Let us hasten to say that he has completely succeeded. There is no need for us to return to that one of these two theories which makes the Man with the Iron Mask a brother of Louis XIV.[559] But with reference to the other, which represents Matthioly as being the masked prisoner, M. Loiseleur’s refutation of it is very remarkable; and the researches which we have made, as well as the new documents which we have brought to light, confirm what his clear-sighted sagacity had enabled him to discover. “December 23, 1685,” says M. Loiseleur, “Saint-Mars writes from Exiles to Louvois, ‘My prisoners are always ill and taking remedies. For the rest, they are very quiet.’ We possess no official document relating to what passed at Exiles during the year 1686; but it was in this year, as we are about to establish, that Matthioly’s death took place. On January 20, 1687, Saint-Mars learns that the King has just conferred on him the governorship of the Isles Honorat and Sainte-Marguerite. He hastens to thank Louvois for it, and adds, ‘I shall give my orders for the care of my prisoner so well,’ &c. &c.” Thence M. Loiseleur concludes that either in 1686, or in January, 1687, one of the two prisoners had died.[560] He also adduces the testimony of Father Papon, of the Oratory, who, visiting the Isles Sainte-Marguerite, in 1778, questioned an officer there named Claude Souchon, then seventy-nine years old, and whose father had formed one of the free company of the islands in the time of Saint-Mars. Now, both in a memorandum drawn up at the request of the Marquis de Castellane, governor of the islands, and in his replies to Father Papon, the Sieur Souchon said he had heard from his father that the envoy of the Empire--the Duke of Mantua was a prince of the Empire--carried off by order of Louis XIV., died nine years after his arrest--that is to say, in 1688.[561] Muratori relates this tradition, and it is also confirmed by the fact “that the name of Matthioly disappeared entirely from Saint-Mars’ correspondence previous to his departure from Exiles.” The following despatches from Louvois to Saint-Mars, till now unpublished, justify M. Loiseleur’s suppositions:-- “Fontainebleau. October 9, 1686. “I have received the letter that you have written to me the 26th of last month, which requires no answer except to say that you should have named to me which of your prisoners it is that has become dropsical.” “Fontainebleau, November 3, 1686. “I have received your letter of the 4th of last month. It is right to cause that one of your two prisoners who has become dropsical to confess, when you perceive the appearance of an approaching death. Till then neither he nor his companion must have any communication.” “Versailles, January 13, 1687.