[553] François Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, whose name occurs so frequently throughout this work, was Louis XIV.’s Secretary of State for War and Prime Minister. He is responsible for the barbarous devastation of the Palatinate, and for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. After having served his Sovereign faithfully for six-and-thirty years, he fell under his displeasure, and was only saved from disgrace by a sudden death, which occurred in 1691, it is said from poison. [554] M. Loiseleur afterwards brings forward two arguments which are as little conclusive as those which have just been discussed. “Saint-Mars was so persistently left in ignorance,” he says, “that after having confided to his lieutenant the care of recovering the important documents concealed at Padua, Catinat thought better of it, and charged a trusty servant of the Abbé d’Estrades with this mission.... When Louvois requested the list of the prisoners imprisoned at Pignerol, with the reasons for which they were detained, he added to his letter, ‘with reference to the two of the lower tower you need only indicate them by this name, without putting anything else.’” If Giuliani was charged, as we have mentioned in the preceding chapter, to seek at Padua the papers in the possession of Matthioly’s father, it was because, being supposed a friend of Matthioly, he would inspire no suspicion, while it would have been very different if this mission had been confided to Saint-Mars’ lieutenant. As for the letter in which Louvois requests from Saint-Mars the names of his prisoners, the dispensing with information concerning the prisoners in the lower Tower can be explained in a very simple manner--by the fact that Louvois knew all about them, since a short time previously they had been referred to in the correspondence. [555] Delort, p. 206. [556] Louvois writes to Saint-Mars, September 20, 1681:--“The King does not disapprove of your going from time to time to see the last prisoner that you have in your care, when he is settled in his new prison.” M. Loiseleur concludes from this that at this period there was only one prisoner, and as two are again spoken of afterwards, he infers that a new prisoner was confided to Saint-Mars. We shall hereafter concern ourselves with this despatch, the meaning of which we shall explain. [557] Archives of the Ministry of War; _Mémoire de Chamlay_ on the events of 1678 to 1688:--Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sections Mantua and Savoy. [558] _Revue Contemporaine_, p. 238. [559] See Chapters I. to V. of the present work. [560] _Revue Contemporaine_, p. 209, _et seq._ [561] This is within a year of the date that M. Loiseleur states, and the exactness of which we are about to confirm. M. Loiseleur observes with reason that the error of a year in an old man’s early reminiscences is very probable. [562] The governorship of the Isles Sainte-Marguerite-Saint-Honorat.