The Virginia Gazette

Williamsburg,
Williamsburg, August 29. Last Sunday arrived in James River, the Ship Industry, Capt. John Brown, (belonging to Capt. Hutchins, of Norfolk,) in 7 Weeks from London: By whom we have the following Advices. On Sunday the 2d of this Instant, (June) says the Paris A-la-Main, M. Chauvelin, late Keeper of the Seals, received a Letter de Cachet, by which the King ordered him to set out on Thursday the 6th for Bourges in Berry, to which Place he is banished with his Family. But Our private Correspondent is more particular in this Article; he agrees with the A-la-Main as to the Banishment, but assures us, that M. Chauvelin was sent to the Castle of Bourges under a strong Guard. The further Consequences of this Affair he says we must expect from Time, the Politicians being still uncertain how it will turn out, the Court of Spain having never been known to abandon her Friends; Witness the great Influence which Cardinal Alberoni has all along continued to have in the Management of the Spanish Affairs, notwithstanding his seeming Disgrace. By Letters from Paris of a later Date, we have Advice, that Chauvelin is to travel farther than Bourges in Berry: It is said that he is to be sent to Pierre-Encise; this is a black, dismal Castle, on the Summit of a high, steep Rock, within a small League of Lyons; the Foot of the Rock is washed by the River Saone, and nothing can have a more melancholy Aspect: This is One of the Three famous Prisons in France for Criminals of State, the other Two being the Bastile and Vincennes: but the Pierre-Encise most dreadful of any, and when M. Chauvelin sees the Inside of it, we shall then begin to believe the Cardinal to be like something in earnest. If the late Keeper of the Seals has been really guilty of what he is accused of, Heads have often tumbled from much less Criminals Shoulders in France; and if he keeps his, after all this Cookery about him, we shall look upon the whole to have been but a Farce, purposely to amuse some Powers of Europe, and colour over Intrigues, in which more than one have been concerned.