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it is to gain possession of these original papers, I have apprised the Abbé d'Estrades of the expedients I think might be successfully used for the purpose, in order that I may have the benefit of his advice. M. de Saint-Mars treats the Sieur de Lestang very kindly in all that regards cleanliness and food, but very rigorously in preventing him from holding intercourse with any

one."

So strictly, indeed, had this latter precaution been observed, that Saint-Mars himself waited upon Matthioli during the first days of his imprisonment; but shortly afterwards the astute D'Estrades contrived to send his servant to Pignerol with the effects and papers he had with him at Turin. This servant was locked up like his master, and remained a prisoner for the remainder of his life, in order that he might attend upon Matthioli. Thus was obviated the necessity of admitting to his presence any of the ordinary attendants of the prison. The spirit in which his treatment was ordered at this time may be gathered from a letter dated the 15th of May 1679, from Louvois to Saint-Mars. In this he says "I have received your letter of the 6th of this month, which requires no answer, except to say that you will have sufficiently seen by my former letters that it is not the intention of the king that the Sieur de Lestang should be well treated, nor that, except the absolute necessaries of life, you should give him anything that may tend to make him pass the time agreeably."

On the 10th of May, Matthioli was subjected to a searching examination by Catinat and the Abbé de Montesquieu, in which he sought to exculpate himself, and to account for his conduct, but with little success in the opinion of his interrogators. On the 16th of May, Catinat relates to Louvois the result of a second examination.

"I send you, sir, the second examination of M. Matthioli, according to the order which I received to that effect by the extraordinary courier you sent to this place. You will find it little different from the first. I put him into the greatest possible fear of the torture if he did not tell the truth. It is quite plain, by his answers, that his conduct has been infamous. I see no good reason which can excuse him for having held such intimate communication with the court of Savoy, with the Abbé Frederick, the resident of the emperor at Venice, and with Don Francis Visconti, one of the partisans of Spain, without any participation or correspondence upon the subject with M. de Pomponne, the Abbé d'Estrades, or M. de Pinchesne [French minister at Venice]; this fact prevents my having any confidence in him." He then proceeds to unfold a plan, suggested by Matthioli, for inducing the governor of Casale to admit a body of French troops, which he offered to stake his life he could accomplish through the influence he possessed over him. In this Catinat perceives an insidious scheme for being again employed, and

perhaps effecting an escape. He leaves it, however, to the minister, saying "As I know beforehand that I am conversing with a rascal, and that it is almost of necessity, if his propositions are adopted, that he should himself be again employed in this affair, I cannot undertake to answer for him in anything; nevertheless, I have thought it right to communicate all this to you. When the king once has possession of the papers, my having an interview with this governor is a step that would not jeopardise anything, nor do I see any inconvenience in it, except the chance of the Sieur Matthioli's escaping, on account of the degree of liberty which must in that case be permitted to him, however vigilant I might be in watching him."

This examination, and another forwarded by Catinat to Louvois on the 21st of May, are very minute, embodying a rigid inquisition into all that Matthioli had done, said, or written since his return from France down to the time of his arrest. Matthioli of course labours to explain all his apparent tergiversation and duplicity, by alleging that it was absolutely necessary, for the success of the affair, that he should hold communication with parties in the Spanish interest, for the purpose of deceiving them and lulling their vigilance. Catinat, in fact, at the close of his letter of the 21st May, thus very pithily sums up the result:"His answers elude, but do not deny all that has been said of him. In order to account for the communications he has held, he makes use of the continual pretext that he was obliged to hold them in order to deceive, and to obtain the success of the affair by taking the other side by surprise, making use, as the means of this surprise, of his intelligences with the governor [of Casale]."

