THE MAN WITH THE IRON MASK
Louis XIV asserts himself--His use of State prisons--Procedure
of reception at the Bastile--Life in the prison--Diet and
privileges--Governing staff--De Besmaus--Saint Mars--Fouquet's
fate foreshadowed--Fête at Vaux--King enraged--Fouquet arrested
at Nantes--Lodged in the Bastile--Sentence changed from
exile to perpetual imprisonment--Removed to Pignerol--Dies
in prison--Man with the Iron Mask--Basis of mystery--Various
suppositions--Identical with Count Mattioli--Origin of stories
about him--Dies in the Bastile.
The latter years of Mazarin's government were free from serious
disturbances at home and his foreign policy was distinctly beneficial
to France. He governed firmly, but in the name of the King, who already
evinced the strength of will and vigor of mind which were shortly to
make the royal authority absolute in France. Louis XIV was still in
his teens, but already he would brook no opposition from rebellious
nobles or a litigious Parliament. One day he entered the Chamber,
booted and spurred just as he came from hunting at Vincennes, and
plainly told the members of Parliament assembled there to prepare some
fresh remonstrance, that he would tolerate no more of their meetings.
"I know, gentlemen, the mischief that comes from them, and I will not
permit them in the future." The president protested that it was in the
interests of the State. "I am the State," replied the young despot of
seventeen. The country was entirely with him. All classes were sick of
commotions and hailed the new authority with every demonstration of
joy. Mazarin, no doubt, aided the development of Louis's character.
"There is enough in Louis," he had been heard to say, "to make four
good kings and one honest man," and it was under the Cardinal's
counsels that Louis developed his political education.
France was now entering upon one of the most brilliant periods of her
history. Mazarin had prosecuted the war with Spain so vigorously that
she was prepared to come to terms. He contracted an alliance with
Protestant Cromwell which resulted in substantial gains to England.
Peace with Spain and the marriage of Louis to a Spanish princess were
the last acts of Mazarin, whose constantly failing health showed that
death was near. Now, when the end was approaching, he had reached
the pinnacle of his fortunes. No longer the hated, proscribed and
persecuted minister, he enjoyed the fullest honors and the most
unbounded popularity. He had grown enormously rich, for avarice was a
ruling vice with him and he had uncontrolled access to the national
purse. At his death he left some fifty million livres in cash, owned
many palaces filled with priceless statues and pictures, and jewels of
inestimable value. His conscience appears to have troubled him as death
approached; he sought to silence it by making over all his possessions
to the King, who speedily silenced Mazarin's scruples by returning them
as a royal gift.
Not strangely, under such government, the finances of France were at
their very lowest ebb. The financial incompetence of Mazarin, coupled
with his greed, had left the treasury empty, and when Louis asked
Fouquet for money he got for answer, "There is none in the treasury,
but ask His Eminence to lend you some, he has plenty." Fortunately for
France, Mazarin had introduced into the King's service one of the most
eminent financiers who ever lived, Colbert, and it is reported that
when dying he said, "I owe your Majesty everything; but by giving you
my own intendant, Colbert, I shall repay you." Colbert became Louis's
secret adviser, for Fouquet purposely complicated accounts and craftily
contrived to tell the King nothing. One of Colbert's first acts was
to reveal to the King that Cardinal Mazarin, over and above the great
fortune he left openly to his family, had a store of wealth hidden away
in various fortresses. Louis promptly laid hands upon it and was in
consequence the only rich sovereign of his time in Europe.
In the long period of irresponsible despotism now at hand, the prisons
were destined to play a prominent part. No one was safe from arbitrary
arrest. The right of personal liberty did not exist. Every one, the
highest and the lowest, the most criminal and the most venial offender,
might come within the far reaching hands of the King's gaolers. Both
the "Wood," as Vincennes was commonly called, and the Bastile, the
"castle with the eight towers," were constantly crowded with victims
of arbitrary power. It was an interminable procession as we shall
presently see.
Let us first describe the procedure in arrest, the reception of
prisoners and their daily régime within the great fortress gaol. It
has been claimed that the system in force was regulated with the most
minute care. As imprisonment might be decreed absolutely and without
question, a great responsibility was supposed to weigh upon officials.
In the first instance the Bastile was under the immediate control of
a minister of state, for a long time a high official. He received
an accurate and exact list of all arrests made, and rendered to the
King an account of all remaining at the end of each year. The order
for arrest was hedged in with all precaution. Each _lettre de cachet_
bore the King's own signature countersigned by a minister, and the
governor of the Bastile signed a receipt for the body at the end of
the order. In some cases, prisoners of distinction brought their own
warrants of arrest; but the court also signed an order to receive
them, without which admission would be refused. In due course, when
Louis XIV had fully established his police, arrests were made by the
_Lieutenant-Criminel_, whose agent approached and touched his intended
prisoner with a white wand. A party of archers of the guard followed
in support. A carriage was always employed; the first that came to
hand being impressed into the King's service. Into this the prisoner
mounted with the officer making the arrest by his side. The escort
surrounded the carriage and the party marched at a foot's pace through
the silent, over-awed crowd. In many cases to avoid gossip, the agent
took his prisoner to a place he kept for the purpose, a private house
commonly called the _four_ (oven) and the remainder of the journey to
the Bastile was made after dark.
The party was challenged as it approached the Bastile. The first
sentinel cried, "Who goes there?" The agent replied, "The King's
order;" and the under officer of the guard came out to examine the
_lettre de cachet_ when, if all was correct, he allowed the carriage
to enter and rang the bell to inform all concerned. The soldiers of
the garrison turned out under arms, the King's lieutenant and the
captain of the gateway guard received the prisoner as he alighted from
the carriage. If the governor was in the castle the new prisoner was
conducted immediately into his presence. A short colloquy followed.
