The True History of the State Prisoner, commonly called the Iron Mask

30

Appendix, No. 9.

31

Appendix, No. 10.

32

Appendix, No. 17.

33

Appendix, No. 18.

34

Appendix, Nos. 24, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40.

35

Appendix, No. 47.

36

Delort, quoting from an Italian manuscript, in the records of the office of the French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which appears to have been written by Giuliani.

37

Delort, quoting from the same authority.

38

M. Delort says the sum actually given to Matthioli, was 400 Doubles, and the sum promised him 400,000 Doubles, which, from its largeness, he conceives must be a mistake; but he adds that it is so written in the Italian manuscripts before referred to.

39

Delort.

40

Francis Michael Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, son of the Chancellor Le Tellier, Secretary of State for the War department, from 1666, to the time of his death, in 1691, which occurring suddenly, and just as he was on the point of being disgraced, gave occasion to a report that he was poisoned: for which, however, it appears there was no foundation. He was of a haughty and cruel disposition, and was the minister who planned and ordered the inhuman ravages of the Palatinate, which have so indelibly disgraced the reign of his master.

41

Delort.

42

Lewis Francis, Marquis and afterwards Duc de Boufflers, Marshal of France in 1693. Died in 1711. One of the best of Lewis the Fourteenth’s generals.

43

Nicholas de Catinat, Marshal of France in 1698. “He united,” says Voltaire, “philosophy to great military talents. The last day he commanded in Italy, he gave for the watch-word, ‘Paris and St. Gratien,’ the name of his country house. He died there in the retirement of a real sage, (having refused the blue ribbon) in 1712.”

44

Upon reference to the Mémoires de Catinat, published in 1819, this event is found to be thus adverted to: – “In 1679, Catinat was charged with some negociations with the Duke of Mantua; but the affair failed of success, in consequence of the treachery of the Secretary of that prince. Catinat, according to the King’s orders, was anxious to punish the traitor. He remained at Pignerol some days, and having engaged him in a hunting party, had him arrested.” It also appears from these Memoirs, that both Catinat and Boufflers were again despatched to Italy on the same errand, in 1681, when Casale was really given up to Lewis; and on this occasion, Louvois, in his instruction to Boufflers, mentions Matthioli by name, as the person whose treachery had prevented the success of the former negociation.

45

Appendix, Nos. 52, 62, 64, 73, 76, 77, 78.

46

I am not sure whether I am correct in imagining that this was the Marshal d’Asfeld, who distinguished himself at the battle of Almanza, and died at great old age, in 1743.

47

Appendix, Nos. 52, 54, 55.

48

Victor Amadeus II., at this time a minor, and under the Regency of his mother, Mary Jane de Nemours. In 1713, he became King of Sicily, which kingdom he was compelled to exchange for that of Sardinia, in 1720; abdicated the throne in favour of his son, in 1730; and died in 1732. This prince possessed in an eminent degree, the attributes of his race – valour and skill in military matters, and faithlessness in his treaties and engagements with his brother sovereigns.

49

Leopold I. succeeded Ferdinand III. in 1657, died in 1705.

50

Charles II. the last King of Spain of the House of Austria. – Died in 1700.

51

Appendix, Nos. 68, 69, 89.

52

See ante, note, page 18.

53

Appendix, No. 66.

54

Appendix, No. 68.

55

Appendix, No. 67.

56

Namely, of the delivery of Casale.

57

Appendix, No. 72.

58

Appendix, Nos. 75, 79, 81, 83, 88.

59

Mary Jane Baptista of Savoy, daughter of Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours and Aumale, (who was killed in a duel by his brother-in-law, the Duke of Beaufort). Married May 11th, 1665, to Charles Emmanuel II., Duke of Savoy; Regent of the territories of her son during his minority. Died March 15th, 1724.

60

Delort. Appendix, Nos. 87, 92, 95.

61

Appendix, No. 92.

62

Appendix, No. 70.

63

Delort.

64

Appendix, No. 75.

65

Appendix, No. 71.

66

Benigne d’Auvergne de Saint-Mars, Seigneur of Dimon and Palteau; Bailli and Governor of Sens; successively Governor of Exiles, the Island of St. Marguerite, and the Bastille. At Pignerol he had only the command of the state prisoners, the Marquis d’Herleville being governor of the fortress. St. Mars came to Pignerol a short time before the arrival there of Fouquet, who was the first prisoner confided to his care.

67

Roux (Fazillac.)

68

Appendix, Nos. 79, 81.

69

Delort.

70

Appendix, No. 88.

71

Appendix, No. 82.

72

Delort.

