The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-03 00:00:00

DOLMAN'S MAGAZINE.

This clever periodical maintaint, its career of improve-
ment. The present Number has sonic papers of peculiar
ability and interest. " Pictorial Art in its Christian
Development," is a Vasari-like piece of biography, but
much disfigured by a species of pictorial puritanism which
cannot away with the human loveliness of the type of
Raffaelle's second manner, but is moved to ecstatic
rapture by the tiny, though certainly 4-vated ex-
pression—the deep sentiments not a little marred
by the hard drawing of Perugino, the early master of
the " divine Urbino," and the penultimate glory of the
Umbrian school. The noble itreations of the Florentine
school, the delicious *orltg of those master-hands whose
labotirs Were consecrated to the titstN elegance, and
munificence of Lorenzo de Medieisi are stigmatised as
Pertaining to a school of " naturalism ;" and Raffaele
himself—the great and good--4s mourned over as hay-
ing passed over; liter painting his great picture of
the " DispDispute of flit! Orly Sitdittlent,4l to Paganism (i)
forsooth, in which relapsed State he continued all
the rest of his too short life, because—he never
more returned to the hard style of the "Christian" art
of Perugino. The writer of this paper may be a good
Catholic, but he is a very bigoted critic. It is strange
that even the chastened grace with which Raffaelle has
developed his exquisite, his unapproachable perception
of female beauty, cannot—in his second manner—pro-
tect him or his admirers from that preposterous charge
of " naturalism," (i. e. materialism), which M. Rio and
Rutnohr (or his lialianische Forschuagen) have brought
into vogue, We have been sometimes at a loss to account
for the sudden irruption of a species of vandalism, or heresy
in art, thus directed against the prince of painters.
'rho almost contemporaneous origin of this twaddle,
with the " sudden apparition" (as we somewhere, lately,
saw it termed) of two score of German students at the
Vatican, at the " Santa Marie del Popolo," and other
old churches of Rome, who had discovered that the
pictures of what the writer whose paper is Row before
us calls the " Peruginesque style" were pervaded by a
feeling of m re orthodox Catholicism than those pro-
duced by Raffaelle between 1510 and 1520 (in
which latter year he died). The consequence was
that they returned to Bavaria, to produce those
clever—certainly—but stiff, hard, and mannered
frescoes, which are the pAttern types of a school that
an overweening but ill-info-med taste—directed by still
more deficient sentiment and knowledge, is now attempt
ing to introduce, under some such meretricious and un-
meaning appellation as that of "decorative art"—into
the at, ia and slloons of our great public edifices. 01
" Darky D:iff, the Madman," a tale of South Munster,
being rudely broken off at its "agony point" of interest,
we have no means, as yet, of reporting any formed
opinion, but it seems likely to turn out a clever sketch.
" Anecdotes of the Bastille" are continued in this Num-
ber, and serve to renew the feeling of astonish.
ment amounting almost to indignant conteiner—
with which we have ever contemplated the marvel
of a great and gallant nation like the France of
the last two centuries, submitting, tamely, to the bru-
tality arid wantonness of an abuse of despotic power,—
far, very far more disgustingly atrocious than any which
was ever habitually. tolerated by the abject slaves of
the Ottoman Sultans, or the but half-Tivilised serfs of
the great Khans of Tartary. We allude, of course, to
the lettres de-cachet, and the horrors perpetrated
under their authority. In the continuation of the
" Countess Clemence, ' by the editor, we recognise
further evidence of those powers which we have
before described as being generally exhibited
in his former chapters. But the most interesting sub-
ject for extract will probably be the following notice of
the " Iron Masque," in the note to which we need
scarcely point to the iron-heartedness of the modern
Bourbons' remarks on traditions that dye the bad memory
of their wicked house so deeply as these.

