Daily Kennebec journal., 1904-12-29
THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.
Work Of M. Funck Brentano in ldenti'
flying Him as Matthioli.

Who was the Man In tne iron
Mask For more than two centuries
his identity has been Il mystery, the
one mystery among the multitude
which cluster round the Bastile that
has remained unsOlved and appar-
emily insoluble. From long be-
fore the death of the monarch
Louis XIV until after NJ. Loubet
was elected President of the French
Republic the question has been vari-
ously asked and as variously answered.
From Dumas down, it has furnished
the central theme Of many plays and
books, has engaged the life studies of
historians, saVans and archiVists, only
to leave the world at large as much in
the dark as ever.k Some have declared
that the Man irI the Iron Mask" was
Charles |; others. that he was the Duke
Of Berwick. Thef French Court would
have it that he was the fills natureP'
of Louis XIV and Louise de la Ealliere.
Noltaire declared the man was the
brother of Louis sand only recently NJ.
Anatole has devoted two volumes to
the demonstration that the masked
man was no other than the great
Moliere, flung into a dungeon and COM
PEELED to wear mask for the term of
his natural life. because of the heterO-
dox "Jesuitism" displayed in "Tartuffe."
Now comes forward M. Frantz
Funck- -Brentano. savant and archivist,
who declares that after ten years OF
patient study and such poring over
Bastile records that for six months he
remained totally blind he has finally
vi f,,,.
In lecture on "The Secrets of the
Bastile," delivered under the auspices
of the Alliance FRANCHISE at the College
of the City of New York on Wednesday
evening. NJ. F'unck- -BrentanO told of his
discovery of the identity of 'the Man
in the Iron Mask" THE Man in the
Iron Mask" says M. F'unck- BrentanO.
was none other than Hercule Antoine
Matthiol. Minister to the Duke of Man.
tua, and his mask was not of iron. as
traditionally asserted, but of black tia
liam velvet"
Why is NJ. Funck- BrentanO certain
of this? Well, in the main, he says,
because of his discovery of a certain
''lettre de cachet' among the records of
the Bastile. This document is the
committal paper to the Bastile in 1893
of "a former prisoner" whom Cover
nor St. Mars "had with him at Pigne-
rol' (prison), and "who comes with the
name of the Masked Man.
After long research among the prison
archives and with infinite pains, M.
F'unck- -Brentano discovered that there
had been only five prisoners at Pigne-
rol at the time when st. Mars was gov
ernor there. BY gradual process of
elimination, NJ. BrentanO found that
three of these prisoners had died be-
fore 1898, and that of the two remain-
ing one was an unimpOrtant nobody.
who was subsequently permitted to be-
come the manservant of the famous
Fouquet. Ergo, he argued that ''the
Man with the Iron Mask could be no
other than the fifth prisoner on the
Pignerol record-Matthioli, to wit.
Without this document, M. Brentano
admits that his entire contention falls
to the ground.
In Funck- -Brentano's second proof.
which, he considers, clinches his con-
tention beyond assailment, is chance
and seemingly incopsequent paragraph
in two memoirs of Nine. Campan,
chambermaid of Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette apparently istin
credited the tale that the Iron Mask"
was the first born son of Louis KIN,
and consequently Louis XIV's elder
brother. One day. however, she took
occasion to ask the King, Louis XVI,
her consort. The King consulted M.
Mauerpas, an aged councillor, at that
time his Minister of the Treasury hut
who had formerly been custodian of the
department which includes the '1ettfes
de cachet' at about the period Of the
Iron Masks" Incarceration in the BsG-
tile. 1T is not well TO know of this
man." replied the Minister. "He was