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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Princes and Poisoners - Studies of the Court of Louis XIV - -Author: Frantz Funck-Brentano - -Translator: George Maidment - -Release Date: July 17, 2013 [EBook #43238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - PRINCES AND POISONERS - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR_ - -LEGENDS OF THE BASTILLE. BY FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO. With an Introduction -by VICTORIEN SARDOU. Translated by GEORGE MAIDMENT. 1899. Crown 8vo. -Cloth, 6_s._ - -CONTENTS.--I. The Archives; II. History of the Bastille; III. Life in -the Bastille; IV. The Man in the Iron Mask; V. Men of Letters in the -Bastille; VI. Latude; VII. The Fourteenth of July. - -LONDON: DOWNEY AND CO., LIMITED. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE - -LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE - -(_Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the painting by Mignard_)] - - - - - Princes and Poisoners - - STUDIES OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - BY - FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO - - TRANSLATED BY - GEORGE MAIDMENT - - [Illustration: colphon] - - LONDON - _DUCKWORTH and CO._ - 3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. - 1901 - - _Second Impression, May 1901_ - - _All rights reserved._ - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Twelve months ago I had the honour of introducing M. Frantz -Funck-Brentano to the English public by my translation of his _Légendes -et Archives de la Bastille_, and in my preface to that book I gave a -rapid sketch of his career which need not be repeated. If history is to -be continually reconstructed, or rather, perhaps, to undergo a process -of destructive distillation, there is no one more competent than M. -Funck-Brentano to perform the feat. We lose our illusions with our -teeth; the fables that charmed our childhood dissolve in the modern -historian's test-tube, and the mysteries that fascinated our forebears -become clear with a few drops of his critical acid. - -In his former book, M. Funck-Brentano solved once for all the mystery -of the Man in the Iron Mask, showed up the impostor Latude in his true -colours, and gave us surprising information about the latter days of the -Bastille. In the present volume, the fruit of several years' research -among the archives at the Arsenal Library, he conclusively dispels the -cloud of suspicion that has hung over the sudden death of Charles I's -winsome and ill-fated daughter Henrietta; gives us for the first time -the authentic history of that beautiful poisoner Madame de Brinvilliers; -suggests a very plausible explanation of Racine's hitherto inexplicable -retirement from dramatic writing; and throws a strange light upon the -private history of Madame de Montespan and other fair ladies of Louis -XIV's Court. If it be objected that some of the details of the 'black -mass' and kindred abominations are too gruesome for print, it may be -urged in reply that these details are related with the cold impartial -pen of a serious historian, not coloured or heightened with a view to -melodramatic effect. 'Truth's a dog that must to kennel,' says Lear's -Fool; Louis the Magnificent tried to stifle the damning evidence against -his jealous, passionate mistress; when Time and patient research among -long-forgotten papers have combined to bring the truth to light, it -would ill become us to blame a scholar like M. Funck-Brentano for not -joining the monarch's conspiracy of silence. - -G. M. - -_November 1900._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS-- - - I. HER LIFE, 1 - - II. HER TRIAL, 36 - -III. HER DEATH, 76 - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF -LOUIS XIV-- - - I. THE SORCERESSES-- - - The Dinner of La Vigoreux, 117 - - Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century, 121 - - The Practices of the Witches, 128 - - The Alchemists, 133 - - La Voisin, 144 - - The Magician Lesage, 159 - - The 'Chambre Ardente,' 163 - - Louis XIV and the Poison Affair, 180 - - II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN, 187 - -III. A MAGISTRATE--GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE, 265 - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME,' 313 - -RACINE AND THE POISON AFFAIR, 346 - -'LA DEVINERESSE,' 361 - -INDEX, 375 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - -PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA -REYNIE, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE. -Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the picture by -Mignard, _Frontispiece_ - -PORTRAIT OF MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS, -after the sketch by Charles Lebrun, _facing page 112_ - - - - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS - - - - -I. HER LIFE - - -In the judicial annals of France there has never been a more striking or -celebrated figure than the Marquise de Brinvilliers. The enormity of her -crimes, the brilliance of her rank, the circumstances accompanying her -trial and death,--the story of which, as told by her confessor, the abbé -Pirot, is one of the masterpieces of French literature,--finally, the -strange energy of her character, which after her execution caused her to -be regarded as a saint by a portion of the population of Paris: all -these things will for long years to come attract to her the attention of -all who are interested in the history of the past. - -Michelet devoted to the Marquise de Brinvilliers a study in the _Revue -des Deux Mondes_. But his story is very inaccurate and leaves many -gaps. From the historical point of view, the little novel of Dumas is -much to be preferred. The beautiful criminal has also been dealt with by -Pierre Clément in his _Police of Paris under Louis XIV_, and more -recently by Maître Cornu, in his discourse at the reopening of the -lecture-term of the advocates to the Court of Cassation. The writer of -the following pages has been able to make use of some fresh documents. - -In the trial of the Marquise de Brinvilliers there is much to interest -the historian. It was the first of the terrible poison cases which -caused such a sensation at the court of Louis XIV in the central years -of his reign, and in which the greatest names in France were implicated; -and Madame de Brinvilliers herself represents the most salient and most -easily studied features of a type of woman which, as we shall see, -repeated itself after her even on the steps of the throne. - - * * * * * - -Marie Madeleine--and not Marguerite--d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, -was born on July 22, 1630. She was the eldest of the five children of -Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, lord of Offémont and Villiers, councillor of -state, _maître des requêtes_, civil lieutenant of the city, mayoralty, -and viscounty of Paris, and lieutenant-general of the mines of France. -Dreux d'Aubray was himself the son of a treasurer of France, originally -from Soissons. Madeleine d'Aubray received a good education, in a -literary point of view at any rate. The spelling of her letters is -correct, a rare thing with the ladies of her time. Her handwriting is -remarkable: bold, firm, like a man's, and such as the observer would be -disposed to ascribe to an earlier period. But her religious education -was entirely neglected. At her interviews with her confessor on the eve -of her death she displayed an utter ignorance of the most elementary -maxims of religion,--those which people learn as children, and never -during the whole course of their life forget. - -Of moral principles she was absolutely destitute. From the age of five -she was addicted to horrible vices. At seven she was only by courtesy a -maiden. These are what Michelet calls 'a young girl's peccadilloes.' As -time went on, she yielded herself to her young brothers. On these points -her own testimony renders mistake impossible. She will show herself to -have been endowed with an ardent, affectionate nature, which gave her -passions command of an amazing energy; but this energy acted only under -the empire of her passions, for she was powerless to resist the -impressions which penetrated and ere long dominated her. She was -extremely sensitive to affronts, and particularly to those which touched -her pride. She was one of those natures which under good guidance are -capable of heroic deeds, but which are also capable of the greatest -crimes when they are wholly abandoned to evil instincts. - -In 1651, at the age of one-and-twenty, Marie Madeleine d'Aubray wedded a -young officer of the Norman regiment, Antoine Gobelin de Brinvilliers, -baron of Nourar, the son of a president of the audit office. He was a -direct descendant of Gobelin, the founder of the celebrated manufacture. -Mademoiselle d'Aubray brought her husband a dowry of 200,000 livres, and -as he too was wealthy, the young couple enjoyed what was for that time -a large fortune. - -The young marchioness was charming--a pretty, sprightly woman, with -large expressive eyes. She made a great impression by her frank, -decided, and vivacious manner of speaking. She was of an amiable and -cheerful temperament, and dreamed of nothing but pleasure. A priest -endowed with great keenness of judgment, who studied the Marquise de -Brinvilliers in terrible circumstances, has described her as follows:-- - -'She was naturally intrepid and of a great courage. She appeared to have -been born with inclinations towards good, with an air of complete -indifference, with a keen and penetrating intellect, forming clear views -of things, and expressing them in words few and fit but very precise; -wonderfully ready in finding expedients for getting out of a difficulty, -and quick to make up her mind upon the most embarrassing questions; -frivolous, moreover, with no application, uneven and inconstant, -becoming impatient if the same subject were often talked about. - -'Her soul had something naturally great--a composure in face of the most -unexpected emergencies, a firmness that nothing could move, a resolution -to await and even suffer death if need be. - -'She had thick and beautiful chestnut hair, with comely and well-rounded -features--her eyes blue, tender, and of perfect beauty, her skin -extraordinarily white, her nose well-shaped enough; nothing in her -countenance was unpleasing. - -'Sweet as her face naturally appeared, when some vexatious idea crossed -her imagination she showed it plainly by a grimace that might at first -sight scare you; and from time to time I noticed contortions that -bespoke disdain, indignation, and scorn. - -'She was of a very slight and dainty figure.' - -To the Marquis de Brinvilliers luxury and large expenditure had become -second nature; he loved gaming and pleasure generally; and his marriage -was very far from banishing his joyous habits. In 1659 he formed a close -intimacy with a certain Godin, known more often as Sainte-Croix, a -captain of horse in the Tracy regiment, originally from Montauban, and -said to be a by-blow of a noble Gascon family. Sainte-Croix was young -and handsome; 'endowed,' says a memoir of the time, 'with all the -advantages of intelligence, and perhaps, too, with those qualities of -heart under whose empire a woman rarely fails, in the long-run, to -fall.' In after days, Maître Vautier had to sketch the portrait of -Sainte-Croix in the course of an address before the Parlement. -'Sainte-Croix,' he said, 'was in poverty and distress, but he had a rare -and singular genius. His countenance was prepossessing, and gave promise -of intelligence. Such indeed he had, and of such sort as to give -universal pleasure. He took his pleasure in the pleasure of others; he -entered into a religious scheme as joyfully as he accepted the -suggestion of a crime. Keenly sensitive to insult, he was susceptible to -love, and in love jealous to madness, even of persons on whom public -debauchery assumed rights that were not unknown to him. His extravagance -was amazing, and supported by no occupation; for the rest, his soul was -prostituted to every form of crime. He dabbled also in external piety, -and it has been claimed that he wrote devotional books. He spoke -divinely of the God in whom he did not believe, and favoured by this -mask of piety, which he never removed save with his friends, he appeared -to participate in good deeds while really immersed in crime.' Though he -was an officer and married, Sainte-Croix sometimes assumed the garb and -the title of Abbé. - -Sainte-Croix was a brilliant and gallant cavalier; and the Marquise de -Brinvilliers, with her blue eyes and dainty figure, was the most -charming creature in the world. 'Lady Brinvilliers,' observes Vautier -the advocate, 'did not make a mystery of her amour; she gloried in it in -society, whence there resulted much _éclat_.' She gloried in it also -before her husband, who responded by boasting of his own love for other -ladies; but as she ventured also to brag about it before her father, the -civil lieutenant, a man of the old school, he, strong in the rights with -which ancient customs endowed a father, obtained a _lettre de cachet_ -against his daughter's lover. On March 19, 1663, Sainte-Croix was -arrested 'in the marquise's own carriage as he sat by her side,' and -was thrown into the Bastille. - -Various writers who have dealt with these facts depict Sainte-Croix as -the prison companion of the famous Exili, from whom he learnt the secret -of Italian poisons. Restored to liberty, Sainte-Croix is said to have -handed the terrible prescriptions to his mistress and others, who in -their turn spread them through France. - -We find this opinion expressed in the documents of the time, among -others in the speech delivered by Maître Nivelle before the Parlement, -on behalf of Madame de Brinvilliers. - -Exili, whose real name was Eggidi or Gilles, was an Italian gentleman -attached to the service of Queen Christina of Sweden. It is true that he -was confined in the Bastille at the same period as Sainte-Croix. He -remained there from February 2 to June 27, 1663; Sainte-Croix was there -from March 19 to May 2. A captain of police named Desgrez--who will play -an important part in the sequel--met Exili on leaving prison with an -order to conduct him to Calais and embark him for England; but, whether -Exili gave him the slip on the way, or that he had no sooner reached -England than he returned to France, we soon find the Italian again in -Paris, and in the house of Sainte-Croix himself, with whom he stayed for -six months. After all, it was not Exili who trained Sainte-Croix in the -'art of poisons,' to adopt the phrase of the time. Long before he -entered the Bastille the young cavalry officer had acquired a knowledge -of poisons which far exceeded that of Exili. He owed it to a celebrated -Swiss chemist named Christophe Glaser, who had set up an establishment -in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he had attained a considerable -standing, after the publication in 1665 of a _Treatise on Chemistry_, -which had a noteworthy success at the time, and was often reprinted and -translated. Glaser was apothecary in ordinary to the king and -Monsieur,[1] and demonstrator in chemistry to the Jardin des Plantes. He -was, moreover, a scientist of real merit. Sulphate of potassium, which -he discovered, long bore his name. Glaser was the principal, probably -the only person who furnished Sainte-Croix and his mistress with -poisons. In their correspondence the two lovers call the poisons which -they used 'Glaser's recipe.' These poisons, however, as we shall see, -were very simple; in these days they would appear clumsy. Exili, who -goes out of our story, remained connected with Queen Christina, and in -1681 made an excellent marriage when he wedded the Countess Ludovica -Fantaguzzi, cousin of Duke Francis of Modena. - - * * * * * - -As soon as Sainte-Croix left the Bastille he renewed his relations with -the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her passion had only been heightened by -the imprisonment of her lover. Wounded in her pride, she felt the birth -within herself of an implacable and violent hatred of her father. Her -dissipations, her gaming, her wild flings in her lover's company (she -paying expenses, after the fashion of that period), had embarrassed her -fortune. 'I accuse myself,' she said in her confession, 'of having given -a great deal of my wealth to this man, and he ruined me.' The desire of -attaining possession of her paternal inheritance, and the yearning, -growing day by day more imperious, for wreaking vengeance on her father -for the affront put upon her, suggested to her a frightful crime. There -might frequently have been seen, drawing up at the market-square of -Saint-Germain, a carriage from which alighted a young officer and a -fashionable lady. They went on foot to the Rue du Petit-Lion, in which -Glaser the chemist lived. Arrived at his house, they sought a retired -room. The neighbours, puzzled by these strange goings-on, spoke of false -money. Soon this young lady might have been seen, under the edifying -appearance of piety and religion, going into the hospitals; she bent -over the beds of the patients with words of gentleness and affection; -she carried them confections, wine, and biscuits; but the patients whom -she approached inevitably succumbed, ere long, in horrible anguish. 'Who -would have dreamt,' writes Nicolas de la Reynie, the lieutenant of -police, 'that a woman brought up in a respectable family, whose form and -constitution were delicate and who in appearance was sweet-natured, -would have made an amusement of going to the hospitals to poison the -patients, for the purpose of observing the different effects of the -poison she gave them?' She poisoned her own servants, too, 'to try -experiments.' 'Françoise Roussel says that she has been in the service -of Lady Brinvilliers. The latter one day gave her some preserved -gooseberries to eat, on the point of a knife, and soon afterwards she -felt ill; she gave her also a moist slice of ham, which she ate, and -since then she has had severe abdominal pains, feeling as though her -heart were being stabbed.' The poor woman was ill for three years. - -When the marquise had tested the strength of 'Glaser's recipe,' and had -noted the inability of the surgeons to discover traces of poison in the -corpses, the poisoning of her father was resolved on. - -As Whitsuntide drew on in the year 1666, Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, who had -been suffering for some months from strange disorders, set out for his -estates at Offémont, a few leagues from Compiègne. He asked his daughter -to bring her children and spend a few weeks with him, and when she -arrived he scolded her affectionately for having been so long in -coming. On the day after her arrival his sickness was redoubled; 'he had -great vomitings, continuing with increasing violence till his death,' -which occurred at Paris, whither he had himself transported in order to -secure the services of the best physicians, and whither his daughter had -not failed to accompany him. Madeleine de Brinvilliers confessed -afterwards that she had poisoned her father twenty-eight or thirty times -with her own hands, and at other times by the hands of a lackey named -Gascon, presented to her by Sainte-Croix. The poison was given both in -water and in powder, and the process lasted eight months. 'She could not -manage it,' she said. It is clear that the poison she employed was -simply arsenic. When in the course of time the facts were known, all -Europe clamoured with indignation at the thought of this woman heaping -caresses on her dying father, and responding to his embraces by pouring -poison into the medicines she handed him with her engaging smile. 'The -greatest crimes,' said Madame de Sévigné, 'are a mere trifle in -comparison with being eight months poisoning her father and receiving -all his caresses and tendernesses, to which she replied by doubling the -dose. Medea was nothing to her.' - -D'Aubray died at Paris on September 10, 1666, aged sixty-six years. The -physicians who made an autopsy of the body attributed death to natural -causes; but the rumour at once got abroad that he had died of poison. -The elder brother of the marquise, whose name was the same as his -father's, succeeded him in the family estates and the office of civil -lieutenant. - -Delivered thus from a formidable censor, Madame de Brinvilliers no -longer put any restraint on her debaucheries. She had several lovers at -once, in addition to Sainte-Croix. By him she had 'two children among -her own'; she was the mistress of F. de Pouget, Marquis de Nadaillac, -captain of light horse, and cousin of her husband. Another lover was a -cousin of her own, by whom she had a child. Finally, she granted her -favours to a mere youth, her children's tutor, of whom there will be -much more to say. In spite of this, she felt keenly irritated when -Sainte-Croix appeared to be unfaithful to her; and when she learnt that -her husband was keeping a woman named Dufay, in her rage she thought of -stabbing her. 'She had naturally a great delicacy of feeling,' her -confessor was to write of her, 'and was highly sensitive on a point of -honour and in regard to injuries.' - -Her expenses and prodigalities redoubled, and it was not long before her -share of her father's wealth had melted away. At this point occurs an -incident which bears witness at once to the distress into which she had -fallen and to the savage energy of her character. In 1670, a property -belonging to herself and her husband at Norat, was sold by order of the -Court to satisfy their creditors; in her ungovernable fury the marquise -attempted to set the place on fire. - -The greater part of her father's estate had come to her two brothers, -one of whom had been appointed civil lieutenant, as we have seen; the -other was councillor to the Court. Madame de Brinvilliers had already -tried to procure the assassination of the elder by two hired bravoes on -the road to Orleans--one of those audacious strokes which to the end of -her days she never ceased to devise. She declared at this moment that -her brother was 'no good.' Pressed by need of money, she 'resolved on -fresh poisonings so as not to lose the fruits of the first.' -Sainte-Croix was fully agreed as to the necessity of the proceedings; -but before he set about carrying them into effect he got from his -mistress two promissory notes, one for 25,000, the other for 30,000 -livres. - -In 1669, Madame de Brinvilliers succeeded in introducing a wretch named -Jean Hamelin, commonly known as La Chaussée, into her brother the -councillor's household as a footman. The two brothers lived in the same -house, and La Chaussée had every facility for giving poison to both. One -day when he was waiting at table, the dose he put into the glass he was -handing was so strong that the civil lieutenant rose up in great -agitation, crying, 'Ah, wretch, what have you given me? I think you want -to poison me!' And he bade his secretary taste the stuff. The latter -took some on a spoon and declared that he detected a strong taste of -vitriol. La Chaussée did not lose his head. 'No doubt it is the glass -Lacroix (the valet) used this morning,' he said, 'when he took -medicine.' And he hastily threw the contents of the glass into the fire. - -The civil lieutenant went to his estate at Villequoy in Beauce, to spend -Easter with his family. In 1670 Easter fell on April 6. His brother the -councillor made one of the party, and took La Chaussée with him as his -only attendant. While they stayed at Villequoy La Chaussée helped in the -kitchen. One day a tart came to table, of which all who ate were very -ill on the morrow, while the others remained quite well. On April 12 -they returned to Paris, and the civil lieutenant had the appearance of a -man who had suffered great pain. - -The details of the poisoning are horrible. As D'Aubray did his best to -restore his health, the poison did not take effect so quickly as usual; -he was very difficult to kill. La Chaussée, assiduous in his attentions, -gave his master poison at every possible opportunity. His body was so -offensive during his illness that it was impossible to remain in the -room with him; and he was so irritable that no one could approach him. -Madame de Brinvilliers rarely showed herself, but sent her pious sister -to take her place. Meanwhile La Chaussée was unremitting in his care; no -one but him could change the bedclothes or the mattress. The unhappy man -suffered unspeakable torture. La Chaussée could not help exclaiming: -'This fellow holds out well! He's giving us a good deal of trouble! I -don't know when he will give up the ghost!' - -Madame de Brinvilliers was at Sains in Picardy. She told Briancourt, the -tutor who had become her lover, that the poisoning of her brother the -councillor was in progress. She explained to him that she wanted to set -up 'a good house'; that her eldest son, who was already nicknamed the -President, would one day fill the post of civil lieutenant, and added -that 'there was still a good deal to be done.' These sentiments were -sincere. Madame de Brinvilliers endeavoured to bring up and establish -her children--'who were her own flesh,' as she said--in conformity with -the brilliant dreams she nourished for the future of her 'house.' True, -she began to poison her eldest daughter, but that was because she -thought her a ninny. She was seized with regret, however, and made her -drink milk as an antidote. - -Such was one of her dominant preoccupations. To this must be added her -longing to live with 'honour,' that is, with a brilliant household, with -beautiful ornaments, keeping up a great style, and entertaining her -lovers with magnificence. She longed for 'the glory of the world,' a -phrase continually on her lips. It was for 'honour' that she poisoned so -many people. Such was her own statement. - -The martyrdom of her brother the civil lieutenant lasted three months. -'He grew thin,' declares his physician, 'and emaciated; lost his -appetite, often vomited, and had burning pains in the stomach.' He died -on June 17, 1670. The councillor died in the following September. In -this case, Dr. Bachot, the civil lieutenant's usual attendant, along -with surgeons Duvaux and Dupré and the apothecary Gavart, declared -after an autopsy that the deceased had been poisoned; but so little were -the perpetrators of the crime suspected that La Chaussée drew a hundred -crowns left him by his master as a reward for his faithful service. - - * * * * * - -We must follow the career of the marquise after the poisoning of her -father and brothers, to understand to what depths her ill-regulated -passion had thrown this woman, who belonged to the highest ranks of -society by her name, her fortune, and the position of her family, and -who was so charmingly endowed by Nature. - -She was at the mercy of a lackey, who held her honour and her life in -his miserable hands. 'She used to receive him privately in her -sitting-room, where she gave him money, saying, "He is a good fellow, -and has done me great service"; and she caressed him.' Visitors coming -upon her unawares found the marquise 'in great familiarity with La -Chaussée,' and 'she made him hide behind her bed when the Sieur Cousté -came to see her.' - -Sainte-Croix was a more formidable accomplice. What must have been the -agony of this proud and passionate woman when she understood little by -little that this man, to whom she had sacrificed everything, had seen in -her only an instrument of his own pleasure and fortune, and now profited -by his mastery of her secrets to squeeze money out of her by the most -vulgar methods of intimidation! Sainte-Croix had locked up in a small -box, which was to become famous, the letters, thirty-four in number, -sent him by the marchioness, the two promissory notes signed by her -after the murder of her father and brothers, and several bottles of -poison. 'The said Lady Brinvilliers coaxed Sainte-Croix to give her his -box, and wished him to give her her note for two or three thousand -pistoles; otherwise she would have him poniarded.' The woman speaks out -in this last phrase. At other times, desperate, frantic with terror, she -thought of poisoning herself. She implored Sainte-Croix to give her the -box, and when she received no answer, sent him this touching note: 'I -have thought it best to put an end to my life, and I have therefore -taken this evening what you gave me at so dear a price--the recipe of -Glaser; by which you will see that I have willingly sacrificed my life -to you; but I do not promise you, before I die, that I will not await -you somewhere to bid you a last farewell.' In the last line she becomes -herself again; there you have the menace of the offended woman. - -What scenes for a romancer to write! One day, by way of reply to these -cries of blood, Sainte-Croix made her swallow poison. It was arsenic; -but the pain she felt warned her immediately, and she absorbed great -quantities of warm milk and so saved herself. She was ill from the -effects for several months. She declared after the death of Sainte-Croix -'that she had done what she could to get the box from him while he was -alive, and if she had succeeded, she would afterwards have cut his -throat.' - -Like all criminals, Madame de Brinvilliers was dominated by the -unconquerable impulse to lead the conversation continually to the -subject of her crimes. She would talk about poisons to any one she met. -Her servants found bottles of arsenic in her dressing-room. One day, -when very merry--she had taken too much wine--she went up to her room -carrying a sort of casket in her hand, and meeting one of her servants -told her 'that she had the wherewithal to wreak vengeance on her -enemies, and that there were many inheritances in that box'--a terrible -phrase which was repeated at her trial and became a catchword; poison -was called afterwards 'powder of inheritance.' 'When she came to her -senses shortly afterwards the marquise told her servant that she did not -know what she was saying when she spoke of inheritances, and that her -troubles were sending her out of her mind.' She fancied that she had -also betrayed herself before her maid, Mademoiselle de Villeray, and it -is possible that in 1673, to secure her silence, she poisoned her too. - -Little by little she came to reveal her crimes in all their details to -Briancourt. In the course of her conversations with him, she displayed -no regret at the death of her brothers, whom she despised, but she often -wept when speaking of her father. 'On the morning after one of these -confidences,' said Briancourt before the judges, 'the Marquise de -Brinvilliers rushed into my room like a madwoman, and told me that she -much mistrusted me, having confided to me matters of the utmost -consequence, in which her life was involved. I told her that I would -never speak of the things confided to me, but I begged her, with tears -in my eyes, that if she was not satisfied with my conduct she would -allow me to return to Paris. The lady replied: "No, no,--if you will -only be discreet; I will make your fortune, and I am sure of your -discretion." About the same time the lady fetched Sainte-Croix back, and -they held long conversations together. He showed me the greatest marks -of friendliness, assuring me of his services, and begged me to watch -over the little boy, of whom he was fond.' We know by Madame de -Brinvilliers' own confession that this little boy was actually -Sainte-Croix' child. - -This deposition of Briancourt constitutes one of the most curious -documents in our possession. This man was well disposed and at heart -upright, but lacked backbone. His terrible mistress ruled and awed him. -Yet he had flashes of that boldness into which feeble natures are -occasionally drawn. After having poisoned her father and brothers the -marquise had still to get rid of her sister, Thérèse d'Aubray, and her -sister-in-law, Marie Thérèse Mangot, widow of the civil lieutenant. That -is what 'remained to be done.' 'Seeing the imminent peril of -Mademoiselle d'Aubray and even of Madame d'Aubray (though the widow's -danger was not so near as the younger lady's), and because La Chaussée -had not yet entered the house of Madame d'Aubray, and Madame de -Brinvilliers said that she wished the widow's business to be managed in -two months or not at all, he (Briancourt) begged the marquise to take -care what she was at, said that she had cruelly put her father and -brothers to death and wished to do the same with her sister; that he had -never come upon an example of such cruelty in all the annals of -antiquity, and that she was the cruelest and wickedest woman that ever -had been or would be; that he begged her to reflect on what she meant to -do, and to remember how that wretch Sainte-Croix had ruined her and her -family; that he saw no safety for her, but sooner or later she would -perish; that he himself would never allow the murder of Mademoiselle -d'Aubray, even though she had once written to Madame de Brinvilliers a -letter in which she accused him of being a rogue and rake.' It was -unquestionably Briancourt's attitude which saved the lives of Madame de -Brinvilliers' sister and sister-in-law; he had further warned -Mademoiselle d'Aubray, through the marquise's maid Mademoiselle de -Villeray, to be on her guard. In her confession the marquise declared -that if she had thought of poisoning her sister it was out of hatred, by -way of revenge for remarks she had made to her about her conduct. - -Briancourt had only succeeded in diverting the peril upon himself. -Madame de Brinvilliers resolved to rid herself of a lover who responded -to her confidences by playing the censor. The customary means, poison, -was obviously the first to suggest itself. 'Sainte-Croix,' says -Briancourt, 'had introduced into the Brinvilliers household a porter -related to La Chaussée, and a lackey named Bazile, who was -extraordinarily assiduous in serving me with food and drink; but seeing -these attentions and, further, some sign of roguery in this fellow, I -handled him so roughly that Madame de Brinvilliers had to dismiss him.' - -There followed a remarkably romantic scene, as Briancourt described it -before the court. - -'Two or three days after Bazile's departure, Lady Brinvilliers told me -that she had a very handsome bed, and hangings embroidered to match; -that it was a bed which Sainte-Croix had pawned and which she had -redeemed. She had it put up in her large room, where there was a close -and wainscoted chimney-piece, and told me that I must come that night -and sleep in that bed, and that she would expect me at midnight, but -that I must not come earlier, because she had to arrange with her cook. -Instead of going down at midnight to a gallery which commanded the -windows of the room, I came down at ten o'clock, and looking through the -windows into the room, the curtains not being drawn, I saw the lady -walking up and down and dismissing all her servants.' - -We may remark in passing that this gallery still exists at the present -day in the mansion inhabited by Madame de Brinvilliers in the Rue -Neuve-Saint-Paul.[2] - -'About half-past eleven,' continues Briancourt, 'Lady Brinvilliers, -having undressed and put on her dressing-gown, took a few turns in the -room, holding a torch in her hand; then she went to the chimney-piece, -which she opened. Sainte-Croix stepped out, dressed in rags, with a -worn-out jerkin and an old hat, and kissed the lady, and for a quarter -of an hour they talked together. Then Sainte-Croix went back into the -chimney-piece, and the lady pushed its two folding-doors to, so as to -shut him in, and then came to the door, in some agitation; my own -agitation was no less. Should I enter, or should I go away? But the lady -seeing my confusion said: "What is the matter? Don't you want to come?" -I saw much rage in her countenance, which was changed in an -extraordinary degree. I went into the room, and the lady asked me if the -bed was not very fine; I said that it was, and the lady rejoined, "Let -us lie down then." Then the marquise got into bed. I had placed the -torch on a stand, and she said, "Undress yourself and put out the light -very quickly." I pretended to be undoing my shoes, desiring to know how -far the lady's cruelty would go, and she said, "What is the matter with -you? You look very solemn." Then I rose and, giving the bed a wide -berth, said to the lady: "Ah, how cruel you are! What have I done that -you want to have me murdered?" The lady sprang out of bed and flung -herself upon me from behind; but freeing myself, I went straight to the -chimney-piece. Sainte-Croix came out, and I said to him: "Ah, villain, -you have come to stick a knife into me!" and as the torch was burning, -Sainte-Croix made to flee, while Lady Brinvilliers rolled on the floor -declaring that she would live no longer, but die; at the same time she -sought her case of poisons, opened it, and was on the point of taking -poison. I prevented her and said, "You wanted to get me poisoned by -Bazile, and now you want to get me stabbed by Sainte-Croix." The lady -threw herself at my feet, declaring that such had not happened to me and -would never happen, and that she would pay with her death for what she -had just done--that she saw clearly that it was all up with her and that -she could not survive such an occurrence. I told her that I would -forgive her and forget all about what she had done, but that I was -determined to go away in the morning, since they wanted to get rid of -me, and I made the lady promise that she would not poison herself. I -remained in the room until six o'clock in the morning with the lady, -whom I compelled to go back to bed, I remaining on a sofa beside the bed -near her.' - -After this scene, Briancourt at once set about procuring pistols, -deeming them necessary to his safety; then he went to ask the advice of -Monsieur Bocager, a professor of the law school, who had introduced him -to Madame de Brinvilliers. - -From the first day he saw the terrible marchioness, Briancourt had -advanced from surprise to surprise; but his greatest astonishment -awaited him in the study of the law professor. The young man said to -him, 'Sir, I have a great secret to communicate to you; I think that you -will give me good advice, and that you will tell the first president, -whom you often see, what is going on, so that he may take the proper -steps.' The professor's discomposure was evident in his features, and he -leaned back uncomfortably in his chair. 'Monsieur Bocager turned very -pale, and said nothing, except that I must keep my secret and not speak -about it to the curé of St. Paul or any one else. He assured me that he -would see to everything, and that I ought not to leave the Brinvilliers' -house so soon, but wait some time, while he sought some new employment -for me.' Briancourt asked himself whether all that he heard and saw were -real events in a real world. How far had this terrible woman been to -seek her accomplices? How far had she pushed her crimes? - -'Two days afterwards,' continues Briancourt, 'the marquise told me that -Monsieur Bocager was not so upright a man as I imagined, as I should see -some day. And as I was passing down the street in the evening, just -opposite St. Paul's, two pistol-shots were fired at me, without my being -able to tell whence they came, and one of them pierced my coat. Seeing -that I was marked down, I went next day to Sainte-Croix' house, carrying -two pistols, having left a man at the street door to see that it -remained open. I told Sainte-Croix that he was a villain and a -scoundrel, that he would be broken on the wheel, and that he had caused -the death of several people of quality. He declared that he had never -caused anybody's death, but that if I would go behind the Hôpital -Général with pistols he would give me every kind of satisfaction; to -which I replied that I was not a soldier, but that if I were attacked I -should defend myself.' - -Such was the strange existence of the poor bachelor in theology, tutor -to the children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers. In his fear of poison he -was continually swallowing some nostrum or other by way of antidote. - -The marquis himself lived in equal terror. He knew what was going on, -and took things philosophically. Here is a sketch of a dinner at his -house. 'The marchioness put Sainte-Croix on her right; the marquis was -at the sideboard end of the table. The latter was very carefully served -by a domestic specially attached to his person, to whom he always said: -"Don't change my glass, but rinse it every time you give me anything to -drink."' When the evening was over, the marquis retired to his room; -Sainte-Croix and the marchioness went to the lady's room, and Briancourt -went upstairs with the children. With the horrors of crime there were -thus mingled scenes of burlesque. - -Accommodating as her husband was, the marchioness began to poison him; -then, struck with remorse, she called in to attend him one of the most -famous physicians of the time, Dr. Brayer. - -'She wished to marry Sainte-Croix,' writes Madame de Sévigné, 'and with -that intention often gave her husband poison. Sainte-Croix, not anxious -to have so evil a woman as his wife, gave counter-poisons to the poor -husband, with the result that, shuttlecocked about like this five or six -times, now poisoned, now unpoisoned, he still remained alive.' -Brinvilliers emerged from this violent treatment with a weakness in the -legs. Afterwards he always carried theriac about with him, that being -regarded as an antidote; he took it from time to time, and gave doses to -his people. - -Briancourt, however, succeeded in escaping from the service of his -formidable mistress, and, under the baleful impression of what he had -seen in the world, he retired to Aubervilliers, where he lived in -solitude, giving lessons in the establishment of the Fathers of the -Oratory there. Seven or eight months had passed when the marchioness -came to see him; then she sent from time to time to ask how he was -doing. It was at Aubervilliers that one evening, on July 31, 1672, he -received from his late mistress a very urgent note, begging him to go -immediately to Picpus, where she had an important communication to make -to him. There had just happened an event which was to entail -incalculable consequences: on July 30 Sainte-Croix died in his -mysterious dwelling in the cul-de-sac of the Place Maubert. - -A widespread legend makes Sainte-Croix' death the result of a chemical -experiment; it is said that the glass mask with which he covered his -face to protect it from the poisonous vapours had broken. But he really -died a natural death after an illness of some months, in the course of -which he was visited by several persons who have left their testimony in -regard to the matter. In the legendary laboratory of the cul-de-sac -there was found indeed a furnace of 'digestion.' Sainte-Croix -'philosophised' there, that is, worked at the philosopher's stone, and -more particularly at solidifying mercury, that eternal dream of the -alchemists. - -Madame de Brinvilliers soon learned of the death of her lover. Her first -cry was, 'The little box!' - - - - -II. HER TRIAL - - -Sainte-Croix died overwhelmed in debt. His things were all put under -seal. The seals were raised on August 8, 1672, by Commissary Picard, -assisted by a sergeant named Creuillebois, two notaries, the agent of -the widow, and an agent of the creditors. The three first meetings had -passed without incident when a Carmelite monk who was present handed to -the commissary the key of the private room in which the furnace was -kept. Entering, they saw on the table a rolled-up paper bearing the -words, 'My confession.' The persons present decided without hesitation -to keep the paper secret, and to burn it on the spot. They found, -further, at the end of a shelf, a small box, oblong in shape and red in -colour, from which hung a key. It contained some phials, some of which -were filled with a clear liquid like water, others with a liquid of -reddish colour; and in addition, there were the letters addressed by -Madame de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix, the two promissory notes signed -by the marchioness after the poisoning of her father and brothers, and a -receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 livres lent by -Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, to Monsieur and Madame de -Brinvilliers through the agency of Sainte-Croix. These two last papers -were in a sealed envelope on which was written: 'Papers to be restored -to the Sieur Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, as belonging to -him; and I humbly beg those into whose hands they fall, to be good -enough to return them to him at my death, they being of no consequence -except to him alone.' - -Sainte-Croix had addressed the little box, with its contents, to Madame -de Brinvilliers in these terms: 'I humbly beg those into whose hands -this box falls to do me the favour to return it into the hands of the -Marquise de Brinvilliers, who lives in Rue Neuve-Saint-Paul, since all -that it contains concerns her and belongs to her alone, and moreover it -is of no use to anybody in the world but herself; and in case she dies -before I do, to burn it, and all that is in it, without opening it or -meddling with it; and so that no one may pretend ignorance, I swear by -the God I adore, and all that is most holy, that I state nothing but the -truth. If perchance any one contravenes my intentions, just and -reasonable as they are, I charge it in this world and the next upon his -conscience, for discharge of my own, and declare that this is my last -will. Made at Paris, afternoon, May 25, 1670. _Signed_: Sainte-Croix.' -Below were these words: 'There is a single packet addressed to Monsieur -Pennautier, which is to be given to him.' The very energy of these -formulæ impressed Commissary Picard. He sealed up the case and confided -it to the care of two sergeants, Cluet and Creuillebois, so that the -inventory might be made by the civil lieutenant in person. Sergeant -Creuillebois took the box home. - -It was Sainte-Croix' widow who on August 8--that is, the day when the -box was discovered--sent word to Madame de Brinvilliers at Picpus that -things belonging to her were under seal. The marchioness instantly sent -some one to find the box. As that was no longer in Sainte-Croix' house, -a servant was sent off to Commissary Picard to tell him that Madame de -Brinvilliers desired to speak to him without delay. Picard answered that -he was busy. The marchioness, however, herself hurried to Madame de -Sainte-Croix, insisting on the box being given to her. It was nine -o'clock at night. 'She complained of its having been sealed up, offered -money to obtain it, proposed to break the seals in order to take out -what was inside, and to substitute something else.' But the box had been -taken away. 'It's very amusing,' she said, 'for Commissary Picard to -carry off a box that belongs to me!' She got some one to take her to -Sergeant Cluet, whom she made come down, so that she might speak to him -from her carriage. 'The lady told him that Pennautier had come to her, -and told her that he was anxious about the box, and would give fifty -golden louis to have what was in it. She also said that all that was in -the said box concerned Pennautier and herself, and that they had done -everything in concert.' We see here the first step in a manoeuvre -which Madame de Brinvilliers afterwards developed. Knowing that several -of the papers in the box concerned Pennautier, she sought to link her -cause with the financier's, speculating on his high position and -influence. - -Cluet answered that he could do nothing without the commissary. -Accordingly the marchioness hurried off to him at eleven o'clock at -night. Picard sent down word that he could not receive her till the -morning. - -In the morning, August 9, the commissary received a visitor from a -Châtelet[3] attorney named Delamarre, to whom the marchioness had -intrusted her interests. He told the commissary that the little box was -of great importance to Madame de Brinvilliers, begging him to send it -back to her, and saying 'that she would give him all she had in the -world.' 'There came also a man in black' (it was Briancourt) 'who told -him that the marchioness would give him anything he could wish for.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers understood that the box was not to be given up, -and made preparations for flight. 'Delamarre, her attorney, repaired to -Picpus at ten o'clock at night and carried off her principal furniture, -which was even thrown hastily out of the windows.' The marchioness, -however, sent for Cluet and Creuillebois to come to Picpus. She changed -the line of her defence, and told Creuillebois that 'Sainte-Croix was -clever enough to have forged the letters, but that she would find a way -out, and had good friends.' To Madame de Sainte-Croix, who also went to -Picpus, she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could -only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sainte-Croix for a long -time, that these were forged letters, and that she had a complete -justification. She went on, in order to spread it abroad that her -interests were connected with those of Pennautier: 'If it trickles on -me, it will rain on Pennautier.' She said to the wife of a Châtelet -clerk named Fausset, who spoke to her of the rumours of poisoning that -were already going about. 'There is nothing in it: it will blow over; -there is a man accused with me who will give four or six thousand livres -to arrange matters,' adding that 'he was not of high rank, but was very -rich.' - -The seals placed on the box were raised by the civil lieutenant on -August 11. Madame de Brinvilliers was represented by her attorney, who -made the following declaration: 'That if there was found a promise -signed by Lady Brinvilliers for the sum of 30,000 livres, it was a -document obtained from her by fraud, against which, in case the -signature proved genuine, she intended to appeal, in order to have it -declared null and void.' - -The liquids and the powder contained in the chest were tested on -animals, death being the result. Experts decided that they contained -poison, but could not determine its nature. The general belief was that -it was arsenic. - -Madame de Brinvilliers and Pennautier were soon the engrossing topic of -conversation in Paris. Fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons -found in the box, of which Madame de Sévigné made herself the sedulous -echo. - -The marchioness hastened to pay a visit to Pennautier. He was not at -home. His wife turned her out neck and crop. Pennautier responded by -taking a step which did him honour: he went to Picpus to see Madame de -Brinvilliers. Asked later, after his arrest, what was his motive in -going to Picpus, he replied that, not believing Madame de Brinvilliers -guilty of such a crime, he went to pay her his respects, as is usual on -such occasions. Speaking of this step of his, his enemies wrote: -'Actuated by a sentiment of courtesy, he neglected his most obvious -interests, in which life, honour, and fortune were at stake; his -excessive politeness made him forgetful of all his interests. What a -rare and marvellous character! How free from thoughts of self!' These -lines, written with ironical intention, really express the truth. Not -long before, Monsieur and Madame de Brinvilliers had done Pennautier a -great service in a moment of difficulty by the loan of 30,000 livres; -and he seized the opportunity to show that he had not forgotten their -kindness. - -P. L. Reich de Pennautier--Pennautier was the name of an estate in the -neighbourhood of Carcassonne--though scarcely thirty-five years old, had -already made an enormous fortune. His two appointments as -receiver-general for the clergy and treasurer of the Languedoc Exchange -brought him in hundreds of thousands of francs annually. He was one of -the most active and intelligent of Colbert's lieutenants. On such -questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacture of fine cloth, -the Languedoc canal, the purchase of Greek MSS. in the Levant, the -draining of the fens of Aigues-Mortes, the name of Pennautier is linked -with that of Colbert in enterprises of the utmost utility 'From a petty -cashier,' says Saint-Simon, 'Pennautier became treasurer of the clergy -and treasurer of the States of Languedoc, and enormously rich. He was a -tall and well-made man, with a gallant and dignified air, courteous and -eminently obliging; he had plenty of intelligence, and had many -connections in society. - -On August 22 the civil lieutenant summoned Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier to appear at the examination of the documents found in the -box. Pennautier was in the country; the marchioness was represented by -her attorney, who repeated his protests. A third personage appeared on -the scene, namely, La Chaussée. He fancied his audacity would save him, -and from the first had opposed the sealing of the house, on the ground -that he had deposited with the deceased, in whose service he had been -for seven years, 200 pistoles and 100 silver crowns which should be, he -said, behind the window of the study in a bag, with a note proving that -the money belonged to him. He claimed also a number of papers, which he -described. The knowledge that La Chaussée displayed of Sainte-Croix' -laboratory awakened suspicion. When Commissary Picard told the whilom -valet that the confiscated box had just been opened, he stood petrified -with confusion for a moment, then fled precipitately, leaving the -commissary in open-eyed amazement. The same day he left Gaussin, a -bath-proprietor whose service he had entered, and, concealing himself -during the day, roamed about Paris at night-time till he was arrested on -September 4 at six o'clock in the morning by a police officer named -Thomas Regnier. La Chaussée was very crestfallen as he walked down the -street. - -From that moment the gravest suspicions were entertained against Madame -de Brinvilliers, but there was a reluctance to arrest her because of her -rank. Regnier repaired to Picpus and told her bluntly that he had found -La Chaussée, and that he had learned a good many things from the -commissary. The marchioness blushed. 'What is it, madam? You say -nothing?' But the lady, changing the subject, asked him to escort her to -mass. When they returned, she spoke to him again about the box. She -seemed a prey to uneasiness. 'But madam,' said Regnier, 'surely you are -not mixed up in this business?' 'Why should I be?' she replied. 'That -villain La Chaussée, when with Commissary Picard, must have said -something against you, and would say it again if he was captured.' 'It -would be well to take the villain to Picardy,' said the marchioness. -She said also that she had long been pressing Sainte-Croix to return the -box, and that Pennautier was involved with herself in the matter. -Regnier left Madame de Brinvilliers and went to find Briancourt at -Vertus. He told him, to begin with, that he had arrested La Chaussée, -and Briancourt exclaimed, 'Then she is a lost woman!' He went on to -speak of the poison which she had often talked about, and said that she -had several sorts of it in her house. - -Meanwhile Madame Antoine d'Aubray, widow of the last civil lieutenant -and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going -on--that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had -suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Châtelet -on September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for -damages against La Chaussée and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had -just fled to England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All -suspicions were at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussée heard -before the Châtelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing -the defendant to the preliminary torture, _manentibus indiciis_. If the -wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the -salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d'Aubray made a -passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring -to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully -sustained, and that it was not permissible to have recourse to a -preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch the criminals -from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle.[5] In spite -of a skilful defence, La Chaussée was condemned to death on March 24, -1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning, and -condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the -'question ordinary and extraordinary,' and that Madame de Brinvilliers -was to be beheaded for contempt of court. - -When submitted to torture, La Chaussée displayed uncommon courage and -denied everything. The mode of torture adopted was that of the boot. -The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were -driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in -succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the -machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and -refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussée -voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy's -tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. 'What -accuser,' says La Reynie, 'would have been listened to for a moment if -God had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges -could not condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on -conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the -heart of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute -silence, confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?' La -Chaussée was broken on the wheel the same day. - - * * * * * - -Taking refuge in London, the marchioness led a wretched existence, in -distress which she found insupportable, and a prey to incessant fears. - -Louis XIV had from the first taken a very strong personal interest in -this case. It was his sincere desire that the investigation should be -made as complete and luminous as possible, and he was determined to -follow up and strike at all the accomplices, however high they were -placed. The Secretaries of State had not awaited the declarations made -by La Chaussée on May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government -to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several -letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de -Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles II. The king of -England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not -allow the arrest to be made by English officers; that would have to be -undertaken by France. Croissy was highly embarrassed. The embassy was -not provided with tools for such jobs. Colbert insisted, and at length -the ambassador was on the point of winning Charles's consent to the -employment of English police, when Madame de Brinvilliers, taking -fright, quitted England for the Netherlands. - -Meanwhile her husband, this amazing Marquis de Brinvilliers, had quietly -taken up his abode, with his children and domestics, in the chateau of -Offémont, belonging to the estate of his father-in-law and two -brothers-in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of -the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two _lettres de -cachet_ had been signed by Louis XIV, bearing date February 22 and March -31, 1674, ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within -three leagues of it, that he decided to allow the widow of the civil -lieutenant to enter upon the enjoyment of her own property. - -We have very little information on the life of the marchioness between -her departure from London and her arrest on March 25, 1676, at Liége in -a convent where she had taken shelter. She had gone from London to the -Netherlands, then into Picardy, the country conquered by King Louis, -thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent, but -was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she -fled to Antwerp, then to Liége. She had nothing to support her but an -annuity of 500 livres, which fell to 250 on the death of her sister; she -was sometimes 'reduced to borrowing a crown.' While at Cambrai, she -appears to have sent asking her husband to join her there; his answer -was, 'She would poison me like the rest.' - -It came to the ears of Louvois that Madame de Brinvilliers was in hiding -at Liége. He at once despatched Desgrez, the captain of police, a man of -tried ability. Desgrez was instructed to make all speed, for the French -troops then in possession of Liége were on the point of handing over the -town to the Spaniards. Michelet and the majority of historians have -woven the arrest of the marchioness into a romance. Desgrez, a handsome -fellow, disguises himself as a courtly abbé, and wins a warm welcome -from the lady, always eager for gallant adventures: at the rendezvous, -the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of -archers. As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest -manner, 'on the last day,' writes La Reynie, 'that the king's authority -was recognised in the town of Liége.' It was not even Desgrez who -carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a -former clerk of Fouquet's named Bruant, otherwise Descarrières. 'The -burgomasters,' wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, 'have behaved so -well that they confided to me their master-key to go and arrest this -lady, without wanting to know why it was to be done.' Next day, March -26, Descarrières wrote again to Louvois: 'I arranged that the detective -(Desgrez) should be present as privy to the capture'; he informed him -also that a small box was seized on the lady's person, at which 'she -appeared much agitated, and at first told mayor Goffin that her -confession was in the casket,' begging him to have it restored to her. -Descarrières sealed the box with his own seal and that of Desgrez. - -La Reynie says upon this subject: 'It was God who ordained that this -wretched woman, who fled from kingdom to kingdom, should be careful to -write and carry with her the proofs necessary to her condemnation.' This -confession, in which the marchioness recalls in a few pages all the -crimes of her life, was published by Armand Fouquier; but its flavour is -so strong that the editor was not able to reproduce the original text, -but had to translate the principal passages into Latin. - -From Liége the marchioness was led under guard to Maestricht, where she -arrived on March 29; she was there locked up, and rigorously watched in -the town hall. Immediately after her arrest, the prisoner tried to -commit suicide by swallowing the fragments of a glass which she had -broken between her teeth. She swallowed pins, too, but did not succeed -in killing herself. Resne, one of the sentries, vigorously abused her: -'You are a wicked woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of -your family, you want to do away with yourself!' She answered, 'If I did -so, it was under evil counsel.' On another occasion Desgrez was informed -that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible -fashion. 'Ah, you wretch!' he cried. 'I see that you want to do for -yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!' She replied: 'If I had -only had good advice! We often have our evil moments.' The archers who -guarded her during her journey from Liége to Paris gave the judges a -description of this third attempt at suicide which it is impossible to -reproduce. The following is a note from Emmanuel de Coulanges, forwarded -by Madame de Sévigné to Madame de Grignan: 'She stuck a stick into -herself; guess where: it was not in her eye, nor her mouth, nor her ear, -nor her nose, nor was she absolutely brutal.' - -During the journey Madame de Brinvilliers was escorted by the Marshal -d'Estrades in person as far as Huy, and from Huy to Rocroi by the troops -of Monsieur de Montal. The prisoner's character displayed itself in all -its untamed energy. Locked up at Maestricht, she suggested to Antoine -Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a -gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for -her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand pistoles. At other -times she urged him to help her throttle Desgrez, kill the _valet de -chambre_, detach the two leading horses from the coach, take the -documents, the casket with her confession, and another important paper, -and burn them all, for which purpose he was to carry a lighted match. - -She wrote to former servants who remained faithful to her, and actually -succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for they endeavoured to -rescue her, and tried to bribe her guardians. - -She persisted in the plan she had devised in regard to the accusation -under which Pennautier lay. She asked Barbier for ink to write to him; -he gave her some, and feigned to have despatched the letter. And when he -asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, 'Yes, yes,' she replied, -'and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.' Another time -she said: 'He must be much more frightened than I am. I have been -questioned about him, but I have said nothing, and have too much feeling -to charge him: half of the aristocracy are involved too, and I should -ruin them all if I spoke.' This she repeated several times. - -At Mézières the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement -counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first -interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sévigné, wrote to -Madame de Grignan: 'The king has required the Parlement to depute -Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to -interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don't wish to wait till she -arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.' - -The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is -dated Mézières, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic -denials. - -'Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she -set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written -such things she was out of her mind. - -'Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said -she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it. - -'Asked if she had not poisoned her father and brothers, she said she -knew nothing about it. - -'Asked if it was not La Chaussée who had poisoned her brothers, she said -she knew nothing of all that. - -'Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom -she had written them; she said she did not remember. - -'Asked why she wrote to Théria to secure the box, she said she did not -know what that was. - -'Asked why, in writing to Théria, she said she was lost if he did not -get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.' - -The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival -in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer -Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he -carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges. - -On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:-- - -'I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this -business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional -obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean -this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people -who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. -I think it would be much to the purpose if you did not show yourself too -much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor -severely examined me about you at Mézières.' - -There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the 'Bernardins -widow,' that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des -Bernardins. - -Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in -regard to Pennautier. 'I do not know at all,' she said on the night -before her death, 'that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication -with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without -betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the -box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their -friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in -this suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, -running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing -thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, -Monsieur Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, -considering the step I am taking, and that will induce him to exert -himself on my behalf as much as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; -and if he is innocent, my letter is waste labour. I risk nothing but the -indignation of a person who would be careful not to stand up for me, nor -to render me any service if I had written him nothing.' - -The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier -to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky -functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room -that Ravaillac[6] had occupied. - - * * * * * - -Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier's -predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to -arouse public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having -poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an -office of considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits -drawn up by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging -documents were in everybody's hands. - -The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in -the opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who -diligently spread false reports about him. The people regarded his -influence and wealth with amazement, the nobility with envy. On the -other hand, Pennautier, like Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a -circumstance which does honour to the time. 'It is wonderful,' says -Saint-Simon, 'how many of the most notable men are working on his -behalf.' This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the -recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed Fouquet's friends was -present to every mind. The Cardinal de Bonsy, the Duke de Verneuil, the -Archbishop of Paris, Harlay de Champvallon, and Colbert were among the -most active. The judges, who were suspected by Louis XIV himself of -having been corrupted, gave proof of an admirable independence. - -Pennautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on -June 15, 1676, when the police made a sudden raid upon his room. What he -had written was as follows:--'I think that, for our friend, a stay of a -month in the country will suffice....' Startled by this sudden -interruption, Pennautier nervously put this note in his mouth as though -to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which -the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had -entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of -convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the -pamphlets of Sainte-Croix' widow, he established incontestably the -falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to -base their accusations. These latter found themselves reduced to -maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the -seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix' place had been falsified. - -'I am accused of having poisoned Saint-Laurent,' added Pennautier; 'but -has it been so much as proved that he died of poison? It is at least -singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for -the reports of the doctors, as well as the circumstances under which he -died, prove that his death was natural.' - -The close of Pennautier's reply was crushing for his accuser. He pointed -out that Madame de Saint-Laurent had waited six years before bringing -her case into court. How was that silence explained? Saint-Laurent being -dead, Pennautier was appointed to his office of receiver-general for the -clergy. 'Saint-Laurent's wife gave him her nomination on June 12, 1669; -the same day they drew up a sort of contract together, by which the lady -reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 -pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the -right to return to this office, in accordance with the deed of -defeasance given him by Saint-Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette -resigned that office in his favour on March 17, 1669. The dame de -Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the -office until the last day of December 1675, when the agreement -terminated; and if Pennautier had been willing to renew the agreement -with her, when the general assembly of the clergy did him the honour to -elect him receiver-general for ten years, which will end on the last day -of December 1685, those who know the dame de Saint-Laurent are convinced -that she would never have accused Pennautier of poisoning the Sieur de -Saint-Laurent her husband.' - -We have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important -part played by Pennautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in -France under the direction of Colbert. - - * * * * * - -Nothing was talked about in Paris but Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier--'a grave injustice to the war,' as Madame de Sévigné said. - -Through the privilege of nobility, Madame de Brinvilliers was brought -before the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom--the High Court and -the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested a counsel to assist her in -her defence, but the request was refused, at least provisionally. - -The court was presided over by the first president, Lamoignon. Between -April 29 and July 16, 1676, the case occupied twenty-two sittings. The -marchioness displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant -subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything -obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, -but never failed in the respect due to the judges--a respect in which -pride and nobility mingled, and which made the audience feel that she -considered herself at least the equal of the men judging her. - -When they came to read the account of the examination at Mézières on -April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The following -is an extract from the official report of the proceedings:-- - -'At the reading of these interrogatories, the first president wished to -intervene and postpone it until after the confession had been read. -This raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was -allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as -sodomy and incest, which being on this occasion only a matter of -confession, it seemed that they should be kept a great secret; some were -for, others against. - -'Monsieur de Palluau said that, having consulted the law-doctors, he had -been told that, a confession having been found _en route_, it ought to -have been burnt under penalty, as some believed, of mortal sin. - -'Other doctors held that the said Palluau, in his capacity as judge, had -had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to -interrogate her on the aforesaid paper beginning, _I accuse myself, my -father,_ etc. - -'The first president held that the question was extremely uncertain, yet -he thought the papers ought to be read. - -'The President de Mesmes held that this sort of confession had been -utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epistle of St. Leo, -showing that the judges had made use of them. - -'Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion. - -'The first president answered that the epistle of St. Leo was utterly -opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes, and that there was -nothing for it but to resume the reading. - -'The question having been argued, the reading was continued. - -'Asked if she had not made her confession, and to whom she ought to -confess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a -confession, and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess. - -'Monsieur Roujault reported in the afternoon that he had put the -question to Monsieur Benjamin, an ecclesiastical judge, to Monsieur du -Saussoy and other casuists, and to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and -professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, -and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy of the -confessional could only be between the confessor and the penitent, and a -paper having been found purporting to be a confession, it might be read -by the judges.' - -On July 13, 1676, a terrible deposition was heard--that of Briancourt, -who related in detail his mistress's life. He spoke in a voice broken by -emotion. The marchioness contradicted him with the same cold, haughty -impassivity. 'Her spirit quite overawes us,' said President Lamoignon. -'We worked yesterday at her case till eight o'clock in the evening; she -was confronted with Briancourt for thirteen hours, and to-day another -five, and she has gone through both ordeals with surprising courage. No -one could have more respect for the judges, nor more scorn for the -witness confronting her: she taunted him with being a besotted lackey, -bundled out of the house for his disorderly conduct, and one whose -testimony should not be received against her.' But she was lost. The -marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious -punishment--the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre -Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of -torture, the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the -scaffold, the stake, the 'tomb of fire' whence the hand of the -executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The -judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at -the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes -streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: 'I warned you -many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your -crimes would ruin you,' the marchioness replied--a wonderful reply in -its pride and self-control--'You are chicken-hearted, you are crying!' -Could one find such a saying in Roman history, or in Corneille? We -prefer the bare cold version of the official minute to the version -reported by President Lamoignon to the abbé Pirot: 'She insulted -Briancourt about the tears he shed at the remembrance of the death of -her brothers, when he declared that she had made him her confidant in -regard to their poisoning, and told him that he was a villain to weep -before all these gentlemen--that it resulted from a mean spirit. All -this was said with great coolness, and without any appearance of -changing countenance during the five hours we all watched her to-day.' - -Advocate Nivelle, on whom fell the heavy task of presenting the defence -of the accused lady, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. -His defence was still renowned in the eighteenth century. It was broad -in style, and some of his phrases were of great beauty. - -'The enormity of the crimes,' he said, 'and the rank of the person -accused require proofs of the most convincing clearness, written, so to -speak, with rays of sunlight.' He went on to ask if the proofs adduced -against Madame de Brinvilliers were of this quality. He succeeded in -throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty -depositions--that of Sergeant Cluet, for instance, who was devoted body -and soul, he said, to the opposite party; to the widow d'Aubray, who -sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremest animosity. The -deposition of Edme Briscien, he maintained, should be entirely rejected, -for the witness was not confronted with the marchioness, and on that -point the rules of procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took -advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussée's declaration after -torture. The argument based on Sainte-Croix' famous box seemed to him to -have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which -Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the -marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison -bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady's letters to -Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last -to the written confession seized at Liége, Nivelle strongly protested -against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. -'The last proof,' he said, 'relates to a paper found among those of the -marchioness, in which she had written a religious confession. It is -astounding that the accusers desired the judges to read this paper, for -it was of a nature which laws human and divine hold sacred and -inviolable under the seal of secrecy and silence demanded by the rules -of one of the most august of mysteries, as I will prove by invincible -arguments.' These arguments were exhausted in a minute study of the -writings of the Church fathers and of ecclesiastical history, from which -the advocate produced numerous examples and excerpts likely to imbue the -judges with the profoundest respect for the secrecy of confession, under -whatever form it might present itself. - -Finally, Nivelle set himself to win a little sympathy, or at any rate -pity, for his client. He depicted this woman as a frail thing, of noble -birth, beautiful and sensitive by nature, a butt for several months past -to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of -archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been -deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Whitsunday had been -refused permission to hear mass. Undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed -to that revulsion of feeling in favour of the marchioness which was so -strongly marked during the last days. - -The advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the -prosecutrix: 'The accuser ought not to press hardly against the lady, -because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her -husband in the exemplary punishment of that wretched criminal (La -Chaussée) who slew him; she should rather wish that the family to which -she is allied should not be sullied with an eternal disgrace, and that -she should not incur the reproach of being wanting in natural feeling -for her nephews, whom she ought to consider as her own children. The -death of the late Messieurs d'Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if -they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that -the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they -recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would -themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing -their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would -prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in -preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish themselves -rather than to avenge them. But if they find their consolation in the -acquittal of Lady Brinvilliers; if her children--who would suffer -punishment as if they were guilty, and to whom life would become a -torture and death a consolation--find in it the preservation of the -honour of a family so notable as that from which their mother is -sprung--these wise magistrates who are to judge her will also have more -glory in giving to the public a famous example of their justice, their -piety, and their sovereign equity, by declaring her innocent.' - -On July 15, 1676, Madame de Brinvilliers appeared for the last time -before her judges for her final cross-examination, and in the course of -this long ordeal, in which for three hours her whole life was -remorselessly dissected, she did not flag for a moment. She denied -everything; she did not know what poison and antidote meant; her -pretended confession was sheer madness. 'She did not appear affected by -what the first president said, though, after he had done his part as -judge, he assumed the tone of a merciful friend, and addressed to her -words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in -some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,' -we read in a summary report of the trial, 'dwelt upon the dreadful -illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her -that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her -seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the -reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with -her. The President de Novion reminded her that her brother the civil -lieutenant had suspected other persons, and that this suspicion had -embittered his last moments. The first president told her also' (and -this is one of the most curious features of the trial for the study of -the moral ideas of the period), 'that the greatest of all her crimes, -horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and -brothers, but her attempt to poison herself. She was kept for another -half hour, but would say nothing, merely showing signs of a little -distress at heart.' - -'The first president wept bitterly,' writes the abbé Pirot, 'and all the -judges shed tears.' She alone kept her head proudly erect, and preserved -undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes. - -Taine has given in one line a marvellous definition of the character of -Racine's heroines and the art of the poet himself: 'We imagine the tears -which never appear in their beautiful eyes.' The sequel of our story -will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de -Brinvilliers in some points resembled some of Racine's heroines, and -will help to show with what exactitude the incomparable poet reproduced -the models presented him by the society of his time. - -In closing this memorable scene on July 15, President Lamoignon told the -prisoner that, out of charity and on the plea of her sister the -Carmelite nun, a person of the greatest merit and the highest virtue was -being sent to her to console her and to exhort her to think of her -soul's salvation. We are about to see coming upon the stage one of the -most interesting figures in the drama, the sympathetic abbé, Edme Pirot. - - - - -III. HER DEATH - - -Edme Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Auxerre -on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness of -Brinvilliers. His discussions with Leibnitz had made his name famous -throughout Europe. His was an ardent and sensitive soul: his heart was -torn when he came in contact with the griefs of others. 'The delicacy of -my temperament was so great,' he said, 'that I could never bear the -sight of blood, not even my own, and at one time I had turned quite -faint at the sight of a wound being dressed, and never since ventured to -come within sight of a similar operation.' He had an acute and subtle -intellect, endowed with a remarkable faculty for psychological insight. - -President Lamoignon, in appointing the abbé Pirot to attend Madame de -Brinvilliers, had given a fresh proof of his knowledge of men. He knew -that the gentle and soul-stirring words of the priest would act on the -heart of the prisoner, and perhaps obtain what all the machinery of -justice had not succeeded in achieving--the revelation of her -accomplices, the composition of her poisons and the proper antidotes to -employ. 'It is for the public interest,' said Lamoignon to the abbé -Pirot, 'that her crimes should die with her, and that she should -acquaint us with all the consequences her poison might have, so far as -she knows them; without which we should be unable to counteract them, -and her poisons would survive her.' Further, it was his earnest desire -to find in Pirot a priest whose exhortations would, at the hour of -death, touch this rebellious soul and set it on the narrow road to -salvation. - -The good abbé has described the last day of Madame de Brinvilliers -minute by minute. His story fills two volumes, one of the most -extraordinary monuments literature can show. It is written with no -regard for artistic effect: the conversations are reported at length, -with repetitions and interminably wearisome details; but the clear, -exact, and flowing style, the just and restrained expression of the -keenest passions, continually remind us of the tragedies of Racine. -_Phédre_ and the abbé Pirot's story were composed in the same year; if -the priest had given any thought to the public as he wrote, and had paid -some attention to his style and to the avoidance of repetitions and -prolixity, posterity unquestionably might well have signed both works -with the same name. - -Michelet has strikingly described the appearance of the priest in the -tower of the Conciergerie:-- - -'Quaking with terror, Pirot was ushered into the Conciergerie, and taken -to the top of the Montgommery tower; there he entered a room in which -there were four persons--two warders, a wardress, and, farthest away -from him, the monster. - -'The monster was quite a little woman, dainty, with very soft blue eyes, -marvellously beautiful. As soon as she saw Pirot, she prettily thanked a -priest who up to then had attended her, and expressed with easy grace -her absolute confidence in the learned abbé. He saw at once how much she -was loved by those who lived with her. When she spoke of her death, the -two men and the woman burst into tears. She seemed to love them too, and -was kind and gentle with them, not proud at all; she made them eat at -her table. - -'"To be sure, sir," she said to Pirot, "you are the priest that the -first president has sent to console me; it is with you that I am to -pass the little that remains of life: and I have long been impatient to -see you." - -'"I come, madam," answered Pirot, "to render you in spiritual matters -what service I can. I could wish it were in any other matter than this." - -'"Sir," she rejoined, "we must submit to everything."' - -And at that moment, turning towards an Oratorian named Father de -Chevigny, she said: 'Father, I am obliged to you for bringing this -gentleman, and for all the other visits you have been good enough to pay -me; pray God for me, I beseech you: henceforth I shall speak to scarcely -any one but the father here. I have matters to discuss with him that are -spoken of in secret. Farewell.' - -The Oratorian retired. - -Madame de Brinvilliers seems to have been won at the outset by the -affectionate expression of her confessor, and by his sincere and -sympathetic words. Judgment had not yet been pronounced. 'My death is -certain,' she said; 'I must not delude myself with hope. I have to tell -you the story of all my life.' But the conversation drifted away to what -was being said of her in society. 'I can imagine pretty well that they -are talking a good deal about me, and that I have been for some time a -byword among the people.' And her eyes flashed. - -Pirot tried to show her that, assuming she was guilty, her duty was to -disclose all her accomplices, to reveal the composition of her poisons -and the means of counteracting them. She interrupted him: 'Sir, are -there not some sins that are unpardonable in this world, either from -their gravity or their number? Are there not some so atrocious or so -numerous that the Church cannot remit them?' 'Believe, madam, that there -are no sins irremissible in this life,' answered the priest, and he -enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and an infectious faith. -Conviction by degrees took possession of the prisoner's soul, and with -it there dawned a gleam of regeneration, hope in a future life serene -and happy--glorious, as the abbé said--and with the thought her heart -was changed. '"Sir," she answered me, "I am convinced of all you tell -me. I believe that God can pardon all sins; I believe that He has often -exercised this power; but all my trouble now is to know whether He will -apply His power to one so wretched as I." I told her that she must hope -that God would take pity on her in His infinite mercy. She began to -describe in general terms the whole of her life, and from that moment I -saw that her heart was touched, and she burst into tears beholding her -wretchedness.' By the contagion of his sympathetic kindness, and by the -light of redemption, Pirot had in a few hours melted this heart of brass -like wax. - -'After she had given me an outline of her life, knowing that I had not -yet said mass, she intimated spontaneously that it was time to say it, -and that I might go down to the chapel for that purpose. She begged me -say it to our Lady on her behalf, so as to obtain the pardon of which -she stood in need, and asked me to come up again as soon as the -sacrifice had been completed, saying that she would be present in -spirit, since she was not permitted to attend in person, and that she -thought of telling me in detail on my return that which she had so far -told me only in general terms. - -'After my mass,' continues Pirot, 'as I was taking a sip of wine in the -jailer's room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur de -Sency, librarian to the Palais, that Madame de Brinvilliers was -condemned. I went upstairs and found the marchioness awaiting me in -great serenity. - -'"It is only by dying by the hand of the executioner," she said, "that I -can win salvation. If I had died at Liége before my arrest, where should -I be now? And if I had not been taken, what would my end have been? I -will confess my crime to the judges to whom I have denied it hitherto. I -fancied I could conceal it, flattering myself that without my confession -there would have been nothing to convict me, and that I was not bound to -accuse myself. To-morrow, at my last examination, I mean to repair the -ill that I have done at the others. - -'"I beg you, sir," she went on suddenly, "to make my excuses to the -first president. You will please see him on my behalf after my death, -and will tell him that I ask his pardon, and that of all the judges, -for the effrontery they have seen in me; that I believed it would serve -my defence, and that I never believed there would be proof enough to -condemn me without my avowal; that I now see things in a different -light, and that I was touched yesterday by what he said to me, and that -I put violent constraint on myself to prevent my features from showing -what I felt. Ask him to forgive me for the offence I gave to the whole -bench assembled to judge me, and to beg the other judges to pardon me." - -'It was thus,' Pirot continues, 'that she went on relating to me the -whole matter until half-past one, when a servant came and brought the -cloth for dinner. She took nothing but two fresh eggs and a little soup, -and talked to me, while I was eating, about indifferent things, with -very great freedom of mind and a tranquillity which surprised me, as if -she were entertaining me at dinner in a country house. She invited to -the table the two men and the women who were her usual guard. "Sir," she -said to me, after she had told them to sit down, "you will not mind our -dispensing with ceremony for you? They are accustomed to eat with me to -keep me company, and we shall do so to-day if you do not object. This," -she said to them, "is the last meal I shall take with you." And turning -towards the woman who was beside her, she said: "Madam, my poor Du Rus, -you will soon be quit of me; I have long been a trouble to you, but it -will soon be over. To-morrow you will be able to go to Dranet. You will -have time enough for that. In seven or eight hours you will have me no -longer to bother you, for I do not think you have the heart to see my -end." - -'She said all this with a coolness and serenity which indicated rather a -natural equality of mind than an affected pride. And as these people -from time to time burst into tears and withdrew to conceal them from -her, she, noticing it, threw me a glance of pity, though she shed no -tears, as though sorry for their grief, almost as a mother might do on -her deathbed, when, seeing around her her weeping servants, she looks at -the confessor kneeling near her and marks the sorrow their affection -gives him. - -'From time to time she urged me to eat, and scolded the jailer for -putting cabbage in the soup. She asked me with much politeness to allow -her to drink my health. I thought that I might do her some pleasure in -drinking to hers, and it was not difficult to show her this little -attention. She asked me to excuse her for not serving me, careful not to -say that she had no knife for that purpose, so as not to give the -slightest shadow of complaint. - -'"Sir," she said to me at the end of the meal, "it is fast-day -to-morrow, and though it will be a very tiring day for me"--she was to -undergo torture and then be beheaded--"I have no intention of eating -meat." "Madam," I replied, "if you need a meat soup to sustain you, -there will be no occasion to stand on scruples; it will not be out of -fastidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the Church is -not rigorous in such a case." "Sir," she replied, "I would not be -particular if I needed it and you ordered it; but I am sure it will not -be necessary. All I require is a little soup this evening at -supper-time, and again at eleven o'clock; to-day they will make it a -little stronger than usual, and with that, and a couple of eggs I can -take at the torture, I shall get through to-morrow." - -'It is true,' adds the good priest, 'that I was thunderstruck at all -this composure, and I shivered when I heard her tell the jailer, so -quietly, that the soup was to be stronger that evening than usual, and -that two servings were to be kept for her before midnight. - -'I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de -Brinvilliers, and as it was generally believed that she had always had -little enough love for him, I was surprised to find that she had so -much. Indeed, it appeared to me to verge towards excess, and for half an -hour I saw her more distressed for him than for herself.' And when -Pirot, to test her, said that her husband appeared very insensible to -her approaching fate, he drew from her a dignified reply: he must not -judge things so hastily, she told him, or without intimate knowledge, -and that up to that day she had only had to congratulate herself on her -husband. - -She asked for a pen, and with a rapid hand wrote this astonishing -letter to the Marquis de Brinvilliers:-- - - 'Being as I am on the point of going to give account of my soul to - God, I want to assure you of my affection, which will endure to the - last moment of my life. I ask your pardon for all that I have done - that I ought not to have done. I die an honourable death, brought - upon me by my enemies. I forgive them with all my heart, and - beseech you to forgive them. I hope that you will also forgive me - for the disgrace that may be reflected on you. But remember that we - are here only for a time, and perhaps ere long you yourself will - have to go and render to God an exact account of all your actions, - even your idle words, as I am now preparing to do. Watch over our - temporal affairs and our children: bring them up in the fear of the - Lord, and yourself set them an example. On this consult Monsieur - Marillac and Madame Cousté. Offer up for me as many prayers as you - can, and be assured that I die yours devotedly, - -D'AUBRAY.' - - - -Pirot objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was -not correct. 'How so, sir?' she said. 'Are not those who have driven me -to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them -their rancour?' - -Pirot's answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation -which plunged her into great astonishment. - -Then the confession was resumed. - -'King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,' said Pirot, 'his -heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was -bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, -and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the -cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like -that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of -the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not -cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred -kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness -and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All -these words and a thousand others like them,' adds Pirot, 'caused her -to weep bitterly.' - -Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, -who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was -disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her -accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness -replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that -till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for -death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of -Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once. - -She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. -'"Sir," she said to me, "I have not asked to see them; that would only -have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them."' -Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and -that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and -humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair -prisoner's character to the bottom. 'Ah!' she said, interrupting him, -'those are grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my -hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still -attached to this world's glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with -which I am loaded.' And to the priest's remarks she replied: 'I tell -myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of -pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural -to me.' And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: -'At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments -when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose -acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so -dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.' - -Pirot supped that evening with the prisoner; then, when night had -fallen, he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great -agitation, and on reaching his apartment he had recourse to his -breviary. 'The image of the lady I had seen all day so powerfully -possessed me that I could hardly attend to what I was reading: it seemed -to me that I was for nearly half an hour circling round _Domine, labia -mea aperies_, returning always to where I had begun. At last, seeing -that I must get on, I applied myself a little more diligently to my -reading, so as to be less distracted by this idea. But in spite of all -my close attention, I was quite three hours in reciting my office.' - -He has described at length his sleeplessness, the thoughts that crowded -upon his mind, the anguish which choked him: 'I got no sleep at all. -Those who know the delicacy of my nature, how sensitive I am to the -misery and pain I see in persons who are indifferent to me, will have no -difficulty in realising the depth of my sorrow for a lady whom I had -seen so afflicted, and who was so near to my heart by reason of the -interest I was bound to take in the salvation of the soul intrusted to -me.' Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven, he cried: 'O God, -I am greatly concerned for her whose salvation is as dear to me as my -own; I die every moment for her, and all the reward I ask in the -conflict I have to maintain with her before she closes her career is to -see her crowned with Thee!' - -In the morning Pirot returned to the prisoner. 'I was taken up the -tower, where I found Father de Chevigny in tears as he closed a prayer -with the lady, who greeted me with the same courage that I had seen in -her on the previous evening.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers has slept as peacefully as a child. - -One of the first questions she put to her confessor related to a fear -which had arisen in her mind, and the thought of which gave her much -torture. 'Sir,' she said to me, 'you gave me yesterday some hope that I -might be saved, but I cannot have the presumption to promise myself that -that will be till after a long time in purgatory. How shall I know -whether I am in purgatory or hell?' Pirot reassured her. - -Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Brinvilliers was to -descend to hear her sentence read. 'She was prepared for death and -torture; but she had not thought of the public penance or of the fire. -She answered fearlessly, "In a moment, but just now we are finishing our -conversation, this gentleman and I." We shortly finished our talk in -great serenity.' - -On leaving the prisoner, Pirot betook himself to the chapel of the -Conciergerie. 'I said mass for her, and went into the jailer's room. I -found him there, and he told me that he had accompanied her to the -torture-chamber, and that after her sentence had been read, when the -executioner approached to seize her, she looked him up and down without -saying a word, and seeing a rope in his hand, she offered him her hands -already clasped. I learned after dinner from the procurator-general that -she had been agitated at the reading of her sentence, and that she got -it read a second time.' - -The sentence was dated July 16, 1676:-- - -'The court has declared and declares the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers -duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maître Dreux d'Aubray her -father, and the said d'Aubray, civil lieutenant and counsellor in the -said court, her brothers, and for reparation has condemned and condemns -the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers to do public penance before the -principal door of the church of Paris, where she will be taken in a -cart, bare-footed, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a lighted -torch of two pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare -that wickedly, from revenge and to have their property, she has poisoned -her father and two brothers, and attempted the life of her late sister, -of which she repents, and asks pardon of God, the king, and justice; -this done, to be led and conducted in the said cart to the Place de -Grève of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold, which -will be erected for that purpose on the said place; her body to be -burned, and her ashes thrown to the winds: the question ordinary and -extraordinary to be first applied in order to obtain revelation of her -accomplices.' - -She declared in the evening that the part of the sentence which had so -startled her at the first reading that she could not hear the rest, was -the passage which stated that she was to be put in a cart. Her pride was -aroused. - -After the sentence had been read, the condemned woman was led into the -torture-chamber, and when she saw the apparatus, she said: 'Gentlemen, -it is useless, I will tell everything without torture. Not that I think -I can escape it--my sentence orders me to be tortured, and I suppose it -will not be dispensed with--but I will declare all beforehand. I have -denied everything hitherto, because I imagined I was thus defending -myself, and that I was not bound to confess anything. I have been -convinced of the contrary, and I will behave in accordance with the -instructions given me. And I can assure you that if I had seen three -weeks ago the person whom I have had given me the last twenty-four -hours, you would three weeks ago have known what you are going to learn -now.' Then raising her voice, she made a clear and complete avowal of -the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poisons she had -employed, she knew only arsenic, vitriol, and the poison of toads. The -strongest poison was 'rarefied arsenic.' The only antidote which she had -used herself when poisoned by Sainte-Croix was milk. As to her -accomplices, apart from Sainte-Croix and her lackeys she declared that -she had never had or known any. - -The judges were struck by the frankness of her words. And as we know, -she spoke at that moment with entire sincerity. - -Madame de Brinvilliers underwent the cruelest torture then applied by -the Parlement of Paris: the ordeal of water. Enormous quantities of -water were introduced into the stomach of the condemned through a funnel -placed between the teeth. This water, rapidly accumulating inside the -body, produced the most horrible agonies. - -Meanwhile the poor abbé Pirot was suffering as much from the torture as -the sufferer herself: 'I did not see her from half-past seven until two -o'clock in the afternoon. I can say that this was the only bad time I -had that day; apart from the time I spent without her, the rest cost me -nothing. But while she was under torture I was extraordinarily restless, -saying to myself at every moment, "They are now giving her torture."' - -He took refuge in a little room where, in spite of the promises of the -jailer, he was besieged by importunate visitors. Curious ladies of the -court flocked to him. While there some one handed to him a little medal, -with a message from the wife of President Lamoignon, saying that she had -received it from the pope, with the authority to bestow indulgence on -any dying person she chose, and that she gave it to Madame de -Brinvilliers. - -At last Pirot was told that he would find the marchioness lying on a -mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and -sympathetic words, and his exhortation to repentance, Pirot had little -by little bent this character of iron. He had sent the condemned lady -resigned and submissive to the judges. But under the pangs of torture -which made strong men yield, under the brutal force she had to suffer, -all the pride of her proud nature started up, the worst instincts were -awakened. In revenge, she accused Briancourt of false witness; she -charged Desgrez, who had arrested her at Liége, with purloining -documents. Pirot found her full of hatred and stubbornness, her eyes -blazing. 'She was highly excited, her face red as fire, her eyes -gleaming, her mouth distorted. She asked for wine, which I had brought -to her at once.' - -The rest of the story is really touching. The abbé Pirot watched with -the care of an anxious mother over the reputation of the lady about to -die. 'I expressly notice this circumstance,' he says, 'to undeceive -those who believe that she was too fond of wine and was guilty of taking -it to excess, and that she could not refrain from drinking it freely on -the day of her death. I saw nothing of the kind. It is true that on -Thursday, as on Friday, she had a cup from which at times she tasted as -much as a fly might swallow; but this was only to keep up her strength -and to refresh herself, at a time when the strain of recalling to mind -her whole life, in order to assure herself of any criminality there -might have been in it, much exhausted and excited her; and if care was -taken to have good wine on the day of her death, it was only to cheer -her a little in her natural depression of spirits. It has even been cast -up against her, unjustly, that a bottle was provided for her on the way -to the scaffold: I am responsible for that. I feared that her heart -might fail her, and knowing that at one time it was common to offer -criminals strong drink of some kind, to give them courage to suffer -death, I thought that, as I had seen her necessity that day of -refreshing herself now and then, it would be well to have wine ready; -and, to tell the truth, I thought a little of myself. The wine was only -used by the executioner, who drank a mouthful immediately after the -execution.' - -Before setting out for her punishment the marchioness was to be allowed -to pray for a few moments in the chapel of the Conciergerie, before the -Holy Sacrament exposed for the purpose; but she had to appear there -surrounded by other prisoners, who were all admitted to the chapel when -the Host was placed on the altar. 'When we entered the vestry of the -Conciergerie, she asked the jailer for a pin to fasten the kerchief she -had on her neck, and as he went in all good faith to look for one, she -said to him: "You must not be afraid of anything now: the gentleman will -be my surety, and will answer for it that I do not want to do myself -harm." "Madam," he replied, giving her a pin, "I beg pardon, I never -mistrusted you, and if anybody ever did so, it was certainly not I." He -fell on his knees before her, and thus kneeling kissed her hands. She -begged him to pray to God for her. "Madam," he replied, his voice choked -with sobs, "I will pray for you to-morrow with all my heart."' - -'Meanwhile,' says Pirot, 'she had not yet recovered the penitent spirit -which I had seen in her that morning and the night before.' She spoke of -the sentence. The punishment did not terrify her, but she was bitterly -indignant at the degrading circumstances introduced into it--the public -penance, the scattering of her ashes to the winds. Pirot replied: -'Madam, it matters nothing to your salvation whether your body be laid -in the earth or be cast into the fire. It will rise glorious from the -ashes if your soul is in grace.' And further: 'Yes, madam, this flesh -which men are soon to burn will rise one day, the same but glorified, -provided that your soul rejoices in God; it will be born again, bright -as the sun, no more to suffer, subtle and quick as a spirit.' - -By degrees Pirot regained his hold upon the fair penitent. 'The cloud of -nature was dissolved, her agitation appeared no longer, and, instead of -the hard fierce looks, the biting of lips, and the other impetuous -manifestations of a shattered pride, there were only tears and sobs, -remorse for sin and yearnings for repentance, that would make one's -heart bleed. I could not keep back my tears, and for an hour and a half -I wept with her, speaking, nevertheless, with more force than I had yet -done. She was still more affected by my tears than by my words, and, -pondering on the cause of my tears, she said: "Sir, my distress must be -great to compel you to weep so much, or you take a great interest in -what concerns me."' - -Then she confessed the calumnies she had been unable to avoid conceiving -under torture against Briancourt and Desgrez. Pirot was alarmed, and -when he told her that she ought to repair the fresh sin by a fresh -declaration she appeared surprised. However, the opportunity was about -to be afforded, for about six o'clock the procurator-general sent for -the abbé Pirot. - -'Sir,' he said, 'this is a most vexatious woman.' - -'How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I -now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.' - -'Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her -accomplices.' - -Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along -with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated -to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could -only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. 'Sir,' -she said, 'it is true that you told me that at first and at greater -length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than -I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you -had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them -everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.' -Monsieur de Palluau at once said, 'This is more than enough, sir; -adieu.' 'He went away at once, and we were given only a short time to -spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a -quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much -questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was -her courtesy.' Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, -Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and -Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the -torture-chamber. - -Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the -altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner -came up to speak of 'a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price -of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said -that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior -to herself.' - -As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank--the -Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, -the Abbé de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride -was offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her -confessor: 'Sir, what a strange curiosity!' - -She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned -criminals, holding in one hand the penitent's candle, and in the other a -crucifix. - - * * * * * - -On leaving the Conciergerie she was lifted into the cart. 'It was one of -the smaller carts you see in the streets loaded with rubbish; it was -very short and narrow, and I feared there was not room enough for her -and me. Yet four of us got in, the executioner's assistant sitting on -the board which closed it in front, with his feet on the shafts on -either side of the horse. She and I sat on the straw put down to cover -up the wood, and the executioner stood upright at the back. She got in -first, and leant her back against the front-board and against the side, -slightly at an angle. I was near her, pressing against her to make room -for the executioner's feet, my back against the side of the cart, and my -knees doubled up uncomfortably.' - -The cart proceeded slowly towards the Place de Grève, which extended -from the Hôtel de Ville to the Seine. It was not easy to get through the -crowd which pressed around it. The streets were black with people, and -the windows crowded with sightseers. At this moment the lady's features -underwent a sudden change of expression: 'They were dreadfully -convulsed, the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes, and the whole -countenance wild.' 'Sir,' she said to her confessor, 'would it be -possible, after all that is passing now, for Monsieur de Brinvilliers to -have so little feeling as to remain in this world?' - -Pirot answered as best he could, endeavouring to ease her mind; but what -he said fell on deaf ears, for the marchioness 'then suffered one of the -strongest convulsions of her nature in the vivid apprehension of so much -shame. Her face contracted, her brows were knitted, her eyes flashed, -her mouth was distorted, and her whole aspect was embittered.' 'I do not -think,' adds Pirot, 'that there was a moment in all the time that I had -been with her when her appearance betokened more indignation, and I am -not surprised that Monsieur Le Brun, who is said to have seen her at -that spot, where he could look close at her for some minutes, made so -fiery and terrible a head as he is said to have done in the portrait he -took of her.' Le Brun's sketch is now No. 853 at the exhibition of the -Louvre; it is in red and black chalks. It is an admirable drawing, -unquestionably the artist's masterpiece. Pirot is sketched in silhouette -beside the lady. - -As the cart passed slowly through the crowd, voices were raised crying -out for blood, and heaping curse on curse; but others spoke pitiful -words, and she heard prayers for her salvation. There was a sudden -revulsion of opinion in her favour, which grew stronger and stronger -till the hour of her death. - -The shirt in which she was clothed filled her with amazement. 'Sir,' she -said to her confessor, 'look; I am dressed all in white.' - -All at once a new contraction marked her features. She had just noticed -Desgrez riding near her, the man who had arrested her at Liége, and -subjected her to some rough treatment. She asked the executioner to -move so as to hide this man from her; then she felt remorse for this -'delicacy,' and asked the executioner to return to his former position. -'It was the last time her countenance showed any grimace,' says Pirot. -From that moment she was wholly under the fortifying influence of the -priest who assisted her. Hope arose in her soul, more and more clear and -radiant, and gave strength to her heart. - -She knelt down on the step of the great door of Notre Dame, and there -repeated with docility the formula dictated by the executioner, in which -she publicly confessed her crimes. 'Some people say that she hesitated -in saying her father's name,' observes Pirot; 'but I noticed nothing of -the sort.' - -Then they remounted the cart to wend towards the Place de Grève. 'Not a -word of reproach or complaint against any one escaped her; she showed no -sign of vulgar fear. If she dreaded death, it was only in anticipation -of the judgment of God, and neither the sight of the Grève, the -proximity of the scaffold, nor the appearance of all the terrible -apparatus used in this kind of execution gave her the least shadow of -fright.' - -The cart stopped. The executioner said to her: 'Madam, you must -persevere: it is not enough to have come here and to have responded -hitherto to what this gentleman has been saying, you must go on to the -end as you have begun.' 'This he said in a noticeably humane manner,' -observes Pirot, 'and I was edified by it. It is true that she answered -never a word, but she courteously bent her head as though to show that -she took well what he had said and that she meant to continue in the -temper in which he saw her. He confessed to me that he was surprised at -her firmness.' - -At this moment a clerk of the Parlement appeared. The commissaries were -sitting in the Hôtel de Ville ready to receive any declaration Madame de -Brinvilliers might still have to make about her accomplices. 'Sir,' she -replied, 'I have no more to say; I have told all I know.' She renewed -the declaration whereby she freed Briancourt and Desgrez from the -accusations fabricated against them at her torture. - -The executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold. 'She looked at -me,' says Pirot, 'with a gentle countenance and an expression full of -gratitude and tenderness, and with tears in her eyes. "Sir," she said to -me in a pretty loud tone, which showed how self-possessed she was, but -as courteous as it was firm, "we are not yet to separate. You promised -not to leave me till my head is off; I hope that you will keep your -word." And as I answered nothing, because the tears and sighs which I -could only with difficulty restrain robbed me of all power of speech, -she added, "I beseech you, sir, to forgive me and not to regret the time -you have given to me. I am sorry, for my part, to have given you so -little satisfaction, at least at certain moments; I beg your pardon for -it. But I cannot die without asking you to say a _De profundis_ on the -scaffold at the moment of my death, and a mass to-morrow. Remember me, -sir, and pray for me."' Pirot remarks, 'If I had not been at that moment -more deeply moved than I had ever been in my life, I should have had -many things to reply to her courtesies, and I should have promised her -more than one mass; but I found it impossible to say anything more than -"Yes, madam, I will do all that you bid me."' - -Just as she was walking up the steps Madame de Brinvilliers found -herself next to Desgrez. She then asked his forgiveness for the trouble -she had given him, and begged him to say a few masses and to pray for -her. She ended her 'compliment' by saying that 'she was his servant, and -so she would die on the scaffold.' Then she added, 'Adieu, sir.' - -The throng was immense. Madame de Sévigné, who had come to witness the -execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge Notre Dame, -writes: 'Never was such a crowd seen, nor Paris so moved or so eager.' - -The marchioness knelt down on the scaffold, her face turned towards the -river. 'It was at that moment,' says Pirot, 'that I saw her so intent -upon herself, so wholly occupied with what I had said we would do on the -scaffold, telling me with such wonderful composure all that was -necessary, and making me pass from one thing to another in due order -without any prompting from me, wholly absorbed in what I said to her to -prepare her for death, without the appearance of any wandering in her -thoughts. - -'She was absolutely without fear. She was gentle, courteous, steadfast, -and self-forgetful. She had very great patience to endure with -extraordinary docility all the executioner's preparations. He undid her -hair while she was on her knees; he cut it behind and at both sides; to -do so he made her turn her head several times in different ways, and he -even turned it himself sometimes with no great gentleness: that lasted -quite half an hour. She felt keenly the shame of the proceeding in the -sight of so great a company; but she overcame her grief and submitted to -everything even with joy. I fancy that she had never allowed her hair to -be done so quietly as she then let it be cut and shaved; the -executioner's hand felt no rougher to her than that of a maid doing her -hair; she punctually obeyed his instructions as to turning, lowering, -and raising her head when he pleased. He tore off the top of the shirt -which he had put over her cloak when she left the Conciergerie, so as -to uncover her shoulders. She let him bind her hands as though he were -putting on golden bracelets, and knot the rope about her neck as if it -had been a necklace of pearls. - -[Illustration: MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS - -ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY -CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE -ABBÉ PIROT - -(_From a Sketch by Charles Le Brun, preserved in the Louvre_)] - -'"I should like to be burned alive," she said, "to render my sacrifice -more meritorious, if I could have sufficient confidence in my courage to -bear that kind of death without falling into despair."' - -The Abbé Pirot chanted the _Salve_, and the people crowding round the -scaffold continued the chant that he began. Then he told the lady that -he was about to give her absolution. Thereupon she said, her soul at -peace, 'Sir, you promised me just now to give me a second penitence on -the scaffold, when I pleaded that what you gave me was too easy, and now -you say nothing about it.' 'I asked her to say an _Ave_ and a _Sancta -est Maria mater gratiae_. At the end of which, saying to her, "Madam, -renew your contrition," I gave her absolution, saying only the -sacramental words because time was pressing.' - -The expression of her face was transformed. It was an expression of -hope and joy, of serene faith and love, mingled with the exaltation of -the penitent. 'Never have I seen anything more touching,' says Pirot, -'than her eyes appeared to me, and if I had to paint a countenance full -of contrition and sorrow of heart and hope of pardon, I could wish for -no other features than those I remember still, and shall remember all my -life long.' - -Guillaume the executioner bandaged the eyes of the condemned woman. She -repeated the last prayers along with her confessor. Guillaume with the -back of his sleeve wiped away the beads of sweat which covered his brow. -Suddenly Pirot heard a dull blow, and ceased to speak. 'Madame de -Brinvilliers held her head very straight. The executioner severed it at -a single stroke, which cut so clean that it remained for a moment on the -trunk before falling. I was indeed in agony for an instant, fearing that -he had missed his aim and that he would have to strike a second time.' - -'Sir,' said the headsman, 'isn't it a fine stroke?' - -He added: 'On these occasions I always commend myself to God, and -hitherto he has been with me; five or six days ago this lady was -troubling me and I couldn't get her out of my head: I will have six -masses said.' And, uncorking a bottle, he drank a good draught of wine. - -The body was borne to the stake; the flames consumed it, and then the -ashes were scattered; but the mob struggled to collect some fragments of -the charred bones: all who had been able to get near the scaffold had -seen the face of the criminal illumined with a halo, and they departed -saying that the dead woman was a saint. Madame de Sévigné writes that -Pirot repeated the saying to every one he met. - -The children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers took the name of Offémont. - -Pennautier was acquitted and left the prison on July 27. He recovered -his high position and the repute in which he had been held. - - * * * * * - -In declaring that she had had no other accomplices than Sainte-Croix and -her lackeys Madame de Brinvilliers was speaking the truth. But at that -period crimes as great as hers were being committed in Paris, and it -was not long before the judges discovered them. There was for instance -the celebrated case heard by the 'Chambre Ardente,' to which that of -Madame de Brinvilliers serves as introduction. - - - - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - - - -I. THE SORCERESSES - - -_The Dinner of La Vigoureux._ - -The trial of Madame de Brinvilliers had just caused an immense -sensation. The penitentiaries of Notre Dame, without naming any person, -declared that 'the majority of those who had confessed to them for some -time accused themselves of poisoning somebody.' The court and the city -were still disturbed by the catastrophe which had at St. Cloud suddenly -carried off the charming Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, by the sudden -death of Hugues de Lionne, the great statesman, and by the startling -fate which had just befallen the Duke of Savoy. A note found on -September 21, 1677, in the confessional of the Jesuits in Rue -Saint-Antoine denounced a plot to poison the king and the dauphin. On -December 5 following, La Reynie, lieutenant of police, caused the arrest -of Louis de Vanens, who said he had been an officer. The papers seized -on him and on Finette, his mistress, brought to light an association of -alchemists, coiners, and magicians, in which priests, officers, -important bankers like Cadelan were associated with light women, -lackeys, and vagabonds. The Parlement was investigating the matter, when -La Reynie put his hand on a second association, like the first to all -appearance, but soon to reveal itself to the eyes of the magistrates as -an affair of much greater importance still. - -Towards the end of the year 1678, an advocate in small practice named -Maître Perrin was dining in Rue Courtauvilain with a certain Madame -Vigoureux, wife of a ladies' tailor--the trade, it will be seen, existed -before to-day. The company was merry, and the wine flowed freely. Among -the party was a 'big, powerful, large-faced woman,' who choked with -laughter as she poured out for herself bumpers of burgundy that would -have made a grenadier stagger. Her name was Marie Bosse, and she was -the widow of a horse-dealer. She was further a well-known -fortune-teller--'devineresse,' as they said in those days. 'A fine -trade!' she cried, and spoke of the grand people who frequented her -little rookery in the Rue du Grand-Huleu--duchesses and marchionesses -and princes and lords. 'Another three poisonings, and she would retire -with her fortune made!' At this remark the guests began to laugh still -more loudly: this fat woman was irresistibly funny. Maître Perrin alone -saw, by a sharp and rapid frown on the face of Madame Vigoureux, that -there was something serious in it. He knew Desgrez, the police officer -who had arrested Madame de Brinvilliers, and to him he related the -incident. Desgrez did not laugh at all, and that very day he sent the -wife of one of his archers to the fortune-teller with a complaint -against her husband. The fortune-teller, at the first visit, promised -her assistance; at the second, she gave her a phial of poison, which the -wife at once carried home to her dumfounded husband. La Reynie -forthwith ordered the arrest of Madame Vigoureux, of Marie Bosse, with -her daughter Manon, and her two sons, one of whom was a soldier in the -guards, and the other, a boy of fifteen, was just leaving the workhouse -of Bicêtre, where he had been placed to 'improve his morals and give him -a taste for work.' Marie Bosse was arrested at her own house on the -morning of January 4, 1679, in bed with her two sons. Her daughter had -just risen. 'There was only one bed, in which they all slept together.' -The preliminary inquiry brought to light a crime, the news of which -created a sensation almost as great as that evoked by the poisonings by -Madame de Brinvilliers. - -An order in council, dated January 10, instructed La Reynie to proceed -against the women Bosse, Vigoureux, and their accomplices. On March 12 -an officer set about the arrest of Catherine Deshayes, wife of Antoine -Monvoisin, a peddling jeweller. This woman, usually known as La Voisin, -was the greatest criminal of whom history has any record. She was -arrested as she left the church of Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle after -hearing mass. In her track La Reynie was to penetrate into a region of -crime that the imagination can scarcely conceive. 'Human life is -publicly trafficked in,' he wrote in utter consternation: 'death is -almost the only remedy employed in family embarrassments; impieties, -sacrileges, abominations are common practices in Paris, in the country, -in the provinces.' - - -_Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century_ - -To understand the facts and the characters of the persons we are going -to study, we must dwell briefly upon the beliefs of that time--a time -when beliefs were dominant influences in the life of men. We know what -power religious sentiments had in the seventeenth century--sentiments of -an intensity and a simplicity we know little of to-day, and the -corruption of which could not but engender the most absurd -superstitions. That was the epoch when the sweet Marguerite Alacoque, in -her divine ecstasy, exchanged her heart with that of Christ, and wrote -in her own blood, under dictation from on high, the contract which -ascribed to God these words: 'I constitute thee heiress of my heart and -all its treasures for time and eternity; I promise thee that thou shalt -only lack succour when I lack power; thou shalt be for ever the -well-beloved disciple, the plaything of my good pleasure and the -burnt-offering of my love.' And that, too, was the period when Catherine -Monvoisin, the terrible sorceress of Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, found -numerous and ardent followers. - -The beliefs in the action of the devil, and in the power of the -sorcerers, so deeply rooted in the imagination of the seventeenth -century, were summed up in 1588 in the _Démonomanie des Sorciers_ of the -famous Jean Bodin. He defined the sorcerer as one who 'by devilish and -unlawful means endeavours to attain some end'; but in his book he speaks -for the most part of witches. As Sprenger, the German inquisitor, -remarked, 'We should talk of the heresy of the witches, and not of -sorcerers, for these are of little account.' In Bodin are to be found -most of the practices in black magic still flourishing at the end of the -seventeenth century. Sorcerers and witches formed a sort of vast -fraternity. There were entire families whose formulae and whose -customers were handed down as heritable property. Jeanne Harvillier, -burnt to death on April 30, 1579, may serve as type. Her mother, a witch -like herself, had been burnt to death thirty years before. Such a death -was the natural end to her career, an end foreseen, and one that -terrified those fascinated by the strange vocation much less than one -would imagine. Jeanne was born about 1528, at Verberie near Compiègne. -At the age of twelve she was presented by her mother to the devil, who -appeared to her in the shape of a very tall dark man. Jeanne renounced -God, and consecrated herself to the 'Spirit.' 'At the same time she had -carnal intercourse with him, which continued from the age of twelve to -the age of fifty, when she was arrested. It sometimes happened that her -husband, lying by her side, failed to perceive what was going on.' This -was the _incubat_. Jeanne Harvillier was brought to justice on the -charge of causing the death of men and beasts by witchcraft. She -confessed to it with the greatest frankness, and told the story of her -last homicide: 'She laid some powders, prepared for her by the devil, -in the place where the man who had beaten his daughter was to pass.' -Another man came by to whom she wished no harm, and immediately he felt -a sharp pain all over his body. She promised to cure him, and in fact -took her place at the bedside of the sick man and tended him with the -gentleness of a sister of mercy. She fervently besought the devil to -restore life to the dying man, but the devil replied that it was -impossible. - -Bodin gravely recounts how witches on the Sabbath flew through the air -on broomsticks. He adds: 'What we have said of the travels of the -witches, both in body and in spirit, and the frequent and memorable -experiences of the same, show as in broad daylight, and bring to the -test of touch and sight, the error of those who have written that the -flights of witches are imaginary, and nothing but a trance.' This last -opinion had been maintained by John Wier, physician to the Duke of -Cleves, in a book which is almost a work of genius for that period. -Bodin devoted all his energy to its refutation, for to throw any doubt -upon the fact that the devil transports witches from one place to -another would be, he said, to bring gospel history into ridicule. - -Coming to study the maladies attributed to the incantations of -sorcerers--consumption, hysteria, melancholy, delusions, debility--John -Wier found the remedies to consist in a regular life, in conformity with -the laws of God, and in the skill of physicians. What an abominable -doctrine! says Bodin. He had lost all respect, then, for anything. Bodin -was beside himself. John Wier, he says, wrote under the dictation of -Satan. Moreover, had he not himself confessed that he was a disciple of -Agrippa, 'the greatest sorcerer that ever was'? When Agrippa died in the -hospital of Grenoble, a black dog which he called 'Monsieur' instantly -went and sprang into the river. Wier declared, it is true, that this dog -was not the devil, but there was not a single sensible person who -believed him. - -Without taking a side in this famous dispute between Bodin and John -Wier, we are bound to state that the writings of the latter had no -success, at any rate in France, while Bodin's book became a classic. -Bossuet, for all his powerful intellect, firmly believed in sorcery. At -the close of the seventeenth century, Bonet was obliged to go to a -Protestant republic to get his treatise on medicine printed, in which he -spoke lightly of magic and demoniacal possession. We have to come far -into the eighteenth century to find one Abraham de Saint-André--and he -was physician to Louis XV--daring, in his famous _Letters_, to cast -doubt on the magic and witchcraft of sorcerers. - -The following case, tried at the period in which the events of our story -occurred, and reproduced here after the archives of the Bastille, will -enable us to understand the ardour of belief with which the sorcerers -themselves were animated. - -By sentence of the Tournelle on September 2, 1687, a certain Pierre -Hocque was condemned to the galleys. He was a shepherd, skilled in -magic, who had, as the judgment declared, caused the death, by a spell -he cast over them, of 395 sheep, 7 horses, and 11 cows belonging to -Eustache Visié, receiver of taxes at Pacy-en-Brie. Hocque was chained -up with the other galley prisoners. Nevertheless, the cattle of Eustache -Visié continued to die. He had no sooner bought a cow or a sheep and -placed it in his farm than it perished. Clearly the only remedy was to -get Pierre Hocque to remove the direful spell he had imposed. Visié won -over, by a promise of money, the galley prisoner who was fastened to the -chain next to Hocque--a man named Béatrix. He spoke to the shepherd, who -replied that he had in fact cast a poison-spell over the cattle of -Visié, and that, failing himself, only two shepherds named Bras-de-Fer -and Courte Epée had the power to remove the fatal charm. At the urgent -request of Béatrix, Hocque dictated a letter to be sent to Bras-de-Fer, -but the letter was no sooner despatched than he fell into a horrible -despair. He cried hoarsely that Béatrix had made him do something that -would cause his death, which he would be unable to escape from the -moment Bras-de-Fer began to raise the spell he had cast on the cattle. -And the unhappy wretch writhed about in such dreadful contortions that -the other prisoners would have murdered Béatrix but for the intervention -of the guards. The despair and the convulsions lasted for several days, -and then Hocque died. 'And it was the exact time,' says the official -document, 'when Bras-de-Fer began to exorcise the cattle.' The judges -add: 'It is established that Pierre Hocque died because Bras-de-Fer -removed the poison-spell from the horses and cows, and it is true that -since that time no more of Eustache Visié's horses and cows have died.' - -The conviction of the unhappy sorcerer that he was bound to die as soon -as his mate undid his work was so strong that he did die. Is it possible -to imagine a more striking proof of the robust faith people then had in -all these devilries? - - -_The practices of the Witches_ - -To magic, black or white, the witches added medicine and pharmacy. They -kept drugstores with phials innumerable: syrups, juleps, ointments, -balms, emollients in infinite variety. They were old wives' remedies, -but their efficacy had been proved by experience, and their preparation -was perfected from age to age. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance -physician, burnt in 1527 the medical books of his time, declaring that -nothing but the formulae of the witches was of any use. The old hags had -soothing draughts for pain, healing ointments for wounds, and they acted -on nervous maladies by suggestion. That was the serious side of their -art. Most often the witch was a midwife too; but just as in that strange -world the poisoner lurked behind the druggist, and the alchemist and the -coiner were one, so the midwife played the part of baby-farmer. Finally, -the witches were fortune-tellers, who cast one's horoscope according to -the drawing of cards or the lines of the hand. - -What were the declarations of the witches arrested by La Reynie? Marie -Bosse said that 'nothing better could be done than to exterminate all -that sort of people who examine the hand, because they are the ruin of -many a woman, women of quality as well as others; the fortune-teller -soon finds out their weak spot, and thereby knows how to take them and -lead them wherever she will.' She added that in Paris there were more -than 400 fortune-tellers and magicians 'who ruined a great many people, -especially women, and of all conditions.' She went on to speak of the -money her cronies earned, telling how they bought places for their -husbands and built houses, and that they did not realise such fortunes -merely by looking at people's hands. La Voisin said that nothing could -be better than to hunt up all the people who looked at hands, that those -engaged in the business 'heard strange things when love intrigues were -not prospering, that poisonings were an everyday occurrence, that many -of them were paid as much as 10,000 livres' (£2000 of our money). -Similar declarations were made by Leroux, another witch, and by the -magician Lesage. 'It is extremely important,' said the latter, 'to get -to the bottom of these wretched practices, and to fathom this mystery of -iniquity which exists among all those who ostensibly are seekers after -treasure, after the philosopher's stone, and other like things, but who -keep up their trade by very different means: abortions and other crimes -are greater treasures than the philosopher's stone and fortune-telling; -the people who apply to the workers in mystery discuss usually the -poisoning of a husband, or a wife, or a father, and even sometimes of -babies at the breast.' He went on to say that 'these wretched people had -obtained the protection of very powerful friends, so that they acted -with perfect assurance and in almost perfect freedom.' These statements -are confirmed by the documents La Reynie was able to get together. - -What the public asked of the witches was, first of all, to withdraw the -veil from the future, and then to enable them to discover treasures. For -this purpose various means were employed, all tending to the same -end--to compel the 'Spirit,' that is the devil, by charms and -incantations to present himself and reveal the mysterious spot where -treasures lay hid. 'A woman,' writes Ravaisson, 'usually a prostitute on -the eve of accouchement, was placed at the centre of a circle drawn on -the floor, and surrounded with dark candles; when the child was born, -the mother gave up her son to be consecrated to the devil. After -pronouncing filthy incantations, the priest cut the victim's throat, -sometimes under the very eyes of its mother; but more often he carried -it away to sacrifice it elsewhere, because at the last moment outraged -nature asserted her rights, and these unhappy creatures snatched their -babes from death. At other times, they were content to cut the throat of -a deserted child; of such there was no lack; imprudent girls, light -women, gave the witches authority to dispose of the fruits of an -unlawful love. There were even licensed midwives who did a large -business in procuring abortion; the children after being baptized were -put to death and carried at once to the cemetery; most often they were -buried in the corner of a wood or consumed in an oven.' And the witch -Marie Bosse added: 'There are so many of this sort of people in Paris -that the city is choke-full of them.' - -These were the practices, with others more abominable still, which -caused La Reynie to write: 'It is difficult to think merely that these -crimes are possible; one can hardly bring oneself to consider them. Yet -it is those who have committed them that themselves declare them, and -these villains give so many particulars that it is difficult to harbour -any doubt.' - - -_The Alchemists_ - -Alongside of the group of witches and magicians appears another group, -that of the alchemists and 'philosophers,' represented by such people as -Vanens, Chasteuil, Cadelan, Rabel, and Bachimont. We have mentioned the -arrest of Louis de Vanens on December 5, 1677. - -The origins of this association of alchemists and seekers after the -philosopher's stone were highly dramatic. François Galaup de Chasteuil, -second of the name--he belonged to an illustrious family of Languedoc, -which had produced men of the highest distinction in arms, religion, and -literature--was its chief, or to use the cant expression of the cabala, -its 'author.' His life had been more than ordinarily romantic. Born at -Aix, on November 15, 1625, he was the second son of Jean Galaup de -Chasteuil, attorney-general of the Exchequer Court of Aix. His elder -brother Hubert, solicitor-general to the Parlement of the same town, was -'renowned for the nobility of his mind and the profundity of his -knowledge'; his younger brother Pierre was a poet, the friend of -Boileau, La Fontaine, and Mademoiselle de Scudéry. After a successful -student career, François was admitted doctor of law. In 1644 he became a -knight of Malta. He did signal service to the Order, and Lascaris, the -grand master, placed on his breast the cross of honour. He then became -captain of the guards of the great Condé. In 1652 he retired to Toulon, -fitted out a ship, and under the Maltese flag went privateering against -the Mussulmans. Algerian corsairs captured him and led him into -captivity. After two years of slavery he came to Marseilles, where he -turned monk and became prior of the Carmelites. He smuggled into the -convent a young girl--a slender, fair-haired child, with large, bright -blue eyes; and there he kept her locked up in his cell. When she was on -the point of giving birth to her child, Chasteuil, assisted by a lay -brother, strangled her in her bed, and on a pitch-dark night carried her -into the chapel of the convent, where he lifted several slabs of the -floor and dug out a grave in which to bury her. The silence of the -arches was disturbed by a dull sound. A pilgrim, lying asleep against a -pillar, woke up, and saw the sinister toilers by the light of the moon -which shone through the stained windows. Transfixed with fright, he -remained hidden out of sight in a dark corner until dawn, when the -chapel was opened, and he ran to inform the magistrates. Chasteuil was -arrested, tried, and condemned. He was on the way to execution when, at -the foot of the gibbet, up came Louis de Vanens, captain of the galleys, -along with several soldiers. Chasteuil and Vanens were old friends. -Chasteuil was rescued, and, taking his rescuer with him, he fled to -Nice. - -Hiding in a quiet spot, the two friends began working at the -philosopher's stone, that is, at converting copper into silver and gold. -Chasteuil had some experience of alchemy, and fancied he was master of -the famous secret. Full of gratitude for the service done him, he gave -Vanens the secret so far as silver was concerned, but would tell him -nothing about the gold, 'not thinking Vanens prudent enough for that.' -Shortly afterwards we find Chasteuil in the service of the Duke of -Savoy, captain of the guards of the White Cross, and--extraordinary -fact--tutor to his son! While occupied with the education of the young -Prince of Piedmont, Chasteuil continued his 'philosophy,' and discovered -an oil, which, as he appeared convinced himself, would turn metals into -gold. He also wrote translations of authors sacred and profane--the -minor prophets, Petronius, the Thebaïd of Statius; and he dabbled in -poetry. He had just passed his fortieth year. A contemporary gives us -his portrait: 'Middle height, very thin, always troubled with a nasty -cough caused by a wound he received in the body, round-shouldered, -slightly crooked, with a wry mouth, scanty beard, hair black and flat, -complexion swarthy and sallow.' Moréri adds: 'Monsieur de Chasteuil was -one of the most accomplished of gentlemen, and a perfect master of the -platonic philosophy.' - -Vanens and Chasteuil struck up an alliance with Robert de Bachimont, -lord of La Miré, who had married a cousin of Superintendent Fouquet. -Bachimont had at Paris a house near the Temple, with four smelting -furnaces: a large one on the third floor, two smaller ones in an -ante-room, and a large one in the cellar. He also had apartments at -Compiègne in the _Ecu de France_, where there was nothing but crucibles, -alembics, vessels of glass and of earthenware, cucurbits, philosophical -stoves open and closed, grates and mortars, retorts and matrasses, -sal-ammoniac and iron filings, and a thousand varieties of powders, -pastes, and liquids. Finally, he had another establishment at the abbey -of Ainay, near Lyons, completely fitted up for the fusion of metals, the -distillation of herbs, and other practices of alchemy. Before long the -association was enlarged by the addition of a person of some importance, -Louis de Vasconcelos y Souza, Count of Castelmelhor, who had been -practically the governor of Portugal for five or six years as the -favourite of King Alfonso VI. Bachimont says that Castelmelhor taught -him the secret of colouring glass red. After the death of the Duke of -Savoy on June 12, 1675, Castelmelhor withdrew to England, where he -gained the favour of Charles II., an ardent alchemist and astrologer. He -was present at the death of the English king, and it was he that brought -in the Catholic priest who gave him extreme unction. - -Chasteuil and his partners spent their time in the quest for the -philosopher's stone, contact with which was to convert metals into gold; -and, like the majority of alchemists, they believed that it was to be -found in the solidification of mercury. 'The hermetic philosophers,' -writes M. Huysmans, 'discovered--and modern science to-day does not deny -that they were right--that the metals are compound bodies of identical -composition. Their varieties are due simply to the different proportions -of the elements in combination; it is possible then, by the aid of an -agent that would alter these proportions, to change these bodies one -into another--to transmute mercury, for instance, into silver, and lead -into gold. And this agent is the philosopher's stone, mercury: not -ordinary mercury, which, to alchemists, is only a bastard metal' (M. -Huysmans uses another expression), 'but the mercury of the philosophers, -called also _lion vert_.' - -Among the papers of La Voisin was found an MS. poem in honour of the -philosopher's stone: - - 'De l'or glorifié qui change en or ses frères.' - -The secret consisted in an elixir, of which a single drop, cast - - 'dans une mer profonde - Où couleraient fondus tous les métaux du monde, - Suffirait pour la teindre et fixer en soleil.'[7] - -Chasteuil and his fellows did not merely seek the solidification of -mercury, which was to produce the philosopher's stone, but the -liquefaction of gold by cold: this was to furnish a universal panacea. -'Liquid gold restores health and strength, gives flesh to greybeards -and colour to the cheeks of girls, cures the plague,' and so on. - -Solid mercury being unobtainable, they sought, for the transmutation of -metals, those powders or oils about which we hear so frequently at that -period; and, as we shall see, they had the best reasons in the world for -believing that they had put their finger on the secret, at least as far -as silver[8] was concerned. - -In 1676 our partners all established themselves at Paris, where they -added to their company three collaborators, all important in different -ways: the quack Rabel, a physician celebrated in his day; a rich banker -of Paris named Pierre Cadelan, secretary to the king; and a young -Parlement advocate named Jean Terron du Clausel. Du Clausel lodged with -Vanens in the Rue d'Anjou, in a house which had for sign _Le Petit Hôtel -d'Angleterre_. He was a valuable addition to the band, because he could -distil at pleasure, being 'licensed.' Rabel seems to have been possessed -of considerable real science. Rabel water, which he invented, is still -used in our own day--a mixture of alcohol and sulphuric acid, which acts -as an astringent in cases of hæmorrhage. Rabel had compounded another -elixir, whose innumerable merits were celebrated in notices in prose and -verse which the most glowing of modern advertisements have not -surpassed. Cadelan supplied funds. Bodin speaks in very precise terms -about the alchemists: 'They extract the quintessence of plants, and make -admirable and salutary oils and waters, and discourse subtly on the -virtues and the transmutation of metals; but they also make false -money.' At the moment when Cadelan and his associates were arrested, he -was on the point of farming the Paris mint. Was this in order to make -false _louis d'or_, as historians have supposed? We believe rather that -it was to find means of circulating the products of the alchemical -experiments of his associates, for by that time they had no manner of -doubt about the efficacy of Chasteuil's formulae. A bar of silver cast -by Vanens, and taken by Bachimont to the mint, had just been accepted -there at a good price as pure metal. It is scarcely necessary to add -that this could only have been due to an error of the mint official; -this famous silver made out of copper by Vanens and Chasteuil was -nothing but 'white metal.' Nevertheless, it was a success which opened -before the eyes of our partners splendid vistas of future wealth. - -When Louis de Vanens was arrested on December 5, 1677, Louvois believed -that he had seized a spy. But he had put his hand on an alchemist, and -soon the whole band--Terron, Cadelan, Monsieur and Madame Bachimont, -Barthomynat (known as La Chaboissière), de Vanens' valet--were laid by -the heels, some in the Bastille, the others at Pierre-en-Cize. Chasteuil -had just died quietly at Verceil. Rabel had escaped into England, where -Charles II lodged and fed him, gave him a pension, and loaded him with -presents. Later he returned to France, and was incarcerated in his turn. - -We regarded it as essential to say something of this band of alchemists -and 'philosophers' by way of introduction to Louis de Vanens. This young -noble of Provence, 'a man of well-knit and graceful figure,' had -brilliant connections at court, where he was on a footing of intimacy -with the king's dazzling mistress, Madame de Montespan. On the other -hand, he was an assiduous visitor to La Voisin, and was even for some -time her 'author.' Vanens was the link between the alchemists and the -witches. He was devoted to demoniacal practices. His valet, La -Chaboissière, declared that one night he had to accompany his master and -a cleric into the woods on the outskirts of Poissy, where they searched -for treasures with incantations and invocations to the 'spirit.' Vanens -was a diabolical character. He was confined at the Bastille in the same -room with other prisoners, as the custom was. He had with him a sort of -white and tan spaniel. As midnight approached, he recited some prayer -over the body of the dog, and went through the ceremony of consecration. -Then he took a prayer-book containing a picture of the Virgin, and laid -the picture on the back of the dog, saying, 'Avaunt, devil! Behold thy -good mistress!' To the remarks of his companions in captivity, he -replied: 'Neither God nor the king shall prevent me from doing what I -have done.' To gauge the strange and passionate vigour of these -superstitions, we must remember that Vanens was in the Bastille, quite -aware that these practices might bring him to the stake. - -We shall see in the sequel the importance of Vanens when we recall the -following lines found in the notes of Nicolas de la Reynie: 'To see La -Chaboissière again about his reluctance to have written down in his -statement, after hearing it read, that Vanens had been concerned in -giving Madame de Montespan counsel which deserves that he should be -drawn and quartered.' - - -_La Voisin_ - -To the portraits of Chasteuil the alchemist and of Vanens, we must add -that of the most famous of the witches, Catherine Deshayes, known as La -Voisin. It was of her that La Fontaine wrote: - - 'Une femme à Paris faisait la pythonisse.' - -La Voisin stated to La Reynie: 'Some women asked if they would not soon -become widows, because they wished to marry some one else; almost all -asked this and came for no other reason. When those who come to have -their hands read ask for anything else, they nevertheless always come to -the point in time, and ask to be ridded of some one; and when I gave -those who came to me for that purpose my usual answer, that those they -wished to be rid of would die when it pleased God, they told me that I -was not very clever.' Margot, La Voisin's servant, said that the whole -world came there, adding: 'La Voisin is to-day dragging a great ruck -down with her--a long chain of persons of all sorts and conditions.' The -Parisians used to go in companies to the house of the fortune-teller: -they were quite pleasure parties. The merry crew would overflow into the -garden lawns surrounding the cottage at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. This was -the district, but sparsely inhabited, between the ramparts and the St. -Denis quarter. - -The sorceress was brought into the city drawing-rooms as nowadays -fashionable singers are brought. 'At that time, La Voisin had as much -money as she wanted. Every morning, before she rose, people were waiting -for her, and she had visitors all the rest of the day: after that, in -the evening, she kept open house, engaged fiddlers, and enjoyed herself -thoroughly; this went on for several years.' This life had little -resemblance, it will be seen, to that of her ancestress, the witch -described by Michelet: 'You will find her in the most dismal places, -isolated,--in houses of ill-fame and ruined huts and hovels. Where could -she have lived except on wild heaths--the hapless wretch who was so -hunted down, the accursed, proscribed, hated poisoner?' - -La Voisin earned in a year as much as £2000 or even £4000 in English -money; but her gains were spent in revelry. She entertained her lovers -in princely style, for she would have thought it unworthy of her if they -were not comfortable; and her lovers were many. We find in the first -rank of them André Guillaume, the executioner of Paris, who beheaded -Madame de Brinvilliers, and who, by a horrible coincidence, only just -escaped executing La Voisin herself: among them also the Viscount de -Cousserans, the Count de Labatie, Fauchet the architect, a wine merchant -of the neighbourhood, Lesage the magician, the alchemist Blessis, and -others. - -We must add that Blessis and Lesage spent much money on her, ostensibly -in connection with the philosopher's stone, for La Voisin had a sincere -faith in alchemy. She subsidised great enterprises, and helped to -establish manufactures, being much interested in scientific and -industrial progress; but in regard to industrial undertakings she fell -mainly into the hands of sharpers who swindled her out of her money. - -However, La Voisin, proud of her trade as sorceress, which brought -persons of the highest rank to bend before her in obsequious and -suppliant attitudes, did not stick at any expense that seemed likely to -augment her glory. She delivered her oracular sayings clothed in a robe -and a cloak specially woven for her, for which she paid 15,000 livres -(£3000 of English money). The queen herself had no finery more beautiful -than this 'imperial robe,' which 'was the talk of all Paris.' The cloak -was of crimson velvet studded with 205 two-headed eagles of fine gold, -lined with costly fur; the skirt was of bottle-green velvet, edged with -French point. Even her shoes were embroidered with golden two-headed -eagles. The mere weaving of the eagles on the cloak cost 400 livres (£80 -to-day). We possess the bills of the maker. - -But under the glittering shows of wealth La Voisin had preserved most -dissolute manners. She was constantly drunk. She indulged in fishwife's -brawls with Lesage. Latour, who was her 'great author,' used to thrash -her. She fought with Marie Bosse and tore her hair out. 