15^ |^k|) olrlidu ^mill| j[ilir;ir^. Prefented to / The Cdrneir University, 1870,/ G o 1 n w I K Smith, M . A . Ox o n . , Regius Profeffor of Hillory in the Univerfity of Oxford. Date Due Cornell University Library DC 130.M38T67 1870 3 1924 028 182 628 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028182628 8 > ^'^ << THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. By MARIUS TOPIN. TRANSLATED AND EDITED By HENRY VIZETELLY, AUTHOR OF " THE STORY OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE." ' No one must know what has become of this man.*' Oriier a/Lauis XIV. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE. v//Yi^ya TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. M. Topin's L' Homme au Masque deFer, of which the present volume is a translation, has met with considerable attention in France, on the part both of historical students and the reading public ; several editions of it having been called for in the course of a few months. That a work which' professes to give an authentic account of this almost legendary character, after having discussed in an exhaustive fashion the various theories that have been broached during a century and a quarter respect- ing his mysterious identity, should have been received with so large an amount of favour, is not surprising, for the story forms perhaps the most romantic episqde of a reign more than ordinarily rich in dramatic incidents. But the extent of M. Topin's historical knowledge, the painstaking nature of his researches, the subtlety of his reasoning, the skill iv TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. which he has displayed in the grouping of his materials, combined with his life-like pictures of events far from commonly familiar, not only render his work highly amusing reading, but entitle it to take its place in the library, both as an historical study which has resolved beyond all doubt a problem that had long perplexed some of the acutest minds, and as a valuable contribution towards the history of Europe during the latter part of the seventeenth century. During the progress of the translation M. Topin's text has been carefully revised, and a few errors have been corrected. Additional notes, too, have been given when- ever the subject-matter seemed to require elucidation, or where individuals little known to English readers make their appearance on the scene. H. V. Paris ^ April, 1870. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. If this book had been intended merely to satisfy a vulgar and commonplace curiosity, it would only have consisted of a few pages. My aim has been a loftier one. I have endeavoured, while concerning myself with the most famous and romantic of State-prisoners, to write the history of the principal individuals in whom people have beheld the Man with the Iron Mask. As regards some of these I have been compelled to lay bare the private hfe of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, and in order to refute the accusations with which the memory of this princess has been sullied, I have not hesitated to touch upon certain delicate points, and to follow her accusers on to the ground on which they have carried the discussion. But I have imposed upon myself the obligation of always respecting my readers, and of influencing their judgment without offending their taste. I have traced the others throughout vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE. their adventurous careers and agitated existences, and some of them even through their captivity, spent, sometimes in the monotonous inaction of solitude, sometimes with the resignation of the sage, or animated more frequently still by daring attempts at flight which the incessant vigilance of the most scrupulous- of gaolers always foiled. Thus there will be found grouped together in this work Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, the seductive Buckingham and the affecting Vermandois, the versatile Monmouth and the adventurous Beaufort, Lauzun the rash, and Fouquet, rendered admirable by his resignation and Christian vir- tues, the unfortunate Matthioly, and Saint-Mars, whose memory, and even existence, is inseparable from that of his prisoners. The sole and firm ground-work of this book are the materials, for the most part unpublished, to be found in our Archives. For the space of two years I have been collect- ing them in the different depositories of manuscripts ; and at the Ministries as at the Archives of the Empire at the Imperial Library as well as at the Arsenal, at the Institute as at the Hotel de Ville, I have everywhere met with the most cordial reception, the most unreserved liberality, and the most invaluable courtesy. It is my duty, and at the same time my pleasure, to testify my gratitude to MM. Camille AUTHOR'S PREFACE. vii Rousset, Gallet de Kulture, Margry, de Beauchesne, Lacroix, Ravaisson, Sage, Aude, and Read. The treasures of our Archives are not only rendered accessible by the goodwill of their Keepers, but are also made easy of con- sultation by the order which these gentlemen have intro- duced among the profusion of documents by means of classifications as clear as they are ingenious. I have given in the text the more important documents of which I have made use, and in the notes those which are of less consequence, whilst I have contented myself with indicating the collections where those materials are to be found which are altogether of a secondary character. By this means the reader will have a complete check upon me. Without sacrificing anything of the strictest exactitude I have endeavoured to introduce into my account the spirit and the action proper to the individuals brought on to the scene, and, in a subject at once legendary and historical, to represent the faithful drawing of history under the seductive colouring of fiction. Paris, November 8, 1869. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Page Arrival of the Man with the Iron Mask at the Bastille— His Death — General Reflections on this celebrated Prisoner — Motives vifhich determined the present Writer to make fresh Researches concerning him — Plan and Object of the Work i CHAPTER I. Theory which supposes the Man with the Iron Mask to. have been a Brother of Louis XIV. — Voltaire the first to support this Theory in his Sihle de Louis XIV. , and in the Diction- naire Philosofhique — Certain Improbabilities in his Story — Account of the Man with the Iron Mask introduced by Soulavie into the Mltnoires Apocryphes du Markhal de Richelieu — The three different Hypotheses of the Theory which makes the Man with the Iron, Mask a Brother of Louis XIV 9 CHAPTER II. First Hypothesis — Portrait of Buckingham — Causes of his Visit to France — Ardour with which he was received — His Passion for Anne of Austria — Character of this Princess — Journey to Amiens — Scene in the Garden — The Remembrance that Anne of Austria preserved of it 20 X CONTENTS. Page CHAPTER III. Second Hypothesis — First Feelings of Anne of Austria towards Louis XIII. — Joy which she experienced on arriving in France — First Impressions of Louis XIII. — His Aversion to Spain — His Dislilce to Marriage— Austerity of his Manners — His persistent Coldness — Means adopted to induce him to consum- mate the Marriage — Political Position of Anne of Austria — Louis XIII. and Richelieu— Watch kept by the Minister over the Queen— The King's Illness at Lyons 3" CHAPTER IV. Third Hypothesis — Reconciliation of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria — The Queen enceinte for the Fourth Time — Suspi- cions with which Royal Births have sometimes been received — Precautions adopted in France for the Purpose of avoiding these Suspicions — Story of Louis XIV. 's Birth — Impossibility of admitting the Birth of a Twin-brother — Richelieu's Absence — Uselessness of abducting and concealing this pretended Twin-brother 50 CHAPTER V. Motives which hinder one from admitting the Existence, the Arrest, and the Imprisonment of a mysterious Son of Anne of Austria — The Period at which he is said to have been handed over to Saint- Mars, according to the Authors of this Theory, cannot be reconciled with any of the Dates at which Prisoners were sent to this Gaoler — Other Considerations which formally oppose even the Probability of the Theory that makes the Man with the Iron Mask a Brother of Louis XIV 58 CHAPTER VL The Count de Vermandois— His Portrait — Mademoiselle de la Vallifere, his Mother — Anecdote from the Mimoires Secrets pour servir A. fHistoire de Perse — Father Griffet adopts its Conclusions — Arguments that he advances — Motives which render certain of Mademoiselle de Montpensier's Appreciations suspicious — Improbability of the Story in the Mhnoires de Perse — Illness of the Count de Vermandois — Reality of his Death attested by the most authentic Despatches — Magnificence of his Obsequies — Pious Endowments at Arras _ 6=; CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Causes which render the Theory probable that makes Monmouth the Man with the Iron Mask— Political Position of Monmouth — His Portrait — He is persuaded to revolt against his Uncle James II. — He lands near Lyme Regis— His first Successes — Enthusiasm with which he is received — His premature Discouragement — His Defeat at Sedgeraoor — His shameful Flight — He is captured and taken to London — Cowardly Terrors of the Prisoner^His Interview with James II 85 CHAPTER VIII. Bases on which Saint-Foix has founded his Theory — Disputes of Saint-Foix and Father Griffet — The Recollection of Mon- mouth becomes Legendary in England — Ballads announcing his Return — Indisputable Proofs of Monmouth's Death in 1685 — Interview of Monmouth with his Wife and Children — He is conducted to the Scaffold — His Firmness — The Last Words which he utters — Awkwardness of the Executioner 92 CHAPTER IX. Franfois de Vendome, Duke de Beaufort — His Portrait — His Conduct during the War of the Fronde — Unimportance of this Individual — Motives cited by