[631] This mask would, however, have been of a different kind to that which Matthioly was afterwards compelled to wear. The latter was no doubt secured in such a way that it could not be removed by the wearer.—Trans.
[632] Despatch from Louvois to Saint-Mars, June 9, 1681.
[633] Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Mantua, 27-29.
[634] Michelet.
[635] Chapter V., [p. 62], ante.
[636] Mémoires de Saint-Simon, vol. viii. p. 66.
[637] Dutens, in his Correspondance Interceptée, relates that “Louis XV. said one day to the Duke de Choiseul, that he was acquainted with the story of the masked prisoner. The Duke begged the King to tell him what it was. But he could obtain no other reply save that all the conjectures as yet formed concerning this prisoner were mistaken ones.” As Madame Dubarry caused the Duke de Choiseul to be disgraced in 1770, the conversation narrated must have taken place previous to this date. Now it was only on June 28, 1770, that Baron d’Heiss was the first person in France to advance, in a letter addressed to the authors of the Journal Encyclopédique, as we have stated in Chapter xxi., p. 295, ante, the theory which makes Matthioly the Man with the Iron Mask, and this letter was inserted in the part for August 15, 1770. The abduction of Matthioly had been narrated at Leyden in 1687,[638] but it was only in August, 1770, that the theory began to be known and debated. Louis XV.’s reply to the Duke de Choiseul can therefore be very well reconciled with the theory.
Dutens adds that some time afterwards Madame de Pompadour pressed the King to give an explanation with reference to this subject, and that Louis XV. told her that he believed it was a minister of an Italian prince.
M. Giraud (of the Institute) has often heard Madame de Boigne relate the following anecdote which he has given me authority to publish. Madame de Boigne was the daughter of the Marquis d’Osmond, who held a high position at the court of Louis XVI. In one of her conversations with the Marquis, Madame Adelaide related the check which her curiosity had received with reference to the Iron Mask. She had persuaded her brother the Dauphin to question the King concerning this famous prisoner, so that he might tell her the secret afterwards. The Dauphin was then very young, and at the first word that he uttered, Louis XV. inquired, smiling: “Who has charged you to ask me this question?” The Dauphin acknowledged that it was his sister. The King refused to give a complete answer, but observed that the secret had never been of great importance, and at that time no longer possessed any interest.
The same anecdote has been related to us in almost identical words by M. Guillaume Guizot, who also had it from Madame de Boigne.