'One day, Latour -being with her on the ramparts, she got him to give her husband fifty -blows with a stick, while she held Latour's hat.' On that occasion, -Latour bit poor Monvoisin's nose. But on the other hand, the sorceress -regularly attended the church of the Abbé de Saint-Amour, rector of the -University of Paris, an austere Jansenist; and Madame de la Roche-Guyon -stood god-mother to her daughter. - -The husband whom La Voisin so brutally got beaten, appears to have been -a decent man. In those days there was at Montmartre a chapel dedicated -to St. Ursula, who enjoyed the power to 'improve' husbands. The -procedure was to carry there, some Friday morning, a shirt of the wicked -spouse. Our sorceress had the most implicit faith in the efficacy of -this practice, and we must do her the justice to state that she always -began by sending to Montmartre women who came to her with tales of their -troubles. She availed herself of the remedy on her own account, and poor -Monvoisin had to march to the place carrying his shirt under his arm. He -was a husband for whose improvement St. Ursula does not appear to have -been required to spend much effort. - -Lesage, the witch's lover, advised her to get rid of Monvoisin. A -sheep's heart was bought, 'to which Lesage did something,' and then it -was buried in the garden behind the gate. Lo and behold, Monvoisin was -seized with severe pain in the stomach. He cried out that if there was -anybody who wished to do for him, he had better shoot him at once -instead of letting him linger. La Voisin, struck with remorse, hastened -to the Augustines to confess and obtain a general absolution; she took -the sacrament, and on her return compelled Lesage to undo his wicked -charms. - -She related very simply and frankly to La Reynie the first steps of her -career. Her husband, at that time, was doing nothing, but he had been a -hawking jeweller, and then a shopkeeper on the Pont-Marie. He had lost -his shop, and then, seeing her husband ruined, 'she had devoted herself -to cultivating the powers that God had given her.' 'It was chiromancy -and face-reading that I learnt at the age of nine. I have been -persecuted for fourteen years: that is the work of the missionaries' -(these were the members of a community established by St. Vincent de -Paul, then very popular, who were actively occupied in converting -sinners and removing scandals of all kinds). 'However,' she continued, -'I gave an account of my art to the vicars-general, the Holy See being -vacant, and to several doctors of the Sorbonne to whom I had been sent, -and they found nothing to object to.' Marie Bosse also spoke of the -time when her friend went to the Sorbonne to argue on astrology with the -professors. - -Thus La Voisin set up as fortune-teller in order to restore order and -comfort to her household. One of her friends, La Lepère, told her -sometimes that she ought not to engage in such great crimes. 'You are -mad!' cried the witch, 'the times are too bad. How am I to feed my -family? I have six persons on my hands!' And in fact, until her arrest, -La Voisin had been the constant support of her old mother, to whom she -gave money every week. - -La Voisin's claim that her art was founded on face-reading was quite -genuine. She had made a profound study of physiognomy. We find -innumerable references to this subject in the documents of her case, and -also a 'Treatise on physiognomy, supported on six immovable columns: (1) -sympathy between body and mind; (2) relations between rational and -irrational animals; (3) the differences between the sexes; (4) national -diversities; (5) physical temperaments; (6) diversities of age; not -depending on a single sign, for men are often attacked by some defect -which force of mind, aided by grace, can assuredly overcome.' When the -Countess de Beaufort de Canillac came to consult the fortune-teller, -'the lady wishing to give me her hand without unmasking, I told her that -I did not know physiognomies of velvet, whereupon the lady removed her -mask.' La Voisin confessed that she read much more in the features than -in the lines of the hand, 'it being no easy thing to conceal a passion -or any considerable disturbing emotion.' She was not merely a -physiognomist, but an expert psychologist, and that was how she gave a -real foundation to her sorcery. We may cite the following incident among -many others. - -Marie Brissart, widow of a Parlement counsellor, tenderly loved and -handsomely supported a captain of guards named Louis Denis de Rubentel, -Marquis de Mondétour, who became lieutenant-general in 1688. He was a -personage of whom Saint-Simon, a severe censor, speaks thus: 'He had -been able to contemn basenesses, and to withdraw into his virtue, which -was beyond his wealth.' Madame Brissart used to send him money when he -was on service, after having equipped him from top to toe on his -departure. It happened that the cavalier displayed some coldness towards -his mistress, with the idea of getting her purse to open still more -generously. The widow, seeing nothing of her captain, became alarmed, -and hastened to La Voisin. She began her incantations, with the -assistance of Lesage. The magician walked up and down the garden with a -wand, with which he struck the earth, repeating the words, _Per Deum -sanctum, per Deum vivum!_ Then he said: 'Louis Denis de Rubentel, I -conjure thee in the name of the Almighty to go find Marie Miron (Madame -Brissart's maiden name): she to possess thee wholly, body, soul, and -spirit, and thou to love none but her!' On another occasion, he put into -a little ball of wax a paper on which the names of Rubentel and Madame -Brissart were written, and in the presence of the latter threw the ball -into the fire, where it burst with a loud noise. These fine charms were -still without result, when one morning La Voisin, with the intuition of -a clairvoyant, said to her weeping client: 'You write every day and send -your maid to Rubentel, but he pays no attention to you; it is mad -conduct to write and send every day'; and the lady having ceased to -write and send, Monsieur de Rubentel, who in turn began to be afraid -lest so precious a fount should dry up, returned to her 'without -anything else having been done; yet the lady, believing that La Voisin -had done some extraordinary thing, gave her twelve pistoles.' - -The witch heard all sorts of confessions. There were wonderful dreams of -adoring affection told her by lovers of twenty years, who came to her -red with emotion, or wrote thrilling letters in order to bring their -torment to an end, begging her to soften the hard hearts of their -mistresses, or to bend the opposition of a cruel father. Or it was the -fierce carnal love of mature women obstinately clinging to the lovers -who were neglecting them for fresher girls. There were also the passions -of ambitious women, greedy for money and honours, which bring us to the -horrors of the 'black mass.' - -La Voisin was assisted in these monstrous rites by a priest 'squint-eyed -and old,' with bloated face, and prominent blue veins forming a network -on his cheeks--the terrible Abbé Guibourg. Formerly chaplain to the -Count de Montgommery, he was at this time sacristan of St. Marcel, at -St. Denis. He used to say mass, according to the proper rites, wearing -the alb, stole, and maniple. 'The women on whose bodies mass was said -were laid stark naked, without even their chemise, upon a table which -served as altar; their arms were stretched out, and they held a taper in -each hand.' Sometimes they did not actually undress themselves, 'but -only tucked up their garments as high as the throat.' The chalice was -placed on the bare belly. At the moment of the _offertoire_, a child had -its throat cut. Guibourg usually stuck a long needle into its neck. The -blood of the expiring victim was poured into the chalice, and mixed with -the blood of bats and other materials obtained by filthy means. Flour -was added to solidify the mess, which was thus made to resemble the -Host, to be consecrated at the moment when, in the sacrifice of the -mass, transubstantiation takes place. The scene is reconstructed by La -Reynie according to the testimony of the accused. - -Black masses were not the only sorceries whose rites required the -sacrifice of children. La Voisin and her fellow-witches perpetrated a -terrible slaughter of them. Children deserted by their unmarried -mothers, others bought from poor women, did not suffice: several -sorceresses were convicted of having killed their own children for these -atrocious proceedings. Here, for instance, is a horrible detail: the -daughter of La Voisin, on the very eve of her trouble, not trusting her -mother, fled the house, and only returned after placing her infant in -safety. The witches ran off with children in the streets. La Reynie -wrote to Louvois: 'Remember the great disturbance in Paris in 1676, when -there were seditious gatherings and mobs and runnings to and fro in -several parts of the city, through the rumour that people carried off -children to cut their throats, though no one then understood what the -cause of the rumour could be. The mob, however, proceeded to various -excesses against the women suspected of being child-stealers. The king -ordered an inquiry. Proceedings were taken (against those who rose -against the witches), and a woman who was guilty of violence was -condemned to death, but obtained a special pardon.' - -La Voisin, like all the sorceresses, practised medicine. Among her -papers were found recipes for the cure of pimples, a remedy for -headache, the prescription for 'a quintessence of hellebore which kept -the Dean of Westminster alive for 166 years.' She was a midwife, and -especially a procurer of abortion. 'Above the room (where she gave -consultations) there was a sort of loft in which she procured abortions, -and behind the room there was a recess with a stove, in which were found -the charred remains of small human bones.' Little children were burned -in this stove. One day, in an effusive moment, La Voisin confessed that -'she had burnt in the stove, or buried in the garden, the bodies of more -than 2500 children prematurely born.' Here again we come upon surprising -particulars. The witch was very insistent that children thus brought -into the world should be baptized before death. One evening La Lepère, a -midwife friend of La Voisin, happened to be in the famous room with the -witch's husband. La Voisin, who was in the loft, came down suddenly in -joyous haste and with radiant countenance, crying: 'What luck! the child -has been dipped!' - -Such was the strange and horrible creature--the last of the great -sorceresses who haunted the imagination of Michelet--the extraordinary -woman whose crimes sent a shudder through the man who had heard the -confessions of the most redoubtable criminals of his time--Nicolas de la -Reynie. - -We have a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine Coypel. She is represented on -the way to execution in the linen shift of condemned criminals. -Contemporaries depict her as a small stoutish woman, rather pretty, -owing to her eyes, which were extraordinarily bright and piercing. The -artist has given her a froglike expression, but no doubt he sketched her -under the influence of a preconceived idea. Madame de Sévigné, who had a -singular taste for this sort of spectacle, saw her mount to the stake: -'La Voisin,' she wrote, 'very prettily surrendered her soul to the -devil.' The confessor of the sorceress has given his testimony to her -edifying end: 'I am loaded with so many crimes,' she said with simple -and profound emotion, 'that I could not wish God to work a miracle to -snatch me from the flames, because I cannot suffer too much for the sins -I have committed.' - - -_The Magician Lesage_ - -La Voisin's principal coadjutor was the magician Lesage. He was one by -himself in this world of sorceresses, alchemists, and magicians. A -sceptic among believers, he duped the women with whom he worked as well -as the fashionable ladies who came to avail themselves of his art. - -Originally from Venoix near Caen, his real name was Adam Coeuret. His -portrait is sketched by La Vigoureux: 'he wore a ruddy wig, was ill -formed, clothed as a rule in grey, with a cloak of homespun.' He was a -wool merchant. Though he had a wife in Lower Normandy, he promised La -Voisin that he would marry her if she became a widow. The first alias -he chose was Duboisson. In 1667 he was arrested, condemned to the -galleys for dealings with the devil, and liberated in 1672 through the -kind offices of La Voisin. The galley in which he rowed was lying in -sight of the port of Genoa when the pardon reached him. - -Set at liberty, Coeuret returned to Paris, where he renewed his -relations with the witches. - -His whole art consisted in a remarkable talent for jugglery, by which he -deceived the witches themselves, persuading them that he possessed 'all -the science of the cabala.' They adopted him as partner in their -lucrative operations. The reports of the examination of La Voisin give -curious information on this head. 'Lesage took a live pigeon in the Vale -of Misery (on the quay of La Mégisserie, where poultry was sold) and -burnt it in a warming-pan. Having then sifted its ashes, he put them in -his room. It was the beginning of Lent, during which he used to recite -the Passion of our Lord daily, with his feet in water, though it was -freezing hard. Then he put a white cloth on the table, lit two tapers, -and sent for three crystal glasses, with which having performed his -"mystery," which was Greek to La Voisin, he shut them up in a cupboard -with a twig of laurel, and then, though he retained the key, he asked -her for the three glasses and the laurel twig which he had locked in the -cupboard. They were not found there; and then he said that he would give -her nothing else to keep, and having sent her into the garden, she found -them all three in a row in the summer-house. And when she asked him how -he did that, Lesage said that he was one of the apostles and of the -company of the Sibyls.' - -At other times Lesage celebrated a sort of mass, got up as a priest. At -the moment of the offertory he would break two pieces of ordinary bread, -and after having made La Voisin and her husband kneel down, he gave them -each a piece of bread 'just as if they were at communion, and then made -them drink some holy water which, as he said, he had turned into wine, -and it was a liquid of an extremely pleasant taste.' 'A sergeant having -come to La Voisin's house to distrain on her at the instance of an -upholsterer named Lenoir, La Voisin sent for Lesage, told him that she -was ruined, and that there was something in the cupboard which must be -taken away, namely, a consecrated wafer; and at the same time Lesage -sent away the Marquise de Lusignan, who happened to be in the house, and -told her to go home, and when she got there to put a white napkin on her -bed, for something he was going to send her. And in fact the wafer was -found by the marquise at her own house, without any one seeing who had -taken it there.' - -The pretended sorceries of Lesage thus consisted simply of clever -conjuring tricks. They sufficed to amaze his clients. He made them -write, for instance, requests to the devil in notes which he then -pretended to throw in the fire, enclosed in balls of wax; and some days -after he gave them back to them, saying that the devil, who had received -them through the flames, had returned them. - -Lesage was arrested for the second time on March 17, 1679, and we shall -see the importance of the statements he made to the magistrates. - - -_The 'Chambre Ardente'_ - -The consternation of Louis XIV, his ministers, and the lieutenant of -police at the discovery of such crimes may be imagined. The terror was -all the intenser because chemists and able physicians were then -powerless to discover traces of poison in a corpse. The matter was -intrusted to a special commission, in the hope that by a more -expeditious and energetic procedure than that of the ordinary courts, it -would succeed in cutting the evil at the root. This was the famous -Chambre Ardente. - -The president was Louis Boucherat, Count de Compans--an amiable man, -says Madame de Sévigné, and of much good sense. Later, he became -Chancellor of France. Louis Bazin, Lord of Bezons, nominated to act as -judge-advocate along with La Reynie, was a member of the Academy. The -office of clerk was filled by Sagot, La Reynie's confidential secretary -and ordinary clerk of the Châtelet. 'The Commission,' writes Ravaisson, -'was composed of the élite of the councillors of state, and all these -magistrates have left a high reputation.' The court was called the -Chambre Ardente, because in former days tribunals specially constituted -to deal with great crimes sat in a chamber hung with black and lit by -torches and candles. - -The court met for the first time on April 10, 1679, and decided to keep -its proceedings secret, so as to withhold details of these practices -from the knowledge of the public. The magistrates themselves had no -doubt of the efficacy of these dealings with the devil, nor of the -formidable composition of the poisons. - -The method of procedure was as follows:-- - -The individuals regarded as suspicious by La Reynie, the examining -magistrate, were arrested by royal warrant, that is, by a _lettre de -cachet_, which took the place of the modern magistrate's warrant. The -first depositions were submitted to the attorney-general, and it was -only on his requisition that the officials proceeded to the -confrontation of the prisoners, after which the commissaries submitted a -detailed report to the court. The attorney presented to them his general -conclusions, and the court decided whether the accused person should be -'recommended,' that is, remain a prisoner in virtue of a warrant issued -by them. In that case the investigation followed its course. When this -was ended, all the documents concerning the accused were read to the -judges, the king's attorney delivered his address in favour of acquittal -or condemnation, the accused was heard for the last time, and the court -pronounced judgment, which was without appeal. - -The Chambre Ardente sat in the hall of the Arsenal. From April 10, 1679, -the day of its first meeting, to July 21, 1682, when it closed its -doors, it held 210 sittings, after having been suspended, for reasons -that will be explained later, from October 1, 1680, to May 19, 1681. - -The Chambre Ardente deliberated on the fate of 442 accused persons, and -ordered the arrest of 367 of these. Of these arrests, 218 were -sustained. Thirty-six prisoners were condemned to the extreme penalty, -torture ordinary and extraordinary and execution; two of them died a -natural death in jail; five were condemned to the galleys; twenty-three -were exiled; but the most guilty had accomplices in such high places -that their cases were never carried to an end. We must add the prisoners -who committed suicide in prison, such as La Dodée, a sorceress aged -thirty-five, still very pretty, who was arrested with La Trianon, and -cut her throat at Vincennes after her first examination; 'she covered -the wound with her chemise, in which the greater part of her blood -flowed, and was found dead when her room was opened in the morning to -take her her breakfast.' - - * * * * * - -Among the many cases which came before this court one or two will serve -as types. - -Madame de Dreux was the wife of a Parlement _maître des requêtes_. She -was not yet thirty, and was endowed with much grace and beauty, a -delicate and dainty beauty, with infinite charm and distinction. She was -so fond of Monsieur de Richelieu, declared La Joly, one of the -sorceresses tried by the court, 'that as soon as she knew that Monsieur -de Richelieu was even looking at any one else, she thought of doing away -with him.' She had further poisoned 'Monsieur Pajot and Monsieur de -Varennes and many others,' and, in particular, one of her lovers, to -avoid, as she said, the bother and annoyance of a rupture. She had also -tried to poison her husband, and to get rid of Madame de Richelieu by -sorcery. All these details were widely known in Paris, where society, -difficult as it is to believe it, was wonderfully amused by them. The -husband was riddled with epigrams, which Madame de Sévigné declares -'divinely diverting.' Madame de Dreux was too pretty, really!--and -besides, she was a cousin of two of the judges of the Chambre Ardente; -the result was that on April 27, 1680, the judges contented themselves -with admonishing her. 'Monsieur de Dreux and her whole family,' writes -Madame de Sévigné, 'went to the court to meet her.' Set at liberty, the -young woman was fêted and petted by the whole world of fashion. 'There -was joy and triumph and kisses from all her family and friends. Monsieur -de Richelieu did wonders in this business.' A fact which will appear -incredible is, that after she left prison, Madame de Dreux returned to -the sorceresses, met La Joly in the Jesuits' church, and asked and -obtained from her powders to poison a lady whom Monsieur de Richelieu -was 'considering.' - -Truth to tell, La Joly was arrested while this was going on, and, as a -result of her revelations, a fresh warrant was issued against Madame de -Dreux; but she was warned, and escaped. She was proceeded against for -contumacy. Her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu were then seen pleading -for her in company. On January 23, 1682, Madame de Dreux was condemned -to banishment beyond the kingdom, but the king allowed her to remain in -France provided she lived in Paris with her husband. - -Madame Leféron, who also belonged to judicial society, was less pleasant -in appearance. The daughter of a Parlement counsellor, her maiden name -was Marguerite Galart. Her husband, president of the first court of -_enquêtes_, is represented in the _Tableau du Parlement_ of 1661 as 'a -good judge, of solid judgment and firm opinion, never changing except on -good grounds, unprejudiced, loving rule and order, a good and -disinterested man.' He had given proof of independence of character at -the time of Fouquet's case, by showing clemency to the superintendent. -Madame Leféron found him a bore, avaricious, and further--how can one -say it?--insufficient. Yet the fair dame had passed her fiftieth year. -But she was madly smitten with one Monsieur de Prade, who on his side -was in love with her money. She asked La Voisin for poisons to kill her -husband, and de Prade went to her for charms to help him win the heart -of his mistress. La Voisin gave them all they wanted: phials to the -lady, and to the gallant a mask of virgin wax representing the face of -Madame Leféron. This, enclosed in a zinc box, was to be warmed every now -and then, which would warm the heart of the lady. De Prade gave La -Voisin a note for 20,000 livres--£4000 to-day. - -The phials produced their effect, and Leféron died on September 8, 1669. -The waxen mask was equally successful, and Madame Leféron married de -Prade. On February 20, 1680, as she went to the stake, La Voisin said to -Sagot, clerk to the court: 'It is quite true that Madame Leféron came to -see me, most joyous at being a widow, and when I asked her if the phial -of liquid had taken effect, she said, "Effect or not, he is done for!"' -De Prade appeared no less happy. He scoured the city in a brand-new -carriage, 'with three or four lackeys behind.' His joy was short. The -lady saw that her new husband thought chiefly of getting 'donations' out -of her, and the husband soon saw that his wife was trying to poison him -in his turn. He fled to the Turks. On April 7, 1680, Madame Leféron was -condemned to banishment beyond the borders of the viscounty of Paris and -to a fine of 1500 livres, though there were, as Louvois wrote to Louis -XIV, thirteen or fourteen witnesses of her crime. - -Madame de Dreux and Madame Leféron owed this remarkable indulgence to -Madame de Poulaillon. Born Marguerite de Jehan, of a noble Bordeaux -family, she had come to Paris when very young to associate with the -alchemists, having a passion for the occult sciences. She had married -Alexandre de Poulaillon, much older than herself, but very rich. -Contemporaries are unanimous in praising the pretty face, the delicate -and keen intelligence, and the exquisite distinction of the young lady. -Unhappily for herself, she met a certain La Rivière, who had a wonderful -talent for getting money out of ladies. As we know, in the seventeenth -century, a talent of this sort was not the discreditable thing it is -to-day. Her excellent husband, becoming suspicious, drew his -purse-strings tight and locked his safes. Madame de Poulaillon had -recourse to various expedients. She sold the house furniture, chairs, -sofas, 'the big gilded bed upholstered in English watered silk,' the -plate, and even the clothes of her husband. He, in a furious temper--we -may suppose so, at least--ceased to give his wife even money for her -toilet, and bought her dresses and ribbons himself. - -In despair, the young woman opened relations with La Vigoureux: she -required money for her lover, and the riddance of her husband. With this -intent she planned the most audacious strokes. Two or three hired -bravoes would do: 'While one held Poulaillon by the throat in his study, -the other would throw bags of money out of the window, and she would -open the study door herself.' Another time she thought of getting her -husband kidnapped alive. She was quite ready herself for the enterprise, -but failed to find men to assist her. At last she saw Marie Bosse, who -from the first appeared to her more plucky. However, Madame de -Poulaillon displayed so furious a haste to get rid of her 'old goodman,' -that Marie Bosse, hardened as she was, fairly took fright. She would not -give her in one dose the powder necessary for the poisoning, for fear -that the lady, by giving it all at once, would create a scandal. The -sorceress was prudent enough to begin with the shirt, one of the most -horrible of these hags' inventions. The shirts of the husband were -washed in arsenic. This left no trace. Whoever put them on was before -long attacked by a violent inflammation in the limbs and the lower part -of the body. And every one sympathised with the wife whose husband was -suffering from a disgraceful malady caused by debauchery! Arsenic was -put also into the injections, which in those days were in common use. -The contents of a phial poured into the wine or soup hastened the -operation. - -The negotiations between Madame de Poulaillon and Marie Bosse were -carried on in the church of the Carmelites. The young woman gave 4000 -livres (£800) for the phial and the preparation for the shirts. -Poulaillon was warned by an anonymous letter; moreover, his wife could -not obtain the necessary assistance from her servants. Then in her rage -she applied to some soldiers, and asked them to wait for her husband at -the corner of a road she pointed out to them, where it would be the -easiest thing in the world, she said, to do for him. The soldiers took -her money and hastened to inform Poulaillon, who now lost all patience, -shut his wife up in a convent, and laid an information before the -Châtelet. It was at this time that the lady had a writ issued against -her by the Chambre Ardente. - -As soon as he saw the storm threatening, La Rivière, to whom Madame de -Poulaillon had sacrificed everything, fled to Burgundy, where he hid -behind the skirts of Madame de Coligny, daughter of the famous -Bussy-Rabutin, and widow of the Marquis de Coligny. She fell in love -with La Rivière, who, kept informed of the progress of the trial, joked -pleasantly with his new flame on the misfortunes of his old mistress. -She, though madly in love with the gallant, was shocked. 'If the -misfortune of the lady who has so much merit, I hear, and who loves you -and has loved you so passionately, no longer touches you, what reason -have I to flatter myself I shall keep you always?' This brilliant -cavalier, who insisted on being called the Marquis de la Rivière, Lord -de Courcy, was really a bastard son of the Abbé de la Rivière, Bishop of -Langres. - -Madame de Poulaillon was finally examined on June 5, 1679. The -attorney-general had demanded the penalty of torture and death on the -Place de Grève; but the memory of the edifying and touching end of -Madame de Brinvilliers was still strong in the minds of the judges, and -had almost stricken them with remorse. Madame de Poulaillon displayed -before her judges even more grace, more submission to the hand of God, -more sweet and tranquil resignation. So strongly were these men of law -moved, that they could not bring themselves to order the severing of -that charming head. 'This lady, who had infinite spirit,' notes Sagot -the clerk, 'cared little about death, and though she did not expect to -escape, showed during her whole examination an extraordinary presence of -mind, which won the judges' admiration and pity.' La Reynie writes that -the judges were touched 'by her spirit, and by the grace with which at -the last she explained her unhappiness and her crime.' 'The -commissioners,' says Sagot, 'remained in deliberation for four whole -hours, all of them, especially those who had some interest in these -ladies, being prepared for anything which might serve, if not for the -discharge of Madame de Poulaillon, at any rate for the mitigation of the -facts they could not dispute, in so far as that could be done without a -manifest miscarriage of justice. Monsieur de Fieubet was the one who -dilated most on this view, employing all the power of his natural -eloquence; and he it was who saved the life of Madame de Poulaillon, -having brought round to his way of thinking three of the six judges who -had previously decided for death. This was a precedent fortunate for -Mesdames de Dreux and Leféron and other prisoners, and in fact it was -through this that the court lost credit.' - -'The great difficulty,' adds La Reynie, 'was afterwards to console -Madame de Poulaillon when she found that she was only condemned to exile -instead of the death she had herself pronounced in presence of the -judges, after having declared the joy she had in thus expiating her -crime, and at the same time winning deliverance from all her other -woes.' On the demand of the young lady herself, her punishment was -increased by royal warrant to detention with the Penitents at Angers. -Meanwhile La Rivière, after making Madame de Coligny a mother, married -her without a trace of compunction. True, shortly afterwards, -Bussy-Rabutin and his daughter, undeceived about the man, endeavoured to -dissolve the union; but the gay spark resisted, and Madame de la Rivière -was forced to pension him off at a very high figure before he would -agree to desert her. - -The best society applauded the acquittal of Madame de Poulaillon, while -the middle classes murmured, with so much the more reason that soon -afterwards a certain widow lady named Brunet was condemned with the -greatest harshness, though no more guilty than Mesdames de Poulaillon, -de Dreux, and Leféron. - -She had been the wife of a wholesale tradesman in the city. Monsieur and -Madame Brunet entertained very largely, for they provided excellent -music. The fashionable flutist, Philibert Rébillé, musician to the king, -was constantly to be heard there. Brunet worshipped the flutist for his -delightful skill, and Madame Brunet for his charming person. As the -excellent people kept a good table, and the wife was charming, the -artiste responded with great enthusiasm to this double passion. It was -perfect bliss, which might have lasted for a long time to the melodious -sounds of the flute, if Brunet, with the idea of permanently attaching -to himself so pleasant a musician, had not taken it into his head to -offer him his daughter with a handsome dowry, and if Philibert, -delighted with the ducats and the daughter, had not accepted them with -alacrity. Madame Brunet uttered a cry of horror! Philibert explained to -her that he had consulted apostolic notaries, and that for a -consideration it would be possible to obtain canonical letters which -would set things right; and festivities were got up for the betrothal. -In desperation Madame Brunet confided in La Voisin: 'If she had to do -penance for ten years, it was necessary that God should carry off -Brunet, her husband, for she could not abide to see Philibert, whom she -loved passionately, in the arms of her daughter.' She even took her -lover to the sorceress. Philibert deposed at the trial that, under -pretext of showing him a garden, Madame Brunet took him to see a woman -who proceeded to look at his hand: 'I know not who she is, for the woman -was so drunk that she could not say a word.' La Voisin, on being -questioned, related the proceedings of Madame Brunet, adding: 'There are -other details which I would not tell for anything in the world, I would -rather have a dagger thrust into my heart: that is kept for confessors, -not for judges.' François Ravaisson, in publishing this dramatic -declaration, thus comments on it: 'These details were imparted by La -Voisin to La Reynie later; they did honour to Philibert's disposition. -The details given by the judges brought this flute-player into the -height of fashion, and ladies of the court and the city scrambled for -him when he came out of prison.' - -Meanwhile, Marie Bosse undertook the operation, for 2000 livres--£400 -to-day. - -Brunet was poisoned in 1673, and Philibert married the widow. - -'My friends advised me,' he declared naïvely before the judges, 'to wed -the mother rather than the daughter, which I did, under the good -pleasure of the king, who signed the contract.' - -The flute-player's wife was condemned on May 15, 1679. She begged in -vain to be allowed to see husband and children for the last time. Her -hand was cut off while she was still alive, then she was hanged, and her -body cast into the fire. Louis XIV, who was fond of his flutist, advised -him to leave France if he was conscious of guilt. But Philibert was a -man of mettle. He went like a gentleman and gave himself up as a -prisoner at Vincennes. He was acquitted on April 7, 1680. - - -_Louis XIV and the Poison Affair_ - -Meanwhile the Chambre Ardente was extending its prosecutions over an -ever-widening circle and into higher and higher ranks of society, and by -degrees a singular disquietude awoke, an astonishing uneasiness: it was -no longer the poisoners whom people dreaded, but the magistrates. People -talked about a lady of the highest rank who was declaring everywhere -that the judges and all their proceedings ought to be burnt. La Reynie -asked for the protection of an escort when he went to Vincennes, where -the principal accused persons were. Madame de Sévigné, speaking of the -great lieutenant of police, wrote: 'His life is a proof that there are -no poisoners now.' On February 4, 1680, Louvois wrote to the president -of the court:-- - - 'His Majesty, having been informed of what was said in Paris in - regard to the decrees issued a few days ago by the Chamber, has - commanded me to acquaint you with His Majesty's desire that you - should assure the judges of his protection, and let them understand - that he expects them to continue dispensing justice with firmness.' - -Louis sent for Boucherat, the president, the two examining -commissioners, La Reynie and Bezons, and the attorney-general, and they -went out to Versailles. 'On rising from dinner,' writes La Reynie, 'His -Majesty recommended us to do justice and our duty, in extremely strong -and precise terms, indicating to us that he desired, on behalf of the -public weal, that we should penetrate as deeply as possible into the -terrible traffic in poisons, so as to cut its root if this were -possible; he commanded us to do strict justice, without distinction of -person, rank, or sex; and this His Majesty told us in clear and vigorous -terms.' - -The determination so vigorously expressed by the king filled La Reynie -with confidence and zeal; it encouraged him in the accomplishment of the -arduous task imposed on him. And such courage was necessary: what -frightful revelations he heard! Was it due to these revelations that, -suddenly, the intentions of the court of Versailles underwent -modification? La Voisin had just been condemned to suffer torture. She -was subjected to it, but only as a matter of form. 'La Voisin was not -tortured at all,' writes La Reynie in indignation, 'and this means not -having been applied, has naturally produced no effect.' It was feared -that the sorceress, whose discretion had been so remarkable hitherto, -might say too much in the agony of torture, and, independently of La -Reynie, the torturers had received their orders. The judges had also -received independent orders, and their reluctance to interrogate the -accused woman was such that, at the moment of her execution, La Voisin, -struck with remorse, conceived it her duty to confess spontaneously -before being handed over to the confessor: 'She felt obliged to say, to -ease her conscience, that a large number of persons of all ranks and -conditions had applied to her for means to procure the death of many -persons, and that debauchery was the chief motive of all these crimes.' - -But after the execution of La Voisin, the examinations of her partner -Lesage, of her accomplice the Abbé Guibourg, and of her daughter, -Marguerite Monvoisin, were proceeded with. On August 2, 1680, Louis XIV -wrote from Lille to La Reynie:-- - - 'Having seen the declaration made on the 12th of last month by - Marguerite Monvoisin, prisoner at my castle of Vincennes, I write - you this letter to inform you of my intention that you should - devote all possible care to elucidate the facts contained in the - said declaration--that you should take care to have written down in - separate reports the examinations, confrontations, and everything - concerning the inquiry that may be made of the said declaration, - and that meanwhile you defer reporting to my royal Chamber sitting - at the Arsenal the depositions of Romani and Bertrand.' - -Romani and Bertrand were two prisoners with whom we shall have a good -deal to do by and by. - -Thus Louis XIV gave orders for the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, -and those of Romani and Bertrand, to be detached from the documents -submitted to the court. On the other hand, Louvois had had the -imprudence to promise Lesage his life if he revealed all he knew. Lesage -related most horrible things. Word then went round not to listen to any -more; he was a liar. But on September 30 and October 1, 1680, these -narratives were confirmed in the most precise manner by the sorceress -Françoise Filastre while under torture. The declarations of Filastre -struck on the ears of Louis XIV like a clap of thunder. In the registers -of the royal council we read as follows:-- - - 'The king, having had shown to him the official report of the - torture of Françoise Filastre, being unwilling to permit, for good - and just considerations important to his service, that certain - facts should be inserted in the copies made for the convenience of - the Court of the Arsenal, His Majesty in Council has commanded that - the minutes and originals of the said proceedings be laid before - the chancellor by the clerk to the commission, and that the said - clerk draw up in his presence a summary of the said proceedings, - in which the said facts shall not be inserted. Given by His Majesty - in Council held at Versailles, May 14, 1681. - -(_Signed_) LE TELLIER.' - - - -Thus the king for the second time intervened, and withdrew from the -court certain documents containing new declarations. He saw now, -moreover, that these were in accordance with the truth, and that if the -examinations were continued, it would be impossible to prevent them from -being divulged. On October 1, 1680, the sittings of the court were -suspended. - -The documents which the king had thus caused to be separated from the -rest were locked and sealed up in a casket, which was deposited with -Sagot, the clerk, who lived in the Rue Quincampoix. When Sagot died, on -October 10, 1680, the casket was removed to Rue -Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, to the house of his successor in the -clerkship to the Châtelet and the Chambre Ardente, Nicolas Gaudion. On -July 13, 1709, the casket was taken to the king's private room, where, -in the presence of Chancellor Pontchartrain, Louis XIV burnt the papers -in his grate: 'His Majesty in Council, after having looked through and -examined the minutes and proceedings laid before him by the chancellor, -and having had them burnt in his presence, commanded that Gaudion should -then be wholly and formally discharged of the same.' - -Louis XIV had just suffered a cruel blow, not only in his deepest -affections, but in his dignity as sovereign, by the declarations of -obscure and infamous criminals made before the Chambre Ardente. The very -throne of France was befouled by them. Colbert and Louvois were for a -moment in dire alarm. The all-powerful monarch, aided by his two great -ministers, believed that he had buried in unfathomable darkness the -terrible story of his shame and grief. But one flame had not been -extinguished. It had not been noticed. But it has continued to burn, and -grown larger, and thrown its blaze widely around. It is in the full -daylight glare that the facts are about to appear before our eyes. - - - - -II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN - - -The Marquise Françoise Athénais de Montespan was born in 1641 at the -castle of Tonnay-Charente, the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke -de Mortmart, lord of Vivonne, and of Diane de Granseigne, daughter of -Jean de Marsillac. She was called Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente until -her marriage. 'Her mother,' says Madame de Caylus, 'was anxious to imbue -her with principles of sound piety.' The piety of Mademoiselle de -Tonnay-Charente was violent and inflammatory. Appointed in 1660 maid of -honour to the queen, 'she gave her an extraordinary opinion of her -virtue by taking communion every day.' In 1679, when she had been for -several years the king's mistress, she much astonished the Princess -d'Harcourt by sending her on January 1, as a new year's gift, a -hair-shirt, a scourge, and a prayer-book adorned with diamonds. - -Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente married, on January 28, 1663, a noble of -her own province, L. H. de Pardaillan, Marquis de Montespan, who was a -year younger than herself. If she ever loved him, it was not for long. -As a lady-in-waiting to the queen, she was fascinated by the -magnificence surrounding Louise de la Vallière, the favourite of Louis, -who had become, in spite of her reserve and her timid and gentle -bearing, the object of intense and widespread jealousy, hatred, and -wrath. Madame de Montespan especially displayed her spiteful envy in -malicious gibes and insulting irony. Everybody knows it was not long -before she replaced her. - -Louise de la Vallière had kept in the shade, shunning publicity and -honours; Madame de Montespan in her pride wished to dazzle all eyes. -'Thunderous and triumphant' is Madame de Sévigné's description of her in -her radiant glory at Versailles. She draws elsewhere a picture of the -court in which the king's favourite shone: 'At three o'clock the king -and queen, with Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, all the princes and -princesses, Madame de Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers and -ladies, in a word, all that is known as the court of France, were found -in these handsome apartments of the king. They are divinely furnished, -everything is magnificent. Madame de Montespan was dressed in _point de -France_, her hair done in a thousand curls, two hanging from her temples -very low upon her cheeks; black ribbons on her head, with her pearls as -_maréchale_ of the Hospital, and embellished with earrings and pendants; -in a word, a triumph of beauty that threw the ambassadors into admiring -wonder. She knew that people were complaining how she prevented all -France from seeing the king; she has restored him to us, as you see, and -you would not believe what joy it has given everybody, and what beauty -it has given the court.' - -'Her beauty is marvellous,' writes Madame de Sévigné on another day, -'and her get-up is as wonderful as her beauty, and her gaiety as her -get-up.' Greater still was the renown of her wit. 'She was always the -best of company,' says Saint-Simon, 'with graces which palliated her -high and mighty airs, and were indeed suited to them. It was impossible -to have more wit, more fine polish, more striking expressions, -eloquence, natural propriety, which gave her, as it were, an individual -style of talk, but delicious, and which by force of habit was so -communicable that her nieces and the persons constantly about her, her -women, and those who, without being her servants, had been brought up -along with her, all caught the style, which is recognisable to-day among -the few survivors.' - -She surrounded herself with a brilliant luxury. Here is one of her -dresses as described by Madame de Sévigné: 'Gold upon gold, gold -embroideries, gold edgings, and, over all, gold crimpings, sewed with -one sort of gold blended with another sort, which makes up the divinest -stuff imaginable: it was the fairies who made this masterpiece in -secret.' - -In her estates at Clagny, with their immense park, a second Versailles -was to be seen alongside Versailles itself. The king had first had built -there for his mistress a bijou residence--a country villa. 'She said -that that might do for an opera girl.' The house was pulled down and the -château erected, after the plans of Mansard. At Versailles the favourite -had twenty rooms on the first floor; the queen occupied eleven rooms on -the second. Dangeau notes that Madame de Montespan's train was borne by -the Maréchale de Noailles; the queen's was carried by a simple page. - -The influence of the young favourite spelled fortune, hope, and honour -to ministers, courtiers, and generals. Her father became governor of -Paris, her brother a marshal of France. In her drawing-room, frequented -by all the most distinguished persons in rank and literature, a quite -unique style of wit came into existence, which her contemporaries often -refer to--a wit at once choice and subtle, natural and pleasant. It must -be added that, by a wonderful coincidence, her reign, which lasted -thirteen years, exactly corresponded with the zenith of the age of Louis -XIV. - -Madame de Montespan used to go about escorted by royal bodyguards. As -she journeyed throughout the whole length and breadth of France, -governors and lord-lieutenants offered her their homage in great -ceremony, and cities sent deputations to her. She passed through the -provinces in a six-horse coach, followed by another coach also drawn by -six horses, in which sat six ladies of her suite, and then came the -baggage-wagons and six mules and a dozen cavaliers. It is like a fairy -tale from Perrault. - -She had by Louis XIV seven children, whom the Parlement was to -legitimatise and declare royal children of France. The oldest, the Duke -de Maine, received the principality of Dombes and the county of Eu; in -1675, when five years old, he was appointed to the infantry regiment of -Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of -Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys -and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the -daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the Duke de Bourbon; the -second, Mademoiselle de Blois, made a still more brilliant match. 'The -king,' says Saint-Simon, 'determined to marry Mademoiselle de Blois to -the Duke de Chartres; this was the king's only nephew, and far higher -than the princes of the blood.' - -Madame Palatine[9] said of the Marquise de Montespan: 'She is more -ambitious than dissipated.' There is justice in the saying. She had an -immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Vallière loved the king as a -mistress, Madame de Maintenon as a governess, Madame de Montespan as a -tyrant. - - * * * * * - -It was in 1666 that historians note the first signs of Madame de -Montespan's ambition. She was then aspiring to the king's love, and it -is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in commenting on the -proceedings of the Chambre Ardente, places her first visits to the -sorceresses. - -Marguerite Monvoisin, La Voisin's daughter, spoke thus before the -judges: 'Every time that anything fresh happened to Madame de Montespan, -or she feared any diminution in the favour of the king, she told my -mother, so that she might provide a remedy; and my mother at once had -recourse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother -powders to be given to the king.' La Voisin's daughter explained that -these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, -according to the various formulae of witchcraft. Among the ingredients -were cantharides, the dust of dried moles, blood of bats, and other vile -substances. Of these a paste was made, which was placed under the -chalice during the sacrifice of the mass, and blessed by the priest at -the moment of the offertory. Louis XIV swallowed this compound mixed -with his food. - -'My mother,' said the girl, 'several times took to Madame de Montespan -at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to -the king--some which had passed under the chalice and others which had -not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the -demoiselle Desoeillets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave -her some in the church of the Petits Pères, and another time on the road -to St. Cloud.' - -The depositions of Marguerite Monvoisin are important. She had never -been mixed up with her mother's sorceries, but she had known about them. -La Reynie observes that her declarations exhibit 'a certain air of -ingenuousness, or else, if they are false, every one is mightily -deceived.' He adds that 'she mentions so many circumstances and so many -different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is -morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which -she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has -invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine; she mentions living -people.' The examining judge says further, that the very denials of the -sorceresses accused by Marguerite of complicity with Madame de -Montespan, their embarrassment, their contradictions, their refusal to -answer when they were conscious of being hard pressed, confirm her -testimony. - -When Marguerite Monvoisin made her depositions, her mother had been dead -for several months. In the examination of July 12, 1680, we read:-- - -'Why did you not sooner give information of these evil designs against -the person of the king?' - -'I could not tell what I had heard without ruining my mother; I did not -believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advice of no one, and have -declared all I know on the matter.' - -'Did you not know you were bound to tell, and that it would be a great -crime to hide anything concerning this matter?' - -'I knew well enough the importance of the things I have stated; I knew -it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had done so; and I -knew there was nothing but was of great importance.' - -'Did you know it would be a great crime to make the slightest addition -to the facts which you have declared?' - -'Yes, and those of whom I have spoken can tell you a good deal; I think -I have diminished rather than increased; I had no other idea but to -state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mother; if -I remember any other circumstance, or if any is recalled to my memory, I -will confess the truth.' - -Several writers have thought that the sorceresses compromised the -greatest names in France before the judges in the hope of saving their -lives, by connecting themselves with personages so high in station that -no one would dare to lift a hand against them. Quite the contrary. We -see La Voisin concealing, up to the very moment of her execution, her -relations with the king's mistress, for her greatest fear was that the -horrible punishment meted out to regicides might be applied to her. In -an expansive moment, she said to her guards at Vincennes: 'I fear, more -than anything else that I am asked about, a certain journey to court.' -We shall have much to do presently with this journey the sorceress made -to court on behalf of Madame de Montespan. It was at the last moment, -after hearing her death-sentence, against which there was no appeal, -that Françoise Filastre made her startling depositions of September 30 -and October 1, 1680, as the result of which Louis XIV, in terror, caused -the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be suspended. - -The statements of Marguerite Monvoisin were confirmed in detail by those -of the Abbé Guibourg, with whom she had no means of communicating after -her arrest. Thus, as La Reynie says, they were proved 'according to the -rules of justice.' - -To-day, history furnishes still further proofs. We have just heard the -daughter of La Voisin: 'Every time anything fresh happened to Madame de -Montespan, or she feared some diminution in the favour of the king, she -told my mother.' Now, if we follow in the correspondence of Madame de -Sévigné and the court chronicles the checkered story of the relations -between Madame de Montespan and the king from 1667 to 1680, and compare -it further with the depositions made before the Chambre Ardente, we find -a precise confirmation of the declarations of Marguerite Monvoisin. It -was several times observed by La Reynie that 'the time mentioned by the -accused is of consequence to Madame de Montespan.' - -How, and by whom, was the haughty favourite led to the haunts of the -witches? Historians have put forth many hypotheses on this subject. They -were not acquainted with the declaration of La Chaboissière, the valet -of Vanens, whom we have already mentioned: 'that the chevalier de Vanens -deserved to be drawn and quartered for the counsel he had given to -Madame de Montespan.' La Chaboissière had scarcely let this confession -escape him than he wished in great agitation to retract it, and begged -that the words might not be written down in the report of his -examination. La Reynie disentangled this confession from the chaos of -official documents, and sharply underlined it as the starting-point of -the drama. - -The relations between the favourite and the sorceresses began, then, at -the very time when her dawning love for the king was noticed. In 1667 we -find her in Rue de la Tannerie, in the company of the magician Lesage -and the Abbé Mariette, priest of St. Séverin. The latter belonged to a -good Parisian family; he was tall and well made, with a very pale -complexion and black hair. At one end of a little room an altar was -erected: Mariette, in sacerdotal vestments, uttered incantations, Lesage -sang the _Veni Creator_, then Mariette read a gospel on the head of -Madame de Montespan, who knelt before him and recited exorcisms against -Louise de la Vallière. She added--the very words are found in one of -Lesage's declarations--'I ask for the affection of the king and of the -Dauphin, that it may be continued, that the queen may be barren, that -the king leave her bed and table for me, that I obtain from him all that -I ask for myself and my relatives; that my servants and domestics may be -pleasing to him; that, beloved and respected by great nobles, I may be -called to the councils of the king and know what passes there; and that, -this affection being redoubled on what has existed in the past, the king -may leave La Vallière and look no more upon her; and that, the queen -being repudiated, I may espouse the king.' - -On another occasion, in the church of St. Severin, the Abbé Mariette, in -the presence of Madame de Montespan, recited charms over the hearts of -two pigeons which had been consecrated in the names of Louis XIV and -Louise de la Vallière during the sacrifice of the mass. - -Early in the year 1668, Mariette and Lesage had the audacity to proceed -to Saint-Germain, the headquarters of the court, and in the very château -itself, in the portion occupied by Madame de Thianges, Madame de -Montespan's sister, they resumed their sorceries. Aromatic fumigations -filled the room with a bluish vapour, with which was mingled the pungent -scent of incense. Madame de Montespan formulated the incantation. -'This,' declared Lesage, 'was to obtain the favour of the king, and to -cause Mademoiselle de la Vallière's death.' Mariette said it was merely -to get her sent away. Now it happened that, not long after these -proceedings, in that very year 1668, Madame de Montespan realised her -dream and was taken to the king's heart. The star of La Vallière rapidly -paled. In 1669 Madame de Montespan was brought to bed of the first of -the seven children she gave to Louis. If she had ever doubted the -efficacy of these dealings with the devil, confidence would have dated -from that day. - -An incident, which might have had terrible consequences, ruffled this -happiness so long desired. Mariette and Lesage owed to La Voisin the -lucrative connection with Madame de Montespan. But they showed base -ingratitude, and proceeded to perform incantations for the marquise, no -longer with the assistance of La Voisin, but with that of a rival -sorceress, La Duverger. La Voisin was indignant, and as La Reynie says, -'made a to-do about it. The matter became known, and the king, having -learnt that these people were accustomed to perform impious and -sacrilegious rites, ordered the arrest of Mariette and Dubuisson (the -name taken by Lesage at this period), and they were sent to the Bastille -in March 1668.' From the Bastille they were brought before the Châtelet -on the charge of sorcery. The court chroniclers, though ignorant of her -reasons for so doing, note that Madame de Montespan at this time -suddenly left Paris. But Mariette and Lesage had too much interest in -holding their tongues to inform against her. 'Besides,' writes La -Reynie, 'the first judge who heard the case being a cousin-german of -Mariette through his wife, La Voisin being at large on the credit of -interested persons with whom she had dealings, and these wretched -practices being then unknown, investigation was not carried very far. It -was solely a question of seeing how the matter could be dealt with in -such a way as to save Mariette on account of his family.' The little -that could not be concealed brought Lesage condemnation to the galleys -and Mariette banishment. The king increased the sentence of the latter -to imprisonment; but the prisoner escaped from St. Lazare, where he had -been confined. As to Lesage, La Voisin, thanks to her connections, was -not long in getting him set at liberty. In a memorandum addressed to -Louvois, La Reynie exhibits the conclusions to be drawn from the trial -of 1668. After very appositely calling attention to the fact that the -statements of the accused were the less suspicious because, dating from -a period when as yet there could be no question of the scarcely dawning -relations between Louis and Madame de Montespan, the lieutenant of -police says that Mariette and Lesage could only have known of those -relations through Madame de Montespan herself, and adds: 'It appears -from the trial of Lesage and Mariette in 1668, that Madame de Montespan -had been dealing with La Voisin at any rate since 1667, and that about -that time she was by her introduced to Lesage and Mariette; that -Mariette, in his room and in the presence of Lesage, used to read the -Gospels over the head of Madame de Montespan. - -'So early as that, then, a scheme was on foot. - -'When I questioned the two surviving accomplices on the matter, they -said, separately, that this scheme was to secure the favour of the king; -that for that purpose La Voisin then gave some powders which were placed -under the chalice given to Madame de Montespan, and that she recited an -incantation in which her own name and the king's occurred; that she -performed other ceremonies at Saint-Germain; that she had masses said on -the hearts of pigeons at St. Séverin, and other impious and sacrilegious -rites performed in Mariette's room, for this purpose, and as the one -says, to slay, the other merely to get rid of, Madame de la Vallière.' -(These enchantments to procure the death of Mademoiselle de la Vallière -were made upon human bones.) - -'Lesage and Mariette said nothing about it until the former, urged by -explicit commands to tell the truth, and Mariette, impelled by the -facts themselves to reveal them, both, separately, established these -facts.' - -La Reynie observes further that Lesage and Mariette mentioned certain -details, afterwards proved to be accurate, of which they could have got -information from Madame de Montespan alone. - -We have already mentioned the reasons why the declarations of Marguerite -Monvoisin inspired confidence; the corresponding depositions of Lesage -deserve equal attention. On October 8, 1679, Louvois wrote to Louis -_XIV_: 'Monsieur de la Reynie showed me his conviction that, if I spoke -to Lesage, he would in the end make up his mind to tell me all he knew, -and he believed this to be the more important because this man has not -up to the present been convicted himself of poisoning any one, but has a -perfect knowledge of all the poisonings effected in Paris for the last -seven or eight years. I went yesterday to Vincennes, and spoke to him in -the way Monsieur de la Reynie desired, giving him to hope that your -Majesty would pardon him provided he made the declarations necessary for -bringing to the knowledge of justice all that has happened in regard to -the poisons. He promised to do so, and told me that he was much -surprised at my urging him to tell all he knew.' In a letter of October -11, 1679, Louvois renewed his pressure on Lesage to induce him to speak -fully and in entire frankness. The magician hesitated, tried to -dissimulate, repeating to all who urged him how vastly he was astonished -at their persistence; but this reluctance only stimulated the ardour of -La Reynie. He returned to the charge; like Louvois, he gave hints of a -royal pardon. At last Lesage spoke. His principal declarations were -written among the papers which Louis had burnt in the fireplace of his -study, as we have said; hence we no longer possess them in their -entirety; but from the notes left by La Reynie, as well as from the -fragments of the magisterial examination which were preserved and will -be found in part reproduced below, we know that the revelations of -Lesage entirely confirmed those of Marguerite Monvoisin. - -The scandal of the amours of Louis XIV was only the more intense because -the young Marquis de Montespan was by no means a complaisant husband, a -singular fact at that period and in that society. 'He was an extravagant -and extraordinary man,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'who -complained to everybody of the friendship of the king for his wife.' -There were scenes between the spouses, and he struck her. He provoked -scenes with the king. 'When Montespan went to Saint-Germain sermonising -thus, Madame de Montespan was in despair. He used to come to see me very -often,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier; 'he is a relative of mine, and -I scolded him. He came one evening and repeated to me an harangue he had -delivered to the king, in which he quoted innumerable passages of -Scripture, about David, for instance, and finally used strong terms to -induce him to give back his wife and fear the judgment of God. I said to -him, "You are mad!" I was at Saint-Germain next day and said to Madame -de Montespan: "I have seen your husband in Paris, and he is madder than -ever; I sharply scolded him and told him that if he didn't hold his -tongue he would deserve to be locked up." She said to me: "He is here -telling his tales at court; I am ashamed to see that my parrot and he -are amusing the mob."' - -Louis XIV was naturally irritated by the attitude of this surprising -husband. Almighty as he was, he resorted to the tricks and subterfuges -of a vulgar lover. His anxiety was redoubled when his mistress became a -mother. The king was very fond of his children, particularly those he -had by Madame de Montespan. In the eyes of the law these children -belonged to the husband; and Louis trembled with fear lest Montespan, -out of vengeance or irony, should come and take from him his son and -daughter. - -Montespan found a supporter in his uncle the Archbishop of Sens. 'When -the king's passion was known,' says the Abbé Boileau, brother of the -poet, 'the archbishop sentenced to public penance a woman of the town -who lived as the marchioness, his niece, was living, in open -concubinage, and he caused the publication in his diocese of the old -canons against the violation of the religious law.' The diocese of Sens -included Fontainebleau, where the court was then held. Madame de -Montespan was compelled to take her departure in confusion. She felt -that it was she who was being pointed at. She dared not return into the -jurisdiction of the archbishop until after the prelate's death in 1674. - -When the Marquis understood that his efforts were vain, and that from -the height of his throne Louis would reply only with _lettres de -cachet_, he put on mourning, clothed all his household in black, and -drove to the court in a coach draped in black, to take leave in great -ceremony of his relatives, friends, and acquaintances. On that day the -husband in his costume of black was not the butt of ridicule; jests were -silenced, and the king on the throne was scorned and despised. A man of -genius lent the monarch his aid. Molière wrote his _Amphitryon_. The -play was represented in this year 1668, and the mockers resumed their -places in the royal camp. - - 'Un partage avec Jupiter - N'a rien du tout qui déshonore.'[10] - -Viscounts and marquises on gilded benches applauded the taunt and -punctuated the cruel railleries with bursts of laughter. Yet the king -was injured, especially in the opinion of the Parisian middle class. He -was conscious of it; and one day said himself to his mistress that if -she had left house, children, and husband to follow him, he had -neglected the care of his reputation, which was much blighted through -his having loved a woman whom he had such good reasons for not regarding -as he had done. - -Montespan set out for his country seat. Some men of the company he -commanded fell a-quarrelling with the under-bailiff of Perpignan; the -fact was of no importance, but it came to the knowledge of the -ministers, and Louvois wrote at once to the Lord Lieutenant: 'September -21, 1669. I cannot express my surprise that a thing of the nature of -that which Monsieur de Montespan has done should have passed without my -learning of it. I send you a despatch from the king for the supreme -council of Roussillon, in which His Majesty commands the council to hold -an inquiry. In whatever manner you may employ it, it must not be -forgotten, whether in the informations of the sub-bailiff of Perpignan -or in that about the disorders that occurred at Illes, to implicate the -commander of the company (Montespan) and the largest possible number of -cavaliers, so that they may take fright and the majority desert, -especially the commander; after which it would not be a difficult matter -to bring about the ruin of the company. If you have the names of the -cavaliers who insulted the sub-bailiff, they must be arrested at once, -to make an example of them, and so that you may have, from their -depositions at the time of their execution, more proof against the -captain--to try in some way or other to implicate him in the -informations, so that he may be cashiered with an appearance of justice. -If you could manage that he is accused sufficiently for the supreme -council to have grounds for pronouncing some condemnation on him, it -would be a very good thing; you will guess the reasons well enough, -however little you may be informed of what is going on in this part of -the world.' The cynicism of Louis and his minister passes all bounds. -Montespan had to flee for refuge to Spain; but from that day Louis' -position in regard to the injured husband, so far from improving, became -sensibly worse. Abroad, Montespan could more boldly and independently -press his claims on the children of the king, and provoke a scandal in -the eyes of all Europe. - -Louis got a demand for separation _a mensa et thoro_, formulated by -Madame de Montespan, brought before the Châtelet. Notwithstanding the -pressure exerted by king and ministers, who bullied the judges, the -matter remained in suspense. The judges could not bring themselves to -commit the iniquity demanded of them. They gave way at last, partly -under pressure from the First President de Novion, who had been won by a -promise of the Great Seal. The separation was declared on July 7, 1674, -by Procureur-Général Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges. The -judgment adduced the wasting of the property of the commonalty by the -Marquis de Montespan, the domestic discord between the marquis and his -wife, and the ill-treatment of which the marchioness complained on the -part of her husband. This decree pronounced against Montespan was a -monstrous proceeding. After having dishonoured his crown, Louis -dishonoured justice; but there was a higher justice which, as we shall -see, he was not to escape. - -The decree of July 7, 1674, did not assure the king peace of mind. In -1678 Montespan had to return for a short time to Paris on account of a -lawsuit. Louis XIV wrote to Colbert (June 15): 'I understand that -Montespan is indulging in indiscreet talk; he is a madman whom you will -do me the pleasure to have closely watched; and so that he may have no -pretext for remaining in Paris, see Novion so that the Parlement may -hurry. I know that Montespan has threatened to see his wife, and that he -is capable of it, and that the consequences might be formidable (the -question of the children again); I rely on you to prevent him speaking. -Do not forget the details of this matter, and especially see to it that -he leaves Paris at the earliest moment.' Such were the jobs to which the -Colberts and the Louvois had to stoop; but such also were the annoyances -and troubles beneath which Louis bent his brow--a brow already reddened -with shame, and soon to be furrowed with grief. - - * * * * * - -Louis XIV loved his mistresses, not for their own sakes, but for his. -The new passion lasted three years. Perhaps some one will say that that -is a good while. In 1672, jealousy, which perpetually ravaged the proud -soul of Madame de Montespan, burst out in storms of which Madame de -Sévigné speaks thus: 'She is in inexpressible rages; she has seen no one -for a fortnight; she writes from morning till night, and when she goes -to bed tears it all up. Her state makes me quite sorry. No one pities -her, though she has done good turns to many people.' Madame de Montespan -returned to La Voisin; and it is not without emotion that we see this -wonderful woman, with her matchless grace and her superior intelligence, -after having stepped into crime, sinking into it lower and lower. From -the hands of the Abbé Mariette, who recited the Gospels over her head -and made incantations on the hearts of pigeons, she comes into those of -the Abbé Guibourg, who said the black mass. - -Guibourg claimed to be an illegitimate member of the family of -Montmorency. He was seventy years old; his complexion was that of a -confirmed toper. He had a horrible squint. In these monstrous ceremonies -he cut the throats of his own children by his mistress, a fat ruddy -wench named Chanfrain. - -To obtain the desired result from the black mass, it was necessary that -it should be celebrated three times in succession. The three masses were -said in 1673, at intervals of a fortnight or three weeks--the first in -the chapel of the Château of Villebousin, in the village of Mesnil, near -Montlhéry. Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the maid of Madame de Montespan, -was intimately connected with Leroy, governor of the pages of the Petite -Ecurie, who owned a house at Mesnil. Guibourg had lived in the château -as almoner of the Montgommerys. It has been described by M. J. Lair: 'A -building of the fourteenth century, and well chosen for sinister -incantations, the château, situated half a league from the road from -Paris to Orleans, was surrounded by deep moats, filled with running -water.' Leroy betook himself to St. Denis, where he saw the Abbé -Guibourg. He promised fifty pistoles, that is, about £20, and a living -worth 2000 livres. At the day fixed there met at Villebousin Madame de -Montespan, the Abbé Guibourg, Leroy, 'a tall person' who was certainly -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, and a person of name unknown who is said to -have been a retainer of the Archbishop of Sens. In the chapel of the -chateau the priest said mass on the bare body of the favourite as she -lay across the altar. At the consecration, he recited his incantation, -the words of which he gave later to the commissaries of the Chambre -Ardente: 'Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to -accept the sacrifice I present to you of this child for the things I ask -of you, which are that the affection of the king and my lord the dauphin -for me may be continued; and that, honoured by the princes and -princesses of the court, nothing be denied me of all that I shall ask -the king, as well for my relatives as my servitors.' 'Guibourg had -bought for a crown (12s. 6d. to-day) the child who was sacrificed at -this mass,' writes La Reynie, 'and who was offered to him by a fine -girl; and having drawn blood from the child, whom he stabbed in the -throat with a penknife, he poured it into the chalice, after which the -child was taken away and carried to another place.' - -The details of the mass at Mesnil were revealed by Guibourg, and further -confirmed by the deposition of La Chanfrain, his mistress. - -The second mass on the body of Madame de Montespan took place a -fortnight or three weeks after the first, at St. Denis, in a tumbledown -hut. The third took place in a house at Paris, whither Guibourg was -conducted blindfold, and from which he was brought back in the same way -as far as the arcade of the Hôtel de Ville. - -At this time the journal of the health of the king, drawn up by D'Aquin, -the chief physician, states that Louis suffered from violent headaches. -Towards the end of this year, 1673, he was attacked by dizziness of such -a kind that at times his sight became clouded and he felt on the point -of collapse. 'Is it rash,' observes Monsieur Loiseleur very justly, 'to -see in these headaches and faintnesses the effect of powders provided by -La Voisin?' The hypothesis of Monsieur Loiseleur will be sustained in -detail by a declaration of the magician Lesage which will be found -below. - -It remains to inquire how Madame de Montespan contrived to get the -powders prepared by the sorceress into the food of the king, surrounded -as he was by officers of the buttery. Two revelations, both of November -8, 1680, made, the first by Lemaire, locked up at Vincennes with the -Abbé Guibourg, the second by Lesage, will give the indication we desire. - -We read in the notes La Reynie took for his personal guidance by way of -memoranda: 'November 8, 1680, Lemaire asked to speak to me; told me that -being in the same room with Guibourg and another man, Guibourg told them -such strange things, especially in regard to Madame de Montespan, that -he does not know what to make of it, and that if there was any officer -who ought to be suspected, it would be Duchesne, the butler; that -Duchesne was a footman in the house of Madame d'Aubray, that he has -since served Monsieur Bontemps, and then Madame de Montespan, who was -very kind to him, and made him officer of the buttery, and that he is -always at Madame de Montespan's service.' Further: 'From the last -examinations of Lesage, and that of November 8 particularly, it appears -that Gilot, also an officer of the buttery, was involved in the impious -trade in 1668, and that he sought Lesage's assistance for the designs of -Madame de Montespan.' - -The crisis of the year 1675 was more serious. Louis XIV suddenly had -great fits of devotion. People with their eyes open saw that he was -tiring of his mistress. Madame de Montespan, on the Thursday in Holy -Week, had been refused absolution by a priest of her parish. Much put -out, she hastened to the curé of Versailles, and spoke to him hotly, but -the curé approved of his subordinate's action. And the great voice of -Bossuet, which had consistently been upraised against the double -adultery, resounded with a new force. 'When we were at Versailles, one -fast day, about Easter, Madame de Montespan went away,' writes -Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 'Every one was vastly astonished at this -retreat. I went to Paris, and saw her in the house where her children -were. Madame de Maintenon was with her. She saw nobody. As everybody was -on the alert about her return, although nobody seemed to pay any -attention to it, it was known that M. Bossuet, then tutor to the -dauphin, and at present bishop of Meaux, went there every day muffled in -a grey cloak.' We have other information from Bossuet's private -secretary, the Abbé Le Dieu. Louis XIV ordered his mistress to retire. -When Bossuet went to see the exiled lady, she 'loaded him with -reproaches; she told him that his pride had urged him to get her driven -away, that he wanted to make himself sole master of the king's mind.' -Then, when she understood that her wrath smote in vain against the -serene firmness of the prelate, 'she sought to win him by flatteries and -promises; she dangled before his eyes the chief dignities in Church and -State.' - -This exile lasted from April 14 to May 11. On the other hand, the -magician Lesage, in an examination held on November 16, 1680, declared -that 'if he were in the last torments, he could tell nothing except that -in 1675, at the beginning of summer (the exact date), when Madame de -Montespan was trying to maintain her position, La Voisin and La -Desoeillets worked or pretended to work for her; but in reality, -powerless to keep for her the love of the king, they merely gave her -powders which, taken in certain doses, would have acted as poison.' So -Lesage said; and the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, summed up by La -Reynie, are identical: 'The powders her mother sent to Madame de -Montespan were love powders to be given to the king. Once when her -mother took some powders to Clagny she was accompanied by the magician -Latour, her eldest brother, a servant named Marie, since dead, and -Fernand, a good friend of Latour, and La Vautier; but these did not -enter Clagny. She could not say if Latour went in with her mother, but -they all came back together, and had lunch at the sign of the _Heaume_, -near the Bois de Boulogne, with violins; they made some noise among -them. Her brother, who told her about it, told her that her mother -brought back fifty louis-d'or. Her mother, besides the powders she gave -to Madame de Montespan, did not send any except by Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, who was the go-between for that purpose. As to the -powders which had passed beneath the chalice, they came from a priest -called the Prior (the Abbé Guibourg). As to the others which had not -been under the chalice, her mother kept them in the drawer of a cabinet -of which she had the key. There were black ones, white, and grey, which -she mixed in the presence of Desoeillets. Her father once wanted to -break the cabinet where the powders were kept, saying that some harm -would come of it.' And the result of these practices was, once more, of -such a nature as to give confidence in the power of sorcery: Madame de -Montespan regained her position with the king. It is true that Madame de -Richelieu said, 'I am always there as a third party.' In spite of this -'third party,' Madame de Montespan became the mother of the Comte de -Toulouse and Mademoiselle de Blois. Madame de Sévigné writes to her -daughter on June 28, 1675: 'Your idea about _Quantova_ (Madame de -Montespan) is very good; if she cannot recover the old ground, she will -push her authority and her greatness beyond the clouds; but she must -make sure of being loved all the year round without scruple. Meanwhile -her house is filled with the whole court, and her consideration is -unbounded.' On July 31, Madame de Sévigné writes again: 'The attachment -for _Quantova_ is always extreme: it's pretty much in order to vex the -curé and everybody else.' - -In 1675 Madame de Montespan had been dismissed, from religious scruples; -in 1676 she was to be sent away for reasons which furnished her with -quite another ground for irritation. The king was then suddenly seized -with a terrible hunger for a multiplicity of amours, soon over, sudden, -and varied. Madame de Sévigné characterises this strange condition in a -picturesque phrase: 'There's a scent of new game in the land of -_Quanto_.'[11] At short intervals the Princess de Soubise, Madame de -Louvigny, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Théobon, Madame de Ludres, and no -doubt others, succeeded one another in the affections and the bed of the -king. - -Madame de Soubise makes an amusing appearance in the gallery of royal -mistresses. She loved Louis out of love for her husband. After -collecting for him all the honours and dignities, the offices and the -hard cash that he desired, Madame de Soubise struck her tents and -retired in good order. She had made the least possible stir and went -back to her husband, who was enchanted with the adventure. The Prince of -Soubise thought, with the poet, that a share with Jupiter had no -dishonour so long as Jupiter could pay a good price. - -These intrigues find a double echo, in the writings of Madame de Sévigné -and in the records of the Chambre Ardente. On September 2, 1676, Madame -de Sévigné writes: 'The vision of Madame de Soubise has passed quicker -than a lightning-flash: they have made it up again. _Quanto_ the other -day at cards had her head resting familiarly on her friend's shoulder, -and we fancied that piece of affectation meant "I am better than ever."' -But on September 11 the position has changed. 'Everybody believes that -the star of Madame de Montespan is paling. There are tears, unfeigned -disappointments, affected cheerfulness, sulks; at last, my dear, it is -all over. Some tremble, others rejoice, some wish for immutability, the -majority for a dramatic change; in a word, we are all eyes and ears for -what the most clear-sighted say.' 'Every one thinks that the king loves -her no longer,' we read in a letter of September 30, 'and that Madame de -Montespan is embarrassed between the consequences which would follow the -return of his favours and the danger of no longer enjoying them--the -fear that they are being sought elsewhere. Apart from that, she has not -very nicely accepted the position of friend: so much beauty as she still -has, and so much pride, find it difficult to come down to second place. -Jealousies are keen. Have they ever stopped anything?' Again, on October -15, 1676: 'If _Quanto_ had packed up her traps at Easter the year she -returned to Paris, she would not have been in her present distress; it -would have been sensible to adopt that course, but human weakness is -great; one wishes to make the most of the remains of one's beauty, and -this economy brings ruin rather than riches.' Madame de Ludres had just -succeeded Madame de Soubise. - -The anxieties of Madame de Montespan were further enhanced by the -brilliance, increasing every day, of a new star in the sky of -Versailles. At its rising it had shed a pale, discreet, modest light, -but a light which twinkled with little mocking scintillations. The widow -Scarron, now become Madame de Maintenon, had been chosen as governess of -the children of the king and Madame de Montespan. What strides the -governess's fortune had taken in a few years! 'But let us speak of the -friend' (Madame de Maintenon), writes Madame de Sévigné on May 6, 1676: -'she is still more triumphant than the Montespan. Everything is -submitted to her dominion. All the chamber-women of her neighbour are -hers: one hands her the rouge-pot on her knees; another brings her her -gloves; a third puts her to sleep; she salutes no one, and I fancy that -really she laughs in her sleeve at this servitude.' - -Madame de Sévigné thus tells us what was passing at court; Marguerite -Monvoisin will tell us what was going on among the sorceresses. 'The -daughter of La Voisin,' writes La Reynie, 'says that she has seen this -sort of mass celebrated over the body by Guibourg in her mother's house. -She helped her mother to get things ready: a mattress on seats, two -stools at the sides, on which were candlesticks with candles; after -which Guibourg came out of the little side-chamber clothed in his -chasuble--white, spotted with black fir-cones--and after that La Voisin -brought in the woman on whose body the mass was to be said. Madame de -Montespan had this sort of mass said three years ago (_i.e._ in 1676) at -her mother's house, where she came about ten o'clock and only left at -midnight. And when La Voisin told her that it was necessary for her to -fix a time when the other two masses might be said, which were necessary -if her affair was to be successful, Madame de Montespan said that she -could not find time, that La Voisin would have to do what was necessary -to assure success, which she promised her and did, and the masses were -said on La Voisin herself by Guibourg.' (This again shows the sincerity -of the sorceress in the carrying out of these practices.) 'The girl -Voisin having notified all the circumstances of the proceeding, the -arrangement of the place, that of the person--she knew Madame de -Montespan--the preparations of the priest clothed in his sacerdotal -vestments, the terms of the incantation, in which the documents show -that the names of Louis de Bourbon and Madame de Montespan were -mentioned--the girl Voisin adds that a child had its throat cut at the -mass said for Madame de Montespan at her mother's.' - -'When I was grown up,' said Marguerite Monvoisin, 'my mother was no -longer reluctant to trust me, and I was present at this sort of mass, -and saw that the lady was stark naked on the mattress, with her head -hanging down, supported by a pillow on an overturned chair, the legs too -hanging over, a napkin on the belly, a cross on the napkin, and the -chalice on the belly.' She adds that this lady was Madame de Montespan. -'At the mass of Madame de Montespan,' said Marguerite in the course of -another examination, 'a child was presented which apparently had been -prematurely born, and it was put into a basin. Guibourg cut its throat, -poured the blood into a chalice, and consecrated it with the wafer, -finished his mass, then proceeded to take the child's entrails. My -mother next day carried the blood and wafer to Dumesnil to be distilled, -in a glass vessel which Madame de Montespan took away.' These facts were -confirmed on October 23, 1680, by the confrontation of Marguerite -Monvoisin with Guibourg--with this variation, that Guibourg tried to -shuffle on to La Voisin the butchery of the child. - -'Guibourg said that it was not true that he had opened the child, -because it would have stained his alb: he found the child already -opened. - -'The girl Voisin, on the contrary, declared that he cut open the heart -himself, took out some clotted blood, and put it into the vessel into -which the other blood and the rest had been put, which Madame de -Montespan took away; and that to make the clotted blood go in, a common -glass was broken, which, with its foot knocked off, was made to act as a -funnel. - -'Guibourg said that he did not open the child's stomach, but that having -found it open, he did in fact draw out the entrails and open the heart -to get out the blood that was in it, and that he put it into a crystal -vase with some portions of the consecrated wafer: the whole was carried -off by the lady on whose body he had said mass; and that he always -believed the lady was Madame de Montespan.' - -This picture is fraught with so much horror that we could not bring -ourselves to admit its authenticity if the evidence of Marguerite -Monvoisin and the Abbé Guibourg were not corroborated by confessions -extorted from other accomplices of these crimes, who were arrested at -different dates and examined separately--Lesage, Lacoudraye, Delaporte, -Vertemart, Françoise Filastre, the Abbé Cotton--confirmed by the -declarations of several witnesses who had picked up, before the trial, -fragments of talk which escaped the accused. La Reynie emphasises the -fact that the declarations of Lesage and the girl Monvoisin were made at -an interval of sixteen months, and without their having had any -opportunity during those months of communicating with each other. - -On October 11, 1680, La Reynie writes to Louvois, who wished to save -Madame de Montespan while prosecuting the charges against the other -persons, and proposed, with that end, to withdraw from the case the -declarations made under torture by Filastre and the Abbé Cotton, which -contained the gravest charges against the favourite: 'It is certain, -even if we found a legitimate expedient for concealing from the judges -for the present the facts which it would be well to keep secret, even -for the sake of justice itself, that these very facts would crop up -again from the woman Chappelain, from Guibourg, Galet, Pelletier, -Delaporte, and perhaps from several more when under trial.' - -On the subject of the deposition made by Guibourg, La Reynie writes: 'It -is morally impossible that Guibourg has deceived us in his declaration, -and that he invented what he tells about the incantations said in course -of the masses on the women's bodies. His mind is not active or -consistent enough for such continuous thought as would have been -necessary to invent what he had said on this subject, because, even -supposing he were capable of such application, he has not enough -acquaintance with what goes on in the world, and could not have devised -so consistent a story in regard to Madame de Montespan.' Elsewhere he -writes: 'Guibourg and the girl Monvoisin have corroborated one another -about circumstances so particular and so horrible that it is difficult -to conceive two persons being able to imagine and fabricate them unknown -to each other. It seems that these things must have occurred, or they -could not have been described.' - -The illustrious magistrate adds the following reflections:-- - -'1. The time of the relations of La Voisin with Latour, the journeys to -Saint-Germain, and the powders which she made him work at, was the year -1676. - -'2. The time of the abominations described by Guibourg and the girl -Monvoisin fits the same period. - -'3. Two years ago Lesage spoke of Latour, the poisons, Desoeillets, -and the journeys of La Voisin in 1676. - -'4. It was established at the trial that two or three years before -Lesage was taken, he testified that he feared the business would ruin -him. They said at that time that the king had the vapours. He declared -that he wished to leave La Voisin on that account, and because of the -dealings she had with Desoeillets. - -'From the beginning of these inquiries, these same facts have been -spoken of; La Bosse, the first to be tried, gave the first inkling of -them; she spoke of them under torture; but, because the king had not yet -allowed this sort of facts to be collected in regard to persons of -consideration, and because there was nothing to make us pay the least -attention to them, no mention was made in the report of the torture of -La Bosse of what she had said about Madame de Montespan.' - -In this year 1676, Madame de Montespan not only had recourse to the -incantations of the black mass; at her instigation, the sorceresses sent -La Boissière and Françoise Filastre to Normandy to a certain Louis -Galet, who had 'fine secrets' in regard to poison and love. Galet gave -them powders. As soon as his name was uttered by the prisoner before the -Chambre Ardente, an order was given for his arrest. He was flung into -prison at Caen on February 23, 1680. While still far away from the other -prisoners, detained at Vincennes or the Bastille, he was put through -interrogations, and the depositions made by him and the others coincided -with remarkable accuracy. And La Reynie's conclusion is: 'Guibourg and -Galet having confessed after the torture of La Filastre, they gave -between them a complete proof of these facts.' - - * * * * * - -It must be confessed that Madame de Montespan would have been of a -singularly incredulous nature if she had not retained a blind -confidence in the influence of the devil as invoked by the magicians -and sorceresses. Madame de Ludres was discarded, and Louis fell at -Madame de Montespan's feet again. On June 11, 1677, Madame de Sévigné -wrote to Madame de Grignan: 'Oh, my daughter, what a triumph at -Versailles! what redoubled pride! what a re-entry into possession! I was -in the room for an hour. She was in bed, decked out, with her hair done: -she was resting for the _medianoche_ (supper about midnight). She -launched shafts of contempt at poor _Io_ (Madame de Ludres), and laughed -at her having the audacity to complain of her. Imagine all that an -ungenerous pride could make her say in triumph, and you will get near -the truth. It is said that the little woman (Madame de Ludres) will -resume her ordinary duties about Madame. She went off to walk in perfect -solitude with La Moreuil in the garden of the Marshal Du Plessis.' On -June 18, Madame de Sévigné wrote to Bussy-Rabutin: 'Madame de Montespan -wanted to strangle her (Madame de Ludres), and makes her life terrible.' -On July 7, to Madame de Grignan: 'Poor _Isis_ (Madame de Ludres) has -not been to Versailles. She has remained in her solitude. When a certain -person (Madame de Montespan) speaks of her, she says, "that rag." The -event makes everything permissible.' - -'_Quanto_ and her friend Louis XIV are together longer and more eagerly -than ever they were. The ardour of the first years has returned, and all -fears are banished, all restraint removed, which persuades us that never -was empire seen more firmly established.' And a little later: 'Madame de -Montespan was the other day covered with diamonds; the brilliance of so -blazing a divinity was more than one could bear. The attachment seems -greater than ever: they are all eyes for one another: never has love -been seen to resume its sway like this.' - -Yet, courted and victorious as she was, the favourite appeared a prey to -torment; she was agitated, in a terrible fever. On January 13, 1678, the -Comte de Rébenac wrote to the Marquis de Feuquières: 'Madame de -Montespan's gambling has reached such a pitch that losses of 100,000 -crowns (£60,000 to-day) are common. On Christmas Day she lost 700,000 -crowns; she staked 150,000 pistoles (£280,000 at the present day) on -three cards, and won.' She lost her head in her triumph--her last -triumph, dazzling but ephemeral, and about to be followed by days of -cruel anguish. - -In March 1679, Madame de Maintenon asked the Abbé Gobelin 'to pray and -to have prayers said for the king, who is on the brink of a deep -precipice.' This 'precipice' was the heart of Marie Angélique de -Scoraille, demoiselle de Fontanges. She was eighteen years old, fair, -with glossy flaxen hair; her large eyes, with their look of childish -wonderment, were a light grey, deep and limpid; her skin was white as -milk, her cheeks a lovely rose-pink; and in disposition, said her -contemporaries, she was a genuine heroine of romance. She lived at Court -in the capacity of maid of honour to Madame, as Madame de Ludres and -Mademoiselle de la Vallière had done before her. 'Mademoiselle de -Fontanges,' says Madame Palatine, 'is lovely as an angel, from head to -foot.' If we may trust Bussy-Rabutin, 'her relatives, seeing her beauty -and grace, and having more love for their fortune than for their -honour, clubbed together to fit her out for Court, and to provide her -with means corresponding to the position she was entering.' - -This was a thunderbolt for Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. We read in -the _Précis historique de Saint-Germain-en-Laye_, by Lorot and Sivry: -'Madame de Montespan left Saint-Germain suddenly because of the jealousy -she has conceived for Mademoiselle de Fontanges.' But the royal lover -did not allow his mistresses to leave him at their own whim. He had -imposed on Louise de la Vallière the bitter martyrdom of following as an -expiatory victim the triumph of Madame de Montespan; he now compelled -Madame de Montespan to witness the triumph of Mademoiselle de Fontanges. -The proud marquise resigned herself to it, at least in appearance. On -March 30, 1679, she wrote to the Duke de Noailles: 'All is very quiet -here; the king only comes into my room after mass and after supper. It -is much better to see each other seldom but pleasantly, than often with -embarrassment,' Soon even this apparent satisfaction was withdrawn from -her. The desertion was public and complete. - -According to Madame de Sévigné, 'there was a ball at Villers-Cotterets, -at Monsieur's place. There were masques. Mademoiselle de Fontanges -appeared there in great brilliance, and adorned by the hands of Madame -de Montespan.' Bussy rejoiced at the disgrace. 'Madame de Montespan has -fallen, the king regards her no more, and you may be sure the courtiers -follow his example.' - -On April 6, Madame de Sévigné wrote: 'Madame de Montespan is enraged; -she cried a good deal yesterday, and you may guess the martyrdom her -pride is suffering.' On June 15, she replies to her daughter: 'It is an -infernal position, as you say, that of her who goes four paces ahead' -(alluding to Madame de Montespan). - -She launched out into epigrams against her fortunate rival, just as she -had satirised Louise de la Vallière. 'Madame de Montespan,' writes -Bussy-Rabutin, 'seeing that the great Alcandre (Louis XIV) was drifting -away from her more and more every day, became so choleric that she began -publicly to abuse Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She told every one that -the great Alcandre was surely not very fastidious to love a creature who -had had her little love affairs in the country; that she had neither wit -nor education; and that, properly speaking, she was only a beautiful -painting. She said a thousand other things about her equally irritating. -Indeed, she always displayed the same proud spirit which nothing had -been able to quell.' - -Mademoiselle de Fontanges responded by loading her predecessor and all -her children with costly presents. She had just been proclaimed a -duchess with an annuity of 20,000 crowns. The fury of Madame de -Montespan broke out. She had a violent scene with Louis, and when the -king reproached her with her pride, her domineering spirit, and other -defects, she replied with haughty scorn, concentrating all the violence -of her wrath in one of those hard and bitter words which had made her so -much feared in the time of her reign; she answered, 'that if she had the -imperfections of which he accused her, at any rate she did not smell -worse than he.' - -'My mother,' said the girl Monvoisin, 'told me that Madame de Montespan -wanted at that time to go to extremities, and tried to induce her to do -things for which she had much repugnance. My mother gave me to -understand that it was against the king, and after hearing what had -passed at the house of Trianon (a sorceress, partner of La Voisin), I -could not doubt it.' The deserted mistress resolved to put an end to -Louis and Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She applied to the sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, and had no difficulty in getting together four -accomplices in the terrible room in the Rue Beauregard: these four were -La Voisin and La Trianon, who undertook to put Louis out of the way, and -Romani and Bertrand, 'artists in poisons,' who promised to kill -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. Madame de Montespan gave them money. - -The king was to be poisoned first. La Voisin and her associates intended -at first to put magic powders, prepared according to the formulae of the -conjuring books, on the clothes of the king, or in some place where he -was to pass, 'which Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the companion of Madame -de Montespan, said could be done easily.' The king would die of decline. -But after reflection, La Voisin decided on means, the execution of which -struck her as more certain. In conformity with the ancient custom of the -kings of France, Louis XIV used to receive in person on certain days the -petitions presented by his subjects. Everybody was introduced to his -presence without distinction of rank or condition. It was resolved to -prepare a petition and steep it in powders that had gone under the -chalice; the king would take it in his hands and get his death-blow. La -Trianon undertook the preparation of the paper, and La Voisin to place -it in the hands of the king. - -The petition was drawn up. The king's intervention was asked in favour -of a certain Blessis, an alchemist whom the Marquis de Termes was -keeping confined in his château. La Voisin betook herself to her friend -Léger, a _valet de chambre_ of Montausier, and asked of him a letter of -recommendation to one of his friends at Saint-Germain, who would get -her passed in among the first to an audience with the king, so that she -might herself hand him her petition. Léger replied that it was -unnecessary for her to go to Saint-Germain, as he would undertake to -forward the petition by a sure route; but the sorceress insisted on -presenting it herself. - -The boldness of La Voisin terrified the most courageous of her -companions. The majority of them feared, not death, but the horrible -tortures reserved by the law for regicides. In order to frighten her, La -Trianon cast her horoscope. This document was found among the papers -seized on the sorceress by the Chambre Ardente. La Trianon foretold that -La Voisin would be implicated in a trial for a crime against the state. -'Bah!' she replied, 'there are 100,000 crowns to be gained.' That was -the price agreed upon by La Voisin and Madame de Montespan for the -poisoning of Louis XIV. - -La Voisin set out for Saint-Germain on Sunday, March 5, 1679, -accompanied by Romani and Bertrand. She returned on Thursday, March 9, -very much put out: she had not been able to approach the king so as to -give him the petition. She could have put it on the table placed near -the king for that purpose, but the paper was useless unless it were -placed in the king's own hands. She said that she would return to -Saint-Germain, and when her husband asked her what the urgency was, she -replied: 'I must accomplish my design or perish in the attempt!' 'What! -perish!' exclaimed Monvoisin, 'that's a good deal for a piece of paper.' - -On Friday, March 10, the 'missionaries'--priests of a community founded -by St. Vincent de Paul, which has already been mentioned--paid a visit -to the sorceress. La Voisin took fright, and gave the petition to her -daughter to burn, which Marguerite did at dawn on Saturday morning. It -is needless to say that the paper had always been kept in an envelope, -for to touch it, said the sorceresses, would be certain death. On -Sunday, March 12, La Voisin was arrested; it was on Monday the 13th that -she had meant to return to Saint-Germain. News of the arrest got -abroad, and on Wednesday, March 15, Madame de Montespan fled from Court. - -In a succession of hasty notes--the sentences are not even completed, -and we have filled them out for greater clearness--La Reynie builds up a -proof of the attempt on the life of Louis XIV, planned by La Voisin as -the instrument of Madame de Montespan:-- - -'By the depositions of the girl Voisin, Romani, and Bertrand, it is -proved that the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain was to present the -petition: Bertrand wrote it out, went to learn from La Voisin what she -had done, learnt that she had been there since Sunday without being able -to present it, had brought it back, and was going to return. From this -it is evident that the ultimate object of the journey of La Voisin to -Saint-Germain was to present the petition. - -'La Trianon and La Vautier agree as to the journey. La Trianon noted in -her horoscope the state affair, the crime of high treason; when -questioned she gave bad answers; among the facts confessed to, denies -the petition; if it were an unimportant matter, would have no interest -in denying it: must have had an object, which can be nothing else than -what the girl Voisin says. - -'The journey to Saint-Germain is the more suspicious in that La Voisin, -questioned as to her various journeys, has never mentioned that one, and -would have made no ado about mentioning it if there were nothing in it. - -'To which must be added the confession made by Voisin to her guards in -prison, about the fear she had that she would be asked to explain her -journey. She said, "God has protected the king!"' - -La Reynie adds: 'La Trianon agrees that she told the girl Voisin that -the journey to Saint-Germain was the cause of her mother's arrest, that -this journey would do her harm, that she would be involved in some -affair of state. At the same time, La Voisin did not appear to be -pleased with Blessis (and consequently had no reason to make any efforts -to secure his liberty). What is still more considerable, La Trianon and -the girl Monvoisin agree that the state crime mentioned in the -horoscope was the journey to Saint-Germain.' 'Finally,' observes La -Reynie, 'this petition has been mentioned at the trial, long before the -girl Monvoisin was arrested.' On September 27, 1679, Louvois wrote to -Louis XIV: 'Your Majesty will find in this packet what Lesage has said -about the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain; he cites so many people -as witnesses to his allegations that it is difficult to believe he -invented them.' And La Reynie gives confirmation: 'Before making her -declaration, the girl Monvoisin said something about it to two prisoners -who are with her. Finally, she tried to do away with herself by -strangling before making these same declarations.' - -The assassination of the Duchess de Fontanges was intended to crown the -vengeance of Madame de Montespan. La Voisin exclaimed, in regard to -this, when dining with La Trianon: 'Oh! what a fine thing is a lover's -spite!' Romani and Bertrand were engaged to poison the young lady at the -same time that La Voisin was killing Louis _XIV_; but the poisons -employed against her were to be less rapid, so that 'she might die a -lingering death,' said the accomplices, 'and that it might be said that -she had died of grief at the death of the king.' - -Romani had planned to disguise himself as a cloth merchant. Bertrand was -to follow him as a valet. They were to present their wares to the -duchess, and even if she did not take any cloth, 'she would not refrain -from taking gloves,' said Romani, 'because those he would bring from -Grenoble would be very well made, and ladies never failed to take some -of them when they were well made, and the gloves would have the same -effect as the piece of cloth.' They actually sent to Rome and Grenoble -for gloves of the finest quality, and Romani 'prepared' them according -to the recipes of the magicians. - -We find among La Reynie's papers a series of little notes which clearly -prove the plot against the life of Madame de Fontanges. - -A last feature in the case is not the least surprising. - -We have just seen that Madame de Montespan fled from Court when she -learnt of the arrest of the sorceress and her accomplices. Her terror, -and, above all, her fury were extreme. At the moment when her fortune -was for ever ruined, when she felt that she herself was lost, she wished -at least to have the terrible joy of seeing the Duchess de Fontanges -perish at her hands. The sorceress who had been the chief instrument of -her passions was about to be interrogated, and would undoubtedly -disclose to the attentive eyes of the judges the horrible practices in -which the king's mistress had been concerned. It was at this very moment -that Madame de Montespan, burning to realise her designs, entered into -relations with Françoise Filastre, the friend of La Voisin, and after -her the most terrible sorceress in Paris. Filastre was one of those who -had devoted their children to the devil, and murdered them immediately -after birth. She went to Normandy to find Galet, who has already been -mentioned, then went to Auvergne to obtain secrets for 'poisoning -without any sign appearing.' Returning to Paris, she took steps to win -an entrance to the house of Madame de Fontanges; but her arrest -prevented her from carrying her scheme into execution. - -Nature gave to Madame de Montespan the terrible satisfaction she had -sought to obtain from magic and poison. On June 28, 1681, the Duchess de -Fontanges died at the age of twenty-two, in the abbey of Port Royal. She -was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia, tubercular in origin, the action of -which was hastened by loss of blood following an accouchement. The young -woman died convinced that she had been poisoned, and suspecting her -rival. Louis XIV, who had the same idea, feared that the autopsy might -reveal the crime, and sought to prevent it; but the relatives insisted -on it. The physicians concluded that it was a natural death. But the -opinion was still held that Madame de Fontanges had succumbed to poison -administered by Madame de Montespan, an opinion echoed by Madame de -Caylus, Madame de Maintenon, Madame Palatine, and Bussy-Rabutin. - - * * * * * - -Before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente the magician Lesage had -allowed the following remark to escape him: 'If Filastre were captured, -they would learn some strange things.' She was taken: she denied -everything before the commissioners; but on October 1, 1680, while under -torture, she confirmed in the most precise manner the revelations made -by the prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; and on that very day -Louis XIV in terror ordered the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be -suspended. On October 17, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie: 'I have -received the letters you have done me the honour to write to me, and the -king heard them read with pain.' Louis, then, ordered the closing of the -Chambre Ardente, and when on May 19, 1681, the sittings were resumed at -the entreaty of La Reynie, the judges were forbidden 'to take any steps -in regard to the declarations contained in the reports of the torture -and execution of La Filastre.' From that day Louis had no further doubts -as to the guilt of his mistress. One more proof was to be furnished him. - -The name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, Madame de Montespan's maid, -recurs on every page of the proceedings. She was continually going -backwards and forwards between her mistress and the sorceresses. The -prisoners almost all knew her: they spoke of her in the most positive -manner. The girl Monvoisin pointed out her house, where she had been -several times. Mademoiselle Desoeillets had a friend named Madame de -Villedieu, who frequently visited the sorceresses, but for her own -private ends. When La Voisin was arrested, the two friends talked about -the incident. - -'How can you be easy in mind when you have been so often to the -sorceress?' asked Madame de Villedieu. - -'The king will not allow me to be arrested.' - -The remark was voluntarily reported by Madame de Villedieu to the -detective Desgrez. And, in fact, when La Reynie on October 22, 1680, -wrote to Louvois: 'What has been said in regard to Mademoiselle -Desoeillets at the beginning and repeated at the end is so strong that -it is impossible to prevent her from being confronted with the people -who have spoken about her,' his words fell on deaf ears at Versailles. -When Madame de Villedieu was taken to Vincennes, she said: 'It is -astonishing that I am being imprisoned when I went only once to La -Voisin, while you leave Mademoiselle Desoeillets at liberty, who has -been there more than fifty times.' - -Louvois at last decided to order Mademoiselle Desoeillets to appear, -not before the judges, but before himself in his private room. On -November 18, 1680, he wrote to La Reynie:-- - -'Mademoiselle Desoeillets declares with marvellous assurance that not -one of those who have named her know her, and, to assure me of her -innocence, she charged me to urge the king to allow her to be taken to -the place where those who have deposed against her are confined. She -stakes her life that no one will be able to tell who she is. His Majesty -has therefore been pleased to decide that I shall take her to Vincennes -next Friday, and bring down Lesage, the girl Voisin, Guibourg, and the -other persons who, as you inform me, have spoken of her. The person of -whom I have just spoken will enter and show herself to them, and I will -ask them if they know her, without naming her to them.' - -The result did not justify Louvois' hopes. La Reynie showed at that time -that, unknown to him and in spite of his vigilance, some one was holding -communication with the prisoners in Vincennes, who were receiving -information from without. This 'some one' was Madame de Montespan. No -doubt the lieutenant of police took greater precautions on this -occasion. The prisoners were not able to receive preliminary coaching, -with the result that one and all immediately recognised the favourite's -maid. - -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, moreover, was under great illusions as to -the impunity that would be assured to her. Louis XIV did not allow her -to appear before the judges, nor even to be confronted with the -prisoners, but he had her shut up for the rest of her days in close -confinement. The wretched woman died on September 8, 1686, in the -general hospital of Tours. And poor Madame de Villedieu, whose only -crime was that she was for a moment in the confidence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, was visited with the same fate, because of the necessity -of keeping the great secret. - -When he learned suddenly of all the crimes with which the woman he had -most loved was stained--the woman whom, in the eyes of Europe, he had -made queen of the French Court, who was the mother of his favourite -children--what were the sentiments and the attitude of King Louis? What -passed in his soul, immured, for posterity as for his contemporaries, in -that 'terrible majesty' of which Saint-Simon speaks? - -About the middle of August 1680, Louvois, who in this dreadful business -devoted all his intelligence and all his influence to protect Madame de -Montespan, arranged a _tête-à-tête_ with the king. Madame de Maintenon -anxiously observed them from a distance. 'Madame de Montespan at first -wept,' she says, 'threw reproaches upon him, and at last spoke with -pride.' At the first moment, under the shock of the king's declarations, -Madame de Montespan had been utterly crushed, had burst into tears of -confusion and humiliation; then, regaining command of herself, the -masterful woman had risen to the height of her pride, with all the force -of her passion and her hatred for her rivals. If it was true, she -declared, that she had been driven to great crimes, it was because her -love for the king was great, and great also were the harshness, cruelty, -and infidelity of him to whom she had sacrificed everything. And the -king might strike at her, but he could not forget that he would, with -the same stroke, injure in the eyes of France and Europe the mother of -his children--children who had been made legitimate children of France. -Madame de Montespan left this interview irrevocably ruined, but at the -same time definitively saved. - -We must remember the rank to which Louis had raised his mistress. It was -of the utmost importance to him to avoid a scandal. Even by exiling the -fallen favourite, thus absolutely disgracing her, he would run the risk -of unloosing storms. La Reynie, who, thanks to his genius for reading -the hearts of men, knew Madame de Montespan's character thoroughly, -warned Louvois: 'We cannot but fear extraordinary scandals, the -consequence of which cannot be foreseen.' Louvois, Colbert, and Madame -de Maintenon herself united their efforts to soften too violent a fall. -Colbert had just betrothed his younger daughter to Madame de Montespan's -nephew. We know, moreover, how much the famous statesman had at heart -the national greatness to which he had so arduously contributed, and -which in his view could not be dissevered from the greatness of the -king. Madame de Maintenon had tenderly trained the children of Madame de -Montespan, and retained a real affection for them all her life long. Let -us add that Louis, with all his faults--his selfishness, his coarseness, -his lack of feeling, his mediocre intellect--had at least a high -sentiment of the royal dignity, and that in this awful crisis he did not -for a moment depart from that calm and tranquil majesty at which all who -approached him never ceased to wonder. Madame de Montespan was not -driven from Court. She left her splendid apartments on the first floor -for apartments remoter from the centre of the king's life. Louis -continued to receive her in public, and publicly paid her visits which -deceived careless observers; but practised eyes perceived the profound -change which had taken place beneath these external appearances. Madame -de Sévigné wrote to her daughter that Louis treated Madame de Montespan -with harshness; Bussy-Rabutin wrote that he treated her with scorn. Thus -began the expiatory martyrdom which lasted for twenty-seven years. - -On March 15, 1691, Madame de Montespan retired to Paris, going into the -community of St. Joseph which she had founded. Louis granted her a right -royal pension, 10,000 pistoles--£20,000 of to-day--a month; but when, in -1692, the double marriage of Madame de Montespan's children, -Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke de Maine, was celebrated with the -Duke de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Charolais, Louis did not allow -their mother to appear at the ceremony or to sign the contract. - -In the early days of her retirement Madame de Montespan had the greatest -difficulty in accommodating herself to the calm monotony of her retreat -at St. Joseph's. 'She aired her leisure and anxieties,' says -Saint-Simon, 'at Bourbon, at Fontevrault, at her estate at Antin, and -for years was quite unable to regain repose of mind.' What were these -anxieties? Saint-Simon could not explain them; but we are acquainted -with them to-day. - -Madame de Montespan was much distressed at abandoning the glory of the -world; but from the day when the renunciation was made, she threw -herself with as much passion into penitence as she had displayed in -ambition and love. 'From the moment of her retirement to St. Joseph's,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till her death, her conversion never belied itself, -and her penitence continually augmented.' She might have been seen then, -in the Carmelite convent in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, imploring -from her old rival, whom she had so harshly persecuted--the gentle and -saintly Louise de la Vallière, Sister Louise de la Miséricorde--the -words which give ease of mind and forgetfulness of the past. Though she -tenderly loved those of her children whom she had borne to Louis XIV, it -was towards the Duke d'Antin, the son she had by the Marquis de -Montespan, that she diverted her solicitude, from a sense of duty, and, -as Saint-Simon tells us, 'she occupied herself with enriching him.' 'The -king had no manner of dealings with her,' writes the great chronicler, -'even through their children. Their attentions were discouraged, they -thenceforth saw her only rarely and after having asked permission. The -Père de la Tour wrung from her a terrible act of penitence, namely, to -beg her husband's pardon and place herself again in his hands. She wrote -herself in the most submissive terms, offering to return to him if he -would deign to receive her, or to repair to whatever place he pleased to -command. To any one who knew Madame de Montespan, this was a sacrifice -of the most heroic kind. She had all the merit of it without undergoing -the experience. Monsieur de Montespan sent word that he would neither -receive her nor lay any commands upon her, and that he never wished to -hear her name mentioned for the rest of his life.' - -She had no further relations with the Court, the ministers, -_intendants_, or judges; she asked nothing of any man, either for her or -hers, and employed the vast income she owed to the king in doing good -all around her, bestowing alms with ceaseless and unparalleled -generosity, and endowing religious foundations. 'Beautiful as the day,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till the last hour of her life; though she was not -ill, she always fancied that she was, and that she was going to die.' -This anxiety encouraged a taste for travelling, and in her travels she -always took with her seven or eight persons as a suite. Between her -outbursts of piety and the blossoming forth of her charity, incessant -remorse thus made its appearance, as well as the continual need she felt -of deadening her thoughts. Only Louis XIV, Louvois, and La Reynie could -have explained the following page borrowed from Saint-Simon:-- - -'Little by little she proceeded to give all that she had to the poor. -She worked for them several hours a day at humble and rough tasks, to -wit, making shirts and other such-like things, and she made those about -her work at them too. Her table, which she had loved to excess, became -particularly frugal; her fasts were multiplied, her piety interrupted -her entertaining and the harmless little card-play at which she amused -herself, and at all hours of the day she would leave everything to go -and pray in her closet. Her mortification of the flesh was constant: her -chemises and sheets were of the roughest and coarsest unbleached linen, -but they were concealed under ordinary sheets and underwear. She -continually wore steel bracelets and garters, and a girdle of steel -which often wounded her; and her tongue, formerly so terrible a member, -had its penance also. She was further so tortured by horror of death -that she paid several women whose sole employment was to watch her. She -lay at night with all the bed-curtains thrown back, with many candles in -her room, her watchers around her, and whenever she woke up she wished -to find them chatting, playing cards, or eating, to make sure that they -did not fall a-nodding.' - -The hour so much dreaded at last struck. She had a singular presentiment -of it a year beforehand. At the first attack of illness she saw that her -end was near. It came on May 27, 1707, at Bourbon. - -'She profited by a brief respite from pain to confess and receive the -sacraments. Previously she had all her servants, even the humblest, -brought in, made public confession of her public sins, and besought -pardon for the scandal she had so long given, and even for her fits of -temper, with a humility so real and deep and penitent that nothing could -have been more edifying. She then received the last sacraments with -ardent piety. The dread of death which all her life had so continually -troubled her suddenly vanished and troubled her no more. She thanked God -in the presence of them all for permitting her to die in a place where -she was far away from the children of her sin, and during her illness -spoke of them only this once. She was engrossed in the thought of -eternity, in some hope of a cure with which they tried to flatter her, -and in her condition as a sinner whose fear was tempered by a steady -confidence in the mercy of God, with no regrets, solely intent on -rendering to Him the sacrifice most pleasing to Him, with a gentleness -and peacefulness which accompanied all her actions.' - -The courtiers were surprised at the indifference Louis displayed on -learning of the death of his sometime mistress. To the Duchess of -Burgundy, who remarked on it, he replied that, since he had dismissed -her, he had counted on never seeing her again, and that she was from -that time dead to him. He openly reproved the grief manifested by Madame -de Montespan's children; and, to the stupefaction of the Court, he -forbade them to wear mourning, a circumstance the more incomprehensible -because at that same date the Princess de Conti, daughter of Louis XIV -and Louise de la Vallière, was wearing mourning for Madame de la -Vallière her aunt. - -It would be unjust to judge Madame de Montespan solely by what has been -here said. We have spoken only of the crimes to which she was driven by -the violence of her passions. We have not recalled the wealth she -distributed with as much liberality as discretion, or the brilliance -given to the Court by her grace and wit, or the enlightened protection -which the greatest writers and artists found in her, the radiant -kindliness with which she sweetened the declining years of the great -Corneille--in a word, the innumerable deeds of kindness she performed -with as much intelligence as affection, the fruits of some of which -remain to this day. It would require a Racine, with his penetrating -mind, his ability to reconcile opposite extremes in one and the same -character, and the harmonious majesty of his language, to speak of -Madame de Montespan. Bright and radiantly beautiful, of queenly -elegance, charming by the distinction of her manners and the delicate -wit of her conversation, light-hearted and joyous, she dominated the -whole Court of France--this horrible client of the Abbé Guibourg, of La -Filastre and La Voisin. - - - - -III. A MAGISTRATE - - -Lieutenant of police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was the mainspring of -the proceedings against the poisoners. He alone carried through the vast -operations, bristling with difficulties. And it would be impossible to -find any point of his administration in which his genius and his -character appear in a more striking or complete manner. It is thanks to -him, and to the careful notes he took daily on the cases of the -prisoners, that we have been able to discover the facts of which Louis -XIV believed he had destroyed every trace when he ordered the burning of -the various documents in his private room. - -Saint-Simon, who has utterly shattered reputations which seemed firm as -rock, pauses with respect before Nicolas de la Reynie, though the -functions with which he was endowed were a subject of genuine abhorrence -to him. 'La Reynie, councillor of state,' he writes, 'so well known for -having been the first to lift the office of lieutenant of police from -its natural low estate, and for making it a sort of ministerial office; -a man of great importance too, because of the king's direct confidence -in him, his constant relations with the Court, and the number of things -in which he is concerned, and in which he has infinite powers of serving -or harming in innumerable ways people of the greatest importance, -obtained at length in 1697, at the age of eighty, permission to resign -so arduous an employment, which he had for the first time ennobled by -the equity, moderation, and disinterestedness with which he had -fulfilled it, without swerving from the greatest scrupulousness, and -doing the least possible injury as seldom as possible; he was, moreover, -a man of great virtue and capacity, who in an office which he had, so to -speak, created, and in which he was bound to draw upon him the hatred of -the public, nevertheless won universal esteem.' - -We have a portrait of La Reynie by his friend Mignard, and an admirable -etching of the painting by Van Schuppen. Engraving has never reproduced -human features with more clearness, colour, and lifelikeness. The face -bespeaks a clear, powerful, and well-balanced intelligence; the eyes -express a firm and thoughtful kindliness. Such was the La Reynie who -investigated the great poison cases. - -Though Bazin de Bezons of the French Academy had been associated with -him in the Chambre Ardente as examining commissioner, it was the -lieutenant of police who did all the work. The number of depositions, -interrogatories, confrontations, pleadings, and other documents which he -collected is enormous; and we see the magistrate with sure hand cutting -a way through this tangled forest, guided by his experience, his -knowledge of the human soul, and his clear intellect. - -The memorials he has left on questions of the greatest difficulty are -useful and interesting to study, because of the method of work they -reveal. It is exactly the method which our old professors of rhetoric -used to teach for the orderly arrangement of a French dissertation or an -historical essay. The principal and fundamental fact is noted down about -the middle of the left-hand page, with a large bracket embracing -sub-divisions; each of these sub-divisions is in turn accompanied by a -bracket embracing sub-divisions of these sub-divisions; and so on to the -end of the right-hand page, which is filled from top to bottom with -minute and close writing: there you have a multitude of slight facts -following one another in methodical order, all focussing on the -principal fact, found, as we have said, in the middle of the left-hand -page. There is no college student but has built up his schemes for -French essays on this model. But there is no question, in La Reynie's -portfolios, of rhetorical dissertations or Latin compositions; he deals -there with irrevocable sentences about to be pronounced 'on the flesh -and blood of men,' to use his own phrase. And if we go from these -bracketed plans to the memoirs and reports to which they guided the -magistrate's thought, we find ourselves in possession of marvels of -clear thinking and judging. - -During the long poison case, La Reynie showed himself indefatigable in -work. He had no other concern than right and the triumph of justice. And -in proportion as the number of criminals increased, and the greatest -names in the French nobility and Parlement were found to be compromised -by his inquiries--in proportion as relatives, friends, all who feared -for themselves, and nobility and Parlement fearing for their honour and -their privileges, were up in arms against him, his courage grew, his -activity redoubled; he pushed on his inquiries, urging the king, urging -the ministers, demanding new warrants, fresh arrests, seeking permission -to extend his formidable investigations over an ever-widening circle. - -Sorceresses and magicians thronged about the royal Court like swarms of -wasps about a hive of honey. In this monstrous hive were concentrated -the wealth and honours which awoke and stimulated the ambitions and -passions in which the sorceresses found their booty. - -The sorceresses had little lodgings at Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau, -Versailles, around the palaces. They won admission to the Court as -fruit-sellers or dealers in perfumes distilled by the magicians; they -offered pastes for softening the skin and waters for improving the -complexion. They allied themselves with the domestics of great houses, -and domiciled themselves with the laundresses connected with them. They -were intimates of those persons who hung about the Court with the -curious profession of presenters of petitions. They sometimes even -entered the service of a duke or a marchioness. La Chéron was with -Monsieur de Noailles and Monsieur de Rabaton in succession. La Vigoureux -was actively engaged in finding places for serving-maids and lackeys. We -have seen the relations between the fortune-tellers and Leroy, governor -of the pages of the Petite Ecurie. Girardin, governor of the dauphin's -pages, was connected with the magician Belot. Blessis, a crony of La -Voisin, was presented to the queen by Madame de Béthune, by the queen to -the dauphin, and by the dauphin to the king. - -Among the _bourgeoises_ of Paris who were struck at by the depositions -of the fortune-tellers we have indicated the principal ones, and then, -coming to the Court ladies, the most illustrious of all, Madame de -Montespan. But how many others La Reynie had to deal with! The beautiful -Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta of England, was accused, not without the -greatest probability, of having had a mass said against her husband, -with the incantations of sorcery, in the Palais-Royal itself. Madame de -Polignac and Madame de Gramont tried to get Louise de la Vallière -poisoned. The Countess de Soissons, Olympe Mancini, who had inspired -Louis XIV with his first passion, was compromised so deeply that, warned -by the king, she fled into the Netherlands. Louis XIV said to the -Princess de Carignan, Madame de Soissons' mother: 'I was determined -that the countess should escape; perhaps some day I shall render an -account therefor to God and my people.' - -When Madame de Montespan was at the height of her power, rivals, jealous -of her good fortune, applied to the sorceresses for formulae and powders -to 'send her packing,' just as she had done with the idea of getting rid -of La Vallière. These were the Duchess of Angoulême, Madame de Vitry, -and her own sister-in-law, Antoinette de Mesmes, Duchess de Vivonne. The -practices to which this last had recourse were precisely the same as -those with which the secret life of Madame de Montespan has acquainted -us. She applied to La Filastre and La Chappelain, who were also employed -by the dazzling mistress of the king. The sorceresses did not hesitate -between the two sisters-in-law, thinking to come off well either way: if -the one wished to retain the affection of the king, the other sought to -possess herself of it, and in either case money would fall into their -purses. Louis did not allow the Duchess de Vivonne to be proceeded -against, related so closely as she was to Madame de Montespan. It is -probable also that he was dissuaded from it by Colbert, who had married -one of his daughters to the Duke de Mortemart, son of the duchess. - -We may imagine the emotion, agitation, and anxieties aroused at Court -and in Paris by the prosecutions directed by the Chambre Ardente against -so large a number of persons belonging to the most distinguished -families: the arrests of Mesdames de Dreux and Leféron, of Poulaillon -and the Abbé Mariette, relatives of the chief magistrates; the warrants -issued against the Duchess de Bouillon, the Princess de Tingry, the wife -of Marshal la Ferté, the Countess de Roure; the hasty flight out of the -kingdom of the Marchioness d'Alluye, the Viscountess de Polignac, the -Count Clermont-Lodève, the Marquis de Cessac, the Countess de Soissons; -the imprisonment in the Bastille of the famous Marshal de Luxembourg, -who had employed magicians to beg the devil to remove his wife. 'Every -one is agitated,' wrote Madame de Sévigné, on January 26, 1680, 'every -one is sending for news and going into houses to pick them up.' - -Further, the public imagination was impressed; crimes were the stock -topic of conversation. The most trifling accidents were attributed to -poison. Every husband was accused of poisoning his mother-in-law. Terror -reigned in Paris. - -Then there was a reaction. Nobles and lawyers displayed equal irritation -at the Chamber's daring to push its investigations the length of them. -Were rank and name no longer a rampart high enough against the -inquisitions of a lieutenant of police? There was an end to society. The -result was, that ere long the only person in the whole matter who -appeared really criminal in the eyes of people of importance was La -Reynie himself. 'To-day,' says Madame de Sévigné, 'the cry is, the -innocence of the accused and the horrid scandal! You know this sort of -parrot cry. Nothing else is talked about in any company. There is -scarcely another example of such a scandal in any Christian court.' And -some days later, playing sedulous echo to the general gossip, the -charming marchioness said it was a shame to haul up people of position -for such a pack of nonsense. 'The reputation of Monsieur de la Reynie -is abominable,' she wrote to her daughter on May 31, 1680; 'what you say -is exactly to the point; his being alive proves that there are no -poisoners in France.' La Reynie had just discovered, indeed, a plot to -murder him. - -The reader will remember the demonstration organised against the -lieutenant of police at the time of the liberation of Madame de Dreux, -who was carried off in triumph between her husband, the _maître des -requêtes_, and her lover, Monsieur de Richelieu. The nobility got up a -similar demonstration when Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess de Bouillon, -appeared before the Chambre Ardente. She had done her best to find means -of quickly ridding herself of her husband, so that she might marry the -Duke de Vendôme. The Duke de Bouillon was informed of it by Louis -himself. Yet the duke accompanied his wife on January 29, 1680, to the -Arsenal, giving her his right hand, while the Duke de Vendôme gave her -his left: an exact repetition of the scene when Madame de Dreux left the -Chambre Ardente between her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu. - -Madame de Sévigné has noted down the details of this merry frolic. -Madame de Bouillon arrived in a coach drawn by six horses, seated -between her husband and her lover, followed by twenty other coaches, -packed full of the smartest noblemen and daintiest ladies of the Court. -The Marquis de la Fare confirms this account: 'The Duchess de Bouillon -made a proud and confident appearance before the judges, accompanied by -all her friends, who were in large numbers, and a most distinguished -crowd.' 'Madame de Bouillon entered the Chambre like a little queen,' -says Madame de Sévigné; 'she sat down on a chair prepared for her, and -instead of replying to the first question, she asked that what she -wanted to say might be written down: which was, that she only came there -out of respect for the king; she had none at all for the Chambre, which -she did not recognise; and that she did not mean to allow any derogation -to the ducal privilege.' (This privilege consisted in the right of not -being tried except by all the courts united in Parlement.) 'She would -not say a word till that was written down, and then she took off her -glove and showed a very beautiful hand. She replied honestly enough -until her age was asked. - -'"Do you know La Vigoureux?" - -'"No." - -'"Do you know La Voisin?" - -'"Yes." - -'"Why do you wish to do away with your husband?" - -'"I do away with him? Why, you have only to ask him if he thinks so; he -gave me his hand to this very door." - -'"But why did you go so often to La Voisin's house?" - -'"I wanted to see the Sibyls she promised to show me; that company would -be well worth all my journeys." - -'She was asked if she had not shown the woman a bag of money. She said -"No," and for more than one reason, and this she said with a very -mocking and disdainful air. - -'"Well, gentlemen, is that all you have to say to me?" - -'"Yes, madam." - -'She rose and said aloud as she went out, "Really, I should never have -believed that clever men could ask so many silly questions." - -'She was received by all her friends and relatives with adoration, she -was so pretty, naïve, natural, bold, so pleasant in appearance and so -quiet in mind.' One of the replies she made to La Reynie, who asked her -if she had really seen the devil at the sorceress's, was: 'I see him -now: he is ugly, old, and disguised as a councillor of state.' This soon -got abroad outside the Chambre, and set all Paris and the Court in good -humour. - -The charges against the Duchess de Bouillon were, nevertheless, very -serious. It was proved to the commissioners that she had asked the -sorceresses to poison the Duke de Bouillon or to procure his death by -witchcraft. Madame de Sévigné thought the matter of little importance. -'The Duchess de Bouillon,' she wrote to her daughter, 'went and asked La -Voisin for a little poison to get rid of an old husband who was boring -her to death, and an invention to marry a young man who wanted her, -without any one knowing it. This young fellow was Monsieur de Vendôme, -who took her to the Arsenal holding one hand, Monsieur de Bouillon -holding the other. When a Mancini only commits a folly like that, it is -winked at; these sorceresses do the thing seriously, and horrify all -Europe about a trifle.' Louis XIV took a more severe view of it, and -decided that Madame de Bouillon should be confronted with La Voisin. The -pretty face of the young duchess became graver when she heard this, and -she begged to be spared this indignity. The king complied, but exiled -her to Nérac, whence he would not allow her to return, in spite of the -entreaties of her many friends. - - * * * * * - -The revelations which ensued before the Chambre struck a more cruel blow -at La Reynie's soul than the anger of the world. Wrapped in his -consciousness of rectitude, he heard cries and threats only as the faint -murmurs of a distant mob. - -Three sentiments dominated him and guided his whole life: the religious -sentiment, which declared itself in a strong, sane, simple piety, the -piety of a man possessing a quiet conviction of the truth of his faith; -love for his king, a love composed of respect and admiration, with -shades of affection like that of a son for a father, and allied also to -a religious veneration; finally, a high sentiment of his judicial office -with an immovable respect for justice. His worship of the king extended -to all that concerned and surrounded him, to all that he loved and -honoured. The greatness of Louis XIV is easily explained, in spite of -his personal mediocrity, when we see with what passion and by what men -he was served. The revelations about Madame de Montespan, the mother of -the king's children, the woman who had almost won a seat on the throne -of France, were anguish to La Reynie. It is touching to see his grief -becoming more keen, more poignant, as evidence accumulated and -conviction forced itself upon his mind. 'Private facts,' he writes at -the head of a memorandum in which the charges against Madame de -Montespan are summed up, 'which were painful to listen to, the idea of -which is so grievous to recall and which are still more difficult to -relate.' In the light of these revelations his judgment, usually so -clear, precise, and sure, became confused, and being unable to believe -what he saw, he fancied that his own vision was becoming imperfect. 'I -recognise my weakness. In spite of myself, the nature of these private -circumstances (those concerning Madame de Montespan) impresses my mind -with more fear than is reasonable. These crimes scare me.' Then he -recurs to the documents with judicial composure. 'These are the very -deeds we must look upon and draw our inferences from.' But it was just -the inferences deduced from these actions that his mind could not admit. -'I recognise that I cannot pierce the thick darkness with which I am -surrounded. I ask for time to think more about it; and perhaps it will -happen that, after much thinking, I shall see even less than I see now. -After well considering everything, I have found no other course to -suggest than to seek for further enlightenment, and to await the aid of -Providence, which has drawn from the feeblest imaginable beginnings the -knowledge of this infinite number of strange things it was so necessary -to know. All that has happened hitherto leads us to hope (and I do hope -with great confidence) that God will at length reveal this abyss of -crime, that He will at the same time show the means to escape from it, -and inspire the king with all that he ought to do in a matter of such -importance.' - -In studying these reports of La Reynie to Louvois, we discover a -circumstance as impressive as curious. In the course of his memoranda, -the magistrate clearly and logically unfolds the reality of the charges -against the favourite, but when in closing it falls upon him to draw -practical conclusions, his mind shrinks from the task, his thought takes -fright like a horse shying before an unexpected obstacle. 'I have done -what I could, when I examined the proofs and the presumptions, to assure -myself and remain convinced that the facts are genuine, and I could not -succeed. I have sought, on the other hand, everything that might -persuade me that they were false, and that too has been impossible.' - -His distress was augmented by the conflict which arose in his -conscience between the duties he owed to justice and those he owed his -king. 'At that time when my mind was so cast down,' he wrote, 'I -besought God in His mercy to permit me to preserve the fidelity I owed -to my office, and to enable me to walk sincerely in all that it pleased -the king to command me.' Louis XIV ordered that a portion of the case -should be withdrawn from the cognisance of the judges. The blow was so -hard to La Reynie that his strength of mind wellnigh failed under it. 'I -hope,' he wrote to Louvois on October 17, 1681, 'that his Majesty in his -favour and goodness will have compassion on my weakness when he -considers that, with the fear and respect I could not fail to be in, -occupied moreover and filled with the idea of a judge who, in giving a -decision contrary to the truth, should judge and be a party to a -judgment involving the life of men, I could not at the moment recognise -the false position in which I was, nor represent to his Majesty that the -affair in question was in the nature of the case not susceptible of the -proposed expedient.' - -For a moment his resolution seems to have been taken: he would put -himself blindly and unreservedly in the hands of the king who had -received from God, he writes, higher lights than those of other men; but -the next instant the judge reappears in him and determines him, alone, -unaided, subordinate official as he was, to enter into a struggle -against the powerful ministers supported by the will and favour of the -king. - -At this moment his character reveals itself in all its greatness. - -He went straight to Louis XIV and laid before him the charges against -his mistress; then he wrote energetically to Louvois: 'In spite of all -the care that has been taken, all these facts (against Madame de -Montespan) have cropped up so often, in so many different quarters, and -with so many details, that the king has been obliged to allow the -interrogation of the prisoners about the favourite, but in private.' - -Louvois, one of the most intimate and well-liked friends of Madame de -Montespan, did everything he could to save her. Madame de Maintenon, -indeed, was hostile to her, and he feared her growing favour. Besides, -as the Venetian ambassador observes, Louvois 'worshipped the French -monarchy, to which everything seemed to him subordinate.' He felt bound -to protect the prestige of the crown against the injury which the -condemnation of the favourite would do it. Finally, in defending her, he -thought he would ingratiate himself with Louis. - -Louvois endeavoured to bring La Reynie over to his views, to persuade -him, at first gently, that it was important that the examining judge -should find Madame de Montespan innocent. Louvois spoke, urged, -demonstrated: La Reynie listened, but did not heed. The minister then -changed his tone. He sought to prove to the magistrate that Madame de -Montespan must really be innocent. He went to Paris on February 15, -1681, to explain the matter to him. Had not Mademoiselle Desoeillets, -the favourite's maid, written that 'she was not guilty, and that what he -(La Reynie) had been told about her dealings with La Voisin could not be -true; that there were twenty women about Madame de Montespan, of whom -eighteen hated her, and that they might be asked for information about -her, but she thought that the Countess de Soissons had two maids, one of -whom was almost her own height, and that the countess might well have -taken her name (the name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets), to injure both -her and Madame de Montespan, whom she hated.' - -La Reynie replied that all that was wanted was to confront the young -lady with the prisoners at Vincennes. We have already shown that the -confrontation took place and that Mademoiselle Desoeillets was -recognised. Louvois had perforce to devise another defence, to which the -inflexible La Reynie made answer: 'After reflecting on what Mademoiselle -Desoeillets said to Monsieur de Louvois at Vincennes, about her having -a niece who was very often with the sorceresses, and who might easily -have been mistaken for her, I think it doubtful, because she only said -so after having been recognised by the prisoners, and because Madame de -Villedieu her good friend, who is at Vincennes, and had had warnings, -tried to mislead us in the same way; it appears a concerted plan; and -when I asked her what Mademoiselle Desoeillets was like, she told me -that she was small, short, and well-developed, which is a false -description and exactly fits the niece.' - -When it was pointed out to La Reynie that La Voisin had denied all -knowledge of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, he replied: 'The denial of La -Voisin, persisted in till her death, must be the more suspicious in that -it was so obstinately kept up, because it is now proved that they had -dealings together. If Mademoiselle Desoeillets herself denies these -dealings, that itself can only increase the suspicion.' - -Louvois dwelt also on a retractation made by La Filastre after her -conversation with her confessor at the moment of going to execution; but -the lieutenant of police replied: 'The declaration made by La Filastre -exonerating Madame de Montespan applies solely to the poisoning of -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. There are two other facts: that of the mass -said over her by Guibourg, and further, the agreement between them in -regard to the powders prepared by Galet for the king, in which Madame -de Montespan was named; and the charges founded on these two facts do -not depend wholly on what was said under torture, but were confirmed -afresh by the same declaration in which La Filastre retracted the first -charge.' - -La Reynie thus defended himself and justice, and soon, strong in the -rights of the law, he went on from defence to attack. He revealed to the -minister the relations which several of the Vincennes prisoners who were -mixed up in Madame de Montespan's affair had had with persons of the -Court. - -These had given instruction and counsel. La Reynie condemned these -manoeuvres before the very minister who, at the instigation of the -king, had been their author. - -'And several of these prisoners of rank,' he added courageously, 'have -found means of having some of the charges brought against them -withdrawn.' - -La Reynie was not satisfied with denying the innocence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets; he told Louvois: 'It is difficult for her to be left at -liberty after such charges. Apprised of all that has been said against -her, she is busy taking measures to render her conviction impossible, -and she will take these measures along with other ill-disposed persons.' - -In case he should not be authorised to arrest her, La Reynie asks that -he may at least be permitted to proceed to her examination; and he -sketches for Louvois a very skilful plan, showing the ingenious and -subtle means by which, without violence or scandal, the confidante might -be induced to reveal the truth. - -It is hardly necessary to say that these propositions were rejected by -Louis and his minister. The magistrate, nevertheless, persevered in the -path he had marked out for himself, even after Louvois, to overcome his -scruples, had enlisted the assistance of Colbert, the second of the -all-powerful ministers. - -Boileau once said: 'I admire Monsieur Colbert's inability to endure -Suetonius because Suetonius had revealed the infamy of the emperors.' -There we have the explanation of his conduct, apart from the personal -interest he had in the innocence of Madame de Montespan. - -Colbert had only followed at a distance the work of the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, and he knew only vaguely the charges brought -against the king's mistress. He applied to a celebrated advocate of the -time, Maître Duplessis, for a statement establishing the innocence of -Madame de Montespan, and indicating means of quashing the unhappy -proceedings. Colbert even did his best to supply him with arguments. - -Duplessis drew up the statement desired. Colbert acknowledged its -receipt on February 25, 1681: 'I have seen and examined with care the -memorandum you have sent me; I have to receive another to-morrow on the -second charge (the attempted poisoning of Mademoiselle de Fontanges), -which is no less serious than the first (the attempt on Louis XIV by -means of the petition), and the disproof of which is, in my opinion, -more complete and perfect.' And Duplessis sent him a second statement -with these words: 'Have the goodness to look at the general observation -at the beginning, because it may provide answers to many things which -appear sufficiently well proved.' The memorials of Duplessis, backed up -by Colbert, had no more effect on La Reynie than the arguments of -Louvois. The advocate and the minister asked that the prisoners should -be dealt with summarily by the Chambre, that torture should not be -applied so that they might not reveal the gravest facts, and that as -soon as the case had been rapidly despatched, all the documents should -be burnt forthwith. But La Reynie said that it was impossible not to -follow the rules of justice, and that the Chambre could only judge -according to custom and law. - - * * * * * - -The Chambre Ardente was in a quandary. On the one hand it saw the -necessity of yielding to the absolute refusal of Louis to authorise the -reading in court of the documents in which Madame de Montespan was -concerned; on the other, there was the no less absolute refusal of La -Reynie to allow the judges to pronounce a sentence in which all the -guarantees custom gave the accused were not respected. It seemed a -complete deadlock. The king had gradually allowed himself to be led very -far from the resolutions of rigorous equity which he had at first -displayed. He had violated the secrets of the documents so far as to -communicate to persons of note such parts of the reports of the -investigations as concerned them; he had connived at the flight of the -Prince de Clermont-Lodève, the Countess de Soissons, and many others. He -had trembled at the thought of what revelations La Voisin might make: 'I -explained to the king,' wrote Louvois to Bazin de Bezons on December 3, -1679, 'of the reasons you and the commissioners have for beginning the -investigation of La Voisin's case, but his Majesty did not give his -approval; and this evening I shall give orders to Boucherat and La -Reynie not to bring it into court.' - -On July 18, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie from Montreuil-sur-Mer: -'The king has not thought fit to give the order you request that the -commissioners may be authorised to give judgment in case of necessity, -his Majesty not regarding it as seemly that the Chambre should judge -prisoners in his absence.' In spite of the efforts made to enwrap the -sittings at the Arsenal in impenetrable secrecy, public opinion was not -deceived, and we find evidence in many private letters that the king was -preventing the prosecution of 'people of the Court.' 'You are aiming at -riff-raff,' exclaimed Lalande, one of the prisoners, in open court on -July 31, 1681, 'and you ought to aim higher.' - -At length, as we have seen, after the declaration of La Filastre on -October 1, 1680, the sittings of the Chambre were suddenly suspended. - -'This day, October 1, 1680, in execution of the decree of September 30 -of the said year, which condemned Françoise Filastre and Jacques Joseph -Cotton to death, they have been put to torture ordinary and -extraordinary; but the said Filastre having made, both at and apart from -torture, declarations of great importance, and the king having seen the -report containing fresh declarations made by her in the chapel of the -said château of the Bastille before going to execution, his Majesty, for -considerations important to his service, was unwilling that the said -matters should be laid in gross before the Chambre, and gave orders to -Monsieur Boucherat, President of the said court, to close the sittings.' - -From that day there was open conflict between the lieutenant of police -on the one hand and the ministers supported by all the ladies and -courtiers on the other. 'The king,' wrote La Reynie's secretaries, 'was -strongly urged by the courtiers, and even by persons in high places, to -close the Chambre entirely, under various pretexts, the most specious of -which was that a longer investigation of the poisoning cases would bring -the nation into discredit abroad.' La Reynie pleaded in answer the -respect due to justice, the duty incumbent on the king to have the -greatest criminals who had ever appeared in his kingdom brought to trial -and punished, and finally, the necessity of purging France of these -appalling practices in poison and sacrilege, which had taken in a few -years proportions that no one would have conceived possible. He went to -Versailles and talked to the king for four days in succession, and for -four hours each day. It is a pity that we have no record of the words he -addressed to the king and his ministers. Single-handed, he vanquished -them all. - -'Monsieur de la Reynie having been heard by the king in his cabinet, in -presence of the Chancellor and Monsieur de Colbert and the Marquis de -Louvois, on four different days, and for four hours each day, his -Majesty at length resolved on the continuation of the Chambre, and -ordered Monsieur de la Reynie to continue his ordinary investigations; -nevertheless, to take no steps on any of the declarations contained in -the reports of the torture and execution of La Filastre, which his -Majesty, for considerations relating to his service, does not wish to be -divulged.' - -The court sitting at the Arsenal resumed its labours on May 19, 1681, -but on the condition laid down by the king that nothing further should -be done in regard to the declarations in which Madame de Montespan had -been involved. On December 17, the facts which he had wished to keep -from the knowledge of the judges reappeared with new force at the -examination of La Joly. Louvois at once wrote to Bazin de Bezons, the -fellow-commissioner of La Reynie, instructing him to be careful to put -all these declarations into separate portfolios not to be shown to the -judges. La Reynie in fact perceived that the difficulties of the Court, -in regard to a regular performance of its duties, were increasing from -day to day, and it was not long before he understood, and made his -colleagues see also, that the mere fact of the suppression of the report -containing the replies of Filastre under torture rendered it impossible -to investigate legally the cases of the principal prisoners. This he -clearly demonstrated in notes really admirable in their outspokenness -and sound judgment. And to measure their dignity and courage, we must -remember that his words were addressed directly to Louvois and Louis -XIV. But Louis' character was not great enough to allow him to sacrifice -his pride to the public good, to consent to such a humiliation in the -eyes of his subjects and of Europe. He adhered to his veto on the -communication of the Montespan documents to the Chambre. On his part, La -Reynie remained inflexible, refusing to allow a case to be tried in -which the whole of the documents were not submitted to the court. Yet -something had to be done: a Chamber must be either open or shut. - -After having done everything possible to enable justice to follow its -course in complete independence, so as to reach the guilty however -high-placed they were, La Reynie indicated the only solution which would -permit the magistrates--since they were not allowed to fulfil their duty -to the full--not to fail in so much of their duty as lay in the limited -field still open to them. - -There were at that time in France tribunals in which judges sat, and -_lettres de cachet_ which operated without legal formalities, at the -mere command of the king. Elsewhere we have shown how, almost at the -same period, d'Aguesseau, the most illustrious of French judges, asked -for _lettres de cachet_ in the course of a case in which he was engaged. -Like d'Aguesseau, La Reynie might have said: 'I am not accused of a -fondness for extraordinary ways and a hatred of the forms known to -justice, yet I find here many reasons for having recourse to orders from -the king' (_lettres de cachet_). - -'His Majesty being unwilling to give the Chambre cognisance of certain -facts,' he wrote on April 17, 1681, to Louvois, 'or that it should try -certain prisoners and certain accused parties, reserving them to himself -because of their importance, to deal with them through his own justice -and the other means he proposes to make use of, it seems to me that we -can arrive at the end the king is aiming at by very simple methods, and -there can be no objection since the commissioners of the Chambre will -have no knowledge of the matters concerning which they are not to be -judges.' - -What was required, according to La Reynie, was to give up the -investigation of the cases of those who had knowledge of facts -implicating Madame de Montespan; and since it was impossible to try them -according to the rules of justice, to be satisfied with imprisoning them -under _lettres de cachet_ in the royal fortresses. In face of the -attitude taken up by La Reynie in refusing to proceed to a judgment -which would violate the traditional forms and the securities they -granted to the accused, the king and his ministers had perforce to -yield. - -La Reynie enumerates a long list of the criminals charged with monstrous -crimes who hoped by this means to escape the rigour of trial, the -anguish of torture and death by the stake or the gibbet, and he adds:-- - -'There are 147 prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; of this number -there is not one against whom there are not serious charges of poisoning -or dealings in poison, and further charges of sacrilege and impiety. The -majority of these criminals are likely to escape punishment. - -'La Trianon, an abominable woman, in regard to the nature of her crimes -and her dealings with poison, cannot be tried, and the public, in losing -the satisfaction of an example, is no doubt losing also the fruit of -some new discovery and the total conviction of her accomplices. - -'Nor can the woman Chappelain be tried, because La Filastre was -confronted with her: a woman of large connection, long devoted to the -study of poisons, suspected of several poisonings, continually -practising impieties, sacrilege, and sorcery; accused by La Filastre of -having taught her the practice of her abominations with priests; deeply -implicated in the case of Vanens. - -'For the same reasons, Galet cannot be tried; although a peasant, a -dangerous man, and dealing openly in poisons. - -'Lepreux, a priest of Notre Dame, engaged in the same practices as La -Chappelain, accused of sacrificing the child of La Filastre to the -devil. - -'Guibourg--this man, who cannot be compared to any other in regard to -the number of his poisonings, his dealings with poison and sorcery, his -sacrilege and impiety, knowing and known by every notorious criminal, -convicted of a great number of horrible crimes--this man, who has -mutilated and sacrificed several children; who, apart from the sacrilege -of which he is convicted, confesses to inconceivable abominations; who -says he has practised by diabolical means against the life of the king; -of whom we hear every day new and execrable things, and who is loaded -with accusations of crimes against God and king--he, too, will assure -impunity to other criminals. - -'His concubine, the woman Chanfrain, guilty with him of the murder of -some of her children, who has shared in some of Guibourg's sacrifices, -and who, according to appearances and the turn the case was taking, was -the infamous altar on which he performed his ordinary abominations, will -also remain unpunished. - -'There is also a large number of other accused persons who will remain -free from punishment for their crimes. The girl Monvoisin cannot be -tried, nor Mariette, whatever may come to light about him. Latour, -Vautier, and his wife will not only remain unpunished, but, for -considerations prompting to the concealment of their secret crimes, -their case will not be heard through.' - -La Reynie says further, not without a touch of melancholy: 'In all this -there is reason to wonder at the providence of God. If Mariette had been -captured before the trial of La Voisin, and they had spoken about the -business of Madame de Montespan, this monster (La Voisin) would have -escaped justice, and La Filastre also, if she had put forward what she -said at her torture.' - -It remained to close the Chambre without too great a shock to public -opinion, or leading people to believe that after so much noise the whole -thing was to be smothered. 