Causes of the Expedition to Candia--Court Intrigue--Turenne and the Duke d’Albret--Preparations for the Expedition--Beaufort Commands it--Departure of the Fleet--Its Arrival before Candia--State of this Island--Description of the Place besieged--Last Council of War--Plan of Attack, which is fixed for the Middle of the Night of June 24, 1669--The First Movements are successful--Terrible Explosion of the Magazine of a Battery--Fearful Panic--Rout of the French--Re-embarkation of the Troops--Certainty of Beaufort’s Death 113 CHAPTER XI. General Considerations on the Abduction of the Armenian Patriarch Avedick--Despatch of the Marquis de Ferriol to Constantinople as Ambassador--Difficulties peculiar to this Post--Incautious Conduct of some of Ferriol’s Predecessors--Quiclet’s Adventures--Portrait of Ferriol--His Pretensions at Constantinople--His Eccentricity of Manner--His Behaviour in Religious Matters--The Armenian Church--Short Account of its History--Ardent Desire of the Catholic Missionaries to make Converts--Their Imprudence--Ferriol at first attempts to repair it--Obstinate Resistance of Father Braconnier, a Jesuit--Encroachments and Requirements of the Jesuits 128 CHAPTER XII. Avedick--His Origin--His Protector, the Grand Mufti, Feizoulah Effendi--The two Churches, schismatic and catholic, exist in perfect concord--Fall of Mustapha II.--Death of the Mufti--Avedick is deposed and imprisoned--The Armenians ransom him--Ferriol’s persistent Hatred--His stubborn Animosity against Avedick--He succeeds in getting him deposed a second Time--Avedick’s Abduction at Chio--He is imprisoned on board a French Vessel--Incidents of the Voyage--Avedick endeavours to give Tidings of his Fate to the World--Insuccess of his Attempt--His Arrival at Marseilles 147 CHAPTER XIII. The Chevalier de Taulès--How he was led to believe that Avedick was the Man with the Iron Mask--A clear Proof furnished him of the impossibility of his Theory--Taulès persists and accuses the Jesuit Fathers of Forgery--Examination of Dujonca’s Journal--Its complete Authenticity and the unaffected Sincerity of the Writer cannot be doubted--New Proofs of this Authenticity and of Dujonca’s Exactitude 158 CHAPTER XIV.