Lagrange- Chancel in support of his Theory — Their Improbability — Reasons which deter- mined the Search 'for Proofs that leaive no doubt of Beaufort's Death at Candia 103 CHAPTER X. Causes of the Expedition to Candia — Court Intrigue — Turenneand the Duke d'Albret — Preparations for the Expedition— Beaufort Commands it — Departure of the Fleet — Its Arrival before Candia — State of this Island — Description of the Place besieged — Last Council of War — Plan of Attack, which is fixed for the Middle of the Night of June 24, 1669 — The First Movements are successful — Terrible Explosion of the Maga- zine of a Battery — Fearful Panic — Roilt of the French — Re- embarkation of the Troops — Certainty of Beaufort's Death 113 xii CONTENTS. Page CHAPTER XI. General Considerations on the Abduction of the Armenian Patriarch Avedick— Despatch of the Marquis de Ferriol to Constantinople as Ambassador — Difficulties peculiar to this Post — Incautious Conduct of some of Ferriol's Predecessors — Quiclet's Adventures— Portrait of Ferriol — His Pretensions at Constantinople — His Eccentricity of Manner — His Beha- viour in Religious Matters — The Armenian Church — Short Account of its History — Ardent Desire of the Catholic Mis- sionaries to make Converts — Their Imprudence — Ferriol at first attempts to repair it — Obstinate Resistance of Father Braconnier, a Jesuit — Encroachments and Requirements of the Jesuits 128 CHAPTER XII. Avedick— His Origin— His Protector, the Grand Mufti, Feizoulah Effendi — The two Churches, schismatic and catholic, exist in perfect concord — Fall of Mustapha II. — Death of the Mufti — Avedick is deposed and imprisoned ^ The Armenians ransom him — Ferriol's persistent Hatred — His stubborn Ani- mosity against Avedick — He succeeds in getting him deposed a second Time — Avedick's Abduction at Chio — He is im- prisoned on board a French Vessel — Incidents of the Voyage — Avedick endeavours to give Tidings of his Fate to the World — Insuccess of his Attempt — His Arrival at Marseilles 147 CHAPTER XIII. The Chevalier de Taulfe — Hovir he vf as led to believe that Avedick vifas the Man vifith the Iron Mask— A clear Proof furnished him of the impossibility of his Theory— Taules persists and accuses the Jesuit Fathers of Forgery — Examination of Dujonca's Journal — Its complete Authenticity and the un- affected Sincerity of the Writer cannot be doubted New Proofs of this Authenticity and of Dujonca's Exactitude 158 CHAPTER XIV. Avedick is at first confined in the Prisons of the Arsenal From Marseilles he is conducted to Mount Saint-Michel — Descrip- tion of Mount Saint-Michel — Treatment to which Avedick is exposed — His useless Protestations against this Abuse of Force CONTENTS. xiii Page — Universal Emotion excited throughout the East— Complaints of the Divan — Ferriol's Impudence — Terrible Reprisals practised on the Catholics — False Avedicks — Expedients to which Ferriol is reduced — Inquietude of the Roman Court — Duplicity of Louis XIV. 's Government — Avedick is transferred to the Bastille — Suggestions of which he is the Object — He abjures, and is set at Liberty — He dies at Paris in the Rue Ferou — Delusive Document drawn up with Reference to this Death — Share of Responsibility which attaches to each of the Authors of the Abduction 171 CHAPTER XV. Description of Pignerol — Its Past, its Situation — Portrait of Saint- Mars — His Scruples and his Integrity — Fouquet's Arrival at Pignerol — Brief Account of the Surintendant's Career — His Error with regard to Louis XIV., whom he betrays — Causes of Fouquet's Fall — His Arrest — His Trial — His Condemna- tion — No kind of Obscurity in this Affair 189 CHAPTER XVI. Remark of Pouquet's Mother — The Prisoner's Piety — Danger which he escapes at Pignerol — Incessant Supervision over him at La Perouse, near Pignerol — Excessive Scruples of Saint- Mars^Precautions prescribed by Louvois — Espionage exercised over Fouquet by his Servants and his Confessor — Illnesses of the Prisoner — He devotes himself entirely to Study and to religious Meditations — Works to which he gives himself up — His new Motto — Interest which he continues to take in all his Relations and in Louis XIV. — Saint-Mars' laconic Answers 208 CHAPTER XVII. Sudden and singular Arrival of Lauzun in Fouquet's Room — The latter had known him formerly under the Name of the Marquis de Puyguilhem — Lauzun enumerates his Dignities and calls himself the King's Cousin — Fouquet believes his Visitor mad — Portrait of Lauzun — His Adventures — His Arrival at Pignerol — He continues his Visits to Fouquet — The Stories he tells him — Noble Conduct of Louis XIV. towards Lauzun — Audacious Method employed by the latter to overhear a Con- versation between Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan — xiv CONTENTS. Page Difference between the Conduct of Lauzun and that of Fouquet — Lauzun's Outbursts against Saint-Mars — Perplexity of the latter — Singular Mode of Surveillance to which he has recourse — Progressive amelioration of the Lot of the two Prisoners — They receive Permission to see each other — ■ Arrival of Fouquet's Daughter at Pignerpl — Misunderstanding between Fouquet and Lauzun — Cause of this Misunderstanding 219 CHAPTER XVIIL 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 Cha- racter — 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 — Weak- ness of the other Arguments advanced by M. Lacroix — Oblivion into which the Surintendant had fallen — Two mysterious Arrests 232 CHAPTER XIX. Intervention of the Kings of France in Italy — Policy of Henri II., Henri IV., and Louis XIII. — Judicious Conduct of Richeheu — Treifty of Cherasco — Menacing Ambition of Louis XIV. — Situation of the Court of Savoy on the Death of Charles- Emmanuel — Portrait of Charles IV., Duke of Mantua — The Marquisate of Montferrat and Casale — The Count .Matthioly His political Career — His Character — The Abbe d'Estrades and Giuliani— Proposal to cede Casale to Louis XIV. Inter- view at Venice between Charles IV. and the Abbe d'Estrades —Journey of Matthioly to Versailles— He communicates the Project formed to the Enemies of France — How is his Conduct to be estimated ? '. 251 CHAPTER XX. The Regent of Savoy's Perplexity — She discloses Matthioly's Con- duct to Louis XIV. — Arrivalof Catinat at Pignerol Arrest of the Baron d'Asfeld and his Imprisonment at Milan The Abb^ d'Estrades the first to conceive the Project of Matthioly's CONTENTS. X Pag Abduction — Despatches of the Abbe d'Estrade--. detailing the Abduction and the Incarceration of Matthioly — Means adopted in order to recover the official Documents connected with the Negotiation — Mystery surrounding Matthioly's Disappearance — His family dispersed, and remaining silent and powerless 267 CHAPTER XXI. Period from which the Theory that makes Matthioly the Man with the Iron Mask dates — Numerous Writers who have concerned themselves with the Abduction of this Individual — Arguments of Reth, Roux-FaziUac, and Delort — M. Jvles Loiseleur — His Labours — The Supposition that an obscure Spy was arrested in 1681 by Catinat — It cannot be admitted — Grounds on which M. Loiseleur rejects the Theory that makes Matthioly the Man with the Iron Mask — Soundness of his Reasoning and Justness of his Conclusions 293 CHAPTER XXII. The Isles Sainte-Marguerite — Their Appearance — Their Past — Various Causes of their Celebrity — How I was led to suppose that Matthioly was not taken to Exiles by Saint-Mars — Documents which prove him to have been left at Pignerol — Obscurity of the two Prisoners transferred to Exiles by Saint-Mars — Neither of them could have been the Man with the Iron Mask — Removal of the Prisoners of Pignerol to the Isles Sainte-Marguerite 313 CHAPTER XXIII. Behaviour of Charles IV., Duke of Mantua, towards his ex-Minister — His true Sentiments with reference to him — Precautions prescribed to Villebois and Lagrade for the Prisoners left by Saint-Mars at Pignerol — Change in Louis XI V. 's Position in Italy — Transfer of the Pignerol Prisoners to the Isles Sainte- Marguerite — Instructions given to Marshal de Tesse — Increase of Saint-Mars' Watchfulness — Mystery surrounding the three Prisoners'— Great Importance of one of them.compared with the others — It is he who was the Man with the Iron Mask 332 xvi CONTENTS. Page CHAPTER XXIV. The Use of a Mask formerly very general — Frequently adopted for Prisoners in Italy — Its Employment not difficult in the Case of Matthioly — Origin of the Legend of the Man with the Iron Mask — As to the Transmission of the Secret from King to King — Louis XV. and Louis XVIII. — How it is that the Despatches which we have quoted have remained unpublished — Concerning the Silence of Saint-Simon — Dujonca — Taules' Objection — Louvois' harsh Language — Matthioly's Age — Concerning the name of Marchialy — Order for Matthioly's Arrest — Arrival of the Duke of Mantua in Paris — Conclusion 350 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. INTRODUCTION. Arrival of the Man with the Iron Mask at the Bastille — His Death — General Reilections on this celebrated Prisoner — Motives which determined the present Writer to make fresh Researches con- cerning him — Plan and Object of the Work. About three o'clock in the afternoon of September i8, 1698, the Sieur de Saint-Mars, coming from the Isles Sainte- Marguerite, made his entry into the chateau of the Bastille, of which fortress he had just been appointed governor. Accompanying him, and borne along in his litter, was a prisoner, whose face was covered with a black velvet mask, and of whom Saint-Mars, with an escort of several mounted men-at-arms, had been the inseparable and vigilant gaoler, throughout the long journey from Provence. Saint-Mars had halted at Palteau, an estate situated between Joigny and Villeneuve-le-Roi, which belonged to him, and for a long time the old inhabitants of Villeneuve used to recall having seen the mysterious litter traversing in the evening the principal street of their town. The" remembrance