_The Iron Mask._--MR. JAMES CORNISH (Vol. v., p. 474.) says, that "after
half a century's active exertions, the Iron Mask was unveiled," and this
sanguine person gives it also as his opinion that the author of _Junius's
Letters_ will "eventually be unearthed." The last event may perhaps happen;
but what authority has he for asserting that the mysterious secret of the
"Masque de Fer" has ever been satisfactorily explained? Numerous, learned,
and ingenious, as many of the hypotheses on the subject have been for
upwards of a century, I have always imagined that an impenetrable veil of
secrecy still continued to cover this wonderful historical mystery.