[527] Louvois writes to Saint-Mars, May 15, 1679: “It is not the intention of the King that the Sieur de Lestang [the name given to Matthioly after his arrest] should be well treated, nor that, except the absolute necessaries of life, anything should be given to him that would enable him to pass his time agreeably.” Again, on May 22, he writes: “You must keep the individual named Lestang in the severe confinement I enjoined in my preceding letters, without allowing him to see a physician unless you know him to be in absolute need of one.” In July he is allowed pen and ink “to put into writing whatever he may wish to say.” In February, 1680, Saint-Mars writes to Louvois that Lestang “complains that he is not treated as a man of his quality and the minister of a great prince ought to be,” to which Louvois replies in the July following: “With regard to the Sieur de Lestang, I wonder at your patience, and that you should wait for an order to treat such a rascal as he deserves when he is wanting in respect to you:”--Louvois to Saint-Mars and _vice versâ_, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.--_Trans._ [528] “Sir,” said he to him, “here is a ring which I make a present to you, and which I beg of you to accept.” It was no doubt the diamond given to Matthioly by Louis XIV. [Saint-Mars wrote to Louvois: “I believe he made him this present as much from fear as from any other cause: this prisoner having previously used very violent language towards him, and written abusive sentences with charcoal on the walls of his room, which had obliged that officer to threaten him with severe punishment, if he was not more decorous and moderate in his language for the future. When he was put in the tower with the Jacobin, I charged Blainvilliers to tell him, at the same time showing him a cudgel, that it was with that the unruly were rendered manageable, and that if he did not speedily become so, he could easily be compelled. This message was conveyed to him, and some days afterwards, as Blainvilliers was waiting upon him at dinner, he said, ‘Sir, here is a little ring which I wish to give you, and I beg you to accept of it?’ Blainvilliers replied ‘that he only took it to deliver it to me, as he could not receive anything himself from the prisoners.’ I think it is well worth fifty or sixty pistoles:”--Letter from Saint-Mars to Louvois, October 26, 1680, quoted by Roux-Fazillac.--_Trans._] [529] _La Prudenza Triomfante di Casale con l’Arni sole de trattati e negotiati di Politici della M. Chr._, small duodecimo, 58 pp. [530] This was printed at Leyden by Claude Jordan. [531] _Annali d’Italia_, Milan edition, vol. xi. pp. 352-354. [532] Vol. vi. part i. p. 182., Letter from Baron d’Heiss, June 28, 1770. [533] _Journal de Paris_, p. 1470. [534] Vol. v. p. 369.