Meanwhile, the massing of the French troops over against the Piedmontese frontier was causing consternation throughout Northern Italy. Duke Charles even received “representations” from the Spanish and Austrian ministers at Mantua, protesting violently against the news they had heard from Turin—“that he wished to give Casale and the Montferrat to the King of France.” To which the ingenuous Charles returned a flat denial, expressing some mild wonder at their excellencies’ credulousness! All was now suspicion and anger, and veiled threats for Duke Charles from both sides; couriers were being sent off at top-speed to Vienna and Madrid, and even to Venice, with the news of Charles’ projected “deal” with the French; whilst Pinchesne and D’Asfeld pressed him, without mercy or intermission, to betake himself to Casale, there to wait for the French troops and to hand over the keys of the place to them on their arrival. At last he agreed to do this; at the same time, D’Asfeld and Mattioli were to meet at Incréa, not far from Casale, and to exchange the ratifications of the treaty—this, I fancy, by the duke’s stipulation, seeing that both Mattioli and D’Asfeld were in Venice with the treaty in their pockets. This eccentric provision seems to prove all the more clearly, in the light of subsequent events, that Duke Charles was perfectly aware of those events, and that he had no intention whatever of binding himself to Louis XIV by any signed instrument that might afterwards be held against him by that person. The duke then was to be at Casale by the 15th of March; and Mattioli was to meet D’Asfeld at Incréa on the 9th of the same month. And then, all at once, it was learned that D’Asfeld, marching to keep his appointment with Mattioli, had been arrested by the Spanish Government in the Duchy of Milan, which he was obliged to cross to reach the rendezvous at Incréa; on the other hand, neither Duke Charles nor Mattioli had as yet left Mantua for Casale or for Incréa—although the latter was the first to send the news of D’Asfeld’s arrest to the French agents, D’Estrades at Turin and Pinchesne at Venice. It was now the end of the month of March, and those same French agents were beginning to entertain the strongest suspicions of Mattioli himself. April passed away and still the business remained stationary, while those suspicions increased to a straining-point—and then on May Day, 1679, the storm broke. The whole of the proposed cession of Casale was made known, simultaneously at Turin, Madrid, Vienna, Milan, and Venice; at one and the same time, the representative of each state announced his perfect knowledge of the entire transaction to Monsieur de Pomponne, the French minister for foreign affairs! CHAPTER XIV TRUTH OF THE IRON MASK