By MARIUS TOPIN. TRANSLATED AND EDITED By HENRY VIZETELLY, AUTHOR OF “THE STORY OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE.” “No one must know what has become of this man.” Order of Louis XIV. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE. 1870. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 15, WATERLOO PLACE. 1870....

M. Topin’s L’Homme au Masque de Fer , of which the present volume is a translation, has met with considerable attention in France, on the part both of historical students and the reading public; several editions of it having been called for in the course of a few months. That a work which professes to give an authentic account of this almost legendary character, after having discussed in an exhaustive fashion the various theories that have been broached during a century and a quarter respecting

If this book had been intended merely to satisfy a vulgar and commonplace curiosity, it would only have consisted of a few pages. My aim has been a loftier one. I have endeavoured, while concerning myself with the most famous and romantic of State-prisoners, to write the history of the principal individuals in whom people have beheld the Man with the Iron Mask. As regards some of these I have been compelled to lay bare the private life of Louis XIII. and Anne of Austria, and in order to refute t