices sent back again; before such Royal judges in those places, as his Majesty will be pleased to appoint, for the execution of their said former sentence and judgements, as well Criminal as Civil, of the said judge of Lesnevers, with reservation of Appeal, (if need be) to the high Court of Parliament in Britain.