of 2 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. this apparition has been perpetuated in the district, and the singular incidents characterizing it, related by the former to each ViS^ generation, have been handed down to our own days. The care taken by Saint-Mars at meal-times to keep his prisoner with his back to the windows, the pistols which were always to be seen within reach of the suspicious gaoler, the two beds which he caused to be placed side by side, so many precautions, so much mystery, excited the lively curiosity of the assembled peasants, and formed an incessant subject of conversation among them. At the Bastille, the prisoner was placed in the third room south of the Tower of La Bertaudifere, prepared for him by the turnkey Dujonca, who, some days previous to his arrival, had received a written order to that efifect from Saint-Mars.i Five years afterwards, on Tuesday, November 20, 1703, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the drawbridge of the for- midable fortress was lowered and gave passage to a sad and mournful train. A few men, bearing a dead body, having for sole escort two subordinate employes of the Bastille, silently issued forth and directed their steps towards the cemetery of the Church of Saint-Paul. Nothing could be more thrilling than the sight of this group gliding along furtively under shadow of the falling night. Nothing could be more 1 Estat de Prisonnies qui sont envoies par VOrdre du Roy & la Bastille, d. commenser du mescredy honsiesme du mois d' Octobre que je suis entri en possession de la charge de Lieutenant du Roy, en Vannk 1690, by Dujonca, fol. 37, verso :— Archives of the Arsenal. Letter from Barbezieux, Minister of War, to Saint-Mars, dated July 19, 1698 : — "You can wiite in advance to His Majesty's lieutenant of this chateau to have a chamber ready to receive this prisoner on your arrival. " — Unpublished despatch from the Archives of the Ministry of War. Traditions collected at Villeneuve-le-Roi. Registers of the Secretary's Office of the ICing's'Household. INTRODUCTION. 3 Utterly abandoned, and, in appearance, more obscure, than these unknown remains followed by two strangers, in a hurry to fulfil their task. Around the grave as, the evening before, around the bed of the dying man, there were no signs of sorrow or of regret. The prisoner of Provence had fallen ill on the Sunday. His illness having suddenly increased during the following day, the chaplain of the Bastille had been sent for ; too late, however, to allow him time to go in quest of the last sacraments, yet still suffi- ciently early to enable him to address some rapid and common-place exhortations to the dying man. On the register of the Church of Saint-Paul he was inscribed under the name of Marchialy. At the Bastille he had always been known as the Prisoner of Provence.^ Such is the mysterious personage who, unknown and abandoned to the obscurity of a, prison during the latter, part of his existence, became, a few years after his death, celebrated throughout the entire world, and the romantic and piquant remembrance of whom has, for more than a century, charmed the imagination of all, attracted universal attention, and exercised uselessly the patience and sagacity of so many minds. Become the hero of the most famous of legends, he has had the rare privilege of everywhere exciting the curiosity of the public, without ever either weary- ing or satiating it. At all epochs and among all classes, in England, Germany, Italy, as well as France, in our own 2 Esiat de Prisonnies qui sortet de la Bastille h commenser de honsiesme du inois d'Octobre que je suis erUrS en possession, en VannSe 1690, by Dujonca, fol. 80, verso : — Archives of the Arsenal. - Registre des Baftlnies, Mariages, et Sipultures de la Paroisse de Saint-Paul, s. 1703- 1705, vol. ii. No. 166 : — Archives of the H6tel de Ville. Registers of the Secretary's Office of the King's Household. Imperial Archives. 4 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. days, as in the time of Voltaire, people have manifested the utmost anxiety to penetrate the secret of this long im- prisonment. Napoleon I. greatly regretted not being able to satisfy this desire. ^ Louis Philippe, too, discussed this problem, the solution of which he acknowledged himself ignorant of ; * and, if other sovereigns ^ have pretended they were acquainted with it, their contradictory statements lead us to believe that they were no better informed, but that in their eyes the knowledge and transmission of the dark secret ought to be counted among the prerogatives of the crown. In the long list of writers whom the Man with the Iron Mask, the sphinx of our history, has attracted and tempted, are many illustrious names, as well as some less known now-a-days. During thirty years, Voltaire, Frdron, Saint- Foix, Lagrange -Chancel, and Father Grififet took part in a brilliant joust, in which each of the adversaries succeeded a great deal better in overthrowing his opponent's opinions than in securing the triumph of his own. Many times, and in our own days even, has the debate been resumed, then momentarily abandoned, then recom- menced again. Far and near new theories have been broached, invariably supported by vague and weak proofs, and soon overthrown by strong and valid objections. Fifty- two writers ^ have by turns endeavoured to throw light upon * Souvenirs de la Dttchesse d'' Abrantis, recueillis par M. Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob). * I am indebted for this information to the kindness of M. Guizot. 6 Especially Louis XVIII., whose language is in complete disaccord with that of Louis XV. But I shall refer to this point of debate hereafter. 6 Voltaire, Prosper Marchand, Baron de Crunyngen, Armand de la Chapelle, Chevalier de Mouhy, Duke de Nivernais, La Beaumelle, Lenglet-Dufresnoy, Lagrange-Chancel, Freron, Saint-Foix, Father Griifet, Hume, De Paltaau, Sandraz de Courtilz, Constantin de Renne- INTRODUCTION. 5 this question, but without sucdess ; and it can be affirmed that a century of controversy and of exertion has not yet dissipated the mysterious gloom in which Saint-Mars' cele- brated prisoner is enveloped. So many successive checks, by still further stimulating curiosity, have caused it to be believed that it was impos- sible to arrive at an incontestable and definitive result. Every new explanation having been victoriously repelled almost as soon as started, people have despaired of ever attaining the truth, and some have even gone so far as to proclaim it as being beyond human reach. "The story of the Iron Mask," says M. Michelet,^ " will probably for ever remain obscure," " The Man with the Iron Mask will very likely always be an insoluble problem," has been said else- where ; 8 and M. Henri Martin declares that " history has not the right of pronouncing an opinion on what will never emerge from the domain of conjecture." » If different methods of procedure had been adopted by the numerous writers who have attempted the solution of this problem, I should not have had the temerity to have added to their number; but an attentive study of their ville. Baron d'Heiss, Senac de Meilhan, De la Borde, Soulavie, Linguet, Marquis de Luchet, Anquetil, Father Papon, Malesherbes, Dulaure, Chevalier de Taules, Chevalier de Cubi^res, Carra, Louis Dutens, Abbe Barthelemy, Quintin Craufurd, De Saint Mihiel, Bouche, Champfort, Millin, Spittler, Roux-Fazillac, Regnault-Warin, Weiss, Delort, George Agar Ellis, Gibbon, Auguste Billiard, Dufay, Bibliophile Jacob, Paul Lecointre, Letouraeur, Jules Loiseleur, De Bellecombe, Merimee, Sardou ; vifithout counting the writers of general history, such as S. Sismondi, Henri Martin, Michelet, Camille Rousset, Depping, and all who have written articles on this question in cyclopaedias. ' Histoire de France, vol. xii. p. 435. 8 Art de Verifier les Dates, vol. vi. p. 292. 9 Histoire de France, vol. xiv. p. 564. 6 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. writings shows that they have all taken the same point of departure, and that they have all given themselves up to a single idea. All have kept fixed in their minds this observa- tion of Voltaire's :— " What redoubles one's astonishment is, that at the time when this prisoner was sent to the. Isles Sainte-Marguerite, no important personage had disappeared from Europe." i" All have asked themselves if there really did not dis- appear from Europe some important personage, and they have immediately set themselves to discover some person of consideration, no matter who, that had disappeared during the period extending from 1662 to 1703. When by the aid of the very faintest resemblance they have fancied they have found their hero, they have forthwith adapted the mask of black velvet to him, and have seen in him the famous dead of November 20, 1703. Erecting their con- jecture into a theory, they have become ardent propa- gators of it, and have adopted all that told in its favour with the same readiness with which they have ener- getically denied all that happened to be opposed to it. When the list of missing illustrious men belonging to this period was exhausted, certain writers, sooner than renounce seeing the Man with the Iron Mask in some person still alive in 1706, have had no other expedient than to delay for several years the death of Saint-Mars' prisoner, in order not to abandon so dear a discovery." But many of these ingenious and inventive writers acted in good faith. Not perceiving the defects in their pleading, 10 Voltaire, Siide de Louis XIV., p. 289. 11 M. de Taules, for instance, a partisan of the theory which makes Avedick, the patriarch of Constantinople, the Man with the Iron Mask, and to which I shall refer in the after-part of this book. INTRODUCTION. 