'We must wind up the Chambre,' writes La -Reynie, 'but we must avoid doing so with an appearance of weariness and -disgust combined, so that the large number of persons interested may not -find occasion to discredit justice, and so that the wicked people who -remain, known or unknown, may not cease to be in terror, or, losing -their fear, recommence their ill-deeds with the same freedom as they had -before.' - -The magistrates who composed the Chambre were themselves keenly desirous -that its closing should be announced. Among other reasons, the -lieutenant of police gives their reluctance and aversion to condemn, 'a -reluctance which good men cannot help feeling,' and their sorrow at not -being able to try the principal offenders. - -It was important, then, not to appear to close the Chambre from any -feeling of weariness, and above all not to awake any suspicion of the -real causes at work. The public was already murmuring. Compelled as they -were, on account of the complicity of Madame de Montespan, to allow all -the accused who had had dealings with La Voisin to go scot-free--to wit, -the Abbé Guibourg, Lesage, and other guilty persons--the judges took up -again the case of Vanens, which had lain dormant. But here again the -principal actor, Vanens, escaped the rigour of the law through his -connection with the favourite. The commissioners of the Chambre had the -good luck to find unexpectedly, in one of the reports, a denunciation -against a certain Pinon du Martroy, a councillor to the Parlement, who -had been involved in the disgrace of Fouquet. At the time when judgment -had been passed on the financiers after the fall of Fouquet, the goods -of Pinon had been seized, and Guibourg said that, to wreak vengeance and -secure Fouquet's release from prison, he had performed incantations -against the king, as well as practised sorcery. Pinon was dead, but he -was said to have had a confidant in Jean Maillard, auditor to the -exchequer. This man was secured, and as he occupied a prominent -position, his case created a great sensation. He was condemned on -February 20, 1682, for having 'known and not revealed the detestable -designs formed against the person of the king.' The councillor denied -everything at his torture, and adhered to his denial till the moment of -his death. It is certain that among the various accusations brought -before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, those directed against -Maillard are among those that were least fully proved. The execution -took place on February 21, and, contrary to custom, at midday. - -It was followed on July 16, 1682, by that of La Chaboissière, Vanens' -valet. This wretch was condemned to be hanged after preliminary torture. -He was less guilty than Vanens, of whom he had only been the tool; but -his low rank had put him beyond the pale. Then the proceedings were -brought to a close in due form, without any appearance of a serious -miscarriage of justice in the eyes of the crowd. The Chambre Ardente was -finally closed by a _lettre de cachet_ of July 21, 1682. - -La Reynie did not consider that his work was yet done. In his -correspondence with Louvois, he had constantly harped on the idea that -they should profit by the experience gained during the long -investigations of the court to avoid the recurrence of such crimes. He -was intrusted, along with Colbert, with the drafting of an order. On -August 30, 1682, appeared the famous edict against soothsayers and -poisoners, which was the joint work of these two great men; magicians -and sorceresses were driven from France, the manufacture and sale of -poisons necessary in trade and medicine were regulated by ordinances -which have triumphed over time and revolutions, and after two centuries -are still in force to-day. - - * * * * * - -The numerous prisoners whose connection, close or remote, with the -machinations of Madame de Montespan safe-guarded them from trial, were -transferred under _lettre de cachet_ into different fortresses--those -which appeared the safest in the kingdom. With excessive precaution, -Louvois ordered that each of them should be fastened to his prison by an -iron chain, one link of which was to be imbedded in the wall and another -fixed to the person of the prisoner. - -All these unhappy creatures remained in this condition till their death, -some of them for more than forty years. The minister sent the most -rigorous instructions to prevent them from holding communication with -anybody outside, and to secure that the staff employed in providing for -their material and spiritual wants should be reduced to the lowest -possible number and composed of persons in whom entire confidence might -be placed. And to destroy in advance any effect which the revelations of -the prisoners might make on the minds of the governors of citadels and -fortresses, Louvois sent these officers word that their new guests were -villains who had invented infamous calumnies against Madame de -Montespan, the falsity of which had been proved before the Chambre, and -that if any of them happened to open his lips on the subject, he was to -be answered at once with a sound flogging. - -The most important of the prisoners--Guibourg, Lesage, Galet, and -Romani--were conveyed to the citadel of Besançon. Guibourg died there -three years after his entrance. - -Fourteen women were taken to the castle of St. André de Salins. Louvois -wrote in regard to them on August 26, 1682, to the lord-lieutenant of -Franche-Comté:-- - -'The king having thought fit to send to the château of St. André de -Salins some of the people who were arrested in virtue of warrants of the -court that dealt with the matter of the poisons, his Majesty has -commanded me to inform you that his intention is that you prepare two -rooms in the said château, so that six of these prisoners may be kept -safely in each of them, the which prisoners are to have each a mattress -in the place arranged for them, and to be fastened either by a hand or a -foot to a chain which shall be fastened to the wall, the said chain -however to be long enough not to prevent them from lying down. As these -people are criminals who deserve extreme penalties, the intention of the -king is that they be thus fastened for fear they should injure the -people set to guard them, who will go in and out to bring them food and -attend to them generally. His Majesty's intention is that you prepare -two similar rooms in the citadel of Besançon, so that twelve of the -prisoners may be kept securely there. You will observe that these rooms -are to be so situated that no one can hear what these people say.' - -Auzillon, one of the staff of the provost of the Isle de France, -escorted the principal sorceresses, Pelletier, Poulain, Delaporte, the -girl Monvoisin, and Catherine Leroy, to the citadel of Belle-Isle-en-Mer. - -La Chappelain, the companion of La Filastre, was imprisoned in the -castle of Villefranche, where she died forty years later, on June 4, -1724. She lived there in company with another sorceress who, like her, -had been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chambre Ardente, and for -the same reasons--namely, La Guesdon. - -The governor of Villefranche wrote in August 1717, that 'of two old -prisoners of state for poison, the survivors of four who had been locked -up there for thirty-six years, La Guesdon died on the 15th instant, -leaving forty-five livres in silver, which she had saved during that -time out of her eight sous a day for food: of these she instructed her -surviving companion to take what she needed for her personal use, and -to use the balance in paying for prayers for her--this is one pensioner -the less for the king. The woman was seventy-six years old; the survivor -(La Chappelain) is no younger. They were in the same room.' - -Finally, a few prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes, wholly ignorant -of the poison affair, and others whose innocence was recognised by the -commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, had been shut up, unluckily for -themselves, in the same room with prisoners implicated in the crimes of -Madame de Montespan. This chance meeting condemned them to perpetual -confinement. - -'Manon Bosse,' writes La Reynie, 'was sent to the nuns of Baffens, at -Besançon, under the name of Mademoiselle Manon Dubosc, where the king -pensioned her to the tune of 250 livres; she was never liberated, -because she had been locked up with the daughter of La Voisin, who had -told her everything.' - -La Gaignière, under the same circumstances, was put in the common -workhouse. Nanon Aubert also had been placed with La Voisin's daughter: -'This was the reason that she was not set at liberty, but in 1683 she -was placed with the Ursulines of Besançon, and afterwards with those of -Vesoul, with orders to say that she was detained for dealings with a -lady of quality accused of poison, and she was made to pass for a young -lady of rank. The king payed a pension of 250 livres per annum.' - -The most characteristic example is that of Lemaire, brother of the woman -Vertemart. His complete innocence was absolutely proved. There was no -possible charge against him but his having been shut up with the Abbé -Guibourg, who 'had told him everything.' On August 4, 1681, Louvois -wrote to La Reynie: 'At present Lemaire is not to be set at liberty. I -have written to Desgrez what will enable him, if he shows him my letter, -to endure his long detention with less pain.' Louvois and Louis XIV were -struck by the revolting iniquity of this detention. In August 1682, -Louvois sent to Lemaire the considerable sum of 150 pistoles, promising -to forward an equal sum every year on condition that he took himself out -of the kingdom, never set foot in it again all his life, and spoke to -nobody in the world of what he had heard while at Vincennes. If he ever -broke one of these engagements, the king would have him seized and -incarcerated for the rest of his days. - - * * * * * - -La Reynie died on June 14, 1709, at the age of eighty years. In his will -there is a touching clause which depicts this excellent man to the life. -He asks that his body may be interred in the parish cemetery, and not in -the church, 'being unwilling that my corpse should be laid in a spot -where the faithful assemble, and that the decay of my body should -increase the pollution of the air, and thereby endanger the life of -ministers and people.' The lieutenant of police, who had devoted a part -of his life to the sanitation and good government of the great city -confided to his administration, gave an excellent practical lesson on -his death-bed, doubtless to the wounding of his dearest sentiments as a -Catholic and a believer. - -Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was in fact a character of rare worth. In -our account of him, we have not had to show him as the man of fine -culture, the scholar in constant correspondence with Baluze, purchasing -and collecting Greek and Latin manuscripts, the skilled patron of the -printing-press, the bibliophile to whom we owe the preservation of the -original text of Molière. He was a worthy representative of his period, -the great epoch in French history. The seventeenth century attained the -furthest extremes in good as in evil. It was then that France produced -her greatest captains, her greatest statesmen, her most illustrious -judges; it was then that the greatest names in literature, art, -philosophy, and scholarship dazzled the world; then that the 'daughters -of charity' displayed their devotion; that Madame de Chantal diffused -around her the sweet perfume of her virtues; but it was then, too, that -a Marquise de Brinvilliers extended the boundaries of crime, and an Abbé -de Guibourg murdered children upon an altar, over the bare body of a -Marquise de Montespan. - - - - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME'[12] - - -Who has not read Bossuet's funeral oration on Henrietta Anne of England, -Duchess of Orleans? Who has not thrilled at the echo of that powerful -and poignant apostrophe?--'O woful night! O awful night, when there rang -through the air like a sudden thunderclap the amazing tidings, Madame is -dying, Madame is dead!... Madame passed from morn to eve like the grass -of the field. In the morning she flourished, with what graces you know; -in the evening we saw her cut down.... What awful speed! In nine hours -the work is accomplished.' Bossuet's masterpiece has crowned the memory -of Madame with an immortal halo in which the charms, the quick and -exquisite imagination of the young princess, who enchanted her -contemporaries,--the lady who set the tone for taste and wit in the -midst of the wittiest and most brilliant Court the world has ever -known--will shine resplendent through the ages. - -The circumstances in which this startling death occurred have aroused -the attention of historians. Madame had returned from England, where she -had succeeded in getting the Treaty of Dover signed on June 1, 1670, by -the ministers of her brother Charles II--the treaty assuring Louis XIV -of the alliance of England against Holland, and permitting him to -conquer Flanders and Franche-Comté for France. Madame remained at Dover -from May 24 to June 12; she then re-embarked for France, happy in the -successful result of her mission; and she arrived at Saint-Germain on -the 18th. 'At the age of twenty-six,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'she -saw herself the link between the two greatest kings of the century; she -had in her hands a treaty on which depended the fate of a part of -Europe; the pleasure and the importance given by affairs of moment being -joined in her with the attractions bestowed by youth and beauty; there -was a grace and a sweetness enveloping her whole person that won for her -a kind of homage, which must have been the more pleasant in that it was -rendered rather to her personality than to her rank.' - -Need anything be said of the manners of Monsieur? 'The miracle of firing -the heart of this prince,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'was reserved for -no woman in the world.' And yet his heart was wonderfully tender! Madame -had definitively secured the exile of the Chevalier de Lorraine, the -infamous friend of her husband. - -Madame died suddenly at St. Cloud, a prey to the most cruel anguish, on -the night of the 29th of June 1670, about three o'clock in the morning. -Rumours of poison were instantly set afloat, which were not long in -gaining strength and currency. They formed the general opinion at Court, -in Paris, in the whole of France, in England, Holland, and Spain, where -Madame's daughter became queen. Charles II refused to receive the letter -in which the Duke of Orleans informed him of his sister's death. 'The -Duke of Buckingham, the English ambassador,' wrote Colbert de Croissy, -'is in transports of rage.' The people of London were hardly restrained -from violent outbursts against the Frenchmen residing there. The streets -rang with the cry of 'Down with the French!' The French embassy had to -be protected. Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine, was always -convinced that Madame had died of poison, and everything tends to show -that Louis XIV, at all events in the first moments, shared these -suspicions. - -In regard to the possible authors of the crime, some accused the Dutch, -against whom the Treaty of Dover was directed; others accused Monsieur -himself and the Chevalier de Lorraine. In either case, the historical -interest of the problem is very great; the popular imagination -heightened it through the magnificent commentary with which Bossuet -embroidered the death of the beautiful princess; and it has been -enhanced by all the efforts made for more than a century past to solve -it. 'For fifty years and more,' writes one of the masters of modern -erudition, M. Arthur de Boislisle, 'the question has been more closely -studied, and the evidence weighed with more care, at least by impartial -and serious writers familiar with the documents of Louis XIV's reign or -with scientific problems. But it happens that some have abstained from -giving a decisive verdict, and others have varied between poison, in -which Walckenaer, Paul Lacroix, and François Ravaisson very firmly -believed, and death by accident or disease, accepted by Mignet, -Loiseleur, and Littré; with the result that the question has become -darkened rather than illuminated between conclusions diametrically -opposed, but coming from men of equal authority.' Monsieur de Boislisle -himself refrains from stating any conclusion, and recently we have -Doctor Legué, a specialist, in his interesting book, _Médecins et -Empoisonneurs_, devoting a new study to the question, and endeavouring -to prove that Madame was poisoned by corrosive sublimate. - -Thanks to a minute study of the documents, guided by the work of -Monsieur de Boislisle we have just quoted, thanks above all to the -skilful guidance of two masters of modern science, we arrive, as will -be seen by and by, at an indisputable solution. - - -I - -In accordance with the first principle of historical criticism, it is -important at the outset to determine exactly the value of the sources -whence we may derive particulars serviceable to our investigation. The -sources are divided into three well-marked categories--(1) The reports -of the physicians and surgeons; (2) the accounts of the persons who were -able to approach Madame in her last moments, or were in a position to -hear authoritative descriptions; (3) the official correspondence of the -courts of London and Paris. - -The first category presents to us five reports of the post-mortem -examination:-- - -(_a_) The official report signed by the fifteen physicians and surgeons, -French and English, who were present at the autopsy. - -(_b_) The _Account of the Illness, Death, and Autopsy of Madame_, by the -Abbé Bourdelot, physician. Bourdelot was one of the French physicians -present at the post-mortem. - -(_c_) The report of Vallot, physician to the late queen-mother. Vallot -was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians of his time. He was -present among the French doctors at the autopsy. His report was -officially carried to London by the Marshal de Bellefonds. - -(_d_) The _Memoir of a Surgeon of the King of England who was present at -the Opening of the Body_. This surgeon's name was Alexander Boscher. - -(_e_) The account of Hugh Chamberlain, physician-in-ordinary to the King -of England, also present at the operation. This document, like the -preceding, is exceedingly useful for checking the official report and -the report of the French physicians. Some writers have believed that -Louis XIV, fearing a rupture with England, dictated the opinion the -French physicians were to give. Boscher and Chamberlain were absolutely -independent representatives of the English Government. - -To these five documents, of unquestionable authenticity, may be added -the notice inserted in the _Gazette_ of July 5, 1670, which was -officially inspired by the Court physicians, and the opinion of the -famous Guy Patin, Dean of the Medical School of Paris, though he was not -actually present at the autopsy. - -In our second category, the narratives of persons who approached Madame -in her last moments, or heard authoritative accounts, we must mention -prominently the account written by the charming Countess de la Fayette, -_The History of Madame Henrietta of England, first wife of Philip of -France, Duke of Orleans_. The Countess de la Fayette was attached to the -suite of Madame; she never left her during the day on which she died. -She has left a simple, precise, and sober account of the short illness, -in which every line bears the stamp of truth. - -Next to this valuable document must be cited the letter of Bossuet, who -was present at the final scene, and the story of Feuillet, canon of St. -Cloud, who was with Madame before Bossuet arrived. - -The third category comprises the correspondence exchanged between the -courts of England and France and their representatives: these would be -documents of the greatest value, if their official and diplomatic -character had not imposed the greatest reserve on the writers, and even -dictated their sentiments. There are first of all the letters of Louis -XIV and Hugues de Lionne to Charles II and to Colbert de Croissy, -ambassador at London; then, the despatches of Louis and of Hugues de -Lionne to Monsieur de Pomponne, ambassador at the Hague; on the English -side, five letters addressed by Lord Montagu, ambassador at the French -Court, to Lord Arlington, secretary of state to Charles II, and the -letters of Lord Arlington to Sir William Temple. - -Such are the only documents worthy of credence we have at our disposal -for studying the circumstances of the death of Madame, for it is -necessary to reject in the most absolute manner the accounts of -Saint-Simon and of Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine. Chéruel, and -more especially Monsieur de Boislisle, have shown the improbabilities -and absurdities of these, and we shall not refer to them again. The work -of Monsieur de Boislisle is particularly interesting in showing that -these two famous narratives had a common source. As to the testimony of -d'Argenson, Voltaire, and others, destitute, in the nature of the case, -of any authority comparable to that of the authors we have mentioned -above--it is unnecessary in the points where it confirms the others; on -the points where it contradicts them, it cannot prevail; and on the -points where it contains new information, it is dangerous to follow, for -we lack any evidence by which to check it. Littré acted judiciously in -neglecting these writers when compiling his study on the death of -Madame, and the reproach levelled against him by Loiseleur is without -justification. On the contrary, it is perhaps to this happy stroke of -criticism that Littré owed the success of his argument. - - -II - -We proceed to recount, in the simplest and most precise manner in our -power, the circumstances of the death of Madame; and from this narrative -alone we shall see emerge one of the facts we intend to establish, -namely, that Madame could not have been poisoned. - -Henrietta of England, 'more comparable to the jasmine than to the rose, -very slender, delicate, slightly round-shouldered--not less pleasing for -that--exhausted, not only by four accouchements in rapid succession, but -by the fast life then led at Court, was only kept up,' says Monsieur de -Boislisle, 'by that sanguine temperament which is the prerogative of -high-strung women.' In 1664 Guy Patin wrote: 'The Duchess of Orleans was -taken ill at Villers-Cotterets, and her physicians have prescribed ass's -milk.' The presumption is, then, that she suffered from some stomachic -disorder. 'The king,' wrote Hugues de Lionne to Colbert de Croissy, -'tells us that more than three years ago she complained of a pain in the -side which compelled her to lie flat for three or four hours without -finding ease in any posture.' Madame was constantly afflicted with a -pain at one fixed spot in the breast. 'She further used to complain,' -wrote the Abbé Bourdelot, 'of a cruel burning pain, not in the abdomen, -but in the chest.' She was always wanting to vomit. 'Most often she -could take only milk for food, and remained in bed for days together.' -These facts indicate, as Dr. Le Gendre tells us, that Madame suffered -from a chronic inflammation of the stomach, a form of gastritis. The -reports of the autopsy show, further, that Madame was afflicted with -pulmonary tuberculosis, and it is not rare for these two morbid -conditions to co-exist. - -During the journey she made in Flanders with the king and Monsieur -before her departure for England, the appearance of the young princess -caused much alarm. 'She was reduced to living on milk,' writes Madame de -la Fayette, 'and retired to her own room as soon as she got out of the -coach, and as a rule she went to bed.... One day, when the talk fell on -astrology, Monsieur said that it had been foretold that he would have -several wives, and judging from the state Madame was in, he was -beginning to believe it.' - -Madame returned from England on June 18. Her condition had become very -much worse. Next day she kept her bed. 'She went into the queen's room,' -wrote Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'like a dressed-up corpse with rouge -on its cheeks, and when she went out, everybody, including the queen, -said that she had death written on her face.' 'On June 24, 1670,' writes -Madame de la Fayette, 'a week after her return from England, Monsieur -and she went to St. Cloud. The first day she went there she complained -of pains in the side and abdomen, to which she was subject. -Nevertheless, as it was extremely hot, she desired to bathe in the -river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he could to prevent -her, but in spite of all he said she bathed on Friday the 27th, and on -Saturday she was so ill that she did not bathe. I arrived at St. Cloud -on Saturday at six o'clock in the evening. I found her in the gardens. -She told me that I should think her looking cross, and that she was not -at all well. She had supped as usual, and she walked in the moonlight -till midnight.' The preceding lines, every detail of which is of great -importance, have been neglected by the historians who have concluded she -was poisoned. - -'On Sunday the 29th, at dinner, Madame ate as usual, and after dinner -she lay down on some cushions, as she often did when she was at liberty. -She had made me place myself near her,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'so -that her head was almost on me. An English painter was painting -Monsieur's portrait; we were talking about all sorts of things, and -meanwhile she fell asleep. During her nap she changed so considerably -that after watching her for a long time I was surprised at it, and -thought that her spirit must do a great deal towards adorning her -countenance, since it was so pleasant when she was awake and so little -attractive when she was asleep. But I was wrong in this reflection, for -I had several times seen her sleeping, and had never yet seen her less -lovely. When she awoke, she rose from the place where she had been -lying, but with so haggard a face that Monsieur was surprised and called -my attention to it. She then went away into the drawing-room, where she -walked up and down for some time with Boisfranc, Monsieur's treasurer, -and while talking to him, complained several times of the pain at her -side.' - -We are coming to the moment when any poisoning must have taken place; we -see already that the mischief was done. - -'Monsieur went downstairs to return to Paris. He found Madame de -Meckelbourg on the steps, and came up again with her. Madame left -Boisfranc and came to Madame de Meckelbourg. As she was speaking to her, -Madame de Gamaches brought to her, as well as to me, a glass of chicory -water that she had asked for some time before. Madame de Gourdon, her -tire-woman, gave it to her. She drank it, and then, replacing the cup on -the salver with one hand, she pressed her side with the other, saying, -in a tone that betokened severe pain, "Oh! what a dreadful twinge! Oh, -what a pain! I can bear it no longer!" - -'She reddened in uttering these words, and the next moment turned a -livid pallor, which surprised us all; she continued to cry out, and told -us to take her away, as she could no longer stand. We took her in our -arms; she tottered along half doubled-up; I held her while some one -unlaced her. She moaned all the time, and I noticed that she had tears -in her eyes. I was amazed and affected by it, for I knew that she was -the most patient creature in the world. Kissing the arms I was holding, -I said that she was evidently in great pain, and she told me I could not -imagine how great. She was put to bed, and as soon as she was there, she -cried out more loudly than she had yet done, and threw herself from one -side to the other like a person in infinite agony. Some one went off to -find her chief physician, Monsieur Esprit; he came, said it was colic, -and prescribed the ordinary remedies for such ailments. All the time the -pain was dreadful. Madame said that it was much worse than we thought, -and that she was dying, and begged some one to go in search of a -confessor for her.' - -The young princess believed that she was poisoned. A sort of antidote -was brought her in the shape of oil and powdered adder, which made her -vomit. After some hours of frightful agony, Henrietta of England expired -while Bossuet was reciting the last exhortations. - -Face to face with death, Madame displayed a greatness of soul to which -all who approached her have borne touching testimony. 'Madame was gentle -towards Death,' said Bossuet, 'as she had been with all the world. Her -great heart was neither embittered nor wrathful against the dread foe. -Nor did she face him with proud disdain, but was content to look him in -the face without emotion and to welcome him without distress.' - - -III - -This bare narrative of the facts would be sufficient to weaken the -opinion of those who believe that the Princess Henrietta died of poison. -The following observations will contribute to deprive it of all credit. -Writers are unanimously agreed about the fact that Madame could only -have been poisoned by the glass of chicory water given her by Madame de -Gamaches. Now as soon as suspicions awoke in the mind of Madame and her -circle, that is to say, the moment after the drink had been taken, -Monsieur ordered some of the water to be given to a dog; Madame -Desbordes, the princess's maid, who was heartily devoted to her, told -her that she had made the drink, and had herself drunk some of it, and -Madame de Meckelbourg also drank some. We are thus bound to acknowledge -that the famous chicory water could not have been poisoned. Monsieur J. -Lair, with his clear and vigorous mind, has well analysed the scene: -'The decoction of which so many persons had drunk was harmless; it was -the cup that ought to have been examined.' 'The details given by Madame -de la Fayette and others,' writes Monsieur de Boislisle, 'exclude the -idea of poison poured into the glass itself; and indeed Madame Palatine -says that what was poisoned was not the water itself, nor the vessel in -which it was made, but the cup which was reserved for the princess, and -which no one else would have dared to use.' - -It is a fact that the seventeenth-century poisoners sought to prepare -goblets and silver cups in such a way as to poison the persons who were -afterwards to use them. Among the constant friends of La Voisin, La -Bosse, La Chéron, and La Vigoureux, the most renowned sorceresses of the -period, we find a certain François Belot, one of the king's bodyguard, -making a specialty of this, and deriving a comfortable income from it, -until the day when this trade led him to the Place de Grève, where he -was broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679. His method of procedure was as -follows: 'He crammed a toad with arsenic, placed it in a silver goblet, -and then, pricking its head, made it urinate, and finally crushed it in -the goblet.' During this pleasant operation he mumbled his wicked -charms. 'I know a secret,' said Belot, 'such that in doctoring a cup -with a toad and what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink -from it afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be -done for, and the cup could only be disinfected by throwing it into a -hot fire. After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a -human being, but upon a dog, and I should intrust the cup to nobody.' -But it happened that a client of Belot's, being somewhat sceptical, got -a dog to drink out of the doctored cup, and found that the animal was -not harmed in the least; he even picked a violent quarrel with the -magician about the matter, taunting him with the worthlessness of his -wares. Belot spoke frankly to the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente: -'I know that the toad cannot do anybody any harm; what I did with the -silver cups and trenchers was done solely to get hold of such cups and -trenchers.' His skill, nevertheless, enjoyed a very substantial -reputation. At the same date the magician Blessis was believed to know -how to manipulate mirrors in such a way that any one who looked in them -received his deathblow. - -These facts seem mere childish folly under scientific investigation. The -knowledge people had of poisons in the eighteenth century was limited to -arsenic, antimony, and sublimate; it did not enable them so to poison a -cup as to cause sudden death to the person using it, without his being -aware of the poison at the moment of drinking it. The opinion of -Professor Brouardel on this point is explicit; and Dr. Legué, convinced -as he is of the poisoning of Madame, admits that the story of the cup -can only make any well-informed man smile. - -The conclusion is that as Madame could not have been poisoned by the -water she drank, or by the cup containing the water, she could not have -been poisoned at all. - - -IV - -'Her body was opened,' writes Bossuet, 'among a large concourse of -physicians and surgeons and all sorts of people, because, having begun -to feel extreme pain when drinking three mouthfuls of chicory water, -given her by the dearest and most intimate of her women, she said at -once that she was poisoned.' It was with the same idea that the English -ambassador attended the operation along with an English physician and -surgeon. - -After having shown that Madame could not have been poisoned, it remains -to settle what disease it was of which she died. Our task is simplified -by the marvellous study in which Littré proved that she succumbed to an -acute peritonitis, the immediate and inevitable result of the -perforation of the stomach by an ulcer. This study, Dr. Paul Le Gendre -tells us, is the finest extant example of a retrospective medical -demonstration. We have it now under our eyes; but we find it condensed -by the pen of the most elegant writer of our time, M. Anatole France, -who will allow us to borrow this quotation: 'Littré, an expert in -medical observation, does not hesitate to diagnose a simple ulceration -of the stomach, which Professor Cruveilhier was the first to describe, -and which Madame's physicians could not recognise because they knew -nothing about it. It is unquestionable that for some time Madame had -been suffering from abdominal pains after her meals. The liquid she took -on June 29 brought about the perforation of the ulcerated wall, and this -caused the terrible pain in her side and the peritonitis which we have -mentioned. The physicians who opened the body found, indeed, that the -stomach was pierced with a little hole; but as they could not account -for the pathological origin of this hole, they fancied after the event -that it had been made inadvertently during the autopsy, "upon which," -says the surgeon of the king of England, "I was the only one to insist." -The incident is reported as follows by the Abbé Bourdelot: "It happened -by misadventure during the dissection that the point of the scalpel -made an opening at the top of the ventricle, and many of the gentlemen -asked how it came about. The surgeon said that he had done it by -accident, and Monsieur Vallot said that he had seen when the cut was -made."' - -Littré objects, with reason, that it is difficult to make inadvertently -an incision with the point of a pair of scissors--there is no question -of a scalpel--in a tough and distended membrane like the stomach during -an autopsy. The illusion of the physicians present at the operation is -the more easily explained because in that lesion, as it is now known, -the edges of the opening are perfectly clean and sharp, very regular, so -that the hole seems to have been made artificially. Jaccoud points out -'the very sharp delimitation of the ulcer, the absence of inflammation, -and of peripheral suppuration.' 'The section of the tissues,' writes -Monsieur Bouveret, 'is so clean that, to adopt a classical comparison, -the ulcer appears as though cut out with a punch.' It varies in -dimensions from the size of a lentil to that of a five-franc piece. - -M. Anatole France admirably explains the state of mind of the physicians -who drew up the report of the autopsy. 'The French physicians were -afraid of finding in the viscera of the princess indications of a crime -which might throw suspicion on the royal family. They dreaded even -everything which lent itself to doubt, and thereby to malevolence. -Knowing that the least uncertainty as to the cause of death or the -condition of the corpse would be interpreted by the public in a sense -that would ruin them, they had reasons of self-interest and the zeal of -fear to urge them to explain everything. Now, in their inability to -connect with a normal pathological type a lesion unknown to them all, -and perhaps suspicious to some, it was much to their advantage to -explain this enigmatical wound as an accident during the autopsy. And we -can understand their believing what they wished to believe. The English -surgeons, as ignorant as they, accepted their conclusion in default of a -better.' 'The fact is,' says Littré in conclusion, 'that they were bound -to find a hole, and they did find it. All dispute was silenced in the -presence of three things: the sudden attack, the peritonitis, and the -presence of oil ['and of bile,' adds Dr. Le Gendre] which the reports of -the autopsy show to have been in the lower bowel.' In the lower bowel -was found, indeed, a substance which the reports of the French -physicians describe as 'fat like oil.'[13] It was, in fact, oil--the oil -which Madame had drunk as an antidote, and which had been discharged -from the stomach. - -Further, even supposing, against all probability, that the hole had -actually been made accidentally by young Félix, who was the operator, -all the details of Madame's health known before death, and the details -revealed by the autopsy, are so conclusive in favour of the diagnosis -of a simple ulcer ending in perforation, that we should be led to the -admission that there must have existed, in another part of the wall of -the stomach, another small hole which escaped the notice of the -physicians and surgeons present at the autopsy. There would have been -nothing surprising in this, for their attention was not directed to this -point. It might even be supposed that the scissors of Félix, if they had -really cut the wall of the stomach by inadvertence, only increased the -size of the natural perforation already existing. Allowance must indeed -be made for the state of putrid softening in which the organs are bound -to have been, the corpse having remained exposed all through a day of -intense heat. - -'To sum up, before June 29, there were gastric pains caused by -ulceration; on the 29th, bursting of the ulcer and acute peritonitis.' -Peritonitis is distinctly indicated by the reports. Such are the -conclusions of Littré: Dr. Paul Le Gendre, a most competent authority, -unhesitatingly confirms them, as also does Professor Brouardel, who -writes as follows: 'Admitting ulceration of the stomach, all the -phenomena supervene with classic exactitude.' - -If we refer to the works of the celebrated Cruveilhier, who was the -first to describe simple ulcers, we find by an interesting coincidence, -in the very case he presents as a type, the closest correspondence with -the illness of Madame, and a fresh proof of the soundness of Littré's -opinion. - -'Now since the complications following perforation of the stomach and -rapidly causing death,' writes Cruveilhier, 'supervene suddenly, and -sometimes directly after taking food or drink, the question of poison -has been raised pretty often. I have never seen a more remarkable case -in this respect than that of a coalman, aged twenty-three, and of an -athletic vigour, who, carrying a sack of coal, stopped at an inn and -drank a glass of wine. He went on his way; but a few minutes afterwards -was seized with horrible pains, was attended first at his own house, -then carried dying to the hospital of the Faubourg Saint-Denis; his case -showed every indication of peritonitis through perforation, and he died -three hours after his admission to the hospital, in full consciousness. -I was able to get from his own lips the valuable information that he had -been suffering from his stomach for several months, and that digesting -his food was always painful. The Coal-dealers' Society, convinced that -their comrade was the victim of poison, and that the agent of the -poisoning was the glass of wine taken immediately before he was attacked -by these symptoms, decided to bring an indictment against the -wine-merchant, and with this end required the autopsy to be made in -presence of a deputation from their body. It was a case of spontaneous -perforation through a simple ulcer in the stomach.' - -The 'estimate' of Littré (to use the phrase he himself uses to describe -his work) is thus confirmed in every way. Loiseleur thought fit to -object the rarity of the case. That is no argument: the case may be rare -and yet have been that of Madame. And besides, Loiseleur makes too much -of its rarity. Brinton estimates that perforation of the stomach in -cases of simple ulcer occurs in thirteen per cent., and that it is most -common in women under thirty. Madame was twenty-six. - -Loiseleur admits peritonitis, but thinks it was inflammation supervening -on a chill. 'Why,' he writes, 'does Littré pass by in absolute silence -the last words in the statement of Madame de la Fayette, quite as grave -and significant as the first?--"As it was extremely warm, she wished to -bathe in the river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he -could to prevent her; but in spite of all he said, she bathed on Friday, -and on Saturday was so ill that she did not bathe," and further on: "She -walked in the moonlight until midnight."' There is only one drawback to -Monsieur Loiseleur's theory, but that is a serious one: peritonitis as -an original malady, and especially peritonitis through chill, which -Loiseleur wishes to substitute for the disease diagnosed by Cruveilhier -and Littré, is no longer recognised by modern science. 'The last cases -which were thought to be of this kind,' says Dr. Paul Le Gendre, 'were -perforations of the appendix.' - -Let us come lastly to the work of Dr. Legué, _Médecins et -Empoisonneurs_, the most important part of which is occupied with a -minute study of the circumstances surrounding the death of Madame. -Monsieur Legué's conclusion is, poisoning by sublimate poured into the -famous chicory water. His study is interesting, like the whole book, but -his conclusions crumble away under the following considerations:-- - -1. Professor Brouardel writes: 'If the chicory water had contained the -smallest dose of sublimate, Madame would have pushed the glass from her -after the first sip. Sublimate has a revolting taste. In the medicinal -dose (one gramme to a litre) the taste is atrocious.' - -Madame had been taking chicory water for several days in the evening, -and this evening she drank it as usual. - -2. 'To kill a person,' adds Professor Brouardel, 'at least ten or -fifteen centigrammes are necessary. This dose corresponds to a quantity -of solution representing about 200 grammes of liquid. It seems -impossible for any one to imbibe that without being stopped by its -horrid taste.' - -Madame certainly did not drink 200 grammes of her chicory water; she -took a few sips only. - -3. 'Poisoning by sublimate,' writes the professor, 'produces lesions of -the abdominal mucous membrane, which could not have escaped the notice -of the physicians who made the autopsy.' - -We have five accounts of the autopsy, which are unanimous in stating -that the stomach, except for the little hole of which we have spoken, -was in a good condition. - -4. The facts on which Dr. Legué relies for his diagnosis of poison by -sublimate, and which he borrows from the account of the Abbé Bourdelot, -occurred, not after the drinking of the cup of chicory water, but -before. In transcribing the account in question, Monsieur Legué has -inadvertently omitted the passage: 'There is indication of the bile -having been accumulating for a long time,' where it may be clearly seen -from the following lines that the author is speaking of a state long -before the fatal attack. - -Thus Monsieur Legué's argument is in no way sustained. - -The historian may remark, finally, that Madame's daughter, Marie Louise, -the young Queen of Spain, died in 1689, almost at the same age as her -mother, after drinking a glass of iced milk, and on this occasion also -rumours of poison spread abroad. When Charles II, Madame's brother, died -somewhat suddenly, there was more talk of poison; and when the -granddaughter of Madame, the young and charming Duchess of Burgundy, was -stricken with the disease which carried her off, people believed that -she too had been poisoned. In earlier days, when Madame's mother, -Henrietta Maria of France, widow of Charles I, died on September 10, -1669, at her country house of Colombes, her physician Vallot had been -accused of accidentally poisoning her by giving her pills chiefly -composed of opium. - - * * * * * - -Thanks to the assistance of eminent masters like Professor Brouardel and -Dr. Paul Le Gendre, and armed historically with the learned -investigations of M. Arthur de Boislisle, we have been fortunate in -resuscitating the admirable study of Littré in all its striking -accuracy. The great writer concludes with an eloquent page, a hymn of -triumph in honour of modern science, 'which might perhaps have kept -Madame in that great place she filled so well.' We will end with the -same observation that we placed at the end of our study of the Iron -Mask,[14] in which we showed how the solution was indicated at least a -century ago, and remarked that, in these very problems which are -regarded as insoluble, history, handled with rigour and precision, gives -conclusions as certain as those of the exact sciences. - - - - -RACINE AND THE POISONS QUESTION - - -Monsieur Larroumet's book on Racine in the _Grands Ecrivains Français_ -series is a charming little work. In the first part he studies the -poet's life, and shows very accurately the influence exercised on his -art by the _milieu_ in which he lived. In the second part he studies -Racine's poetics with great ingenuity. The very style of M. Larroumet, -eminently refined and sober--we might call it pearl-grey in tone--with -little flaws here and there which, to our mind, enhance its piquancy, is -perfectly adapted to the author he is analysing. We get a clear picture -of what manner of man Racine was--sensitive and refined, all delicacy -and decorum. M. Larroumet, it is well known, excels in bringing vividly -before us the dwellings and the furniture of our great writers, -according to inventories made after their decease. In the case of -Racine he achieves another success, in the happiest manner. His picture -of the famous poet's family life, after he had renounced the stage, is -delightful:-- - -'In the midst of this family, which reproduced in charming variety the -traits of his own sensitive and restless nature, Racine practised all -the virtues of a good father. He became a child again with his Babet, -Fanchon, Madelon, Nanette, and Lionval; the two eldest alone, boy and -girl, did not bear these diminutives, out of respect for the rights of -seniority. He preferred the happiness springing from their society to -courting the great. - -'One day he had returned from Versailles, where he had gone to pay his -respects, when a squire of the Duke's brought him an invitation to -dinner for the same evening. "I shall not have the honour of dining with -him," he said; "I have not seen my wife and children for more than a -week, and they are looking forward to a treat in eating a very fine carp -with me to-day; I cannot give up my dinner with them." And he had the -carp brought up, adding: "Decide yourself if I can help dining to-day -with these poor children, who have made up their minds to regale me -to-day, and would have no more pleasure if they ate this dish without -me. I beg you to plead this reason forcibly with his Serene Highness."' - -Racine, as we know, after giving up writing for the theatre, subsided -into the most remarkable piety. But here again is a charming trait: 'I -remember,' says Louis Racine, 'processions in which my sisters were the -clergy, I was the rector, and the author of _Athalie_, singing with us, -carried the cross.' And the inseparable figure of the excellent Boileau, -who had then become as deaf as a post, appears close by: 'Monsieur -Despréaux,'[15] writes Racine to his son Jean Baptiste, 'entertained us -in the best of fashions; then he took Lionval and Madelon to the Bois de -Boulogne, joking with them, and telling them that he meant to lose them. -He did not hear a word of what the poor children said to him.' - -But before becoming this model paterfamilias, this pattern of piety and -virtue, Racine had spent an eminently brilliant and passionate youth. -Everybody knows that Du Parc and Champmeslé[16] were not content with -merely playing in his pieces. - -The amours of Racine and Mademoiselle Du Parc had a terrible development -in 1679, which was one of the reasons, if not the principal and the -determining reason, of the resolution then taken by the poet to abandon -the career of dramatic author. M. Larroumet recalls this page in his -life in the following terms:-- - -'The mysterious poison affair was being unravelled before the Chambre -Ardente. On November 21, 1679, one of the prisoners, La Voisin, brought -Racine into the case. She declared that "Racine, having secretly -espoused Du Parc, was jealous of everybody, and particularly of her, La -Voisin, with whom he was much offended, and that he had made away with -her by poison on account of his extreme jealousy; and that during Du -Parc's illness, Racine never left her bedside, that he drew a valuable -diamond from her finger, and had also stolen the jewels and principal -effects of Du Parc, which were worth a great deal of money." This is -assuredly nothing but the abominable invention of a ruined woman,' adds -M. Larroumet, 'one of those calumnies which malice, corruption, and -greed give rise to in the entourage of women of gallantry. Racine had -been compelled to forbid his mistress to receive La Voisin. From this -arose her furious wrath, and, eleven years afterwards, she tried to -avenge herself by implicating the poet in a formidable accusation. -Proofs she gave none, and the proceedings of the affair, published in -the _Archives de la Bastille_, contain no trace of any. However, a -letter written on January 11, 1680, by Louvois to Bazin de Bezons, ends -thus: "The orders of the king necessary for the arrest of Racine will be -sent to you whenever you ask for them." It is impossible to doubt that -the Racine in question was the poet. But no arrest was made. Racine had -been able to clear himself in the eyes of Louvois and the king.' - -This episode in the life of the great poet is worthy of arresting our -attention, so much the more because it was perhaps the cause of his -abandonment, to be for ever regretted, of a career on which he had -thrown the brightest lustre. - -It was neither Louvois nor Louis XIV who suppressed the _lettre de -cachet_ with which the deposition of La Voisin had threatened Racine. -Bazin de Bezons, a commissioner of the Chambre Ardente and member of the -Academy, determined to spare his colleague the affront of an arrest in -such circumstances, and thought he might well wait until the -denunciations of La Voisin were confirmed from another source. - -Racine, as a matter of fact, had been the lover of Du Parc, whose maiden -name was Marguerite Thérèse de Gorla, daughter of a surgeon of Lyons. La -Voisin knew her very intimately, and called her her 'gossip.' - -Here follows, word for word, the part of the celebrated examination of -La Voisin on November 21, 1679, so far as it relates to Racine:-- - -'Who made her acquainted with Du Parc, comedian? - -'She had known her for fourteen years. They were very good friends -together, and she knew all her affairs during that time. She had for -some time had the intention of declaring to us that Du Parc must have -been poisoned, and that Jean Racine was suspected. The rumour was -strong. What more especially gave rise to the presumption was that -Racine had always prevented her, who was the good friend of Du Parc, -from seeing her during the whole course of the illness of which she -died, although Du Parc constantly asked for her; but although she went -to see her, they had never been willing to let her in, and this was by -order of Racine, as she learnt from the stepmother of Du Parc, whose -name was Mademoiselle de Gorla, and from Du Parc's daughters, who are at -the Hôtel de Soissons, and informed her that Racine was the cause of -their misfortune. - -'Asked if he had ever proposed to her to do away with Du Parc by poison. - -'The proposal would have been well received. - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -for the same purpose. - -'She knew nothing about that. - -'Asked if she did not know a lame actor. - -'Yes, Béjart, whom she had only seen twice. - -'Asked if Béjart had not some spite against Du Parc. - -'No; and what she knew about Racine she obtained first from Mademoiselle -de Gorla. - -'Asked what De Gorla said to her, and strictly cross-examined. - -'De Gorla told her that Racine, having secretly espoused Du Parc [here -follows a repetition of the statement already made]; that she (Du Parc) -had not even been allowed to speak to Manon, her maid, who is a midwife, -though she asked for Manon and got some one to write asking her to come -to Paris to see her, as well as La Voisin herself. - -'Asked if De Gorla told her the manner in which the poisoning had been -carried out, and who had been made use of in the matter. - -'No.' - -Such were the declarations of La Voisin before the commissioners of the -Chambre Ardente. She repeated them exactly in her final examination -before the judges: 'She had known Mademoiselle Du Parc, the actress; had -been a friend of hers for fourteen years; her stepmother, named De -Gorla, had told her that Racine had poisoned her, and she only knew of -Du Parc's death when she saw the body at the door on the way to burial.' - -Finally, in the anguish of torture, La Voisin maintained her -declarations. - -'Asked if she knew nothing more concerning what she had said at the -trial about the poisoning of Du Parc. - -'She had told the truth in all that she had said on the subject.' - -M. Larroumet gaily and gracefully flings these declarations overboard as -'an abominable invention of a ruined woman.' We know La Voisin from what -has already been said about her above. It is inconceivable that such a -creature should have nursed a grievance against Racine for not having -allowed her to reach his sick mistress, to such an extent as to -fabricate against him, eleven years later, so monstrous an accusation. -This hypothesis is so much the more unlikely in that, if La Voisin had -wanted to ruin Racine by her charges, she would have formulated precise -and direct complaints against him; while she, as a matter of fact, only -repeated gossip she had heard. Then, too, Du Parc's daughters were still -alive, and it would have been easy to confront them with the sorceress. - -The examinations to which La Voisin was subjected were very numerous. -They brought out innumerable details on a multitude of crimes, in which -a very large number of people was implicated. There were many -confrontations. The declarations of the terrible sorceress were -submitted to careful investigation by examining magistrates like Nicolas -de la Reynie. All her declarations were found to be accurate. - -We have seen that, far from inventing imaginary charges for the purpose -of implicating in her own case people of high position, and so saving -herself (as some historians have insinuated), La Voisin endeavoured to -keep silence about the crimes of her clients--a curious piece of -professional discretion. And we venture to say that if she had declared -before the judges that she had given Racine poison to get rid of Du -Parc, we should have unhesitatingly believed her. But she did not say -anything of the kind. She declared simply that, in Du Parc's immediate -circle, it was the conviction that the actress had been poisoned by her -lover, and that, throughout her illness, he had prevented La Voisin from -approaching the bed, as well as Manon, her maid, 'who was a midwife.' - -It is further important to note--and this observation has not been made -by any historian--that the belief in Racine's having poisoned Du Parc -was shared by more than one prisoner before the Chambre Ardente. La -Voisin was not the only one to make the accusation before the judges, as -the following question put by one of the magistrates clearly shows: - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -(a sorceress and poisoner like herself) for the same purpose (the -poisoning of Du Parc by Racine).' - -A great part of the records of the Chambre Ardente having been -destroyed, as we have shown, we have no trace of the examination to -which the magistrate here alluded. Nevertheless it is testimony which -cannot be gainsaid. - -Such are the only documents in the great poison case in which Racine is -mentioned. Is it possible to derive any positive conclusions from them? - -The circumstances surrounding the death certainly appeared suspicious to -the family of the actress, and Racine was pointed at. The poet had -stationed himself at the bedside as a custodian rather than a nurse. He -prevented La Voisin, the sorceress, midwife, and procurer of abortion, -from approaching, and likewise Manon, also a midwife, and this in -defiance of the desire formally expressed by Du Parc. Why did the poet, -contrary to the wishes of the sick woman, prevent these women from -attending her? Du Parc was his mistress. Dr. Legué quotes the testimony -of Boileau, who was closely connected with Du Parc, stating that she -died as a result of childbirth. The chronicler Robinet describes Racine -as following 'more dead than alive' in the funeral procession. The -opinion expressed by Dr. Legué that Du Parc died through an illegal -operation is not unlikely. In such matters it is never possible to speak -with assurance, and when so great a personality as Racine is concerned, -one is bound to maintain the greatest reserve. This operation, if it -took place, brought on peritonitis, which, as in the case of Henrietta -of England, gave rise to suspicions of poison. We have seen that -abortions were at that time of frequent occurrence in Paris. - -Remorse for this crime would explain the amazing resolution to renounce -the theatre taken by Racine at the age of thirty-eight, in the fulness -of strength, at the height of his talent, in the heyday of success. It -would explain also the austerity and excess of his devoutness after this -singular conversion, and the horror he conceived for an art to which he -owed his glory and his fortune. - -Another question suggests itself, which we should like equally to be -able to solve with more certainty. Racine had the most intimate -relations with Du Parc, as the latter had with La Voisin. In 1679, the -year in which the great poisoning matter came to light, _Phèdre_ -appeared. Is it rash to suppose that, through his conversations with Du -Parc, La Voisin's confidante, the poet with his keen observation had -seen the features of the passion-tost marchionesses, criminals for love, -who had been the clients of the sorceresses, and that from these -fleeting suggestions he had succeeded in reconstructing their whole -characters? - -'Imagine,' writes Monsieur Brunetière, 'Racine's agitation when this -case became public. At Paris, in the heart of Paris--the Paris of Louis -XIV--in the Rue Verdelet or the Rue Michel-Lecomte, Orestes was -assassinating Pyrrhus, Roxane was selling herself to some witch to -secure the love of Bajazet or the death of Attalide; the famous Locusta -was not an invention of Tacitus, and every day some Phèdre was poisoning -some Hippolyte. And all these horrors were what he, Racine, had been for -ten years toiling to envelop and to disguise, as it were, with the charm -of his verse--murder and lust! adultery and incest! the delirium of the -senses! the madness of homicide! This was what for ten years he had been -endeavouring to win plaudits for, and when a Hermione or a Nero issued -from the Hôtel de Bourgogne[17] intent on committing the crime they had -seen glorified under their eyes--what, was it this that he called his -glory! O shame and agony and remorse! And from the moment that such a -question started up before the conscience of such a man, how think you -he could have answered but by quitting the stage? The truth even of his -own art rose up against him. What brought his pictures into condemnation -was just their accent of truth!' - - - - -THE 'DEVINERESSE' - - -_La Devineresse_, a fairy comedy by Donneau de Visé and Thomas -Corneille--the latter is usually called by his contemporaries Corneille -de Lisle--was represented at Paris in 1679, the year of the great poison -case. - -In his reports to the king and the Secretaries of State Nicolas de la -Reynie insisted on the necessity, not only of punishing the guilty, but -of preventing the spread and, if possible, the recurrence of crimes like -those which had been brought to light. We have shown how he had drawn -up, in collaboration with Colbert, the decree registered in the -Parlement on August 31, 1682, by which the magicians were expelled from -France, and by which, more especially, the making and the sale of -poisons necessary in medicine and in trade were placed under rigorous -regulations. This was a masterly work: as we have mentioned, these -regulations are in force to this day, after the lapse of two centuries. - -La Reynie thought that it was advisable, apart from these preventive -measures, to put the public on their guard against the dangerous -infatuation which had thrown so many pretty and passionate women body -and soul into the hands of the fortune-tellers. Let us recall the -declarations of one of the latter: 'Persons who look into the hand are -the ruin of all women, women of quality as well as others, because their -weakness is soon found out, and when discovered is taken advantage of, -and they are driven to whatever length the witches please.' As -lieutenant of police La Reynie had a general control of the theatres; he -revised and censored the manuscripts of the playwrights; he was in -constant touch with them. He was the friend of more than one writer of -talent, for the magistrate was doubled in him with the refined and -delightful man of letters, who had both delicate taste and an excellent -library. In this year 1679 he had particularly close relations with -Donneau de Visé, founder and editor of the _Mercure galant_, and -assuredly one of the most curious figures in our literary history. -Boursault had just written his witty comedy, also entitled the _Mercure -galant_, in which he directed lively and incisive satire upon the -journalism then at its dawn, which had already taken, under the -influence of Donneau de Visé, many of the characteristics of modern -journalism. - -The _Mercure_, said Boursault, is a delightful thing:-- - - 'On y trouve de tout, fable, histoire, vers, prose, - Sièges, combats, procès, mort, mariage, amour, - Nouvelles de Province et nouvelles de Cour.' - -Visé begged La Reynie not to authorise the representation of the piece -under the same title as the journal; La Reynie acquiesced, and -Boursault, putting a good face on the matter, called his piece _La -Comédie sans titre_. Moreover, Visé was in high favour at Court. When -Louis XIV saw the success of the _Mercure_, he hastened to award the -editor-in-chief a pension of 500 crowns, gave him apartments in the -Louvre, and appointed him his historiographer. Visé's pen became an -accommodating tool. - -Donneau de Visé was not only a journalist; he was a dramatic author, and -as a dramatic author he was, as he was in journalism, very modern. He -had found means of achieving a noisy notoriety by beginning with an -extremely violent attack on Corneille and Molière. Against the latter he -composed his comedy _Zélinde, ou la véritable critique de l'Echole des -Femmes et la critique de la critique_, in which he has left a portrait -of the poet that has become famous, and which is, in our eyes, not a -criticism but a splendid eulogy. 'I came down,' says a lace merchant; -'Elomire [an anagram on Molière] did not say a single word. I found him -leaning up against my shop in the attitude of a man in a dream. He had -his eyes fixed on three or four persons of quality who were bargaining -for lace; he appeared attentive to their words, and seemed by the -movement of his eyes to be scanning the depths of their souls to see -there what they did not say.' - -La Reynie thought of utilising the talent and the notoriety of the -dramatic author, and, not satisfied with granting him what he asked in -regard to the title of Boursault's comedy, he gave him in addition the -subject for a piece which was destined to obtain the greatest success. -To prove to demonstration in Paris, by means of a play to which the -public, excited by the great poison case, would flock in crowds, that -the pretended skill of magicians and sorceresses was only deception and -trickery, seemed assuredly the best way to dissuade the ingenuous mob -from dealing with them. From this idea issued _La Devineresse ou les -Faux enchantements_, a comedy represented for the first time in Paris by -the king's company on November 19, 1679, and published in the following -February. We have mentioned that Donneau de Visé was one of the pioneers -of the modern literary life, and _La Devineresse_ will be a fresh proof -of the assertion. Let us note first that Visé was the father of a -literary custom which is in these days highly popular, collaboration. -One of the masters of dramatic criticism, Edouard Thierry, writes on -this subject: 'Collaboration, an unfamiliar term which existed at most -as a term in jurisprudence, was nevertheless not absolutely unknown at -the theatre. There had been the _Psyche_ at the Palais-Royal, completed -by Pierre Corneille on the plan and under the direction of Molière; but -this was considered only as work done to order; it belonged in the end -to the person who hired the worker. There had been the _Plaideurs_ of -Racine, and some other successful parodies, composed by several hands, -it was said; but this was only an amusement, a literary picnic of gay -wits who stimulated each other to satire; nobody up to that time had -thought of raising the game to the level of an industry.' From the very -first, collaboration as a business gave results which exceeded the most -sanguine hopes. Visé, who had made his peace with the elder Corneille, -entered into partnership with his younger brother. This Thomas -Corneille, who was a remarkable vaudeville-writer and also a remarkable -scholar, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, has -been unjustly thrown into the shade by the glory of his elder brother. - -_La Devineresse_ was not merely a modern piece in respect of this new -trick of collaboration; it was the origin and doubtless the model of -those spectacular pieces, with shifting scenery and mechanical effects, -which give the Châtelet its success to-day. And we shall find, not only -that the idea sprang from this, but that the comedy contains scenes and -stage business which have come down to us in direct succession through a -line of such pieces--such as the talking headless man, the dismembered -man whose limbs rearrange themselves spontaneously, dropsy passing from -one subject to another, the fairy, wizard or devil who comes into a room -through the wall. - -Finally, the _Devineresse_ must occupy a select place in the annals of -the modern stage from the manner in which the authors managed to float -it. One of them, Donneau de Visé, was a journalist, and consequently a -master of the advertising art. He had the idea, among others, of getting -up for 1680 an almanac of the _Devineresse_, in which there was a large -engraved plate representing the principal scenes in the piece, the -features of the spectacle, grouped around a monstrous satanic figure; -these of course were the principal tricks in false magic performed by -the sorceress and her mate. These pictures are still in existence,[18] -and present to our eyes a curious representation, not only of the -theatrical scenes of the eighteenth century, but also of the interior of -the houses in which the sorceresses received their clients. These -circumstances, together with the striking actuality and the wit of the -authors, secured to the _Devineresse_ an unprecedented success, both -financially and in arousing the curiosity of the public. All Paris ran -to see it. Its representations extended over five months, and, what in -those days appeared remarkable, it ran for forty-seven nights in -succession; the first eighteen performances brought in double the usual -receipts. Seconded by the skill and talent of the authors, the -lieutenant of police had attained his end. - -The fortune-teller who is the chief character in the piece was none -other than La Voisin, whose name Corneille and Visé slightly disguised -in calling their sorceress Madame Jobin. In the comedy are to be found -echoes of the replies made by the sorceress before the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, a fact which indicates the share of La Reynie. The -principal ally of La Voisin was called Du Buisson, that of Madame Jobin -is called Du Clos. Their practices are the same, but turned to ridicule -by the authors, who make their Madame Jobin a mere schemer with no other -idea than to snap up the crown-pieces of the public. In the essentials -of the character we are thus very far from the terrible sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. - -In the course of the second scene of the second act, Madame Jobin -explains to her brother what her art consists in. - -'This is what the majority of men are. They swallow all the stupidities -retailed to them, and when once they have let themselves go, nothing is -capable of undeceiving them. See, my brother, Paris is the place in the -world where there are most clever people and also most dupes. The -sorceries I am accused of, and other things which would appear still -more supernatural, want a lively imagination to invent them and skill to -make use of them. It is through these that people have belief in us, -and magic and devils have nothing to do with it. The fright people get -into who are shown this sort of thing blinds them enough to prevent them -from seeing they are deceived. As to my meddling with fortune-telling, -as you will be told, that is an art in which the thousand folk who put -themselves every day in our hands make our information easy to get at. -Besides, chance accounts for the greater part of our success in this -line. All you want is presence of mind, and boldness and intrigue, to -know the world, to have people in your houses, to note carefully things -that happen, to get information on their little love affairs, and -especially to say a good many things when any one comes to consult you. -There is always one of them true, and two or three, said quite -haphazard, are enough to give you a vogue. After that it will be of no -good to say that you know nothing; no one will believe you, and, good or -evil, they make you talk.' - -The comedy itself is far from being without merit. You will not see in -it, to be sure, the breadth and the sureness of touch of that Molière -whom Visé had so much ridiculed, and the pleasure one may find in -reading it is spoilt by the feeling that Molière would have made so much -more of such a subject, in which so many laughable and so many moving -things are concentrated. Nevertheless, the majority of modern -extravaganzas would have to yield in many respects to the _Devineresse_, -as regards both construction and literary merit. In the course of the -preface to the published edition of their piece, the authors are careful -to speak of the famous rules ascribed to Aristotle without which no -dramatic piece could be constructed in the time of Racine and Boileau. -And in fact Visé and Corneille did observe them--these three famous -unities of time, place, and action. In an extravaganza, mark! That, -assuredly, is what an author of our day would consider the most -extravagant feature of their work. - -The preface states the subject of the comedy: 'A woman mad after the -sorceresses, a lover interested in opening her eyes about them, and a -rival who wishes to prevent their marriage, form a subject which opens -the plot in the first act, a plot only unravelled in the last act by -the unmasking of the false devil. The other actors, or at least a part -of them, are envoys of one or other of the two interested persons, who, -by the reports they give, augment the credulity of the countess or make -the marquis believe still more firmly that the sorceress is a knave. -Thus these characters cannot be regarded as unnecessary. It is true that -there are some who, knowing neither the countess nor the marquis, only -consult Madame Jobin on their own behalf; but, being as famous as she is -here depicted, was it likely that during twenty-four hours there only -came to her persons who knew one another or furthered the principal -action?' - -From the outset the comedy is well constructed, and the character of the -persons comes out clearly. The seasoning of the dialogue is a little -strong, indeed; but the wit springs always from an acute and delicate -power of observation. We may mention the scene in which the sorceress, -who easily dupes persons of cultivated mind and even those who never -relax their vigilance, is utterly nonplussed by the primitive -simple-mindedness of a village girl. The dénouement is brought about by -the presence of mind of the marquis, who seeks to undeceive the countess -whom he loves. The sorceress has foretold frightful misfortunes to the -countess if she should marry the marquis, being paid for so doing by a -Madame Noblet who has fallen deeply in love with the latter. The -marquis, armed with a pistol, springs at the throat of a devil whom the -sorceress has summoned through the wall. The devil falls on his knees: -'Mercy, sir; I am a good devil!' - -It remains to inquire whether the lieutenant of police had as much -success as the authors of the piece; that is, whether the practices he -wished to extirpate in France disappeared under his efforts. La Reynie -did succeed, as much as he could hope, in the struggle he had undertaken -against the poisoners. Magic, however, was a hardy plant. 'You would -never believe how desperately silly they are at Paris,' wrote Madame -Palatine on October 8, 1701. 'Everybody is anxious to become an adept in -the art of invoking spirits and other devilries.' Black masses were -again said in the outskirts of Paris, in circumstances so horrible that -'a beggar girl aged thirteen years, who had been taken there, died of -fright': she was buried in her clothes by sub-deacon Sebault, and -Guignard, curé of Notre Dame de Bourges, who had said the monstrous -office. And according to M. Huysmans, black masses are said to this very -day. - -When, two thousand years before our era, the Chaldean mages and the high -priests of Egypt on clear nights pierced the starry sky with their -patient gaze, did they read there that after thirty centuries a grave -magistrate and chief of police would fight their descendants by means of -a fairy extravaganza, with trap-doors and puns and transformation -scenes? - - - - -INDEX - - -Alacocque, Marguerite, 121. - -Bachimont, Robert de, alchemist, 137. - - -Barbier, archer of the guard, 55, 56, 58. - -Bazin de Bezons, 163. - -Belot, François, poisoner, 331. - -Black Mass, 131, 132, 155 ff. - -Bocager, law professor, 31, 32. - -Bodin's _Démonomanie des Sorciers_, 122-126. - -Boileau, 348. - -Boscher, Alexander, physician, 319. - -Bosse, Marie, sorceress, 119, 129, 172, 173, 179. - -Bossuet, 126, 219, 220, 313, 329, 333. - -Boucherat, Louis, 163. - -Bouillon, Duchess de, 275-279. - -Bourdelot, Abbé, physician, 318, 323, 334. - -Boursault, journalist, 363. - -Briancourt, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 19, 24-32, 35, 47, 68, 69. - -Brinvilliers, Antoine Gobelin de, 4, 33, 34, 51. - -Brinvilliers, Madame de, her career, 1-116. - -Brissart, Marie, 152-154. - -Brunet, Madame, 177-179. - -Bussy-Rabutin, 173-176, 239. - - -Cadelan, Pierre, banker, 140, 141. - -Castelmelhor, Count of, 137, 138. - -Chamberlain, Hugh, physician, 319. - -Chambre Ardente, the, 163-180, 275, 279, 291, 296, 302, 304. - -Chasteuil, F. Galaup de, alchemist, 133-142. - -Chevigny, Father de, 80, 93. - -Cluet, Sergeant, 38, 40. - -Colbert, 50, 257, 290. - -Coligny, Madame de, 173, 174. - -Corneille, Thomas, 361. - -Creuillebois, Sergeant, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Croissy, Marquis de, ambassador in England, 50. - - -D'Aubray, Antoine, brother of Madame de Brinvilliers, 18, 19, 20. - -D'Aubray, Antoine, father of Madame de Brinvilliers, 3, 13. - -Delamarre, attorney for Madame de Brinvilliers, 40, 41. - -Descarrières, political agent, 53. - -Desgrez, captain of police, 9, 52, 53, 107, 111, 119. - -Desoeillets, Mademoiselle, 221, 222, 252-254, 286. - -Donneau de Visé, dramatist, 361-365. - -Dreux, Madame de, 166-168. - -Du Parc, Mademoiselle, 349-359. - - -Exili, Italian poisoner, 9-11. - - -Filastre, Françoise, sorceress, 184, 249. - -Fontanges, Duchess de, mistress of Louis XIV, 237, 240, 250. - -France, Anatole, on 'Madame,' 334, 336. - - -Galet, Louis, poisoner, 234. - -Glaser, Christophe, chemist, 10, 12. - -Godin, _alias_ Sainte-Croix, _q.v._ - -Guibourg, Abbé, 155, 215-218, 227-231. - -Guillaume, executioner, 114. - - -Harvillier, Jeanne, witch, 123, 124. - -Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, 313-345. - -Hocque, Pierre, sorcerer, 126-128. - -Huysmans, J. K., on philosopher's stone, 138. - - -Joly, sorceress, 167, 168. - - -La Chaboissière, valet, 142, 143, 198, 304. - -La Chaussée, valet, 17, 18, 19, 21, 45, 47-49. - -La Fayette, Madame de, 314, 315, 320, 324-327. - -Lamoignon, President of High Court, 65, 68, 69, 76. - -La Reynie, Nicolas de, lieutenant of police, 12, 49, 52, 53, 121, 132, -144, 156, 176, 181, 182, 194, 202, 203-205, 231, 234, 245-247, 265-312, -361-374. - -La Rivière, 173, 176. - -Leféron, Marguerite, poisoner, 168-170. - -Leroy, poisoner, 215, 216. - -Lesage, magician, 130, 148, 149, 153, 159, 160-162, 184, 199-201, 203, -206, 221. - -Littré on death of 'Madame,' 335, 336. - -Louis XIV, 179, 181, 183-186, 208, 210, 212-214, 217, 219, 220, 255, -258, 264, 272, 283, 284, 296, 363. - -Louvois, 52, 180, 205, 210, 255, 284, 285, 287, 292, 307. - -Ludres, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 226, 235. - - -Maintenon, Madame de, 220, 226, 257. - -Mariette, Abbé, 199, 200. - -_Mercure Galant_, 362, 363. - -Michelet, 1-3, 79. - -Molière's _Amphitryon_, 209. - -Montespan, Madame de, 187-265. - -Montespan, Marquis de, 207-214. - -Monvoisin, Catherine, poisoner and sorceress, 120, 130, 144-159, 169, -170, 182, 201-203, 242-244, 349-358. - -Monvoisin, Marguerite, 193-195, 221, 227-231, 241. - - -Nadaillac, Marquis de, 15. - -Nivelle, advocate for Madame de Brinvilliers, 70-74. - - -Palatine, Madame, 192, 373. - -Palluau, Parlement counsellor, 57, 66. - -Pennautier, receiver for clergy, 37, 43, 44, 60-64, 115. - -Picard, commissary, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Pirot, Abbé, 5, 6, 75-115. - -Poulaillon, Madame de, 170-176. - - -Rabel, alchemist, 140-142. - -Racine, 346-360. - -Rébillé, Philibert, royal flutist, 177-180. - -Regnier, police officer, 46, 47. - -Romani, poisoner, 246, 248. - - -Sainte-Croix, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 6-12, 15, 17, 22, 25, 29, -30, 33, 35-38. - -Saint-Simon on Pennautier, 44, 61; - on Madame de Montespan, 189, 192, 259, 261-263; - on La Reynie, 266. - -Sévigné, Madame de, on Madame de Brinvilliers, 14, 34, 64, 111, 115; - on Madame de Dreux, 167; - on La Reynie, 180; - on Madame de Montespan, 188-190, 214, 223, 224, 225, 235, 236, 239; - on Madame de Maintenon, 226; - on poison cases, 273, 274; - on Duchess de Bouillon, 276-278. - -Soubise, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 224. - - -Trianon, sorceress, 243, 245. - - -Vallière, Louise de la, 188. - -Vanens, Louis de, alchemist, 118, 135-137, 142, 143. - -Vigoureux, Madame, 118. - -Vivonne, Duchess de, 272. - -Vosser, Marie (Madame de St. Laurent), 60, 63. - - -Wier's book on demonology 124, 125. - -Printed by T. and A. 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The house is now occupied by the -nursing sisterhood of the Bon-Secours. - -[3] [The then law courts of Paris.] - -[4] [The supreme judicial tribunal of France.] - -[5] [The criminal court.] - -[6] [The assassin of Henry of Navarre.] - -[7] - - ['into a sea profound - Where flowed earth's metals in a molten mass, - Would tinge and dye the whole in sunbright gold.'] - - -[8] [In the original, a play on the double meaning of _argent_--'silver' -and 'money.'] - -[9] [Second wife of 'Monsieur,' the king's brother.] - -[10] ['To share with Jupiter is no whit dishonouring.'] - -[11] [Madame de Montespan.] - -[12] Written in collaboration with Professor Paul Brouardel, Dean of the -Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and Doctor Paul le Gendre, physician to -the Tenon infirmary. - -[13] The report of Chamberlain, the English physician, says distinctly -that it was oil. 'The lower bowel was full of a bilious humour, with oil -floating upon it' (Mrs. Everett-Green's _Lives of the Princesses of -England_, vi. 589). This observation is important because Littré's -opinion has been disputed by Dr. Legué. 'Littré maintains that the -physicians noticed the presence of oil; but that is because he strains -an equivocal phrase in the report of the autopsy--"full to its utmost -capacity of a sanious, putrid, yellowish, watery substance, _fat like -oil_." Frankly, is this not giving to the text a signification which -never entered into the mind of the physicians?' (_Médecins et -Empoisonneurs_, pp. 255, 256.) Neither Dr. Legué nor Littré, however, -knew the English reports published by Mrs. Everett-Green. - -[14] _Legends of the Bastille_, p. 146. - -[15] [Boileau.] - -[16] [Two of the most famous actresses of the time.] - -[17] [The theatre so called.] - -[18] In a copy of the _Devineresse_ in the Arsenal Library. There are -others, a little different, in the large folio collection of almanacs in -the print department of the National Library. - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -exceded that of Exili=> exceeded that of Exili {pg 10} - -wedges in successsion=>wedges in succession {pg 49} - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Princes and Poisoners, by Frantz Funck-Brentano - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43238-8.txt or 43238-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/3/43238/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Princes and Poisoners - Studies of the Court of Louis XIV - -Author: Frantz Funck-Brentano - -Translator: George Maidment - -Release Date: July 17, 2013 [EBook #43238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - PRINCES AND POISONERS - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR_ - -LEGENDS OF THE BASTILLE. BY FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO. With an Introduction -by VICTORIEN SARDOU. Translated by GEORGE MAIDMENT. 1899. Crown 8vo. -Cloth, 6_s._ - -CONTENTS.--I. The Archives; II. History of the Bastille; III. Life in -the Bastille; IV. The Man in the Iron Mask; V. Men of Letters in the -Bastille; VI. Latude; VII. The Fourteenth of July. - -LONDON: DOWNEY AND CO., LIMITED. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE - -LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE - -(_Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the painting by Mignard_)] - - - - - Princes and Poisoners - - STUDIES OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - BY - FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO - - TRANSLATED BY - GEORGE MAIDMENT - - [Illustration: colphon] - - LONDON - _DUCKWORTH and CO._ - 3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. - 1901 - - _Second Impression, May 1901_ - - _All rights reserved._ - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Twelve months ago I had the honour of introducing M. Frantz -Funck-Brentano to the English public by my translation of his _Legendes -et Archives de la Bastille_, and in my preface to that book I gave a -rapid sketch of his career which need not be repeated. If history is to -be continually reconstructed, or rather, perhaps, to undergo a process -of destructive distillation, there is no one more competent than M. -Funck-Brentano to perform the feat. We lose our illusions with our -teeth; the fables that charmed our childhood dissolve in the modern -historian's test-tube, and the mysteries that fascinated our forebears -become clear with a few drops of his critical acid. - -In his former book, M. Funck-Brentano solved once for all the mystery -of the Man in the Iron Mask, showed up the impostor Latude in his true -colours, and gave us surprising information about the latter days of the -Bastille. In the present volume, the fruit of several years' research -among the archives at the Arsenal Library, he conclusively dispels the -cloud of suspicion that has hung over the sudden death of Charles I's -winsome and ill-fated daughter Henrietta; gives us for the first time -the authentic history of that beautiful poisoner Madame de Brinvilliers; -suggests a very plausible explanation of Racine's hitherto inexplicable -retirement from dramatic writing; and throws a strange light upon the -private history of Madame de Montespan and other fair ladies of Louis -XIV's Court. If it be objected that some of the details of the 'black -mass' and kindred abominations are too gruesome for print, it may be -urged in reply that these details are related with the cold impartial -pen of a serious historian, not coloured or heightened with a view to -melodramatic effect. 'Truth's a dog that must to kennel,' says Lear's -Fool; Louis the Magnificent tried to stifle the damning evidence against -his jealous, passionate mistress; when Time and patient research among -long-forgotten papers have combined to bring the truth to light, it -would ill become us to blame a scholar like M. Funck-Brentano for not -joining the monarch's conspiracy of silence. - -G. M. - -_November 1900._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS-- - - I. HER LIFE, 1 - - II. HER TRIAL, 36 - -III. HER DEATH, 76 - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF -LOUIS XIV-- - - I. THE SORCERESSES-- - - The Dinner of La Vigoreux, 117 - - Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century, 121 - - The Practices of the Witches, 128 - - The Alchemists, 133 - - La Voisin, 144 - - The Magician Lesage, 159 - - The 'Chambre Ardente,' 163 - - Louis XIV and the Poison Affair, 180 - - II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN, 187 - -III. A MAGISTRATE--GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE, 265 - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME,' 313 - -RACINE AND THE POISON AFFAIR, 346 - -'LA DEVINERESSE,' 361 - -INDEX, 375 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - -PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA -REYNIE, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE. -Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the picture by -Mignard, _Frontispiece_ - -PORTRAIT OF MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS, -after the sketch by Charles Lebrun, _facing page 112_ - - - - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS - - - - -I. HER LIFE - - -In the judicial annals of France there has never been a more striking or -celebrated figure than the Marquise de Brinvilliers. The enormity of her -crimes, the brilliance of her rank, the circumstances accompanying her -trial and death,--the story of which, as told by her confessor, the abbe -Pirot, is one of the masterpieces of French literature,--finally, the -strange energy of her character, which after her execution caused her to -be regarded as a saint by a portion of the population of Paris: all -these things will for long years to come attract to her the attention of -all who are interested in the history of the past. - -Michelet devoted to the Marquise de Brinvilliers a study in the _Revue -des Deux Mondes_. But his story is very inaccurate and leaves many -gaps. From the historical point of view, the little novel of Dumas is -much to be preferred. The beautiful criminal has also been dealt with by -Pierre Clement in his _Police of Paris under Louis XIV_, and more -recently by Maitre Cornu, in his discourse at the reopening of the -lecture-term of the advocates to the Court of Cassation. The writer of -the following pages has been able to make use of some fresh documents. - -In the trial of the Marquise de Brinvilliers there is much to interest -the historian. It was the first of the terrible poison cases which -caused such a sensation at the court of Louis XIV in the central years -of his reign, and in which the greatest names in France were implicated; -and Madame de Brinvilliers herself represents the most salient and most -easily studied features of a type of woman which, as we shall see, -repeated itself after her even on the steps of the throne. - - * * * * * - -Marie Madeleine--and not Marguerite--d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, -was born on July 22, 1630. She was the eldest of the five children of -Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, lord of Offemont and Villiers, councillor of -state, _maitre des requetes_, civil lieutenant of the city, mayoralty, -and viscounty of Paris, and lieutenant-general of the mines of France. -Dreux d'Aubray was himself the son of a treasurer of France, originally -from Soissons. Madeleine d'Aubray received a good education, in a -literary point of view at any rate. The spelling of her letters is -correct, a rare thing with the ladies of her time. Her handwriting is -remarkable: bold, firm, like a man's, and such as the observer would be -disposed to ascribe to an earlier period. But her religious education -was entirely neglected. At her interviews with her confessor on the eve -of her death she displayed an utter ignorance of the most elementary -maxims of religion,--those which people learn as children, and never -during the whole course of their life forget. - -Of moral principles she was absolutely destitute. From the age of five -she was addicted to horrible vices. At seven she was only by courtesy a -maiden. These are what Michelet calls 'a young girl's peccadilloes.' As -time went on, she yielded herself to her young brothers. On these points -her own testimony renders mistake impossible. She will show herself to -have been endowed with an ardent, affectionate nature, which gave her -passions command of an amazing energy; but this energy acted only under -the empire of her passions, for she was powerless to resist the -impressions which penetrated and ere long dominated her. She was -extremely sensitive to affronts, and particularly to those which touched -her pride. She was one of those natures which under good guidance are -capable of heroic deeds, but which are also capable of the greatest -crimes when they are wholly abandoned to evil instincts. - -In 1651, at the age of one-and-twenty, Marie Madeleine d'Aubray wedded a -young officer of the Norman regiment, Antoine Gobelin de Brinvilliers, -baron of Nourar, the son of a president of the audit office. He was a -direct descendant of Gobelin, the founder of the celebrated manufacture. -Mademoiselle d'Aubray brought her husband a dowry of 200,000 livres, and -as he too was wealthy, the young couple enjoyed what was for that time -a large fortune. - -The young marchioness was charming--a pretty, sprightly woman, with -large expressive eyes. She made a great impression by her frank, -decided, and vivacious manner of speaking. She was of an amiable and -cheerful temperament, and dreamed of nothing but pleasure. A priest -endowed with great keenness of judgment, who studied the Marquise de -Brinvilliers in terrible circumstances, has described her as follows:-- - -'She was naturally intrepid and of a great courage. She appeared to have -been born with inclinations towards good, with an air of complete -indifference, with a keen and penetrating intellect, forming clear views -of things, and expressing them in words few and fit but very precise; -wonderfully ready in finding expedients for getting out of a difficulty, -and quick to make up her mind upon the most embarrassing questions; -frivolous, moreover, with no application, uneven and inconstant, -becoming impatient if the same subject were often talked about. - -'Her soul had something naturally great--a composure in face of the most -unexpected emergencies, a firmness that nothing could move, a resolution -to await and even suffer death if need be. - -'She had thick and beautiful chestnut hair, with comely and well-rounded -features--her eyes blue, tender, and of perfect beauty, her skin -extraordinarily white, her nose well-shaped enough; nothing in her -countenance was unpleasing. - -'Sweet as her face naturally appeared, when some vexatious idea crossed -her imagination she showed it plainly by a grimace that might at first -sight scare you; and from time to time I noticed contortions that -bespoke disdain, indignation, and scorn. - -'She was of a very slight and dainty figure.' - -To the Marquis de Brinvilliers luxury and large expenditure had become -second nature; he loved gaming and pleasure generally; and his marriage -was very far from banishing his joyous habits. In 1659 he formed a close -intimacy with a certain Godin, known more often as Sainte-Croix, a -captain of horse in the Tracy regiment, originally from Montauban, and -said to be a by-blow of a noble Gascon family. Sainte-Croix was young -and handsome; 'endowed,' says a memoir of the time, 'with all the -advantages of intelligence, and perhaps, too, with those qualities of -heart under whose empire a woman rarely fails, in the long-run, to -fall.' In after days, Maitre Vautier had to sketch the portrait of -Sainte-Croix in the course of an address before the Parlement. -'Sainte-Croix,' he said, 'was in poverty and distress, but he had a rare -and singular genius. His countenance was prepossessing, and gave promise -of intelligence. Such indeed he had, and of such sort as to give -universal pleasure. He took his pleasure in the pleasure of others; he -entered into a religious scheme as joyfully as he accepted the -suggestion of a crime. Keenly sensitive to insult, he was susceptible to -love, and in love jealous to madness, even of persons on whom public -debauchery assumed rights that were not unknown to him. His extravagance -was amazing, and supported by no occupation; for the rest, his soul was -prostituted to every form of crime. He dabbled also in external piety, -and it has been claimed that he wrote devotional books. He spoke -divinely of the God in whom he did not believe, and favoured by this -mask of piety, which he never removed save with his friends, he appeared -to participate in good deeds while really immersed in crime.' Though he -was an officer and married, Sainte-Croix sometimes assumed the garb and -the title of Abbe. - -Sainte-Croix was a brilliant and gallant cavalier; and the Marquise de -Brinvilliers, with her blue eyes and dainty figure, was the most -charming creature in the world. 'Lady Brinvilliers,' observes Vautier -the advocate, 'did not make a mystery of her amour; she gloried in it in -society, whence there resulted much _eclat_.' She gloried in it also -before her husband, who responded by boasting of his own love for other -ladies; but as she ventured also to brag about it before her father, the -civil lieutenant, a man of the old school, he, strong in the rights with -which ancient customs endowed a father, obtained a _lettre de cachet_ -against his daughter's lover. On March 19, 1663, Sainte-Croix was -arrested 'in the marquise's own carriage as he sat by her side,' and -was thrown into the Bastille. - -Various writers who have dealt with these facts depict Sainte-Croix as -the prison companion of the famous Exili, from whom he learnt the secret -of Italian poisons. Restored to liberty, Sainte-Croix is said to have -handed the terrible prescriptions to his mistress and others, who in -their turn spread them through France. - -We find this opinion expressed in the documents of the time, among -others in the speech delivered by Maitre Nivelle before the Parlement, -on behalf of Madame de Brinvilliers. - -Exili, whose real name was Eggidi or Gilles, was an Italian gentleman -attached to the service of Queen Christina of Sweden. It is true that he -was confined in the Bastille at the same period as Sainte-Croix. He -remained there from February 2 to June 27, 1663; Sainte-Croix was there -from March 19 to May 2. A captain of police named Desgrez--who will play -an important part in the sequel--met Exili on leaving prison with an -order to conduct him to Calais and embark him for England; but, whether -Exili gave him the slip on the way, or that he had no sooner reached -England than he returned to France, we soon find the Italian again in -Paris, and in the house of Sainte-Croix himself, with whom he stayed for -six months. After all, it was not Exili who trained Sainte-Croix in the -'art of poisons,' to adopt the phrase of the time. Long before he -entered the Bastille the young cavalry officer had acquired a knowledge -of poisons which far exceeded that of Exili. He owed it to a celebrated -Swiss chemist named Christophe Glaser, who had set up an establishment -in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he had attained a considerable -standing, after the publication in 1665 of a _Treatise on Chemistry_, -which had a noteworthy success at the time, and was often reprinted and -translated. Glaser was apothecary in ordinary to the king and -Monsieur,[1] and demonstrator in chemistry to the Jardin des Plantes. He -was, moreover, a scientist of real merit. Sulphate of potassium, which -he discovered, long bore his name. Glaser was the principal, probably -the only person who furnished Sainte-Croix and his mistress with -poisons. In their correspondence the two lovers call the poisons which -they used 'Glaser's recipe.' These poisons, however, as we shall see, -were very simple; in these days they would appear clumsy. Exili, who -goes out of our story, remained connected with Queen Christina, and in -1681 made an excellent marriage when he wedded the Countess Ludovica -Fantaguzzi, cousin of Duke Francis of Modena. - - * * * * * - -As soon as Sainte-Croix left the Bastille he renewed his relations with -the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her passion had only been heightened by -the imprisonment of her lover. Wounded in her pride, she felt the birth -within herself of an implacable and violent hatred of her father. Her -dissipations, her gaming, her wild flings in her lover's company (she -paying expenses, after the fashion of that period), had embarrassed her -fortune. 'I accuse myself,' she said in her confession, 'of having given -a great deal of my wealth to this man, and he ruined me.' The desire of -attaining possession of her paternal inheritance, and the yearning, -growing day by day more imperious, for wreaking vengeance on her father -for the affront put upon her, suggested to her a frightful crime. There -might frequently have been seen, drawing up at the market-square of -Saint-Germain, a carriage from which alighted a young officer and a -fashionable lady. They went on foot to the Rue du Petit-Lion, in which -Glaser the chemist lived. Arrived at his house, they sought a retired -room. The neighbours, puzzled by these strange goings-on, spoke of false -money. Soon this young lady might have been seen, under the edifying -appearance of piety and religion, going into the hospitals; she bent -over the beds of the patients with words of gentleness and affection; -she carried them confections, wine, and biscuits; but the patients whom -she approached inevitably succumbed, ere long, in horrible anguish. 'Who -would have dreamt,' writes Nicolas de la Reynie, the lieutenant of -police, 'that a woman brought up in a respectable family, whose form and -constitution were delicate and who in appearance was sweet-natured, -would have made an amusement of going to the hospitals to poison the -patients, for the purpose of observing the different effects of the -poison she gave them?' She poisoned her own servants, too, 'to try -experiments.' 'Francoise Roussel says that she has been in the service -of Lady Brinvilliers. The latter one day gave her some preserved -gooseberries to eat, on the point of a knife, and soon afterwards she -felt ill; she gave her also a moist slice of ham, which she ate, and -since then she has had severe abdominal pains, feeling as though her -heart were being stabbed.' The poor woman was ill for three years. - -When the marquise had tested the strength of 'Glaser's recipe,' and had -noted the inability of the surgeons to discover traces of poison in the -corpses, the poisoning of her father was resolved on. - -As Whitsuntide drew on in the year 1666, Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, who had -been suffering for some months from strange disorders, set out for his -estates at Offemont, a few leagues from Compiegne. He asked his daughter -to bring her children and spend a few weeks with him, and when she -arrived he scolded her affectionately for having been so long in -coming. On the day after her arrival his sickness was redoubled; 'he had -great vomitings, continuing with increasing violence till his death,' -which occurred at Paris, whither he had himself transported in order to -secure the services of the best physicians, and whither his daughter had -not failed to accompany him. Madeleine de Brinvilliers confessed -afterwards that she had poisoned her father twenty-eight or thirty times -with her own hands, and at other times by the hands of a lackey named -Gascon, presented to her by Sainte-Croix. The poison was given both in -water and in powder, and the process lasted eight months. 'She could not -manage it,' she said. It is clear that the poison she employed was -simply arsenic. When in the course of time the facts were known, all -Europe clamoured with indignation at the thought of this woman heaping -caresses on her dying father, and responding to his embraces by pouring -poison into the medicines she handed him with her engaging smile. 'The -greatest crimes,' said Madame de Sevigne, 'are a mere trifle in -comparison with being eight months poisoning her father and receiving -all his caresses and tendernesses, to which she replied by doubling the -dose. Medea was nothing to her.' - -D'Aubray died at Paris on September 10, 1666, aged sixty-six years. The -physicians who made an autopsy of the body attributed death to natural -causes; but the rumour at once got abroad that he had died of poison. -The elder brother of the marquise, whose name was the same as his -father's, succeeded him in the family estates and the office of civil -lieutenant. - -Delivered thus from a formidable censor, Madame de Brinvilliers no -longer put any restraint on her debaucheries. She had several lovers at -once, in addition to Sainte-Croix. By him she had 'two children among -her own'; she was the mistress of F. de Pouget, Marquis de Nadaillac, -captain of light horse, and cousin of her husband. Another lover was a -cousin of her own, by whom she had a child. Finally, she granted her -favours to a mere youth, her children's tutor, of whom there will be -much more to say. In spite of this, she felt keenly irritated when -Sainte-Croix appeared to be unfaithful to her; and when she learnt that -her husband was keeping a woman named Dufay, in her rage she thought of -stabbing her. 'She had naturally a great delicacy of feeling,' her -confessor was to write of her, 'and was highly sensitive on a point of -honour and in regard to injuries.' - -Her expenses and prodigalities redoubled, and it was not long before her -share of her father's wealth had melted away. At this point occurs an -incident which bears witness at once to the distress into which she had -fallen and to the savage energy of her character. In 1670, a property -belonging to herself and her husband at Norat, was sold by order of the -Court to satisfy their creditors; in her ungovernable fury the marquise -attempted to set the place on fire. - -The greater part of her father's estate had come to her two brothers, -one of whom had been appointed civil lieutenant, as we have seen; the -other was councillor to the Court. Madame de Brinvilliers had already -tried to procure the assassination of the elder by two hired bravoes on -the road to Orleans--one of those audacious strokes which to the end of -her days she never ceased to devise. She declared at this moment that -her brother was 'no good.' Pressed by need of money, she 'resolved on -fresh poisonings so as not to lose the fruits of the first.' -Sainte-Croix was fully agreed as to the necessity of the proceedings; -but before he set about carrying them into effect he got from his -mistress two promissory notes, one for 25,000, the other for 30,000 -livres. - -In 1669, Madame de Brinvilliers succeeded in introducing a wretch named -Jean Hamelin, commonly known as La Chaussee, into her brother the -councillor's household as a footman. The two brothers lived in the same -house, and La Chaussee had every facility for giving poison to both. One -day when he was waiting at table, the dose he put into the glass he was -handing was so strong that the civil lieutenant rose up in great -agitation, crying, 'Ah, wretch, what have you given me? I think you want -to poison me!' And he bade his secretary taste the stuff. The latter -took some on a spoon and declared that he detected a strong taste of -vitriol. La Chaussee did not lose his head. 'No doubt it is the glass -Lacroix (the valet) used this morning,' he said, 'when he took -medicine.' And he hastily threw the contents of the glass into the fire. - -The civil lieutenant went to his estate at Villequoy in Beauce, to spend -Easter with his family. In 1670 Easter fell on April 6. His brother the -councillor made one of the party, and took La Chaussee with him as his -only attendant. While they stayed at Villequoy La Chaussee helped in the -kitchen. One day a tart came to table, of which all who ate were very -ill on the morrow, while the others remained quite well. On April 12 -they returned to Paris, and the civil lieutenant had the appearance of a -man who had suffered great pain. - -The details of the poisoning are horrible. As D'Aubray did his best to -restore his health, the poison did not take effect so quickly as usual; -he was very difficult to kill. La Chaussee, assiduous in his attentions, -gave his master poison at every possible opportunity. His body was so -offensive during his illness that it was impossible to remain in the -room with him; and he was so irritable that no one could approach him. -Madame de Brinvilliers rarely showed herself, but sent her pious sister -to take her place. Meanwhile La Chaussee was unremitting in his care; no -one but him could change the bedclothes or the mattress. The unhappy man -suffered unspeakable torture. La Chaussee could not help exclaiming: -'This fellow holds out well! He's giving us a good deal of trouble! I -don't know when he will give up the ghost!' - -Madame de Brinvilliers was at Sains in Picardy. She told Briancourt, the -tutor who had become her lover, that the poisoning of her brother the -councillor was in progress. She explained to him that she wanted to set -up 'a good house'; that her eldest son, who was already nicknamed the -President, would one day fill the post of civil lieutenant, and added -that 'there was still a good deal to be done.' These sentiments were -sincere. Madame de Brinvilliers endeavoured to bring up and establish -her children--'who were her own flesh,' as she said--in conformity with -the brilliant dreams she nourished for the future of her 'house.' True, -she began to poison her eldest daughter, but that was because she -thought her a ninny. She was seized with regret, however, and made her -drink milk as an antidote. - -Such was one of her dominant preoccupations. To this must be added her -longing to live with 'honour,' that is, with a brilliant household, with -beautiful ornaments, keeping up a great style, and entertaining her -lovers with magnificence. She longed for 'the glory of the world,' a -phrase continually on her lips. It was for 'honour' that she poisoned so -many people. Such was her own statement. - -The martyrdom of her brother the civil lieutenant lasted three months. -'He grew thin,' declares his physician, 'and emaciated; lost his -appetite, often vomited, and had burning pains in the stomach.' He died -on June 17, 1670. The councillor died in the following September. In -this case, Dr. Bachot, the civil lieutenant's usual attendant, along -with surgeons Duvaux and Dupre and the apothecary Gavart, declared -after an autopsy that the deceased had been poisoned; but so little were -the perpetrators of the crime suspected that La Chaussee drew a hundred -crowns left him by his master as a reward for his faithful service. - - * * * * * - -We must follow the career of the marquise after the poisoning of her -father and brothers, to understand to what depths her ill-regulated -passion had thrown this woman, who belonged to the highest ranks of -society by her name, her fortune, and the position of her family, and -who was so charmingly endowed by Nature. - -She was at the mercy of a lackey, who held her honour and her life in -his miserable hands. 'She used to receive him privately in her -sitting-room, where she gave him money, saying, "He is a good fellow, -and has done me great service"; and she caressed him.' Visitors coming -upon her unawares found the marquise 'in great familiarity with La -Chaussee,' and 'she made him hide behind her bed when the Sieur Couste -came to see her.' - -Sainte-Croix was a more formidable accomplice. What must have been the -agony of this proud and passionate woman when she understood little by -little that this man, to whom she had sacrificed everything, had seen in -her only an instrument of his own pleasure and fortune, and now profited -by his mastery of her secrets to squeeze money out of her by the most -vulgar methods of intimidation! Sainte-Croix had locked up in a small -box, which was to become famous, the letters, thirty-four in number, -sent him by the marchioness, the two promissory notes signed by her -after the murder of her father and brothers, and several bottles of -poison. 'The said Lady Brinvilliers coaxed Sainte-Croix to give her his -box, and wished him to give her her note for two or three thousand -pistoles; otherwise she would have him poniarded.' The woman speaks out -in this last phrase. At other times, desperate, frantic with terror, she -thought of poisoning herself. She implored Sainte-Croix to give her the -box, and when she received no answer, sent him this touching note: 'I -have thought it best to put an end to my life, and I have therefore -taken this evening what you gave me at so dear a price--the recipe of -Glaser; by which you will see that I have willingly sacrificed my life -to you; but I do not promise you, before I die, that I will not await -you somewhere to bid you a last farewell.' In the last line she becomes -herself again; there you have the menace of the offended woman. - -What scenes for a romancer to write! One day, by way of reply to these -cries of blood, Sainte-Croix made her swallow poison. It was arsenic; -but the pain she felt warned her immediately, and she absorbed great -quantities of warm milk and so saved herself. She was ill from the -effects for several months. She declared after the death of Sainte-Croix -'that she had done what she could to get the box from him while he was -alive, and if she had succeeded, she would afterwards have cut his -throat.' - -Like all criminals, Madame de Brinvilliers was dominated by the -unconquerable impulse to lead the conversation continually to the -subject of her crimes. She would talk about poisons to any one she met. -Her servants found bottles of arsenic in her dressing-room. One day, -when very merry--she had taken too much wine--she went up to her room -carrying a sort of casket in her hand, and meeting one of her servants -told her 'that she had the wherewithal to wreak vengeance on her -enemies, and that there were many inheritances in that box'--a terrible -phrase which was repeated at her trial and became a catchword; poison -was called afterwards 'powder of inheritance.' 'When she came to her -senses shortly afterwards the marquise told her servant that she did not -know what she was saying when she spoke of inheritances, and that her -troubles were sending her out of her mind.' She fancied that she had -also betrayed herself before her maid, Mademoiselle de Villeray, and it -is possible that in 1673, to secure her silence, she poisoned her too. - -Little by little she came to reveal her crimes in all their details to -Briancourt. In the course of her conversations with him, she displayed -no regret at the death of her brothers, whom she despised, but she often -wept when speaking of her father. 'On the morning after one of these -confidences,' said Briancourt before the judges, 'the Marquise de -Brinvilliers rushed into my room like a madwoman, and told me that she -much mistrusted me, having confided to me matters of the utmost -consequence, in which her life was involved. I told her that I would -never speak of the things confided to me, but I begged her, with tears -in my eyes, that if she was not satisfied with my conduct she would -allow me to return to Paris. The lady replied: "No, no,--if you will -only be discreet; I will make your fortune, and I am sure of your -discretion." About the same time the lady fetched Sainte-Croix back, and -they held long conversations together. He showed me the greatest marks -of friendliness, assuring me of his services, and begged me to watch -over the little boy, of whom he was fond.' We know by Madame de -Brinvilliers' own confession that this little boy was actually -Sainte-Croix' child. - -This deposition of Briancourt constitutes one of the most curious -documents in our possession. This man was well disposed and at heart -upright, but lacked backbone. His terrible mistress ruled and awed him. -Yet he had flashes of that boldness into which feeble natures are -occasionally drawn. After having poisoned her father and brothers the -marquise had still to get rid of her sister, Therese d'Aubray, and her -sister-in-law, Marie Therese Mangot, widow of the civil lieutenant. That -is what 'remained to be done.' 'Seeing the imminent peril of -Mademoiselle d'Aubray and even of Madame d'Aubray (though the widow's -danger was not so near as the younger lady's), and because La Chaussee -had not yet entered the house of Madame d'Aubray, and Madame de -Brinvilliers said that she wished the widow's business to be managed in -two months or not at all, he (Briancourt) begged the marquise to take -care what she was at, said that she had cruelly put her father and -brothers to death and wished to do the same with her sister; that he had -never come upon an example of such cruelty in all the annals of -antiquity, and that she was the cruelest and wickedest woman that ever -had been or would be; that he begged her to reflect on what she meant to -do, and to remember how that wretch Sainte-Croix had ruined her and her -family; that he saw no safety for her, but sooner or later she would -perish; that he himself would never allow the murder of Mademoiselle -d'Aubray, even though she had once written to Madame de Brinvilliers a -letter in which she accused him of being a rogue and rake.' It was -unquestionably Briancourt's attitude which saved the lives of Madame de -Brinvilliers' sister and sister-in-law; he had further warned -Mademoiselle d'Aubray, through the marquise's maid Mademoiselle de -Villeray, to be on her guard. In her confession the marquise declared -that if she had thought of poisoning her sister it was out of hatred, by -way of revenge for remarks she had made to her about her conduct. - -Briancourt had only succeeded in diverting the peril upon himself. -Madame de Brinvilliers resolved to rid herself of a lover who responded -to her confidences by playing the censor. The customary means, poison, -was obviously the first to suggest itself. 'Sainte-Croix,' says -Briancourt, 'had introduced into the Brinvilliers household a porter -related to La Chaussee, and a lackey named Bazile, who was -extraordinarily assiduous in serving me with food and drink; but seeing -these attentions and, further, some sign of roguery in this fellow, I -handled him so roughly that Madame de Brinvilliers had to dismiss him.' - -There followed a remarkably romantic scene, as Briancourt described it -before the court. - -'Two or three days after Bazile's departure, Lady Brinvilliers told me -that she had a very handsome bed, and hangings embroidered to match; -that it was a bed which Sainte-Croix had pawned and which she had -redeemed. She had it put up in her large room, where there was a close -and wainscoted chimney-piece, and told me that I must come that night -and sleep in that bed, and that she would expect me at midnight, but -that I must not come earlier, because she had to arrange with her cook. -Instead of going down at midnight to a gallery which commanded the -windows of the room, I came down at ten o'clock, and looking through the -windows into the room, the curtains not being drawn, I saw the lady -walking up and down and dismissing all her servants.' - -We may remark in passing that this gallery still exists at the present -day in the mansion inhabited by Madame de Brinvilliers in the Rue -Neuve-Saint-Paul.[2] - -'About half-past eleven,' continues Briancourt, 'Lady Brinvilliers, -having undressed and put on her dressing-gown, took a few turns in the -room, holding a torch in her hand; then she went to the chimney-piece, -which she opened. Sainte-Croix stepped out, dressed in rags, with a -worn-out jerkin and an old hat, and kissed the lady, and for a quarter -of an hour they talked together. Then Sainte-Croix went back into the -chimney-piece, and the lady pushed its two folding-doors to, so as to -shut him in, and then came to the door, in some agitation; my own -agitation was no less. Should I enter, or should I go away? But the lady -seeing my confusion said: "What is the matter? Don't you want to come?" -I saw much rage in her countenance, which was changed in an -extraordinary degree. I went into the room, and the lady asked me if the -bed was not very fine; I said that it was, and the lady rejoined, "Let -us lie down then." Then the marquise got into bed. I had placed the -torch on a stand, and she said, "Undress yourself and put out the light -very quickly." I pretended to be undoing my shoes, desiring to know how -far the lady's cruelty would go, and she said, "What is the matter with -you? You look very solemn." Then I rose and, giving the bed a wide -berth, said to the lady: "Ah, how cruel you are! What have I done that -you want to have me murdered?" The lady sprang out of bed and flung -herself upon me from behind; but freeing myself, I went straight to the -chimney-piece. Sainte-Croix came out, and I said to him: "Ah, villain, -you have come to stick a knife into me!" and as the torch was burning, -Sainte-Croix made to flee, while Lady Brinvilliers rolled on the floor -declaring that she would live no longer, but die; at the same time she -sought her case of poisons, opened it, and was on the point of taking -poison. I prevented her and said, "You wanted to get me poisoned by -Bazile, and now you want to get me stabbed by Sainte-Croix." The lady -threw herself at my feet, declaring that such had not happened to me and -would never happen, and that she would pay with her death for what she -had just done--that she saw clearly that it was all up with her and that -she could not survive such an occurrence. I told her that I would -forgive her and forget all about what she had done, but that I was -determined to go away in the morning, since they wanted to get rid of -me, and I made the lady promise that she would not poison herself. I -remained in the room until six o'clock in the morning with the lady, -whom I compelled to go back to bed, I remaining on a sofa beside the bed -near her.' - -After this scene, Briancourt at once set about procuring pistols, -deeming them necessary to his safety; then he went to ask the advice of -Monsieur Bocager, a professor of the law school, who had introduced him -to Madame de Brinvilliers. - -From the first day he saw the terrible marchioness, Briancourt had -advanced from surprise to surprise; but his greatest astonishment -awaited him in the study of the law professor. The young man said to -him, 'Sir, I have a great secret to communicate to you; I think that you -will give me good advice, and that you will tell the first president, -whom you often see, what is going on, so that he may take the proper -steps.' The professor's discomposure was evident in his features, and he -leaned back uncomfortably in his chair. 'Monsieur Bocager turned very -pale, and said nothing, except that I must keep my secret and not speak -about it to the cure of St. Paul or any one else. He assured me that he -would see to everything, and that I ought not to leave the Brinvilliers' -house so soon, but wait some time, while he sought some new employment -for me.' Briancourt asked himself whether all that he heard and saw were -real events in a real world. How far had this terrible woman been to -seek her accomplices? How far had she pushed her crimes? - -'Two days afterwards,' continues Briancourt, 'the marquise told me that -Monsieur Bocager was not so upright a man as I imagined, as I should see -some day. And as I was passing down the street in the evening, just -opposite St. Paul's, two pistol-shots were fired at me, without my being -able to tell whence they came, and one of them pierced my coat. Seeing -that I was marked down, I went next day to Sainte-Croix' house, carrying -two pistols, having left a man at the street door to see that it -remained open. I told Sainte-Croix that he was a villain and a -scoundrel, that he would be broken on the wheel, and that he had caused -the death of several people of quality. He declared that he had never -caused anybody's death, but that if I would go behind the Hopital -General with pistols he would give me every kind of satisfaction; to -which I replied that I was not a soldier, but that if I were attacked I -should defend myself.' - -Such was the strange existence of the poor bachelor in theology, tutor -to the children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers. In his fear of poison he -was continually swallowing some nostrum or other by way of antidote. - -The marquis himself lived in equal terror. He knew what was going on, -and took things philosophically. Here is a sketch of a dinner at his -house. 'The marchioness put Sainte-Croix on her right; the marquis was -at the sideboard end of the table. The latter was very carefully served -by a domestic specially attached to his person, to whom he always said: -"Don't change my glass, but rinse it every time you give me anything to -drink."' When the evening was over, the marquis retired to his room; -Sainte-Croix and the marchioness went to the lady's room, and Briancourt -went upstairs with the children. With the horrors of crime there were -thus mingled scenes of burlesque. - -Accommodating as her husband was, the marchioness began to poison him; -then, struck with remorse, she called in to attend him one of the most -famous physicians of the time, Dr. Brayer. - -'She wished to marry Sainte-Croix,' writes Madame de Sevigne, 'and with -that intention often gave her husband poison. Sainte-Croix, not anxious -to have so evil a woman as his wife, gave counter-poisons to the poor -husband, with the result that, shuttlecocked about like this five or six -times, now poisoned, now unpoisoned, he still remained alive.' -Brinvilliers emerged from this violent treatment with a weakness in the -legs. Afterwards he always carried theriac about with him, that being -regarded as an antidote; he took it from time to time, and gave doses to -his people. - -Briancourt, however, succeeded in escaping from the service of his -formidable mistress, and, under the baleful impression of what he had -seen in the world, he retired to Aubervilliers, where he lived in -solitude, giving lessons in the establishment of the Fathers of the -Oratory there. Seven or eight months had passed when the marchioness -came to see him; then she sent from time to time to ask how he was -doing. It was at Aubervilliers that one evening, on July 31, 1672, he -received from his late mistress a very urgent note, begging him to go -immediately to Picpus, where she had an important communication to make -to him. There had just happened an event which was to entail -incalculable consequences: on July 30 Sainte-Croix died in his -mysterious dwelling in the cul-de-sac of the Place Maubert. - -A widespread legend makes Sainte-Croix' death the result of a chemical -experiment; it is said that the glass mask with which he covered his -face to protect it from the poisonous vapours had broken. But he really -died a natural death after an illness of some months, in the course of -which he was visited by several persons who have left their testimony in -regard to the matter. In the legendary laboratory of the cul-de-sac -there was found indeed a furnace of 'digestion.' Sainte-Croix -'philosophised' there, that is, worked at the philosopher's stone, and -more particularly at solidifying mercury, that eternal dream of the -alchemists. - -Madame de Brinvilliers soon learned of the death of her lover. Her first -cry was, 'The little box!' - - - - -II. HER TRIAL - - -Sainte-Croix died overwhelmed in debt. His things were all put under -seal. The seals were raised on August 8, 1672, by Commissary Picard, -assisted by a sergeant named Creuillebois, two notaries, the agent of -the widow, and an agent of the creditors. The three first meetings had -passed without incident when a Carmelite monk who was present handed to -the commissary the key of the private room in which the furnace was -kept. Entering, they saw on the table a rolled-up paper bearing the -words, 'My confession.' The persons present decided without hesitation -to keep the paper secret, and to burn it on the spot. They found, -further, at the end of a shelf, a small box, oblong in shape and red in -colour, from which hung a key. It contained some phials, some of which -were filled with a clear liquid like water, others with a liquid of -reddish colour; and in addition, there were the letters addressed by -Madame de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix, the two promissory notes signed -by the marchioness after the poisoning of her father and brothers, and a -receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 livres lent by -Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, to Monsieur and Madame de -Brinvilliers through the agency of Sainte-Croix. These two last papers -were in a sealed envelope on which was written: 'Papers to be restored -to the Sieur Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, as belonging to -him; and I humbly beg those into whose hands they fall, to be good -enough to return them to him at my death, they being of no consequence -except to him alone.' - -Sainte-Croix had addressed the little box, with its contents, to Madame -de Brinvilliers in these terms: 'I humbly beg those into whose hands -this box falls to do me the favour to return it into the hands of the -Marquise de Brinvilliers, who lives in Rue Neuve-Saint-Paul, since all -that it contains concerns her and belongs to her alone, and moreover it -is of no use to anybody in the world but herself; and in case she dies -before I do, to burn it, and all that is in it, without opening it or -meddling with it; and so that no one may pretend ignorance, I swear by -the God I adore, and all that is most holy, that I state nothing but the -truth. If perchance any one contravenes my intentions, just and -reasonable as they are, I charge it in this world and the next upon his -conscience, for discharge of my own, and declare that this is my last -will. Made at Paris, afternoon, May 25, 1670. _Signed_: Sainte-Croix.' -Below were these words: 'There is a single packet addressed to Monsieur -Pennautier, which is to be given to him.' The very energy of these -formulae impressed Commissary Picard. He sealed up the case and confided -it to the care of two sergeants, Cluet and Creuillebois, so that the -inventory might be made by the civil lieutenant in person. Sergeant -Creuillebois took the box home. - -It was Sainte-Croix' widow who on August 8--that is, the day when the -box was discovered--sent word to Madame de Brinvilliers at Picpus that -things belonging to her were under seal. The marchioness instantly sent -some one to find the box. As that was no longer in Sainte-Croix' house, -a servant was sent off to Commissary Picard to tell him that Madame de -Brinvilliers desired to speak to him without delay. Picard answered that -he was busy. The marchioness, however, herself hurried to Madame de -Sainte-Croix, insisting on the box being given to her. It was nine -o'clock at night. 'She complained of its having been sealed up, offered -money to obtain it, proposed to break the seals in order to take out -what was inside, and to substitute something else.' But the box had been -taken away. 'It's very amusing,' she said, 'for Commissary Picard to -carry off a box that belongs to me!' She got some one to take her to -Sergeant Cluet, whom she made come down, so that she might speak to him -from her carriage. 'The lady told him that Pennautier had come to her, -and told her that he was anxious about the box, and would give fifty -golden louis to have what was in it. She also said that all that was in -the said box concerned Pennautier and herself, and that they had done -everything in concert.' We see here the first step in a manoeuvre -which Madame de Brinvilliers afterwards developed. Knowing that several -of the papers in the box concerned Pennautier, she sought to link her -cause with the financier's, speculating on his high position and -influence. - -Cluet answered that he could do nothing without the commissary. -Accordingly the marchioness hurried off to him at eleven o'clock at -night. Picard sent down word that he could not receive her till the -morning. - -In the morning, August 9, the commissary received a visitor from a -Chatelet[3] attorney named Delamarre, to whom the marchioness had -intrusted her interests. He told the commissary that the little box was -of great importance to Madame de Brinvilliers, begging him to send it -back to her, and saying 'that she would give him all she had in the -world.' 'There came also a man in black' (it was Briancourt) 'who told -him that the marchioness would give him anything he could wish for.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers understood that the box was not to be given up, -and made preparations for flight. 'Delamarre, her attorney, repaired to -Picpus at ten o'clock at night and carried off her principal furniture, -which was even thrown hastily out of the windows.' The marchioness, -however, sent for Cluet and Creuillebois to come to Picpus. She changed -the line of her defence, and told Creuillebois that 'Sainte-Croix was -clever enough to have forged the letters, but that she would find a way -out, and had good friends.' To Madame de Sainte-Croix, who also went to -Picpus, she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could -only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sainte-Croix for a long -time, that these were forged letters, and that she had a complete -justification. She went on, in order to spread it abroad that her -interests were connected with those of Pennautier: 'If it trickles on -me, it will rain on Pennautier.' She said to the wife of a Chatelet -clerk named Fausset, who spoke to her of the rumours of poisoning that -were already going about. 'There is nothing in it: it will blow over; -there is a man accused with me who will give four or six thousand livres -to arrange matters,' adding that 'he was not of high rank, but was very -rich.' - -The seals placed on the box were raised by the civil lieutenant on -August 11. Madame de Brinvilliers was represented by her attorney, who -made the following declaration: 'That if there was found a promise -signed by Lady Brinvilliers for the sum of 30,000 livres, it was a -document obtained from her by fraud, against which, in case the -signature proved genuine, she intended to appeal, in order to have it -declared null and void.' - -The liquids and the powder contained in the chest were tested on -animals, death being the result. Experts decided that they contained -poison, but could not determine its nature. The general belief was that -it was arsenic. - -Madame de Brinvilliers and Pennautier were soon the engrossing topic of -conversation in Paris. Fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons -found in the box, of which Madame de Sevigne made herself the sedulous -echo. - -The marchioness hastened to pay a visit to Pennautier. He was not at -home. His wife turned her out neck and crop. Pennautier responded by -taking a step which did him honour: he went to Picpus to see Madame de -Brinvilliers. Asked later, after his arrest, what was his motive in -going to Picpus, he replied that, not believing Madame de Brinvilliers -guilty of such a crime, he went to pay her his respects, as is usual on -such occasions. Speaking of this step of his, his enemies wrote: -'Actuated by a sentiment of courtesy, he neglected his most obvious -interests, in which life, honour, and fortune were at stake; his -excessive politeness made him forgetful of all his interests. What a -rare and marvellous character! How free from thoughts of self!' These -lines, written with ironical intention, really express the truth. Not -long before, Monsieur and Madame de Brinvilliers had done Pennautier a -great service in a moment of difficulty by the loan of 30,000 livres; -and he seized the opportunity to show that he had not forgotten their -kindness. - -P. L. Reich de Pennautier--Pennautier was the name of an estate in the -neighbourhood of Carcassonne--though scarcely thirty-five years old, had -already made an enormous fortune. His two appointments as -receiver-general for the clergy and treasurer of the Languedoc Exchange -brought him in hundreds of thousands of francs annually. He was one of -the most active and intelligent of Colbert's lieutenants. On such -questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacture of fine cloth, -the Languedoc canal, the purchase of Greek MSS. in the Levant, the -draining of the fens of Aigues-Mortes, the name of Pennautier is linked -with that of Colbert in enterprises of the utmost utility 'From a petty -cashier,' says Saint-Simon, 'Pennautier became treasurer of the clergy -and treasurer of the States of Languedoc, and enormously rich. He was a -tall and well-made man, with a gallant and dignified air, courteous and -eminently obliging; he had plenty of intelligence, and had many -connections in society. - -On August 22 the civil lieutenant summoned Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier to appear at the examination of the documents found in the -box. Pennautier was in the country; the marchioness was represented by -her attorney, who repeated his protests. A third personage appeared on -the scene, namely, La Chaussee. He fancied his audacity would save him, -and from the first had opposed the sealing of the house, on the ground -that he had deposited with the deceased, in whose service he had been -for seven years, 200 pistoles and 100 silver crowns which should be, he -said, behind the window of the study in a bag, with a note proving that -the money belonged to him. He claimed also a number of papers, which he -described. The knowledge that La Chaussee displayed of Sainte-Croix' -laboratory awakened suspicion. When Commissary Picard told the whilom -valet that the confiscated box had just been opened, he stood petrified -with confusion for a moment, then fled precipitately, leaving the -commissary in open-eyed amazement. The same day he left Gaussin, a -bath-proprietor whose service he had entered, and, concealing himself -during the day, roamed about Paris at night-time till he was arrested on -September 4 at six o'clock in the morning by a police officer named -Thomas Regnier. La Chaussee was very crestfallen as he walked down the -street. - -From that moment the gravest suspicions were entertained against Madame -de Brinvilliers, but there was a reluctance to arrest her because of her -rank. Regnier repaired to Picpus and told her bluntly that he had found -La Chaussee, and that he had learned a good many things from the -commissary. The marchioness blushed. 'What is it, madam? You say -nothing?' But the lady, changing the subject, asked him to escort her to -mass. When they returned, she spoke to him again about the box. She -seemed a prey to uneasiness. 'But madam,' said Regnier, 'surely you are -not mixed up in this business?' 'Why should I be?' she replied. 'That -villain La Chaussee, when with Commissary Picard, must have said -something against you, and would say it again if he was captured.' 'It -would be well to take the villain to Picardy,' said the marchioness. -She said also that she had long been pressing Sainte-Croix to return the -box, and that Pennautier was involved with herself in the matter. -Regnier left Madame de Brinvilliers and went to find Briancourt at -Vertus. He told him, to begin with, that he had arrested La Chaussee, -and Briancourt exclaimed, 'Then she is a lost woman!' He went on to -speak of the poison which she had often talked about, and said that she -had several sorts of it in her house. - -Meanwhile Madame Antoine d'Aubray, widow of the last civil lieutenant -and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going -on--that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had -suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Chatelet -on September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for -damages against La Chaussee and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had -just fled to England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All -suspicions were at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussee heard -before the Chatelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing -the defendant to the preliminary torture, _manentibus indiciis_. If the -wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the -salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d'Aubray made a -passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring -to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully -sustained, and that it was not permissible to have recourse to a -preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch the criminals -from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle.[5] In spite -of a skilful defence, La Chaussee was condemned to death on March 24, -1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning, and -condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the -'question ordinary and extraordinary,' and that Madame de Brinvilliers -was to be beheaded for contempt of court. - -When submitted to torture, La Chaussee displayed uncommon courage and -denied everything. The mode of torture adopted was that of the boot. -The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were -driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in -succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the -machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and -refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussee -voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy's -tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. 'What -accuser,' says La Reynie, 'would have been listened to for a moment if -God had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges -could not condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on -conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the -heart of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute -silence, confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?' La -Chaussee was broken on the wheel the same day. - - * * * * * - -Taking refuge in London, the marchioness led a wretched existence, in -distress which she found insupportable, and a prey to incessant fears. - -Louis XIV had from the first taken a very strong personal interest in -this case. It was his sincere desire that the investigation should be -made as complete and luminous as possible, and he was determined to -follow up and strike at all the accomplices, however high they were -placed. The Secretaries of State had not awaited the declarations made -by La Chaussee on May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government -to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several -letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de -Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles II. The king of -England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not -allow the arrest to be made by English officers; that would have to be -undertaken by France. Croissy was highly embarrassed. The embassy was -not provided with tools for such jobs. Colbert insisted, and at length -the ambassador was on the point of winning Charles's consent to the -employment of English police, when Madame de Brinvilliers, taking -fright, quitted England for the Netherlands. - -Meanwhile her husband, this amazing Marquis de Brinvilliers, had quietly -taken up his abode, with his children and domestics, in the chateau of -Offemont, belonging to the estate of his father-in-law and two -brothers-in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of -the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two _lettres de -cachet_ had been signed by Louis XIV, bearing date February 22 and March -31, 1674, ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within -three leagues of it, that he decided to allow the widow of the civil -lieutenant to enter upon the enjoyment of her own property. - -We have very little information on the life of the marchioness between -her departure from London and her arrest on March 25, 1676, at Liege in -a convent where she had taken shelter. She had gone from London to the -Netherlands, then into Picardy, the country conquered by King Louis, -thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent, but -was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she -fled to Antwerp, then to Liege. She had nothing to support her but an -annuity of 500 livres, which fell to 250 on the death of her sister; she -was sometimes 'reduced to borrowing a crown.' While at Cambrai, she -appears to have sent asking her husband to join her there; his answer -was, 'She would poison me like the rest.' - -It came to the ears of Louvois that Madame de Brinvilliers was in hiding -at Liege. He at once despatched Desgrez, the captain of police, a man of -tried ability. Desgrez was instructed to make all speed, for the French -troops then in possession of Liege were on the point of handing over the -town to the Spaniards. Michelet and the majority of historians have -woven the arrest of the marchioness into a romance. Desgrez, a handsome -fellow, disguises himself as a courtly abbe, and wins a warm welcome -from the lady, always eager for gallant adventures: at the rendezvous, -the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of -archers. As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest -manner, 'on the last day,' writes La Reynie, 'that the king's authority -was recognised in the town of Liege.' It was not even Desgrez who -carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a -former clerk of Fouquet's named Bruant, otherwise Descarrieres. 'The -burgomasters,' wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, 'have behaved so -well that they confided to me their master-key to go and arrest this -lady, without wanting to know why it was to be done.' Next day, March -26, Descarrieres wrote again to Louvois: 'I arranged that the detective -(Desgrez) should be present as privy to the capture'; he informed him -also that a small box was seized on the lady's person, at which 'she -appeared much agitated, and at first told mayor Goffin that her -confession was in the casket,' begging him to have it restored to her. -Descarrieres sealed the box with his own seal and that of Desgrez. - -La Reynie says upon this subject: 'It was God who ordained that this -wretched woman, who fled from kingdom to kingdom, should be careful to -write and carry with her the proofs necessary to her condemnation.' This -confession, in which the marchioness recalls in a few pages all the -crimes of her life, was published by Armand Fouquier; but its flavour is -so strong that the editor was not able to reproduce the original text, -but had to translate the principal passages into Latin. - -From Liege the marchioness was led under guard to Maestricht, where she -arrived on March 29; she was there locked up, and rigorously watched in -the town hall. Immediately after her arrest, the prisoner tried to -commit suicide by swallowing the fragments of a glass which she had -broken between her teeth. She swallowed pins, too, but did not succeed -in killing herself. Resne, one of the sentries, vigorously abused her: -'You are a wicked woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of -your family, you want to do away with yourself!' She answered, 'If I did -so, it was under evil counsel.' On another occasion Desgrez was informed -that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible -fashion. 'Ah, you wretch!' he cried. 'I see that you want to do for -yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!' She replied: 'If I had -only had good advice! We often have our evil moments.' The archers who -guarded her during her journey from Liege to Paris gave the judges a -description of this third attempt at suicide which it is impossible to -reproduce. The following is a note from Emmanuel de Coulanges, forwarded -by Madame de Sevigne to Madame de Grignan: 'She stuck a stick into -herself; guess where: it was not in her eye, nor her mouth, nor her ear, -nor her nose, nor was she absolutely brutal.' - -During the journey Madame de Brinvilliers was escorted by the Marshal -d'Estrades in person as far as Huy, and from Huy to Rocroi by the troops -of Monsieur de Montal. The prisoner's character displayed itself in all -its untamed energy. Locked up at Maestricht, she suggested to Antoine -Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a -gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for -her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand pistoles. At other -times she urged him to help her throttle Desgrez, kill the _valet de -chambre_, detach the two leading horses from the coach, take the -documents, the casket with her confession, and another important paper, -and burn them all, for which purpose he was to carry a lighted match. - -She wrote to former servants who remained faithful to her, and actually -succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for they endeavoured to -rescue her, and tried to bribe her guardians. - -She persisted in the plan she had devised in regard to the accusation -under which Pennautier lay. She asked Barbier for ink to write to him; -he gave her some, and feigned to have despatched the letter. And when he -asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, 'Yes, yes,' she replied, -'and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.' Another time -she said: 'He must be much more frightened than I am. I have been -questioned about him, but I have said nothing, and have too much feeling -to charge him: half of the aristocracy are involved too, and I should -ruin them all if I spoke.' This she repeated several times. - -At Mezieres the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement -counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first -interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sevigne, wrote to -Madame de Grignan: 'The king has required the Parlement to depute -Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to -interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don't wish to wait till she -arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.' - -The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is -dated Mezieres, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic -denials. - -'Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she -set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written -such things she was out of her mind. - -'Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said -she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it. - -'Asked if she had not poisoned her father and brothers, she said she -knew nothing about it. - -'Asked if it was not La Chaussee who had poisoned her brothers, she said -she knew nothing of all that. - -'Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom -she had written them; she said she did not remember. - -'Asked why she wrote to Theria to secure the box, she said she did not -know what that was. - -'Asked why, in writing to Theria, she said she was lost if he did not -get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.' - -The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival -in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer -Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he -carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges. - -On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:-- - -'I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this -business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional -obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean -this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people -who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. -I think it would be much to the purpose if you did not show yourself too -much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor -severely examined me about you at Mezieres.' - -There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the 'Bernardins -widow,' that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des -Bernardins. - -Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in -regard to Pennautier. 'I do not know at all,' she said on the night -before her death, 'that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication -with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without -betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the -box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their -friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in -this suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, -running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing -thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, -Monsieur Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, -considering the step I am taking, and that will induce him to exert -himself on my behalf as much as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; -and if he is innocent, my letter is waste labour. I risk nothing but the -indignation of a person who would be careful not to stand up for me, nor -to render me any service if I had written him nothing.' - -The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier -to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky -functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room -that Ravaillac[6] had occupied. - - * * * * * - -Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier's -predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to -arouse public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having -poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an -office of considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits -drawn up by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging -documents were in everybody's hands. - -The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in -the opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who -diligently spread false reports about him. The people regarded his -influence and wealth with amazement, the nobility with envy. On the -other hand, Pennautier, like Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a -circumstance which does honour to the time. 'It is wonderful,' says -Saint-Simon, 'how many of the most notable men are working on his -behalf.' This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the -recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed Fouquet's friends was -present to every mind. The Cardinal de Bonsy, the Duke de Verneuil, the -Archbishop of Paris, Harlay de Champvallon, and Colbert were among the -most active. The judges, who were suspected by Louis XIV himself of -having been corrupted, gave proof of an admirable independence. - -Pennautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on -June 15, 1676, when the police made a sudden raid upon his room. What he -had written was as follows:--'I think that, for our friend, a stay of a -month in the country will suffice....' Startled by this sudden -interruption, Pennautier nervously put this note in his mouth as though -to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which -the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had -entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of -convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the -pamphlets of Sainte-Croix' widow, he established incontestably the -falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to -base their accusations. These latter found themselves reduced to -maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the -seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix' place had been falsified. - -'I am accused of having poisoned Saint-Laurent,' added Pennautier; 'but -has it been so much as proved that he died of poison? It is at least -singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for -the reports of the doctors, as well as the circumstances under which he -died, prove that his death was natural.' - -The close of Pennautier's reply was crushing for his accuser. He pointed -out that Madame de Saint-Laurent had waited six years before bringing -her case into court. How was that silence explained? Saint-Laurent being -dead, Pennautier was appointed to his office of receiver-general for the -clergy. 'Saint-Laurent's wife gave him her nomination on June 12, 1669; -the same day they drew up a sort of contract together, by which the lady -reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 -pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the -right to return to this office, in accordance with the deed of -defeasance given him by Saint-Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette -resigned that office in his favour on March 17, 1669. The dame de -Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the -office until the last day of December 1675, when the agreement -terminated; and if Pennautier had been willing to renew the agreement -with her, when the general assembly of the clergy did him the honour to -elect him receiver-general for ten years, which will end on the last day -of December 1685, those who know the dame de Saint-Laurent are convinced -that she would never have accused Pennautier of poisoning the Sieur de -Saint-Laurent her husband.' - -We have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important -part played by Pennautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in -France under the direction of Colbert. - - * * * * * - -Nothing was talked about in Paris but Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier--'a grave injustice to the war,' as Madame de Sevigne said. - -Through the privilege of nobility, Madame de Brinvilliers was brought -before the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom--the High Court and -the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested a counsel to assist her in -her defence, but the request was refused, at least provisionally. - -The court was presided over by the first president, Lamoignon. Between -April 29 and July 16, 1676, the case occupied twenty-two sittings. The -marchioness displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant -subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything -obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, -but never failed in the respect due to the judges--a respect in which -pride and nobility mingled, and which made the audience feel that she -considered herself at least the equal of the men judging her. - -When they came to read the account of the examination at Mezieres on -April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The following -is an extract from the official report of the proceedings:-- - -'At the reading of these interrogatories, the first president wished to -intervene and postpone it until after the confession had been read. -This raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was -allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as -sodomy and incest, which being on this occasion only a matter of -confession, it seemed that they should be kept a great secret; some were -for, others against. - -'Monsieur de Palluau said that, having consulted the law-doctors, he had -been told that, a confession having been found _en route_, it ought to -have been burnt under penalty, as some believed, of mortal sin. - -'Other doctors held that the said Palluau, in his capacity as judge, had -had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to -interrogate her on the aforesaid paper beginning, _I accuse myself, my -father,_ etc. - -'The first president held that the question was extremely uncertain, yet -he thought the papers ought to be read. - -'The President de Mesmes held that this sort of confession had been -utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epistle of St. Leo, -showing that the judges had made use of them. - -'Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion. - -'The first president answered that the epistle of St. Leo was utterly -opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes, and that there was -nothing for it but to resume the reading. - -'The question having been argued, the reading was continued. - -'Asked if she had not made her confession, and to whom she ought to -confess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a -confession, and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess. - -'Monsieur Roujault reported in the afternoon that he had put the -question to Monsieur Benjamin, an ecclesiastical judge, to Monsieur du -Saussoy and other casuists, and to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and -professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, -and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy of the -confessional could only be between the confessor and the penitent, and a -paper having been found purporting to be a confession, it might be read -by the judges.' - -On July 13, 1676, a terrible deposition was heard--that of Briancourt, -who related in detail his mistress's life. He spoke in a voice broken by -emotion. The marchioness contradicted him with the same cold, haughty -impassivity. 