[343] Despatches from Louvois to Saint-Mars, January 17, 23, and 29, 1665. Saint-Mars espoused the sister of Louvois’ mistress, whose acquaintance he made, not in one of his journeys to Paris (for these were extremely rare), but at Pignerol itself. The Sieur Damorezan (and not De Morésant, as MM. Paul Lacroix and Jules Loiseleur have written it), muster-master at Pignerol, had two sisters, one of whom, Madame Dufresnoy, became mistress of Louvois, and through his influence, lady of the bed-chamber to the Queen, while the other married Saint-Mars. The latter had 6,000 livres (240l.) salary, plus gratuities, which were often very considerable. He alone commanded in the donjon, and his authority was independent of that of the Marquis d’Herleville, governor of the town of Pignerol, and of M. Lamothe de Rissan, Lieutenant of the King in the citadel. There were, however, between the latter and Saint-Mars occasional jealousies which Louvois sought to remove, but not always with success.
[344] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, May 6, 1673:—Archives of the Ministry of War, vol. cccliv. fo. 214.
[345] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, March 17, 1673:—Ibid., vol. cccliv. fo. 230.
[346] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, February 20, 1672:—Ibid., vol. ccxcix. fo. 67.
[347] Unpublished letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, April 22, 1673:—Ibid., vol. cccliv. fo. 193.
[348] This is the testimony which Madame de Sévigné gives about him in a letter dated January 25, 1675: “He was a discreet man and very exact in duty,” say the Mémoires de D’Artagnan.
[349] An unpublished letter, written June 4, 1689, by Seignelay to Saint-Mars, who was then at the Isles Saint-Marguerite, furnishes a proof of this eagerness for gain:—Archives of Ministry of Marine, Lettres des Secrétaires d’État, 1689. Saint-Mars, like all the governors of the Bastille, left a large fortune. The profits realized in this position were, however, in no degree prejudicial to the prisoners’ nourishment, the expenses being defrayed on a very liberal footing, as M. Ravaisson has perfectly established in his learned introduction to the Archives de la Bastille, p. xxviii. et seq. He received presents from Louis XIV., one of which one day amounted to 10,000 crowns (1,250l.):—Letter from Louvois to Saint-Mars, January 11, 1677.
[350] Histoire de la Bastille of Constantin de Renneville, vol. i. p. 32.
[351] Nantes, Angers, Amboise, Vincennes, Moret, Fontainebleau, the Bastille.
[352] Versailles was not yet built.