7 they only considered its feeblest parts, and in default of making a grea:t number 6f converts, they invariably ended, as is easy enough, by convincing themselves. Persuaded of the unsatisfactory nature of a method of procedure which had always produced such ephemeral results, I have thought that, extraordinary means having proved so inefficacious, more simple ones might perhaps lead to a new solution, (yet one hardly dared hope for it, when twenty-five hypotheses had already been put forward) — to a solution at once decisive, to an absolute conviction, to the certainty of not having to apprehend from the reader either doubt or objection. Commencing the study of this question without any fixed opinion, and with the firm resolution of seeking only the truth, I set about collecting from the whole of our archives authentic despatches relating to the State prisoners under Louis XIV. from the year 1660 to 1 7 10. Without pre-occupying myself with the Ministers who signed them, or the prisoners whom they concerned; without limiting my researches to Saint-Mars, Pignerol, the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, or the Bastille, I arranged these despatches, of which more than three hundred are unpub- lished, in order of their dates. They then lent a material assistance ; some explained others, and from this long and minute inquiry, slowly pursued through heaps of documents, has resulted, I hope, a definitive solution. It was expedient this solution should be obtained. '* -In 12 About a year ago {Moniteur of September 30, 1868) Apropos of the fine collection of unpublished documents given to the world by M. Ravaisson, under the title of Archives de la Bastille, M. de Lescure expressed a wish to see this question definitively settled. I had been occupying myself with it for a considerable period, though not without having satisfied myself that the learned conservator of the Arsenal 8 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. this century, when the historian's resources are increased ( by the progress in certain sciences, by so many spectacles ofifered as an instruction to his fruitful meditations, by a more complete knowledge of institutions and facts, by the facility afforded of penetrating into collections which it had been believed would remain for ever inaccessible to in- vestigators — in this century, which is literally the century of history, it behoved us not to leave in our annals, without solving it, a problem which had so frequently attracted the attention of foreigners. It is this which determined me to undertake a task which some may consider more curious than important. But to the interest peculiar to this subject has to be added that which is attached to the principal persons in whom by turns people have seen the prisoner of Saint-Mars. Before bringing on the scene the true Man with the Iron Mask, I shall examine rapidly, and with the aid of unpublished documents, the illustrious usurpers of this fomantic title, so that this work may serve, not only to satisfy a trivial curiosity, but also to throw a new light upon some of the most singular points of the inner history of our country. Archives contemplated no work on the Man with the Iron Mask, in continuation of his publication, not yet brought down to the epoch of the entry into the Bastille of this famous prisoner. Among con- temporary authors, besides M. Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob), who in 1846 supported the theory that made Fouquet the celebrated prisoner, M. Jules Loiseleur, in the Revtie Contemporaine of July 31, 1867, and M. de Bellecombe, in the Investigateur of May, 1868, have maintained, as the result of their Istbours, that the Man with the Iron Mask was an unknown and obscure spy, whose name would never be ascertained. We shall recur to the two studies of MM. Lacroix and Loiseleur, of which one is very ingenious, and the other exhibits a penetrating^ sagacity, while both display a varied and trustworthy erudition. ( 9 ) CHAPTER I. Theory which supposes the Man with the Iron Mask to have been a Brother of Louis XIV. — Voltaire the first to support this Theory in his Siicle de Louis XIV. , and in the Dictioimaire Philosophique — Certain Improbabilities in his Story — Account of the Man with the Iron Mask introduced by Soulavie into the Memoires Apocryphes du Marichal de Richelieu — The three different Hypotheses of the Theory which makes the Man with the Iron Mask a Brother of Louis XIV. Among the numerous theories which attempt to explain the existence of the Man with the Iron Mask, i some have been ' We shall speak of these briefly further on. We believe it useless to mention, otherwise than in a short note, the opinion of those who, despairing of finding the solution of the Man with the Iron Mask, have taken upon themselves to deny his existence. All the documents which we have just cited (official despatches of the Ministry of War, Dujonca's Journal, &c. &c. ) clearly establish the fact that a prisoner was sent with Saint-Mars to the Bastille in 1698, and that he died there in 1703, without any one ever having known his name. The silence of the Menwires de Saint-Simon, which is very thoughtlessly evoked in support of the theory in question, will be explained very naturally in the course of this work. Neither is there any need to enlarge upon an opinion put forward a short time since in certain journals, which makes the Man with the Iron Mask a son of Louis XIV. and the Duchess of Orleans. This opinion, which there is nothing whatever to prove, which rests upon no document, nor even upon any historical fact, is, moreover, set forth in an article filled with errors. The only cause of the disgrace of the Marquis de Vardes, exiled to his government of Aigues-Mortes, was an intrigue in which he played an important part. 10 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. imagined so carelessly, conceived with so much haste, ana supported in so loose a manner, that they are not worthy of a serious examination, and simply to mention them will suffice to do them justice. But there are others, due to an ingenious inspiration, and sustained with incontestable talent, which, without being true, have at least many appearances of being so. Among others, the most devoid of proofs, but also the most romantic, is that which makes the Man with the Iron Mask a brother of Louis XIV. "There are many things which everybody says because they have been said once," remarks Montesquieu.^ This is especially true of things which border on the extra- ordinary and the marvellous. So, there are few persons' who, on hearing the Man with the Iron Mask mentioned, do not immediately evoke a brother of Louis XIV. Whether the result of an intrigue between Anne of Austria and the Duke of Buckingham,' or a legitimate son of Louis XIII. and which had for its object the overthrow of Mademoiselle de la Valli^re and the substitution of another mistress for her. As to the death of the Duchess of Orleans, it is now demonstrated that it was not due to poison. M. Mignet, in his Nlgociations Relatives h la Suc- cession (fEspagne (vol. iii. p. zo6), was tlie first to deny this poisoning, relying principally on a very conclusive despatch from Liornie to Colbert, of the 1st July, 1670. Since then, M. Littr^, in the second number of La Philosophie Positive, has incontestably established by the examination of the procis-verbaux, and of all the circumstances relating to the death ofHenrietta of England, that it must be attributed to an internal disease, unknown to the physicians of that period. [The Duchess of Orleans here referred to is Henrietta-Maria, youngest daughter of Charles I. of England, who married Philip, younger brother of Louis XIV., and first Duke of the existing branch of the House of Orl&ns. — 7Va«f.] ^ Grandeur et Dicadence des Romains, chap. iv. " The grave English historian, David Hume, has re-echoed this theory, supported also by the Marquis de Luchet, in his Remarques sur le Masque de Per, 1783. SUGGESTED TO BE A BROTHER OF LOUIS XIV. ii and twin brother of Louis XIV., matters little to popular imagination. These are but different branches of a system which is profoundly engrafted in the public mind, and which it will not be unprofitable to overthrow separately, since it has still innumerable partisans, and touches upon the rights, moreover, the Bourbons have had to the throne of France. By whom was this widely-spread opinion first put forward ? And by whom has it been revived in our own days ? What proofs, or, at least, what probabilities are invoked in its support ? On what recollections, on what writings, is such a supposition based ? Does it agree with official documents ? Is it in accord with the character of Anne of Austria or with that of Louis XIII ? Is it founded on reason ? First Voltaire,* in his Sikk de Louis XIV., published in 1751, wrote the following lines, destined to excite a lively attention and to start a theory which he only completed in his Didionnaire Philosophique : — "Some months after the death of Mazarin," he says, " an event occurred which has no parallel, and what is no less strange, all the historians have ignored it. There was sent with the greatest secresy to the chateau of the Isle Sainte-Marguerite, in the Sea of Provence, an unknown prisoner, above the average height, and of a most handsome and noble countenance. This prisoner, on the journey, 4 The Memoires Secrets pour servir & fHistoire de Perse, Amster- dam, 174S, had already revealed the existence of Saint-Mars' prisoner, and maintained that he was the Duke de Vermandois, a natural son of Louis XIV. and Mademoiselle de la VaUiere. We shall recur to them when considering this theory, in the same way as we shall speak, with reference to the principal theories put fonvard, of the works which have discussed them, without regard to the period at which they have appeared. 