I know, besides, that the ministers of the Republic consider it certain that Casale is to be attacked by the King, and that they say they have this intelligence from such good authority, that they cannot doubt of it.
I cannot, Sir, refrain from testifying to you the joy I felt in learning this week, by a letter of the Abbé d'Estrades, that the Count Matthioli has been carried prisoner to Pignerol, and that thus this rogue will no more be in a condition to execute, every day, fresh perfidies.
I am, with the most respectful submission, and all the attachment possible,
Sir, Your very humble and very obedient Servant,
[285] From the Archives of the Office for Foreign Affairs, at Paris.
I have received your letter of the 6th of this month, which requires no answer, except to say that you will have sufficiently seen by my former letters, that it is not the intention of the King that the Sieur de Lestang should be well-treated, nor that, except the absolute necessaries of life, you should give him any thing that may make him pass his time agreeably.
I address to you a packet of importance for M. de Richemont, which I beg of you to give into his own hands, and to tell the Commissary du Channoy, not to send away the courier who carries him this, until you shall have given him the answers he is to bring back.
Plans of Catinat for obtaining possession of Casale.
I send you, Sir, the second examination of M. Matthioli, according to the order which I received to that effect, by the extraordinary courier you sent to this place. You will find it little different from the first. I put him into the greatest possible fear of the torture, if he did not tell the truth. One sees very well by his answers that his conduct has been infamous. I see no good reason which can excuse him for having had such intimate communication with the Court of Savoy, with the Abbé Frederic (the resident of the Emperor at Venice), and with Don Francis Visconti, one of the partizans of Spain, without any participation or correspondence upon the subject with M. de Pomponne, the Abbé d'Estrades, or M. de Pinchesne; this fact prevents my having any confidence in him. Nevertheless he persists, with the utmost obstinacy, in declaring, that the Governor of Casale is well-intentioned; that this Governor sees very well that the Duke of Mantua is a lost man; that he sees also that there cannot happen any change in the Court of Mantua, without his being removed from Casale; and that he is a man who would be accessible to any offers that might be made him; this is what he, Matthioli, is willing to stake his life upon; that if he is furnished with a specious excuse for receiving the troops of the King, he will assuredly do it, which will be easy, when we have the original papers which his father is to deliver into the hands of Giuliani; that provided the Governor is not absent from Casale, he, Matthioli, will find means to contrive an interview between this Governor, me, and himself; and that I shall both see and understand the means of rendering the King master of Casale. As I know beforehand that I am conversing with a rascal, and that it is almost of necessity, if his propositions are adopted, that he should himself be again employed in this affair, I cannot bring myself to answer for him in any thing; nevertheless I have thought it right to communicate all this, Sir, to you. When the King once has possession of the papers, my having an interview with this Governor is a step that would not hazard any thing; I do not see any inconvenience in it, except the chance of the Sieur Matthioli's escaping, on account of the degree of liberty which must in that case be permitted to him, however vigilant I might be in watching him. I should be obliged to go with him to Asti, where he is acquainted with a Dominican monk, who would carry to Moncalvo a note to a physician whose name is Viveti; this Viveti would go to Casale to inform the Governor of the place of rendezvous, which had been settled for our interview with him. But it is almost impossible in all these proceedings to answer for the person of Matthioli: as there is, therefore, this inconvenience in the plan, the Abbé d'Estrades could, if it is the King's wish that any proposition should be made to this Governor, according to the orders he should receive, have him spoken to, and his intentions sounded by some one. I beseech you, Sir, to be persuaded that in this affair I place my own interest beneath my feet, and that I only venture to make you proposals upon the subject, from the desire I have that the affair should succeed to the satisfaction of the King.