Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-06-24
WHOLE NUMBER 443.

leagues from Pignerol. Here the Monk
died in 1857. st. Mars the guard, then
removed with bis charge to Isle of ST.
Marguerite. In this Isle he spent eleven
years. In 1893, st. Mars removed him
to the Bastie at Paris, travelling thitheI
in a litter. When St. Mars halted neal
his own estate at Pluteau, the unknown
man was seen in his mask, and the peas
ants observed that he was tall, had gray
hair, and his teeth and lips were seer
through the mask.
The mask was fastened behind hi:
head by paddock and seal, SO be could
eat, drink and breath. The mask by
some has been said not to have been o.
iron, for it could not have been worn 81
long upon the face, but to have been o
black velvet, strengthened with whale
bone. His imprisonment lasted twenty
four and half years, in accordance with
the edict of Louis XIV, that he should
have nothing which could make life
agreeable.
He died in November, 1903, aged
sixty-three years. After his death his
keepers scraped and whte-washed his
prison walls. The doors and window
frames were burned, and all the metal
vessels which had been used in bis SER
vice were melted down. When the re-
cords of the Bastile were made public
in 1889, the register was searched in vain
for anything that would throw light on
this affair, but the leaf of the register
which contained it had been carefully
removed. But the history of it was
found and extracted from documents in
the French Archives by Hon. Geo. Agar
Ellis, and may now be found ensbrineG
in volume entitled, "The Curiosities Of
History" From the writings of the
above named author, I learned the facts,
from which l have ventured to write this
article. Such is the true story of the
Iron Mask.
The story of Melchisedec is @rapt in
the grandeur and gloom of mysetry, and
| think will continue thus to be until the
swift-winged messenger of God shall
proclaim ''that time shall be no longer"
and the "Lion of the tribe of Juda" shall
prevail to open "the Book of Life" The
accounts concerning him are very mea-
ger. Without father, without mother,
without beginning of days, or end of life,
this man comes suddenly forth from
Salem, meets Abraham on bis way from
the slaughter of the kings, presents bread
and wine, blesses him, receives tithes of
all the spoils, and disappears, whittier no
one can tell.
In my perplexity, can scarce deem
him being of this earth. Was he an
Antedeluvian Had he witnessed the
deep waters Was he Shem? Was
his head covered with hair, which had
been gray before the deluge? Had that
eye of his seen Adam and Eve? Had
his young hand toyed with their coats of
skins Or was he a transient incarna-
lion of the Diyinity-was this the Son
stepping down upon the stage of his al
ter-labors before the time ? can not
tell. The mystery is as yet impenetra-
BILE. Stat nominiS Wmbra. We know
only that be was so great that Abraham
gave him tenth part of the spoils--that
he is called king, priest, and one of
the most striking emblems of the Son of
God. He is the only specimen of a dy-
nasty Of monarch-priests, who remind me
n magnitude and in mystery, of the
mighty creatures which tenanted the still
cooling chaos Of toe primeval planet.
A. j. SANBoRN.
Albany, VT, June 9th, 1864.