'Her spirit quite overawes us,' said President Lamoignon. -'We worked yesterday at her case till eight o'clock in the evening; she -was confronted with Briancourt for thirteen hours, and to-day another -five, and she has gone through both ordeals with surprising courage. No -one could have more respect for the judges, nor more scorn for the -witness confronting her: she taunted him with being a besotted lackey, -bundled out of the house for his disorderly conduct, and one whose -testimony should not be received against her.' But she was lost. The -marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious -punishment--the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre -Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of -torture, the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the -scaffold, the stake, the 'tomb of fire' whence the hand of the -executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The -judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at -the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes -streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: 'I warned you -many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your -crimes would ruin you,' the marchioness replied--a wonderful reply in -its pride and self-control--'You are chicken-hearted, you are crying!' -Could one find such a saying in Roman history, or in Corneille? We -prefer the bare cold version of the official minute to the version -reported by President Lamoignon to the abbe Pirot: 'She insulted -Briancourt about the tears he shed at the remembrance of the death of -her brothers, when he declared that she had made him her confidant in -regard to their poisoning, and told him that he was a villain to weep -before all these gentlemen--that it resulted from a mean spirit. All -this was said with great coolness, and without any appearance of -changing countenance during the five hours we all watched her to-day.' - -Advocate Nivelle, on whom fell the heavy task of presenting the defence -of the accused lady, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. -His defence was still renowned in the eighteenth century. It was broad -in style, and some of his phrases were of great beauty. - -'The enormity of the crimes,' he said, 'and the rank of the person -accused require proofs of the most convincing clearness, written, so to -speak, with rays of sunlight.' He went on to ask if the proofs adduced -against Madame de Brinvilliers were of this quality. He succeeded in -throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty -depositions--that of Sergeant Cluet, for instance, who was devoted body -and soul, he said, to the opposite party; to the widow d'Aubray, who -sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremest animosity. The -deposition of Edme Briscien, he maintained, should be entirely rejected, -for the witness was not confronted with the marchioness, and on that -point the rules of procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took -advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussee's declaration after -torture. The argument based on Sainte-Croix' famous box seemed to him to -have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which -Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the -marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison -bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady's letters to -Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last -to the written confession seized at Liege, Nivelle strongly protested -against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. -'The last proof,' he said, 'relates to a paper found among those of the -marchioness, in which she had written a religious confession. It is -astounding that the accusers desired the judges to read this paper, for -it was of a nature which laws human and divine hold sacred and -inviolable under the seal of secrecy and silence demanded by the rules -of one of the most august of mysteries, as I will prove by invincible -arguments.' These arguments were exhausted in a minute study of the -writings of the Church fathers and of ecclesiastical history, from which -the advocate produced numerous examples and excerpts likely to imbue the -judges with the profoundest respect for the secrecy of confession, under -whatever form it might present itself. - -Finally, Nivelle set himself to win a little sympathy, or at any rate -pity, for his client. He depicted this woman as a frail thing, of noble -birth, beautiful and sensitive by nature, a butt for several months past -to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of -archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been -deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Whitsunday had been -refused permission to hear mass. Undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed -to that revulsion of feeling in favour of the marchioness which was so -strongly marked during the last days. - -The advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the -prosecutrix: 'The accuser ought not to press hardly against the lady, -because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her -husband in the exemplary punishment of that wretched criminal (La -Chaussee) who slew him; she should rather wish that the family to which -she is allied should not be sullied with an eternal disgrace, and that -she should not incur the reproach of being wanting in natural feeling -for her nephews, whom she ought to consider as her own children. The -death of the late Messieurs d'Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if -they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that -the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they -recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would -themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing -their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would -prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in -preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish themselves -rather than to avenge them. But if they find their consolation in the -acquittal of Lady Brinvilliers; if her children--who would suffer -punishment as if they were guilty, and to whom life would become a -torture and death a consolation--find in it the preservation of the -honour of a family so notable as that from which their mother is -sprung--these wise magistrates who are to judge her will also have more -glory in giving to the public a famous example of their justice, their -piety, and their sovereign equity, by declaring her innocent.' - -On July 15, 1676, Madame de Brinvilliers appeared for the last time -before her judges for her final cross-examination, and in the course of -this long ordeal, in which for three hours her whole life was -remorselessly dissected, she did not flag for a moment. She denied -everything; she did not know what poison and antidote meant; her -pretended confession was sheer madness. 'She did not appear affected by -what the first president said, though, after he had done his part as -judge, he assumed the tone of a merciful friend, and addressed to her -words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in -some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,' -we read in a summary report of the trial, 'dwelt upon the dreadful -illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her -that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her -seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the -reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with -her. The President de Novion reminded her that her brother the civil -lieutenant had suspected other persons, and that this suspicion had -embittered his last moments. The first president told her also' (and -this is one of the most curious features of the trial for the study of -the moral ideas of the period), 'that the greatest of all her crimes, -horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and -brothers, but her attempt to poison herself. She was kept for another -half hour, but would say nothing, merely showing signs of a little -distress at heart.' - -'The first president wept bitterly,' writes the abbe Pirot, 'and all the -judges shed tears.' She alone kept her head proudly erect, and preserved -undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes. - -Taine has given in one line a marvellous definition of the character of -Racine's heroines and the art of the poet himself: 'We imagine the tears -which never appear in their beautiful eyes.' The sequel of our story -will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de -Brinvilliers in some points resembled some of Racine's heroines, and -will help to show with what exactitude the incomparable poet reproduced -the models presented him by the society of his time. - -In closing this memorable scene on July 15, President Lamoignon told the -prisoner that, out of charity and on the plea of her sister the -Carmelite nun, a person of the greatest merit and the highest virtue was -being sent to her to console her and to exhort her to think of her -soul's salvation. We are about to see coming upon the stage one of the -most interesting figures in the drama, the sympathetic abbe, Edme Pirot. - - - - -III. HER DEATH - - -Edme Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Auxerre -on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness of -Brinvilliers. His discussions with Leibnitz had made his name famous -throughout Europe. His was an ardent and sensitive soul: his heart was -torn when he came in contact with the griefs of others. 'The delicacy of -my temperament was so great,' he said, 'that I could never bear the -sight of blood, not even my own, and at one time I had turned quite -faint at the sight of a wound being dressed, and never since ventured to -come within sight of a similar operation.' He had an acute and subtle -intellect, endowed with a remarkable faculty for psychological insight. - -President Lamoignon, in appointing the abbe Pirot to attend Madame de -Brinvilliers, had given a fresh proof of his knowledge of men. He knew -that the gentle and soul-stirring words of the priest would act on the -heart of the prisoner, and perhaps obtain what all the machinery of -justice had not succeeded in achieving--the revelation of her -accomplices, the composition of her poisons and the proper antidotes to -employ. 'It is for the public interest,' said Lamoignon to the abbe -Pirot, 'that her crimes should die with her, and that she should -acquaint us with all the consequences her poison might have, so far as -she knows them; without which we should be unable to counteract them, -and her poisons would survive her.' Further, it was his earnest desire -to find in Pirot a priest whose exhortations would, at the hour of -death, touch this rebellious soul and set it on the narrow road to -salvation. - -The good abbe has described the last day of Madame de Brinvilliers -minute by minute. His story fills two volumes, one of the most -extraordinary monuments literature can show. It is written with no -regard for artistic effect: the conversations are reported at length, -with repetitions and interminably wearisome details; but the clear, -exact, and flowing style, the just and restrained expression of the -keenest passions, continually remind us of the tragedies of Racine. -_Phedre_ and the abbe Pirot's story were composed in the same year; if -the priest had given any thought to the public as he wrote, and had paid -some attention to his style and to the avoidance of repetitions and -prolixity, posterity unquestionably might well have signed both works -with the same name. - -Michelet has strikingly described the appearance of the priest in the -tower of the Conciergerie:-- - -'Quaking with terror, Pirot was ushered into the Conciergerie, and taken -to the top of the Montgommery tower; there he entered a room in which -there were four persons--two warders, a wardress, and, farthest away -from him, the monster. - -'The monster was quite a little woman, dainty, with very soft blue eyes, -marvellously beautiful. As soon as she saw Pirot, she prettily thanked a -priest who up to then had attended her, and expressed with easy grace -her absolute confidence in the learned abbe. He saw at once how much she -was loved by those who lived with her. When she spoke of her death, the -two men and the woman burst into tears. She seemed to love them too, and -was kind and gentle with them, not proud at all; she made them eat at -her table. - -'"To be sure, sir," she said to Pirot, "you are the priest that the -first president has sent to console me; it is with you that I am to -pass the little that remains of life: and I have long been impatient to -see you." - -'"I come, madam," answered Pirot, "to render you in spiritual matters -what service I can. I could wish it were in any other matter than this." - -'"Sir," she rejoined, "we must submit to everything."' - -And at that moment, turning towards an Oratorian named Father de -Chevigny, she said: 'Father, I am obliged to you for bringing this -gentleman, and for all the other visits you have been good enough to pay -me; pray God for me, I beseech you: henceforth I shall speak to scarcely -any one but the father here. I have matters to discuss with him that are -spoken of in secret. Farewell.' - -The Oratorian retired. - -Madame de Brinvilliers seems to have been won at the outset by the -affectionate expression of her confessor, and by his sincere and -sympathetic words. Judgment had not yet been pronounced. 'My death is -certain,' she said; 'I must not delude myself with hope. I have to tell -you the story of all my life.' But the conversation drifted away to what -was being said of her in society. 'I can imagine pretty well that they -are talking a good deal about me, and that I have been for some time a -byword among the people.' And her eyes flashed. - -Pirot tried to show her that, assuming she was guilty, her duty was to -disclose all her accomplices, to reveal the composition of her poisons -and the means of counteracting them. She interrupted him: 'Sir, are -there not some sins that are unpardonable in this world, either from -their gravity or their number? Are there not some so atrocious or so -numerous that the Church cannot remit them?' 'Believe, madam, that there -are no sins irremissible in this life,' answered the priest, and he -enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and an infectious faith. -Conviction by degrees took possession of the prisoner's soul, and with -it there dawned a gleam of regeneration, hope in a future life serene -and happy--glorious, as the abbe said--and with the thought her heart -was changed. '"Sir," she answered me, "I am convinced of all you tell -me. I believe that God can pardon all sins; I believe that He has often -exercised this power; but all my trouble now is to know whether He will -apply His power to one so wretched as I." I told her that she must hope -that God would take pity on her in His infinite mercy. She began to -describe in general terms the whole of her life, and from that moment I -saw that her heart was touched, and she burst into tears beholding her -wretchedness.' By the contagion of his sympathetic kindness, and by the -light of redemption, Pirot had in a few hours melted this heart of brass -like wax. - -'After she had given me an outline of her life, knowing that I had not -yet said mass, she intimated spontaneously that it was time to say it, -and that I might go down to the chapel for that purpose. She begged me -say it to our Lady on her behalf, so as to obtain the pardon of which -she stood in need, and asked me to come up again as soon as the -sacrifice had been completed, saying that she would be present in -spirit, since she was not permitted to attend in person, and that she -thought of telling me in detail on my return that which she had so far -told me only in general terms. - -'After my mass,' continues Pirot, 'as I was taking a sip of wine in the -jailer's room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur de -Sency, librarian to the Palais, that Madame de Brinvilliers was -condemned. I went upstairs and found the marchioness awaiting me in -great serenity. - -'"It is only by dying by the hand of the executioner," she said, "that I -can win salvation. If I had died at Liege before my arrest, where should -I be now? And if I had not been taken, what would my end have been? I -will confess my crime to the judges to whom I have denied it hitherto. I -fancied I could conceal it, flattering myself that without my confession -there would have been nothing to convict me, and that I was not bound to -accuse myself. To-morrow, at my last examination, I mean to repair the -ill that I have done at the others. - -'"I beg you, sir," she went on suddenly, "to make my excuses to the -first president. You will please see him on my behalf after my death, -and will tell him that I ask his pardon, and that of all the judges, -for the effrontery they have seen in me; that I believed it would serve -my defence, and that I never believed there would be proof enough to -condemn me without my avowal; that I now see things in a different -light, and that I was touched yesterday by what he said to me, and that -I put violent constraint on myself to prevent my features from showing -what I felt. Ask him to forgive me for the offence I gave to the whole -bench assembled to judge me, and to beg the other judges to pardon me." - -'It was thus,' Pirot continues, 'that she went on relating to me the -whole matter until half-past one, when a servant came and brought the -cloth for dinner. She took nothing but two fresh eggs and a little soup, -and talked to me, while I was eating, about indifferent things, with -very great freedom of mind and a tranquillity which surprised me, as if -she were entertaining me at dinner in a country house. She invited to -the table the two men and the women who were her usual guard. "Sir," she -said to me, after she had told them to sit down, "you will not mind our -dispensing with ceremony for you? They are accustomed to eat with me to -keep me company, and we shall do so to-day if you do not object. This," -she said to them, "is the last meal I shall take with you." And turning -towards the woman who was beside her, she said: "Madam, my poor Du Rus, -you will soon be quit of me; I have long been a trouble to you, but it -will soon be over. To-morrow you will be able to go to Dranet. You will -have time enough for that. In seven or eight hours you will have me no -longer to bother you, for I do not think you have the heart to see my -end." - -'She said all this with a coolness and serenity which indicated rather a -natural equality of mind than an affected pride. And as these people -from time to time burst into tears and withdrew to conceal them from -her, she, noticing it, threw me a glance of pity, though she shed no -tears, as though sorry for their grief, almost as a mother might do on -her deathbed, when, seeing around her her weeping servants, she looks at -the confessor kneeling near her and marks the sorrow their affection -gives him. - -'From time to time she urged me to eat, and scolded the jailer for -putting cabbage in the soup. She asked me with much politeness to allow -her to drink my health. I thought that I might do her some pleasure in -drinking to hers, and it was not difficult to show her this little -attention. She asked me to excuse her for not serving me, careful not to -say that she had no knife for that purpose, so as not to give the -slightest shadow of complaint. - -'"Sir," she said to me at the end of the meal, "it is fast-day -to-morrow, and though it will be a very tiring day for me"--she was to -undergo torture and then be beheaded--"I have no intention of eating -meat." "Madam," I replied, "if you need a meat soup to sustain you, -there will be no occasion to stand on scruples; it will not be out of -fastidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the Church is -not rigorous in such a case." "Sir," she replied, "I would not be -particular if I needed it and you ordered it; but I am sure it will not -be necessary. All I require is a little soup this evening at -supper-time, and again at eleven o'clock; to-day they will make it a -little stronger than usual, and with that, and a couple of eggs I can -take at the torture, I shall get through to-morrow." - -'It is true,' adds the good priest, 'that I was thunderstruck at all -this composure, and I shivered when I heard her tell the jailer, so -quietly, that the soup was to be stronger that evening than usual, and -that two servings were to be kept for her before midnight. - -'I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de -Brinvilliers, and as it was generally believed that she had always had -little enough love for him, I was surprised to find that she had so -much. Indeed, it appeared to me to verge towards excess, and for half an -hour I saw her more distressed for him than for herself.' And when -Pirot, to test her, said that her husband appeared very insensible to -her approaching fate, he drew from her a dignified reply: he must not -judge things so hastily, she told him, or without intimate knowledge, -and that up to that day she had only had to congratulate herself on her -husband. - -She asked for a pen, and with a rapid hand wrote this astonishing -letter to the Marquis de Brinvilliers:-- - - 'Being as I am on the point of going to give account of my soul to - God, I want to assure you of my affection, which will endure to the - last moment of my life. I ask your pardon for all that I have done - that I ought not to have done. I die an honourable death, brought - upon me by my enemies. I forgive them with all my heart, and - beseech you to forgive them. I hope that you will also forgive me - for the disgrace that may be reflected on you. But remember that we - are here only for a time, and perhaps ere long you yourself will - have to go and render to God an exact account of all your actions, - even your idle words, as I am now preparing to do. Watch over our - temporal affairs and our children: bring them up in the fear of the - Lord, and yourself set them an example. On this consult Monsieur - Marillac and Madame Couste. Offer up for me as many prayers as you - can, and be assured that I die yours devotedly, - -D'AUBRAY.' - - - -Pirot objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was -not correct. 'How so, sir?' she said. 'Are not those who have driven me -to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them -their rancour?' - -Pirot's answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation -which plunged her into great astonishment. - -Then the confession was resumed. - -'King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,' said Pirot, 'his -heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was -bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, -and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the -cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like -that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of -the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not -cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred -kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness -and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All -these words and a thousand others like them,' adds Pirot, 'caused her -to weep bitterly.' - -Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, -who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was -disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her -accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness -replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that -till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for -death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of -Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once. - -She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. -'"Sir," she said to me, "I have not asked to see them; that would only -have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them."' -Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and -that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and -humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair -prisoner's character to the bottom. 'Ah!' she said, interrupting him, -'those are grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my -hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still -attached to this world's glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with -which I am loaded.' And to the priest's remarks she replied: 'I tell -myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of -pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural -to me.' And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: -'At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments -when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose -acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so -dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.' - -Pirot supped that evening with the prisoner; then, when night had -fallen, he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great -agitation, and on reaching his apartment he had recourse to his -breviary. 'The image of the lady I had seen all day so powerfully -possessed me that I could hardly attend to what I was reading: it seemed -to me that I was for nearly half an hour circling round _Domine, labia -mea aperies_, returning always to where I had begun. At last, seeing -that I must get on, I applied myself a little more diligently to my -reading, so as to be less distracted by this idea. But in spite of all -my close attention, I was quite three hours in reciting my office.' - -He has described at length his sleeplessness, the thoughts that crowded -upon his mind, the anguish which choked him: 'I got no sleep at all. -Those who know the delicacy of my nature, how sensitive I am to the -misery and pain I see in persons who are indifferent to me, will have no -difficulty in realising the depth of my sorrow for a lady whom I had -seen so afflicted, and who was so near to my heart by reason of the -interest I was bound to take in the salvation of the soul intrusted to -me.' Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven, he cried: 'O God, -I am greatly concerned for her whose salvation is as dear to me as my -own; I die every moment for her, and all the reward I ask in the -conflict I have to maintain with her before she closes her career is to -see her crowned with Thee!' - -In the morning Pirot returned to the prisoner. 'I was taken up the -tower, where I found Father de Chevigny in tears as he closed a prayer -with the lady, who greeted me with the same courage that I had seen in -her on the previous evening.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers has slept as peacefully as a child. - -One of the first questions she put to her confessor related to a fear -which had arisen in her mind, and the thought of which gave her much -torture. 'Sir,' she said to me, 'you gave me yesterday some hope that I -might be saved, but I cannot have the presumption to promise myself that -that will be till after a long time in purgatory. How shall I know -whether I am in purgatory or hell?' Pirot reassured her. - -Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Brinvilliers was to -descend to hear her sentence read. 'She was prepared for death and -torture; but she had not thought of the public penance or of the fire. -She answered fearlessly, "In a moment, but just now we are finishing our -conversation, this gentleman and I." We shortly finished our talk in -great serenity.' - -On leaving the prisoner, Pirot betook himself to the chapel of the -Conciergerie. 'I said mass for her, and went into the jailer's room. I -found him there, and he told me that he had accompanied her to the -torture-chamber, and that after her sentence had been read, when the -executioner approached to seize her, she looked him up and down without -saying a word, and seeing a rope in his hand, she offered him her hands -already clasped. I learned after dinner from the procurator-general that -she had been agitated at the reading of her sentence, and that she got -it read a second time.' - -The sentence was dated July 16, 1676:-- - -'The court has declared and declares the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers -duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maitre Dreux d'Aubray her -father, and the said d'Aubray, civil lieutenant and counsellor in the -said court, her brothers, and for reparation has condemned and condemns -the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers to do public penance before the -principal door of the church of Paris, where she will be taken in a -cart, bare-footed, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a lighted -torch of two pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare -that wickedly, from revenge and to have their property, she has poisoned -her father and two brothers, and attempted the life of her late sister, -of which she repents, and asks pardon of God, the king, and justice; -this done, to be led and conducted in the said cart to the Place de -Greve of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold, which -will be erected for that purpose on the said place; her body to be -burned, and her ashes thrown to the winds: the question ordinary and -extraordinary to be first applied in order to obtain revelation of her -accomplices.' - -She declared in the evening that the part of the sentence which had so -startled her at the first reading that she could not hear the rest, was -the passage which stated that she was to be put in a cart. Her pride was -aroused. - -After the sentence had been read, the condemned woman was led into the -torture-chamber, and when she saw the apparatus, she said: 'Gentlemen, -it is useless, I will tell everything without torture. Not that I think -I can escape it--my sentence orders me to be tortured, and I suppose it -will not be dispensed with--but I will declare all beforehand. I have -denied everything hitherto, because I imagined I was thus defending -myself, and that I was not bound to confess anything. I have been -convinced of the contrary, and I will behave in accordance with the -instructions given me. And I can assure you that if I had seen three -weeks ago the person whom I have had given me the last twenty-four -hours, you would three weeks ago have known what you are going to learn -now.' Then raising her voice, she made a clear and complete avowal of -the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poisons she had -employed, she knew only arsenic, vitriol, and the poison of toads. The -strongest poison was 'rarefied arsenic.' The only antidote which she had -used herself when poisoned by Sainte-Croix was milk. As to her -accomplices, apart from Sainte-Croix and her lackeys she declared that -she had never had or known any. - -The judges were struck by the frankness of her words. And as we know, -she spoke at that moment with entire sincerity. - -Madame de Brinvilliers underwent the cruelest torture then applied by -the Parlement of Paris: the ordeal of water. Enormous quantities of -water were introduced into the stomach of the condemned through a funnel -placed between the teeth. This water, rapidly accumulating inside the -body, produced the most horrible agonies. - -Meanwhile the poor abbe Pirot was suffering as much from the torture as -the sufferer herself: 'I did not see her from half-past seven until two -o'clock in the afternoon. I can say that this was the only bad time I -had that day; apart from the time I spent without her, the rest cost me -nothing. But while she was under torture I was extraordinarily restless, -saying to myself at every moment, "They are now giving her torture."' - -He took refuge in a little room where, in spite of the promises of the -jailer, he was besieged by importunate visitors. Curious ladies of the -court flocked to him. While there some one handed to him a little medal, -with a message from the wife of President Lamoignon, saying that she had -received it from the pope, with the authority to bestow indulgence on -any dying person she chose, and that she gave it to Madame de -Brinvilliers. - -At last Pirot was told that he would find the marchioness lying on a -mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and -sympathetic words, and his exhortation to repentance, Pirot had little -by little bent this character of iron. He had sent the condemned lady -resigned and submissive to the judges. But under the pangs of torture -which made strong men yield, under the brutal force she had to suffer, -all the pride of her proud nature started up, the worst instincts were -awakened. In revenge, she accused Briancourt of false witness; she -charged Desgrez, who had arrested her at Liege, with purloining -documents. Pirot found her full of hatred and stubbornness, her eyes -blazing. 'She was highly excited, her face red as fire, her eyes -gleaming, her mouth distorted. She asked for wine, which I had brought -to her at once.' - -The rest of the story is really touching. The abbe Pirot watched with -the care of an anxious mother over the reputation of the lady about to -die. 'I expressly notice this circumstance,' he says, 'to undeceive -those who believe that she was too fond of wine and was guilty of taking -it to excess, and that she could not refrain from drinking it freely on -the day of her death. I saw nothing of the kind. It is true that on -Thursday, as on Friday, she had a cup from which at times she tasted as -much as a fly might swallow; but this was only to keep up her strength -and to refresh herself, at a time when the strain of recalling to mind -her whole life, in order to assure herself of any criminality there -might have been in it, much exhausted and excited her; and if care was -taken to have good wine on the day of her death, it was only to cheer -her a little in her natural depression of spirits. It has even been cast -up against her, unjustly, that a bottle was provided for her on the way -to the scaffold: I am responsible for that. I feared that her heart -might fail her, and knowing that at one time it was common to offer -criminals strong drink of some kind, to give them courage to suffer -death, I thought that, as I had seen her necessity that day of -refreshing herself now and then, it would be well to have wine ready; -and, to tell the truth, I thought a little of myself. The wine was only -used by the executioner, who drank a mouthful immediately after the -execution.' - -Before setting out for her punishment the marchioness was to be allowed -to pray for a few moments in the chapel of the Conciergerie, before the -Holy Sacrament exposed for the purpose; but she had to appear there -surrounded by other prisoners, who were all admitted to the chapel when -the Host was placed on the altar. 'When we entered the vestry of the -Conciergerie, she asked the jailer for a pin to fasten the kerchief she -had on her neck, and as he went in all good faith to look for one, she -said to him: "You must not be afraid of anything now: the gentleman will -be my surety, and will answer for it that I do not want to do myself -harm." "Madam," he replied, giving her a pin, "I beg pardon, I never -mistrusted you, and if anybody ever did so, it was certainly not I." He -fell on his knees before her, and thus kneeling kissed her hands. She -begged him to pray to God for her. "Madam," he replied, his voice choked -with sobs, "I will pray for you to-morrow with all my heart."' - -'Meanwhile,' says Pirot, 'she had not yet recovered the penitent spirit -which I had seen in her that morning and the night before.' She spoke of -the sentence. The punishment did not terrify her, but she was bitterly -indignant at the degrading circumstances introduced into it--the public -penance, the scattering of her ashes to the winds. Pirot replied: -'Madam, it matters nothing to your salvation whether your body be laid -in the earth or be cast into the fire. It will rise glorious from the -ashes if your soul is in grace.' And further: 'Yes, madam, this flesh -which men are soon to burn will rise one day, the same but glorified, -provided that your soul rejoices in God; it will be born again, bright -as the sun, no more to suffer, subtle and quick as a spirit.' - -By degrees Pirot regained his hold upon the fair penitent. 'The cloud of -nature was dissolved, her agitation appeared no longer, and, instead of -the hard fierce looks, the biting of lips, and the other impetuous -manifestations of a shattered pride, there were only tears and sobs, -remorse for sin and yearnings for repentance, that would make one's -heart bleed. I could not keep back my tears, and for an hour and a half -I wept with her, speaking, nevertheless, with more force than I had yet -done. She was still more affected by my tears than by my words, and, -pondering on the cause of my tears, she said: "Sir, my distress must be -great to compel you to weep so much, or you take a great interest in -what concerns me."' - -Then she confessed the calumnies she had been unable to avoid conceiving -under torture against Briancourt and Desgrez. Pirot was alarmed, and -when he told her that she ought to repair the fresh sin by a fresh -declaration she appeared surprised. However, the opportunity was about -to be afforded, for about six o'clock the procurator-general sent for -the abbe Pirot. - -'Sir,' he said, 'this is a most vexatious woman.' - -'How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I -now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.' - -'Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her -accomplices.' - -Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along -with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated -to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could -only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. 'Sir,' -she said, 'it is true that you told me that at first and at greater -length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than -I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you -had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them -everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.' -Monsieur de Palluau at once said, 'This is more than enough, sir; -adieu.' 'He went away at once, and we were given only a short time to -spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a -quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much -questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was -her courtesy.' Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, -Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and -Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the -torture-chamber. - -Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the -altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner -came up to speak of 'a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price -of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said -that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior -to herself.' - -As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank--the -Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, -the Abbe de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride -was offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her -confessor: 'Sir, what a strange curiosity!' - -She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned -criminals, holding in one hand the penitent's candle, and in the other a -crucifix. - - * * * * * - -On leaving the Conciergerie she was lifted into the cart. 'It was one of -the smaller carts you see in the streets loaded with rubbish; it was -very short and narrow, and I feared there was not room enough for her -and me. Yet four of us got in, the executioner's assistant sitting on -the board which closed it in front, with his feet on the shafts on -either side of the horse. She and I sat on the straw put down to cover -up the wood, and the executioner stood upright at the back. She got in -first, and leant her back against the front-board and against the side, -slightly at an angle. I was near her, pressing against her to make room -for the executioner's feet, my back against the side of the cart, and my -knees doubled up uncomfortably.' - -The cart proceeded slowly towards the Place de Greve, which extended -from the Hotel de Ville to the Seine. It was not easy to get through the -crowd which pressed around it. The streets were black with people, and -the windows crowded with sightseers. At this moment the lady's features -underwent a sudden change of expression: 'They were dreadfully -convulsed, the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes, and the whole -countenance wild.' 'Sir,' she said to her confessor, 'would it be -possible, after all that is passing now, for Monsieur de Brinvilliers to -have so little feeling as to remain in this world?' - -Pirot answered as best he could, endeavouring to ease her mind; but what -he said fell on deaf ears, for the marchioness 'then suffered one of the -strongest convulsions of her nature in the vivid apprehension of so much -shame. Her face contracted, her brows were knitted, her eyes flashed, -her mouth was distorted, and her whole aspect was embittered.' 'I do not -think,' adds Pirot, 'that there was a moment in all the time that I had -been with her when her appearance betokened more indignation, and I am -not surprised that Monsieur Le Brun, who is said to have seen her at -that spot, where he could look close at her for some minutes, made so -fiery and terrible a head as he is said to have done in the portrait he -took of her.' Le Brun's sketch is now No. 853 at the exhibition of the -Louvre; it is in red and black chalks. It is an admirable drawing, -unquestionably the artist's masterpiece. Pirot is sketched in silhouette -beside the lady. - -As the cart passed slowly through the crowd, voices were raised crying -out for blood, and heaping curse on curse; but others spoke pitiful -words, and she heard prayers for her salvation. There was a sudden -revulsion of opinion in her favour, which grew stronger and stronger -till the hour of her death. - -The shirt in which she was clothed filled her with amazement. 'Sir,' she -said to her confessor, 'look; I am dressed all in white.' - -All at once a new contraction marked her features. She had just noticed -Desgrez riding near her, the man who had arrested her at Liege, and -subjected her to some rough treatment. She asked the executioner to -move so as to hide this man from her; then she felt remorse for this -'delicacy,' and asked the executioner to return to his former position. -'It was the last time her countenance showed any grimace,' says Pirot. -From that moment she was wholly under the fortifying influence of the -priest who assisted her. Hope arose in her soul, more and more clear and -radiant, and gave strength to her heart. - -She knelt down on the step of the great door of Notre Dame, and there -repeated with docility the formula dictated by the executioner, in which -she publicly confessed her crimes. 'Some people say that she hesitated -in saying her father's name,' observes Pirot; 'but I noticed nothing of -the sort.' - -Then they remounted the cart to wend towards the Place de Greve. 'Not a -word of reproach or complaint against any one escaped her; she showed no -sign of vulgar fear. If she dreaded death, it was only in anticipation -of the judgment of God, and neither the sight of the Greve, the -proximity of the scaffold, nor the appearance of all the terrible -apparatus used in this kind of execution gave her the least shadow of -fright.' - -The cart stopped. The executioner said to her: 'Madam, you must -persevere: it is not enough to have come here and to have responded -hitherto to what this gentleman has been saying, you must go on to the -end as you have begun.' 'This he said in a noticeably humane manner,' -observes Pirot, 'and I was edified by it. It is true that she answered -never a word, but she courteously bent her head as though to show that -she took well what he had said and that she meant to continue in the -temper in which he saw her. He confessed to me that he was surprised at -her firmness.' - -At this moment a clerk of the Parlement appeared. The commissaries were -sitting in the Hotel de Ville ready to receive any declaration Madame de -Brinvilliers might still have to make about her accomplices. 'Sir,' she -replied, 'I have no more to say; I have told all I know.' She renewed -the declaration whereby she freed Briancourt and Desgrez from the -accusations fabricated against them at her torture. - -The executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold. 'She looked at -me,' says Pirot, 'with a gentle countenance and an expression full of -gratitude and tenderness, and with tears in her eyes. "Sir," she said to -me in a pretty loud tone, which showed how self-possessed she was, but -as courteous as it was firm, "we are not yet to separate. You promised -not to leave me till my head is off; I hope that you will keep your -word." And as I answered nothing, because the tears and sighs which I -could only with difficulty restrain robbed me of all power of speech, -she added, "I beseech you, sir, to forgive me and not to regret the time -you have given to me. I am sorry, for my part, to have given you so -little satisfaction, at least at certain moments; I beg your pardon for -it. But I cannot die without asking you to say a _De profundis_ on the -scaffold at the moment of my death, and a mass to-morrow. Remember me, -sir, and pray for me."' Pirot remarks, 'If I had not been at that moment -more deeply moved than I had ever been in my life, I should have had -many things to reply to her courtesies, and I should have promised her -more than one mass; but I found it impossible to say anything more than -"Yes, madam, I will do all that you bid me."' - -Just as she was walking up the steps Madame de Brinvilliers found -herself next to Desgrez. She then asked his forgiveness for the trouble -she had given him, and begged him to say a few masses and to pray for -her. She ended her 'compliment' by saying that 'she was his servant, and -so she would die on the scaffold.' Then she added, 'Adieu, sir.' - -The throng was immense. Madame de Sevigne, who had come to witness the -execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge Notre Dame, -writes: 'Never was such a crowd seen, nor Paris so moved or so eager.' - -The marchioness knelt down on the scaffold, her face turned towards the -river. 'It was at that moment,' says Pirot, 'that I saw her so intent -upon herself, so wholly occupied with what I had said we would do on the -scaffold, telling me with such wonderful composure all that was -necessary, and making me pass from one thing to another in due order -without any prompting from me, wholly absorbed in what I said to her to -prepare her for death, without the appearance of any wandering in her -thoughts. - -'She was absolutely without fear. She was gentle, courteous, steadfast, -and self-forgetful. She had very great patience to endure with -extraordinary docility all the executioner's preparations. He undid her -hair while she was on her knees; he cut it behind and at both sides; to -do so he made her turn her head several times in different ways, and he -even turned it himself sometimes with no great gentleness: that lasted -quite half an hour. She felt keenly the shame of the proceeding in the -sight of so great a company; but she overcame her grief and submitted to -everything even with joy. I fancy that she had never allowed her hair to -be done so quietly as she then let it be cut and shaved; the -executioner's hand felt no rougher to her than that of a maid doing her -hair; she punctually obeyed his instructions as to turning, lowering, -and raising her head when he pleased. He tore off the top of the shirt -which he had put over her cloak when she left the Conciergerie, so as -to uncover her shoulders. She let him bind her hands as though he were -putting on golden bracelets, and knot the rope about her neck as if it -had been a necklace of pearls. - -[Illustration: MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS - -ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY -CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE -ABBE PIROT - -(_From a Sketch by Charles Le Brun, preserved in the Louvre_)] - -'"I should like to be burned alive," she said, "to render my sacrifice -more meritorious, if I could have sufficient confidence in my courage to -bear that kind of death without falling into despair."' - -The Abbe Pirot chanted the _Salve_, and the people crowding round the -scaffold continued the chant that he began. Then he told the lady that -he was about to give her absolution. Thereupon she said, her soul at -peace, 'Sir, you promised me just now to give me a second penitence on -the scaffold, when I pleaded that what you gave me was too easy, and now -you say nothing about it.' 'I asked her to say an _Ave_ and a _Sancta -est Maria mater gratiae_. At the end of which, saying to her, "Madam, -renew your contrition," I gave her absolution, saying only the -sacramental words because time was pressing.' - -The expression of her face was transformed. It was an expression of -hope and joy, of serene faith and love, mingled with the exaltation of -the penitent. 'Never have I seen anything more touching,' says Pirot, -'than her eyes appeared to me, and if I had to paint a countenance full -of contrition and sorrow of heart and hope of pardon, I could wish for -no other features than those I remember still, and shall remember all my -life long.' - -Guillaume the executioner bandaged the eyes of the condemned woman. She -repeated the last prayers along with her confessor. Guillaume with the -back of his sleeve wiped away the beads of sweat which covered his brow. -Suddenly Pirot heard a dull blow, and ceased to speak. 'Madame de -Brinvilliers held her head very straight. The executioner severed it at -a single stroke, which cut so clean that it remained for a moment on the -trunk before falling. I was indeed in agony for an instant, fearing that -he had missed his aim and that he would have to strike a second time.' - -'Sir,' said the headsman, 'isn't it a fine stroke?' - -He added: 'On these occasions I always commend myself to God, and -hitherto he has been with me; five or six days ago this lady was -troubling me and I couldn't get her out of my head: I will have six -masses said.' And, uncorking a bottle, he drank a good draught of wine. - -The body was borne to the stake; the flames consumed it, and then the -ashes were scattered; but the mob struggled to collect some fragments of -the charred bones: all who had been able to get near the scaffold had -seen the face of the criminal illumined with a halo, and they departed -saying that the dead woman was a saint. Madame de Sevigne writes that -Pirot repeated the saying to every one he met. - -The children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers took the name of Offemont. - -Pennautier was acquitted and left the prison on July 27. He recovered -his high position and the repute in which he had been held. - - * * * * * - -In declaring that she had had no other accomplices than Sainte-Croix and -her lackeys Madame de Brinvilliers was speaking the truth. But at that -period crimes as great as hers were being committed in Paris, and it -was not long before the judges discovered them. There was for instance -the celebrated case heard by the 'Chambre Ardente,' to which that of -Madame de Brinvilliers serves as introduction. - - - - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - - - -I. THE SORCERESSES - - -_The Dinner of La Vigoureux._ - -The trial of Madame de Brinvilliers had just caused an immense -sensation. The penitentiaries of Notre Dame, without naming any person, -declared that 'the majority of those who had confessed to them for some -time accused themselves of poisoning somebody.' The court and the city -were still disturbed by the catastrophe which had at St. Cloud suddenly -carried off the charming Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, by the sudden -death of Hugues de Lionne, the great statesman, and by the startling -fate which had just befallen the Duke of Savoy. A note found on -September 21, 1677, in the confessional of the Jesuits in Rue -Saint-Antoine denounced a plot to poison the king and the dauphin. On -December 5 following, La Reynie, lieutenant of police, caused the arrest -of Louis de Vanens, who said he had been an officer. The papers seized -on him and on Finette, his mistress, brought to light an association of -alchemists, coiners, and magicians, in which priests, officers, -important bankers like Cadelan were associated with light women, -lackeys, and vagabonds. The Parlement was investigating the matter, when -La Reynie put his hand on a second association, like the first to all -appearance, but soon to reveal itself to the eyes of the magistrates as -an affair of much greater importance still. - -Towards the end of the year 1678, an advocate in small practice named -Maitre Perrin was dining in Rue Courtauvilain with a certain Madame -Vigoureux, wife of a ladies' tailor--the trade, it will be seen, existed -before to-day. The company was merry, and the wine flowed freely. Among -the party was a 'big, powerful, large-faced woman,' who choked with -laughter as she poured out for herself bumpers of burgundy that would -have made a grenadier stagger. Her name was Marie Bosse, and she was -the widow of a horse-dealer. She was further a well-known -fortune-teller--'devineresse,' as they said in those days. 'A fine -trade!' she cried, and spoke of the grand people who frequented her -little rookery in the Rue du Grand-Huleu--duchesses and marchionesses -and princes and lords. 'Another three poisonings, and she would retire -with her fortune made!' At this remark the guests began to laugh still -more loudly: this fat woman was irresistibly funny. Maitre Perrin alone -saw, by a sharp and rapid frown on the face of Madame Vigoureux, that -there was something serious in it. He knew Desgrez, the police officer -who had arrested Madame de Brinvilliers, and to him he related the -incident. Desgrez did not laugh at all, and that very day he sent the -wife of one of his archers to the fortune-teller with a complaint -against her husband. The fortune-teller, at the first visit, promised -her assistance; at the second, she gave her a phial of poison, which the -wife at once carried home to her dumfounded husband. La Reynie -forthwith ordered the arrest of Madame Vigoureux, of Marie Bosse, with -her daughter Manon, and her two sons, one of whom was a soldier in the -guards, and the other, a boy of fifteen, was just leaving the workhouse -of Bicetre, where he had been placed to 'improve his morals and give him -a taste for work.' Marie Bosse was arrested at her own house on the -morning of January 4, 1679, in bed with her two sons. Her daughter had -just risen. 'There was only one bed, in which they all slept together.' -The preliminary inquiry brought to light a crime, the news of which -created a sensation almost as great as that evoked by the poisonings by -Madame de Brinvilliers. - -An order in council, dated January 10, instructed La Reynie to proceed -against the women Bosse, Vigoureux, and their accomplices. On March 12 -an officer set about the arrest of Catherine Deshayes, wife of Antoine -Monvoisin, a peddling jeweller. This woman, usually known as La Voisin, -was the greatest criminal of whom history has any record. She was -arrested as she left the church of Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle after -hearing mass. In her track La Reynie was to penetrate into a region of -crime that the imagination can scarcely conceive. 'Human life is -publicly trafficked in,' he wrote in utter consternation: 'death is -almost the only remedy employed in family embarrassments; impieties, -sacrileges, abominations are common practices in Paris, in the country, -in the provinces.' - - -_Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century_ - -To understand the facts and the characters of the persons we are going -to study, we must dwell briefly upon the beliefs of that time--a time -when beliefs were dominant influences in the life of men. We know what -power religious sentiments had in the seventeenth century--sentiments of -an intensity and a simplicity we know little of to-day, and the -corruption of which could not but engender the most absurd -superstitions. That was the epoch when the sweet Marguerite Alacoque, in -her divine ecstasy, exchanged her heart with that of Christ, and wrote -in her own blood, under dictation from on high, the contract which -ascribed to God these words: 'I constitute thee heiress of my heart and -all its treasures for time and eternity; I promise thee that thou shalt -only lack succour when I lack power; thou shalt be for ever the -well-beloved disciple, the plaything of my good pleasure and the -burnt-offering of my love.' And that, too, was the period when Catherine -Monvoisin, the terrible sorceress of Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, found -numerous and ardent followers. - -The beliefs in the action of the devil, and in the power of the -sorcerers, so deeply rooted in the imagination of the seventeenth -century, were summed up in 1588 in the _Demonomanie des Sorciers_ of the -famous Jean Bodin. He defined the sorcerer as one who 'by devilish and -unlawful means endeavours to attain some end'; but in his book he speaks -for the most part of witches. As Sprenger, the German inquisitor, -remarked, 'We should talk of the heresy of the witches, and not of -sorcerers, for these are of little account.' In Bodin are to be found -most of the practices in black magic still flourishing at the end of the -seventeenth century. Sorcerers and witches formed a sort of vast -fraternity. There were entire families whose formulae and whose -customers were handed down as heritable property. Jeanne Harvillier, -burnt to death on April 30, 1579, may serve as type. Her mother, a witch -like herself, had been burnt to death thirty years before. Such a death -was the natural end to her career, an end foreseen, and one that -terrified those fascinated by the strange vocation much less than one -would imagine. Jeanne was born about 1528, at Verberie near Compiegne. -At the age of twelve she was presented by her mother to the devil, who -appeared to her in the shape of a very tall dark man. Jeanne renounced -God, and consecrated herself to the 'Spirit.' 'At the same time she had -carnal intercourse with him, which continued from the age of twelve to -the age of fifty, when she was arrested. It sometimes happened that her -husband, lying by her side, failed to perceive what was going on.' This -was the _incubat_. Jeanne Harvillier was brought to justice on the -charge of causing the death of men and beasts by witchcraft. She -confessed to it with the greatest frankness, and told the story of her -last homicide: 'She laid some powders, prepared for her by the devil, -in the place where the man who had beaten his daughter was to pass.' -Another man came by to whom she wished no harm, and immediately he felt -a sharp pain all over his body. She promised to cure him, and in fact -took her place at the bedside of the sick man and tended him with the -gentleness of a sister of mercy. She fervently besought the devil to -restore life to the dying man, but the devil replied that it was -impossible. - -Bodin gravely recounts how witches on the Sabbath flew through the air -on broomsticks. He adds: 'What we have said of the travels of the -witches, both in body and in spirit, and the frequent and memorable -experiences of the same, show as in broad daylight, and bring to the -test of touch and sight, the error of those who have written that the -flights of witches are imaginary, and nothing but a trance.' This last -opinion had been maintained by John Wier, physician to the Duke of -Cleves, in a book which is almost a work of genius for that period. -Bodin devoted all his energy to its refutation, for to throw any doubt -upon the fact that the devil transports witches from one place to -another would be, he said, to bring gospel history into ridicule. - -Coming to study the maladies attributed to the incantations of -sorcerers--consumption, hysteria, melancholy, delusions, debility--John -Wier found the remedies to consist in a regular life, in conformity with -the laws of God, and in the skill of physicians. What an abominable -doctrine! says Bodin. He had lost all respect, then, for anything. Bodin -was beside himself. John Wier, he says, wrote under the dictation of -Satan. Moreover, had he not himself confessed that he was a disciple of -Agrippa, 'the greatest sorcerer that ever was'? When Agrippa died in the -hospital of Grenoble, a black dog which he called 'Monsieur' instantly -went and sprang into the river. Wier declared, it is true, that this dog -was not the devil, but there was not a single sensible person who -believed him. - -Without taking a side in this famous dispute between Bodin and John -Wier, we are bound to state that the writings of the latter had no -success, at any rate in France, while Bodin's book became a classic. -Bossuet, for all his powerful intellect, firmly believed in sorcery. At -the close of the seventeenth century, Bonet was obliged to go to a -Protestant republic to get his treatise on medicine printed, in which he -spoke lightly of magic and demoniacal possession. We have to come far -into the eighteenth century to find one Abraham de Saint-Andre--and he -was physician to Louis XV--daring, in his famous _Letters_, to cast -doubt on the magic and witchcraft of sorcerers. - -The following case, tried at the period in which the events of our story -occurred, and reproduced here after the archives of the Bastille, will -enable us to understand the ardour of belief with which the sorcerers -themselves were animated. - -By sentence of the Tournelle on September 2, 1687, a certain Pierre -Hocque was condemned to the galleys. He was a shepherd, skilled in -magic, who had, as the judgment declared, caused the death, by a spell -he cast over them, of 395 sheep, 7 horses, and 11 cows belonging to -Eustache Visie, receiver of taxes at Pacy-en-Brie. Hocque was chained -up with the other galley prisoners. Nevertheless, the cattle of Eustache -Visie continued to die. He had no sooner bought a cow or a sheep and -placed it in his farm than it perished. Clearly the only remedy was to -get Pierre Hocque to remove the direful spell he had imposed. Visie won -over, by a promise of money, the galley prisoner who was fastened to the -chain next to Hocque--a man named Beatrix. He spoke to the shepherd, who -replied that he had in fact cast a poison-spell over the cattle of -Visie, and that, failing himself, only two shepherds named Bras-de-Fer -and Courte Epee had the power to remove the fatal charm. At the urgent -request of Beatrix, Hocque dictated a letter to be sent to Bras-de-Fer, -but the letter was no sooner despatched than he fell into a horrible -despair. He cried hoarsely that Beatrix had made him do something that -would cause his death, which he would be unable to escape from the -moment Bras-de-Fer began to raise the spell he had cast on the cattle. -And the unhappy wretch writhed about in such dreadful contortions that -the other prisoners would have murdered Beatrix but for the intervention -of the guards. The despair and the convulsions lasted for several days, -and then Hocque died. 'And it was the exact time,' says the official -document, 'when Bras-de-Fer began to exorcise the cattle.' The judges -add: 'It is established that Pierre Hocque died because Bras-de-Fer -removed the poison-spell from the horses and cows, and it is true that -since that time no more of Eustache Visie's horses and cows have died.' - -The conviction of the unhappy sorcerer that he was bound to die as soon -as his mate undid his work was so strong that he did die. Is it possible -to imagine a more striking proof of the robust faith people then had in -all these devilries? - - -_The practices of the Witches_ - -To magic, black or white, the witches added medicine and pharmacy. They -kept drugstores with phials innumerable: syrups, juleps, ointments, -balms, emollients in infinite variety. They were old wives' remedies, -but their efficacy had been proved by experience, and their preparation -was perfected from age to age. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance -physician, burnt in 1527 the medical books of his time, declaring that -nothing but the formulae of the witches was of any use. The old hags had -soothing draughts for pain, healing ointments for wounds, and they acted -on nervous maladies by suggestion. That was the serious side of their -art. Most often the witch was a midwife too; but just as in that strange -world the poisoner lurked behind the druggist, and the alchemist and the -coiner were one, so the midwife played the part of baby-farmer. Finally, -the witches were fortune-tellers, who cast one's horoscope according to -the drawing of cards or the lines of the hand. - -What were the declarations of the witches arrested by La Reynie? Marie -Bosse said that 'nothing better could be done than to exterminate all -that sort of people who examine the hand, because they are the ruin of -many a woman, women of quality as well as others; the fortune-teller -soon finds out their weak spot, and thereby knows how to take them and -lead them wherever she will.' She added that in Paris there were more -than 400 fortune-tellers and magicians 'who ruined a great many people, -especially women, and of all conditions.' She went on to speak of the -money her cronies earned, telling how they bought places for their -husbands and built houses, and that they did not realise such fortunes -merely by looking at people's hands. La Voisin said that nothing could -be better than to hunt up all the people who looked at hands, that those -engaged in the business 'heard strange things when love intrigues were -not prospering, that poisonings were an everyday occurrence, that many -of them were paid as much as 10,000 livres' (L2000 of our money). -Similar declarations were made by Leroux, another witch, and by the -magician Lesage. 'It is extremely important,' said the latter, 'to get -to the bottom of these wretched practices, and to fathom this mystery of -iniquity which exists among all those who ostensibly are seekers after -treasure, after the philosopher's stone, and other like things, but who -keep up their trade by very different means: abortions and other crimes -are greater treasures than the philosopher's stone and fortune-telling; -the people who apply to the workers in mystery discuss usually the -poisoning of a husband, or a wife, or a father, and even sometimes of -babies at the breast.' He went on to say that 'these wretched people had -obtained the protection of very powerful friends, so that they acted -with perfect assurance and in almost perfect freedom.' These statements -are confirmed by the documents La Reynie was able to get together. - -What the public asked of the witches was, first of all, to withdraw the -veil from the future, and then to enable them to discover treasures. For -this purpose various means were employed, all tending to the same -end--to compel the 'Spirit,' that is the devil, by charms and -incantations to present himself and reveal the mysterious spot where -treasures lay hid. 'A woman,' writes Ravaisson, 'usually a prostitute on -the eve of accouchement, was placed at the centre of a circle drawn on -the floor, and surrounded with dark candles; when the child was born, -the mother gave up her son to be consecrated to the devil. After -pronouncing filthy incantations, the priest cut the victim's throat, -sometimes under the very eyes of its mother; but more often he carried -it away to sacrifice it elsewhere, because at the last moment outraged -nature asserted her rights, and these unhappy creatures snatched their -babes from death. At other times, they were content to cut the throat of -a deserted child; of such there was no lack; imprudent girls, light -women, gave the witches authority to dispose of the fruits of an -unlawful love. There were even licensed midwives who did a large -business in procuring abortion; the children after being baptized were -put to death and carried at once to the cemetery; most often they were -buried in the corner of a wood or consumed in an oven.' And the witch -Marie Bosse added: 'There are so many of this sort of people in Paris -that the city is choke-full of them.' - -These were the practices, with others more abominable still, which -caused La Reynie to write: 'It is difficult to think merely that these -crimes are possible; one can hardly bring oneself to consider them. Yet -it is those who have committed them that themselves declare them, and -these villains give so many particulars that it is difficult to harbour -any doubt.' - - -_The Alchemists_ - -Alongside of the group of witches and magicians appears another group, -that of the alchemists and 'philosophers,' represented by such people as -Vanens, Chasteuil, Cadelan, Rabel, and Bachimont. We have mentioned the -arrest of Louis de Vanens on December 5, 1677. - -The origins of this association of alchemists and seekers after the -philosopher's stone were highly dramatic. Francois Galaup de Chasteuil, -second of the name--he belonged to an illustrious family of Languedoc, -which had produced men of the highest distinction in arms, religion, and -literature--was its chief, or to use the cant expression of the cabala, -its 'author.' His life had been more than ordinarily romantic. Born at -Aix, on November 15, 1625, he was the second son of Jean Galaup de -Chasteuil, attorney-general of the Exchequer Court of Aix. His elder -brother Hubert, solicitor-general to the Parlement of the same town, was -'renowned for the nobility of his mind and the profundity of his -knowledge'; his younger brother Pierre was a poet, the friend of -Boileau, La Fontaine, and Mademoiselle de Scudery. After a successful -student career, Francois was admitted doctor of law. In 1644 he became a -knight of Malta. He did signal service to the Order, and Lascaris, the -grand master, placed on his breast the cross of honour. He then became -captain of the guards of the great Conde. In 1652 he retired to Toulon, -fitted out a ship, and under the Maltese flag went privateering against -the Mussulmans. Algerian corsairs captured him and led him into -captivity. After two years of slavery he came to Marseilles, where he -turned monk and became prior of the Carmelites. He smuggled into the -convent a young girl--a slender, fair-haired child, with large, bright -blue eyes; and there he kept her locked up in his cell. When she was on -the point of giving birth to her child, Chasteuil, assisted by a lay -brother, strangled her in her bed, and on a pitch-dark night carried her -into the chapel of the convent, where he lifted several slabs of the -floor and dug out a grave in which to bury her. The silence of the -arches was disturbed by a dull sound. A pilgrim, lying asleep against a -pillar, woke up, and saw the sinister toilers by the light of the moon -which shone through the stained windows. Transfixed with fright, he -remained hidden out of sight in a dark corner until dawn, when the -chapel was opened, and he ran to inform the magistrates. Chasteuil was -arrested, tried, and condemned. He was on the way to execution when, at -the foot of the gibbet, up came Louis de Vanens, captain of the galleys, -along with several soldiers. Chasteuil and Vanens were old friends. -Chasteuil was rescued, and, taking his rescuer with him, he fled to -Nice. - -Hiding in a quiet spot, the two friends began working at the -philosopher's stone, that is, at converting copper into silver and gold. -Chasteuil had some experience of alchemy, and fancied he was master of -the famous secret. Full of gratitude for the service done him, he gave -Vanens the secret so far as silver was concerned, but would tell him -nothing about the gold, 'not thinking Vanens prudent enough for that.' -Shortly afterwards we find Chasteuil in the service of the Duke of -Savoy, captain of the guards of the White Cross, and--extraordinary -fact--tutor to his son! While occupied with the education of the young -Prince of Piedmont, Chasteuil continued his 'philosophy,' and discovered -an oil, which, as he appeared convinced himself, would turn metals into -gold. He also wrote translations of authors sacred and profane--the -minor prophets, Petronius, the Thebaid of Statius; and he dabbled in -poetry. He had just passed his fortieth year. A contemporary gives us -his portrait: 'Middle height, very thin, always troubled with a nasty -cough caused by a wound he received in the body, round-shouldered, -slightly crooked, with a wry mouth, scanty beard, hair black and flat, -complexion swarthy and sallow.' Moreri adds: 'Monsieur de Chasteuil was -one of the most accomplished of gentlemen, and a perfect master of the -platonic philosophy.' - -Vanens and Chasteuil struck up an alliance with Robert de Bachimont, -lord of La Mire, who had married a cousin of Superintendent Fouquet. -Bachimont had at Paris a house near the Temple, with four smelting -furnaces: a large one on the third floor, two smaller ones in an -ante-room, and a large one in the cellar. He also had apartments at -Compiegne in the _Ecu de France_, where there was nothing but crucibles, -alembics, vessels of glass and of earthenware, cucurbits, philosophical -stoves open and closed, grates and mortars, retorts and matrasses, -sal-ammoniac and iron filings, and a thousand varieties of powders, -pastes, and liquids. Finally, he had another establishment at the abbey -of Ainay, near Lyons, completely fitted up for the fusion of metals, the -distillation of herbs, and other practices of alchemy. Before long the -association was enlarged by the addition of a person of some importance, -Louis de Vasconcelos y Souza, Count of Castelmelhor, who had been -practically the governor of Portugal for five or six years as the -favourite of King Alfonso VI. Bachimont says that Castelmelhor taught -him the secret of colouring glass red. After the death of the Duke of -Savoy on June 12, 1675, Castelmelhor withdrew to England, where he -gained the favour of Charles II., an ardent alchemist and astrologer. He -was present at the death of the English king, and it was he that brought -in the Catholic priest who gave him extreme unction. - -Chasteuil and his partners spent their time in the quest for the -philosopher's stone, contact with which was to convert metals into gold; -and, like the majority of alchemists, they believed that it was to be -found in the solidification of mercury. 'The hermetic philosophers,' -writes M. Huysmans, 'discovered--and modern science to-day does not deny -that they were right--that the metals are compound bodies of identical -composition. Their varieties are due simply to the different proportions -of the elements in combination; it is possible then, by the aid of an -agent that would alter these proportions, to change these bodies one -into another--to transmute mercury, for instance, into silver, and lead -into gold. And this agent is the philosopher's stone, mercury: not -ordinary mercury, which, to alchemists, is only a bastard metal' (M. -Huysmans uses another expression), 'but the mercury of the philosophers, -called also _lion vert_.' - -Among the papers of La Voisin was found an MS. poem in honour of the -philosopher's stone: - - 'De l'or glorifie qui change en or ses freres.' - -The secret consisted in an elixir, of which a single drop, cast - - 'dans une mer profonde - Ou couleraient fondus tous les metaux du monde, - Suffirait pour la teindre et fixer en soleil.'[7] - -Chasteuil and his fellows did not merely seek the solidification of -mercury, which was to produce the philosopher's stone, but the -liquefaction of gold by cold: this was to furnish a universal panacea. -'Liquid gold restores health and strength, gives flesh to greybeards -and colour to the cheeks of girls, cures the plague,' and so on. - -Solid mercury being unobtainable, they sought, for the transmutation of -metals, those powders or oils about which we hear so frequently at that -period; and, as we shall see, they had the best reasons in the world for -believing that they had put their finger on the secret, at least as far -as silver[8] was concerned. - -In 1676 our partners all established themselves at Paris, where they -added to their company three collaborators, all important in different -ways: the quack Rabel, a physician celebrated in his day; a rich banker -of Paris named Pierre Cadelan, secretary to the king; and a young -Parlement advocate named Jean Terron du Clausel. Du Clausel lodged with -Vanens in the Rue d'Anjou, in a house which had for sign _Le Petit Hotel -d'Angleterre_. He was a valuable addition to the band, because he could -distil at pleasure, being 'licensed.' Rabel seems to have been possessed -of considerable real science. Rabel water, which he invented, is still -used in our own day--a mixture of alcohol and sulphuric acid, which acts -as an astringent in cases of haemorrhage. Rabel had compounded another -elixir, whose innumerable merits were celebrated in notices in prose and -verse which the most glowing of modern advertisements have not -surpassed. Cadelan supplied funds. Bodin speaks in very precise terms -about the alchemists: 'They extract the quintessence of plants, and make -admirable and salutary oils and waters, and discourse subtly on the -virtues and the transmutation of metals; but they also make false -money.' At the moment when Cadelan and his associates were arrested, he -was on the point of farming the Paris mint. Was this in order to make -false _louis d'or_, as historians have supposed? We believe rather that -it was to find means of circulating the products of the alchemical -experiments of his associates, for by that time they had no manner of -doubt about the efficacy of Chasteuil's formulae. A bar of silver cast -by Vanens, and taken by Bachimont to the mint, had just been accepted -there at a good price as pure metal. It is scarcely necessary to add -that this could only have been due to an error of the mint official; -this famous silver made out of copper by Vanens and Chasteuil was -nothing but 'white metal.' Nevertheless, it was a success which opened -before the eyes of our partners splendid vistas of future wealth. - -When Louis de Vanens was arrested on December 5, 1677, Louvois believed -that he had seized a spy. But he had put his hand on an alchemist, and -soon the whole band--Terron, Cadelan, Monsieur and Madame Bachimont, -Barthomynat (known as La Chaboissiere), de Vanens' valet--were laid by -the heels, some in the Bastille, the others at Pierre-en-Cize. Chasteuil -had just died quietly at Verceil. Rabel had escaped into England, where -Charles II lodged and fed him, gave him a pension, and loaded him with -presents. Later he returned to France, and was incarcerated in his turn. - -We regarded it as essential to say something of this band of alchemists -and 'philosophers' by way of introduction to Louis de Vanens. This young -noble of Provence, 'a man of well-knit and graceful figure,' had -brilliant connections at court, where he was on a footing of intimacy -with the king's dazzling mistress, Madame de Montespan. On the other -hand, he was an assiduous visitor to La Voisin, and was even for some -time her 'author.' Vanens was the link between the alchemists and the -witches. He was devoted to demoniacal practices. His valet, La -Chaboissiere, declared that one night he had to accompany his master and -a cleric into the woods on the outskirts of Poissy, where they searched -for treasures with incantations and invocations to the 'spirit.' Vanens -was a diabolical character. He was confined at the Bastille in the same -room with other prisoners, as the custom was. He had with him a sort of -white and tan spaniel. As midnight approached, he recited some prayer -over the body of the dog, and went through the ceremony of consecration. -Then he took a prayer-book containing a picture of the Virgin, and laid -the picture on the back of the dog, saying, 'Avaunt, devil! Behold thy -good mistress!' To the remarks of his companions in captivity, he -replied: 'Neither God nor the king shall prevent me from doing what I -have done.' To gauge the strange and passionate vigour of these -superstitions, we must remember that Vanens was in the Bastille, quite -aware that these practices might bring him to the stake. - -We shall see in the sequel the importance of Vanens when we recall the -following lines found in the notes of Nicolas de la Reynie: 'To see La -Chaboissiere again about his reluctance to have written down in his -statement, after hearing it read, that Vanens had been concerned in -giving Madame de Montespan counsel which deserves that he should be -drawn and quartered.' - - -_La Voisin_ - -To the portraits of Chasteuil the alchemist and of Vanens, we must add -that of the most famous of the witches, Catherine Deshayes, known as La -Voisin. It was of her that La Fontaine wrote: - - 'Une femme a Paris faisait la pythonisse.' - -La Voisin stated to La Reynie: 'Some women asked if they would not soon -become widows, because they wished to marry some one else; almost all -asked this and came for no other reason. When those who come to have -their hands read ask for anything else, they nevertheless always come to -the point in time, and ask to be ridded of some one; and when I gave -those who came to me for that purpose my usual answer, that those they -wished to be rid of would die when it pleased God, they told me that I -was not very clever.' Margot, La Voisin's servant, said that the whole -world came there, adding: 'La Voisin is to-day dragging a great ruck -down with her--a long chain of persons of all sorts and conditions.' The -Parisians used to go in companies to the house of the fortune-teller: -they were quite pleasure parties. The merry crew would overflow into the -garden lawns surrounding the cottage at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. This was -the district, but sparsely inhabited, between the ramparts and the St. -Denis quarter. - -The sorceress was brought into the city drawing-rooms as nowadays -fashionable singers are brought. 'At that time, La Voisin had as much -money as she wanted. Every morning, before she rose, people were waiting -for her, and she had visitors all the rest of the day: after that, in -the evening, she kept open house, engaged fiddlers, and enjoyed herself -thoroughly; this went on for several years.' This life had little -resemblance, it will be seen, to that of her ancestress, the witch -described by Michelet: 'You will find her in the most dismal places, -isolated,--in houses of ill-fame and ruined huts and hovels. Where could -she have lived except on wild heaths--the hapless wretch who was so -hunted down, the accursed, proscribed, hated poisoner?' - -La Voisin earned in a year as much as L2000 or even L4000 in English -money; but her gains were spent in revelry. She entertained her lovers -in princely style, for she would have thought it unworthy of her if they -were not comfortable; and her lovers were many. We find in the first -rank of them Andre Guillaume, the executioner of Paris, who beheaded -Madame de Brinvilliers, and who, by a horrible coincidence, only just -escaped executing La Voisin herself: among them also the Viscount de -Cousserans, the Count de Labatie, Fauchet the architect, a wine merchant -of the neighbourhood, Lesage the magician, the alchemist Blessis, and -others. - -We must add that Blessis and Lesage spent much money on her, ostensibly -in connection with the philosopher's stone, for La Voisin had a sincere -faith in alchemy. She subsidised great enterprises, and helped to -establish manufactures, being much interested in scientific and -industrial progress; but in regard to industrial undertakings she fell -mainly into the hands of sharpers who swindled her out of her money. - -However, La Voisin, proud of her trade as sorceress, which brought -persons of the highest rank to bend before her in obsequious and -suppliant attitudes, did not stick at any expense that seemed likely to -augment her glory. She delivered her oracular sayings clothed in a robe -and a cloak specially woven for her, for which she paid 15,000 livres -(L3000 of English money). The queen herself had no finery more beautiful -than this 'imperial robe,' which 'was the talk of all Paris.' The cloak -was of crimson velvet studded with 205 two-headed eagles of fine gold, -lined with costly fur; the skirt was of bottle-green velvet, edged with -French point. Even her shoes were embroidered with golden two-headed -eagles. The mere weaving of the eagles on the cloak cost 400 livres (L80 -to-day). We possess the bills of the maker. - -But under the glittering shows of wealth La Voisin had preserved most -dissolute manners. She was constantly drunk. She indulged in fishwife's -brawls with Lesage. Latour, who was her 'great author,' used to thrash -her. She fought with Marie Bosse and tore her hair out. 'One day, Latour -being with her on the ramparts, she got him to give her husband fifty -blows with a stick, while she held Latour's hat.' On that occasion, -Latour bit poor Monvoisin's nose. But on the other hand, the sorceress -regularly attended the church of the Abbe de Saint-Amour, rector of the -University of Paris, an austere Jansenist; and Madame de la Roche-Guyon -stood god-mother to her daughter. - -The husband whom La Voisin so brutally got beaten, appears to have been -a decent man. In those days there was at Montmartre a chapel dedicated -to St. Ursula, who enjoyed the power to 'improve' husbands. The -procedure was to carry there, some Friday morning, a shirt of the wicked -spouse. Our sorceress had the most implicit faith in the efficacy of -this practice, and we must do her the justice to state that she always -began by sending to Montmartre women who came to her with tales of their -troubles. She availed herself of the remedy on her own account, and poor -Monvoisin had to march to the place carrying his shirt under his arm. He -was a husband for whose improvement St. Ursula does not appear to have -been required to spend much effort. - -Lesage, the witch's lover, advised her to get rid of Monvoisin. A -sheep's heart was bought, 'to which Lesage did something,' and then it -was buried in the garden behind the gate. Lo and behold, Monvoisin was -seized with severe pain in the stomach. He cried out that if there was -anybody who wished to do for him, he had better shoot him at once -instead of letting him linger. La Voisin, struck with remorse, hastened -to the Augustines to confess and obtain a general absolution; she took -the sacrament, and on her return compelled Lesage to undo his wicked -charms. - -She related very simply and frankly to La Reynie the first steps of her -career. Her husband, at that time, was doing nothing, but he had been a -hawking jeweller, and then a shopkeeper on the Pont-Marie. He had lost -his shop, and then, seeing her husband ruined, 'she had devoted herself -to cultivating the powers that God had given her.' 'It was chiromancy -and face-reading that I learnt at the age of nine. I have been -persecuted for fourteen years: that is the work of the missionaries' -(these were the members of a community established by St. Vincent de -Paul, then very popular, who were actively occupied in converting -sinners and removing scandals of all kinds). 'However,' she continued, -'I gave an account of my art to the vicars-general, the Holy See being -vacant, and to several doctors of the Sorbonne to whom I had been sent, -and they found nothing to object to.' Marie Bosse also spoke of the -time when her friend went to the Sorbonne to argue on astrology with the -professors. - -Thus La Voisin set up as fortune-teller in order to restore order and -comfort to her household. One of her friends, La Lepere, told her -sometimes that she ought not to engage in such great crimes. 'You are -mad!' cried the witch, 'the times are too bad. How am I to feed my -family? I have six persons on my hands!' And in fact, until her arrest, -La Voisin had been the constant support of her old mother, to whom she -gave money every week. - -La Voisin's claim that her art was founded on face-reading was quite -genuine. She had made a profound study of physiognomy. We find -innumerable references to this subject in the documents of her case, and -also a 'Treatise on physiognomy, supported on six immovable columns: (1) -sympathy between body and mind; (2) relations between rational and -irrational animals; (3) the differences between the sexes; (4) national -diversities; (5) physical temperaments; (6) diversities of age; not -depending on a single sign, for men are often attacked by some defect -which force of mind, aided by grace, can assuredly overcome.' When the -Countess de Beaufort de Canillac came to consult the fortune-teller, -'the lady wishing to give me her hand without unmasking, I told her that -I did not know physiognomies of velvet, whereupon the lady removed her -mask.' La Voisin confessed that she read much more in the features than -in the lines of the hand, 'it being no easy thing to conceal a passion -or any considerable disturbing emotion.' She was not merely a -physiognomist, but an expert psychologist, and that was how she gave a -real foundation to her sorcery. We may cite the following incident among -many others. - -Marie Brissart, widow of a Parlement counsellor, tenderly loved and -handsomely supported a captain of guards named Louis Denis de Rubentel, -Marquis de Mondetour, who became lieutenant-general in 1688. He was a -personage of whom Saint-Simon, a severe censor, speaks thus: 'He had -been able to contemn basenesses, and to withdraw into his virtue, which -was beyond his wealth.' Madame Brissart used to send him money when he -was on service, after having equipped him from top to toe on his -departure. It happened that the cavalier displayed some coldness towards -his mistress, with the idea of getting her purse to open still more -generously. The widow, seeing nothing of her captain, became alarmed, -and hastened to La Voisin. She began her incantations, with the -assistance of Lesage. The magician walked up and down the garden with a -wand, with which he struck the earth, repeating the words, _Per Deum -sanctum, per Deum vivum!_ Then he said: 'Louis Denis de Rubentel, I -conjure thee in the name of the Almighty to go find Marie Miron (Madame -Brissart's maiden name): she to possess thee wholly, body, soul, and -spirit, and thou to love none but her!' On another occasion, he put into -a little ball of wax a paper on which the names of Rubentel and Madame -Brissart were written, and in the presence of the latter threw the ball -into the fire, where it burst with a loud noise. These fine charms were -still without result, when one morning La Voisin, with the intuition of -a clairvoyant, said to her weeping client: 'You write every day and send -your maid to Rubentel, but he pays no attention to you; it is mad -conduct to write and send every day'; and the lady having ceased to -write and send, Monsieur de Rubentel, who in turn began to be afraid -lest so precious a fount should dry up, returned to her 'without -anything else having been done; yet the lady, believing that La Voisin -had done some extraordinary thing, gave her twelve pistoles.' - -The witch heard all sorts of confessions. There were wonderful dreams of -adoring affection told her by lovers of twenty years, who came to her -red with emotion, or wrote thrilling letters in order to bring their -torment to an end, begging her to soften the hard hearts of their -mistresses, or to bend the opposition of a cruel father. Or it was the -fierce carnal love of mature women obstinately clinging to the lovers -who were neglecting them for fresher girls. There were also the passions -of ambitious women, greedy for money and honours, which bring us to the -horrors of the 'black mass.' - -La Voisin was assisted in these monstrous rites by a priest 'squint-eyed -and old,' with bloated face, and prominent blue veins forming a network -on his cheeks--the terrible Abbe Guibourg. Formerly chaplain to the -Count de Montgommery, he was at this time sacristan of St. Marcel, at -St. Denis. He used to say mass, according to the proper rites, wearing -the alb, stole, and maniple. 'The women on whose bodies mass was said -were laid stark naked, without even their chemise, upon a table which -served as altar; their arms were stretched out, and they held a taper in -each hand.' Sometimes they did not actually undress themselves, 'but -only tucked up their garments as high as the throat.' The chalice was -placed on the bare belly. At the moment of the _offertoire_, a child had -its throat cut. Guibourg usually stuck a long needle into its neck. The -blood of the expiring victim was poured into the chalice, and mixed with -the blood of bats and other materials obtained by filthy means. Flour -was added to solidify the mess, which was thus made to resemble the -Host, to be consecrated at the moment when, in the sacrifice of the -mass, transubstantiation takes place. The scene is reconstructed by La -Reynie according to the testimony of the accused. - -Black masses were not the only sorceries whose rites required the -sacrifice of children. La Voisin and her fellow-witches perpetrated a -terrible slaughter of them. Children deserted by their unmarried -mothers, others bought from poor women, did not suffice: several -sorceresses were convicted of having killed their own children for these -atrocious proceedings. Here, for instance, is a horrible detail: the -daughter of La Voisin, on the very eve of her trouble, not trusting her -mother, fled the house, and only returned after placing her infant in -safety. The witches ran off with children in the streets. La Reynie -wrote to Louvois: 'Remember the great disturbance in Paris in 1676, when -there were seditious gatherings and mobs and runnings to and fro in -several parts of the city, through the rumour that people carried off -children to cut their throats, though no one then understood what the -cause of the rumour could be. The mob, however, proceeded to various -excesses against the women suspected of being child-stealers. The king -ordered an inquiry. Proceedings were taken (against those who rose -against the witches), and a woman who was guilty of violence was -condemned to death, but obtained a special pardon.' - -La Voisin, like all the sorceresses, practised medicine. Among her -papers were found recipes for the cure of pimples, a remedy for -headache, the prescription for 'a quintessence of hellebore which kept -the Dean of Westminster alive for 166 years.' She was a midwife, and -especially a procurer of abortion. 'Above the room (where she gave -consultations) there was a sort of loft in which she procured abortions, -and behind the room there was a recess with a stove, in which were found -the charred remains of small human bones.' Little children were burned -in this stove. One day, in an effusive moment, La Voisin confessed that -'she had burnt in the stove, or buried in the garden, the bodies of more -than 2500 children prematurely born.' Here again we come upon surprising -particulars. The witch was very insistent that children thus brought -into the world should be baptized before death. One evening La Lepere, a -midwife friend of La Voisin, happened to be in the famous room with the -witch's husband. La Voisin, who was in the loft, came down suddenly in -joyous haste and with radiant countenance, crying: 'What luck! the child -has been dipped!' - -Such was the strange and horrible creature--the last of the great -sorceresses who haunted the imagination of Michelet--the extraordinary -woman whose crimes sent a shudder through the man who had heard the -confessions of the most redoubtable criminals of his time--Nicolas de la -Reynie. - -We have a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine Coypel. She is represented on -the way to execution in the linen shift of condemned criminals. -Contemporaries depict her as a small stoutish woman, rather pretty, -owing to her eyes, which were extraordinarily bright and piercing. The -artist has given her a froglike expression, but no doubt he sketched her -under the influence of a preconceived idea. Madame de Sevigne, who had a -singular taste for this sort of spectacle, saw her mount to the stake: -'La Voisin,' she wrote, 'very prettily surrendered her soul to the -devil.' The confessor of the sorceress has given his testimony to her -edifying end: 'I am loaded with so many crimes,' she said with simple -and profound emotion, 'that I could not wish God to work a miracle to -snatch me from the flames, because I cannot suffer too much for the sins -I have committed.' - - -_The Magician Lesage_ - -La Voisin's principal coadjutor was the magician Lesage. He was one by -himself in this world of sorceresses, alchemists, and magicians. A -sceptic among believers, he duped the women with whom he worked as well -as the fashionable ladies who came to avail themselves of his art. - -Originally from Venoix near Caen, his real name was Adam Coeuret. His -portrait is sketched by La Vigoureux: 'he wore a ruddy wig, was ill -formed, clothed as a rule in grey, with a cloak of homespun.' He was a -wool merchant. Though he had a wife in Lower Normandy, he promised La -Voisin that he would marry her if she became a widow. The first alias -he chose was Duboisson. In 1667 he was arrested, condemned to the -galleys for dealings with the devil, and liberated in 1672 through the -kind offices of La Voisin. The galley in which he rowed was lying in -sight of the port of Genoa when the pardon reached him. - -Set at liberty, Coeuret returned to Paris, where he renewed his -relations with the witches. - -His whole art consisted in a remarkable talent for jugglery, by which he -deceived the witches themselves, persuading them that he possessed 'all -the science of the cabala.' They adopted him as partner in their -lucrative operations. The reports of the examination of La Voisin give -curious information on this head. 'Lesage took a live pigeon in the Vale -of Misery (on the quay of La Megisserie, where poultry was sold) and -burnt it in a warming-pan. Having then sifted its ashes, he put them in -his room. It was the beginning of Lent, during which he used to recite -the Passion of our Lord daily, with his feet in water, though it was -freezing hard. Then he put a white cloth on the table, lit two tapers, -and sent for three crystal glasses, with which having performed his -"mystery," which was Greek to La Voisin, he shut them up in a cupboard -with a twig of laurel, and then, though he retained the key, he asked -her for the three glasses and the laurel twig which he had locked in the -cupboard. They were not found there; and then he said that he would give -her nothing else to keep, and having sent her into the garden, she found -them all three in a row in the summer-house. And when she asked him how -he did that, Lesage said that he was one of the apostles and of the -company of the Sibyls.' - -At other times Lesage celebrated a sort of mass, got up as a priest. At -the moment of the offertory he would break two pieces of ordinary bread, -and after having made La Voisin and her husband kneel down, he gave them -each a piece of bread 'just as if they were at communion, and then made -them drink some holy water which, as he said, he had turned into wine, -and it was a liquid of an extremely pleasant taste.' 'A sergeant having -come to La Voisin's house to distrain on her at the instance of an -upholsterer named Lenoir, La Voisin sent for Lesage, told him that she -was ruined, and that there was something in the cupboard which must be -taken away, namely, a consecrated wafer; and at the same time Lesage -sent away the Marquise de Lusignan, who happened to be in the house, and -told her to go home, and when she got there to put a white napkin on her -bed, for something he was going to send her. And in fact the wafer was -found by the marquise at her own house, without any one seeing who had -taken it there.' - -The pretended sorceries of Lesage thus consisted simply of clever -conjuring tricks. They sufficed to amaze his clients. He made them -write, for instance, requests to the devil in notes which he then -pretended to throw in the fire, enclosed in balls of wax; and some days -after he gave them back to them, saying that the devil, who had received -them through the flames, had returned them. - -Lesage was arrested for the second time on March 17, 1679, and we shall -see the importance of the statements he made to the magistrates. - - -_The 'Chambre Ardente'_ - -The consternation of Louis XIV, his ministers, and the lieutenant of -police at the discovery of such crimes may be imagined. The terror was -all the intenser because chemists and able physicians were then -powerless to discover traces of poison in a corpse. The matter was -intrusted to a special commission, in the hope that by a more -expeditious and energetic procedure than that of the ordinary courts, it -would succeed in cutting the evil at the root. This was the famous -Chambre Ardente. - -The president was Louis Boucherat, Count de Compans--an amiable man, -says Madame de Sevigne, and of much good sense. Later, he became -Chancellor of France. Louis Bazin, Lord of Bezons, nominated to act as -judge-advocate along with La Reynie, was a member of the Academy. The -office of clerk was filled by Sagot, La Reynie's confidential secretary -and ordinary clerk of the Chatelet. 'The Commission,' writes Ravaisson, -'was composed of the elite of the councillors of state, and all these -magistrates have left a high reputation.' The court was called the -Chambre Ardente, because in former days tribunals specially constituted -to deal with great crimes sat in a chamber hung with black and lit by -torches and candles. - -The court met for the first time on April 10, 1679, and decided to keep -its proceedings secret, so as to withhold details of these practices -from the knowledge of the public. The magistrates themselves had no -doubt of the efficacy of these dealings with the devil, nor of the -formidable composition of the poisons. - -The method of procedure was as follows:-- - -The individuals regarded as suspicious by La Reynie, the examining -magistrate, were arrested by royal warrant, that is, by a _lettre de -cachet_, which took the place of the modern magistrate's warrant. The -first depositions were submitted to the attorney-general, and it was -only on his requisition that the officials proceeded to the -confrontation of the prisoners, after which the commissaries submitted a -detailed report to the court. The attorney presented to them his general -conclusions, and the court decided whether the accused person should be -'recommended,' that is, remain a prisoner in virtue of a warrant issued -by them. In that case the investigation followed its course. When this -was ended, all the documents concerning the accused were read to the -judges, the king's attorney delivered his address in favour of acquittal -or condemnation, the accused was heard for the last time, and the court -pronounced judgment, which was without appeal. - -The Chambre Ardente sat in the hall of the Arsenal. From April 10, 1679, -the day of its first meeting, to July 21, 1682, when it closed its -doors, it held 210 sittings, after having been suspended, for reasons -that will be explained later, from October 1, 1680, to May 19, 1681. - -The Chambre Ardente deliberated on the fate of 442 accused persons, and -ordered the arrest of 367 of these. Of these arrests, 218 were -sustained. Thirty-six prisoners were condemned to the extreme penalty, -torture ordinary and extraordinary and execution; two of them died a -natural death in jail; five were condemned to the galleys; twenty-three -were exiled; but the most guilty had accomplices in such high places -that their cases were never carried to an end. We must add the prisoners -who committed suicide in prison, such as La Dodee, a sorceress aged -thirty-five, still very pretty, who was arrested with La Trianon, and -cut her throat at Vincennes after her first examination; 'she covered -the wound with her chemise, in which the greater part of her blood -flowed, and was found dead when her room was opened in the morning to -take her her breakfast.' - - * * * * * - -Among the many cases which came before this court one or two will serve -as types. - -Madame de Dreux was the wife of a Parlement _maitre des requetes_. She -was not yet thirty, and was endowed with much grace and beauty, a -delicate and dainty beauty, with infinite charm and distinction. She was -so fond of Monsieur de Richelieu, declared La Joly, one of the -sorceresses tried by the court, 'that as soon as she knew that Monsieur -de Richelieu was even looking at any one else, she thought of doing away -with him.' She had further poisoned 'Monsieur Pajot and Monsieur de -Varennes and many others,' and, in particular, one of her lovers, to -avoid, as she said, the bother and annoyance of a rupture. She had also -tried to poison her husband, and to get rid of Madame de Richelieu by -sorcery. All these details were widely known in Paris, where society, -difficult as it is to believe it, was wonderfully amused by them. The -husband was riddled with epigrams, which Madame de Sevigne declares -'divinely diverting.' Madame de Dreux was too pretty, really!--and -besides, she was a cousin of two of the judges of the Chambre Ardente; -the result was that on April 27, 1680, the judges contented themselves -with admonishing her. 'Monsieur de Dreux and her whole family,' writes -Madame de Sevigne, 'went to the court to meet her.' Set at liberty, the -young woman was feted and petted by the whole world of fashion. 'There -was joy and triumph and kisses from all her family and friends. Monsieur -de Richelieu did wonders in this business.' A fact which will appear -incredible is, that after she left prison, Madame de Dreux returned to -the sorceresses, met La Joly in the Jesuits' church, and asked and -obtained from her powders to poison a lady whom Monsieur de Richelieu -was 'considering.' - -Truth to tell, La Joly was arrested while this was going on, and, as a -result of her revelations, a fresh warrant was issued against Madame de -Dreux; but she was warned, and escaped. She was proceeded against for -contumacy. Her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu were then seen pleading -for her in company. On January 23, 1682, Madame de Dreux was condemned -to banishment beyond the kingdom, but the king allowed her to remain in -France provided she lived in Paris with her husband. - -Madame Leferon, who also belonged to judicial society, was less pleasant -in appearance. The daughter of a Parlement counsellor, her maiden name -was Marguerite Galart. Her husband, president of the first court of -_enquetes_, is represented in the _Tableau du Parlement_ of 1661 as 'a -good judge, of solid judgment and firm opinion, never changing except on -good grounds, unprejudiced, loving rule and order, a good and -disinterested man.' He had given proof of independence of character at -the time of Fouquet's case, by showing clemency to the superintendent. -Madame Leferon found him a bore, avaricious, and further--how can one -say it?--insufficient. Yet the fair dame had passed her fiftieth year. -But she was madly smitten with one Monsieur de Prade, who on his side -was in love with her money. She asked La Voisin for poisons to kill her -husband, and de Prade went to her for charms to help him win the heart -of his mistress. La Voisin gave them all they wanted: phials to the -lady, and to the gallant a mask of virgin wax representing the face of -Madame Leferon. This, enclosed in a zinc box, was to be warmed every now -and then, which would warm the heart of the lady. De Prade gave La -Voisin a note for 20,000 livres--L4000 to-day. - -The phials produced their effect, and Leferon died on September 8, 1669. -The waxen mask was equally successful, and Madame Leferon married de -Prade. On February 20, 1680, as she went to the stake, La Voisin said to -Sagot, clerk to the court: 'It is quite true that Madame Leferon came to -see me, most joyous at being a widow, and when I asked her if the phial -of liquid had taken effect, she said, "Effect or not, he is done for!"' -De Prade appeared no less happy. He scoured the city in a brand-new -carriage, 'with three or four lackeys behind.' His joy was short. The -lady saw that her new husband thought chiefly of getting 'donations' out -of her, and the husband soon saw that his wife was trying to poison him -in his turn. He fled to the Turks. On April 7, 1680, Madame Leferon was -condemned to banishment beyond the borders of the viscounty of Paris and -to a fine of 1500 livres, though there were, as Louvois wrote to Louis -XIV, thirteen or fourteen witnesses of her crime. - -Madame de Dreux and Madame Leferon owed this remarkable indulgence to -Madame de Poulaillon. Born Marguerite de Jehan, of a noble Bordeaux -family, she had come to Paris when very young to associate with the -alchemists, having a passion for the occult sciences. She had married -Alexandre de Poulaillon, much older than herself, but very rich. -Contemporaries are unanimous in praising the pretty face, the delicate -and keen intelligence, and the exquisite distinction of the young lady. -Unhappily for herself, she met a certain La Riviere, who had a wonderful -talent for getting money out of ladies. As we know, in the seventeenth -century, a talent of this sort was not the discreditable thing it is -to-day. Her excellent husband, becoming suspicious, drew his -purse-strings tight and locked his safes. Madame de Poulaillon had -recourse to various expedients. She sold the house furniture, chairs, -sofas, 'the big gilded bed upholstered in English watered silk,' the -plate, and even the clothes of her husband. He, in a furious temper--we -may suppose so, at least--ceased to give his wife even money for her -toilet, and bought her dresses and ribbons himself. - -In despair, the young woman opened relations with La Vigoureux: she -required money for her lover, and the riddance of her husband. With this -intent she planned the most audacious strokes. Two or three hired -bravoes would do: 'While one held Poulaillon by the throat in his study, -the other would throw bags of money out of the window, and she would -open the study door herself.' Another time she thought of getting her -husband kidnapped alive. She was quite ready herself for the enterprise, -but failed to find men to assist her. At last she saw Marie Bosse, who -from the first appeared to her more plucky. However, Madame de -Poulaillon displayed so furious a haste to get rid of her 'old goodman,' -that Marie Bosse, hardened as she was, fairly took fright. She would not -give her in one dose the powder necessary for the poisoning, for fear -that the lady, by giving it all at once, would create a scandal. The -sorceress was prudent enough to begin with the shirt, one of the most -horrible of these hags' inventions. The shirts of the husband were -washed in arsenic. This left no trace. Whoever put them on was before -long attacked by a violent inflammation in the limbs and the lower part -of the body. And every one sympathised with the wife whose husband was -suffering from a disgraceful malady caused by debauchery! Arsenic was -put also into the injections, which in those days were in common use. -The contents of a phial poured into the wine or soup hastened the -operation. - -The negotiations between Madame de Poulaillon and Marie Bosse were -carried on in the church of the Carmelites. The young woman gave 4000 -livres (L800) for the phial and the preparation for the shirts. -Poulaillon was warned by an anonymous letter; moreover, his wife could -not obtain the necessary assistance from her servants. Then in her rage -she applied to some soldiers, and asked them to wait for her husband at -the corner of a road she pointed out to them, where it would be the -easiest thing in the world, she said, to do for him. The soldiers took -her money and hastened to inform Poulaillon, who now lost all patience, -shut his wife up in a convent, and laid an information before the -Chatelet. It was at this time that the lady had a writ issued against -her by the Chambre Ardente. - -As soon as he saw the storm threatening, La Riviere, to whom Madame de -Poulaillon had sacrificed everything, fled to Burgundy, where he hid -behind the skirts of Madame de Coligny, daughter of the famous -Bussy-Rabutin, and widow of the Marquis de Coligny. She fell in love -with La Riviere, who, kept informed of the progress of the trial, joked -pleasantly with his new flame on the misfortunes of his old mistress. -She, though madly in love with the gallant, was shocked. 'If the -misfortune of the lady who has so much merit, I hear, and who loves you -and has loved you so passionately, no longer touches you, what reason -have I to flatter myself I shall keep you always?' This brilliant -cavalier, who insisted on being called the Marquis de la Riviere, Lord -de Courcy, was really a bastard son of the Abbe de la Riviere, Bishop of -Langres. - -Madame de Poulaillon was finally examined on June 5, 1679. The -attorney-general had demanded the penalty of torture and death on the -Place de Greve; but the memory of the edifying and touching end of -Madame de Brinvilliers was still strong in the minds of the judges, and -had almost stricken them with remorse. Madame de Poulaillon displayed -before her judges even more grace, more submission to the hand of God, -more sweet and tranquil resignation. So strongly were these men of law -moved, that they could not bring themselves to order the severing of -that charming head. 'This lady, who had infinite spirit,' notes Sagot -the clerk, 'cared little about death, and though she did not expect to -escape, showed during her whole examination an extraordinary presence of -mind, which won the judges' admiration and pity.' La Reynie writes that -the judges were touched 'by her spirit, and by the grace with which at -the last she explained her unhappiness and her crime.' 'The -commissioners,' says Sagot, 'remained in deliberation for four whole -hours, all of them, especially those who had some interest in these -ladies, being prepared for anything which might serve, if not for the -discharge of Madame de Poulaillon, at any rate for the mitigation of the -facts they could not dispute, in so far as that could be done without a -manifest miscarriage of justice. Monsieur de Fieubet was the one who -dilated most on this view, employing all the power of his natural -eloquence; and he it was who saved the life of Madame de Poulaillon, -having brought round to his way of thinking three of the six judges who -had previously decided for death. This was a precedent fortunate for -Mesdames de Dreux and Leferon and other prisoners, and in fact it was -through this that the court lost credit.' - -'The great difficulty,' adds La Reynie, 'was afterwards to console -Madame de Poulaillon when she found that she was only condemned to exile -instead of the death she had herself pronounced in presence of the -judges, after having declared the joy she had in thus expiating her -crime, and at the same time winning deliverance from all her other -woes.' On the demand of the young lady herself, her punishment was -increased by royal warrant to detention with the Penitents at Angers. -Meanwhile La Riviere, after making Madame de Coligny a mother, married -her without a trace of compunction. True, shortly afterwards, -Bussy-Rabutin and his daughter, undeceived about the man, endeavoured to -dissolve the union; but the gay spark resisted, and Madame de la Riviere -was forced to pension him off at a very high figure before he would -agree to desert her. - -The best society applauded the acquittal of Madame de Poulaillon, while -the middle classes murmured, with so much the more reason that soon -afterwards a certain widow lady named Brunet was condemned with the -greatest harshness, though no more guilty than Mesdames de Poulaillon, -de Dreux, and Leferon. - -She had been the wife of a wholesale tradesman in the city. Monsieur and -Madame Brunet entertained very largely, for they provided excellent -music. The fashionable flutist, Philibert Rebille, musician to the king, -was constantly to be heard there. Brunet worshipped the flutist for his -delightful skill, and Madame Brunet for his charming person. As the -excellent people kept a good table, and the wife was charming, the -artiste responded with great enthusiasm to this double passion. It was -perfect bliss, which might have lasted for a long time to the melodious -sounds of the flute, if Brunet, with the idea of permanently attaching -to himself so pleasant a musician, had not taken it into his head to -offer him his daughter with a handsome dowry, and if Philibert, -delighted with the ducats and the daughter, had not accepted them with -alacrity. Madame Brunet uttered a cry of horror! Philibert explained to -her that he had consulted apostolic notaries, and that for a -consideration it would be possible to obtain canonical letters which -would set things right; and festivities were got up for the betrothal. -In desperation Madame Brunet confided in La Voisin: 'If she had to do -penance for ten years, it was necessary that God should carry off -Brunet, her husband, for she could not abide to see Philibert, whom she -loved passionately, in the arms of her daughter.' She even took her -lover to the sorceress. Philibert deposed at the trial that, under -pretext of showing him a garden, Madame Brunet took him to see a woman -who proceeded to look at his hand: 'I know not who she is, for the woman -was so drunk that she could not say a word.' La Voisin, on being -questioned, related the proceedings of Madame Brunet, adding: 'There are -other details which I would not tell for anything in the world, I would -rather have a dagger thrust into my heart: that is kept for confessors, -not for judges.' Francois Ravaisson, in publishing this dramatic -declaration, thus comments on it: 'These details were imparted by La -Voisin to La Reynie later; they did honour to Philibert's disposition. -The details given by the judges brought this flute-player into the -height of fashion, and ladies of the court and the city scrambled for -him when he came out of prison.' - -Meanwhile, Marie Bosse undertook the operation, for 2000 livres--L400 -to-day. - -Brunet was poisoned in 1673, and Philibert married the widow. - -'My friends advised me,' he declared naively before the judges, 'to wed -the mother rather than the daughter, which I did, under the good -pleasure of the king, who signed the contract.' - -The flute-player's wife was condemned on May 15, 1679. She begged in -vain to be allowed to see husband and children for the last time. Her -hand was cut off while she was still alive, then she was hanged, and her -body cast into the fire. Louis XIV, who was fond of his flutist, advised -him to leave France if he was conscious of guilt. But Philibert was a -man of mettle. He went like a gentleman and gave himself up as a -prisoner at Vincennes. He was acquitted on April 7, 1680. - - -_Louis XIV and the Poison Affair_ - -Meanwhile the Chambre Ardente was extending its prosecutions over an -ever-widening circle and into higher and higher ranks of society, and by -degrees a singular disquietude awoke, an astonishing uneasiness: it was -no longer the poisoners whom people dreaded, but the magistrates. People -talked about a lady of the highest rank who was declaring everywhere -that the judges and all their proceedings ought to be burnt. La Reynie -asked for the protection of an escort when he went to Vincennes, where -the principal accused persons were. Madame de Sevigne, speaking of the -great lieutenant of police, wrote: 'His life is a proof that there are -no poisoners now.' On February 4, 1680, Louvois wrote to the president -of the court:-- - - 'His Majesty, having been informed of what was said in Paris in - regard to the decrees issued a few days ago by the Chamber, has - commanded me to acquaint you with His Majesty's desire that you - should assure the judges of his protection, and let them understand - that he expects them to continue dispensing justice with firmness.' - -Louis sent for Boucherat, the president, the two examining -commissioners, La Reynie and Bezons, and the attorney-general, and they -went out to Versailles. 'On rising from dinner,' writes La Reynie, 'His -Majesty recommended us to do justice and our duty, in extremely strong -and precise terms, indicating to us that he desired, on behalf of the -public weal, that we should penetrate as deeply as possible into the -terrible traffic in poisons, so as to cut its root if this were -possible; he commanded us to do strict justice, without distinction of -person, rank, or sex; and this His Majesty told us in clear and vigorous -terms.' - -The determination so vigorously expressed by the king filled La Reynie -with confidence and zeal; it encouraged him in the accomplishment of the -arduous task imposed on him. And such courage was necessary: what -frightful revelations he heard! Was it due to these revelations that, -suddenly, the intentions of the court of Versailles underwent -modification? La Voisin had just been condemned to suffer torture. She -was subjected to it, but only as a matter of form. 'La Voisin was not -tortured at all,' writes La Reynie in indignation, 'and this means not -having been applied, has naturally produced no effect.' It was feared -that the sorceress, whose discretion had been so remarkable hitherto, -might say too much in the agony of torture, and, independently of La -Reynie, the torturers had received their orders. The judges had also -received independent orders, and their reluctance to interrogate the -accused woman was such that, at the moment of her execution, La Voisin, -struck with remorse, conceived it her duty to confess spontaneously -before being handed over to the confessor: 'She felt obliged to say, to -ease her conscience, that a large number of persons of all ranks and -conditions had applied to her for means to procure the death of many -persons, and that debauchery was the chief motive of all these crimes.' - -But after the execution of La Voisin, the examinations of her partner -Lesage, of her accomplice the Abbe Guibourg, and of her daughter, -Marguerite Monvoisin, were proceeded with. On August 2, 1680, Louis XIV -wrote from Lille to La Reynie:-- - - 'Having seen the declaration made on the 12th of last month by - Marguerite Monvoisin, prisoner at my castle of Vincennes, I write - you this letter to inform you of my intention that you should - devote all possible care to elucidate the facts contained in the - said declaration--that you should take care to have written down in - separate reports the examinations, confrontations, and everything - concerning the inquiry that may be made of the said declaration, - and that meanwhile you defer reporting to my royal Chamber sitting - at the Arsenal the depositions of Romani and Bertrand.' - -Romani and Bertrand were two prisoners with whom we shall have a good -deal to do by and by. - -Thus Louis XIV gave orders for the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, -and those of Romani and Bertrand, to be detached from the documents -submitted to the court. On the other hand, Louvois had had the -imprudence to promise Lesage his life if he revealed all he knew. Lesage -related most horrible things. Word then went round not to listen to any -more; he was a liar. But on September 30 and October 1, 1680, these -narratives were confirmed in the most precise manner by the sorceress -Francoise Filastre while under torture. The declarations of Filastre -struck on the ears of Louis XIV like a clap of thunder. In the registers -of the royal council we read as follows:-- - - 'The king, having had shown to him the official report of the - torture of Francoise Filastre, being unwilling to permit, for good - and just considerations important to his service, that certain - facts should be inserted in the copies made for the convenience of - the Court of the Arsenal, His Majesty in Council has commanded that - the minutes and originals of the said proceedings be laid before - the chancellor by the clerk to the commission, and that the said - clerk draw up in his presence a summary of the said proceedings, - in which the said facts shall not be inserted. Given by His Majesty - in Council held at Versailles, May 14, 1681. - -(_Signed_) LE TELLIER.' - - - -Thus the king for the second time intervened, and withdrew from the -court certain documents containing new declarations. He saw now, -moreover, that these were in accordance with the truth, and that if the -examinations were continued, it would be impossible to prevent them from -being divulged. On October 1, 1680, the sittings of the court were -suspended. - -The documents which the king had thus caused to be separated from the -rest were locked and sealed up in a casket, which was deposited with -Sagot, the clerk, who lived in the Rue Quincampoix. When Sagot died, on -October 10, 1680, the casket was removed to Rue -Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, to the house of his successor in the -clerkship to the Chatelet and the Chambre Ardente, Nicolas Gaudion. On -July 13, 1709, the casket was taken to the king's private room, where, -in the presence of Chancellor Pontchartrain, Louis XIV burnt the papers -in his grate: 'His Majesty in Council, after having looked through and -examined the minutes and proceedings laid before him by the chancellor, -and having had them burnt in his presence, commanded that Gaudion should -then be wholly and formally discharged of the same.' - -Louis XIV had just suffered a cruel blow, not only in his deepest -affections, but in his dignity as sovereign, by the declarations of -obscure and infamous criminals made before the Chambre Ardente. The very -throne of France was befouled by them. Colbert and Louvois were for a -moment in dire alarm. The all-powerful monarch, aided by his two great -ministers, believed that he had buried in unfathomable darkness the -terrible story of his shame and grief. But one flame had not been -extinguished. It had not been noticed. But it has continued to burn, and -grown larger, and thrown its blaze widely around. It is in the full -daylight glare that the facts are about to appear before our eyes. - - - - -II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN - - -The Marquise Francoise Athenais de Montespan was born in 1641 at the -castle of Tonnay-Charente, the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke -de Mortmart, lord of Vivonne, and of Diane de Granseigne, daughter of -Jean de Marsillac. She was called Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente until -her marriage. 'Her mother,' says Madame de Caylus, 'was anxious to imbue -her with principles of sound piety.' The piety of Mademoiselle de -Tonnay-Charente was violent and inflammatory. Appointed in 1660 maid of -honour to the queen, 'she gave her an extraordinary opinion of her -virtue by taking communion every day.' In 1679, when she had been for -several years the king's mistress, she much astonished the Princess -d'Harcourt by sending her on January 1, as a new year's gift, a -hair-shirt, a scourge, and a prayer-book adorned with diamonds. - -Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente married, on January 28, 1663, a noble of -her own province, L. H. de Pardaillan, Marquis de Montespan, who was a -year younger than herself. If she ever loved him, it was not for long. -As a lady-in-waiting to the queen, she was fascinated by the -magnificence surrounding Louise de la Valliere, the favourite of Louis, -who had become, in spite of her reserve and her timid and gentle -bearing, the object of intense and widespread jealousy, hatred, and -wrath. Madame de Montespan especially displayed her spiteful envy in -malicious gibes and insulting irony. Everybody knows it was not long -before she replaced her. - -Louise de la Valliere had kept in the shade, shunning publicity and -honours; Madame de Montespan in her pride wished to dazzle all eyes. -'Thunderous and triumphant' is Madame de Sevigne's description of her in -her radiant glory at Versailles. She draws elsewhere a picture of the -court in which the king's favourite shone: 'At three o'clock the king -and queen, with Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, all the princes and -princesses, Madame de Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers and -ladies, in a word, all that is known as the court of France, were found -in these handsome apartments of the king. They are divinely furnished, -everything is magnificent. Madame de Montespan was dressed in _point de -France_, her hair done in a thousand curls, two hanging from her temples -very low upon her cheeks; black ribbons on her head, with her pearls as -_marechale_ of the Hospital, and embellished with earrings and pendants; -in a word, a triumph of beauty that threw the ambassadors into admiring -wonder. She knew that people were complaining how she prevented all -France from seeing the king; she has restored him to us, as you see, and -you would not believe what joy it has given everybody, and what beauty -it has given the court.' - -'Her beauty is marvellous,' writes Madame de Sevigne on another day, -'and her get-up is as wonderful as her beauty, and her gaiety as her -get-up.' Greater still was the renown of her wit. 'She was always the -best of company,' says Saint-Simon, 'with graces which palliated her -high and mighty airs, and were indeed suited to them. It was impossible -to have more wit, more fine polish, more striking expressions, -eloquence, natural propriety, which gave her, as it were, an individual -style of talk, but delicious, and which by force of habit was so -communicable that her nieces and the persons constantly about her, her -women, and those who, without being her servants, had been brought up -along with her, all caught the style, which is recognisable to-day among -the few survivors.' - -She surrounded herself with a brilliant luxury. Here is one of her -dresses as described by Madame de Sevigne: 'Gold upon gold, gold -embroideries, gold edgings, and, over all, gold crimpings, sewed with -one sort of gold blended with another sort, which makes up the divinest -stuff imaginable: it was the fairies who made this masterpiece in -secret.' - -In her estates at Clagny, with their immense park, a second Versailles -was to be seen alongside Versailles itself. The king had first had built -there for his mistress a bijou residence--a country villa. 'She said -that that might do for an opera girl.' The house was pulled down and the -chateau erected, after the plans of Mansard. At Versailles the favourite -had twenty rooms on the first floor; the queen occupied eleven rooms on -the second. Dangeau notes that Madame de Montespan's train was borne by -the Marechale de Noailles; the queen's was carried by a simple page. - -The influence of the young favourite spelled fortune, hope, and honour -to ministers, courtiers, and generals. Her father became governor of -Paris, her brother a marshal of France. In her drawing-room, frequented -by all the most distinguished persons in rank and literature, a quite -unique style of wit came into existence, which her contemporaries often -refer to--a wit at once choice and subtle, natural and pleasant. It must -be added that, by a wonderful coincidence, her reign, which lasted -thirteen years, exactly corresponded with the zenith of the age of Louis -XIV. - -Madame de Montespan used to go about escorted by royal bodyguards. As -she journeyed throughout the whole length and breadth of France, -governors and lord-lieutenants offered her their homage in great -ceremony, and cities sent deputations to her. She passed through the -provinces in a six-horse coach, followed by another coach also drawn by -six horses, in which sat six ladies of her suite, and then came the -baggage-wagons and six mules and a dozen cavaliers. It is like a fairy -tale from Perrault. - -She had by Louis XIV seven children, whom the Parlement was to -legitimatise and declare royal children of France. The oldest, the Duke -de Maine, received the principality of Dombes and the county of Eu; in -1675, when five years old, he was appointed to the infantry regiment of -Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of -Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys -and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the -daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the Duke de Bourbon; the -second, Mademoiselle de Blois, made a still more brilliant match. 'The -king,' says Saint-Simon, 'determined to marry Mademoiselle de Blois to -the Duke de Chartres; this was the king's only nephew, and far higher -than the princes of the blood.' - -Madame Palatine[9] said of the Marquise de Montespan: 'She is more -ambitious than dissipated.' There is justice in the saying. She had an -immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Valliere loved the king as a -mistress, Madame de Maintenon as a governess, Madame de Montespan as a -tyrant. - - * * * * * - -It was in 1666 that historians note the first signs of Madame de -Montespan's ambition. She was then aspiring to the king's love, and it -is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in commenting on the -proceedings of the Chambre Ardente, places her first visits to the -sorceresses. - -Marguerite Monvoisin, La Voisin's daughter, spoke thus before the -judges: 'Every time that anything fresh happened to Madame de Montespan, -or she feared any diminution in the favour of the king, she told my -mother, so that she might provide a remedy; and my mother at once had -recourse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother -powders to be given to the king.' La Voisin's daughter explained that -these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, -according to the various formulae of witchcraft. Among the ingredients -were cantharides, the dust of dried moles, blood of bats, and other vile -substances. Of these a paste was made, which was placed under the -chalice during the sacrifice of the mass, and blessed by the priest at -the moment of the offertory. Louis XIV swallowed this compound mixed -with his food. - -'My mother,' said the girl, 'several times took to Madame de Montespan -at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to -the king--some which had passed under the chalice and others which had -not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the -demoiselle Desoeillets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave -her some in the church of the Petits Peres, and another time on the road -to St. Cloud.' - -The depositions of Marguerite Monvoisin are important. She had never -been mixed up with her mother's sorceries, but she had known about them. -La Reynie observes that her declarations exhibit 'a certain air of -ingenuousness, or else, if they are false, every one is mightily -deceived.' He adds that 'she mentions so many circumstances and so many -different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is -morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which -she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has -invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine; she mentions living -people.' The examining judge says further, that the very denials of the -sorceresses accused by Marguerite of complicity with Madame de -Montespan, their embarrassment, their contradictions, their refusal to -answer when they were conscious of being hard pressed, confirm her -testimony. - -When Marguerite Monvoisin made her depositions, her mother had been dead -for several months. In the examination of July 12, 1680, we read:-- - -'Why did you not sooner give information of these evil designs against -the person of the king?' - -'I could not tell what I had heard without ruining my mother; I did not -believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advice of no one, and have -declared all I know on the matter.' - -'Did you not know you were bound to tell, and that it would be a great -crime to hide anything concerning this matter?' - -'I knew well enough the importance of the things I have stated; I knew -it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had done so; and I -knew there was nothing but was of great importance.' - -'Did you know it would be a great crime to make the slightest addition -to the facts which you have declared?' - -'Yes, and those of whom I have spoken can tell you a good deal; I think -I have diminished rather than increased; I had no other idea but to -state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mother; if -I remember any other circumstance, or if any is recalled to my memory, I -will confess the truth.' - -Several writers have thought that the sorceresses compromised the -greatest names in France before the judges in the hope of saving their -lives, by connecting themselves with personages so high in station that -no one would dare to lift a hand against them. Quite the contrary. We -see La Voisin concealing, up to the very moment of her execution, her -relations with the king's mistress, for her greatest fear was that the -horrible punishment meted out to regicides might be applied to her. In -an expansive moment, she said to her guards at Vincennes: 'I fear, more -than anything else that I am asked about, a certain journey to court.' -We shall have much to do presently with this journey the sorceress made -to court on behalf of Madame de Montespan. It was at the last moment, -after hearing her death-sentence, against which there was no appeal, -that Francoise Filastre made her startling depositions of September 30 -and October 1, 1680, as the result of which Louis XIV, in terror, caused -the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be suspended. - -The statements of Marguerite Monvoisin were confirmed in detail by those -of the Abbe Guibourg, with whom she had no means of communicating after -her arrest. Thus, as La Reynie says, they were proved 'according to the -rules of justice.' - -To-day, history furnishes still further proofs. We have just heard the -daughter of La Voisin: 'Every time anything fresh happened to Madame de -Montespan, or she feared some diminution in the favour of the king, she -told my mother.' Now, if we follow in the correspondence of Madame de -Sevigne and the court chronicles the checkered story of the relations -between Madame de Montespan and the king from 1667 to 1680, and compare -it further with the depositions made before the Chambre Ardente, we find -a precise confirmation of the declarations of Marguerite Monvoisin. It -was several times observed by La Reynie that 'the time mentioned by the -accused is of consequence to Madame de Montespan.' - -How, and by whom, was the haughty favourite led to the haunts of the -witches? Historians have put forth many hypotheses on this subject. They -were not acquainted with the declaration of La Chaboissiere, the valet -of Vanens, whom we have already mentioned: 'that the chevalier de Vanens -deserved to be drawn and quartered for the counsel he had given to -Madame de Montespan.' La Chaboissiere had scarcely let this confession -escape him than he wished in great agitation to retract it, and begged -that the words might not be written down in the report of his -examination. La Reynie disentangled this confession from the chaos of -official documents, and sharply underlined it as the starting-point of -the drama. - -The relations between the favourite and the sorceresses began, then, at -the very time when her dawning love for the king was noticed. In 1667 we -find her in Rue de la Tannerie, in the company of the magician Lesage -and the Abbe Mariette, priest of St. Severin. The latter belonged to a -good Parisian family; he was tall and well made, with a very pale -complexion and black hair. At one end of a little room an altar was -erected: Mariette, in sacerdotal vestments, uttered incantations, Lesage -sang the _Veni Creator_, then Mariette read a gospel on the head of -Madame de Montespan, who knelt before him and recited exorcisms against -Louise de la Valliere. She added--the very words are found in one of -Lesage's declarations--'I ask for the affection of the king and of the -Dauphin, that it may be continued, that the queen may be barren, that -the king leave her bed and table for me, that I obtain from him all that -I ask for myself and my relatives; that my servants and domestics may be -pleasing to him; that, beloved and respected by great nobles, I may be -called to the councils of the king and know what passes there; and that, -this affection being redoubled on what has existed in the past, the king -may leave La Valliere and look no more upon her; and that, the queen -being repudiated, I may espouse the king.' - -On another occasion, in the church of St. Severin, the Abbe Mariette, in -the presence of Madame de Montespan, recited charms over the hearts of -two pigeons which had been consecrated in the names of Louis XIV and -Louise de la Valliere during the sacrifice of the mass. - -Early in the year 1668, Mariette and Lesage had the audacity to proceed -to Saint-Germain, the headquarters of the court, and in the very chateau -itself, in the portion occupied by Madame de Thianges, Madame de -Montespan's sister, they resumed their sorceries. Aromatic fumigations -filled the room with a bluish vapour, with which was mingled the pungent -scent of incense. Madame de Montespan formulated the incantation. -'This,' declared Lesage, 'was to obtain the favour of the king, and to -cause Mademoiselle de la Valliere's death.' Mariette said it was merely -to get her sent away. Now it happened that, not long after these -proceedings, in that very year 1668, Madame de Montespan realised her -dream and was taken to the king's heart. The star of La Valliere rapidly -paled. In 1669 Madame de Montespan was brought to bed of the first of -the seven children she gave to Louis. If she had ever doubted the -efficacy of these dealings with the devil, confidence would have dated -from that day. - -An incident, which might have had terrible consequences, ruffled this -happiness so long desired. Mariette and Lesage owed to La Voisin the -lucrative connection with Madame de Montespan. But they showed base -ingratitude, and proceeded to perform incantations for the marquise, no -longer with the assistance of La Voisin, but with that of a rival -sorceress, La Duverger. La Voisin was indignant, and as La Reynie says, -'made a to-do about it. The matter became known, and the king, having -learnt that these people were accustomed to perform impious and -sacrilegious rites, ordered the arrest of Mariette and Dubuisson (the -name taken by Lesage at this period), and they were sent to the Bastille -in March 1668.' From the Bastille they were brought before the Chatelet -on the charge of sorcery. The court chroniclers, though ignorant of her -reasons for so doing, note that Madame de Montespan at this time -suddenly left Paris. But Mariette and Lesage had too much interest in -holding their tongues to inform against her. 'Besides,' writes La -Reynie, 'the first judge who heard the case being a cousin-german of -Mariette through his wife, La Voisin being at large on the credit of -interested persons with whom she had dealings, and these wretched -practices being then unknown, investigation was not carried very far. It -was solely a question of seeing how the matter could be dealt with in -such a way as to save Mariette on account of his family.' The little -that could not be concealed brought Lesage condemnation to the galleys -and Mariette banishment. The king increased the sentence of the latter -to imprisonment; but the prisoner escaped from St. Lazare, where he had -been confined. As to Lesage, La Voisin, thanks to her connections, was -not long in getting him set at liberty. In a memorandum addressed to -Louvois, La Reynie exhibits the conclusions to be drawn from the trial -of 1668. After very appositely calling attention to the fact that the -statements of the accused were the less suspicious because, dating from -a period when as yet there could be no question of the scarcely dawning -relations between Louis and Madame de Montespan, the lieutenant of -police says that Mariette and Lesage could only have known of those -relations through Madame de Montespan herself, and adds: 'It appears -from the trial of Lesage and Mariette in 1668, that Madame de Montespan -had been dealing with La Voisin at any rate since 1667, and that about -that time she was by her introduced to Lesage and Mariette; that -Mariette, in his room and in the presence of Lesage, used to read the -Gospels over the head of Madame de Montespan. - -'So early as that, then, a scheme was on foot. - -'When I questioned the two surviving accomplices on the matter, they -said, separately, that this scheme was to secure the favour of the king; -that for that purpose La Voisin then gave some powders which were placed -under the chalice given to Madame de Montespan, and that she recited an -incantation in which her own name and the king's occurred; that she -performed other ceremonies at Saint-Germain; that she had masses said on -the hearts of pigeons at St. Severin, and other impious and sacrilegious -rites performed in Mariette's room, for this purpose, and as the one -says, to slay, the other merely to get rid of, Madame de la Valliere.' -(These enchantments to procure the death of Mademoiselle de la Valliere -were made upon human bones.) - -'Lesage and Mariette said nothing about it until the former, urged by -explicit commands to tell the truth, and Mariette, impelled by the -facts themselves to reveal them, both, separately, established these -facts.' - -La Reynie observes further that Lesage and Mariette mentioned certain -details, afterwards proved to be accurate, of which they could have got -information from Madame de Montespan alone. - -We have already mentioned the reasons why the declarations of Marguerite -Monvoisin inspired confidence; the corresponding depositions of Lesage -deserve equal attention. On October 8, 1679, Louvois wrote to Louis -_XIV_: 'Monsieur de la Reynie showed me his conviction that, if I spoke -to Lesage, he would in the end make up his mind to tell me all he knew, -and he believed this to be the more important because this man has not -up to the present been convicted himself of poisoning any one, but has a -perfect knowledge of all the poisonings effected in Paris for the last -seven or eight years. I went yesterday to Vincennes, and spoke to him in -the way Monsieur de la Reynie desired, giving him to hope that your -Majesty would pardon him provided he made the declarations necessary for -bringing to the knowledge of justice all that has happened in regard to -the poisons. He promised to do so, and told me that he was much -surprised at my urging him to tell all he knew.' In a letter of October -11, 1679, Louvois renewed his pressure on Lesage to induce him to speak -fully and in entire frankness. The magician hesitated, tried to -dissimulate, repeating to all who urged him how vastly he was astonished -at their persistence; but this reluctance only stimulated the ardour of -La Reynie. He returned to the charge; like Louvois, he gave hints of a -royal pardon. At last Lesage spoke. His principal declarations were -written among the papers which Louis had burnt in the fireplace of his -study, as we have said; hence we no longer possess them in their -entirety; but from the notes left by La Reynie, as well as from the -fragments of the magisterial examination which were preserved and will -be found in part reproduced below, we know that the revelations of -Lesage entirely confirmed those of Marguerite Monvoisin. - -The scandal of the amours of Louis XIV was only the more intense because -the young Marquis de Montespan was by no means a complaisant husband, a -singular fact at that period and in that society. 'He was an extravagant -and extraordinary man,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'who -complained to everybody of the friendship of the king for his wife.' -There were scenes between the spouses, and he struck her. He provoked -scenes with the king. 'When Montespan went to Saint-Germain sermonising -thus, Madame de Montespan was in despair. He used to come to see me very -often,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier; 'he is a relative of mine, and -I scolded him. He came one evening and repeated to me an harangue he had -delivered to the king, in which he quoted innumerable passages of -Scripture, about David, for instance, and finally used strong terms to -induce him to give back his wife and fear the judgment of God. I said to -him, "You are mad!" I was at Saint-Germain next day and said to Madame -de Montespan: "I have seen your husband in Paris, and he is madder than -ever; I sharply scolded him and told him that if he didn't hold his -tongue he would deserve to be locked up." She said to me: "He is here -telling his tales at court; I am ashamed to see that my parrot and he -are amusing the mob."' - -Louis XIV was naturally irritated by the attitude of this surprising -husband. Almighty as he was, he resorted to the tricks and subterfuges -of a vulgar lover. His anxiety was redoubled when his mistress became a -mother. The king was very fond of his children, particularly those he -had by Madame de Montespan. In the eyes of the law these children -belonged to the husband; and Louis trembled with fear lest Montespan, -out of vengeance or irony, should come and take from him his son and -daughter. - -Montespan found a supporter in his uncle the Archbishop of Sens. 'When -the king's passion was known,' says the Abbe Boileau, brother of the -poet, 'the archbishop sentenced to public penance a woman of the town -who lived as the marchioness, his niece, was living, in open -concubinage, and he caused the publication in his diocese of the old -canons against the violation of the religious law.' The diocese of Sens -included Fontainebleau, where the court was then held. Madame de -Montespan was compelled to take her departure in confusion. She felt -that it was she who was being pointed at. She dared not return into the -jurisdiction of the archbishop until after the prelate's death in 1674. - -When the Marquis understood that his efforts were vain, and that from -the height of his throne Louis would reply only with _lettres de -cachet_, he put on mourning, clothed all his household in black, and -drove to the court in a coach draped in black, to take leave in great -ceremony of his relatives, friends, and acquaintances. On that day the -husband in his costume of black was not the butt of ridicule; jests were -silenced, and the king on the throne was scorned and despised. A man of -genius lent the monarch his aid. Moliere wrote his _Amphitryon_. The -play was represented in this year 1668, and the mockers resumed their -places in the royal camp. - - 'Un partage avec Jupiter - N'a rien du tout qui deshonore.'[10] - -Viscounts and marquises on gilded benches applauded the taunt and -punctuated the cruel railleries with bursts of laughter. Yet the king -was injured, especially in the opinion of the Parisian middle class. He -was conscious of it; and one day said himself to his mistress that if -she had left house, children, and husband to follow him, he had -neglected the care of his reputation, which was much blighted through -his having loved a woman whom he had such good reasons for not regarding -as he had done. - -Montespan set out for his country seat. Some men of the company he -commanded fell a-quarrelling with the under-bailiff of Perpignan; the -fact was of no importance, but it came to the knowledge of the -ministers, and Louvois wrote at once to the Lord Lieutenant: 'September -21, 1669. I cannot express my surprise that a thing of the nature of -that which Monsieur de Montespan has done should have passed without my -learning of it. I send you a despatch from the king for the supreme -council of Roussillon, in which His Majesty commands the council to hold -an inquiry. In whatever manner you may employ it, it must not be -forgotten, whether in the informations of the sub-bailiff of Perpignan -or in that about the disorders that occurred at Illes, to implicate the -commander of the company (Montespan) and the largest possible number of -cavaliers, so that they may take fright and the majority desert, -especially the commander; after which it would not be a difficult matter -to bring about the ruin of the company. If you have the names of the -cavaliers who insulted the sub-bailiff, they must be arrested at once, -to make an example of them, and so that you may have, from their -depositions at the time of their execution, more proof against the -captain--to try in some way or other to implicate him in the -informations, so that he may be cashiered with an appearance of justice. -If you could manage that he is accused sufficiently for the supreme -council to have grounds for pronouncing some condemnation on him, it -would be a very good thing; you will guess the reasons well enough, -however little you may be informed of what is going on in this part of -the world.' The cynicism of Louis and his minister passes all bounds. -Montespan had to flee for refuge to Spain; but from that day Louis' -position in regard to the injured husband, so far from improving, became -sensibly worse. Abroad, Montespan could more boldly and independently -press his claims on the children of the king, and provoke a scandal in -the eyes of all Europe. - -Louis got a demand for separation _a mensa et thoro_, formulated by -Madame de Montespan, brought before the Chatelet. Notwithstanding the -pressure exerted by king and ministers, who bullied the judges, the -matter remained in suspense. The judges could not bring themselves to -commit the iniquity demanded of them. They gave way at last, partly -under pressure from the First President de Novion, who had been won by a -promise of the Great Seal. The separation was declared on July 7, 1674, -by Procureur-General Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges. The -judgment adduced the wasting of the property of the commonalty by the -Marquis de Montespan, the domestic discord between the marquis and his -wife, and the ill-treatment of which the marchioness complained on the -part of her husband. This decree pronounced against Montespan was a -monstrous proceeding. After having dishonoured his crown, Louis -dishonoured justice; but there was a higher justice which, as we shall -see, he was not to escape. - -The decree of July 7, 1674, did not assure the king peace of mind. In -1678 Montespan had to return for a short time to Paris on account of a -lawsuit. Louis XIV wrote to Colbert (June 15): 'I understand that -Montespan is indulging in indiscreet talk; he is a madman whom you will -do me the pleasure to have closely watched; and so that he may have no -pretext for remaining in Paris, see Novion so that the Parlement may -hurry. I know that Montespan has threatened to see his wife, and that he -is capable of it, and that the consequences might be formidable (the -question of the children again); I rely on you to prevent him speaking. -Do not forget the details of this matter, and especially see to it that -he leaves Paris at the earliest moment.' Such were the jobs to which the -Colberts and the Louvois had to stoop; but such also were the annoyances -and troubles beneath which Louis bent his brow--a brow already reddened -with shame, and soon to be furrowed with grief. - - * * * * * - -Louis XIV loved his mistresses, not for their own sakes, but for his. -The new passion lasted three years. Perhaps some one will say that that -is a good while. In 1672, jealousy, which perpetually ravaged the proud -soul of Madame de Montespan, burst out in storms of which Madame de -Sevigne speaks thus: 'She is in inexpressible rages; she has seen no one -for a fortnight; she writes from morning till night, and when she goes -to bed tears it all up. Her state makes me quite sorry. No one pities -her, though she has done good turns to many people.' Madame de Montespan -returned to La Voisin; and it is not without emotion that we see this -wonderful woman, with her matchless grace and her superior intelligence, -after having stepped into crime, sinking into it lower and lower. From -the hands of the Abbe Mariette, who recited the Gospels over her head -and made incantations on the hearts of pigeons, she comes into those of -the Abbe Guibourg, who said the black mass. - -Guibourg claimed to be an illegitimate member of the family of -Montmorency. He was seventy years old; his complexion was that of a -confirmed toper. He had a horrible squint. In these monstrous ceremonies -he cut the throats of his own children by his mistress, a fat ruddy -wench named Chanfrain. - -To obtain the desired result from the black mass, it was necessary that -it should be celebrated three times in succession. The three masses were -said in 1673, at intervals of a fortnight or three weeks--the first in -the chapel of the Chateau of Villebousin, in the village of Mesnil, near -Montlhery. Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the maid of Madame de Montespan, -was intimately connected with Leroy, governor of the pages of the Petite -Ecurie, who owned a house at Mesnil. Guibourg had lived in the chateau -as almoner of the Montgommerys. It has been described by M. J. Lair: 'A -building of the fourteenth century, and well chosen for sinister -incantations, the chateau, situated half a league from the road from -Paris to Orleans, was surrounded by deep moats, filled with running -water.' Leroy betook himself to St. Denis, where he saw the Abbe -Guibourg. He promised fifty pistoles, that is, about L20, and a living -worth 2000 livres. At the day fixed there met at Villebousin Madame de -Montespan, the Abbe Guibourg, Leroy, 'a tall person' who was certainly -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, and a person of name unknown who is said to -have been a retainer of the Archbishop of Sens. In the chapel of the -chateau the priest said mass on the bare body of the favourite as she -lay across the altar. At the consecration, he recited his incantation, -the words of which he gave later to the commissaries of the Chambre -Ardente: 'Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to -accept the sacrifice I present to you of this child for the things I ask -of you, which are that the affection of the king and my lord the dauphin -for me may be continued; and that, honoured by the princes and -princesses of the court, nothing be denied me of all that I shall ask -the king, as well for my relatives as my servitors.' 'Guibourg had -bought for a crown (12s. 6d. to-day) the child who was sacrificed at -this mass,' writes La Reynie, 'and who was offered to him by a fine -girl; and having drawn blood from the child, whom he stabbed in the -throat with a penknife, he poured it into the chalice, after which the -child was taken away and carried to another place.' - -The details of the mass at Mesnil were revealed by Guibourg, and further -confirmed by the deposition of La Chanfrain, his mistress. - -The second mass on the body of Madame de Montespan took place a -fortnight or three weeks after the first, at St. Denis, in a tumbledown -hut. The third took place in a house at Paris, whither Guibourg was -conducted blindfold, and from which he was brought back in the same way -as far as the arcade of the Hotel de Ville. - -At this time the journal of the health of the king, drawn up by D'Aquin, -the chief physician, states that Louis suffered from violent headaches. -Towards the end of this year, 1673, he was attacked by dizziness of such -a kind that at times his sight became clouded and he felt on the point -of collapse. 