THE Groans of France In SLAVERY, Gasping after LIBERTY.  
Done out of French.  
WHEN such a powerful Confederacy was formed against our King, We who are not so much as suffered to speak of Liberty ourselves, did hope that our Deliverance was at hand: But now, after six Years Experience, finding the Policy of a Neighbour Nation (from whom alone, under God, we expect Exemption from our Servitude) so much off the Hooks, that those among them who sit at the Helm, and approach nearest to their Brave KING, do more mind Enriching themselves, though at the expensive Ruin of their Fellow-Subjects, than Conquering their Enemies. Now, we think it time to speak, and, if possible, by our lamentable Groans and Cries, to awaken those who are, we hope, designed by God Almighty to set us miserable Creatures in Statu quo, and to make us truly Franks again.  
Can any Christian, without Remorse and Pity, hear the Miseries of our Poor, that wander about the Streets, even of Paris itself, to rake the Dunghills for dead Horses, wherewith to feed their raging Stomaches? The Form and Mildness of our ancient Government is quite lost; and although neither. We nor our Ancestors have ever yet given the King any one authentic Title to our Privileges; yet we have a Yoke imposed upon us, that is more cruel and insupportable than that which the Grand Signior and Great Mogul impose upon their Slaves.  
Our Tyrant would, if possible, hinder us from seeing Liberty enjoyed by others; which has obliged him for so many Years to endeavour, with so much Obstinacy, to make the English and Dutch our Companions in Slavery. He cannot bear the Neighbourhood of a Nation that has always asserted its Privileges with a great deal of Vigour: Nor is he less prejudiced against another, that had the Courage to shake off its Fetters. But since he has failed to Enslave Them, we hope the time is come when Providence will set Us Free; for all good Frenchmen are in love with the Constitution of the English Government, and hope, e'er long, to settle one like it at Home; which, after all, will be only our own Ancient Form of Government restored: Our Court-Pensioners in England and Holland, as we hear, give out, That we are enamoured of our Bondage, in love with our Chains; and like a Packhorse pleased with his Bells, go merrily with the Burden that is laid upon us; and that our Riches are inexhaustible, and We as able and willing to part with our Money, as the English and Dutch are to part with theirs. But we hope our Neighbours will not be imposed upon so grossly: Though we have lost our Liberty, we are not utterly bereaved of common Sense. The Packhorse will not carry his Load very cheerfully, if he have not Provender and Hay at Night, as well as his Bells in the Day. Can the Confederates be ignorant of the Dissatisfaction of the Nobility, Gentry, and Third Estate, which is so notorious in Paris, and all the Great Cities, especially in this Kingdom? Have they not heard in England and Holland, how vastly our King's Revenues are diminished? And as our Nobles have not Money to spare for Wine, so our Common People want a Denier to buy 'em Bread. Our Fields lie Untilled, and are almost turned to Deserts; an infinite number of People are dead of Cold, Hunger, and other Distempers, now Epidemical in France; those Towns which we have known in a flourishing Condition, and well Peopled, are now ruined and abandoned by their Inhabitants, most of the Tradesmen being gone for Soldiers, or reduced to Beggary.  
What shall we do now? Whereby shall we put an end to all this Misery? Shall we entreat the King to call a General Meeting of the Estates of the Realm? But who dares undertake to present our Petition to him? Shall the Princes of the Blood? There is not one amongst them that dares offer his Majesty the least Remonstrance? Shall the Dukes and Peers of France, or the Officers of the Crown? They would most certainly be rewarded with a Lodging in the Bastile; and there are too many base Complyers, that would help to drag them thither. Should the Parliament of Paris go in a Body, with their Primeir-President before them; the Heads of that Assembly would be punished as Seditious Traitors. Should it be presented by the Inhabitants of Paris, and the rest of the great Cities, we should see Gibbets erected in every Corner of the Streets, and the Troops of the Household sent to devour that small Pittance of Maintenance which is yet left to maintain their Wives and Children. Our poor and ill paid Officers would barbarously pillage the Houses of those Persons, who could be accused of no other Crime, than endeavouring to preserve that little remainder of Liberty which they seem still to enjoy.  
Formerly, whenever our Kings acted contrary to the Privileges of the Kingdom, the Nobility and People appealed to the General Assembly of Estates, and joined in Leagues to oppose them: But now we have none left in France, but Young Lads, or extreme Old Men, or Shadows of a Middle Age, so fatigued for the Glory of our Grand Monarch, that they are sent Home to be recovered and nursed up, or rather, to increase our Misery, by augmenting the Number of our Indigents, Our Nobleman's Houses want their Lords and Masters, who have been subtly engaged into that Chargeable way of living, that they are now forced to make the Camp their Refuge, and leave their miserable Ladies to be attended by an Equipage fit only for an Hospital.  