On the 18th of September, 1698, arrived at the Bastile, sl.
de St. Mars, its newly-appointed governor, and with him,
concealed in a closed litter, the my-terious prisoner known
by the name of "Le Masque de Fer." In the fortresses of
Pignerol, Exiles, and Les Isles Sainte Marguerite, he had
already languished in captivity since the year 1671. He was
always treated with the greatest distinction, and provided
with everything he required or asked for. The Governor,
and M. Rosarges, the Major of the Castle, alone had access to
the prisoner, in whose presence they rarely presumed to sit
down. He wore at all times a mask of black velvet, so se-
cured upon his face that he was unable to remove it, yet so con-
structed as to admit of his seeing, eating, and breathing with
facility. He died, as it was reported, suddenly, on the 19th of
November, 1743, after an indisposition of a few hours, was
wrapped in a winding-sheet of new linen, and buried next day
in the cemetery of St. Paul, under the name of Marchiali, in
the presence of M. Rosarges and the Sergeant-surgeon of the
Bastille. The funeral cost forty livrea. He had been a pri.
loner at the Bastille five years and sixty-two-days. •
Everything in the room which he had occupied was carefully
destroyed, including bedstead, bed furniture, tables, chairs,
and other utensils. Every silver or metal article used
by the prisoner was melted down. The chamber he had
tenanted was entirely renovated, its walls scraped and repainted,
and doors and window frames burnt. On the burial registry
of St. Paul's cemetery, his age is stated to have been forty-
Ave years—an obvious and premeditated inaccuracy, as he was
at least thirty years older. The precautions enforced in regard
of " Le Masque de fer" during his captivity in the Bastile were
all calculated to excite the public curiosity respecting him to
the highest pitch.
When he assisted at mass, he was expressly ordered neither
to speak nor exhibit himself, and soldiers stood by him with
loaded muskets to enforce obedience. He was accustomed to
he indulged in every gratification consistent with the severity
of close incarceration, particularly in his inordinate love of fine
linen, lace, and rich plate. From the year 1671, until his
death, 'le Masque de fort had never been removed from the
custody and imthediate surveillance of St. Mars. His h story
antttedently to 1871, when he must have been upwards of
thirty years old, is a blank impenetrable mystery ! It is stated
that the prisoner one day wrote his name on the back of a
plate, which a servant, thinking thereby to pay his court to the
governor, placed in his hands, and was rewarded fur his
officiousness by the loss of his life. On another occasion, when
confined at Pignerol, the mask had contrived to write some
communication upon a shirt which a peasant found floating
upon the water of the castle ditch, and brought to the go-
vernor. St. Mars rigidly questioned him, and was apparently
not satisfied with the peasant's assurance that he could not
read, for, two days after, the man was found dead in his bed.
Le Masque de fer' lytguiled his hours of captivity with music,
and was a proficient on the guitar. By the surgeon of the
Bastille, who was occasionally called in to attend him, he was
described as being a very well-made man, with a clear brown
skin, and a soft plea*ine voice. It is alleged, that the day
after the burial of • le Masque de fer,' the gravedigger was in-
duced, by a heavy bribe, to re-open the grave, for the purpose
of examining the body, which was discovered to have been de-
prived of its head, in lien of which a large stone had heed
substituted. Louis X V., during his minority had been very
solicitous to know the secret of le Masque de fer ;' which,
however, was only revealed to him by the Regent, Orleans, on
the day he assumed the reins of government. The young king
was observed to receive the important communication with

• After all the theories broached and volumes written upon
the question of " le Masque de fer," the subject remains as
deeply involved in mystery as ever. He has been at times
supposed to be the Duke of Beaufort, the Duke of Monmouth,
the Superintendent Fouquet, the secretary of the Duke of
Mantua, an elder or younger brother of Louis Xi V., or the
Comte de Vermandois, a natural son of Louis XIV. by Mdlle.
de la Valliere. None of these eonjectures, however plausibly
handled, carry conviction. Every record tending to throw
light up .in the identity of this remarkable captive, had been
carefully suppressed. Louis XV. was heard to say, in refe-
rence to the conjectures rife respecting him, " Laisse-les dis-
puter, personne n'a encore dit la verite stir le Masque de fer."
One day the Due de Choiseul pressed Louis XV. on the sub-
ject, but could obtain from him nothing mere, " Sinor. que
de tout ce qu'on avast imprime jusque hi stir le Masque de fer,
it n'y avait pas un mot de vrai ; et que de toutes les conjec-
tures qu'on avait faites la-ilessus, it n'y en avait pas une de
vraie." Napoleon vainly endeavoured to ascertain the real
history of le Masque de fer, and was known to have ex-
perienced bitter mortification at finding himself foiled in all his
attempts to unriddle the mystery. Louis XVIII. being ques-
tioned on the subioct, drily replied, " crest nn aecret de