Man In The Iron Mask / Alexandre Dumas pere

For nearly one hundred years this curious problem has exercised the

imagination of writers of fiction--and of drama, and the patience of

the learned in history. No subject is more obscure and elusive, and

none more attractive to the general mind. It is a legend to the

meaning of which none can find the key and yet in which everyone

believes. Involuntarily we feel pity at the thought of that long

captivity surrounded by so many extraordinary precautions, and when

we dwell on the mystery which enveloped the captive, that pity is not

only deepened but a kind of terror takes possession of us.

Solange / Alexandre Dumas pere

DR. LEDRU'S STORY OF THE REIGN OF TERROR

Leaving l'Abbaye, I walked straight across the Place Turenne to the Rue Tournon, where I had lodgings, when I heard a woman scream for help.

It could not be an assault to commit robbery, for it was hardly ten o'clock in the evening. I ran to the corner of the place whence the sounds proceeded, and by the light of the moon, just then breaking through the clouds, I beheld a woman in the midst of a patrol of sans-culottes.