He asked that lady to secure for him the post of grand-master of the artillery, and on Louis's refusal to give him the appointment, he turned his back on the king, broke his sword and swore that never again would he serve a monarch who had broken his word.

Madame de Montespan had never forgiven Lauzun's fury when she failed to procure the grand-mastership of the artillery, and now, with Louvois, secured his arrest to the Bastille on 25 November 1671.

Another fellow-prisoner, from communication with whom he was supposed to be rigorously excluded, was Eustache Dauger (see Man in the Iron Mask), who occasionally served as valet to Fouquet.

[3] In his reports to his superiors in Paris, the prison governor, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, tells how Lauzun displayed evidence of deranged behaviour at this time: his cell was in constant disarray and he grew his beard to the point that it gave him a wild appearance.

In 1688 he was again in England, and arranged the journey into exile of Mary of Modena and the infant prince, whom he accompanied to Calais, where he received strict instructions from Louis to bring them "on any pretext" to Vincennes.

Lauzun was honest, a quality not too common in James II's officials in Ireland, but had no experience of the field, and he blindly followed Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel.

In September they sailed for France, and on their arrival at Versailles Lauzun found that his failure had destroyed any prospect of a return of Louis XIV's favour.

Queen Mary, through whose interest Lauzun secured his dukedom, retained her faith in him, and it was he who in 1715, more than a quarter of a century after the flight from Whitehall, brought her the news of the Battle of Sheriffmuir.