inking that the Man
in the Iron Mask might possibly have been Henry, the second son of Oliver
Cromwell, who was held as a hostage by Louis XIV.

By an odd coincidence the second son of the Lord Protector does entirely
disappear from the page of history in 1659; we know nothing of where he
afterwards lived nor when he died. But why should he be a prisoner of
state in France, while his elder brother Richard was permitted to live
there quite openly? In the absence of all proof, we cannot attach the
least importance to this explanation of the mystery.

We now come to the promised extracts from the 'Memoires du Marechal de
Richelieu':

"Under the late king there was a time when every class of society was
asking who the famous personage really was who went by the name of the
Iron Mask, but I noticed that this curiosity abated somewhat after his
arrival at the Bastille with Saint-Mars, when it began to be reported
that orders had been given to kill him should he let his name be known.
Saint-Mars also let it be understood that whoever found out the secret
would share the same fate. This threat to murder both the prisoner and
those who showed too much curiosity about him made such an impression,
that during the lifetime of the late king people only spoke of the
mystery below their breath. The anonymous author of 'Les Memoires de
Perse', which were published in Holland fifteen years after the death of
Louis XIV, was the first who dared to speak publicly of the prisoner and
relate some anecdotes about him.

"Since the publication of that work, liberty of speech and the freedom of
the press have made great strides, and the shade of Louis XIV having lost
its terrors, the case of the Iron Mask is freely discussed, and yet even
now, at the end of my life and seventy years after the death of the king,
people are still asking who the Man in the Iron Mask really was.

"This question was one I put to the adorable princess, beloved of the
regent, who inspired in return only aversion and respect, all her love
being given to me. As everyone was persuaded that the regent knew the
name, the course of life, and the cause of the imprisonment of the masked
prisoner, I, being more venturesome in my curiosity than others, tried
through my princess to fathom the secret. She had hitherto constantly
repulsed the advances of the Duc d' Orleans, but as the ardour of his
passion was thereby in no wise abated, the least glimpse of hope would be