The Man in the Iron Mask

Summary

The Man in the Iron Mask is the closing section of Alexandre Dumas's immense novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne, the last of the d'Artagnan Romances, set in 1661 and the years after, when the young Louis XIV takes personal power. Aramis, now Bishop of Vannes and secretly general of a powerful religious order, has learned that a prisoner in the Bastille, entered under the name Marchiali, is the king's twin brother Philippe, hidden from birth to prevent a disputed succession. Visiting the prisoner with the governor Baisemeaux, Aramis tells Philippe who he is and offers him a choice: a thousand pistoles and a free, obscure life in the marshes of Poitou, or the throne of France. After ten minutes alone under the trees, Philippe chooses the crown. During the splendid fête that the superintendent of finances, Nicolas Fouquet, gives the king at his chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, Aramis and the unknowing Porthos lower the sleeping Louis through a trap in the floor of the Chamber of Morpheus and carry him to the Bastille, while Philippe takes his place. The substitution fails because of Fouquet's honor. When Aramis confides the plot, Fouquet, horrified that his guest and sovereign has been seized under his roof, gives Aramis four hours' start and the refuge of Belle-Île, then rides to the Bastille and frees Louis. At Vaux the twins confront each other before their mother, Anne of Austria; d'Artagnan arrests Philippe, and the king orders that he be taken to the island of Sainte-Marguerite with his face covered by an iron vizor. Louis repays Fouquet by having d'Artagnan arrest him at Nantes; when Fouquet flees, d'Artagnan rides him down until both horses fail and the musketeer faints, and Fouquet, free to escape, revives him and walks back with him to the barred carriage. Aramis and Porthos hold Belle-Île against the royal troops, retreat to the grotto of Locmaria, and fight there until Porthos, setting off a mine of gunpowder barrels, is crushed beneath the falling rock; Aramis escapes by sea to Spain. Athos, whose son Raoul has gone to die in the Duc de Beaufort's African campaign at Gigelli after losing Louise de La Vallière to the king, wastes away at Blois and dies in a vision of his son's ascending soul just as word of Raoul's death arrives. In an epilogue Aramis returns as the Spanish ambassador, the Duc d'Almeda. Years later d'Artagnan, commanding the siege of a Dutch town, receives his marshal's baton at the moment a cannon ball strikes him, and dies with the names of his three friends on his lips. The French original ran in Le Siècle from 1847 to 1850; English editions split the novel into several volumes, of which this is the last.

Plot or Argument

• The prisoner of the Bastille (Chapters I-X)

  Aramis, as confessor, visits the Bastille prisoner Marchiali and reveals to him his birth as Louis XIV's twin. Meanwhile Porthos is measured by the king's tailor Percerin, with Molière watching, and Aramis, revealed as general of his order, frees Philippe by a trick with release orders. In the forest Aramis offers him obscurity and wealth or the crown, and Philippe chooses the crown.

• The fête at Vaux (Chapters XI-XVII)

  Louis XIV visits Fouquet's magnificent chateau, guarded by d'Artagnan. Colbert sharpens the king's resentment of his superintendent, and a letter from Fouquet to La Vallière throws Louis into a jealous fury; he orders d'Artagnan to arrest Fouquet after the festivities.

• The substitution (Chapters XVIII-XX)

  Aramis and Porthos lower the sleeping king through the floor of the Chamber of Morpheus and take him to the Bastille, where Louis rages in a cell. In the morning Philippe appears in his brother's place and acts the king before the court.

• Fouquet's honor and the true king's return (Chapters XXI-XXIV)

  Aramis tells Fouquet everything, expecting gratitude; Fouquet calls the deed a crime against his guest and sovereign, grants Aramis four hours' flight, and frees Louis from the Bastille. The twins face each other before Anne of Austria at Vaux; Philippe is arrested and sent masked to Sainte-Marguerite.

• Partings (Chapters XXV-XXXIV)

  Porthos rides with Aramis, believing he is earning a duchy. Raoul, heartbroken, joins the Duc de Beaufort's expedition to Africa, and Athos accompanies him to the coast. At Sainte-Marguerite they find a silver dish thrown from the masked prisoner's window and meet d'Artagnan, who has escorted the prisoner; father and son say farewell at Toulon.

• The fall of Fouquet (Chapters XXXV-XLI)

  Fouquet gives a last supper to his friends and travels to Nantes for the States of Brittany. The king lays his trap; d'Artagnan, ordered to arrest him, pursues him on horseback when he flees. At the end of the chase the musketeer collapses, and Fouquet, instead of escaping, bathes his temples and walks with him back to the waiting carriage, while Colbert rises.

