Note 412 — BOOK X[399]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle (1615-1680), Superintendent of Finance from 1652 to 1661, is more celebrated for the disgrace that followed on his administration than for that administration itself. He was arrested and condemned for peculation in 1661 and imprisoned at Pignerol, in Piedmont, where he died in 1680, after nineteen years' captivity. He retained many good friends during his reverses of fortune, notably La Fontaine, who sang his sufferings, and Madame de Sévigné.-T.