It was decided in which part of the castle the new comer should be
lodged. He was then taken into an adjoining apartment to be thoroughly
searched and was deprived of arms, money and papers. No one but the
officials and those specially authorised by the King were permitted to
carry arms in the Bastile. All visitors surrendered their swords at the
gate.
Now the drawbridge was let down and admission given to the inner court,
whence the prisoner passed on, escorted by turnkeys, to the lodging
assigned to him. If he was a person of distinction, he found a suite
of rooms; if of low degree he was thrown into one of the cells in the
towers. New arrivals were detained for several days in separation until
the interrogatory instituted gave some idea of the fate foreshadowed.
Rooms in the Bastile were not supplied with furniture. The King only
guaranteed food for his guests, and they were obliged to hire what they
needed unless their friends sent in the necessary articles. Later on,
the King provided a special fund for the purpose of buying furniture,
and five or six rooms came to be regularly furnished with a bed, a
table and a couple of chairs. In rare cases servants were admitted
to attend their masters, but the warders generally kept the rooms in
order. If the preliminary inquiry was lengthy or the imprisonment
promised to be prolonged, the prisoner was given a companion of his
own class and quality whose business it was to worm his way into his
confidence and eventually to betray it. These were the _moutons_, or
spies of latter days. Every prison chamber was closed with a double
gate with enormous locks and an approaching visitor was heralded by the
rattling of the keys. The warders came regularly three times a day:
first for breakfast, next for dinner at mid-day and to bring supper in
the evening.
The dietary in the Bastile is said to have been wholesome and
sufficient. The allowance made to the governor who acted as caterer
was liberal. Some prisoners were so satisfied with it that they
offered to accept simpler fare if the governor would share with them
the difference saved between the outlay and the allowance. There were
three courses at meals: soup, entrée and joint with a dessert and a
couple of bottles of wine per head, while the governor sent in more
wine on fête days. Reduction of diet was a common punishment, but the
offenders were seldom put upon bread and water treatment, which was
thought so rigorous that it was never used except by the express orders
of the Court. The King paid for ordinary rations only. Luxuries such
as tobacco, high-class wine and superior viands prisoners found for
themselves, and these were charged against their private funds, held by
the authorities. Some smoked a good deal, but many complaints against
the practice were made by other prisoners. The keeping of pets was not
forbidden; there were numbers of dogs, cats and birds in cages and even
pigeons which were set free in the morning and returned every evening
after spending the day in town. But these last were looked upon with
suspicion as facilitating correspondence with the outside. The surgeon
of the castle attended to the sick, but in bad cases one of the King's
physicians was called in and nurses appointed. When death approached a
confessor was summoned to administer the rites of the Church, and upon
death a proper entry was made in the mortuary register, but often under
a false name.
Time passed heavily, no doubt, but the prisoners were not denied
certain relaxations. They might purchase books subject to approval.
When brought in they were scrupulously examined and the binding broken
up in the search for concealed documents. Where prisoners did not care
to read they were permitted to play draughts, chess and even cards.
Writing materials were issued, but with a very niggardly hand. A larger
consideration was extended to those given the so-called "liberty of
the Bastile." The doors were opened early and they were permitted to
enter the courtyard and remain there until nightfall, being allowed to
talk, to play certain games and to receive visits from their friends.
Such relaxations were chiefly limited to non-criminal prisoners, those
detained for family reasons, officers under arrest, and prisoners,
whose cases were disposed of but who were still detained for safe
custody. The well-being of the inmates of the Bastile was supposed
to be ensured by the constant visits of the superior officials, the
King's lieutenant, the governor and his major. Permission to address
petitions to the ministers was not denied and many heart-rending
appeals are still to be read in the archives, emanating from people
whose liberty had been forfeited. Clandestine communications between
prisoners kept strictly apart were frequently successful, as we have
seen; old hands exhibited extraordinary cleverness in their desire to
talk to their neighbors. They climbed the chimneys, crawled along the
outer bars or raised their voices so as to be heard on the floor above
or below.
Much ingenuity was shown in utilising strange articles as writing
materials; the drumstick of a fowl was turned into a pen, a scrap
of linen or a piece of plaster torn from the wall served as writing
paper and fresh blood was used for ink. Constant attempts were made
to communicate with the outside. The old trick of throwing out of the
window a stone wrapped in paper covered with writing was frequently
tried. If it reached the street and was picked up it generally passed
on to its address. Patroles were employed, day and night, making the
rounds of the exterior to check this practice. The bird fanciers tied
letters to the legs of the pigeons which took wing, and the detection
of this device led to a general gaol delivery from all bird cages.
Friends outside were at great pains to pass in news of the day to
prisoners. Where the prison windows gave upon the street, and when
prisoners were permitted to exercise on the platforms of the towers,
their friends waited on the boulevards below and used conventional
signs by waving a handkerchief or placing a hand in a particular
position to convey some valued piece of intelligence. It is said that
when Laporte, the _valet de chambre_ of Anne of Austria, was arrested,
the Queen herself lingered in the street so that her faithful servant
might see her and know that he was not forgotten. Sometimes the house
opposite the castle was rented with a notice board and a message
inscribed with gigantic letters was hung in the windows to be read by
those inside.
The governing staff of the Bastile, although ample and generally
efficient, could not entirely check these disorders. The supreme chief
was the Captain-Governor. Associated with him was a lieutenant of
the King, immediately under his orders were a major and aide-major
with functions akin to those of an adjutant and his assistant. There
was a chief engineer and a director of fortifications, a doctor and
a surgeon, a wet-nurse, a chaplain, a confessor and his coadjutor.