'Is it rash,' observes Monsieur Loiseleur very justly, 'to -see in these headaches and faintnesses the effect of powders provided by -La Voisin?' The hypothesis of Monsieur Loiseleur will be sustained in -detail by a declaration of the magician Lesage which will be found -below. - -It remains to inquire how Madame de Montespan contrived to get the -powders prepared by the sorceress into the food of the king, surrounded -as he was by officers of the buttery. Two revelations, both of November -8, 1680, made, the first by Lemaire, locked up at Vincennes with the -Abbe Guibourg, the second by Lesage, will give the indication we desire. - -We read in the notes La Reynie took for his personal guidance by way of -memoranda: 'November 8, 1680, Lemaire asked to speak to me; told me that -being in the same room with Guibourg and another man, Guibourg told them -such strange things, especially in regard to Madame de Montespan, that -he does not know what to make of it, and that if there was any officer -who ought to be suspected, it would be Duchesne, the butler; that -Duchesne was a footman in the house of Madame d'Aubray, that he has -since served Monsieur Bontemps, and then Madame de Montespan, who was -very kind to him, and made him officer of the buttery, and that he is -always at Madame de Montespan's service.' Further: 'From the last -examinations of Lesage, and that of November 8 particularly, it appears -that Gilot, also an officer of the buttery, was involved in the impious -trade in 1668, and that he sought Lesage's assistance for the designs of -Madame de Montespan.' - -The crisis of the year 1675 was more serious. Louis XIV suddenly had -great fits of devotion. People with their eyes open saw that he was -tiring of his mistress. Madame de Montespan, on the Thursday in Holy -Week, had been refused absolution by a priest of her parish. Much put -out, she hastened to the cure of Versailles, and spoke to him hotly, but -the cure approved of his subordinate's action. And the great voice of -Bossuet, which had consistently been upraised against the double -adultery, resounded with a new force. 'When we were at Versailles, one -fast day, about Easter, Madame de Montespan went away,' writes -Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 'Every one was vastly astonished at this -retreat. I went to Paris, and saw her in the house where her children -were. Madame de Maintenon was with her. She saw nobody. As everybody was -on the alert about her return, although nobody seemed to pay any -attention to it, it was known that M. Bossuet, then tutor to the -dauphin, and at present bishop of Meaux, went there every day muffled in -a grey cloak.' We have other information from Bossuet's private -secretary, the Abbe Le Dieu. Louis XIV ordered his mistress to retire. -When Bossuet went to see the exiled lady, she 'loaded him with -reproaches; she told him that his pride had urged him to get her driven -away, that he wanted to make himself sole master of the king's mind.' -Then, when she understood that her wrath smote in vain against the -serene firmness of the prelate, 'she sought to win him by flatteries and -promises; she dangled before his eyes the chief dignities in Church and -State.' - -This exile lasted from April 14 to May 11. On the other hand, the -magician Lesage, in an examination held on November 16, 1680, declared -that 'if he were in the last torments, he could tell nothing except that -in 1675, at the beginning of summer (the exact date), when Madame de -Montespan was trying to maintain her position, La Voisin and La -Desoeillets worked or pretended to work for her; but in reality, -powerless to keep for her the love of the king, they merely gave her -powders which, taken in certain doses, would have acted as poison.' So -Lesage said; and the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, summed up by La -Reynie, are identical: 'The powders her mother sent to Madame de -Montespan were love powders to be given to the king. Once when her -mother took some powders to Clagny she was accompanied by the magician -Latour, her eldest brother, a servant named Marie, since dead, and -Fernand, a good friend of Latour, and La Vautier; but these did not -enter Clagny. She could not say if Latour went in with her mother, but -they all came back together, and had lunch at the sign of the _Heaume_, -near the Bois de Boulogne, with violins; they made some noise among -them. Her brother, who told her about it, told her that her mother -brought back fifty louis-d'or. Her mother, besides the powders she gave -to Madame de Montespan, did not send any except by Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, who was the go-between for that purpose. As to the -powders which had passed beneath the chalice, they came from a priest -called the Prior (the Abbe Guibourg). As to the others which had not -been under the chalice, her mother kept them in the drawer of a cabinet -of which she had the key. There were black ones, white, and grey, which -she mixed in the presence of Desoeillets. Her father once wanted to -break the cabinet where the powders were kept, saying that some harm -would come of it.' And the result of these practices was, once more, of -such a nature as to give confidence in the power of sorcery: Madame de -Montespan regained her position with the king. It is true that Madame de -Richelieu said, 'I am always there as a third party.' In spite of this -'third party,' Madame de Montespan became the mother of the Comte de -Toulouse and Mademoiselle de Blois. Madame de Sevigne writes to her -daughter on June 28, 1675: 'Your idea about _Quantova_ (Madame de -Montespan) is very good; if she cannot recover the old ground, she will -push her authority and her greatness beyond the clouds; but she must -make sure of being loved all the year round without scruple. Meanwhile -her house is filled with the whole court, and her consideration is -unbounded.' On July 31, Madame de Sevigne writes again: 'The attachment -for _Quantova_ is always extreme: it's pretty much in order to vex the -cure and everybody else.' - -In 1675 Madame de Montespan had been dismissed, from religious scruples; -in 1676 she was to be sent away for reasons which furnished her with -quite another ground for irritation. The king was then suddenly seized -with a terrible hunger for a multiplicity of amours, soon over, sudden, -and varied. Madame de Sevigne characterises this strange condition in a -picturesque phrase: 'There's a scent of new game in the land of -_Quanto_.'[11] At short intervals the Princess de Soubise, Madame de -Louvigny, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Theobon, Madame de Ludres, and no -doubt others, succeeded one another in the affections and the bed of the -king. - -Madame de Soubise makes an amusing appearance in the gallery of royal -mistresses. She loved Louis out of love for her husband. After -collecting for him all the honours and dignities, the offices and the -hard cash that he desired, Madame de Soubise struck her tents and -retired in good order. She had made the least possible stir and went -back to her husband, who was enchanted with the adventure. The Prince of -Soubise thought, with the poet, that a share with Jupiter had no -dishonour so long as Jupiter could pay a good price. - -These intrigues find a double echo, in the writings of Madame de Sevigne -and in the records of the Chambre Ardente. On September 2, 1676, Madame -de Sevigne writes: 'The vision of Madame de Soubise has passed quicker -than a lightning-flash: they have made it up again. _Quanto_ the other -day at cards had her head resting familiarly on her friend's shoulder, -and we fancied that piece of affectation meant "I am better than ever."' -But on September 11 the position has changed. 'Everybody believes that -the star of Madame de Montespan is paling. There are tears, unfeigned -disappointments, affected cheerfulness, sulks; at last, my dear, it is -all over. Some tremble, others rejoice, some wish for immutability, the -majority for a dramatic change; in a word, we are all eyes and ears for -what the most clear-sighted say.' 'Every one thinks that the king loves -her no longer,' we read in a letter of September 30, 'and that Madame de -Montespan is embarrassed between the consequences which would follow the -return of his favours and the danger of no longer enjoying them--the -fear that they are being sought elsewhere. Apart from that, she has not -very nicely accepted the position of friend: so much beauty as she still -has, and so much pride, find it difficult to come down to second place. -Jealousies are keen. Have they ever stopped anything?' Again, on October -15, 1676: 'If _Quanto_ had packed up her traps at Easter the year she -returned to Paris, she would not have been in her present distress; it -would have been sensible to adopt that course, but human weakness is -great; one wishes to make the most of the remains of one's beauty, and -this economy brings ruin rather than riches.' Madame de Ludres had just -succeeded Madame de Soubise. - -The anxieties of Madame de Montespan were further enhanced by the -brilliance, increasing every day, of a new star in the sky of -Versailles. At its rising it had shed a pale, discreet, modest light, -but a light which twinkled with little mocking scintillations. The widow -Scarron, now become Madame de Maintenon, had been chosen as governess of -the children of the king and Madame de Montespan. What strides the -governess's fortune had taken in a few years! 'But let us speak of the -friend' (Madame de Maintenon), writes Madame de Sevigne on May 6, 1676: -'she is still more triumphant than the Montespan. Everything is -submitted to her dominion. All the chamber-women of her neighbour are -hers: one hands her the rouge-pot on her knees; another brings her her -gloves; a third puts her to sleep; she salutes no one, and I fancy that -really she laughs in her sleeve at this servitude.' - -Madame de Sevigne thus tells us what was passing at court; Marguerite -Monvoisin will tell us what was going on among the sorceresses. 'The -daughter of La Voisin,' writes La Reynie, 'says that she has seen this -sort of mass celebrated over the body by Guibourg in her mother's house. -She helped her mother to get things ready: a mattress on seats, two -stools at the sides, on which were candlesticks with candles; after -which Guibourg came out of the little side-chamber clothed in his -chasuble--white, spotted with black fir-cones--and after that La Voisin -brought in the woman on whose body the mass was to be said. Madame de -Montespan had this sort of mass said three years ago (_i.e._ in 1676) at -her mother's house, where she came about ten o'clock and only left at -midnight. And when La Voisin told her that it was necessary for her to -fix a time when the other two masses might be said, which were necessary -if her affair was to be successful, Madame de Montespan said that she -could not find time, that La Voisin would have to do what was necessary -to assure success, which she promised her and did, and the masses were -said on La Voisin herself by Guibourg.' (This again shows the sincerity -of the sorceress in the carrying out of these practices.) 'The girl -Voisin having notified all the circumstances of the proceeding, the -arrangement of the place, that of the person--she knew Madame de -Montespan--the preparations of the priest clothed in his sacerdotal -vestments, the terms of the incantation, in which the documents show -that the names of Louis de Bourbon and Madame de Montespan were -mentioned--the girl Voisin adds that a child had its throat cut at the -mass said for Madame de Montespan at her mother's.' - -'When I was grown up,' said Marguerite Monvoisin, 'my mother was no -longer reluctant to trust me, and I was present at this sort of mass, -and saw that the lady was stark naked on the mattress, with her head -hanging down, supported by a pillow on an overturned chair, the legs too -hanging over, a napkin on the belly, a cross on the napkin, and the -chalice on the belly.' She adds that this lady was Madame de Montespan. -'At the mass of Madame de Montespan,' said Marguerite in the course of -another examination, 'a child was presented which apparently had been -prematurely born, and it was put into a basin. Guibourg cut its throat, -poured the blood into a chalice, and consecrated it with the wafer, -finished his mass, then proceeded to take the child's entrails. My -mother next day carried the blood and wafer to Dumesnil to be distilled, -in a glass vessel which Madame de Montespan took away.' These facts were -confirmed on October 23, 1680, by the confrontation of Marguerite -Monvoisin with Guibourg--with this variation, that Guibourg tried to -shuffle on to La Voisin the butchery of the child. - -'Guibourg said that it was not true that he had opened the child, -because it would have stained his alb: he found the child already -opened. - -'The girl Voisin, on the contrary, declared that he cut open the heart -himself, took out some clotted blood, and put it into the vessel into -which the other blood and the rest had been put, which Madame de -Montespan took away; and that to make the clotted blood go in, a common -glass was broken, which, with its foot knocked off, was made to act as a -funnel. - -'Guibourg said that he did not open the child's stomach, but that having -found it open, he did in fact draw out the entrails and open the heart -to get out the blood that was in it, and that he put it into a crystal -vase with some portions of the consecrated wafer: the whole was carried -off by the lady on whose body he had said mass; and that he always -believed the lady was Madame de Montespan.' - -This picture is fraught with so much horror that we could not bring -ourselves to admit its authenticity if the evidence of Marguerite -Monvoisin and the Abbe Guibourg were not corroborated by confessions -extorted from other accomplices of these crimes, who were arrested at -different dates and examined separately--Lesage, Lacoudraye, Delaporte, -Vertemart, Francoise Filastre, the Abbe Cotton--confirmed by the -declarations of several witnesses who had picked up, before the trial, -fragments of talk which escaped the accused. La Reynie emphasises the -fact that the declarations of Lesage and the girl Monvoisin were made at -an interval of sixteen months, and without their having had any -opportunity during those months of communicating with each other. - -On October 11, 1680, La Reynie writes to Louvois, who wished to save -Madame de Montespan while prosecuting the charges against the other -persons, and proposed, with that end, to withdraw from the case the -declarations made under torture by Filastre and the Abbe Cotton, which -contained the gravest charges against the favourite: 'It is certain, -even if we found a legitimate expedient for concealing from the judges -for the present the facts which it would be well to keep secret, even -for the sake of justice itself, that these very facts would crop up -again from the woman Chappelain, from Guibourg, Galet, Pelletier, -Delaporte, and perhaps from several more when under trial.' - -On the subject of the deposition made by Guibourg, La Reynie writes: 'It -is morally impossible that Guibourg has deceived us in his declaration, -and that he invented what he tells about the incantations said in course -of the masses on the women's bodies. His mind is not active or -consistent enough for such continuous thought as would have been -necessary to invent what he had said on this subject, because, even -supposing he were capable of such application, he has not enough -acquaintance with what goes on in the world, and could not have devised -so consistent a story in regard to Madame de Montespan.' Elsewhere he -writes: 'Guibourg and the girl Monvoisin have corroborated one another -about circumstances so particular and so horrible that it is difficult -to conceive two persons being able to imagine and fabricate them unknown -to each other. It seems that these things must have occurred, or they -could not have been described.' - -The illustrious magistrate adds the following reflections:-- - -'1. The time of the relations of La Voisin with Latour, the journeys to -Saint-Germain, and the powders which she made him work at, was the year -1676. - -'2. The time of the abominations described by Guibourg and the girl -Monvoisin fits the same period. - -'3. Two years ago Lesage spoke of Latour, the poisons, Desoeillets, -and the journeys of La Voisin in 1676. - -'4. It was established at the trial that two or three years before -Lesage was taken, he testified that he feared the business would ruin -him. They said at that time that the king had the vapours. He declared -that he wished to leave La Voisin on that account, and because of the -dealings she had with Desoeillets. - -'From the beginning of these inquiries, these same facts have been -spoken of; La Bosse, the first to be tried, gave the first inkling of -them; she spoke of them under torture; but, because the king had not yet -allowed this sort of facts to be collected in regard to persons of -consideration, and because there was nothing to make us pay the least -attention to them, no mention was made in the report of the torture of -La Bosse of what she had said about Madame de Montespan.' - -In this year 1676, Madame de Montespan not only had recourse to the -incantations of the black mass; at her instigation, the sorceresses sent -La Boissiere and Francoise Filastre to Normandy to a certain Louis -Galet, who had 'fine secrets' in regard to poison and love. Galet gave -them powders. As soon as his name was uttered by the prisoner before the -Chambre Ardente, an order was given for his arrest. He was flung into -prison at Caen on February 23, 1680. While still far away from the other -prisoners, detained at Vincennes or the Bastille, he was put through -interrogations, and the depositions made by him and the others coincided -with remarkable accuracy. And La Reynie's conclusion is: 'Guibourg and -Galet having confessed after the torture of La Filastre, they gave -between them a complete proof of these facts.' - - * * * * * - -It must be confessed that Madame de Montespan would have been of a -singularly incredulous nature if she had not retained a blind -confidence in the influence of the devil as invoked by the magicians -and sorceresses. Madame de Ludres was discarded, and Louis fell at -Madame de Montespan's feet again. On June 11, 1677, Madame de Sevigne -wrote to Madame de Grignan: 'Oh, my daughter, what a triumph at -Versailles! what redoubled pride! what a re-entry into possession! I was -in the room for an hour. She was in bed, decked out, with her hair done: -she was resting for the _medianoche_ (supper about midnight). She -launched shafts of contempt at poor _Io_ (Madame de Ludres), and laughed -at her having the audacity to complain of her. Imagine all that an -ungenerous pride could make her say in triumph, and you will get near -the truth. It is said that the little woman (Madame de Ludres) will -resume her ordinary duties about Madame. She went off to walk in perfect -solitude with La Moreuil in the garden of the Marshal Du Plessis.' On -June 18, Madame de Sevigne wrote to Bussy-Rabutin: 'Madame de Montespan -wanted to strangle her (Madame de Ludres), and makes her life terrible.' -On July 7, to Madame de Grignan: 'Poor _Isis_ (Madame de Ludres) has -not been to Versailles. She has remained in her solitude. When a certain -person (Madame de Montespan) speaks of her, she says, "that rag." The -event makes everything permissible.' - -'_Quanto_ and her friend Louis XIV are together longer and more eagerly -than ever they were. The ardour of the first years has returned, and all -fears are banished, all restraint removed, which persuades us that never -was empire seen more firmly established.' And a little later: 'Madame de -Montespan was the other day covered with diamonds; the brilliance of so -blazing a divinity was more than one could bear. The attachment seems -greater than ever: they are all eyes for one another: never has love -been seen to resume its sway like this.' - -Yet, courted and victorious as she was, the favourite appeared a prey to -torment; she was agitated, in a terrible fever. On January 13, 1678, the -Comte de Rebenac wrote to the Marquis de Feuquieres: 'Madame de -Montespan's gambling has reached such a pitch that losses of 100,000 -crowns (L60,000 to-day) are common. On Christmas Day she lost 700,000 -crowns; she staked 150,000 pistoles (L280,000 at the present day) on -three cards, and won.' She lost her head in her triumph--her last -triumph, dazzling but ephemeral, and about to be followed by days of -cruel anguish. - -In March 1679, Madame de Maintenon asked the Abbe Gobelin 'to pray and -to have prayers said for the king, who is on the brink of a deep -precipice.' This 'precipice' was the heart of Marie Angelique de -Scoraille, demoiselle de Fontanges. She was eighteen years old, fair, -with glossy flaxen hair; her large eyes, with their look of childish -wonderment, were a light grey, deep and limpid; her skin was white as -milk, her cheeks a lovely rose-pink; and in disposition, said her -contemporaries, she was a genuine heroine of romance. She lived at Court -in the capacity of maid of honour to Madame, as Madame de Ludres and -Mademoiselle de la Valliere had done before her. 'Mademoiselle de -Fontanges,' says Madame Palatine, 'is lovely as an angel, from head to -foot.' If we may trust Bussy-Rabutin, 'her relatives, seeing her beauty -and grace, and having more love for their fortune than for their -honour, clubbed together to fit her out for Court, and to provide her -with means corresponding to the position she was entering.' - -This was a thunderbolt for Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. We read in -the _Precis historique de Saint-Germain-en-Laye_, by Lorot and Sivry: -'Madame de Montespan left Saint-Germain suddenly because of the jealousy -she has conceived for Mademoiselle de Fontanges.' But the royal lover -did not allow his mistresses to leave him at their own whim. He had -imposed on Louise de la Valliere the bitter martyrdom of following as an -expiatory victim the triumph of Madame de Montespan; he now compelled -Madame de Montespan to witness the triumph of Mademoiselle de Fontanges. -The proud marquise resigned herself to it, at least in appearance. On -March 30, 1679, she wrote to the Duke de Noailles: 'All is very quiet -here; the king only comes into my room after mass and after supper. It -is much better to see each other seldom but pleasantly, than often with -embarrassment,' Soon even this apparent satisfaction was withdrawn from -her. The desertion was public and complete. - -According to Madame de Sevigne, 'there was a ball at Villers-Cotterets, -at Monsieur's place. There were masques. Mademoiselle de Fontanges -appeared there in great brilliance, and adorned by the hands of Madame -de Montespan.' Bussy rejoiced at the disgrace. 'Madame de Montespan has -fallen, the king regards her no more, and you may be sure the courtiers -follow his example.' - -On April 6, Madame de Sevigne wrote: 'Madame de Montespan is enraged; -she cried a good deal yesterday, and you may guess the martyrdom her -pride is suffering.' On June 15, she replies to her daughter: 'It is an -infernal position, as you say, that of her who goes four paces ahead' -(alluding to Madame de Montespan). - -She launched out into epigrams against her fortunate rival, just as she -had satirised Louise de la Valliere. 'Madame de Montespan,' writes -Bussy-Rabutin, 'seeing that the great Alcandre (Louis XIV) was drifting -away from her more and more every day, became so choleric that she began -publicly to abuse Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She told every one that -the great Alcandre was surely not very fastidious to love a creature who -had had her little love affairs in the country; that she had neither wit -nor education; and that, properly speaking, she was only a beautiful -painting. She said a thousand other things about her equally irritating. -Indeed, she always displayed the same proud spirit which nothing had -been able to quell.' - -Mademoiselle de Fontanges responded by loading her predecessor and all -her children with costly presents. She had just been proclaimed a -duchess with an annuity of 20,000 crowns. The fury of Madame de -Montespan broke out. She had a violent scene with Louis, and when the -king reproached her with her pride, her domineering spirit, and other -defects, she replied with haughty scorn, concentrating all the violence -of her wrath in one of those hard and bitter words which had made her so -much feared in the time of her reign; she answered, 'that if she had the -imperfections of which he accused her, at any rate she did not smell -worse than he.' - -'My mother,' said the girl Monvoisin, 'told me that Madame de Montespan -wanted at that time to go to extremities, and tried to induce her to do -things for which she had much repugnance. My mother gave me to -understand that it was against the king, and after hearing what had -passed at the house of Trianon (a sorceress, partner of La Voisin), I -could not doubt it.' The deserted mistress resolved to put an end to -Louis and Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She applied to the sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, and had no difficulty in getting together four -accomplices in the terrible room in the Rue Beauregard: these four were -La Voisin and La Trianon, who undertook to put Louis out of the way, and -Romani and Bertrand, 'artists in poisons,' who promised to kill -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. Madame de Montespan gave them money. - -The king was to be poisoned first. La Voisin and her associates intended -at first to put magic powders, prepared according to the formulae of the -conjuring books, on the clothes of the king, or in some place where he -was to pass, 'which Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the companion of Madame -de Montespan, said could be done easily.' The king would die of decline. -But after reflection, La Voisin decided on means, the execution of which -struck her as more certain. In conformity with the ancient custom of the -kings of France, Louis XIV used to receive in person on certain days the -petitions presented by his subjects. Everybody was introduced to his -presence without distinction of rank or condition. It was resolved to -prepare a petition and steep it in powders that had gone under the -chalice; the king would take it in his hands and get his death-blow. La -Trianon undertook the preparation of the paper, and La Voisin to place -it in the hands of the king. - -The petition was drawn up. The king's intervention was asked in favour -of a certain Blessis, an alchemist whom the Marquis de Termes was -keeping confined in his chateau. La Voisin betook herself to her friend -Leger, a _valet de chambre_ of Montausier, and asked of him a letter of -recommendation to one of his friends at Saint-Germain, who would get -her passed in among the first to an audience with the king, so that she -might herself hand him her petition. Leger replied that it was -unnecessary for her to go to Saint-Germain, as he would undertake to -forward the petition by a sure route; but the sorceress insisted on -presenting it herself. - -The boldness of La Voisin terrified the most courageous of her -companions. The majority of them feared, not death, but the horrible -tortures reserved by the law for regicides. In order to frighten her, La -Trianon cast her horoscope. This document was found among the papers -seized on the sorceress by the Chambre Ardente. La Trianon foretold that -La Voisin would be implicated in a trial for a crime against the state. -'Bah!' she replied, 'there are 100,000 crowns to be gained.' That was -the price agreed upon by La Voisin and Madame de Montespan for the -poisoning of Louis XIV. - -La Voisin set out for Saint-Germain on Sunday, March 5, 1679, -accompanied by Romani and Bertrand. She returned on Thursday, March 9, -very much put out: she had not been able to approach the king so as to -give him the petition. She could have put it on the table placed near -the king for that purpose, but the paper was useless unless it were -placed in the king's own hands. She said that she would return to -Saint-Germain, and when her husband asked her what the urgency was, she -replied: 'I must accomplish my design or perish in the attempt!' 'What! -perish!' exclaimed Monvoisin, 'that's a good deal for a piece of paper.' - -On Friday, March 10, the 'missionaries'--priests of a community founded -by St. Vincent de Paul, which has already been mentioned--paid a visit -to the sorceress. La Voisin took fright, and gave the petition to her -daughter to burn, which Marguerite did at dawn on Saturday morning. It -is needless to say that the paper had always been kept in an envelope, -for to touch it, said the sorceresses, would be certain death. On -Sunday, March 12, La Voisin was arrested; it was on Monday the 13th that -she had meant to return to Saint-Germain. News of the arrest got -abroad, and on Wednesday, March 15, Madame de Montespan fled from Court. - -In a succession of hasty notes--the sentences are not even completed, -and we have filled them out for greater clearness--La Reynie builds up a -proof of the attempt on the life of Louis XIV, planned by La Voisin as -the instrument of Madame de Montespan:-- - -'By the depositions of the girl Voisin, Romani, and Bertrand, it is -proved that the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain was to present the -petition: Bertrand wrote it out, went to learn from La Voisin what she -had done, learnt that she had been there since Sunday without being able -to present it, had brought it back, and was going to return. From this -it is evident that the ultimate object of the journey of La Voisin to -Saint-Germain was to present the petition. - -'La Trianon and La Vautier agree as to the journey. La Trianon noted in -her horoscope the state affair, the crime of high treason; when -questioned she gave bad answers; among the facts confessed to, denies -the petition; if it were an unimportant matter, would have no interest -in denying it: must have had an object, which can be nothing else than -what the girl Voisin says. - -'The journey to Saint-Germain is the more suspicious in that La Voisin, -questioned as to her various journeys, has never mentioned that one, and -would have made no ado about mentioning it if there were nothing in it. - -'To which must be added the confession made by Voisin to her guards in -prison, about the fear she had that she would be asked to explain her -journey. She said, "God has protected the king!"' - -La Reynie adds: 'La Trianon agrees that she told the girl Voisin that -the journey to Saint-Germain was the cause of her mother's arrest, that -this journey would do her harm, that she would be involved in some -affair of state. At the same time, La Voisin did not appear to be -pleased with Blessis (and consequently had no reason to make any efforts -to secure his liberty). What is still more considerable, La Trianon and -the girl Monvoisin agree that the state crime mentioned in the -horoscope was the journey to Saint-Germain.' 'Finally,' observes La -Reynie, 'this petition has been mentioned at the trial, long before the -girl Monvoisin was arrested.' On September 27, 1679, Louvois wrote to -Louis XIV: 'Your Majesty will find in this packet what Lesage has said -about the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain; he cites so many people -as witnesses to his allegations that it is difficult to believe he -invented them.' And La Reynie gives confirmation: 'Before making her -declaration, the girl Monvoisin said something about it to two prisoners -who are with her. Finally, she tried to do away with herself by -strangling before making these same declarations.' - -The assassination of the Duchess de Fontanges was intended to crown the -vengeance of Madame de Montespan. La Voisin exclaimed, in regard to -this, when dining with La Trianon: 'Oh! what a fine thing is a lover's -spite!' Romani and Bertrand were engaged to poison the young lady at the -same time that La Voisin was killing Louis _XIV_; but the poisons -employed against her were to be less rapid, so that 'she might die a -lingering death,' said the accomplices, 'and that it might be said that -she had died of grief at the death of the king.' - -Romani had planned to disguise himself as a cloth merchant. Bertrand was -to follow him as a valet. They were to present their wares to the -duchess, and even if she did not take any cloth, 'she would not refrain -from taking gloves,' said Romani, 'because those he would bring from -Grenoble would be very well made, and ladies never failed to take some -of them when they were well made, and the gloves would have the same -effect as the piece of cloth.' They actually sent to Rome and Grenoble -for gloves of the finest quality, and Romani 'prepared' them according -to the recipes of the magicians. - -We find among La Reynie's papers a series of little notes which clearly -prove the plot against the life of Madame de Fontanges. - -A last feature in the case is not the least surprising. - -We have just seen that Madame de Montespan fled from Court when she -learnt of the arrest of the sorceress and her accomplices. Her terror, -and, above all, her fury were extreme. At the moment when her fortune -was for ever ruined, when she felt that she herself was lost, she wished -at least to have the terrible joy of seeing the Duchess de Fontanges -perish at her hands. The sorceress who had been the chief instrument of -her passions was about to be interrogated, and would undoubtedly -disclose to the attentive eyes of the judges the horrible practices in -which the king's mistress had been concerned. It was at this very moment -that Madame de Montespan, burning to realise her designs, entered into -relations with Francoise Filastre, the friend of La Voisin, and after -her the most terrible sorceress in Paris. Filastre was one of those who -had devoted their children to the devil, and murdered them immediately -after birth. She went to Normandy to find Galet, who has already been -mentioned, then went to Auvergne to obtain secrets for 'poisoning -without any sign appearing.' Returning to Paris, she took steps to win -an entrance to the house of Madame de Fontanges; but her arrest -prevented her from carrying her scheme into execution. - -Nature gave to Madame de Montespan the terrible satisfaction she had -sought to obtain from magic and poison. On June 28, 1681, the Duchess de -Fontanges died at the age of twenty-two, in the abbey of Port Royal. She -was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia, tubercular in origin, the action of -which was hastened by loss of blood following an accouchement. The young -woman died convinced that she had been poisoned, and suspecting her -rival. Louis XIV, who had the same idea, feared that the autopsy might -reveal the crime, and sought to prevent it; but the relatives insisted -on it. The physicians concluded that it was a natural death. But the -opinion was still held that Madame de Fontanges had succumbed to poison -administered by Madame de Montespan, an opinion echoed by Madame de -Caylus, Madame de Maintenon, Madame Palatine, and Bussy-Rabutin. - - * * * * * - -Before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente the magician Lesage had -allowed the following remark to escape him: 'If Filastre were captured, -they would learn some strange things.' She was taken: she denied -everything before the commissioners; but on October 1, 1680, while under -torture, she confirmed in the most precise manner the revelations made -by the prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; and on that very day -Louis XIV in terror ordered the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be -suspended. On October 17, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie: 'I have -received the letters you have done me the honour to write to me, and the -king heard them read with pain.' Louis, then, ordered the closing of the -Chambre Ardente, and when on May 19, 1681, the sittings were resumed at -the entreaty of La Reynie, the judges were forbidden 'to take any steps -in regard to the declarations contained in the reports of the torture -and execution of La Filastre.' From that day Louis had no further doubts -as to the guilt of his mistress. One more proof was to be furnished him. - -The name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, Madame de Montespan's maid, -recurs on every page of the proceedings. She was continually going -backwards and forwards between her mistress and the sorceresses. The -prisoners almost all knew her: they spoke of her in the most positive -manner. The girl Monvoisin pointed out her house, where she had been -several times. Mademoiselle Desoeillets had a friend named Madame de -Villedieu, who frequently visited the sorceresses, but for her own -private ends. When La Voisin was arrested, the two friends talked about -the incident. - -'How can you be easy in mind when you have been so often to the -sorceress?' asked Madame de Villedieu. - -'The king will not allow me to be arrested.' - -The remark was voluntarily reported by Madame de Villedieu to the -detective Desgrez. And, in fact, when La Reynie on October 22, 1680, -wrote to Louvois: 'What has been said in regard to Mademoiselle -Desoeillets at the beginning and repeated at the end is so strong that -it is impossible to prevent her from being confronted with the people -who have spoken about her,' his words fell on deaf ears at Versailles. -When Madame de Villedieu was taken to Vincennes, she said: 'It is -astonishing that I am being imprisoned when I went only once to La -Voisin, while you leave Mademoiselle Desoeillets at liberty, who has -been there more than fifty times.' - -Louvois at last decided to order Mademoiselle Desoeillets to appear, -not before the judges, but before himself in his private room. On -November 18, 1680, he wrote to La Reynie:-- - -'Mademoiselle Desoeillets declares with marvellous assurance that not -one of those who have named her know her, and, to assure me of her -innocence, she charged me to urge the king to allow her to be taken to -the place where those who have deposed against her are confined. She -stakes her life that no one will be able to tell who she is. His Majesty -has therefore been pleased to decide that I shall take her to Vincennes -next Friday, and bring down Lesage, the girl Voisin, Guibourg, and the -other persons who, as you inform me, have spoken of her. The person of -whom I have just spoken will enter and show herself to them, and I will -ask them if they know her, without naming her to them.' - -The result did not justify Louvois' hopes. La Reynie showed at that time -that, unknown to him and in spite of his vigilance, some one was holding -communication with the prisoners in Vincennes, who were receiving -information from without. This 'some one' was Madame de Montespan. No -doubt the lieutenant of police took greater precautions on this -occasion. The prisoners were not able to receive preliminary coaching, -with the result that one and all immediately recognised the favourite's -maid. - -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, moreover, was under great illusions as to -the impunity that would be assured to her. Louis XIV did not allow her -to appear before the judges, nor even to be confronted with the -prisoners, but he had her shut up for the rest of her days in close -confinement. The wretched woman died on September 8, 1686, in the -general hospital of Tours. And poor Madame de Villedieu, whose only -crime was that she was for a moment in the confidence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, was visited with the same fate, because of the necessity -of keeping the great secret. - -When he learned suddenly of all the crimes with which the woman he had -most loved was stained--the woman whom, in the eyes of Europe, he had -made queen of the French Court, who was the mother of his favourite -children--what were the sentiments and the attitude of King Louis? What -passed in his soul, immured, for posterity as for his contemporaries, in -that 'terrible majesty' of which Saint-Simon speaks? - -About the middle of August 1680, Louvois, who in this dreadful business -devoted all his intelligence and all his influence to protect Madame de -Montespan, arranged a _tete-a-tete_ with the king. Madame de Maintenon -anxiously observed them from a distance. 'Madame de Montespan at first -wept,' she says, 'threw reproaches upon him, and at last spoke with -pride.' At the first moment, under the shock of the king's declarations, -Madame de Montespan had been utterly crushed, had burst into tears of -confusion and humiliation; then, regaining command of herself, the -masterful woman had risen to the height of her pride, with all the force -of her passion and her hatred for her rivals. If it was true, she -declared, that she had been driven to great crimes, it was because her -love for the king was great, and great also were the harshness, cruelty, -and infidelity of him to whom she had sacrificed everything. And the -king might strike at her, but he could not forget that he would, with -the same stroke, injure in the eyes of France and Europe the mother of -his children--children who had been made legitimate children of France. -Madame de Montespan left this interview irrevocably ruined, but at the -same time definitively saved. - -We must remember the rank to which Louis had raised his mistress. It was -of the utmost importance to him to avoid a scandal. Even by exiling the -fallen favourite, thus absolutely disgracing her, he would run the risk -of unloosing storms. La Reynie, who, thanks to his genius for reading -the hearts of men, knew Madame de Montespan's character thoroughly, -warned Louvois: 'We cannot but fear extraordinary scandals, the -consequence of which cannot be foreseen.' Louvois, Colbert, and Madame -de Maintenon herself united their efforts to soften too violent a fall. -Colbert had just betrothed his younger daughter to Madame de Montespan's -nephew. We know, moreover, how much the famous statesman had at heart -the national greatness to which he had so arduously contributed, and -which in his view could not be dissevered from the greatness of the -king. Madame de Maintenon had tenderly trained the children of Madame de -Montespan, and retained a real affection for them all her life long. Let -us add that Louis, with all his faults--his selfishness, his coarseness, -his lack of feeling, his mediocre intellect--had at least a high -sentiment of the royal dignity, and that in this awful crisis he did not -for a moment depart from that calm and tranquil majesty at which all who -approached him never ceased to wonder. Madame de Montespan was not -driven from Court. She left her splendid apartments on the first floor -for apartments remoter from the centre of the king's life. Louis -continued to receive her in public, and publicly paid her visits which -deceived careless observers; but practised eyes perceived the profound -change which had taken place beneath these external appearances. Madame -de Sevigne wrote to her daughter that Louis treated Madame de Montespan -with harshness; Bussy-Rabutin wrote that he treated her with scorn. Thus -began the expiatory martyrdom which lasted for twenty-seven years. - -On March 15, 1691, Madame de Montespan retired to Paris, going into the -community of St. Joseph which she had founded. Louis granted her a right -royal pension, 10,000 pistoles--L20,000 of to-day--a month; but when, in -1692, the double marriage of Madame de Montespan's children, -Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke de Maine, was celebrated with the -Duke de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Charolais, Louis did not allow -their mother to appear at the ceremony or to sign the contract. - -In the early days of her retirement Madame de Montespan had the greatest -difficulty in accommodating herself to the calm monotony of her retreat -at St. Joseph's. 'She aired her leisure and anxieties,' says -Saint-Simon, 'at Bourbon, at Fontevrault, at her estate at Antin, and -for years was quite unable to regain repose of mind.' What were these -anxieties? Saint-Simon could not explain them; but we are acquainted -with them to-day. - -Madame de Montespan was much distressed at abandoning the glory of the -world; but from the day when the renunciation was made, she threw -herself with as much passion into penitence as she had displayed in -ambition and love. 'From the moment of her retirement to St. Joseph's,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till her death, her conversion never belied itself, -and her penitence continually augmented.' She might have been seen then, -in the Carmelite convent in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, imploring -from her old rival, whom she had so harshly persecuted--the gentle and -saintly Louise de la Valliere, Sister Louise de la Misericorde--the -words which give ease of mind and forgetfulness of the past. Though she -tenderly loved those of her children whom she had borne to Louis XIV, it -was towards the Duke d'Antin, the son she had by the Marquis de -Montespan, that she diverted her solicitude, from a sense of duty, and, -as Saint-Simon tells us, 'she occupied herself with enriching him.' 'The -king had no manner of dealings with her,' writes the great chronicler, -'even through their children. Their attentions were discouraged, they -thenceforth saw her only rarely and after having asked permission. The -Pere de la Tour wrung from her a terrible act of penitence, namely, to -beg her husband's pardon and place herself again in his hands. She wrote -herself in the most submissive terms, offering to return to him if he -would deign to receive her, or to repair to whatever place he pleased to -command. To any one who knew Madame de Montespan, this was a sacrifice -of the most heroic kind. She had all the merit of it without undergoing -the experience. Monsieur de Montespan sent word that he would neither -receive her nor lay any commands upon her, and that he never wished to -hear her name mentioned for the rest of his life.' - -She had no further relations with the Court, the ministers, -_intendants_, or judges; she asked nothing of any man, either for her or -hers, and employed the vast income she owed to the king in doing good -all around her, bestowing alms with ceaseless and unparalleled -generosity, and endowing religious foundations. 'Beautiful as the day,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till the last hour of her life; though she was not -ill, she always fancied that she was, and that she was going to die.' -This anxiety encouraged a taste for travelling, and in her travels she -always took with her seven or eight persons as a suite. Between her -outbursts of piety and the blossoming forth of her charity, incessant -remorse thus made its appearance, as well as the continual need she felt -of deadening her thoughts. Only Louis XIV, Louvois, and La Reynie could -have explained the following page borrowed from Saint-Simon:-- - -'Little by little she proceeded to give all that she had to the poor. -She worked for them several hours a day at humble and rough tasks, to -wit, making shirts and other such-like things, and she made those about -her work at them too. Her table, which she had loved to excess, became -particularly frugal; her fasts were multiplied, her piety interrupted -her entertaining and the harmless little card-play at which she amused -herself, and at all hours of the day she would leave everything to go -and pray in her closet. Her mortification of the flesh was constant: her -chemises and sheets were of the roughest and coarsest unbleached linen, -but they were concealed under ordinary sheets and underwear. She -continually wore steel bracelets and garters, and a girdle of steel -which often wounded her; and her tongue, formerly so terrible a member, -had its penance also. She was further so tortured by horror of death -that she paid several women whose sole employment was to watch her. She -lay at night with all the bed-curtains thrown back, with many candles in -her room, her watchers around her, and whenever she woke up she wished -to find them chatting, playing cards, or eating, to make sure that they -did not fall a-nodding.' - -The hour so much dreaded at last struck. She had a singular presentiment -of it a year beforehand. At the first attack of illness she saw that her -end was near. It came on May 27, 1707, at Bourbon. - -'She profited by a brief respite from pain to confess and receive the -sacraments. Previously she had all her servants, even the humblest, -brought in, made public confession of her public sins, and besought -pardon for the scandal she had so long given, and even for her fits of -temper, with a humility so real and deep and penitent that nothing could -have been more edifying. She then received the last sacraments with -ardent piety. The dread of death which all her life had so continually -troubled her suddenly vanished and troubled her no more. She thanked God -in the presence of them all for permitting her to die in a place where -she was far away from the children of her sin, and during her illness -spoke of them only this once. She was engrossed in the thought of -eternity, in some hope of a cure with which they tried to flatter her, -and in her condition as a sinner whose fear was tempered by a steady -confidence in the mercy of God, with no regrets, solely intent on -rendering to Him the sacrifice most pleasing to Him, with a gentleness -and peacefulness which accompanied all her actions.' - -The courtiers were surprised at the indifference Louis displayed on -learning of the death of his sometime mistress. To the Duchess of -Burgundy, who remarked on it, he replied that, since he had dismissed -her, he had counted on never seeing her again, and that she was from -that time dead to him. He openly reproved the grief manifested by Madame -de Montespan's children; and, to the stupefaction of the Court, he -forbade them to wear mourning, a circumstance the more incomprehensible -because at that same date the Princess de Conti, daughter of Louis XIV -and Louise de la Valliere, was wearing mourning for Madame de la -Valliere her aunt. - -It would be unjust to judge Madame de Montespan solely by what has been -here said. We have spoken only of the crimes to which she was driven by -the violence of her passions. We have not recalled the wealth she -distributed with as much liberality as discretion, or the brilliance -given to the Court by her grace and wit, or the enlightened protection -which the greatest writers and artists found in her, the radiant -kindliness with which she sweetened the declining years of the great -Corneille--in a word, the innumerable deeds of kindness she performed -with as much intelligence as affection, the fruits of some of which -remain to this day. It would require a Racine, with his penetrating -mind, his ability to reconcile opposite extremes in one and the same -character, and the harmonious majesty of his language, to speak of -Madame de Montespan. Bright and radiantly beautiful, of queenly -elegance, charming by the distinction of her manners and the delicate -wit of her conversation, light-hearted and joyous, she dominated the -whole Court of France--this horrible client of the Abbe Guibourg, of La -Filastre and La Voisin. - - - - -III. A MAGISTRATE - - -Lieutenant of police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was the mainspring of -the proceedings against the poisoners. He alone carried through the vast -operations, bristling with difficulties. And it would be impossible to -find any point of his administration in which his genius and his -character appear in a more striking or complete manner. It is thanks to -him, and to the careful notes he took daily on the cases of the -prisoners, that we have been able to discover the facts of which Louis -XIV believed he had destroyed every trace when he ordered the burning of -the various documents in his private room. - -Saint-Simon, who has utterly shattered reputations which seemed firm as -rock, pauses with respect before Nicolas de la Reynie, though the -functions with which he was endowed were a subject of genuine abhorrence -to him. 'La Reynie, councillor of state,' he writes, 'so well known for -having been the first to lift the office of lieutenant of police from -its natural low estate, and for making it a sort of ministerial office; -a man of great importance too, because of the king's direct confidence -in him, his constant relations with the Court, and the number of things -in which he is concerned, and in which he has infinite powers of serving -or harming in innumerable ways people of the greatest importance, -obtained at length in 1697, at the age of eighty, permission to resign -so arduous an employment, which he had for the first time ennobled by -the equity, moderation, and disinterestedness with which he had -fulfilled it, without swerving from the greatest scrupulousness, and -doing the least possible injury as seldom as possible; he was, moreover, -a man of great virtue and capacity, who in an office which he had, so to -speak, created, and in which he was bound to draw upon him the hatred of -the public, nevertheless won universal esteem.' - -We have a portrait of La Reynie by his friend Mignard, and an admirable -etching of the painting by Van Schuppen. Engraving has never reproduced -human features with more clearness, colour, and lifelikeness. The face -bespeaks a clear, powerful, and well-balanced intelligence; the eyes -express a firm and thoughtful kindliness. Such was the La Reynie who -investigated the great poison cases. - -Though Bazin de Bezons of the French Academy had been associated with -him in the Chambre Ardente as examining commissioner, it was the -lieutenant of police who did all the work. The number of depositions, -interrogatories, confrontations, pleadings, and other documents which he -collected is enormous; and we see the magistrate with sure hand cutting -a way through this tangled forest, guided by his experience, his -knowledge of the human soul, and his clear intellect. - -The memorials he has left on questions of the greatest difficulty are -useful and interesting to study, because of the method of work they -reveal. It is exactly the method which our old professors of rhetoric -used to teach for the orderly arrangement of a French dissertation or an -historical essay. The principal and fundamental fact is noted down about -the middle of the left-hand page, with a large bracket embracing -sub-divisions; each of these sub-divisions is in turn accompanied by a -bracket embracing sub-divisions of these sub-divisions; and so on to the -end of the right-hand page, which is filled from top to bottom with -minute and close writing: there you have a multitude of slight facts -following one another in methodical order, all focussing on the -principal fact, found, as we have said, in the middle of the left-hand -page. There is no college student but has built up his schemes for -French essays on this model. But there is no question, in La Reynie's -portfolios, of rhetorical dissertations or Latin compositions; he deals -there with irrevocable sentences about to be pronounced 'on the flesh -and blood of men,' to use his own phrase. And if we go from these -bracketed plans to the memoirs and reports to which they guided the -magistrate's thought, we find ourselves in possession of marvels of -clear thinking and judging. - -During the long poison case, La Reynie showed himself indefatigable in -work. He had no other concern than right and the triumph of justice. And -in proportion as the number of criminals increased, and the greatest -names in the French nobility and Parlement were found to be compromised -by his inquiries--in proportion as relatives, friends, all who feared -for themselves, and nobility and Parlement fearing for their honour and -their privileges, were up in arms against him, his courage grew, his -activity redoubled; he pushed on his inquiries, urging the king, urging -the ministers, demanding new warrants, fresh arrests, seeking permission -to extend his formidable investigations over an ever-widening circle. - -Sorceresses and magicians thronged about the royal Court like swarms of -wasps about a hive of honey. In this monstrous hive were concentrated -the wealth and honours which awoke and stimulated the ambitions and -passions in which the sorceresses found their booty. - -The sorceresses had little lodgings at Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau, -Versailles, around the palaces. They won admission to the Court as -fruit-sellers or dealers in perfumes distilled by the magicians; they -offered pastes for softening the skin and waters for improving the -complexion. They allied themselves with the domestics of great houses, -and domiciled themselves with the laundresses connected with them. They -were intimates of those persons who hung about the Court with the -curious profession of presenters of petitions. They sometimes even -entered the service of a duke or a marchioness. La Cheron was with -Monsieur de Noailles and Monsieur de Rabaton in succession. La Vigoureux -was actively engaged in finding places for serving-maids and lackeys. We -have seen the relations between the fortune-tellers and Leroy, governor -of the pages of the Petite Ecurie. Girardin, governor of the dauphin's -pages, was connected with the magician Belot. Blessis, a crony of La -Voisin, was presented to the queen by Madame de Bethune, by the queen to -the dauphin, and by the dauphin to the king. - -Among the _bourgeoises_ of Paris who were struck at by the depositions -of the fortune-tellers we have indicated the principal ones, and then, -coming to the Court ladies, the most illustrious of all, Madame de -Montespan. But how many others La Reynie had to deal with! The beautiful -Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta of England, was accused, not without the -greatest probability, of having had a mass said against her husband, -with the incantations of sorcery, in the Palais-Royal itself. Madame de -Polignac and Madame de Gramont tried to get Louise de la Valliere -poisoned. The Countess de Soissons, Olympe Mancini, who had inspired -Louis XIV with his first passion, was compromised so deeply that, warned -by the king, she fled into the Netherlands. Louis XIV said to the -Princess de Carignan, Madame de Soissons' mother: 'I was determined -that the countess should escape; perhaps some day I shall render an -account therefor to God and my people.' - -When Madame de Montespan was at the height of her power, rivals, jealous -of her good fortune, applied to the sorceresses for formulae and powders -to 'send her packing,' just as she had done with the idea of getting rid -of La Valliere. These were the Duchess of Angouleme, Madame de Vitry, -and her own sister-in-law, Antoinette de Mesmes, Duchess de Vivonne. The -practices to which this last had recourse were precisely the same as -those with which the secret life of Madame de Montespan has acquainted -us. She applied to La Filastre and La Chappelain, who were also employed -by the dazzling mistress of the king. The sorceresses did not hesitate -between the two sisters-in-law, thinking to come off well either way: if -the one wished to retain the affection of the king, the other sought to -possess herself of it, and in either case money would fall into their -purses. Louis did not allow the Duchess de Vivonne to be proceeded -against, related so closely as she was to Madame de Montespan. It is -probable also that he was dissuaded from it by Colbert, who had married -one of his daughters to the Duke de Mortemart, son of the duchess. - -We may imagine the emotion, agitation, and anxieties aroused at Court -and in Paris by the prosecutions directed by the Chambre Ardente against -so large a number of persons belonging to the most distinguished -families: the arrests of Mesdames de Dreux and Leferon, of Poulaillon -and the Abbe Mariette, relatives of the chief magistrates; the warrants -issued against the Duchess de Bouillon, the Princess de Tingry, the wife -of Marshal la Ferte, the Countess de Roure; the hasty flight out of the -kingdom of the Marchioness d'Alluye, the Viscountess de Polignac, the -Count Clermont-Lodeve, the Marquis de Cessac, the Countess de Soissons; -the imprisonment in the Bastille of the famous Marshal de Luxembourg, -who had employed magicians to beg the devil to remove his wife. 'Every -one is agitated,' wrote Madame de Sevigne, on January 26, 1680, 'every -one is sending for news and going into houses to pick them up.' - -Further, the public imagination was impressed; crimes were the stock -topic of conversation. The most trifling accidents were attributed to -poison. Every husband was accused of poisoning his mother-in-law. Terror -reigned in Paris. - -Then there was a reaction. Nobles and lawyers displayed equal irritation -at the Chamber's daring to push its investigations the length of them. -Were rank and name no longer a rampart high enough against the -inquisitions of a lieutenant of police? There was an end to society. The -result was, that ere long the only person in the whole matter who -appeared really criminal in the eyes of people of importance was La -Reynie himself. 'To-day,' says Madame de Sevigne, 'the cry is, the -innocence of the accused and the horrid scandal! You know this sort of -parrot cry. Nothing else is talked about in any company. There is -scarcely another example of such a scandal in any Christian court.' And -some days later, playing sedulous echo to the general gossip, the -charming marchioness said it was a shame to haul up people of position -for such a pack of nonsense. 'The reputation of Monsieur de la Reynie -is abominable,' she wrote to her daughter on May 31, 1680; 'what you say -is exactly to the point; his being alive proves that there are no -poisoners in France.' La Reynie had just discovered, indeed, a plot to -murder him. - -The reader will remember the demonstration organised against the -lieutenant of police at the time of the liberation of Madame de Dreux, -who was carried off in triumph between her husband, the _maitre des -requetes_, and her lover, Monsieur de Richelieu. The nobility got up a -similar demonstration when Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess de Bouillon, -appeared before the Chambre Ardente. She had done her best to find means -of quickly ridding herself of her husband, so that she might marry the -Duke de Vendome. The Duke de Bouillon was informed of it by Louis -himself. Yet the duke accompanied his wife on January 29, 1680, to the -Arsenal, giving her his right hand, while the Duke de Vendome gave her -his left: an exact repetition of the scene when Madame de Dreux left the -Chambre Ardente between her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu. - -Madame de Sevigne has noted down the details of this merry frolic. -Madame de Bouillon arrived in a coach drawn by six horses, seated -between her husband and her lover, followed by twenty other coaches, -packed full of the smartest noblemen and daintiest ladies of the Court. -The Marquis de la Fare confirms this account: 'The Duchess de Bouillon -made a proud and confident appearance before the judges, accompanied by -all her friends, who were in large numbers, and a most distinguished -crowd.' 'Madame de Bouillon entered the Chambre like a little queen,' -says Madame de Sevigne; 'she sat down on a chair prepared for her, and -instead of replying to the first question, she asked that what she -wanted to say might be written down: which was, that she only came there -out of respect for the king; she had none at all for the Chambre, which -she did not recognise; and that she did not mean to allow any derogation -to the ducal privilege.' (This privilege consisted in the right of not -being tried except by all the courts united in Parlement.) 'She would -not say a word till that was written down, and then she took off her -glove and showed a very beautiful hand. She replied honestly enough -until her age was asked. - -'"Do you know La Vigoureux?" - -'"No." - -'"Do you know La Voisin?" - -'"Yes." - -'"Why do you wish to do away with your husband?" - -'"I do away with him? Why, you have only to ask him if he thinks so; he -gave me his hand to this very door." - -'"But why did you go so often to La Voisin's house?" - -'"I wanted to see the Sibyls she promised to show me; that company would -be well worth all my journeys." - -'She was asked if she had not shown the woman a bag of money. She said -"No," and for more than one reason, and this she said with a very -mocking and disdainful air. - -'"Well, gentlemen, is that all you have to say to me?" - -'"Yes, madam." - -'She rose and said aloud as she went out, "Really, I should never have -believed that clever men could ask so many silly questions." - -'She was received by all her friends and relatives with adoration, she -was so pretty, naive, natural, bold, so pleasant in appearance and so -quiet in mind.' One of the replies she made to La Reynie, who asked her -if she had really seen the devil at the sorceress's, was: 'I see him -now: he is ugly, old, and disguised as a councillor of state.' This soon -got abroad outside the Chambre, and set all Paris and the Court in good -humour. - -The charges against the Duchess de Bouillon were, nevertheless, very -serious. It was proved to the commissioners that she had asked the -sorceresses to poison the Duke de Bouillon or to procure his death by -witchcraft. Madame de Sevigne thought the matter of little importance. -'The Duchess de Bouillon,' she wrote to her daughter, 'went and asked La -Voisin for a little poison to get rid of an old husband who was boring -her to death, and an invention to marry a young man who wanted her, -without any one knowing it. This young fellow was Monsieur de Vendome, -who took her to the Arsenal holding one hand, Monsieur de Bouillon -holding the other. When a Mancini only commits a folly like that, it is -winked at; these sorceresses do the thing seriously, and horrify all -Europe about a trifle.' Louis XIV took a more severe view of it, and -decided that Madame de Bouillon should be confronted with La Voisin. The -pretty face of the young duchess became graver when she heard this, and -she begged to be spared this indignity. The king complied, but exiled -her to Nerac, whence he would not allow her to return, in spite of the -entreaties of her many friends. - - * * * * * - -The revelations which ensued before the Chambre struck a more cruel blow -at La Reynie's soul than the anger of the world. Wrapped in his -consciousness of rectitude, he heard cries and threats only as the faint -murmurs of a distant mob. - -Three sentiments dominated him and guided his whole life: the religious -sentiment, which declared itself in a strong, sane, simple piety, the -piety of a man possessing a quiet conviction of the truth of his faith; -love for his king, a love composed of respect and admiration, with -shades of affection like that of a son for a father, and allied also to -a religious veneration; finally, a high sentiment of his judicial office -with an immovable respect for justice. His worship of the king extended -to all that concerned and surrounded him, to all that he loved and -honoured. The greatness of Louis XIV is easily explained, in spite of -his personal mediocrity, when we see with what passion and by what men -he was served. The revelations about Madame de Montespan, the mother of -the king's children, the woman who had almost won a seat on the throne -of France, were anguish to La Reynie. It is touching to see his grief -becoming more keen, more poignant, as evidence accumulated and -conviction forced itself upon his mind. 'Private facts,' he writes at -the head of a memorandum in which the charges against Madame de -Montespan are summed up, 'which were painful to listen to, the idea of -which is so grievous to recall and which are still more difficult to -relate.' In the light of these revelations his judgment, usually so -clear, precise, and sure, became confused, and being unable to believe -what he saw, he fancied that his own vision was becoming imperfect. 'I -recognise my weakness. In spite of myself, the nature of these private -circumstances (those concerning Madame de Montespan) impresses my mind -with more fear than is reasonable. These crimes scare me.' Then he -recurs to the documents with judicial composure. 'These are the very -deeds we must look upon and draw our inferences from.' But it was just -the inferences deduced from these actions that his mind could not admit. -'I recognise that I cannot pierce the thick darkness with which I am -surrounded. I ask for time to think more about it; and perhaps it will -happen that, after much thinking, I shall see even less than I see now. -After well considering everything, I have found no other course to -suggest than to seek for further enlightenment, and to await the aid of -Providence, which has drawn from the feeblest imaginable beginnings the -knowledge of this infinite number of strange things it was so necessary -to know. All that has happened hitherto leads us to hope (and I do hope -with great confidence) that God will at length reveal this abyss of -crime, that He will at the same time show the means to escape from it, -and inspire the king with all that he ought to do in a matter of such -importance.' - -In studying these reports of La Reynie to Louvois, we discover a -circumstance as impressive as curious. In the course of his memoranda, -the magistrate clearly and logically unfolds the reality of the charges -against the favourite, but when in closing it falls upon him to draw -practical conclusions, his mind shrinks from the task, his thought takes -fright like a horse shying before an unexpected obstacle. 'I have done -what I could, when I examined the proofs and the presumptions, to assure -myself and remain convinced that the facts are genuine, and I could not -succeed. I have sought, on the other hand, everything that might -persuade me that they were false, and that too has been impossible.' - -His distress was augmented by the conflict which arose in his -conscience between the duties he owed to justice and those he owed his -king. 'At that time when my mind was so cast down,' he wrote, 'I -besought God in His mercy to permit me to preserve the fidelity I owed -to my office, and to enable me to walk sincerely in all that it pleased -the king to command me.' Louis XIV ordered that a portion of the case -should be withdrawn from the cognisance of the judges. The blow was so -hard to La Reynie that his strength of mind wellnigh failed under it. 'I -hope,' he wrote to Louvois on October 17, 1681, 'that his Majesty in his -favour and goodness will have compassion on my weakness when he -considers that, with the fear and respect I could not fail to be in, -occupied moreover and filled with the idea of a judge who, in giving a -decision contrary to the truth, should judge and be a party to a -judgment involving the life of men, I could not at the moment recognise -the false position in which I was, nor represent to his Majesty that the -affair in question was in the nature of the case not susceptible of the -proposed expedient.' - -For a moment his resolution seems to have been taken: he would put -himself blindly and unreservedly in the hands of the king who had -received from God, he writes, higher lights than those of other men; but -the next instant the judge reappears in him and determines him, alone, -unaided, subordinate official as he was, to enter into a struggle -against the powerful ministers supported by the will and favour of the -king. - -At this moment his character reveals itself in all its greatness. - -He went straight to Louis XIV and laid before him the charges against -his mistress; then he wrote energetically to Louvois: 'In spite of all -the care that has been taken, all these facts (against Madame de -Montespan) have cropped up so often, in so many different quarters, and -with so many details, that the king has been obliged to allow the -interrogation of the prisoners about the favourite, but in private.' - -Louvois, one of the most intimate and well-liked friends of Madame de -Montespan, did everything he could to save her. Madame de Maintenon, -indeed, was hostile to her, and he feared her growing favour. Besides, -as the Venetian ambassador observes, Louvois 'worshipped the French -monarchy, to which everything seemed to him subordinate.' He felt bound -to protect the prestige of the crown against the injury which the -condemnation of the favourite would do it. Finally, in defending her, he -thought he would ingratiate himself with Louis. - -Louvois endeavoured to bring La Reynie over to his views, to persuade -him, at first gently, that it was important that the examining judge -should find Madame de Montespan innocent. Louvois spoke, urged, -demonstrated: La Reynie listened, but did not heed. The minister then -changed his tone. He sought to prove to the magistrate that Madame de -Montespan must really be innocent. He went to Paris on February 15, -1681, to explain the matter to him. Had not Mademoiselle Desoeillets, -the favourite's maid, written that 'she was not guilty, and that what he -(La Reynie) had been told about her dealings with La Voisin could not be -true; that there were twenty women about Madame de Montespan, of whom -eighteen hated her, and that they might be asked for information about -her, but she thought that the Countess de Soissons had two maids, one of -whom was almost her own height, and that the countess might well have -taken her name (the name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets), to injure both -her and Madame de Montespan, whom she hated.' - -La Reynie replied that all that was wanted was to confront the young -lady with the prisoners at Vincennes. We have already shown that the -confrontation took place and that Mademoiselle Desoeillets was -recognised. Louvois had perforce to devise another defence, to which the -inflexible La Reynie made answer: 'After reflecting on what Mademoiselle -Desoeillets said to Monsieur de Louvois at Vincennes, about her having -a niece who was very often with the sorceresses, and who might easily -have been mistaken for her, I think it doubtful, because she only said -so after having been recognised by the prisoners, and because Madame de -Villedieu her good friend, who is at Vincennes, and had had warnings, -tried to mislead us in the same way; it appears a concerted plan; and -when I asked her what Mademoiselle Desoeillets was like, she told me -that she was small, short, and well-developed, which is a false -description and exactly fits the niece.' - -When it was pointed out to La Reynie that La Voisin had denied all -knowledge of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, he replied: 'The denial of La -Voisin, persisted in till her death, must be the more suspicious in that -it was so obstinately kept up, because it is now proved that they had -dealings together. If Mademoiselle Desoeillets herself denies these -dealings, that itself can only increase the suspicion.' - -Louvois dwelt also on a retractation made by La Filastre after her -conversation with her confessor at the moment of going to execution; but -the lieutenant of police replied: 'The declaration made by La Filastre -exonerating Madame de Montespan applies solely to the poisoning of -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. There are two other facts: that of the mass -said over her by Guibourg, and further, the agreement between them in -regard to the powders prepared by Galet for the king, in which Madame -de Montespan was named; and the charges founded on these two facts do -not depend wholly on what was said under torture, but were confirmed -afresh by the same declaration in which La Filastre retracted the first -charge.' - -La Reynie thus defended himself and justice, and soon, strong in the -rights of the law, he went on from defence to attack. He revealed to the -minister the relations which several of the Vincennes prisoners who were -mixed up in Madame de Montespan's affair had had with persons of the -Court. - -These had given instruction and counsel. La Reynie condemned these -manoeuvres before the very minister who, at the instigation of the -king, had been their author. - -'And several of these prisoners of rank,' he added courageously, 'have -found means of having some of the charges brought against them -withdrawn.' - -La Reynie was not satisfied with denying the innocence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets; he told Louvois: 'It is difficult for her to be left at -liberty after such charges. Apprised of all that has been said against -her, she is busy taking measures to render her conviction impossible, -and she will take these measures along with other ill-disposed persons.' - -In case he should not be authorised to arrest her, La Reynie asks that -he may at least be permitted to proceed to her examination; and he -sketches for Louvois a very skilful plan, showing the ingenious and -subtle means by which, without violence or scandal, the confidante might -be induced to reveal the truth. - -It is hardly necessary to say that these propositions were rejected by -Louis and his minister. The magistrate, nevertheless, persevered in the -path he had marked out for himself, even after Louvois, to overcome his -scruples, had enlisted the assistance of Colbert, the second of the -all-powerful ministers. - -Boileau once said: 'I admire Monsieur Colbert's inability to endure -Suetonius because Suetonius had revealed the infamy of the emperors.' -There we have the explanation of his conduct, apart from the personal -interest he had in the innocence of Madame de Montespan. - -Colbert had only followed at a distance the work of the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, and he knew only vaguely the charges brought -against the king's mistress. He applied to a celebrated advocate of the -time, Maitre Duplessis, for a statement establishing the innocence of -Madame de Montespan, and indicating means of quashing the unhappy -proceedings. Colbert even did his best to supply him with arguments. - -Duplessis drew up the statement desired. Colbert acknowledged its -receipt on February 25, 1681: 'I have seen and examined with care the -memorandum you have sent me; I have to receive another to-morrow on the -second charge (the attempted poisoning of Mademoiselle de Fontanges), -which is no less serious than the first (the attempt on Louis XIV by -means of the petition), and the disproof of which is, in my opinion, -more complete and perfect.' And Duplessis sent him a second statement -with these words: 'Have the goodness to look at the general observation -at the beginning, because it may provide answers to many things which -appear sufficiently well proved.' The memorials of Duplessis, backed up -by Colbert, had no more effect on La Reynie than the arguments of -Louvois. The advocate and the minister asked that the prisoners should -be dealt with summarily by the Chambre, that torture should not be -applied so that they might not reveal the gravest facts, and that as -soon as the case had been rapidly despatched, all the documents should -be burnt forthwith. But La Reynie said that it was impossible not to -follow the rules of justice, and that the Chambre could only judge -according to custom and law. - - * * * * * - -The Chambre Ardente was in a quandary. On the one hand it saw the -necessity of yielding to the absolute refusal of Louis to authorise the -reading in court of the documents in which Madame de Montespan was -concerned; on the other, there was the no less absolute refusal of La -Reynie to allow the judges to pronounce a sentence in which all the -guarantees custom gave the accused were not respected. It seemed a -complete deadlock. The king had gradually allowed himself to be led very -far from the resolutions of rigorous equity which he had at first -displayed. He had violated the secrets of the documents so far as to -communicate to persons of note such parts of the reports of the -investigations as concerned them; he had connived at the flight of the -Prince de Clermont-Lodeve, the Countess de Soissons, and many others. He -had trembled at the thought of what revelations La Voisin might make: 'I -explained to the king,' wrote Louvois to Bazin de Bezons on December 3, -1679, 'of the reasons you and the commissioners have for beginning the -investigation of La Voisin's case, but his Majesty did not give his -approval; and this evening I shall give orders to Boucherat and La -Reynie not to bring it into court.' - -On July 18, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie from Montreuil-sur-Mer: -'The king has not thought fit to give the order you request that the -commissioners may be authorised to give judgment in case of necessity, -his Majesty not regarding it as seemly that the Chambre should judge -prisoners in his absence.' In spite of the efforts made to enwrap the -sittings at the Arsenal in impenetrable secrecy, public opinion was not -deceived, and we find evidence in many private letters that the king was -preventing the prosecution of 'people of the Court.' 'You are aiming at -riff-raff,' exclaimed Lalande, one of the prisoners, in open court on -July 31, 1681, 'and you ought to aim higher.' - -At length, as we have seen, after the declaration of La Filastre on -October 1, 1680, the sittings of the Chambre were suddenly suspended. - -'This day, October 1, 1680, in execution of the decree of September 30 -of the said year, which condemned Francoise Filastre and Jacques Joseph -Cotton to death, they have been put to torture ordinary and -extraordinary; but the said Filastre having made, both at and apart from -torture, declarations of great importance, and the king having seen the -report containing fresh declarations made by her in the chapel of the -said chateau of the Bastille before going to execution, his Majesty, for -considerations important to his service, was unwilling that the said -matters should be laid in gross before the Chambre, and gave orders to -Monsieur Boucherat, President of the said court, to close the sittings.' - -From that day there was open conflict between the lieutenant of police -on the one hand and the ministers supported by all the ladies and -courtiers on the other. 'The king,' wrote La Reynie's secretaries, 'was -strongly urged by the courtiers, and even by persons in high places, to -close the Chambre entirely, under various pretexts, the most specious of -which was that a longer investigation of the poisoning cases would bring -the nation into discredit abroad.' La Reynie pleaded in answer the -respect due to justice, the duty incumbent on the king to have the -greatest criminals who had ever appeared in his kingdom brought to trial -and punished, and finally, the necessity of purging France of these -appalling practices in poison and sacrilege, which had taken in a few -years proportions that no one would have conceived possible. He went to -Versailles and talked to the king for four days in succession, and for -four hours each day. It is a pity that we have no record of the words he -addressed to the king and his ministers. Single-handed, he vanquished -them all. - -'Monsieur de la Reynie having been heard by the king in his cabinet, in -presence of the Chancellor and Monsieur de Colbert and the Marquis de -Louvois, on four different days, and for four hours each day, his -Majesty at length resolved on the continuation of the Chambre, and -ordered Monsieur de la Reynie to continue his ordinary investigations; -nevertheless, to take no steps on any of the declarations contained in -the reports of the torture and execution of La Filastre, which his -Majesty, for considerations relating to his service, does not wish to be -divulged.' - -The court sitting at the Arsenal resumed its labours on May 19, 1681, -but on the condition laid down by the king that nothing further should -be done in regard to the declarations in which Madame de Montespan had -been involved. On December 17, the facts which he had wished to keep -from the knowledge of the judges reappeared with new force at the -examination of La Joly. Louvois at once wrote to Bazin de Bezons, the -fellow-commissioner of La Reynie, instructing him to be careful to put -all these declarations into separate portfolios not to be shown to the -judges. La Reynie in fact perceived that the difficulties of the Court, -in regard to a regular performance of its duties, were increasing from -day to day, and it was not long before he understood, and made his -colleagues see also, that the mere fact of the suppression of the report -containing the replies of Filastre under torture rendered it impossible -to investigate legally the cases of the principal prisoners. This he -clearly demonstrated in notes really admirable in their outspokenness -and sound judgment. And to measure their dignity and courage, we must -remember that his words were addressed directly to Louvois and Louis -XIV. But Louis' character was not great enough to allow him to sacrifice -his pride to the public good, to consent to such a humiliation in the -eyes of his subjects and of Europe. He adhered to his veto on the -communication of the Montespan documents to the Chambre. On his part, La -Reynie remained inflexible, refusing to allow a case to be tried in -which the whole of the documents were not submitted to the court. Yet -something had to be done: a Chamber must be either open or shut. - -After having done everything possible to enable justice to follow its -course in complete independence, so as to reach the guilty however -high-placed they were, La Reynie indicated the only solution which would -permit the magistrates--since they were not allowed to fulfil their duty -to the full--not to fail in so much of their duty as lay in the limited -field still open to them. - -There were at that time in France tribunals in which judges sat, and -_lettres de cachet_ which operated without legal formalities, at the -mere command of the king. Elsewhere we have shown how, almost at the -same period, d'Aguesseau, the most illustrious of French judges, asked -for _lettres de cachet_ in the course of a case in which he was engaged. -Like d'Aguesseau, La Reynie might have said: 'I am not accused of a -fondness for extraordinary ways and a hatred of the forms known to -justice, yet I find here many reasons for having recourse to orders from -the king' (_lettres de cachet_). - -'His Majesty being unwilling to give the Chambre cognisance of certain -facts,' he wrote on April 17, 1681, to Louvois, 'or that it should try -certain prisoners and certain accused parties, reserving them to himself -because of their importance, to deal with them through his own justice -and the other means he proposes to make use of, it seems to me that we -can arrive at the end the king is aiming at by very simple methods, and -there can be no objection since the commissioners of the Chambre will -have no knowledge of the matters concerning which they are not to be -judges.' - -What was required, according to La Reynie, was to give up the -investigation of the cases of those who had knowledge of facts -implicating Madame de Montespan; and since it was impossible to try them -according to the rules of justice, to be satisfied with imprisoning them -under _lettres de cachet_ in the royal fortresses. In face of the -attitude taken up by La Reynie in refusing to proceed to a judgment -which would violate the traditional forms and the securities they -granted to the accused, the king and his ministers had perforce to -yield. - -La Reynie enumerates a long list of the criminals charged with monstrous -crimes who hoped by this means to escape the rigour of trial, the -anguish of torture and death by the stake or the gibbet, and he adds:-- - -'There are 147 prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; of this number -there is not one against whom there are not serious charges of poisoning -or dealings in poison, and further charges of sacrilege and impiety. The -majority of these criminals are likely to escape punishment. - -'La Trianon, an abominable woman, in regard to the nature of her crimes -and her dealings with poison, cannot be tried, and the public, in losing -the satisfaction of an example, is no doubt losing also the fruit of -some new discovery and the total conviction of her accomplices. - -'Nor can the woman Chappelain be tried, because La Filastre was -confronted with her: a woman of large connection, long devoted to the -study of poisons, suspected of several poisonings, continually -practising impieties, sacrilege, and sorcery; accused by La Filastre of -having taught her the practice of her abominations with priests; deeply -implicated in the case of Vanens. - -'For the same reasons, Galet cannot be tried; although a peasant, a -dangerous man, and dealing openly in poisons. - -'Lepreux, a priest of Notre Dame, engaged in the same practices as La -Chappelain, accused of sacrificing the child of La Filastre to the -devil. - -'Guibourg--this man, who cannot be compared to any other in regard to -the number of his poisonings, his dealings with poison and sorcery, his -sacrilege and impiety, knowing and known by every notorious criminal, -convicted of a great number of horrible crimes--this man, who has -mutilated and sacrificed several children; who, apart from the sacrilege -of which he is convicted, confesses to inconceivable abominations; who -says he has practised by diabolical means against the life of the king; -of whom we hear every day new and execrable things, and who is loaded -with accusations of crimes against God and king--he, too, will assure -impunity to other criminals. - -'His concubine, the woman Chanfrain, guilty with him of the murder of -some of her children, who has shared in some of Guibourg's sacrifices, -and who, according to appearances and the turn the case was taking, was -the infamous altar on which he performed his ordinary abominations, will -also remain unpunished. - -'There is also a large number of other accused persons who will remain -free from punishment for their crimes. The girl Monvoisin cannot be -tried, nor Mariette, whatever may come to light about him. Latour, -Vautier, and his wife will not only remain unpunished, but, for -considerations prompting to the concealment of their secret crimes, -their case will not be heard through.' - -La Reynie says further, not without a touch of melancholy: 'In all this -there is reason to wonder at the providence of God. If Mariette had been -captured before the trial of La Voisin, and they had spoken about the -business of Madame de Montespan, this monster (La Voisin) would have -escaped justice, and La Filastre also, if she had put forward what she -said at her torture.' - -It remained to close the Chambre without too great a shock to public -opinion, or leading people to believe that after so much noise the whole -thing was to be smothered. 'We must wind up the Chambre,' writes La -Reynie, 'but we must avoid doing so with an appearance of weariness and -disgust combined, so that the large number of persons interested may not -find occasion to discredit justice, and so that the wicked people who -remain, known or unknown, may not cease to be in terror, or, losing -their fear, recommence their ill-deeds with the same freedom as they had -before.' - -The magistrates who composed the Chambre were themselves keenly desirous -that its closing should be announced. Among other reasons, the -lieutenant of police gives their reluctance and aversion to condemn, 'a -reluctance which good men cannot help feeling,' and their sorrow at not -being able to try the principal offenders. - -It was important, then, not to appear to close the Chambre from any -feeling of weariness, and above all not to awake any suspicion of the -real causes at work. The public was already murmuring. Compelled as they -were, on account of the complicity of Madame de Montespan, to allow all -the accused who had had dealings with La Voisin to go scot-free--to wit, -the Abbe Guibourg, Lesage, and other guilty persons--the judges took up -again the case of Vanens, which had lain dormant. But here again the -principal actor, Vanens, escaped the rigour of the law through his -connection with the favourite. The commissioners of the Chambre had the -good luck to find unexpectedly, in one of the reports, a denunciation -against a certain Pinon du Martroy, a councillor to the Parlement, who -had been involved in the disgrace of Fouquet. At the time when judgment -had been passed on the financiers after the fall of Fouquet, the goods -of Pinon had been seized, and Guibourg said that, to wreak vengeance and -secure Fouquet's release from prison, he had performed incantations -against the king, as well as practised sorcery. Pinon was dead, but he -was said to have had a confidant in Jean Maillard, auditor to the -exchequer. This man was secured, and as he occupied a prominent -position, his case created a great sensation. He was condemned on -February 20, 1682, for having 'known and not revealed the detestable -designs formed against the person of the king.' The councillor denied -everything at his torture, and adhered to his denial till the moment of -his death. It is certain that among the various accusations brought -before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, those directed against -Maillard are among those that were least fully proved. The execution -took place on February 21, and, contrary to custom, at midday. - -It was followed on July 16, 1682, by that of La Chaboissiere, Vanens' -valet. This wretch was condemned to be hanged after preliminary torture. -He was less guilty than Vanens, of whom he had only been the tool; but -his low rank had put him beyond the pale. Then the proceedings were -brought to a close in due form, without any appearance of a serious -miscarriage of justice in the eyes of the crowd. The Chambre Ardente was -finally closed by a _lettre de cachet_ of July 21, 1682. - -La Reynie did not consider that his work was yet done. In his -correspondence with Louvois, he had constantly harped on the idea that -they should profit by the experience gained during the long -investigations of the court to avoid the recurrence of such crimes. He -was intrusted, along with Colbert, with the drafting of an order. On -August 30, 1682, appeared the famous edict against soothsayers and -poisoners, which was the joint work of these two great men; magicians -and sorceresses were driven from France, the manufacture and sale of -poisons necessary in trade and medicine were regulated by ordinances -which have triumphed over time and revolutions, and after two centuries -are still in force to-day. - - * * * * * - -The numerous prisoners whose connection, close or remote, with the -machinations of Madame de Montespan safe-guarded them from trial, were -transferred under _lettre de cachet_ into different fortresses--those -which appeared the safest in the kingdom. With excessive precaution, -Louvois ordered that each of them should be fastened to his prison by an -iron chain, one link of which was to be imbedded in the wall and another -fixed to the person of the prisoner. - -All these unhappy creatures remained in this condition till their death, -some of them for more than forty years. The minister sent the most -rigorous instructions to prevent them from holding communication with -anybody outside, and to secure that the staff employed in providing for -their material and spiritual wants should be reduced to the lowest -possible number and composed of persons in whom entire confidence might -be placed. And to destroy in advance any effect which the revelations of -the prisoners might make on the minds of the governors of citadels and -fortresses, Louvois sent these officers word that their new guests were -villains who had invented infamous calumnies against Madame de -Montespan, the falsity of which had been proved before the Chambre, and -that if any of them happened to open his lips on the subject, he was to -be answered at once with a sound flogging. - -The most important of the prisoners--Guibourg, Lesage, Galet, and -Romani--were conveyed to the citadel of Besancon. Guibourg died there -three years after his entrance. - -Fourteen women were taken to the castle of St. Andre de Salins. Louvois -wrote in regard to them on August 26, 1682, to the lord-lieutenant of -Franche-Comte:-- - -'The king having thought fit to send to the chateau of St. Andre de -Salins some of the people who were arrested in virtue of warrants of the -court that dealt with the matter of the poisons, his Majesty has -commanded me to inform you that his intention is that you prepare two -rooms in the said chateau, so that six of these prisoners may be kept -safely in each of them, the which prisoners are to have each a mattress -in the place arranged for them, and to be fastened either by a hand or a -foot to a chain which shall be fastened to the wall, the said chain -however to be long enough not to prevent them from lying down. As these -people are criminals who deserve extreme penalties, the intention of the -king is that they be thus fastened for fear they should injure the -people set to guard them, who will go in and out to bring them food and -attend to them generally. His Majesty's intention is that you prepare -two similar rooms in the citadel of Besancon, so that twelve of the -prisoners may be kept securely there. You will observe that these rooms -are to be so situated that no one can hear what these people say.' - -Auzillon, one of the staff of the provost of the Isle de France, -escorted the principal sorceresses, Pelletier, Poulain, Delaporte, the -girl Monvoisin, and Catherine Leroy, to the citadel of Belle-Isle-en-Mer. - -La Chappelain, the companion of La Filastre, was imprisoned in the -castle of Villefranche, where she died forty years later, on June 4, -1724. She lived there in company with another sorceress who, like her, -had been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chambre Ardente, and for -the same reasons--namely, La Guesdon. - -The governor of Villefranche wrote in August 1717, that 'of two old -prisoners of state for poison, the survivors of four who had been locked -up there for thirty-six years, La Guesdon died on the 15th instant, -leaving forty-five livres in silver, which she had saved during that -time out of her eight sous a day for food: of these she instructed her -surviving companion to take what she needed for her personal use, and -to use the balance in paying for prayers for her--this is one pensioner -the less for the king. The woman was seventy-six years old; the survivor -(La Chappelain) is no younger. They were in the same room.' - -Finally, a few prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes, wholly ignorant -of the poison affair, and others whose innocence was recognised by the -commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, had been shut up, unluckily for -themselves, in the same room with prisoners implicated in the crimes of -Madame de Montespan. This chance meeting condemned them to perpetual -confinement. - -'Manon Bosse,' writes La Reynie, 'was sent to the nuns of Baffens, at -Besancon, under the name of Mademoiselle Manon Dubosc, where the king -pensioned her to the tune of 250 livres; she was never liberated, -because she had been locked up with the daughter of La Voisin, who had -told her everything.' - -La Gaigniere, under the same circumstances, was put in the common -workhouse. Nanon Aubert also had been placed with La Voisin's daughter: -'This was the reason that she was not set at liberty, but in 1683 she -was placed with the Ursulines of Besancon, and afterwards with those of -Vesoul, with orders to say that she was detained for dealings with a -lady of quality accused of poison, and she was made to pass for a young -lady of rank. The king payed a pension of 250 livres per annum.' - -The most characteristic example is that of Lemaire, brother of the woman -Vertemart. His complete innocence was absolutely proved. There was no -possible charge against him but his having been shut up with the Abbe -Guibourg, who 'had told him everything.' On August 4, 1681, Louvois -wrote to La Reynie: 'At present Lemaire is not to be set at liberty. I -have written to Desgrez what will enable him, if he shows him my letter, -to endure his long detention with less pain.' Louvois and Louis XIV were -struck by the revolting iniquity of this detention. In August 1682, -Louvois sent to Lemaire the considerable sum of 150 pistoles, promising -to forward an equal sum every year on condition that he took himself out -of the kingdom, never set foot in it again all his life, and spoke to -nobody in the world of what he had heard while at Vincennes. If he ever -broke one of these engagements, the king would have him seized and -incarcerated for the rest of his days. - - * * * * * - -La Reynie died on June 14, 1709, at the age of eighty years. In his will -there is a touching clause which depicts this excellent man to the life. -He asks that his body may be interred in the parish cemetery, and not in -the church, 'being unwilling that my corpse should be laid in a spot -where the faithful assemble, and that the decay of my body should -increase the pollution of the air, and thereby endanger the life of -ministers and people.' The lieutenant of police, who had devoted a part -of his life to the sanitation and good government of the great city -confided to his administration, gave an excellent practical lesson on -his death-bed, doubtless to the wounding of his dearest sentiments as a -Catholic and a believer. - -Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was in fact a character of rare worth. In -our account of him, we have not had to show him as the man of fine -culture, the scholar in constant correspondence with Baluze, purchasing -and collecting Greek and Latin manuscripts, the skilled patron of the -printing-press, the bibliophile to whom we owe the preservation of the -original text of Moliere. He was a worthy representative of his period, -the great epoch in French history. The seventeenth century attained the -furthest extremes in good as in evil. It was then that France produced -her greatest captains, her greatest statesmen, her most illustrious -judges; it was then that the greatest names in literature, art, -philosophy, and scholarship dazzled the world; then that the 'daughters -of charity' displayed their devotion; that Madame de Chantal diffused -around her the sweet perfume of her virtues; but it was then, too, that -a Marquise de Brinvilliers extended the boundaries of crime, and an Abbe -de Guibourg murdered children upon an altar, over the bare body of a -Marquise de Montespan. - - - - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME'[12] - - -Who has not read Bossuet's funeral oration on Henrietta Anne of England, -Duchess of Orleans? Who has not thrilled at the echo of that powerful -and poignant apostrophe?--'O woful night! O awful night, when there rang -through the air like a sudden thunderclap the amazing tidings, Madame is -dying, Madame is dead!... Madame passed from morn to eve like the grass -of the field. In the morning she flourished, with what graces you know; -in the evening we saw her cut down.... What awful speed! In nine hours -the work is accomplished.' Bossuet's masterpiece has crowned the memory -of Madame with an immortal halo in which the charms, the quick and -exquisite imagination of the young princess, who enchanted her -contemporaries,--the lady who set the tone for taste and wit in the -midst of the wittiest and most brilliant Court the world has ever -known--will shine resplendent through the ages. - -The circumstances in which this startling death occurred have aroused -the attention of historians. Madame had returned from England, where she -had succeeded in getting the Treaty of Dover signed on June 1, 1670, by -the ministers of her brother Charles II--the treaty assuring Louis XIV -of the alliance of England against Holland, and permitting him to -conquer Flanders and Franche-Comte for France. Madame remained at Dover -from May 24 to June 12; she then re-embarked for France, happy in the -successful result of her mission; and she arrived at Saint-Germain on -the 18th. 'At the age of twenty-six,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'she -saw herself the link between the two greatest kings of the century; she -had in her hands a treaty on which depended the fate of a part of -Europe; the pleasure and the importance given by affairs of moment being -joined in her with the attractions bestowed by youth and beauty; there -was a grace and a sweetness enveloping her whole person that won for her -a kind of homage, which must have been the more pleasant in that it was -rendered rather to her personality than to her rank.' - -Need anything be said of the manners of Monsieur? 'The miracle of firing -the heart of this prince,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'was reserved for -no woman in the world.' And yet his heart was wonderfully tender! Madame -had definitively secured the exile of the Chevalier de Lorraine, the -infamous friend of her husband. - -Madame died suddenly at St. Cloud, a prey to the most cruel anguish, on -the night of the 29th of June 1670, about three o'clock in the morning. -Rumours of poison were instantly set afloat, which were not long in -gaining strength and currency. They formed the general opinion at Court, -in Paris, in the whole of France, in England, Holland, and Spain, where -Madame's daughter became queen. Charles II refused to receive the letter -in which the Duke of Orleans informed him of his sister's death. 'The -Duke of Buckingham, the English ambassador,' wrote Colbert de Croissy, -'is in transports of rage.' The people of London were hardly restrained -from violent outbursts against the Frenchmen residing there. The streets -rang with the cry of 'Down with the French!' The French embassy had to -be protected. Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine, was always -convinced that Madame had died of poison, and everything tends to show -that Louis XIV, at all events in the first moments, shared these -suspicions. - -In regard to the possible authors of the crime, some accused the Dutch, -against whom the Treaty of Dover was directed; others accused Monsieur -himself and the Chevalier de Lorraine. In either case, the historical -interest of the problem is very great; the popular imagination -heightened it through the magnificent commentary with which Bossuet -embroidered the death of the beautiful princess; and it has been -enhanced by all the efforts made for more than a century past to solve -it. 'For fifty years and more,' writes one of the masters of modern -erudition, M. Arthur de Boislisle, 'the question has been more closely -studied, and the evidence weighed with more care, at least by impartial -and serious writers familiar with the documents of Louis XIV's reign or -with scientific problems. But it happens that some have abstained from -giving a decisive verdict, and others have varied between poison, in -which Walckenaer, Paul Lacroix, and Francois Ravaisson very firmly -believed, and death by accident or disease, accepted by Mignet, -Loiseleur, and Littre; with the result that the question has become -darkened rather than illuminated between conclusions diametrically -opposed, but coming from men of equal authority.' Monsieur de Boislisle -himself refrains from stating any conclusion, and recently we have -Doctor Legue, a specialist, in his interesting book, _Medecins et -Empoisonneurs_, devoting a new study to the question, and endeavouring -to prove that Madame was poisoned by corrosive sublimate. - -Thanks to a minute study of the documents, guided by the work of -Monsieur de Boislisle we have just quoted, thanks above all to the -skilful guidance of two masters of modern science, we arrive, as will -be seen by and by, at an indisputable solution. - - -I - -In accordance with the first principle of historical criticism, it is -important at the outset to determine exactly the value of the sources -whence we may derive particulars serviceable to our investigation. The -sources are divided into three well-marked categories--(1) The reports -of the physicians and surgeons; (2) the accounts of the persons who were -able to approach Madame in her last moments, or were in a position to -hear authoritative descriptions; (3) the official correspondence of the -courts of London and Paris. - -The first category presents to us five reports of the post-mortem -examination:-- - -(_a_) The official report signed by the fifteen physicians and surgeons, -French and English, who were present at the autopsy. - -(_b_) The _Account of the Illness, Death, and Autopsy of Madame_, by the -Abbe Bourdelot, physician. Bourdelot was one of the French physicians -present at the post-mortem. - -(_c_) The report of Vallot, physician to the late queen-mother. Vallot -was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians of his time. He was -present among the French doctors at the autopsy. His report was -officially carried to London by the Marshal de Bellefonds. - -(_d_) The _Memoir of a Surgeon of the King of England who was present at -the Opening of the Body_. This surgeon's name was Alexander Boscher. - -(_e_) The account of Hugh Chamberlain, physician-in-ordinary to the King -of England, also present at the operation. This document, like the -preceding, is exceedingly useful for checking the official report and -the report of the French physicians. Some writers have believed that -Louis XIV, fearing a rupture with England, dictated the opinion the -French physicians were to give. Boscher and Chamberlain were absolutely -independent representatives of the English Government. - -To these five documents, of unquestionable authenticity, may be added -the notice inserted in the _Gazette_ of July 5, 1670, which was -officially inspired by the Court physicians, and the opinion of the -famous Guy Patin, Dean of the Medical School of Paris, though he was not -actually present at the autopsy. - -In our second category, the narratives of persons who approached Madame -in her last moments, or heard authoritative accounts, we must mention -prominently the account written by the charming Countess de la Fayette, -_The History of Madame Henrietta of England, first wife of Philip of -France, Duke of Orleans_. The Countess de la Fayette was attached to the -suite of Madame; she never left her during the day on which she died. -She has left a simple, precise, and sober account of the short illness, -in which every line bears the stamp of truth. - -Next to this valuable document must be cited the letter of Bossuet, who -was present at the final scene, and the story of Feuillet, canon of St. -Cloud, who was with Madame before Bossuet arrived. - -The third category comprises the correspondence exchanged between the -courts of England and France and their representatives: these would be -documents of the greatest value, if their official and diplomatic -character had not imposed the greatest reserve on the writers, and even -dictated their sentiments. There are first of all the letters of Louis -XIV and Hugues de Lionne to Charles II and to Colbert de Croissy, -ambassador at London; then, the despatches of Louis and of Hugues de -Lionne to Monsieur de Pomponne, ambassador at the Hague; on the English -side, five letters addressed by Lord Montagu, ambassador at the French -Court, to Lord Arlington, secretary of state to Charles II, and the -letters of Lord Arlington to Sir William Temple. - -Such are the only documents worthy of credence we have at our disposal -for studying the circumstances of the death of Madame, for it is -necessary to reject in the most absolute manner the accounts of -Saint-Simon and of Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine. Cheruel, and -more especially Monsieur de Boislisle, have shown the improbabilities -and absurdities of these, and we shall not refer to them again. The work -of Monsieur de Boislisle is particularly interesting in showing that -these two famous narratives had a common source. As to the testimony of -d'Argenson, Voltaire, and others, destitute, in the nature of the case, -of any authority comparable to that of the authors we have mentioned -above--it is unnecessary in the points where it confirms the others; on -the points where it contradicts them, it cannot prevail; and on the -points where it contains new information, it is dangerous to follow, for -we lack any evidence by which to check it. Littre acted judiciously in -neglecting these writers when compiling his study on the death of -Madame, and the reproach levelled against him by Loiseleur is without -justification. On the contrary, it is perhaps to this happy stroke of -criticism that Littre owed the success of his argument. - - -II - -We proceed to recount, in the simplest and most precise manner in our -power, the circumstances of the death of Madame; and from this narrative -alone we shall see emerge one of the facts we intend to establish, -namely, that Madame could not have been poisoned. - -Henrietta of England, 'more comparable to the jasmine than to the rose, -very slender, delicate, slightly round-shouldered--not less pleasing for -that--exhausted, not only by four accouchements in rapid succession, but -by the fast life then led at Court, was only kept up,' says Monsieur de -Boislisle, 'by that sanguine temperament which is the prerogative of -high-strung women.' In 1664 Guy Patin wrote: 'The Duchess of Orleans was -taken ill at Villers-Cotterets, and her physicians have prescribed ass's -milk.' The presumption is, then, that she suffered from some stomachic -disorder. 'The king,' wrote Hugues de Lionne to Colbert de Croissy, -'tells us that more than three years ago she complained of a pain in the -side which compelled her to lie flat for three or four hours without -finding ease in any posture.' Madame was constantly afflicted with a -pain at one fixed spot in the breast. 'She further used to complain,' -wrote the Abbe Bourdelot, 'of a cruel burning pain, not in the abdomen, -but in the chest.' She was always wanting to vomit. 'Most often she -could take only milk for food, and remained in bed for days together.' -These facts indicate, as Dr. Le Gendre tells us, that Madame suffered -from a chronic inflammation of the stomach, a form of gastritis. The -reports of the autopsy show, further, that Madame was afflicted with -pulmonary tuberculosis, and it is not rare for these two morbid -conditions to co-exist. - -During the journey she made in Flanders with the king and Monsieur -before her departure for England, the appearance of the young princess -caused much alarm. 'She was reduced to living on milk,' writes Madame de -la Fayette, 'and retired to her own room as soon as she got out of the -coach, and as a rule she went to bed.... One day, when the talk fell on -astrology, Monsieur said that it had been foretold that he would have -several wives, and judging from the state Madame was in, he was -beginning to believe it.' - -Madame returned from England on June 18. Her condition had become very -much worse. Next day she kept her bed. 'She went into the queen's room,' -wrote Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'like a dressed-up corpse with rouge -on its cheeks, and when she went out, everybody, including the queen, -said that she had death written on her face.' 'On June 24, 1670,' writes -Madame de la Fayette, 'a week after her return from England, Monsieur -and she went to St. Cloud. The first day she went there she complained -of pains in the side and abdomen, to which she was subject. -Nevertheless, as it was extremely hot, she desired to bathe in the -river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he could to prevent -her, but in spite of all he said she bathed on Friday the 27th, and on -Saturday she was so ill that she did not bathe. I arrived at St. Cloud -on Saturday at six o'clock in the evening. I found her in the gardens. -She told me that I should think her looking cross, and that she was not -at all well. She had supped as usual, and she walked in the moonlight -till midnight.' The preceding lines, every detail of which is of great -importance, have been neglected by the historians who have concluded she -was poisoned. - -'On Sunday the 29th, at dinner, Madame ate as usual, and after dinner -she lay down on some cushions, as she often did when she was at liberty. -She had made me place myself near her,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'so -that her head was almost on me. An English painter was painting -Monsieur's portrait; we were talking about all sorts of things, and -meanwhile she fell asleep. During her nap she changed so considerably -that after watching her for a long time I was surprised at it, and -thought that her spirit must do a great deal towards adorning her -countenance, since it was so pleasant when she was awake and so little -attractive when she was asleep. But I was wrong in this reflection, for -I had several times seen her sleeping, and had never yet seen her less -lovely. When she awoke, she rose from the place where she had been -lying, but with so haggard a face that Monsieur was surprised and called -my attention to it. She then went away into the drawing-room, where she -walked up and down for some time with Boisfranc, Monsieur's treasurer, -and while talking to him, complained several times of the pain at her -side.' - -We are coming to the moment when any poisoning must have taken place; we -see already that the mischief was done. - -'Monsieur went downstairs to return to Paris. He found Madame de -Meckelbourg on the steps, and came up again with her. Madame left -Boisfranc and came to Madame de Meckelbourg. As she was speaking to her, -Madame de Gamaches brought to her, as well as to me, a glass of chicory -water that she had asked for some time before. Madame de Gourdon, her -tire-woman, gave it to her. She drank it, and then, replacing the cup on -the salver with one hand, she pressed her side with the other, saying, -in a tone that betokened severe pain, "Oh! what a dreadful twinge! Oh, -what a pain! I can bear it no longer!" - -'She reddened in uttering these words, and the next moment turned a -livid pallor, which surprised us all; she continued to cry out, and told -us to take her away, as she could no longer stand. We took her in our -arms; she tottered along half doubled-up; I held her while some one -unlaced her. She moaned all the time, and I noticed that she had tears -in her eyes. I was amazed and affected by it, for I knew that she was -the most patient creature in the world. Kissing the arms I was holding, -I said that she was evidently in great pain, and she told me I could not -imagine how great. She was put to bed, and as soon as she was there, she -cried out more loudly than she had yet done, and threw herself from one -side to the other like a person in infinite agony. Some one went off to -find her chief physician, Monsieur Esprit; he came, said it was colic, -and prescribed the ordinary remedies for such ailments. All the time the -pain was dreadful. Madame said that it was much worse than we thought, -and that she was dying, and begged some one to go in search of a -confessor for her.' - -The young princess believed that she was poisoned. A sort of antidote -was brought her in the shape of oil and powdered adder, which made her -vomit. After some hours of frightful agony, Henrietta of England expired -while Bossuet was reciting the last exhortations. - -Face to face with death, Madame displayed a greatness of soul to which -all who approached her have borne touching testimony. 'Madame was gentle -towards Death,' said Bossuet, 'as she had been with all the world. Her -great heart was neither embittered nor wrathful against the dread foe. -Nor did she face him with proud disdain, but was content to look him in -the face without emotion and to welcome him without distress.' - - -III - -This bare narrative of the facts would be sufficient to weaken the -opinion of those who believe that the Princess Henrietta died of poison. -The following observations will contribute to deprive it of all credit. -Writers are unanimously agreed about the fact that Madame could only -have been poisoned by the glass of chicory water given her by Madame de -Gamaches. Now as soon as suspicions awoke in the mind of Madame and her -circle, that is to say, the moment after the drink had been taken, -Monsieur ordered some of the water to be given to a dog; Madame -Desbordes, the princess's maid, who was heartily devoted to her, told -her that she had made the drink, and had herself drunk some of it, and -Madame de Meckelbourg also drank some. We are thus bound to acknowledge -that the famous chicory water could not have been poisoned. Monsieur J. -Lair, with his clear and vigorous mind, has well analysed the scene: -'The decoction of which so many persons had drunk was harmless; it was -the cup that ought to have been examined.' 'The details given by Madame -de la Fayette and others,' writes Monsieur de Boislisle, 'exclude the -idea of poison poured into the glass itself; and indeed Madame Palatine -says that what was poisoned was not the water itself, nor the vessel in -which it was made, but the cup which was reserved for the princess, and -which no one else would have dared to use.' - -It is a fact that the seventeenth-century poisoners sought to prepare -goblets and silver cups in such a way as to poison the persons who were -afterwards to use them. Among the constant friends of La Voisin, La -Bosse, La Cheron, and La Vigoureux, the most renowned sorceresses of the -period, we find a certain Francois Belot, one of the king's bodyguard, -making a specialty of this, and deriving a comfortable income from it, -until the day when this trade led him to the Place de Greve, where he -was broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679. His method of procedure was as -follows: 'He crammed a toad with arsenic, placed it in a silver goblet, -and then, pricking its head, made it urinate, and finally crushed it in -the goblet.' During this pleasant operation he mumbled his wicked -charms. 'I know a secret,' said Belot, 'such that in doctoring a cup -with a toad and what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink -from it afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be -done for, and the cup could only be disinfected by throwing it into a -hot fire. After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a -human being, but upon a dog, and I should intrust the cup to nobody.' -But it happened that a client of Belot's, being somewhat sceptical, got -a dog to drink out of the doctored cup, and found that the animal was -not harmed in the least; he even picked a violent quarrel with the -magician about the matter, taunting him with the worthlessness of his -wares. Belot spoke frankly to the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente: -'I know that the toad cannot do anybody any harm; what I did with the -silver cups and trenchers was done solely to get hold of such cups and -trenchers.' His skill, nevertheless, enjoyed a very substantial -reputation. At the same date the magician Blessis was believed to know -how to manipulate mirrors in such a way that any one who looked in them -received his deathblow. - -These facts seem mere childish folly under scientific investigation. The -knowledge people had of poisons in the eighteenth century was limited to -arsenic, antimony, and sublimate; it did not enable them so to poison a -cup as to cause sudden death to the person using it, without his being -aware of the poison at the moment of drinking it. The opinion of -Professor Brouardel on this point is explicit; and Dr. Legue, convinced -as he is of the poisoning of Madame, admits that the story of the cup -can only make any well-informed man smile. - -The conclusion is that as Madame could not have been poisoned by the -water she drank, or by the cup containing the water, she could not have -been poisoned at all. - - -IV - -'Her body was opened,' writes Bossuet, 'among a large concourse of -physicians and surgeons and all sorts of people, because, having begun -to feel extreme pain when drinking three mouthfuls of chicory water, -given her by the dearest and most intimate of her women, she said at -once that she was poisoned.' It was with the same idea that the English -ambassador attended the operation along with an English physician and -surgeon. - -After having shown that Madame could not have been poisoned, it remains -to settle what disease it was of which she died. Our task is simplified -by the marvellous study in which Littre proved that she succumbed to an -acute peritonitis, the immediate and inevitable result of the -perforation of the stomach by an ulcer. This study, Dr. Paul Le Gendre -tells us, is the finest extant example of a retrospective medical -demonstration. We have it now under our eyes; but we find it condensed -by the pen of the most elegant writer of our time, M. Anatole France, -who will allow us to borrow this quotation: 'Littre, an expert in -medical observation, does not hesitate to diagnose a simple ulceration -of the stomach, which Professor Cruveilhier was the first to describe, -and which Madame's physicians could not recognise because they knew -nothing about it. It is unquestionable that for some time Madame had -been suffering from abdominal pains after her meals. The liquid she took -on June 29 brought about the perforation of the ulcerated wall, and this -caused the terrible pain in her side and the peritonitis which we have -mentioned. The physicians who opened the body found, indeed, that the -stomach was pierced with a little hole; but as they could not account -for the pathological origin of this hole, they fancied after the event -that it had been made inadvertently during the autopsy, "upon which," -says the surgeon of the king of England, "I was the only one to insist." -The incident is reported as follows by the Abbe Bourdelot: "It happened -by misadventure during the dissection that the point of the scalpel -made an opening at the top of the ventricle, and many of the gentlemen -asked how it came about. The surgeon said that he had done it by -accident, and Monsieur Vallot said that he had seen when the cut was -made."' - -Littre objects, with reason, that it is difficult to make inadvertently -an incision with the point of a pair of scissors--there is no question -of a scalpel--in a tough and distended membrane like the stomach during -an autopsy. The illusion of the physicians present at the operation is -the more easily explained because in that lesion, as it is now known, -the edges of the opening are perfectly clean and sharp, very regular, so -that the hole seems to have been made artificially. Jaccoud points out -'the very sharp delimitation of the ulcer, the absence of inflammation, -and of peripheral suppuration.' 'The section of the tissues,' writes -Monsieur Bouveret, 'is so clean that, to adopt a classical comparison, -the ulcer appears as though cut out with a punch.' It varies in -dimensions from the size of a lentil to that of a five-franc piece. - -M. Anatole France admirably explains the state of mind of the physicians -who drew up the report of the autopsy. 'The French physicians were -afraid of finding in the viscera of the princess indications of a crime -which might throw suspicion on the royal family. They dreaded even -everything which lent itself to doubt, and thereby to malevolence. -Knowing that the least uncertainty as to the cause of death or the -condition of the corpse would be interpreted by the public in a sense -that would ruin them, they had reasons of self-interest and the zeal of -fear to urge them to explain everything. Now, in their inability to -connect with a normal pathological type a lesion unknown to them all, -and perhaps suspicious to some, it was much to their advantage to -explain this enigmatical wound as an accident during the autopsy. And we -can understand their believing what they wished to believe. The English -surgeons, as ignorant as they, accepted their conclusion in default of a -better.' 'The fact is,' says Littre in conclusion, 'that they were bound -to find a hole, and they did find it. All dispute was silenced in the -presence of three things: the sudden attack, the peritonitis, and the -presence of oil ['and of bile,' adds Dr. Le Gendre] which the reports of -the autopsy show to have been in the lower bowel.' In the lower bowel -was found, indeed, a substance which the reports of the French -physicians describe as 'fat like oil.'[13] It was, in fact, oil--the oil -which Madame had drunk as an antidote, and which had been discharged -from the stomach. - -Further, even supposing, against all probability, that the hole had -actually been made accidentally by young Felix, who was the operator, -all the details of Madame's health known before death, and the details -revealed by the autopsy, are so conclusive in favour of the diagnosis -of a simple ulcer ending in perforation, that we should be led to the -admission that there must have existed, in another part of the wall of -the stomach, another small hole which escaped the notice of the -physicians and surgeons present at the autopsy. There would have been -nothing surprising in this, for their attention was not directed to this -point. It might even be supposed that the scissors of Felix, if they had -really cut the wall of the stomach by inadvertence, only increased the -size of the natural perforation already existing. Allowance must indeed -be made for the state of putrid softening in which the organs are bound -to have been, the corpse having remained exposed all through a day of -intense heat. - -'To sum up, before June 29, there were gastric pains caused by -ulceration; on the 29th, bursting of the ulcer and acute peritonitis.' -Peritonitis is distinctly indicated by the reports. Such are the -conclusions of Littre: Dr. Paul Le Gendre, a most competent authority, -unhesitatingly confirms them, as also does Professor Brouardel, who -writes as follows: 'Admitting ulceration of the stomach, all the -phenomena supervene with classic exactitude.' - -If we refer to the works of the celebrated Cruveilhier, who was the -first to describe simple ulcers, we find by an interesting coincidence, -in the very case he presents as a type, the closest correspondence with -the illness of Madame, and a fresh proof of the soundness of Littre's -opinion. - -'Now since the complications following perforation of the stomach and -rapidly causing death,' writes Cruveilhier, 'supervene suddenly, and -sometimes directly after taking food or drink, the question of poison -has been raised pretty often. I have never seen a more remarkable case -in this respect than that of a coalman, aged twenty-three, and of an -athletic vigour, who, carrying a sack of coal, stopped at an inn and -drank a glass of wine. He went on his way; but a few minutes afterwards -was seized with horrible pains, was attended first at his own house, -then carried dying to the hospital of the Faubourg Saint-Denis; his case -showed every indication of peritonitis through perforation, and he died -three hours after his admission to the hospital, in full consciousness. -I was able to get from his own lips the valuable information that he had -been suffering from his stomach for several months, and that digesting -his food was always painful. The Coal-dealers' Society, convinced that -their comrade was the victim of poison, and that the agent of the -poisoning was the glass of wine taken immediately before he was attacked -by these symptoms, decided to bring an indictment against the -wine-merchant, and with this end required the autopsy to be made in -presence of a deputation from their body. It was a case of spontaneous -perforation through a simple ulcer in the stomach.' - -The 'estimate' of Littre (to use the phrase he himself uses to describe -his work) is thus confirmed in every way. Loiseleur thought fit to -object the rarity of the case. That is no argument: the case may be rare -and yet have been that of Madame. And besides, Loiseleur makes too much -of its rarity. Brinton estimates that perforation of the stomach in -cases of simple ulcer occurs in thirteen per cent., and that it is most -common in women under thirty. Madame was twenty-six. - -Loiseleur admits peritonitis, but thinks it was inflammation supervening -on a chill. 'Why,' he writes, 'does Littre pass by in absolute silence -the last words in the statement of Madame de la Fayette, quite as grave -and significant as the first?--"As it was extremely warm, she wished to -bathe in the river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he -could to prevent her; but in spite of all he said, she bathed on Friday, -and on Saturday was so ill that she did not bathe," and further on: "She -walked in the moonlight until midnight."' There is only one drawback to -Monsieur Loiseleur's theory, but that is a serious one: peritonitis as -an original malady, and especially peritonitis through chill, which -Loiseleur wishes to substitute for the disease diagnosed by Cruveilhier -and Littre, is no longer recognised by modern science. 'The last cases -which were thought to be of this kind,' says Dr. Paul Le Gendre, 'were -perforations of the appendix.' - -Let us come lastly to the work of Dr. Legue, _Medecins et -Empoisonneurs_, the most important part of which is occupied with a -minute study of the circumstances surrounding the death of Madame. -Monsieur Legue's conclusion is, poisoning by sublimate poured into the -famous chicory water. His study is interesting, like the whole book, but -his conclusions crumble away under the following considerations:-- - -1. Professor Brouardel writes: 'If the chicory water had contained the -smallest dose of sublimate, Madame would have pushed the glass from her -after the first sip. Sublimate has a revolting taste. In the medicinal -dose (one gramme to a litre) the taste is atrocious.' - -Madame had been taking chicory water for several days in the evening, -and this evening she drank it as usual. - -2. 'To kill a person,' adds Professor Brouardel, 'at least ten or -fifteen centigrammes are necessary. This dose corresponds to a quantity -of solution representing about 200 grammes of liquid. It seems -impossible for any one to imbibe that without being stopped by its -horrid taste.' - -Madame certainly did not drink 200 grammes of her chicory water; she -took a few sips only. - -3. 'Poisoning by sublimate,' writes the professor, 'produces lesions of -the abdominal mucous membrane, which could not have escaped the notice -of the physicians who made the autopsy.' - -We have five accounts of the autopsy, which are unanimous in stating -that the stomach, except for the little hole of which we have spoken, -was in a good condition. - -4. The facts on which Dr. Legue relies for his diagnosis of poison by -sublimate, and which he borrows from the account of the Abbe Bourdelot, -occurred, not after the drinking of the cup of chicory water, but -before. In transcribing the account in question, Monsieur Legue has -inadvertently omitted the passage: 'There is indication of the bile -having been accumulating for a long time,' where it may be clearly seen -from the following lines that the author is speaking of a state long -before the fatal attack. - -Thus Monsieur Legue's argument is in no way sustained. - -The historian may remark, finally, that Madame's daughter, Marie Louise, -the young Queen of Spain, died in 1689, almost at the same age as her -mother, after drinking a glass of iced milk, and on this occasion also -rumours of poison spread abroad. When Charles II, Madame's brother, died -somewhat suddenly, there was more talk of poison; and when the -granddaughter of Madame, the young and charming Duchess of Burgundy, was -stricken with the disease which carried her off, people believed that -she too had been poisoned. In earlier days, when Madame's mother, -Henrietta Maria of France, widow of Charles I, died on September 10, -1669, at her country house of Colombes, her physician Vallot had been -accused of accidentally poisoning her by giving her pills chiefly -composed of opium. - - * * * * * - -Thanks to the assistance of eminent masters like Professor Brouardel and -Dr. Paul Le Gendre, and armed historically with the learned -investigations of M. Arthur de Boislisle, we have been fortunate in -resuscitating the admirable study of Littre in all its striking -accuracy. The great writer concludes with an eloquent page, a hymn of -triumph in honour of modern science, 'which might perhaps have kept -Madame in that great place she filled so well.' We will end with the -same observation that we placed at the end of our study of the Iron -Mask,[14] in which we showed how the solution was indicated at least a -century ago, and remarked that, in these very problems which are -regarded as insoluble, history, handled with rigour and precision, gives -conclusions as certain as those of the exact sciences. - - - - -RACINE AND THE POISONS QUESTION - - -Monsieur Larroumet's book on Racine in the _Grands Ecrivains Francais_ -series is a charming little work. In the first part he studies the -poet's life, and shows very accurately the influence exercised on his -art by the _milieu_ in which he lived. In the second part he studies -Racine's poetics with great ingenuity. The very style of M. Larroumet, -eminently refined and sober--we might call it pearl-grey in tone--with -little flaws here and there which, to our mind, enhance its piquancy, is -perfectly adapted to the author he is analysing. We get a clear picture -of what manner of man Racine was--sensitive and refined, all delicacy -and decorum. M. Larroumet, it is well known, excels in bringing vividly -before us the dwellings and the furniture of our great writers, -according to inventories made after their decease. In the case of -Racine he achieves another success, in the happiest manner. His picture -of the famous poet's family life, after he had renounced the stage, is -delightful:-- - -'In the midst of this family, which reproduced in charming variety the -traits of his own sensitive and restless nature, Racine practised all -the virtues of a good father. He became a child again with his Babet, -Fanchon, Madelon, Nanette, and Lionval; the two eldest alone, boy and -girl, did not bear these diminutives, out of respect for the rights of -seniority. He preferred the happiness springing from their society to -courting the great. - -'One day he had returned from Versailles, where he had gone to pay his -respects, when a squire of the Duke's brought him an invitation to -dinner for the same evening. "I shall not have the honour of dining with -him," he said; "I have not seen my wife and children for more than a -week, and they are looking forward to a treat in eating a very fine carp -with me to-day; I cannot give up my dinner with them." And he had the -carp brought up, adding: "Decide yourself if I can help dining to-day -with these poor children, who have made up their minds to regale me -to-day, and would have no more pleasure if they ate this dish without -me. I beg you to plead this reason forcibly with his Serene Highness."' - -Racine, as we know, after giving up writing for the theatre, subsided -into the most remarkable piety. But here again is a charming trait: 'I -remember,' says Louis Racine, 'processions in which my sisters were the -clergy, I was the rector, and the author of _Athalie_, singing with us, -carried the cross.' And the inseparable figure of the excellent Boileau, -who had then become as deaf as a post, appears close by: 'Monsieur -Despreaux,'[15] writes Racine to his son Jean Baptiste, 'entertained us -in the best of fashions; then he took Lionval and Madelon to the Bois de -Boulogne, joking with them, and telling them that he meant to lose them. -He did not hear a word of what the poor children said to him.' - -But before becoming this model paterfamilias, this pattern of piety and -virtue, Racine had spent an eminently brilliant and passionate youth. -Everybody knows that Du Parc and Champmesle[16] were not content with -merely playing in his pieces. - -The amours of Racine and Mademoiselle Du Parc had a terrible development -in 1679, which was one of the reasons, if not the principal and the -determining reason, of the resolution then taken by the poet to abandon -the career of dramatic author. M. Larroumet recalls this page in his -life in the following terms:-- - -'The mysterious poison affair was being unravelled before the Chambre -Ardente. On November 21, 1679, one of the prisoners, La Voisin, brought -Racine into the case. She declared that "Racine, having secretly -espoused Du Parc, was jealous of everybody, and particularly of her, La -Voisin, with whom he was much offended, and that he had made away with -her by poison on account of his extreme jealousy; and that during Du -Parc's illness, Racine never left her bedside, that he drew a valuable -diamond from her finger, and had also stolen the jewels and principal -effects of Du Parc, which were worth a great deal of money." This is -assuredly nothing but the abominable invention of a ruined woman,' adds -M. Larroumet, 'one of those calumnies which malice, corruption, and -greed give rise to in the entourage of women of gallantry. Racine had -been compelled to forbid his mistress to receive La Voisin. From this -arose her furious wrath, and, eleven years afterwards, she tried to -avenge herself by implicating the poet in a formidable accusation. -Proofs she gave none, and the proceedings of the affair, published in -the _Archives de la Bastille_, contain no trace of any. However, a -letter written on January 11, 1680, by Louvois to Bazin de Bezons, ends -thus: "The orders of the king necessary for the arrest of Racine will be -sent to you whenever you ask for them." It is impossible to doubt that -the Racine in question was the poet. But no arrest was made. Racine had -been able to clear himself in the eyes of Louvois and the king.' - -This episode in the life of the great poet is worthy of arresting our -attention, so much the more because it was perhaps the cause of his -abandonment, to be for ever regretted, of a career on which he had -thrown the brightest lustre. - -It was neither Louvois nor Louis XIV who suppressed the _lettre de -cachet_ with which the deposition of La Voisin had threatened Racine. -Bazin de Bezons, a commissioner of the Chambre Ardente and member of the -Academy, determined to spare his colleague the affront of an arrest in -such circumstances, and thought he might well wait until the -denunciations of La Voisin were confirmed from another source. - -Racine, as a matter of fact, had been the lover of Du Parc, whose maiden -name was Marguerite Therese de Gorla, daughter of a surgeon of Lyons. La -Voisin knew her very intimately, and called her her 'gossip.' - -Here follows, word for word, the part of the celebrated examination of -La Voisin on November 21, 1679, so far as it relates to Racine:-- - -'Who made her acquainted with Du Parc, comedian? - -'She had known her for fourteen years. They were very good friends -together, and she knew all her affairs during that time. She had for -some time had the intention of declaring to us that Du Parc must have -been poisoned, and that Jean Racine was suspected. The rumour was -strong. What more especially gave rise to the presumption was that -Racine had always prevented her, who was the good friend of Du Parc, -from seeing her during the whole course of the illness of which she -died, although Du Parc constantly asked for her; but although she went -to see her, they had never been willing to let her in, and this was by -order of Racine, as she learnt from the stepmother of Du Parc, whose -name was Mademoiselle de Gorla, and from Du Parc's daughters, who are at -the Hotel de Soissons, and informed her that Racine was the cause of -their misfortune. - -'Asked if he had ever proposed to her to do away with Du Parc by poison. - -'The proposal would have been well received. - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -for the same purpose. - -'She knew nothing about that. - -'Asked if she did not know a lame actor. - -'Yes, Bejart, whom she had only seen twice. - -'Asked if Bejart had not some spite against Du Parc. - -'No; and what she knew about Racine she obtained first from Mademoiselle -de Gorla. - -'Asked what De Gorla said to her, and strictly cross-examined. - -'De Gorla told her that Racine, having secretly espoused Du Parc [here -follows a repetition of the statement already made]; that she (Du Parc) -had not even been allowed to speak to Manon, her maid, who is a midwife, -though she asked for Manon and got some one to write asking her to come -to Paris to see her, as well as La Voisin herself. - -'Asked if De Gorla told her the manner in which the poisoning had been -carried out, and who had been made use of in the matter. - -'No.' - -Such were the declarations of La Voisin before the commissioners of the -Chambre Ardente. She repeated them exactly in her final examination -before the judges: 'She had known Mademoiselle Du Parc, the actress; had -been a friend of hers for fourteen years; her stepmother, named De -Gorla, had told her that Racine had poisoned her, and she only knew of -Du Parc's death when she saw the body at the door on the way to burial.' - -Finally, in the anguish of torture, La Voisin maintained her -declarations. - -'Asked if she knew nothing more concerning what she had said at the -trial about the poisoning of Du Parc. - -'She had told the truth in all that she had said on the subject.' - -M. Larroumet gaily and gracefully flings these declarations overboard as -'an abominable invention of a ruined woman.' We know La Voisin from what -has already been said about her above. It is inconceivable that such a -creature should have nursed a grievance against Racine for not having -allowed her to reach his sick mistress, to such an extent as to -fabricate against him, eleven years later, so monstrous an accusation. -This hypothesis is so much the more unlikely in that, if La Voisin had -wanted to ruin Racine by her charges, she would have formulated precise -and direct complaints against him; while she, as a matter of fact, only -repeated gossip she had heard. Then, too, Du Parc's daughters were still -alive, and it would have been easy to confront them with the sorceress. - -The examinations to which La Voisin was subjected were very numerous. -They brought out innumerable details on a multitude of crimes, in which -a very large number of people was implicated. There were many -confrontations. The declarations of the terrible sorceress were -submitted to careful investigation by examining magistrates like Nicolas -de la Reynie. All her declarations were found to be accurate. - -We have seen that, far from inventing imaginary charges for the purpose -of implicating in her own case people of high position, and so saving -herself (as some historians have insinuated), La Voisin endeavoured to -keep silence about the crimes of her clients--a curious piece of -professional discretion. And we venture to say that if she had declared -before the judges that she had given Racine poison to get rid of Du -Parc, we should have unhesitatingly believed her. But she did not say -anything of the kind. She declared simply that, in Du Parc's immediate -circle, it was the conviction that the actress had been poisoned by her -lover, and that, throughout her illness, he had prevented La Voisin from -approaching the bed, as well as Manon, her maid, 'who was a midwife.' - -It is further important to note--and this observation has not been made -by any historian--that the belief in Racine's having poisoned Du Parc -was shared by more than one prisoner before the Chambre Ardente. La -Voisin was not the only one to make the accusation before the judges, as -the following question put by one of the magistrates clearly shows: - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -(a sorceress and poisoner like herself) for the same purpose (the -poisoning of Du Parc by Racine).' - -A great part of the records of the Chambre Ardente having been -destroyed, as we have shown, we have no trace of the examination to -which the magistrate here alluded. Nevertheless it is testimony which -cannot be gainsaid. - -Such are the only documents in the great poison case in which Racine is -mentioned. Is it possible to derive any positive conclusions from them? - -The circumstances surrounding the death certainly appeared suspicious to -the family of the actress, and Racine was pointed at. The poet had -stationed himself at the bedside as a custodian rather than a nurse. He -prevented La Voisin, the sorceress, midwife, and procurer of abortion, -from approaching, and likewise Manon, also a midwife, and this in -defiance of the desire formally expressed by Du Parc. Why did the poet, -contrary to the wishes of the sick woman, prevent these women from -attending her? Du Parc was his mistress. Dr. Legue quotes the testimony -of Boileau, who was closely connected with Du Parc, stating that she -died as a result of childbirth. The chronicler Robinet describes Racine -as following 'more dead than alive' in the funeral procession. The -opinion expressed by Dr. Legue that Du Parc died through an illegal -operation is not unlikely. In such matters it is never possible to speak -with assurance, and when so great a personality as Racine is concerned, -one is bound to maintain the greatest reserve. This operation, if it -took place, brought on peritonitis, which, as in the case of Henrietta -of England, gave rise to suspicions of poison. We have seen that -abortions were at that time of frequent occurrence in Paris. - -Remorse for this crime would explain the amazing resolution to renounce -the theatre taken by Racine at the age of thirty-eight, in the fulness -of strength, at the height of his talent, in the heyday of success. It -would explain also the austerity and excess of his devoutness after this -singular conversion, and the horror he conceived for an art to which he -owed his glory and his fortune. - -Another question suggests itself, which we should like equally to be -able to solve with more certainty. Racine had the most intimate -relations with Du Parc, as the latter had with La Voisin. In 1679, the -year in which the great poisoning matter came to light, _Phedre_ -appeared. Is it rash to suppose that, through his conversations with Du -Parc, La Voisin's confidante, the poet with his keen observation had -seen the features of the passion-tost marchionesses, criminals for love, -who had been the clients of the sorceresses, and that from these -fleeting suggestions he had succeeded in reconstructing their whole -characters? - -'Imagine,' writes Monsieur Brunetiere, 'Racine's agitation when this -case became public. At Paris, in the heart of Paris--the Paris of Louis -XIV--in the Rue Verdelet or the Rue Michel-Lecomte, Orestes was -assassinating Pyrrhus, Roxane was selling herself to some witch to -secure the love of Bajazet or the death of Attalide; the famous Locusta -was not an invention of Tacitus, and every day some Phedre was poisoning -some Hippolyte. And all these horrors were what he, Racine, had been for -ten years toiling to envelop and to disguise, as it were, with the charm -of his verse--murder and lust! adultery and incest! the delirium of the -senses! the madness of homicide! This was what for ten years he had been -endeavouring to win plaudits for, and when a Hermione or a Nero issued -from the Hotel de Bourgogne[17] intent on committing the crime they had -seen glorified under their eyes--what, was it this that he called his -glory! O shame and agony and remorse! And from the moment that such a -question started up before the conscience of such a man, how think you -he could have answered but by quitting the stage? The truth even of his -own art rose up against him. What brought his pictures into condemnation -was just their accent of truth!' - - - - -THE 'DEVINERESSE' - - -_La Devineresse_, a fairy comedy by Donneau de Vise and Thomas -Corneille--the latter is usually called by his contemporaries Corneille -de Lisle--was represented at Paris in 1679, the year of the great poison -case. - -In his reports to the king and the Secretaries of State Nicolas de la -Reynie insisted on the necessity, not only of punishing the guilty, but -of preventing the spread and, if possible, the recurrence of crimes like -those which had been brought to light. We have shown how he had drawn -up, in collaboration with Colbert, the decree registered in the -Parlement on August 31, 1682, by which the magicians were expelled from -France, and by which, more especially, the making and the sale of -poisons necessary in medicine and in trade were placed under rigorous -regulations. This was a masterly work: as we have mentioned, these -regulations are in force to this day, after the lapse of two centuries. - -La Reynie thought that it was advisable, apart from these preventive -measures, to put the public on their guard against the dangerous -infatuation which had thrown so many pretty and passionate women body -and soul into the hands of the fortune-tellers. Let us recall the -declarations of one of the latter: 'Persons who look into the hand are -the ruin of all women, women of quality as well as others, because their -weakness is soon found out, and when discovered is taken advantage of, -and they are driven to whatever length the witches please.' As -lieutenant of police La Reynie had a general control of the theatres; he -revised and censored the manuscripts of the playwrights; he was in -constant touch with them. He was the friend of more than one writer of -talent, for the magistrate was doubled in him with the refined and -delightful man of letters, who had both delicate taste and an excellent -library. In this year 1679 he had particularly close relations with -Donneau de Vise, founder and editor of the _Mercure galant_, and -assuredly one of the most curious figures in our literary history. -Boursault had just written his witty comedy, also entitled the _Mercure -galant_, in which he directed lively and incisive satire upon the -journalism then at its dawn, which had already taken, under the -influence of Donneau de Vise, many of the characteristics of modern -journalism. - -The _Mercure_, said Boursault, is a delightful thing:-- - - 'On y trouve de tout, fable, histoire, vers, prose, - Sieges, combats, proces, mort, mariage, amour, - Nouvelles de Province et nouvelles de Cour.' - -Vise begged La Reynie not to authorise the representation of the piece -under the same title as the journal; La Reynie acquiesced, and -Boursault, putting a good face on the matter, called his piece _La -Comedie sans titre_. Moreover, Vise was in high favour at Court. When -Louis XIV saw the success of the _Mercure_, he hastened to award the -editor-in-chief a pension of 500 crowns, gave him apartments in the -Louvre, and appointed him his historiographer. Vise's pen became an -accommodating tool. - -Donneau de Vise was not only a journalist; he was a dramatic author, and -as a dramatic author he was, as he was in journalism, very modern. He -had found means of achieving a noisy notoriety by beginning with an -extremely violent attack on Corneille and Moliere. Against the latter he -composed his comedy _Zelinde, ou la veritable critique de l'Echole des -Femmes et la critique de la critique_, in which he has left a portrait -of the poet that has become famous, and which is, in our eyes, not a -criticism but a splendid eulogy. 'I came down,' says a lace merchant; -'Elomire [an anagram on Moliere] did not say a single word. I found him -leaning up against my shop in the attitude of a man in a dream. He had -his eyes fixed on three or four persons of quality who were bargaining -for lace; he appeared attentive to their words, and seemed by the -movement of his eyes to be scanning the depths of their souls to see -there what they did not say.' - -La Reynie thought of utilising the talent and the notoriety of the -dramatic author, and, not satisfied with granting him what he asked in -regard to the title of Boursault's comedy, he gave him in addition the -subject for a piece which was destined to obtain the greatest success. -To prove to demonstration in Paris, by means of a play to which the -public, excited by the great poison case, would flock in crowds, that -the pretended skill of magicians and sorceresses was only deception and -trickery, seemed assuredly the best way to dissuade the ingenuous mob -from dealing with them. From this idea issued _La Devineresse ou les -Faux enchantements_, a comedy represented for the first time in Paris by -the king's company on November 19, 1679, and published in the following -February. We have mentioned that Donneau de Vise was one of the pioneers -of the modern literary life, and _La Devineresse_ will be a fresh proof -of the assertion. Let us note first that Vise was the father of a -literary custom which is in these days highly popular, collaboration. -One of the masters of dramatic criticism, Edouard Thierry, writes on -this subject: 'Collaboration, an unfamiliar term which existed at most -as a term in jurisprudence, was nevertheless not absolutely unknown at -the theatre. There had been the _Psyche_ at the Palais-Royal, completed -by Pierre Corneille on the plan and under the direction of Moliere; but -this was considered only as work done to order; it belonged in the end -to the person who hired the worker. There had been the _Plaideurs_ of -Racine, and some other successful parodies, composed by several hands, -it was said; but this was only an amusement, a literary picnic of gay -wits who stimulated each other to satire; nobody up to that time had -thought of raising the game to the level of an industry.' From the very -first, collaboration as a business gave results which exceeded the most -sanguine hopes. Vise, who had made his peace with the elder Corneille, -entered into partnership with his younger brother. This Thomas -Corneille, who was a remarkable vaudeville-writer and also a remarkable -scholar, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, has -been unjustly thrown into the shade by the glory of his elder brother. - -_La Devineresse_ was not merely a modern piece in respect of this new -trick of collaboration; it was the origin and doubtless the model of -those spectacular pieces, with shifting scenery and mechanical effects, -which give the Chatelet its success to-day. And we shall find, not only -that the idea sprang from this, but that the comedy contains scenes and -stage business which have come down to us in direct succession through a -line of such pieces--such as the talking headless man, the dismembered -man whose limbs rearrange themselves spontaneously, dropsy passing from -one subject to another, the fairy, wizard or devil who comes into a room -through the wall. - -Finally, the _Devineresse_ must occupy a select place in the annals of -the modern stage from the manner in which the authors managed to float -it. One of them, Donneau de Vise, was a journalist, and consequently a -master of the advertising art. He had the idea, among others, of getting -up for 1680 an almanac of the _Devineresse_, in which there was a large -engraved plate representing the principal scenes in the piece, the -features of the spectacle, grouped around a monstrous satanic figure; -these of course were the principal tricks in false magic performed by -the sorceress and her mate. These pictures are still in existence,[18] -and present to our eyes a curious representation, not only of the -theatrical scenes of the eighteenth century, but also of the interior of -the houses in which the sorceresses received their clients. These -circumstances, together with the striking actuality and the wit of the -authors, secured to the _Devineresse_ an unprecedented success, both -financially and in arousing the curiosity of the public. All Paris ran -to see it. Its representations extended over five months, and, what in -those days appeared remarkable, it ran for forty-seven nights in -succession; the first eighteen performances brought in double the usual -receipts. Seconded by the skill and talent of the authors, the -lieutenant of police had attained his end. - -The fortune-teller who is the chief character in the piece was none -other than La Voisin, whose name Corneille and Vise slightly disguised -in calling their sorceress Madame Jobin. In the comedy are to be found -echoes of the replies made by the sorceress before the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, a fact which indicates the share of La Reynie. The -principal ally of La Voisin was called Du Buisson, that of Madame Jobin -is called Du Clos. Their practices are the same, but turned to ridicule -by the authors, who make their Madame Jobin a mere schemer with no other -idea than to snap up the crown-pieces of the public. In the essentials -of the character we are thus very far from the terrible sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. - -In the course of the second scene of the second act, Madame Jobin -explains to her brother what her art consists in. - -'This is what the majority of men are. They swallow all the stupidities -retailed to them, and when once they have let themselves go, nothing is -capable of undeceiving them. See, my brother, Paris is the place in the -world where there are most clever people and also most dupes. The -sorceries I am accused of, and other things which would appear still -more supernatural, want a lively imagination to invent them and skill to -make use of them. It is through these that people have belief in us, -and magic and devils have nothing to do with it. The fright people get -into who are shown this sort of thing blinds them enough to prevent them -from seeing they are deceived. As to my meddling with fortune-telling, -as you will be told, that is an art in which the thousand folk who put -themselves every day in our hands make our information easy to get at. -Besides, chance accounts for the greater part of our success in this -line. All you want is presence of mind, and boldness and intrigue, to -know the world, to have people in your houses, to note carefully things -that happen, to get information on their little love affairs, and -especially to say a good many things when any one comes to consult you. -There is always one of them true, and two or three, said quite -haphazard, are enough to give you a vogue. After that it will be of no -good to say that you know nothing; no one will believe you, and, good or -evil, they make you talk.' - -The comedy itself is far from being without merit. You will not see in -it, to be sure, the breadth and the sureness of touch of that Moliere -whom Vise had so much ridiculed, and the pleasure one may find in -reading it is spoilt by the feeling that Moliere would have made so much -more of such a subject, in which so many laughable and so many moving -things are concentrated. Nevertheless, the majority of modern -extravaganzas would have to yield in many respects to the _Devineresse_, -as regards both construction and literary merit. In the course of the -preface to the published edition of their piece, the authors are careful -to speak of the famous rules ascribed to Aristotle without which no -dramatic piece could be constructed in the time of Racine and Boileau. -And in fact Vise and Corneille did observe them--these three famous -unities of time, place, and action. In an extravaganza, mark! That, -assuredly, is what an author of our day would consider the most -extravagant feature of their work. - -The preface states the subject of the comedy: 'A woman mad after the -sorceresses, a lover interested in opening her eyes about them, and a -rival who wishes to prevent their marriage, form a subject which opens -the plot in the first act, a plot only unravelled in the last act by -the unmasking of the false devil. The other actors, or at least a part -of them, are envoys of one or other of the two interested persons, who, -by the reports they give, augment the credulity of the countess or make -the marquis believe still more firmly that the sorceress is a knave. -Thus these characters cannot be regarded as unnecessary. It is true that -there are some who, knowing neither the countess nor the marquis, only -consult Madame Jobin on their own behalf; but, being as famous as she is -here depicted, was it likely that during twenty-four hours there only -came to her persons who knew one another or furthered the principal -action?' - -From the outset the comedy is well constructed, and the character of the -persons comes out clearly. The seasoning of the dialogue is a little -strong, indeed; but the wit springs always from an acute and delicate -power of observation. We may mention the scene in which the sorceress, -who easily dupes persons of cultivated mind and even those who never -relax their vigilance, is utterly nonplussed by the primitive -simple-mindedness of a village girl. The denouement is brought about by -the presence of mind of the marquis, who seeks to undeceive the countess -whom he loves. The sorceress has foretold frightful misfortunes to the -countess if she should marry the marquis, being paid for so doing by a -Madame Noblet who has fallen deeply in love with the latter. The -marquis, armed with a pistol, springs at the throat of a devil whom the -sorceress has summoned through the wall. The devil falls on his knees: -'Mercy, sir; I am a good devil!' - -It remains to inquire whether the lieutenant of police had as much -success as the authors of the piece; that is, whether the practices he -wished to extirpate in France disappeared under his efforts. La Reynie -did succeed, as much as he could hope, in the struggle he had undertaken -against the poisoners. Magic, however, was a hardy plant. 