Evening star., 1935-04-07

lows that the disclosure Of his identity
must be attended by the graveSt conse-
quences. 1t also follows that his fea-
lures are well-known. that he is
person OF some worldly consequence.
that he is treated with the utmost
difference, and that he is always ad-
dressed as "Monseigneur."
This title materially narrows the
field Of conjecture upon his identity.
When the most searching investiga-
ton fails to discover the disappear
ance in Europe of any parsonage of
the eminence implied by it, you would
suppose that speculation would con-
| feSs itself at fault and turn in its
tracks. Not at all. That is not the
way of sensation mongers. Since no
| living monseigneur can be discovered
to have disappeared, the identity of
the prisoner is sought among the
dead ones. One man after another
| of monSeigneurial rank is put forward
as having survived a falsely reported
death.
This mask is said to conceal the
( features Of the Duke of Monmouth.
/ beheaded in 1885; of the Duke Beau
! fort. who died in Gambia in 1869: of
Louis Comte de Vermandois. son of
Louis XIV by Louise de la Villiere.
who died in 1888: of Fouquet. who
had certainly been imprisoned in
i Pignerol and who died there in 1880.
and of several others, among whom
We find the son Of Oliver Cromwell.
Voltaire is responsible for so much
of this fury of speculation and so
much of this nonsense that it is
| scarcely too much to say that he is
/ the inventor of the Man in the Iron
Mask. In his Steele d Louis XIV
to explain the masked prisoner of
Pignerol, he imagines an elder brother
of Louis XIV. of countenance so
strongly resembling the kings it was
necessary to cover his features lest
they should betray this terrible secret.
Because there is something lacking
here to make this story quite con-
vincing. another pen, little later,
explains that this elder brother is
really only half brother. the child
of Anne of Austria and Cardinal
Mazarin.
Those who are familiar with Dumas
will remember what excellent use he
makes of this extremely romantic ma
terial in his ''Vicomte de Bragelonne 3"
In some ways this fantastic story is
the most plausible that has been put
forward to fit the accretions accumu-
lated about the bare facts of the Man
in the Iron Mask.
Corrupted Italian Name.
To leave these fictions and return
for a moment to the known facts.
Marchioly, the name in the register
of the Bastile, appears to be a corrup-
ton of the Italian name Mattioh.
A man named Ercole Mattioli. born
in Bologna in 1910, was minister to the
Duke of Mantua and Governor OF
Casale This frontier fortress was
coveted by Louis XIV. and Mattioli
sold it to him for 100000 crowns. But
on the eve of its occupation by the
French, Mattioli double-croSSed the
King by betraying the transaction
Louis XIV was not the man to allow
this to go unpunished. but he was
faced with obvious difficulties in
furnishing foreign subject. However
in 1879 his agents kidnapped Mattioli
who forthwith disappeared.
Now, 1879 is the year of the arrival
at Pignerol of the prisoner in the
mask. subsequently registered at the
bastile as Marchioly.
Need we look further? Would any
one have looked further but for the
mask and the irresponsible transmu-
tation of its substance?
The mask itself remains to be ex-
planned. 1t is possible that consider
ing the violation of frontier entailec
by his arrest, 1t may have been ex-
pedient to impose it upon a prisoner
whose anonymity it was desired to
insure On the other hand. it is just
as possible that the prisoner was
masked of his own volition. After all
the wearing of masks by state priS.
oners was by no means uncommon in
the seventeenth century, when the
mask was recognized as more or less
ordinary article of apparel. Certain
1t is that the type of mask worn by
the prisoner of Pignerol was one
which he could put on and off at will.
It was for this very purpose that 1t
was equipped with the steel springs
which are responsible for the vast
literature of the subject. amounting
by now to some so volumes. When we
reflect before the discovery and
manufacture Of rubber steel springs
were the only elastic substance known
to man, the purpose of these become
manifest and all mystery vanishes.
Careless Reitertaion.
The innumerable narratives as fan
tastic and groundless as the two we
have examined would never have
found their abiding place in history if
historical writer's, instead Of hammer
ing them in by careless reiteration,
had applied to them the tests which
common sense dictates should be
applied to statements relating to
present-day events. In adopting such
statements responsible writers pro-
ceed cautiously. For one thing, there
is today law of libel to inspire this
caution. It helps us to remember
that all human evidence is liable to
error as a result of faulty observation
or faulty Interpretation of the facts
observed. It Is also liable to deliberate
dishonesty.
Human nature does not change. AS