Note 528 — Chapter XXI

“Sir,” said he to him, “here is a ring which I make a present to you, and which I beg of you to accept.” It was no doubt the diamond given to Matthioly by Louis XIV.

[Saint-Mars wrote to Louvois: “I believe he made him this present as much from fear as from any other cause: this prisoner having previously used very violent language towards him, and written abusive sentences with charcoal on the walls of his room, which had obliged that officer to threaten him with severe punishment, if he was not more decorous and moderate in his language for the future. When he was put in the tower with the Jacobin, I charged Blainvilliers to tell him, at the same time showing him a cudgel, that it was with that the unruly were rendered manageable, and that if he did not speedily become so, he could easily be compelled. This message was conveyed to him, and some days afterwards, as Blainvilliers was waiting upon him at dinner, he said, ‘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 it to me, as he could not receive anything himself from the prisoners.’ I think it is well worth fifty or sixty pistoles:”—Letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, October 26, 1680, quoted by Roux-Fazillac.—Trans.]