The last letter from Catinat to Louvois on the subject of Matthioli is dated on the 3d of June 1679. In this he says "The original papers have been delivered to Giuliani, who has taken them to Venice to M. de Pinchesne. They consist of the treaty which the aforesaid Lestang had made with the court, which is signed by him and M. de Pomponne; an instruction which was given to the aforesaid Lestang when he left the court; the powers given to M. de Pomponne to treat with him, which is signed by you; and a letter from his majesty to the Duke of Mantua. All these papers were in a box, which had been placed in the convent of the Capuchins. The ratification of the Duke of Mantua is not to be found, although the Sieur de Lestang said it was amongst them. Upon this I have interrogated him, having first obtained all the advantage over him I could by abusing him, and parading soldiers in his room, as if intending to administer the question to him, which made him so much afraid, that he promised earnestly to tell the real truth. Being asked whether the Duke of Mantua had ratified the treaty, he answered that he had never subscribed to all the articles, but that he had got from him four blank papers signed, one of which was

a blank paper of two sheets, at the top of which he had written Ratification of the Treaty made with his Most Christian Majesty. [The others were orders to the governors of the town, citadel, and castle of Casale, to admit the troops of the king of France.] He added that he had never had any other ratification except that one, and that whatever tortures might be inflicted on him, he could never tell anything more."

This was the opinion of Catinat himself, for he left Pignerol on the 6th of June, and no further attempts appear to have been made to extort additional information from Matthioli. He was henceforth left to the tender mercies of Saint-Mars. The nature and course of his imprisonment will be best understood by extracts from the letters that passed between Louvois and Saint-Mars.

On the 20th of May 1679, Louvois writes-"Your letter of the 10th of this month has been delivered to me. I have nothing to add to what I have already commanded you respecting the severity with which the individual named Lestang must be treated."

On the 22d of May-"You must keep the individual named Lestang in the severe confinement I enjoined in my preceding letters, without allowing him to see a physician, unless you know he is in absolute want of one."

July 25—“You may give paper and ink to the Sieur de Lestang, with the understanding that he is to put into writing whatever he wishes to say; which you will send to me, and I will let you know whether it deserves any consideration."

August 21-"With regard to the Sieur de Lestang, you may give him paper whenever he wishes to write, and afterwards send

it to me."

Saint-Mars writes to Louvois on the 6th of January 1680—“ I am obliged, sir, to inform you that the Sieur de Lestang is become like the monk I have the care of; that is to say, subject to fits of raving madness."

On the 24th of February he again writes "The Sieur de Lestang, who has been nearly a year in my custody, complains that he is not treated as a man of his quality and the minister of a great prince ought to be. Notwithstanding this, I continue to follow your commands, sir, most exactly upon this subject, as well as upon all others. I think he is deranged, by the way he talks to me; telling me that he converses every day with God and his angels; that they have told him of the death of the Duke of Mantua and of the Duke of Lorraine; and, as an additional proof of his madness, he asserts that he has the honour of being the near relation of the king, to whom he wishes to write, to complain of the way in which I treat him. I have not thought it right to give him paper or ink for such a purpose, perceiving him not to be in his right mind."

Under date of the 10th of July 1680, Louvois addresses Saint

Mars-"I have received, together with your letter of the 4th of this month, that which was annexed to it, of which I shall make the proper use. It will be sufficient to let the prisoners in the lower part of the tower confess once a-year. With regard to the Sieur de Lestang, I wonder at your patience, and that you should wait for an order to treat such a scoundrel as he deserves, when he is wanting in respect to you.”

It appears that Matthioli had become very violent during this period of his captivity, using terrible menaces, and writing abusive sentences on the wall of his room with charcoal, insomuch that Blainvilliers, Saint-Mars' trusty and fitting lieutenant, was obliged to threaten him with personal chastisement. He was anxious likewise for religious consolation, and begged that a priest might be allowed to visit and confess him. Saint-Mars had at the time a Jacobin monk under his charge, lodged in the lower part of the tower, who, whatever his name or crime-which must now remain for ever unknown, though he was most probably some victim of the Jesuits-was kept in the same rigorous confinement as Matthioli himself. This monk is referred to in the last letter quoted from Louvois, directing he should be permitted to confess but once a-year. The poor wretch had gone mad, too, and Saint-Mars deeming him and Matthioli appropriate companions, especially as, if they were together, one confessor would serve for both, proposed that they should be confined in the same room. The following correspondence has reference to

these circumstances.

