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The mareschal was no sooner informed of his brother's misfortune, than he retreated towards the Var to join the troops from Exilles, while the king of Sardinia, having assembled an army of seventy thousand men, threatened Dauphiné with an invasion; but the excessive rains prevented the execution of his design.
Next morning they gathered together again, and descended into the sterile valley of the Gaillon, and shortly after proceeded to ascend the mountain opposite. They were now close upon the large towns. Susa lay a little to the east, and Exilles was directly in their way.
So that it was in the interval between the 23rd March 1680, the alleged date of Fouquet's death, and the 1st September 1681, that the Iron Mask appeared at Pignerol, and yet Saint-Mars took only two prisoners to Exilles.
However, his "former prisoner of Pignerol," according to Du Junca's diary, must have reached the latter fortress before the end of August 1681, when Saint-Mars went to Exilles as governor.
However, his "former prisoner of Pignerol," according to Du Junca's diary, must have reached the latter fortress before the end of August 1681, when Saint-Mars went to Exilles as governor.
"That the Duke of Savoy should be put in possession of all taken from him in this war, and enjoy the places yielded to him by the Emperor, and other allies: That France should likewise yield to him Exilles, Fenestrelle, Chaumont, the valley of Pragelas, and the land lying between Piedmont and Mount Genu. "That the article about demolishing of Dunkirk should be explained."
While the mareschal de Belleisle remained at Ventimiglia, his brother, at the head of four-and-thirty thousand French and Spaniards, attempted to penetrate into Piedmont: on the sixth day of July he arrived at the pass of Exilles, a strong fortress on the frontiers of Dauphiné, situated on the north side of the river Doria.
The blows of fortune are differently received according to the different characters of those on whom they fall; and each one of us who in imagination threads the subterranean passages leading to the cells of Pignerol and Exilles, and incarcerates himself in the Iles Sainte-Marguerite and in the Bastille, the successive scenes of that long-protracted agony will give the prisoner a form shaped by his own fancy and a grief proportioned to his own power of suffering.
His Brother, the Chevalier, is to force that Pass of Exilles; a terrible fiery business, but the backbone of the whole adventure: in which, if the Chevalier can succeed, he too is to be Marechal de France. Forward, therefore, climb the Alpine stairs again; snatch me that Fort of Exilles.
At last, after great fatigue and peril, unable to proceed further, they gained the crest of the mountain, and sounded their clarions to summon the scattered body. After a halt of two hours they proceeded along the ridge, and perceived through the mist a body of soldiers marching along with drums beating; it was the garrison of Exilles.
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