The Châtelet delegated a commissary to the department of the Bastile,
whose business it was to make judicial inquiries. An architect, two
keepers of the archives and three or four turnkeys, practically the
body servants and personal attendants of the prisoners, completed the
administrative staff. A military company of sixty men under the direct
command of the governor and his major formed the garrison and answered
for the security of the castle. Reliance must have been placed chiefly
upon the massive walls of the structure, for this company was composed
mainly of old soldiers, infirm invalids, not particularly active or
useful in such emergencies as open insubordination or attempted escape.
The emoluments of the governor were long fixed at 1,200 livres, but
the irregular profits far out-valued the fixed salary. The governor
was, to all intents and purposes, a hotel or boarding house keeper,
who was paid head money for his involuntary guests. The sum of ten
livres per diem was allowed for each, a sum far in excess of the charge
for diet. This allowance was increased when the lodgers exceeded a
certain number. The governor had other perquisites, such as the rent
of the sheds erected in the Bastile ditch. He was permitted to fill
his cellars with wine untaxed, which he generally exchanged with a
dealer for inferior fluid to re-issue to the prisoners. In later years
when the influx of prisoners diminished, the governors appear to have
complained bitterly of the diminution of their income. Petitions
imploring relief may be read in the actions from governors impoverished
by their outgoings in paying for the garrison and turnkey. They could
not "make both ends meet."
The governor, or captain of the castle, was in supreme charge. The
ministers of state transmitted to him the orders of the King direct.
He corresponded with them and in exceptional cases with the King
himself; but was answerable for the castle and the safe custody of
the inmates. His power was absolute and he wielded it with military
exactitude. We have seen in the list of earlier custodians, that the
most distinguished persons did not feel the position was beneath them;
but as time passed, it was thought safer to employ smaller people,
the creatures of the court whose loyalty and subservience might be
most certainly depended upon. After du Tremblay, who surrendered
his fortress to the Fronde, came Broussel the elder, the member
of Parliament who had defied Anne of Austria, with his son as his
lieutenant. Then came La Louvière, who was commandant of the place
when the "Grande Mademoiselle" seized it in aid of the great Condé.
He was removed by the King's order and when peace was declared one de
Vennes succeeded him and then La Bachelerie. But De Besmaus, who had
been a simple captain in Mazarin's guard, was the first of what we may
call the "gaoler governors." He was appointed by the King in 1658 and
held the post for nearly forty years. Through all the busy period when
Louis XIV personally controlled the morals of his kingdom and used
the castle to enforce his despotic will a great variety of prisoners
came under his charge; political conspirators, religious dissidents,
Jansenists and Protestants, free thinkers and reckless writers with
unbridled libellous pens, publishers who dared to print unauthorised
books which were tried in court and sentenced to committal to gaol
for formal destruction, common criminals, thieves, cutpurses and
highway robbers. De Besmaus has been described as a "coarse, brutal
governor, a dry, disagreeable, hard-hearted ruffian;" but another
report applauds the selection, declaring that his unshaken fidelity
through thirty-nine years of office was associated with much gentleness
and humanity. His honesty is more questioned, for it is stated that
although he entered the service poor, he bequeathed considerable sums
at his death. Monsieur de Saint Mars, who fills so large a place in the
criminal annals of the times, from his connection with certain famous
and mysterious prisoners, succeeded De Besmaus. He was an old man and
had risen from the ranks, having been first a King's musketeer, then
corporal, then Maréchal de Logis, and was then appointed commandant of
the donjon of Pignerol.
When Cardinal Mazarin died, the probable successor to the vacant
office was freely discussed and choice was supposed to lie between Le
Tellier, secretary of State for war, Lionne, secretary for foreign
affairs, and Fouquet, superintendent of finances. Louis XIV soon
settled the question by announcing his intention of assuming the
reins of government himself. When leading personages came to him,
asking to whom they should speak in future upon affairs of State,
Louis replied, "To me. I shall be my own Prime Minister in future."
He said it with a decision that could not be questioned, and it was
plain that the young monarch of twenty-two proposed to sacrifice his
ease, to subordinate his love of pleasure and amusement to the duties
of his high position--resolutions fulfilled in the main. In truth
he had been chafing greatly at the vicarious authority exercised by
Mazarin and was heard to say that he could not think what would have
happened had the Cardinal lived much longer. People could not believe
in Louis's determination and predicted that he would soon weary of his
burdensome task. Fouquet was the most incredulous of all. He thought
himself firmly fixed in his place and believed that by humoring the
King, by encouraging him in his extravagance and providing funds for
his gratification, he would still retain his power. He sought, too, by
complicating the business and confusing the accounts of his office, to
disgust the King with financial details and blind him to the dishonest
statements put before him. Fouquet thus prepared his own undoing, for
Louis, suspecting foul play, was secretly coached by Colbert, who came
privately by night to the King's cabinet to instruct and pilot him
through the dark and intricate pitfalls that Fouquet prepared for him.
Louis patiently bided his time and suffered Fouquet to go farther and
farther astray, to increase his peculations and lavish enormous sums
of the ill-gotten wealth in ostentatious extravagance. Louis made up
his mind to pull down and destroy his faithless minister. His insidious
plans, laid with a patient subtlety, not to say perfidy, were the
first revelation of the masterly and unscrupulous character of the
young sovereign. He led Fouquet on to convict himself and show to all
the world, by a costly entertainment on unparalleled lines, how deeply
he had dipped his purse into the revenues of the State.
