vied without referve or distinction. In this they evidently abadoned their plea, for this laft edict was a real tax. At this time the Pruffian troops, joined to the terrors of the British fleets, were fuccessful in Holland; and the ftadtholder recovered an authority, which our author prophecies he cannot hold long.

In Auguft the parliament of Bourdeaux, for a very different caufe, were alfo banished, and the confequenses of the difpute were nearly a repetition of what we have already detailed. The parliament of Paris was scarcely recalled, when they were directed to regifter a loan to be taken up by gradual instalments, which the minifter pretended would, in 1792, render the revenues more than equal to the expences. The whole was $40 millions (a little more than 15 millions fterling). The parliament hefitated, and the minifter negotiated; but at last the king went to the house, a measure not fingular in the French monarchy, and held what is called a royal feffion. He came, he faid, to teach them their duty, and to recall them to the first principles of their office, which he explained to be merely legiflative, without having any influence over the national loans. The feffion lafted feven hours; the king, the princes of the blood, and the peers were prefent; and thofe magiftrates who chofe to fpeak were heard with attention. They did not lofe this opportunity: among other things, M. d'Eprefmenil told the king, that the only difference between a bed of juftice and a royal feffion was, that the one poffeffed the franknefs of defpotifm, while the other was diftinguifhed only by its duplicity. The edicts were registered; but the duke of Orleans, before the king went away, publicly protefted against the legality of the registering: he declared it illegal, and infifted that, after deliberating,' fhould be added, that it was registered at the exprefs command of the king.?

The parliament protested against the legality of the royal feffion; but we do not find that they could fupport their opinions; and the next day the duke of Orleans, with M. Frettan, and the abbé Sabatier, two of the orators, perhaps the most inflammatory ones, were banished. The king ordered the journals to be brought, and destroyed the proteft, forbidding it to be again inferted. The banishment of the prince and the members produced va rious clamours and remonstrances to the king, which had no effect, till at laft they wifely changed their batteries, and turned their attack againft lettres de cachet, which had been much abused in the former reign, and had been much employed in the recent tranfactions. Here they had more ample ground; and the parliament of Bourdeaux came to their affistance: that of Rennes alfo prefented remonftrances, in which they fupported the parliament of Paris in all their steps. The exiles were not, however, recalled till the fpring of 1788. Towards the end of the year (1787), every thing was quiet; the loans filled; the royal payments were exact. The moft enlightened part of the inhabitants, adds our author, already perceived that these commotions were not excited by a view of the public good. This idea gained ground infenfibly among the different claffes of citizens, for whom it was fufficient that good order was established in the finances; that the king was exact in fulfilling his engagements; that the government was mild and moderate; that there was reafon to expect to fee, in three or four years, the nation affembled, concurring with the fovereign, if it fhould be guided by proper views, in order to render the kingdom more fecure and more glorious.'

This is nearly the account of our author, who, with an evident bias towards monarchy, is, on the whole, candid, and in moft refpects corre&t. That his prophecies are not fulfilled

cannot

cannot be imputed to him as a fault, fiuce the late events, we have faid, are fuch as would have been ranked a few years ago among the phyfical impoffibilities. That they have happened, every friend of liberty rejoices; and every Englishman, who enjoys it, will

with them fuccefs; while the more judicious obfervers will lament the frequent deviations into licentiousness, and perhaps feel fome apprehentions that, in their fearch of liberty, they may at last find its worst representative, democracy.

TH

unknown prifoner, fent in the greateft fecrecy to the ifle of St Margaret, in the Mediterranean, near Provence, and afterwards removed to the Baftile. The following anecdote refpecting this prifoner, while confined at the former place, is related by the Abbé Papon, in his Tour thro' Provence.-One day, while Mr Saint Mars, the Governor, was difcourfing with him, and standing in a kind of gallery oppofite to his chamber, to fee that no perfon was approaching, the fon of one of his friends entered, and advanced towards the place, where he heard the found of voices. As foon As foon as the Governor perceived him, he fhut the door of the apartment in which the prifoner was, and running up to the young man, afked him, in great confufion, if he had heard their converfation. The young man having replied in the negative, he made him immediately depart, and wrote to his friend, that his fon's adventure had

nearly cost him his life; and that he had fent him back for fear of his falling into the like imprudence.'

