But a year previous to this a few dragoons, commanded by an officer mysteriously despatched to Pignerol, had left the citadel during the night and taken the road to Turin. Halting at an isolated inn, far from any other habitation, and situated a short distance from the little river Chisola, they penetrated inside the house and concealed themselves with such care that their presence could not be detected. Very early the next morning a carriage containing three persons, two of whom were priests, hastily set out from Turin. Arrived at the banks of the stream, which was swollen by the rains, the travellers were obliged to dismount and traverse the torrent by means of some planks hurriedly put together. They then entered a room of the inn. Not long afterwards the armed dragoons made their way into this room and seized one of the travellers. An hour subsequently a carriage, surrounded by a cavalry escort, quitted the inn and conducted the prisoner to Pignerol. Three days later another stranger arrived in his turn at this fatal house. Immediately surrounded and seized by the same dragoons, posted in the same spot, he was also thrown into a carriage and rapidly whirled off to Pignerol. FOOTNOTES: [443] _Histoire de l’Homme au Masque de Fer_, by M. Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob). Paris, 1840. [444] _Loisirs d’un Patriote Français_, number of August 13, 1789. This card found amongst the papers of the Bastille, and which the journalist attests having seen, also bore the number 64,389,000. [445] _Histoire de l’Homme au Masque de Fer_, p. 175. [446] “The King having ordered me to have one Eustache d’Auger taken to Pignerol, it is of the utmost importance that on his arrival he should be guarded with great security, and not allowed to give information of his whereabouts in any manner whatever. I give you notice of this in advance in order that you may prepare a cell in which you will confine him securely, taking care to arrange that the openings for light of the place, in which he will be, may not look upon places where any one may come, and that there be enough closed doors so that our sentinels may not be able to hear anything:”--Letter from Louvois to Saint-Mars, July 19, 1669. These infinite precautions were indeed a form of style. They are to be found in the orders given to Marshal d’Estrades, in those which are contained in the Registers of the Secretary’s Office of the King’s Household, and in those which are found in the _Correspondance Administrative sous Louis XIV._ See this correspondence published by Depping in the collection of the _Documents inédits pour l’Histoire de France_. See also, Imperial Library, manuscripts, _Papiers d’Estrades_, vol. xii., and Registers of the Secretary’s Office, 6653. [447] M. Camille Rousset gives a number of proofs of the extreme pleasure that Louvois found in a combination and excess of precautions. (See notably vol. iii. p. 38, _et seq._ of his _Histoire de Louvois_.)