FOOTNOTES:
[497] Matthioly first addressed himself to President Truccki, ex-Minister of Finance to the Regent, then to the latter.
[498] Archives of the Ministry of War, 686; Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Mantua, 4; Instructions given to M. de Gomont, ambassador to the Duke of Mantua.
[499] Letter from M. de Gomont to Louis XIV., May 14, 1680; copy of Letter from Matthioly to the Empress Eleonora of Austria:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Mantua, 5 and 11.
[500] The following is the only document which establishes the fact that Matthioly received payment from the Spaniards and Venetians. It will be remarked that the information given by D’Estrades reached him very indirectly:—
“I must not omit to inform your Majesty that Father Ranzoni (a spy) has told Juliani (a spy) that his father had assured him that the Spaniards had given 4,000 pistoles [1,600l.] to Mattioli[C] as a reward for having discovered to them the whole of the Casale business, and for having pointed out M. d’Asfeld to them, and that he had also received money from the Venetians for the same reason.”—Unpublished despatch from the Abbé d’Estrades to Louis XIV., March 16, 1680:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 70.
[C] The variation in the spelling of this name in the different despatches is followed exactly.—Trans.
[501] Mémoire de Chamlay on the events of 1678 to 1688:—Archives of the Ministry of War, 1183.
[502] I am not sure whether I am correct in imagining that this was the Marshal d’Asfeld, who distinguished himself at the battle of Almanza, and died at a great old age in 1743.—(G. Agar Ellis.)
[503] Letter from Pomponne to Pinchesne, December 30, 1678:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[504] Nicholas de Catinat, Marshal of France in 1698. “He united,” says Voltaire, “philosophy to great military talents. The last day he commanded in Italy, he gave for the watchword, ‘Paris and Saint-Gratien,’ the name of his country-house. He died there in the retirement of a real sage (having refused the blue ribbon), in 1712.”—(G. Agar Ellis.)
[505] Letter from Louvois to Saint-Mars, December 29, 1678:—Archives of the Ministry of War.
[506] Ibid., February 15, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of War.
[507] Letter from M. de Pinchesne to M. de Pomponne, February 18, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Venice.
[508] Letter from M. de Pinchesne to M. de Pomponne, March 11, 1679:—Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Venice.
[509] Letter from M. de Pomponne to Matthioly, March 14, 1669.
[510] Letter from Catinat, under the name of Richemont, to Louvois, April 15, 1679.
[511] Unpublished despatch:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68.
[512] Unpublished despatch:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68.
[513] Unpublished despatch:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68.
[514] Royale, the Duchess of Savoy.—Trans.
[515] 75,000l.—Trans.
[516] Unpublished despatch:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68.
[517] Unpublished despatches from Pomponne to D’Estrades, April 28 and 30, 1679.
[518] Matthioly underwent three examinations, in the course of which he excused himself for having confided the secret of the treaty to the Court of Turin on the plea that he had been surprised into doing so by the President Truccki, whom he described as an “insinuating and adroit man” professing much “affection for the interests of France.” He admitted having received 2,000 livres from the court, and maintained that this was for services formerly rendered. He did not deny having spoken of the treaty to certain Venetians and to a partisan of Spain at Padua, but said he simply told them that the affair had failed; while as regarded the representative of Austria at Venice, he saw that he knew all about the treaty from the Duke of Mantua at Venice. In short, Matthioly pretended generally that the reason the ratification had been delayed, was on account of the unwillingness of the Duke, acted upon by his mother and the Court of Vienna, to complete the affair:—Letters from Catinat to Louvois, quoted by M. Roux-Fazillac.—Trans.
[519] “I put him into the greatest possible fear of the torture if he did not speak the truth:”—Letter from Catinat to Louvois, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.—Trans.
