The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-06-03

tpersOn; at least ID D'Estrades knew that Mat
thioly had obtained for them the DUks S
signature, and that he knew where they
were On the 2Sth of April . despatch was
forwarded to him from Paris. in which
Louis tells him that, as he believes himself
able to make away with Matthioly without
creating any stir, the King desires him to
carry out his plan and convey the prisoner
to Piguerol, taking care that no one knows
who he is.
Before this despatch was received Mat
thioly was already prisoner. With con-
summate subtlety D'Estrades had brought
the Italian within his tolls, and by holding
out to him the replenishment of his empty
purse entrapped him to an interview with
Catinat, who had been designated to COM
mand the garrison to be placed in posses
sion of Casal. But the documents thus
eagerly sought for were not found on the
person of the prisoner. Matthloly had
placed them in the keeping of his father;
but the threats of torture or death, II he
persisted in withholding them, extorted
from him letter. in which he begged his
father to forward to him all the papers by
the hand of the bearer, the very Giuliani
who had first opened negotiations between
D'Estrades and his future victim. One act
in perenptory terms demanded at Madrid
the release of the Baron of Asfeld. The
Court of Savoy was in completely with him,
and he took care that no tididIngs from
Matthioly should ever reach Venice. The
report was spread that he had died acci-
dentaily on his way to Pignerol, where ne
still lived under the rigid guardianship OF
Saint Mars. The Duke of Mantua showed
no sorrow at being rid of his old adviser
seemingly preferred French protection to
Italian freedom. The father of the states
man thus torn from the world fingered
through the miserable remnant his life
at Podua His wife, believing herself a
widow, took the veil in convent at Bolo-
gna, and in the genealogical tree of the
family that place which should have re-
ceived the date of Ercole Matthioly's death
remained a blank.
Of the prisoners thus brought to exiles
under strong escort, and with clreum-
stances of peculiar precautlon, NJ. Topln
holds that Matthioly was undoubtedly one.
He is expressly called the old prisoner of
Saint-MaFs.
Certainly it is not easy to resist the con-
clusion that this prisoner must have been
Matthioly. If it be admitted, the mystery
is at an end. Ii March, 1893, Barbezieux
expresses to Saint-Mars the pleasure which |
his acceptance of the Governorship of the |
Bastille has given to the king. That the
SO brought 10 the Bastile was the |
the prisoner who died five years later, and |
whose name was entered on the registers of
the church of ST. Paui's as Marchialy, has |
never been called into question The name
itself, it can scarcely be denied, is that of
the unfortunate statesman of Mantua. 1t |
is often found under the form Marthioly |
IN the dispatches of Louvois; it is also |
written Matioli, Matheol, Mathiali, and in
other ways. In short, little weight in the
way of argument can be attached to the
mode of writing names, it may almost be
said, in any historical age. Nor can more
stress, NJ Topin urges, be laid on the al
legged imprudence of thus placing his name
On public register almost at the very mo-
ment when Matthioly's old master, the
Duke of MantGa, entered Paris, to be bril-
Iiantly entertained at the Luxembourg
The feelings of Duke Charles had been ex-
pressed with sufficient clearness, and 1t is
more than likely that Louis may have given
him, not without certain satisfaction, the
Iidings that there was no longer need even
10 guard the man who had once made him.
self troublesome to them.