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. The causes of the expedition to Candia have not been entirely indicated. It is said[190] “that public opinion in France, having received the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle badly, the army especially complaining of it, Louis XIV. and Louvois eagerly seized the opportunity of diverting this unquiet zeal, of making this flame burn out, and that they willingly allowed themselves to be persuaded by the Nuncio and the Venetian Ambassador to send assistance to Candia, menaced by the Turks.” To this consideration, which certainly was of great weight, it is necessary to add the influence of a court intrigue, and to explain the very particular motives which Louis XIV. had for pleasing the Pope. Louvois having succeeded in causing his brother, Le Tellier, to be appointed to the coadjutorship of Rheims, in preference to the Duke d’Albret, nephew of Turenne, and the illustrious Marshal, not having been more successful in getting his relation named coadjutor of the Archbishop of Paris, Louis XIV., to appease his resentment, promised the young abbé a cardinal’s hat. Madame de Montespan, related to the d’Albret family, and already all-powerful, exerted herself with all her influence to hasten the fulfilment of this promise. On the other hand, the Prince d’Awersberg, one of the principal ministers of Leopold, had received from Grémonville, the French Ambassador, the assurance of Louis XIV.’s support to obtain from Clement IX. a cardinal’s hat, in return for his assiduity in serving near the Emperor the interests of the King in the great affair of the treaty for the partition of the Spanish monarchy, signed secretly in 1668. The Pope knew how to turn this double demand to his own profit.[191] He enlarged greatly upon his extreme desire to satisfy the Most Christian King, but also upon his fears of irritating the other Catholic nations by a preference which would be insulting to them. He alleged the necessity which then existed for him not to render any Power discontented, and for causing them all to be united in repelling the common enemy of Christianity. “Thus, Monseigneur,” wrote our envoy at Rome to De Lionne, “your Excellency will very easily perceive that if I had something positive to say as to what his Majesty has resolved to do with reference to the affairs of Candia during next season, I should meet with more facility here for the advancement of the promotion.”[192] That the piety and religious sentiments of Louis XIV.