The morning news., 1894-11-25
THE IRON MASK RAISED.
The Identity Oi,the Mysterious Prisoner
Of the BaStiIle.

WA venal Statesman Who Sold
and Resold Him Incurred the En-
,ni+v Of a King-Believed to be the
Twin Brother of Louis xIv.-Why
NAPOLEON Bonaparte Tacitly Encour-
aged the Popular Belief.
From the Pfttsburg Dispatch.
Paris. Nov. l0.-For $50 years the curious
,.--li has been tormented with the desire
f., l.now who was The Man of the Iron
Mask Enough books-history, controversy
,onanee--have been written on the subject
30 fill q library. Sober-minded people had
given uu the questions as one Of those rid
dies Of the past which can now never be
solved. But. in these days when all the
old state papers are open to examination,
arfthe least bit of register or manuscript
is studied by professional historians, the
truth is almost sure to COME out sooner or
later. and NJ Funck- -Brentano has found
it for The Man of the Iron Mask. In a few
weeks he will publish all the known docu-
mgats in the case, with the story year by
year of how the rarious supposition about
it arawup. The general reader may make
tu his mind in the matter from the follow
ing summary, which is the first to be pub
Ishe1.
The main fact is best told in the words
Of the Register Of the BastilIe. containing
the entry made at the time of the mystic
rious prisoners commitment.
"0n Thursday, the 18th day Of septem-
her 1898. at O'Clock of the afternoon, NJ.
NTpru 1FR IL Tt1.- q
the Bastllle, arrived for his first entrance
into office, coming from his government of
the Islands OF Saint-Marguerite having
brought with him in his litter former
prisoner Of his at Pignerol, whom he
obliges to keep himself always masked
ana whose name is not told"
The mask, another passage of the reg
lister notes, was of black velvet
This prisoner lived in the BastilIe as
he had entered it, masked and nameless
and Communicating with no one under the
governors special care until the 18th of
November, l703, when he died and was
buried in the cemetery of Saint PalIl
Even the OfGcars of the Bastille had no
knowledge Of who he was or why he had
be confined. They only knew that he had
been long subjected to this strange con-
dnement for NJ. de Saint Mars, whose
prisoner he had already been at Pigner-
d. left that place in August, 1861, II years
belDlE MS coming TO the IdSullle.
The curiosity of the officers regarding
the man whom the king keptso jealousy
separated from the rest of men, natur-
ally communicated itself to the public.
Louis XIV died in Ills after a reign of
more than seventy years, and tongues
could Was more freely, AT last. in 1745
an intriguing lady of the court printed
ANONYMOUSLY a-book whose scandals were
thnly disguised under the name of Sc
cret Memoirs to Serve for the History of
Persia" She set down openly the names
of the courtiers of the preceding reign.
According to her the Man Of the Iron
Mask was the Due de Netlnandois, the
lllegiumate son of Louis XIV, by the
beautiful Louise de la Vailliere, In a mo-
meat of temper he had struck the dauphin.
legitimate son and heir to the crown, and
had been punished with perpetual con-
hnemeut
NoI,atre, who had all the instincts of
sensational journalist before Journalism
was invented, saw at once the profit to
be derived from the story of the man with
the mask. He had himself just been shut
mp in the Bastille so that he was some
tang of an authority on the famous pris-
on. lie was then bringing out his work
ON the Century of Louis the Four
1eenth' He put into the book a para
graph about an event which, he says, lis
without example and, what is no less
ant of it," Without troubling himself
10 give any authority for his story, he
Went on 10 say that it happened shortly
after 1861, when Cardinal Mazarin died
ana Louis XIV took the government into
ms own hands. At that time prisoner
OF greater than ordinary stature, young
and Of most handsome and noble form,
was sent under strict secrecy to the is
iaAu OF Saipte-Marguerite. He wore a
mask with steel springs at the chin piece
allowing him to- eat with the mask still
covering his face. orders had been given
70 XIII him on the spot If he unmasKed
himself The kings minister, Louvois,
Went to see the prisoner in the island
ana spoke to him standing, with every
sign of respect. In 1880, Saint Mars, an
oIHcers of confidence, brought him Lp to
The Bastlle.
NoItaire left his readers to imagine who
SueQ a. mysterious prisoner could he. As
VIII be seen all the dates of his story ut
.sIiy Qlsa gree with the official register Of
lAe bastille, which, of course, was not
.Leh open to inspection. His clever addt-
uoH OF Inc stee springs to the mask gave
,ne name to the prisoner which has lasted.
1he Man of the Iron Mask had now be-
'Jine puzzle to the world.
Nollalre took advantage of the growing
lesehli and in his next book, Questions
On lhe Encyclopedia" he insinuated that
we only reason for keeping the prisoner
INSTANTLY masked must have been that
I'5 race wore a dangerous resemblance
l9 some one interested in securing his dis
appearance. In the next edition of his
gook he wrote openly that The Man in the
iron Mask was the half brother of Louis
NV the son of his mother, Anne Of Aus
una by Cardinal Mazarin.
rance was now in the midst of Louis
- 5 absolute and unbellevng reign, and
,ne ude Of public feeling was already turn
lug against the Bourbon kings The en-
'y opedists of Noltaire's set We're the
,tlei asitators Of public opinion. a pam
iN+sl soon appeared in which it was
'o0hdly asserted that the mysterious
PRISONER was the legitimate son Of Anne
". austria, by Louis Kill while Louis
ny was the spurious offspring substi-
-.sl by Cardinal Mazarin and the er-
."s queen for the rightful heir. This was
t'.eet attack on the kings legitimacy,
"-. :, was considered under his successor
"'..I ihe revolution broke out.
.'l ll was when the young Napoleon
.''4h1'le appeared on the scene that
legend Invented, az we have seen, 10y
'..'Is, reached It's hight. The story was
pread among the people that The
.| nf the Iron Mask-he who was the