He concluded by saying that before arriving at any decision as
to who the prisoner really was, it would be necessary to ascertain the
exact date of his arrival at Pignerol.

Sainte-Foix hastened to reply, upholding the soundness of the views he
had advanced. He procured from Arras a copy of an entry in the registers
of the Cathedral Chapter, stating that Louis XIV had written with his own
hand to the said Chapter that they were to admit to burial the body of
the Comte de Vermandois, who had died in the city of Courtrai; that he
desired that the deceased should be interred in the centre of the choir,
in the vault in which lay the remains of Elisabeth, Comtesse de
Vermandois, wife of Philip of Alsace, Comte de Flanders, who had died in
1182. It is not to be supposed that Louis XIV would have chosen a family
vault in which to bury a log of wood.

Sainte-Foix was, however, not acquainted with the letter of Barbezieux,
dated the 13th August 1691, to which we have already referred, as a proof
that the prisoner was not the Comte de Vermandois; it is equally a proof
that he was not the Duke of Monmouth, as Sainte-Foix maintained; for
sentence was passed on the Duke of Monmouth in 1685, so that it could not
be of him either that Barbezieux wrote in 1691, "The prisoner whom you
have had in charge for twenty years."

In the very year in which Sainte-Foix began to flatter himself that his
theory was successfully established, Baron Heiss brought a new one
forward, in a letter dated "Phalsburg, 28th June 1770," and addressed to
the 'Journal Enclycopedique'. It was accompanied by a letter translated
from the Italian which appeared in the 'Histoire Abregee de l'Europe' by
Jacques Bernard, published by Claude Jordan, Leyden, 1685-87, in detached
sheets. This letter stated (August 1687, article 'Mantoue') that the
Duke of Mantua being desirous to sell his capital, Casale, to the King of
France, had been dissuaded therefrom by his secretary, and induced to
join the other princes of Italy in their endeavours to thwart the
ambitious schemes of Louis XVI. The Marquis d'Arcy, French ambassador to
the court of Savoy, having been informed of the secretary's influence,
distinguished him by all kinds of civilities, asked him frequently to
table, and at last invited him to join a large hunting party two or three
leagues outside Turin. They set out together, but at a short distance
from the city were surrounded by a dozen horsemen, who carri