The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-10-16 00:00:00

certain on this subjed. This letter will be depo-
sited in the Imperial library, as an historical record,
where every one may see and read its contents. It
is said, that after the public has been acquainted with
the new explanation ready to appear, the man of
the iron mask will cease to inspire the same in:crest
as he has hitherto done.— (Gazette ik Kance.)
The public is now about to be plagued with the
hundredth supposition, concerning the man of the
iron mask, in consequence of a letter which Louis
XVI. wrote to the Bishop of Arras, to have the
coffin of the Count de Vermandois verified, and
which was found to contain he bones or ashes of
some dead person of the age in which the Count
died. That Louis XVI. should be ignorant of what
was known to his ancestors, and even to the courtiers
and writers of his own times, is totally improbable.
Both the late Duke of Richelieu and Voltaire were
acquainted with the name, birth, and rank, of the
person known ander the name of the mail with the
iron mask, though in 1.0:1, this mask was of velvet
with iron springs. The particulars of this person
are now no longer mysterious, since-a manuscript
copy, in Voltaire's hand writing, is in the hands of
his niece, Madame De Villette, explaining the whole,
and which, with other inedited manuscripts of that
great Philosopher, are bequeathed by her to a lite-
rary friend, on condition of not being printed be-
fore tea years after her death. Many persons have,
however, been permitted to peruse it ; and we can
assure our readers, upon the most authentic docu-
ments, that the mast with the iron ma-k was the
son of the Queen Dowager of Louis XI 11. and the
mother of Louis XIV. by Cardinal Mazarin, to
whim she was privately married, and that he was
born in the Palais Royal at Paris 1648. It is well
known that Mazarin, though a Cardinal, had not
taken Priests orders, and that Louis XIV. always
treated him with the same respect and regard as if
he had been his parent. It was after Mazarin's
death, that the public first heard of the iron mask,
because, during his ►ife, his son was travelling
abroad with a private tutor, without knowing who
were his parents or relatives. Tins tutor dying
some time afterwards suddenly at Brussels, his
papers unfortunately discovered to young Mazarin,
his high birth, who, in consequence, went to Paz is,
and expostulated, rather imprudently, with his
mother, who, to conceal what she thought her
fa-
mily disgrace, by such a marriage, consented to
the treatment which her youngest son afterwards
experienced, and who, on account of his great
likeness to his brother, Louis XIV. was obliged to
wear a black velvet mask over his face. I le. %vac,
however, treated, ie his confinement, with all the
respea due to a Prince of the blood, and even the
governor of the Riede dared not sit down in his
pres-oce, without his permission. Ile was always
served upon plate, with the choicest dishes and wines,
and wore the finest clothes and linen. Except his
liberty, he could command every thing, and even•
one about him. 'these particulars, Voltaire had out
only from his friend, the old Duke of Richelieu,
but from the Duke of Orleans, the Regent under
the minority of Louis XV. The letter of Louis
XVI. to the Bishop of Arras can, therefore, be
nothing else hut a mere matter of curiosity on the
part of this Ptinee, if it he real ; but many think it
one of the many tahricated in his name by the Ja-
cobins of 1794 and I 793.—(Matezie d'diucviars).