12 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. wore a mask, the chin-piece of which was furnished with steel springs, which left him free to eat with the mask covering his face. Orders had been given to kill him if he should remove it. He remained in the island till a confidential officer, named Saint-Mars, governor of Pignerol, having been appointed governor of the Bastille in 1690, went to fetch him in the Isle Sainte-Marguerite and con- ducted him to the Bastille, always masked. The Marquis de Louvois went to see him in this island before his removal, and spoke to him standing, and with a con- sideration which betokened respect. This unknown indi- vidual was taken to the Bastille, where he was lodged as well as he could be in the chateau. Nothing that he aske(f for was refused him. His greatest liking was for linen of an extraordinary fineness and for lace ; he played on the guitar. He had the very best of everything, and the governor rarely sat down in his presence. An old doctor of the Bastille, who had often attended this singular .man in his illnesses, has stated that he never saw his face, although he had examined his tongue and the rest of his body. He was admirably made, said this doctor ; his skin was rather brown : he interested one by the mere tone of his voice, never complaining of his state, and not letting it be understood who he could be. This stranger died in 1703, and was interred during the night in the parish church of Saint-Paul. What redoubles one's astonishment is that at the period when he was sent to the Isle Sainte- Marguerite, there had disappeared from Europe no impor- tant personage. This prisoner was without doubt one, since this is what occurred shortly after his arrival in the island : — The governor himself used to place the dishes on VOLTAIRE'S RECITALS. 13 the table, and then to withdraw after having locked him in. One day, the prisoner wrote with a knife on a silver plate, and threw the plate out of the window towards a boat which was on the shore, almost at the foot of the tower. A fisher- man, to whom the boat belonged, picked up the plate and carried it to the governor. He, astonished, asked the fisher- man : ' Have you read what is written on this plate, and has any one seen it in your possession ? ' ' I do not know how to read,' answered the fisherman ; ' I have just found it, and nobody has seen it.' The peasant was detained until the governor had ascertained that he could not read, and that the plate had been seen by nobody. ' Go,' he then said to him, ' you are very lucky not to know how to read ! ' " * The following is the explanation by which, in his Dictionnaire Philosophique, Voltaire, under his editor's name, afterwards completed this first story : " The Man with the Iron Mask was doubtless a brother, and an elder brother of I/Ouis XIV., whose mother had that taste for fine linen on which M. de Voltaire relies. It was from reading the Memoires of the period which relate this anecdote concerning the Queen, that, recollecting this very taste of the Man with the Iron Mask, I no longer doubted that he was her son, of which all the other cir- cumstances had already convinced me. It is known that Louis XIII. had not lived with the Queen for a considerable time, and that the birth of Louis XIV. was only due to a lucky chance." Voltaire proceeds to relate that previous to the birth of Louis XIV., Anne of Austria had been delivered of a son of whom Louis XIII. was not the 6 Slide de Louis XIV., chap. xxv. 14 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. father, and that she had confided the secret of his birth to Richelieu : he then goes on to say, — " But the Queen and ■ the Cardinal, equally penetrated with the necessity of hiding the existence of the Man with the Iron Mask from Louis XIII., had him brought up in secresy. This was unknown to Louis XIV. until the death of the Cardinal de Mazarin. But this monarch, learning then that he had a brother, and an elder brother, whom his mother could not disavow, who, moreover, perhaps had characteristic features which betokened his origin, and reflecting that this child, born during marriage, could not, without great inconvenience and a horrible scandal, be declared illegitimate after Louis XIII. 's death, may have considered that he could not make use of wiser and better means to assure his own security and the tranquillity of the State than those which he employed, means which dis- pensed with his committing a cruelty which policy would have represented as being necessary to a monarch less conscientious and less magnanimous than Louis XIV." ^ What improbabiUties, what contradictions, what errors accumulated in a few pages ! This unknown, whom no one, not even his doctor, has ever seen unmasked, has his face described as "handsome and noble;" Saint-Mars, named governor of the Bastille in 1690, and traversing the whole of France in order to fetch a prisoner, for whom during eight-and-twenty years another gaoler had sufficed ; this mask with steel springs covering day and night the face of the unknown without affecting his health; this resignation which prevented his complaining of his position " Voltaire, Dktionnaire Philosopliique, vol. i. p. 375, 376. Edition of 1771. IMPROBABILITIES IN VOLTAIRE S ACCOUNT. 15 and which did not allow him to give any one a glimmering as to who he was, and this eagerness to throw out of his window silver plates on which he had written his name ; this peculiar taste for fine linen, which Anne of Austria also possessed, and which revealed his origin ; this haste on her part to confess her adultery to her enemy, the Cardinal de Richelieu ; the Queen of France making only the Prime Minister the confidant of her confinement ; and these two events, the birth and the abduction of a royal child, so well concealed that no contemporary memoir makes mention of them : such are the reflections which immediately suggest themselves on reading this story. No less improbable, and more romantic still, is the fictitious account given by the governor himself of the Man with the Iron Mask, and which Soulavie has introduced into the apocryphal memoirs of the. Marshal de Richelieu.'' " The unfortimate prince whom I have brought up and guarded to the end of my days," says the governor,^ " was bom 5th September, 1638, at half-past eight in the evening, while the King was at supper. His brother, now reigning (Louis XIV.), was born at twelve in the morning, during his father's dinner. But while the birth of the King was splendid and brilliant, that of his brother was sad and care- ' Ixjndon, 1790. It is, known that Soulavie used the notes and papers of the Marshal de Richelieu with such bad faith, that the Duke de Fronsac launched an energetic protest against his father's ex- secretary. 8 "Account of the birth and education of the unfortunate prince removed by the Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin from society, and imprisoned by order of Louis XIV., composed by the governor of the prince on his deathbed. " (Memoires du Markhal de Richelieu, vol. iii. chap. 4.) i6 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. fully concealed. Louis XIII. was warned by the midwife that the Queen would have a second delivery, and this double birth had been announced to him a long time pre- viously by two herdsmen, who asserted in Paris that if the Queen was brought to bed of two Dauphins, it would be the consummation of the State's misfortune. The Cardinal de Richelieu, consulted by the King, replied that, if the Queen should bring twin sons into the world it would be neces- sary to carefully hide the second, because he might one day wish to be King. Louis XIII. was consequently patient in his uncertainty. When the pains of the second labour com- menced, he Was overwhelmed with emotion." The Queen is delivered of a second child "more delicate and more handsome than the first." The midwife is charged with him, " and the Cardinal afterwards took upon himself the education of this Prince who was destined to replace the Dauphin if the latter should die. As for the shepherds who prophesied on the subject of Anne of Austria's con- finement, the governor did not hear them spoken of any more, whence he concludes that the Cardinal found a means of sending them away." " Dame Pdronnette, the midwife, brought the Prince up as her own son, and he passed for being the bastard of some great lord of the time. The Cardinal confided him later to tlie governor to educate him as a King's son, and this governor took him into Burgundy to his own house. The Queen- mother seemed to fear that if the birth of this young Dauphin should be discovered, the malcontents would revolt, because many doctors think that the last-born of twin brothers is really the elder, and therefore King by right. Nevertheless, Anne of Austria could not prevail so ULA VIES FICTITIO US NARRA TIVE. 1 7 upon herself to destroy the documents which established this birth. The Prince, at the age of nineteen, became acquainted with this State secret by searching in a casket belonging to his governor, in which he discovered letters from the Queen and the Cardinals de Richelieu and Mazarin. But, in order better to assure himself of his true condition, he asked for portraits of the late and present Kings. The governor replied that what he had were so bad that he was waiting for better ones to be painted, in order to place them in his apartment. The young man proposed to go to Saint-Jean de Luz, where the court was staying, on account of the King's marriage with the Spanish Infanta, and compare himself with his brother. His governor detained him, and no longer quitted his side. " The young Prince was then handsome as Cupid, and Cupid was very useful to him in getting him a portrait of his brother, for a servant with whom he had an intrigue pro- cured him one. The Prince recognized himself, and rushed to his governor, exclaiming, ' This is my brother, and here is what I am ! ' The governor despatched a messenger to court to ask for fresh instructions. The order came to imprison them both together." 