The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-09

IOpm DOOk, concerning the Identity OF the |
''Nan with the Iron Mask 1t will be seen |
that the statement of the AHengun1 that NJ. |
Topin had discovered the prisoner to be no
other than De Lauzun-one of the difficulties
in maintaining which theory was pointed out
lis entirely false. The article contains some
highly interesting extracts from the book and
we translate it in full
''The publishers Didier & Dentu, who issue
to-day the work of NJ Marus Topin which
has been so impatiently expected, have fur
nished us with sufficient extracts from the
book to enable us to Judge of the definite re-
suit of the researches of this writer. Some
Of these we print in this connection
| Upon the 18th September, 1893, at
o'clock in the afternoon, the Sieur of Saint
Mars, arriving at the islands of st. Margue-
rite, entered the chateau of the Bastille, of
which he had just been appointed Governor.
In the carriage with him was a prisoner whose
face Yas covered with mask of black velvet,
and Saint Mars, accompanied by many
mounted soldiers, had been the inseparable
and vigilant guardian of this person during
the long voyage from Provence At Palteau,
place situated between Joigny and Vile
neuve-le-Roi, and which belonged to Saint
Mars, o halt was made and the old inhabi-
4. .tants of Villeneuve long remembered having
Feen the mysterious carriage pass in the even
ng through the principal street of their town.
The remembrance of this apparition is per-
petuated in the country, and the story of the
singular incidents which we're then noticed,
passing from father to son, has come down
even to our day.
1.-The care which Saint Mars took at the
supper table to keep the back Of his prisoner
turned towards the windows, the pistols
within reach of the suspicious iailor their
beds placed side by side, all these precautions
and the mystery attending them vividly ex-
cited the curiosity of the country people, and
Furnished material for endless coniectures
AT the Bastille the prisoner was put in the
third chamber south of the tower of Bertau-
dere, this room being prepared before by
LDujonca, the turnkey, who had received a
written order from st. Mars some DAYS in
advance of the arrival.
Give years after, on Tuesday, the 2Oth
of November, 1903, at o'clock in the after
noon, the drawbridge of this renowned
fortress was lowered, and over it passed a sad
funeral cortege. A few men went silently
out bearing a corpse, which had for its
escort two subaltern officers of the Bastille,
and took their way towards the cemetery of
the Church of st. Paul.
Nothing could be more striking than the
sight of this group, which seemed to steal
furtively along under cover of the approach
ing night. Nothing could be more abandoned
or apparently more obscure than this un-
known corpse, which was followed by two
strangers in haste to finish their task. At
the grave as at the death-bed, there was no
sorrow, no regret. .The prisoner of Pro-
vence was taken ill upon Sunday, the disease
was suddenly aggravated on Monday, and the
priest of the Bastille was called too late to
administer the sacrament, and had only time
to repeat to the dying man some rapid COM
monplace exhortations. Upon the register of
the Church of st. Paul was inscribed the
name of Marchially. At the Bastille, how
ever, the prisoner was always known as the
Prisoner of Provence"
Before going on to establish the identity of
this mysterious prisoner, M. Topin has writ
ten the history of the principal personages
who are connected with the 'Man with the
Iron Mask" In his preface he Says
'T have penetrated the private life of Louis
XIII and Anne of Austria, and, in order to
prove the falsity of certain accusations which
have sullied the memory of this princess, i
have not hesitated to touch upon certain deli
cate points and meet the accusers upon their
own ground. Ihave followed others through
a career always adventurous, through an ex
istence continually agitated - some even
through captivity passed sometimes in the
monotonous inaction of solitude, and some
times with wise resignation, or even some
times varied by audacious attempts at escape
which were always thwarted by the incessan
vigilance of the most scrupulous of jailors
and Anne of Austria; the seductive Bucking-
ham; the impressive Vermandois; the versa
tile Monmouth; the adventurous Beaufort
the fearless Lauzun; Fouquet, admirable TO
mis- resignation and his Christian virtues; tn
unfortunate Matthioly and Saint Mars, who's
memory, and even whose existence, is insepa
rable from that of his prisoners"
The history of Matthioly in particular is re
lated by M. Topin with much care and will
many details entirely new. 1t is well know
that the Count Matthioly, Minister of Charlie
~, Duke of Mantua, negotiated in secret wit
Louis XIV, with view of yielding to tn
King Cassal which was at that time one
the keys of Italy. But Matthioly suddenl
broke the compact or at least retarded il
execution, by delivering the place to the en'
mics of Louis XIV. M. Topin demonstrate
the reasons, apparently well founded, of thos
who denied that Matthioly was the MAN wit
the Iron Mask, and which led him for Ion
time to think the same. 1t has been gen,
rally believed, up to the present time, tn
Matthioly, arrested near Turin, by Catinat,
1879, and afterwards at Pignerol confded
the care of Saint Mars was one of the tv
prisoners conducted by the latter in 16S
from Pignerol to the fortress of the exile
and afterwards to the Islands of st. Margu
rite. But one of the prisoners died at Il
Exiles in 1887 and, for various reasons
has been concluded that this was Matthiol
M. Topin states that the reading of a di
patch, unknown till the present time, cause
him to doubt the removal of Matthioly to Il
Exiles, and turned his researches into
entirely different channel. He has establish
in a manner positive the fact that the Mini
ter of Charles Nv was held at Pignerol, afte
AT