On the 2d of February 1778,' adds the Abbé, 'I had the curiofity to enter the apartment in which this unfortunate prifoner had been ⚫ confined. It receives no light but ⚫ from a window to the north, which

6

citadel I found an old officer, feventy-nine years of age, belonging to the Compagnie Franche, who told me that he had often heard his fa'ther, who belonged to the fame corps, relate, that a barber perceiving one day, under the prifoner's window, fomething white floating on the water, took it up, and carried it to Mr Saint Mars, the 'Governor. It happened to be a t very fine fhirt, carelessly folded up, upon which the prifoner had written from the one end to the other. Mr Saint Mars, after having unfolded it, and read the lines, asked the barber, with feeming diforder, if he had not had the curiofity to read 'what it contained. The latter af'fured him that he had not; but a 'few days after he was found dead in his bed. This fact the officer 'heard both his father and the almo-ner of the fort repeatedly relate, and he confidered it to be inconteftible. The following alfo appears to me to be equally authentic, after every teftimony 1 could collect on the fpot, and in the monastery of Lerins, where the tradition is preserved. Search having been made for a female to attend upon the prisoner, a woman of the village of Mongins came to offer herself, perfuaded that it would be the fure means of ma

;

but when he was told that it would be neceffary for her to give up all thoughts of feeing them again, and

I had taken care to furnish com⚫pletely for him before his arrival, having received orders for that purpofe from Mr Saint Mars. In • conducting him to the faid chamber, I was attended by Mr Rofarges, who had accompanied Mr Saint Mars, and who was appointed to ⚫ ferve and to take care of the prifoner.-Monday, November the 19th 1703, the unknown prifoner, ftill ⚫ concealed by a mask of black velvet, which Mr Saint Mars had brought 'with him from the ille of St Margaret, found himself yesterday a little worfe as he was coming from mafs, and died this day, at ten in the evening, without much apparent illness. Tuesday, Nov. 20, 1703, the fame prifoner was interred, at four in the afternoon, in the churchyard of St Paul, and the expences of his funeral coft forty livres.'

6

This is almost all that is, with certainty, known refpecting this strange perfonage, except what is contained in an extract from the register of burials, in the parish church of St Paul, at Paris, which is as follows:-On ⚫ the 19th of November, 1703, Marchialy, aged forty-five, or thereabouts, died in the Baftile, and his body was interred in the burying ground of the church of St Paul, on the 20th of the said month, in the prefence of Mr de Rofarges, Major, and Mr Reilh, Surgeon Major ⚫ of the Baftile, who have figned, &c.' It is also certain, that the trunk of the body only was interred, and that the head, which had been cut off, and then divided into fmall portions to disfigure it, was interred in different places; that, after the prifoner's death, an order was given to burn every thing that he had ufed, fuch as linen, clothes, matrafs, and coverlets; that the plaster of the apartment in which he had been confined was carefully fcraped, and the walls new whitewashed; and that the Ministry carried their precautions fo far, that all the

panes of glafs were deftroyed, lest he thould have left fome mark on them which might difcover who he was. His mafk was not of iron, as is commonly fuppofed, but of pieces of whalebone, covered with black velvet, and fixed behind with a padlock, fealed. It was made in fuch a manner, that it was impoffible for him to put it afide, or to pull it off himself; but he could eat and drink without being greatly incommoded.

Those who attended him had orders to kill him if he discovered himfelf; but he was refused nothing that he asked for. His greatest taste was for linen of an extraordinary finenefs. He played upon the guitar; his table was plentifully fupplied, and the Governor feldom fat down in his prefence. An old phyfician belonging to the Baftile, who had often attended this fingular man when fick, declared that he never faw his face, though he often examined his tongue, and other parts of his body. He was of a fine ftature; his limbs were exceedingly well made, and his skin was fomewhat brownish. He had fomething engaging in the found of his voice; never complained of his fituation, and fuffered nothing to escape from him that could give the leaft intimation of his rank or quality.

What is most aftonishing is, that when he was fent to the caftle of Pignerol, the place where he was first confined, no man of any note difap. peared in Europe. Mr de Chamillard was the laft Minister who was acquainted with this ftrange fecret. When on his death bed, his fon-inlaw, Marfhal de la Feuillade, conjured him to inform him who that ftranger was who had been known by the title of the man with the iron mafk; but Mr de Chamillard replied, that it was a ftate fecret, and that he had taken an oath never to reveal it.

A prifoner removed with fo much caution, whe was compelled to be always mafked, and to whom even the Governor