'You would -never believe how desperately silly they are at Paris,' wrote Madame -Palatine on October 8, 1701. 'Everybody is anxious to become an adept in -the art of invoking spirits and other devilries.' Black masses were -again said in the outskirts of Paris, in circumstances so horrible that -'a beggar girl aged thirteen years, who had been taken there, died of -fright': she was buried in her clothes by sub-deacon Sebault, and -Guignard, cure of Notre Dame de Bourges, who had said the monstrous -office. And according to M. Huysmans, black masses are said to this very -day. - -When, two thousand years before our era, the Chaldean mages and the high -priests of Egypt on clear nights pierced the starry sky with their -patient gaze, did they read there that after thirty centuries a grave -magistrate and chief of police would fight their descendants by means of -a fairy extravaganza, with trap-doors and puns and transformation -scenes? - - - - -INDEX - - -Alacocque, Marguerite, 121. - -Bachimont, Robert de, alchemist, 137. - - -Barbier, archer of the guard, 55, 56, 58. - -Bazin de Bezons, 163. - -Belot, Francois, poisoner, 331. - -Black Mass, 131, 132, 155 ff. - -Bocager, law professor, 31, 32. - -Bodin's _Demonomanie des Sorciers_, 122-126. - -Boileau, 348. - -Boscher, Alexander, physician, 319. - -Bosse, Marie, sorceress, 119, 129, 172, 173, 179. - -Bossuet, 126, 219, 220, 313, 329, 333. - -Boucherat, Louis, 163. - -Bouillon, Duchess de, 275-279. - -Bourdelot, Abbe, physician, 318, 323, 334. - -Boursault, journalist, 363. - -Briancourt, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 19, 24-32, 35, 47, 68, 69. - -Brinvilliers, Antoine Gobelin de, 4, 33, 34, 51. - -Brinvilliers, Madame de, her career, 1-116. - -Brissart, Marie, 152-154. - -Brunet, Madame, 177-179. - -Bussy-Rabutin, 173-176, 239. - - -Cadelan, Pierre, banker, 140, 141. - -Castelmelhor, Count of, 137, 138. - -Chamberlain, Hugh, physician, 319. - -Chambre Ardente, the, 163-180, 275, 279, 291, 296, 302, 304. - -Chasteuil, F. Galaup de, alchemist, 133-142. - -Chevigny, Father de, 80, 93. - -Cluet, Sergeant, 38, 40. - -Colbert, 50, 257, 290. - -Coligny, Madame de, 173, 174. - -Corneille, Thomas, 361. - -Creuillebois, Sergeant, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Croissy, Marquis de, ambassador in England, 50. - - -D'Aubray, Antoine, brother of Madame de Brinvilliers, 18, 19, 20. - -D'Aubray, Antoine, father of Madame de Brinvilliers, 3, 13. - -Delamarre, attorney for Madame de Brinvilliers, 40, 41. - -Descarrieres, political agent, 53. - -Desgrez, captain of police, 9, 52, 53, 107, 111, 119. - -Desoeillets, Mademoiselle, 221, 222, 252-254, 286. - -Donneau de Vise, dramatist, 361-365. - -Dreux, Madame de, 166-168. - -Du Parc, Mademoiselle, 349-359. - - -Exili, Italian poisoner, 9-11. - - -Filastre, Francoise, sorceress, 184, 249. - -Fontanges, Duchess de, mistress of Louis XIV, 237, 240, 250. - -France, Anatole, on 'Madame,' 334, 336. - - -Galet, Louis, poisoner, 234. - -Glaser, Christophe, chemist, 10, 12. - -Godin, _alias_ Sainte-Croix, _q.v._ - -Guibourg, Abbe, 155, 215-218, 227-231. - -Guillaume, executioner, 114. - - -Harvillier, Jeanne, witch, 123, 124. - -Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, 313-345. - -Hocque, Pierre, sorcerer, 126-128. - -Huysmans, J. K., on philosopher's stone, 138. - - -Joly, sorceress, 167, 168. - - -La Chaboissiere, valet, 142, 143, 198, 304. - -La Chaussee, valet, 17, 18, 19, 21, 45, 47-49. - -La Fayette, Madame de, 314, 315, 320, 324-327. - -Lamoignon, President of High Court, 65, 68, 69, 76. - -La Reynie, Nicolas de, lieutenant of police, 12, 49, 52, 53, 121, 132, -144, 156, 176, 181, 182, 194, 202, 203-205, 231, 234, 245-247, 265-312, -361-374. - -La Riviere, 173, 176. - -Leferon, Marguerite, poisoner, 168-170. - -Leroy, poisoner, 215, 216. - -Lesage, magician, 130, 148, 149, 153, 159, 160-162, 184, 199-201, 203, -206, 221. - -Littre on death of 'Madame,' 335, 336. - -Louis XIV, 179, 181, 183-186, 208, 210, 212-214, 217, 219, 220, 255, -258, 264, 272, 283, 284, 296, 363. - -Louvois, 52, 180, 205, 210, 255, 284, 285, 287, 292, 307. - -Ludres, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 226, 235. - - -Maintenon, Madame de, 220, 226, 257. - -Mariette, Abbe, 199, 200. - -_Mercure Galant_, 362, 363. - -Michelet, 1-3, 79. - -Moliere's _Amphitryon_, 209. - -Montespan, Madame de, 187-265. - -Montespan, Marquis de, 207-214. - -Monvoisin, Catherine, poisoner and sorceress, 120, 130, 144-159, 169, -170, 182, 201-203, 242-244, 349-358. - -Monvoisin, Marguerite, 193-195, 221, 227-231, 241. - - -Nadaillac, Marquis de, 15. - -Nivelle, advocate for Madame de Brinvilliers, 70-74. - - -Palatine, Madame, 192, 373. - -Palluau, Parlement counsellor, 57, 66. - -Pennautier, receiver for clergy, 37, 43, 44, 60-64, 115. - -Picard, commissary, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Pirot, Abbe, 5, 6, 75-115. - -Poulaillon, Madame de, 170-176. - - -Rabel, alchemist, 140-142. - -Racine, 346-360. - -Rebille, Philibert, royal flutist, 177-180. - -Regnier, police officer, 46, 47. - -Romani, poisoner, 246, 248. - - -Sainte-Croix, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 6-12, 15, 17, 22, 25, 29, -30, 33, 35-38. - -Saint-Simon on Pennautier, 44, 61; - on Madame de Montespan, 189, 192, 259, 261-263; - on La Reynie, 266. - -Sevigne, Madame de, on Madame de Brinvilliers, 14, 34, 64, 111, 115; - on Madame de Dreux, 167; - on La Reynie, 180; - on Madame de Montespan, 188-190, 214, 223, 224, 225, 235, 236, 239; - on Madame de Maintenon, 226; - on poison cases, 273, 274; - on Duchess de Bouillon, 276-278. - -Soubise, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 224. - - -Trianon, sorceress, 243, 245. - - -Valliere, Louise de la, 188. - -Vanens, Louis de, alchemist, 118, 135-137, 142, 143. - -Vigoureux, Madame, 118. - -Vivonne, Duchess de, 272. - -Vosser, Marie (Madame de St. Laurent), 60, 63. - - -Wier's book on demonology 124, 125. - -Printed by T. and A. 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The house is now occupied by the -nursing sisterhood of the Bon-Secours. - -[3] [The then law courts of Paris.] - -[4] [The supreme judicial tribunal of France.] - -[5] [The criminal court.] - -[6] [The assassin of Henry of Navarre.] - -[7] - - ['into a sea profound - Where flowed earth's metals in a molten mass, - Would tinge and dye the whole in sunbright gold.'] - - -[8] [In the original, a play on the double meaning of _argent_--'silver' -and 'money.'] - -[9] [Second wife of 'Monsieur,' the king's brother.] - -[10] ['To share with Jupiter is no whit dishonouring.'] - -[11] [Madame de Montespan.] - -[12] Written in collaboration with Professor Paul Brouardel, Dean of the -Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and Doctor Paul le Gendre, physician to -the Tenon infirmary. - -[13] The report of Chamberlain, the English physician, says distinctly -that it was oil. 'The lower bowel was full of a bilious humour, with oil -floating upon it' (Mrs. Everett-Green's _Lives of the Princesses of -England_, vi. 589). This observation is important because Littre's -opinion has been disputed by Dr. Legue. 'Littre maintains that the -physicians noticed the presence of oil; but that is because he strains -an equivocal phrase in the report of the autopsy--"full to its utmost -capacity of a sanious, putrid, yellowish, watery substance, _fat like -oil_." Frankly, is this not giving to the text a signification which -never entered into the mind of the physicians?' (_Medecins et -Empoisonneurs_, pp. 255, 256.) Neither Dr. Legue nor Littre, however, -knew the English reports published by Mrs. Everett-Green. - -[14] _Legends of the Bastille_, p. 146. - -[15] [Boileau.] - -[16] [Two of the most famous actresses of the time.] - -[17] [The theatre so called.] - -[18] In a copy of the _Devineresse_ in the Arsenal Library. There are -others, a little different, in the large folio collection of almanacs in -the print department of the National Library. - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -exceded that of Exili=> exceeded that of Exili {pg 10} - -wedges in successsion=>wedges in succession {pg 49} - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Princes and Poisoners, by Frantz Funck-Brentano - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43238.txt or 43238.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/3/43238/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - http://www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/43238.zip b/43238.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index cd92bf3..0000000 --- a/43238.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/43238-8.txt b/old/43238-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c5e987c..0000000 --- a/old/43238-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8015 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Princes and Poisoners, by Frantz Funck-Brentano - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Princes and Poisoners - Studies of the Court of Louis XIV - -Author: Frantz Funck-Brentano - -Translator: George Maidment - -Release Date: July 17, 2013 [EBook #43238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - PRINCES AND POISONERS - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR_ - -LEGENDS OF THE BASTILLE. BY FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO. With an Introduction -by VICTORIEN SARDOU. Translated by GEORGE MAIDMENT. 1899. Crown 8vo. -Cloth, 6_s._ - -CONTENTS.--I. The Archives; II. History of the Bastille; III. Life in -the Bastille; IV. The Man in the Iron Mask; V. Men of Letters in the -Bastille; VI. Latude; VII. The Fourteenth of July. - -LONDON: DOWNEY AND CO., LIMITED. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE - -LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE - -(_Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the painting by Mignard_)] - - - - - Princes and Poisoners - - STUDIES OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - BY - FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO - - TRANSLATED BY - GEORGE MAIDMENT - - [Illustration: colphon] - - LONDON - _DUCKWORTH and CO._ - 3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. - 1901 - - _Second Impression, May 1901_ - - _All rights reserved._ - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Twelve months ago I had the honour of introducing M. Frantz -Funck-Brentano to the English public by my translation of his _Légendes -et Archives de la Bastille_, and in my preface to that book I gave a -rapid sketch of his career which need not be repeated. If history is to -be continually reconstructed, or rather, perhaps, to undergo a process -of destructive distillation, there is no one more competent than M. -Funck-Brentano to perform the feat. We lose our illusions with our -teeth; the fables that charmed our childhood dissolve in the modern -historian's test-tube, and the mysteries that fascinated our forebears -become clear with a few drops of his critical acid. - -In his former book, M. Funck-Brentano solved once for all the mystery -of the Man in the Iron Mask, showed up the impostor Latude in his true -colours, and gave us surprising information about the latter days of the -Bastille. In the present volume, the fruit of several years' research -among the archives at the Arsenal Library, he conclusively dispels the -cloud of suspicion that has hung over the sudden death of Charles I's -winsome and ill-fated daughter Henrietta; gives us for the first time -the authentic history of that beautiful poisoner Madame de Brinvilliers; -suggests a very plausible explanation of Racine's hitherto inexplicable -retirement from dramatic writing; and throws a strange light upon the -private history of Madame de Montespan and other fair ladies of Louis -XIV's Court. If it be objected that some of the details of the 'black -mass' and kindred abominations are too gruesome for print, it may be -urged in reply that these details are related with the cold impartial -pen of a serious historian, not coloured or heightened with a view to -melodramatic effect. 'Truth's a dog that must to kennel,' says Lear's -Fool; Louis the Magnificent tried to stifle the damning evidence against -his jealous, passionate mistress; when Time and patient research among -long-forgotten papers have combined to bring the truth to light, it -would ill become us to blame a scholar like M. Funck-Brentano for not -joining the monarch's conspiracy of silence. - -G. M. - -_November 1900._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS-- - - I. HER LIFE, 1 - - II. HER TRIAL, 36 - -III. HER DEATH, 76 - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF -LOUIS XIV-- - - I. THE SORCERESSES-- - - The Dinner of La Vigoreux, 117 - - Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century, 121 - - The Practices of the Witches, 128 - - The Alchemists, 133 - - La Voisin, 144 - - The Magician Lesage, 159 - - The 'Chambre Ardente,' 163 - - Louis XIV and the Poison Affair, 180 - - II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN, 187 - -III. A MAGISTRATE--GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE, 265 - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME,' 313 - -RACINE AND THE POISON AFFAIR, 346 - -'LA DEVINERESSE,' 361 - -INDEX, 375 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - -PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA -REYNIE, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE. -Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the picture by -Mignard, _Frontispiece_ - -PORTRAIT OF MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS, -after the sketch by Charles Lebrun, _facing page 112_ - - - - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS - - - - -I. HER LIFE - - -In the judicial annals of France there has never been a more striking or -celebrated figure than the Marquise de Brinvilliers. The enormity of her -crimes, the brilliance of her rank, the circumstances accompanying her -trial and death,--the story of which, as told by her confessor, the abbé -Pirot, is one of the masterpieces of French literature,--finally, the -strange energy of her character, which after her execution caused her to -be regarded as a saint by a portion of the population of Paris: all -these things will for long years to come attract to her the attention of -all who are interested in the history of the past. - -Michelet devoted to the Marquise de Brinvilliers a study in the _Revue -des Deux Mondes_. But his story is very inaccurate and leaves many -gaps. From the historical point of view, the little novel of Dumas is -much to be preferred. The beautiful criminal has also been dealt with by -Pierre Clément in his _Police of Paris under Louis XIV_, and more -recently by Maître Cornu, in his discourse at the reopening of the -lecture-term of the advocates to the Court of Cassation. The writer of -the following pages has been able to make use of some fresh documents. - -In the trial of the Marquise de Brinvilliers there is much to interest -the historian. It was the first of the terrible poison cases which -caused such a sensation at the court of Louis XIV in the central years -of his reign, and in which the greatest names in France were implicated; -and Madame de Brinvilliers herself represents the most salient and most -easily studied features of a type of woman which, as we shall see, -repeated itself after her even on the steps of the throne. - - * * * * * - -Marie Madeleine--and not Marguerite--d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, -was born on July 22, 1630. She was the eldest of the five children of -Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, lord of Offémont and Villiers, councillor of -state, _maître des requêtes_, civil lieutenant of the city, mayoralty, -and viscounty of Paris, and lieutenant-general of the mines of France. -Dreux d'Aubray was himself the son of a treasurer of France, originally -from Soissons. Madeleine d'Aubray received a good education, in a -literary point of view at any rate. The spelling of her letters is -correct, a rare thing with the ladies of her time. Her handwriting is -remarkable: bold, firm, like a man's, and such as the observer would be -disposed to ascribe to an earlier period. But her religious education -was entirely neglected. At her interviews with her confessor on the eve -of her death she displayed an utter ignorance of the most elementary -maxims of religion,--those which people learn as children, and never -during the whole course of their life forget. - -Of moral principles she was absolutely destitute. From the age of five -she was addicted to horrible vices. At seven she was only by courtesy a -maiden. These are what Michelet calls 'a young girl's peccadilloes.' As -time went on, she yielded herself to her young brothers. On these points -her own testimony renders mistake impossible. She will show herself to -have been endowed with an ardent, affectionate nature, which gave her -passions command of an amazing energy; but this energy acted only under -the empire of her passions, for she was powerless to resist the -impressions which penetrated and ere long dominated her. She was -extremely sensitive to affronts, and particularly to those which touched -her pride. She was one of those natures which under good guidance are -capable of heroic deeds, but which are also capable of the greatest -crimes when they are wholly abandoned to evil instincts. - -In 1651, at the age of one-and-twenty, Marie Madeleine d'Aubray wedded a -young officer of the Norman regiment, Antoine Gobelin de Brinvilliers, -baron of Nourar, the son of a president of the audit office. He was a -direct descendant of Gobelin, the founder of the celebrated manufacture. -Mademoiselle d'Aubray brought her husband a dowry of 200,000 livres, and -as he too was wealthy, the young couple enjoyed what was for that time -a large fortune. - -The young marchioness was charming--a pretty, sprightly woman, with -large expressive eyes. She made a great impression by her frank, -decided, and vivacious manner of speaking. She was of an amiable and -cheerful temperament, and dreamed of nothing but pleasure. A priest -endowed with great keenness of judgment, who studied the Marquise de -Brinvilliers in terrible circumstances, has described her as follows:-- - -'She was naturally intrepid and of a great courage. She appeared to have -been born with inclinations towards good, with an air of complete -indifference, with a keen and penetrating intellect, forming clear views -of things, and expressing them in words few and fit but very precise; -wonderfully ready in finding expedients for getting out of a difficulty, -and quick to make up her mind upon the most embarrassing questions; -frivolous, moreover, with no application, uneven and inconstant, -becoming impatient if the same subject were often talked about. - -'Her soul had something naturally great--a composure in face of the most -unexpected emergencies, a firmness that nothing could move, a resolution -to await and even suffer death if need be. - -'She had thick and beautiful chestnut hair, with comely and well-rounded -features--her eyes blue, tender, and of perfect beauty, her skin -extraordinarily white, her nose well-shaped enough; nothing in her -countenance was unpleasing. - -'Sweet as her face naturally appeared, when some vexatious idea crossed -her imagination she showed it plainly by a grimace that might at first -sight scare you; and from time to time I noticed contortions that -bespoke disdain, indignation, and scorn. - -'She was of a very slight and dainty figure.' - -To the Marquis de Brinvilliers luxury and large expenditure had become -second nature; he loved gaming and pleasure generally; and his marriage -was very far from banishing his joyous habits. In 1659 he formed a close -intimacy with a certain Godin, known more often as Sainte-Croix, a -captain of horse in the Tracy regiment, originally from Montauban, and -said to be a by-blow of a noble Gascon family. Sainte-Croix was young -and handsome; 'endowed,' says a memoir of the time, 'with all the -advantages of intelligence, and perhaps, too, with those qualities of -heart under whose empire a woman rarely fails, in the long-run, to -fall.' In after days, Maître Vautier had to sketch the portrait of -Sainte-Croix in the course of an address before the Parlement. -'Sainte-Croix,' he said, 'was in poverty and distress, but he had a rare -and singular genius. His countenance was prepossessing, and gave promise -of intelligence. Such indeed he had, and of such sort as to give -universal pleasure. He took his pleasure in the pleasure of others; he -entered into a religious scheme as joyfully as he accepted the -suggestion of a crime. Keenly sensitive to insult, he was susceptible to -love, and in love jealous to madness, even of persons on whom public -debauchery assumed rights that were not unknown to him. His extravagance -was amazing, and supported by no occupation; for the rest, his soul was -prostituted to every form of crime. He dabbled also in external piety, -and it has been claimed that he wrote devotional books. He spoke -divinely of the God in whom he did not believe, and favoured by this -mask of piety, which he never removed save with his friends, he appeared -to participate in good deeds while really immersed in crime.' Though he -was an officer and married, Sainte-Croix sometimes assumed the garb and -the title of Abbé. - -Sainte-Croix was a brilliant and gallant cavalier; and the Marquise de -Brinvilliers, with her blue eyes and dainty figure, was the most -charming creature in the world. 'Lady Brinvilliers,' observes Vautier -the advocate, 'did not make a mystery of her amour; she gloried in it in -society, whence there resulted much _éclat_.' She gloried in it also -before her husband, who responded by boasting of his own love for other -ladies; but as she ventured also to brag about it before her father, the -civil lieutenant, a man of the old school, he, strong in the rights with -which ancient customs endowed a father, obtained a _lettre de cachet_ -against his daughter's lover. On March 19, 1663, Sainte-Croix was -arrested 'in the marquise's own carriage as he sat by her side,' and -was thrown into the Bastille. - -Various writers who have dealt with these facts depict Sainte-Croix as -the prison companion of the famous Exili, from whom he learnt the secret -of Italian poisons. Restored to liberty, Sainte-Croix is said to have -handed the terrible prescriptions to his mistress and others, who in -their turn spread them through France. - -We find this opinion expressed in the documents of the time, among -others in the speech delivered by Maître Nivelle before the Parlement, -on behalf of Madame de Brinvilliers. - -Exili, whose real name was Eggidi or Gilles, was an Italian gentleman -attached to the service of Queen Christina of Sweden. It is true that he -was confined in the Bastille at the same period as Sainte-Croix. He -remained there from February 2 to June 27, 1663; Sainte-Croix was there -from March 19 to May 2. A captain of police named Desgrez--who will play -an important part in the sequel--met Exili on leaving prison with an -order to conduct him to Calais and embark him for England; but, whether -Exili gave him the slip on the way, or that he had no sooner reached -England than he returned to France, we soon find the Italian again in -Paris, and in the house of Sainte-Croix himself, with whom he stayed for -six months. After all, it was not Exili who trained Sainte-Croix in the -'art of poisons,' to adopt the phrase of the time. Long before he -entered the Bastille the young cavalry officer had acquired a knowledge -of poisons which far exceeded that of Exili. He owed it to a celebrated -Swiss chemist named Christophe Glaser, who had set up an establishment -in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he had attained a considerable -standing, after the publication in 1665 of a _Treatise on Chemistry_, -which had a noteworthy success at the time, and was often reprinted and -translated. Glaser was apothecary in ordinary to the king and -Monsieur,[1] and demonstrator in chemistry to the Jardin des Plantes. He -was, moreover, a scientist of real merit. Sulphate of potassium, which -he discovered, long bore his name. Glaser was the principal, probably -the only person who furnished Sainte-Croix and his mistress with -poisons. In their correspondence the two lovers call the poisons which -they used 'Glaser's recipe.' These poisons, however, as we shall see, -were very simple; in these days they would appear clumsy. Exili, who -goes out of our story, remained connected with Queen Christina, and in -1681 made an excellent marriage when he wedded the Countess Ludovica -Fantaguzzi, cousin of Duke Francis of Modena. - - * * * * * - -As soon as Sainte-Croix left the Bastille he renewed his relations with -the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her passion had only been heightened by -the imprisonment of her lover. Wounded in her pride, she felt the birth -within herself of an implacable and violent hatred of her father. Her -dissipations, her gaming, her wild flings in her lover's company (she -paying expenses, after the fashion of that period), had embarrassed her -fortune. 'I accuse myself,' she said in her confession, 'of having given -a great deal of my wealth to this man, and he ruined me.' The desire of -attaining possession of her paternal inheritance, and the yearning, -growing day by day more imperious, for wreaking vengeance on her father -for the affront put upon her, suggested to her a frightful crime. There -might frequently have been seen, drawing up at the market-square of -Saint-Germain, a carriage from which alighted a young officer and a -fashionable lady. They went on foot to the Rue du Petit-Lion, in which -Glaser the chemist lived. Arrived at his house, they sought a retired -room. The neighbours, puzzled by these strange goings-on, spoke of false -money. Soon this young lady might have been seen, under the edifying -appearance of piety and religion, going into the hospitals; she bent -over the beds of the patients with words of gentleness and affection; -she carried them confections, wine, and biscuits; but the patients whom -she approached inevitably succumbed, ere long, in horrible anguish. 'Who -would have dreamt,' writes Nicolas de la Reynie, the lieutenant of -police, 'that a woman brought up in a respectable family, whose form and -constitution were delicate and who in appearance was sweet-natured, -would have made an amusement of going to the hospitals to poison the -patients, for the purpose of observing the different effects of the -poison she gave them?' She poisoned her own servants, too, 'to try -experiments.' 'Françoise Roussel says that she has been in the service -of Lady Brinvilliers. The latter one day gave her some preserved -gooseberries to eat, on the point of a knife, and soon afterwards she -felt ill; she gave her also a moist slice of ham, which she ate, and -since then she has had severe abdominal pains, feeling as though her -heart were being stabbed.' The poor woman was ill for three years. - -When the marquise had tested the strength of 'Glaser's recipe,' and had -noted the inability of the surgeons to discover traces of poison in the -corpses, the poisoning of her father was resolved on. - -As Whitsuntide drew on in the year 1666, Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, who had -been suffering for some months from strange disorders, set out for his -estates at Offémont, a few leagues from Compiègne. He asked his daughter -to bring her children and spend a few weeks with him, and when she -arrived he scolded her affectionately for having been so long in -coming. On the day after her arrival his sickness was redoubled; 'he had -great vomitings, continuing with increasing violence till his death,' -which occurred at Paris, whither he had himself transported in order to -secure the services of the best physicians, and whither his daughter had -not failed to accompany him. Madeleine de Brinvilliers confessed -afterwards that she had poisoned her father twenty-eight or thirty times -with her own hands, and at other times by the hands of a lackey named -Gascon, presented to her by Sainte-Croix. The poison was given both in -water and in powder, and the process lasted eight months. 'She could not -manage it,' she said. It is clear that the poison she employed was -simply arsenic. When in the course of time the facts were known, all -Europe clamoured with indignation at the thought of this woman heaping -caresses on her dying father, and responding to his embraces by pouring -poison into the medicines she handed him with her engaging smile. 'The -greatest crimes,' said Madame de Sévigné, 'are a mere trifle in -comparison with being eight months poisoning her father and receiving -all his caresses and tendernesses, to which she replied by doubling the -dose. Medea was nothing to her.' - -D'Aubray died at Paris on September 10, 1666, aged sixty-six years. The -physicians who made an autopsy of the body attributed death to natural -causes; but the rumour at once got abroad that he had died of poison. -The elder brother of the marquise, whose name was the same as his -father's, succeeded him in the family estates and the office of civil -lieutenant. - -Delivered thus from a formidable censor, Madame de Brinvilliers no -longer put any restraint on her debaucheries. She had several lovers at -once, in addition to Sainte-Croix. By him she had 'two children among -her own'; she was the mistress of F. de Pouget, Marquis de Nadaillac, -captain of light horse, and cousin of her husband. Another lover was a -cousin of her own, by whom she had a child. Finally, she granted her -favours to a mere youth, her children's tutor, of whom there will be -much more to say. In spite of this, she felt keenly irritated when -Sainte-Croix appeared to be unfaithful to her; and when she learnt that -her husband was keeping a woman named Dufay, in her rage she thought of -stabbing her. 'She had naturally a great delicacy of feeling,' her -confessor was to write of her, 'and was highly sensitive on a point of -honour and in regard to injuries.' - -Her expenses and prodigalities redoubled, and it was not long before her -share of her father's wealth had melted away. At this point occurs an -incident which bears witness at once to the distress into which she had -fallen and to the savage energy of her character. In 1670, a property -belonging to herself and her husband at Norat, was sold by order of the -Court to satisfy their creditors; in her ungovernable fury the marquise -attempted to set the place on fire. - -The greater part of her father's estate had come to her two brothers, -one of whom had been appointed civil lieutenant, as we have seen; the -other was councillor to the Court. Madame de Brinvilliers had already -tried to procure the assassination of the elder by two hired bravoes on -the road to Orleans--one of those audacious strokes which to the end of -her days she never ceased to devise. She declared at this moment that -her brother was 'no good.' Pressed by need of money, she 'resolved on -fresh poisonings so as not to lose the fruits of the first.' -Sainte-Croix was fully agreed as to the necessity of the proceedings; -but before he set about carrying them into effect he got from his -mistress two promissory notes, one for 25,000, the other for 30,000 -livres. - -In 1669, Madame de Brinvilliers succeeded in introducing a wretch named -Jean Hamelin, commonly known as La Chaussée, into her brother the -councillor's household as a footman. The two brothers lived in the same -house, and La Chaussée had every facility for giving poison to both. One -day when he was waiting at table, the dose he put into the glass he was -handing was so strong that the civil lieutenant rose up in great -agitation, crying, 'Ah, wretch, what have you given me? I think you want -to poison me!' And he bade his secretary taste the stuff. The latter -took some on a spoon and declared that he detected a strong taste of -vitriol. La Chaussée did not lose his head. 'No doubt it is the glass -Lacroix (the valet) used this morning,' he said, 'when he took -medicine.' And he hastily threw the contents of the glass into the fire. - -The civil lieutenant went to his estate at Villequoy in Beauce, to spend -Easter with his family. In 1670 Easter fell on April 6. His brother the -councillor made one of the party, and took La Chaussée with him as his -only attendant. While they stayed at Villequoy La Chaussée helped in the -kitchen. One day a tart came to table, of which all who ate were very -ill on the morrow, while the others remained quite well. On April 12 -they returned to Paris, and the civil lieutenant had the appearance of a -man who had suffered great pain. - -The details of the poisoning are horrible. As D'Aubray did his best to -restore his health, the poison did not take effect so quickly as usual; -he was very difficult to kill. La Chaussée, assiduous in his attentions, -gave his master poison at every possible opportunity. His body was so -offensive during his illness that it was impossible to remain in the -room with him; and he was so irritable that no one could approach him. -Madame de Brinvilliers rarely showed herself, but sent her pious sister -to take her place. Meanwhile La Chaussée was unremitting in his care; no -one but him could change the bedclothes or the mattress. The unhappy man -suffered unspeakable torture. La Chaussée could not help exclaiming: -'This fellow holds out well! He's giving us a good deal of trouble! I -don't know when he will give up the ghost!' - -Madame de Brinvilliers was at Sains in Picardy. She told Briancourt, the -tutor who had become her lover, that the poisoning of her brother the -councillor was in progress. She explained to him that she wanted to set -up 'a good house'; that her eldest son, who was already nicknamed the -President, would one day fill the post of civil lieutenant, and added -that 'there was still a good deal to be done.' These sentiments were -sincere. Madame de Brinvilliers endeavoured to bring up and establish -her children--'who were her own flesh,' as she said--in conformity with -the brilliant dreams she nourished for the future of her 'house.' True, -she began to poison her eldest daughter, but that was because she -thought her a ninny. She was seized with regret, however, and made her -drink milk as an antidote. - -Such was one of her dominant preoccupations. To this must be added her -longing to live with 'honour,' that is, with a brilliant household, with -beautiful ornaments, keeping up a great style, and entertaining her -lovers with magnificence. She longed for 'the glory of the world,' a -phrase continually on her lips. It was for 'honour' that she poisoned so -many people. Such was her own statement. - -The martyrdom of her brother the civil lieutenant lasted three months. -'He grew thin,' declares his physician, 'and emaciated; lost his -appetite, often vomited, and had burning pains in the stomach.' He died -on June 17, 1670. The councillor died in the following September. In -this case, Dr. Bachot, the civil lieutenant's usual attendant, along -with surgeons Duvaux and Dupré and the apothecary Gavart, declared -after an autopsy that the deceased had been poisoned; but so little were -the perpetrators of the crime suspected that La Chaussée drew a hundred -crowns left him by his master as a reward for his faithful service. - - * * * * * - -We must follow the career of the marquise after the poisoning of her -father and brothers, to understand to what depths her ill-regulated -passion had thrown this woman, who belonged to the highest ranks of -society by her name, her fortune, and the position of her family, and -who was so charmingly endowed by Nature. - -She was at the mercy of a lackey, who held her honour and her life in -his miserable hands. 'She used to receive him privately in her -sitting-room, where she gave him money, saying, "He is a good fellow, -and has done me great service"; and she caressed him.' Visitors coming -upon her unawares found the marquise 'in great familiarity with La -Chaussée,' and 'she made him hide behind her bed when the Sieur Cousté -came to see her.' - -Sainte-Croix was a more formidable accomplice. What must have been the -agony of this proud and passionate woman when she understood little by -little that this man, to whom she had sacrificed everything, had seen in -her only an instrument of his own pleasure and fortune, and now profited -by his mastery of her secrets to squeeze money out of her by the most -vulgar methods of intimidation! Sainte-Croix had locked up in a small -box, which was to become famous, the letters, thirty-four in number, -sent him by the marchioness, the two promissory notes signed by her -after the murder of her father and brothers, and several bottles of -poison. 'The said Lady Brinvilliers coaxed Sainte-Croix to give her his -box, and wished him to give her her note for two or three thousand -pistoles; otherwise she would have him poniarded.' The woman speaks out -in this last phrase. At other times, desperate, frantic with terror, she -thought of poisoning herself. She implored Sainte-Croix to give her the -box, and when she received no answer, sent him this touching note: 'I -have thought it best to put an end to my life, and I have therefore -taken this evening what you gave me at so dear a price--the recipe of -Glaser; by which you will see that I have willingly sacrificed my life -to you; but I do not promise you, before I die, that I will not await -you somewhere to bid you a last farewell.' In the last line she becomes -herself again; there you have the menace of the offended woman. - -What scenes for a romancer to write! One day, by way of reply to these -cries of blood, Sainte-Croix made her swallow poison. It was arsenic; -but the pain she felt warned her immediately, and she absorbed great -quantities of warm milk and so saved herself. She was ill from the -effects for several months. She declared after the death of Sainte-Croix -'that she had done what she could to get the box from him while he was -alive, and if she had succeeded, she would afterwards have cut his -throat.' - -Like all criminals, Madame de Brinvilliers was dominated by the -unconquerable impulse to lead the conversation continually to the -subject of her crimes. She would talk about poisons to any one she met. -Her servants found bottles of arsenic in her dressing-room. One day, -when very merry--she had taken too much wine--she went up to her room -carrying a sort of casket in her hand, and meeting one of her servants -told her 'that she had the wherewithal to wreak vengeance on her -enemies, and that there were many inheritances in that box'--a terrible -phrase which was repeated at her trial and became a catchword; poison -was called afterwards 'powder of inheritance.' 'When she came to her -senses shortly afterwards the marquise told her servant that she did not -know what she was saying when she spoke of inheritances, and that her -troubles were sending her out of her mind.' She fancied that she had -also betrayed herself before her maid, Mademoiselle de Villeray, and it -is possible that in 1673, to secure her silence, she poisoned her too. - -Little by little she came to reveal her crimes in all their details to -Briancourt. In the course of her conversations with him, she displayed -no regret at the death of her brothers, whom she despised, but she often -wept when speaking of her father. 'On the morning after one of these -confidences,' said Briancourt before the judges, 'the Marquise de -Brinvilliers rushed into my room like a madwoman, and told me that she -much mistrusted me, having confided to me matters of the utmost -consequence, in which her life was involved. I told her that I would -never speak of the things confided to me, but I begged her, with tears -in my eyes, that if she was not satisfied with my conduct she would -allow me to return to Paris. The lady replied: "No, no,--if you will -only be discreet; I will make your fortune, and I am sure of your -discretion." About the same time the lady fetched Sainte-Croix back, and -they held long conversations together. He showed me the greatest marks -of friendliness, assuring me of his services, and begged me to watch -over the little boy, of whom he was fond.' We know by Madame de -Brinvilliers' own confession that this little boy was actually -Sainte-Croix' child. - -This deposition of Briancourt constitutes one of the most curious -documents in our possession. This man was well disposed and at heart -upright, but lacked backbone. His terrible mistress ruled and awed him. -Yet he had flashes of that boldness into which feeble natures are -occasionally drawn. After having poisoned her father and brothers the -marquise had still to get rid of her sister, Thérèse d'Aubray, and her -sister-in-law, Marie Thérèse Mangot, widow of the civil lieutenant. That -is what 'remained to be done.' 'Seeing the imminent peril of -Mademoiselle d'Aubray and even of Madame d'Aubray (though the widow's -danger was not so near as the younger lady's), and because La Chaussée -had not yet entered the house of Madame d'Aubray, and Madame de -Brinvilliers said that she wished the widow's business to be managed in -two months or not at all, he (Briancourt) begged the marquise to take -care what she was at, said that she had cruelly put her father and -brothers to death and wished to do the same with her sister; that he had -never come upon an example of such cruelty in all the annals of -antiquity, and that she was the cruelest and wickedest woman that ever -had been or would be; that he begged her to reflect on what she meant to -do, and to remember how that wretch Sainte-Croix had ruined her and her -family; that he saw no safety for her, but sooner or later she would -perish; that he himself would never allow the murder of Mademoiselle -d'Aubray, even though she had once written to Madame de Brinvilliers a -letter in which she accused him of being a rogue and rake.' It was -unquestionably Briancourt's attitude which saved the lives of Madame de -Brinvilliers' sister and sister-in-law; he had further warned -Mademoiselle d'Aubray, through the marquise's maid Mademoiselle de -Villeray, to be on her guard. In her confession the marquise declared -that if she had thought of poisoning her sister it was out of hatred, by -way of revenge for remarks she had made to her about her conduct. - -Briancourt had only succeeded in diverting the peril upon himself. -Madame de Brinvilliers resolved to rid herself of a lover who responded -to her confidences by playing the censor. The customary means, poison, -was obviously the first to suggest itself. 'Sainte-Croix,' says -Briancourt, 'had introduced into the Brinvilliers household a porter -related to La Chaussée, and a lackey named Bazile, who was -extraordinarily assiduous in serving me with food and drink; but seeing -these attentions and, further, some sign of roguery in this fellow, I -handled him so roughly that Madame de Brinvilliers had to dismiss him.' - -There followed a remarkably romantic scene, as Briancourt described it -before the court. - -'Two or three days after Bazile's departure, Lady Brinvilliers told me -that she had a very handsome bed, and hangings embroidered to match; -that it was a bed which Sainte-Croix had pawned and which she had -redeemed. She had it put up in her large room, where there was a close -and wainscoted chimney-piece, and told me that I must come that night -and sleep in that bed, and that she would expect me at midnight, but -that I must not come earlier, because she had to arrange with her cook. -Instead of going down at midnight to a gallery which commanded the -windows of the room, I came down at ten o'clock, and looking through the -windows into the room, the curtains not being drawn, I saw the lady -walking up and down and dismissing all her servants.' - -We may remark in passing that this gallery still exists at the present -day in the mansion inhabited by Madame de Brinvilliers in the Rue -Neuve-Saint-Paul.[2] - -'About half-past eleven,' continues Briancourt, 'Lady Brinvilliers, -having undressed and put on her dressing-gown, took a few turns in the -room, holding a torch in her hand; then she went to the chimney-piece, -which she opened. Sainte-Croix stepped out, dressed in rags, with a -worn-out jerkin and an old hat, and kissed the lady, and for a quarter -of an hour they talked together. Then Sainte-Croix went back into the -chimney-piece, and the lady pushed its two folding-doors to, so as to -shut him in, and then came to the door, in some agitation; my own -agitation was no less. Should I enter, or should I go away? But the lady -seeing my confusion said: "What is the matter? Don't you want to come?" -I saw much rage in her countenance, which was changed in an -extraordinary degree. I went into the room, and the lady asked me if the -bed was not very fine; I said that it was, and the lady rejoined, "Let -us lie down then." Then the marquise got into bed. I had placed the -torch on a stand, and she said, "Undress yourself and put out the light -very quickly." I pretended to be undoing my shoes, desiring to know how -far the lady's cruelty would go, and she said, "What is the matter with -you? You look very solemn." Then I rose and, giving the bed a wide -berth, said to the lady: "Ah, how cruel you are! What have I done that -you want to have me murdered?" The lady sprang out of bed and flung -herself upon me from behind; but freeing myself, I went straight to the -chimney-piece. Sainte-Croix came out, and I said to him: "Ah, villain, -you have come to stick a knife into me!" and as the torch was burning, -Sainte-Croix made to flee, while Lady Brinvilliers rolled on the floor -declaring that she would live no longer, but die; at the same time she -sought her case of poisons, opened it, and was on the point of taking -poison. I prevented her and said, "You wanted to get me poisoned by -Bazile, and now you want to get me stabbed by Sainte-Croix." The lady -threw herself at my feet, declaring that such had not happened to me and -would never happen, and that she would pay with her death for what she -had just done--that she saw clearly that it was all up with her and that -she could not survive such an occurrence. I told her that I would -forgive her and forget all about what she had done, but that I was -determined to go away in the morning, since they wanted to get rid of -me, and I made the lady promise that she would not poison herself. I -remained in the room until six o'clock in the morning with the lady, -whom I compelled to go back to bed, I remaining on a sofa beside the bed -near her.' - -After this scene, Briancourt at once set about procuring pistols, -deeming them necessary to his safety; then he went to ask the advice of -Monsieur Bocager, a professor of the law school, who had introduced him -to Madame de Brinvilliers. - -From the first day he saw the terrible marchioness, Briancourt had -advanced from surprise to surprise; but his greatest astonishment -awaited him in the study of the law professor. The young man said to -him, 'Sir, I have a great secret to communicate to you; I think that you -will give me good advice, and that you will tell the first president, -whom you often see, what is going on, so that he may take the proper -steps.' The professor's discomposure was evident in his features, and he -leaned back uncomfortably in his chair. 'Monsieur Bocager turned very -pale, and said nothing, except that I must keep my secret and not speak -about it to the curé of St. Paul or any one else. He assured me that he -would see to everything, and that I ought not to leave the Brinvilliers' -house so soon, but wait some time, while he sought some new employment -for me.' Briancourt asked himself whether all that he heard and saw were -real events in a real world. How far had this terrible woman been to -seek her accomplices? How far had she pushed her crimes? - -'Two days afterwards,' continues Briancourt, 'the marquise told me that -Monsieur Bocager was not so upright a man as I imagined, as I should see -some day. And as I was passing down the street in the evening, just -opposite St. Paul's, two pistol-shots were fired at me, without my being -able to tell whence they came, and one of them pierced my coat. Seeing -that I was marked down, I went next day to Sainte-Croix' house, carrying -two pistols, having left a man at the street door to see that it -remained open. I told Sainte-Croix that he was a villain and a -scoundrel, that he would be broken on the wheel, and that he had caused -the death of several people of quality. He declared that he had never -caused anybody's death, but that if I would go behind the Hôpital -Général with pistols he would give me every kind of satisfaction; to -which I replied that I was not a soldier, but that if I were attacked I -should defend myself.' - -Such was the strange existence of the poor bachelor in theology, tutor -to the children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers. In his fear of poison he -was continually swallowing some nostrum or other by way of antidote. - -The marquis himself lived in equal terror. He knew what was going on, -and took things philosophically. Here is a sketch of a dinner at his -house. 'The marchioness put Sainte-Croix on her right; the marquis was -at the sideboard end of the table. The latter was very carefully served -by a domestic specially attached to his person, to whom he always said: -"Don't change my glass, but rinse it every time you give me anything to -drink."' When the evening was over, the marquis retired to his room; -Sainte-Croix and the marchioness went to the lady's room, and Briancourt -went upstairs with the children. With the horrors of crime there were -thus mingled scenes of burlesque. - -Accommodating as her husband was, the marchioness began to poison him; -then, struck with remorse, she called in to attend him one of the most -famous physicians of the time, Dr. Brayer. - -'She wished to marry Sainte-Croix,' writes Madame de Sévigné, 'and with -that intention often gave her husband poison. Sainte-Croix, not anxious -to have so evil a woman as his wife, gave counter-poisons to the poor -husband, with the result that, shuttlecocked about like this five or six -times, now poisoned, now unpoisoned, he still remained alive.' -Brinvilliers emerged from this violent treatment with a weakness in the -legs. Afterwards he always carried theriac about with him, that being -regarded as an antidote; he took it from time to time, and gave doses to -his people. - -Briancourt, however, succeeded in escaping from the service of his -formidable mistress, and, under the baleful impression of what he had -seen in the world, he retired to Aubervilliers, where he lived in -solitude, giving lessons in the establishment of the Fathers of the -Oratory there. Seven or eight months had passed when the marchioness -came to see him; then she sent from time to time to ask how he was -doing. It was at Aubervilliers that one evening, on July 31, 1672, he -received from his late mistress a very urgent note, begging him to go -immediately to Picpus, where she had an important communication to make -to him. There had just happened an event which was to entail -incalculable consequences: on July 30 Sainte-Croix died in his -mysterious dwelling in the cul-de-sac of the Place Maubert. - -A widespread legend makes Sainte-Croix' death the result of a chemical -experiment; it is said that the glass mask with which he covered his -face to protect it from the poisonous vapours had broken. But he really -died a natural death after an illness of some months, in the course of -which he was visited by several persons who have left their testimony in -regard to the matter. In the legendary laboratory of the cul-de-sac -there was found indeed a furnace of 'digestion.' Sainte-Croix -'philosophised' there, that is, worked at the philosopher's stone, and -more particularly at solidifying mercury, that eternal dream of the -alchemists. - -Madame de Brinvilliers soon learned of the death of her lover. Her first -cry was, 'The little box!' - - - - -II. HER TRIAL - - -Sainte-Croix died overwhelmed in debt. His things were all put under -seal. The seals were raised on August 8, 1672, by Commissary Picard, -assisted by a sergeant named Creuillebois, two notaries, the agent of -the widow, and an agent of the creditors. The three first meetings had -passed without incident when a Carmelite monk who was present handed to -the commissary the key of the private room in which the furnace was -kept. Entering, they saw on the table a rolled-up paper bearing the -words, 'My confession.' The persons present decided without hesitation -to keep the paper secret, and to burn it on the spot. They found, -further, at the end of a shelf, a small box, oblong in shape and red in -colour, from which hung a key. It contained some phials, some of which -were filled with a clear liquid like water, others with a liquid of -reddish colour; and in addition, there were the letters addressed by -Madame de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix, the two promissory notes signed -by the marchioness after the poisoning of her father and brothers, and a -receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 livres lent by -Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, to Monsieur and Madame de -Brinvilliers through the agency of Sainte-Croix. These two last papers -were in a sealed envelope on which was written: 'Papers to be restored -to the Sieur Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, as belonging to -him; and I humbly beg those into whose hands they fall, to be good -enough to return them to him at my death, they being of no consequence -except to him alone.' - -Sainte-Croix had addressed the little box, with its contents, to Madame -de Brinvilliers in these terms: 'I humbly beg those into whose hands -this box falls to do me the favour to return it into the hands of the -Marquise de Brinvilliers, who lives in Rue Neuve-Saint-Paul, since all -that it contains concerns her and belongs to her alone, and moreover it -is of no use to anybody in the world but herself; and in case she dies -before I do, to burn it, and all that is in it, without opening it or -meddling with it; and so that no one may pretend ignorance, I swear by -the God I adore, and all that is most holy, that I state nothing but the -truth. If perchance any one contravenes my intentions, just and -reasonable as they are, I charge it in this world and the next upon his -conscience, for discharge of my own, and declare that this is my last -will. Made at Paris, afternoon, May 25, 1670. _Signed_: Sainte-Croix.' -Below were these words: 'There is a single packet addressed to Monsieur -Pennautier, which is to be given to him.' The very energy of these -formulæ impressed Commissary Picard. He sealed up the case and confided -it to the care of two sergeants, Cluet and Creuillebois, so that the -inventory might be made by the civil lieutenant in person. Sergeant -Creuillebois took the box home. - -It was Sainte-Croix' widow who on August 8--that is, the day when the -box was discovered--sent word to Madame de Brinvilliers at Picpus that -things belonging to her were under seal. The marchioness instantly sent -some one to find the box. As that was no longer in Sainte-Croix' house, -a servant was sent off to Commissary Picard to tell him that Madame de -Brinvilliers desired to speak to him without delay. Picard answered that -he was busy. The marchioness, however, herself hurried to Madame de -Sainte-Croix, insisting on the box being given to her. It was nine -o'clock at night. 'She complained of its having been sealed up, offered -money to obtain it, proposed to break the seals in order to take out -what was inside, and to substitute something else.' But the box had been -taken away. 'It's very amusing,' she said, 'for Commissary Picard to -carry off a box that belongs to me!' She got some one to take her to -Sergeant Cluet, whom she made come down, so that she might speak to him -from her carriage. 'The lady told him that Pennautier had come to her, -and told her that he was anxious about the box, and would give fifty -golden louis to have what was in it. She also said that all that was in -the said box concerned Pennautier and herself, and that they had done -everything in concert.' We see here the first step in a manoeuvre -which Madame de Brinvilliers afterwards developed. Knowing that several -of the papers in the box concerned Pennautier, she sought to link her -cause with the financier's, speculating on his high position and -influence. - -Cluet answered that he could do nothing without the commissary. -Accordingly the marchioness hurried off to him at eleven o'clock at -night. Picard sent down word that he could not receive her till the -morning. - -In the morning, August 9, the commissary received a visitor from a -Châtelet[3] attorney named Delamarre, to whom the marchioness had -intrusted her interests. He told the commissary that the little box was -of great importance to Madame de Brinvilliers, begging him to send it -back to her, and saying 'that she would give him all she had in the -world.' 'There came also a man in black' (it was Briancourt) 'who told -him that the marchioness would give him anything he could wish for.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers understood that the box was not to be given up, -and made preparations for flight. 'Delamarre, her attorney, repaired to -Picpus at ten o'clock at night and carried off her principal furniture, -which was even thrown hastily out of the windows.' The marchioness, -however, sent for Cluet and Creuillebois to come to Picpus. She changed -the line of her defence, and told Creuillebois that 'Sainte-Croix was -clever enough to have forged the letters, but that she would find a way -out, and had good friends.' To Madame de Sainte-Croix, who also went to -Picpus, she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could -only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sainte-Croix for a long -time, that these were forged letters, and that she had a complete -justification. She went on, in order to spread it abroad that her -interests were connected with those of Pennautier: 'If it trickles on -me, it will rain on Pennautier.' She said to the wife of a Châtelet -clerk named Fausset, who spoke to her of the rumours of poisoning that -were already going about. 'There is nothing in it: it will blow over; -there is a man accused with me who will give four or six thousand livres -to arrange matters,' adding that 'he was not of high rank, but was very -rich.' - -The seals placed on the box were raised by the civil lieutenant on -August 11. Madame de Brinvilliers was represented by her attorney, who -made the following declaration: 'That if there was found a promise -signed by Lady Brinvilliers for the sum of 30,000 livres, it was a -document obtained from her by fraud, against which, in case the -signature proved genuine, she intended to appeal, in order to have it -declared null and void.' - -The liquids and the powder contained in the chest were tested on -animals, death being the result. Experts decided that they contained -poison, but could not determine its nature. The general belief was that -it was arsenic. - -Madame de Brinvilliers and Pennautier were soon the engrossing topic of -conversation in Paris. Fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons -found in the box, of which Madame de Sévigné made herself the sedulous -echo. - -The marchioness hastened to pay a visit to Pennautier. He was not at -home. His wife turned her out neck and crop. Pennautier responded by -taking a step which did him honour: he went to Picpus to see Madame de -Brinvilliers. Asked later, after his arrest, what was his motive in -going to Picpus, he replied that, not believing Madame de Brinvilliers -guilty of such a crime, he went to pay her his respects, as is usual on -such occasions. Speaking of this step of his, his enemies wrote: -'Actuated by a sentiment of courtesy, he neglected his most obvious -interests, in which life, honour, and fortune were at stake; his -excessive politeness made him forgetful of all his interests. What a -rare and marvellous character! How free from thoughts of self!' These -lines, written with ironical intention, really express the truth. Not -long before, Monsieur and Madame de Brinvilliers had done Pennautier a -great service in a moment of difficulty by the loan of 30,000 livres; -and he seized the opportunity to show that he had not forgotten their -kindness. - -P. L. Reich de Pennautier--Pennautier was the name of an estate in the -neighbourhood of Carcassonne--though scarcely thirty-five years old, had -already made an enormous fortune. His two appointments as -receiver-general for the clergy and treasurer of the Languedoc Exchange -brought him in hundreds of thousands of francs annually. He was one of -the most active and intelligent of Colbert's lieutenants. On such -questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacture of fine cloth, -the Languedoc canal, the purchase of Greek MSS. in the Levant, the -draining of the fens of Aigues-Mortes, the name of Pennautier is linked -with that of Colbert in enterprises of the utmost utility 'From a petty -cashier,' says Saint-Simon, 'Pennautier became treasurer of the clergy -and treasurer of the States of Languedoc, and enormously rich. He was a -tall and well-made man, with a gallant and dignified air, courteous and -eminently obliging; he had plenty of intelligence, and had many -connections in society. - -On August 22 the civil lieutenant summoned Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier to appear at the examination of the documents found in the -box. Pennautier was in the country; the marchioness was represented by -her attorney, who repeated his protests. A third personage appeared on -the scene, namely, La Chaussée. He fancied his audacity would save him, -and from the first had opposed the sealing of the house, on the ground -that he had deposited with the deceased, in whose service he had been -for seven years, 200 pistoles and 100 silver crowns which should be, he -said, behind the window of the study in a bag, with a note proving that -the money belonged to him. He claimed also a number of papers, which he -described. The knowledge that La Chaussée displayed of Sainte-Croix' -laboratory awakened suspicion. When Commissary Picard told the whilom -valet that the confiscated box had just been opened, he stood petrified -with confusion for a moment, then fled precipitately, leaving the -commissary in open-eyed amazement. The same day he left Gaussin, a -bath-proprietor whose service he had entered, and, concealing himself -during the day, roamed about Paris at night-time till he was arrested on -September 4 at six o'clock in the morning by a police officer named -Thomas Regnier. La Chaussée was very crestfallen as he walked down the -street. - -From that moment the gravest suspicions were entertained against Madame -de Brinvilliers, but there was a reluctance to arrest her because of her -rank. Regnier repaired to Picpus and told her bluntly that he had found -La Chaussée, and that he had learned a good many things from the -commissary. The marchioness blushed. 'What is it, madam? You say -nothing?' But the lady, changing the subject, asked him to escort her to -mass. When they returned, she spoke to him again about the box. She -seemed a prey to uneasiness. 'But madam,' said Regnier, 'surely you are -not mixed up in this business?' 'Why should I be?' she replied. 'That -villain La Chaussée, when with Commissary Picard, must have said -something against you, and would say it again if he was captured.' 'It -would be well to take the villain to Picardy,' said the marchioness. -She said also that she had long been pressing Sainte-Croix to return the -box, and that Pennautier was involved with herself in the matter. -Regnier left Madame de Brinvilliers and went to find Briancourt at -Vertus. He told him, to begin with, that he had arrested La Chaussée, -and Briancourt exclaimed, 'Then she is a lost woman!' He went on to -speak of the poison which she had often talked about, and said that she -had several sorts of it in her house. - -Meanwhile Madame Antoine d'Aubray, widow of the last civil lieutenant -and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going -on--that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had -suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Châtelet -on September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for -damages against La Chaussée and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had -just fled to England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All -suspicions were at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussée heard -before the Châtelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing -the defendant to the preliminary torture, _manentibus indiciis_. If the -wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the -salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d'Aubray made a -passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring -to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully -sustained, and that it was not permissible to have recourse to a -preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch the criminals -from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle.[5] In spite -of a skilful defence, La Chaussée was condemned to death on March 24, -1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning, and -condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the -'question ordinary and extraordinary,' and that Madame de Brinvilliers -was to be beheaded for contempt of court. - -When submitted to torture, La Chaussée displayed uncommon courage and -denied everything. The mode of torture adopted was that of the boot. -The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were -driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in -succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the -machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and -refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussée -voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy's -tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. 'What -accuser,' says La Reynie, 'would have been listened to for a moment if -God had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges -could not condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on -conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the -heart of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute -silence, confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?' La -Chaussée was broken on the wheel the same day. - - * * * * * - -Taking refuge in London, the marchioness led a wretched existence, in -distress which she found insupportable, and a prey to incessant fears. - -Louis XIV had from the first taken a very strong personal interest in -this case. It was his sincere desire that the investigation should be -made as complete and luminous as possible, and he was determined to -follow up and strike at all the accomplices, however high they were -placed. The Secretaries of State had not awaited the declarations made -by La Chaussée on May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government -to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several -letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de -Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles II. The king of -England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not -allow the arrest to be made by English officers; that would have to be -undertaken by France. Croissy was highly embarrassed. The embassy was -not provided with tools for such jobs. Colbert insisted, and at length -the ambassador was on the point of winning Charles's consent to the -employment of English police, when Madame de Brinvilliers, taking -fright, quitted England for the Netherlands. - -Meanwhile her husband, this amazing Marquis de Brinvilliers, had quietly -taken up his abode, with his children and domestics, in the chateau of -Offémont, belonging to the estate of his father-in-law and two -brothers-in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of -the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two _lettres de -cachet_ had been signed by Louis XIV, bearing date February 22 and March -31, 1674, ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within -three leagues of it, that he decided to allow the widow of the civil -lieutenant to enter upon the enjoyment of her own property. - -We have very little information on the life of the marchioness between -her departure from London and her arrest on March 25, 1676, at Liége in -a convent where she had taken shelter. She had gone from London to the -Netherlands, then into Picardy, the country conquered by King Louis, -thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent, but -was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she -fled to Antwerp, then to Liége. She had nothing to support her but an -annuity of 500 livres, which fell to 250 on the death of her sister; she -was sometimes 'reduced to borrowing a crown.' While at Cambrai, she -appears to have sent asking her husband to join her there; his answer -was, 'She would poison me like the rest.' - -It came to the ears of Louvois that Madame de Brinvilliers was in hiding -at Liége. He at once despatched Desgrez, the captain of police, a man of -tried ability. Desgrez was instructed to make all speed, for the French -troops then in possession of Liége were on the point of handing over the -town to the Spaniards. Michelet and the majority of historians have -woven the arrest of the marchioness into a romance. Desgrez, a handsome -fellow, disguises himself as a courtly abbé, and wins a warm welcome -from the lady, always eager for gallant adventures: at the rendezvous, -the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of -archers. As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest -manner, 'on the last day,' writes La Reynie, 'that the king's authority -was recognised in the town of Liége.' It was not even Desgrez who -carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a -former clerk of Fouquet's named Bruant, otherwise Descarrières. 'The -burgomasters,' wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, 'have behaved so -well that they confided to me their master-key to go and arrest this -lady, without wanting to know why it was to be done.' Next day, March -26, Descarrières wrote again to Louvois: 'I arranged that the detective -(Desgrez) should be present as privy to the capture'; he informed him -also that a small box was seized on the lady's person, at which 'she -appeared much agitated, and at first told mayor Goffin that her -confession was in the casket,' begging him to have it restored to her. -Descarrières sealed the box with his own seal and that of Desgrez. - -La Reynie says upon this subject: 'It was God who ordained that this -wretched woman, who fled from kingdom to kingdom, should be careful to -write and carry with her the proofs necessary to her condemnation.' This -confession, in which the marchioness recalls in a few pages all the -crimes of her life, was published by Armand Fouquier; but its flavour is -so strong that the editor was not able to reproduce the original text, -but had to translate the principal passages into Latin. - -From Liége the marchioness was led under guard to Maestricht, where she -arrived on March 29; she was there locked up, and rigorously watched in -the town hall. Immediately after her arrest, the prisoner tried to -commit suicide by swallowing the fragments of a glass which she had -broken between her teeth. She swallowed pins, too, but did not succeed -in killing herself. Resne, one of the sentries, vigorously abused her: -'You are a wicked woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of -your family, you want to do away with yourself!' She answered, 'If I did -so, it was under evil counsel.' On another occasion Desgrez was informed -that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible -fashion. 'Ah, you wretch!' he cried. 'I see that you want to do for -yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!' She replied: 'If I had -only had good advice! We often have our evil moments.' The archers who -guarded her during her journey from Liége to Paris gave the judges a -description of this third attempt at suicide which it is impossible to -reproduce. The following is a note from Emmanuel de Coulanges, forwarded -by Madame de Sévigné to Madame de Grignan: 'She stuck a stick into -herself; guess where: it was not in her eye, nor her mouth, nor her ear, -nor her nose, nor was she absolutely brutal.' - -During the journey Madame de Brinvilliers was escorted by the Marshal -d'Estrades in person as far as Huy, and from Huy to Rocroi by the troops -of Monsieur de Montal. The prisoner's character displayed itself in all -its untamed energy. Locked up at Maestricht, she suggested to Antoine -Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a -gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for -her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand pistoles. At other -times she urged him to help her throttle Desgrez, kill the _valet de -chambre_, detach the two leading horses from the coach, take the -documents, the casket with her confession, and another important paper, -and burn them all, for which purpose he was to carry a lighted match. - -She wrote to former servants who remained faithful to her, and actually -succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for they endeavoured to -rescue her, and tried to bribe her guardians. - -She persisted in the plan she had devised in regard to the accusation -under which Pennautier lay. She asked Barbier for ink to write to him; -he gave her some, and feigned to have despatched the letter. And when he -asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, 'Yes, yes,' she replied, -'and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.' Another time -she said: 'He must be much more frightened than I am. I have been -questioned about him, but I have said nothing, and have too much feeling -to charge him: half of the aristocracy are involved too, and I should -ruin them all if I spoke.' This she repeated several times. - -At Mézières the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement -counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first -interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sévigné, wrote to -Madame de Grignan: 'The king has required the Parlement to depute -Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to -interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don't wish to wait till she -arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.' - -The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is -dated Mézières, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic -denials. - -'Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she -set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written -such things she was out of her mind. - -'Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said -she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it. - -'Asked if she had not poisoned her father and brothers, she said she -knew nothing about it. - -'Asked if it was not La Chaussée who had poisoned her brothers, she said -she knew nothing of all that. - -'Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom -she had written them; she said she did not remember. - -'Asked why she wrote to Théria to secure the box, she said she did not -know what that was. - -'Asked why, in writing to Théria, she said she was lost if he did not -get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.' - -The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival -in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer -Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he -carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges. - -On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:-- - -'I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this -business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional -obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean -this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people -who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. -I think it would be much to the purpose if you did not show yourself too -much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor -severely examined me about you at Mézières.' - -There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the 'Bernardins -widow,' that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des -Bernardins. - -Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in -regard to Pennautier. 'I do not know at all,' she said on the night -before her death, 'that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication -with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without -betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the -box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their -friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in -this suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, -running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing -thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, -Monsieur Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, -considering the step I am taking, and that will induce him to exert -himself on my behalf as much as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; -and if he is innocent, my letter is waste labour. I risk nothing but the -indignation of a person who would be careful not to stand up for me, nor -to render me any service if I had written him nothing.' - -The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier -to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky -functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room -that Ravaillac[6] had occupied. - - * * * * * - -Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier's -predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to -arouse public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having -poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an -office of considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits -drawn up by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging -documents were in everybody's hands. - -The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in -the opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who -diligently spread false reports about him. The people regarded his -influence and wealth with amazement, the nobility with envy. On the -other hand, Pennautier, like Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a -circumstance which does honour to the time. 'It is wonderful,' says -Saint-Simon, 'how many of the most notable men are working on his -behalf.' This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the -recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed Fouquet's friends was -present to every mind. The Cardinal de Bonsy, the Duke de Verneuil, the -Archbishop of Paris, Harlay de Champvallon, and Colbert were among the -most active. The judges, who were suspected by Louis XIV himself of -having been corrupted, gave proof of an admirable independence. - -Pennautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on -June 15, 1676, when the police made a sudden raid upon his room. What he -had written was as follows:--'I think that, for our friend, a stay of a -month in the country will suffice....' Startled by this sudden -interruption, Pennautier nervously put this note in his mouth as though -to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which -the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had -entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of -convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the -pamphlets of Sainte-Croix' widow, he established incontestably the -falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to -base their accusations. These latter found themselves reduced to -maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the -seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix' place had been falsified. - -'I am accused of having poisoned Saint-Laurent,' added Pennautier; 'but -has it been so much as proved that he died of poison? It is at least -singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for -the reports of the doctors, as well as the circumstances under which he -died, prove that his death was natural.' - -The close of Pennautier's reply was crushing for his accuser. He pointed -out that Madame de Saint-Laurent had waited six years before bringing -her case into court. How was that silence explained? Saint-Laurent being -dead, Pennautier was appointed to his office of receiver-general for the -clergy. 'Saint-Laurent's wife gave him her nomination on June 12, 1669; -the same day they drew up a sort of contract together, by which the lady -reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 -pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the -right to return to this office, in accordance with the deed of -defeasance given him by Saint-Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette -resigned that office in his favour on March 17, 1669. The dame de -Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the -office until the last day of December 1675, when the agreement -terminated; and if Pennautier had been willing to renew the agreement -with her, when the general assembly of the clergy did him the honour to -elect him receiver-general for ten years, which will end on the last day -of December 1685, those who know the dame de Saint-Laurent are convinced -that she would never have accused Pennautier of poisoning the Sieur de -Saint-Laurent her husband.' - -We have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important -part played by Pennautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in -France under the direction of Colbert. - - * * * * * - -Nothing was talked about in Paris but Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier--'a grave injustice to the war,' as Madame de Sévigné said. - -Through the privilege of nobility, Madame de Brinvilliers was brought -before the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom--the High Court and -the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested a counsel to assist her in -her defence, but the request was refused, at least provisionally. - -The court was presided over by the first president, Lamoignon. Between -April 29 and July 16, 1676, the case occupied twenty-two sittings. The -marchioness displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant -subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything -obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, -but never failed in the respect due to the judges--a respect in which -pride and nobility mingled, and which made the audience feel that she -considered herself at least the equal of the men judging her. - -When they came to read the account of the examination at Mézières on -April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The following -is an extract from the official report of the proceedings:-- - -'At the reading of these interrogatories, the first president wished to -intervene and postpone it until after the confession had been read. -This raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was -allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as -sodomy and incest, which being on this occasion only a matter of -confession, it seemed that they should be kept a great secret; some were -for, others against. - -'Monsieur de Palluau said that, having consulted the law-doctors, he had -been told that, a confession having been found _en route_, it ought to -have been burnt under penalty, as some believed, of mortal sin. - -'Other doctors held that the said Palluau, in his capacity as judge, had -had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to -interrogate her on the aforesaid paper beginning, _I accuse myself, my -father,_ etc. - -'The first president held that the question was extremely uncertain, yet -he thought the papers ought to be read. - -'The President de Mesmes held that this sort of confession had been -utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epistle of St. Leo, -showing that the judges had made use of them. - -'Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion. - -'The first president answered that the epistle of St. Leo was utterly -opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes, and that there was -nothing for it but to resume the reading. - -'The question having been argued, the reading was continued. - -'Asked if she had not made her confession, and to whom she ought to -confess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a -confession, and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess. - -'Monsieur Roujault reported in the afternoon that he had put the -question to Monsieur Benjamin, an ecclesiastical judge, to Monsieur du -Saussoy and other casuists, and to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and -professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, -and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy of the -confessional could only be between the confessor and the penitent, and a -paper having been found purporting to be a confession, it might be read -by the judges.' - -On July 13, 1676, a terrible deposition was heard--that of Briancourt, -who related in detail his mistress's life. He spoke in a voice broken by -emotion. The marchioness contradicted him with the same cold, haughty -impassivity. 'Her spirit quite overawes us,' said President Lamoignon. -'We worked yesterday at her case till eight o'clock in the evening; she -was confronted with Briancourt for thirteen hours, and to-day another -five, and she has gone through both ordeals with surprising courage. No -one could have more respect for the judges, nor more scorn for the -witness confronting her: she taunted him with being a besotted lackey, -bundled out of the house for his disorderly conduct, and one whose -testimony should not be received against her.' But she was lost. The -marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious -punishment--the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre -Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of -torture, the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the -scaffold, the stake, the 'tomb of fire' whence the hand of the -executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The -judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at -the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes -streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: 'I warned you -many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your -crimes would ruin you,' the marchioness replied--a wonderful reply in -its pride and self-control--'You are chicken-hearted, you are crying!' -Could one find such a saying in Roman history, or in Corneille? We -prefer the bare cold version of the official minute to the version -reported by President Lamoignon to the abbé Pirot: 'She insulted -Briancourt about the tears he shed at the remembrance of the death of -her brothers, when he declared that she had made him her confidant in -regard to their poisoning, and told him that he was a villain to weep -before all these gentlemen--that it resulted from a mean spirit. All -this was said with great coolness, and without any appearance of -changing countenance during the five hours we all watched her to-day.' - -Advocate Nivelle, on whom fell the heavy task of presenting the defence -of the accused lady, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. -His defence was still renowned in the eighteenth century. It was broad -in style, and some of his phrases were of great beauty. - -'The enormity of the crimes,' he said, 'and the rank of the person -accused require proofs of the most convincing clearness, written, so to -speak, with rays of sunlight.' He went on to ask if the proofs adduced -against Madame de Brinvilliers were of this quality. He succeeded in -throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty -depositions--that of Sergeant Cluet, for instance, who was devoted body -and soul, he said, to the opposite party; to the widow d'Aubray, who -sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremest animosity. The -deposition of Edme Briscien, he maintained, should be entirely rejected, -for the witness was not confronted with the marchioness, and on that -point the rules of procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took -advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussée's declaration after -torture. The argument based on Sainte-Croix' famous box seemed to him to -have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which -Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the -marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison -bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady's letters to -Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last -to the written confession seized at Liége, Nivelle strongly protested -against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. -'The last proof,' he said, 'relates to a paper found among those of the -marchioness, in which she had written a religious confession. It is -astounding that the accusers desired the judges to read this paper, for -it was of a nature which laws human and divine hold sacred and -inviolable under the seal of secrecy and silence demanded by the rules -of one of the most august of mysteries, as I will prove by invincible -arguments.' These arguments were exhausted in a minute study of the -writings of the Church fathers and of ecclesiastical history, from which -the advocate produced numerous examples and excerpts likely to imbue the -judges with the profoundest respect for the secrecy of confession, under -whatever form it might present itself. - -Finally, Nivelle set himself to win a little sympathy, or at any rate -pity, for his client. He depicted this woman as a frail thing, of noble -birth, beautiful and sensitive by nature, a butt for several months past -to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of -archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been -deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Whitsunday had been -refused permission to hear mass. Undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed -to that revulsion of feeling in favour of the marchioness which was so -strongly marked during the last days. - -The advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the -prosecutrix: 'The accuser ought not to press hardly against the lady, -because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her -husband in the exemplary punishment of that wretched criminal (La -Chaussée) who slew him; she should rather wish that the family to which -she is allied should not be sullied with an eternal disgrace, and that -she should not incur the reproach of being wanting in natural feeling -for her nephews, whom she ought to consider as her own children. The -death of the late Messieurs d'Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if -they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that -the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they -recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would -themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing -their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would -prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in -preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish themselves -rather than to avenge them. But if they find their consolation in the -acquittal of Lady Brinvilliers; if her children--who would suffer -punishment as if they were guilty, and to whom life would become a -torture and death a consolation--find in it the preservation of the -honour of a family so notable as that from which their mother is -sprung--these wise magistrates who are to judge her will also have more -glory in giving to the public a famous example of their justice, their -piety, and their sovereign equity, by declaring her innocent.' - -On July 15, 1676, Madame de Brinvilliers appeared for the last time -before her judges for her final cross-examination, and in the course of -this long ordeal, in which for three hours her whole life was -remorselessly dissected, she did not flag for a moment. She denied -everything; she did not know what poison and antidote meant; her -pretended confession was sheer madness. 'She did not appear affected by -what the first president said, though, after he had done his part as -judge, he assumed the tone of a merciful friend, and addressed to her -words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in -some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,' -we read in a summary report of the trial, 'dwelt upon the dreadful -illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her -that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her -seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the -reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with -her. The President de Novion reminded her that her brother the civil -lieutenant had suspected other persons, and that this suspicion had -embittered his last moments. The first president told her also' (and -this is one of the most curious features of the trial for the study of -the moral ideas of the period), 'that the greatest of all her crimes, -horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and -brothers, but her attempt to poison herself. She was kept for another -half hour, but would say nothing, merely showing signs of a little -distress at heart.' - -'The first president wept bitterly,' writes the abbé Pirot, 'and all the -judges shed tears.' She alone kept her head proudly erect, and preserved -undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes. - -Taine has given in one line a marvellous definition of the character of -Racine's heroines and the art of the poet himself: 'We imagine the tears -which never appear in their beautiful eyes.' The sequel of our story -will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de -Brinvilliers in some points resembled some of Racine's heroines, and -will help to show with what exactitude the incomparable poet reproduced -the models presented him by the society of his time. - -In closing this memorable scene on July 15, President Lamoignon told the -prisoner that, out of charity and on the plea of her sister the -Carmelite nun, a person of the greatest merit and the highest virtue was -being sent to her to console her and to exhort her to think of her -soul's salvation. We are about to see coming upon the stage one of the -most interesting figures in the drama, the sympathetic abbé, Edme Pirot. - - - - -III. HER DEATH - - -Edme Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Auxerre -on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness of -Brinvilliers. His discussions with Leibnitz had made his name famous -throughout Europe. His was an ardent and sensitive soul: his heart was -torn when he came in contact with the griefs of others. 'The delicacy of -my temperament was so great,' he said, 'that I could never bear the -sight of blood, not even my own, and at one time I had turned quite -faint at the sight of a wound being dressed, and never since ventured to -come within sight of a similar operation.' He had an acute and subtle -intellect, endowed with a remarkable faculty for psychological insight. - -President Lamoignon, in appointing the abbé Pirot to attend Madame de -Brinvilliers, had given a fresh proof of his knowledge of men. He knew -that the gentle and soul-stirring words of the priest would act on the -heart of the prisoner, and perhaps obtain what all the machinery of -justice had not succeeded in achieving--the revelation of her -accomplices, the composition of her poisons and the proper antidotes to -employ. 'It is for the public interest,' said Lamoignon to the abbé -Pirot, 'that her crimes should die with her, and that she should -acquaint us with all the consequences her poison might have, so far as -she knows them; without which we should be unable to counteract them, -and her poisons would survive her.' Further, it was his earnest desire -to find in Pirot a priest whose exhortations would, at the hour of -death, touch this rebellious soul and set it on the narrow road to -salvation. - -The good abbé has described the last day of Madame de Brinvilliers -minute by minute. His story fills two volumes, one of the most -extraordinary monuments literature can show. It is written with no -regard for artistic effect: the conversations are reported at length, -with repetitions and interminably wearisome details; but the clear, -exact, and flowing style, the just and restrained expression of the -keenest passions, continually remind us of the tragedies of Racine. -_Phédre_ and the abbé Pirot's story were composed in the same year; if -the priest had given any thought to the public as he wrote, and had paid -some attention to his style and to the avoidance of repetitions and -prolixity, posterity unquestionably might well have signed both works -with the same name. - -Michelet has strikingly described the appearance of the priest in the -tower of the Conciergerie:-- - -'Quaking with terror, Pirot was ushered into the Conciergerie, and taken -to the top of the Montgommery tower; there he entered a room in which -there were four persons--two warders, a wardress, and, farthest away -from him, the monster. - -'The monster was quite a little woman, dainty, with very soft blue eyes, -marvellously beautiful. As soon as she saw Pirot, she prettily thanked a -priest who up to then had attended her, and expressed with easy grace -her absolute confidence in the learned abbé. He saw at once how much she -was loved by those who lived with her. When she spoke of her death, the -two men and the woman burst into tears. She seemed to love them too, and -was kind and gentle with them, not proud at all; she made them eat at -her table. - -'"To be sure, sir," she said to Pirot, "you are the priest that the -first president has sent to console me; it is with you that I am to -pass the little that remains of life: and I have long been impatient to -see you." - -'"I come, madam," answered Pirot, "to render you in spiritual matters -what service I can. I could wish it were in any other matter than this." - -'"Sir," she rejoined, "we must submit to everything."' - -And at that moment, turning towards an Oratorian named Father de -Chevigny, she said: 'Father, I am obliged to you for bringing this -gentleman, and for all the other visits you have been good enough to pay -me; pray God for me, I beseech you: henceforth I shall speak to scarcely -any one but the father here. I have matters to discuss with him that are -spoken of in secret. Farewell.' - -The Oratorian retired. - -Madame de Brinvilliers seems to have been won at the outset by the -affectionate expression of her confessor, and by his sincere and -sympathetic words. Judgment had not yet been pronounced. 'My death is -certain,' she said; 'I must not delude myself with hope. I have to tell -you the story of all my life.' But the conversation drifted away to what -was being said of her in society. 'I can imagine pretty well that they -are talking a good deal about me, and that I have been for some time a -byword among the people.' And her eyes flashed. - -Pirot tried to show her that, assuming she was guilty, her duty was to -disclose all her accomplices, to reveal the composition of her poisons -and the means of counteracting them. She interrupted him: 'Sir, are -there not some sins that are unpardonable in this world, either from -their gravity or their number? Are there not some so atrocious or so -numerous that the Church cannot remit them?' 'Believe, madam, that there -are no sins irremissible in this life,' answered the priest, and he -enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and an infectious faith. -Conviction by degrees took possession of the prisoner's soul, and with -it there dawned a gleam of regeneration, hope in a future life serene -and happy--glorious, as the abbé said--and with the thought her heart -was changed. '"Sir," she answered me, "I am convinced of all you tell -me. I believe that God can pardon all sins; I believe that He has often -exercised this power; but all my trouble now is to know whether He will -apply His power to one so wretched as I." I told her that she must hope -that God would take pity on her in His infinite mercy. She began to -describe in general terms the whole of her life, and from that moment I -saw that her heart was touched, and she burst into tears beholding her -wretchedness.' By the contagion of his sympathetic kindness, and by the -light of redemption, Pirot had in a few hours melted this heart of brass -like wax. - -'After she had given me an outline of her life, knowing that I had not -yet said mass, she intimated spontaneously that it was time to say it, -and that I might go down to the chapel for that purpose. She begged me -say it to our Lady on her behalf, so as to obtain the pardon of which -she stood in need, and asked me to come up again as soon as the -sacrifice had been completed, saying that she would be present in -spirit, since she was not permitted to attend in person, and that she -thought of telling me in detail on my return that which she had so far -told me only in general terms. - -'After my mass,' continues Pirot, 'as I was taking a sip of wine in the -jailer's room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur de -Sency, librarian to the Palais, that Madame de Brinvilliers was -condemned. I went upstairs and found the marchioness awaiting me in -great serenity. - -'"It is only by dying by the hand of the executioner," she said, "that I -can win salvation. If I had died at Liége before my arrest, where should -I be now? And if I had not been taken, what would my end have been? I -will confess my crime to the judges to whom I have denied it hitherto. I -fancied I could conceal it, flattering myself that without my confession -there would have been nothing to convict me, and that I was not bound to -accuse myself. To-morrow, at my last examination, I mean to repair the -ill that I have done at the others. - -'"I beg you, sir," she went on suddenly, "to make my excuses to the -first president. You will please see him on my behalf after my death, -and will tell him that I ask his pardon, and that of all the judges, -for the effrontery they have seen in me; that I believed it would serve -my defence, and that I never believed there would be proof enough to -condemn me without my avowal; that I now see things in a different -light, and that I was touched yesterday by what he said to me, and that -I put violent constraint on myself to prevent my features from showing -what I felt. Ask him to forgive me for the offence I gave to the whole -bench assembled to judge me, and to beg the other judges to pardon me." - -'It was thus,' Pirot continues, 'that she went on relating to me the -whole matter until half-past one, when a servant came and brought the -cloth for dinner. She took nothing but two fresh eggs and a little soup, -and talked to me, while I was eating, about indifferent things, with -very great freedom of mind and a tranquillity which surprised me, as if -she were entertaining me at dinner in a country house. She invited to -the table the two men and the women who were her usual guard. "Sir," she -said to me, after she had told them to sit down, "you will not mind our -dispensing with ceremony for you? They are accustomed to eat with me to -keep me company, and we shall do so to-day if you do not object. This," -she said to them, "is the last meal I shall take with you." And turning -towards the woman who was beside her, she said: "Madam, my poor Du Rus, -you will soon be quit of me; I have long been a trouble to you, but it -will soon be over. To-morrow you will be able to go to Dranet. You will -have time enough for that. In seven or eight hours you will have me no -longer to bother you, for I do not think you have the heart to see my -end." - -'She said all this with a coolness and serenity which indicated rather a -natural equality of mind than an affected pride. And as these people -from time to time burst into tears and withdrew to conceal them from -her, she, noticing it, threw me a glance of pity, though she shed no -tears, as though sorry for their grief, almost as a mother might do on -her deathbed, when, seeing around her her weeping servants, she looks at -the confessor kneeling near her and marks the sorrow their affection -gives him. - -'From time to time she urged me to eat, and scolded the jailer for -putting cabbage in the soup. She asked me with much politeness to allow -her to drink my health. I thought that I might do her some pleasure in -drinking to hers, and it was not difficult to show her this little -attention. She asked me to excuse her for not serving me, careful not to -say that she had no knife for that purpose, so as not to give the -slightest shadow of complaint. - -'"Sir," she said to me at the end of the meal, "it is fast-day -to-morrow, and though it will be a very tiring day for me"--she was to -undergo torture and then be beheaded--"I have no intention of eating -meat." "Madam," I replied, "if you need a meat soup to sustain you, -there will be no occasion to stand on scruples; it will not be out of -fastidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the Church is -not rigorous in such a case." "Sir," she replied, "I would not be -particular if I needed it and you ordered it; but I am sure it will not -be necessary. All I require is a little soup this evening at -supper-time, and again at eleven o'clock; to-day they will make it a -little stronger than usual, and with that, and a couple of eggs I can -take at the torture, I shall get through to-morrow." - -'It is true,' adds the good priest, 'that I was thunderstruck at all -this composure, and I shivered when I heard her tell the jailer, so -quietly, that the soup was to be stronger that evening than usual, and -that two servings were to be kept for her before midnight. - -'I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de -Brinvilliers, and as it was generally believed that she had always had -little enough love for him, I was surprised to find that she had so -much. Indeed, it appeared to me to verge towards excess, and for half an -hour I saw her more distressed for him than for herself.' And when -Pirot, to test her, said that her husband appeared very insensible to -her approaching fate, he drew from her a dignified reply: he must not -judge things so hastily, she told him, or without intimate knowledge, -and that up to that day she had only had to congratulate herself on her -husband. - -She asked for a pen, and with a rapid hand wrote this astonishing -letter to the Marquis de Brinvilliers:-- - - 'Being as I am on the point of going to give account of my soul to - God, I want to assure you of my affection, which will endure to the - last moment of my life. I ask your pardon for all that I have done - that I ought not to have done. I die an honourable death, brought - upon me by my enemies. I forgive them with all my heart, and - beseech you to forgive them. I hope that you will also forgive me - for the disgrace that may be reflected on you. But remember that we - are here only for a time, and perhaps ere long you yourself will - have to go and render to God an exact account of all your actions, - even your idle words, as I am now preparing to do. Watch over our - temporal affairs and our children: bring them up in the fear of the - Lord, and yourself set them an example. On this consult Monsieur - Marillac and Madame Cousté. Offer up for me as many prayers as you - can, and be assured that I die yours devotedly, - -D'AUBRAY.' - - - -Pirot objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was -not correct. 'How so, sir?' she said. 'Are not those who have driven me -to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them -their rancour?' - -Pirot's answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation -which plunged her into great astonishment. - -Then the confession was resumed. - -'King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,' said Pirot, 'his -heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was -bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, -and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the -cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like -that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of -the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not -cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred -kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness -and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All -these words and a thousand others like them,' adds Pirot, 'caused her -to weep bitterly.' - -Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, -who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was -disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her -accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness -replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that -till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for -death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of -Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once. - -She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. -'"Sir," she said to me, "I have not asked to see them; that would only -have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them."' -Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and -that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and -humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair -prisoner's character to the bottom. 'Ah!' she said, interrupting him, -'those are grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my -hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still -attached to this world's glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with -which I am loaded.' And to the priest's remarks she replied: 'I tell -myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of -pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural -to me.' And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: -'At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments -when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose -acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so -dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.' - -Pirot supped that evening with the prisoner; then, when night had -fallen, he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great -agitation, and on reaching his apartment he had recourse to his -breviary. 'The image of the lady I had seen all day so powerfully -possessed me that I could hardly attend to what I was reading: it seemed -to me that I was for nearly half an hour circling round _Domine, labia -mea aperies_, returning always to where I had begun. At last, seeing -that I must get on, I applied myself a little more diligently to my -reading, so as to be less distracted by this idea. But in spite of all -my close attention, I was quite three hours in reciting my office.' - -He has described at length his sleeplessness, the thoughts that crowded -upon his mind, the anguish which choked him: 'I got no sleep at all. -Those who know the delicacy of my nature, how sensitive I am to the -misery and pain I see in persons who are indifferent to me, will have no -difficulty in realising the depth of my sorrow for a lady whom I had -seen so afflicted, and who was so near to my heart by reason of the -interest I was bound to take in the salvation of the soul intrusted to -me.' Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven, he cried: 'O God, -I am greatly concerned for her whose salvation is as dear to me as my -own; I die every moment for her, and all the reward I ask in the -conflict I have to maintain with her before she closes her career is to -see her crowned with Thee!' - -In the morning Pirot returned to the prisoner. 'I was taken up the -tower, where I found Father de Chevigny in tears as he closed a prayer -with the lady, who greeted me with the same courage that I had seen in -her on the previous evening.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers has slept as peacefully as a child. - -One of the first questions she put to her confessor related to a fear -which had arisen in her mind, and the thought of which gave her much -torture. 'Sir,' she said to me, 'you gave me yesterday some hope that I -might be saved, but I cannot have the presumption to promise myself that -that will be till after a long time in purgatory. How shall I know -whether I am in purgatory or hell?' Pirot reassured her. - -Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Brinvilliers was to -descend to hear her sentence read. 'She was prepared for death and -torture; but she had not thought of the public penance or of the fire. -She answered fearlessly, "In a moment, but just now we are finishing our -conversation, this gentleman and I." We shortly finished our talk in -great serenity.' - -On leaving the prisoner, Pirot betook himself to the chapel of the -Conciergerie. 'I said mass for her, and went into the jailer's room. I -found him there, and he told me that he had accompanied her to the -torture-chamber, and that after her sentence had been read, when the -executioner approached to seize her, she looked him up and down without -saying a word, and seeing a rope in his hand, she offered him her hands -already clasped. I learned after dinner from the procurator-general that -she had been agitated at the reading of her sentence, and that she got -it read a second time.' - -The sentence was dated July 16, 1676:-- - -'The court has declared and declares the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers -duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maître Dreux d'Aubray her -father, and the said d'Aubray, civil lieutenant and counsellor in the -said court, her brothers, and for reparation has condemned and condemns -the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers to do public penance before the -principal door of the church of Paris, where she will be taken in a -cart, bare-footed, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a lighted -torch of two pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare -that wickedly, from revenge and to have their property, she has poisoned -her father and two brothers, and attempted the life of her late sister, -of which she repents, and asks pardon of God, the king, and justice; -this done, to be led and conducted in the said cart to the Place de -Grève of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold, which -will be erected for that purpose on the said place; her body to be -burned, and her ashes thrown to the winds: the question ordinary and -extraordinary to be first applied in order to obtain revelation of her -accomplices.' - -She declared in the evening that the part of the sentence which had so -startled her at the first reading that she could not hear the rest, was -the passage which stated that she was to be put in a cart. Her pride was -aroused. - -After the sentence had been read, the condemned woman was led into the -torture-chamber, and when she saw the apparatus, she said: 'Gentlemen, -it is useless, I will tell everything without torture. Not that I think -I can escape it--my sentence orders me to be tortured, and I suppose it -will not be dispensed with--but I will declare all beforehand. I have -denied everything hitherto, because I imagined I was thus defending -myself, and that I was not bound to confess anything. I have been -convinced of the contrary, and I will behave in accordance with the -instructions given me. And I can assure you that if I had seen three -weeks ago the person whom I have had given me the last twenty-four -hours, you would three weeks ago have known what you are going to learn -now.' Then raising her voice, she made a clear and complete avowal of -the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poisons she had -employed, she knew only arsenic, vitriol, and the poison of toads. The -strongest poison was 'rarefied arsenic.' The only antidote which she had -used herself when poisoned by Sainte-Croix was milk. As to her -accomplices, apart from Sainte-Croix and her lackeys she declared that -she had never had or known any. - -The judges were struck by the frankness of her words. And as we know, -she spoke at that moment with entire sincerity. - -Madame de Brinvilliers underwent the cruelest torture then applied by -the Parlement of Paris: the ordeal of water. Enormous quantities of -water were introduced into the stomach of the condemned through a funnel -placed between the teeth. This water, rapidly accumulating inside the -body, produced the most horrible agonies. - -Meanwhile the poor abbé Pirot was suffering as much from the torture as -the sufferer herself: 'I did not see her from half-past seven until two -o'clock in the afternoon. I can say that this was the only bad time I -had that day; apart from the time I spent without her, the rest cost me -nothing. But while she was under torture I was extraordinarily restless, -saying to myself at every moment, "They are now giving her torture."' - -He took refuge in a little room where, in spite of the promises of the -jailer, he was besieged by importunate visitors. Curious ladies of the -court flocked to him. While there some one handed to him a little medal, -with a message from the wife of President Lamoignon, saying that she had -received it from the pope, with the authority to bestow indulgence on -any dying person she chose, and that she gave it to Madame de -Brinvilliers. - -At last Pirot was told that he would find the marchioness lying on a -mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and -sympathetic words, and his exhortation to repentance, Pirot had little -by little bent this character of iron. He had sent the condemned lady -resigned and submissive to the judges. But under the pangs of torture -which made strong men yield, under the brutal force she had to suffer, -all the pride of her proud nature started up, the worst instincts were -awakened. In revenge, she accused Briancourt of false witness; she -charged Desgrez, who had arrested her at Liége, with purloining -documents. Pirot found her full of hatred and stubbornness, her eyes -blazing. 'She was highly excited, her face red as fire, her eyes -gleaming, her mouth distorted. She asked for wine, which I had brought -to her at once.' - -The rest of the story is really touching. The abbé Pirot watched with -the care of an anxious mother over the reputation of the lady about to -die. 'I expressly notice this circumstance,' he says, 'to undeceive -those who believe that she was too fond of wine and was guilty of taking -it to excess, and that she could not refrain from drinking it freely on -the day of her death. I saw nothing of the kind. It is true that on -Thursday, as on Friday, she had a cup from which at times she tasted as -much as a fly might swallow; but this was only to keep up her strength -and to refresh herself, at a time when the strain of recalling to mind -her whole life, in order to assure herself of any criminality there -might have been in it, much exhausted and excited her; and if care was -taken to have good wine on the day of her death, it was only to cheer -her a little in her natural depression of spirits. It has even been cast -up against her, unjustly, that a bottle was provided for her on the way -to the scaffold: I am responsible for that. I feared that her heart -might fail her, and knowing that at one time it was common to offer -criminals strong drink of some kind, to give them courage to suffer -death, I thought that, as I had seen her necessity that day of -refreshing herself now and then, it would be well to have wine ready; -and, to tell the truth, I thought a little of myself. The wine was only -used by the executioner, who drank a mouthful immediately after the -execution.' - -Before setting out for her punishment the marchioness was to be allowed -to pray for a few moments in the chapel of the Conciergerie, before the -Holy Sacrament exposed for the purpose; but she had to appear there -surrounded by other prisoners, who were all admitted to the chapel when -the Host was placed on the altar. 'When we entered the vestry of the -Conciergerie, she asked the jailer for a pin to fasten the kerchief she -had on her neck, and as he went in all good faith to look for one, she -said to him: "You must not be afraid of anything now: the gentleman will -be my surety, and will answer for it that I do not want to do myself -harm." "Madam," he replied, giving her a pin, "I beg pardon, I never -mistrusted you, and if anybody ever did so, it was certainly not I." He -fell on his knees before her, and thus kneeling kissed her hands. She -begged him to pray to God for her. "Madam," he replied, his voice choked -with sobs, "I will pray for you to-morrow with all my heart."' - -'Meanwhile,' says Pirot, 'she had not yet recovered the penitent spirit -which I had seen in her that morning and the night before.' She spoke of -the sentence. The punishment did not terrify her, but she was bitterly -indignant at the degrading circumstances introduced into it--the public -penance, the scattering of her ashes to the winds. Pirot replied: -'Madam, it matters nothing to your salvation whether your body be laid -in the earth or be cast into the fire. It will rise glorious from the -ashes if your soul is in grace.' And further: 'Yes, madam, this flesh -which men are soon to burn will rise one day, the same but glorified, -provided that your soul rejoices in God; it will be born again, bright -as the sun, no more to suffer, subtle and quick as a spirit.' - -By degrees Pirot regained his hold upon the fair penitent. 'The cloud of -nature was dissolved, her agitation appeared no longer, and, instead of -the hard fierce looks, the biting of lips, and the other impetuous -manifestations of a shattered pride, there were only tears and sobs, -remorse for sin and yearnings for repentance, that would make one's -heart bleed. I could not keep back my tears, and for an hour and a half -I wept with her, speaking, nevertheless, with more force than I had yet -done. She was still more affected by my tears than by my words, and, -pondering on the cause of my tears, she said: "Sir, my distress must be -great to compel you to weep so much, or you take a great interest in -what concerns me."' - -Then she confessed the calumnies she had been unable to avoid conceiving -under torture against Briancourt and Desgrez. Pirot was alarmed, and -when he told her that she ought to repair the fresh sin by a fresh -declaration she appeared surprised. However, the opportunity was about -to be afforded, for about six o'clock the procurator-general sent for -the abbé Pirot. - -'Sir,' he said, 'this is a most vexatious woman.' - -'How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I -now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.' - -'Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her -accomplices.' - -Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along -with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated -to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could -only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. 'Sir,' -she said, 'it is true that you told me that at first and at greater -length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than -I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you -had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them -everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.' -Monsieur de Palluau at once said, 'This is more than enough, sir; -adieu.' 'He went away at once, and we were given only a short time to -spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a -quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much -questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was -her courtesy.' Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, -Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and -Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the -torture-chamber. - -Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the -altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner -came up to speak of 'a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price -of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said -that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior -to herself.' - -As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank--the -Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, -the Abbé de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride -was offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her -confessor: 'Sir, what a strange curiosity!' - -She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned -criminals, holding in one hand the penitent's candle, and in the other a -crucifix. - - * * * * * - -On leaving the Conciergerie she was lifted into the cart. 'It was one of -the smaller carts you see in the streets loaded with rubbish; it was -very short and narrow, and I feared there was not room enough for her -and me. Yet four of us got in, the executioner's assistant sitting on -the board which closed it in front, with his feet on the shafts on -either side of the horse. She and I sat on the straw put down to cover -up the wood, and the executioner stood upright at the back. She got in -first, and leant her back against the front-board and against the side, -slightly at an angle. I was near her, pressing against her to make room -for the executioner's feet, my back against the side of the cart, and my -knees doubled up uncomfortably.' - -The cart proceeded slowly towards the Place de Grève, which extended -from the Hôtel de Ville to the Seine. It was not easy to get through the -crowd which pressed around it. The streets were black with people, and -the windows crowded with sightseers. At this moment the lady's features -underwent a sudden change of expression: 'They were dreadfully -convulsed, the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes, and the whole -countenance wild.' 'Sir,' she said to her confessor, 'would it be -possible, after all that is passing now, for Monsieur de Brinvilliers to -have so little feeling as to remain in this world?' - -Pirot answered as best he could, endeavouring to ease her mind; but what -he said fell on deaf ears, for the marchioness 'then suffered one of the -strongest convulsions of her nature in the vivid apprehension of so much -shame. Her face contracted, her brows were knitted, her eyes flashed, -her mouth was distorted, and her whole aspect was embittered.' 'I do not -think,' adds Pirot, 'that there was a moment in all the time that I had -been with her when her appearance betokened more indignation, and I am -not surprised that Monsieur Le Brun, who is said to have seen her at -that spot, where he could look close at her for some minutes, made so -fiery and terrible a head as he is said to have done in the portrait he -took of her.' Le Brun's sketch is now No. 853 at the exhibition of the -Louvre; it is in red and black chalks. It is an admirable drawing, -unquestionably the artist's masterpiece. Pirot is sketched in silhouette -beside the lady. - -As the cart passed slowly through the crowd, voices were raised crying -out for blood, and heaping curse on curse; but others spoke pitiful -words, and she heard prayers for her salvation. There was a sudden -revulsion of opinion in her favour, which grew stronger and stronger -till the hour of her death. - -The shirt in which she was clothed filled her with amazement. 'Sir,' she -said to her confessor, 'look; I am dressed all in white.' - -All at once a new contraction marked her features. She had just noticed -Desgrez riding near her, the man who had arrested her at Liége, and -subjected her to some rough treatment. She asked the executioner to -move so as to hide this man from her; then she felt remorse for this -'delicacy,' and asked the executioner to return to his former position. -'It was the last time her countenance showed any grimace,' says Pirot. -From that moment she was wholly under the fortifying influence of the -priest who assisted her. Hope arose in her soul, more and more clear and -radiant, and gave strength to her heart. - -She knelt down on the step of the great door of Notre Dame, and there -repeated with docility the formula dictated by the executioner, in which -she publicly confessed her crimes. 'Some people say that she hesitated -in saying her father's name,' observes Pirot; 'but I noticed nothing of -the sort.' - -Then they remounted the cart to wend towards the Place de Grève. 'Not a -word of reproach or complaint against any one escaped her; she showed no -sign of vulgar fear. If she dreaded death, it was only in anticipation -of the judgment of God, and neither the sight of the Grève, the -proximity of the scaffold, nor the appearance of all the terrible -apparatus used in this kind of execution gave her the least shadow of -fright.' - -The cart stopped. The executioner said to her: 'Madam, you must -persevere: it is not enough to have come here and to have responded -hitherto to what this gentleman has been saying, you must go on to the -end as you have begun.' 'This he said in a noticeably humane manner,' -observes Pirot, 'and I was edified by it. It is true that she answered -never a word, but she courteously bent her head as though to show that -she took well what he had said and that she meant to continue in the -temper in which he saw her. He confessed to me that he was surprised at -her firmness.' - -At this moment a clerk of the Parlement appeared. The commissaries were -sitting in the Hôtel de Ville ready to receive any declaration Madame de -Brinvilliers might still have to make about her accomplices. 'Sir,' she -replied, 'I have no more to say; I have told all I know.' She renewed -the declaration whereby she freed Briancourt and Desgrez from the -accusations fabricated against them at her torture. - -The executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold. 'She looked at -me,' says Pirot, 'with a gentle countenance and an expression full of -gratitude and tenderness, and with tears in her eyes. "Sir," she said to -me in a pretty loud tone, which showed how self-possessed she was, but -as courteous as it was firm, "we are not yet to separate. You promised -not to leave me till my head is off; I hope that you will keep your -word." And as I answered nothing, because the tears and sighs which I -could only with difficulty restrain robbed me of all power of speech, -she added, "I beseech you, sir, to forgive me and not to regret the time -you have given to me. I am sorry, for my part, to have given you so -little satisfaction, at least at certain moments; I beg your pardon for -it. But I cannot die without asking you to say a _De profundis_ on the -scaffold at the moment of my death, and a mass to-morrow. Remember me, -sir, and pray for me."' Pirot remarks, 'If I had not been at that moment -more deeply moved than I had ever been in my life, I should have had -many things to reply to her courtesies, and I should have promised her -more than one mass; but I found it impossible to say anything more than -"Yes, madam, I will do all that you bid me."' - -Just as she was walking up the steps Madame de Brinvilliers found -herself next to Desgrez. She then asked his forgiveness for the trouble -she had given him, and begged him to say a few masses and to pray for -her. She ended her 'compliment' by saying that 'she was his servant, and -so she would die on the scaffold.' Then she added, 'Adieu, sir.' - -The throng was immense. Madame de Sévigné, who had come to witness the -execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge Notre Dame, -writes: 'Never was such a crowd seen, nor Paris so moved or so eager.' - -The marchioness knelt down on the scaffold, her face turned towards the -river. 'It was at that moment,' says Pirot, 'that I saw her so intent -upon herself, so wholly occupied with what I had said we would do on the -scaffold, telling me with such wonderful composure all that was -necessary, and making me pass from one thing to another in due order -without any prompting from me, wholly absorbed in what I said to her to -prepare her for death, without the appearance of any wandering in her -thoughts. - -'She was absolutely without fear. She was gentle, courteous, steadfast, -and self-forgetful. She had very great patience to endure with -extraordinary docility all the executioner's preparations. He undid her -hair while she was on her knees; he cut it behind and at both sides; to -do so he made her turn her head several times in different ways, and he -even turned it himself sometimes with no great gentleness: that lasted -quite half an hour. She felt keenly the shame of the proceeding in the -sight of so great a company; but she overcame her grief and submitted to -everything even with joy. I fancy that she had never allowed her hair to -be done so quietly as she then let it be cut and shaved; the -executioner's hand felt no rougher to her than that of a maid doing her -hair; she punctually obeyed his instructions as to turning, lowering, -and raising her head when he pleased. He tore off the top of the shirt -which he had put over her cloak when she left the Conciergerie, so as -to uncover her shoulders. She let him bind her hands as though he were -putting on golden bracelets, and knot the rope about her neck as if it -had been a necklace of pearls. - -[Illustration: MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS - -ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY -CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE -ABBÉ PIROT - -(_From a Sketch by Charles Le Brun, preserved in the Louvre_)] - -'"I should like to be burned alive," she said, "to render my sacrifice -more meritorious, if I could have sufficient confidence in my courage to -bear that kind of death without falling into despair."' - -The Abbé Pirot chanted the _Salve_, and the people crowding round the -scaffold continued the chant that he began. Then he told the lady that -he was about to give her absolution. Thereupon she said, her soul at -peace, 'Sir, you promised me just now to give me a second penitence on -the scaffold, when I pleaded that what you gave me was too easy, and now -you say nothing about it.' 'I asked her to say an _Ave_ and a _Sancta -est Maria mater gratiae_. At the end of which, saying to her, "Madam, -renew your contrition," I gave her absolution, saying only the -sacramental words because time was pressing.' - -The expression of her face was transformed. It was an expression of -hope and joy, of serene faith and love, mingled with the exaltation of -the penitent. 'Never have I seen anything more touching,' says Pirot, -'than her eyes appeared to me, and if I had to paint a countenance full -of contrition and sorrow of heart and hope of pardon, I could wish for -no other features than those I remember still, and shall remember all my -life long.' - -Guillaume the executioner bandaged the eyes of the condemned woman. She -repeated the last prayers along with her confessor. Guillaume with the -back of his sleeve wiped away the beads of sweat which covered his brow. -Suddenly Pirot heard a dull blow, and ceased to speak. 'Madame de -Brinvilliers held her head very straight. The executioner severed it at -a single stroke, which cut so clean that it remained for a moment on the -trunk before falling. I was indeed in agony for an instant, fearing that -he had missed his aim and that he would have to strike a second time.' - -'Sir,' said the headsman, 'isn't it a fine stroke?' - -He added: 'On these occasions I always commend myself to God, and -hitherto he has been with me; five or six days ago this lady was -troubling me and I couldn't get her out of my head: I will have six -masses said.' And, uncorking a bottle, he drank a good draught of wine. - -The body was borne to the stake; the flames consumed it, and then the -ashes were scattered; but the mob struggled to collect some fragments of -the charred bones: all who had been able to get near the scaffold had -seen the face of the criminal illumined with a halo, and they departed -saying that the dead woman was a saint. Madame de Sévigné writes that -Pirot repeated the saying to every one he met. - -The children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers took the name of Offémont. - -Pennautier was acquitted and left the prison on July 27. He recovered -his high position and the repute in which he had been held. - - * * * * * - -In declaring that she had had no other accomplices than Sainte-Croix and -her lackeys Madame de Brinvilliers was speaking the truth. But at that -period crimes as great as hers were being committed in Paris, and it -was not long before the judges discovered them. There was for instance -the celebrated case heard by the 'Chambre Ardente,' to which that of -Madame de Brinvilliers serves as introduction. - - - - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - - - -I. THE SORCERESSES - - -_The Dinner of La Vigoureux._ - -The trial of Madame de Brinvilliers had just caused an immense -sensation. The penitentiaries of Notre Dame, without naming any person, -declared that 'the majority of those who had confessed to them for some -time accused themselves of poisoning somebody.' The court and the city -were still disturbed by the catastrophe which had at St. Cloud suddenly -carried off the charming Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, by the sudden -death of Hugues de Lionne, the great statesman, and by the startling -fate which had just befallen the Duke of Savoy. A note found on -September 21, 1677, in the confessional of the Jesuits in Rue -Saint-Antoine denounced a plot to poison the king and the dauphin. On -December 5 following, La Reynie, lieutenant of police, caused the arrest -of Louis de Vanens, who said he had been an officer. The papers seized -on him and on Finette, his mistress, brought to light an association of -alchemists, coiners, and magicians, in which priests, officers, -important bankers like Cadelan were associated with light women, -lackeys, and vagabonds. The Parlement was investigating the matter, when -La Reynie put his hand on a second association, like the first to all -appearance, but soon to reveal itself to the eyes of the magistrates as -an affair of much greater importance still. - -Towards the end of the year 1678, an advocate in small practice named -Maître Perrin was dining in Rue Courtauvilain with a certain Madame -Vigoureux, wife of a ladies' tailor--the trade, it will be seen, existed -before to-day. The company was merry, and the wine flowed freely. Among -the party was a 'big, powerful, large-faced woman,' who choked with -laughter as she poured out for herself bumpers of burgundy that would -have made a grenadier stagger. Her name was Marie Bosse, and she was -the widow of a horse-dealer. She was further a well-known -fortune-teller--'devineresse,' as they said in those days. 'A fine -trade!' she cried, and spoke of the grand people who frequented her -little rookery in the Rue du Grand-Huleu--duchesses and marchionesses -and princes and lords. 'Another three poisonings, and she would retire -with her fortune made!' At this remark the guests began to laugh still -more loudly: this fat woman was irresistibly funny. Maître Perrin alone -saw, by a sharp and rapid frown on the face of Madame Vigoureux, that -there was something serious in it. He knew Desgrez, the police officer -who had arrested Madame de Brinvilliers, and to him he related the -incident. Desgrez did not laugh at all, and that very day he sent the -wife of one of his archers to the fortune-teller with a complaint -against her husband. The fortune-teller, at the first visit, promised -her assistance; at the second, she gave her a phial of poison, which the -wife at once carried home to her dumfounded husband. La Reynie -forthwith ordered the arrest of Madame Vigoureux, of Marie Bosse, with -her daughter Manon, and her two sons, one of whom was a soldier in the -guards, and the other, a boy of fifteen, was just leaving the workhouse -of Bicêtre, where he had been placed to 'improve his morals and give him -a taste for work.' Marie Bosse was arrested at her own house on the -morning of January 4, 1679, in bed with her two sons. Her daughter had -just risen. 'There was only one bed, in which they all slept together.' -The preliminary inquiry brought to light a crime, the news of which -created a sensation almost as great as that evoked by the poisonings by -Madame de Brinvilliers. - -An order in council, dated January 10, instructed La Reynie to proceed -against the women Bosse, Vigoureux, and their accomplices. On March 12 -an officer set about the arrest of Catherine Deshayes, wife of Antoine -Monvoisin, a peddling jeweller. This woman, usually known as La Voisin, -was the greatest criminal of whom history has any record. She was -arrested as she left the church of Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle after -hearing mass. In her track La Reynie was to penetrate into a region of -crime that the imagination can scarcely conceive. 'Human life is -publicly trafficked in,' he wrote in utter consternation: 'death is -almost the only remedy employed in family embarrassments; impieties, -sacrileges, abominations are common practices in Paris, in the country, -in the provinces.' - - -_Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century_ - -To understand the facts and the characters of the persons we are going -to study, we must dwell briefly upon the beliefs of that time--a time -when beliefs were dominant influences in the life of men. We know what -power religious sentiments had in the seventeenth century--sentiments of -an intensity and a simplicity we know little of to-day, and the -corruption of which could not but engender the most absurd -superstitions. That was the epoch when the sweet Marguerite Alacoque, in -her divine ecstasy, exchanged her heart with that of Christ, and wrote -in her own blood, under dictation from on high, the contract which -ascribed to God these words: 'I constitute thee heiress of my heart and -all its treasures for time and eternity; I promise thee that thou shalt -only lack succour when I lack power; thou shalt be for ever the -well-beloved disciple, the plaything of my good pleasure and the -burnt-offering of my love.' And that, too, was the period when Catherine -Monvoisin, the terrible sorceress of Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, found -numerous and ardent followers. - -The beliefs in the action of the devil, and in the power of the -sorcerers, so deeply rooted in the imagination of the seventeenth -century, were summed up in 1588 in the _Démonomanie des Sorciers_ of the -famous Jean Bodin. He defined the sorcerer as one who 'by devilish and -unlawful means endeavours to attain some end'; but in his book he speaks -for the most part of witches. As Sprenger, the German inquisitor, -remarked, 'We should talk of the heresy of the witches, and not of -sorcerers, for these are of little account.' In Bodin are to be found -most of the practices in black magic still flourishing at the end of the -seventeenth century. Sorcerers and witches formed a sort of vast -fraternity. There were entire families whose formulae and whose -customers were handed down as heritable property. Jeanne Harvillier, -burnt to death on April 30, 1579, may serve as type. Her mother, a witch -like herself, had been burnt to death thirty years before. Such a death -was the natural end to her career, an end foreseen, and one that -terrified those fascinated by the strange vocation much less than one -would imagine. Jeanne was born about 1528, at Verberie near Compiègne. -At the age of twelve she was presented by her mother to the devil, who -appeared to her in the shape of a very tall dark man. Jeanne renounced -God, and consecrated herself to the 'Spirit.' 'At the same time she had -carnal intercourse with him, which continued from the age of twelve to -the age of fifty, when she was arrested. It sometimes happened that her -husband, lying by her side, failed to perceive what was going on.' This -was the _incubat_. Jeanne Harvillier was brought to justice on the -charge of causing the death of men and beasts by witchcraft. She -confessed to it with the greatest frankness, and told the story of her -last homicide: 'She laid some powders, prepared for her by the devil, -in the place where the man who had beaten his daughter was to pass.' -Another man came by to whom she wished no harm, and immediately he felt -a sharp pain all over his body. She promised to cure him, and in fact -took her place at the bedside of the sick man and tended him with the -gentleness of a sister of mercy. She fervently besought the devil to -restore life to the dying man, but the devil replied that it was -impossible. - -Bodin gravely recounts how witches on the Sabbath flew through the air -on broomsticks. He adds: 'What we have said of the travels of the -witches, both in body and in spirit, and the frequent and memorable -experiences of the same, show as in broad daylight, and bring to the -test of touch and sight, the error of those who have written that the -flights of witches are imaginary, and nothing but a trance.' This last -opinion had been maintained by John Wier, physician to the Duke of -Cleves, in a book which is almost a work of genius for that period. -Bodin devoted all his energy to its refutation, for to throw any doubt -upon the fact that the devil transports witches from one place to -another would be, he said, to bring gospel history into ridicule. - -Coming to study the maladies attributed to the incantations of -sorcerers--consumption, hysteria, melancholy, delusions, debility--John -Wier found the remedies to consist in a regular life, in conformity with -the laws of God, and in the skill of physicians. What an abominable -doctrine! says Bodin. He had lost all respect, then, for anything. Bodin -was beside himself. John Wier, he says, wrote under the dictation of -Satan. Moreover, had he not himself confessed that he was a disciple of -Agrippa, 'the greatest sorcerer that ever was'? When Agrippa died in the -hospital of Grenoble, a black dog which he called 'Monsieur' instantly -went and sprang into the river. Wier declared, it is true, that this dog -was not the devil, but there was not a single sensible person who -believed him. - -Without taking a side in this famous dispute between Bodin and John -Wier, we are bound to state that the writings of the latter had no -success, at any rate in France, while Bodin's book became a classic. -Bossuet, for all his powerful intellect, firmly believed in sorcery. At -the close of the seventeenth century, Bonet was obliged to go to a -Protestant republic to get his treatise on medicine printed, in which he -spoke lightly of magic and demoniacal possession. We have to come far -into the eighteenth century to find one Abraham de Saint-André--and he -was physician to Louis XV--daring, in his famous _Letters_, to cast -doubt on the magic and witchcraft of sorcerers. - -The following case, tried at the period in which the events of our story -occurred, and reproduced here after the archives of the Bastille, will -enable us to understand the ardour of belief with which the sorcerers -themselves were animated. - -By sentence of the Tournelle on September 2, 1687, a certain Pierre -Hocque was condemned to the galleys. He was a shepherd, skilled in -magic, who had, as the judgment declared, caused the death, by a spell -he cast over them, of 395 sheep, 7 horses, and 11 cows belonging to -Eustache Visié, receiver of taxes at Pacy-en-Brie. Hocque was chained -up with the other galley prisoners. Nevertheless, the cattle of Eustache -Visié continued to die. He had no sooner bought a cow or a sheep and -placed it in his farm than it perished. Clearly the only remedy was to -get Pierre Hocque to remove the direful spell he had imposed. Visié won -over, by a promise of money, the galley prisoner who was fastened to the -chain next to Hocque--a man named Béatrix. He spoke to the shepherd, who -replied that he had in fact cast a poison-spell over the cattle of -Visié, and that, failing himself, only two shepherds named Bras-de-Fer -and Courte Epée had the power to remove the fatal charm. At the urgent -request of Béatrix, Hocque dictated a letter to be sent to Bras-de-Fer, -but the letter was no sooner despatched than he fell into a horrible -despair. He cried hoarsely that Béatrix had made him do something that -would cause his death, which he would be unable to escape from the -moment Bras-de-Fer began to raise the spell he had cast on the cattle. -And the unhappy wretch writhed about in such dreadful contortions that -the other prisoners would have murdered Béatrix but for the intervention -of the guards. The despair and the convulsions lasted for several days, -and then Hocque died. 'And it was the exact time,' says the official -document, 'when Bras-de-Fer began to exorcise the cattle.' The judges -add: 'It is established that Pierre Hocque died because Bras-de-Fer -removed the poison-spell from the horses and cows, and it is true that -since that time no more of Eustache Visié's horses and cows have died.' - -The conviction of the unhappy sorcerer that he was bound to die as soon -as his mate undid his work was so strong that he did die. Is it possible -to imagine a more striking proof of the robust faith people then had in -all these devilries? - - -_The practices of the Witches_ - -To magic, black or white, the witches added medicine and pharmacy. They -kept drugstores with phials innumerable: syrups, juleps, ointments, -balms, emollients in infinite variety. They were old wives' remedies, -but their efficacy had been proved by experience, and their preparation -was perfected from age to age. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance -physician, burnt in 1527 the medical books of his time, declaring that -nothing but the formulae of the witches was of any use. The old hags had -soothing draughts for pain, healing ointments for wounds, and they acted -on nervous maladies by suggestion. That was the serious side of their -art. Most often the witch was a midwife too; but just as in that strange -world the poisoner lurked behind the druggist, and the alchemist and the -coiner were one, so the midwife played the part of baby-farmer. Finally, -the witches were fortune-tellers, who cast one's horoscope according to -the drawing of cards or the lines of the hand. - -What were the declarations of the witches arrested by La Reynie? Marie -Bosse said that 'nothing better could be done than to exterminate all -that sort of people who examine the hand, because they are the ruin of -many a woman, women of quality as well as others; the fortune-teller -soon finds out their weak spot, and thereby knows how to take them and -lead them wherever she will.' She added that in Paris there were more -than 400 fortune-tellers and magicians 'who ruined a great many people, -especially women, and of all conditions.' She went on to speak of the -money her cronies earned, telling how they bought places for their -husbands and built houses, and that they did not realise such fortunes -merely by looking at people's hands. La Voisin said that nothing could -be better than to hunt up all the people who looked at hands, that those -engaged in the business 'heard strange things when love intrigues were -not prospering, that poisonings were an everyday occurrence, that many -of them were paid as much as 10,000 livres' (£2000 of our money). -Similar declarations were made by Leroux, another witch, and by the -magician Lesage. 'It is extremely important,' said the latter, 'to get -to the bottom of these wretched practices, and to fathom this mystery of -iniquity which exists among all those who ostensibly are seekers after -treasure, after the philosopher's stone, and other like things, but who -keep up their trade by very different means: abortions and other crimes -are greater treasures than the philosopher's stone and fortune-telling; -the people who apply to the workers in mystery discuss usually the -poisoning of a husband, or a wife, or a father, and even sometimes of -babies at the breast.' He went on to say that 'these wretched people had -obtained the protection of very powerful friends, so that they acted -with perfect assurance and in almost perfect freedom.' These statements -are confirmed by the documents La Reynie was able to get together. - -What the public asked of the witches was, first of all, to withdraw the -veil from the future, and then to enable them to discover treasures. For -this purpose various means were employed, all tending to the same -end--to compel the 'Spirit,' that is the devil, by charms and -incantations to present himself and reveal the mysterious spot where -treasures lay hid. 'A woman,' writes Ravaisson, 'usually a prostitute on -the eve of accouchement, was placed at the centre of a circle drawn on -the floor, and surrounded with dark candles; when the child was born, -the mother gave up her son to be consecrated to the devil. After -pronouncing filthy incantations, the priest cut the victim's throat, -sometimes under the very eyes of its mother; but more often he carried -it away to sacrifice it elsewhere, because at the last moment outraged -nature asserted her rights, and these unhappy creatures snatched their -babes from death. At other times, they were content to cut the throat of -a deserted child; of such there was no lack; imprudent girls, light -women, gave the witches authority to dispose of the fruits of an -unlawful love. There were even licensed midwives who did a large -business in procuring abortion; the children after being baptized were -put to death and carried at once to the cemetery; most often they were -buried in the corner of a wood or consumed in an oven.' And the witch -Marie Bosse added: 'There are so many of this sort of people in Paris -that the city is choke-full of them.' - -These were the practices, with others more abominable still, which -caused La Reynie to write: 'It is difficult to think merely that these -crimes are possible; one can hardly bring oneself to consider them. Yet -it is those who have committed them that themselves declare them, and -these villains give so many particulars that it is difficult to harbour -any doubt.' - - -_The Alchemists_ - -Alongside of the group of witches and magicians appears another group, -that of the alchemists and 'philosophers,' represented by such people as -Vanens, Chasteuil, Cadelan, Rabel, and Bachimont. We have mentioned the -arrest of Louis de Vanens on December 5, 1677. - -The origins of this association of alchemists and seekers after the -philosopher's stone were highly dramatic. François Galaup de Chasteuil, -second of the name--he belonged to an illustrious family of Languedoc, -which had produced men of the highest distinction in arms, religion, and -literature--was its chief, or to use the cant expression of the cabala, -its 'author.' His life had been more than ordinarily romantic. Born at -Aix, on November 15, 1625, he was the second son of Jean Galaup de -Chasteuil, attorney-general of the Exchequer Court of Aix. His elder -brother Hubert, solicitor-general to the Parlement of the same town, was -'renowned for the nobility of his mind and the profundity of his -knowledge'; his younger brother Pierre was a poet, the friend of -Boileau, La Fontaine, and Mademoiselle de Scudéry. After a successful -student career, François was admitted doctor of law. In 1644 he became a -knight of Malta. He did signal service to the Order, and Lascaris, the -grand master, placed on his breast the cross of honour. He then became -captain of the guards of the great Condé. In 1652 he retired to Toulon, -fitted out a ship, and under the Maltese flag went privateering against -the Mussulmans. Algerian corsairs captured him and led him into -captivity. After two years of slavery he came to Marseilles, where he -turned monk and became prior of the Carmelites. He smuggled into the -convent a young girl--a slender, fair-haired child, with large, bright -blue eyes; and there he kept her locked up in his cell. When she was on -the point of giving birth to her child, Chasteuil, assisted by a lay -brother, strangled her in her bed, and on a pitch-dark night carried her -into the chapel of the convent, where he lifted several slabs of the -floor and dug out a grave in which to bury her. The silence of the -arches was disturbed by a dull sound. A pilgrim, lying asleep against a -pillar, woke up, and saw the sinister toilers by the light of the moon -which shone through the stained windows. Transfixed with fright, he -remained hidden out of sight in a dark corner until dawn, when the -chapel was opened, and he ran to inform the magistrates. Chasteuil was -arrested, tried, and condemned. He was on the way to execution when, at -the foot of the gibbet, up came Louis de Vanens, captain of the galleys, -along with several soldiers. Chasteuil and Vanens were old friends. -Chasteuil was rescued, and, taking his rescuer with him, he fled to -Nice. - -Hiding in a quiet spot, the two friends began working at the -philosopher's stone, that is, at converting copper into silver and gold. -Chasteuil had some experience of alchemy, and fancied he was master of -the famous secret. Full of gratitude for the service done him, he gave -Vanens the secret so far as silver was concerned, but would tell him -nothing about the gold, 'not thinking Vanens prudent enough for that.' -Shortly afterwards we find Chasteuil in the service of the Duke of -Savoy, captain of the guards of the White Cross, and--extraordinary -fact--tutor to his son! While occupied with the education of the young -Prince of Piedmont, Chasteuil continued his 'philosophy,' and discovered -an oil, which, as he appeared convinced himself, would turn metals into -gold. He also wrote translations of authors sacred and profane--the -minor prophets, Petronius, the Thebaïd of Statius; and he dabbled in -poetry. He had just passed his fortieth year. A contemporary gives us -his portrait: 'Middle height, very thin, always troubled with a nasty -cough caused by a wound he received in the body, round-shouldered, -slightly crooked, with a wry mouth, scanty beard, hair black and flat, -complexion swarthy and sallow.' Moréri adds: 'Monsieur de Chasteuil was -one of the most accomplished of gentlemen, and a perfect master of the -platonic philosophy.' - -Vanens and Chasteuil struck up an alliance with Robert de Bachimont, -lord of La Miré, who had married a cousin of Superintendent Fouquet. -Bachimont had at Paris a house near the Temple, with four smelting -furnaces: a large one on the third floor, two smaller ones in an -ante-room, and a large one in the cellar. He also had apartments at -Compiègne in the _Ecu de France_, where there was nothing but crucibles, -alembics, vessels of glass and of earthenware, cucurbits, philosophical -stoves open and closed, grates and mortars, retorts and matrasses, -sal-ammoniac and iron filings, and a thousand varieties of powders, -pastes, and liquids. Finally, he had another establishment at the abbey -of Ainay, near Lyons, completely fitted up for the fusion of metals, the -distillation of herbs, and other practices of alchemy. Before long the -association was enlarged by the addition of a person of some importance, -Louis de Vasconcelos y Souza, Count of Castelmelhor, who had been -practically the governor of Portugal for five or six years as the -favourite of King Alfonso VI. Bachimont says that Castelmelhor taught -him the secret of colouring glass red. After the death of the Duke of -Savoy on June 12, 1675, Castelmelhor withdrew to England, where he -gained the favour of Charles II., an ardent alchemist and astrologer. He -was present at the death of the English king, and it was he that brought -in the Catholic priest who gave him extreme unction. - -Chasteuil and his partners spent their time in the quest for the -philosopher's stone, contact with which was to convert metals into gold; -and, like the majority of alchemists, they believed that it was to be -found in the solidification of mercury. 