[296] “He has been depicted to the King as a very great scoundrel and as a persecutor of Catholics.” See letters from the Count de Pontchartrain to the Prior of Mount Saint-Michel of July 13, 1707, and August 22, 1708:—Correspondance Administrative du Règne de Louis XIV., vol. iv. pp. 264 and 265.

[297] We have already seen (Chapter XII. p. 157 ante) that they were intercepted and sent to Ferriol.

[298] Letter from Pontchartrain to the Prior of Mount Saint-Michel, July 13, 1707.

[299] Ibid.

[300] “One can change at any moment,” writes Pontchartrain, who was already hoping for a conversion.

[301] Letter from the Count de Pontchartrain to the Prior of Mount Saint-Michel, August 22, 1708.

[302] Unpublished despatch from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, June 1, 1706:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 45.

[303] Unpublished despatch from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, July 3, 1706:—Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Turkey, 45.

[304] Unpublished despatch from Ferriol to Pontchartrain, July 6, 1706.

[305] La Motraye, work already quoted, p. 381.