To this proposition Matthioli readily consented; and having first made a journey to Casale, he returned and met Estrades (who was accompanied on this expedition by his relation the Abbé de Montesquiou) by appointment, in a church half a mile from Turin, from whence they proceeded together to the frontier. At three miles from the place of rendezvous they were stopped by a river, of which the banks were overflowed, and the bridge broken. Matthioli himself assisted in repairing the bridge, which was to convey him to his captivity;[74] and they then proceeded on foot to the place where Catinat awaited them accompanied only by two officers, the Chevaliers de St. Martin and de Villebois, and by four soldiers of the garrison of Pignerol.[75] Before, however, Matthioli was arrested, Estrades held some conversation with him, and obliged him, in the presence of Catinat, to confess that he had in his possession all the original papers regarding the delivery of Casale, and that they were left in the custody of his wife at Bologna; who was living in the convent of the nuns of St. Thomas[76] in that city. This was necessary, because Matthioli had lately refused to give them up to the Duke his master,[77] alleging that he no longer knew where they were. His confession, upon this occasion, afterwards turned out to be false, and that the papers in question were concealed in a wall at Padua.[78] Immediately after this avowal had been extracted from him, he was arrested; and offered no resistance, though he always carried a sword and pistols about his person. He was conducted to Pignerol, where he arrived late at night. Catinat, in his letter to Louvois, giving an account of this seizure, which took place on the 2d of May, 1679, dwells much upon the secrecy with which it was effected, so that, says he, “no one knows the name of the rascal, not even the officers who assisted in arresting him.”[79] And he concludes by mentioning, that in order to perpetuate the mystery in which his prisoner is enveloped, he has given him the name of “Lestang,”--“not a soul here knowing who he is.” In the subsequent correspondence of Louvois with Catinat and St. Mars, he is very generally designated by that name. At first, St. Mars carried his precaution so far as to serve Matthioli himself, and not allow any of the garrison to approach him; soon afterwards his valet, who had been arrested by the exertions of Estrades,[80] was allowed to attend upon him; and subsequently St. Mars appointed those of his officers, in whom he had the most confidence, to assist in guarding him. It may be remembered that Louvois, in his letter to St. Mars, which has been before quoted, orders that the prisoner, who was to be brought to Pignerol, “should have intercourse with no one;” and in the subsequent letters from the same Minister, difficulties are even made to his being permitted to see either a physician or a confessor.[81]