In any case, Francis Vernon, writing from Paris to Williamson (?) (June 19/25, 1669), gave a terrible account of Marsilly’s death.  (For the letter, see Note V.) With a broken piece of glass (as we learn from another source), Marsilly, in prison, wounded himself in a ghastly manner, probably hoping to die by loss of blood.  They seared him with a red-hot iron, and hurried on his execution.  He was broken on the wheel, and was two hours in dying (June 22).  Contrary to usage, a Protestant preacher was brought to attend him on the scaffold.  He came most reluctantly, expecting insult, but not a taunt was uttered by the fanatic populace.  “He came up the scaffold, great silence all about,” Marsilly lay naked, stretched on a St. Andrew’s cross.  He had seemed half dead, his head hanging limp, “like a drooping calf.”  To greet the minister of his own faith, he raised himself, to the surprise of all, and spoke out loud and clear.  He utterly denied all share in a scheme to murder Louis.  The rest may be read in the original letter (p. 51).

So perished Roux de Marsilly; the history of the master throws no light on the secret of the servant.  That secret, for many years, caused the keenest anxiety to Louis XIV. and Louvois.  Saint-Mars himself must not pry into it.  Yet what could Dauger know?  That there had been a conspiracy against the King’s life?  But that was the public talk of Paris.  If Dauger had guilty knowledge, his life might have paid for it; why keep him a secret prisoner?  Did he know that Charles ii. had been guilty of double dealing in 1668- 1669?  Probably Charles had made some overtures to the Swiss, as a blind to his private dealings with Louis XIV., but, even so, how could the fact haunt Louis XIV. like a ghost?  We leave the mystery much darker than we found it, but we see good reason why diplomatists should have murmured of a crusade against the cruel and brigand Government which sent soldiers to kidnap, in neighboring states, men who did not know their own crime.

To myself it seems not improbable that the King and Louvois were but stupidly and cruelly nervous about what Dauger might know.  Saint-Mars, when he proposed to utilize Dauger as a prison valet, manifestly did not share the trembling anxieties of Louis XIV. and his Minister; anxieties which grew more keen as time went on.  However, “a soldier only has his orders,” and Saint-Mars executed his orders with minute precision, taking such unheard-of precautions that, in legend, the valet blossomed into the rightful kind of France.

ORIGINAL PAPERS IN THE CASE OF ROUX DE MARSILLY.[1]

[1] State Papers, France, vol. 126.

I. Letter of Mons. P. du Moulin to Arlington.

Paris, May ye , 1669.

My Lord,