9 " It is at last known, this secret which has excited so lively and so general a curiosity ! " 1° says Champfort, in ' This story is closely reproduced in Grimm's Correspondence, on the assumed authority of an original letter from the Duchess de Modena, daughter of the Regent d'Orleans, said to have been found by M. de la Borde, a former valet-de-chambre of Louis XV., among the papers of Marshal Richelieu, who was the Duchess's lover. — See Co- rapondance LittSraire, Fhilosofhique, &=€., de Grunen et de Diderot, vol. xiv., pp. 419-23. Paris, 1831. — Trans. 1" yiercure de France. i8 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. noticing these fictitious Memoires du Markhal de Richelieu. This implacable and sceptic railer allowed himself to be really seduced by this interpretation. Many others were convinced with him, which exonerates them ; and the version given by Voltaire was rather neglected for that of Soulavie. In our own days, the theory which makes the Man with the Iron Mask a brother of Louis XIV. has been supported by four writers, who have powerfully contributed to revive it, and render it more popular still. The first two, by transferring to the stage," and the third, by weaving into the plot of one of his most ingenious romances '^ the pathetic fate of the mysterious prisoner, have sought less to instruct than to interest their readers, and have com- pletely succeeded in the purpose they had in view. The fourth writer, who, with MM. Fournier, Arnould, and Alexandre Dumas, has adopted the romantic theory, is an historian, M. Michelet^^ Before showing that this pretended brother of Louis XIV. could not be the unknown prisoner brought by Saint-Mars to the Bastille in 1698, let us seek when and how this theory could have been started, and, to the end that the refutation may be complete and definitive, let us see if his birth is not 11 Le Masque de Fer of MM. Arnould and Foumier, played with great success at the Odeon Theatre in 1831. 12 Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, by Alexander Dumas. '' Histoire de France, vol. xii. p. 435. "If Louis XVI. told Marie-Antoinette that nothing was any longer known about him, it is because, understanding her well, he had little desire of this secret being sent to Vienna. Very probably the child was an elder brother of Louis XIV., and his birth obscured the question (important to them) of knowing if their ancestor, Louis XIV., had reigned legitimately." DIFFERENT EPOCHS ASSIGNED FOR HIS BIRTH. 19 as imaginary as his adventures. There are three dates as- signed for this birth — in 1625, after the visit to France of the Duke of Buckingham, who has been considered as the father of the Man with the Iron Mask; in 163 1, a few months after the grave illness of Louis XIII., which caused the accession to the throne of his brother, Gaston of OrWans, to be feared; and lastly, September 5, 1638, a few hours after Louis XIV. came into the world. 1* If, in this searching examination, we touch upon delicate points — if, in order to destroy the unjust accusations with which the memory of Anne of Austria has been defaced, we penetrate deeply into the details of her private life and that of her royal husband — we are drawn thither by .those who, by carrying the debate on to this ground, compel us to follow them. We shall unhesitatingly touch upon each of the memories which they have not feared to recall, and nothing will be omitted that can throw light upon our proof. We shall, nevertheless, strive not to forget what is due to our readers, and the necessity of convincing them will not make us negligent of the obligation we are under of respect- ing them. " I shall not examine in detail the hypothesis which makes him a child of Anne of Austria and Mazarin, since it is abandoned even by those who are the most eager to see a brother of Louis XIV. in the prisoner. " It is doubtful," says M. Michelet, " if the prisoner had been a younger brother of Louis XIV., a son of the Queen and Mazarin, whether the succeeding kings would have kept the secret so well." Moreover, the general arguments which I shall advance in Chapter V. will apply equally to o. son of Mazarin, of Buckingham, or of Louis XIII. THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. CHAPTER II. First Hypothesis— Portrait of Buckingliam— Causes of his Visit to France— Ardour with which he was received — His Passion for Anne of Austria— Character of this Princess— Journey to Amiens— Scene in the Garden— The Remembrance that Anne of Austria preserved of it. The Duke of Buckingham, chaiged by Charles I. with conducting Henrietta-Maria, the new Queen of England, to London, arrived in Paris, May 24, 1625.1 This brilliant and audacious nobleman, who had known how to become and to remain the ruling favourite of two kings utterly dif- ferent in character and mind, and who, from a very humble position, had raised himself to the highest posts in the State, enjoyed throughout the whole of Europe the most striking renown. He owed it, however, less to the favours with which James I. had loaded him, and which his son had continued, than to his attractive qualities and his romantic adventures. All that Nature could bestow of grace, charm, and the power of pleasing, he had received in profusion. Deficient in the more precious gifts which retain, he possessed all those which attract. He was well made, had a very handsome countenance,'' was of a proud 1 Mercure Fran^ais, 1625, pp. 365, 366. ' Mlmoires de Madame de MotUville, p. 15. DESCRIPTION OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 21 bearing without being haughty, and knew how to aflfect, according to circumstances, the emotion which he wished to communicate to others, but did not feel himself. During a long stay in France, he had succeeded in rendering exquisite those manners which were naturally delicate, and had become accomplished in all the arts which display the elegance of the body. He excelled in arms, showed himself a clever horseman, and danced with a rare perfection. The adventurous visit to Spain which he had made with the Prince of Wales ^ had increased his reputation for elegant frivolity, and the successes which his good looks and audacity had secured him made people forget the defects of the incautious negotiator. Already extravagant during his early poverty, he dissipated his fortune as if he had always lived in the opulence for which he seemed born, displaying a magnificence and a pomp unknown in a like degree before his time. Moreover, volatile and presump- tuous, as inconstant as pliant, without profundity in his views, without connection in his projects, clever in maintain- ing himself in power, but disastrous to the sovereigns whom he governed, ~by turns insolently familiar and irresistibly attractive, sometimes admired by the crowd for his supreme distinction, at others execrated for his fatal authority, not low but impetuous in his caprices, not knowing either how to foresee or to accept an obstacle, and sacrificing every- thing to his fancy, he possessed none of the qualities of ' The Prince of Wales had been on the point of espousing the Infanta Maria, Anne of Austria's sister, and had proceeded to Spain with Buckingliam, in order to hasten the conclusion of this project. See the very interesting Story of this negotiation in M. Guizot's Un Projet de Mariage Royal. 22 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. the statesman although he may have had all those which iCharacterize the courtier. He was expected, and was received in Paris with the most eager curiosity. " M. de Buckingham," wrote Richelieu to the Marquis d'Effiat, "will find in, me the friendship which he might expect from a true brother who will render him all the services which he could desire of any one in the world,"* and Louis XIII. caused to be said to, him, " I assure you that you will not be considered a stranger here, but a true Frenchman, since you are one in heart, and have shown in this marriage negotiation such uniform affection forltlie welfare and service of the two crowns, that I think as much of it, so far as I am concerned, as ^lie King your master. You will be very welcome here, and you will have access to me on all occasions."^ From the day of his arrival, Buckingham really showed himself "a true Frenchman" by his manner of behaving, by the ease and freedom of his movem^ts. " He entered the court," says La Rochefoucauld, " with more splendour, grandeur, and magnificence than if he were King." ^ Eight great lords and four-and-twenty knights accompanied him. Twenty gentlemen and twelve pages were attached to his person, and his entire suite was composed of six or seven hundred pages or attendants.^ " He had all the treasures * Collection of Unpublished Documents concerning the History of France. Letires et Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de liicheUeu, published by M. Avenel, vol. ii. p. 55. ^ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 71. ^ Mhnoires de la Rockefoucaidd, p. 340, ' Hardwicke [State Papers), vol. i. p. 571. Documents quoted in M. Guizot's work already cited, p. 332. BUCKINGHAM AT THE FRENCH COURT. 23 of the Crown of England to expend, and all its jewels to wear." 8 He alighted at the splendid Hotel de Luynes in the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, which was then called the Hotel de Chevreuse, "the most richly furnished hotel which France at present possesses,'' says the Mercure, and for several days the people of Paris were dazzled by the extraordinary luxury displayed by the ostentatious 1 foreigner. 