Note 83 — HISTORY OF THE IRON MASK.
Reading edition
Nicholas Fouquet, “Surintendant des Finances,” in 1653. The most lavish, but the most amiable of financiers.—Disgraced in 1664, when he was condemned, by the commissioners appointed to inquire into his conduct, to banishment. The sentence was commuted by the King himself to perpetual imprisonment; and Fouquet died in the citadel of Pignerol, in 1680. On his trial he defended himself with great spirit and talent. See Madame de Sévigné’s interesting Letters to M. de Pomponne upon the subject.