Barbezieux), dated August 4th, 1698.--It may be as well to
mention here that M. Delort frequently quotes portions of
letters from the French Archives, but does not publish them in
his appendix. When in the course of this narrative the name of
M. Delort is given as an authority, it is, for the most part,
under these circumstances.
[140] Such is the account given by M. de Palteau, the direct
descendant of St. Mars, in a letter to Freron, dated Palteau,
June 19th, 1768. It was published in the “Année Littéraire” for
that year, and has since been republished by Mr. Craufurd, in
his paper on the Iron Mask.
[141] Delort.
[142] The place of “Lieutenant de Roi,” at the Bastille, was
created by Lewis the Fourteenth, for M. Dujonca, who had been
“Exempt” of one of the regiments of the King’s Body-guards. He
acquired great credit by his endeavours to procure the release
of the prisoners under his care, whom, upon inquiry, he found
to be unjustly detained. Some one represented to him that he
would deprive himself of a great portion of his profits by thus
diminishing the number of prisoners--to which he replied, “_I
can only lose my money, but these unhappy people are deprived
of what is more valuable to them than even life itself._”
[143] These towers are supposed to have been so called from the
names of the architects who built them.
[144] Rosarges was made Major of the Bastille by St. Mars.
[145] Extract from the Journal of Dujonca, first published by
Griffet, then by St. Foix, and subsequently by Mr. Craufurd.
[146] Appendix, No. 128.
[147] Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of Linguet.
[148] Delort and Craufurd.
[149] Appendix, No. 129.
[150] Appendix, No. 129.
[151] Delort.
[152] Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of M. Delaunay, Governor
of the Bastille. Also Register of the Bastille; for which see
Appendix, No. 129.
[153] Stephen Francis, Duke de Choiseul, Prime Minister under
Lewis the Fifteenth, for above twelve years. A man of some
talent, but an unskilful and extravagant minister; in spite of
which, on his disgrace, (through the means of Madame du Barri,
in 1770) he was turned into a martyr, by the influence of the
ladies of the court, who were angry with the King for choosing
his mistresses from the lower orders, instead of among them. To
do him honour snuff-boxes were made, bearing the head of Sully
on one side, and that of the Duke de Choiseul on the other. One
of them being shown to _Sophie Arnoud_, the actress, celebrated
for her repartees, she looked at the two sides, and said,
“_C’est la recette--et la dépense_.”
[154] This first answer of the king ought not to be entirely
overlooked; as, it will be remembered, that at the time it was
made, the minister of the Duke of Mantua had not been mentioned
by any one as the Iron Mask. He was first suggested to have
been that prisoner, by the Baron de Heiss, in a letter to the
authors of the “Journal Encyclopédique,” dated Phalsbourg, June
28th, 1770; in which he grounded his opinion upon a letter,
published in a work entitled “L’Histoire Abregée de l’Europe;”
published at Leyden in 1687; giving a detailed account of
the arrest, by French agents, of a secretary of the Duke of
Mantua.[155] M. Dutens, in his “Correspondance Interceptée,”
published in 1789, held the same opinion, grounded upon the
same authority. He afterwards repeated the same opinion in his
“Mémoires d’un Voyageur, qui se repose.” Finally, M. Roux,
(Fazillac) in 1801, published his work upon the Iron Mask;
in which he supported the same opinion; and attached to the
Secretary the name of Matthioli.
[155] See Appendix, No. 133.
[156] Jane Antoinette Poisson, married to a financier named Le
Normand d’Etioles; created Marquise de Pompadour by Lewis the
Fifteenth, of whom she was first the mistress, and afterwards
the minister of his disgraceful debauches. At her death, in
1765, the King showed no signs of grief; and on seeing her
funeral go by his windows on a rainy day, his only remark was,
“La Marquise aura aujourd’hui un mauvais temps pour son
voyage!”
[157] Appendix, No. 131.
[158] Appendix, Nos. 131, 132. Madame Campan mentions having
heard Lewis the Sixteenth tell his wife, that the Count de
Maurepas (who, both from his age and situation, was very likely
to know the truth,) had informed him that the _Iron Mask_ was
“a prisoner dangerous from his intriguing disposition, and a
subject of the Duke of Mantua.”
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
No. 1.
ESTRADES TO LEWIS THE FOURTEENTH.
Commencement of the Negociation.--State of the Court of
Mantua.--Influence of the Spaniards there.
Venice, Dec 18th, 1677.
SIRE,
As the grief I felt at having displeased your Majesty was extreme,
so my joy is not less to learn from M. de Pomponne, that your
Majesty has had the goodness to pardon me my too great facility;
and that you have been graciously pleased to listen to the reasons,
which I took the liberty to offer to you, in justification of
the innocence of my intentions; however, Sire, this misfortune
will oblige me, in future, to act in all things with so great a
circumspection, that your Majesty will, I hope, never have cause to
be dissatisfied with my conduct.
