The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
Can this monk be the monk who went mad in prison at Pignerol, sharing
the cell of Mattioli? Did he, too, suffer for his connection with
the secret? We do not know, but the position of Charles was awkward.
Marsilly, dealing with the Swiss, had come straight from England, where
he was lie with Charles’s minister, Arlington, and with the Dutch and
Spanish ambassadors. The King refers to the matter in a letter to his
sister of May 24, 1669 (misdated by Miss Cartwright, May 24, 1668.)*
‘You have, I hope, received full satisfaction by the last post in the
matter of Marsillac [Marsilly], for my Ld. Arlington has sent to Mr.
Montague [English ambassador at Paris] his history all the time he was
here, by which you will see how little credit he had here, and that
particularly my Lord Arlington was not in his good graces, because he
did not receive that satisfaction, in his negotiation, he expected, and
that was only in relation to the Swissers, and so I think I have said
enough of this matter.’
*Madame, by Julia Cartwright, p. 264.
Charles took it easily!
On May 15-25 Montague acknowledged Arlington’s letter to which Charles
refers; he has been approached, as to Marsilly, by the Spanish resident,
‘but I could not tell how to do anything in the business, never having
heard of the man, or that he was employed by my Master [Charles] in any
business. I have sent you also a copy of a letter which an Englishman
writ to me that I do not know, in behalf of Roux de Marsilly, but that
does not come by the post,’ being too secret.*
*State Papers, France, vol. 126.
France had been well informed about Marsilly while he was in England.
He then had a secretary, two lackeys, and a valet de chambre, and was
frequently in conference with Arlington and the Spanish ambassador to
the English Court. Colbert, the French ambassador in London, had written
all this to the French Government, on April 25, before he heard of
Marsilly’s arrest.*
*Bibl. Nat., Fonds Francais, No. 10665.
The belief that Marsilly was an agent of Charles appears to have been
general, and, if accepted by Louis XIV., would interfere with Charles’s
private negotiations for the Secret Treaty with France. On May 18 Prince
d’Aremberg had written on the subject to the Spanish ambassador in
Paris. Marsilly, he says, was arrested in Switzerland, on his way to
Berne, with a monk who was also seized, and, a curious fact, Marsilly’s
valet was killed in the struggle. This valet, of course, was not Dauger,
whom Marsilly had left in England. Marsilly ‘doit avoir demande la
protection du Roy de la Grande Bretagne en faveur des Religionaires
(Huguenots) de France, et passer en Suisse AVEC QUELQUE COMMISSION DE SA
PART.’ D’Aremberg begs the Spanish ambassador to communicate all this to
Montague, the English ambassador at Paris, but Montague probably, like
Perwich, knew nothing of the business any more than he knew of Charles’s
secret dealings with Louis through Madame.*
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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