The fête he gave to the King and court at his newly constructed palace
at Vaux was brilliant beyond measure. The mansion far outshone any
royal residence in beauty and splendor. Three entire villages had
been demolished in its construction so that water might be brought
to the grounds to fill the reservoirs and serve the fountains and
cascades that freshened the lawns and shady alleys and gladdened the
eye with smiling landscapes. The fête he now gave was of oriental
magnificence. Enchantment followed enchantment. Tables laden with
luscious viands came down from the ceiling. Mysterious subterranean
music was heard on every side. The most striking feature was an
ambulant mountain of confectionery which moved amongst the guests with
hidden springs. Molière was there and at the King's suggestion wrote
a play on the spot, "_Les Facheux_," which caricatured some of the
most amusing guests. The King was a prey to jealous amazement. He saw
pictures by the most celebrated painters, grounds laid out by the most
talented landscape gardeners, buildings of the most noble dimensions
erected by the most famous architects. After the theatre there were
fireworks, after the pyrotechnics a ball at which the King danced with
Mademoiselle de la Vallière; after the ball, supper; and after supper,
the King bade Fouquet good night with the words, "I shall never dare
ask you to my house; I could not receive you properly."
More than once that night the King, sore at heart and humiliated at the
gorgeous show made by a subject and servant of the State, would have
arrested Fouquet then and there. The Queen Mother strongly dissuaded
him from too hasty action and he saw that it would be necessary to
proceed with caution lest he find serious, and possibly successful,
resistance. Fouquet did not waste all his wealth in ostentation. He had
purchased the island of Belle Ile from the Duc de Retz and fortified
it with the idea, it was thought, to withdraw there if he failed to
secure the first place in the kingdom, raise the standard of revolt
against the King and seek aid from England. It was time to pull down so
powerful a subject.
The measures taken for the arrest of Fouquet may be recounted here
at some length. They well illustrate the young King's powers of
dissimulation and the extreme caution that backed his resolute will.
He first assumed a friendly attitude and led Fouquet to believe that
he meant to bestow on him the valued decoration of Saint d'Esprit.
But he had already given it to another member of the Paris Parliament
and a rule had been made that only one of that body should enjoy the
honor. Fouquet was Procureur General of the Parliament and voluntarily
sold the place so that he might become eligible for the cross, at the
same time paying the price into the Treasury. Louis was by no means
softened and still determined to abase Fouquet. Yet he shrank from
making the arrest in Paris and invented a pretext for visiting the
west coast of France for the purpose of choosing a site for a great
naval depot. He was to be accompanied by his council, Fouquet among
the rest. Although the Superintendent was suffering from fever, he
proceeded to Nantes by the river Loire, where the King, travelling by
the road, soon afterwards arrived. Some delay occurred through the
illness of d'Artagnan, lieutenant of musketeers, who was to be charged
with the arrest. The reader will recognise d'Artagnan, the famous
fourth of the still more famous "Three Musketeers" of Alexandre Dumas.
The instructions issued to d'Artagnan are preserved in the memorandum
written by Le Tellier's clerk and may be summarised as follows:--
"It is the King's intention to arrest the Sieur Fouquet on his leaving
the castle (Nantes) when he has passed beyond the last sentinel. Forty
musketeers will be employed, twenty to remain within the court of the
castle, the other twenty to patrol outside. The arrest will be made
when Sieur Fouquet comes down from the King's chamber, and he will be
carried, surrounded by the musketeers, to the Chamberlain's room,
there to await the King's carriage which is to take him further on.
Monsieur d'Artagnan will offer Monsieur Fouquet a basin of soup if he
should care to take it. Meanwhile the musketeers will form a cordon
round the lodging in which the Chamberlain's room is situated. Monsieur
d'Artagnan will not take his eyes off the prisoner for a single
moment nor will he permit him to put his hand into his pocket so as
to remove any papers, telling him that the King demands the delivery
of all documents; and those he gets Monsieur d'Artagnan will at once
pass on to the authority indicated. In entering the royal carriage
Monsieur Fouquet will be accompanied by Monsieur d'Artagnan with five
of his most trustworthy officers and musketeers. The road taken will
be: the first day, to Oudon, the second day, to Ingrandes, and the
third, to the castle of Angers. Extreme care will be observed that
Monsieur Fouquet has no communication by word or writing or in any
other possible way with any one on the road. At Oudon, Monsieur Fouquet
will be summoned to deliver an order in his own hand to the Commandant
of Belle Ile to hand it over to an officer of the King. In order that
every precaution may be taken at Angers, its governor, the Count
d'Harcourt, will receive orders to surrender the place to Monsieur
d'Artagnan and expel the garrison. This letter will be forwarded
express to Angers so that all may be ready on the arrival. At the same
time a public notice shall be issued to the inhabitants of Angers
requiring them to give every assistance in food and lodging to the
King's musketeers. Monsieur Fouquet will be lodged in the most suitable
rooms which will be furnished with goods purchased in the town. The
King will himself nominate the _valet de chambre_ and decide upon the
prisoner's rations and the supply of his table. Monsieur d'Artagnan
will receive 1,000 louis for all expenses."
The arrest was not limited to the Superintendent himself. His chief
clerk Pellisson, who afterwards became famous in literature, was also
taken to Saint Mandé. Fouquet's house and his papers were seized;
which his brother would have forestalled by burning the house but
was too late. A mass of damaging papers fell into the hands of the
King. One of these was an elaborate manuscript with the project of
a general rising, treasonable in the highest degree. The scheme was
too wild and visionary for accomplishment and Fouquet himself swore
positively that it was a forgery. Fouquet did not remain long at
Angers. He was carried to Amboise and afterwards to Vincennes, always
under the strictest surveillance, being suffered to speak to no one
en route but his guards and denied the use of writing materials. He
left Amboise in December, 1661, for Vincennes, under the escort of
eighty musketeers, and from time to time passed to and fro between
the "Wood" and the Bastile as his interminable trial dragged along.
