1680, Fouquet died, and henceforth the two valets were most
rigorously guarded; Dauger, because he was supposed to know
something; La Riviere, because Dauger might have imparted the real
or fancied secret to him. We shall return to these poor serving-
men, but here it is necessary to state that, ten months before the
death of their master, Fouquet, an important new captive had been
brought to the prison of Pignerol.

This captive was the other candidate for the honours of the Mask,
Count Mattioli, the secretary of the Duke of Mantua. He was
kidnapped on Italian soil on May 2, 1679, and hurried to the
mountain fortress of Pignerol, then on French ground. His offence
was the betraying of the secret negotiations for the cession of the
town and fortress of Casal, by the Duke of Mantua, to Louis XIV.
The disappearance of Mattioli was, of course, known to the world.
The cause of his enlevement, and the place of his captivity,
Pignerol, were matters of newspaper comment at least as early as
1687. Still earlier, in 1682, the story of Mattioli's arrest and
seclusion in Pignerol had been published in a work named 'La
Prudenza Trionfante di Casale.'* There was thus no mystery, at the
time, about Mattioli; his crime and punishment were perfectly well
known to students of politics. He has been regarded as the
mysterious Man in the Iron Mask, but, for years after his arrest, he
was the least mysterious of State prisoners.

*Brentano, op. cit. p. 117.

Here, then, is Mattioli in Pignerol in May 1679. While Fouquet then
enjoyed relative freedom, while Lauzun schemed escapes or made
insulting love to Mademoiselle Fouquet, Mattioli lived on the bread