I have given in the text the more important documents of which I have made use, and in the notes those which are of less consequence, whilst I have contented myself with indicating the collections where those materials are to be found which are altogether of a secondary character. By this means the reader will have a complete check upon me. Without sacrificing anything of the strictest exactitude I have endeavoured to introduce into my account the spirit and the action proper to the individuals brought on to the scene, and, in a subject at once legendary and historical, to represent the faithful drawing of history under the seductive colouring of fiction. _Paris, November 8, 1869._ CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Page Arrival of the Man with the Iron Mask at the Bastille--His Death--General Reflections on this celebrated Prisoner--Motives which determined the present Writer to make fresh Researches concerning him--Plan and Object of the Work 1 CHAPTER I. Theory which supposes the Man with the Iron Mask to have been a Brother of Louis XIV.--Voltaire the first to support this Theory in his _Siècle de Louis XIV._, and in the _Dictionnaire Philosophique_--Certain Improbabilities in his Story--Account of the Man with the Iron Mask introduced by Soulavie into the _Mémoires Apocryphes du Maréchal de Richelieu_--The three different Hypotheses of the Theory which makes the Man with the Iron Mask a Brother of Louis XIV. 9 CHAPTER II. First Hypothesis--Portrait of Buckingham--Causes of his Visit to France--Ardour with which he was received--His Passion for Anne of Austria--Character of this Princess--Journey to Amiens--Scene in the Garden--The Remembrance that Anne of Austria preserved of it 20 CHAPTER III. Second Hypothesis--First Feelings of Anne of Austria towards Louis XIII.--Joy which she experienced on arriving in France--First Impressions of Louis XIII.--His Aversion to Spain--His Dislike to Marriage--Austerity of his Manners--His persistent Coldness--Means adopted to induce him to consummate the Marriage--Political Position of Anne of Austria--Louis XIII. and Richelieu--Watch kept by the Minister over the Queen--The King’s Illness at Lyons 31 CHAPTER IV.