While Catinat's army manoeuvred on the Piedmontese plain Marquis de Saint-Ruth took most of the exposed Duchy of Savoy, routing the Savoyard forces; only the great fortress of Montmélian, less than 60 km north of Grenoble, remained in ducal hands.
It was built by the PLM and opened on 15 September 1864 (as a double track) to provide a link between Grenoble and Montmélian.
In 1341 Humber married Andrée (Andrea), heiress of Arvillars, near Montmélian, and established a local dynasty there: his eldest son, Humbert II, inherited Arvillars, and his second, Amadeus, held the lordship of Mollettes.
He went to France in 1690 with his cousin, the Honourable Colonel Arthur Dillon, in whose regiment, as Colonel-Commandant, he was killed at Montmélian in 1691.