Monthli/ Review of LUerature, 



628 



Louis XV. made tliis declaration, we have 

 living; testimony. The Duke de Bouillon, 

 who in his youth had been much with the 

 King, informed one of ourselves, that he 

 liad himself heard the declaration made by 

 the King. Madam Campan says, she heard 

 Louis XVI. tell his wife, tliat Maurepas 

 informed him, tlie Iron Mask was a priso- 

 ner dangerous from his intriguing disposi- 

 tion, and a subject of the Duke of I\rantaa. 



The truth has at last been brought to light 

 by the sagacity and diligence of a M. De- 

 lort, who, from the hints that had been 

 dropped of the prisoner's being a foreign- 

 minister, conjectured, that the records of 

 the foreign otttoe might ]irobably furnish 

 some documentary evidence to settle the 

 question. His researches have been com- 

 pletely successful, and not a shadow of 

 doubt any longer clouds the subjecc. 



The publication before us is the produc- 

 tion of Mr. Agar Ellis, who has been in- 

 duced to present the subject in a new shape, 

 because, as he says, himself in a very sen- 

 sible and unpretending preface, the ' book 

 struck him as being peculiarly ill-arranged 

 and confused ; besides being unnecessarily 

 filled with the most fulsome flattery of 

 Louis XIV, never certainly more inap- 

 propriately bestowed, than while in the act 

 of recording one of the most cruel and 

 oppressive acts of that sovereign's cruel and 

 oppressive reign. I have also thought that 

 the subject was one of sufficient historical 

 curiosity to interest the English public. ' 



The History of the Iron Mask seems to 

 hi briefly this : he was a Bolognese of the 

 name of Matthioli, professor of civil law in 

 the university of Bologna, and subsequently 

 passing into the service of the third Duke 

 of Mantua, a short time before the duke's 

 death, beca me secretary of state. On tiie ac- 

 cession of the fourth duke, the administra- 

 tion fell into orher hands, and Matthioli 

 was thrown upon the world again. Not long 

 after, however, D'Estrades, the French 

 ambassador at Venice, wishing to pjit Ca- 

 sale, the capital of the Monferrat, and key 

 of the !\Iilanese,into his master's possession, 

 employed Matthioli to conduct the intrigue. 

 The duke, in want of money, closed witli 

 the proposal at once, and empowered 

 IMatthioli, with whom he had formerly been 

 on terms of intimacy, to negotiate the con- 

 ditions with the French court. The com- 

 mission required great caution and secresy, 

 as the sm-reuder was calculated to interfere 

 both with the Austrian ard Spanish inter- 

 ests. Matthioli proceeded to Paris, and 

 was receive;! with great distinction by Louis 

 and bribed high ; but for some reason or 

 another - probably the Spaniards out-bribed 

 the French monarch— on his return, he 

 contrived to stop the progress of the treaty. 

 The disappointment exasperated Louis, and 

 he resolved upon revenge. Catinat, to his 

 eternal infamy, undertook to decoy Iiim to 

 the confines, where he was entrapped, and 

 eommittcd to the custody of St. Mars at 



[June, 



Pignerol. This was in 1679. In 1681, St, 

 Mars was removed to the state prison at 

 Exiles, and commanded to take with him 

 Matthioli and one other prisoner, an old 

 priest. Tlie priest died at Exiles. In 1687, 

 St. Mars was appointed to the government 

 of St. Margaret and St. Horonat, on the 

 coast of Provence, near Antibes, and was 

 again commanded to take Matthioli with 

 him, ' the prisoner,' as he wa.s now-termed. 

 Here he remained till 1698, when St. Mars 

 wiis finally promoted to the command of 

 the Bastile, and again directed to bring 

 Matthioli with him. This was the last re- 

 moval ; Matthioli died in 1703. A black 

 velvet mask, not one of iron, fastened with 

 a padlock behind, was always worn in his 

 journies, and whenever he was visited by a 

 physician or liis confessor. 



The evidence is given in an appendix, 

 forming the bulk of the book indeed, and is 

 quite complete; we have the correspon- 

 dence between D'Estrades and Louvois, to 

 prove the first employment of Matthioli, 

 other letters to prove Matthioli's tergiver- 

 sation, and Louis's resolution to have him 

 seized ; with Catinat's reports to the secre- 

 tary of state, and St. Mars' communication* 

 from first to last. — In his official correspon- 

 dence with the secretary of state, while at 

 St. Margaret's, St. Mars speaks of having 

 been obliged to punish a prisoner for scratch- 

 ing his complaints of the King's cruelty on 

 a pewter plate, and throwing it out of the 

 window. This will serve for the origin of 

 the story of the silver plate, picked up by 

 a fisherman, and taken to the Governor. 



Dartmoor : a descriptive Poem, by N. T. 

 Carrington — Here are some veiy agreeable 

 lines, but modelled from beginning to end, 

 unluckily, on the versification of Thomson's 

 Seasons, with a touch occasionally of Cow- 

 per. We say unluckily, because the too 

 well-known t\irns and cadences, perpetually 

 stirring our recollections, will deprive the 

 writer of much of the credit, very justly his 

 due. It is not want of native feeling, nor 

 lack of power, nor penury of language, that 

 has driven him to so constant an imitation ; 

 but sheer habit and admiration. Through 

 the whole poem, it is plainly his own soul 

 that prompts, but he borrows another's 

 tongue to give its promptings utterance. 

 With a little more tact— not to say cunning 



he would studiously have shunned, and not 



thus confidingly have adopted a phraseology, 

 so indelibly mixed up with our earliest 

 poetical remembrances. 



The scene of his poetiy is tlie spot and 

 sojourn of his childhood— of all his first 

 and most familiar associations ; and he still 

 loves to range over its wMs, and recall and 

 indulge his most endearing enjoyments. 

 Dartmoor is the whole world to him. It 

 has an importance that fills his thoughts 

 and almost his wishes, and which he labours 

 to communicate in the full glow of genuine 

 feeling. To the passing observer, Dartmoor 

 is mere heath and rock and bog, and one 



