released its victim. He was guarded, we shall see, with such
unheard-of rigour, that popular fancy at once took him for some
great, perhaps royal, personage.

Marsilly was publicly tortured to death in Paris on June 22, 1669.
By July 19 his ex-valet, Dauger, had entered on his mysterious term
of captivity. How the French got possession of him, whether he
yielded to cajolery, or was betrayed by Charles II., is uncertain.
The French ambassador at St. James's, Colbert (brother of the
celebrated Minister), writes thus to M. de Lyonne, in Paris, on July
1, 1669:* 'Monsieur Joly has spoken to the man Martin' (Dauger),
'and has really persuaded him that, by going to France and telling
all that he knows against Roux, he will play the part of a lad of
honour and a good subject.'

*Transcripts from Paris MSS. Vol. xxxiii., Record Office.

But Martin, after all, was NOT persuaded!

Martin replied to Joly that HE KNEW NOTHING AT ALL, and that, once
in France, people would think he was well acquainted with the
traffickings of Roux, 'AND SO HE WOULD BE KEPT IN PRISON TO MAKE HIM
DIVULGE WHAT HE DID NOT KNOW.' The possible Man in the Iron Mask
did not know his own secret! But, later in the conversation, Martin
foolishly admitted that he knew a great deal; perhaps he did this
out of mere fatal vanity. Cross to France, however, he would not,
even when offered a safe-conduct and promise of reward. Colbert
therefore proposes to ask Charles to surrender the valet, and
probably Charles descended to the meanness. By July 19, at all
events, Louvois, the War Minister of Louis XIV., was bidding Saint-