Theory which makes Fouquet the Man with the Iron Mask—Arguments advanced by M. Lacroix—Some to be absolutely rejected and some discussed—Fouquet not in possession of a dangerous State Secret—Madame de Maintenon—Her Character—Her Youth—Her Relations with Monsieur and Madame Fouquet—Her honourable Reserve—The Affair of the Poisons—How Fouquet’s Name became mixed up in it—Probability of his Death being caused by an attack of Apoplexy—Weakness of the other Arguments advanced by M. Lacroix—Oblivion into which the Surintendant had fallen—Two mysterious Arrests.
A writer of much knowledge and much imagination, M. Paul Lacroix, has collected, in a very ingenious and cleverly written work,[443] all the arguments that can be advanced in favour of the theory which makes Fouquet the Man with the Iron Mask. He begins by reminding us of the discovery, announced on August 13, 1789,[444] of a card found amongst the papers of the Bastille, bearing these words: “Fouquet, arriving from the Isles Sainte-Marguerite with an Iron Mask,” and signed with three X’s and the name of Kersadion. Nevertheless, M. Lacroix very properly abstains from counting amongst his proofs a paper, the existence of which is not certified by any official document, and which the wording, the strange manner in which it is said to have been found, and the improbability of any note of this character having been made, must equally cause to be rejected. The following are the more solid bases of M. Lacroix’s argument:—
“The precautions employed in guarding Fouquet at Pignerol resemble in every point,”[445] says he, “those adopted later for the Man with the Iron Mask at the Bastille and at the Isles Sainte-Marguerite.
“The greater number of the traditions relating to the masked prisoner appear to apply to Fouquet.
“The appearance of the Man with the Iron Mask followed almost immediately upon the pretended death of Fouquet in 1680.
“This death of Fouquet in 1680 is far from being certain.
“Finally, political and private reasons may have determined Louis XIV. to cause him to pass for dead, in preference to getting rid of him by poison or in any other manner.”
These two last arguments are the only ones which need be discussed; for the circumstantial care, excessive vigilance, and incessant precautions of which Fouquet was the object at Pignerol were not peculiar to this prisoner. Lauzun was treated in absolutely the same manner. The instructions given to Saint-Mars every time a new prisoner, even the most obscure, was confided to his care were identical. On July 19, 1669, when announcing the approaching arrival of that Eustache d’Auger, who was to become Fouquet’s lackey, Louvois wrote to Saint-Mars as if the fortune of the State was bound up with this man.[446] When, later, some Protestant ministers, as unknown as they were harmless, are sent to him at the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, there are the same detailed and complete precautions set forth at length, and equally dear to the circumstantial Minister[447] who enjoined them, and the scrupulous gaoler charged with their execution.
As to the “traditions relating to the masked prisoner,” which appear to M. Lacroix “to apply to Fouquet,” we have seen[448] that the greater number of them are legendary, and that the others, such as the episode of the silver dish thrown from a window, concern several Protestant ministers, confined at the Isles Sainte-Marguerite at almost the same date as the Man with the Iron Mask.
Finally,—and we will establish this further on,—nothing whatever proves that the appearance of the Man with the Iron Mask dates from the year 1680.