TheCodeBreakers
the great French tradition of expertise in cryptology had been founded.
Rossignol very quickly established himself in the royal service. By
1630, his solutions had made him rich enough to build a small but
elegant chateau at Juvisy, 12 miles south of Paris, later surrounding it
with a charming informal garden designed by Le Notre, the gardener of
Versailles. Here Louis XIII stopped to visit the young crypt-analyst in
1634, 1635 and 1636 on his returns to Paris from Fontainebleau.
In the swashbuckling court of that monarch, and then in the
resplendent one of Louis XIV, Rossignol served with an extraordinary
facility. The stronghold of Hesdin surrendered a week sooner than it
otherwise would have because he solved an enciphered plea for help, and
then composed a reply in the same cipher telling the townspeople how
futile their hopes were. How many other towns he compelled to
surrender, how many diplomatic coups he made possible, how many
annaabi.ee 