73

M. Roux (Fazillac) gives these particulars, upon the authority of a letter from Estrades to Pomponne, of May 7th, 1679; and of one from Catinat to Louvois of the same date; neither of which are published.

74

Roux (Fazillac.)

75

Appendix, No. 84.

76

Ibid.

77

Delort.

78

Appendix, No. 85.

79

Appendix, No. 84.

80

Ibid. No. 85.

81

Appendix, Nos. 96, 103, 104.

82

Ibid. No. 48.

83

Nicholas Fouquet, “Surintendant des Finances,” in 1653. The most lavish, but the most amiable of financiers. – Disgraced in 1664, when he was condemned, by the commissioners appointed to inquire into his conduct, to banishment. The sentence was commuted by the King himself to perpetual imprisonment; and Fouquet died in the citadel of Pignerol, in 1680. On his trial he defended himself with great spirit and talent. See Madame de Sévigné’s interesting Letters to M. de Pomponne upon the subject.

84

Anthony Nompar de Caumont, Marquis of Peguilhem, and afterwards Duke of Lauzun: whose adventures and eccentricities are too well known to require relation here. It is in speaking of him that La Bruyère says, “Il n’est pas permis aux autres hommes de rêver, comme il a vécu.”

85

Anne Mary Louisa, of Orleans, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, commonly called the “Grande Mademoiselle.” – A woman of an unpleasant character, according to her own showing in her Memoirs; but who certainly did not deserve to be the victim, as she was, in different ways, of two such men as Lewis and Lauzun.

86

Appendix, Nos. 85, 87, 91, 92, 94, 95, 97.

87

Ibid. No. 97.

88

Ibid. Nos. 84, 85.

89

Appendix, No. 90.

90

Ibid. No. 93.

91

Ibid. No. 96.

92

Ibid. No. 101.

93

Charles IV. or V., for he is sometimes called one and sometimes the other, was the son of Nicholas Francis, Cardinal, and afterwards Duke of Lorrain. On the death of his uncle, Charles IV., he took the barren titles of Duke of Lorrain and Bar, but never obtained possession of his territories, (which were usurped by France,) “though his military, political, and Christian virtues and talents, made him worthy to occupy the first throne in the universe.” He commanded the armies of the Emperor for some years with the greatest distinction, married the Archduchess Eleanor, widow of Michael Wiecnowiecki, King of Poland, and died in 1690. Lewis the Fourteenth, on hearing of his death, said of him, “that he was the greatest, wisest, and most generous of his enemies.”

94

Appendix, No. 102.

95

Appendix, No. 107.

96

Appendix, No. 106.

97

Appendix, No. 108.

98

Appendix, No. 103.

99

Appendix, No. 104.

100

Ibid.

101

Appendix, No. 105.

102

If we were to judge of the Christian religion by the manner in which it was professed by Lewis the Fourteenth, we should indeed have a most perverted idea of its precepts. It seems as if the pseudo-christianity of that monarch, only incited him to acts of narrow-minded bigotry and cruelty, allowing, at the same time, full latitude to every kind of licentious excess; while it debarred him from the exercise of humanity and toleration. A good measure of the nature and extent of his religious knowledge and feelings is acquired, by the anecdote respecting Fontpertuis and the Duke of Orleans. When the latter was going into Spain, Lewis objected to his taking the former with him, because he was a Jansenist; but withdrew the objection when assured by the duke that he was only an atheist!

103

M. Roux (Fazillac), quoting from an unpublished letter of Louvois to St. Mars, dated December 14th, 1681.

104

About 1l. 12s. 0d. Appendix, No. 126.

105

Exiles was taken from the French in 1708, by the Duke of Savoy, but restored to them by the treaty of Utrecht.

106

Appendix, No. 111.

107

Appendix, No. 111.

108

Appendix, No. 112.

109

Appendix, No. 111.

110

Appendix, No. 112.

111

Ibid.

112

Appendix, No. 115.

113

Appendix, No. 111.

114

Appendix, No. 117.

115

Appendix, No. 113.

116

Appendix, Nos. 114, 115.

117

Appendix, No. 120.

118

Appendix, No. 121.

119

Appendix, No. 121.

120

Appendix, No. 123.

121

Roux (Fazillac).

122

Ibid.

123

Ibid.

124

Appendix, Nos. 124, 125.

125

Appendix, No. 124.

126

Appendix, No. 125.

127

Appendix, No. 124.

128

Appendix, No. 126.

129

Delort.

130

Extract of Dujonca’s journal, in Mr. Craufurd’s article upon “L’Homme au Masque de fer.”

131

Delort.