He was first interrogated at Vincennes by an informal tribunal, the
commission previously constituted to inquire into the malversation of
finances, but he steadily refused to answer except in free and open
court. After much persecution by his enemies with the King himself at
their head, and the violation of all forms of law, he was taken again
to the Bastile and arraigned before the so-called Chamber of Justice at
the Arsenal, a tribunal made up mainly of unjust and prejudiced judges,
some of whom hated the prisoner bitterly. The process was delayed by
Fouquet's dexterity in raising objections and involving others in the
indictment. Louis XIV ardently desired the end. "My reputation is at
stake," he wrote. "The matter is not serious, really, but in foreign
countries it will be thought so if I cannot secure the conviction of a
thief." The King's long standing animosity was undying, as the sequel
showed. Throughout, the public sympathy was with Fouquet. He had troops
of friends; he had been a liberal patron of art and letters and all
the best brains of Paris were on his side. Madame de Sévigné filled
several of her matchless letters with news of the case. La Fontaine
bemoaned his patron's fate in elegant verse. Mademoiselle Scuderi,
the first French novelist, wrote of him eloquently. Henault attacked
Colbert in terms that might well have landed him in the Bastile, and
Pellisson, his former clerk, from the depths of that prison made public
his eloquent and impassioned justifications of his old master. At
last, when hope was almost dead, the relief was great at hearing that
there would be no sentence of death as was greatly feared. By thirteen
votes against nine, a sentence of banishment was decreed and the result
was made public amid general rejoicing. The sentence was deemed light,
although Fouquet had already endured three years' imprisonment and
he must have suffered much in the protracted trial. Louis XIV, still
bearing malice, would not allow Fouquet to escape so easily and changed
banishment abroad into perpetual imprisonment at home. The case is
quoted as one of the rare instances in which a despotic sovereign ruler
over-rode the judgment of a court by ordering a more severe sentence
and personally ensuring its harsh infliction.
He was forthwith transferred to Pignerol, escorted again by d'Artagnan
and a hundred musketeers. Special instructions for his treatment,
contained in letters from the King in person, were handed over to
Saint Mars. By express royal order he was forbidden to communicate
in speech or writing with anyone but his gaolers. He might not leave
the room he occupied for a single moment or for any reason. He could
not use a slate to note down his thoughts, that common boon extended
to all modern prisoners. These restrictions were imposed with the
most watchful precautions and, as we may well believe, were inspired
with the wish to cut him off absolutely from friends outside. He was
supposed to have some valuable information to communicate and the
King was determined it should not pass through. Fouquet's efforts and
devices were most persistent and ingenious. He utilised all manner
of material; writing on the ribbons that ornamented his clothes and
the linen that lined them. When the ribbons were tabooed and removed
and the linings were all in black he abstracted pieces of his table
cloth and manufactured it into paper. He made pens out of fowl bones
and ink from soot. He wrote on the inside of his books and on his
pocket handkerchiefs. Once he begged to be allowed a telescope and
it was discovered that some of his former attendants had arrived in
Pignerol and were in communication with him by signal. They were
forthwith commanded to leave the neighborhood. He was very attentive
to his religious duties at one time, and constantly asked for the
ministrations of a priest. From this some clandestine work was
suspected and the visits of the confessor were strictly limited to
four a year. A servant was, however, permitted to wait on him but was
presently replaced by two others, who were intended to act as spies on
each other; although on joining Fouquet these were plainly warned that
they would never be allowed to leave Pignerol alive.
After eight years the severity of his incarceration appreciably
relaxed. The incriminated financiers outside were by this time disposed
of or dead. He was given leave to write a letter to his wife and
receive one in reply, on condition that they were previously read by
the authorities. His personal comfort was improved and he was allowed
tea, at that time a most expensive luxury. He had many more books
to read, the daily gazettes and current news reached him, and when
presently the Comte de Lauzun was brought a prisoner to Pignerol, the
two were permitted to take exercise together upon the ramparts. By
degrees greater favor was shown. Fouquet was permitted to play outdoor
games and the privilege of unlimited correspondence was conceded, both
with relations and friends. Fouquet's wife and children were suffered
to reside in the town of Pignerol and were constant visitors, permitted
to remain with him alone, without witnesses. As the prisoner, who
was failing in health, grew worse and worse, his wife was permitted
to occupy the same room with him and his daughter lodged alongside.
When he died in 1680, all his near relations were present. The fact
has been questioned; and a tradition exists that Fouquet, still no
older than sixty-six, was released and lived on in extreme privacy
for twenty-three years. The point is of interest as illustrating the
veil of secrecy so often thrown over events in that age and so often
impenetrable.
This seems a fitting opportunity to refer to a prison mystery belonging
to this period, and originating in Pignerol, which has exercised the
whole world for many generations. The fascinating story of the "Man
with the Iron Mask," as presented by writers enamored of romantic
sensation, has attracted universal attention for nearly two centuries.
A fruitful field for investigation and conjecture was opened up by
the strange circumstances of the case. Voltaire with his keen love of
dramatic effect was the first to awaken the widespread interest in an
historic enigma for which there was no plausible solution. Who was this
unknown person held captive for five and twenty unbroken years with his
identity so studiously and strictly hidden that it has never yet been
authoritatively revealed? The mystery deepened with the details (mostly
imaginery) of the exceptional treatment accorded him. Year after year
he wore a mask, really made of black velvet on a whalebone frame, not
a steel machine, with a chin-piece closing with a spring and looking
much like an instrument of mediæval torture. He was said to have been
treated with extreme deference. His gaoler stood, bareheaded, in his
presence. He led a luxurious life; he wore purple and fine linen and
costly lace; his diet was rich and plentiful and served on silver
plate; he was granted the solace of music; every wish was gratified,
save in the one cardinal point of freedom. The plausible theory deduced
from all this was that he was a personage of great consequence,--of
high, possibly royal birth, who was imprisoned and segregated for
important reasons of State.
