When, under the shelter of the ramparts, an account was taken of the loss, and after the wounded who had managed to reach the town had been examined, Beaufort’s absence was perceived. Those who explain this absence by an abduction which Colbert, his enemy, had ordered, do not fail to note the presence of the Minister’s brother, Colbert de Maulevrier, by the side of Beaufort during the battle, and they see in the commandant of the Guards the executioner of the Minister’s vengeance. But how can this singular belief be held, when a letter from Maulevrier to his brother, the first which he wrote to him after the battle, far from giving the Minister an account of Beaufort’s abduction, contains these words:[213]—“The unhappy fate of M. l’Amiral is the most deplorable thing in the world. As I was obliged to go backwards and forwards during the whole time that the attack lasted, in order to assemble what I could of the troops, there was no one of whom I did not make inquiries respecting him,[214] and not one could ever tell me anything of him.” It is true that these words, if they destroy the supposition of an abduction ordered by Colbert, may still allow it to be supposed that Beaufort was a prisoner of the Turks. But the laconism of this portion of the letter is accounted for when one discovers from the remainder of it that the writer was suffering from his wounds, worn-out with fatigue, and solely preoccupied with his restoration to health. It is true again that Navailles, in his despatch, makes use of the word perte,[215] applicable equally to the death of the Admiral and to the hypothesis that he was a prisoner in the hands of the Turks. But how can a single doubt remain when the account addressed to the Minister of Marine states that the Chevalier de Flacourt, having been sent to the Turkish camp with a flag of truce, for the purpose of making inquiries respecting the Admiral, learned that he was not among the prisoners;[216] and when a report addressed to Colbert on the 27th, not by a sick man, deprived of news, but by a witness in a position to know everything, infers that the Admiral was dead?[217] How can one have any further doubts, above all, when the circumstances just related, and the courage displayed by this bold adventurer, render this end so probable? That the age of Beaufort, born in 1616, which would make the mysterious corpse of 1703 a nonagenarian, almost suffices to overthrow the system of Lagrange-Chancel and Langlet-Dufresnoy, is incontestable. But this proof not having appeared sufficiently decisive to these writers, it became essential to seek for every kind of testimony, in order, so far as was just, to restore to this grandson of Henri IV. the glory of having died with arms in his hand on the field of battle, and of having thus crowned a life of adventures by an end worthy of his valour, his race, and his country.
FOOTNOTES:
[190] M. Camille Rousset, Histoire de Louvois, already quoted, vol. i. p. 257.
[191] Letter from the Abbé Bigorre to De Lionne, December 28, 1668:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Rome, 1669.
[192] Letters from the Abbé Bigorre to De Lionne, December 28, 1668. After the expedition to Candia, M. d’Albret alone received the hat. See despatches from the Abbé Bigorre to De Lionne, July 9, 1669, and from the Abbé de Bourlemont to De Lionne, August 9, 1669:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Rome, 1669.
[193] Instruction que le roi a résolu être envoyée à M. le duc de Beaufort, pair, grand maître, chef et surintendant général de la navigation et commerce du royaume, sur l’emploi de l’armée navale que S. M. met en mer sous son commandement pendant la présente campagne:—Imperial Library, Manuscripts, Colbert’s Papers.
[194] Letters from De Lionne to the Cardinal Rospigliosi upon the troops promised by Louis XIV., January 11 and February 26, 1669:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Rome. État des armées de mer et de terre envoyées par le roi très-chrétien en Candie, en la présente année 1669:—Archives of the Ministry of Marine. Letter from Louvois to the Governors, February 20, 1669:—Archives of the Ministry of War.
[195] Among them were the Count de Choiseul, MM. de Castellan and de Dampierre, Marquis de Saint-Vallier, Duke de Château-Thierry, Marquises d’O, d’Huxelles, and de Sevigné, &c. &c.:—Letter from Madame de Sevigné to Bussy-Rabutin, August 18, 1669. At the end of 1668, Count de Saint-Paul and Count de la Feuillade had gone to succour Candia at the head of three hundred volunteers. But they returned after a very murderous sally, having lent the Venetians an assistance more brilliant than actually efficacious.
[196] [These were small vessels of light draught, without any foremast.—Trans.] The galleys, to the number of thirteen, commanded by Vivonne, were delayed several days off the coasts of Italy, and only arrived a week after Beaufort:—Archives of the Ministry of Marine.
[197] Letters of Saint-André-Montbrun:—Manuscripts of the Imperial Library. Letters from Navailles to the King:—Archives of the Ministry of Marine.