Thus, of the very numerous writers who have advanced this opinion, some, such as Baron d’Heiss, M. de Chambrier, M. Depping, and M. Camille Rousset, have done so by only taking account of the circumstances accompanying the abduction, by invoking probabilities, and by showing a preference. Others, such as Roux-Fazillac, Reth, and Delort, have endeavoured to support their demonstrations with more precise and less general proofs, not occupying themselves exclusively with the arrest of this individual, but with the captive’s existence and his changes of prison. They have, in a word, attempted to follow him without losing sight of him for an instant, from the moment of his incarceration to that of his death. How have they succeeded?
A very sagacious writer, M. Jules Loiseleur, has, for some years past, applied the processes of a rigorous historical criticism and the qualities of a penetrative mind to some of those secondary questions which the historian often neglects or avoids, either because they would retard the rapidity of his progress, or because their exact solution would perhaps be contrary to the general theory upon which the ensemble of his task has been conceived. These species of minute inquiries, pursued according to a judicial model, concentrate the attention upon certain points, isolated from all others, and present, with some inconveniences, some precious advantages. For, if by such a process, we cease to take account of the necessary influence of general facts, if the marvellous chain of causes and effects be a little neglected, this method, in return, assures to him who employs it entire liberty to study the question under all its phases, and above all things frees him from any preconceived idea, from the necessity of sacrificing himself to a theory, or of obeying too servilely the conditions of art or the sovereign rules of proportion. It is thus that M. Loiseleur has studied,[550] by introducing new documents into the discussion, the question of the pretended poisoning of Gabrielle d’Estrées and of the supposed marriage of Anne of Austria and Mazarin.
The problem of the Man with the Iron Mask has also attracted the scrupulous attention and meditations of this trained mind. M. Loiseleur has not brought forward any new documents in considering this question. It is to those already published that he has directed his examination, and to the theory that makes Matthioly the Man with the Iron Mask.[551] The following is the first result of his observations.
In August, 1681, at the moment when Saint-Mars is about to leave Pignerol for Exiles, of which he had just been named Governor, he receives an order from Louvois to defer his departure. The affair of Casale, abandoned, as we have seen after Matthioly’s arrest, had been taken up again two years afterwards. The Abbé Morel, addressing himself directly to the Duke of Mantua to whom he was accredited, had obtained his consent, and the treaty of surrender, this time confided to sure hands, was about to be definitively executed. As before, Boufflers occupied the frontier with his troops. As before, Catinat is about to penetrate to Pignerol, in order to proceed afterwards to Casale, and take possession of the place. The following is the letter in which Louvois announces to Saint-Mars the early arrival of Catinat:—
“Fontainebleau, August 13, 1681.
“The King having commanded M. de Catinat to proceed as soon as possible to Pignerol, on the same business that took him there at the commencement of the year 1679, I write you these lines by his Majesty’s order, to give you intelligence thereof, so that you may prepare him an apartment in which he may remain concealed during three weeks or a month; and also to tell you that when he shall send to let you know that he is arrived at the place where you went to meet him in the said year 1679, it is his Majesty’s intention that you should go there again to meet him and conduct him into the donjon of the citadel of the aforesaid Pignerol with all the precautions necessary to prevent any one’s knowing that he is with you. I do not charge you to assist him with your servants, your horses, and whatever carriages he may have occasion for, not doubting that you will do with pleasure on these heads, whatever he shall ask.”
According to M. Loiseleur the words,—“the same business that took him there at the commencement of the year 1679,” signifies to Saint-Mars the arrest of a political prisoner. “Since,” says M. Loiseleur, “of all the occurrences of the negotiation undertaken in 1679, this was the only one of which Saint-Mars was officially informed.”[552] This interpretation is very important, because M. Loiseleur seems to conclude from it that in 1681, as in 1679, Catinat was sent to Pignerol to arrest a new individual, and confide him to the care of Saint-Mars. We are unable to share this opinion. The words in question have evidently only one meaning,—the taking possession of Casale. Catinat was not sent to Pignerol to arrest Matthioly, since Louvois’ letter announcing to Saint-Mars the first arrival of this officer, is dated December 29, 1678, when there was not only no intention of carrying off the Mantuan Minister, but when his good offices were continued to be employed, without the suspicion of any treason, which, indeed, did not as yet exist. Moreover, if Catinat remained three months at Pignerol, during January, February and March, 1679, it was because the execution of the treaty of Casale was continually hoped for, and because multiplied and diverse efforts were made to obtain from Matthioly the exchange of the ratifications. M. Loiseleur says, “There was the greatest interest in surrounding Catinat’s mission and his stay at Pignerol with the most profound mystery; it was necessary, in truth, to deceive the vigilance of the Court of Turin, so near to the scene of the events in preparation, and also of the Germans, Spaniards, Venetians, and Genoese, who were not less unquiet.” No doubt; and this is one of the reasons why Catinat took an assumed name. “How then,” adds this writer, “is it to be explained that Louvois should have confided the purpose of this mission to so subordinate an agent as the Captain Saint-Mars?”
