“The appearance of the Man with the Iron Mask followed almost immediately upon the pretended death of Fouquet in 1680. “This death of Fouquet in 1680 is far from being certain. “Finally, political and private reasons may have determined Louis XIV. to cause him to pass for dead, in preference to getting rid of him by poison or in any other manner.” These two last arguments are the only ones which need be discussed; for the circumstantial care, excessive vigilance, and incessant precautions of which Fouquet was the object at Pignerol were not peculiar to this prisoner. Lauzun was treated in absolutely the same manner. The instructions given to Saint-Mars every time a new prisoner, even the most obscure, was confided to his care were identical. On July 19, 1669, when announcing the approaching arrival of that Eustache d’Auger, who was to become Fouquet’s lackey, Louvois wrote to Saint-Mars as if the fortune of the State was bound up with this man.[446] When, later, some Protestant ministers, as unknown as they were harmless, are sent to him at the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, there are the same detailed and complete precautions set forth at length, and equally dear to the circumstantial Minister[447] who enjoined them, and the scrupulous gaoler charged with their execution. As to the “traditions relating to the masked prisoner,” which appear to M. Lacroix “to apply to Fouquet,” we have seen[448] that the greater number of them are legendary, and that the others, such as the episode of the silver dish thrown from a window, concern several Protestant ministers, confined at the Isles Sainte-Marguerite at almost the same date as the Man with the Iron Mask. Finally,--and we will establish this further on,--nothing whatever proves that the appearance of the Man with the Iron Mask dates from the year 1680. But if Fouquet did not die in March, 1680,--if, above all, Louis XIV. “had political and private motives for compassing the disappearance of the Surintendant by a supposititious death,” it is incontestable that the theory of M. Lacroix would have a strong chance of being accepted, since it would show what had become of this personage while it explained in a very probable manner the mystery, exaggerated by tradition, but nevertheless true, by which the famous masked prisoner was surrounded. This has been perfectly understood by M. Lacroix, who has first applied himself to contest the death of Fouquet in 1680, and then to seek out the different causes that may have determined Louis XIV. to suddenly separate the Surintendant from the rest of the world, and to make the prolongation of his life a mystery impenetrable to all except Saint-Mars.