I had frequently heard talk of the
"Iron Mask," whom people reported to be either allied to, or
sprung from, the royal family; but all these particulars were
confused in my memory. However, I was much struck with the
conversation I had had with the comte de la Marche; and when
next the conversation fell on this mysterious personage, I asked
the duc de Richelieu what he thought of him.
"Upon my honor," replied he, "I never could find out who he really
was; not that I did not try," added he, assuming an air of modest
vanity, which well became his green old age. "I had a mistress
of tolerably high birth, mademoiselle d'Orleans, as indeed I had
the honor of having the princesses, her august sisters. However,
the former, known under the name of mademoiselle de Charollais,
was dying to do some act of kindness that should be agreeable to
me. Well, I requested she would obtain from the regent, her
father, the solution of the secret relative to the 'Iron Mask.'
She used every possible device, but nothing could she obtain
from her father, who protested that the mystery should never
escape his lips; and he kept his word, he never did divulge it.
I even imagine that the king himself is ignorant of it, unless
indeed the cardinal de Fleury informed him of it." The marechal
told me afterwards that he thought the opinion adopted by Voltaire
the most probable, viz: that this unknown person was the son of
the queen Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV.
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