Lauzun.'"

While we profess no blind faith in the conclusions arrived at by the
learned critic, we would yet add to the considerations on which he relies
another, viz. that it is most improbable that Louis XIV should ever have
considered it necessary to take such rigorous measures against the Duc de
Beaufort. Truculent and self-confident as he was, he never acted against
the royal authority in such a manner as to oblige the king to strike him
down in secret; and it is difficult to believe that Louis XIV, peaceably
seated on his throne, with all the enemies of his minority under his
feet, should have revenged himself on the duke as an old Frondeur.

The critic calls our attention to another fact also adverse to the theory
under consideration. The Man in the Iron Mask loved fine linen and rich
lace, he was reserved in character and possessed of extreme refinement,
and none of this suits the portraits of the 'roi des halles' which
contemporary historians have drawn.

Regarding the anagram of the name Marchiali (the name under which the
death of the prisoner was registered), 'hic amiral', as a proof, we
cannot think that the gaolers of Pignerol amused themselves in
propounding conundrums to exercise the keen intellect of their
contemporaries; and moreover the same anagram would apply equally well to
the Count of Vermandois, who was made admiral when only twenty-two months
old. Abbe Papon, in his roamings through Provence, paid a visit to the
prison in which the Iron Mask was confined, and thus speaks:--

"It was to the Iles Sainte-Marguerite that the famous prisoner with the
iron mask whose name has never been discovered, was transported at the
end of the last century; very few of those attached to his service were
allowed to speak to him. One day, as M. de Saint-Mars was conversing
with him, standing outside his door, in a kind of corridor, so as to be
able to see from a distance everyone who approached, the son of one of
the governor's friends, hearing the voices, came up; Saint-Mars quickly
closed the door of the room, and, rushing to meet the young man, asked
him with an air of great anxiety if he had overheard anything that was
said. Having convinced himself that he had heard nothing, the governor
sent the young man away the same day, and wrote to the father that the
adventure was like to have cost the son dear, and that he had sent him
back to his home to prevent any further imprudence.

"I was curious enough