• Belle-Île and the grotto of Locmaria (Chapters XLII-LI)

  Aramis at last explains to Porthos that they are rebels. Royal troops land; the defenders win a first skirmish and spare young Biscarrat, then Aramis and Porthos retreat to the grotto. Porthos lights a mine of powder barrels, is caught by the falling vault, holds the rock as long as he can, and dies; Aramis escapes in a boat.

• The king, the friends and the deaths at Blois (Chapters LII-LX)

  D'Artagnan offers Louis XIV his resignation, then is won back to serve a master who now rules for himself. Porthos's will is read at Pierrefonds. Athos declines in body and spirit, refuses the doctor's urging, sees Raoul's soul rise in a vision, and dies as Beaufort's letter reports Raoul's death at Gigelli; father and son are buried together.

• Epilogue and the death of d'Artagnan

  Four years later, at a royal hawking party near Blois, d'Artagnan meets Aramis returned as the Spanish ambassador, the Duc d'Almeda, and promises of war with Holland are exchanged. In the campaign d'Artagnan, besieging a Dutch fortress, receives the marshal's baton as a cannon ball strikes him and dies calling farewell to Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

Characters

• D'Artagnan, captain of the King's Musketeers

  Now in his fifties, loyal to the crown yet bound to his old friends, he must arrest Philippe and Fouquet and hunt Aramis and Porthos.

• Aramis (the Chevalier d'Herblay, Bishop of Vannes), conspirator

  Subtle prelate and secret general of a religious order who plans to place Philippe on the throne and make himself the power behind it.

• Porthos (Baron du Vallon), musketeer

  Strong, simple and trusting, he aids Aramis without understanding the plot and dies holding up the rock at Locmaria.

• Athos (the Comte de la Fère), musketeer

  Grave nobleman living at Blois whose love for his son Raoul makes the young man's departure the cause of his death.

• Philippe, the king's twin

  Raised in secret and then imprisoned as Marchiali; briefly king for a morning, then sent masked to Sainte-Marguerite.

• Louis XIV, king of France

  Young monarch determined to rule alone, humiliated by his imprisonment and severe toward those who know the secret.

• Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances

  Lavish, generous minister whose sense of honor toward his royal guest ruins Aramis's plot and his own fortunes.

• Jean-Baptiste Colbert, rival minister

  Methodical financial official who works patiently for Fouquet's fall and becomes the king's indispensable servant.

• Raoul, Vicomte de Bragelonne, Athos's son

  Faithful young officer who loses Louise de La Vallière to the king and seeks death in Africa.

• Anne of Austria, queen mother

  Mother of the twins, who sees both sons face each other at Vaux.

• Baisemeaux, governor of the Bastille

  Comic, anxious jailer who cannot keep track of which prisoner has left his fortress.

• Louise de La Vallière, the king's favorite

  Raoul's former betrothed, whose love for Louis drives Raoul away and whom d'Artagnan meets at Raoul's grave.

Lessons

• Honor that costs everything

  Fouquet knows that Louis XIV means to ruin him, and Aramis has made it possible for him to keep everything. He refuses because the king was his guest under his roof. Dumas makes the most lavish man at court the one who will not profit from treason, and shows that his choice wins him only prison.

  • Why does Fouquet call the substitution worse than an assassination?
  • Is Fouquet's honor toward the king also loyalty to France, or only to his own name?
  • What does Louis's treatment of Fouquet afterward say about gratitude in a ruler?

• The choice in the forest

  Aramis gives Philippe ten minutes to choose between a hidden, free life in Poitou and the throne. Dumas describes the prisoner praying under the night sky and then turning hard with pride and desire. The scene lets readers ask whether Philippe's right to the crown and his wish for it are the same thing.

  • What does the marsh of Poitou offer Philippe that the throne cannot?
  • Why does Dumas show Philippe's face hardening as he decides?
  • Was Philippe wrong to choose the crown, given his birth?

• Friends divided by loyalties

  In this last book the four musketeers no longer stand together: d'Artagnan serves the king, Aramis plots against him, Porthos follows Aramis blindly and Athos withdraws into grief. Dumas lets each keep his own idea of duty without ceasing to love the others.

  • How does d'Artagnan try to serve both the king and his friends at Belle-Île?
  • Is Aramis a true friend to Porthos when he hides the nature of the plot?
  • Can friendship survive when friends serve opposing causes?

• The ends of heroes

  Porthos dies by strength, Athos by grief, d'Artagnan at the moment of his greatest honor, while Aramis survives as a diplomat. Dumas gives each death its own meaning and closes the long series with the passing of an age of swordsmen into the age of ministers like Colbert.

  • What makes Porthos's last words fitting for his character?
  • Why does the marshal's baton arrive at the moment of d'Artagnan's death?
  • What is the reader meant to feel about Aramis being the one who remains?

