St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-09-24

last, for Capt. Bakeries of the
French army. stationed at Nantes,
has deciphered the dispatches be-
tween Louis XIV and the duke de
Louvois relating to the prisoner of
Pignerol and the Bastile. He was
Gen. de Buloude, and his offense was
raising the siege of Conf in Piedmont
in 1851, against orders and without
necessity, thus endangering the sue
cess of the campaign in the war then
waging. The dispatch ordering
Bulonde's arrest directed that he
should be allowed to walk every day
on the ramparts of the citadel, his
face being concealed by a mask.
The discovery of his identity, which
is said to be absolutely certain,
leaves the riddle of his punishment
wholly untouched. The dates do
not agree with any of those here
tofore given for the beginning OF the
imprisonment of the wearer OF the
mask. These vary according to the
several theories as to his identity,
the earliest being 1862, which would
have made the term of imprisonment
Al years, since he died in 1903,
whereas, if he was Bulonde, it was
but - years. The most that had, be-
fore this discovery of Capt. Bazerles,
been placed beyond dispute was
that in September, 1893, the mys-
FERROUS parsonage was brought
from the island fortress of Ste. Mar
guerite (where later Bazaine was
imprisoned for worse treachery
than Bulonde's), by Saint Mars.
who then exchanged the governor
ship of Ste. Marguerite for that OF
the Bastile. The prisoner wore a
mask of black velvet fastened with
steel springs, and he was closely
watched by the governor, with
pistols ready to kill him should he
make an effort to remove his mask
or speak with anyone. Saint Mars,
himself attended him at his meals
and his toilet, and removed his
clothing, carefully examining and
sometimes destroying it, lest he
should have in some way marked it
so as to reveal something After his
death everything belonging to him
was burned. The Iron Mask was
always most gentle and resigned,
and no authentic instance is known
of an attempt on his part to make
his secret known. These circun-
stances seem too strange to recon-
Gle with Bulonde's case,-but so they
do with the hypothesis of Count
Matthioli, the Marquis FOuquet and
almost all the rest ,-eXcepting those
theories which are utterly baseless,
as that he was the child of Anne of
Austria, queen of Louis XIII, and
the duke of Buckingham, or twin
brother of Louis, XIV, born few
hours after him, and disposed of
thus to avoid dispute about the
succession. Plays, poems, and ro-
mances have been written about the
man in the iron mask, of which the
romance of Dumas so entitled is the
best known. When the transla-
ton of Capt. Bakeries shall have been
published, AS they probabl will be
by the French war department, then
there will be more ground for specula
ton about the reason for the singular
ity of the vengeance Of LIE Grand
Monarque, and especially why it
should have gone so far las one
story has it, as to require that
when the prisoner was dead his face
should be beaten out of shape and
cut in pieces so as to prevent recog
milton. What object was to be gain
ed by concealing the fact that it was
Gen. de Bulonde, who was punished
so for treachery p Springfield Re-
publican.