I have thus far deferred informing your Majesty of a project, which
my anxiety for your service has suggested to me, because the success
of it appeared so difficult that I did not venture to propose it,
till I saw some chance of being able to accomplish it; but, as the
affair is at present in a favourable state, I can almost assure
your Majesty, that the conclusion of it will depend upon yourself.
I shall now give you an exact account of it, in order that I may
receive the orders it shall please you to send me; which I will take
care to execute punctually. About four months ago, having become
more particularly acquainted with the divisions at the Court at
Mantua than before was the case, and having heard that the Duke of
Mantua was not so abandoned to his pleasures, but that he still had
some ambition, and much chagrin at the state to which he was reduced
by his mother, and his suspicions of the Spaniards; I hoped that
it would not be impossible, to detach him entirely from them, to
induce him to enter into the views of your Majesty, and to persuade
him really to treat respecting Casale. I have thought that I could
not employ any one in this affair more proper to conduct it, than a
certain Count Matthioli, who is entirely devoted to that prince; I
had already known him for some time, and he had testified a great
desire of rendering himself agreeable to your Majesty by some
service. I knew that he had been Secretary of State to the late Duke
of Mantua, that the present one had preserved much affection for
him, and that he was well-informed of the different interests of
the Princes of Italy; but as he had been much in the Milanese, and
had had a good deal of access to the Spanish ministers, I would not
put any confidence in him, till I had first tried him. I therefore
charged the individual, named Giuliani, to whom your Majesty had
the goodness to make six months ago a gratification, and who has
a zeal for your service which prevents my having any doubt of his
fidelity, to observe Matthioli attentively and secretly; and after
I had been sufficiently informed that he was much discontented with
the Spaniards, who had always amused him with hopes, and afterwards
abandoned him, I sent Giuliani, in the month of last October, to
Verona, where he went under pretext of his private affairs; but in
fact, to put Matthioli, who was there, upon the subject of the Duke
of Mantua, according to the instruction I had given him, and to
represent to him that those who had an attachment for their prince,
could not but be much afflicted to see him, at his age, still under
the guidance of his mother; without money, without authority, always
in a state of suspicion against those who are habitually about him;
and what is worse, in so insensible a state, that he only thought
of passing his life with actresses and women of the town; which
had made him lose the esteem of every body, and the consideration
which his rank ought to have given him: that so strange a way of
life, as well as the opinion that was prevalent that he would never
have children by his wife, though she was as young as himself,
induced the Spaniards to foment the divisions that existed in this
Court, in order to profit by them, and to try and obtain possession
of Casale and of all the Montferrat; that the said Giuliani had
heard me say, that I was well-informed that the Empress Eleanor
had already declared her pretensions to put herself in possession
of that part of the territories of Mantua; that the king of Spain
supported strongly those of a Spanish nobleman, who, in virtue of
his marriage with the niece of the Duke of Guastalla, by whom he
has children, maintains that he is the sole heir of that duke, to
the prejudice of the Duke of Mantua, who has married his daughter,
and who is besides his nearest relation; that, on the other hand,
the absolute control over all the territories of this prince, and
all the revenues, were in the hands of his mother and of the monk
Bulgarini; that, of all those who serve him as ministers, some are
gained by the Spaniards, others by the Empress Eleanor, and the
rest by the Duke of Guastalla; that his mother has also a part of
them on her side, but that these are the smallest number, and in
short, that it is a sort of miracle that he has not been already
deprived of his territories, but that he runs the risk of it every
day, and that the misfortune may happen to him when he is the least
prepared for it; that he has no choice of the means to be made use
of to guarantee himself against it, but that it is the protection
of your Majesty which is alone able to give him complete security.
Matthioli replied to him, that all he had been saying to him was
quite true, and that he had long, with grief, seen the truth of it;
but that there was still a remedy for so great an evil; that he
was sufficiently acquainted with the Duke of Mantua to know that
he had more talent and ambition than he was thought to have; that,
if I approved of it, he would discover his real sentiments, and
that he would charge himself with whatever negociation I wished.
