FOOTNOTES:
[117] In the preceding chapters we have made no mention of a Mémoire de M. de Saint-Mars sur la Naissance de l’Homme au Masque de Fer, published in vol. iii. of the Mémoires de Tous (Levasseur, 1835, 8vo). According to this document, “copied by M. Billiard from the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” M. de Saint-Mars had been the governor of the mysterious son of Anne of Austria, whose high origin was carefully hidden from him. But this brother of Louis XIV. having discovered it, was sent to the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, the command of which was then (in 1687) confided to his governor. If we have not spoken of this document, it is because its authenticity has already been completely disproved. It is nothing else than a copy of the apocryphal narrative of Soulavie, which we have transcribed and refuted in the first part of our work (see page 15). The author of this copy has contented himself with substituting Saint-Mars for the “anonymous governor of the unfortunate prince.” He did not think that he thereby added a fresh impossibility to those contained in the narrative of Soulavie. For how could Saint-Mars, before 1687, have been the governor of a brother of Louis XIV., when a hundred despatches establish the fact that, from 1664, he was successively governor of the donjon of Pignerol and of Exiles? As to the presence of this document in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is no reason for astonishment. It is explained, like the presence of so many other documents in our archives, by the seizure of the papers of great personages after their deaths, or, more commonly, by having been transmitted by some ambassador inhabiting the country in which these apocryphal writings circulated freely. But the place where they are found gives them no authenticity. At all periods, and to-day even, ambassadors send to the Government copies of anonymous memoirs, pamphlets, and different papers, which remain joined to their despatches, but to which no historical value can be ascribed. It has been the same with this pretended Mémoire de Saint-Mars, of which, in addition, a mere perusal demonstrates the untruth to any one acquainted with the usual style of the illiterate governor of the Isles Sainte-Marguerite. One sometimes hears it related—and this fact has been repeated to ourselves—that a great personage of a former Government introduced one of his friends, with much precaution, into the galleries of the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and there showed him a document which contained the secret of the Man with the Iron Mask. It is doubtless the document attributed to Saint-Mars that is referred to in this anecdote.
[118] Letter of Madame la Présidente d’Osembray to Bussy-Rabutin, dated December 22, 1683:—Lettres de Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, vol. vi. p. 135, edition of 1716. Testimony of Lauzun in the Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, vol. vii. pp. 90, 92.
[119] That of High Admiral. See amongst the papers of Colbert, MSS. of the Imperial Library, a curious memorandum drawn up by him, “to know what name and title it is necessary to give to M. le Comte de Vermandois.” Vermandois was endowed on November 12, 1669, at the age of twenty-two months, with this office of High Admiral of France, which, suppressed in 1626 by Richelieu, and changed by him into the office of “Grand Master, Chief, and General Superintendent of the Navigation and Commerce of France,” had been held successively by the Cardinal himself; his nephew Armand de Maillé-Brézé, Duke de Fronsac; Anne of Austria; César, Duke de Vendôme; and his son François de Vendôme, Duke de Beaufort.
[120] Letter of the Présidente d’Osembray, already cited.
[121] Published by the Compagnie des Libraires Associés (Company of Associated Booksellers) in 12mo.
[122] Mémoires Secrets pour servir à l’Histoire de Perse.
[123] The academy here mentioned is not the present French Academy, but a kind of gymnasium, where the nobles met to learn riding, fencing, dancing, &c. It is frequently referred to in the memoirs of the time.—Trans.
[124] Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, vol. vii. p. 91.
[125] We shall see, in the course of this work, that they succeeded in securing at least a portion of this enormous fortune, thanks to the imprisonment of Lauzun, the husband of Mademoiselle de Montpensier.
[126] Mémoires already cited, vol. vii. p. 92.
[127] Such as Lauzun, who was present at the siege of Courtray, and the Présidente d’Osembray.—See Lettres de Bussy-Rabutin, already cited, vol. vi. p. 13.
[128] Dated November 4, 1683. The King to the Marquis de Montchevreuil. “Monsieur le Marquis de Montchevreuil—I have received the letter which you wrote to me from the camp of Courtray. I am very well pleased with what you tell me of my son, the Count de Vermandois. But I am not the less uneasy, as the Sieur d’Aquin has told me that the fever has become continuous. You have done well to take him to Lille” (we shall see that they did not have the time to remove him to Lille); “he may remain there as long as may be needful for his health; but as soon as it allows him to travel I shall be pleased at his returning here. Having nothing else to add, except that I am always very well pleased at your conduct, I pray God to take you, Monsieur le Marquis de Montchevreuil, into his holy keeping.—Louis.”