On the 16th of August 1680, Louvois writes to Saint-Mars"I have been made acquainted, by your letter of the 7th of this month, with the proposal you make of placing the Sieur de Lestang with the Jacobin monk, in order to avoid the necessity of having two priests. The king approves of your project, and you have only to execute it when you please."

The prisoners were accordingly placed together, and the following is the horrible picture of the event, contained in a letter from Saint-Mars, under date of the 7th September 1680 :-"Since you, sir, permitted me to put Matthioli with the Jacobin in the lower part of the tower, the aforesaid Matthioli remained for four or five days in the belief that the Jacobin was a man whom I had placed with him to watch his actions. Matthioli, who is almost as mad as the Jacobin, walked about with long strides, holding his cloak above his nose, crying out that he was not a dupe, but knew more than he would say. The Jacobin, who sat continually on his truckle-bed, with his elbows resting on his knees, looked at him gravely without listening to him. The Signor Matthioli continued still in the persuasion that it was a spy that had been placed with him, until he was one day disabused by the Jacobin's getting down from his bed, stark naked, and setting himself to preach in a wild incoherent style. I and my lieutenants viewed all their pranks through a hole over the door."

On the 9th of October Saint-Mars writes" I have nothing more to acquaint you with than the circumstance of the Sieur Matthioli's having given a ring to Blainvilliers, who immediately delivered it to me. I will keep it until it is your pleasure to give me orders what to do with it."

October 20, 1680.-" In order to give you a more full explanation than I have hitherto done of the story of the diamond ring given to Blainvilliers by the Sieur Matthioli, I will begin by taking the liberty to tell you that I believe he made him this present as much from fear as from any other cause; this prisoner having previously used very violent language to him, and written scurrilous phrases on the wall of his room with charcoal, which had obliged that officer to threaten him with severe punishment, if he were not more decorous and moderate in his language for the future. When he was put in the tower with the Jacobin, I instructed Blainvilliers to exhibit to him a cudgel, and warn him it was with that the unruly were rendered manageable, and that, if he did not speedily become tractable, he could easily be compelled to be so. This message was conveyed to him; and some days afterwards, as Blainvilliers was waiting on him at dinner, he said to him, Sir, here is a little ring which I wish to give you, and I beg you to accept of it.' Blainvilliers replied that he only took it to deliver to me, as he could not receive anything himself from the prisoners.' I think it is well worth fifty or sixty pistoles."

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To this Louvois replies on the 2d of November-" You must keep the ring which the Sieur Matthioli has given to the Sieur de Blainvilliers, in order that it may be restored to him in case it should ever happen that the king orders him to be set at liberty."

We find nothing more said as to the state of mind in which Matthioli continued; but from no further allusion to the subject by Saint-Mars, it may be inferred that he had, at all events, become resigned and submissive. In 1681 the services of SaintMars, as the judicious keeper of state prisoners, attracted the grateful notice of his majesty, and he was offered the additional post of commander of the citadel of Pignerol. This he thought fit to decline, for reasons best known to himself; but the king being still anxious to reward him, appointed him governor of Exiles a strong fortress near Susa, on the frontier of Piedmont. The following letter from Louvois notifies the event :

"Versailles, May 12, 1681.-I read to the king your letter of the 3d of this month, by which his majesty having learned the extreme repugnance you have to accept the command of the citadel of Pignerol, he has thought proper to grant you that of Exiles, vacant by the death of the Duke de Lesdiguières, whither he wishes you to remove such of the prisoners under your charge as he shall think it important not to intrust to any other care but yours. [He then states the salary will be increased to 500

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