Editing Man in the Iron Mask (section)

===French general===
{{See also|Great Cipher#The Man in the Iron Mask}}

In 1890, Louis Gendron, a French military historian, came across some coded letters and passed them on to [[Étienne Bazeries]] in the French Army's cryptographic department. After three years, Bazeries managed to read some messages in the [[Great Cipher]] of Louis XIV. One of them referred to a prisoner and identified him as General Vivien de Bulonde. One of the letters written by Louvois made specific reference to de Bulonde's crime.{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=86}}

At the [[Siege of Cuneo (1691)|Siege of Cuneo]] in 1691, Bulonde was concerned about enemy troops arriving from Austria and ordered a hasty withdrawal, leaving behind his munitions and wounded men. Louis XIV was furious and in another of the letters specifically ordered him "to be conducted to the fortress at Pignerol where he will be locked in a cell and under guard at night, and permitted to walk the battlements during the day with a 330 309." It has been suggested that the 330 stood for ''masque'' and the 309 for full stop. However, in 17th-century French ''avec un masque'' would mean "in a mask".{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=87}}

Some believe that the evidence of the letters means that there is now little need for an alternative explanation of the man in the mask. Other sources, however, claim that Bulonde's arrest was no secret and was actually published in a newspaper at the time. Bulonde was released by order of the king on 11 December 1691.{{sfn|de Grandmaison 1894; pp. 3–4}} His death is also recorded as happening in 1709, six years after that of the man in the mask.{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=88}}