Such conditions, quite unsubstantiated by later knowledge, fired the
imagination of inquirers, and a clue to the mystery has been sought in
some exalted victim whom Louis XIV had the strongest reason to keep out
of sight. Many suggested explanations were offered, all more or less
far fetched even to absurdity. The first was put forward by at least
two respectable writers, who affirmed that a twin son was born to Anne
of Austria, some hours later than the birth of the Dauphin, and that
Louis XIII, fearing there might be a disputed succession, was resolved
to conceal the fact. It was held by certain legal authorities in France
that the first born of twins had no positive and exclusive claim to the
inheritance. Accordingly, the second child was conveyed away secretly
and confided first to a nurse and then to the governor of Burgundy who
kept him close. But the lad, growing to manhood, found out who he was
and was forthwith placed in confinement, with a mask to conceal his
features which were exactly like those of his brother, the King. Yet
this view was held by many people of credit in France and it was that
to which the great Napoleon inclined, for he was keenly interested in
the question and when in power had diligent search made in the National
archives, quite without result, which greatly chafed his imperious
mind. A similar theory of the birth of this second child was found
very attractive; the paternity of it was given, not to Louis XIII, but
to various lovers: the Duke of Buckingham, Cardinal Mazarin and a
gentleman of the court whose name never transpired. This is the wildest
and most extravagant of surmises, for which there is not one vestige of
authority. The first suggestion is altogether upset by the formalities
and precautions observed at the birth of "a child of France," and it
would have been absolutely impossible to perpetrate the fraud.
Other special and fanciful suppositions have gained credence, but their
mere statement is sufficient to upset them. One is the belief that the
"Man with the Iron Mask" was the English Duke of Monmouth, the son of
Charles II and Lucy Waters, who raised the standard of revolt against
James II and suffered death on Tower Hill. It was pretended that a
devoted follower, whose life was also forfeit, took his place upon
the scaffold and was hacked about in Monmouth's place by the clumsy
executioner. The craze for ridiculous conjecture led to the adoption of
Henry Cromwell, the Protector's second son, as the cryptic personage,
but there was never a shadow of evidence to support this story and no
earthly reason why Louis XIV should desire to imprison and conceal a
young Englishman. Nor can we understand why Louis should thus dispose
of his own son by Louise de Vallière, the young Comte de Vermandois,
whose death in camp at an early age was fully authenticated by the sums
allotted to buy masses for the repose of his soul. The disappearance
of the Duc de Beaufort's body after his death on the field of Candia
led to his promotion to the honor of the Black Mask, but his head was
probably sent to the Sultan of Turkey, and in any case, although he
was, as we have already seen, a noisy, vulgar demagogue, he had made
his peace with the court in his later days. There was no mystery about
Fouquet's imprisonment. The story which has just been told to the time
of his death shows conclusively that he could not be the "Man with the
Iron Mask," nor was there any sound reason to think it. The same may be
said of the rather crazy suggestion that he was Avedik, the Armenian
patriarch at Constantinople who, having incurred the deadly animosity
of the Jesuits, had been kidnapped and brought to France. This
conclusion was entirely vitiated by the unalterable logic of dates. The
patriarch was carried off from Constantinople just a year after the
mysterious person died in the Bastile.
Thus, one by one, we exclude and dispose of the uncertain and
improbable claimants to the honors of identification. But one person
remains whom the cap fits from the first; a man who, we know, offended
Louis mortally and whose imprisonment the King had the best of reasons,
from his own point of view, for desiring: the first, private vengeance,
the second, the public good and the implacable will to carry out his
set purpose. It is curious that this solution which was close at hand
seems never to have appealed to the busy-bodies who approached the
subject with such exaggerated ideas about the impenetrable mystery. A
prisoner had been brought to Pignerol at a date which harmonizes with
the first appearance of the unknown upon the stage. Great precautions
were observed to keep his personality a secret; but it was distinctly
known to more than one, and although guarded with official reticence,
there were those who could have, and must have drawn their own
conclusions. In any case the screen has now been entirely torn aside
and documentary evidence is afforded which proves beyond all doubt that
no real mystery attaches to the "Man with the Iron Mask."
The exact truth of the story will be best established by a brief
history of the antecedent facts. When Louis XIV was at the zenith of
his power, supreme at home and an accepted arbiter abroad, he was bent
upon consolidating his power in Northern Italy, and eagerly opened
negotiations with the Duke of Mantua to acquire the fortress town of
Casale. The town was a decisive point which secured his predominance in
Montferrat, which gave an easy access at any time into Lombardy. The
terms agreed upon were, first, a payment of 100,000 crowns by Louis
to the Duke of Mantua and, second, a promise that the latter should
command any French army sent into Italy; in exchange, the surrender
of Casale. The transaction had been started by the French ambassador
in Venice and the principal agent was a certain Count Mattioli, who
had been a minister to the Duke of Mantua and was high in his favor.
Mattioli visited Paris and was well received by the King, who sent
him back to Italy to complete the contract. Now, however, unexplained
delays arose and it came out that the great Powers, who were strongly
opposed to the dominating influence of France in Northern Italy, had
been informed of what was pending. The private treaty with France
became public property and there could be no doubt but that Mattioli
had been bought over. He had in fact sold out the French king and the
whole affair fell through.
