But because the exactitude of many of the acts attributed to the Man with the Iron Mask is disproved by this examination, one would be wrong in concluding that he never existed, or that, at least, there was not a great interest in concealing his existence. It is incontestable that Saint-Mars did, in 1698, escort to Paris a prisoner who died there five years later, who was known at the Bastille only under the name of “the prisoner from Provence,” and whose mysterious memory was perpetuated in the redoubtable fortress, to spread rapidly afterwards through the entire world. These are the real data of the problem. Although freed from all the foreign elements that have been mixed up with it, it exists and it remains to be solved. It is true that in the eyes of some, to take away the seductive figure of a brother of Louis XIV. is greatly to diminish the interest. But, addressing ourselves to those for whom truth alone has a sovereign and incomparable charm, we say to them: The Man with the Iron Mask is not a son of Anne of Austria, because to the impossibility of fixing the date of his birth is added the not less evident impossibility of proving his incarceration. If, in order to show that his birth is imaginary, we have touched upon many delicate points, it is because the gravity of the accusations with which, in our days, the memory of Anne of Austria has been stigmatized, render such justifications necessary. In addition to which, even should these researches be indiscreet, it is much less blamable to have made them for the purpose of defence rather than of accusation, and to have raised certain veils, in order to let innocence shine forth in place of calumniating it. FOOTNOTES: [108] All these facts come from official documents, authentic and transcribed by us. We shall give them further on when we introduce Saint-Mars into the story. [109] Archives of the Ministry of Marine; Archives of the Ministry of War; Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Imperial Archives; Registers of the Secretary’s Office of the King’s Household. [110] _Biographie Universelle_ of Michaud, article on the “Man with the Iron Mask,” by Weiss. The second edition does not give the extract from this despatch, given in the first. [111] See, amongst others, the opinion of M. Jules Loiseleur, _Revue Contemporaine_, article already cited. [112] Louis François Le Tellier, Marquis de Barbézieux, many of whose despatches are quoted in the course of this work, succeeded his father Louvois as Minister of War, on the death of the latter in 1691.--_Trans._ [113] Archives of the Ministry of Marine; Archives of the Ministry of War; Imperial Archives; Registers of the Secretary’s Office of the King’s Household. [114] Voltaire, _Siècle de Louis XIV._, chap. xxv.