Our Inland Cities have no Cannon to defend them; they are sent to mend the Barriers, and fortify the Frontiers of our Maritime Towns: And our Burghers are not suffered even to repair our decayed Walls; 'tis enough for them to erect Statues for the King, or to cause Inscriptions to be engraven in Honour of that Immortal Man!  
The Fortifications and numerous Garrisons of Casal, Strasburgh, and other Frontier Places, have as well drained our Men as Money, to that degree, that our Ban and Arrier-Ban must be composed of Women, or Nonentities. But one great Fetch we have, and that is, to obtain Contribution from our Friends in England, or Ransom for Prisoners taken in Prizes, whereby we bribe some in all the Courts of the Confederates, so as to prevail that the War shall be drawn out in length, and their numerous Armies kept only to amuse our Frontiers, their Efforts spent in Bombing our Maritime Towns; But not a word of Invading our undefensive Continent: No; should such measures be taken, the War would soon be ended. But then those that made Merchandise of their several Countries and Commonwealths, would have their Trade destroyed. How glorious a Part we acted, when the English made their last Descent! Their Orders were positive to land at an appointed Place; and we not daring to trust our faint dispirited Ban and Arrier-Ban, detached old Soldiers from the Frontiers, and with Thirty thousand old Soldiers, and a good Tire of Cannon, killed and put to flight Five hundred Englishmen. 'Tis like one of the Victories of Lewis the Fourteenth.  
But let the English have a care; for if they e'er should land, although the best Men of our Militia are sent away to reinforce our Army on the Frontiers; and though our Towns are Peopled rather with Skeletons than Men; our Brave Nobles absent; our Cities without Men, Walls or Cannon: yet our grand puissant Monarch, accompanied with his Brother of Great-Britain (Hero's of equal approved Fortitude) with Regiments of Mistresses, and Troops of Financiers, and all the stately Statues and Figures of our Terrestrial Deity, will be ready to oppose them. Who knows but the Statues may turn Talismans'? and the Blind and the Lame may confound the English and Dutch?  
But alas, this is not a time for Mirth! Oh, that we had but some Carrier Pigeons to send into England, to let those Brave Men, who have so often recovered their near lost Liberty, know, that we are not such Madmen as they are made believe; we are not desirous to perpetuate our Slavery: If they will leave us free to enjoy our Religion (which indeed we do not deserve, considering what Properties we suffered ourselves to be made, in Persecuting those of the Reformation,) if they will lay aside that fond Design, of making us a Province under them, but will allow us to choose a King of our own, who yet shall pay some small Acknowledgement to their Monarch: and if they will be sure not to fail us, and leave us to the Wheel and Gibbet for our  to them; then they shall see the bravest of our Army's desert, our exhausted Kingdom make them a Noble Present of their Gratitude; which shall make all Taxes and Excises cease with them, and Europe shall once more enjoy Tranquillity; their Trade and ours shall be restored, and not interfere; and we will turn our Armies and our Fleets against the Enemies of the Christian Name, or against those base Neuters, who have so long contributed toward our more than unsufferable Bondage.  
But where shall we obtain those Carrier-Pigeons? I have it, Tont pro Tont. I will go a Privateering; that will delude our Argus: or I will bespeak some Wool unwrought, or pretend a Message to the Malcontents, the Jacobites of Great-Britain: and if they will not hearken to this Call, which will put an end to their Miseries and our own; then I will cry out with Tiberius,— O Homines ad servitutem paratos!— I will shake the Dust from off my Feet, and throw myself headlong off some Gliff, into the Sea, to be a Meal for some of Neptune's Subjects, rather than longer endure the Tyranny of Lewis the Fourteenth.  
Before I conclude; one late Accident accurring to my mind, I will relate: An English Vessel, either a Privateer or a Merchantman, happening lately to be wrecked on our Coast, about forty of its Crew got on shore, well armed, many of them, in their Boats; and another Spy-Boat, having had the fortune to escape not far off, two or three happening to come in sight of those English, and to be pursued by them, who posted away to Paris, to which they were bound, brought the dreaded News, That the Confederates were Landed. Which alarmed Paris and Versailles with different Sentiments: The first wished that they brought Bread and Succour: The other dreaded the Report, and were struck with such a Panic Fear, that I verily believe, had Two hundred bold Men landed with good store of Provisions, they would have gathered up our Half-starved Countrymen, and increased like a Snowball; and our Illustrious Monarch (the Plague of all Mankind) would have ended our Misery by a French Abdication.  
FINIS.