The man with the iron mask

by Marius Topin

But what crime could this pretended brother of Louis XIV. have committed, except, indeed, that of coming into the world? Is it objected that a slight fault committed in prison may be referred to, and that Barbézieux, in this despatch, alludes to a recent occurrence? But, if he recommends Saint-Mars not to explain himself to any one whatever, it is evident that curiosity had been excited, and that every one on the island trying to satisfy it, the Minister thought it right to recommend, more energetically than ever, an absolute discretion. Would this discretion have been necessary, and would Saint-Mars have been questioned, if only an insignificant breach of the internal rules of the prison had been in question?

Finally, what is one to think of the attentions, respect, particular care, evidences of an humble deference, all the accessory circumstances that have been invoked in favour of an opinion which nothing certain justifies? Amongst the incidents upon which so much stress has been laid, and which form, in some degree, the romantic dossier of the Man with the Iron Mask, some are exact, and will find their natural explanation further on. Others, such as the visit of Louvois to the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, have been invented at pleasure by popular imagination, and too easily welcomed by a complaisant credulity. It has been said, and is repeated every day, that the Minister visited this island, and there spoke to the prisoner “with a degree of consideration which partook of respect,”[114] styling him “monseigneur.” Now Louvois was only absent from the court in 1680 for a few weeks in order to go to Baréges. We have, day for day, the names of the towns he passed through.[115] The Isles Sainte-Marguerite, where, by the way, Saint-Mars did not arrive till seven years later, do not figure in the itinerary; and, after this journey, Louvois never returned again to the South of France. As to the dramatic episode of the silver dish thrown out of the window, which exposes the fisherman who finds it at his feet to a great danger, it has its origin in a similar attempt made by a Protestant minister confined, in 1692, at the Isles Sainte-Marguerite. This minister tried to interest people in his lot, by writing his complaints, not on a silver dish, which he did not have at his disposition, but upon a pewter plate, which determined Saint-Mars to give him only earthenware for the future.[116] The fact has been applied later to the Man with the Iron Mask, to whom, as to all legendary heroes, the adventures of very different personages are ascribed. A careful examination of all the despatches collected will enable one to trace back each of these rumours to its origin, and separate what is purely legendary from what is really historical.

But because the exactitude of many of the acts attributed to the Man with the Iron Mask is disproved by this examination, one would be wrong in concluding that he never existed, or that, at least, there was not a great interest in concealing his existence. It is incontestable that Saint-Mars did, in 1698, escort to Paris a prisoner who died there five years later, who was known at the Bastille only under the name of “the prisoner from Provence,” and whose mysterious memory was perpetuated in the redoubtable fortress, to spread rapidly afterwards through the entire world. These are the real data of the problem. Although freed from all the foreign elements that have been mixed up with it, it exists and it remains to be solved. It is true that in the eyes of some, to take away the seductive figure of a brother of Louis XIV. is greatly to diminish the interest. But, addressing ourselves to those for whom truth alone has a sovereign and incomparable charm, we say to them: The Man with the Iron Mask is not a son of Anne of Austria, because to the impossibility of fixing the date of his birth is added the not less evident impossibility of proving his incarceration. If, in order to show that his birth is imaginary, we have touched upon many delicate points, it is because the gravity of the accusations with which, in our days, the memory of Anne of Austria has been stigmatized, render such justifications necessary. In addition to which, even should these researches be indiscreet, it is much less blamable to have made them for the purpose of defence rather than of accusation, and to have raised certain veils, in order to let innocence shine forth in place of calumniating it.

FOOTNOTES:

[108] All these facts come from official documents, authentic and transcribed by us. We shall give them further on when we introduce Saint-Mars into the story.

[109] Archives of the Ministry of Marine; Archives of the Ministry of War; Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Imperial Archives; Registers of the Secretary’s Office of the King’s Household.

[110] Biographie Universelle of Michaud, article on the “Man with the Iron Mask,” by Weiss. The second edition does not give the extract from this despatch, given in the first.

[111] See, amongst others, the opinion of M. Jules Loiseleur, Revue Contemporaine, article already cited.

[112] Louis François Le Tellier, Marquis de Barbézieux, many of whose despatches are quoted in the course of this work, succeeded his father Louvois as Minister of War, on the death of the latter in 1691.—Trans.

[113] Archives of the Ministry of Marine; Archives of the Ministry of War; Imperial Archives; Registers of the Secretary’s Office of the King’s Household.