'The hermetic philosophers,' -writes M. Huysmans, 'discovered--and modern science to-day does not deny -that they were right--that the metals are compound bodies of identical -composition. Their varieties are due simply to the different proportions -of the elements in combination; it is possible then, by the aid of an -agent that would alter these proportions, to change these bodies one -into another--to transmute mercury, for instance, into silver, and lead -into gold. And this agent is the philosopher's stone, mercury: not -ordinary mercury, which, to alchemists, is only a bastard metal' (M. -Huysmans uses another expression), 'but the mercury of the philosophers, -called also _lion vert_.' - -Among the papers of La Voisin was found an MS. poem in honour of the -philosopher's stone: - - 'De l'or glorifié qui change en or ses frères.' - -The secret consisted in an elixir, of which a single drop, cast - - 'dans une mer profonde - Où couleraient fondus tous les métaux du monde, - Suffirait pour la teindre et fixer en soleil.'[7] - -Chasteuil and his fellows did not merely seek the solidification of -mercury, which was to produce the philosopher's stone, but the -liquefaction of gold by cold: this was to furnish a universal panacea. -'Liquid gold restores health and strength, gives flesh to greybeards -and colour to the cheeks of girls, cures the plague,' and so on. - -Solid mercury being unobtainable, they sought, for the transmutation of -metals, those powders or oils about which we hear so frequently at that -period; and, as we shall see, they had the best reasons in the world for -believing that they had put their finger on the secret, at least as far -as silver[8] was concerned. - -In 1676 our partners all established themselves at Paris, where they -added to their company three collaborators, all important in different -ways: the quack Rabel, a physician celebrated in his day; a rich banker -of Paris named Pierre Cadelan, secretary to the king; and a young -Parlement advocate named Jean Terron du Clausel. Du Clausel lodged with -Vanens in the Rue d'Anjou, in a house which had for sign _Le Petit Hôtel -d'Angleterre_. He was a valuable addition to the band, because he could -distil at pleasure, being 'licensed.' Rabel seems to have been possessed -of considerable real science. Rabel water, which he invented, is still -used in our own day--a mixture of alcohol and sulphuric acid, which acts -as an astringent in cases of hæmorrhage. Rabel had compounded another -elixir, whose innumerable merits were celebrated in notices in prose and -verse which the most glowing of modern advertisements have not -surpassed. Cadelan supplied funds. Bodin speaks in very precise terms -about the alchemists: 'They extract the quintessence of plants, and make -admirable and salutary oils and waters, and discourse subtly on the -virtues and the transmutation of metals; but they also make false -money.' At the moment when Cadelan and his associates were arrested, he -was on the point of farming the Paris mint. Was this in order to make -false _louis d'or_, as historians have supposed? We believe rather that -it was to find means of circulating the products of the alchemical -experiments of his associates, for by that time they had no manner of -doubt about the efficacy of Chasteuil's formulae. A bar of silver cast -by Vanens, and taken by Bachimont to the mint, had just been accepted -there at a good price as pure metal. It is scarcely necessary to add -that this could only have been due to an error of the mint official; -this famous silver made out of copper by Vanens and Chasteuil was -nothing but 'white metal.' Nevertheless, it was a success which opened -before the eyes of our partners splendid vistas of future wealth. - -When Louis de Vanens was arrested on December 5, 1677, Louvois believed -that he had seized a spy. But he had put his hand on an alchemist, and -soon the whole band--Terron, Cadelan, Monsieur and Madame Bachimont, -Barthomynat (known as La Chaboissière), de Vanens' valet--were laid by -the heels, some in the Bastille, the others at Pierre-en-Cize. Chasteuil -had just died quietly at Verceil. Rabel had escaped into England, where -Charles II lodged and fed him, gave him a pension, and loaded him with -presents. Later he returned to France, and was incarcerated in his turn. - -We regarded it as essential to say something of this band of alchemists -and 'philosophers' by way of introduction to Louis de Vanens. This young -noble of Provence, 'a man of well-knit and graceful figure,' had -brilliant connections at court, where he was on a footing of intimacy -with the king's dazzling mistress, Madame de Montespan. On the other -hand, he was an assiduous visitor to La Voisin, and was even for some -time her 'author.' Vanens was the link between the alchemists and the -witches. He was devoted to demoniacal practices. His valet, La -Chaboissière, declared that one night he had to accompany his master and -a cleric into the woods on the outskirts of Poissy, where they searched -for treasures with incantations and invocations to the 'spirit.' Vanens -was a diabolical character. He was confined at the Bastille in the same -room with other prisoners, as the custom was. He had with him a sort of -white and tan spaniel. As midnight approached, he recited some prayer -over the body of the dog, and went through the ceremony of consecration. -Then he took a prayer-book containing a picture of the Virgin, and laid -the picture on the back of the dog, saying, 'Avaunt, devil! Behold thy -good mistress!' To the remarks of his companions in captivity, he -replied: 'Neither God nor the king shall prevent me from doing what I -have done.' To gauge the strange and passionate vigour of these -superstitions, we must remember that Vanens was in the Bastille, quite -aware that these practices might bring him to the stake. - -We shall see in the sequel the importance of Vanens when we recall the -following lines found in the notes of Nicolas de la Reynie: 'To see La -Chaboissière again about his reluctance to have written down in his -statement, after hearing it read, that Vanens had been concerned in -giving Madame de Montespan counsel which deserves that he should be -drawn and quartered.' - - -_La Voisin_ - -To the portraits of Chasteuil the alchemist and of Vanens, we must add -that of the most famous of the witches, Catherine Deshayes, known as La -Voisin. It was of her that La Fontaine wrote: - - 'Une femme à Paris faisait la pythonisse.' - -La Voisin stated to La Reynie: 'Some women asked if they would not soon -become widows, because they wished to marry some one else; almost all -asked this and came for no other reason. When those who come to have -their hands read ask for anything else, they nevertheless always come to -the point in time, and ask to be ridded of some one; and when I gave -those who came to me for that purpose my usual answer, that those they -wished to be rid of would die when it pleased God, they told me that I -was not very clever.' Margot, La Voisin's servant, said that the whole -world came there, adding: 'La Voisin is to-day dragging a great ruck -down with her--a long chain of persons of all sorts and conditions.' The -Parisians used to go in companies to the house of the fortune-teller: -they were quite pleasure parties. The merry crew would overflow into the -garden lawns surrounding the cottage at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. This was -the district, but sparsely inhabited, between the ramparts and the St. -Denis quarter. - -The sorceress was brought into the city drawing-rooms as nowadays -fashionable singers are brought. 'At that time, La Voisin had as much -money as she wanted. Every morning, before she rose, people were waiting -for her, and she had visitors all the rest of the day: after that, in -the evening, she kept open house, engaged fiddlers, and enjoyed herself -thoroughly; this went on for several years.' This life had little -resemblance, it will be seen, to that of her ancestress, the witch -described by Michelet: 'You will find her in the most dismal places, -isolated,--in houses of ill-fame and ruined huts and hovels. Where could -she have lived except on wild heaths--the hapless wretch who was so -hunted down, the accursed, proscribed, hated poisoner?' - -La Voisin earned in a year as much as £2000 or even £4000 in English -money; but her gains were spent in revelry. She entertained her lovers -in princely style, for she would have thought it unworthy of her if they -were not comfortable; and her lovers were many. We find in the first -rank of them André Guillaume, the executioner of Paris, who beheaded -Madame de Brinvilliers, and who, by a horrible coincidence, only just -escaped executing La Voisin herself: among them also the Viscount de -Cousserans, the Count de Labatie, Fauchet the architect, a wine merchant -of the neighbourhood, Lesage the magician, the alchemist Blessis, and -others. - -We must add that Blessis and Lesage spent much money on her, ostensibly -in connection with the philosopher's stone, for La Voisin had a sincere -faith in alchemy. She subsidised great enterprises, and helped to -establish manufactures, being much interested in scientific and -industrial progress; but in regard to industrial undertakings she fell -mainly into the hands of sharpers who swindled her out of her money. - -However, La Voisin, proud of her trade as sorceress, which brought -persons of the highest rank to bend before her in obsequious and -suppliant attitudes, did not stick at any expense that seemed likely to -augment her glory. She delivered her oracular sayings clothed in a robe -and a cloak specially woven for her, for which she paid 15,000 livres -(£3000 of English money). The queen herself had no finery more beautiful -than this 'imperial robe,' which 'was the talk of all Paris.' The cloak -was of crimson velvet studded with 205 two-headed eagles of fine gold, -lined with costly fur; the skirt was of bottle-green velvet, edged with -French point. Even her shoes were embroidered with golden two-headed -eagles. The mere weaving of the eagles on the cloak cost 400 livres (£80 -to-day). We possess the bills of the maker. - -But under the glittering shows of wealth La Voisin had preserved most -dissolute manners. She was constantly drunk. She indulged in fishwife's -brawls with Lesage. Latour, who was her 'great author,' used to thrash -her. She fought with Marie Bosse and tore her hair out. 'One day, Latour -being with her on the ramparts, she got him to give her husband fifty -blows with a stick, while she held Latour's hat.' On that occasion, -Latour bit poor Monvoisin's nose. But on the other hand, the sorceress -regularly attended the church of the Abbé de Saint-Amour, rector of the -University of Paris, an austere Jansenist; and Madame de la Roche-Guyon -stood god-mother to her daughter. - -The husband whom La Voisin so brutally got beaten, appears to have been -a decent man. In those days there was at Montmartre a chapel dedicated -to St. Ursula, who enjoyed the power to 'improve' husbands. The -procedure was to carry there, some Friday morning, a shirt of the wicked -spouse. Our sorceress had the most implicit faith in the efficacy of -this practice, and we must do her the justice to state that she always -began by sending to Montmartre women who came to her with tales of their -troubles. She availed herself of the remedy on her own account, and poor -Monvoisin had to march to the place carrying his shirt under his arm. He -was a husband for whose improvement St. Ursula does not appear to have -been required to spend much effort. - -Lesage, the witch's lover, advised her to get rid of Monvoisin. A -sheep's heart was bought, 'to which Lesage did something,' and then it -was buried in the garden behind the gate. Lo and behold, Monvoisin was -seized with severe pain in the stomach. He cried out that if there was -anybody who wished to do for him, he had better shoot him at once -instead of letting him linger. La Voisin, struck with remorse, hastened -to the Augustines to confess and obtain a general absolution; she took -the sacrament, and on her return compelled Lesage to undo his wicked -charms. - -She related very simply and frankly to La Reynie the first steps of her -career. Her husband, at that time, was doing nothing, but he had been a -hawking jeweller, and then a shopkeeper on the Pont-Marie. He had lost -his shop, and then, seeing her husband ruined, 'she had devoted herself -to cultivating the powers that God had given her.' 'It was chiromancy -and face-reading that I learnt at the age of nine. I have been -persecuted for fourteen years: that is the work of the missionaries' -(these were the members of a community established by St. Vincent de -Paul, then very popular, who were actively occupied in converting -sinners and removing scandals of all kinds). 'However,' she continued, -'I gave an account of my art to the vicars-general, the Holy See being -vacant, and to several doctors of the Sorbonne to whom I had been sent, -and they found nothing to object to.' Marie Bosse also spoke of the -time when her friend went to the Sorbonne to argue on astrology with the -professors. - -Thus La Voisin set up as fortune-teller in order to restore order and -comfort to her household. One of her friends, La Lepère, told her -sometimes that she ought not to engage in such great crimes. 'You are -mad!' cried the witch, 'the times are too bad. How am I to feed my -family? I have six persons on my hands!' And in fact, until her arrest, -La Voisin had been the constant support of her old mother, to whom she -gave money every week. - -La Voisin's claim that her art was founded on face-reading was quite -genuine. She had made a profound study of physiognomy. We find -innumerable references to this subject in the documents of her case, and -also a 'Treatise on physiognomy, supported on six immovable columns: (1) -sympathy between body and mind; (2) relations between rational and -irrational animals; (3) the differences between the sexes; (4) national -diversities; (5) physical temperaments; (6) diversities of age; not -depending on a single sign, for men are often attacked by some defect -which force of mind, aided by grace, can assuredly overcome.' When the -Countess de Beaufort de Canillac came to consult the fortune-teller, -'the lady wishing to give me her hand without unmasking, I told her that -I did not know physiognomies of velvet, whereupon the lady removed her -mask.' La Voisin confessed that she read much more in the features than -in the lines of the hand, 'it being no easy thing to conceal a passion -or any considerable disturbing emotion.' She was not merely a -physiognomist, but an expert psychologist, and that was how she gave a -real foundation to her sorcery. We may cite the following incident among -many others. - -Marie Brissart, widow of a Parlement counsellor, tenderly loved and -handsomely supported a captain of guards named Louis Denis de Rubentel, -Marquis de Mondétour, who became lieutenant-general in 1688. He was a -personage of whom Saint-Simon, a severe censor, speaks thus: 'He had -been able to contemn basenesses, and to withdraw into his virtue, which -was beyond his wealth.' Madame Brissart used to send him money when he -was on service, after having equipped him from top to toe on his -departure. It happened that the cavalier displayed some coldness towards -his mistress, with the idea of getting her purse to open still more -generously. The widow, seeing nothing of her captain, became alarmed, -and hastened to La Voisin. She began her incantations, with the -assistance of Lesage. The magician walked up and down the garden with a -wand, with which he struck the earth, repeating the words, _Per Deum -sanctum, per Deum vivum!_ Then he said: 'Louis Denis de Rubentel, I -conjure thee in the name of the Almighty to go find Marie Miron (Madame -Brissart's maiden name): she to possess thee wholly, body, soul, and -spirit, and thou to love none but her!' On another occasion, he put into -a little ball of wax a paper on which the names of Rubentel and Madame -Brissart were written, and in the presence of the latter threw the ball -into the fire, where it burst with a loud noise. These fine charms were -still without result, when one morning La Voisin, with the intuition of -a clairvoyant, said to her weeping client: 'You write every day and send -your maid to Rubentel, but he pays no attention to you; it is mad -conduct to write and send every day'; and the lady having ceased to -write and send, Monsieur de Rubentel, who in turn began to be afraid -lest so precious a fount should dry up, returned to her 'without -anything else having been done; yet the lady, believing that La Voisin -had done some extraordinary thing, gave her twelve pistoles.' - -The witch heard all sorts of confessions. There were wonderful dreams of -adoring affection told her by lovers of twenty years, who came to her -red with emotion, or wrote thrilling letters in order to bring their -torment to an end, begging her to soften the hard hearts of their -mistresses, or to bend the opposition of a cruel father. Or it was the -fierce carnal love of mature women obstinately clinging to the lovers -who were neglecting them for fresher girls. There were also the passions -of ambitious women, greedy for money and honours, which bring us to the -horrors of the 'black mass.' - -La Voisin was assisted in these monstrous rites by a priest 'squint-eyed -and old,' with bloated face, and prominent blue veins forming a network -on his cheeks--the terrible Abbé Guibourg. Formerly chaplain to the -Count de Montgommery, he was at this time sacristan of St. Marcel, at -St. Denis. He used to say mass, according to the proper rites, wearing -the alb, stole, and maniple. 'The women on whose bodies mass was said -were laid stark naked, without even their chemise, upon a table which -served as altar; their arms were stretched out, and they held a taper in -each hand.' Sometimes they did not actually undress themselves, 'but -only tucked up their garments as high as the throat.' The chalice was -placed on the bare belly. At the moment of the _offertoire_, a child had -its throat cut. Guibourg usually stuck a long needle into its neck. The -blood of the expiring victim was poured into the chalice, and mixed with -the blood of bats and other materials obtained by filthy means. Flour -was added to solidify the mess, which was thus made to resemble the -Host, to be consecrated at the moment when, in the sacrifice of the -mass, transubstantiation takes place. The scene is reconstructed by La -Reynie according to the testimony of the accused. - -Black masses were not the only sorceries whose rites required the -sacrifice of children. La Voisin and her fellow-witches perpetrated a -terrible slaughter of them. Children deserted by their unmarried -mothers, others bought from poor women, did not suffice: several -sorceresses were convicted of having killed their own children for these -atrocious proceedings. Here, for instance, is a horrible detail: the -daughter of La Voisin, on the very eve of her trouble, not trusting her -mother, fled the house, and only returned after placing her infant in -safety. The witches ran off with children in the streets. La Reynie -wrote to Louvois: 'Remember the great disturbance in Paris in 1676, when -there were seditious gatherings and mobs and runnings to and fro in -several parts of the city, through the rumour that people carried off -children to cut their throats, though no one then understood what the -cause of the rumour could be. The mob, however, proceeded to various -excesses against the women suspected of being child-stealers. The king -ordered an inquiry. Proceedings were taken (against those who rose -against the witches), and a woman who was guilty of violence was -condemned to death, but obtained a special pardon.' - -La Voisin, like all the sorceresses, practised medicine. Among her -papers were found recipes for the cure of pimples, a remedy for -headache, the prescription for 'a quintessence of hellebore which kept -the Dean of Westminster alive for 166 years.' She was a midwife, and -especially a procurer of abortion. 'Above the room (where she gave -consultations) there was a sort of loft in which she procured abortions, -and behind the room there was a recess with a stove, in which were found -the charred remains of small human bones.' Little children were burned -in this stove. One day, in an effusive moment, La Voisin confessed that -'she had burnt in the stove, or buried in the garden, the bodies of more -than 2500 children prematurely born.' Here again we come upon surprising -particulars. The witch was very insistent that children thus brought -into the world should be baptized before death. One evening La Lepère, a -midwife friend of La Voisin, happened to be in the famous room with the -witch's husband. La Voisin, who was in the loft, came down suddenly in -joyous haste and with radiant countenance, crying: 'What luck! the child -has been dipped!' - -Such was the strange and horrible creature--the last of the great -sorceresses who haunted the imagination of Michelet--the extraordinary -woman whose crimes sent a shudder through the man who had heard the -confessions of the most redoubtable criminals of his time--Nicolas de la -Reynie. - -We have a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine Coypel. She is represented on -the way to execution in the linen shift of condemned criminals. -Contemporaries depict her as a small stoutish woman, rather pretty, -owing to her eyes, which were extraordinarily bright and piercing. The -artist has given her a froglike expression, but no doubt he sketched her -under the influence of a preconceived idea. Madame de Sévigné, who had a -singular taste for this sort of spectacle, saw her mount to the stake: -'La Voisin,' she wrote, 'very prettily surrendered her soul to the -devil.' The confessor of the sorceress has given his testimony to her -edifying end: 'I am loaded with so many crimes,' she said with simple -and profound emotion, 'that I could not wish God to work a miracle to -snatch me from the flames, because I cannot suffer too much for the sins -I have committed.' - - -_The Magician Lesage_ - -La Voisin's principal coadjutor was the magician Lesage. He was one by -himself in this world of sorceresses, alchemists, and magicians. A -sceptic among believers, he duped the women with whom he worked as well -as the fashionable ladies who came to avail themselves of his art. - -Originally from Venoix near Caen, his real name was Adam Coeuret. His -portrait is sketched by La Vigoureux: 'he wore a ruddy wig, was ill -formed, clothed as a rule in grey, with a cloak of homespun.' He was a -wool merchant. Though he had a wife in Lower Normandy, he promised La -Voisin that he would marry her if she became a widow. The first alias -he chose was Duboisson. In 1667 he was arrested, condemned to the -galleys for dealings with the devil, and liberated in 1672 through the -kind offices of La Voisin. The galley in which he rowed was lying in -sight of the port of Genoa when the pardon reached him. - -Set at liberty, Coeuret returned to Paris, where he renewed his -relations with the witches. - -His whole art consisted in a remarkable talent for jugglery, by which he -deceived the witches themselves, persuading them that he possessed 'all -the science of the cabala.' They adopted him as partner in their -lucrative operations. The reports of the examination of La Voisin give -curious information on this head. 'Lesage took a live pigeon in the Vale -of Misery (on the quay of La Mégisserie, where poultry was sold) and -burnt it in a warming-pan. Having then sifted its ashes, he put them in -his room. It was the beginning of Lent, during which he used to recite -the Passion of our Lord daily, with his feet in water, though it was -freezing hard. Then he put a white cloth on the table, lit two tapers, -and sent for three crystal glasses, with which having performed his -"mystery," which was Greek to La Voisin, he shut them up in a cupboard -with a twig of laurel, and then, though he retained the key, he asked -her for the three glasses and the laurel twig which he had locked in the -cupboard. They were not found there; and then he said that he would give -her nothing else to keep, and having sent her into the garden, she found -them all three in a row in the summer-house. And when she asked him how -he did that, Lesage said that he was one of the apostles and of the -company of the Sibyls.' - -At other times Lesage celebrated a sort of mass, got up as a priest. At -the moment of the offertory he would break two pieces of ordinary bread, -and after having made La Voisin and her husband kneel down, he gave them -each a piece of bread 'just as if they were at communion, and then made -them drink some holy water which, as he said, he had turned into wine, -and it was a liquid of an extremely pleasant taste.' 'A sergeant having -come to La Voisin's house to distrain on her at the instance of an -upholsterer named Lenoir, La Voisin sent for Lesage, told him that she -was ruined, and that there was something in the cupboard which must be -taken away, namely, a consecrated wafer; and at the same time Lesage -sent away the Marquise de Lusignan, who happened to be in the house, and -told her to go home, and when she got there to put a white napkin on her -bed, for something he was going to send her. And in fact the wafer was -found by the marquise at her own house, without any one seeing who had -taken it there.' - -The pretended sorceries of Lesage thus consisted simply of clever -conjuring tricks. They sufficed to amaze his clients. He made them -write, for instance, requests to the devil in notes which he then -pretended to throw in the fire, enclosed in balls of wax; and some days -after he gave them back to them, saying that the devil, who had received -them through the flames, had returned them. - -Lesage was arrested for the second time on March 17, 1679, and we shall -see the importance of the statements he made to the magistrates. - - -_The 'Chambre Ardente'_ - -The consternation of Louis XIV, his ministers, and the lieutenant of -police at the discovery of such crimes may be imagined. The terror was -all the intenser because chemists and able physicians were then -powerless to discover traces of poison in a corpse. The matter was -intrusted to a special commission, in the hope that by a more -expeditious and energetic procedure than that of the ordinary courts, it -would succeed in cutting the evil at the root. This was the famous -Chambre Ardente. - -The president was Louis Boucherat, Count de Compans--an amiable man, -says Madame de Sévigné, and of much good sense. Later, he became -Chancellor of France. Louis Bazin, Lord of Bezons, nominated to act as -judge-advocate along with La Reynie, was a member of the Academy. The -office of clerk was filled by Sagot, La Reynie's confidential secretary -and ordinary clerk of the Châtelet. 'The Commission,' writes Ravaisson, -'was composed of the élite of the councillors of state, and all these -magistrates have left a high reputation.' The court was called the -Chambre Ardente, because in former days tribunals specially constituted -to deal with great crimes sat in a chamber hung with black and lit by -torches and candles. - -The court met for the first time on April 10, 1679, and decided to keep -its proceedings secret, so as to withhold details of these practices -from the knowledge of the public. The magistrates themselves had no -doubt of the efficacy of these dealings with the devil, nor of the -formidable composition of the poisons. - -The method of procedure was as follows:-- - -The individuals regarded as suspicious by La Reynie, the examining -magistrate, were arrested by royal warrant, that is, by a _lettre de -cachet_, which took the place of the modern magistrate's warrant. The -first depositions were submitted to the attorney-general, and it was -only on his requisition that the officials proceeded to the -confrontation of the prisoners, after which the commissaries submitted a -detailed report to the court. The attorney presented to them his general -conclusions, and the court decided whether the accused person should be -'recommended,' that is, remain a prisoner in virtue of a warrant issued -by them. In that case the investigation followed its course. When this -was ended, all the documents concerning the accused were read to the -judges, the king's attorney delivered his address in favour of acquittal -or condemnation, the accused was heard for the last time, and the court -pronounced judgment, which was without appeal. - -The Chambre Ardente sat in the hall of the Arsenal. From April 10, 1679, -the day of its first meeting, to July 21, 1682, when it closed its -doors, it held 210 sittings, after having been suspended, for reasons -that will be explained later, from October 1, 1680, to May 19, 1681. - -The Chambre Ardente deliberated on the fate of 442 accused persons, and -ordered the arrest of 367 of these. Of these arrests, 218 were -sustained. Thirty-six prisoners were condemned to the extreme penalty, -torture ordinary and extraordinary and execution; two of them died a -natural death in jail; five were condemned to the galleys; twenty-three -were exiled; but the most guilty had accomplices in such high places -that their cases were never carried to an end. We must add the prisoners -who committed suicide in prison, such as La Dodée, a sorceress aged -thirty-five, still very pretty, who was arrested with La Trianon, and -cut her throat at Vincennes after her first examination; 'she covered -the wound with her chemise, in which the greater part of her blood -flowed, and was found dead when her room was opened in the morning to -take her her breakfast.' - - * * * * * - -Among the many cases which came before this court one or two will serve -as types. - -Madame de Dreux was the wife of a Parlement _maître des requêtes_. She -was not yet thirty, and was endowed with much grace and beauty, a -delicate and dainty beauty, with infinite charm and distinction. She was -so fond of Monsieur de Richelieu, declared La Joly, one of the -sorceresses tried by the court, 'that as soon as she knew that Monsieur -de Richelieu was even looking at any one else, she thought of doing away -with him.' She had further poisoned 'Monsieur Pajot and Monsieur de -Varennes and many others,' and, in particular, one of her lovers, to -avoid, as she said, the bother and annoyance of a rupture. She had also -tried to poison her husband, and to get rid of Madame de Richelieu by -sorcery. All these details were widely known in Paris, where society, -difficult as it is to believe it, was wonderfully amused by them. The -husband was riddled with epigrams, which Madame de Sévigné declares -'divinely diverting.' Madame de Dreux was too pretty, really!--and -besides, she was a cousin of two of the judges of the Chambre Ardente; -the result was that on April 27, 1680, the judges contented themselves -with admonishing her. 'Monsieur de Dreux and her whole family,' writes -Madame de Sévigné, 'went to the court to meet her.' Set at liberty, the -young woman was fêted and petted by the whole world of fashion. 'There -was joy and triumph and kisses from all her family and friends. Monsieur -de Richelieu did wonders in this business.' A fact which will appear -incredible is, that after she left prison, Madame de Dreux returned to -the sorceresses, met La Joly in the Jesuits' church, and asked and -obtained from her powders to poison a lady whom Monsieur de Richelieu -was 'considering.' - -Truth to tell, La Joly was arrested while this was going on, and, as a -result of her revelations, a fresh warrant was issued against Madame de -Dreux; but she was warned, and escaped. She was proceeded against for -contumacy. Her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu were then seen pleading -for her in company. On January 23, 1682, Madame de Dreux was condemned -to banishment beyond the kingdom, but the king allowed her to remain in -France provided she lived in Paris with her husband. - -Madame Leféron, who also belonged to judicial society, was less pleasant -in appearance. The daughter of a Parlement counsellor, her maiden name -was Marguerite Galart. Her husband, president of the first court of -_enquêtes_, is represented in the _Tableau du Parlement_ of 1661 as 'a -good judge, of solid judgment and firm opinion, never changing except on -good grounds, unprejudiced, loving rule and order, a good and -disinterested man.' He had given proof of independence of character at -the time of Fouquet's case, by showing clemency to the superintendent. -Madame Leféron found him a bore, avaricious, and further--how can one -say it?--insufficient. Yet the fair dame had passed her fiftieth year. -But she was madly smitten with one Monsieur de Prade, who on his side -was in love with her money. She asked La Voisin for poisons to kill her -husband, and de Prade went to her for charms to help him win the heart -of his mistress. La Voisin gave them all they wanted: phials to the -lady, and to the gallant a mask of virgin wax representing the face of -Madame Leféron. This, enclosed in a zinc box, was to be warmed every now -and then, which would warm the heart of the lady. De Prade gave La -Voisin a note for 20,000 livres--£4000 to-day. - -The phials produced their effect, and Leféron died on September 8, 1669. -The waxen mask was equally successful, and Madame Leféron married de -Prade. On February 20, 1680, as she went to the stake, La Voisin said to -Sagot, clerk to the court: 'It is quite true that Madame Leféron came to -see me, most joyous at being a widow, and when I asked her if the phial -of liquid had taken effect, she said, "Effect or not, he is done for!"' -De Prade appeared no less happy. He scoured the city in a brand-new -carriage, 'with three or four lackeys behind.' His joy was short. The -lady saw that her new husband thought chiefly of getting 'donations' out -of her, and the husband soon saw that his wife was trying to poison him -in his turn. He fled to the Turks. On April 7, 1680, Madame Leféron was -condemned to banishment beyond the borders of the viscounty of Paris and -to a fine of 1500 livres, though there were, as Louvois wrote to Louis -XIV, thirteen or fourteen witnesses of her crime. - -Madame de Dreux and Madame Leféron owed this remarkable indulgence to -Madame de Poulaillon. Born Marguerite de Jehan, of a noble Bordeaux -family, she had come to Paris when very young to associate with the -alchemists, having a passion for the occult sciences. She had married -Alexandre de Poulaillon, much older than herself, but very rich. -Contemporaries are unanimous in praising the pretty face, the delicate -and keen intelligence, and the exquisite distinction of the young lady. -Unhappily for herself, she met a certain La Rivière, who had a wonderful -talent for getting money out of ladies. As we know, in the seventeenth -century, a talent of this sort was not the discreditable thing it is -to-day. Her excellent husband, becoming suspicious, drew his -purse-strings tight and locked his safes. Madame de Poulaillon had -recourse to various expedients. She sold the house furniture, chairs, -sofas, 'the big gilded bed upholstered in English watered silk,' the -plate, and even the clothes of her husband. He, in a furious temper--we -may suppose so, at least--ceased to give his wife even money for her -toilet, and bought her dresses and ribbons himself. - -In despair, the young woman opened relations with La Vigoureux: she -required money for her lover, and the riddance of her husband. With this -intent she planned the most audacious strokes. Two or three hired -bravoes would do: 'While one held Poulaillon by the throat in his study, -the other would throw bags of money out of the window, and she would -open the study door herself.' Another time she thought of getting her -husband kidnapped alive. She was quite ready herself for the enterprise, -but failed to find men to assist her. At last she saw Marie Bosse, who -from the first appeared to her more plucky. However, Madame de -Poulaillon displayed so furious a haste to get rid of her 'old goodman,' -that Marie Bosse, hardened as she was, fairly took fright. She would not -give her in one dose the powder necessary for the poisoning, for fear -that the lady, by giving it all at once, would create a scandal. The -sorceress was prudent enough to begin with the shirt, one of the most -horrible of these hags' inventions. The shirts of the husband were -washed in arsenic. This left no trace. Whoever put them on was before -long attacked by a violent inflammation in the limbs and the lower part -of the body. And every one sympathised with the wife whose husband was -suffering from a disgraceful malady caused by debauchery! Arsenic was -put also into the injections, which in those days were in common use. -The contents of a phial poured into the wine or soup hastened the -operation. - -The negotiations between Madame de Poulaillon and Marie Bosse were -carried on in the church of the Carmelites. The young woman gave 4000 -livres (£800) for the phial and the preparation for the shirts. -Poulaillon was warned by an anonymous letter; moreover, his wife could -not obtain the necessary assistance from her servants. Then in her rage -she applied to some soldiers, and asked them to wait for her husband at -the corner of a road she pointed out to them, where it would be the -easiest thing in the world, she said, to do for him. The soldiers took -her money and hastened to inform Poulaillon, who now lost all patience, -shut his wife up in a convent, and laid an information before the -Châtelet. It was at this time that the lady had a writ issued against -her by the Chambre Ardente. - -As soon as he saw the storm threatening, La Rivière, to whom Madame de -Poulaillon had sacrificed everything, fled to Burgundy, where he hid -behind the skirts of Madame de Coligny, daughter of the famous -Bussy-Rabutin, and widow of the Marquis de Coligny. She fell in love -with La Rivière, who, kept informed of the progress of the trial, joked -pleasantly with his new flame on the misfortunes of his old mistress. -She, though madly in love with the gallant, was shocked. 'If the -misfortune of the lady who has so much merit, I hear, and who loves you -and has loved you so passionately, no longer touches you, what reason -have I to flatter myself I shall keep you always?' This brilliant -cavalier, who insisted on being called the Marquis de la Rivière, Lord -de Courcy, was really a bastard son of the Abbé de la Rivière, Bishop of -Langres. - -Madame de Poulaillon was finally examined on June 5, 1679. The -attorney-general had demanded the penalty of torture and death on the -Place de Grève; but the memory of the edifying and touching end of -Madame de Brinvilliers was still strong in the minds of the judges, and -had almost stricken them with remorse. Madame de Poulaillon displayed -before her judges even more grace, more submission to the hand of God, -more sweet and tranquil resignation. So strongly were these men of law -moved, that they could not bring themselves to order the severing of -that charming head. 'This lady, who had infinite spirit,' notes Sagot -the clerk, 'cared little about death, and though she did not expect to -escape, showed during her whole examination an extraordinary presence of -mind, which won the judges' admiration and pity.' La Reynie writes that -the judges were touched 'by her spirit, and by the grace with which at -the last she explained her unhappiness and her crime.' 'The -commissioners,' says Sagot, 'remained in deliberation for four whole -hours, all of them, especially those who had some interest in these -ladies, being prepared for anything which might serve, if not for the -discharge of Madame de Poulaillon, at any rate for the mitigation of the -facts they could not dispute, in so far as that could be done without a -manifest miscarriage of justice. Monsieur de Fieubet was the one who -dilated most on this view, employing all the power of his natural -eloquence; and he it was who saved the life of Madame de Poulaillon, -having brought round to his way of thinking three of the six judges who -had previously decided for death. This was a precedent fortunate for -Mesdames de Dreux and Leféron and other prisoners, and in fact it was -through this that the court lost credit.' - -'The great difficulty,' adds La Reynie, 'was afterwards to console -Madame de Poulaillon when she found that she was only condemned to exile -instead of the death she had herself pronounced in presence of the -judges, after having declared the joy she had in thus expiating her -crime, and at the same time winning deliverance from all her other -woes.' On the demand of the young lady herself, her punishment was -increased by royal warrant to detention with the Penitents at Angers. -Meanwhile La Rivière, after making Madame de Coligny a mother, married -her without a trace of compunction. True, shortly afterwards, -Bussy-Rabutin and his daughter, undeceived about the man, endeavoured to -dissolve the union; but the gay spark resisted, and Madame de la Rivière -was forced to pension him off at a very high figure before he would -agree to desert her. - -The best society applauded the acquittal of Madame de Poulaillon, while -the middle classes murmured, with so much the more reason that soon -afterwards a certain widow lady named Brunet was condemned with the -greatest harshness, though no more guilty than Mesdames de Poulaillon, -de Dreux, and Leféron. - -She had been the wife of a wholesale tradesman in the city. Monsieur and -Madame Brunet entertained very largely, for they provided excellent -music. The fashionable flutist, Philibert Rébillé, musician to the king, -was constantly to be heard there. Brunet worshipped the flutist for his -delightful skill, and Madame Brunet for his charming person. As the -excellent people kept a good table, and the wife was charming, the -artiste responded with great enthusiasm to this double passion. It was -perfect bliss, which might have lasted for a long time to the melodious -sounds of the flute, if Brunet, with the idea of permanently attaching -to himself so pleasant a musician, had not taken it into his head to -offer him his daughter with a handsome dowry, and if Philibert, -delighted with the ducats and the daughter, had not accepted them with -alacrity. Madame Brunet uttered a cry of horror! Philibert explained to -her that he had consulted apostolic notaries, and that for a -consideration it would be possible to obtain canonical letters which -would set things right; and festivities were got up for the betrothal. -In desperation Madame Brunet confided in La Voisin: 'If she had to do -penance for ten years, it was necessary that God should carry off -Brunet, her husband, for she could not abide to see Philibert, whom she -loved passionately, in the arms of her daughter.' She even took her -lover to the sorceress. Philibert deposed at the trial that, under -pretext of showing him a garden, Madame Brunet took him to see a woman -who proceeded to look at his hand: 'I know not who she is, for the woman -was so drunk that she could not say a word.' La Voisin, on being -questioned, related the proceedings of Madame Brunet, adding: 'There are -other details which I would not tell for anything in the world, I would -rather have a dagger thrust into my heart: that is kept for confessors, -not for judges.' François Ravaisson, in publishing this dramatic -declaration, thus comments on it: 'These details were imparted by La -Voisin to La Reynie later; they did honour to Philibert's disposition. -The details given by the judges brought this flute-player into the -height of fashion, and ladies of the court and the city scrambled for -him when he came out of prison.' - -Meanwhile, Marie Bosse undertook the operation, for 2000 livres--£400 -to-day. - -Brunet was poisoned in 1673, and Philibert married the widow. - -'My friends advised me,' he declared naïvely before the judges, 'to wed -the mother rather than the daughter, which I did, under the good -pleasure of the king, who signed the contract.' - -The flute-player's wife was condemned on May 15, 1679. She begged in -vain to be allowed to see husband and children for the last time. Her -hand was cut off while she was still alive, then she was hanged, and her -body cast into the fire. Louis XIV, who was fond of his flutist, advised -him to leave France if he was conscious of guilt. But Philibert was a -man of mettle. He went like a gentleman and gave himself up as a -prisoner at Vincennes. He was acquitted on April 7, 1680. - - -_Louis XIV and the Poison Affair_ - -Meanwhile the Chambre Ardente was extending its prosecutions over an -ever-widening circle and into higher and higher ranks of society, and by -degrees a singular disquietude awoke, an astonishing uneasiness: it was -no longer the poisoners whom people dreaded, but the magistrates. People -talked about a lady of the highest rank who was declaring everywhere -that the judges and all their proceedings ought to be burnt. La Reynie -asked for the protection of an escort when he went to Vincennes, where -the principal accused persons were. Madame de Sévigné, speaking of the -great lieutenant of police, wrote: 'His life is a proof that there are -no poisoners now.' On February 4, 1680, Louvois wrote to the president -of the court:-- - - 'His Majesty, having been informed of what was said in Paris in - regard to the decrees issued a few days ago by the Chamber, has - commanded me to acquaint you with His Majesty's desire that you - should assure the judges of his protection, and let them understand - that he expects them to continue dispensing justice with firmness.' - -Louis sent for Boucherat, the president, the two examining -commissioners, La Reynie and Bezons, and the attorney-general, and they -went out to Versailles. 'On rising from dinner,' writes La Reynie, 'His -Majesty recommended us to do justice and our duty, in extremely strong -and precise terms, indicating to us that he desired, on behalf of the -public weal, that we should penetrate as deeply as possible into the -terrible traffic in poisons, so as to cut its root if this were -possible; he commanded us to do strict justice, without distinction of -person, rank, or sex; and this His Majesty told us in clear and vigorous -terms.' - -The determination so vigorously expressed by the king filled La Reynie -with confidence and zeal; it encouraged him in the accomplishment of the -arduous task imposed on him. And such courage was necessary: what -frightful revelations he heard! Was it due to these revelations that, -suddenly, the intentions of the court of Versailles underwent -modification? La Voisin had just been condemned to suffer torture. She -was subjected to it, but only as a matter of form. 'La Voisin was not -tortured at all,' writes La Reynie in indignation, 'and this means not -having been applied, has naturally produced no effect.' It was feared -that the sorceress, whose discretion had been so remarkable hitherto, -might say too much in the agony of torture, and, independently of La -Reynie, the torturers had received their orders. The judges had also -received independent orders, and their reluctance to interrogate the -accused woman was such that, at the moment of her execution, La Voisin, -struck with remorse, conceived it her duty to confess spontaneously -before being handed over to the confessor: 'She felt obliged to say, to -ease her conscience, that a large number of persons of all ranks and -conditions had applied to her for means to procure the death of many -persons, and that debauchery was the chief motive of all these crimes.' - -But after the execution of La Voisin, the examinations of her partner -Lesage, of her accomplice the Abbé Guibourg, and of her daughter, -Marguerite Monvoisin, were proceeded with. On August 2, 1680, Louis XIV -wrote from Lille to La Reynie:-- - - 'Having seen the declaration made on the 12th of last month by - Marguerite Monvoisin, prisoner at my castle of Vincennes, I write - you this letter to inform you of my intention that you should - devote all possible care to elucidate the facts contained in the - said declaration--that you should take care to have written down in - separate reports the examinations, confrontations, and everything - concerning the inquiry that may be made of the said declaration, - and that meanwhile you defer reporting to my royal Chamber sitting - at the Arsenal the depositions of Romani and Bertrand.' - -Romani and Bertrand were two prisoners with whom we shall have a good -deal to do by and by. - -Thus Louis XIV gave orders for the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, -and those of Romani and Bertrand, to be detached from the documents -submitted to the court. On the other hand, Louvois had had the -imprudence to promise Lesage his life if he revealed all he knew. Lesage -related most horrible things. Word then went round not to listen to any -more; he was a liar. But on September 30 and October 1, 1680, these -narratives were confirmed in the most precise manner by the sorceress -Françoise Filastre while under torture. The declarations of Filastre -struck on the ears of Louis XIV like a clap of thunder. In the registers -of the royal council we read as follows:-- - - 'The king, having had shown to him the official report of the - torture of Françoise Filastre, being unwilling to permit, for good - and just considerations important to his service, that certain - facts should be inserted in the copies made for the convenience of - the Court of the Arsenal, His Majesty in Council has commanded that - the minutes and originals of the said proceedings be laid before - the chancellor by the clerk to the commission, and that the said - clerk draw up in his presence a summary of the said proceedings, - in which the said facts shall not be inserted. Given by His Majesty - in Council held at Versailles, May 14, 1681. - -(_Signed_) LE TELLIER.' - - - -Thus the king for the second time intervened, and withdrew from the -court certain documents containing new declarations. He saw now, -moreover, that these were in accordance with the truth, and that if the -examinations were continued, it would be impossible to prevent them from -being divulged. On October 1, 1680, the sittings of the court were -suspended. - -The documents which the king had thus caused to be separated from the -rest were locked and sealed up in a casket, which was deposited with -Sagot, the clerk, who lived in the Rue Quincampoix. When Sagot died, on -October 10, 1680, the casket was removed to Rue -Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, to the house of his successor in the -clerkship to the Châtelet and the Chambre Ardente, Nicolas Gaudion. On -July 13, 1709, the casket was taken to the king's private room, where, -in the presence of Chancellor Pontchartrain, Louis XIV burnt the papers -in his grate: 'His Majesty in Council, after having looked through and -examined the minutes and proceedings laid before him by the chancellor, -and having had them burnt in his presence, commanded that Gaudion should -then be wholly and formally discharged of the same.' - -Louis XIV had just suffered a cruel blow, not only in his deepest -affections, but in his dignity as sovereign, by the declarations of -obscure and infamous criminals made before the Chambre Ardente. The very -throne of France was befouled by them. Colbert and Louvois were for a -moment in dire alarm. The all-powerful monarch, aided by his two great -ministers, believed that he had buried in unfathomable darkness the -terrible story of his shame and grief. But one flame had not been -extinguished. It had not been noticed. But it has continued to burn, and -grown larger, and thrown its blaze widely around. It is in the full -daylight glare that the facts are about to appear before our eyes. - - - - -II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN - - -The Marquise Françoise Athénais de Montespan was born in 1641 at the -castle of Tonnay-Charente, the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke -de Mortmart, lord of Vivonne, and of Diane de Granseigne, daughter of -Jean de Marsillac. She was called Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente until -her marriage. 'Her mother,' says Madame de Caylus, 'was anxious to imbue -her with principles of sound piety.' The piety of Mademoiselle de -Tonnay-Charente was violent and inflammatory. Appointed in 1660 maid of -honour to the queen, 'she gave her an extraordinary opinion of her -virtue by taking communion every day.' In 1679, when she had been for -several years the king's mistress, she much astonished the Princess -d'Harcourt by sending her on January 1, as a new year's gift, a -hair-shirt, a scourge, and a prayer-book adorned with diamonds. - -Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente married, on January 28, 1663, a noble of -her own province, L. H. de Pardaillan, Marquis de Montespan, who was a -year younger than herself. If she ever loved him, it was not for long. -As a lady-in-waiting to the queen, she was fascinated by the -magnificence surrounding Louise de la Vallière, the favourite of Louis, -who had become, in spite of her reserve and her timid and gentle -bearing, the object of intense and widespread jealousy, hatred, and -wrath. Madame de Montespan especially displayed her spiteful envy in -malicious gibes and insulting irony. Everybody knows it was not long -before she replaced her. - -Louise de la Vallière had kept in the shade, shunning publicity and -honours; Madame de Montespan in her pride wished to dazzle all eyes. -'Thunderous and triumphant' is Madame de Sévigné's description of her in -her radiant glory at Versailles. She draws elsewhere a picture of the -court in which the king's favourite shone: 'At three o'clock the king -and queen, with Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, all the princes and -princesses, Madame de Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers and -ladies, in a word, all that is known as the court of France, were found -in these handsome apartments of the king. They are divinely furnished, -everything is magnificent. Madame de Montespan was dressed in _point de -France_, her hair done in a thousand curls, two hanging from her temples -very low upon her cheeks; black ribbons on her head, with her pearls as -_maréchale_ of the Hospital, and embellished with earrings and pendants; -in a word, a triumph of beauty that threw the ambassadors into admiring -wonder. She knew that people were complaining how she prevented all -France from seeing the king; she has restored him to us, as you see, and -you would not believe what joy it has given everybody, and what beauty -it has given the court.' - -'Her beauty is marvellous,' writes Madame de Sévigné on another day, -'and her get-up is as wonderful as her beauty, and her gaiety as her -get-up.' Greater still was the renown of her wit. 'She was always the -best of company,' says Saint-Simon, 'with graces which palliated her -high and mighty airs, and were indeed suited to them. It was impossible -to have more wit, more fine polish, more striking expressions, -eloquence, natural propriety, which gave her, as it were, an individual -style of talk, but delicious, and which by force of habit was so -communicable that her nieces and the persons constantly about her, her -women, and those who, without being her servants, had been brought up -along with her, all caught the style, which is recognisable to-day among -the few survivors.' - -She surrounded herself with a brilliant luxury. Here is one of her -dresses as described by Madame de Sévigné: 'Gold upon gold, gold -embroideries, gold edgings, and, over all, gold crimpings, sewed with -one sort of gold blended with another sort, which makes up the divinest -stuff imaginable: it was the fairies who made this masterpiece in -secret.' - -In her estates at Clagny, with their immense park, a second Versailles -was to be seen alongside Versailles itself. The king had first had built -there for his mistress a bijou residence--a country villa. 'She said -that that might do for an opera girl.' The house was pulled down and the -château erected, after the plans of Mansard. At Versailles the favourite -had twenty rooms on the first floor; the queen occupied eleven rooms on -the second. Dangeau notes that Madame de Montespan's train was borne by -the Maréchale de Noailles; the queen's was carried by a simple page. - -The influence of the young favourite spelled fortune, hope, and honour -to ministers, courtiers, and generals. Her father became governor of -Paris, her brother a marshal of France. In her drawing-room, frequented -by all the most distinguished persons in rank and literature, a quite -unique style of wit came into existence, which her contemporaries often -refer to--a wit at once choice and subtle, natural and pleasant. It must -be added that, by a wonderful coincidence, her reign, which lasted -thirteen years, exactly corresponded with the zenith of the age of Louis -XIV. - -Madame de Montespan used to go about escorted by royal bodyguards. As -she journeyed throughout the whole length and breadth of France, -governors and lord-lieutenants offered her their homage in great -ceremony, and cities sent deputations to her. She passed through the -provinces in a six-horse coach, followed by another coach also drawn by -six horses, in which sat six ladies of her suite, and then came the -baggage-wagons and six mules and a dozen cavaliers. It is like a fairy -tale from Perrault. - -She had by Louis XIV seven children, whom the Parlement was to -legitimatise and declare royal children of France. The oldest, the Duke -de Maine, received the principality of Dombes and the county of Eu; in -1675, when five years old, he was appointed to the infantry regiment of -Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of -Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys -and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the -daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the Duke de Bourbon; the -second, Mademoiselle de Blois, made a still more brilliant match. 'The -king,' says Saint-Simon, 'determined to marry Mademoiselle de Blois to -the Duke de Chartres; this was the king's only nephew, and far higher -than the princes of the blood.' - -Madame Palatine[9] said of the Marquise de Montespan: 'She is more -ambitious than dissipated.' There is justice in the saying. She had an -immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Vallière loved the king as a -mistress, Madame de Maintenon as a governess, Madame de Montespan as a -tyrant. - - * * * * * - -It was in 1666 that historians note the first signs of Madame de -Montespan's ambition. She was then aspiring to the king's love, and it -is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in commenting on the -proceedings of the Chambre Ardente, places her first visits to the -sorceresses. - -Marguerite Monvoisin, La Voisin's daughter, spoke thus before the -judges: 'Every time that anything fresh happened to Madame de Montespan, -or she feared any diminution in the favour of the king, she told my -mother, so that she might provide a remedy; and my mother at once had -recourse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother -powders to be given to the king.' La Voisin's daughter explained that -these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, -according to the various formulae of witchcraft. Among the ingredients -were cantharides, the dust of dried moles, blood of bats, and other vile -substances. Of these a paste was made, which was placed under the -chalice during the sacrifice of the mass, and blessed by the priest at -the moment of the offertory. Louis XIV swallowed this compound mixed -with his food. - -'My mother,' said the girl, 'several times took to Madame de Montespan -at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to -the king--some which had passed under the chalice and others which had -not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the -demoiselle Desoeillets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave -her some in the church of the Petits Pères, and another time on the road -to St. Cloud.' - -The depositions of Marguerite Monvoisin are important. She had never -been mixed up with her mother's sorceries, but she had known about them. -La Reynie observes that her declarations exhibit 'a certain air of -ingenuousness, or else, if they are false, every one is mightily -deceived.' He adds that 'she mentions so many circumstances and so many -different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is -morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which -she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has -invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine; she mentions living -people.' The examining judge says further, that the very denials of the -sorceresses accused by Marguerite of complicity with Madame de -Montespan, their embarrassment, their contradictions, their refusal to -answer when they were conscious of being hard pressed, confirm her -testimony. - -When Marguerite Monvoisin made her depositions, her mother had been dead -for several months. In the examination of July 12, 1680, we read:-- - -'Why did you not sooner give information of these evil designs against -the person of the king?' - -'I could not tell what I had heard without ruining my mother; I did not -believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advice of no one, and have -declared all I know on the matter.' - -'Did you not know you were bound to tell, and that it would be a great -crime to hide anything concerning this matter?' - -'I knew well enough the importance of the things I have stated; I knew -it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had done so; and I -knew there was nothing but was of great importance.' - -'Did you know it would be a great crime to make the slightest addition -to the facts which you have declared?' - -'Yes, and those of whom I have spoken can tell you a good deal; I think -I have diminished rather than increased; I had no other idea but to -state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mother; if -I remember any other circumstance, or if any is recalled to my memory, I -will confess the truth.' - -Several writers have thought that the sorceresses compromised the -greatest names in France before the judges in the hope of saving their -lives, by connecting themselves with personages so high in station that -no one would dare to lift a hand against them. Quite the contrary. We -see La Voisin concealing, up to the very moment of her execution, her -relations with the king's mistress, for her greatest fear was that the -horrible punishment meted out to regicides might be applied to her. In -an expansive moment, she said to her guards at Vincennes: 'I fear, more -than anything else that I am asked about, a certain journey to court.' -We shall have much to do presently with this journey the sorceress made -to court on behalf of Madame de Montespan. It was at the last moment, -after hearing her death-sentence, against which there was no appeal, -that Françoise Filastre made her startling depositions of September 30 -and October 1, 1680, as the result of which Louis XIV, in terror, caused -the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be suspended. - -The statements of Marguerite Monvoisin were confirmed in detail by those -of the Abbé Guibourg, with whom she had no means of communicating after -her arrest. Thus, as La Reynie says, they were proved 'according to the -rules of justice.' - -To-day, history furnishes still further proofs. We have just heard the -daughter of La Voisin: 'Every time anything fresh happened to Madame de -Montespan, or she feared some diminution in the favour of the king, she -told my mother.' Now, if we follow in the correspondence of Madame de -Sévigné and the court chronicles the checkered story of the relations -between Madame de Montespan and the king from 1667 to 1680, and compare -it further with the depositions made before the Chambre Ardente, we find -a precise confirmation of the declarations of Marguerite Monvoisin. It -was several times observed by La Reynie that 'the time mentioned by the -accused is of consequence to Madame de Montespan.' - -How, and by whom, was the haughty favourite led to the haunts of the -witches? Historians have put forth many hypotheses on this subject. They -were not acquainted with the declaration of La Chaboissière, the valet -of Vanens, whom we have already mentioned: 'that the chevalier de Vanens -deserved to be drawn and quartered for the counsel he had given to -Madame de Montespan.' La Chaboissière had scarcely let this confession -escape him than he wished in great agitation to retract it, and begged -that the words might not be written down in the report of his -examination. La Reynie disentangled this confession from the chaos of -official documents, and sharply underlined it as the starting-point of -the drama. - -The relations between the favourite and the sorceresses began, then, at -the very time when her dawning love for the king was noticed. In 1667 we -find her in Rue de la Tannerie, in the company of the magician Lesage -and the Abbé Mariette, priest of St. Séverin. The latter belonged to a -good Parisian family; he was tall and well made, with a very pale -complexion and black hair. At one end of a little room an altar was -erected: Mariette, in sacerdotal vestments, uttered incantations, Lesage -sang the _Veni Creator_, then Mariette read a gospel on the head of -Madame de Montespan, who knelt before him and recited exorcisms against -Louise de la Vallière. She added--the very words are found in one of -Lesage's declarations--'I ask for the affection of the king and of the -Dauphin, that it may be continued, that the queen may be barren, that -the king leave her bed and table for me, that I obtain from him all that -I ask for myself and my relatives; that my servants and domestics may be -pleasing to him; that, beloved and respected by great nobles, I may be -called to the councils of the king and know what passes there; and that, -this affection being redoubled on what has existed in the past, the king -may leave La Vallière and look no more upon her; and that, the queen -being repudiated, I may espouse the king.' - -On another occasion, in the church of St. Severin, the Abbé Mariette, in -the presence of Madame de Montespan, recited charms over the hearts of -two pigeons which had been consecrated in the names of Louis XIV and -Louise de la Vallière during the sacrifice of the mass. - -Early in the year 1668, Mariette and Lesage had the audacity to proceed -to Saint-Germain, the headquarters of the court, and in the very château -itself, in the portion occupied by Madame de Thianges, Madame de -Montespan's sister, they resumed their sorceries. Aromatic fumigations -filled the room with a bluish vapour, with which was mingled the pungent -scent of incense. Madame de Montespan formulated the incantation. -'This,' declared Lesage, 'was to obtain the favour of the king, and to -cause Mademoiselle de la Vallière's death.' Mariette said it was merely -to get her sent away. Now it happened that, not long after these -proceedings, in that very year 1668, Madame de Montespan realised her -dream and was taken to the king's heart. The star of La Vallière rapidly -paled. In 1669 Madame de Montespan was brought to bed of the first of -the seven children she gave to Louis. If she had ever doubted the -efficacy of these dealings with the devil, confidence would have dated -from that day. - -An incident, which might have had terrible consequences, ruffled this -happiness so long desired. Mariette and Lesage owed to La Voisin the -lucrative connection with Madame de Montespan. But they showed base -ingratitude, and proceeded to perform incantations for the marquise, no -longer with the assistance of La Voisin, but with that of a rival -sorceress, La Duverger. La Voisin was indignant, and as La Reynie says, -'made a to-do about it. The matter became known, and the king, having -learnt that these people were accustomed to perform impious and -sacrilegious rites, ordered the arrest of Mariette and Dubuisson (the -name taken by Lesage at this period), and they were sent to the Bastille -in March 1668.' From the Bastille they were brought before the Châtelet -on the charge of sorcery. The court chroniclers, though ignorant of her -reasons for so doing, note that Madame de Montespan at this time -suddenly left Paris. But Mariette and Lesage had too much interest in -holding their tongues to inform against her. 'Besides,' writes La -Reynie, 'the first judge who heard the case being a cousin-german of -Mariette through his wife, La Voisin being at large on the credit of -interested persons with whom she had dealings, and these wretched -practices being then unknown, investigation was not carried very far. It -was solely a question of seeing how the matter could be dealt with in -such a way as to save Mariette on account of his family.' The little -that could not be concealed brought Lesage condemnation to the galleys -and Mariette banishment. The king increased the sentence of the latter -to imprisonment; but the prisoner escaped from St. Lazare, where he had -been confined. As to Lesage, La Voisin, thanks to her connections, was -not long in getting him set at liberty. In a memorandum addressed to -Louvois, La Reynie exhibits the conclusions to be drawn from the trial -of 1668. After very appositely calling attention to the fact that the -statements of the accused were the less suspicious because, dating from -a period when as yet there could be no question of the scarcely dawning -relations between Louis and Madame de Montespan, the lieutenant of -police says that Mariette and Lesage could only have known of those -relations through Madame de Montespan herself, and adds: 'It appears -from the trial of Lesage and Mariette in 1668, that Madame de Montespan -had been dealing with La Voisin at any rate since 1667, and that about -that time she was by her introduced to Lesage and Mariette; that -Mariette, in his room and in the presence of Lesage, used to read the -Gospels over the head of Madame de Montespan. - -'So early as that, then, a scheme was on foot. - -'When I questioned the two surviving accomplices on the matter, they -said, separately, that this scheme was to secure the favour of the king; -that for that purpose La Voisin then gave some powders which were placed -under the chalice given to Madame de Montespan, and that she recited an -incantation in which her own name and the king's occurred; that she -performed other ceremonies at Saint-Germain; that she had masses said on -the hearts of pigeons at St. Séverin, and other impious and sacrilegious -rites performed in Mariette's room, for this purpose, and as the one -says, to slay, the other merely to get rid of, Madame de la Vallière.' -(These enchantments to procure the death of Mademoiselle de la Vallière -were made upon human bones.) - -'Lesage and Mariette said nothing about it until the former, urged by -explicit commands to tell the truth, and Mariette, impelled by the -facts themselves to reveal them, both, separately, established these -facts.' - -La Reynie observes further that Lesage and Mariette mentioned certain -details, afterwards proved to be accurate, of which they could have got -information from Madame de Montespan alone. - -We have already mentioned the reasons why the declarations of Marguerite -Monvoisin inspired confidence; the corresponding depositions of Lesage -deserve equal attention. On October 8, 1679, Louvois wrote to Louis -_XIV_: 'Monsieur de la Reynie showed me his conviction that, if I spoke -to Lesage, he would in the end make up his mind to tell me all he knew, -and he believed this to be the more important because this man has not -up to the present been convicted himself of poisoning any one, but has a -perfect knowledge of all the poisonings effected in Paris for the last -seven or eight years. I went yesterday to Vincennes, and spoke to him in -the way Monsieur de la Reynie desired, giving him to hope that your -Majesty would pardon him provided he made the declarations necessary for -bringing to the knowledge of justice all that has happened in regard to -the poisons. He promised to do so, and told me that he was much -surprised at my urging him to tell all he knew.' In a letter of October -11, 1679, Louvois renewed his pressure on Lesage to induce him to speak -fully and in entire frankness. The magician hesitated, tried to -dissimulate, repeating to all who urged him how vastly he was astonished -at their persistence; but this reluctance only stimulated the ardour of -La Reynie. He returned to the charge; like Louvois, he gave hints of a -royal pardon. At last Lesage spoke. His principal declarations were -written among the papers which Louis had burnt in the fireplace of his -study, as we have said; hence we no longer possess them in their -entirety; but from the notes left by La Reynie, as well as from the -fragments of the magisterial examination which were preserved and will -be found in part reproduced below, we know that the revelations of -Lesage entirely confirmed those of Marguerite Monvoisin. - -The scandal of the amours of Louis XIV was only the more intense because -the young Marquis de Montespan was by no means a complaisant husband, a -singular fact at that period and in that society. 'He was an extravagant -and extraordinary man,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'who -complained to everybody of the friendship of the king for his wife.' -There were scenes between the spouses, and he struck her. He provoked -scenes with the king. 'When Montespan went to Saint-Germain sermonising -thus, Madame de Montespan was in despair. He used to come to see me very -often,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier; 'he is a relative of mine, and -I scolded him. He came one evening and repeated to me an harangue he had -delivered to the king, in which he quoted innumerable passages of -Scripture, about David, for instance, and finally used strong terms to -induce him to give back his wife and fear the judgment of God. I said to -him, "You are mad!" I was at Saint-Germain next day and said to Madame -de Montespan: "I have seen your husband in Paris, and he is madder than -ever; I sharply scolded him and told him that if he didn't hold his -tongue he would deserve to be locked up." She said to me: "He is here -telling his tales at court; I am ashamed to see that my parrot and he -are amusing the mob."' - -Louis XIV was naturally irritated by the attitude of this surprising -husband. Almighty as he was, he resorted to the tricks and subterfuges -of a vulgar lover. His anxiety was redoubled when his mistress became a -mother. The king was very fond of his children, particularly those he -had by Madame de Montespan. In the eyes of the law these children -belonged to the husband; and Louis trembled with fear lest Montespan, -out of vengeance or irony, should come and take from him his son and -daughter. - -Montespan found a supporter in his uncle the Archbishop of Sens. 'When -the king's passion was known,' says the Abbé Boileau, brother of the -poet, 'the archbishop sentenced to public penance a woman of the town -who lived as the marchioness, his niece, was living, in open -concubinage, and he caused the publication in his diocese of the old -canons against the violation of the religious law.' The diocese of Sens -included Fontainebleau, where the court was then held. Madame de -Montespan was compelled to take her departure in confusion. She felt -that it was she who was being pointed at. She dared not return into the -jurisdiction of the archbishop until after the prelate's death in 1674. - -When the Marquis understood that his efforts were vain, and that from -the height of his throne Louis would reply only with _lettres de -cachet_, he put on mourning, clothed all his household in black, and -drove to the court in a coach draped in black, to take leave in great -ceremony of his relatives, friends, and acquaintances. On that day the -husband in his costume of black was not the butt of ridicule; jests were -silenced, and the king on the throne was scorned and despised. A man of -genius lent the monarch his aid. Molière wrote his _Amphitryon_. The -play was represented in this year 1668, and the mockers resumed their -places in the royal camp. - - 'Un partage avec Jupiter - N'a rien du tout qui déshonore.'[10] - -Viscounts and marquises on gilded benches applauded the taunt and -punctuated the cruel railleries with bursts of laughter. Yet the king -was injured, especially in the opinion of the Parisian middle class. He -was conscious of it; and one day said himself to his mistress that if -she had left house, children, and husband to follow him, he had -neglected the care of his reputation, which was much blighted through -his having loved a woman whom he had such good reasons for not regarding -as he had done. - -Montespan set out for his country seat. Some men of the company he -commanded fell a-quarrelling with the under-bailiff of Perpignan; the -fact was of no importance, but it came to the knowledge of the -ministers, and Louvois wrote at once to the Lord Lieutenant: 'September -21, 1669. I cannot express my surprise that a thing of the nature of -that which Monsieur de Montespan has done should have passed without my -learning of it. I send you a despatch from the king for the supreme -council of Roussillon, in which His Majesty commands the council to hold -an inquiry. In whatever manner you may employ it, it must not be -forgotten, whether in the informations of the sub-bailiff of Perpignan -or in that about the disorders that occurred at Illes, to implicate the -commander of the company (Montespan) and the largest possible number of -cavaliers, so that they may take fright and the majority desert, -especially the commander; after which it would not be a difficult matter -to bring about the ruin of the company. If you have the names of the -cavaliers who insulted the sub-bailiff, they must be arrested at once, -to make an example of them, and so that you may have, from their -depositions at the time of their execution, more proof against the -captain--to try in some way or other to implicate him in the -informations, so that he may be cashiered with an appearance of justice. -If you could manage that he is accused sufficiently for the supreme -council to have grounds for pronouncing some condemnation on him, it -would be a very good thing; you will guess the reasons well enough, -however little you may be informed of what is going on in this part of -the world.' The cynicism of Louis and his minister passes all bounds. -Montespan had to flee for refuge to Spain; but from that day Louis' -position in regard to the injured husband, so far from improving, became -sensibly worse. Abroad, Montespan could more boldly and independently -press his claims on the children of the king, and provoke a scandal in -the eyes of all Europe. - -Louis got a demand for separation _a mensa et thoro_, formulated by -Madame de Montespan, brought before the Châtelet. Notwithstanding the -pressure exerted by king and ministers, who bullied the judges, the -matter remained in suspense. The judges could not bring themselves to -commit the iniquity demanded of them. They gave way at last, partly -under pressure from the First President de Novion, who had been won by a -promise of the Great Seal. The separation was declared on July 7, 1674, -by Procureur-Général Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges. The -judgment adduced the wasting of the property of the commonalty by the -Marquis de Montespan, the domestic discord between the marquis and his -wife, and the ill-treatment of which the marchioness complained on the -part of her husband. This decree pronounced against Montespan was a -monstrous proceeding. After having dishonoured his crown, Louis -dishonoured justice; but there was a higher justice which, as we shall -see, he was not to escape. - -The decree of July 7, 1674, did not assure the king peace of mind. In -1678 Montespan had to return for a short time to Paris on account of a -lawsuit. Louis XIV wrote to Colbert (June 15): 'I understand that -Montespan is indulging in indiscreet talk; he is a madman whom you will -do me the pleasure to have closely watched; and so that he may have no -pretext for remaining in Paris, see Novion so that the Parlement may -hurry. I know that Montespan has threatened to see his wife, and that he -is capable of it, and that the consequences might be formidable (the -question of the children again); I rely on you to prevent him speaking. -Do not forget the details of this matter, and especially see to it that -he leaves Paris at the earliest moment.' Such were the jobs to which the -Colberts and the Louvois had to stoop; but such also were the annoyances -and troubles beneath which Louis bent his brow--a brow already reddened -with shame, and soon to be furrowed with grief. - - * * * * * - -Louis XIV loved his mistresses, not for their own sakes, but for his. -The new passion lasted three years. Perhaps some one will say that that -is a good while. In 1672, jealousy, which perpetually ravaged the proud -soul of Madame de Montespan, burst out in storms of which Madame de -Sévigné speaks thus: 'She is in inexpressible rages; she has seen no one -for a fortnight; she writes from morning till night, and when she goes -to bed tears it all up. Her state makes me quite sorry. No one pities -her, though she has done good turns to many people.' Madame de Montespan -returned to La Voisin; and it is not without emotion that we see this -wonderful woman, with her matchless grace and her superior intelligence, -after having stepped into crime, sinking into it lower and lower. From -the hands of the Abbé Mariette, who recited the Gospels over her head -and made incantations on the hearts of pigeons, she comes into those of -the Abbé Guibourg, who said the black mass. - -Guibourg claimed to be an illegitimate member of the family of -Montmorency. He was seventy years old; his complexion was that of a -confirmed toper. He had a horrible squint. In these monstrous ceremonies -he cut the throats of his own children by his mistress, a fat ruddy -wench named Chanfrain. - -To obtain the desired result from the black mass, it was necessary that -it should be celebrated three times in succession. The three masses were -said in 1673, at intervals of a fortnight or three weeks--the first in -the chapel of the Château of Villebousin, in the village of Mesnil, near -Montlhéry. Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the maid of Madame de Montespan, -was intimately connected with Leroy, governor of the pages of the Petite -Ecurie, who owned a house at Mesnil. Guibourg had lived in the château -as almoner of the Montgommerys. It has been described by M. J. Lair: 'A -building of the fourteenth century, and well chosen for sinister -incantations, the château, situated half a league from the road from -Paris to Orleans, was surrounded by deep moats, filled with running -water.' Leroy betook himself to St. Denis, where he saw the Abbé -Guibourg. He promised fifty pistoles, that is, about £20, and a living -worth 2000 livres. At the day fixed there met at Villebousin Madame de -Montespan, the Abbé Guibourg, Leroy, 'a tall person' who was certainly -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, and a person of name unknown who is said to -have been a retainer of the Archbishop of Sens. In the chapel of the -chateau the priest said mass on the bare body of the favourite as she -lay across the altar. At the consecration, he recited his incantation, -the words of which he gave later to the commissaries of the Chambre -Ardente: 'Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to -accept the sacrifice I present to you of this child for the things I ask -of you, which are that the affection of the king and my lord the dauphin -for me may be continued; and that, honoured by the princes and -princesses of the court, nothing be denied me of all that I shall ask -the king, as well for my relatives as my servitors.' 'Guibourg had -bought for a crown (12s. 6d. to-day) the child who was sacrificed at -this mass,' writes La Reynie, 'and who was offered to him by a fine -girl; and having drawn blood from the child, whom he stabbed in the -throat with a penknife, he poured it into the chalice, after which the -child was taken away and carried to another place.' - -The details of the mass at Mesnil were revealed by Guibourg, and further -confirmed by the deposition of La Chanfrain, his mistress. - -The second mass on the body of Madame de Montespan took place a -fortnight or three weeks after the first, at St. Denis, in a tumbledown -hut. The third took place in a house at Paris, whither Guibourg was -conducted blindfold, and from which he was brought back in the same way -as far as the arcade of the Hôtel de Ville. - -At this time the journal of the health of the king, drawn up by D'Aquin, -the chief physician, states that Louis suffered from violent headaches. -Towards the end of this year, 1673, he was attacked by dizziness of such -a kind that at times his sight became clouded and he felt on the point -of collapse. 'Is it rash,' observes Monsieur Loiseleur very justly, 'to -see in these headaches and faintnesses the effect of powders provided by -La Voisin?' The hypothesis of Monsieur Loiseleur will be sustained in -detail by a declaration of the magician Lesage which will be found -below. - -It remains to inquire how Madame de Montespan contrived to get the -powders prepared by the sorceress into the food of the king, surrounded -as he was by officers of the buttery. Two revelations, both of November -8, 1680, made, the first by Lemaire, locked up at Vincennes with the -Abbé Guibourg, the second by Lesage, will give the indication we desire. - -We read in the notes La Reynie took for his personal guidance by way of -memoranda: 'November 8, 1680, Lemaire asked to speak to me; told me that -being in the same room with Guibourg and another man, Guibourg told them -such strange things, especially in regard to Madame de Montespan, that -he does not know what to make of it, and that if there was any officer -who ought to be suspected, it would be Duchesne, the butler; that -Duchesne was a footman in the house of Madame d'Aubray, that he has -since served Monsieur Bontemps, and then Madame de Montespan, who was -very kind to him, and made him officer of the buttery, and that he is -always at Madame de Montespan's service.' Further: 'From the last -examinations of Lesage, and that of November 8 particularly, it appears -that Gilot, also an officer of the buttery, was involved in the impious -trade in 1668, and that he sought Lesage's assistance for the designs of -Madame de Montespan.' - -The crisis of the year 1675 was more serious. Louis XIV suddenly had -great fits of devotion. People with their eyes open saw that he was -tiring of his mistress. Madame de Montespan, on the Thursday in Holy -Week, had been refused absolution by a priest of her parish. Much put -out, she hastened to the curé of Versailles, and spoke to him hotly, but -the curé approved of his subordinate's action. And the great voice of -Bossuet, which had consistently been upraised against the double -adultery, resounded with a new force. 'When we were at Versailles, one -fast day, about Easter, Madame de Montespan went away,' writes -Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 'Every one was vastly astonished at this -retreat. I went to Paris, and saw her in the house where her children -were. Madame de Maintenon was with her. She saw nobody. As everybody was -on the alert about her return, although nobody seemed to pay any -attention to it, it was known that M. Bossuet, then tutor to the -dauphin, and at present bishop of Meaux, went there every day muffled in -a grey cloak.' We have other information from Bossuet's private -secretary, the Abbé Le Dieu. Louis XIV ordered his mistress to retire. -When Bossuet went to see the exiled lady, she 'loaded him with -reproaches; she told him that his pride had urged him to get her driven -away, that he wanted to make himself sole master of the king's mind.' -Then, when she understood that her wrath smote in vain against the -serene firmness of the prelate, 'she sought to win him by flatteries and -promises; she dangled before his eyes the chief dignities in Church and -State.' - -This exile lasted from April 14 to May 11. On the other hand, the -magician Lesage, in an examination held on November 16, 1680, declared -that 'if he were in the last torments, he could tell nothing except that -in 1675, at the beginning of summer (the exact date), when Madame de -Montespan was trying to maintain her position, La Voisin and La -Desoeillets worked or pretended to work for her; but in reality, -powerless to keep for her the love of the king, they merely gave her -powders which, taken in certain doses, would have acted as poison.' So -Lesage said; and the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, summed up by La -Reynie, are identical: 'The powders her mother sent to Madame de -Montespan were love powders to be given to the king. Once when her -mother took some powders to Clagny she was accompanied by the magician -Latour, her eldest brother, a servant named Marie, since dead, and -Fernand, a good friend of Latour, and La Vautier; but these did not -enter Clagny. She could not say if Latour went in with her mother, but -they all came back together, and had lunch at the sign of the _Heaume_, -near the Bois de Boulogne, with violins; they made some noise among -them. Her brother, who told her about it, told her that her mother -brought back fifty louis-d'or. Her mother, besides the powders she gave -to Madame de Montespan, did not send any except by Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, who was the go-between for that purpose. As to the -powders which had passed beneath the chalice, they came from a priest -called the Prior (the Abbé Guibourg). As to the others which had not -been under the chalice, her mother kept them in the drawer of a cabinet -of which she had the key. There were black ones, white, and grey, which -she mixed in the presence of Desoeillets. Her father once wanted to -break the cabinet where the powders were kept, saying that some harm -would come of it.' And the result of these practices was, once more, of -such a nature as to give confidence in the power of sorcery: Madame de -Montespan regained her position with the king. It is true that Madame de -Richelieu said, 'I am always there as a third party.' In spite of this -'third party,' Madame de Montespan became the mother of the Comte de -Toulouse and Mademoiselle de Blois. Madame de Sévigné writes to her -daughter on June 28, 1675: 'Your idea about _Quantova_ (Madame de -Montespan) is very good; if she cannot recover the old ground, she will -push her authority and her greatness beyond the clouds; but she must -make sure of being loved all the year round without scruple. Meanwhile -her house is filled with the whole court, and her consideration is -unbounded.' On July 31, Madame de Sévigné writes again: 'The attachment -for _Quantova_ is always extreme: it's pretty much in order to vex the -curé and everybody else.' - -In 1675 Madame de Montespan had been dismissed, from religious scruples; -in 1676 she was to be sent away for reasons which furnished her with -quite another ground for irritation. The king was then suddenly seized -with a terrible hunger for a multiplicity of amours, soon over, sudden, -and varied. Madame de Sévigné characterises this strange condition in a -picturesque phrase: 'There's a scent of new game in the land of -_Quanto_.'[11] At short intervals the Princess de Soubise, Madame de -Louvigny, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Théobon, Madame de Ludres, and no -doubt others, succeeded one another in the affections and the bed of the -king. - -Madame de Soubise makes an amusing appearance in the gallery of royal -mistresses. She loved Louis out of love for her husband. After -collecting for him all the honours and dignities, the offices and the -hard cash that he desired, Madame de Soubise struck her tents and -retired in good order. She had made the least possible stir and went -back to her husband, who was enchanted with the adventure. The Prince of -Soubise thought, with the poet, that a share with Jupiter had no -dishonour so long as Jupiter could pay a good price. - -These intrigues find a double echo, in the writings of Madame de Sévigné -and in the records of the Chambre Ardente. On September 2, 1676, Madame -de Sévigné writes: 'The vision of Madame de Soubise has passed quicker -than a lightning-flash: they have made it up again. _Quanto_ the other -day at cards had her head resting familiarly on her friend's shoulder, -and we fancied that piece of affectation meant "I am better than ever."' -But on September 11 the position has changed. 'Everybody believes that -the star of Madame de Montespan is paling. There are tears, unfeigned -disappointments, affected cheerfulness, sulks; at last, my dear, it is -all over. Some tremble, others rejoice, some wish for immutability, the -majority for a dramatic change; in a word, we are all eyes and ears for -what the most clear-sighted say.' 'Every one thinks that the king loves -her no longer,' we read in a letter of September 30, 'and that Madame de -Montespan is embarrassed between the consequences which would follow the -return of his favours and the danger of no longer enjoying them--the -fear that they are being sought elsewhere. Apart from that, she has not -very nicely accepted the position of friend: so much beauty as she still -has, and so much pride, find it difficult to come down to second place. -Jealousies are keen. Have they ever stopped anything?' Again, on October -15, 1676: 'If _Quanto_ had packed up her traps at Easter the year she -returned to Paris, she would not have been in her present distress; it -would have been sensible to adopt that course, but human weakness is -great; one wishes to make the most of the remains of one's beauty, and -this economy brings ruin rather than riches.' Madame de Ludres had just -succeeded Madame de Soubise. - -The anxieties of Madame de Montespan were further enhanced by the -brilliance, increasing every day, of a new star in the sky of -Versailles. At its rising it had shed a pale, discreet, modest light, -but a light which twinkled with little mocking scintillations. The widow -Scarron, now become Madame de Maintenon, had been chosen as governess of -the children of the king and Madame de Montespan. What strides the -governess's fortune had taken in a few years! 'But let us speak of the -friend' (Madame de Maintenon), writes Madame de Sévigné on May 6, 1676: -'she is still more triumphant than the Montespan. Everything is -submitted to her dominion. All the chamber-women of her neighbour are -hers: one hands her the rouge-pot on her knees; another brings her her -gloves; a third puts her to sleep; she salutes no one, and I fancy that -really she laughs in her sleeve at this servitude.' - -Madame de Sévigné thus tells us what was passing at court; Marguerite -Monvoisin will tell us what was going on among the sorceresses. 'The -daughter of La Voisin,' writes La Reynie, 'says that she has seen this -sort of mass celebrated over the body by Guibourg in her mother's house. -She helped her mother to get things ready: a mattress on seats, two -stools at the sides, on which were candlesticks with candles; after -which Guibourg came out of the little side-chamber clothed in his -chasuble--white, spotted with black fir-cones--and after that La Voisin -brought in the woman on whose body the mass was to be said. Madame de -Montespan had this sort of mass said three years ago (_i.e._ in 1676) at -her mother's house, where she came about ten o'clock and only left at -midnight. And when La Voisin told her that it was necessary for her to -fix a time when the other two masses might be said, which were necessary -if her affair was to be successful, Madame de Montespan said that she -could not find time, that La Voisin would have to do what was necessary -to assure success, which she promised her and did, and the masses were -said on La Voisin herself by Guibourg.' (This again shows the sincerity -of the sorceress in the carrying out of these practices.) 'The girl -Voisin having notified all the circumstances of the proceeding, the -arrangement of the place, that of the person--she knew Madame de -Montespan--the preparations of the priest clothed in his sacerdotal -vestments, the terms of the incantation, in which the documents show -that the names of Louis de Bourbon and Madame de Montespan were -mentioned--the girl Voisin adds that a child had its throat cut at the -mass said for Madame de Montespan at her mother's.' - -'When I was grown up,' said Marguerite Monvoisin, 'my mother was no -longer reluctant to trust me, and I was present at this sort of mass, -and saw that the lady was stark naked on the mattress, with her head -hanging down, supported by a pillow on an overturned chair, the legs too -hanging over, a napkin on the belly, a cross on the napkin, and the -chalice on the belly.' She adds that this lady was Madame de Montespan. -'At the mass of Madame de Montespan,' said Marguerite in the course of -another examination, 'a child was presented which apparently had been -prematurely born, and it was put into a basin. Guibourg cut its throat, -poured the blood into a chalice, and consecrated it with the wafer, -finished his mass, then proceeded to take the child's entrails. My -mother next day carried the blood and wafer to Dumesnil to be distilled, -in a glass vessel which Madame de Montespan took away.' These facts were -confirmed on October 23, 1680, by the confrontation of Marguerite -Monvoisin with Guibourg--with this variation, that Guibourg tried to -shuffle on to La Voisin the butchery of the child. - -'Guibourg said that it was not true that he had opened the child, -because it would have stained his alb: he found the child already -opened. - -'The girl Voisin, on the contrary, declared that he cut open the heart -himself, took out some clotted blood, and put it into the vessel into -which the other blood and the rest had been put, which Madame de -Montespan took away; and that to make the clotted blood go in, a common -glass was broken, which, with its foot knocked off, was made to act as a -funnel. - -'Guibourg said that he did not open the child's stomach, but that having -found it open, he did in fact draw out the entrails and open the heart -to get out the blood that was in it, and that he put it into a crystal -vase with some portions of the consecrated wafer: the whole was carried -off by the lady on whose body he had said mass; and that he always -believed the lady was Madame de Montespan.' - -This picture is fraught with so much horror that we could not bring -ourselves to admit its authenticity if the evidence of Marguerite -Monvoisin and the Abbé Guibourg were not corroborated by confessions -extorted from other accomplices of these crimes, who were arrested at -different dates and examined separately--Lesage, Lacoudraye, Delaporte, -Vertemart, Françoise Filastre, the Abbé Cotton--confirmed by the -declarations of several witnesses who had picked up, before the trial, -fragments of talk which escaped the accused. La Reynie emphasises the -fact that the declarations of Lesage and the girl Monvoisin were made at -an interval of sixteen months, and without their having had any -opportunity during those months of communicating with each other. - -On October 11, 1680, La Reynie writes to Louvois, who wished to save -Madame de Montespan while prosecuting the charges against the other -persons, and proposed, with that end, to withdraw from the case the -declarations made under torture by Filastre and the Abbé Cotton, which -contained the gravest charges against the favourite: 'It is certain, -even if we found a legitimate expedient for concealing from the judges -for the present the facts which it would be well to keep secret, even -for the sake of justice itself, that these very facts would crop up -again from the woman Chappelain, from Guibourg, Galet, Pelletier, -Delaporte, and perhaps from several more when under trial.' - -On the subject of the deposition made by Guibourg, La Reynie writes: 'It -is morally impossible that Guibourg has deceived us in his declaration, -and that he invented what he tells about the incantations said in course -of the masses on the women's bodies. His mind is not active or -consistent enough for such continuous thought as would have been -necessary to invent what he had said on this subject, because, even -supposing he were capable of such application, he has not enough -acquaintance with what goes on in the world, and could not have devised -so consistent a story in regard to Madame de Montespan.' Elsewhere he -writes: 'Guibourg and the girl Monvoisin have corroborated one another -about circumstances so particular and so horrible that it is difficult -to conceive two persons being able to imagine and fabricate them unknown -to each other. It seems that these things must have occurred, or they -could not have been described.' - -The illustrious magistrate adds the following reflections:-- - -'1. The time of the relations of La Voisin with Latour, the journeys to -Saint-Germain, and the powders which she made him work at, was the year -1676. - -'2. The time of the abominations described by Guibourg and the girl -Monvoisin fits the same period. - -'3. Two years ago Lesage spoke of Latour, the poisons, Desoeillets, -and the journeys of La Voisin in 1676. - -'4. It was established at the trial that two or three years before -Lesage was taken, he testified that he feared the business would ruin -him. They said at that time that the king had the vapours. He declared -that he wished to leave La Voisin on that account, and because of the -dealings she had with Desoeillets. - -'From the beginning of these inquiries, these same facts have been -spoken of; La Bosse, the first to be tried, gave the first inkling of -them; she spoke of them under torture; but, because the king had not yet -allowed this sort of facts to be collected in regard to persons of -consideration, and because there was nothing to make us pay the least -attention to them, no mention was made in the report of the torture of -La Bosse of what she had said about Madame de Montespan.' - -In this year 1676, Madame de Montespan not only had recourse to the -incantations of the black mass; at her instigation, the sorceresses sent -La Boissière and Françoise Filastre to Normandy to a certain Louis -Galet, who had 'fine secrets' in regard to poison and love. Galet gave -them powders. As soon as his name was uttered by the prisoner before the -Chambre Ardente, an order was given for his arrest. He was flung into -prison at Caen on February 23, 1680. While still far away from the other -prisoners, detained at Vincennes or the Bastille, he was put through -interrogations, and the depositions made by him and the others coincided -with remarkable accuracy. And La Reynie's conclusion is: 'Guibourg and -Galet having confessed after the torture of La Filastre, they gave -between them a complete proof of these facts.' - - * * * * * - -It must be confessed that Madame de Montespan would have been of a -singularly incredulous nature if she had not retained a blind -confidence in the influence of the devil as invoked by the magicians -and sorceresses. Madame de Ludres was discarded, and Louis fell at -Madame de Montespan's feet again. On June 11, 1677, Madame de Sévigné -wrote to Madame de Grignan: 'Oh, my daughter, what a triumph at -Versailles! what redoubled pride! what a re-entry into possession! I was -in the room for an hour. She was in bed, decked out, with her hair done: -she was resting for the _medianoche_ (supper about midnight). She -launched shafts of contempt at poor _Io_ (Madame de Ludres), and laughed -at her having the audacity to complain of her. Imagine all that an -ungenerous pride could make her say in triumph, and you will get near -the truth. It is said that the little woman (Madame de Ludres) will -resume her ordinary duties about Madame. She went off to walk in perfect -solitude with La Moreuil in the garden of the Marshal Du Plessis.' On -June 18, Madame de Sévigné wrote to Bussy-Rabutin: 'Madame de Montespan -wanted to strangle her (Madame de Ludres), and makes her life terrible.' -On July 7, to Madame de Grignan: 'Poor _Isis_ (Madame de Ludres) has -not been to Versailles. She has remained in her solitude. When a certain -person (Madame de Montespan) speaks of her, she says, "that rag." The -event makes everything permissible.' - -'_Quanto_ and her friend Louis XIV are together longer and more eagerly -than ever they were. The ardour of the first years has returned, and all -fears are banished, all restraint removed, which persuades us that never -was empire seen more firmly established.' And a little later: 'Madame de -Montespan was the other day covered with diamonds; the brilliance of so -blazing a divinity was more than one could bear. The attachment seems -greater than ever: they are all eyes for one another: never has love -been seen to resume its sway like this.' - -Yet, courted and victorious as she was, the favourite appeared a prey to -torment; she was agitated, in a terrible fever. On January 13, 1678, the -Comte de Rébenac wrote to the Marquis de Feuquières: 'Madame de -Montespan's gambling has reached such a pitch that losses of 100,000 -crowns (£60,000 to-day) are common. On Christmas Day she lost 700,000 -crowns; she staked 150,000 pistoles (£280,000 at the present day) on -three cards, and won.' She lost her head in her triumph--her last -triumph, dazzling but ephemeral, and about to be followed by days of -cruel anguish. - -In March 1679, Madame de Maintenon asked the Abbé Gobelin 'to pray and -to have prayers said for the king, who is on the brink of a deep -precipice.' This 'precipice' was the heart of Marie Angélique de -Scoraille, demoiselle de Fontanges. She was eighteen years old, fair, -with glossy flaxen hair; her large eyes, with their look of childish -wonderment, were a light grey, deep and limpid; her skin was white as -milk, her cheeks a lovely rose-pink; and in disposition, said her -contemporaries, she was a genuine heroine of romance. She lived at Court -in the capacity of maid of honour to Madame, as Madame de Ludres and -Mademoiselle de la Vallière had done before her. 'Mademoiselle de -Fontanges,' says Madame Palatine, 'is lovely as an angel, from head to -foot.' If we may trust Bussy-Rabutin, 'her relatives, seeing her beauty -and grace, and having more love for their fortune than for their -honour, clubbed together to fit her out for Court, and to provide her -with means corresponding to the position she was entering.' - -This was a thunderbolt for Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. We read in -the _Précis historique de Saint-Germain-en-Laye_, by Lorot and Sivry: -'Madame de Montespan left Saint-Germain suddenly because of the jealousy -she has conceived for Mademoiselle de Fontanges.' But the royal lover -did not allow his mistresses to leave him at their own whim. He had -imposed on Louise de la Vallière the bitter martyrdom of following as an -expiatory victim the triumph of Madame de Montespan; he now compelled -Madame de Montespan to witness the triumph of Mademoiselle de Fontanges. -The proud marquise resigned herself to it, at least in appearance. On -March 30, 1679, she wrote to the Duke de Noailles: 'All is very quiet -here; the king only comes into my room after mass and after supper. It -is much better to see each other seldom but pleasantly, than often with -embarrassment,' Soon even this apparent satisfaction was withdrawn from -her. The desertion was public and complete. - -According to Madame de Sévigné, 'there was a ball at Villers-Cotterets, -at Monsieur's place. There were masques. Mademoiselle de Fontanges -appeared there in great brilliance, and adorned by the hands of Madame -de Montespan.' Bussy rejoiced at the disgrace. 'Madame de Montespan has -fallen, the king regards her no more, and you may be sure the courtiers -follow his example.' - -On April 6, Madame de Sévigné wrote: 'Madame de Montespan is enraged; -she cried a good deal yesterday, and you may guess the martyrdom her -pride is suffering.' On June 15, she replies to her daughter: 'It is an -infernal position, as you say, that of her who goes four paces ahead' -(alluding to Madame de Montespan). - -She launched out into epigrams against her fortunate rival, just as she -had satirised Louise de la Vallière. 'Madame de Montespan,' writes -Bussy-Rabutin, 'seeing that the great Alcandre (Louis XIV) was drifting -away from her more and more every day, became so choleric that she began -publicly to abuse Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She told every one that -the great Alcandre was surely not very fastidious to love a creature who -had had her little love affairs in the country; that she had neither wit -nor education; and that, properly speaking, she was only a beautiful -painting. She said a thousand other things about her equally irritating. -Indeed, she always displayed the same proud spirit which nothing had -been able to quell.' - -Mademoiselle de Fontanges responded by loading her predecessor and all -her children with costly presents. She had just been proclaimed a -duchess with an annuity of 20,000 crowns. The fury of Madame de -Montespan broke out. She had a violent scene with Louis, and when the -king reproached her with her pride, her domineering spirit, and other -defects, she replied with haughty scorn, concentrating all the violence -of her wrath in one of those hard and bitter words which had made her so -much feared in the time of her reign; she answered, 'that if she had the -imperfections of which he accused her, at any rate she did not smell -worse than he.' - -'My mother,' said the girl Monvoisin, 'told me that Madame de Montespan -wanted at that time to go to extremities, and tried to induce her to do -things for which she had much repugnance. My mother gave me to -understand that it was against the king, and after hearing what had -passed at the house of Trianon (a sorceress, partner of La Voisin), I -could not doubt it.' The deserted mistress resolved to put an end to -Louis and Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She applied to the sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, and had no difficulty in getting together four -accomplices in the terrible room in the Rue Beauregard: these four were -La Voisin and La Trianon, who undertook to put Louis out of the way, and -Romani and Bertrand, 'artists in poisons,' who promised to kill -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. Madame de Montespan gave them money. - -The king was to be poisoned first. La Voisin and her associates intended -at first to put magic powders, prepared according to the formulae of the -conjuring books, on the clothes of the king, or in some place where he -was to pass, 'which Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the companion of Madame -de Montespan, said could be done easily.' The king would die of decline. -But after reflection, La Voisin decided on means, the execution of which -struck her as more certain. In conformity with the ancient custom of the -kings of France, Louis XIV used to receive in person on certain days the -petitions presented by his subjects. Everybody was introduced to his -presence without distinction of rank or condition. It was resolved to -prepare a petition and steep it in powders that had gone under the -chalice; the king would take it in his hands and get his death-blow. La -Trianon undertook the preparation of the paper, and La Voisin to place -it in the hands of the king. - -The petition was drawn up. The king's intervention was asked in favour -of a certain Blessis, an alchemist whom the Marquis de Termes was -keeping confined in his château. La Voisin betook herself to her friend -Léger, a _valet de chambre_ of Montausier, and asked of him a letter of -recommendation to one of his friends at Saint-Germain, who would get -her passed in among the first to an audience with the king, so that she -might herself hand him her petition. Léger replied that it was -unnecessary for her to go to Saint-Germain, as he would undertake to -forward the petition by a sure route; but the sorceress insisted on -presenting it herself. - -The boldness of La Voisin terrified the most courageous of her -companions. The majority of them feared, not death, but the horrible -tortures reserved by the law for regicides. In order to frighten her, La -Trianon cast her horoscope. This document was found among the papers -seized on the sorceress by the Chambre Ardente. La Trianon foretold that -La Voisin would be implicated in a trial for a crime against the state. -'Bah!' she replied, 'there are 100,000 crowns to be gained.' That was -the price agreed upon by La Voisin and Madame de Montespan for the -poisoning of Louis XIV. - -La Voisin set out for Saint-Germain on Sunday, March 5, 1679, -accompanied by Romani and Bertrand. She returned on Thursday, March 9, -very much put out: she had not been able to approach the king so as to -give him the petition. She could have put it on the table placed near -the king for that purpose, but the paper was useless unless it were -placed in the king's own hands. She said that she would return to -Saint-Germain, and when her husband asked her what the urgency was, she -replied: 'I must accomplish my design or perish in the attempt!' 'What! -perish!' exclaimed Monvoisin, 'that's a good deal for a piece of paper.' - -On Friday, March 10, the 'missionaries'--priests of a community founded -by St. Vincent de Paul, which has already been mentioned--paid a visit -to the sorceress. La Voisin took fright, and gave the petition to her -daughter to burn, which Marguerite did at dawn on Saturday morning. It -is needless to say that the paper had always been kept in an envelope, -for to touch it, said the sorceresses, would be certain death. On -Sunday, March 12, La Voisin was arrested; it was on Monday the 13th that -she had meant to return to Saint-Germain. News of the arrest got -abroad, and on Wednesday, March 15, Madame de Montespan fled from Court. - -In a succession of hasty notes--the sentences are not even completed, -and we have filled them out for greater clearness--La Reynie builds up a -proof of the attempt on the life of Louis XIV, planned by La Voisin as -the instrument of Madame de Montespan:-- - -'By the depositions of the girl Voisin, Romani, and Bertrand, it is -proved that the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain was to present the -petition: Bertrand wrote it out, went to learn from La Voisin what she -had done, learnt that she had been there since Sunday without being able -to present it, had brought it back, and was going to return. From this -it is evident that the ultimate object of the journey of La Voisin to -Saint-Germain was to present the petition. - -'La Trianon and La Vautier agree as to the journey. La Trianon noted in -her horoscope the state affair, the crime of high treason; when -questioned she gave bad answers; among the facts confessed to, denies -the petition; if it were an unimportant matter, would have no interest -in denying it: must have had an object, which can be nothing else than -what the girl Voisin says. - -'The journey to Saint-Germain is the more suspicious in that La Voisin, -questioned as to her various journeys, has never mentioned that one, and -would have made no ado about mentioning it if there were nothing in it. - -'To which must be added the confession made by Voisin to her guards in -prison, about the fear she had that she would be asked to explain her -journey. She said, "God has protected the king!"' - -La Reynie adds: 'La Trianon agrees that she told the girl Voisin that -the journey to Saint-Germain was the cause of her mother's arrest, that -this journey would do her harm, that she would be involved in some -affair of state. At the same time, La Voisin did not appear to be -pleased with Blessis (and consequently had no reason to make any efforts -to secure his liberty). What is still more considerable, La Trianon and -the girl Monvoisin agree that the state crime mentioned in the -horoscope was the journey to Saint-Germain.' 'Finally,' observes La -Reynie, 'this petition has been mentioned at the trial, long before the -girl Monvoisin was arrested.' On September 27, 1679, Louvois wrote to -Louis XIV: 'Your Majesty will find in this packet what Lesage has said -about the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain; he cites so many people -as witnesses to his allegations that it is difficult to believe he -invented them.' And La Reynie gives confirmation: 'Before making her -declaration, the girl Monvoisin said something about it to two prisoners -who are with her. Finally, she tried to do away with herself by -strangling before making these same declarations.' - -The assassination of the Duchess de Fontanges was intended to crown the -vengeance of Madame de Montespan. La Voisin exclaimed, in regard to -this, when dining with La Trianon: 'Oh! what a fine thing is a lover's -spite!' Romani and Bertrand were engaged to poison the young lady at the -same time that La Voisin was killing Louis _XIV_; but the poisons -employed against her were to be less rapid, so that 'she might die a -lingering death,' said the accomplices, 'and that it might be said that -she had died of grief at the death of the king.' - -Romani had planned to disguise himself as a cloth merchant. Bertrand was -to follow him as a valet. They were to present their wares to the -duchess, and even if she did not take any cloth, 'she would not refrain -from taking gloves,' said Romani, 'because those he would bring from -Grenoble would be very well made, and ladies never failed to take some -of them when they were well made, and the gloves would have the same -effect as the piece of cloth.' They actually sent to Rome and Grenoble -for gloves of the finest quality, and Romani 'prepared' them according -to the recipes of the magicians. - -We find among La Reynie's papers a series of little notes which clearly -prove the plot against the life of Madame de Fontanges. - -A last feature in the case is not the least surprising. - -We have just seen that Madame de Montespan fled from Court when she -learnt of the arrest of the sorceress and her accomplices. Her terror, -and, above all, her fury were extreme. At the moment when her fortune -was for ever ruined, when she felt that she herself was lost, she wished -at least to have the terrible joy of seeing the Duchess de Fontanges -perish at her hands. The sorceress who had been the chief instrument of -her passions was about to be interrogated, and would undoubtedly -disclose to the attentive eyes of the judges the horrible practices in -which the king's mistress had been concerned. It was at this very moment -that Madame de Montespan, burning to realise her designs, entered into -relations with Françoise Filastre, the friend of La Voisin, and after -her the most terrible sorceress in Paris. Filastre was one of those who -had devoted their children to the devil, and murdered them immediately -after birth. She went to Normandy to find Galet, who has already been -mentioned, then went to Auvergne to obtain secrets for 'poisoning -without any sign appearing.' Returning to Paris, she took steps to win -an entrance to the house of Madame de Fontanges; but her arrest -prevented her from carrying her scheme into execution. - -Nature gave to Madame de Montespan the terrible satisfaction she had -sought to obtain from magic and poison. On June 28, 1681, the Duchess de -Fontanges died at the age of twenty-two, in the abbey of Port Royal. She -was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia, tubercular in origin, the action of -which was hastened by loss of blood following an accouchement. The young -woman died convinced that she had been poisoned, and suspecting her -rival. Louis XIV, who had the same idea, feared that the autopsy might -reveal the crime, and sought to prevent it; but the relatives insisted -on it. The physicians concluded that it was a natural death. But the -opinion was still held that Madame de Fontanges had succumbed to poison -administered by Madame de Montespan, an opinion echoed by Madame de -Caylus, Madame de Maintenon, Madame Palatine, and Bussy-Rabutin. - - * * * * * - -Before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente the magician Lesage had -allowed the following remark to escape him: 'If Filastre were captured, -they would learn some strange things.' She was taken: she denied -everything before the commissioners; but on October 1, 1680, while under -torture, she confirmed in the most precise manner the revelations made -by the prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; and on that very day -Louis XIV in terror ordered the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be -suspended. On October 17, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie: 'I have -received the letters you have done me the honour to write to me, and the -king heard them read with pain.' Louis, then, ordered the closing of the -Chambre Ardente, and when on May 19, 1681, the sittings were resumed at -the entreaty of La Reynie, the judges were forbidden 'to take any steps -in regard to the declarations contained in the reports of the torture -and execution of La Filastre.' From that day Louis had no further doubts -as to the guilt of his mistress. One more proof was to be furnished him. - -The name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, Madame de Montespan's maid, -recurs on every page of the proceedings. She was continually going -backwards and forwards between her mistress and the sorceresses. The -prisoners almost all knew her: they spoke of her in the most positive -manner. The girl Monvoisin pointed out her house, where she had been -several times. Mademoiselle Desoeillets had a friend named Madame de -Villedieu, who frequently visited the sorceresses, but for her own -private ends. When La Voisin was arrested, the two friends talked about -the incident. - -'How can you be easy in mind when you have been so often to the -sorceress?' asked Madame de Villedieu. - -'The king will not allow me to be arrested.' - -The remark was voluntarily reported by Madame de Villedieu to the -detective Desgrez. And, in fact, when La Reynie on October 22, 1680, -wrote to Louvois: 'What has been said in regard to Mademoiselle -Desoeillets at the beginning and repeated at the end is so strong that -it is impossible to prevent her from being confronted with the people -who have spoken about her,' his words fell on deaf ears at Versailles. -When Madame de Villedieu was taken to Vincennes, she said: 'It is -astonishing that I am being imprisoned when I went only once to La -Voisin, while you leave Mademoiselle Desoeillets at liberty, who has -been there more than fifty times.' - -Louvois at last decided to order Mademoiselle Desoeillets to appear, -not before the judges, but before himself in his private room. On -November 18, 1680, he wrote to La Reynie:-- - -'Mademoiselle Desoeillets declares with marvellous assurance that not -one of those who have named her know her, and, to assure me of her -innocence, she charged me to urge the king to allow her to be taken to -the place where those who have deposed against her are confined. She -stakes her life that no one will be able to tell who she is. His Majesty -has therefore been pleased to decide that I shall take her to Vincennes -next Friday, and bring down Lesage, the girl Voisin, Guibourg, and the -other persons who, as you inform me, have spoken of her. The person of -whom I have just spoken will enter and show herself to them, and I will -ask them if they know her, without naming her to them.' - -The result did not justify Louvois' hopes. La Reynie showed at that time -that, unknown to him and in spite of his vigilance, some one was holding -communication with the prisoners in Vincennes, who were receiving -information from without. This 'some one' was Madame de Montespan. No -doubt the lieutenant of police took greater precautions on this -occasion. The prisoners were not able to receive preliminary coaching, -with the result that one and all immediately recognised the favourite's -maid. - -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, moreover, was under great illusions as to -the impunity that would be assured to her. Louis XIV did not allow her -to appear before the judges, nor even to be confronted with the -prisoners, but he had her shut up for the rest of her days in close -confinement. The wretched woman died on September 8, 1686, in the -general hospital of Tours. And poor Madame de Villedieu, whose only -crime was that she was for a moment in the confidence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, was visited with the same fate, because of the necessity -of keeping the great secret. - -When he learned suddenly of all the crimes with which the woman he had -most loved was stained--the woman whom, in the eyes of Europe, he had -made queen of the French Court, who was the mother of his favourite -children--what were the sentiments and the attitude of King Louis? What -passed in his soul, immured, for posterity as for his contemporaries, in -that 'terrible majesty' of which Saint-Simon speaks? - -About the middle of August 1680, Louvois, who in this dreadful business -devoted all his intelligence and all his influence to protect Madame de -Montespan, arranged a _tête-à-tête_ with the king. Madame de Maintenon -anxiously observed them from a distance. 'Madame de Montespan at first -wept,' she says, 'threw reproaches upon him, and at last spoke with -pride.' At the first moment, under the shock of the king's declarations, -Madame de Montespan had been utterly crushed, had burst into tears of -confusion and humiliation; then, regaining command of herself, the -masterful woman had risen to the height of her pride, with all the force -of her passion and her hatred for her rivals. If it was true, she -declared, that she had been driven to great crimes, it was because her -love for the king was great, and great also were the harshness, cruelty, -and infidelity of him to whom she had sacrificed everything. And the -king might strike at her, but he could not forget that he would, with -the same stroke, injure in the eyes of France and Europe the mother of -his children--children who had been made legitimate children of France. -Madame de Montespan left this interview irrevocably ruined, but at the -same time definitively saved. - -We must remember the rank to which Louis had raised his mistress. It was -of the utmost importance to him to avoid a scandal. Even by exiling the -fallen favourite, thus absolutely disgracing her, he would run the risk -of unloosing storms. La Reynie, who, thanks to his genius for reading -the hearts of men, knew Madame de Montespan's character thoroughly, -warned Louvois: 'We cannot but fear extraordinary scandals, the -consequence of which cannot be foreseen.' Louvois, Colbert, and Madame -de Maintenon herself united their efforts to soften too violent a fall. -Colbert had just betrothed his younger daughter to Madame de Montespan's -nephew. We know, moreover, how much the famous statesman had at heart -the national greatness to which he had so arduously contributed, and -which in his view could not be dissevered from the greatness of the -king. Madame de Maintenon had tenderly trained the children of Madame de -Montespan, and retained a real affection for them all her life long. Let -us add that Louis, with all his faults--his selfishness, his coarseness, -his lack of feeling, his mediocre intellect--had at least a high -sentiment of the royal dignity, and that in this awful crisis he did not -for a moment depart from that calm and tranquil majesty at which all who -approached him never ceased to wonder. Madame de Montespan was not -driven from Court. She left her splendid apartments on the first floor -for apartments remoter from the centre of the king's life. Louis -continued to receive her in public, and publicly paid her visits which -deceived careless observers; but practised eyes perceived the profound -change which had taken place beneath these external appearances. Madame -de Sévigné wrote to her daughter that Louis treated Madame de Montespan -with harshness; Bussy-Rabutin wrote that he treated her with scorn. Thus -began the expiatory martyrdom which lasted for twenty-seven years. - -On March 15, 1691, Madame de Montespan retired to Paris, going into the -community of St. Joseph which she had founded. Louis granted her a right -royal pension, 10,000 pistoles--£20,000 of to-day--a month; but when, in -1692, the double marriage of Madame de Montespan's children, -Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke de Maine, was celebrated with the -Duke de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Charolais, Louis did not allow -their mother to appear at the ceremony or to sign the contract. - -In the early days of her retirement Madame de Montespan had the greatest -difficulty in accommodating herself to the calm monotony of her retreat -at St. Joseph's. 'She aired her leisure and anxieties,' says -Saint-Simon, 'at Bourbon, at Fontevrault, at her estate at Antin, and -for years was quite unable to regain repose of mind.' What were these -anxieties? Saint-Simon could not explain them; but we are acquainted -with them to-day. - -Madame de Montespan was much distressed at abandoning the glory of the -world; but from the day when the renunciation was made, she threw -herself with as much passion into penitence as she had displayed in -ambition and love. 'From the moment of her retirement to St. Joseph's,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till her death, her conversion never belied itself, -and her penitence continually augmented.' She might have been seen then, -in the Carmelite convent in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, imploring -from her old rival, whom she had so harshly persecuted--the gentle and -saintly Louise de la Vallière, Sister Louise de la Miséricorde--the -words which give ease of mind and forgetfulness of the past. Though she -tenderly loved those of her children whom she had borne to Louis XIV, it -was towards the Duke d'Antin, the son she had by the Marquis de -Montespan, that she diverted her solicitude, from a sense of duty, and, -as Saint-Simon tells us, 'she occupied herself with enriching him.' 'The -king had no manner of dealings with her,' writes the great chronicler, -'even through their children. Their attentions were discouraged, they -thenceforth saw her only rarely and after having asked permission. The -Père de la Tour wrung from her a terrible act of penitence, namely, to -beg her husband's pardon and place herself again in his hands. She wrote -herself in the most submissive terms, offering to return to him if he -would deign to receive her, or to repair to whatever place he pleased to -command. To any one who knew Madame de Montespan, this was a sacrifice -of the most heroic kind. She had all the merit of it without undergoing -the experience. Monsieur de Montespan sent word that he would neither -receive her nor lay any commands upon her, and that he never wished to -hear her name mentioned for the rest of his life.' - -She had no further relations with the Court, the ministers, -_intendants_, or judges; she asked nothing of any man, either for her or -hers, and employed the vast income she owed to the king in doing good -all around her, bestowing alms with ceaseless and unparalleled -generosity, and endowing religious foundations. 'Beautiful as the day,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till the last hour of her life; though she was not -ill, she always fancied that she was, and that she was going to die.' -This anxiety encouraged a taste for travelling, and in her travels she -always took with her seven or eight persons as a suite. Between her -outbursts of piety and the blossoming forth of her charity, incessant -remorse thus made its appearance, as well as the continual need she felt -of deadening her thoughts. Only Louis XIV, Louvois, and La Reynie could -have explained the following page borrowed from Saint-Simon:-- - -'Little by little she proceeded to give all that she had to the poor. -She worked for them several hours a day at humble and rough tasks, to -wit, making shirts and other such-like things, and she made those about -her work at them too. Her table, which she had loved to excess, became -particularly frugal; her fasts were multiplied, her piety interrupted -her entertaining and the harmless little card-play at which she amused -herself, and at all hours of the day she would leave everything to go -and pray in her closet. Her mortification of the flesh was constant: her -chemises and sheets were of the roughest and coarsest unbleached linen, -but they were concealed under ordinary sheets and underwear. She -continually wore steel bracelets and garters, and a girdle of steel -which often wounded her; and her tongue, formerly so terrible a member, -had its penance also. She was further so tortured by horror of death -that she paid several women whose sole employment was to watch her. She -lay at night with all the bed-curtains thrown back, with many candles in -her room, her watchers around her, and whenever she woke up she wished -to find them chatting, playing cards, or eating, to make sure that they -did not fall a-nodding.' - -The hour so much dreaded at last struck. She had a singular presentiment -of it a year beforehand. At the first attack of illness she saw that her -end was near. It came on May 27, 1707, at Bourbon. - -'She profited by a brief respite from pain to confess and receive the -sacraments. Previously she had all her servants, even the humblest, -brought in, made public confession of her public sins, and besought -pardon for the scandal she had so long given, and even for her fits of -temper, with a humility so real and deep and penitent that nothing could -have been more edifying. She then received the last sacraments with -ardent piety. The dread of death which all her life had so continually -troubled her suddenly vanished and troubled her no more. She thanked God -in the presence of them all for permitting her to die in a place where -she was far away from the children of her sin, and during her illness -spoke of them only this once. She was engrossed in the thought of -eternity, in some hope of a cure with which they tried to flatter her, -and in her condition as a sinner whose fear was tempered by a steady -confidence in the mercy of God, with no regrets, solely intent on -rendering to Him the sacrifice most pleasing to Him, with a gentleness -and peacefulness which accompanied all her actions.' - -The courtiers were surprised at the indifference Louis displayed on -learning of the death of his sometime mistress. To the Duchess of -Burgundy, who remarked on it, he replied that, since he had dismissed -her, he had counted on never seeing her again, and that she was from -that time dead to him. He openly reproved the grief manifested by Madame -de Montespan's children; and, to the stupefaction of the Court, he -forbade them to wear mourning, a circumstance the more incomprehensible -because at that same date the Princess de Conti, daughter of Louis XIV -and Louise de la Vallière, was wearing mourning for Madame de la -Vallière her aunt. - -It would be unjust to judge Madame de Montespan solely by what has been -here said. We have spoken only of the crimes to which she was driven by -the violence of her passions. We have not recalled the wealth she -distributed with as much liberality as discretion, or the brilliance -given to the Court by her grace and wit, or the enlightened protection -which the greatest writers and artists found in her, the radiant -kindliness with which she sweetened the declining years of the great -Corneille--in a word, the innumerable deeds of kindness she performed -with as much intelligence as affection, the fruits of some of which -remain to this day. It would require a Racine, with his penetrating -mind, his ability to reconcile opposite extremes in one and the same -character, and the harmonious majesty of his language, to speak of -Madame de Montespan. Bright and radiantly beautiful, of queenly -elegance, charming by the distinction of her manners and the delicate -wit of her conversation, light-hearted and joyous, she dominated the -whole Court of France--this horrible client of the Abbé Guibourg, of La -Filastre and La Voisin. - - - - -III. A MAGISTRATE - - -Lieutenant of police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was the mainspring of -the proceedings against the poisoners. He alone carried through the vast -operations, bristling with difficulties. And it would be impossible to -find any point of his administration in which his genius and his -character appear in a more striking or complete manner. It is thanks to -him, and to the careful notes he took daily on the cases of the -prisoners, that we have been able to discover the facts of which Louis -XIV believed he had destroyed every trace when he ordered the burning of -the various documents in his private room. - -Saint-Simon, who has utterly shattered reputations which seemed firm as -rock, pauses with respect before Nicolas de la Reynie, though the -functions with which he was endowed were a subject of genuine abhorrence -to him. 'La Reynie, councillor of state,' he writes, 'so well known for -having been the first to lift the office of lieutenant of police from -its natural low estate, and for making it a sort of ministerial office; -a man of great importance too, because of the king's direct confidence -in him, his constant relations with the Court, and the number of things -in which he is concerned, and in which he has infinite powers of serving -or harming in innumerable ways people of the greatest importance, -obtained at length in 1697, at the age of eighty, permission to resign -so arduous an employment, which he had for the first time ennobled by -the equity, moderation, and disinterestedness with which he had -fulfilled it, without swerving from the greatest scrupulousness, and -doing the least possible injury as seldom as possible; he was, moreover, -a man of great virtue and capacity, who in an office which he had, so to -speak, created, and in which he was bound to draw upon him the hatred of -the public, nevertheless won universal esteem.' - -We have a portrait of La Reynie by his friend Mignard, and an admirable -etching of the painting by Van Schuppen. Engraving has never reproduced -human features with more clearness, colour, and lifelikeness. The face -bespeaks a clear, powerful, and well-balanced intelligence; the eyes -express a firm and thoughtful kindliness. Such was the La Reynie who -investigated the great poison cases. - -Though Bazin de Bezons of the French Academy had been associated with -him in the Chambre Ardente as examining commissioner, it was the -lieutenant of police who did all the work. The number of depositions, -interrogatories, confrontations, pleadings, and other documents which he -collected is enormous; and we see the magistrate with sure hand cutting -a way through this tangled forest, guided by his experience, his -knowledge of the human soul, and his clear intellect. - -The memorials he has left on questions of the greatest difficulty are -useful and interesting to study, because of the method of work they -reveal. It is exactly the method which our old professors of rhetoric -used to teach for the orderly arrangement of a French dissertation or an -historical essay. The principal and fundamental fact is noted down about -the middle of the left-hand page, with a large bracket embracing -sub-divisions; each of these sub-divisions is in turn accompanied by a -bracket embracing sub-divisions of these sub-divisions; and so on to the -end of the right-hand page, which is filled from top to bottom with -minute and close writing: there you have a multitude of slight facts -following one another in methodical order, all focussing on the -principal fact, found, as we have said, in the middle of the left-hand -page. There is no college student but has built up his schemes for -French essays on this model. But there is no question, in La Reynie's -portfolios, of rhetorical dissertations or Latin compositions; he deals -there with irrevocable sentences about to be pronounced 'on the flesh -and blood of men,' to use his own phrase. And if we go from these -bracketed plans to the memoirs and reports to which they guided the -magistrate's thought, we find ourselves in possession of marvels of -clear thinking and judging. - -During the long poison case, La Reynie showed himself indefatigable in -work. He had no other concern than right and the triumph of justice. And -in proportion as the number of criminals increased, and the greatest -names in the French nobility and Parlement were found to be compromised -by his inquiries--in proportion as relatives, friends, all who feared -for themselves, and nobility and Parlement fearing for their honour and -their privileges, were up in arms against him, his courage grew, his -activity redoubled; he pushed on his inquiries, urging the king, urging -the ministers, demanding new warrants, fresh arrests, seeking permission -to extend his formidable investigations over an ever-widening circle. - -Sorceresses and magicians thronged about the royal Court like swarms of -wasps about a hive of honey. In this monstrous hive were concentrated -the wealth and honours which awoke and stimulated the ambitions and -passions in which the sorceresses found their booty. - -The sorceresses had little lodgings at Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau, -Versailles, around the palaces. They won admission to the Court as -fruit-sellers or dealers in perfumes distilled by the magicians; they -offered pastes for softening the skin and waters for improving the -complexion. They allied themselves with the domestics of great houses, -and domiciled themselves with the laundresses connected with them. They -were intimates of those persons who hung about the Court with the -curious profession of presenters of petitions. They sometimes even -entered the service of a duke or a marchioness. La Chéron was with -Monsieur de Noailles and Monsieur de Rabaton in succession. La Vigoureux -was actively engaged in finding places for serving-maids and lackeys. We -have seen the relations between the fortune-tellers and Leroy, governor -of the pages of the Petite Ecurie. Girardin, governor of the dauphin's -pages, was connected with the magician Belot. Blessis, a crony of La -Voisin, was presented to the queen by Madame de Béthune, by the queen to -the dauphin, and by the dauphin to the king. - -Among the _bourgeoises_ of Paris who were struck at by the depositions -of the fortune-tellers we have indicated the principal ones, and then, -coming to the Court ladies, the most illustrious of all, Madame de -Montespan. But how many others La Reynie had to deal with! The beautiful -Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta of England, was accused, not without the -greatest probability, of having had a mass said against her husband, -with the incantations of sorcery, in the Palais-Royal itself. Madame de -Polignac and Madame de Gramont tried to get Louise de la Vallière -poisoned. The Countess de Soissons, Olympe Mancini, who had inspired -Louis XIV with his first passion, was compromised so deeply that, warned -by the king, she fled into the Netherlands. Louis XIV said to the -Princess de Carignan, Madame de Soissons' mother: 'I was determined -that the countess should escape; perhaps some day I shall render an -account therefor to God and my people.' - -When Madame de Montespan was at the height of her power, rivals, jealous -of her good fortune, applied to the sorceresses for formulae and powders -to 'send her packing,' just as she had done with the idea of getting rid -of La Vallière. These were the Duchess of Angoulême, Madame de Vitry, -and her own sister-in-law, Antoinette de Mesmes, Duchess de Vivonne. The -practices to which this last had recourse were precisely the same as -those with which the secret life of Madame de Montespan has acquainted -us. She applied to La Filastre and La Chappelain, who were also employed -by the dazzling mistress of the king. The sorceresses did not hesitate -between the two sisters-in-law, thinking to come off well either way: if -the one wished to retain the affection of the king, the other sought to -possess herself of it, and in either case money would fall into their -purses. Louis did not allow the Duchess de Vivonne to be proceeded -against, related so closely as she was to Madame de Montespan. It is -probable also that he was dissuaded from it by Colbert, who had married -one of his daughters to the Duke de Mortemart, son of the duchess. - -We may imagine the emotion, agitation, and anxieties aroused at Court -and in Paris by the prosecutions directed by the Chambre Ardente against -so large a number of persons belonging to the most distinguished -families: the arrests of Mesdames de Dreux and Leféron, of Poulaillon -and the Abbé Mariette, relatives of the chief magistrates; the warrants -issued against the Duchess de Bouillon, the Princess de Tingry, the wife -of Marshal la Ferté, the Countess de Roure; the hasty flight out of the -kingdom of the Marchioness d'Alluye, the Viscountess de Polignac, the -Count Clermont-Lodève, the Marquis de Cessac, the Countess de Soissons; -the imprisonment in the Bastille of the famous Marshal de Luxembourg, -who had employed magicians to beg the devil to remove his wife. 'Every -one is agitated,' wrote Madame de Sévigné, on January 26, 1680, 'every -one is sending for news and going into houses to pick them up.' - -Further, the public imagination was impressed; crimes were the stock -topic of conversation. The most trifling accidents were attributed to -poison. Every husband was accused of poisoning his mother-in-law. Terror -reigned in Paris. - -Then there was a reaction. Nobles and lawyers displayed equal irritation -at the Chamber's daring to push its investigations the length of them. -Were rank and name no longer a rampart high enough against the -inquisitions of a lieutenant of police? There was an end to society. The -result was, that ere long the only person in the whole matter who -appeared really criminal in the eyes of people of importance was La -Reynie himself. 'To-day,' says Madame de Sévigné, 'the cry is, the -innocence of the accused and the horrid scandal! You know this sort of -parrot cry. Nothing else is talked about in any company. There is -scarcely another example of such a scandal in any Christian court.' And -some days later, playing sedulous echo to the general gossip, the -charming marchioness said it was a shame to haul up people of position -for such a pack of nonsense. 'The reputation of Monsieur de la Reynie -is abominable,' she wrote to her daughter on May 31, 1680; 'what you say -is exactly to the point; his being alive proves that there are no -poisoners in France.' La Reynie had just discovered, indeed, a plot to -murder him. - -The reader will remember the demonstration organised against the -lieutenant of police at the time of the liberation of Madame de Dreux, -who was carried off in triumph between her husband, the _maître des -requêtes_, and her lover, Monsieur de Richelieu. The nobility got up a -similar demonstration when Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess de Bouillon, -appeared before the Chambre Ardente. She had done her best to find means -of quickly ridding herself of her husband, so that she might marry the -Duke de Vendôme. The Duke de Bouillon was informed of it by Louis -himself. Yet the duke accompanied his wife on January 29, 1680, to the -Arsenal, giving her his right hand, while the Duke de Vendôme gave her -his left: an exact repetition of the scene when Madame de Dreux left the -Chambre Ardente between her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu. - -Madame de Sévigné has noted down the details of this merry frolic. -Madame de Bouillon arrived in a coach drawn by six horses, seated -between her husband and her lover, followed by twenty other coaches, -packed full of the smartest noblemen and daintiest ladies of the Court. -The Marquis de la Fare confirms this account: 'The Duchess de Bouillon -made a proud and confident appearance before the judges, accompanied by -all her friends, who were in large numbers, and a most distinguished -crowd.' 'Madame de Bouillon entered the Chambre like a little queen,' -says Madame de Sévigné; 'she sat down on a chair prepared for her, and -instead of replying to the first question, she asked that what she -wanted to say might be written down: which was, that she only came there -out of respect for the king; she had none at all for the Chambre, which -she did not recognise; and that she did not mean to allow any derogation -to the ducal privilege.' (This privilege consisted in the right of not -being tried except by all the courts united in Parlement.) 'She would -not say a word till that was written down, and then she took off her -glove and showed a very beautiful hand. She replied honestly enough -until her age was asked. - -'"Do you know La Vigoureux?" - -'"No." - -'"Do you know La Voisin?" - -'"Yes." - -'"Why do you wish to do away with your husband?" - -'"I do away with him? Why, you have only to ask him if he thinks so; he -gave me his hand to this very door." - -'"But why did you go so often to La Voisin's house?" - -'"I wanted to see the Sibyls she promised to show me; that company would -be well worth all my journeys." - -'She was asked if she had not shown the woman a bag of money. She said -"No," and for more than one reason, and this she said with a very -mocking and disdainful air. - -'"Well, gentlemen, is that all you have to say to me?" - -'"Yes, madam." - -'She rose and said aloud as she went out, "Really, I should never have -believed that clever men could ask so many silly questions." - -'She was received by all her friends and relatives with adoration, she -was so pretty, naïve, natural, bold, so pleasant in appearance and so -quiet in mind.' One of the replies she made to La Reynie, who asked her -if she had really seen the devil at the sorceress's, was: 'I see him -now: he is ugly, old, and disguised as a councillor of state.' This soon -got abroad outside the Chambre, and set all Paris and the Court in good -humour. - -The charges against the Duchess de Bouillon were, nevertheless, very -serious. It was proved to the commissioners that she had asked the -sorceresses to poison the Duke de Bouillon or to procure his death by -witchcraft. Madame de Sévigné thought the matter of little importance. -'The Duchess de Bouillon,' she wrote to her daughter, 'went and asked La -Voisin for a little poison to get rid of an old husband who was boring -her to death, and an invention to marry a young man who wanted her, -without any one knowing it. This young fellow was Monsieur de Vendôme, -who took her to the Arsenal holding one hand, Monsieur de Bouillon -holding the other. When a Mancini only commits a folly like that, it is -winked at; these sorceresses do the thing seriously, and horrify all -Europe about a trifle.' Louis XIV took a more severe view of it, and -decided that Madame de Bouillon should be confronted with La Voisin. The -pretty face of the young duchess became graver when she heard this, and -she begged to be spared this indignity. The king complied, but exiled -her to Nérac, whence he would not allow her to return, in spite of the -entreaties of her many friends. - - * * * * * - -The revelations which ensued before the Chambre struck a more cruel blow -at La Reynie's soul than the anger of the world. Wrapped in his -consciousness of rectitude, he heard cries and threats only as the faint -murmurs of a distant mob. - -Three sentiments dominated him and guided his whole life: the religious -sentiment, which declared itself in a strong, sane, simple piety, the -piety of a man possessing a quiet conviction of the truth of his faith; -love for his king, a love composed of respect and admiration, with -shades of affection like that of a son for a father, and allied also to -a religious veneration; finally, a high sentiment of his judicial office -with an immovable respect for justice. His worship of the king extended -to all that concerned and surrounded him, to all that he loved and -honoured. The greatness of Louis XIV is easily explained, in spite of -his personal mediocrity, when we see with what passion and by what men -he was served. The revelations about Madame de Montespan, the mother of -the king's children, the woman who had almost won a seat on the throne -of France, were anguish to La Reynie. It is touching to see his grief -becoming more keen, more poignant, as evidence accumulated and -conviction forced itself upon his mind. 'Private facts,' he writes at -the head of a memorandum in which the charges against Madame de -Montespan are summed up, 'which were painful to listen to, the idea of -which is so grievous to recall and which are still more difficult to -relate.' In the light of these revelations his judgment, usually so -clear, precise, and sure, became confused, and being unable to believe -what he saw, he fancied that his own vision was becoming imperfect. 'I -recognise my weakness. In spite of myself, the nature of these private -circumstances (those concerning Madame de Montespan) impresses my mind -with more fear than is reasonable. These crimes scare me.' Then he -recurs to the documents with judicial composure. 'These are the very -deeds we must look upon and draw our inferences from.' But it was just -the inferences deduced from these actions that his mind could not admit. -'I recognise that I cannot pierce the thick darkness with which I am -surrounded. I ask for time to think more about it; and perhaps it will -happen that, after much thinking, I shall see even less than I see now. -After well considering everything, I have found no other course to -suggest than to seek for further enlightenment, and to await the aid of -Providence, which has drawn from the feeblest imaginable beginnings the -knowledge of this infinite number of strange things it was so necessary -to know. All that has happened hitherto leads us to hope (and I do hope -with great confidence) that God will at length reveal this abyss of -crime, that He will at the same time show the means to escape from it, -and inspire the king with all that he ought to do in a matter of such -importance.' - -In studying these reports of La Reynie to Louvois, we discover a -circumstance as impressive as curious. In the course of his memoranda, -the magistrate clearly and logically unfolds the reality of the charges -against the favourite, but when in closing it falls upon him to draw -practical conclusions, his mind shrinks from the task, his thought takes -fright like a horse shying before an unexpected obstacle. 'I have done -what I could, when I examined the proofs and the presumptions, to assure -myself and remain convinced that the facts are genuine, and I could not -succeed. I have sought, on the other hand, everything that might -persuade me that they were false, and that too has been impossible.' - -His distress was augmented by the conflict which arose in his -conscience between the duties he owed to justice and those he owed his -king. 'At that time when my mind was so cast down,' he wrote, 'I -besought God in His mercy to permit me to preserve the fidelity I owed -to my office, and to enable me to walk sincerely in all that it pleased -the king to command me.' Louis XIV ordered that a portion of the case -should be withdrawn from the cognisance of the judges. The blow was so -hard to La Reynie that his strength of mind wellnigh failed under it. 