inquiries would be useless, and possibly not unattended with peril. FOOTNOTES: [497] Matthioly first addressed himself to President Truccki, ex-Minister of Finance to the Regent, then to the latter. [498] Archives of the Ministry of War, 686; Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Mantua, 4; Instructions given to M. de Gomont, ambassador to the Duke of Mantua. [499] Letter from M. de Gomont to Louis XIV., May 14, 1680; copy of Letter from Matthioly to the Empress Eleonora of Austria:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Mantua, 5 and 11. [500] The following is the only document which establishes the fact that Matthioly received payment from the Spaniards and Venetians. It will be remarked that the information given by D’Estrades reached him very indirectly:-- “I must not omit to inform your Majesty that Father Ranzoni (a spy) _has told_ Juliani (a spy) that _his father had assured_ him that the Spaniards had given 4,000 pistoles [1,600_l._] to Mattioli[C] as a reward for having discovered to them the whole of the Casale business, and for having pointed out M. d’Asfeld to them, and that he had also received money from the Venetians for the same reason.”--Unpublished despatch from the Abbé d’Estrades to Louis XIV., March 16, 1680:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 70. [C] The variation in the spelling of this name in the different despatches is followed exactly.--_Trans._ [501] _Mémoire de Chamlay_ on the events of 1678 to 1688:--Archives of the Ministry of War, 1183. [502] I am not sure whether I am correct in imagining that this was the Marshal d’Asfeld, who distinguished himself at the battle of Almanza, and died at a great old age in 1743.--(G. Agar Ellis.) [503] Letter from Pomponne to Pinchesne, December 30, 1678:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [504] Nicholas de Catinat, Marshal of France in 1698. “He united,” says Voltaire, “philosophy to great military talents. The last day he commanded in Italy, he gave for the watchword, ‘Paris and Saint-Gratien,’ the name of his country-house. He died there in the retirement of a real sage (having refused the blue ribbon), in 1712.”--(G. Agar Ellis.) [505] Letter from Louvois to Saint-Mars, December 29, 1678:--Archives of the Ministry of War. [506] _Ibid._, February 15, 1679:--Archives of the Ministry of War. [507] Letter from M. de Pinchesne to M. de Pomponne, February 18, 1679:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Venice. [508] Letter from M. de Pinchesne to M. de Pomponne, March 11, 1679:--Archives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Venice. [509] Letter from M. de Pomponne to Matthioly, March 14, 1669. [510] Letter from Catinat, under the name of Richemont, to Louvois, April 15, 1679. [511] Unpublished despatch:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68. [512] Unpublished despatch:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Savoy, 68.