alais Royal, which had been left to the king by
Richelieu. Shortly after taking up residence there she was very ill with
a severe attack of jaundice, which was caused, in the opinion of the
doctors, by worry, anxiety, and overwork, and which pulled her down
greatly" ('Memoire de Madame de Motteville, 4 vols. 12mo, Vol i. p.
194).

"This anxiety, caused by the pressure of public business, was most
probably only dwelt on as a pretext for a pretended attack of illness.
Anne of Austria had no cause for worry and anxiety till 1649. She did
not begin to complain of the despotism of Mazarin till towards the end
of 1645" (Ibid., viol. i. pp. 272, 273).

"She went frequently to the theatre during her first year of widowhood,
but took care to hide herself from view in her box." (Ibid., vol. i. p.
342).

Abbe Soulavie, in vol. vi. of the 'Memoires de Richelieu', published
in 1793, controverted the opinions of M. de Saint-Mihiel, and again
advanced those which he had published some time before, supporting them
by a new array of reasons.

The fruitlessness of research in the archives of the Bastille, and the
importance of the political events which were happening, diverted the
attention of the public for some years from this subject. In the year
1800, however, the 'Magazin encyclopedique' published (vol. vi. p.
472) an article entitled 'Memoires sur les Problemes historiques, et la
methode de les resoudre appliquee a celui qui concerne l'Homme au
Masque de Fer', signed C. D. O., in which the author maintained that the
prisoner was the first minister of the Duke of Mantua, and says his name
was Girolamo Magni.

In the same year an octavo volume of 142 pages was produced by M.
Roux-Fazillac. It bore the title 'Recherches historiques et critiques
sur l'Homme au Masque de Fer, d'ou resultent des Notions certaines
sur ce prisonnier'. These researches brought to light a secret
correspondence relative to certain negotiations and intrigues, and
to the abduction of a secretary of the Duke of Mantua whose name was
Matthioli, and not Girolamo Magni.

In 1802 an octavo pamphlet containing 11 pages, of which the author was
perhaps Baron Lerviere, but which was signed Reth, was published. It
took the form of a letter to General Jourdan, and was dated from Turin,
and gave many details about Matthioli and his family. It was entitled
'Veritable Clef de l'Histoire de l'Homme au Masque de Fer'. It proved
that the secretary of the Duke of Mantu