[129] See ante, p. 67.
[130] See, amongst others, the excellent work of M. Jules Loiseleur, Problèmes Historiques; the review, La Philosophie Positive, of M. Littré; the fourth volume of the Histoire de Louvois, of M. Camille Rousset, already cited; the very curious appendices given by M. Chéruel at the end of each volume of his fine edition of the Mémoires de Saint-Simon, &c.
[131] Archives of the Ministry of War; Letter from Marshal d’Humières to Louvois, “Camp of Courtray, November 7, 1683.”
[132] Ibid. Marshal d’Humières to Louvois, “Camp of Harlebeck, November 8, 1683.”
[133] Ibid. D’Humières to Louvois, “Camp of Rousselaer, November 12, 1683.”
[134] Ibid. Boufflers to Louvois, “Courtray, November 13, 1683.”
[135] Ibid. D’Humières to Louvois, “Courtray, November 14, 15, 1683,” and Boufflers to Louvois, “Courtray, November 15, 1683.”
[136] Ibid. Boufflers to Louvois, “Courtray, November 16, 1683.”
[137] Letter from Madame de Maintenon to Madame de Brinon, of November 15, 1683.
[138] Archives of the Ministry of War; Boufflers to Louvois, “Courtray, November 19, 1683.”
[139] Letter of Madame d’Osembray, December 22, 1683.
[140] Siècle de Louis XIV.
[141] Lettres de Bussy-Rabutin, vol. vi. p. 135.
[142] The letter which we extract is from a learned article of Baron de Hautecloque, ex-mayor of Arras, published in the Chroniques Artésiennes of M. P. Roger, member of the Society of Antiquarians of Picardy; of the Count d’Allonville, Councillor of State, and of M. Dusevel, Inspector of Historical Monuments for the Department of the Somme:—
“Very dear and well-beloved—Having learnt with very sensible sorrow, that our very dear and well-beloved son, the Duke de Vermandois,[A] Admiral of France, has lately died in the town of Courtray in Flanders, and desiring him to be placed in the cathedral church of our town of Arras, we send word to the Sieur Bishop of Arras to receive the body of our said son, when it is brought to the said church, and to have it buried in the choir of the said church with the ceremonies observed at the burial of persons of his birth.
[A] This title may appear singular, but an old and curious book “Les Estats de France,” which contains the genealogies of all the nobles of this period, describes him as “the Count de Vermandois, duke and peer of France.”—Trans.
“All of which we have desired to make known to you by this letter, and to state that our intention is that you should conform to our will in this and assist in a body at this ceremony as is customary, on such occasions; and assuring ourselves that you will satisfy us in this, we do not make this present letter longer or more express; do not fail; for such is our pleasure.
“Given at Versailles, the xix[B] November, 1683. Signed, “Louis,” and lower down, “Le Tellier.”
[B] We think, with M. de Hautecloque, that this date should be the 21st. In the registers of the chapter it is in Roman figures, and there is reason to suppose that a clumsy copyist has inverted the order of them and put xix for xxi. The comparison of dates and the very expressions of the King’s letter indicate it sufficiently.
[143] Register of the Hôtel de Ville of Arras and of the Chapter.
[144] Ibid.
[145] [Chapel in which a dead person lies in state.—Trans.] The cathedral in which Vermandois was interred no longer exists. Devastated and greatly mutilated during the revolutionary period, it was almost in ruins, and was later completely demolished. The Church of Saint-Nicolas was built upon the site which it occupied in that part of Arras styled the Cité, formerly completely distinct from the town properly so called. The Chapel of Saint-Vaast, in which the body of Vermandois was first deposited, formed part of the Abbey of Saint-Vaast. This chapel is the present cathedral of Arras.
[146] Nuns of the order of Sainte-Claire.—Trans.
[147] In 1786, Louis XVI., moved with the rumour referring to this supposition, ordered the coffin to be opened. A procès-verbal drawn up December 16, 1786, in the presence of the Bishop of Arras, the provost of the cathedral, the head of the vestry, and the procureur-général, verified the existence “of an entire and well-shaped body.” See the very interesting Vie de Madame Elizabeth, of M. de Beauchesne, vol. i. p. 543. To this decisive proof we have felt bound to add others for those who might be tempted to believe that another body than that of Vermandois had been enclosed in the coffin.