8vo volume in 1791, at
Strasbourg and Paris, entitled 'Le veritable homme, dit au MASQUE DE FER,
ouvrage dans lequel on fait connaitre, sur preuves incontestables, a qui
le celebre infortune dut le jour, quand et ou il naquit'. The wording of
the title will give an idea of the bizarre and barbarous jargon in which
the whole book is written. It would be difficult to imagine the vanity
and self-satisfaction which inspire this new reader of riddles. If he
had found the philosopher's stone, or made a discovery which would
transform the world, he could not exhibit more pride and pleasure. All
things considered, the "incontestable proofs" of his theory do not decide
the question definitely, or place it above all attempts at refutation,
any more than does the evidence on which the other theories which
preceded and followed his rest. But what he lacks before all other
things is the talent for arranging and using his materials. With the
most ordinary skill he might have evolved a theory which would have
defied criticism at least as successfully, as the others, and he might
have supported it by proofs, which if not incontestable (for no one has
produced such), had at least moral presumption in their favour, which has
great weight in such a mysterious and obscure affair, in trying to
explain, which one can never leave on one side, the respect shown by
Louvois to the prisoner, to whom he always spoke standing and with
uncovered head.

According to M. de Saint-Mihiel, the 'Man in the Iron Mask was a
legitimate son of Anne of Austria and Mazarin'.

He avers that Mazarin was only a deacon, and not a priest, when he became
cardinal, having never taken priest's orders, according to the testimony
of the Princess Palatine, consort of Philip I, Duc d'Orleans, and that it
was therefore possible for him to marry, and that he did marry, Anne of
Austria in secret.

"Old Madame Beauvais, principal woman of the bed-chamber to the queen
mother, knew of this ridiculous marriage, and as the price of her secrecy
obliged the queen to comply with all her whims. To this circumstance the
principal bed-chamber women owe the extensive privileges accorded them
ever since in this country" (Letter of the Duchesse d'Orleans, 13th
September 1713).

"The queen mother, consort of Louis XIII, had done worse than simply to
fall in love with Mazarin, she had married him, for he had never been an
ordained priest, he had only taken deacon's orders. If he