St. Germain, March 26th, 1679.
I have received your letter of the 21st of this month. You will have seen by my former ones, that the King approves of the officers of the citadel of Pignerol visiting your prisoners, and passing the mornings and afternoons with them when they desire it, in the presence of one of yourown officers.262I can only now repeat the same thing to you, and tell you, that with regard to the governor, the officers, and the inhabitants of the town, you may act in the same manner by them, when you shall judge fit: not, however, until after the affair, for which the Sieur de Richemont is at Pignerol, shall have succeeded or failed.
I address to you a packet for the Abbé d’Estrades, which you will send him, if you please, by one of your officers, with a direction in your hand-writing; and when he shall have despatched to you his answer, you will send it to me by the return of the same courier, whom, in the meanwhile, you will keep concealed in the prison.
De Louvois.263
262Saint-Mars only commanded in that part of the citadel of Pignerol which was appropriated to the use of a State-prison.
263From the Archives of France.