That, meanwhile, he would go to----[159], in order to be nearer to
Mantua, where he could not go without making himself suspected by
the different parties who governed there, and that there he would
wait till I made known to him my intentions. Some days afterwards,
he sent me word that he had found means to have a secret interview
with the Duke of Mantua; and that he wished me, in order that we
might act in concert, to send him Giuliani, whom I have always made
use of in the different journeys that were to be made, because his
employment of sending the news through the different parts of Italy,
gave him occasion to go from one town to another, and prevented any
suspicion of him, as there would have infallibly been, if I had sent
any one of my household. I despatched him, therefore, with a new
instruction, and not only had he an audience of the Duke of Mantua,
to whom he spoke as I had desired him, but this prince even approved
very much of the proposition that was made him, to deliver him from
the continual inquietudes caused him by the Spaniards, and that,
for this purpose, Casale should be put into your Majesty’s hands,
with the understanding that I should try to obtain from you in his
favour all that he could reasonably ask for. Finally, he declared
that his resolution was taken upon this subject, but, that things
might be better adjusted, he wished to communicate it to two of his
counsellors, in whom he had the most confidence, and that he gave
the selection of them to Matthioli, in order that he might be quite
secure of them. Matthioli named the Marquis Cavriani and Joseph
Varano, in whom he has confidence. Meanwhile the Duke of Mantua sent
Giuliani to me, to acquaint me with what had passed, and recommended
him to return as soon as possible, in order to receive the draft of
the plan, which would then be prepared--and to convey it to me. I
was much pleased, Sire, to see the affair in so good a train. I sent
Giuliani back quickly, and ordered him to tell the Duke of Mantua
that I entreated him to allow me to have a conference with him; that
your Majesty had not as yet any knowledge of the proposed treaty,
because I could not venture to go so far as that, without being
certain first that he would not disavow me in what I should have
the honour of writing to your Majesty, and also that he would have
sufficient power to execute what had been arranged.
Giuliani returned here yesterday, bringing me as favourable answers
as I could possibly desire. He told me that the two counsellors of
the Duke of Mantua had, with every sort of precaution, commenced
their negociation with Matthioli; that they had approved of the
resolution of their master, and that they had put down in the
schedule, with which they had charged him, and which I join to
this letter, what the Duke requests your Majesty to grant to him;
that afterwards the Duke of Mantua called him to him; that he
ordered him to beg me to assure your Majesty of his respect and of
his attachment to your interests, and to acquaint me that he had
entirely put himself into the hands of the Count Matthioli; that he
would soon go to Venice, where we might see one another conveniently
and without being observed, on account of the Carnival, during
which, all the world, even the Doge, and the oldest senators, go
about in mask; that he wished me not to lose any time in acquainting
your Majesty with this affair, because he feared some surprise from
the Spaniards; but that if I wished him to keep his word with me, I
must not, on any account, communicate the project to the Cardinal
d’Estrées, because there was so strong a report in Italy, that he
had your Majesty’s orders to negociate with the Princes there, of
which the Spaniards had so great a jealousy, that, upon the least
suspicion they should have of him (the Duke,) they would ruin him
before he could receive assistance from your Majesty, who would,
at the same time, lose all hope of getting possession of Casale;
that he would take measures to tranquillize them, and to prevent
their having any suspicions of his conduct; and that if the Cardinal
d’Estrées made him any propositions, he would only receive them
in full council, and give general answers, which would not render
him suspected by any body. I thus find myself precluded from the
confidence which I intended to make of this business to the Cardinal
d’Estrées, who I believe will soon be here, and am obliged to
keep the secret scrupulously, till I have received the orders of
your Majesty. The Duke of Mantua also offers to raise a regiment,
provided it be at your Majesty’s expense, and he represents, that
by recruiting at Mantua and Casale he shall do much injury to the
Spaniards, who are raising troops there daily; that Joseph Varano,
who is one of the two before-mentioned counsellors, promises to
get a good many soldiers from the Ferrarese, where he possesses
interest, being Lord of Camerigo. He also implores your Majesty to
make an effort to send a sufficiently strong army into Italy, to be
able to undertake something considerable; and he assures me, that,
in this case, he will not content himself with having delivered
Casale into the hands of your Majesty, but will obtain for your
Majesty other great advantages, through the means of his intimate
connexions with the other states of Italy; that the Duchy of Milan
was never so feeble, nor so devoid of all means of defence, as at
present; but that, in order to obtain more particular intelligence
upon this head, he has given orders to Matthioli to go to Milan,
to observe every thing there with attention, and especially to
discover the intention of the Genoese, with regard to the report
which has now been for some time afloat in Italy, that your Majesty
intends sending an army there next Spring, at the latest. As some
accident might happen to the packets, I have not ventured to put
into mine the letter that the Count Matthioli, who has certainly
served your Majesty well upon this occasion, does himself the honour
to write to you, but have had it turned into cypher, as well as
the memoir of the demands of the Duke of Mantua; and I keep the
originals, together with the plan of Casale, which I do not send
to your Majesty for the same reason. I can assure your Majesty,
that I have never told either Giuliani or Matthioli that you intend
to march troops towards the Milanese; but the latter speaks of it
in his letter, because he has taken for granted the report which
was purposely spread abroad in order to lead the Duke of Mantua to
the determination I wished him to take; knowing that he desired to
be generalissimo above all things, or rather that it was the only
thing he was very anxious for, in order to be considered in Italy
like the late Duke of Modena, and like the late Duke of Mantua, who
at his age commanded in chief the Emperor’s army, with the title
of Vicar-general of the Empire. When this Prince is here, there
will only be at the conference we are to hold together, himself,
Matthioli, (whom he has promised to re-establish in his post of
Secretary of State, and to appoint his first minister, as soon as
he shall see himself restored to his authority, and that the treaty
he intends making with your Majesty shall have been executed,) the
Sieur Giuliani, the Sieur de Pinchesne, (who is secretary of the
embassy, and of whom M. de Pomponne, who placed him with me, can
answer to your Majesty for the fidelity and secrecy,) and myself.
