“As a last precaution, the prisoners are searched from time to time, both day and night, at hours which are not fixed, when it is often found that they have written on dirty linen that which they alone are able to read, as you will have seen from that which I have had the honour to forward you. If it is necessary, Monseigneur, that I should do anything else in order to more completely fulfil my duty, I shall glory all my life in obeying you with the same respect and submission as I am, “Monseigneur, “Your very humble, very obedient, and very obliged servant, “DE SAINT-MARS. “At the Islands, this January 6, 1696.” The above despatch, as well as the one given on p. 324, note 17, _ante_, is to be found in draft in the collection of M. Mauge-du-Bois-des-Entes. They have both been given by Monmerqué and Champollion-Figeac.--_Trans._ [617] Unpublished despatch from Barbézieux to Saint-Mars. [618] _Ibid._, October 29, 1696. [619] See p. 61, _ante_. [620] I have read one by one all the despatches addressed during the years 1698-1708 by the Ministers Chamillart and Voysin (successors of Barbézieux at the Ministry of War) to Lamothe-Guérin, and nothing in them applies to Matthioly. Barbézieux, incensed at the elevation of his rival Chamillart, gave himself up to dissipation in order to drown his annoyance. He retired to his château of L’Etang at the boundary of the park of Saint-Cloud, where he feasted and rioted with his friends, and was seized with a fever consequent upon his excesses, of which he died a few days afterwards at the age of thirty-three. See _Mémoires de Saint-Simon_.--_Trans._ [621] Unpublished despatch from Barbézieux to Saint-Mars. I reproduce it word for word:-- “At Versailles, the first of March, 1698. “I commence by offering you my condolence on the death of your brother-in-law, for which you will not doubt I am very sorry, both on account of his services and of my friendship for him. “I also write to you concerning the proposal to exchange your governorship of the Isles Sainte-Marguerite against that of the Bastille. The reply which you have made to him has been handed to me since his death. The revenue of this governorship consists of 15,168 livres on the estates of the King, besides two thousand additional which M. Bezemaux derived from the shops around the Bastille and the ferry-boats depending on the governor.