Context

The story is set in 1661, the year Louis XIV began to rule without a chief minister after Mazarin's death, and runs to the Dutch war of the early 1670s. Fouquet's fête at Vaux-le-Vicomte (August 1661) and his arrest at Nantes by the real d'Artagnan (September 1661) are historical, as are the rise of Colbert and Beaufort's expedition to Gigelli (Djidjelli) in North Africa in 1664. A masked state prisoner was held by the jailer Saint-Mars at Pignerol, Sainte-Marguerite and finally the Bastille, where he died in 1703; Voltaire's writings in the 18th century made the prisoner famous and hinted at royal blood, and later writers proposed a twin of Louis XIV, the version Dumas took up. Who the prisoner really was remains unknown, and historians have proposed many candidates.

Composition

The Vicomte de Bragelonne, written with Auguste Maquet, ran as a serial in Le Siècle from 1847 to 1850 and completes the trilogy begun with The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. English publishers divided its great length into three, four or more volumes; the final volume, titled The Man in the Iron Mask, begins with Aramis's visit to the Bastille. The library text is Project Gutenberg #2759, an anonymous English translation with editorial footnotes on historical dates; it is complete for this final part, from 'The Prisoner' to 'The Death of D'Artagnan'.

Reception

This final part became one of the most read sections of the d'Artagnan Romances in English and fixed the twin-brother theory of the masked prisoner in popular imagination. It has been adapted for film and television many times, often freely, with the musketeers rescuing Philippe rather than seeing him imprisoned. Porthos's death in the grotto and d'Artagnan's last words are among the best-known scenes in Dumas.

Comparisons

• the-three-musketeers

  The first book's oath binds four young men against the Cardinal; the last shows them older and divided, d'Artagnan serving the king while Aramis conspires against him, and ends with the deaths of three of the four.

• the-count-of-monte-cristo

  Both turn on a man buried alive in a state prison: Dantès escapes the Château d'If to become an avenger, while Philippe passes from the Bastille to a crown for one morning and then to a masked imprisonment on Sainte-Marguerite.

• the-prince-and-the-pauper

  Twain's look-alike prince and beggar trade places by accident and are both restored; Dumas's identical twins trade places by conspiracy, and only one may live as king.

• the-prince

  Aramis's reasoning in the forest and Colbert's patient undermining of Fouquet illustrate the statecraft Machiavelli describes, and Louis's ingratitude toward Fouquet can be weighed against Machiavelli's counsel on how a prince treats over-powerful servants.

• a-tale-of-two-cities

  Dickens also uses the Bastille, a long-imprisoned man and a double who takes another's place, but in his novel the substitution is a self-sacrifice rather than a seizure of power.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Aramis's two offers to Philippe in Chapter IX and the ten minutes of silence before the answer in Chapter X.
• The Chamber of Morpheus at Vaux and the trap in its floor, and how Porthos understands his part in the night's work.
• Fouquet's reaction when Aramis confesses the substitution in Chapter XXI, and why he frees the king who means to destroy him.
• The silver dish found by Raoul at Sainte-Marguerite and d'Artagnan's warning about what the prisoner's secret can cost.
• How each of the four friends dies or survives, from the grotto of Locmaria to the siege in Holland.

Key terms and names

Marchiali

The name under which Philippe is held in the Bastille, which Aramis uses to trick the governor Baisemeaux into releasing him.

Superintendent of finances

Fouquet's office, controlling the royal treasury; his wealth and his chateau at Vaux make Louis XIV and Colbert suspicious of him.

Vaux-le-Vicomte

Fouquet's chateau near Melun, where the fête for the king and the night substitution take place.

Iron vizor

The steel mask, soldered to a helmet, that the king orders Philippe to wear for life on the island of Sainte-Marguerite.

Belle-Île

Fouquet's fortified island off Brittany, given to Aramis as a refuge and besieged by the king's troops.

Marshal's baton

The staff of a Marshal of France, the highest military honor, which d'Artagnan receives at the moment he is killed.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Aramis get Philippe out of the Bastille, and what two futures does he offer him?
2. Comprehension Why does Fouquet free Louis XIV from the Bastille, and what does Louis order done with Philippe?
3. Comprehension How does Porthos die in the grotto of Locmaria, and how does Aramis escape?
4. Interpretation Why does Dumas let the plot fail because of Fouquet's honor rather than because of d'Artagnan's cleverness?
5. Interpretation What does Fouquet mean when he says that Philippe is every whit as much a king as Louis?
6. Interpretation Why does Athos's illness worsen even though the physician can find nothing to cure?
7. Big Question Does a person's birth give a rightful claim to power, and may a wrong done at birth be put right by a conspiracy?
8. Big Question Is it ever just to punish a man for a secret he did not choose to carry?