So the secrecy, so necessary in this affair, will certainly remain
impenetrable.
I have the honour to be, &c.
THE ABBÉ D’ESTRADES.[160]
[159] The name of the place is not stated in the letter.
[160] From the Archives of the Office for Foreign Affairs, at
Paris.
No. 2.
MATTHIOLI TO LEWIS THE FOURTEENTH.
Protestations of devotion to Lewis.--Belief in the good
intentions of the Duke of Mantua.
December 14th, 1677.
SIRE,
I take the liberty of bearing testimony to your Majesty, that among
the great Ministers, whom, in your supreme wisdom, you have sent
at different times into Italy, your ambassador at Venice, the Abbé
d’Estrades, ought to be distinguished for his skill and his zeal to
seize every occasion, which may seem to offer him the improvement or
the aggrandizement of your territories.
This Ambassador having confided to me, that, in order to succeed in
the enterprize that you meditate against the territories of Milan,
it would be necessary to detach the Duke of Mantua from the Austrian
party, and to draw him into that of your Majesty, I am anxious to
contribute every thing in my feeble power for the success of this
object. Your Majesty will be made acquainted with all that has
passed by the despatches of the Ambassador. For myself, I bless the
destiny, which procures me the honour of serving so great a monarch,
whom I regard and revere as a demi-god.
I will transmit to your Majesty all that I shall learn respecting
Casale, which has been fortified by one of the most skilful
engineers of the Milanese. This engineer has promised us a plan of
all the fortresses of that State, and even, if your Majesty commands
him, he will separate himself from the service of Spain, who does
not know how to recompense properly the services and the talents
of those who serve her with fidelity. I am convinced it would be
useless in me to enlarge upon the importance of the fortress of
Casale. Your Majesty must remember, that at different times it
has arrested the progress of many armies, and that it is the only
bulwark, upon which depends the loss or the preservation to the
Spaniards of the territories of Milan; territories, which for more
reasons than one, ought to belong to your Majesty’s crown.
It is known that the Austrians are at this moment arming, in order
to obtain possession by surprize of Casale, to the prejudice of the
Duke Ferdinand, my master, the lawful possessor of it.
This Prince, nephew of Charles[161] the first, (which latter Prince
was rather French than Italian, and by whose intervention the
fortress of Pignerol has remained in the possession of your royal
house); this Prince, I say, Ferdinand, will make known, in fit
time and place, that he has not degenerated from his ancestors;
he has promised to serve you with the greatest fidelity, and
to fight for you in a manner worthy of his birth; and as he is
extremely anxious to acquire glory, I trust your Majesty will have
reason to applaud his conduct in your armies. By the confession
of even the most skilful political observers, he is free from the
suspicions, which may fall upon the other Italian Sovereigns.
The Abbé d’Estrades knows that his Highness has communications
with other great personages, who complain with reason of the
insupportable yoke of the Spaniards, and who will take arms with him
to combat, and to drive as quickly as possible from Italy, a power
which is only established there to oppress it. If destiny willed it
so, I have no doubt that the other Princes of this country would be
happy to enjoy a stable peace under the auspices of your Majesty. I
offer up vows for the progress of your victorious arms, and I pray
God to prolong your days for the consolation of the world, &c.
HERCULES A. MATTHIOLI.[162]
[161] Charles the first, Duke de Nevers in France, succeeded to
the sovereignty of Mantua on the death of his cousin Duke
Vincent II. His two sons, Charles Duke de Rhetelois, and
Ferdinand Duke de Mayenne, died during his life-time, and he
was consequently succeeded, at his death in 1637, by his
grandson Charles III.
[162] This letter exists in cypher, and also written in Italian
and French, in the Archives of the Office for Foreign Affairs
at Paris.
No. 3.
ESTRADES TO POMPONNE.
Continuation of the negociation.--Intrigues of the Austrian
Party.
Venice, Dec. 24, 1677.
SIR,