"It was to the Iles Sainte-Marguerite that the famous prisoner with the
iron mask whose name has never been discovered, was transported at the
end of the last century; very few of those attached to his service were
allowed to speak to him. One day, as M. de Saint-Mars was conversing
with him, standing outside his door, in a kind of corridor, so as to be
able to see from a distance everyone who approached, the son of one of
the governor's friends, hearing the voices, came up; Saint-Mars quickly
closed the door of the room, and, rushing to meet the young man, asked
him with an air of great anxiety if he had overheard anything that was
said. Having convinced himself that he had heard nothing, the governor
sent the young man away the same day, and wrote to the father that the
adventure was like to have cost the son dear, and that he had sent him
back to his home to prevent any further imprudence.

"I was curious enough to visit the room in which the unfortunate man was
imprisoned, on the 2nd of February 1778. It is lighted by one window to
the north, overlooking the sea, about fifteen feet above the terrace
where the sentries paced to and fro. This window was pierced through a
very thick wall and the embrasure barricaded by three iron bars, thus
separating the prisoner from the sentries by a distance of over two
fathoms. I found an officer of the Free Company in the fortress who was
nigh on fourscore years old; he told me that his father, who had belonged
to the same Company, had often related to him how a friar had seen
something white floating on the water under the prisoner's window. On
being fished out and carried to M. de Saint-Mars, it proved to be a shirt
of very fine material, loosely folded together, and covered with writing
from end to end. M. de Saint-Mars spread it out and read a few words,
then turning to the friar who had brought it he asked him in an
embarrassed manner if he had been led by curiosity to read any of the,