The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-12-28
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- tery has been solved and all doubts set at rest by the patient investigations of Commandant Bazeries, of the French army. While in garrison at Nantes, M Bazaries determined to decipher certain dispatches of Louis XIV. ard his Minister Louvois, addressed to Mar shal de Catinat, whose cipher system had never been unravelei, 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 plodding in- vestigation, M. Bazeries was enabled to decipher the dispatch which con tains the actual order from the king to imprison the Man with the Iron Mask. It is dated Versailles. Sth July, 1G91," |" and consists of Rothing but groups of figures.
 Vivien Labbe, 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.
 Catinat's official reply to the eXpla- tion demanded by the kings minister arrived at Versailles on July l, 1891, and on the Sth of that month, by the famous cipher message, the eXtraordi- nary punishment of Bulonde was de- creed. On July l5 he was imprisoned wrote letters to the king and the min ister 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 R. de Bulonde.
 The unhappy general who had re- treated before Prince Eugence had henceforth to eXpiatc 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 a cele- brated dispatch to tell absolutely mo- body about the general he had re- ceived from PigneroL" In May, l79S, 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, 1703, 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 it's dramatic mystery by M. Bazeries, and henceforth history will know NJ. de Bulonde as the legendary prisoner in the iron mask.-St. James Budget