book vi. p. 274; Lafare, chap. vii. p. 211; Sismondi, _Histoire des

Français_, vol. xxv. pp. 280 and 282; Camille Rousset, _Histoire de Louvois_, vol. ii. p. 120.

[337] _Cessione di Pinerolo, fatta da Enrico III. ad Emanuele Filiberto il Grande Duca di Savoia_, Pinèrolo, 1858.

[338] _Pinerolo antico e moderno e suoi dintorni_, del Canonico G. Groset-Monchet; _Veduta di S. Maurizio_, dell’ Abate Car. Jacopo Bernardi, Pinerolo, 1858.

[339] _Corografia fisica dell’ Italia_, di Attilio Zuccagni-Orlandini.

[340] _Mémoires de D’Artagnan_, by Sandraz de Courtilz, Cologne, 1701, vol. iii. pp. 222 and 385; _Annales de la Cour et de Paris_, for the years 1697 and 1698, vol. ii. p. 380.

[341] Order of Le Tellier to d’Artagnan, December 3, 1661:--Archives of the Ministry of War.

[342] _Ibid._

[343] Despatches from Louvois to Saint-Mars, January 17, 23, and 29, 1665. Saint-Mars espoused the sister of Louvois’ mistress, whose acquaintance he made, not in one of his journeys to Paris (for these were extremely rare), but at Pignerol itself. The Sieur Damorezan (and not De Morésant, as MM. Paul Lacroix and Jules Loiseleur have written it), muster-master at Pignerol, had two sisters, one of whom, Madame Dufresnoy, became mistress of Louvois, and through his influence, lady of the bed-chamber to the Queen, while the other married Saint-Mars. The latter had 6,000 livres (240_l._) salary, _plus_ gratuities, which were often very considerable. He alone commanded in the donjon, and his authority was independent of that of the Marquis d’Herleville, governor of the town of Pignerol, and of M. Lamothe de Rissan, Lieutenant of the King in the citadel. There were, however, between the latter and Saint-Mars occasional jealousies which Louvois sought to remove, but not always with success.

[344] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, May 6, 1673:--Archives of the Ministry of War, vol. cccliv. fo. 214.

[345] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, March 17, 1673:--_Ibid._, vol. cccliv. fo. 230.

[346] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, February 20, 1672:--_Ibid._, vol. ccxcix. fo. 67.

[347] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, April 22, 1673:--_Ibid._, vol. cccliv. fo. 193.

[348] This is the testimony which Madame de Sévigné gives about him in a letter dated January 25, 1675: “He was a discreet man and very exact in duty,” say the _Mémoires de D’Artagnan_.

[349] An unpublished letter, written June 4, 1689, by Seignelay to Saint-Mars, who was then at the Isles Saint-Marguerite, furnishes a proof of this eagerness for gain:--Archives of Ministry of Marine, _Lettres des Secrétaires d’État_, 1689. Saint-Mars, like all the governors of the Bastille, left a large fortune. The profits realized in this position were, however, in no degree prejudicial to the prisoners’ nourishment, the expenses being defrayed on a very liberal footing, as M. Ravaisson has perfectly established in his learned introduction to the _Archives de la Bastille_, p. xxviii. _et seq._ He received presents from Louis XIV., one of which one day amounted to 10,000 crowns (1,250_l._):--Letter from Louvois to Saint-Mars, January 11, 1677.

[350] _Histoire de la Bastille_ of Constantin de Renneville, vol. i. p. 32.

[351] Nantes, Angers, Amboise, Vincennes, Moret, Fontainebleau, the Bastille.

[352] Versailles was not yet built.

[353] Belle-Isle. [Off Quiberon on the Breton coast.--_Trans._]

[354] The island of Santa Lucia, then called Sainte-Alouzie. [One of the Caribbee Islands.--_Trans._]

[355] By himself or his friends, Fouquet ruled over Havre, Calais, Amiens, Hesdin, Conearneau, Guingamp, Guérande, Mount Saint-Michel, and Croisic.

[356]

“Nessun maggior dolore, Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria.”--_Inferno_, v. 41.

[357] _Mémoires de Louis XIV._ Dreyss’s edition, vol. ii. p. 388.

[358] _Mémoires de Choisy._ Michaud and Poujoulat’s edition, p. 581.

[359] _Mémoires de Louis Henri de Loménie, Comte de Brienne_, vol. ii. pp. 155 and 157; _Mémoires de Choisy_, p. 582.

[360] _Mémoires de Louis XIV._, vol. i. p. 37; _Mémoires de Choisy_, p. 582.

[361] _Mémoires de Choisy_, p. 581.

[362] _Mémoires de Louis XIV._, vol. ii. p. 525.

[363] M. Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du Lundi_, vol. v.

