[190] From the archives of the Office for Foreign Affairs, at Paris. No. 18. ESTRADES TO POMPONNE. Reasons for consenting to the mission of Matthioli to Paris. Venice, March 26th, 1678. SIR, My last letters will have shown you that I had forestalled in some measure, the orders which I received in the one of the 4th of this month, which you did me the honour to write me. I had judged that, in the present conjuncture, it would not be easy for the King to send a powerful army into Italy, so speedily as was wished. It appeared to me, nevertheless, that His Majesty considered the negociation which I had commenced with the Duke of Mantua, through the means of the Count Matthioli, as an affair which might eventually be of use to him, and which he would wish to be in a situation to profit by. Therefore, Sir, I have used all my endeavours to encourage the opinion already entertained, that the arms of France will appear in the Milanese, and to confirm the Duke of Mantua in his good dispositions towards His Majesty, and in his suspicions of the Spaniards. I had even made use of the same reasons, which you prescribe to me to urge in your letter, to moderate his impatience to conclude the treaty, which he is desirous of making with the King. Before His Majesty left St. Germain, I represented to the Count Matthioli that the negociations with England occupied him too much, to permit him, in such very critical times, to apply himself as much as was necessary to a new enterprize of the importance of the one that was meditated in Italy; and since that, I have alleged to him the difficulty of getting answers during the hurry of the journey, and the occupations of the campaign, which oblige the King to go frequently from one place to another. I have added, that I was by no means surprized at this, and that, in preceding years, I had rarely received any letters from you at those times. He has contented himself, thus far, with the excuses I have given him; but the Duke of Mantua is so violently alarmed at the peril in which he believes himself to be, and at the length of the negociation, that he has absolutely determined upon sending the Count Matthioli to the King--and I have not dared to oppose myself to this, from the fear of giving him suspicions, or of disgusting him with the negociation altogether. It is true, Sir, that after having well considered the manner in which this journey could be accomplished, I have thought that it would turn out to be the most easy and the most infallible method to confirm still more the dispositions of the Duke of Mantua, and to prolong this affair as long as the King shall judge for the good of his service. I have for this purpose persuaded the Count Matthioli that it was important he should not go immediately to his Majesty, but that he should first pay a visit to some of the towns in Italy, under the pretext of his master’s interests, and his disputes with the Duke of Modena