Ottoman scimitar might any day during this memorable siege render
unnecessary, we shall restrict ourselves to declaring positively that the
correspondence of Saint-Mars from 1669 to 1680 gives us no ground for
supposing that the governor of Pignerol had any great prisoner of state
in his charge during that period of time, except Fouquet and 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:--