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. What was the reason of that slowness?—but let us wait and see.