Faith Connections

• Genesis 25:19-34; Genesis 27 (Scripture)

  The twins Jacob and Esau struggle over birthright and blessing, and a younger brother takes the elder's place by a deception arranged for him; Philippe and Louis replay the quarrel of twins over an inheritance.

• 2 Samuel 18:33 (Scripture)

  David's cry over his son Absalom gives words to the grief that kills Athos after Raoul's death in Africa.

• Proverbs 16:9 (Scripture)

  Aramis plans a great design and calls himself the instrument of Providence, yet the whole scheme turns on one man's unexpected scruple; the proverb sets man's devising beside God's ordering of the steps.

• Augustine, City of God IV.4 (Great Conversation)

  Augustine asks what kingdoms are without justice but great robberies; the novel sets Aramis's lawless attempt to correct an injustice against Louis's lawful but severe power.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A plot may be clever and its cause may even be just in part, but it fails when it asks honorable men to betray a trust; and the age of daring individual heroes gives way, through the deaths of the musketeers, to an ordered state ruled by a king and his ministers.

Rhetorical device: doubling. Identical twins share one face and one throne; the Bastille prisoner and the sleeping king exchange beds; and Fouquet's comment that Philippe is every whit as much a king as the other turns the doubling into a moral question.

Debate: Resolved: that Fouquet acted rightly in freeing Louis XIV from the Bastille.

Memory Work

Athos--Porthos, farewell till we meet again! Aramis, adieu forever!

He was my guest, my sovereign.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare the deaths of Porthos, Athos and d'Artagnan: what does each death show about the man, and why does Dumas let Aramis alone survive?

Comparison with The Three Musketeers: Set the oath of the four friends in The Three Musketeers beside their division in The Man in the Iron Mask: has their friendship failed, or simply been tested by older loyalties?

Medical Lens

The most medically interesting chapters describe the decline of Athos after Raoul leaves for Africa. Dumas presents grief as a bodily illness in the older sense: Athos shortens his walks, refuses food, and develops what the Blois physician sees as a slow, self-feeding hectic fever; the doctor names fever, consumption and decay, warns that remaining so is a kind of suicide, and finds his remedies useless. A later crisis of fever is treated with two bleedings, the standard practice of the period, which leave Athos very weak before his death. A modern reader may think of complicated grief or depression with self-neglect, but that is an interpretive reading; the novel frames it as a father's soul waiting to follow his son. Elsewhere Porthos suffers a sudden, unexplained weakness of the legs that he treats as a mystery and that foreshadows his death, Louis XIV wounds himself raging against his cell in the Bastille, and d'Artagnan dies of a cannon-ball wound to the chest.

• Chapter XLV, The Ancestors of Porthos

  Porthos recalls episodes of sudden weakness in his legs, which he cannot explain and which recur in the grotto at Locmaria.

  Death Dying
• Chapter LVI, The Old Age of Athos

  The Blois physician secretly observes Athos, notes the hectic flush and fixed gaze, and confronts him about his refusal to eat and his hidden grief.

  Grief Melancholia Depression Physicians Doctors Fever Infection
• Chapter LVII, Athos's Vision

  A fever rises to the chest and head; the physician bleeds Athos twice and declares him saved, after which he passes into a visionary state.

  Bloodletting Fever Infection
• Chapter LVIII, The Angel of Death

  Athos dies peacefully as he sees Raoul's soul rise, just as the messenger from Africa arrives.

  Death Dying Grief
• The Death of D'Artagnan

  A cannon ball strikes d'Artagnan in the chest during a siege in Holland; he dies within minutes holding the baton.

  WAR Wounds

Creative Prompts

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Louis XIV and Philippe that Dumas does not give at length when the twins face each other at Vaux before Anne of Austria.

• Fiction

  Tell the morning of Philippe's reign in the first person, from his waking in the king's bed to the moment Fouquet and Louis enter.

• Essay

  Was Fouquet right to free Louis XIV, knowing what Louis intended for him? Argue from Chapters XXI-XXIV.

• Classroom

  Map the novel's journeys: the Bastille, Vaux, Nantes, Belle-Île, Sainte-Marguerite, Toulon, Blois and Gigelli, with one event and one character at each place.

Further Reading

• Twenty Years After, Alexandre Dumas

  The middle book of the trilogy, set during the Fronde, where Athos's son Raoul first appears.

• The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas

  The beginning of the friendship whose end this volume tells.

• The Age of Louis XIV, Voltaire

  Voltaire's history (1751) contains the famous account of the masked prisoner that inspired later legends.

• The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, Tom Reiss

  Life of Dumas's father, the general whose career shaped Dumas's heroes.