Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-09-20

he was 60 years of age He spoke
French, but with foreign accent,
sang, and was fond of music
Who Was He?
Who was he? Historians, or would
be searchers into the mystery, give II
different personages as the man who
was masked in the prison of st. Mar
guerite History is treated rather
rudely at times in the works of these
writer's. The first of the eleven by
potheses is the Count de VermandOIs
son of Louis XIV and Of Louise de Ia
Valliere. He died Of smallpox while
still young man and free The Duke
de Beaufort comes next. He died at
Gambia On board the ship Monarque,
while the masked man died in -.e bas-
tile at Paris. The duke Of Monmouth
is third on this list He was the IL
legitimate son OF the English monarch
Charles II and Lucy Waters. His head
was cut off On the scaffold while still a
young man The Armenian patriarch
Avedic, who is fourth, may be dis
missed as improbable to a degree.
Nicholas Fouquet, the superintendent
arms government, comes next, but
though he was in Jail under the gov
ernor Saint Mars, it was not he. 1t is
needless to go through the list, which
includes a son of Mazarin and Anne Of
Austria, a son of Cromwell and a son
of Anne of Austria and the duke Of
Buckingham; in fact, the imagined il
legitimate sons of the highest person
ages of the period.
Baron Gleichen's Theory.
The most ingenious of all the theories
as to the personality Of the iron mask
is assuredly that Of the Baron de
GIeichen. He strives to show that the
prisoner was the true heir to the crown
who had been shut up for the benefit o.
a child said to be the offspring Of Card
inal Richelieu and the queen. These
having become the masters Of France
after the death of the king, had substi-
tuted tlreir child for the genuine Dau-
phin-hence the extreme resemblance
U0INC I1c L"O CAIIul Gll. lIC COllSC-
quences of this absurd story are al
once evident-the annulment Of tins
legitimacy of the later Bourbons
Imagination did not halt here. fhe
story developed under the first empire.
Pamphlets appeared in which the YER
sion Of Gleichen was repeated. Louis
XIV was said to be illegitimate, the
son of strangers; the lawful heir was
shut up in the prison of st. Marguerite
| where he had married the keeper :
| daughter. A son born from this
marriage was, as soon as he was
Weaned, brought over to Corsica, hav-
! ing been cOnfided to sure person, as a
child coming from good part
which in Italian is "buona parte.'
From this child the great emperor de-
| scended directly, as any one might see
! The legitimate claim Of Napoleon l tc
! the throne of France depending upon
! the Man in the Iron Mask, is, says VI
Funck-Brentano, who relates the story
/ in his Legendes ct Archives de Ia Bias
tile, better than anything which the
great Dumas has given US.
The Real Man.
The real Man in the Iron Mask was
according TO the most probable cyl
dence-an evidence which is eminent!
conclusive-a certain Count Ercole An
tonic Mattioi who was born at Bolog
ma Dec. i, 1910, of a distinguished fam
lily. He had been brilliant as a stu
dent, and in his twentieth year haC
been appointed professor in the Univer
sity Of Bologna. Later he went to Man
tua, where he gained the confidence o
the reigning duke, Charles III, who ap
pointed him his secretary of state. Tn
duke who succeeded, Charles ~, KEEP