guise themselves as much as possible from the public eye; they hide
from themselves. There is no vice which has not a counterfeit
resemblance to some virtue, and which does not profit by it."

The whole life of Derues bears testimony to the truth of this
observation. An avaricious poisoner, he attracted his victims by the
pretence of fervent and devoted piety, and drew them into the snare
where he silently destroyed them.

As soon as his head was covered, the executioner gave the signal. One
would have thought a very few blows would have finished so frail a
being, but he seemed as hard to kill as the venomous reptiles which must
be crushed and cut to pieces before life is extinct, and the 'coup de
grace' was found necessary. The executioner uncovered his head and
showed the confessor that the eyes were closed and that the heart had
ceased to beat. The body was then removed from the cross, the hands and
feet fastened together, and it was thrown on the funeral pile. While the
execution was proceeding the people applauded. On the morrow they
bought up the fragments of bone, and hastened to buy lottery tickets, in
the firm conviction that these precious relics would bring luck to the
fortunate possessors!

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK ironm10.txt or ironm.zip [Etext #2751]

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK

Voltaire added a few further details which had been given him by M. de
Bernaville, the successor of M. de Saint-Mars, and by an old physician
of the Bastille who had attended the prisoner whenever his health
required a doctor, but who had never seen his face, although he had
"often seen his tongue and his body." He also asserted that M. de
Chamillart was the last minister who was in the secret, and that when
his son-in-law, Marshal de la Feuillade, besought him on his knees, de
Chamillart being on his deathbed, to tell him the name of the Man in the
Iron Mask, the minister replied that he was under a solemn oath never to
reveal the secret, it being an affair of state. To all these details,
which the marshal acknowledges to be correct, Voltaire adds a remarkable
note: "What increases our wonder is, that when the unknown captive was
sent to the Iles Sainte-Marguerite no personage of note disappeared from
the European stage."

JOAN OF NAPLES

The next morning the people were beforehand with the executioner, loudly
demanding their prey. All the national troops and mercenaries that the
judicial authorities co