 Le Siècle de Louis XIV ("The Age of" "Louis XIV") (1751)

Pagnol mentions an extract in which Voltaire refers to the mysterious prisoner, imprisoned on the island of Sainte-Marguerite then at the Bastille.He describes an attractive and well-built young man wearing ""a mask having a chin strap with iron springs"", gives certain details testifying to a luxurious detention environment and the great respect and consideration with which he was treated by prominent citizens such as the Marquis de Louvois.In the 2nd edition (1752), Voltaire quotes an anecdote, during imprisonment in Sainte-Marguerite, concerning a silver plate on which the prisoner is thought to have written with a knife before throwing it out of the window and which was brought back to the governor by an obliging and illiterate fisherman.