Louis XIV, finding himself deceived and betrayed, was furiously angry
and resolved to avenge himself upon the traitor. It was pain and
anguish to him to find that he had been cheated before all Europe,
and in his discomfiture and bitter humiliation he prepared to avenge
himself amply. On the suggestion of the French minister at Turin he
planned that Mattioli should be kidnapped and carried into France and
there subjected to the King's good pleasure. Mattioli was a needy man
and was easily beguiled by the Frenchman's promises of a substantial
sum in French gold, from the French general, Catinat, who was on
the frontier with ample funds for use when Casale should have been
occupied. Mattioli, unsuspecting, met Catinat not far from Pignerol,
where after revealing the place where his papers were concealed he
fell into the hands of the French. Louis had approved of the arrest
and insisted only on secrecy, and that Mattioli should be carried off
without the least suspicion in Casale. "Look to it," he wrote, "that no
one knows what becomes of this man." And at the same time the governor
of Pignerol, Saint Mars, was instructed by Louvois, the minister, to
receive him in great secrecy and was told, "You will guard him in such
a manner that, not only may he have no communication with anyone, but
that he may have cause to repent his conduct, and that no one may know
you have a new prisoner." The secrecy was necessary because Mattioli
was the diplomatic agent of another country and his arrest was a
barefaced violation of the law of nations.
Brigadier-General (afterwards the famous Marshal) Catinat reports from
Pignerol on May 3rd, 1679:--"I arrested Mattioli yesterday, three miles
from here, upon the King's territories, during the interview which the
Abbe d'Estrades had ingeniously contrived between himself, Mattioli
and me, to facilitate the scheme. For the arrest, I employed only the
Chevaliers de Saint Martin and de Villebois, two officers under M.
de Saint Mars, and four men of his company. It was effected without
the least violence, and no one knows the rogue's name, not even the
officers who assisted." This fixed beyond all doubt the identity, but
there is a corroborative evidence in a pamphlet still in existence,
dated 1682, which states that "the Secretary was surrounded by ten or
twelve horsemen who seized him, disguised him, masked him and conducted
him to Pignerol." This is farther borne out by a traditionary arrest
about that time.
When, thirty years later, the great sensation was first invented, its
importance was emphasised by Voltaire and others who declared that at
the period of the arrest no disappearance of any important person was
recorded. Certainly Mattioli's disappearance was not much noticed. It
was given out that he was dead, the last news of him being a letter to
his father in Padua begging him to hand over his papers to a French
agent. They were concealed in a hole in the wall in one of the rooms in
his father's house, and when obtained without demur were forwarded to
the King in Paris. There was no longer any doubt of Mattioli's guilt,
and Louis exacted the fullest penalty. He would annihilate him, sweep
him out of existence, condemn him to a living death as effective as
though he were poisoned, strangled or otherwise removed. He did not
mean that the man who had flouted and deceived him should be in a
position to glory over the affront he had put upon the proudest king in
Christendom.
Exit Mattioli. Enter the "Man with the Iron Mask." Pignerol, the prison
to which he was consigned, has already been described, and also Saint
Mars, his gaoler. The mask was not regularly used at first, but the
name of Mattioli was changed on reception to Lestang. We come at once
upon evidence that this was no distinguished and favored prisoner. The
deference shown him, the silver plate, the fine clothes are fictions
destroyed by a letter written by Louvois within a fortnight of the
arrest. "It is not the King's intention," he writes, "that the Sieur
de Lestang should be well treated, or that, except the necessaries of
life, you should give him anything to soften his captivity.... You must
keep Lestang in the rigorous confinement I enjoined in my previous
letters."
Saint Mars punctiliously obeyed his orders. He was a man of inflexible
character, with no bowels of compassion for his charges, and Lestang
must have felt the severity of the prison rule. Eight months later the
governor reported that Lestang, likewise a fellow prisoner, a monk,
who shared his chamber, had gone out of his mind. Both were subject to
fits of raving madness. This is the only authentic record of the course
of the imprisonment, which lasted fifteen years in this same prison of
Pignerol. Saint Mars, in 1681, exchanged his governorship for that of
Exiles, another frontier fortress, and was supposed to have carried
his masked prisoner with him. This erroneous belief has been disproved
by a letter of Saint Mars to the Abbe d'Estrades, discovered in the
archives, in which the writer states that he has left Mattioli at
Pignerol. There is no attempt at disguise. The name used is Mattioli,
not Lestang, and it is clear from collateral evidence that this is the
masked man.
Saint Mars was not pleased with Exiles and solicited another transfer
which came in his appointment to the command of the castle on the
island of Sainte-Marguerite, opposite Cannes and well known to visitors
to the French Riviera. The fortress, by the way, has much later
interest as Marshal Bazaine's place of confinement after his trial by
court martial for surrendering Metz. It will be remembered, too, that
with the connivance of friends Bazaine made his escape from durance,
although it may be doubted whether the French Republic was particularly
anxious to keep him.
The time at length arrived for Mattioli's removal from Pignerol. A
change had come over the fortunes of France. Louis was no longer the
dictator of Europe. Defeated in the field and thwarted in policy, the
proud King had to eat humble pie; he was forced to give up Casale,
which had come to him after all in spite of Mattioli's betrayal.
Pignerol also went back once more to Italian rule and it must be
cleared of French prisoners. One alone remained of any importance, for
Fouquet was long since dead and Lauzun released. This was Mattioli,
whose illegal seizure and detention it was now more than ever necessary
to keep secret. Extreme precautions were taken when making the
transfer. A strong detachment of soldiers, headed by guides, escorted
the prisoner who was in a litter. The governor of Pignerol (now one
Villebois) by his side was the only person permitted to communicate
with him. The locks and bolts of his quarters at Pignerol were sent
ahead to be used at Sainte-Marguerite and the strictest discipline
was maintained on the journey. Mattioli saw no one. His solitude was
unbroken save by Saint Mars and the two lieutenants who brought him his
food and removed the dishes.
One other change awaited the prisoner, the last before his final
release. High preferment came to Saint Mars, who was offered and
accepted the governorship of the Bastile. He was to bring his "ancient
prisoner" with him to Paris; to make the long journey across France
weighted with the terrible responsibility of conveying such a man
safely in open arrest. We get a passing glimpse of the cortège in
a letter published by the grandnephew of Saint Mars, M. Polteau,
who describes the halt made for a night at Polteau, a country house
belonging to Saint Mars.
