The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1867-09-05


cruelty, apparently with the design of get
ting rio of him without committing palpa-
ble murder. The young prince was shut
up in cell and left there alone day and
night, without employment or amusement,
or any opportunity for exercise or 10 breathe
/ fresh air. A vessel of water, seldom re-
| plenished, was given him for drink, and
some coai Sc food was occasionally thrown
in at the half opened door. He was al
lowed no means of washing himself, his
bed was not made for six months, and
for more than year his clothes, his shirt,
and his shoes were not changed. BY pro-
longed inactivity his limbs became rigid,
and his mind, through terror, grief and
monotony, became imbecile and deranged.
Something that he had said, in reply TO
| questions, having been perverted to the
injury of his mother, he resolved hence
forth to be silent, and for long period
neither threats, nor blows, nor coaxings
could induce him to speak. When not
| sleeping he sat quietly in his chair, with
out utterlng sound or shedding a tear,
or shrinking from the rats, with which his
dungeon swarmed. Louis, after the reign
of terror, was placed under the care of
more merciful keepers, but he was still
kept in solitary confinement, and not al
lowed to see his sister, who was imprison-
ed IN an adjoining apartment. AT length,
IN May, 1895, physician was allowed to
see him, who pronounced him dying of
scrofula. He died at 2 p. NJ, in the arms
of LeSne, one of his keepers, and the next
! day, June 0, his body was identified and
| Il l. l. 1 Il
mittee of Public Safety, and by more than
| twenty of the officials of the Temple. His
remains were buried in the cemetry of ST.
| Marguerite, and every trace of me grave
carefully oblterated. Several pretenders,
claiming to be Louis XVII have appeared;
among them, in France, Hervagart, a tai
lor's son, who died in 1912, in prison, and
| Bruneau, a shoemaker, who was sent to
! prison in 1902; and in the United States,
the Rev. Eleazer Williams, halt, breed In-
dian, who died III 1859.
] MAN N TIE IRON MASK.
! Within the walls Of the Bastile during
| the reign of Louis XIV, was enacted the
inexphcable mystery, which has continued
a mystery to this day, of the Man IN the
/ Iron Mask. When first heard of he was
confined in the Marguerite Islands, in the
| Mediterranean, whence he was removed
! by De Saint Mars, who was his private
| governor, and answerable, 1t is supposed,
for his safety with his own life, to the
| Bastile, where he died, on November 10,
| 1903, and was buried on the 10th, in the
cemetery Of St. Paul, under the name of
Machiati. No man, except the governor,
30 far as is known, ever saw his face, or
heard his voice; two persons, to whom he
! had conveyed written words, in one case
marked upon linen shirt, in the other
engraved on a silver plate, died, without
apparent cause, Immediately afterwards
| During his conveyance from the Marguer-
ite Isles, De Saint Mars dined at the same
table and slept In the same chamber with
! him, with pistols ever at hand ready TO
destroy him, IN case of an attempt on his
part to reveal himself In the Bastile he
WAS waited on, at table and at his toilet,
by the governor, who took charge and de-
stroyed all the linen he once used. He
was never seen but with a mask of black
velvet, fastened behind his head with steel
springs and when he went to hear mass,
the invalids, who were IN charge of him
with muskets and Lighted matches, were
instructed to fire On him instantly in case
of his speaking or showing bis face. A
hundred conjectures have been risked as
to who this mysterious person was, who
was treated with such respect, yet with
such jealous rigor-whose life was held
sacred against taking off, yet made one
scene of incessant misery. The absence
6 - tl.,
stage of history to account for such pre-
cautions battles all inquiry. The general
! idea seems TO be that he was an elder
brother Of Louis XIV, the fruit of an
adulIerous intrigue between Anne of Aus
tria and the Duke of Buckingham, or
some other unknown lover. who being
born il wedlock, could not have been dis
possessed of his claim to the throne had
his existence been admitted.
THE CHILDREN IN THE TOWER
The amour of Edward the Fourth suc-
gested to his brother, the Duke of Gloster,
| afterward the notorious Richard Ill, a
means of attaining the throne. He even
did not hesitate to malign his own mother,
affirming that the resemblance Of Edward
| ". and of the Duke of Clarence TO noto-
rious gallants, was sufficient proof of
their spurious birth. and that the Duke of
Gloster alone, of all his sons, appeared by
his features and countenance to be the
true offspring of the Duke of York
Shakespeare and history have made the
murder of the babes in the Tower a famil-
lar story, as well as that of the numerous
pretenders, among whom were Lambert
Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, SO it is un-
necessary to give a recapituiation here
The account of Sir Thomas More, which
| was COLLECTED from the confession of the