was thought any paper, linen, or other memorial of him might be concealed.*

Thus were continued, to the very last, the same extraordinary precautions against discovery, which marked the whole imprisonment of the mysterious prisoner: a circumstance, which of itself certainly affords a strong confirmation of the fact, that the Iron Mask of the Bastille, was one and the same person with the Count Matthioli, who had been so secretly introduced into Pignerol, and so mysteriously conveyed from place to place by St. Mars. But the actual proof of this is only to be found in the documents which form the groundwork of the preceding narrative; and which, undoubtedly, do present a most convincing and satisfactory chain of evidence upon the subject.

An important corroboration of this evidence is also derived from the well-attested fact, that Lewis the Fifteenth, who is allowed, on all hands, to have

* Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of M. Delaunay, Governor of the Bastille. Also Register of the Bastille; for which see Appendix, No. 129.

known the history of the Iron Mask, affirmed, more than once, that he was the minister of an Italian sovereign. He told the Duke de Choiseul,* on one occasion, that he knew who the Iron Mask was; and, upon the Duke's questioning him further, would only add, that all the conjectures hitherto made upon the subject were erroneous.† The Duke

* 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.”

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,"

then begged Madame de Pompadour* to ask the King who it was; she did so, and his reply was, "The minister of an Italian prince!"+ The Duke

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. M. Dutens, in his "Correspondence 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.

*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 the 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 aujourdhui un mauvais temps pour son voyage!"

† Appendix, No. 131.

See Appendix, No. 133.

de Choiseul, unsatisfied by this reply, which he considered to be only an evasion, took another op

the

portunity of again applying to the King upon subject, who again answered, "He believed that the prisoner was a minister of one of the courts of Italy!"

Thus has the ill-fated Matthioli been identified with the Iron Mask, and traced through his long and dreary prison to his grave. It is probable that much of the illusion and interest, which accompanied the mysterious appellation of the Iron Mask, will be destroyed by the certainty of who he really was; as well as by the comparative insignificance of the personage who has successfully laid claim to the title. Still it is surely satisfactory that truth, after being so long overwhelmed by error, should be at length triumphant.

* 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."

The lovers of romance, who still wish to know more of the magnificent conjectures of former days; or who desire to be made acquainted with the reasons that induced a belief, that the Iron Mask was either the Duke de Beaufort; or the Count de Vermandois; or the Duke of Monmouth; or an elder or a twin-brother of Lewis the Fourteenth; or a son of Oliver Cromwell; or Arwediks, the Armenian Patriarch; are referred to Voltaire, Dutens, St. Foix, La Grange Chancel, Gibbon, the Père Papon, the Père Griffet, the Chevalier de Taulés, and Mr. Quintin Craufurd. Of these accounts, perhaps Voltaire's is the least curious, and Mr. Craufurd's the most so; because the first did not seek for truth, but only wished to invent a moving tale; while the latter was most anxious to arrive at the truth, and had all the advantage in his researches of the former writers upon the same subject.