 For several years, from 1610 to 1619, he was French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, where he amassed a fortune of some 16,000 sterling by doubtful means, and was bastinadoed by order of Sultan Mustafa I for his frauds.One of his secretaries, named Lefevre, wrote a manuscript "Voyage de M. de Sancy , ambassadeur pour le Roi en Levant, fait par terre depuis Raguse jusques à Constantinople l'an 1611".On his return to France, Harlay joined the French Oratory and became a priest.