ABSTRACT
With Pierre de Vaudreuil trapped in the confines of the Bastille, the Marquis and his Marquise fully understood they had little hope for privacy and no basis upon which to claim the protection of confidentiality for their correspondence. One might draw an analogy to the capture of ships like the Two Sisters. When historians justify the value of the information revealed by exposing the past, they mirror the prize court's demand for a rationale, generally through the admission of suspicious letters, for the capture of vessels like the Two Sisters. Historical interpretations of the Seven Years' War often are framed in terms of elite correspondence that recreates with great accuracy the political strategy and military nature of the conflict, or the economic impact of this war. A remarkable volume of orders, memoranda, official edicts, letters concerning intelligence, campaign information, orders, and first-hand war experiences has been parsed and analyzed by historians.
