
The secret of the Man in the Iron Mask, or at least of one of the two persons who haveclaims to be the Mask, was 'WHAT HAD EUSTACHE DAUGER DONE?' To guard this secretthe most extraordinary precautions were taken, as we have shown in the fore-going essay.And yet, if secret there was, it might have got wind in the simplest fashion. In the 'Vicomtede Bragelonne, ' Dumas describes the tryst of the Secret-hunters with the dying Chief of theJesuits at the inn in Fontainebleau. They come from many quarters, there is a Baron ofGermany and a laird from Scotland, but Aramis takes the prize. He knows the secret of theMask, the most valuable of all to the intriguers of the Company of Jesus.Now, despite all the precautions of Louvois and Saint-Mars, despite sentinels for everposted under Dauger's windows, despite arrangements which made it impossible for himto signal to people on the hillside at Les Exiles, despite the suppression even of the items inthe accounts of his expenses, his secret, if he knew it, could have been discovered, as wehave remarked, by the very man most apt to make mischievous use of it-by Lauzun. Thatbrilliant and reckless adventurer could see Dauger, in prison at Pignerol, when he pleased, for he had secretly excavated a way into the rooms of his fellow-prisoner, Fouquet, onwhom Dauger attended as valet. Lauzun was released soon after Fouquet's death. It isunlikely that he bought his liberty by the knowledge of the secret, and there is nothing tosuggest that he used it (if he possessed it) in any other way.The natural clue to the supposed secret of Dauger is a study of the career of his master, Roux de Marsilly. As official histories say next to nothing about him, we may set forth whatcan be gleaned from the State Papers in our Record Office. The earliest is a letter of Roux deMarsilly to Mr. Joseph Williamson, secretary of Lord Arlington (December 1668). Marsillysends Martin (on our theory Eustache Dauger) to bring back from Williamson two lettersfrom his
Page Count:
162
Publication Date:
2020-11-03
Publisher:
Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US
ISBN-13:
9798558271775
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!