9 The admiration at the court was quite as lively, and Buckingham there pushed liberality to extra- vagance. Each of his sumptuous costumes was covered with pearls and diamonds intentionally fastened on so badly that a great number fell off, which the duke refused to receive when they were brought to him. His pro- digality, the importance of his mission, the seductiveness which enveloped his past life, and the amiability which he invariably displayed, his title of foreigner which rendered his perfectly French manners more piquant, that art of pleasing which was so easy to him, all contributed to make him alike the hero both of the town and of the court. Giddy with a success which surpassed even his expecta- tions, and dazzled by the splendour which he shed around him, he saw only the Queen of France worthy of his homage, and suddenly conceived for her the most vehement passion. Too frivolous to bury this sentiment in his heart> he displayed it with complacency, and his temerity increased with his ostentation. Anne of Austria was a Spaniard and a coquette. She understood gallantry such as her country- women had learned it from the Moors — that gallantry 8 Mimoires de Madame de Motteville, p. 16. Mercure Fratifais, 1625, p. 366. " Mercure Franfait, ibid. 24 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. "which permits men to entertain without criminal inten- tions tender sentiments for women ; which inspires in them fine actions, liberality, and all kinds of virtue. " ^ " She did not consider," says one who best knew Anne of Austria, " that the fine talk, which is ordinarily called honest gal- lantry, where no particular engagement is entered into, could ever be blamable." ^^ So she tolerated with indulgence and without astonish- ment a passion congenial to her recollections of her country and her youth, and which, while flattering her self-esteem, did not at all shock her virtue. She received this homage of vanity with the complacency of coquetry, knowing herself to be most beautiful, most powerful, and most worthy of being loved. On Buckingham's side there was indiscreet persistence, multiplied signs of being in love, and eagerness to be near her; on hers, timid encouragement, gentle sternness, severity and pardon by turns in her looks appeared to Anne of Austria the natural and ordinary in- cidents of a gallantry where neither her honour nor even her reputation seemed exposed to any peril. Moreover, jf numerous festivities gave them frequent opportunities of seeing one another, the court being always present at the many interviews of the Ambassador with the Queen, restrained and embarrassed the enterprising audacity of the one, but entirely justified the confidence of the other. "^ Mhnoires de Madame de Motteville, p. l8. "In our time," adds Madame de Motteville, ' ' there has existed what the Spaniards call fucezas." "This word," remarks the commentator on these Memoirs, " appears to come from huso, a distaff. It seems to express the idea of spinning love." " Md. GARDEN SCENE AT AMIENS. 25 After a week devoted to ballets, banquets, and feats of horsemanship, the wife of Charles I. set out on June 2 for England, conducted by the Duke of Buckingham, the Earls of Holland and Carlisle, and the Duke and Duchess de Chevreuse. Louis XIII., who was ill, remained at Com- pibgne ; but Anne of Austria, as well as Marie de Medicis, accompanied by a great number of French lords, proceeded to Amiens. There the brilliant assemblies recommenced, and the Duke de Chaulnes, governor of the province, gave the three Queens a most magnificent reception. During several days the whole of the nobility of the neighbourhood came to offer tljeir homage and augment the brilliancy of the pleasure-parties and fetes given by the governor. The town not containing a palace sufficiently large to receive the three Queens, they were lodged separately, each being accompanied by a train of intimates and lords, who formed a little court for her. Buckingham almost constantly de- serted his new sovereign in order to show himself wherever Anne of Austria was. Attached to the abode of the latter was a large garden, near the banks of the Somme. The Queen and her court were fond of walking in it. One evening, attracted, as usual, by the beauty of the place, and tempted by the mildness of the weather, Anne of Austria, accompanied by Buckingham, the Duchess de Chevreuse, Lord Holland, and all the ladies of her suite, prolonged her promenade later than usual. Violently enamoured, and arrived at such a pitch of self-conceit that everything seemed possible, the Duke was very tender, and even dared to be importunate. The early departure of Henrietta Maria rendered their separation imminent. Favoured by the falling night, and taking advantage of a moment of isolation 26 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. due to the winding of a path, he threw himself at the Queen's feet, and wished to give way to the transports of his passion. But Anne, alarmed, and perceiving the danger that she ran, uttered a loud cry, and Putange, her equerry, who was walking a few steps behind her, rushed forward and seized the Duke. All the suite arrived in turn, and Buckingham managed to get away in the midst of the crowd. 12 Two days afterwards Henrietta Maria quitted Amiens for Boulogne ; Marie de Medicis and Anne of Austria accompanied her to the gates of the town. Anne of Austria was in a carriage with the Princess de Conti. It was there that Buckingham took leave of her. Bending down to bid her adieu, he covered himself with the window-curtain, in order to hide his tears, which fell profusely. The Queen was moved at this display of grief, and the Princess de Conti, " who gracefully rallied her, told her that she could answer to the King for her virtue, but that she would not do as much for hej cruelty, as she suspected her eyes of having regarded this lover with some degree of pity." 13 Too passionately enamoured for separation to be able to cure him of his love, and excited still more to see Anne of Austria again by the recollection of his gross rashness, the Duke of Buckingham, whom unfavourable winds de- tained at Boulogne, returned suddenly to Amiens with Lord Holland, under pretence of having an important letter to deliver to Marie de Medicis, who, owing to a li' Mimoires de La Porte. MSmoires de Madame de MottevUle, p. 1 6. Mimoires de la Rochefoucauld, p. 340. IS M(moires de Madame de Mottez'ille. SCENE IN- THE QUEEN'S BEDCHAMBER. 27 slight illness, had not quitted this town. " Returned again ! " said Anne of Austria to Nogent-Bautru, on learn- ing, this news; "I thought that we were delivered from him." 1* She had been bled that morning, and was in bed when the two English noblemen entered her chamber. Buckingham, blinded by his passion, threw himself on his knees before the Queen's bed, embracing the coverings with ecstasy, and exhibiting, to the great scandal of the ladies of honour, the impetuous sentiments which agitated him. The Countess de Lannoi wished to force him to rise, telUng him, with severity, that such behaviour was not according to French customs. " I am not French," replied the Duke, and he continued, but always in the presence of several witnesses, to eloquently express his tenderness for the Queen. The latter, being very much embarrassed, could not at first say anything; then she complained of such boldness, but without a great deal of indignation ; and it is probable that her heart took no part in the reproaches which she addressed to the ' duke. The next day he departed a second time for Boulogne, and never again saw the Queen of France. Such is the famous scene at Amiens, which furnished opportunities for the gross liveliness of Tallemant des Re'aux and the libertine imagination of the Cardinal de " Mimoires deLa Porte, pp. 8, 9. Madame de Motteville assures us that her mistress was informed of this visit by Madame de Chevreuse, which is possible. It is the only point, and moreover, a very secondary one, in which La Porte's account differs from Madame de Motteville's. But we must not forget that the former was an eye-witness, whilst the latter, who entered the service of Anne of Austria afterwards, learnt the events, which she describes at the commencement of her Memoirs, long subsequent to their occurrence. 28 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. Retz." The statements of La Porte, who was present, of Madame de Motteville, who collected her information from eye-witnesses, and of La Rochefoucauld, less likely to show partiality, leave no doubt of Anne of Austria's innocence. Marie de Medicis, whose interest it then was to injure her with Louis XIII., and who often did so with- out scruple, could not on this occasion, says La Porte, ^^ "avoid bearing witness to the truth, and telling the King that there was nothing in it ; that if the Queen might have been willing to act wrongly, it would have been impossible, with so many people about her who were watching her, and that she could not prevent the Duke of Buckingham having esteem or even love for her. She related also a number of things of this kind which had happened to herself in her youth." Marie de Medicis might also have quoted examples from the life of Anne of Austria herself, who had pre- viously loved the Duke de Montmorency and the Duke de Beilegarde without her honour having been tarnished by so doing. 17 The recollection of Buckingham's love dwelt more profoundly in the memory of all, because his passion had been more fiery and had been manifested by incautious acts. But to the end of the Queen's life, even after the death of Louis XIII., and during the regency, it was in her presence a subject of conversation which she listened to complacently, because it flattered her self-esteem, and which she would certainly not have tolerated, had any one 16 Retz places the Amiens scene at the Louvre, and does not neglect the opportunity of blackening the Queen's honour. 1^ Mimoires de La Porte, p. lo. " Mimoires de Madame de Motteville, p. i8. SOUVENIRS OF BUCKINGHAM'S ATTACHMENT. 