1939-12-12 — Page 15

THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 12, 1939

TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF COUNT MATTIOLI

By VINCENT TWONE

That he might dominate upper Italy and keep the Count of Turin under his thumb, Louis XIV yearned to acquire Casal. This stronghold was the capital of the marquisate of Montferrat, part of the dominion of Charles IV of Mantua. Charles was a frivolous and reckless young profligate who had so dissipated his funds in pleasures and festivals at Venice that · he had had to pledge the revenues of his crown to money lenders for several years ahead.

Speculating on the financial distress and frivolity of the young ruler King Louis conceived the plan of buying Casal for ready money.

One of the dandies at the court of Mantua was the Count Hercules Mat- tioli, the scion of a powerful house who had distinguish himself at college, and who when scarcely past his 20th year had been made a professor at the University of Bologna. Under both Charles III and Charles IV of Mantua he had served as Secretary of State and the latter had appointed him a supernumerary senator.

Louis XIV of France was now re- presented at Charles' court by an astute and enterprising ambassador, the Abbe d'Astrades. This shrewd diplomat detected the ambitious and intriguing character of Mattioli, and entered with him into a conspiracy to acquire Casal for France. After Louis had penned with his own hand a let- ter to Mattioll the latter came to Paris in person, and there the deed trans- ferring Casal was signed. Under its terms, Charles of Mantua was to re- ceive 300,000 francs and as a reward for his part in the negotiations Louis handed Mattioli 100double louis and a valuable diamond. Then Louis sent to Charles' court Baron de Asfeld as his envoy to exchange with Mattioli the ratification of the treaty but by Mattioli's instigation he had been waylaid and turned

to the Spaniards. Mattioli had thus inter- rupted negotiations that he might re- ceive another bribe from the French king. In other words, he had betrayed both his own monarch and Louis XIV. Louis, who had already begun to prepare for the occupation of Casal

over

was

furious

as

PATON

Abbe -tional law recorded in history, and the French monarch had every reason to cover it up. He had to keep the im-

The Kidnaping of Mattioll,

the was d'Estrades. The latter conceived a most audacious project-to adbuct Mattioli. He communicated the plan to Louis, who, although he would not hear of any public scandal, sent to the Abbe a dispatch authorizing him to lay violent hands on the Count "as soon as you believe that you can carry him off without the affair making any noise." Mattioli, the dispatch went on to say, was to be conducted to Pig- nerol, where "orders would be sent to receive him, and so to guard him that nobody would know where he was." And Louis added: "It is essential that I no one should know what has become

of this man,"

Catinate, commander of the French. army in Italy, was personally charged with the minister's abduction, and the Abbe proceeded to perfect the preli- minaries.

Pretending, when in Mattioli's pre- sence, to know nothing of the double Abbe game that he had played the gave him to understand that he had been ordered to remit to him the re- mainder of the surn which Louis had promised for Casal. A meeting for the over the money purpose of hanging was arranged and on that day the purpose of Mattioli entered a carriage. It was to drive past a lonely stretch en route to the place of negotiation. Catinat, with a body of soldiers, here The trap was success- lay in wait.

Catinat wrote to one fully sprung.

of his superiors:

"The plan has carried out without and violence and nobody knows this rascal's name, rot even the officers who helped to anest him."

sur-

A chronicler of the time stated: "The secretary (Mattioll was rounded by 10 or 12 horsemen who kidnapped him, disguised him and conducted him to Pigerol."

For Louis' envoy to have thus enter- ed Charles' kingdom and kidnapped the Secretary of State was perhaps the most daring violation of interna-

Try

prisonment absolutely secret, and it was quite as important for him to con- ceal the circumstances under which Mattioli had been arrested.

What actually became of Mattioli been after his abduction has never known. One story was that after be- ing imprisoned for 15 years at Pigerof the unhappy Count was transferred to the French prison on the Sainte Mar- guerite Islands and later sent to the Bastille in Paris, where he died 24. years after his abduction.

The story is that while in prison he was treated with the deference due to the rank and station of a great per- sonage, but that no one was ever al- lowed to speak to him; that when he was sent out into the prison court to take the air he was made to wear a black velvet mask so that no one would ever recognize him.

DS

Baron Heiss, captain in a regiment at Alsace, in 1770, published a mono- the graph identifying Mattioli famous "Man of the Iron Mask" and a number of other authorities have since dilated upon that theory.

So far as definite history is con- were cerned, Mattioli's whereabout not known from the time he was kid- What napped and taken to Pigerol.

became of him is a mystery really which, in all probability, will never be solved.

*

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