Since 1672 Fouquet had had permission to receive a letter from his wife.[436] Less than two years afterwards he had been allowed to write twice a year to his family.[437] Finally, from January 20, 1679, the favours were multiplied, and the two illustrious captives obtained all that could soften their situation. Louis XIV. authorised them to have full liberty to meet, to take their meals, and to walk together, to converse with the officers of the donjon, and to read all kinds of books and gazettes.[438] Whilst Madame de Nogent and the Chevalier de Lauzun received permission to come and visit their brother; Fouquet had at length the happiness of seeing his wife, his daughter, the Count de Vaux, his son, and the Bishop of Agde and M. de Mézières, his brothers.[439] Alone and isolated for fifteen years, the Surintendant had at last this supreme consolation, which, alas! he was not long to enjoy. These different members of his family made a rather lengthened stay at the citadel. But the prisoner’s daughter installed herself there in a definite manner, and took up her quarters in rooms directly over those of her father.[440] Almost immediately after her arrival, Lauzun and Fouquet ceased to visit one another.[441] The cause of this sudden misunderstanding is to be found in the gallant disposition and enterprising audacity of Lauzun. The insolent favourite could not recognize the devotion of Fouquet’s daughter, a voluntary prisoner, and the touching victim of her filial affection. What passed between these three personages can only be surmised, for no documents exist respecting it. It is only known that, long afterwards, Lauzun paid such frequent visits to Mademoiselle Fouquet in Paris, during which he showed himself so familiar, that the jealousy of Louis XIV.’s cousin was very strongly aroused.[442] It was the destiny of the Surintendant to undergo every misfortune, and, at the moment when he seemed about to receive some alleviation, to find suddenly in his daughter’s presence a new source of grief and bitterness. Was this grief at least the final one? did he die on March 22, 1680, as has been said, or, to this expiation of his faults courageously undergone during sixteen years at Pignerol must a still longer one be added? Did Fouquet continue to drag on his miserable existence for another twenty-three years, and was it to the Bastille that he went to finish it obscurely, dead to all, his face hidden from the world, and, as it were, surviving even himself? FOOTNOTES: [408] _Mémoires de Brienne_, vol. ii. pp. 195-197. _Mémoires sur Nicolas Fouquet_, vol. ii. p. 237. [409] In this letter Louis XIV. thought it right to explain why, after having authorised the marriage of Lauzun with Mademoiselle, he had withdrawn his word. The letter is dated December 19, 1670. It is amongst the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section France, vol. cxcii. p. 150.--See _Madame de Montespan et Louis XIV._, by M. P. Clément, p. 32.