29 dared to start it, if this recollection had been to her a cause for remorse. Far from this, people familiarly jested with her about it with grace, and without offending her> since they could thus remind her of a liking which had been sufficiently strong, but had not led her to commit any fault. Richelieu, presenting Mazarin to the Queen, said, " You will like him, madam, he has Buckingham's manner."i8 Much later Anne of Austria, when Regent, meeting Voiture walking along in a dreamy state, in her garden of Ruel, and asking him what he was thinking of, received in reply these verses, which did not at all offend her : — "Je pensais que la destinee, Apr^s tant d'injustes malheurs, Vous a justenient couronnee De gloire, d'eclat et d'honneurs ; Mais que vous etiez plus heureuse Lorsque vous etiez autrefois, Je ne veux pas dire amoureuse, La rime le veut toutefois. Je pensais (que nos autres poetes Nous pensons extravagamment) Ce que, dans I'humeur ou vous 6tes, Vous feriez si, dans ce moment, Vous avisiez en cette place Venir le Due de Buckingham, Et lequel serait en disgrSce, De lui ou du pfere Vincent. " '' Everything combines to absolve Anne of Austria from the crime of which she was accused during the troubles of the Fronde, and in the midst of the unjust passions aroused by civil war. Louis XIII. 's conduct with respect 18 Mimoires de Tallemant des Reaux, vol. 1. p. 422. 1' Pire Vincent was the Queen's confessor. — Mimoires de Madame de Motteville, vol. i. pp. 81, 82. 30 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. to her, and his persistent coldness, alone seemed to con- demn her. But does this coldness date from Buckingham's stay in Paris ? Were the isolation in -which Louis XIII. often remained and his neglect of the Queen such as people have believed up to the present time? Must we admit, as has been maintained, the proof of a criminal infidelity on the part of this Princess, deliberately com- mitted either with Buckingham in 1625, or with an unknown individual, in 1630, with the view of being able, at the instant of Louis XIII.'s death, which then seemed imnii- nent, to reign in the name of a child of whom she should be enceinte, and who, after the unexpected recovery of the King, became the Man with the Iron Mask ? 31 ) CHAPTER III. Second Hypothesis — First Feelings of Anne of Austria towards Louis XIII. — ^Joy which she experienced on arriving in France — First Impressions of Louis XIII. — His Aversion to Spain — His Dislilie to Marriage — Austerity of his Manners — His persistent Coldness — Means adopted to induce him to consummate the Marriage — Political Position of Anne of Austria— Louis XIII. and Richelieu — Watch kept by the Minister over the Queen— The King's Illness at Lyons. The political story of Louis XIII.'s marriage with Anne of Austria has been told ; the motives which determined this union, the negotiations which preceded it, the great interests connected with it, and the powerful springs which put it in action, have all been set forth and weighed in a decisive manner. ^ If, neglecting this grave examination, which is entirely- foreign to our work, we occupy ourselves solely with the character and secret thoughts of the persons thus tied to one another, and whose private life has. been ransacked in order to give a solution to the problem of the Man with the Iron Mask, we see that a very strong liking for France and for her King, on Anne of Austria's part, was in accord ^ Les Mariages /spagnoh sous le rigne d'' Henri IV. et la R^gence de Marie de Medicis, by M. Perrens, Professor at the Lycee Bonaparte. 32 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. with the necessities of policy. Contrary to what frequently happens in the case of royal marriages, the obligations imposed on the Infanta by her rank were not repugnant to the sentiments of the woman, and when she crossed the French frontier for the first time, she realized a hope long since conceived and dearly cherished in her heart. With only eight days between their births and at once betrothed to one another in pubUc opinion, the Infanta and the Dauphin had been the object of the researches and predictions of all the astrologers of the time,^ who proclaimed that, having come into the world under the same sign, they were destined to love each other, even though they might not be united. The Infanta had believed in this augury. She had early hked to hear the young King spoken of, she sought after his portraits, she preferred garments of French cut, she willingly wore ear-rings formed of fleurs-de-lis, and, the changes of the negotiation having for a moment fixed the choice of the two Governments on her sister Dona Maria,^ Anne, then nine years old, declared, " that if it was to be thus, she was resolved to pass her life in a monastery without ever marrying."* When, three years afterwards, the Duke de Mayenne, on quitting Madrid, whither he had come to sign the marriage contract of Anne and Louis XIII., asked the former what she wished him to 2 Manuscripts of the Imperial Library, finds Harlay, 228, Nos. 14, 15 ; Court of Spain, Embassy of M. de Vaucellas, already quoted by M. Armand Baschet in his amusing work, very rich in rare documents, Le Hoi chez la Reine. 8 The Infanta Maria, married to Ferdinand III., King of Hungary, afterwards Emperor. * Despatch from M. de Vaucellas, November 20, 1610. Manu- scripts quoted above. YOUTH OF ANNE OF AUSTRIA. 33 say on her behalf to the King of France, she replied : "That I am extremely impatient to see him." This answer having shocked the austere Countess d'Altamira, her governess, who exclaimed — "What! madam, what will the King of France think when M. de Mayenne tells him that you have made such a speech?" — the Infanta rejoined, "Madam, you have taught me that one should always be sincere ; you should not be surprised then if I speak the truth."* The two years which elapsed before her departure saw no change in these sentiments. ■ The 9th November, 1 6 1 5, she parted at Fontarabia from her father, Philip III., with less sorrow than he showed in allowing her at length to leave, and it was with pride and contentment that the new Queen, radiant with youth and beauty,^ crossed the Bidassoa, on her way to Bordeaux, where the French court was stopping. What kind of husband was she about to meet there ? Very different from those of the Princess Anne were the impressions of Louis XIII., concerning the marriage and the family to which he- was going to unite himself. People had frequently, and at an early age, conversed with him about the project. The first replies of the Dauphin, questioned from his most tender infancy, would have no significance. 7 5 Mercure Fran(ais, vol. ii. p. 549- " Manuscripts of the Imperial Library, fonds Dupuy, 76, p. 145, and Archives of the Chateau of Mouchy-Noailles, No. 1 706. Mariages des Hois et Reines, by M. Baschet in his book already quoted. ' Journal de yean Hlroard sur VEnfance et la Jeunesse de Louis XIII. Manuscripts of the Imperial Library. It has just been published by Didot, having been edited by MM. Eud. ' de Soulie and Ed. de Barthelemy, with an intelligence, a carefulness, and an erudition on which they cannot be too strongly felicitated. 34 THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK. But as he advanced in age, his aversion to everything Spanish manifested itself with characteristic energy. Twice he replied in the negative to Henri IV., when the latter spoke to him of the Infanta as his future wife.s One day, on M. de Ventelet asking him if he liked the Spaniards, he answered, " No." " And why, sir ? " " Because they are papa's enemies." " And the Infanta ? " added De Ventelet, " do you love her, sir? " " No." "Why, sir? " " I don't want any Spanish love." 9 Later, when his chaplain was making him recite the Commandments, on coming to " Thou shalt not kill," the Dauphin exclaimed: "What, not the Spaniards? Oh, yes, I shall kill the Spaniards, because they are papa's enemies ! I will beat them well ! " And on his chaplain observing that they were Christians, he repUed : " May I only kill Turks then ? "-lo To this aversion, a great deal more significant since it was contrary to a project generally acquiesced in by those about him, soon came to be added a certain distaste for marriage. Born with the ardent and lascivious temperament of his father, impelled to follow his example by conversa- tions often loose, sometimes obscene, Louis XIII. succeeded in modifying these early tendencies by a force of will and a power of reflection truly rare. He was naturally an observer, he spoke httle and laughed still less. He was usually serious and grave at times when his pages found cause for great merriment. All that he remarked became profoundly engraved on his mind, and enabled him years afterwards to reply with marvellous pertinency to questions which were 8 Journal d' Hiroard, November 3, 1604, and March 2, 1605. Ibid., April 4, 1605. 10 Ibid., January 29, 1607. YOUTH OF LOUIS XIIL 35 sometimes embarrassing. His young imagination was early struck by the singular effects which the King's conduct pro- duced at the court. In his cradle he received frequent visits, not only from his mother, but also from Henri IV. 's repu- diated wife," and from his numerous mistresses. They all sometimes found themselves assembled around him, the latter proud of their master's affection, Marie de Medecis irritated, jealous, and showing it. The issue of these very open intrigues, were the Dauphin's companions; but he in- stinctively abhorred them. He struck them without motive ; would not have them at his table ; absolutely refused to call them brothers ; and when Henri IV., after having beaten him without overcoming this insurmountable repug- nance, asked him the reason of it, he answered, " Because they are not mamma's sons." ^''■ This hatred for everything connected with illegitimacy was certainly the origin of the chaste reserve which was to characterize so particularly him who was the son of Henri IV. and the father of Louis XIV. From his illegiti- mate brothers, this aversion extended to their mothers, whom he qualified in very contemptuous terms, and to the intrigues in which they were engaged. "Shall you be as ribald as the King?" said his nurse to him one day. " No," he answered, after a moment's reflection. And on her asking him if he was in love, he replied, " No, I avoid love." ^^ It was especially after Henri IV.'s death that the ten- dencies of the young king revealed themselves. He loved his father tenderly, a great deal more than Marie de Medicis 11 Marguerite de Navarre. ^ Journal