ies, visited the monasteries, deciphered
account-books, cartularies, treaties; and, in this way, succeeded in
discovering certain references scattered over the ages.

In Book III of Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War (MS. edition,
Alexandria), it is stated that, after the defeat of Veridovix by G.
Titullius Sabinus, the chief of the Caleti was brought before Caesar
and that, for his ransom, he revealed the secret of the Needle--

The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, between Charles the Simple and
Rollo, the chief of the Norse barbarians, gives Rollo's name followed
by all his titles, among which we read that of Master of the Secret of
the Needle.

The Saxon Chronicle (Gibson's edition, page 134), speaking of William
the Conqueror, says that the staff of his banner ended in a steel point
pierced with an eye, like a needle.

In a rather ambiguous phrase in her examination, Joan of Arc admits
that she has still a great secret to tell the King of France. To which
her judges reply, "Yes, we know of what you speak; and that, Joan, is
why you shall die the death."

Philippe de Comines mentions it in connection with Louis XI., and,
later, Sully in connection with Henry IV.: "By the virtue of the
Needle!" the good king sometimes swears.

Between these two, Francis I., in a speech addressed to the notables of
the Havre, in 1520, uttered this phrase, which has been handed down in
the diary of a Honfleur burgess; "The Kings of France carry secrets
that often decide the conduct of affairs and the fate of towns."

All these quotations, all the stories relating to the Iron Mask, the
captain of the guards and his descendant, I have found to-day in a
pamphlet written by this same descendant and published in the month of
June, 1815, just before or just after the battle of Waterloo, in a
period, therefore, of great upheavals, in which the revelations which
it contained were likely to pass unperceived.

What is the value of this pamphlet? Nothing, you will tell me, and we
must attach no credit to it. And this is the impression which I myself
would have carried away, if it had not occurred to me to open Caesar's
Commentaries at the chapter given. What was my astonishment when I came
upon the phrase quoted in the little book before me! And it was the
same thing with the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, with the Saxon
Chronicle, with the examination of Joan of Arc, in short, with all that
I have been able to verify up to the prese