Orders for the Reception of Catinat at Pignerol.
Fontainebleau, August 13th, 1681.
TheKing 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 concealedfor 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.
If between this time and his arrival any packet for him should be addressed to you either from Piedmont or from Italy, you will keep it, if you please, to deliver to him.
De Louvois.322
322From the Archives of France.