THE French Kings New DECLARATION  
Translated from the ORIGINAL at Paris.  
[Being his Public MANIFESTO, in Vindication of Himself, and the late King James, from being any ways Aiding, Assisting or Privy to the late intended ASSASSINATION of King WILLIAM.]  
WHereas by Our Advice from England, We have received Information of an Intended Assassination designed upon the Person of the Prince of Orange; and, That the false and scandalous Suggestions of Our Enemies have industriously endeavoured to insinuate, That Ourselves, and Our Dearest Brother James, King of Great Britain, have been Aiders and Abettors to the said Assassination, at which We are the less surprised as being but highly sensible, that the Lustre of the Great is but too often shaded by Slander and Detraction from the Mouths of Malice and Envy.  
Nevertheless, to dispel that Empty Cloud, We think Ourselves obliged, in Right to Our Traduced and Injured Honour, to Publish this following Declaration.  
And, that the Guarrantee of Our Royal Word, Our present Only Vindication, may carry its just Weight, and obviate all that Spite or Obstinancy may, or shall object, against that Unquestioned Authority; We think fit, First, to Remonstrate, what constant Veneration We have ever Paid to Our Vows and Protestations; such as Our Public Oaths against Infringing the EDICT of NANTS; and Our no less Public Sacrament at the High-Altar against all INVASION of FLANDERS: As Our constant well-known Tenderness therefore for the Peace of Christendom abroad, and the Conservation of the Rights, Religion, and Liberties of Our Protestant Subjects at Home, both so Sworn, and so Performed, stand the ever Living Monuments of Our Inviolable FAITH: So We have no Reason to fear that the Misdoubts of our Foes, or the Jealousies of Europe, with any shadow of Justice, should dipute the Honour and Integrity of Our present Royal Word on this humbler Occasion; when, in a more Important Cause, under those Higher  Obligations of Oaths and Sacraments We have so Gloriously Signalised Our Vnshaken Veracity.  
Directly and Indirectly, We therefore Declare,  
WE are those utter Strangers to this Murderous Design, (as indeed Bloodshed has always been Our greatest Detestation) That,  
First, to right Our Unhappy Brother of England, whom it more nearly touches (Our Greatness and Reputation being above the reach of Calumny) that it is altogether so impossible for Him, even in a Wish or Thought, to assent to so Barbarous an Assassination; that on the contrary, he dares, (in so vile a Condescension) no more violate His Royal Honour, than He durst His Royal Faith.  
Even the very Breach of a Coronation Oath is not His greater Abhorrence: Insomuch that He Publicly Declares, He equally Shrinks at This, as He has always Trembled at That.  
And, for the further clearing Both Our Royal Names, from that hideous Imputation; It is not only inconsistent both with the Characters and Professions of the Great Lewis and James the Just; but even contrary to our very Natures; 'Tis Baseness and Cowardice dare only stoop to a Shameful Act, when true Brauêry and true Courage even start at the Horror of It. Can WE whose Whole Lives have been one Scene of Glory, Nursed up to hardy Virtue, Bred in Camps, that have Faced Death and Dangers in their nearest and hottest Front, Marched always Foremost in the Boldest Van of Honeur; Led Our own Battles, Fought Our own Fields, and only, with Our own Personal Valour, Planted all our Groves of Laurels: Can WE consent! WE to this vile Stroke? No; 'tis a Work, a Task, a Villainy for Slaves and Vagrants: And if 'tis possible a King can stoop so Low, 'tis only the Crown'd-Head with the Poor Spirited Soul, the Mars ad opus Veneris, that hears his own Martial Thunder only at the Safe Distance of a Danae's Arms; Tyrants who break through all Laws; Perjurers that break through all Oaths and Sacraments; NERO'S that only Sing to Groans & Conslagrations; These are the Hands and Hearts for such an Undertaking.  
Nay, for a yet more particular Vindication of Our Injured Brother of England, He declares himself so far (even in his common Principles of Humanity) from Aiding, Abetting, or Arming a Cutthroat, an Assassinate, a Massacrer, or any such Wolf or Bloodhound, that His whole Four Years Reign has amply Confuted that Malicious Aspersion; witness his Generous Hibernian Reformation, under His ever Sacred Representative TYRCONNEL, the truest Image of the Britannic Majesty; who instead of continuing the Sword, the Power, and Trust, in dangerous Unconfiding Hands, He conferred the Gentler Reins of Sway to those Tenderer Native Favourites, those ever celebrated Sons of Mercy, Children of Peace, that truly Venomless Race, so Canonised for Saints, in his Great Father's Reign: That this single Testimony alone must confront all the Snarls of Defamation, and every Hissing Snake against Him; and too notoriously testify, That neither a Poniard, a Stiletto, a Butcher, or a Ruffian, yet ever were, or ever shall be his Encouragement or Protection; Insomuch, that to sum up his whole Compurgation, He Avows, from his Heart, and desires the World to Believe Him, That any thing that touches his Honour is a Point so Nice, that he would handle it with the very same Tenderness as he would a College, a Bishop, a Charter, or any thing yet Dearest and Nearest to him.  
