_ THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK. 225 



of Milan. For bringing this about, Louis XI\' tlianked 

 Mattioli in an autograpli letter, received him at Versailles, 

 and rewarded him \\-ith mone\' and costly gifts. All this 

 did not prevent Mattioli, two months later, from betraj-ing 

 to Austria the designs of Louis XIV and those of the Duke. 

 Louis XI \' and Louvois were greatlj' enraged and agi- 

 tated at this. The Abbe d'Estrade was commissioned to 

 seize Mattioli b\' stratagem. Pretending not to kno\\' any- 

 thing about the betrayal, the Abbe enticed Mattioli to a 

 place close outside the town under the pretext of paving 

 him further moneys for his services. The carriage contain- 

 ing the Abbe and Mattioli was immediateh' surrounded, 

 and Mattioli was consigned to the fortress of Pipfnerolo. 

 As the affair involved a very serious violation of national 

 rights it had to be kept secret, and Louis XIV's ex- 

 press orders were that no one was to kno"\v what had become 

 ot Mattioli. Mattioli was therefore compelled, whenever he 

 went abroad, to -wear a mask, not of iron, but of black 

 velvet. At Pignerolo Mattioli had been handed over to 

 the notorious St. Mars, and he was obliged to follow him 

 to the island of Ste. Marguerite, and later to the Bastille, 

 where he died on November 19"", 1703. Louis XIV's ex- 

 planation to Madame de Pompadour, who repeated it to 

 the Due de Choiseul, nameh^ that the Man with the Mask 

 had been an Italian Minister, corroborates this. Later 

 Louis X\'I also, gave the same explanation to Marie An- 

 toinette. So that in reality the legend -concerned a man of 

 but little importance, who does not seern to have even merit- 

 ed anj' sympathy, and it was onh' the mask which he was 

 compelled to wear, that lent so much interest to the story. 