132

Papon in his “Histoire générale de Provence” informs us that he went to see the room.

133

“Histoire générale de Provence, du Père Papon.”

134

See “Mélanges d’Histoire et de Littérature,” by Mr. Quintin Craufurd.

135

See the same work of Mr. Quintin Craufurd.

136

This must have been Lewis Francis Le Tellier, Marquis de Barbezieux, who, in the preceding year, had succeeded his father, Louvois, in the post of Secretary of State for the War Department. He was an indolent but intelligent Minister. – Died in 1701, aged 33.

137

Appendix, No. 127.

138

Delort.

139

Delort, quoting from an unpublished letter (probably from Barbezieux), dated August 4th, 1698. – It may be as well to mention here that M. Delort frequently quotes portions of letters from the French Archives, but does not publish them in his appendix. When in the course of this narrative the name of M. Delort is given as an authority, it is, for the most part, under these circumstances.

140

Such is the account given by M. de Palteau, the direct descendant of St. Mars, in a letter to Freron, dated Palteau, June 19th, 1768. It was published in the “Année Littéraire” for that year, and has since been republished by Mr. Craufurd, in his paper on the Iron Mask.

141

Delort.

142

The place of “Lieutenant de Roi,” at the Bastille, was created by Lewis the Fourteenth, for M. Dujonca, who had been “Exempt” of one of the regiments of the King’s Body-guards. He acquired great credit by his endeavours to procure the release of the prisoners under his care, whom, upon inquiry, he found to be unjustly detained. Some one represented to him that he would deprive himself of a great portion of his profits by thus diminishing the number of prisoners – to which he replied, “I can only lose my money, but these unhappy people are deprived of what is more valuable to them than even life itself.”

143

These towers are supposed to have been so called from the names of the architects who built them.

144

Rosarges was made Major of the Bastille by St. Mars.

145

Extract from the Journal of Dujonca, first published by Griffet, then by St. Foix, and subsequently by Mr. Craufurd.

146

Appendix, No. 128.

147

Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of Linguet.

148

Delort and Craufurd.

149

Appendix, No. 129.

150

Appendix, No. 129.

151

Delort.

152

Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of M. Delaunay, Governor of the Bastille. Also Register of the Bastille; for which see Appendix, No. 129.

153

Stephen Francis, Duke de Choiseul, Prime Minister under Lewis the Fifteenth, for above twelve years. A man of some talent, but an unskilful and extravagant minister; in spite of which, on his disgrace, (through the means of Madame du Barri, in 1770) he was turned into a martyr, by the influence of the ladies of the court, who were angry with the King for choosing his mistresses from the lower orders, instead of among them. To do him honour snuff-boxes were made, bearing the head of Sully on one side, and that of the Duke de Choiseul on the other. One of them being shown to Sophie Arnoud, the actress, celebrated for her repartees, she looked at the two sides, and said, “C’est la recette – et la dépense.”

154

This first answer of the king ought not to be entirely overlooked; as, it will be remembered, that at the time it was made, the minister of the Duke of Mantua had not been mentioned by any one as the Iron Mask. He was first suggested to have been that prisoner, by the Baron de Heiss, in a letter to the authors of the “Journal Encyclopédique,” dated Phalsbourg, June 28th, 1770; in which he grounded his opinion upon a letter, published in a work entitled “L’Histoire Abregée de l’Europe;” published at Leyden in 1687; giving a detailed account of the arrest, by French agents, of a secretary of the Duke of Mantua.155. M. Dutens, in his “Correspondance Interceptée,” published in 1789, held the same opinion, grounded upon the same authority. He afterwards repeated the same opinion in his “Mémoires d’un Voyageur, qui se repose.” Finally, M. Roux, (Fazillac) in 1801, published his work upon the Iron Mask; in which he supported the same opinion; and attached to the Secretary the name of Matthioli.

155

Jane Antoinette Poisson, married to a financier named Le Normand d’Etioles; created Marquise de Pompadour by Lewis the Fifteenth, of whom she was first the mistress, and afterwards the minister of his disgraceful debauches. At her death, in 1765, the King showed no signs of grief; and on seeing her funeral go by his windows on a rainy day, his only remark was, “La Marquise aura aujourd’hui un mauvais temps pour son voyage!”

156

Appendix, No. 131.

157

Appendix, Nos. 131, 132. Madame Campan mentions having heard Lewis the Sixteenth tell his wife, that the Count de Maurepas (who, both from his age and situation, was very likely to know the truth,) had informed him that the Iron Mask was “a prisoner dangerous from his intriguing disposition, and a subject of the Duke of Mantua.”

158

The name of the place is not stated in the letter.