Italian Yesterdays, vol. 1

by Mrs. Hugh Fraser

To this Mattioli answered glibly “that he had long seen the truth” of what Giuliani had laid before him, but “there was still a remedy for so great an evil”; adding that he would speak with the duke on the subject and “discover his real sentiments.”

Once thus launched, the intrigue went merrily forward. The duke was sounded in his turn by Mattioli, and answer was made through the latter to Giuliani and through D’Estrades to Louis XIV that: “The duke approved very much of the proposition that was made him, to free him from the perpetual uneasiness he felt on the score of the Spaniards, and that, for this purpose, Casale should be placed in your Majesty’s hands, upon the understanding that I should try to obtain from you in his favour all that he could reasonably ask for.”

Charles of Mantua’s requirements were as follows:

One hundred thousand pistoles—some forty thousand pounds of English money—in cash, and that Louis should send into Italy a sufficiently strong army “to be able to undertake something considerable”; also, that he, the Duke of Mantua, should have the command of this army “in order to be considered in Italy like the late Duke of Modena, and the late Duke of Mantua, who at his age commanded in chief the Emperor’s army, with the title of Vicar-General of the Empire.”

With this despatch of D’Estrades’ was enclosed a letter from Mattioli to Louis XIV, in which he wrote: “I bless the destiny which procures me the honour of serving so great a monarch, whom I regard and revere as a demigod.” To which the King replied that he thanked the writer, and was greatly obliged to him and would have much pleasure in giving him proofs of his satisfaction upon every occasion. But King Louis did not vouchsafe any answer in the matter of terms until the reception of a further and pressing letter from D’Estrades, to the effect that the Austrians and Spaniards were making ready to seize Casale and all the Montferrat; and that Mantua even was to be occupied by them. This, wrote D’Estrades, he had learned by letter from the Duke of Mantua himself, who, as D’Estrades explained, was so closely watched by Isabella Clara and Father Bulgarini as to make it impossible for him either to declare himself openly for France or to deliver Casale to the French unless King Louis would send into Italy an army strong enough to hold that fortress.

At last, however, after much haggling over the sum to be paid to the duke as the price of Casale (he was finally beaten down to take about twelve thousand pounds, by instalments), everything was agreed to; all that remained to do was to put the agreement into writing and to sign it.

But here the first real difficulty entered into the matter; for, as D’Estrades well knew, it would be utterly impossible, during many months to come, for Louis XIV to send into Italy the soldiers upon whom the duke was relying, to enable him to hold the fortress of Casale for King Louis against his mother and her friends, the Austrians and Spaniards; because all the King’s troops were too badly needed elsewhere.

The Duke of Mantua, however, who was impatient to finish the business, insisted upon sending the faithful Mattioli to Paris at this juncture, to negotiate with the King in person so as to save further delay; to this D’Estrades consented, but at the same time he cast about him for a means of retarding Mattioli’s departure, lest the latter might have none but disappointing news to bring back with him from Paris to Mantua—and so the duke, impetuous and unstable, might be caught on his rebound in the hands of Spain and Austria.

Luckily for D’Estrades, one delay now succeeded to another; the necessity under which Mattioli felt himself of protecting his master against the Spanish blandishments kept him in close attendance on the duke for months; then there followed an illness of the duchess-mother, Isabella Clara, of whose probable demise D’Estrades wrote home with the most beautiful expressions of resignation to the Divine Will: “If God should call her to Himself, the affair would be more easy to conclude.” But it was fated otherwise; the honest, patriotic Austrian woman got well again. Next, it was Mattioli’s own turn to fall ill; and so, from one cause and another, it resulted that he did not reach Paris until the end of November, 1678, when in a private audience with Louis XIV the matter was concluded—twelve thousand pounds were to be paid to the Duke of Mantua, to admit the French into Casale, and he was then to be appointed their commander-in-chief. Mattioli himself was given a ring and a sum of money by way of “pourboire,” together with promises of the royal patronage for his son and of preferment in the Church for his brother, who was a priest. French troops under Boufflers were mobilised at Briançon on the frontier of France and Piedmont, and the great Catinat, at that time a simple brigadier, was despatched in all secrecy to Pinerolo, to await their coming.

Simultaneously, Colonel Baron D’Asfeld was sent to Venice, where the Duke of Mantua was spending the winter, there to exchange the ratification of the treaty; he arrived in the January of 1679, and at once informed Pinchesne, the French representative, of his mission. But the duke refused to ratify the treaty until Mattioli, who was still on the way from Paris, should have arrived to give him the benefit of his opinion concerning it; and here, be it noticed, is the first sign of Mattioli’s double-dealing as shown in the extraordinary slowness of his journey home from Paris.