[183] Relation de Gigéry, faite au Roi par M. de Gadagne, Lieutenant-Général:—Imperial Library, Manuscripts.
[184] Cæsar de Vendôme, natural son of Henri IV. and Gabrielle d’Estrées, and of whom the Duke de Beaufort was the second son, born in January, 1616:—Art de Vérifier les Dates, vol. xii. p. 521.
[185] Such as Lenglet-Dufresnoy, Plan de l’Histoire Générale et Particulière de la Monarchie Française, vol. iii. p. 268 et seq. Paris, 1754.
[186] Mémoire de M. de Gadagne, already quoted.
[187] Marie de Savoie, Duchess de Nemours, wife of Alphonso VI., King of Portugal.
[188] Réponse de Saint-Foix et Recueil de tout ce qui a été écrit sur le Prisonnier Masqué, p. 20, 1770.
[189] Amongst others, M. Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob), Histoire de l’Homme au Masque de Fer, 1840, p. 161.
CHAPTER X.
Causes of the Expedition to Candia—Court Intrigue—Turenne and the Duke d’Albret—Preparations for the Expedition—Beaufort Commands it—Departure of the Fleet—Its Arrival before Candia—State of this Island—Description of the Place besieged—Last Council of War—Plan of Attack, which is fixed for the Middle of the Night of June 24, 1669—The First Movements are successful—Terrible Explosion of the Magazine of a Battery—Fearful Panic—Rout of the French—Re-embarkation of the Troops—Certainty of Beaufort’s Death.
The causes of the expedition to Candia have not been entirely indicated. It is said[190] “that public opinion in France, having received the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle badly, the army especially complaining of it, Louis XIV. and Louvois eagerly seized the opportunity of diverting this unquiet zeal, of making this flame burn out, and that they willingly allowed themselves to be persuaded by the Nuncio and the Venetian Ambassador to send assistance to Candia, menaced by the Turks.” To this consideration, which certainly was of great weight, it is necessary to add the influence of a court intrigue, and to explain the very particular motives which Louis XIV. had for pleasing the Pope.