The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-12-29
A HISTORIC MYSTERY SOLVED
The Alleged Identity of the Man In the
Iron Mask.

The Alleged Identity of the Man In the
Iron Mask.
OF all the historical problems per-
haps that of the identity of the Man in
the Iron Mask has most excited intelli-
gent curiosity. But at last the mys-
terry has been solved and all doubts set
at rest by the patient Investigations of
Commandant Bakeries, of the French
army. While in garrison at Nantes,
NJ. Bakeries determined to decipher
certain dispatches of Louis XIV. and
his Minister Louvois, addressed to Mar
shall de Catinat, whose cipher system
had never been unraveled, although
many specialists had tried to master
its secret
The explanation of the historical
enigma of the Man in the Iron Mask is
found in one of these cipher dispatches
of Louvois to De Catinat After
much research and patient Flooding in
vestigation, NJ. Bakeries was enabled
to decipher the dispatch which con-
tains the actual order from the king to
tmprison the Man with the Iron Mask.
It is dated Versailles. sth July, 1891"
and consists of nothing but groups of
figures
Vivien Liable, Sig. de Bulonde, was.
then, the MAN in the Iron Mask"
who having raised the siege of Conf
against his orders and the kings
pleasure was condemned to imprison-
ment for life and to wear a mask when
ever he quilted the privacy of his cell
Bulonde, lieutenant-general of the
kings armies, entered the army young
and had a fairly brilliant military
career. During the war with Italy he
was sent with NJ. de Feuquieres to in
vest the town of Conf The first attack
on this place proved a complete failure,
and on the news of the arrival of REIN
forcements under Prince Eugene,
Bulonde was seized with panic; he
raised the siege, abandoned his wound
ed, his artillery, and the ammunition
of war. This shameful retreat pro-
voked Louis XIV. to such anger that
nothing could assuage his wrath
Cstinat's official reply to the expla-
ton demanded by the kings minister
arrived at Versailles on July 1. 1891,
and on the sth of that month, by the
famous cipher message, the extraordi
nary punishment of Bulonde was de-
creed On July Is he was imprisoned
in the citadel of Pignerol, whence he
wrote letters to the king and the min
lister trying to justify his action. His
pleas were of little avail, and in let
ter to Catinat dated August :, the king
confirmed the sentence, and from that
date nothing further was heard of NJ
de Bulonde-
The unhappy general who had re-
treated before Prince Eugence had
henceforth to expiate his fault in
prison For two years he remained in
the fortress of Pignerol. whence by
Louis order he was removed to the Isle
Ste. Marguerite, Saint-Mars. the gov
ernor of which was ordered by cele
brated dispatch to tell absolutely no
body about 1.-The general he had re-
ceived from PigneroL" In May. 179s,
Saint-Mars became governor of the
Bastile, and in September he arrived
with his ''old prisoner of Pignerol, who
was always obliged to wear a mask of
black velvet, and of whom no one has
ever known his name or estate"
Five years afterwards, in November.
1908, the man with the mask died and
was buried in the cemetery of St Paul
under the name of Marchialy. This
historic puzzle, has, then, been spoiled
of its dramatic mystery by VI. Bakeries,
and henceforth history will know NJ.
de Bulonde as the Legendary prisoner in
the iron mask--St James Budget