1669, but does not know who he is, or what is his quality. He sees
that the Mask must be either Mattioli, Dauger, the monk, one
Dubreuil, or one Calazio. But, overlooking or not having access to
the letter of Saint-Mars of June, 1681, Roux holds that the
prisoners taken to Les Exiles were the monk and Mattioli. One of
these must be the Mask, and Roux votes for Mattioli. He is wrong.
Mattioli beyond all doubt remained at Pignerol.


[1] Recherches Historiques sur l'Homme au Masque de Fer, Paris.
An. IX.


Mountains of argument have been built on these words, deux merles,
"two jail-birds." One of the two, we shall see, became the source
of the legend of the Man in the Iron Mask. "How can a wretched
jail-bird (merle) have been the Mask?" asks M. Topin. "The rogue's
whole furniture and table-linen were sold for 1l. 19s. He only got
a new suit of clothes every three years." All very true; but this
jail-bird and his mate, by the direct statement of Louvois, are
"the prisoners too important to be intrusted to other hands than
yours"--the hands of Saint-Mars--while Mattioli is so unimportant
that he may be left at Pignerol under Villebois.

The truth is, that the offense and the punishment of Mattioli were
well known to European diplomatists and readers of books. Casal,
moreover, at this time was openly ceded to Louis XIV., and Mattioli
could not have told the world more than it already knew. But, for
some inscrutable reason, the secret which Dauger knew, or was
suspected of knowing, became more and more a source of anxiety to