[364] Fouquet, who had purchased the Vicomté of Melun, replaced the old château by a magnificent edifice, which has become celebrated from the fête given there to Louis XIV. It is the _chef-d’œuvre_ of the architect Le Vau, and astounds one by its grand and noble proportions. The exterior is profusely covered with sculpture, and the splendour of the interior is fully in keeping with that of the outside, the decorations of the principal apartments having been entrusted to the most celebrated painters of the age. The pleasure-grounds, which cover several hundred acres, were planted by Le Nôtre, and are laid out in straight lines, after the usual custom of the seventeenth century.

The _mémoires_ of the time are filled with accounts of Fouquet’s fête to Louis XIV., August 17, 1661; and La Fontaine has described it both in prose and verse. Fouquet’s fall had long since been prepared by LeTellier and Colbert, and was already resolved upon when Louis XIV. went to seat himself at his table; but the luxury of this abode and the splendour of the reception singularly increased the irritation of the monarch, who was well aware that it was paid for out of money of which the State had been defrauded. Fouquet was arrested on September 5, only eighteen days after this fête.

The château of Vaux, which, save the ravages of time, is still in much the same state as Fouquet left it, is situated about four miles to the north-east of Melun, on the road from Paris to Meaux.--_Trans._

[365] See _Histoire de Colbert_, by M. Pierre Clément, vol. i.; _Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, by M. Chéruel; _La Police sous Louis XIV._, by M. P. Clément, pp. 1-61, and the Appendices to vols. viii. and ix. of M. Chéruel’s edition of the _Mémoires de Saint-Simon_, vol. viii. p. 447, and vol. ix. p. 414.

[366] We shall prove this hereafter.

[367] As M. Chéruel has remarked (_Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, vol. ii. p. 173, note 3) the letter which is relied on in order to support this allegation is far from authentic. It has been transcribed in the _Manuscrits Conrart_ (vol. xi. folio, p. 152), with many other letters “which are said to have been found in Fouquet’s casket.” But we know what took place with reference to this famous casket. Greedy of scandal, and not finding sufficient in the real letters which were published at that time, the courtiers invented a very great number, attributing them to ladies of the court, whose names they gave. They were collected with care, in the papers of Conrart and Vallant, and have thus been handed down to us: (Manuscripts of the Arsenal for the _Papiers de Conrart_ and of the Imperial Library for those of Vallant). Such was the publicity given to these letters, that at the commencement of the trial the Chancellor Séguier thought it his duty to declare to the court that they were forgeries: See M. Chéruel’s work already referred to, vol. ii. p. 289, _et seq._, and M. Feuillet de Conches’ _Causeries d’un Curieux_, vol. ii. p. 518, _et seq._

[368] “Do not fear that he will escape,” said they at Angers to D’Artagnan: “we will strangle him first:”--_Journal d’Olivier d’Ormesson_, published by M. Chéruel in the _Collection des Documents Inédits sur l’Histoire de France_, vol. ii. p. 99. The same hatred manifested itself at Tours, whence it was necessary to set out with Fouquet at three o’clock in the morning to escape the threats of the people. At Saint-Mandé and Vincennes it was the same: _Récit Officiel de l’Arrestation de Fouquet_, by the Registrar Joseph Foucault:--Imperial Library, Manuscripts, No. 235-245 of the 500 of Colbert.

[369] _Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, vol. ii. p. 386.

[370] So Madame de Motteville terms it in her _Mémoires_.

[371] _Mémoires de Choisy_, p. 189.

[372] The office was sold in 1661 to M. de Harlay. See on the subject of the reports of this sale, _Lettres de Guy-Patin_, July 12 and 15, 1661.

[373] _Mémoires de Brienne_, vol. ii. p. 178.

[374] Order of arrest given to D’Artagnan, with the memorandum published by Ravaisson in his _Archives de la Bastille_, vol. i. p. 347-351: Letters of the Marquis de Coislin to the Chancellor Séguier, September 5, 1661:--_Ibid._ p. 351-355.

[375] _Procès-verbal_ of the Registrar Foucault, already referred to; _Mémoires de Brienne_; _Mémoires de l’Abbé de Choisy_.

[376] The Marquis de Gesvres, whom Louis XIV. did not dare to entrust with the mission of arresting Fouquet.

[377] _Défenses de Fouquet_, vol. iii. p. 357. Edition of 1665.

[378] _Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, vol. i. p. 398.

[379] This is the title which Fouquet’s friends gave to this province.

[380] Manuscripts of the Imperial Library (500 _de Colbert_, No. 235, fo. 86 _et seq._) This plan has been published by M. P. Clément almost entire in vol. i. p. 41, _et seq._, of his _Histoire de Colbert_, and entire by him in the introduction of vol. ii. of the _Lettres de Colbert_, and in his _Police sous Louis XIV._, p. 33, _et seq._ M. Chéruel has also reproduced it entire in Appendix No. vi. of vol. i. of his _Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, pp. 488-501. This plan is incontestably authentic, and Fouquet has never denied having written it.

[381] All these facts are in great part proved by the plan, and by other papers found at Saint-Mandé, which are now in the Imperial Library.

[382] _Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, pp. 367 to 386.

[383] _Histoires de la Détention des Philosophes et des Gens de Lettres_, by Delort, vol. i. p. 21.