The secret of the Man in the Iron Mask, or at least of one of the two
persons who have claims to be the Mask, was ‘WHAT HAD EUSTACHE DAUGER
DONE?’ To guard this secret the most extraordinary precautions were
taken, as we have shown in the fore-going essay. And yet, if secret
there was, it might have got wind in the simplest fashion. In the
‘Vicomte de Bragelonne,’ Dumas describes the tryst of the Secret-hunters
with the dying Chief of the Jesuits at the inn in Fontainebleau. They
come from many quarters, there is a Baron of Germany and a laird from
Scotland, but Aramis takes the prize. He knows the secret of the Mask,
the most valuable of all to the intriguers of the Company of Jesus.
Now, despite all the precautions of Louvois and Saint-Mars, despite
sentinels for ever posted under Dauger’s windows, despite arrangements
which made it impossible for him to signal to people on the hillside at
Les Exiles, despite the suppression even of the items in the accounts of
his expenses, his secret, if he knew it, could have been discovered, as
we have remarked, by the very man most apt to make mischievous use of
it--by Lauzun. That brilliant and reckless adventurer could see Dauger,
in prison at Pignerol, when he pleased, for he had secretly excavated
a way into the rooms of his fellow-prisoner, Fouquet, on whom Dauger
attended as valet. Lauzun was released soon after Fouquet’s death. It is
unlikely that he bought his liberty by the knowledge of the secret, and
there is nothing to suggest that he used it (if he possessed it) in any
other way.
The natural clue to the supposed secret of Dauger is a study of the
career of his master, Roux de Marsilly. As official histories say next
to nothing about him, we may set forth what can be gleaned from the
State Papers in our Record Office. The earliest is a letter of Roux de
Marsilly to Mr. Joseph Williamson, secretary of Lord Arlington (December
1668). Marsilly sends Martin (on our theory Eustache Dauger) to bring
back from Williamson two letters from his own correspondent in Paris. He
also requests Williamson to procure for him from Arlington a letter of
protection, as he is threatened with arrest for some debt in which he
is not really concerned. Martin will explain. The next paper is endorsed
‘Received December 28, 1668, Mons. de Marsilly.’ As it is dated December
27, Marsilly must have been in England. The contents of this piece
deserve attention, because they show the terms on which Marsilly and
Arlington were, or, at least, how Marsilly conceived them.
(1) Marsilly reports, on the authority of his friends at Stockholm, that
the King of Sweden intends, first to intercede with Louis XIV. in favour
of the French Huguenots, and next, if diplomacy fails, to join in arms
with the other Protestant Powers of Europe.
(2) His correspondent in Holland learns that if the King of England
invites the States to any ‘holy resolution,’ they will heartily lend
forces. No leader so good as the English King--Charles II! Marsilly had
shown ARLINGTON’S LETTER to a Dutch friend, who bade him approach
the Dutch ambassador in England. He has dined with that diplomatist.
Arlington had, then, gone so far as to write an encouraging letter. The
Dutch ambassador had just told Marsilly that he had received the same
news, namely, that, Holland would aid the Huguenots, persecuted by Louis
XIV.
(3) Letters from Provence, Languedoc, and Dauphine say that the
situation there is unaltered.
(4) The Canton of Zurich write that they will keep their promises and
that Berne IS ANXIOUS TO PLEASE THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN, and that
it is ready to raise, with Zurich, 15,000 men. They are not afraid of
France.
(5) Zurich fears that, if Charles is not represented at the next Diet,
Bale and Saint Gal will be intimidated, and not dare to join the Triple
Alliance of Spain, Holland, and England. The best plan will be
for Marsilly to represent England at the Diet of January 25, 1669,
accompanied by the Swiss General Balthazar. This will encourage friends
‘TO GIVE HIS BRITTANIC MAJESTY THE SATISFACTION WHICH HE DESIRES, and
will produce a close union between Holland, Sweden, the Cantons, and
other Protestant States.’
This reads as if Charles had already expressed some ‘desire.’
(6) Geneva grumbles at a reply of Charles ‘through a bishop who is their
enemy,’ the Bishop of London, ‘a persecutor of our religion,’ that is,
of Presbyterianism. However, nothing will dismay the Genevans, ‘si S. M.
B. ne change.’
Then comes a blank in the paper. There follows a copy of a letter as
if FROM CHARLES II. HIMSELF, to ‘the Right High and Noble Seigneurs of
Zurich.’ He has heard of their wishes from Roux de Marsilly, whom he
commissions to wait upon them. ‘I would not have written by my Bishop of
London had I been better informed, but would myself have replied to
your obliging letter, and would have assured you, as I do now, that I
desire....’
It appears as if this were a draft of the kind of letter which Marsilly
wanted Charles to write to Zurich, and there is a similar draft of a
letter for Arlington to follow, if he and Charles wish to send Marsilly
to the Swiss Diet. The Dutch ambassador, with whom Marsilly dined on
December 26, the Constable of Castille, and other grandees, are all of
opinion that he should visit the Protestant Swiss, as from the King of
England. The scheme is for an alliance of England, Holland, Spain, and
the Protestant Cantons, against France and Savoy.
Another letter of Marsilly to Arlington, only dated Jeudi, avers that he
can never repay Arlington for his extreme kindness and liberality. ‘No
man in England is more devoted to you than I am, and shall be all my
life.’*
*State Papers, France, vol. 125, 106.
On the very day when Marsilly drafted for Charles his own commission
to treat with Zurich for a Protestant alliance against France, Charles
himself wrote to his sister, Madame (Henriette d’Orleans). He spoke of
his secret treaty with France. ‘You know how much secrecy is necessary
for the carrying on of the business, and I assure you that nobody does,
nor shall, know anything of it here, but myself and that one person
more, till it be fit to be public.’* (Is ‘that one person’ de la
Cloche?)
*Madame, by Julia Cartwright, p. 275.
Thus Marsilly thought Charles almost engaged for the Protestant League,
while Charles was secretly allying himself with France against Holland.
Arlington was probably no less deceived by Charles than Marsilly was.
The Bishop of London’s share in the dealing with Zurich is obscure.
It appears certain that Arlington was not consciously deceiving
Marsilly. Madame wrote, on February 12, as to Arlington, ‘The man’s
attachment to the Dutch and his inclination towards Spain are too well
known.’* Not till April 25, 1669, does Charles tell his sister that
Arlington has an inkling of his secret dealings with France; how he
knows, Charles cannot tell.** It is impossible for us to ascertain how
far Charles himself deluded Marsilly, who went to the Continent early in
spring, 1669. Before May 15/25 1669, in fact on April 14, Marsilly had
been kidnapped by agents of Louis XIV., and his doom was dight.
*Madame, by Julia Cartwright, p. 281.
**Ibid. p. 285.
Here is the account of the matter, written to ------ by Perwich in
Paris: