Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-17

varyii the original suggestion of Voltaire
| The Man of the Iron Mask represented
| sometimes as the elder, sometimes as the
| twin, and again the younger brother of
| Louis XIV, having for his father, as the
case might be- either King Louis XIII or
| Cardinal Mazarin or even the English Duke
| of Buckingham. In the English literature
| of the subject the most popular supposition
seems to have been that he was the twin
| brother of Louis NV, suppressed from his
| birth to avoid the difficulties of double
| rule.
This view was the one taken by the novel
| list Alexandra Dumas. In his ''Vicomte de
| Bragelonne' (cne of the sequels to the
Three MusketeerS), Aramis, who has be-
come an intriguing Jesuit. obtains secret
| admittance to the Man of the Iron Mask
dsclO"eS to him his identity, schoolmaSters
! him ard finally substitutes him for day
| in the place of the real king. The school
| mastering includes a good knowledge of the
| faces and characters of all the courtiers
AMI ladies about the court, and a promise
| to make him-Aramis-secret prime min
| lister when the substitution shall have be-
come an accomplished fact. How the plot
| is foiled by another of the three musk eteers
! how Louis XIV escapes and reimprisons
| his unfortunate twin brother. must be look
| ed for in the pages of the greatest novelist
! France has produced. But the last reap
| pearance of Dumas Man of the Mask Is
] when the young Ficomte de Bragelonne-
son of the third musketeer-finds silver
plate fall at his feet beside a prison-castle's
walls in a remote part of the country.
| What the Iron Mask had written on the
plate, l think Dumas has never told.
Attempts at Identification.
half dozen of historical students who
| looked into things for themselves, declared
| from time to time that the mystery of the
| Man of the Iron Mask was not so romantic
after all. They agreed in identifying the
Man of the Iron Mask with Mattioli, an
Italian minister of state. who suddenly and
| n far 1iGan rod in md
heard of more. 1t is known that Louis
| XIV had peculiar reasons for desiring his
| removal which he could not secure open
| ly, as the minister was not his subject.
| This view of the case was exposed in the
| popular Chambers Miscellany many years
| ago.
The identification was far from being
| complete. The French General Jung even
| thought he had discovered proofs that Mat
| toll died in prison in the Island of Sainte-
| Marguerite in 1694-four years before the
Man of the Iron Mask was brought up to
the Bastille. Two other investigators,
| late as last year, 1888 laboriously tried
| to prove, from the state correspondence in
| CIPHER of Louis XIV, that the prisoner was
simply the French officer Bulonde, who
had dispeased his master by his conduct
| during a siege. Popular belief settled back
into the plcasanter and more romantic
conclusion that the grand monarch" had
| somehow suppressed his brother behind
the black velvet mask with it's steel
| springs.
| What is now disclosed for the first tune
completes the final Identification Of the
| man. 1t comes from new knowledge of
| the prison registers, especially that of
| Pignerol. 1t agrees with other testimony
which has just come to light in the inces-
SAINT cleaning Of last century documents.
The Mystery Revealed.
The man of the iron mask was indeed
Count creole Antonio Nattioli secretary of
state of Charles ", Duke of Mantua
with &c hria ola
| Louis XIV was steadily advancing his
conquests on the frontiers of Savoy and
| Piedmont. The annexation of these prov
| inces, half French in language, has been a
| century long dream of the rulers OF France,
| only partly realized in our own day by the
| cession of Nice and Savoy to Napoleon III
in return for his services to United Italy.
| Pignerol had been gained for France by
| Cardinal Richelieu, who fortified Ii strong
| ly. 1t has now long been restored to the
| Italian possessions, and is known as Piner-
| olo, the last town before reaching the Val
| ley of the Wilderness. 1t commands Turin
| the capital of Piedmont, at a distance of
not twenty miles from the west Louis
| NV was anxious to secure corresponding
stronghold on the east of that city. CaSale,
which is half far again distant on the
| river Pc, fulfilled the condition. 1t belong
ed to the dominions of the Duke of Mautua,
charles OF Gonzaga, who was notorious
spendthrift in the pursuit of his own pri-
| Yate pleasure. All his affairs of state were
left to his secretary, Count Mattioli.
Louis XIV conceived the plan of buying
up both master and man. He began by the
latter, to whom he sent his ambassador in
Venice, the clever Able d'Estrades. Mat
toll agreed to everything, persuaded the
duke to consent and came on himself to
| Paris, where he received his full price from
| the king and signed the act of cession in
| his masters name. Then he hurried back
to Mantua. Louis XIV sent special envoy
from Versailles to secure the ratification of
the treaty and occupy Casale He was
| thunderstruck to learn that his envoy had
been arrested in Mantua.
| Italian Minister of State.
Mattioli had simply sold himself over
again to the kings enemies, Austria, Spain,
Savoy and the republic of Venice. He had
| informed each of these states for money
down, of the proposed cession of Casale 10
the King of France. OF course, this was
now at an end and the frontier of France
was likely to remain permanently where It
| was The grand monarch had been out
witted by the willy Italian. He was not u
man to devour his modification in silence
without trying to revenge himself
1t is known that on the I'd day of May,
1919, Mattoli was lured into the environs
of Turin, where he disappeared finally.
! From a recently discovered account, writ
ten two years later by an italian in posi-
ton to know, we learn what had happened
| THE secretary CMattiolD was surrounded
! by ten or twelve horsemen. who seized
him. masked him and took him off to Pig
nerol" Catinat, the leader of the enter
/ prise, wrote in his report to Louvois, min
| lister of Louis XIV: mo one knows the
name of this scoundrel not even the Off
! GERS who have helped to arrest him. Even
so mighty a monarch Louis XIV could
| not hope to escape the Indignation of all
| Europe, If II were once known that he had
| thus violated international right by SELLING
| his enemy In the territory of another
power. The kings order for the arrest