herents as such.
The famous barricades of Paris, and the organised revolt led by
distinguished men against Louis XIV on his accession to the throne,
proclaimed aloud the king's illegitimacy, so that it rang through the
country; and as the accusation had reason on its side, hardly anyone
doubted its truth."

We give below a short abstract of the narrative, the plot of which is
rather skilfully constructed:--

"Cardinal Richelieu, looking with satisfied pride at the love of Gaston,
Duc d'Orleans, brother of the king, for his niece Parisiatis (Madame de
Combalet), formed the plan of uniting the young couple in marriage.
Gaston taking the suggestion as an insult, struck the cardinal. Pere
Joseph then tried to gain the cardinal's consent and that of his niece to
an attempt to deprive Gaston of the throne, which the childless marriage
of Louis XIII seemed to assure him. A young man, the C. D. R. of the
book, was introduced into Anne of Austria's room, who though a wife in
name had long been a widow in reality. She defended herself but feebly,
and on seeing the cardinal next day said to him, 'Well, you have had your
wicked will; but take good care, sir cardinal, that I may find above the
mercy and goodness which you have tried by many pious sophistries to
convince me is awaiting me. Watch over my soul, I charge you, for I have
yielded!' The queen having given herself up to love for some time, the
joyful news that she would soon become a mother began to spread over the
kingdom. In this manner was born Louis XIV, the putative son of Louis
XIII. If this instalment of the tale be favourably received, says the
pamphleteer, the sequel will soon follow, in which the sad fate of C. D.
R. will be related, who was made to pay dearly for his short-lived
pleasure."

Although the first part was a great success, the promised sequel never
appeared. It must be admitted that such a story, though it never
convinced a single person of the illegitimacy of Louis XIV, was an
excellent prologue to the tale of the unfortunate lot of the Man in the
Iron Mask, and increased the interest and curiosity with which that
singular historical mystery was regarded. But the views of the Dutch
scholars thus set forth met with little credence, and were soon forgotten
in a new solution.

The third historian to write about the prisoner of the Iles
Sainte-Marguerite was Lagrange-Chancel. He was just twenty-nine years of
age when, excited by Freron's