UN MASKED
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“Call me accursed!” The man whose voice was almost drowned out by the storm was dressed entirely in black, “a sort of phantom, his head covered with a black helmet and a black mask, something terrible to behold”. In his 1850 epic book, Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, Alexandre Dumas created a captivating image of the man in the iron mask that would go on to inspire countless films and cement the mysterious figure’s place in popular culture.
Dumas was inspired by a legend that had emerged almost two centuries earlier. It told the story of a mysterious prisoner who had been arrested and secretly imprisoned in France. He had spent decades in various dark and damp dungeons, ending up in the Bastille. Closely guarded, he was kept in solitude where no one could overhear what he might have to say, and he was not allowed even to speak his name. He was guarded by a gaoler who was ordered to kill him if he spoke of anything other than his needs. The gaoler, nevertheless, showed great respect to this prisoner, even standing, hat in hand, in his presence. For, in Dumas’ story, this was not just any prisoner: he was one of the highest-born men in the land.
According to the legend (and Dumas’ tale), the prisoner was forced to wear an iron mask over his face to hide his identity, and two
