the Man in the Iron Mask was an obscure valet, of French birth,
residing in England, whose real name was Martin.

Before we enter on the topic of this poor menial's tragic history,
it may be as well to trace the progress of the romantic legend, as
it blossomed after the death of the Man, whose Mask was not of
iron, but of black velvet. Later we shall show how the legend
struck root and flowered, from the moment when the poor valet,
Martin (by his prison pseudonym "Eustache Dauger"), was immured in
the French fortress of Pignerol, in Piedmont (August, 1669).

The Man, in connection with the Mask, is first known to us from a
kind of notebook kept by du Junca, Lieutenant of the Bastille. On
September 18, 1698, he records the arrival of the new Governor of
the Bastille, M. de Saint-Mars, bringing with him, from his last
place, the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, in the bay of Camnes, "an old
prisoner whom he had at Pignerol. He keeps the prisoner always
masked, his name is not spoken . . . and I have put him alone, in
the third chamber of the Bertaudiere tower, having furnished it
some days before with everything, by order of M. de Saint-Mars.
The prisoner is to be served and cared for by M. de Rosarges," the
officer next in command under Saint-Mars.[1]


[1] Funck-Brentano, Legendes et Archives de la Bastille, pp. 86,
87. Paris, 1898, p. 277, a facsimile of this entry.


The prisoner's death is entered by du Junca on November 19, 1703.
To that entry we return later.