In August, 1681, at the moment when Saint-Mars is about to leave Pignerol for Exiles, of which he had just been named Governor, he receives an order from Louvois to defer his departure. The affair of Casale, abandoned, as we have seen after Matthioly’s arrest, had been taken up again two years afterwards. The Abbé Morel, addressing himself directly to the Duke of Mantua to whom he was accredited, had obtained his consent, and the treaty of surrender, this time confided to sure hands, was about to be definitively executed. As before, Boufflers occupied the frontier with his troops. As before, Catinat is about to penetrate to Pignerol, in order to proceed afterwards to Casale, and take possession of the place. The following is the letter in which Louvois announces to Saint-Mars the early arrival of Catinat:-- “Fontainebleau, August 13, 1681. “The King having commanded M. de Catinat to proceed as soon as possible to Pignerol, on the same business that took him there at the commencement of the year 1679, I write you these lines by his Majesty’s order, to give you intelligence thereof, so that you may prepare him an apartment in which he may remain concealed during three weeks or a month; and also to tell you that when he shall send to let you know that he is arrived at the place where you went to meet him in the said year 1679, it is his Majesty’s intention that you should go there again to meet him and conduct him into the donjon of the citadel of the aforesaid Pignerol with all the precautions necessary to prevent any one’s knowing that he is with you. I do not charge you to assist him with your servants, your horses, and whatever carriages he may have occasion for, not doubting that you will do with pleasure on these heads, whatever he shall ask.”