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the more because I find it not an easy thing to procure answers from the place where
you are. I am very glad, the time will not be long that wee shall know, whether there
will be an agreement or noe about the sale. You have much reason to beleeve, just
debts ought not to be suspended uppon the uncertainty of a bargaine, that is noething
to them, whoe are to pay, as alsoe in the opinion you have, that I may oblige them
- if I please - to pay by the way of justice, soe there is noething more certaine that
poore people doe easily catch hold of any excuse to delay payments, and though
this be farre from a good one, neverthelesse they make use of it. For the other point
of bringing them to it by justice, I doubt not off; yet I must tell you, it would be very
troublesome to doe that to every perticuler poore creature, when delayes of that
kind are soe universall throught all France. But, Sir, this is not the maine point, nor
the greatest prejudice that wee suffer by the exposing of Chateau-Renard to sale,
or not determining, whether it shall be or noe, for the greatest part of that revenue
is in meadowes and pasture, wherefore the more necessary to have a stock, which
noebody will venter to have, not knowing whether at a dead or unseasonable time
of the yeere they may not be put out, and all these stocke remaine uppon there
hands, and this is soe good an argument and soo great a truth, as I beleeve little
can be said against it. You are pleased to say, one of the debts is but a trifle and
the other soe antient as you know noething of the grownds; neverthelesse a little
summe will stopp the payment of rents as well as a greate one, and the antientnesse
of this debt doth not prejudice it at all, he having as much justice granted him for
the recovery of it, as if it were contracted but yesterday, and the increase of it will
be beyond expectation - as my coun[s]ell tells me - if not prevented. If the officers
there send any perticuler relations to the materiall concerning the burning of the
barne, I shall send them to you, or anything else you desire from hence, being
extreamely much ..... the 11 th Dec. r 1654 1) .
5381. Aan J.W. Graaf van Brederode. (K.A.)
Depuis que V.E. est hors d'icy j'ay veu tous Mess. rs les nobles, et ay tiré de tous
sans excepter personne, hormis M. de Schagen 2) qui est ailleurs, et vise ailleurs,
des declarations si rondes, si franches et si favorables, que je ne sçaurois les avoir
mieux dictées à mon gré. Et veritablement, comme il n'y a personne de ces Messieurs
qui n'ayt beaucoup passé par mes mains, je trouve qu'ils ayment tous à se souvenir
noblement du zele que j'ay faict paroistre à leur service. D'un autre costé le president
et la pluspart des conseillers qui m'ont animé des premiers à ceste poursuitte 3) ,
continuent de la prendre au coeur, et ne cessent de tesmoigner comme ils auroyent
aggreable que cest affaire reuscist, à ne rien dire de l'applaudissement dont, graces
à Dieu, je voy que tous les honestes gens secondent mon dessein. Il reste,
1) De plaats ontbreekt.
2) Waarschijnlijk Willem van Schagen († 1658).
3) Huygens trachtte zijn oudsten zoon te doen benoemen tot lid van het Hof van Holland in
plaats van Willem van Wassenaer, heer van Veurn (zie blz. 77).
Constantijn Huygens, Briefwisseling. Deel 5: 1649-1663