But if the Infidel World either obstinately will not, or poorly dare not believe our own Royal Protestations, That Treachery and Baseness are Our vilest Scorn, WE call the very Powers above, for Our great Attestators, Our St. Coleman, and St. Granville, the Immortal Witnesses of Our never Dying Renown.  
Having thus amply asserted and evinced Our whole Royal Integrity, and Combated and Conquered the whole Rancour of Malice itself; nevertheless WE acknowledge We had designed and purposed an Invasion of England; and that in no less Cause than Our Brother's Restauration; and for that, and that Only Great End We had firmly Resolved the Attacking of the Prince of Orange in his Winter Camp.  
And here, We farther Declare,  
In all the Measures and Movements, taken and made, in and towards that Design, WE were so far from any Clandestine or Unprincely Steps or Advances, that on the contrary WE purposed nothing less than all the Fair Hostility of an Open and Generous Enemy; so Fair, that from Nostrodamus his Propheticks, and some other  Prognostics of Our Success, WE had already Before Hand Blazoned Our whole Triumph and Glory in Medals of Gold, having resolved to give that Ecce magnus Ahsalon the very same Honourable Personal Treatment, as WE have already done in Effigy.  
And here, to silence another too popular Jealousy,  
We likewise firmly Declare,  
That the said Invasion of England was so far from any Private or Sinister Ambition of Our Own, But only Our Free and Voluntary Service of Our Exiled Brother, His Britannic Majesty, that on the contrary to take off all Umbrage of any such Suspicion, the very Forces WE lent Him, were wholly composed of Our own Native Veteranes, Our ever Tried ever Faithful, and ever Sworn Domestics and Vassals; by this, and all other Repeated Demonstrations, desiring to Manifest that WE had no other than this Generous Design, viz. That as our Sister Britannia had so long worn Our Lisses in Her Scutcheon, we could not, but in Common Civility and Gratitude, return Her the Honour of wearing Her Lions in Ours.  
And here WE cannot but with Sighs reflect, what Inexpressible Blessings, has England lost, by the Defeat of this Glorious Expedition; when that ever Truly Indulgent Father of his Country, their Pious James, that Swayed with that Righteous, that merciful, and that Moderate Administration, under the Restriction of a Limited Sceptre, the Shackles of LAW; to what tenderer, softer, and serener Reign of Goodness and Mercy, had Our Sword restored Him, when Reseated on His Throne, under those Unbounded, all Halcyon, all Gentle Despoticks of CONQUEST.  
Nor, in Justice to Our Dear Brother, can WE less than Remonstrate what Thankful Acknowledgements, and what Ample Retributions & Rewards His Protestant Subjects, upon their Return to their Duty and Allegiance, should have Received from His Royal Munifence, especially those that signalised their Loyal Affections in any Assistance or Service towards his Restoration.  
For Ingratitude, that unkingly, nay unmanly Shame, was ever the natural Loathing and Aversion to the very Name of the STUARTS: witness the whole Long Reign of His, and Our late dear Brother, the Second ever Illustrious CHARLES: For Instance, To those very ROYALISTS, His Friends, His Champions, and Restorers, what Titles, what Honours, what Preferments, at his Recall to Empire, (like a kind Jupiter in Showers of Gold) what generous, nay what unspeakable Returns of Gratitude did He heap and pour upon them, as the Fair Reward both of their whole exhausted Patrimonies and exhausted Veins: A Record in his Chronicles, that must keep his Memory Fragrant even to latest Posterity.  
And in the very same Current and Channel of Glory, what equal Returns did the no less Grateful James make to his ever Faithful Church of England, the only Hands and Hearts that stood in the Gap of his EXCLUSION, and stemmed the whole Torrent against him. And consequently what yet, if Possible, more Grateful Returns, even to a Profuseness of Royal Smiles, must they have expected from this second Redoubled Merit. His Gratitude should undoubtedly have so eminently shined, as not only to have Crowned his Living, but even his Dying Friends; when not a Protestant Life laid down, or one Vein let out, in so glorious a Cause but should have been Rewarded even with a Mausoleum, no less than the Sepulchre and Monument of a Cannon, and a Dumferling.  
For indeed not only his dear Friends, but his equally dear Country, have in a manner been the Spouse, and Wife of his Bosom, whom (as Chastity and Fidelity have been always Famed his fairest Twin Virtues) he has ever Loved and Cherished with that Jnviolate Conjugal Affection, even to an Uxorious Fondness.  
And Lastly.  
To sum the Sincerity both of Our own and Our Dear Brother's Protestations, together with all the Great Truths contained in this Public Manifesto, We need but add this Single Memoire to his ever Shining Royal Virtues; viz. That as 'tis so eminently known to all Mankind, that Our Brother of England has constantly imbibed his whole Rudiments of Glory, from Our Fountain of Honour, and made it the whole Study of his Life to Pattern from Our Example: So; 'tis not to be doubted, but his Late Seven Years Abode with Us, has rather improved then impaired those Generous and Genuine Principles, and by an opener View and fairer Light, only taught him to copy yet nearer his Great Original.  
Dated from Our Court at Versailes, April the First, 1696.   

LONDON: Printed for T. Vray, Bookseller in the Strand, 1696.