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Article THE IRON MASK. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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The Iron Mask.
It may not be displeasing , however , to some of your readers to have laid before them the various opinions that have been entertained , by different authors on this obscure subject . , The author of Memoires Secrets pour servir a I'llistoire de . Perse : asserts , that the Count de Vermandois ,. a natural son of Lewis XIV . and Mademoiselle de la Valliercand highly beloved by themwho .
, , was nearly of the same age with the Dauphin , but of a character diametrically opposite to hiSj one day so far forgot himself as to hit him a box on the ear ; that this action haying got wind , Lewis , to send , him out of the Way , ordered him into the army , and gave instructions to a confidential agent to spread' a report , soon after his arrival among his corpsthat he was infected with the plague . ; which having had thei
, natural effect of making him shunned by every body , he might withprobability g ive out that , he had died of the disease ; and while liedeceived the army with the preparations for his obsequies , he was to > conduct him secretly to . the citadel of I 'Islede Sainte Marguerite , These instructions were punctually obeyed . The next order was , that he should remain in that citadel till lie could be conveniently
removed to the Bastille , which was . done in 1 : 700 , when Lewis-gave the . government of the Bastille to the Commandant of that isle , as a , reward for his fidelity . The same author adds , that the Comte . de Vermandois one" day conceived the idea of graving his name with the point of a knife at the bottom of bis plate ; that a servant having discovered this , thought the opportunity favourable for making his court , by
carrying- the plate to the commandant , and hoped to meet with an ample recompence ; but the poor wretch was egregiously deceived , for he was put " to death on the spot to prevent the possibility of the secret being divulged .. Though these Secret Memoirs were published nine years previous to the earliest edition of I'llistoire du Siecle de Lewis XIV . as M . Clement observes in Les cinq Annee Literaires ( Lettre xcix . du 1 Mai 1752 Tom , 2 . ) Voltaire boldly asserts
, , , that all the historians who had written before him were ignorant of this extraordinary fact . He relates the story with but little variation , except that he omits the name of the Count de Vermandois . He adds , that the Marquis de Louvois , when he went to visit this unknown ' prisoner in the Isle Sainte Marguerite , always conversed with him in a' standing posture , and with the most profound respect ; that
theprisoner died in the Bastille in 1704 , and was interred by ni ght in the parish of St . Paul . The author of the Philippics ( M . de la Grange-Chancel ) , in his / letter to M . F ' rezon , pretends that this prisoner was the Due de Beau-, fort , who was reported to have fallen in the siege of Cand y , ' mid , whose body was never to be found by the most diligent search . ' for the confinement of the duke
He gives , asa reason , his turbulent spirit , the part he took in the disturbances of Paris in the time of La-Fronde , and his opposition ( in character of admiral ) to the designs of Colbert , minister in the marine department . M . Poullain de Saintfoy combats all these opinions concerning the Man in the Iron Mask ; he likewise contradicts the date of this pri-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Iron Mask.
It may not be displeasing , however , to some of your readers to have laid before them the various opinions that have been entertained , by different authors on this obscure subject . , The author of Memoires Secrets pour servir a I'llistoire de . Perse : asserts , that the Count de Vermandois ,. a natural son of Lewis XIV . and Mademoiselle de la Valliercand highly beloved by themwho .
, , was nearly of the same age with the Dauphin , but of a character diametrically opposite to hiSj one day so far forgot himself as to hit him a box on the ear ; that this action haying got wind , Lewis , to send , him out of the Way , ordered him into the army , and gave instructions to a confidential agent to spread' a report , soon after his arrival among his corpsthat he was infected with the plague . ; which having had thei
, natural effect of making him shunned by every body , he might withprobability g ive out that , he had died of the disease ; and while liedeceived the army with the preparations for his obsequies , he was to > conduct him secretly to . the citadel of I 'Islede Sainte Marguerite , These instructions were punctually obeyed . The next order was , that he should remain in that citadel till lie could be conveniently
removed to the Bastille , which was . done in 1 : 700 , when Lewis-gave the . government of the Bastille to the Commandant of that isle , as a , reward for his fidelity . The same author adds , that the Comte . de Vermandois one" day conceived the idea of graving his name with the point of a knife at the bottom of bis plate ; that a servant having discovered this , thought the opportunity favourable for making his court , by
carrying- the plate to the commandant , and hoped to meet with an ample recompence ; but the poor wretch was egregiously deceived , for he was put " to death on the spot to prevent the possibility of the secret being divulged .. Though these Secret Memoirs were published nine years previous to the earliest edition of I'llistoire du Siecle de Lewis XIV . as M . Clement observes in Les cinq Annee Literaires ( Lettre xcix . du 1 Mai 1752 Tom , 2 . ) Voltaire boldly asserts
, , , that all the historians who had written before him were ignorant of this extraordinary fact . He relates the story with but little variation , except that he omits the name of the Count de Vermandois . He adds , that the Marquis de Louvois , when he went to visit this unknown ' prisoner in the Isle Sainte Marguerite , always conversed with him in a' standing posture , and with the most profound respect ; that
theprisoner died in the Bastille in 1704 , and was interred by ni ght in the parish of St . Paul . The author of the Philippics ( M . de la Grange-Chancel ) , in his / letter to M . F ' rezon , pretends that this prisoner was the Due de Beau-, fort , who was reported to have fallen in the siege of Cand y , ' mid , whose body was never to be found by the most diligent search . ' for the confinement of the duke
He gives , asa reason , his turbulent spirit , the part he took in the disturbances of Paris in the time of La-Fronde , and his opposition ( in character of admiral ) to the designs of Colbert , minister in the marine department . M . Poullain de Saintfoy combats all these opinions concerning the Man in the Iron Mask ; he likewise contradicts the date of this pri-