Chapter LVII: Letter XLVI: PARIS, Friday Evening, Aug. 16, 1675

At length, my dear, M. de la Trousse is found. I admire his good fortune in this affair: after having performed wonders at the head of his battalion, he was surrounded by two squadrons of the enemy’s horse, so completely, that no one knew how it would end; when on a sudden he finds himself prisoner to----Whom? The Marquis de Grana, with whom he was intimate for six months at Cologne, and with whom he had cultivated a close friendship. You may judge how he will be treated; he has a pretty little wound, which will furnish him with an excellent plea for passing the vintage at La Trousse; for there is no reason to doubt that he will be released on his parole; and, what is still better, will meet with the most favorable reception at court. Nothing can exceed the congratulations and compliments that have been made him by all his friends on this occasion. I really pity him for having so many thanks to return: if he were to have carved his own fortune, could he have done it more completely to his wish? As for honest Sanzei, we have no news of him, which does not look well. Marshal de Créqui is at Trèves, at least it is so reported, and that his people saw him cross the river, with three others, in a miserable little boat. His wife is distracted with grief, not having heard a syllable from himself; for my part I really think he has been drowned, or else killed by the peasants on his way to Trèves. In short, matters appear to go badly on all sides, La Trousse excepted.