"The Man in the Mask," he writes, in 1768, "came in a litter which
preceded that of M. de Saint Mars. They were accompanied by several
men on horseback. The peasants waited to greet their lord. M. de Saint
Mars took his meals with his prisoner, who was placed with his back
to the windows of the dining room which overlooked the courtyard. The
peasants whom I questioned could not see whether he wore his mask while
eating, but they took notice of the fact that M. de Saint Mars who
sat opposite to him kept a pair of pistols beside his plate. They were
waited on by one manservant who fetched the dishes from the anteroom
where they were brought to him, taking care to close the door of the
dining room after him. When the prisoner crossed the courtyard, he
always wore the black mask. The peasants noticed that his teeth and
lips showed through, also that he was tall and had white hair. M. de
Saint Mars slept in a bed close to that of the masked man."
The prisoner arrived at the Bastile on the 18th of September, 1698,
and the authentic record of his reception appears in the journal of
the King's lieutenant of the castle, M. du Junca, still preserved in
the Arsenal Library. "M. de Saint Mars, governor of the Chateau of the
Bastile, presented, for the first time, coming from his government of
the Isle of Sainte-Marguerite, bringing with him a prisoner who was
formerly in his keeping at Pignerol." The entry goes on to say that the
newcomer was taken to the third chamber of the Bertandière tower and
lodged there alone in the charge of a gaoler who had come with him. He
was nameless in the Bastile and was known only as "the prisoner from
Provence" or "the ancient prisoner."
His isolation and seclusion were strictly maintained for the first
three years of his imprisonment in the Bastile and then came a curious
change. He is no longer kept apart. He is associated with other
prisoners, and not of the best class. One, a rascally domestic servant,
who practised black magic, and a disreputable rake who had once been
an army officer. Nothing is said about the mask, but there can no
longer be much secrecy and the mystery might be divulged at any time.
It is evident that the reasons for concealment have passed away. The
old political intrigue has lost its importance. No one cared to know
about Casale. Louis XIV had slaked his vindictiveness and the sun of
his splendor was on the decline. Nevertheless it was not till after
his death that the prisoner's real name transpired. He died as he had
lived, unknown. Du Junca enters the event in the register:--
"The prisoner unknown, masked always ... happening to be unwell
yesterday on coming from mass died this day about 10 o'clock in the
evening without having had any serious illness; indeed it could not
have been slighter ... and this unknown prisoner confined so long a
time was buried on Tuesday at four in the afternoon in the cemetery of
St. Paul, our parish. On the register of burial he was given a name
also unknown." To this is added in the margin, "I have since learnt
that he was named on the register M. de Marchiali." A further entry
can be seen in the parish register. "On the 19th of November, 1703,
Marchioly, of the age of forty-five or thereabouts, died in the Bastile
... and was buried in the presence of the major and the surgeon of
the Bastile." "Marchioly" is curiously like "Mattioli" and it is a
fair assumption that the true identity of the "Man with the Iron Mask"
bursts forth on passing the verge of the silent land.
Lauzun, a third inmate of Pignerol about this period, calls for mention
here as a prominent courtier whose misguided ambition and boundless
impudence tempted him seriously to affront and offend the King. The
penalties that overtook him were just what a bold, intemperate subject
might expect from an autocratic, unforgiving master. This prisoner,
the Count de Lauzun, was rightly styled by a contemporary "the most
insolent little man that had been seen for a century." He had no
considerable claims to great talents, agreeable manners or personal
beauty, but he was quick to establish himself in the good graces of
Louis XIV. He was one of the first to offer him the grateful incense of
unlimited adulation. He worshipped the sovereign as a superior being,
erected him into a god, lavished the most fulsome flattery on him,
declaring that Louis by his wisdom, wit, greatness and majesty took
rank as a divinity. Yet he sometimes forgot himself and went to the
other extreme, daring to attack and upbraid the King if he disapproved
of his conduct. Once he sided with Madame de Montespan when she was
first favorite and remonstrated with Louis so rudely that the King cast
him at once into the Bastile. But such blunt honesty won the King's
respect and speedy forgiveness. Lauzun was soon released and advanced
from post to post, each of successively greater value, so that the
hypocritical courtier, who had made the most abject submission, seemed
assured of high fortune. As he rose, his ambition grew and he aspired
now to the hand of the King's cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier,
who began to look upon him with favor. This was the same "Grande
Mademoiselle," the heroine of the wars of the Fronde, who was now a
wealthy heiress and who at one time came near being the King's wife and
Queen. The match was so unequal as to appear wildly impossible, but De
Lauzun was strongly backed by Madame de Montespan and two nobles of
high rank were induced to make a formal proposal to the King.
Louis liked De Lauzun and gave his consent without hesitation. The
marriage might have been completed at once but the bold suitor,
successful beyond his deserts and puffed up with conceit, put off the
happy day so as to give more and more éclat to the wedding ceremony.
While he procrastinated his enemies were unceasingly active. The
princes of the blood and jealous fellow courtiers constantly implored
the King to avoid so great a mistake, and Louis, having been weak
enough to give his consent, was now so base as to withdraw it. De
Lauzun retorted by persuading Mademoiselle de Montpensier to marry him
privately. This reckless act, after all, might have been forgiven,
but he was full of bitterness against those who had injured him with
the King and desired to retaliate. He more especially hated Madame de
Montespan, whom he now plotted to ruin by very unworthy means. He thus
filled his cup and procured the full measure of the King's indignation.
He was arrested and consigned to Pignerol, where in company with
Fouquet he languished for ten years.