57Appendix,No. 72.
58Appendix,Nos. 75,79,81,83,88.
59Mary Jane Baptista of Savoy, daughter of Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours and Aumale, (who was killed in a duel by his brother-in-law, the Duke of Beaufort). Married May 11th, 1665, to Charles Emmanuel II., Duke of Savoy; Regent of the territories of her son during his minority. Died March 15th, 1724.
60Delort. Appendix,Nos. 87,92,95.
61Appendix,No. 92.
62Appendix,No. 70.
63Delort.
64Appendix,No. 75.
65Appendix,No. 71.
66Benigne d’Auvergne de Saint-Mars, Seigneur of Dimon and Palteau; Bailli and Governor of Sens; successively Governor of Exiles, the Island of St. Marguerite, and the Bastille. At Pignerol he had only the command of the state prisoners, the Marquis d’Herleville being governor of the fortress. St. Mars came to Pignerol a short time before the arrival there of Fouquet, who was the first prisoner confided to his care.
67Roux (Fazillac.)
68Appendix,Nos. 79,81.
69Delort.
70Appendix,No. 88.
71Appendix,No. 82.
72Delort.
73M. Roux (Fazillac) gives these particulars, upon the authority of a letter from Estrades to Pomponne, of May 7th, 1679; and of one from Catinat to Louvois of the same date; neither of which are published.
74Roux (Fazillac.)
75Appendix,No. 84.
76Ibid.
77Delort.
78Appendix,No. 85.
79Appendix,No. 84.
80Ibid.No. 85.
81Appendix,Nos. 96,103,104.
82Ibid.No. 48.
83Nicholas Fouquet, “Surintendant des Finances,” in 1653. The most lavish, but the most amiable of financiers.—Disgraced in 1664, when he was condemned, by the commissioners appointed to inquire into his conduct, to banishment. The sentence was commuted by the King himself to perpetual imprisonment; and Fouquet died in the citadel of Pignerol, in 1680. On his trial he defended himself with great spirit and talent. See Madame de Sévigné’s interesting Letters to M. de Pomponne upon the subject.
84Anthony Nompar de Caumont, Marquis of Peguilhem, and afterwards Duke of Lauzun: whose adventures and eccentricities are too well known to require relation here. It is in speaking of him that La Bruyère says, “Il n’est pas permis aux autres hommes de rêver, comme il a vécu.”
85Anne Mary Louisa, of Orleans, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, commonly called the “Grande Mademoiselle.”—A woman of an unpleasant character, according to her own showing in her Memoirs; but who certainly did not deserve to be the victim, as she was, in different ways, of two such men as Lewis and Lauzun.
86Appendix,Nos. 85,87,91,92,94,95,97.
87Ibid.No. 97.
88Ibid.Nos. 84,85.
89Appendix,No. 90.
90Ibid.No. 93.
91Ibid.No. 96.
92Ibid.No. 101.
93Charles IV. or V., for he is sometimes called one and sometimes the other, was the son of Nicholas Francis, Cardinal, and afterwards Duke of Lorrain. On the death of his uncle, Charles IV., he took the barren titles of Duke of Lorrain and Bar, but never obtained possession of his territories, (which were usurped by France,) “though his military, political, and Christian virtues and talents, made him worthy to occupy the first throne in the universe.” He commanded the armies of the Emperor for some years with the greatest distinction, married the Archduchess Eleanor, widow of Michael Wiecnowiecki, King of Poland, and died in 1690. Lewis the Fourteenth, on hearing of his death, said of him, “that he was the greatest, wisest, and most generous of his enemies.”
94Appendix,No. 102.
95Appendix,No. 107.
96Appendix,No. 106.
97Appendix,No. 108.
98Appendix,No. 103.
99Appendix,No. 104.
100Ibid.
101Appendix,No. 105.
102If we were to judge of the Christian religion by the manner in which it was professed by Lewis the Fourteenth, we should indeed have a most perverted idea of its precepts. It seems as if the pseudo-christianity of that monarch, only incited him to acts of narrow-minded bigotry and cruelty, allowing, at the same time, full latitude to every kind of licentious excess; while it debarred him from the exercise of humanity and toleration. A good measure of the nature and extent of his religious knowledge and feelings is acquired, by the anecdote respecting Fontpertuis and the Duke of Orleans. When the latter was going into Spain, Lewis objected to his taking the former with him, because he was a Jansenist; but withdrew the objection when assured by the duke that he was only an atheist!
103M. Roux (Fazillac), quoting from an unpublished letter of Louvois to St. Mars, dated December 14th, 1681.
104About 1l.12s.0d.Appendix,No. 126.
105Exiles was taken from the French in 1708, by the Duke of Savoy, but restored to them by the treaty of Utrecht.
106Appendix,No. 111.
107Appendix,No. 111.
108Appendix,No. 112.
109Appendix,No. 111.
110Appendix,No. 112.
111Ibid.
112Appendix,No. 115.
113Appendix,No. 111.
114Appendix,No. 117.
115Appendix,No. 113.
116Appendix,Nos. 114,115.
117Appendix,No. 120.
118Appendix,No. 121.
119Appendix,No. 121.
120Appendix,No. 123.
121Roux (Fazillac).
122Ibid.
123Ibid.
124Appendix,Nos. 124,125.
125Appendix,No. 124.
126Appendix,No. 125.
127Appendix,No. 124.
128Appendix,No. 126.
129Delort.
130Extract of Dujonca’s journal, in Mr. Craufurd’s article upon “L’Homme au Masque de fer.”
131Delort.
132Papon in his “Histoire générale de Provence” informs us that he went to see the room.
133“Histoire générale de Provence, du Père Papon.”
134See “Mélanges d’Histoire et de Littérature,” by Mr. Quintin Craufurd.
135See the same work of Mr. Quintin Craufurd.
136This must have been Lewis Francis Le Tellier, Marquis de Barbezieux, who, in the preceding year, had succeeded his father, Louvois, in the post of Secretary of State for the War Department. He was an indolent but intelligent Minister.—Died in 1701, aged 33.
137Appendix,No. 127.
138Delort.
139Delort, quoting from an unpublished letter (probably from 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.
140Such 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.
141Delort.
142The 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.”
143These towers are supposed to have been so called from the names of the architects who built them.
144Rosarges was made Major of the Bastille by St. Mars.
145Extract from the Journal of Dujonca, first published by Griffet, then by St. Foix, and subsequently by Mr. Craufurd.
146Appendix,No. 128.
147Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of Linguet.
148Delort and Craufurd.
149Appendix,No. 129.
150Appendix,No. 129.
151Delort.
152Mr. Craufurd, on the authority of M. Delaunay, Governor of the Bastille. Also Register of the Bastille; for which see Appendix,No. 129.
153Stephen 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 toSophie Arnoud, the actress, celebrated for her repartees, she looked at the two sides, and said, “C’est la recette—et la dépense.”
154This 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.155M. 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.
155See Appendix,No. 133.
156Jane 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!”
157Appendix,No. 131.
158Appendix,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 theIron Maskwas “a prisoner dangerous from his intriguing disposition, and a subject of the Duke of Mantua.”