Catinat has given me, that he had twice interrogated Mattioli,[518] who had proposed to get his father to come to the place where he had been arrested, so that he might oblige him to go and seek the papers which we demand and bring them to Pignerol. But since it is necessary to distrust everything that he says, and as he will doubtless not be able to sustain the sight of Giuliani when he is confronted with him, in consequence of all the knavery he has been guilty of, I have wished that he should accompany the Abbé de Montesquieu to Pignerol, so as to proceed from that place by M. Catinat’s orders wherever Mattioli might declare the papers to be concealed. And thus that he who should be charged with this commission might not only be a safe man, but also have a complete acquaintance with the country and know the language, so as to avoid any kind of accident. “Two days after Mattioli had been taken to the donjon of Pignerol, I caused his valet to be conducted thither with all his clothing and valises by means of one of my servants whom I had already lent to M. Catinat during the journey which he made to Casale; for this I had taken the precaution to bear a letter from Mattioli which he had been made to write and in which he ordered this valet to come to him in a place where he was obliged to remain three or four days, and from which he was to depart without again passing through Turin; so that by this means one obtained all that Mattioli had brought here, without having recourse to violence. If I had made use of any other means, I should not have been able to obtain anything from him, since he would never have been willing of himself to give up to me papers which he has so much difficulty in resolving to surrender even while he is in a condition to fear the punishment of his perfidy; and if I had used towards him the least threat he would infallibly have left Turin the next day without its being possible to arrest him, except by causing a scandal which would have been very prejudicial.”