--
* Nearly at the same time, and on the same occasion, there were
literary partizans of the Duke of Orleans, who endeavoured to
persuade the people that the man with the iron mask, who had so long
excited curiosity and eluded conjecture, was the real son of Louis
XIII.--and Louis XIV. in consequence, supposititious, and only the
illegitimate offspring of Cardinal Mazarin and Anne of Austria--that
the spirit of ambition and intrigue which characterized this
Minister had suggested this substitution to the lawful heir, and
that the fears of the Queen and confusion of the times had obliged
her to acquiesce:
"Cette opinion ridicule, et dont les dates connues de l'histoire
demontrent l'absurdite, avoit eu des partisans en France--elle
tendoit a avilir la maison regnante, et a persuader au peuple que le
trone n'appartient pas aux descendans de Louis XIV. prince
furtivement sutstitue, mais a la posterite du second fils de Louis
XIII. qui est la tige de la branche d'Orleans, et qui est reconnue
comme descendant legitimement, et sans objection, du Roi Louis
XIII."
--Nouvelles Considerations sur la Masque de Fer, Memoirs de
Richelieu.
"This ridiculous opinion, the absurdity of which is demonstrated by
historical dates, had not been without its partizans in France.--It
tended to degrade the reigning family, and to make the people
believe that the throne did not of right belong to the descendants
of Louis XIV.
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