Reports of Catinat being at Pignerol.—Different Rumours respecting the Negociation.
Pignerol, April 5th, 1679.
As I have discovered, Sir, since the last post, that the Marquis d’Herleville (governor of Pignerol) is aware that M. de Richemont is incognito in the citadel of this town, and that, in fact, he knows his real name; I do myself the honour of acquainting you with the circumstance. M. de Saint-André even sends word, that he has been told at Turin that M. de Catinat is to take him with him to Casale. I do not know how they can have discovered so much, unless it is, that the absence of M. de Catinat has given occasion to some of the Guards266to write from Paris, that he is in these parts. These reports also mention the days onwhich he has gone out of the citadel, and the spot where the Abbé d’Estrades came to speak to him the last time from Turin. I have answered nothing when I have heard these things said, except that I knew of no one in the citadel, and nothing upon the subject.
The Marquis of Saint-Maurice told several people that the French Ambassador wished to be very cunning; but thatheknew very well that there had been a treaty made between the King and the Duke of Mantua, on the subject of Casale; and that he also knew that during the last ten days it had been absolutely broken off. The retrograde movements of the troops cantoned in the Briançonnois and the valley of Chaumont, on the side of Dauphiny and Provence, seem to confirm the report of the Marquis of Saint-Maurice; but the arrival of the battalion of the regiment of Piedmont in this town two days ago, makes the people of the country, who love to reason upon every thing, suspend their judgments; their reasonings will be of no importance, if the Duke’s sentiments are always well-disposed, for between this place and Casale there is no fortress, nor anyobstacle which can delay the march of the King’s troops.
I am always with profound respect, &c.
De Chanois.267
266The Officers of the French Guards, of whom Catinat, at this time, was one.
267Chanois was a French Commissary at Pignerol. This letter is extracted from the work of M. Roux (Fazillac).