Mars or his lieutenant brought food for the day, drove captives
mad.

In January, 1680, two prisoners, a monk[1] and one Dubreuil, had
become insane. By February 14, 1680, Mattioli was daily conversing
with God and his angels. "I believe his brain is turned," says
Saint-Mars. In March, 1680, as we saw, Fouquet died. The
prisoners, not counting Lauzun (released soon after), were now
five: (1) Mattioli (mad); (2) Dubreuil (mad); (3) The monk (mad);
(4) Dauger, and (5) La Riviere. These two, being employed as
valets, kept their wits. On the death of Fouquet, Louvois wrote to
Saint-Mars about the two valets. Lauzun must be made to believe
that they had been set at liberty, but, in fact, they must be most
carefully guarded IN A SINGLE CHAMBER. They were shut up in one of
the dungeons of the "Tour d'en bas." Dauger had recently done
something as to which Louvois writes: "Let me know how Dauger can
possibly have done what you tell me, and how he got the necessary
drugs, as I cannot suppose that you supplied him with them" (July
10, 1680).[2]


[1] A monk, who MAY have been this monk, appears in the following
essay, p. 34, infra.

[2] Lair, Nicholas Foucquet, ii., pp. 476, 477.


Here, then, by July, 1680, are the two valets locked in one dungeon
of the "Tour d'en bas." By September Saint-Mars had placed
Mattioli, with the mad monk, in another chamber of the same tower.