The conclusion is neither searching nor exact. Not only was Saint-Mars really in the secret of the political mission entrusted to Catinat in 1679, but, as we have seen, he also helped him to fulfil it, by accompanying him to Increa, for the meeting appointed by Matthioly to exchange the ratifications, by following him to Casale, and by sharing his danger. Saint-Mars, moreover, far from being a subordinate agent, possessed, and justly possessed, the entire confidence of Louis XIV. and Louvois;[553] and despatches which will be quoted hereafter show him to have been on the most friendly terms with D’Estrades and Catinat.[554] The precautions adopted to conceal the stay of the latter at Pignerol were designed to leave in ignorance the officers of the citadel, the notabilities of the town, the governor himself, the Marquis d’Herleville—every one, in fact, except Saint-Mars, whose presence became so indispensable, that, for this reason alone, he delayed his departure for Exiles. In fact, in a despatch addressed to Louvois, April 15, 1679, Catinat complains that the Marquis d’Herleville suspects his presence in the donjon, and at the same time congratulates himself on the precautions which Saint-Mars adopts with regard to him.[555] Moreover, we cannot too strongly insist that the business which brought Catinat to Pignerol in 1679 was the taking possession of Casale. This, for more than three months, was the appointed object of his exertions. The abduction of Matthioly was only a second commission, much less honourable, and much less worthy of Catinat than the former. It was confided to him because he was on the scene of events, and because its accomplishment required a man who was resolute and sure in acting. But it was for him only an unexpected and subordinate character, and formed but an incident, and a sad incident, of his visit, which could not in any way affect the prime, essential, and incontestable cause of his being there, viz., to take possession of Casale.
M. Loiseleur insists the more upon this unfounded interpretation, because it is almost the sole pretext,[556] I will not say for the theory—he is too cautious to call it so—but for the supposition that an obscure and unknown spy was arrested by Catinat in 1681, and confided, like Matthioly, to Saint-Mars’ care. Nothing, indeed—and M. Loiseleur does not deny this—absolutely nothing in the history of the resumption of the negotiations relative to Casale allows us to admit the truth of this hypothesis. While in 1679, there was uncertainty, hesitation, and embarrassment produced by Matthioly’s equivocal behaviour, in 1681 everything was simple, clear, and definitive. No doubt the preparations were still concealed; but observe the rapidity of execution and the startling revenge taken by Louis XIV.! On July 8, 1681, the treaty of surrender is signed at Mantua by the Duke himself and the Ambassador of the King of France. On August 2 Catinat is ordered from Flanders. On the 13th Louvois announces to Saint-Mars the journey of this officer to Pignerol. From September 1 to 22 the French troops muster at Briançon. On the 27th they arrive at Pignerol. On the 30th they enter Casale with the Marquis de Boufflers as commander and Catinat as governor of this new possession.[557] This time there was no intermediary between the negotiators, no obstacle to Louis XIV.’s project; and no employment of an embarrassing or perfidious spy. There is nothing that is suspicious, nothing that is obscure in the despatches relating to this enterprise. There is no void in them, nothing has been suppressed. Moreover—and this is a point upon which we cannot too strongly insist—the King, the ministers, and the ambassadors who penned them, could not foresee that they would one day no longer be buried in the impenetrable archives of Versailles, but be delivered to investigation and comment.
Where is there anything in them about that obscure spy whom Catinat is said to have arrested? M. Loiseleur has wished rather to open a new field for conjecture than to put forward a definite opinion. He has comprehended so well the fragile nature of his train of reasoning that he does not hesitate to express himself in the following manner concerning this pretended prisoner of 1681:—“There is nothing to explain to us his true name, his position in life, or his crime. The only two theories which are now current concerning the Iron Mask are both equally erroneous. This is all that we have intended to establish.”[558]