Versailles, July 22d, 1681. I HAVE received your letter of the 12th of this month, by which I see that the repairs which you have ordered to be made at Exiles will not permit you to leave Pignerol before the end of next month. As the service of the King will perhaps require that you should remain there all the following month, it would be well that you should advance the aforesaid repairs of Exiles as little as possible, in order that you may have a pretext for not leaving Pignerol till the first days of the month of October; taking care to act in such a manner, that your continuing to remain there may not appear to be the result of voluntary delay. I am about to send the necessary order for the repayment of the money you have expended for your prisoners, and you will receive it by the next post. You will find joined with this letter a packet for M. de Pianesse,[319] which I request you to deliver to him without fail. DE LOUVOIS.[320] [319] The Marquis de Pianesse was one of the Ministers of the Court of Turin. [320] From the Archives of France. No. 117. LOUVOIS TO SAINT-MARS. Fontainebleau, August 3d, 1681. YOUR letter of the 23rd of last month has been delivered to me. The King approves of your going to see the Marquis de Pianesse at his country house, and of your making a journey to Turin, if you desire it, provided you do not sleep out of the citadel of Pignerol more than one night at a time. With regard to the journey to Exiles, and the leave of absence you ask for the Sieur Tourtebat, whom you wish to take with you, you will have seen by my former letters, that the intention of the King is that you should not go there. DE LOUVOIS.[321] [321] From the Archives of France. No. 118. LOUVOIS TO SAINT-MARS. Orders for the Reception of Catinat at Pignerol. Fontainebleau, August 13th, 1681. THE King having ordered M. de Catinat to go as soon as possible to Pignerol, for the same affair which before took him there at the commencement of the year 1679, I send you these few lines by order of His Majesty, to give you intelligence thereof, in order that you may prepare an apartment for him, in which he can remain concealed for three weeks or a month; and also to tell you that when he shall send to let you know that he is arrived at the place where you went to meet him in the aforesaid year 1679, it is the intention of His Majesty that you should go there again to meet him, and that you should conduct him into the prison of the citadel of the aforesaid Pignerol, with every kind of precaution, in order that no one may know he is with you. I do not say any thing to you about assisting him with your servants, your horses, and whatever carriages he may have occasion for, because I have no doubt but you will do with pleasure on these heads, whatever he shall ask you.