The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-11-05
ANOTHER SOLUTION.
Letter of Louie XVI on the Mystery
of the Man i'm the Iron Mask.
Sr,,.i Eold u

Springfield Mass) Republican.
The mystery of the man in the iron mask
seems to be solved at last. A long letter in
cipher addressed by Louis XIV to his
Minister Of War, the Marquis De Louvois,
which is kept in the archives of the Min
istry at Paris, has after repeated futile eff
forts been deciphered, and proves to be an
order to convey Gen. De Buonde to the
fortress Of Pignerol, for having raised the
ders. This happened in 1869 The King d.
reefs that the generals face should be con-
cealed under a 'loup," or black velvet
somewhat disappointing. A considerable IL
brary has been written in the attempt to
solve this mystery. and many of the
That the mysterious prisoner was the son
of Anne of Austria, queen of Louis XIII,
was twin brother of Louis XIV, born
a few hours later, and thus disposed
of to avoid the chance of a dispute over
the kingdom; that he was the Count of
Vermandios, a son of Louis XIV and La
Valliere; that he was the Duke of Mon
Lucy Walters; that he was the Duke of
Beaufort, leader in the instruction Of
the Fronde; that he was Fouquet, the Min
lister of Finance whom Louis replaced by
the great genius Colbert; that he was creole
Matthioli, secret agent of the Duke of
Mantau. who divulged political intrigue
dozen other conjectures have been worked
out assiduouSly by students of history
Dates have been proved which have ruined
almost all these hyoOtheses. That the pris-
oner could not have been the Duke of Mon-s
mouth is proved not by the alleged fact OF
his beheading in 16S5-for he might have
been spared that doom-but by the dis
covery that the mysterious prisoner be-
gan to serve his sentence at least six wears
SenTs before ha Tb now believed sixteen
peared the strongest for a long time, but
mat too was spoiled by dates, which are
insuperable evidences. What has been
pretty we'll proved is that one Saint Mars
commandment at Pignecol a fortress on the
borders e or savoy for sixteen years previous,
frontier of Piedmont, and then brought
with him two prisoners, borne in a litter
closely guarded; that one of these died he
fore January, 1857. and that the remaining
one went with him, with the same ca,~e. TO
the island of st. Marguerite and that when
saint san Mars became governor of the Bastile
1913, such prisoner, his face covered with
a black velvet mask fastened by steel
springs, accompanied him. The chain of
dates is quite complete. and the excessive
precautions taken TO prevent the man from
making himself known to anyone has bean
often described. Indeed nearly ali this NAV
be found in the cyclopedias and ma nv,
books have been written about the mvsfe.-v
and Dumas pere made it the subject of one az
his most fascinating movers. The whole
story tends TO show how arbitrary the
kings will was in those DAYS; how MANY
mysterious disappearances there were-for
all these persons who have been made
possible victims dropped out of public life
in unexplained ways; and how simply re-
Vengeful the motive of the sovereign was
If it was General Bulonde who was the
man of the iron mask, how disproportion-
ate his offense seems to the punishment
which secluded him for thirty-four years
from all communication with his kind
save with his jailer. and how absurd the
secrecy which compelled the burning of
every. vestige of his linen, lest he should
somehow have inscribed il with his name
and story. and the destruction after his
death in the Bastile of all he had worn or
used. 1t was an age of small things. big
though they seemed to the Grand Mon
araue" and his fellows