THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 51, 7 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.

WHO WAS HE? hi his new book, "Low Intrigues of lloyal Courts," published by Mr Werner Laurie, -Mr Thornton Hall deals with the secret of the lie Saiiit .Mar-

guerite. Who wa.s this mysterious individual who for over lorty years was immured, first at Pinerolo in the Italian Alps, then in the lie Saint Marguerite, and finally in the Bastille, doomed to live with his faee hidden in a mask, fated to die unmourned, to be buried with disfigured visage within the precincts of his prison house" Was he the Due de Vendome, one of Anne ol Austria's favorites, the victim of Cardinal Maaarin's jealousy, was he Charles the Second's natural son, the Duke ol Monmouth, or was he near kinsman of the "(Irand Monaruuei'V>r Mr '1 hornton Hall, the man in the iron mask was the twin brother of the glorious Louis XIV., doomed to years ol desolate misery and heartless imprisonment because his birth was regarded as a possible jeopardy to the Throne of France. There was no provision in the Salic law for such a contingency as the birth ol twin heirs to the Throne of I 1 ranee, and it was Richelieu who promptly counselled the. concealment of the second child, whose birth was a tew hours delayed, because in the future he "might, wish to become king, and fight his brother to elevate a second line in the State." The man in the iron mask, as Mr Thornton liall tells the story, came across an open despatch-box in the house of the nobleman, to whose care as a young man he had been confided. 11l the box were letters from the Queen to Cardinal Mazarin. Richelieu's successor, that left him no doubt Jie was twin brothei' of 1/mis XIV., a fact he proclaimed to his guardian. In alarm the latter sent a messenger informing the King of what had occurred, and within a few hours both guardian and Prince were immured in the dungeons of the Alpine fortress. When Europe was in arms against Louis the fear that his unhappy brother might be discovered and fall into the hands of one of his enemies, who would assuredly take ip arms in his defence, led to the transference to his second prison in the lonely island, with orders for his death if lie removed the iron mask which had been sent to him by the hand of the Marquis of Cinq-Mars. For twenty more years, the Prince remained in the island, to be then removed to the comparative para-; dise of the Bastille. The iron mask had now been changed to one of velvet, never raised day or might, and for forty-three years the features were concealed which would have proclaimed kinship with the great monarch. If death came as a relief it came so suddenly that the unhappy prisoner was unable to receive the Sacraments, and th© Bastille records set forth that ho was buried on Novemlwr 20, 1703, at four in the afternoon, in the cemetery q{ St. Paul.