The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-05-09
THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.

40 tLdb Vi tu6 ndl III the iron MASK,
who was imprisoned in France, nearly
two hundred years ago. by the order OF
King Louis XIV. He died in the Bastile
in 1903, and from that day to this it has
never been found out who he really was.
All sorts OF stories have been told
about the unfortunate man, who not
only spent so many dreary years in
prison, but was compelled to have his
face always covered with e mask. But
no one saw him in an iron one, which
would have been too horrible. Yet the
prisoner probably found his black vel
vetcoVering, fastened with steel springs,
intolerable enough. 1t was never re-
moved. Sleeping or waking, in hot
weather or cold, sick or well, the suffo-
eating thing had to be worn, and it
seems a wonder that it did not drive
him insane.
For long time this mysterious pris-
oner was confined in different prisons
on some islands in the Mediterranean,
known as the Marguerite Islands. He
was removed from thence when M. De
Saint Mars, the Governor of the state
prison there, accepted the GoVernorship
of the Bastile, the great prison of Paris.
He was carried in closed litter, accom-
panied by the Governor, M. De Saint
Mars, and several armed men on horse
back When they stopped for meals,
the prisoner always sat with his back to
the windows, and the Governor had
pistols beside his plate They were at
tended by single valet, Antoine Ru.
The servant who waited on them did not
come into the dining-room, but the
dishes were taken from him and re-
turned in an ante-chamber after the din
ing-room door had been carefully closed
Poor man! he was closely watched,
and he was said to have been richly
dressed, and served by the Governor
himself on Bonded knee with dainty food
on rich silver plate. But what a mock
cry all this outward show of respect
must have seemed to prisoner who
was threatened with death if he re-
moved his sitting mask for moment,
or attempted to speak to any one except
those who had charge of him!
In spite, however, of the dreadful
risk he ran, he did try, when in the
fortress of Pignerol, the gloomiest of all
gloomy places, with the rough sea dash
ing up against its rocky wall, to make
his hard fate known to the outer world
He engraved some words on a silver
plate, which he threw from the window
of his dungeon to the narrow beach be-
low. A fisherman who was passing in
a boat saw the glitter ofthe metal, and
landed to pick it up. Not being able to
read the words which the poor despair
ing man in the mask had written, and
thinking it might be lost article of
great value, the honest fisherman gave
up his prize to the keeper of the prison.
Far from receiving any reward, he
was closely questioned, and escaped be-
ing put to death only because he could
not read word; but he was obliged to
leave the neighborhood as quickly as
possible. Two other persons who found
a linen shirt with words marked on it,
and who were not so ignorant as the
fisherman, were said to have died very
soon afterward without any apparent
cause.
The Man in the Iron Mask spent five
years in the famous state prison of the
Bastile, which was destroyed by the
mob in the beginning of the French
Revolution. For over four hundred
years this strongest and most hopeless
of prisons had held men and women of
all ranks, many of whom languished
there without the ordinary comforts of
life, for no crime whatever, but merely
to crafty the malice of some powerful
rival. 1t has been thought that the
masked prisoner was a twin brother of
Louis XIV, whose birth was carefully
concealed from every one outside of the
royal family, and that he was disposed
of in this way to prevent the trouble
that would arise from two heirs to the
throne His life was spared, because il
the acknowledged heir died it would be
desirable to produce him as his lawful
successor.
He was said to resemble Louis XIV.
so strongly that it would be dangerous
to have his features seen by any one, and
this led to the uncomfortable mask. A
picture of him looking through the
grated window of his cell in the Bastile,
with two armed soldiers watching his
slightest movement, is very sad; nc
could see so little, between his mask
and the prison bars, and the guards
had orders to fire upon him ii he made
the slightest attempt to attract notice
outside.
MANY persons who did not believe
that the Man in the Iron Mask was a
brother of Louis XVI. have tried to
prove that he was Count de Matthioli,
an agent of the Duke of Mantua, who
employed him in some negotiations with
the King of France. The Count was
accused by the French of having be-
trayed one of their state secrets; and
the angry monarch imprisoned him for
life in way that effectually prevented
him from telling anything more.
But the real truth about this most I'M
fortunate of prisoners has never yet
come to light All we know of his
death is the following entry taken from
the journal of Dajunca, the chief turn
key of the Bastile. He writes: ''On
Monday, the 10Th of November, 1903,
the unknown prisoner who had contin-
ually worn a black velvet mask, and
whom Saint Mars had brought with
him from the island of Sainte Mar
guerite, died to-day, about ten o'clock
in the evening, having been yesterday
taken slightly i'll He had been long
time in NJ. De Saint Mars hands, and
his illness was exceedingly trihing."
When he died in the Bastile every ar
ticle of clothing and furniture that had
been used by him was destroyed; and
even the walls we're scraped Tor fear
that he might have scratched something
on them that would tell the reader who
ne was.
How it came that the mask was sup
posed to be iron. no one knows. Some
one who saw him at distance wearing
the black thing may have fancied that
it was an instrument of torture made of
iron, and have so described it. It would
be very interesting even at this late
day to find out who the poor victim of
such inhuman cruelty was, but it does
not seem likely, after all these years,
that the world will ever know him by
any other name than that of the s'Man
in the Iron Mask. Ella RodDaan
Church, IN Harper's Young People.