[520] Matthioly really wrote this letter, as will be seen by the annexed extract from a letter sent by Catinat to Louvois, and dated May 10, 1679: “I have made him write three letters for the purpose of getting possession of the original papers which are at Padua, which have been put into the hands of the Sieur Giuliani, by the advice of the Abbé d’Estrades, who places an entire confidence in him; he will make use of these three letters as he shall judge most fit, according to the disposition in which he shall find the father of the Sieur de Lestang. The first is only a letter of the Sieur de Lestang to his father, in which he acquaints him, that there are reasons which oblige him to remain at Turin, or in the neighbourhood, but that he may place an entire confidence in the Sieur Giuliani, and deliver to him such and such papers, of which I have made him give the inventory to the Sieur Giuliani. The second acquaints his father with the real state in which he is, and that it is important, as well for his life as for his honour, that his papers should be immediately delivered into the hands of the Sieur Giuliani. In the third, which is the last to be made use of, in case the first two have no effect, he desires him to come to Turin, and tells him that at the house of the Abbé d’Estrades he will be instructed where he is, and the means to be employed to speak with him. The Sieur de Lestang has no doubt of being able, in this interview between him and his father, to persuade the latter to all he may wish. I have inspired him with so great a fear of the punishments due to his bad conduct, that I find no repugnance in him to do all that I require of him:”—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.—Trans.
[521] The ratification of the Duke of Mantua was not among them, but only several signatures in blank given by this Prince to Matthioly, on one of which the latter asserted that he was to have written the ratification.
[These sheets signed in blank were never found. The papers recovered by Giuliani comprised, in addition to the original treaty signed by Matthioly and M. de Pomponne, the instructions given to the former when he left the French Court, Louvois’ written authority for Pomponne to treat with Matthioly, and a letter from Louis XIV. to the Duke of Mantua. “The ratification of the Duke of Mantua is not to be found, although the Sieur de Lestang said it was amongst them; whereupon I interrogated him, having first obtained all the advantage over him I could, by abusing him and bringing soldiers into his room as if preparatory to administering the question[D] to him, which made him so much afraid that he promised to really tell the truth. Being asked whether the Duke of Mantua had ratified the treaty, he answered that he had never subscribed to all the articles, but that he had got from him four blank papers signed, one of which was a blank paper, of two sheets, at the top of which he had written, ‘Ratification of the treaty made with his Most Christian Majesty.’ That there were three other blank papers signed, of one sheet each, of which he intended to make use to write in the name of his master to the three governors of the town, citadel, and castle, to order them to receive the King’s troops. Being asked where these papers signed in blank are at present, he answered, that they are in the hands of the Governor of Casale, to whom he sent them at the time that D’Asfeld left Venice. Being asked why he had sent them, without their being filled up, to the Governor of Casale, he answered he had sent them to him in a letter of Magnus, the Secretary of the Duke of Mantua, in which the Governor was ordered to do, without hesitation, all that should be told him regarding the execution of the orders contained in that packet,—that they were left blank, because he wished to make the ratification according to that of the King, not knowing, as he says, the exact form in which it ought to have been made out. Being asked why in his first examination he had said that this ratification was at Padua; he answered that he had not wished to tell where it was before Giuliani, in order not to make him acquainted in any way with his intelligence with the governor: he added that he had never had any other ratification except that one; and that whatever tortures might be inflicted on him, he could never tell anything more.”—Letter from Catinat to Louvois, June 3, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of War.—Trans.]
[D] The first form of torture applied to prisoners to force them to confess.
[522] Unpublished despatches from the Abbé d’Estrades to Pomponne, May 13 and 27, and June 3, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68. Letter from Catinat to Louvois, June 3, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of War.
[523] Unpublished letters from D’Estrades to Pomponne, June 10 and July 1, 1679.
[524] Unpublished despatch, August 4, 1679:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy. The project for the surrender of Casale was revived two years later and put into execution, thanks to the skill of the Abbé Morel, Minister of Louis XIV. to the Duke of Mantua, and without the intervention of the Abbé d’Estrades. On September 30, 1681, Louis XIV.’s troops entered Casale. We know what this policy led to, and how, at the peace of Ryswick, he was compelled to surrender everything, even Pignerol, his father’s valuable conquest. However, Louis XIV. was well advised to break off the negotiation in 1679, since Marshal d’Estrades acquainted him, on March 11, from Nimeguen, “that this new attempt was of a nature to defer the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty of general peace:”—Unpublished letter of the Marshal d’Estrades, Imperial Library, Manuscripts, Papiers du Maréchal d’Estrades, vol. xii. p. 1015
[525] Arbor priscæ nobilisque masculinæ familiæ de Matthiolis:—Archives of the Empire, M. 746.
[526] Matthioly married in January, 1661, Camilla, widow of Bernardi Paleotti, by whom he had two sons.—Trans.