However,
the former, known under the name of mademoiselle de Charollais,
was dying to do some act of kindness that should be agreeable to
me. Well, I requested she would obtain from the regent, her
father, the solution of the secret relative to the 'Iron Mask.'
She used every possible device, but nothing could she obtain
from her father, who protested that the mystery should never
escape his lips; and he kept his word, he never did divulge it.
I even imagine that the king himself is ignorant of it, unless
indeed the cardinal de Fleury informed him of it." The marechal
told me afterwards that he thought the opinion adopted by Voltaire
the most probable, viz: that this unknown person was the son of
the queen Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV. These last words
helped, in a measure, to resolve the enigma which comte de la
Marche had left me to unravel; and, with a view to satisfy myself
more positively on the subject, I availed myself of the first
time I was alone with the king, to lead the conversation to
this story.
At the mention of the "Iron Mask," Louis XV started. "And do
you really credit such a fable?" asked he.
"Is it then entirely untrue?" inquired I.
"Certainly not," he replied; "all that has been said on the matter
is destitute of even common sense."
"Well," cried I, "what your majesty says only confirms what I
heard from the marechal de Richelieu.
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