Henri Masers De Latude, a French prisoner of state, born near Montagnac, March 23,1725, died in Paris, Jan. 1, 1805. He entered the army while young, but in 1748 went to Paris to study mathematics. Being ambitious of making himself known at court, he obtained an interview with Mme, de Pompadour, and informed her that he had seen a box placed for her in the post, probably for no good purpose. The box came, filled with a harmless powder; and ascertaining that Latude himself had sent it, the marchioness had him cast into the Bas-tile, May 1, 1749, whence he was transferred to the prison of Vincennes. On June 25,1750, he escaped, but six days afterward voluntarily gave himself up to the king, who sent him again to the Bastile. The marchioness, piqued that he had not applied to her for mercy, procured his confinement for 18 months in a dungeon, after which he was placed in an ordinary room of the prison. From this place he escaped, Feb. 25, 1756, by means of a long rope ladder prepared with wonderful perseverance from a quantity of linen, and fled to Amsterdam, where he was again arrested on June 1, and reconducted to the Bastile. He was now confined in a dungeon, chained hand and foot, and obliged to sleep upon straw without any covering.

While in this condition he submitted to the government some projects of public utility, one of which was adopted, but procured him no better treatment; but in 1762, his dungeon becoming untenantable, he was removed to an upper room. In 1764 Mme. de Pompadour died, and Latude, having learned the fact, petitioned Sartine, lieutenant general of police, for his liberty. Sartine demanded the name of the person who had given him the information, and as Latude refused to betray the secret he was doubly ironed and kept on bread and water. Having been removed to Yincennes he again escaped, was again arrested, and finally, after the death of Louis XV., was liberated through the influence of Malesherbes, June 5, 1777. But he was soon after rearrested and thrown into a dungeon at Bicetre, where he remained for many years. Mme. Legros, having learned his history, determined to obtain his liberty, and at length, with the assistance of the cardinal de Rohan and Mme. decker, procured his release, March 18, 1784, with the allowance of a small pension, and took him into her house. The French academy decreed a prize to Mme. Legros, in the same year, for her efforts in behalf of Latude. The day after the taking of the Bastile Latude reclaimed his papers and other memorials of his first imprisonment.

The whole were publicly exhibited with his portrait in the court of the Louvre, and were instrumental in exciting the populace. In 1793 he brought suit for damages against the heirs of Mme. de Pompadour, and was awarded the sum of 60,000 livres, of which he received only 10,000. He published a Memoire de M. de Latude, ingenieur (Paris, 1789), and several essays. The advocate Thierry published Le despotisme deroile, ou Memoires de Latude (3 vols., 1791-'2); and in 1838 was published at Paris Memoires in-edites de Henri Masers de Latude.