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Villars and Jonquet were sentenced to be broken on the wheel alive the only difference between them being that Jonquet was to be to taken while still living and thrown into the fire lit round Catinat and Ravael. It was also ordered that the four condemned men before their execution should be put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary.
To the two instances just cited of royalist reconciliation Lyons and the spontaneous example set by her population, and Rouen and the dearly purchased capitulation of her governor Villars must be added a third, of a different sort.
"M. de Turenne used to say that he who means to altogether avoid battle gives up his country to him who appears to seek it," the marshal assured him; the king was afraid of losing his last army; the Dukes of Harcourt and Berwick were covering the Rhine and the Alps; Marlborough and Prince Eugene, who had just made themselves masters of Tournay, marched against Villars, whom they encountered on the 11th of September, 1709, near the hamlet of Malplaquet.
'Have you found the true secret of happiness yet? asked Miss Villars presently. 'You look brighter than when I last saw you. 'I may be brighter now, but I shall have one of my black moods again soon. No, Miss Villars, I don't think I shall ever be satisfied in this life. The more I have, the more I want, and you couldn't expect me to be happy with Hugh in Africa!
Though, indeed, should his visit be repeated while you remain at the Grove, Lady Howard must pardon me if I shorten yours. Adieu, my child. You will always make my respects to the hospitable family to which we are so much obliged. MR. VILLARS TO LADY HOWARD Berry Hill, May 27. Dear Madam,
This petition, which was signed by several nobles and by almost all the lawyers and merchants of the city of Nimes, was presented to M. de Villars on Tuesday, 22nd April, 1704, by M. de Albenas, at the head of seven or eight hundred persons of the Reformed religion.
It was the timid, pale, and unwashed face of a girl who was readily supposed to be a servant, taken from a cottage, and turned into a bringer of wood and water and a scourer of tubs and trenches. She waited in timorous silence the delivery of my message. Was Mrs. Villars at home? "No; she has gone to town." Were any of her daughters within?
Now, here, at Malplaquet, the Allies had a hard task before them. Villars held not only the glade but the woods on either side, and, moreover, sat in safety behind his extensive entrenchments. For some reason not well understood the Duke for the first time began the battle, though it would have seemed clearly his best policy to endeavour to draw Villars from the strong position he held.
"I forgot," replied Madame, "that the Duke said, 'I want extremely to be in the fashion, but which sister shall I take up? Madame de Caumont is a devil incarnate, Madame de Villars drinks, Madame d'Armagnac is a bore, Madame de la Marck is half mad." "These are fine family portraits, Duke," said Madame. The Duc de Gontaut laughed, during the whole of this conversation, immoderately.
Pressed into their service there was also the Marquise de Villars, a frantic gambler, a creature bereft of all principle and all modesty, to whom a sum of twenty thousand crowns in cash was paid over beforehand, with the promise of a million directly success was ensured. She undertook to manage Rohan and tell him what to do. Certain ciphers had to be used, and to these the Marquise had the key.
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