affected the intellects of Matthioli;-nor can that excite much wonder,—for his gaoler, St. Mars, reports that in his frenzy and despair he used violent language, and wrote abusive sentences with charcoal on the walls of his prison. Being threatened with the blows of a cudgel, he became more quiet, and, to propitiate the man who attended him, he took a valuable ring from his finger and offered it to him, which, however, the attendant gave to St. Mars.

In the same prison was a Jacobin monk, who was also mad, probably from ill-usage and long confinement, and St. Mars put him with Matthioli, that the same priest might serve them both. Matthioli at first thought his companion was placed there as a spy, but was soon undeceived, as the monk started up naked, and began to preach. "I and my lieutenants," reported St. Mars, "saw all their manoeuvres through a hole over the door;" and they appear to have derived much entertainment from such a miserable spectacle.

With regard to clothing, St. Mars was desired to make the clothes of such men as Matthioli last three or four years, which orders sufficiently refute the absurd stories of the richness of the lace, and fineness of the linen, worn by the man of the iron mask.

St. Mars was appointed to the government of Exilles, and was desired to take his two prisoners along with him; but the repairs requisite in the new prison, for the sake of secrecy, were done as if at the expense of St. Mars, the king allowing him privately one thousand crowns for that purpose. At Exilles, the prisoners were able to hear the persons who passed along the road, at the foot of the prison; but they could not be heard from the road.

No report appears to have been made of them till

1685, when it was said that the prisoners were still ill, but tranquil.

After a time the Jacobin died, and St. Mars, finding his own health fail, petitioned for a removal, and was appointed to the islands of St. Margaret and St. Honorat, on the coast of Provence. He was ordered to take Matthioli along with him.

During his journey the prisoner was conveyed in a chair covered with oil-cloth, and without its being possible for any one to see or speak to him. It seems, too, that the poor wretch was stinted even of the breath of heaven; for St. Mars sent the following report: "I was only twelve days on the journey, in consequence of the illness of my prisoner, occasioned, as he said, by not having air enough; and the manner in which he was guarded made every body try to conjecture who he was."

It was, probably, during this journey that St. Mars first made use of a mask to hide his prisoner's features. This mask was not made, as has been erroneously supposed, of iron, but of black velvet, strengthened with whalebone, and fastened behind by a padlock. It did not prevent his eating or drinking.

The identity of the man in the iron mask and the unfortunate Matthioli is very satisfactorily proved by the evidence of the several reports and letters before referred to, as discovered in the archives of the French government, and which, for the further satisfaction of his readers, Mr. Agar Ellis has inserted in an appendix; but it has not been thought necessary to quote them more at large in this sketch of his misfortunes.

Matthioli's valet died at St. Margaret's, and a woman was engaged to wait upon him; but she declined

when she found she would never be permitted to see her family again.

Among the anecdotes given of this prisoner, and to enhance the romantic interest which has always been excited about his fate, it has been mentioned that this mysterious person wrote his name and qualities with the point of a knife on a silver plate, and threw it out of his window, and that it was picked up by a fisherman, who brought it to St. Mars. The fisherman, having asserted that he could not read, was released. Again, it is said that he covered one of his shirts with writing, and threw it also out of the window. A monk, having found it, took it to the governor, with a declaration that he had not read it; but two days after he was found dead in his bed.

These stories evidently spring from one of St. Mars' reports, in which he says, he has been obliged to inflict corporal punishment on a protestant minister named Salves, because he would write things upon his pewter platter and his linen, in order to make it known that he was unjustly imprisoned for his faith.

After eleven years' confinement at St. Margaret's, Matthioli accompanied St. Mars to the Bastile. The same secrecy as before prevailed during his journey to Paris. At dinner, he sat with his back to the light; and St. Mars opposite to him, with a brace of pistols on the table.

While he was in the Bastile, if he was ever allowed to go to mass, the Invalids who kept guard there were ordered to fire upon him if he spoke to any one.

At length he died, after five years' captivity in the Bastile. He was sixty-three years old; but he told the apothecary that he thought he was sixty-an inaccuracy easily to be believed in a man so long and rigorously confined.

After his death, every thing was done that could destroy all traces of his former existence his clothes were burned, as well as the furniture of the room, all the plate of every kind was melted down, the walls of his chamber were scraped, and then fresh whitewashed, the floor was new paved, the old ceiling taken down, the doors and windows burnt, and every corner most narrowly searched.

It has been stated, on more than one authority, that Louis the Fifteenth well knew who the celebrated state prisoner really was; and affirmed more than once, that he was the minister of one of the Italian princes; but this confession was considered at the time only to be an evasion, to put a stop to a more rigid inquiry. But let the unhappy victim be whom he might, such atrocious and persevering revenge deserves the execration of all who have not forgotten their feelings as men.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.

General Infatuation with respect to the South Sea Bubble--Literary Men caught the Infection-Gay, the Poet, loses all his Property-Chandler is ruined, and forced to become a BooksellerOrigin of the South Sea Scheme-The House of Lords is hostile to it Difference of the South Sea and Mississippi SchemesLying Reports spread by Sir John Blunt, to raise the Price of Stock-Consequence of them-Change-alley is crowded by all Classes Numerous Bubbles-Ludicrous Impudence of some of them-Downfall of the South Sea Scheme-Escape of Knight, the Treasurer-Bribes to Members of the Administration, &c.Parliamentary Measures against the Guilty-The Bubbles put down by Proclamation-Sir R. Steele's Multiplication TableSpeculations in 1825.

PUBLIC credulity, founded on the inordinate desire of gain, was perhaps never exhibited in a stronger

point of view than by the fatal belief in the South Sea scheme, which, to the credulous adventurer, was made to appear a royal road to El Dorado.

The first act of this fearful drama passed off with the greatest eclat. The wand of the enchanter not only seemed to, but really did, for a time, instantly convert whatever it touched into gold. Waiving all the financial particulars in detail, this account will be confined to an outline of the imposture, which had such lamentable success through the greedy credulity of the public.

The South Sea project continued throughout its whole course to be applauded to the skies, by the unprincipled and unthinking, until its catastrophe plunged thousands into one common abyss of ruin. It was patronised by persons of both sexes, and in the highest ranks of society; nay, even by royalty itself, if the authority of the Duchess of Ormond, in a letter to Swift, may be deemed sufficient to authenticate the fact. Prior said in one of his letters, "I am tired of politics, and lost in the South Sea; the roaring of its waves and the madness of the people are justly put together."

Men of letters were not more exempt than others from the reigning infection. The poet Gay had a present of some South Sea stock given to him, and he once supposed himself worth twenty thousand pounds; his friends advised him to dispose even of a share of it, but, filled with dreams of wealth, he replied, that he could not bear to diminish his own fortune. He even refused to purchase an annuity of one hundred pounds, "which," said Fenton, "will make you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton every day." At last, however, with the general wreck, every thing he had possessed was totally lost,