Note 586 — Chapter XXII

Manuscripts of the Imperial Library, Papiers d’Estrades. This letter and several others in the same collection are a proof of the friendship which subsisted between Saint-Mars and the Abbé d’Estrades.

“On the first of next month, Monsieur de Catinat,” we read in a letter from Saint-Mars to the Abbé d’Estrades, September 27, 1681, “will be the governor of the citadel which you have brought into the King’s possession.” He refers to Casale, and these words would suffice to prove, what is already attested by the active part played by Saint-Mars with Catinat in 1679, viz., that Saint-Mars had been kept informed of all the details of the two negotiations. Consequently, as we have already shown in the preceding chapter, the famous sentence of Louvois’ despatch to Saint-Mars, August 13, 1681—“The King having ordered Monsieur de Catinat to proceed as soon as possible to Pignerol on the same business which took him there at the commencement of the year 1679”—has and can have only one meaning, that is to say, the taking possession of Casale, and not the arrest of a new prisoner.

But M. Loiseleur brings forward another argument in order to attempt to prove that an obscure spy was arrested by Catinat in 1681. This is the following letter from Louvois to Saint-Mars, September 20, 1681:—“The King does not disapprove of your going from time to time to see the last prisoner whom you have in charge, when he is settled in his new prison, and has left that in which you are keeping him. His Majesty desires that you shall execute the order which he has sent you,” &c. And the same critic concludes, from a despatch from Saint-Mars to Louvois, March 11, 1682, which again mentions two prisoners, that, between September 20, 1681, and March 11, 1682, a new prisoner was confided to Saint-Mars.

Let us remark, firstly, that the space of time in question is much more limited still. M. Loiseleur only made use of documents already published. But, November 18, 1681, Louvois, in a despatch as yet unprinted, says to Saint-Mars, with reference to his prisoners: “The King approves of your choosing a doctor to visit your prisoners, and of your employing the Sieur Vignon to confess them once a year.” From this it would appear that a new prisoner was confided to Saint-Mars, between September 20 and November 18, 1681; but, as we have already said in the last chapter, there is nowhere any trace of this prisoner, this so-called spy. On the other hand, for the despatch of September 20, 1681, to have the meaning which M. Loiseleur attributes to it, one of the two prisoners of the lower Tower must have died some days previous to September 20, since at this date only one prisoner is spoken of. Of this death or disappearance we have no proof or even trace. Thus the whole argument rests upon this single despatch, of which M. Loiseleur not only makes use in order to prove that a new prisoner had been confided to Saint-Mars, but from which he also deduces that one of the prisoners previously confined had disappeared.

This single despatch thus standing alone, and completely unsupported, would be far from being sufficient to establish this theory. Nevertheless, it is essential to discover its true meaning, so as to leave no doubt in the reader’s mind, and to make every part of our demonstration clear and plain. I acknowledge having spent a considerable time in thinking over this despatch, which was contradicted by all the others, which suited no theory, and which was nevertheless authentic and very exactly reproduced, since I went several times to read the draft of it, at the Archives of the Ministry of War. Even if it had possessed the meaning that M. Loiseleur attributed to it, it would not have destroyed my conclusions at all, since the proofs which I had furnished of the obscurity of the Exiles prisoners were also applicable to this new prisoner brought between November and September, 1681, and because the superior importance of the prisoners afterwards taken from Pignerol to the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, would not have been demonstrated any the less clearly by the despatches which I am about to quote. But it was repugnant to me to leave a single point obscure; and after much reflection, and after having been for a long while of M. Loiseleur’s opinion, although nothing outside of this despatch justifies his interpretation, I believe that I have discovered its true meaning.

“The King does not disapprove,” says the despatch which we are discussing, “of your going from time to time to see the last prisoner whom you have in charge, when he is settled in his new prison and has left that in which you are keeping him.” At first I thought it very strange that one of Saint-Mars’ prisoners should “settle” in his prison without his gaoler, and connecting this fact with the numerous despatches which show that at this period, or at least at one not very remote from it, Saint-Mars still had two prisoners, I have ended by concluding that the word “prisoner” is not used here by Louvois in its ordinary sense, but figuratively. I then recollected that in 1681, as in 1679, Catinat was at Pignerol, and treated in appearance at least as a prisoner. The following despatch from Catinat to Louvois, September 6, 1681, leaves no doubt on the subject: “I have called myself Guibert, (we have seen that in 1679, he had taken the name of Richemont), and I am supposed to be an engineer who has been arrested by the King’s orders for having deserted with a number of plans of places on the frontiers of Flanders. M. de Saint-Mars keeps me here with every appearance of my being a prisoner,” &c. On the other hand, during Catinat’s two stays at Pignerol, with two years’ interval between them, a profound friendship had sprung up between him and Saint-Mars. The despatch which we are discussing was dated September 20, 1681. Now, on the 28th, Catinat was to leave, and indeed did leave Pignerol, and on October 1, he was installed at Casale as governor. In an unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to the Abbé d’Estrades, September 27, 1681, is an expression which explains everything: “I have given your letter to M. de Catinat, and he will have the honour to communicate with you when he is settled. He leaves to-morrow, Sunday, with the infantry, and no one is more your servant than he is. The first of next month he will be received as governor of the citadel which you have brought into the King’s possession (Casale).”—Imperial Library, Manuscripts, Papiers d’Estrades. Now this very expression, “when he is settled,” occurs in Louvois’ despatch, September 20, which Saint-Mars had just received when he was writing to d’Estrades.

But, it will be said, why does Louvois make use of the words “in his new prison” to describe Casale? Because, no doubt, Catinat had not left Louvois ignorant that a monotonous residence at Casale was disagreeable to him, and that he would very much prefer to return to the army of Flanders. Lastly, December 14, 1681, Louvois writes to Saint-Mars, who, from his excessive scruples, had probably renewed his request for an authorisation: “Nothing need prevent your going to Casale from time to time, in order to visit M. Catinat.”

It is therefore to Catinat that reference is made in the despatch of September 20, 1681, to Catinat, the last of the prisoners whom Saint-Mars still had in his care, for, since the month of June, Matthioly had been confided to Villebois, and the two prisoners left to Saint-Mars were two “crows,” whom no doubt he had already taken to Exiles.

It is to Catinat that he refers, and this despatch can no longer be made to serve as a pretext for the theory according to which a new prisoner was arrested by Catinat in 1681.