'I -hope,' he wrote to Louvois on October 17, 1681, 'that his Majesty in his -favour and goodness will have compassion on my weakness when he -considers that, with the fear and respect I could not fail to be in, -occupied moreover and filled with the idea of a judge who, in giving a -decision contrary to the truth, should judge and be a party to a -judgment involving the life of men, I could not at the moment recognise -the false position in which I was, nor represent to his Majesty that the -affair in question was in the nature of the case not susceptible of the -proposed expedient.' - -For a moment his resolution seems to have been taken: he would put -himself blindly and unreservedly in the hands of the king who had -received from God, he writes, higher lights than those of other men; but -the next instant the judge reappears in him and determines him, alone, -unaided, subordinate official as he was, to enter into a struggle -against the powerful ministers supported by the will and favour of the -king. - -At this moment his character reveals itself in all its greatness. - -He went straight to Louis XIV and laid before him the charges against -his mistress; then he wrote energetically to Louvois: 'In spite of all -the care that has been taken, all these facts (against Madame de -Montespan) have cropped up so often, in so many different quarters, and -with so many details, that the king has been obliged to allow the -interrogation of the prisoners about the favourite, but in private.' - -Louvois, one of the most intimate and well-liked friends of Madame de -Montespan, did everything he could to save her. Madame de Maintenon, -indeed, was hostile to her, and he feared her growing favour. Besides, -as the Venetian ambassador observes, Louvois 'worshipped the French -monarchy, to which everything seemed to him subordinate.' He felt bound -to protect the prestige of the crown against the injury which the -condemnation of the favourite would do it. Finally, in defending her, he -thought he would ingratiate himself with Louis. - -Louvois endeavoured to bring La Reynie over to his views, to persuade -him, at first gently, that it was important that the examining judge -should find Madame de Montespan innocent. Louvois spoke, urged, -demonstrated: La Reynie listened, but did not heed. The minister then -changed his tone. He sought to prove to the magistrate that Madame de -Montespan must really be innocent. He went to Paris on February 15, -1681, to explain the matter to him. Had not Mademoiselle Desoeillets, -the favourite's maid, written that 'she was not guilty, and that what he -(La Reynie) had been told about her dealings with La Voisin could not be -true; that there were twenty women about Madame de Montespan, of whom -eighteen hated her, and that they might be asked for information about -her, but she thought that the Countess de Soissons had two maids, one of -whom was almost her own height, and that the countess might well have -taken her name (the name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets), to injure both -her and Madame de Montespan, whom she hated.' - -La Reynie replied that all that was wanted was to confront the young -lady with the prisoners at Vincennes. We have already shown that the -confrontation took place and that Mademoiselle Desoeillets was -recognised. Louvois had perforce to devise another defence, to which the -inflexible La Reynie made answer: 'After reflecting on what Mademoiselle -Desoeillets said to Monsieur de Louvois at Vincennes, about her having -a niece who was very often with the sorceresses, and who might easily -have been mistaken for her, I think it doubtful, because she only said -so after having been recognised by the prisoners, and because Madame de -Villedieu her good friend, who is at Vincennes, and had had warnings, -tried to mislead us in the same way; it appears a concerted plan; and -when I asked her what Mademoiselle Desoeillets was like, she told me -that she was small, short, and well-developed, which is a false -description and exactly fits the niece.' - -When it was pointed out to La Reynie that La Voisin had denied all -knowledge of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, he replied: 'The denial of La -Voisin, persisted in till her death, must be the more suspicious in that -it was so obstinately kept up, because it is now proved that they had -dealings together. If Mademoiselle Desoeillets herself denies these -dealings, that itself can only increase the suspicion.' - -Louvois dwelt also on a retractation made by La Filastre after her -conversation with her confessor at the moment of going to execution; but -the lieutenant of police replied: 'The declaration made by La Filastre -exonerating Madame de Montespan applies solely to the poisoning of -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. There are two other facts: that of the mass -said over her by Guibourg, and further, the agreement between them in -regard to the powders prepared by Galet for the king, in which Madame -de Montespan was named; and the charges founded on these two facts do -not depend wholly on what was said under torture, but were confirmed -afresh by the same declaration in which La Filastre retracted the first -charge.' - -La Reynie thus defended himself and justice, and soon, strong in the -rights of the law, he went on from defence to attack. He revealed to the -minister the relations which several of the Vincennes prisoners who were -mixed up in Madame de Montespan's affair had had with persons of the -Court. - -These had given instruction and counsel. La Reynie condemned these -manoeuvres before the very minister who, at the instigation of the -king, had been their author. - -'And several of these prisoners of rank,' he added courageously, 'have -found means of having some of the charges brought against them -withdrawn.' - -La Reynie was not satisfied with denying the innocence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets; he told Louvois: 'It is difficult for her to be left at -liberty after such charges. Apprised of all that has been said against -her, she is busy taking measures to render her conviction impossible, -and she will take these measures along with other ill-disposed persons.' - -In case he should not be authorised to arrest her, La Reynie asks that -he may at least be permitted to proceed to her examination; and he -sketches for Louvois a very skilful plan, showing the ingenious and -subtle means by which, without violence or scandal, the confidante might -be induced to reveal the truth. - -It is hardly necessary to say that these propositions were rejected by -Louis and his minister. The magistrate, nevertheless, persevered in the -path he had marked out for himself, even after Louvois, to overcome his -scruples, had enlisted the assistance of Colbert, the second of the -all-powerful ministers. - -Boileau once said: 'I admire Monsieur Colbert's inability to endure -Suetonius because Suetonius had revealed the infamy of the emperors.' -There we have the explanation of his conduct, apart from the personal -interest he had in the innocence of Madame de Montespan. - -Colbert had only followed at a distance the work of the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, and he knew only vaguely the charges brought -against the king's mistress. He applied to a celebrated advocate of the -time, Maître Duplessis, for a statement establishing the innocence of -Madame de Montespan, and indicating means of quashing the unhappy -proceedings. Colbert even did his best to supply him with arguments. - -Duplessis drew up the statement desired. Colbert acknowledged its -receipt on February 25, 1681: 'I have seen and examined with care the -memorandum you have sent me; I have to receive another to-morrow on the -second charge (the attempted poisoning of Mademoiselle de Fontanges), -which is no less serious than the first (the attempt on Louis XIV by -means of the petition), and the disproof of which is, in my opinion, -more complete and perfect.' And Duplessis sent him a second statement -with these words: 'Have the goodness to look at the general observation -at the beginning, because it may provide answers to many things which -appear sufficiently well proved.' The memorials of Duplessis, backed up -by Colbert, had no more effect on La Reynie than the arguments of -Louvois. The advocate and the minister asked that the prisoners should -be dealt with summarily by the Chambre, that torture should not be -applied so that they might not reveal the gravest facts, and that as -soon as the case had been rapidly despatched, all the documents should -be burnt forthwith. But La Reynie said that it was impossible not to -follow the rules of justice, and that the Chambre could only judge -according to custom and law. - - * * * * * - -The Chambre Ardente was in a quandary. On the one hand it saw the -necessity of yielding to the absolute refusal of Louis to authorise the -reading in court of the documents in which Madame de Montespan was -concerned; on the other, there was the no less absolute refusal of La -Reynie to allow the judges to pronounce a sentence in which all the -guarantees custom gave the accused were not respected. It seemed a -complete deadlock. The king had gradually allowed himself to be led very -far from the resolutions of rigorous equity which he had at first -displayed. He had violated the secrets of the documents so far as to -communicate to persons of note such parts of the reports of the -investigations as concerned them; he had connived at the flight of the -Prince de Clermont-Lodève, the Countess de Soissons, and many others. He -had trembled at the thought of what revelations La Voisin might make: 'I -explained to the king,' wrote Louvois to Bazin de Bezons on December 3, -1679, 'of the reasons you and the commissioners have for beginning the -investigation of La Voisin's case, but his Majesty did not give his -approval; and this evening I shall give orders to Boucherat and La -Reynie not to bring it into court.' - -On July 18, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie from Montreuil-sur-Mer: -'The king has not thought fit to give the order you request that the -commissioners may be authorised to give judgment in case of necessity, -his Majesty not regarding it as seemly that the Chambre should judge -prisoners in his absence.' In spite of the efforts made to enwrap the -sittings at the Arsenal in impenetrable secrecy, public opinion was not -deceived, and we find evidence in many private letters that the king was -preventing the prosecution of 'people of the Court.' 'You are aiming at -riff-raff,' exclaimed Lalande, one of the prisoners, in open court on -July 31, 1681, 'and you ought to aim higher.' - -At length, as we have seen, after the declaration of La Filastre on -October 1, 1680, the sittings of the Chambre were suddenly suspended. - -'This day, October 1, 1680, in execution of the decree of September 30 -of the said year, which condemned Françoise Filastre and Jacques Joseph -Cotton to death, they have been put to torture ordinary and -extraordinary; but the said Filastre having made, both at and apart from -torture, declarations of great importance, and the king having seen the -report containing fresh declarations made by her in the chapel of the -said château of the Bastille before going to execution, his Majesty, for -considerations important to his service, was unwilling that the said -matters should be laid in gross before the Chambre, and gave orders to -Monsieur Boucherat, President of the said court, to close the sittings.' - -From that day there was open conflict between the lieutenant of police -on the one hand and the ministers supported by all the ladies and -courtiers on the other. 'The king,' wrote La Reynie's secretaries, 'was -strongly urged by the courtiers, and even by persons in high places, to -close the Chambre entirely, under various pretexts, the most specious of -which was that a longer investigation of the poisoning cases would bring -the nation into discredit abroad.' La Reynie pleaded in answer the -respect due to justice, the duty incumbent on the king to have the -greatest criminals who had ever appeared in his kingdom brought to trial -and punished, and finally, the necessity of purging France of these -appalling practices in poison and sacrilege, which had taken in a few -years proportions that no one would have conceived possible. He went to -Versailles and talked to the king for four days in succession, and for -four hours each day. It is a pity that we have no record of the words he -addressed to the king and his ministers. Single-handed, he vanquished -them all. - -'Monsieur de la Reynie having been heard by the king in his cabinet, in -presence of the Chancellor and Monsieur de Colbert and the Marquis de -Louvois, on four different days, and for four hours each day, his -Majesty at length resolved on the continuation of the Chambre, and -ordered Monsieur de la Reynie to continue his ordinary investigations; -nevertheless, to take no steps on any of the declarations contained in -the reports of the torture and execution of La Filastre, which his -Majesty, for considerations relating to his service, does not wish to be -divulged.' - -The court sitting at the Arsenal resumed its labours on May 19, 1681, -but on the condition laid down by the king that nothing further should -be done in regard to the declarations in which Madame de Montespan had -been involved. On December 17, the facts which he had wished to keep -from the knowledge of the judges reappeared with new force at the -examination of La Joly. Louvois at once wrote to Bazin de Bezons, the -fellow-commissioner of La Reynie, instructing him to be careful to put -all these declarations into separate portfolios not to be shown to the -judges. La Reynie in fact perceived that the difficulties of the Court, -in regard to a regular performance of its duties, were increasing from -day to day, and it was not long before he understood, and made his -colleagues see also, that the mere fact of the suppression of the report -containing the replies of Filastre under torture rendered it impossible -to investigate legally the cases of the principal prisoners. This he -clearly demonstrated in notes really admirable in their outspokenness -and sound judgment. And to measure their dignity and courage, we must -remember that his words were addressed directly to Louvois and Louis -XIV. But Louis' character was not great enough to allow him to sacrifice -his pride to the public good, to consent to such a humiliation in the -eyes of his subjects and of Europe. He adhered to his veto on the -communication of the Montespan documents to the Chambre. On his part, La -Reynie remained inflexible, refusing to allow a case to be tried in -which the whole of the documents were not submitted to the court. Yet -something had to be done: a Chamber must be either open or shut. - -After having done everything possible to enable justice to follow its -course in complete independence, so as to reach the guilty however -high-placed they were, La Reynie indicated the only solution which would -permit the magistrates--since they were not allowed to fulfil their duty -to the full--not to fail in so much of their duty as lay in the limited -field still open to them. - -There were at that time in France tribunals in which judges sat, and -_lettres de cachet_ which operated without legal formalities, at the -mere command of the king. Elsewhere we have shown how, almost at the -same period, d'Aguesseau, the most illustrious of French judges, asked -for _lettres de cachet_ in the course of a case in which he was engaged. -Like d'Aguesseau, La Reynie might have said: 'I am not accused of a -fondness for extraordinary ways and a hatred of the forms known to -justice, yet I find here many reasons for having recourse to orders from -the king' (_lettres de cachet_). - -'His Majesty being unwilling to give the Chambre cognisance of certain -facts,' he wrote on April 17, 1681, to Louvois, 'or that it should try -certain prisoners and certain accused parties, reserving them to himself -because of their importance, to deal with them through his own justice -and the other means he proposes to make use of, it seems to me that we -can arrive at the end the king is aiming at by very simple methods, and -there can be no objection since the commissioners of the Chambre will -have no knowledge of the matters concerning which they are not to be -judges.' - -What was required, according to La Reynie, was to give up the -investigation of the cases of those who had knowledge of facts -implicating Madame de Montespan; and since it was impossible to try them -according to the rules of justice, to be satisfied with imprisoning them -under _lettres de cachet_ in the royal fortresses. In face of the -attitude taken up by La Reynie in refusing to proceed to a judgment -which would violate the traditional forms and the securities they -granted to the accused, the king and his ministers had perforce to -yield. - -La Reynie enumerates a long list of the criminals charged with monstrous -crimes who hoped by this means to escape the rigour of trial, the -anguish of torture and death by the stake or the gibbet, and he adds:-- - -'There are 147 prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; of this number -there is not one against whom there are not serious charges of poisoning -or dealings in poison, and further charges of sacrilege and impiety. The -majority of these criminals are likely to escape punishment. - -'La Trianon, an abominable woman, in regard to the nature of her crimes -and her dealings with poison, cannot be tried, and the public, in losing -the satisfaction of an example, is no doubt losing also the fruit of -some new discovery and the total conviction of her accomplices. - -'Nor can the woman Chappelain be tried, because La Filastre was -confronted with her: a woman of large connection, long devoted to the -study of poisons, suspected of several poisonings, continually -practising impieties, sacrilege, and sorcery; accused by La Filastre of -having taught her the practice of her abominations with priests; deeply -implicated in the case of Vanens. - -'For the same reasons, Galet cannot be tried; although a peasant, a -dangerous man, and dealing openly in poisons. - -'Lepreux, a priest of Notre Dame, engaged in the same practices as La -Chappelain, accused of sacrificing the child of La Filastre to the -devil. - -'Guibourg--this man, who cannot be compared to any other in regard to -the number of his poisonings, his dealings with poison and sorcery, his -sacrilege and impiety, knowing and known by every notorious criminal, -convicted of a great number of horrible crimes--this man, who has -mutilated and sacrificed several children; who, apart from the sacrilege -of which he is convicted, confesses to inconceivable abominations; who -says he has practised by diabolical means against the life of the king; -of whom we hear every day new and execrable things, and who is loaded -with accusations of crimes against God and king--he, too, will assure -impunity to other criminals. - -'His concubine, the woman Chanfrain, guilty with him of the murder of -some of her children, who has shared in some of Guibourg's sacrifices, -and who, according to appearances and the turn the case was taking, was -the infamous altar on which he performed his ordinary abominations, will -also remain unpunished. - -'There is also a large number of other accused persons who will remain -free from punishment for their crimes. The girl Monvoisin cannot be -tried, nor Mariette, whatever may come to light about him. Latour, -Vautier, and his wife will not only remain unpunished, but, for -considerations prompting to the concealment of their secret crimes, -their case will not be heard through.' - -La Reynie says further, not without a touch of melancholy: 'In all this -there is reason to wonder at the providence of God. If Mariette had been -captured before the trial of La Voisin, and they had spoken about the -business of Madame de Montespan, this monster (La Voisin) would have -escaped justice, and La Filastre also, if she had put forward what she -said at her torture.' - -It remained to close the Chambre without too great a shock to public -opinion, or leading people to believe that after so much noise the whole -thing was to be smothered. 'We must wind up the Chambre,' writes La -Reynie, 'but we must avoid doing so with an appearance of weariness and -disgust combined, so that the large number of persons interested may not -find occasion to discredit justice, and so that the wicked people who -remain, known or unknown, may not cease to be in terror, or, losing -their fear, recommence their ill-deeds with the same freedom as they had -before.' - -The magistrates who composed the Chambre were themselves keenly desirous -that its closing should be announced. Among other reasons, the -lieutenant of police gives their reluctance and aversion to condemn, 'a -reluctance which good men cannot help feeling,' and their sorrow at not -being able to try the principal offenders. - -It was important, then, not to appear to close the Chambre from any -feeling of weariness, and above all not to awake any suspicion of the -real causes at work. The public was already murmuring. Compelled as they -were, on account of the complicity of Madame de Montespan, to allow all -the accused who had had dealings with La Voisin to go scot-free--to wit, -the Abbé Guibourg, Lesage, and other guilty persons--the judges took up -again the case of Vanens, which had lain dormant. But here again the -principal actor, Vanens, escaped the rigour of the law through his -connection with the favourite. The commissioners of the Chambre had the -good luck to find unexpectedly, in one of the reports, a denunciation -against a certain Pinon du Martroy, a councillor to the Parlement, who -had been involved in the disgrace of Fouquet. At the time when judgment -had been passed on the financiers after the fall of Fouquet, the goods -of Pinon had been seized, and Guibourg said that, to wreak vengeance and -secure Fouquet's release from prison, he had performed incantations -against the king, as well as practised sorcery. Pinon was dead, but he -was said to have had a confidant in Jean Maillard, auditor to the -exchequer. This man was secured, and as he occupied a prominent -position, his case created a great sensation. He was condemned on -February 20, 1682, for having 'known and not revealed the detestable -designs formed against the person of the king.' The councillor denied -everything at his torture, and adhered to his denial till the moment of -his death. It is certain that among the various accusations brought -before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, those directed against -Maillard are among those that were least fully proved. The execution -took place on February 21, and, contrary to custom, at midday. - -It was followed on July 16, 1682, by that of La Chaboissière, Vanens' -valet. This wretch was condemned to be hanged after preliminary torture. -He was less guilty than Vanens, of whom he had only been the tool; but -his low rank had put him beyond the pale. Then the proceedings were -brought to a close in due form, without any appearance of a serious -miscarriage of justice in the eyes of the crowd. The Chambre Ardente was -finally closed by a _lettre de cachet_ of July 21, 1682. - -La Reynie did not consider that his work was yet done. In his -correspondence with Louvois, he had constantly harped on the idea that -they should profit by the experience gained during the long -investigations of the court to avoid the recurrence of such crimes. He -was intrusted, along with Colbert, with the drafting of an order. On -August 30, 1682, appeared the famous edict against soothsayers and -poisoners, which was the joint work of these two great men; magicians -and sorceresses were driven from France, the manufacture and sale of -poisons necessary in trade and medicine were regulated by ordinances -which have triumphed over time and revolutions, and after two centuries -are still in force to-day. - - * * * * * - -The numerous prisoners whose connection, close or remote, with the -machinations of Madame de Montespan safe-guarded them from trial, were -transferred under _lettre de cachet_ into different fortresses--those -which appeared the safest in the kingdom. With excessive precaution, -Louvois ordered that each of them should be fastened to his prison by an -iron chain, one link of which was to be imbedded in the wall and another -fixed to the person of the prisoner. - -All these unhappy creatures remained in this condition till their death, -some of them for more than forty years. The minister sent the most -rigorous instructions to prevent them from holding communication with -anybody outside, and to secure that the staff employed in providing for -their material and spiritual wants should be reduced to the lowest -possible number and composed of persons in whom entire confidence might -be placed. And to destroy in advance any effect which the revelations of -the prisoners might make on the minds of the governors of citadels and -fortresses, Louvois sent these officers word that their new guests were -villains who had invented infamous calumnies against Madame de -Montespan, the falsity of which had been proved before the Chambre, and -that if any of them happened to open his lips on the subject, he was to -be answered at once with a sound flogging. - -The most important of the prisoners--Guibourg, Lesage, Galet, and -Romani--were conveyed to the citadel of Besançon. Guibourg died there -three years after his entrance. - -Fourteen women were taken to the castle of St. André de Salins. Louvois -wrote in regard to them on August 26, 1682, to the lord-lieutenant of -Franche-Comté:-- - -'The king having thought fit to send to the château of St. André de -Salins some of the people who were arrested in virtue of warrants of the -court that dealt with the matter of the poisons, his Majesty has -commanded me to inform you that his intention is that you prepare two -rooms in the said château, so that six of these prisoners may be kept -safely in each of them, the which prisoners are to have each a mattress -in the place arranged for them, and to be fastened either by a hand or a -foot to a chain which shall be fastened to the wall, the said chain -however to be long enough not to prevent them from lying down. As these -people are criminals who deserve extreme penalties, the intention of the -king is that they be thus fastened for fear they should injure the -people set to guard them, who will go in and out to bring them food and -attend to them generally. His Majesty's intention is that you prepare -two similar rooms in the citadel of Besançon, so that twelve of the -prisoners may be kept securely there. You will observe that these rooms -are to be so situated that no one can hear what these people say.' - -Auzillon, one of the staff of the provost of the Isle de France, -escorted the principal sorceresses, Pelletier, Poulain, Delaporte, the -girl Monvoisin, and Catherine Leroy, to the citadel of Belle-Isle-en-Mer. - -La Chappelain, the companion of La Filastre, was imprisoned in the -castle of Villefranche, where she died forty years later, on June 4, -1724. She lived there in company with another sorceress who, like her, -had been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chambre Ardente, and for -the same reasons--namely, La Guesdon. - -The governor of Villefranche wrote in August 1717, that 'of two old -prisoners of state for poison, the survivors of four who had been locked -up there for thirty-six years, La Guesdon died on the 15th instant, -leaving forty-five livres in silver, which she had saved during that -time out of her eight sous a day for food: of these she instructed her -surviving companion to take what she needed for her personal use, and -to use the balance in paying for prayers for her--this is one pensioner -the less for the king. The woman was seventy-six years old; the survivor -(La Chappelain) is no younger. They were in the same room.' - -Finally, a few prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes, wholly ignorant -of the poison affair, and others whose innocence was recognised by the -commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, had been shut up, unluckily for -themselves, in the same room with prisoners implicated in the crimes of -Madame de Montespan. This chance meeting condemned them to perpetual -confinement. - -'Manon Bosse,' writes La Reynie, 'was sent to the nuns of Baffens, at -Besançon, under the name of Mademoiselle Manon Dubosc, where the king -pensioned her to the tune of 250 livres; she was never liberated, -because she had been locked up with the daughter of La Voisin, who had -told her everything.' - -La Gaignière, under the same circumstances, was put in the common -workhouse. Nanon Aubert also had been placed with La Voisin's daughter: -'This was the reason that she was not set at liberty, but in 1683 she -was placed with the Ursulines of Besançon, and afterwards with those of -Vesoul, with orders to say that she was detained for dealings with a -lady of quality accused of poison, and she was made to pass for a young -lady of rank. The king payed a pension of 250 livres per annum.' - -The most characteristic example is that of Lemaire, brother of the woman -Vertemart. His complete innocence was absolutely proved. There was no -possible charge against him but his having been shut up with the Abbé -Guibourg, who 'had told him everything.' On August 4, 1681, Louvois -wrote to La Reynie: 'At present Lemaire is not to be set at liberty. I -have written to Desgrez what will enable him, if he shows him my letter, -to endure his long detention with less pain.' Louvois and Louis XIV were -struck by the revolting iniquity of this detention. In August 1682, -Louvois sent to Lemaire the considerable sum of 150 pistoles, promising -to forward an equal sum every year on condition that he took himself out -of the kingdom, never set foot in it again all his life, and spoke to -nobody in the world of what he had heard while at Vincennes. If he ever -broke one of these engagements, the king would have him seized and -incarcerated for the rest of his days. - - * * * * * - -La Reynie died on June 14, 1709, at the age of eighty years. In his will -there is a touching clause which depicts this excellent man to the life. -He asks that his body may be interred in the parish cemetery, and not in -the church, 'being unwilling that my corpse should be laid in a spot -where the faithful assemble, and that the decay of my body should -increase the pollution of the air, and thereby endanger the life of -ministers and people.' The lieutenant of police, who had devoted a part -of his life to the sanitation and good government of the great city -confided to his administration, gave an excellent practical lesson on -his death-bed, doubtless to the wounding of his dearest sentiments as a -Catholic and a believer. - -Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was in fact a character of rare worth. In -our account of him, we have not had to show him as the man of fine -culture, the scholar in constant correspondence with Baluze, purchasing -and collecting Greek and Latin manuscripts, the skilled patron of the -printing-press, the bibliophile to whom we owe the preservation of the -original text of Molière. He was a worthy representative of his period, -the great epoch in French history. The seventeenth century attained the -furthest extremes in good as in evil. It was then that France produced -her greatest captains, her greatest statesmen, her most illustrious -judges; it was then that the greatest names in literature, art, -philosophy, and scholarship dazzled the world; then that the 'daughters -of charity' displayed their devotion; that Madame de Chantal diffused -around her the sweet perfume of her virtues; but it was then, too, that -a Marquise de Brinvilliers extended the boundaries of crime, and an Abbé -de Guibourg murdered children upon an altar, over the bare body of a -Marquise de Montespan. - - - - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME'[12] - - -Who has not read Bossuet's funeral oration on Henrietta Anne of England, -Duchess of Orleans? Who has not thrilled at the echo of that powerful -and poignant apostrophe?--'O woful night! O awful night, when there rang -through the air like a sudden thunderclap the amazing tidings, Madame is -dying, Madame is dead!... Madame passed from morn to eve like the grass -of the field. In the morning she flourished, with what graces you know; -in the evening we saw her cut down.... What awful speed! In nine hours -the work is accomplished.' Bossuet's masterpiece has crowned the memory -of Madame with an immortal halo in which the charms, the quick and -exquisite imagination of the young princess, who enchanted her -contemporaries,--the lady who set the tone for taste and wit in the -midst of the wittiest and most brilliant Court the world has ever -known--will shine resplendent through the ages. - -The circumstances in which this startling death occurred have aroused -the attention of historians. Madame had returned from England, where she -had succeeded in getting the Treaty of Dover signed on June 1, 1670, by -the ministers of her brother Charles II--the treaty assuring Louis XIV -of the alliance of England against Holland, and permitting him to -conquer Flanders and Franche-Comté for France. Madame remained at Dover -from May 24 to June 12; she then re-embarked for France, happy in the -successful result of her mission; and she arrived at Saint-Germain on -the 18th. 'At the age of twenty-six,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'she -saw herself the link between the two greatest kings of the century; she -had in her hands a treaty on which depended the fate of a part of -Europe; the pleasure and the importance given by affairs of moment being -joined in her with the attractions bestowed by youth and beauty; there -was a grace and a sweetness enveloping her whole person that won for her -a kind of homage, which must have been the more pleasant in that it was -rendered rather to her personality than to her rank.' - -Need anything be said of the manners of Monsieur? 'The miracle of firing -the heart of this prince,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'was reserved for -no woman in the world.' And yet his heart was wonderfully tender! Madame -had definitively secured the exile of the Chevalier de Lorraine, the -infamous friend of her husband. - -Madame died suddenly at St. Cloud, a prey to the most cruel anguish, on -the night of the 29th of June 1670, about three o'clock in the morning. -Rumours of poison were instantly set afloat, which were not long in -gaining strength and currency. They formed the general opinion at Court, -in Paris, in the whole of France, in England, Holland, and Spain, where -Madame's daughter became queen. Charles II refused to receive the letter -in which the Duke of Orleans informed him of his sister's death. 'The -Duke of Buckingham, the English ambassador,' wrote Colbert de Croissy, -'is in transports of rage.' The people of London were hardly restrained -from violent outbursts against the Frenchmen residing there. The streets -rang with the cry of 'Down with the French!' The French embassy had to -be protected. Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine, was always -convinced that Madame had died of poison, and everything tends to show -that Louis XIV, at all events in the first moments, shared these -suspicions. - -In regard to the possible authors of the crime, some accused the Dutch, -against whom the Treaty of Dover was directed; others accused Monsieur -himself and the Chevalier de Lorraine. In either case, the historical -interest of the problem is very great; the popular imagination -heightened it through the magnificent commentary with which Bossuet -embroidered the death of the beautiful princess; and it has been -enhanced by all the efforts made for more than a century past to solve -it. 'For fifty years and more,' writes one of the masters of modern -erudition, M. Arthur de Boislisle, 'the question has been more closely -studied, and the evidence weighed with more care, at least by impartial -and serious writers familiar with the documents of Louis XIV's reign or -with scientific problems. But it happens that some have abstained from -giving a decisive verdict, and others have varied between poison, in -which Walckenaer, Paul Lacroix, and François Ravaisson very firmly -believed, and death by accident or disease, accepted by Mignet, -Loiseleur, and Littré; with the result that the question has become -darkened rather than illuminated between conclusions diametrically -opposed, but coming from men of equal authority.' Monsieur de Boislisle -himself refrains from stating any conclusion, and recently we have -Doctor Legué, a specialist, in his interesting book, _Médecins et -Empoisonneurs_, devoting a new study to the question, and endeavouring -to prove that Madame was poisoned by corrosive sublimate. - -Thanks to a minute study of the documents, guided by the work of -Monsieur de Boislisle we have just quoted, thanks above all to the -skilful guidance of two masters of modern science, we arrive, as will -be seen by and by, at an indisputable solution. - - -I - -In accordance with the first principle of historical criticism, it is -important at the outset to determine exactly the value of the sources -whence we may derive particulars serviceable to our investigation. The -sources are divided into three well-marked categories--(1) The reports -of the physicians and surgeons; (2) the accounts of the persons who were -able to approach Madame in her last moments, or were in a position to -hear authoritative descriptions; (3) the official correspondence of the -courts of London and Paris. - -The first category presents to us five reports of the post-mortem -examination:-- - -(_a_) The official report signed by the fifteen physicians and surgeons, -French and English, who were present at the autopsy. - -(_b_) The _Account of the Illness, Death, and Autopsy of Madame_, by the -Abbé Bourdelot, physician. Bourdelot was one of the French physicians -present at the post-mortem. - -(_c_) The report of Vallot, physician to the late queen-mother. Vallot -was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians of his time. He was -present among the French doctors at the autopsy. His report was -officially carried to London by the Marshal de Bellefonds. - -(_d_) The _Memoir of a Surgeon of the King of England who was present at -the Opening of the Body_. This surgeon's name was Alexander Boscher. - -(_e_) The account of Hugh Chamberlain, physician-in-ordinary to the King -of England, also present at the operation. This document, like the -preceding, is exceedingly useful for checking the official report and -the report of the French physicians. Some writers have believed that -Louis XIV, fearing a rupture with England, dictated the opinion the -French physicians were to give. Boscher and Chamberlain were absolutely -independent representatives of the English Government. - -To these five documents, of unquestionable authenticity, may be added -the notice inserted in the _Gazette_ of July 5, 1670, which was -officially inspired by the Court physicians, and the opinion of the -famous Guy Patin, Dean of the Medical School of Paris, though he was not -actually present at the autopsy. - -In our second category, the narratives of persons who approached Madame -in her last moments, or heard authoritative accounts, we must mention -prominently the account written by the charming Countess de la Fayette, -_The History of Madame Henrietta of England, first wife of Philip of -France, Duke of Orleans_. The Countess de la Fayette was attached to the -suite of Madame; she never left her during the day on which she died. -She has left a simple, precise, and sober account of the short illness, -in which every line bears the stamp of truth. - -Next to this valuable document must be cited the letter of Bossuet, who -was present at the final scene, and the story of Feuillet, canon of St. -Cloud, who was with Madame before Bossuet arrived. - -The third category comprises the correspondence exchanged between the -courts of England and France and their representatives: these would be -documents of the greatest value, if their official and diplomatic -character had not imposed the greatest reserve on the writers, and even -dictated their sentiments. There are first of all the letters of Louis -XIV and Hugues de Lionne to Charles II and to Colbert de Croissy, -ambassador at London; then, the despatches of Louis and of Hugues de -Lionne to Monsieur de Pomponne, ambassador at the Hague; on the English -side, five letters addressed by Lord Montagu, ambassador at the French -Court, to Lord Arlington, secretary of state to Charles II, and the -letters of Lord Arlington to Sir William Temple. - -Such are the only documents worthy of credence we have at our disposal -for studying the circumstances of the death of Madame, for it is -necessary to reject in the most absolute manner the accounts of -Saint-Simon and of Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine. Chéruel, and -more especially Monsieur de Boislisle, have shown the improbabilities -and absurdities of these, and we shall not refer to them again. The work -of Monsieur de Boislisle is particularly interesting in showing that -these two famous narratives had a common source. As to the testimony of -d'Argenson, Voltaire, and others, destitute, in the nature of the case, -of any authority comparable to that of the authors we have mentioned -above--it is unnecessary in the points where it confirms the others; on -the points where it contradicts them, it cannot prevail; and on the -points where it contains new information, it is dangerous to follow, for -we lack any evidence by which to check it. Littré acted judiciously in -neglecting these writers when compiling his study on the death of -Madame, and the reproach levelled against him by Loiseleur is without -justification. On the contrary, it is perhaps to this happy stroke of -criticism that Littré owed the success of his argument. - - -II - -We proceed to recount, in the simplest and most precise manner in our -power, the circumstances of the death of Madame; and from this narrative -alone we shall see emerge one of the facts we intend to establish, -namely, that Madame could not have been poisoned. - -Henrietta of England, 'more comparable to the jasmine than to the rose, -very slender, delicate, slightly round-shouldered--not less pleasing for -that--exhausted, not only by four accouchements in rapid succession, but -by the fast life then led at Court, was only kept up,' says Monsieur de -Boislisle, 'by that sanguine temperament which is the prerogative of -high-strung women.' In 1664 Guy Patin wrote: 'The Duchess of Orleans was -taken ill at Villers-Cotterets, and her physicians have prescribed ass's -milk.' The presumption is, then, that she suffered from some stomachic -disorder. 'The king,' wrote Hugues de Lionne to Colbert de Croissy, -'tells us that more than three years ago she complained of a pain in the -side which compelled her to lie flat for three or four hours without -finding ease in any posture.' Madame was constantly afflicted with a -pain at one fixed spot in the breast. 'She further used to complain,' -wrote the Abbé Bourdelot, 'of a cruel burning pain, not in the abdomen, -but in the chest.' She was always wanting to vomit. 'Most often she -could take only milk for food, and remained in bed for days together.' -These facts indicate, as Dr. Le Gendre tells us, that Madame suffered -from a chronic inflammation of the stomach, a form of gastritis. The -reports of the autopsy show, further, that Madame was afflicted with -pulmonary tuberculosis, and it is not rare for these two morbid -conditions to co-exist. - -During the journey she made in Flanders with the king and Monsieur -before her departure for England, the appearance of the young princess -caused much alarm. 'She was reduced to living on milk,' writes Madame de -la Fayette, 'and retired to her own room as soon as she got out of the -coach, and as a rule she went to bed.... One day, when the talk fell on -astrology, Monsieur said that it had been foretold that he would have -several wives, and judging from the state Madame was in, he was -beginning to believe it.' - -Madame returned from England on June 18. Her condition had become very -much worse. Next day she kept her bed. 'She went into the queen's room,' -wrote Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'like a dressed-up corpse with rouge -on its cheeks, and when she went out, everybody, including the queen, -said that she had death written on her face.' 'On June 24, 1670,' writes -Madame de la Fayette, 'a week after her return from England, Monsieur -and she went to St. Cloud. The first day she went there she complained -of pains in the side and abdomen, to which she was subject. -Nevertheless, as it was extremely hot, she desired to bathe in the -river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he could to prevent -her, but in spite of all he said she bathed on Friday the 27th, and on -Saturday she was so ill that she did not bathe. I arrived at St. Cloud -on Saturday at six o'clock in the evening. I found her in the gardens. -She told me that I should think her looking cross, and that she was not -at all well. She had supped as usual, and she walked in the moonlight -till midnight.' The preceding lines, every detail of which is of great -importance, have been neglected by the historians who have concluded she -was poisoned. - -'On Sunday the 29th, at dinner, Madame ate as usual, and after dinner -she lay down on some cushions, as she often did when she was at liberty. -She had made me place myself near her,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'so -that her head was almost on me. An English painter was painting -Monsieur's portrait; we were talking about all sorts of things, and -meanwhile she fell asleep. During her nap she changed so considerably -that after watching her for a long time I was surprised at it, and -thought that her spirit must do a great deal towards adorning her -countenance, since it was so pleasant when she was awake and so little -attractive when she was asleep. But I was wrong in this reflection, for -I had several times seen her sleeping, and had never yet seen her less -lovely. When she awoke, she rose from the place where she had been -lying, but with so haggard a face that Monsieur was surprised and called -my attention to it. She then went away into the drawing-room, where she -walked up and down for some time with Boisfranc, Monsieur's treasurer, -and while talking to him, complained several times of the pain at her -side.' - -We are coming to the moment when any poisoning must have taken place; we -see already that the mischief was done. - -'Monsieur went downstairs to return to Paris. He found Madame de -Meckelbourg on the steps, and came up again with her. Madame left -Boisfranc and came to Madame de Meckelbourg. As she was speaking to her, -Madame de Gamaches brought to her, as well as to me, a glass of chicory -water that she had asked for some time before. Madame de Gourdon, her -tire-woman, gave it to her. She drank it, and then, replacing the cup on -the salver with one hand, she pressed her side with the other, saying, -in a tone that betokened severe pain, "Oh! what a dreadful twinge! Oh, -what a pain! I can bear it no longer!" - -'She reddened in uttering these words, and the next moment turned a -livid pallor, which surprised us all; she continued to cry out, and told -us to take her away, as she could no longer stand. We took her in our -arms; she tottered along half doubled-up; I held her while some one -unlaced her. She moaned all the time, and I noticed that she had tears -in her eyes. I was amazed and affected by it, for I knew that she was -the most patient creature in the world. Kissing the arms I was holding, -I said that she was evidently in great pain, and she told me I could not -imagine how great. She was put to bed, and as soon as she was there, she -cried out more loudly than she had yet done, and threw herself from one -side to the other like a person in infinite agony. Some one went off to -find her chief physician, Monsieur Esprit; he came, said it was colic, -and prescribed the ordinary remedies for such ailments. All the time the -pain was dreadful. Madame said that it was much worse than we thought, -and that she was dying, and begged some one to go in search of a -confessor for her.' - -The young princess believed that she was poisoned. A sort of antidote -was brought her in the shape of oil and powdered adder, which made her -vomit. After some hours of frightful agony, Henrietta of England expired -while Bossuet was reciting the last exhortations. - -Face to face with death, Madame displayed a greatness of soul to which -all who approached her have borne touching testimony. 'Madame was gentle -towards Death,' said Bossuet, 'as she had been with all the world. Her -great heart was neither embittered nor wrathful against the dread foe. -Nor did she face him with proud disdain, but was content to look him in -the face without emotion and to welcome him without distress.' - - -III - -This bare narrative of the facts would be sufficient to weaken the -opinion of those who believe that the Princess Henrietta died of poison. -The following observations will contribute to deprive it of all credit. -Writers are unanimously agreed about the fact that Madame could only -have been poisoned by the glass of chicory water given her by Madame de -Gamaches. Now as soon as suspicions awoke in the mind of Madame and her -circle, that is to say, the moment after the drink had been taken, -Monsieur ordered some of the water to be given to a dog; Madame -Desbordes, the princess's maid, who was heartily devoted to her, told -her that she had made the drink, and had herself drunk some of it, and -Madame de Meckelbourg also drank some. We are thus bound to acknowledge -that the famous chicory water could not have been poisoned. Monsieur J. -Lair, with his clear and vigorous mind, has well analysed the scene: -'The decoction of which so many persons had drunk was harmless; it was -the cup that ought to have been examined.' 'The details given by Madame -de la Fayette and others,' writes Monsieur de Boislisle, 'exclude the -idea of poison poured into the glass itself; and indeed Madame Palatine -says that what was poisoned was not the water itself, nor the vessel in -which it was made, but the cup which was reserved for the princess, and -which no one else would have dared to use.' - -It is a fact that the seventeenth-century poisoners sought to prepare -goblets and silver cups in such a way as to poison the persons who were -afterwards to use them. Among the constant friends of La Voisin, La -Bosse, La Chéron, and La Vigoureux, the most renowned sorceresses of the -period, we find a certain François Belot, one of the king's bodyguard, -making a specialty of this, and deriving a comfortable income from it, -until the day when this trade led him to the Place de Grève, where he -was broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679. His method of procedure was as -follows: 'He crammed a toad with arsenic, placed it in a silver goblet, -and then, pricking its head, made it urinate, and finally crushed it in -the goblet.' During this pleasant operation he mumbled his wicked -charms. 'I know a secret,' said Belot, 'such that in doctoring a cup -with a toad and what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink -from it afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be -done for, and the cup could only be disinfected by throwing it into a -hot fire. After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a -human being, but upon a dog, and I should intrust the cup to nobody.' -But it happened that a client of Belot's, being somewhat sceptical, got -a dog to drink out of the doctored cup, and found that the animal was -not harmed in the least; he even picked a violent quarrel with the -magician about the matter, taunting him with the worthlessness of his -wares. Belot spoke frankly to the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente: -'I know that the toad cannot do anybody any harm; what I did with the -silver cups and trenchers was done solely to get hold of such cups and -trenchers.' His skill, nevertheless, enjoyed a very substantial -reputation. At the same date the magician Blessis was believed to know -how to manipulate mirrors in such a way that any one who looked in them -received his deathblow. - -These facts seem mere childish folly under scientific investigation. The -knowledge people had of poisons in the eighteenth century was limited to -arsenic, antimony, and sublimate; it did not enable them so to poison a -cup as to cause sudden death to the person using it, without his being -aware of the poison at the moment of drinking it. The opinion of -Professor Brouardel on this point is explicit; and Dr. Legué, convinced -as he is of the poisoning of Madame, admits that the story of the cup -can only make any well-informed man smile. - -The conclusion is that as Madame could not have been poisoned by the -water she drank, or by the cup containing the water, she could not have -been poisoned at all. - - -IV - -'Her body was opened,' writes Bossuet, 'among a large concourse of -physicians and surgeons and all sorts of people, because, having begun -to feel extreme pain when drinking three mouthfuls of chicory water, -given her by the dearest and most intimate of her women, she said at -once that she was poisoned.' It was with the same idea that the English -ambassador attended the operation along with an English physician and -surgeon. - -After having shown that Madame could not have been poisoned, it remains -to settle what disease it was of which she died. Our task is simplified -by the marvellous study in which Littré proved that she succumbed to an -acute peritonitis, the immediate and inevitable result of the -perforation of the stomach by an ulcer. This study, Dr. Paul Le Gendre -tells us, is the finest extant example of a retrospective medical -demonstration. We have it now under our eyes; but we find it condensed -by the pen of the most elegant writer of our time, M. Anatole France, -who will allow us to borrow this quotation: 'Littré, an expert in -medical observation, does not hesitate to diagnose a simple ulceration -of the stomach, which Professor Cruveilhier was the first to describe, -and which Madame's physicians could not recognise because they knew -nothing about it. It is unquestionable that for some time Madame had -been suffering from abdominal pains after her meals. The liquid she took -on June 29 brought about the perforation of the ulcerated wall, and this -caused the terrible pain in her side and the peritonitis which we have -mentioned. The physicians who opened the body found, indeed, that the -stomach was pierced with a little hole; but as they could not account -for the pathological origin of this hole, they fancied after the event -that it had been made inadvertently during the autopsy, "upon which," -says the surgeon of the king of England, "I was the only one to insist." -The incident is reported as follows by the Abbé Bourdelot: "It happened -by misadventure during the dissection that the point of the scalpel -made an opening at the top of the ventricle, and many of the gentlemen -asked how it came about. The surgeon said that he had done it by -accident, and Monsieur Vallot said that he had seen when the cut was -made."' - -Littré objects, with reason, that it is difficult to make inadvertently -an incision with the point of a pair of scissors--there is no question -of a scalpel--in a tough and distended membrane like the stomach during -an autopsy. The illusion of the physicians present at the operation is -the more easily explained because in that lesion, as it is now known, -the edges of the opening are perfectly clean and sharp, very regular, so -that the hole seems to have been made artificially. Jaccoud points out -'the very sharp delimitation of the ulcer, the absence of inflammation, -and of peripheral suppuration.' 'The section of the tissues,' writes -Monsieur Bouveret, 'is so clean that, to adopt a classical comparison, -the ulcer appears as though cut out with a punch.' It varies in -dimensions from the size of a lentil to that of a five-franc piece. - -M. Anatole France admirably explains the state of mind of the physicians -who drew up the report of the autopsy. 'The French physicians were -afraid of finding in the viscera of the princess indications of a crime -which might throw suspicion on the royal family. They dreaded even -everything which lent itself to doubt, and thereby to malevolence. -Knowing that the least uncertainty as to the cause of death or the -condition of the corpse would be interpreted by the public in a sense -that would ruin them, they had reasons of self-interest and the zeal of -fear to urge them to explain everything. Now, in their inability to -connect with a normal pathological type a lesion unknown to them all, -and perhaps suspicious to some, it was much to their advantage to -explain this enigmatical wound as an accident during the autopsy. And we -can understand their believing what they wished to believe. The English -surgeons, as ignorant as they, accepted their conclusion in default of a -better.' 'The fact is,' says Littré in conclusion, 'that they were bound -to find a hole, and they did find it. All dispute was silenced in the -presence of three things: the sudden attack, the peritonitis, and the -presence of oil ['and of bile,' adds Dr. Le Gendre] which the reports of -the autopsy show to have been in the lower bowel.' In the lower bowel -was found, indeed, a substance which the reports of the French -physicians describe as 'fat like oil.'[13] It was, in fact, oil--the oil -which Madame had drunk as an antidote, and which had been discharged -from the stomach. - -Further, even supposing, against all probability, that the hole had -actually been made accidentally by young Félix, who was the operator, -all the details of Madame's health known before death, and the details -revealed by the autopsy, are so conclusive in favour of the diagnosis -of a simple ulcer ending in perforation, that we should be led to the -admission that there must have existed, in another part of the wall of -the stomach, another small hole which escaped the notice of the -physicians and surgeons present at the autopsy. There would have been -nothing surprising in this, for their attention was not directed to this -point. It might even be supposed that the scissors of Félix, if they had -really cut the wall of the stomach by inadvertence, only increased the -size of the natural perforation already existing. Allowance must indeed -be made for the state of putrid softening in which the organs are bound -to have been, the corpse having remained exposed all through a day of -intense heat. - -'To sum up, before June 29, there were gastric pains caused by -ulceration; on the 29th, bursting of the ulcer and acute peritonitis.' -Peritonitis is distinctly indicated by the reports. Such are the -conclusions of Littré: Dr. Paul Le Gendre, a most competent authority, -unhesitatingly confirms them, as also does Professor Brouardel, who -writes as follows: 'Admitting ulceration of the stomach, all the -phenomena supervene with classic exactitude.' - -If we refer to the works of the celebrated Cruveilhier, who was the -first to describe simple ulcers, we find by an interesting coincidence, -in the very case he presents as a type, the closest correspondence with -the illness of Madame, and a fresh proof of the soundness of Littré's -opinion. - -'Now since the complications following perforation of the stomach and -rapidly causing death,' writes Cruveilhier, 'supervene suddenly, and -sometimes directly after taking food or drink, the question of poison -has been raised pretty often. I have never seen a more remarkable case -in this respect than that of a coalman, aged twenty-three, and of an -athletic vigour, who, carrying a sack of coal, stopped at an inn and -drank a glass of wine. He went on his way; but a few minutes afterwards -was seized with horrible pains, was attended first at his own house, -then carried dying to the hospital of the Faubourg Saint-Denis; his case -showed every indication of peritonitis through perforation, and he died -three hours after his admission to the hospital, in full consciousness. -I was able to get from his own lips the valuable information that he had -been suffering from his stomach for several months, and that digesting -his food was always painful. The Coal-dealers' Society, convinced that -their comrade was the victim of poison, and that the agent of the -poisoning was the glass of wine taken immediately before he was attacked -by these symptoms, decided to bring an indictment against the -wine-merchant, and with this end required the autopsy to be made in -presence of a deputation from their body. It was a case of spontaneous -perforation through a simple ulcer in the stomach.' - -The 'estimate' of Littré (to use the phrase he himself uses to describe -his work) is thus confirmed in every way. Loiseleur thought fit to -object the rarity of the case. That is no argument: the case may be rare -and yet have been that of Madame. And besides, Loiseleur makes too much -of its rarity. Brinton estimates that perforation of the stomach in -cases of simple ulcer occurs in thirteen per cent., and that it is most -common in women under thirty. Madame was twenty-six. - -Loiseleur admits peritonitis, but thinks it was inflammation supervening -on a chill. 'Why,' he writes, 'does Littré pass by in absolute silence -the last words in the statement of Madame de la Fayette, quite as grave -and significant as the first?--"As it was extremely warm, she wished to -bathe in the river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he -could to prevent her; but in spite of all he said, she bathed on Friday, -and on Saturday was so ill that she did not bathe," and further on: "She -walked in the moonlight until midnight."' There is only one drawback to -Monsieur Loiseleur's theory, but that is a serious one: peritonitis as -an original malady, and especially peritonitis through chill, which -Loiseleur wishes to substitute for the disease diagnosed by Cruveilhier -and Littré, is no longer recognised by modern science. 'The last cases -which were thought to be of this kind,' says Dr. Paul Le Gendre, 'were -perforations of the appendix.' - -Let us come lastly to the work of Dr. Legué, _Médecins et -Empoisonneurs_, the most important part of which is occupied with a -minute study of the circumstances surrounding the death of Madame. -Monsieur Legué's conclusion is, poisoning by sublimate poured into the -famous chicory water. His study is interesting, like the whole book, but -his conclusions crumble away under the following considerations:-- - -1. Professor Brouardel writes: 'If the chicory water had contained the -smallest dose of sublimate, Madame would have pushed the glass from her -after the first sip. Sublimate has a revolting taste. In the medicinal -dose (one gramme to a litre) the taste is atrocious.' - -Madame had been taking chicory water for several days in the evening, -and this evening she drank it as usual. - -2. 'To kill a person,' adds Professor Brouardel, 'at least ten or -fifteen centigrammes are necessary. This dose corresponds to a quantity -of solution representing about 200 grammes of liquid. It seems -impossible for any one to imbibe that without being stopped by its -horrid taste.' - -Madame certainly did not drink 200 grammes of her chicory water; she -took a few sips only. - -3. 'Poisoning by sublimate,' writes the professor, 'produces lesions of -the abdominal mucous membrane, which could not have escaped the notice -of the physicians who made the autopsy.' - -We have five accounts of the autopsy, which are unanimous in stating -that the stomach, except for the little hole of which we have spoken, -was in a good condition. - -4. The facts on which Dr. Legué relies for his diagnosis of poison by -sublimate, and which he borrows from the account of the Abbé Bourdelot, -occurred, not after the drinking of the cup of chicory water, but -before. In transcribing the account in question, Monsieur Legué has -inadvertently omitted the passage: 'There is indication of the bile -having been accumulating for a long time,' where it may be clearly seen -from the following lines that the author is speaking of a state long -before the fatal attack. - -Thus Monsieur Legué's argument is in no way sustained. - -The historian may remark, finally, that Madame's daughter, Marie Louise, -the young Queen of Spain, died in 1689, almost at the same age as her -mother, after drinking a glass of iced milk, and on this occasion also -rumours of poison spread abroad. When Charles II, Madame's brother, died -somewhat suddenly, there was more talk of poison; and when the -granddaughter of Madame, the young and charming Duchess of Burgundy, was -stricken with the disease which carried her off, people believed that -she too had been poisoned. In earlier days, when Madame's mother, -Henrietta Maria of France, widow of Charles I, died on September 10, -1669, at her country house of Colombes, her physician Vallot had been -accused of accidentally poisoning her by giving her pills chiefly -composed of opium. - - * * * * * - -Thanks to the assistance of eminent masters like Professor Brouardel and -Dr. Paul Le Gendre, and armed historically with the learned -investigations of M. Arthur de Boislisle, we have been fortunate in -resuscitating the admirable study of Littré in all its striking -accuracy. The great writer concludes with an eloquent page, a hymn of -triumph in honour of modern science, 'which might perhaps have kept -Madame in that great place she filled so well.' We will end with the -same observation that we placed at the end of our study of the Iron -Mask,[14] in which we showed how the solution was indicated at least a -century ago, and remarked that, in these very problems which are -regarded as insoluble, history, handled with rigour and precision, gives -conclusions as certain as those of the exact sciences. - - - - -RACINE AND THE POISONS QUESTION - - -Monsieur Larroumet's book on Racine in the _Grands Ecrivains Français_ -series is a charming little work. In the first part he studies the -poet's life, and shows very accurately the influence exercised on his -art by the _milieu_ in which he lived. In the second part he studies -Racine's poetics with great ingenuity. The very style of M. Larroumet, -eminently refined and sober--we might call it pearl-grey in tone--with -little flaws here and there which, to our mind, enhance its piquancy, is -perfectly adapted to the author he is analysing. We get a clear picture -of what manner of man Racine was--sensitive and refined, all delicacy -and decorum. M. Larroumet, it is well known, excels in bringing vividly -before us the dwellings and the furniture of our great writers, -according to inventories made after their decease. In the case of -Racine he achieves another success, in the happiest manner. His picture -of the famous poet's family life, after he had renounced the stage, is -delightful:-- - -'In the midst of this family, which reproduced in charming variety the -traits of his own sensitive and restless nature, Racine practised all -the virtues of a good father. He became a child again with his Babet, -Fanchon, Madelon, Nanette, and Lionval; the two eldest alone, boy and -girl, did not bear these diminutives, out of respect for the rights of -seniority. He preferred the happiness springing from their society to -courting the great. - -'One day he had returned from Versailles, where he had gone to pay his -respects, when a squire of the Duke's brought him an invitation to -dinner for the same evening. "I shall not have the honour of dining with -him," he said; "I have not seen my wife and children for more than a -week, and they are looking forward to a treat in eating a very fine carp -with me to-day; I cannot give up my dinner with them." And he had the -carp brought up, adding: "Decide yourself if I can help dining to-day -with these poor children, who have made up their minds to regale me -to-day, and would have no more pleasure if they ate this dish without -me. I beg you to plead this reason forcibly with his Serene Highness."' - -Racine, as we know, after giving up writing for the theatre, subsided -into the most remarkable piety. But here again is a charming trait: 'I -remember,' says Louis Racine, 'processions in which my sisters were the -clergy, I was the rector, and the author of _Athalie_, singing with us, -carried the cross.' And the inseparable figure of the excellent Boileau, -who had then become as deaf as a post, appears close by: 'Monsieur -Despréaux,'[15] writes Racine to his son Jean Baptiste, 'entertained us -in the best of fashions; then he took Lionval and Madelon to the Bois de -Boulogne, joking with them, and telling them that he meant to lose them. -He did not hear a word of what the poor children said to him.' - -But before becoming this model paterfamilias, this pattern of piety and -virtue, Racine had spent an eminently brilliant and passionate youth. -Everybody knows that Du Parc and Champmeslé[16] were not content with -merely playing in his pieces. - -The amours of Racine and Mademoiselle Du Parc had a terrible development -in 1679, which was one of the reasons, if not the principal and the -determining reason, of the resolution then taken by the poet to abandon -the career of dramatic author. M. Larroumet recalls this page in his -life in the following terms:-- - -'The mysterious poison affair was being unravelled before the Chambre -Ardente. On November 21, 1679, one of the prisoners, La Voisin, brought -Racine into the case. She declared that "Racine, having secretly -espoused Du Parc, was jealous of everybody, and particularly of her, La -Voisin, with whom he was much offended, and that he had made away with -her by poison on account of his extreme jealousy; and that during Du -Parc's illness, Racine never left her bedside, that he drew a valuable -diamond from her finger, and had also stolen the jewels and principal -effects of Du Parc, which were worth a great deal of money." This is -assuredly nothing but the abominable invention of a ruined woman,' adds -M. Larroumet, 'one of those calumnies which malice, corruption, and -greed give rise to in the entourage of women of gallantry. Racine had -been compelled to forbid his mistress to receive La Voisin. From this -arose her furious wrath, and, eleven years afterwards, she tried to -avenge herself by implicating the poet in a formidable accusation. -Proofs she gave none, and the proceedings of the affair, published in -the _Archives de la Bastille_, contain no trace of any. However, a -letter written on January 11, 1680, by Louvois to Bazin de Bezons, ends -thus: "The orders of the king necessary for the arrest of Racine will be -sent to you whenever you ask for them." It is impossible to doubt that -the Racine in question was the poet. But no arrest was made. Racine had -been able to clear himself in the eyes of Louvois and the king.' - -This episode in the life of the great poet is worthy of arresting our -attention, so much the more because it was perhaps the cause of his -abandonment, to be for ever regretted, of a career on which he had -thrown the brightest lustre. - -It was neither Louvois nor Louis XIV who suppressed the _lettre de -cachet_ with which the deposition of La Voisin had threatened Racine. -Bazin de Bezons, a commissioner of the Chambre Ardente and member of the -Academy, determined to spare his colleague the affront of an arrest in -such circumstances, and thought he might well wait until the -denunciations of La Voisin were confirmed from another source. - -Racine, as a matter of fact, had been the lover of Du Parc, whose maiden -name was Marguerite Thérèse de Gorla, daughter of a surgeon of Lyons. La -Voisin knew her very intimately, and called her her 'gossip.' - -Here follows, word for word, the part of the celebrated examination of -La Voisin on November 21, 1679, so far as it relates to Racine:-- - -'Who made her acquainted with Du Parc, comedian? - -'She had known her for fourteen years. They were very good friends -together, and she knew all her affairs during that time. She had for -some time had the intention of declaring to us that Du Parc must have -been poisoned, and that Jean Racine was suspected. The rumour was -strong. What more especially gave rise to the presumption was that -Racine had always prevented her, who was the good friend of Du Parc, -from seeing her during the whole course of the illness of which she -died, although Du Parc constantly asked for her; but although she went -to see her, they had never been willing to let her in, and this was by -order of Racine, as she learnt from the stepmother of Du Parc, whose -name was Mademoiselle de Gorla, and from Du Parc's daughters, who are at -the Hôtel de Soissons, and informed her that Racine was the cause of -their misfortune. - -'Asked if he had ever proposed to her to do away with Du Parc by poison. - -'The proposal would have been well received. - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -for the same purpose. - -'She knew nothing about that. - -'Asked if she did not know a lame actor. - -'Yes, Béjart, whom she had only seen twice. - -'Asked if Béjart had not some spite against Du Parc. - -'No; and what she knew about Racine she obtained first from Mademoiselle -de Gorla. - -'Asked what De Gorla said to her, and strictly cross-examined. - -'De Gorla told her that Racine, having secretly espoused Du Parc [here -follows a repetition of the statement already made]; that she (Du Parc) -had not even been allowed to speak to Manon, her maid, who is a midwife, -though she asked for Manon and got some one to write asking her to come -to Paris to see her, as well as La Voisin herself. - -'Asked if De Gorla told her the manner in which the poisoning had been -carried out, and who had been made use of in the matter. - -'No.' - -Such were the declarations of La Voisin before the commissioners of the -Chambre Ardente. She repeated them exactly in her final examination -before the judges: 'She had known Mademoiselle Du Parc, the actress; had -been a friend of hers for fourteen years; her stepmother, named De -Gorla, had told her that Racine had poisoned her, and she only knew of -Du Parc's death when she saw the body at the door on the way to burial.' - -Finally, in the anguish of torture, La Voisin maintained her -declarations. - -'Asked if she knew nothing more concerning what she had said at the -trial about the poisoning of Du Parc. - -'She had told the truth in all that she had said on the subject.' - -M. Larroumet gaily and gracefully flings these declarations overboard as -'an abominable invention of a ruined woman.' We know La Voisin from what -has already been said about her above. It is inconceivable that such a -creature should have nursed a grievance against Racine for not having -allowed her to reach his sick mistress, to such an extent as to -fabricate against him, eleven years later, so monstrous an accusation. -This hypothesis is so much the more unlikely in that, if La Voisin had -wanted to ruin Racine by her charges, she would have formulated precise -and direct complaints against him; while she, as a matter of fact, only -repeated gossip she had heard. Then, too, Du Parc's daughters were still -alive, and it would have been easy to confront them with the sorceress. - -The examinations to which La Voisin was subjected were very numerous. -They brought out innumerable details on a multitude of crimes, in which -a very large number of people was implicated. There were many -confrontations. The declarations of the terrible sorceress were -submitted to careful investigation by examining magistrates like Nicolas -de la Reynie. All her declarations were found to be accurate. - -We have seen that, far from inventing imaginary charges for the purpose -of implicating in her own case people of high position, and so saving -herself (as some historians have insinuated), La Voisin endeavoured to -keep silence about the crimes of her clients--a curious piece of -professional discretion. And we venture to say that if she had declared -before the judges that she had given Racine poison to get rid of Du -Parc, we should have unhesitatingly believed her. But she did not say -anything of the kind. She declared simply that, in Du Parc's immediate -circle, it was the conviction that the actress had been poisoned by her -lover, and that, throughout her illness, he had prevented La Voisin from -approaching the bed, as well as Manon, her maid, 'who was a midwife.' - -It is further important to note--and this observation has not been made -by any historian--that the belief in Racine's having poisoned Du Parc -was shared by more than one prisoner before the Chambre Ardente. La -Voisin was not the only one to make the accusation before the judges, as -the following question put by one of the magistrates clearly shows: - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -(a sorceress and poisoner like herself) for the same purpose (the -poisoning of Du Parc by Racine).' - -A great part of the records of the Chambre Ardente having been -destroyed, as we have shown, we have no trace of the examination to -which the magistrate here alluded. Nevertheless it is testimony which -cannot be gainsaid. - -Such are the only documents in the great poison case in which Racine is -mentioned. Is it possible to derive any positive conclusions from them? - -The circumstances surrounding the death certainly appeared suspicious to -the family of the actress, and Racine was pointed at. The poet had -stationed himself at the bedside as a custodian rather than a nurse. He -prevented La Voisin, the sorceress, midwife, and procurer of abortion, -from approaching, and likewise Manon, also a midwife, and this in -defiance of the desire formally expressed by Du Parc. Why did the poet, -contrary to the wishes of the sick woman, prevent these women from -attending her? Du Parc was his mistress. Dr. Legué quotes the testimony -of Boileau, who was closely connected with Du Parc, stating that she -died as a result of childbirth. The chronicler Robinet describes Racine -as following 'more dead than alive' in the funeral procession. The -opinion expressed by Dr. Legué that Du Parc died through an illegal -operation is not unlikely. In such matters it is never possible to speak -with assurance, and when so great a personality as Racine is concerned, -one is bound to maintain the greatest reserve. This operation, if it -took place, brought on peritonitis, which, as in the case of Henrietta -of England, gave rise to suspicions of poison. We have seen that -abortions were at that time of frequent occurrence in Paris. - -Remorse for this crime would explain the amazing resolution to renounce -the theatre taken by Racine at the age of thirty-eight, in the fulness -of strength, at the height of his talent, in the heyday of success. It -would explain also the austerity and excess of his devoutness after this -singular conversion, and the horror he conceived for an art to which he -owed his glory and his fortune. - -Another question suggests itself, which we should like equally to be -able to solve with more certainty. Racine had the most intimate -relations with Du Parc, as the latter had with La Voisin. In 1679, the -year in which the great poisoning matter came to light, _Phèdre_ -appeared. Is it rash to suppose that, through his conversations with Du -Parc, La Voisin's confidante, the poet with his keen observation had -seen the features of the passion-tost marchionesses, criminals for love, -who had been the clients of the sorceresses, and that from these -fleeting suggestions he had succeeded in reconstructing their whole -characters? - -'Imagine,' writes Monsieur Brunetière, 'Racine's agitation when this -case became public. At Paris, in the heart of Paris--the Paris of Louis -XIV--in the Rue Verdelet or the Rue Michel-Lecomte, Orestes was -assassinating Pyrrhus, Roxane was selling herself to some witch to -secure the love of Bajazet or the death of Attalide; the famous Locusta -was not an invention of Tacitus, and every day some Phèdre was poisoning -some Hippolyte. And all these horrors were what he, Racine, had been for -ten years toiling to envelop and to disguise, as it were, with the charm -of his verse--murder and lust! adultery and incest! the delirium of the -senses! the madness of homicide! This was what for ten years he had been -endeavouring to win plaudits for, and when a Hermione or a Nero issued -from the Hôtel de Bourgogne[17] intent on committing the crime they had -seen glorified under their eyes--what, was it this that he called his -glory! O shame and agony and remorse! And from the moment that such a -question started up before the conscience of such a man, how think you -he could have answered but by quitting the stage? The truth even of his -own art rose up against him. What brought his pictures into condemnation -was just their accent of truth!' - - - - -THE 'DEVINERESSE' - - -_La Devineresse_, a fairy comedy by Donneau de Visé and Thomas -Corneille--the latter is usually called by his contemporaries Corneille -de Lisle--was represented at Paris in 1679, the year of the great poison -case. - -In his reports to the king and the Secretaries of State Nicolas de la -Reynie insisted on the necessity, not only of punishing the guilty, but -of preventing the spread and, if possible, the recurrence of crimes like -those which had been brought to light. We have shown how he had drawn -up, in collaboration with Colbert, the decree registered in the -Parlement on August 31, 1682, by which the magicians were expelled from -France, and by which, more especially, the making and the sale of -poisons necessary in medicine and in trade were placed under rigorous -regulations. This was a masterly work: as we have mentioned, these -regulations are in force to this day, after the lapse of two centuries. - -La Reynie thought that it was advisable, apart from these preventive -measures, to put the public on their guard against the dangerous -infatuation which had thrown so many pretty and passionate women body -and soul into the hands of the fortune-tellers. Let us recall the -declarations of one of the latter: 'Persons who look into the hand are -the ruin of all women, women of quality as well as others, because their -weakness is soon found out, and when discovered is taken advantage of, -and they are driven to whatever length the witches please.' As -lieutenant of police La Reynie had a general control of the theatres; he -revised and censored the manuscripts of the playwrights; he was in -constant touch with them. He was the friend of more than one writer of -talent, for the magistrate was doubled in him with the refined and -delightful man of letters, who had both delicate taste and an excellent -library. In this year 1679 he had particularly close relations with -Donneau de Visé, founder and editor of the _Mercure galant_, and -assuredly one of the most curious figures in our literary history. -Boursault had just written his witty comedy, also entitled the _Mercure -galant_, in which he directed lively and incisive satire upon the -journalism then at its dawn, which had already taken, under the -influence of Donneau de Visé, many of the characteristics of modern -journalism. - -The _Mercure_, said Boursault, is a delightful thing:-- - - 'On y trouve de tout, fable, histoire, vers, prose, - Sièges, combats, procès, mort, mariage, amour, - Nouvelles de Province et nouvelles de Cour.' - -Visé begged La Reynie not to authorise the representation of the piece -under the same title as the journal; La Reynie acquiesced, and -Boursault, putting a good face on the matter, called his piece _La -Comédie sans titre_. Moreover, Visé was in high favour at Court. When -Louis XIV saw the success of the _Mercure_, he hastened to award the -editor-in-chief a pension of 500 crowns, gave him apartments in the -Louvre, and appointed him his historiographer. Visé's pen became an -accommodating tool. - -Donneau de Visé was not only a journalist; he was a dramatic author, and -as a dramatic author he was, as he was in journalism, very modern. He -had found means of achieving a noisy notoriety by beginning with an -extremely violent attack on Corneille and Molière. Against the latter he -composed his comedy _Zélinde, ou la véritable critique de l'Echole des -Femmes et la critique de la critique_, in which he has left a portrait -of the poet that has become famous, and which is, in our eyes, not a -criticism but a splendid eulogy. 'I came down,' says a lace merchant; -'Elomire [an anagram on Molière] did not say a single word. I found him -leaning up against my shop in the attitude of a man in a dream. He had -his eyes fixed on three or four persons of quality who were bargaining -for lace; he appeared attentive to their words, and seemed by the -movement of his eyes to be scanning the depths of their souls to see -there what they did not say.' - -La Reynie thought of utilising the talent and the notoriety of the -dramatic author, and, not satisfied with granting him what he asked in -regard to the title of Boursault's comedy, he gave him in addition the -subject for a piece which was destined to obtain the greatest success. -To prove to demonstration in Paris, by means of a play to which the -public, excited by the great poison case, would flock in crowds, that -the pretended skill of magicians and sorceresses was only deception and -trickery, seemed assuredly the best way to dissuade the ingenuous mob -from dealing with them. From this idea issued _La Devineresse ou les -Faux enchantements_, a comedy represented for the first time in Paris by -the king's company on November 19, 1679, and published in the following -February. We have mentioned that Donneau de Visé was one of the pioneers -of the modern literary life, and _La Devineresse_ will be a fresh proof -of the assertion. Let us note first that Visé was the father of a -literary custom which is in these days highly popular, collaboration. -One of the masters of dramatic criticism, Edouard Thierry, writes on -this subject: 'Collaboration, an unfamiliar term which existed at most -as a term in jurisprudence, was nevertheless not absolutely unknown at -the theatre. There had been the _Psyche_ at the Palais-Royal, completed -by Pierre Corneille on the plan and under the direction of Molière; but -this was considered only as work done to order; it belonged in the end -to the person who hired the worker. There had been the _Plaideurs_ of -Racine, and some other successful parodies, composed by several hands, -it was said; but this was only an amusement, a literary picnic of gay -wits who stimulated each other to satire; nobody up to that time had -thought of raising the game to the level of an industry.' From the very -first, collaboration as a business gave results which exceeded the most -sanguine hopes. Visé, who had made his peace with the elder Corneille, -entered into partnership with his younger brother. This Thomas -Corneille, who was a remarkable vaudeville-writer and also a remarkable -scholar, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, has -been unjustly thrown into the shade by the glory of his elder brother. - -_La Devineresse_ was not merely a modern piece in respect of this new -trick of collaboration; it was the origin and doubtless the model of -those spectacular pieces, with shifting scenery and mechanical effects, -which give the Châtelet its success to-day. And we shall find, not only -that the idea sprang from this, but that the comedy contains scenes and -stage business which have come down to us in direct succession through a -line of such pieces--such as the talking headless man, the dismembered -man whose limbs rearrange themselves spontaneously, dropsy passing from -one subject to another, the fairy, wizard or devil who comes into a room -through the wall. - -Finally, the _Devineresse_ must occupy a select place in the annals of -the modern stage from the manner in which the authors managed to float -it. One of them, Donneau de Visé, was a journalist, and consequently a -master of the advertising art. He had the idea, among others, of getting -up for 1680 an almanac of the _Devineresse_, in which there was a large -engraved plate representing the principal scenes in the piece, the -features of the spectacle, grouped around a monstrous satanic figure; -these of course were the principal tricks in false magic performed by -the sorceress and her mate. These pictures are still in existence,[18] -and present to our eyes a curious representation, not only of the -theatrical scenes of the eighteenth century, but also of the interior of -the houses in which the sorceresses received their clients. These -circumstances, together with the striking actuality and the wit of the -authors, secured to the _Devineresse_ an unprecedented success, both -financially and in arousing the curiosity of the public. All Paris ran -to see it. Its representations extended over five months, and, what in -those days appeared remarkable, it ran for forty-seven nights in -succession; the first eighteen performances brought in double the usual -receipts. Seconded by the skill and talent of the authors, the -lieutenant of police had attained his end. - -The fortune-teller who is the chief character in the piece was none -other than La Voisin, whose name Corneille and Visé slightly disguised -in calling their sorceress Madame Jobin. In the comedy are to be found -echoes of the replies made by the sorceress before the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, a fact which indicates the share of La Reynie. The -principal ally of La Voisin was called Du Buisson, that of Madame Jobin -is called Du Clos. Their practices are the same, but turned to ridicule -by the authors, who make their Madame Jobin a mere schemer with no other -idea than to snap up the crown-pieces of the public. In the essentials -of the character we are thus very far from the terrible sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. - -In the course of the second scene of the second act, Madame Jobin -explains to her brother what her art consists in. - -'This is what the majority of men are. They swallow all the stupidities -retailed to them, and when once they have let themselves go, nothing is -capable of undeceiving them. See, my brother, Paris is the place in the -world where there are most clever people and also most dupes. The -sorceries I am accused of, and other things which would appear still -more supernatural, want a lively imagination to invent them and skill to -make use of them. It is through these that people have belief in us, -and magic and devils have nothing to do with it. The fright people get -into who are shown this sort of thing blinds them enough to prevent them -from seeing they are deceived. As to my meddling with fortune-telling, -as you will be told, that is an art in which the thousand folk who put -themselves every day in our hands make our information easy to get at. -Besides, chance accounts for the greater part of our success in this -line. All you want is presence of mind, and boldness and intrigue, to -know the world, to have people in your houses, to note carefully things -that happen, to get information on their little love affairs, and -especially to say a good many things when any one comes to consult you. -There is always one of them true, and two or three, said quite -haphazard, are enough to give you a vogue. After that it will be of no -good to say that you know nothing; no one will believe you, and, good or -evil, they make you talk.' - -The comedy itself is far from being without merit. You will not see in -it, to be sure, the breadth and the sureness of touch of that Molière -whom Visé had so much ridiculed, and the pleasure one may find in -reading it is spoilt by the feeling that Molière would have made so much -more of such a subject, in which so many laughable and so many moving -things are concentrated. Nevertheless, the majority of modern -extravaganzas would have to yield in many respects to the _Devineresse_, -as regards both construction and literary merit. In the course of the -preface to the published edition of their piece, the authors are careful -to speak of the famous rules ascribed to Aristotle without which no -dramatic piece could be constructed in the time of Racine and Boileau. -And in fact Visé and Corneille did observe them--these three famous -unities of time, place, and action. In an extravaganza, mark! That, -assuredly, is what an author of our day would consider the most -extravagant feature of their work. - -The preface states the subject of the comedy: 'A woman mad after the -sorceresses, a lover interested in opening her eyes about them, and a -rival who wishes to prevent their marriage, form a subject which opens -the plot in the first act, a plot only unravelled in the last act by -the unmasking of the false devil. The other actors, or at least a part -of them, are envoys of one or other of the two interested persons, who, -by the reports they give, augment the credulity of the countess or make -the marquis believe still more firmly that the sorceress is a knave. -Thus these characters cannot be regarded as unnecessary. It is true that -there are some who, knowing neither the countess nor the marquis, only -consult Madame Jobin on their own behalf; but, being as famous as she is -here depicted, was it likely that during twenty-four hours there only -came to her persons who knew one another or furthered the principal -action?' - -From the outset the comedy is well constructed, and the character of the -persons comes out clearly. The seasoning of the dialogue is a little -strong, indeed; but the wit springs always from an acute and delicate -power of observation. We may mention the scene in which the sorceress, -who easily dupes persons of cultivated mind and even those who never -relax their vigilance, is utterly nonplussed by the primitive -simple-mindedness of a village girl. The dénouement is brought about by -the presence of mind of the marquis, who seeks to undeceive the countess -whom he loves. The sorceress has foretold frightful misfortunes to the -countess if she should marry the marquis, being paid for so doing by a -Madame Noblet who has fallen deeply in love with the latter. The -marquis, armed with a pistol, springs at the throat of a devil whom the -sorceress has summoned through the wall. The devil falls on his knees: -'Mercy, sir; I am a good devil!' - -It remains to inquire whether the lieutenant of police had as much -success as the authors of the piece; that is, whether the practices he -wished to extirpate in France disappeared under his efforts. La Reynie -did succeed, as much as he could hope, in the struggle he had undertaken -against the poisoners. Magic, however, was a hardy plant. 'You would -never believe how desperately silly they are at Paris,' wrote Madame -Palatine on October 8, 1701. 'Everybody is anxious to become an adept in -the art of invoking spirits and other devilries.' Black masses were -again said in the outskirts of Paris, in circumstances so horrible that -'a beggar girl aged thirteen years, who had been taken there, died of -fright': she was buried in her clothes by sub-deacon Sebault, and -Guignard, curé of Notre Dame de Bourges, who had said the monstrous -office. And according to M. Huysmans, black masses are said to this very -day. - -When, two thousand years before our era, the Chaldean mages and the high -priests of Egypt on clear nights pierced the starry sky with their -patient gaze, did they read there that after thirty centuries a grave -magistrate and chief of police would fight their descendants by means of -a fairy extravaganza, with trap-doors and puns and transformation -scenes? - - - - -INDEX - - -Alacocque, Marguerite, 121. - -Bachimont, Robert de, alchemist, 137. - - -Barbier, archer of the guard, 55, 56, 58. - -Bazin de Bezons, 163. - -Belot, François, poisoner, 331. - -Black Mass, 131, 132, 155 ff. - -Bocager, law professor, 31, 32. - -Bodin's _Démonomanie des Sorciers_, 122-126. - -Boileau, 348. - -Boscher, Alexander, physician, 319. - -Bosse, Marie, sorceress, 119, 129, 172, 173, 179. - -Bossuet, 126, 219, 220, 313, 329, 333. - -Boucherat, Louis, 163. - -Bouillon, Duchess de, 275-279. - -Bourdelot, Abbé, physician, 318, 323, 334. - -Boursault, journalist, 363. - -Briancourt, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 19, 24-32, 35, 47, 68, 69. - -Brinvilliers, Antoine Gobelin de, 4, 33, 34, 51. - -Brinvilliers, Madame de, her career, 1-116. - -Brissart, Marie, 152-154. - -Brunet, Madame, 177-179. - -Bussy-Rabutin, 173-176, 239. - - -Cadelan, Pierre, banker, 140, 141. - -Castelmelhor, Count of, 137, 138. - -Chamberlain, Hugh, physician, 319. - -Chambre Ardente, the, 163-180, 275, 279, 291, 296, 302, 304. - -Chasteuil, F. Galaup de, alchemist, 133-142. - -Chevigny, Father de, 80, 93. - -Cluet, Sergeant, 38, 40. - -Colbert, 50, 257, 290. - -Coligny, Madame de, 173, 174. - -Corneille, Thomas, 361. - -Creuillebois, Sergeant, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Croissy, Marquis de, ambassador in England, 50. - - -D'Aubray, Antoine, brother of Madame de Brinvilliers, 18, 19, 20. - -D'Aubray, Antoine, father of Madame de Brinvilliers, 3, 13. - -Delamarre, attorney for Madame de Brinvilliers, 40, 41. - -Descarrières, political agent, 53. - -Desgrez, captain of police, 9, 52, 53, 107, 111, 119. - -Desoeillets, Mademoiselle, 221, 222, 252-254, 286. - -Donneau de Visé, dramatist, 361-365. - -Dreux, Madame de, 166-168. - -Du Parc, Mademoiselle, 349-359. - - -Exili, Italian poisoner, 9-11. - - -Filastre, Françoise, sorceress, 184, 249. - -Fontanges, Duchess de, mistress of Louis XIV, 237, 240, 250. - -France, Anatole, on 'Madame,' 334, 336. - - -Galet, Louis, poisoner, 234. - -Glaser, Christophe, chemist, 10, 12. - -Godin, _alias_ Sainte-Croix, _q.v._ - -Guibourg, Abbé, 155, 215-218, 227-231. - -Guillaume, executioner, 114. - - -Harvillier, Jeanne, witch, 123, 124. - -Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, 313-345. - -Hocque, Pierre, sorcerer, 126-128. - -Huysmans, J. K., on philosopher's stone, 138. - - -Joly, sorceress, 167, 168. - - -La Chaboissière, valet, 142, 143, 198, 304. - -La Chaussée, valet, 17, 18, 19, 21, 45, 47-49. - -La Fayette, Madame de, 314, 315, 320, 324-327. - -Lamoignon, President of High Court, 65, 68, 69, 76. - -La Reynie, Nicolas de, lieutenant of police, 12, 49, 52, 53, 121, 132, -144, 156, 176, 181, 182, 194, 202, 203-205, 231, 234, 245-247, 265-312, -361-374. - -La Rivière, 173, 176. - -Leféron, Marguerite, poisoner, 168-170. - -Leroy, poisoner, 215, 216. - -Lesage, magician, 130, 148, 149, 153, 159, 160-162, 184, 199-201, 203, -206, 221. - -Littré on death of 'Madame,' 335, 336. - -Louis XIV, 179, 181, 183-186, 208, 210, 212-214, 217, 219, 220, 255, -258, 264, 272, 283, 284, 296, 363. - -Louvois, 52, 180, 205, 210, 255, 284, 285, 287, 292, 307. - -Ludres, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 226, 235. - - -Maintenon, Madame de, 220, 226, 257. - -Mariette, Abbé, 199, 200. - -_Mercure Galant_, 362, 363. - -Michelet, 1-3, 79. - -Molière's _Amphitryon_, 209. - -Montespan, Madame de, 187-265. - -Montespan, Marquis de, 207-214. - -Monvoisin, Catherine, poisoner and sorceress, 120, 130, 144-159, 169, -170, 182, 201-203, 242-244, 349-358. - -Monvoisin, Marguerite, 193-195, 221, 227-231, 241. - - -Nadaillac, Marquis de, 15. - -Nivelle, advocate for Madame de Brinvilliers, 70-74. - - -Palatine, Madame, 192, 373. - -Palluau, Parlement counsellor, 57, 66. - -Pennautier, receiver for clergy, 37, 43, 44, 60-64, 115. - -Picard, commissary, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Pirot, Abbé, 5, 6, 75-115. - -Poulaillon, Madame de, 170-176. - - -Rabel, alchemist, 140-142. - -Racine, 346-360. - -Rébillé, Philibert, royal flutist, 177-180. - -Regnier, police officer, 46, 47. - -Romani, poisoner, 246, 248. - - -Sainte-Croix, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 6-12, 15, 17, 22, 25, 29, -30, 33, 35-38. - -Saint-Simon on Pennautier, 44, 61; - on Madame de Montespan, 189, 192, 259, 261-263; - on La Reynie, 266. - -Sévigné, Madame de, on Madame de Brinvilliers, 14, 34, 64, 111, 115; - on Madame de Dreux, 167; - on La Reynie, 180; - on Madame de Montespan, 188-190, 214, 223, 224, 225, 235, 236, 239; - on Madame de Maintenon, 226; - on poison cases, 273, 274; - on Duchess de Bouillon, 276-278. - -Soubise, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 224. - - -Trianon, sorceress, 243, 245. - - -Vallière, Louise de la, 188. - -Vanens, Louis de, alchemist, 118, 135-137, 142, 143. - -Vigoureux, Madame, 118. - -Vivonne, Duchess de, 272. - -Vosser, Marie (Madame de St. Laurent), 60, 63. - - -Wier's book on demonology 124, 125. - -Printed by T. and A. 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There is not a single trial that does not give a living -picture of a past age, and we recommend Mr. Stephen's selection with all -possible cordiality.' - -_DUCKWORTH and CO._ - -3 HENRIETTA STREET - -COVENT GARDEN, W.C. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] As the king's eldest brother was called. - -[2] At present 12 Rue Charles V. The house is now occupied by the -nursing sisterhood of the Bon-Secours. - -[3] [The then law courts of Paris.] - -[4] [The supreme judicial tribunal of France.] - -[5] [The criminal court.] - -[6] [The assassin of Henry of Navarre.] - -[7] - - ['into a sea profound - Where flowed earth's metals in a molten mass, - Would tinge and dye the whole in sunbright gold.'] - - -[8] [In the original, a play on the double meaning of _argent_--'silver' -and 'money.'] - -[9] [Second wife of 'Monsieur,' the king's brother.] - -[10] ['To share with Jupiter is no whit dishonouring.'] - -[11] [Madame de Montespan.] - -[12] Written in collaboration with Professor Paul Brouardel, Dean of the -Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and Doctor Paul le Gendre, physician to -the Tenon infirmary. - -[13] The report of Chamberlain, the English physician, says distinctly -that it was oil. 'The lower bowel was full of a bilious humour, with oil -floating upon it' (Mrs. Everett-Green's _Lives of the Princesses of -England_, vi. 589). This observation is important because Littré's -opinion has been disputed by Dr. Legué. 'Littré maintains that the -physicians noticed the presence of oil; but that is because he strains -an equivocal phrase in the report of the autopsy--"full to its utmost -capacity of a sanious, putrid, yellowish, watery substance, _fat like -oil_." Frankly, is this not giving to the text a signification which -never entered into the mind of the physicians?' (_Médecins et -Empoisonneurs_, pp. 255, 256.) Neither Dr. Legué nor Littré, however, -knew the English reports published by Mrs. Everett-Green. - -[14] _Legends of the Bastille_, p. 146. - -[15] [Boileau.] - -[16] [Two of the most famous actresses of the time.] - -[17] [The theatre so called.] - -[18] In a copy of the _Devineresse_ in the Arsenal Library. There are -others, a little different, in the large folio collection of almanacs in -the print department of the National Library. - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -exceded that of Exili=> exceeded that of Exili {pg 10} - -wedges in successsion=>wedges in succession {pg 49} - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Princes and Poisoners, by Frantz Funck-Brentano - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43238-8.txt or 43238-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/3/43238/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Princes and Poisoners - Studies of the Court of Louis XIV - -Author: Frantz Funck-Brentano - -Translator: George Maidment - -Release Date: July 17, 2013 [EBook #43238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="351" height="550" alt="bookcover" title="" /> -</p> - -<p class="cb">PRINCES AND POISONERS</p> - -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="c"><i>BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR</i></p> - -<p class="hang">LEGENDS OF THE BASTILLE. <span class="smcap">By Frantz Funck-Brentano.</span> With an Introduction -by <span class="smcap">Victorien Sardou</span>. Translated by <span class="smcap">George Maidment</span>. 1899. Crown 8vo. -Cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Contents.</span>—<span class="smcap">I.</span> The Archives; <span class="smcap">II.</span> History of the Bastille; <span class="smcap">III.</span> Life in -the Bastille; <span class="smcap">IV.</span> The Man in the Iron Mask; <span class="smcap">V.</span> Men of Letters in the -Bastille; <span class="smcap">VI.</span> Latude; <span class="smcap">VII.</span> The Fourteenth of July.</p> - -<p class="c">———</p> - -<p class="c">LONDON: DOWNEY AND CO., LIMITED.</p> -</div> - -<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> -<a href="images/frontispiece_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/frontispiece_sml.jpg" width="400" -style="border:double 6px gray;" -height="550" alt="PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE - -LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE - -(Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the painting by Mignard)" title="PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE<br /> - -<small>LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE<br /> - -(Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the painting by Mignard)</small></span> -<br /> -<a href="images/frontispiece_lg.jpg"> -<img class="enlargeimage" -src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" -alt="enlarge-image" -title="enlarge-image" -width="18" -height="14" /></a> -</div> - -<h1>Princes and Poisoners<br /> -<br /> -<small><small>STUDIES OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV</small></small></h1> - -<p class="cb">BY<br /><br /> -<big><big>FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO</big></big><br /> -<br /> -TRANSLATED BY<br /><br /> -<big><big>GEORGE MAIDMENT</big></big><br /> -<br /><br /> -<a href="images/colophon_lg.png"> -<img src="images/colophon.png" width="120" height="129" alt="colophon" title="colophon" /></a> -<br /> -<br /><br /> -L O N D O N<br /> -<i>D U C K W O R T H and CO.</i><br /> -3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.<br /> -1901</p> - -<p class="c"><br /> <br /> <br /> -<i>Second Impression, May 1901</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>All rights reserved.</i><br /> <br /> <br /> -</p> - -<h2><a name="PREFATORY_NOTE" id="PREFATORY_NOTE"></a>PREFATORY NOTE</h2> - -<p class="nind">T<small>WELVE</small> months ago I had the honour of introducing M. Frantz -Funck-Brentano to the English public by my translation of his <i>Légendes -et Archives de la Bastille</i>, and in my preface to that book I gave a -rapid sketch of his career which need not be repeated. If history is to -be continually reconstructed, or rather, perhaps, to undergo a process -of destructive distillation, there is no one more competent than M. -Funck-Brentano to perform the feat. We lose our illusions with our -teeth; the fables that charmed our childhood dissolve in the modern -historian’s test-tube, and the mysteries that fascinated our forebears -become clear with a few drops of his critical acid.</p> - -<p>In his former book, M. Funck-Brentano solved once for all the mystery -of the Man in the Iron Mask, showed up the impostor Latude in his true -colours, and gave us surprising information about the latter days of the -Bastille. In the present volume, the fruit of several years’ research -among the archives at the Arsenal Library, he conclusively dispels the -cloud of suspicion that has hung over the sudden death of Charles <span class="smcap">I</span>’s -winsome and ill-fated daughter Henrietta; gives us for the first time -the authentic history of that beautiful poisoner Madame de Brinvilliers; -suggests a very plausible explanation of Racine’s hitherto inexplicable -retirement from dramatic writing; and throws a strange light upon the -private history of Madame de Montespan and other fair ladies of Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span>’s Court. If it be objected that some of the details of the ‘black -mass’ and kindred abominations are too gruesome for print, it may be -urged in reply that these details are related with the cold impartial -pen of a serious historian, not coloured or heightened with a view to -melodramatic effect. ‘Truth’s a dog that must to kennel,’ says Lear’s -Fool; Louis the Magnificent tried to stifle the damning evidence against -his jealous, passionate mistress; when Time and patient research among -long-forgotten papers have combined to bring the truth to light, it -would ill become us to blame a scholar like M. Funck-Brentano for not -joining the monarch’s conspiracy of silence.</p> - -<p class="r"> -G. M.<br /> -</p> - -<p><i>November 1900.</i></p> - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td align="right" colspan="3"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="3"><a href="#MARIE_MADELEINE_DE_BRINVILLIERS">MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS—</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right" class="smcap"><a href="#I_HER_LIFE">I.</a></td><td class="smcap">Her Life,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_001">1</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right" class="smcap"><a href="#II_HER_TRIAL">II.</a> </td><td class="smcap">Her Trial,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_036">36</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right" class="smcap"><a href="#III_HER_DEATH">III.</a></td><td class="smcap"> Her Death,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_076">76</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_POISON_DRAMA_AT_THE_COURT_OF_LOUIS_XIV">THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV—</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right" class="smcap"><a href="#I_THE_SORCERESSES">I.</a></td><td colspan="2" class="smcap">The Sorceresses—</td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>The Dinner of La Vigoreux,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_117">117</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_121">121</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>The Practices of the Witches,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_128">128</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>The Alchemists,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_133">133</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>La Voisin,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_144">144</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>The Magician Lesage,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_159">159</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>The ‘Chambre Ardente,’</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_163">163</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td>Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> and the Poison Affair,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_180">180</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right" class="smcap"><a href="#II_MADAME_DE_MONTESPAN">II.</a></td><td class="smcap">Madame de Montespan,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_187">187</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td align="right" class="smcap"><a href="#III_A_MAGISTRATE">III.</a></td><td class="smcap">A Magistrate—Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie,</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_265">265</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#THE_DEATH_OF_MADAME">THE DEATH OF ‘MADAME,’</a></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_313">313</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#RACINE_AND_THE_POISONS_QUESTION">RACINE AND THE POISON AFFAIR,</a></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_346">346</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#THE_DEVINERESSE">‘LA DEVINERESSE,’</a></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_361">361</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td colspan="2"><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a>: -<span class="smcap"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#J">J</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#V">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a></span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_375">375</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<h2><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="margin:auto auto auto auto; max-width:50%;"> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA -REYNIE, <span class="smcap">Lieutenant-General of Police</span>. -Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the picture by -Mignard,</p> </td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#front"> <i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><p class="hang">PORTRAIT OF MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS, -after the sketch by Charles Lebrun,</p></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_112"> <i>facing page 112</i></a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="MARIE_MADELEINE_DE_BRINVILLIERS" id="MARIE_MADELEINE_DE_BRINVILLIERS"></a>MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS</h2> - -<h3><a name="I_HER_LIFE" id="I_HER_LIFE"></a>I. HER LIFE</h3> - -<p class="nind">I<small>N</small> the judicial annals of France there has never been a more striking or -celebrated figure than the Marquise de Brinvilliers. The enormity of her -crimes, the brilliance of her rank, the circumstances accompanying her -trial and death,—the story of which, as told by her confessor, the abbé -Pirot, is one of the masterpieces of French literature,—finally, the -strange energy of her character, which after her execution caused her to -be regarded as a saint by a portion of the population of Paris: all -these things will for long years to come attract to her the attention of -all who are interested in the history of the past.</p> - -<p>Michelet devoted to the Marquise de Brinvilliers a study in the <i>Revue -des Deux Mondes</i>. But his story is very inaccurate and leaves<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> many -gaps. From the historical point of view, the little novel of Dumas is -much to be preferred. The beautiful criminal has also been dealt with by -Pierre Clément in his <i>Police of Paris under Louis XIV</i>, and more -recently by Maître Cornu, in his discourse at the reopening of the -lecture-term of the advocates to the Court of Cassation. The writer of -the following pages has been able to make use of some fresh documents.</p> - -<p>In the trial of the Marquise de Brinvilliers there is much to interest -the historian. It was the first of the terrible poison cases which -caused such a sensation at the court of Louis <small>XIV</small> in the central years -of his reign, and in which the greatest names in France were implicated; -and Madame de Brinvilliers herself represents the most salient and most -easily studied features of a type of woman which, as we shall see, -repeated itself after her even on the steps of the throne.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Marie Madeleine—and not Marguerite—d’Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, -was born on July 22, 1630. She was the eldest of the<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> five children of -Antoine Dreux d’Aubray, lord of Offémont and Villiers, councillor of -state, <i>maître des requêtes</i>, civil lieutenant of the city, mayoralty, -and viscounty of Paris, and lieutenant-general of the mines of France. -Dreux d’Aubray was himself the son of a treasurer of France, originally -from Soissons. Madeleine d’Aubray received a good education, in a -literary point of view at any rate. The spelling of her letters is -correct, a rare thing with the ladies of her time. Her handwriting is -remarkable: bold, firm, like a man’s, and such as the observer would be -disposed to ascribe to an earlier period. But her religious education -was entirely neglected. At her interviews with her confessor on the eve -of her death she displayed an utter ignorance of the most elementary -maxims of religion,—those which people learn as children, and never -during the whole course of their life forget.</p> - -<p>Of moral principles she was absolutely destitute. From the age of five -she was addicted to horrible vices. At seven she was only by courtesy a -maiden. These are what Michelet calls ‘a young girl’s peccadilloes.<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a>’ As -time went on, she yielded herself to her young brothers. On these points -her own testimony renders mistake impossible. She will show herself to -have been endowed with an ardent, affectionate nature, which gave her -passions command of an amazing energy; but this energy acted only under -the empire of her passions, for she was powerless to resist the -impressions which penetrated and ere long dominated her. She was -extremely sensitive to affronts, and particularly to those which touched -her pride. She was one of those natures which under good guidance are -capable of heroic deeds, but which are also capable of the greatest -crimes when they are wholly abandoned to evil instincts.</p> - -<p>In 1651, at the age of one-and-twenty, Marie Madeleine d’Aubray wedded a -young officer of the Norman regiment, Antoine Gobelin de Brinvilliers, -baron of Nourar, the son of a president of the audit office. He was a -direct descendant of Gobelin, the founder of the celebrated manufacture. -Mademoiselle d’Aubray brought her husband a dowry of 200,000 livres, and -as he too was wealthy, the young<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> couple enjoyed what was for that time -a large fortune.</p> - -<p>The young marchioness was charming—a pretty, sprightly woman, with -large expressive eyes. She made a great impression by her frank, -decided, and vivacious manner of speaking. She was of an amiable and -cheerful temperament, and dreamed of nothing but pleasure. A priest -endowed with great keenness of judgment, who studied the Marquise de -Brinvilliers in terrible circumstances, has described her as follows:—</p> - -<p>‘She was naturally intrepid and of a great courage. She appeared to have -been born with inclinations towards good, with an air of complete -indifference, with a keen and penetrating intellect, forming clear views -of things, and expressing them in words few and fit but very precise; -wonderfully ready in finding expedients for getting out of a difficulty, -and quick to make up her mind upon the most embarrassing questions; -frivolous, moreover, with no application, uneven and inconstant, -becoming impatient if the same subject were often talked about.<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a></p> - -<p>‘Her soul had something naturally great—a composure in face of the most -unexpected emergencies, a firmness that nothing could move, a resolution -to await and even suffer death if need be.</p> - -<p>‘She had thick and beautiful chestnut hair, with comely and well-rounded -features—her eyes blue, tender, and of perfect beauty, her skin -extraordinarily white, her nose well-shaped enough; nothing in her -countenance was unpleasing.</p> - -<p>‘Sweet as her face naturally appeared, when some vexatious idea crossed -her imagination she showed it plainly by a grimace that might at first -sight scare you; and from time to time I noticed contortions that -bespoke disdain, indignation, and scorn.</p> - -<p>‘She was of a very slight and dainty figure.’</p> - -<p>To the Marquis de Brinvilliers luxury and large expenditure had become -second nature; he loved gaming and pleasure generally; and his marriage -was very far from banishing his joyous habits. In 1659 he formed a close -intimacy with a certain Godin, known more often as Sainte-Croix, a -captain of horse in the<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> Tracy regiment, originally from Montauban, and -said to be a by-blow of a noble Gascon family. Sainte-Croix was young -and handsome; ‘endowed,’ says a memoir of the time, ‘with all the -advantages of intelligence, and perhaps, too, with those qualities of -heart under whose empire a woman rarely fails, in the long-run, to -fall.’ In after days, Maître Vautier had to sketch the portrait of -Sainte-Croix in the course of an address before the Parlement. -‘Sainte-Croix,’ he said, ‘was in poverty and distress, but he had a rare -and singular genius. His countenance was prepossessing, and gave promise -of intelligence. Such indeed he had, and of such sort as to give -universal pleasure. He took his pleasure in the pleasure of others; he -entered into a religious scheme as joyfully as he accepted the -suggestion of a crime. Keenly sensitive to insult, he was susceptible to -love, and in love jealous to madness, even of persons on whom public -debauchery assumed rights that were not unknown to him. His extravagance -was amazing, and supported by no occupation; for the rest, his soul was -prostituted to every form<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> of crime. He dabbled also in external piety, -and it has been claimed that he wrote devotional books. He spoke -divinely of the God in whom he did not believe, and favoured by this -mask of piety, which he never removed save with his friends, he appeared -to participate in good deeds while really immersed in crime.’ Though he -was an officer and married, Sainte-Croix sometimes assumed the garb and -the title of Abbé.</p> - -<p>Sainte-Croix was a brilliant and gallant cavalier; and the Marquise de -Brinvilliers, with her blue eyes and dainty figure, was the most -charming creature in the world. ‘Lady Brinvilliers,’ observes Vautier -the advocate, ‘did not make a mystery of her amour; she gloried in it in -society, whence there resulted much <i>éclat</i>.’ She gloried in it also -before her husband, who responded by boasting of his own love for other -ladies; but as she ventured also to brag about it before her father, the -civil lieutenant, a man of the old school, he, strong in the rights with -which ancient customs endowed a father, obtained a <i>lettre de cachet</i> -against his daughter’s lover. On March 19, 1663, Sainte-Croix was -arrested ‘in the marquise’s own<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> carriage as he sat by her side,’ and -was thrown into the Bastille.</p> - -<p>Various writers who have dealt with these facts depict Sainte-Croix as -the prison companion of the famous Exili, from whom he learnt the secret -of Italian poisons. Restored to liberty, Sainte-Croix is said to have -handed the terrible prescriptions to his mistress and others, who in -their turn spread them through France.</p> - -<p>We find this opinion expressed in the documents of the time, among -others in the speech delivered by Maître Nivelle before the Parlement, -on behalf of Madame de Brinvilliers.</p> - -<p>Exili, whose real name was Eggidi or Gilles, was an Italian gentleman -attached to the service of Queen Christina of Sweden. It is true that he -was confined in the Bastille at the same period as Sainte-Croix. He -remained there from February 2 to June 27, 1663; Sainte-Croix was there -from March 19 to May 2. A captain of police named Desgrez—who will play -an important part in the sequel—met Exili on leaving prison with an -order to conduct him to Calais and embark him for<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> England; but, whether -Exili gave him the slip on the way, or that he had no sooner reached -England than he returned to France, we soon find the Italian again in -Paris, and in the house of Sainte-Croix himself, with whom he stayed for -six months. After all, it was not Exili who trained Sainte-Croix in the -‘art of poisons,’ to adopt the phrase of the time. Long before he -entered the Bastille the young cavalry officer had acquired a knowledge -of poisons which far exceeded that of Exili. He owed it to a celebrated -Swiss chemist named Christophe Glaser, who had set up an establishment -in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he had attained a considerable -standing, after the publication in 1665 of a <i>Treatise on Chemistry</i>, -which had a noteworthy success at the time, and was often reprinted and -translated. Glaser was apothecary in ordinary to the king and -Monsieur,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and demonstrator in chemistry to the Jardin des Plantes. He -was, moreover, a scientist of real merit. Sulphate of potassium, which -he discovered, long bore his name. Glaser was the principal, probably -the only<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> person who furnished Sainte-Croix and his mistress with -poisons. In their correspondence the two lovers call the poisons which -they used ‘Glaser’s recipe.’ These poisons, however, as we shall see, -were very simple; in these days they would appear clumsy. Exili, who -goes out of our story, remained connected with Queen Christina, and in -1681 made an excellent marriage when he wedded the Countess Ludovica -Fantaguzzi, cousin of Duke Francis of Modena.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>As soon as Sainte-Croix left the Bastille he renewed his relations with -the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her passion had only been heightened by -the imprisonment of her lover. Wounded in her pride, she felt the birth -within herself of an implacable and violent hatred of her father. Her -dissipations, her gaming, her wild flings in her lover’s company (she -paying expenses, after the fashion of that period), had embarrassed her -fortune. ‘I accuse myself,’ she said in her confession, ‘of having given -a great deal of my wealth to this man, and he ruined me.’ The desire of -attaining possession<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> of her paternal inheritance, and the yearning, -growing day by day more imperious, for wreaking vengeance on her father -for the affront put upon her, suggested to her a frightful crime. There -might frequently have been seen, drawing up at the market-square of -Saint-Germain, a carriage from which alighted a young officer and a -fashionable lady. They went on foot to the Rue du Petit-Lion, in which -Glaser the chemist lived. Arrived at his house, they sought a retired -room. The neighbours, puzzled by these strange goings-on, spoke of false -money. Soon this young lady might have been seen, under the edifying -appearance of piety and religion, going into the hospitals; she bent -over the beds of the patients with words of gentleness and affection; -she carried them confections, wine, and biscuits; but the patients whom -she approached inevitably succumbed, ere long, in horrible anguish. ‘Who -would have dreamt,’ writes Nicolas de la Reynie, the lieutenant of -police, ‘that a woman brought up in a respectable family, whose form and -constitution were delicate and who in appearance was sweet-natured, -would have made an amusement<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> of going to the hospitals to poison the -patients, for the purpose of observing the different effects of the -poison she gave them?’ She poisoned her own servants, too, ‘to try -experiments.’ ‘Françoise Roussel says that she has been in the service -of Lady Brinvilliers. The latter one day gave her some preserved -gooseberries to eat, on the point of a knife, and soon afterwards she -felt ill; she gave her also a moist slice of ham, which she ate, and -since then she has had severe abdominal pains, feeling as though her -heart were being stabbed.’ The poor woman was ill for three years.</p> - -<p>When the marquise had tested the strength of ‘Glaser’s recipe,’ and had -noted the inability of the surgeons to discover traces of poison in the -corpses, the poisoning of her father was resolved on.</p> - -<p>As Whitsuntide drew on in the year 1666, Antoine Dreux d’Aubray, who had -been suffering for some months from strange disorders, set out for his -estates at Offémont, a few leagues from Compiègne. He asked his daughter -to bring her children and spend a few weeks with him, and when she -arrived he scolded<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> her affectionately for having been so long in -coming. On the day after her arrival his sickness was redoubled; ‘he had -great vomitings, continuing with increasing violence till his death,’ -which occurred at Paris, whither he had himself transported in order to -secure the services of the best physicians, and whither his daughter had -not failed to accompany him. Madeleine de Brinvilliers confessed -afterwards that she had poisoned her father twenty-eight or thirty times -with her own hands, and at other times by the hands of a lackey named -Gascon, presented to her by Sainte-Croix. The poison was given both in -water and in powder, and the process lasted eight months. ‘She could not -manage it,’ she said. It is clear that the poison she employed was -simply arsenic. When in the course of time the facts were known, all -Europe clamoured with indignation at the thought of this woman heaping -caresses on her dying father, and responding to his embraces by pouring -poison into the medicines she handed him with her engaging smile. ‘The -greatest crimes,’ said Madame de Sévigné, ‘are a mere trifle in -comparison with being eight months poisoning<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> her father and receiving -all his caresses and tendernesses, to which she replied by doubling the -dose. Medea was nothing to her.’</p> - -<p>D’Aubray died at Paris on September 10, 1666, aged sixty-six years. The -physicians who made an autopsy of the body attributed death to natural -causes; but the rumour at once got abroad that he had died of poison. -The elder brother of the marquise, whose name was the same as his -father’s, succeeded him in the family estates and the office of civil -lieutenant.</p> - -<p>Delivered thus from a formidable censor, Madame de Brinvilliers no -longer put any restraint on her debaucheries. She had several lovers at -once, in addition to Sainte-Croix. By him she had ‘two children among -her own'; she was the mistress of F. de Pouget, Marquis de Nadaillac, -captain of light horse, and cousin of her husband. Another lover was a -cousin of her own, by whom she had a child. Finally, she granted her -favours to a mere youth, her children’s tutor, of whom there will be -much more to say. In spite of this, she felt keenly irritated when<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> -Sainte-Croix appeared to be unfaithful to her; and when she learnt that -her husband was keeping a woman named Dufay, in her rage she thought of -stabbing her. ‘She had naturally a great delicacy of feeling,’ her -confessor was to write of her, ‘and was highly sensitive on a point of -honour and in regard to injuries.’</p> - -<p>Her expenses and prodigalities redoubled, and it was not long before her -share of her father’s wealth had melted away. At this point occurs an -incident which bears witness at once to the distress into which she had -fallen and to the savage energy of her character. In 1670, a property -belonging to herself and her husband at Norat, was sold by order of the -Court to satisfy their creditors; in her ungovernable fury the marquise -attempted to set the place on fire.</p> - -<p>The greater part of her father’s estate had come to her two brothers, -one of whom had been appointed civil lieutenant, as we have seen; the -other was councillor to the Court. Madame de Brinvilliers had already -tried to procure the assassination of the elder by two<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> hired bravoes on -the road to Orleans—one of those audacious strokes which to the end of -her days she never ceased to devise. She declared at this moment that -her brother was ‘no good.’ Pressed by need of money, she ‘resolved on -fresh poisonings so as not to lose the fruits of the first.’ -Sainte-Croix was fully agreed as to the necessity of the proceedings; -but before he set about carrying them into effect he got from his -mistress two promissory notes, one for 25,000, the other for 30,000 -livres.</p> - -<p>In 1669, Madame de Brinvilliers succeeded in introducing a wretch named -Jean Hamelin, commonly known as La Chaussée, into her brother the -councillor’s household as a footman. The two brothers lived in the same -house, and La Chaussée had every facility for giving poison to both. One -day when he was waiting at table, the dose he put into the glass he was -handing was so strong that the civil lieutenant rose up in great -agitation, crying, ‘Ah, wretch, what have you given me? I think you want -to poison me!’ And he bade his secretary taste the stuff. The latter -took some on a spoon and declared that he<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> detected a strong taste of -vitriol. La Chaussée did not lose his head. ‘No doubt it is the glass -Lacroix (the valet) used this morning,’ he said, ‘when he took -medicine.’ And he hastily threw the contents of the glass into the fire.</p> - -<p>The civil lieutenant went to his estate at Villequoy in Beauce, to spend -Easter with his family. In 1670 Easter fell on April 6. His brother the -councillor made one of the party, and took La Chaussée with him as his -only attendant. While they stayed at Villequoy La Chaussée helped in the -kitchen. One day a tart came to table, of which all who ate were very -ill on the morrow, while the others remained quite well. On April 12 -they returned to Paris, and the civil lieutenant had the appearance of a -man who had suffered great pain.</p> - -<p>The details of the poisoning are horrible. As D’Aubray did his best to -restore his health, the poison did not take effect so quickly as usual; -he was very difficult to kill. La Chaussée, assiduous in his attentions, -gave his master poison at every possible opportunity.<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> His body was so -offensive during his illness that it was impossible to remain in the -room with him; and he was so irritable that no one could approach him. -Madame de Brinvilliers rarely showed herself, but sent her pious sister -to take her place. Meanwhile La Chaussée was unremitting in his care; no -one but him could change the bedclothes or the mattress. The unhappy man -suffered unspeakable torture. La Chaussée could not help exclaiming: -‘This fellow holds out well! He’s giving us a good deal of trouble! I -don’t know when he will give up the ghost!’</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers was at Sains in Picardy. She told Briancourt, the -tutor who had become her lover, that the poisoning of her brother the -councillor was in progress. She explained to him that she wanted to set -up ‘a good house'; that her eldest son, who was already nicknamed the -President, would one day fill the post of civil lieutenant, and added -that ‘there was still a good deal to be done.’ These sentiments were -sincere. Madame de Brinvilliers endeavoured to bring<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> up and establish -her children—'who were her own flesh,’ as she said—in conformity with -the brilliant dreams she nourished for the future of her ‘house.’ True, -she began to poison her eldest daughter, but that was because she -thought her a ninny. She was seized with regret, however, and made her -drink milk as an antidote.</p> - -<p>Such was one of her dominant preoccupations. To this must be added her -longing to live with ‘honour,’ that is, with a brilliant household, with -beautiful ornaments, keeping up a great style, and entertaining her -lovers with magnificence. She longed for ‘the glory of the world,’ a -phrase continually on her lips. It was for ‘honour’ that she poisoned so -many people. Such was her own statement.</p> - -<p>The martyrdom of her brother the civil lieutenant lasted three months. -‘He grew thin,’ declares his physician, ‘and emaciated; lost his -appetite, often vomited, and had burning pains in the stomach.’ He died -on June 17, 1670. The councillor died in the following September. In -this case, Dr. Bachot, the civil lieutenant’s usual attendant, along -with surgeons<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> Duvaux and Dupré and the apothecary Gavart, declared -after an autopsy that the deceased had been poisoned; but so little were -the perpetrators of the crime suspected that La Chaussée drew a hundred -crowns left him by his master as a reward for his faithful service.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>We must follow the career of the marquise after the poisoning of her -father and brothers, to understand to what depths her ill-regulated -passion had thrown this woman, who belonged to the highest ranks of -society by her name, her fortune, and the position of her family, and -who was so charmingly endowed by Nature.</p> - -<p>She was at the mercy of a lackey, who held her honour and her life in -his miserable hands. ‘She used to receive him privately in her -sitting-room, where she gave him money, saying, “He is a good fellow, -and has done me great serviceâ€; and she caressed him.’ Visitors coming -upon her unawares found the marquise ‘in great familiarity with La -Chaussée,’ and ‘she made him hide behind her bed when the Sieur Cousté -came to see her.<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a>’</p> - -<p>Sainte-Croix was a more formidable accomplice. What must have been the -agony of this proud and passionate woman when she understood little by -little that this man, to whom she had sacrificed everything, had seen in -her only an instrument of his own pleasure and fortune, and now profited -by his mastery of her secrets to squeeze money out of her by the most -vulgar methods of intimidation! Sainte-Croix had locked up in a small -box, which was to become famous, the letters, thirty-four in number, -sent him by the marchioness, the two promissory notes signed by her -after the murder of her father and brothers, and several bottles of -poison. ‘The said Lady Brinvilliers coaxed Sainte-Croix to give her his -box, and wished him to give her her note for two or three thousand -pistoles; otherwise she would have him poniarded.’ The woman speaks out -in this last phrase. At other times, desperate, frantic with terror, she -thought of poisoning herself. She implored Sainte-Croix to give her the -box, and when she received no answer, sent him this touching note: ‘I -have thought it best to put an end to my life, and I have<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> therefore -taken this evening what you gave me at so dear a price—the recipe of -Glaser; by which you will see that I have willingly sacrificed my life -to you; but I do not promise you, before I die, that I will not await -you somewhere to bid you a last farewell.’ In the last line she becomes -herself again; there you have the menace of the offended woman.</p> - -<p>What scenes for a romancer to write! One day, by way of reply to these -cries of blood, Sainte-Croix made her swallow poison. It was arsenic; -but the pain she felt warned her immediately, and she absorbed great -quantities of warm milk and so saved herself. She was ill from the -effects for several months. She declared after the death of Sainte-Croix -‘that she had done what she could to get the box from him while he was -alive, and if she had succeeded, she would afterwards have cut his -throat.’</p> - -<p>Like all criminals, Madame de Brinvilliers was dominated by the -unconquerable impulse to lead the conversation continually to the -subject of her crimes. She would talk about poisons to any one she met. -Her servants<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> found bottles of arsenic in her dressing-room. One day, -when very merry—she had taken too much wine—she went up to her room -carrying a sort of casket in her hand, and meeting one of her servants -told her ‘that she had the wherewithal to wreak vengeance on her -enemies, and that there were many inheritances in that box'—a terrible -phrase which was repeated at her trial and became a catchword; poison -was called afterwards ‘powder of inheritance.’ ‘When she came to her -senses shortly afterwards the marquise told her servant that she did not -know what she was saying when she spoke of inheritances, and that her -troubles were sending her out of her mind.’ She fancied that she had -also betrayed herself before her maid, Mademoiselle de Villeray, and it -is possible that in 1673, to secure her silence, she poisoned her too.</p> - -<p>Little by little she came to reveal her crimes in all their details to -Briancourt. In the course of her conversations with him, she displayed -no regret at the death of her brothers, whom she despised, but she often -wept when speaking of her father. ‘On the morning after one of these<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> -confidences,’ said Briancourt before the judges, ‘the Marquise de -Brinvilliers rushed into my room like a madwoman, and told me that she -much mistrusted me, having confided to me matters of the utmost -consequence, in which her life was involved. I told her that I would -never speak of the things confided to me, but I begged her, with tears -in my eyes, that if she was not satisfied with my conduct she would -allow me to return to Paris. The lady replied: “No, no,—if you will -only be discreet; I will make your fortune, and I am sure of your -discretion.†About the same time the lady fetched Sainte-Croix back, and -they held long conversations together. He showed me the greatest marks -of friendliness, assuring me of his services, and begged me to watch -over the little boy, of whom he was fond.’ We know by Madame de -Brinvilliers’ own confession that this little boy was actually -Sainte-Croix’ child.</p> - -<p>This deposition of Briancourt constitutes one of the most curious -documents in our possession. This man was well disposed and at heart -upright, but lacked backbone. His terrible mistress ruled and awed him. -Yet he had<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> flashes of that boldness into which feeble natures are -occasionally drawn. After having poisoned her father and brothers the -marquise had still to get rid of her sister, Thérèse d’Aubray, and her -sister-in-law, Marie Thérèse Mangot, widow of the civil lieutenant. That -is what ‘remained to be done.’ ‘Seeing the imminent peril of -Mademoiselle d’Aubray and even of Madame d’Aubray (though the widow’s -danger was not so near as the younger lady’s), and because La Chaussée -had not yet entered the house of Madame d’Aubray, and Madame de -Brinvilliers said that she wished the widow’s business to be managed in -two months or not at all, he (Briancourt) begged the marquise to take -care what she was at, said that she had cruelly put her father and -brothers to death and wished to do the same with her sister; that he had -never come upon an example of such cruelty in all the annals of -antiquity, and that she was the cruelest and wickedest woman that ever -had been or would be; that he begged her to reflect on what she meant to -do, and to remember how that wretch Sainte-Croix had ruined her and her -family; that he saw no safety for her,<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> but sooner or later she would -perish; that he himself would never allow the murder of Mademoiselle -d’Aubray, even though she had once written to Madame de Brinvilliers a -letter in which she accused him of being a rogue and rake.’ It was -unquestionably Briancourt’s attitude which saved the lives of Madame de -Brinvilliers’ sister and sister-in-law; he had further warned -Mademoiselle d’Aubray, through the marquise’s maid Mademoiselle de -Villeray, to be on her guard. In her confession the marquise declared -that if she had thought of poisoning her sister it was out of hatred, by -way of revenge for remarks she had made to her about her conduct.</p> - -<p>Briancourt had only succeeded in diverting the peril upon himself. -Madame de Brinvilliers resolved to rid herself of a lover who responded -to her confidences by playing the censor. The customary means, poison, -was obviously the first to suggest itself. ‘Sainte-Croix,’ says -Briancourt, ‘had introduced into the Brinvilliers household a porter -related to La Chaussée, and a lackey named Bazile, who was -extraordinarily assiduous in serving me with food and drink;<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> but seeing -these attentions and, further, some sign of roguery in this fellow, I -handled him so roughly that Madame de Brinvilliers had to dismiss him.’</p> - -<p>There followed a remarkably romantic scene, as Briancourt described it -before the court.</p> - -<p>‘Two or three days after Bazile’s departure, Lady Brinvilliers told me -that she had a very handsome bed, and hangings embroidered to match; -that it was a bed which Sainte-Croix had pawned and which she had -redeemed. She had it put up in her large room, where there was a close -and wainscoted chimney-piece, and told me that I must come that night -and sleep in that bed, and that she would expect me at midnight, but -that I must not come earlier, because she had to arrange with her cook. -Instead of going down at midnight to a gallery which commanded the -windows of the room, I came down at ten o’clock, and looking through the -windows into the room, the curtains not being drawn, I saw the lady -walking up and down and dismissing all her servants.’</p> - -<p>We may remark in passing that this gallery still exists at the present -day in the mansion<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> inhabited by Madame de Brinvilliers in the Rue -Neuve-Saint-Paul.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<p>‘About half-past eleven,’ continues Briancourt, ‘Lady Brinvilliers, -having undressed and put on her dressing-gown, took a few turns in the -room, holding a torch in her hand; then she went to the chimney-piece, -which she opened. Sainte-Croix stepped out, dressed in rags, with a -worn-out jerkin and an old hat, and kissed the lady, and for a quarter -of an hour they talked together. Then Sainte-Croix went back into the -chimney-piece, and the lady pushed its two folding-doors to, so as to -shut him in, and then came to the door, in some agitation; my own -agitation was no less. Should I enter, or should I go away? But the lady -seeing my confusion said: “What is the matter? Don’t you want to come?†-I saw much rage in her countenance, which was changed in an -extraordinary degree. I went into the room, and the lady asked me if the -bed was not very fine; I said that it was, and the lady rejoined, “Let -us lie down then.†Then the marquise got<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> into bed. I had placed the -torch on a stand, and she said, “Undress yourself and put out the light -very quickly.†I pretended to be undoing my shoes, desiring to know how -far the lady’s cruelty would go, and she said, “What is the matter with -you? You look very solemn.†Then I rose and, giving the bed a wide -berth, said to the lady: “Ah, how cruel you are! What have I done that -you want to have me murdered?†The lady sprang out of bed and flung -herself upon me from behind; but freeing myself, I went straight to the -chimney-piece. Sainte-Croix came out, and I said to him: “Ah, villain, -you have come to stick a knife into me!†and as the torch was burning, -Sainte-Croix made to flee, while Lady Brinvilliers rolled on the floor -declaring that she would live no longer, but die; at the same time she -sought her case of poisons, opened it, and was on the point of taking -poison. I prevented her and said, “You wanted to get me poisoned by -Bazile, and now you want to get me stabbed by Sainte-Croix.†The lady -threw herself at my feet, declaring that such had not happened to me and -would never<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> happen, and that she would pay with her death for what she -had just done—that she saw clearly that it was all up with her and that -she could not survive such an occurrence. I told her that I would -forgive her and forget all about what she had done, but that I was -determined to go away in the morning, since they wanted to get rid of -me, and I made the lady promise that she would not poison herself. I -remained in the room until six o’clock in the morning with the lady, -whom I compelled to go back to bed, I remaining on a sofa beside the bed -near her.’</p> - -<p>After this scene, Briancourt at once set about procuring pistols, -deeming them necessary to his safety; then he went to ask the advice of -Monsieur Bocager, a professor of the law school, who had introduced him -to Madame de Brinvilliers.</p> - -<p>From the first day he saw the terrible marchioness, Briancourt had -advanced from surprise to surprise; but his greatest astonishment -awaited him in the study of the law professor. The young man said to -him, ‘Sir, I have a great secret to communicate to you; I think that you -will give me good advice,<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> and that you will tell the first president, -whom you often see, what is going on, so that he may take the proper -steps.’ The professor’s discomposure was evident in his features, and he -leaned back uncomfortably in his chair. ‘Monsieur Bocager turned very -pale, and said nothing, except that I must keep my secret and not speak -about it to the curé of St. Paul or any one else. He assured me that he -would see to everything, and that I ought not to leave the Brinvilliers’ -house so soon, but wait some time, while he sought some new employment -for me.’ Briancourt asked himself whether all that he heard and saw were -real events in a real world. How far had this terrible woman been to -seek her accomplices? How far had she pushed her crimes?</p> - -<p>‘Two days afterwards,’ continues Briancourt, ‘the marquise told me that -Monsieur Bocager was not so upright a man as I imagined, as I should see -some day. And as I was passing down the street in the evening, just -opposite St. Paul’s, two pistol-shots were fired at me, without my being -able to tell whence they came, and one of them pierced my<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> coat. Seeing -that I was marked down, I went next day to Sainte-Croix’ house, carrying -two pistols, having left a man at the street door to see that it -remained open. I told Sainte-Croix that he was a villain and a -scoundrel, that he would be broken on the wheel, and that he had caused -the death of several people of quality. He declared that he had never -caused anybody’s death, but that if I would go behind the Hôpital -Général with pistols he would give me every kind of satisfaction; to -which I replied that I was not a soldier, but that if I were attacked I -should defend myself.’</p> - -<p>Such was the strange existence of the poor bachelor in theology, tutor -to the children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers. In his fear of poison he -was continually swallowing some nostrum or other by way of antidote.</p> - -<p>The marquis himself lived in equal terror. He knew what was going on, -and took things philosophically. Here is a sketch of a dinner at his -house. ‘The marchioness put Sainte-Croix on her right; the marquis was -at the sideboard end of the table. The latter was very carefully served -by a domestic specially attached to his<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> person, to whom he always said: -“Don’t change my glass, but rinse it every time you give me anything to -drink.â€â€™ When the evening was over, the marquis retired to his room; -Sainte-Croix and the marchioness went to the lady’s room, and Briancourt -went upstairs with the children. With the horrors of crime there were -thus mingled scenes of burlesque.</p> - -<p>Accommodating as her husband was, the marchioness began to poison him; -then, struck with remorse, she called in to attend him one of the most -famous physicians of the time, Dr. Brayer.</p> - -<p>‘She wished to marry Sainte-Croix,’ writes Madame de Sévigné, ‘and with -that intention often gave her husband poison. Sainte-Croix, not anxious -to have so evil a woman as his wife, gave counter-poisons to the poor -husband, with the result that, shuttlecocked about like this five or six -times, now poisoned, now unpoisoned, he still remained alive.’ -Brinvilliers emerged from this violent treatment with a weakness in the -legs. Afterwards he always carried theriac about with him, that being -regarded as an antidote; he took it from time to time, and gave doses to -his people.<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a></p> - -<p>Briancourt, however, succeeded in escaping from the service of his -formidable mistress, and, under the baleful impression of what he had -seen in the world, he retired to Aubervilliers, where he lived in -solitude, giving lessons in the establishment of the Fathers of the -Oratory there. Seven or eight months had passed when the marchioness -came to see him; then she sent from time to time to ask how he was -doing. It was at Aubervilliers that one evening, on July 31, 1672, he -received from his late mistress a very urgent note, begging him to go -immediately to Picpus, where she had an important communication to make -to him. There had just happened an event which was to entail -incalculable consequences: on July 30 Sainte-Croix died in his -mysterious dwelling in the cul-de-sac of the Place Maubert.</p> - -<p>A widespread legend makes Sainte-Croix’ death the result of a chemical -experiment; it is said that the glass mask with which he covered his -face to protect it from the poisonous vapours had broken. But he really -died a natural death after an illness of some months,<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> in the course of -which he was visited by several persons who have left their testimony in -regard to the matter. In the legendary laboratory of the cul-de-sac -there was found indeed a furnace of ‘digestion.’ Sainte-Croix -‘philosophised’ there, that is, worked at the philosopher’s stone, and -more particularly at solidifying mercury, that eternal dream of the -alchemists.</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers soon learned of the death of her lover. Her first -cry was, ‘The little box!’</p> - -<h3><a name="II_HER_TRIAL" id="II_HER_TRIAL"></a>II. HER TRIAL</h3> - -<p>Sainte-Croix died overwhelmed in debt. His things were all put under -seal. The seals were raised on August 8, 1672, by Commissary Picard, -assisted by a sergeant named Creuillebois, two notaries, the agent of -the widow, and an agent of the creditors. The three first meetings had -passed without incident when a Carmelite monk who was present handed to -the commissary the key of the private room in which the furnace was -kept. Entering, they saw on the table a rolled-up paper bearing the -words, ‘My confession.’ The persons present<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> decided without hesitation -to keep the paper secret, and to burn it on the spot. They found, -further, at the end of a shelf, a small box, oblong in shape and red in -colour, from which hung a key. It contained some phials, some of which -were filled with a clear liquid like water, others with a liquid of -reddish colour; and in addition, there were the letters addressed by -Madame de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix, the two promissory notes signed -by the marchioness after the poisoning of her father and brothers, and a -receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 livres lent by -Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, to Monsieur and Madame de -Brinvilliers through the agency of Sainte-Croix. These two last papers -were in a sealed envelope on which was written: ‘Papers to be restored -to the Sieur Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, as belonging to -him; and I humbly beg those into whose hands they fall, to be good -enough to return them to him at my death, they being of no consequence -except to him alone.’</p> - -<p>Sainte-Croix had addressed the little box, with its contents, to Madame -de Brinvilliers in<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> these terms: ‘I humbly beg those into whose hands -this box falls to do me the favour to return it into the hands of the -Marquise de Brinvilliers, who lives in Rue Neuve-Saint-Paul, since all -that it contains concerns her and belongs to her alone, and moreover it -is of no use to anybody in the world but herself; and in case she dies -before I do, to burn it, and all that is in it, without opening it or -meddling with it; and so that no one may pretend ignorance, I swear by -the God I adore, and all that is most holy, that I state nothing but the -truth. If perchance any one contravenes my intentions, just and -reasonable as they are, I charge it in this world and the next upon his -conscience, for discharge of my own, and declare that this is my last -will. Made at Paris, afternoon, May 25, 1670. <i>Signed</i>: Sainte-Croix.’ -Below were these words: ‘There is a single packet addressed to Monsieur -Pennautier, which is to be given to him.’ The very energy of these -formulæ impressed Commissary Picard. He sealed up the case and confided -it to the care of two sergeants, Cluet and Creuillebois, so that the<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> -inventory might be made by the civil lieutenant in person. Sergeant -Creuillebois took the box home.</p> - -<p>It was Sainte-Croix’ widow who on August 8—that is, the day when the -box was discovered—sent word to Madame de Brinvilliers at Picpus that -things belonging to her were under seal. The marchioness instantly sent -some one to find the box. As that was no longer in Sainte-Croix’ house, -a servant was sent off to Commissary Picard to tell him that Madame de -Brinvilliers desired to speak to him without delay. Picard answered that -he was busy. The marchioness, however, herself hurried to Madame de -Sainte-Croix, insisting on the box being given to her. It was nine -o’clock at night. ‘She complained of its having been sealed up, offered -money to obtain it, proposed to break the seals in order to take out -what was inside, and to substitute something else.’ But the box had been -taken away. ‘It’s very amusing,’ she said, ‘for Commissary Picard to -carry off a box that belongs to me!’ She got some one to take her to -Sergeant Cluet, whom she made come down, so that she might speak<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> to him -from her carriage. ‘The lady told him that Pennautier had come to her, -and told her that he was anxious about the box, and would give fifty -golden louis to have what was in it. She also said that all that was in -the said box concerned Pennautier and herself, and that they had done -everything in concert.’ We see here the first step in a manÅ“uvre -which Madame de Brinvilliers afterwards developed. Knowing that several -of the papers in the box concerned Pennautier, she sought to link her -cause with the financier’s, speculating on his high position and -influence.</p> - -<p>Cluet answered that he could do nothing without the commissary. -Accordingly the marchioness hurried off to him at eleven o’clock at -night. Picard sent down word that he could not receive her till the -morning.</p> - -<p>In the morning, August 9, the commissary received a visitor from a -Châtelet<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> attorney named Delamarre, to whom the marchioness had -intrusted her interests. He told the commissary that the little box was -of great importance to Madame de Brinvilliers, begging<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> him to send it -back to her, and saying ‘that she would give him all she had in the -world.’ ‘There came also a man in black’ (it was Briancourt) ‘who told -him that the marchioness would give him anything he could wish for.’</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers understood that the box was not to be given up, -and made preparations for flight. ‘Delamarre, her attorney, repaired to -Picpus at ten o’clock at night and carried off her principal furniture, -which was even thrown hastily out of the windows.’ The marchioness, -however, sent for Cluet and Creuillebois to come to Picpus. She changed -the line of her defence, and told Creuillebois that ‘Sainte-Croix was -clever enough to have forged the letters, but that she would find a way -out, and had good friends.’ To Madame de Sainte-Croix, who also went to -Picpus, she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could -only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sainte-Croix for a long -time, that these were forged letters, and that she had a complete -justification. She went on, in order to spread it abroad that her -interests were connected with those of Pennautier: ‘If it trickles on -me, it<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> will rain on Pennautier.’ She said to the wife of a Châtelet -clerk named Fausset, who spoke to her of the rumours of poisoning that -were already going about. ‘There is nothing in it: it will blow over; -there is a man accused with me who will give four or six thousand livres -to arrange matters,’ adding that ‘he was not of high rank, but was very -rich.’</p> - -<p>The seals placed on the box were raised by the civil lieutenant on -August 11. Madame de Brinvilliers was represented by her attorney, who -made the following declaration: ‘That if there was found a promise -signed by Lady Brinvilliers for the sum of 30,000 livres, it was a -document obtained from her by fraud, against which, in case the -signature proved genuine, she intended to appeal, in order to have it -declared null and void.’</p> - -<p>The liquids and the powder contained in the chest were tested on -animals, death being the result. Experts decided that they contained -poison, but could not determine its nature. The general belief was that -it was arsenic.</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers and Pennautier were soon the engrossing topic of -conversation in<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> Paris. Fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons -found in the box, of which Madame de Sévigné made herself the sedulous -echo.</p> - -<p>The marchioness hastened to pay a visit to Pennautier. He was not at -home. His wife turned her out neck and crop. Pennautier responded by -taking a step which did him honour: he went to Picpus to see Madame de -Brinvilliers. Asked later, after his arrest, what was his motive in -going to Picpus, he replied that, not believing Madame de Brinvilliers -guilty of such a crime, he went to pay her his respects, as is usual on -such occasions. Speaking of this step of his, his enemies wrote: -‘Actuated by a sentiment of courtesy, he neglected his most obvious -interests, in which life, honour, and fortune were at stake; his -excessive politeness made him forgetful of all his interests. What a -rare and marvellous character! How free from thoughts of self!’ These -lines, written with ironical intention, really express the truth. Not -long before, Monsieur and Madame de Brinvilliers had done Pennautier a -great service in a moment of difficulty by the loan of 30,000 livres; -and<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> he seized the opportunity to show that he had not forgotten their -kindness.</p> - -<p>P. L. Reich de Pennautier—Pennautier was the name of an estate in the -neighbourhood of Carcassonne—though scarcely thirty-five years old, had -already made an enormous fortune. His two appointments as -receiver-general for the clergy and treasurer of the Languedoc Exchange -brought him in hundreds of thousands of francs annually. He was one of -the most active and intelligent of Colbert’s lieutenants. On such -questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacture of fine cloth, -the Languedoc canal, the purchase of Greek <span class="smcap">MSS.</span> in the Levant, the -draining of the fens of Aigues-Mortes, the name of Pennautier is linked -with that of Colbert in enterprises of the utmost utility ‘From a petty -cashier,’ says Saint-Simon, ‘Pennautier became treasurer of the clergy -and treasurer of the States of Languedoc, and enormously rich. He was a -tall and well-made man, with a gallant and dignified air, courteous and -eminently obliging; he had plenty of intelligence, and had many -connections in society.<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a></p> - -<p>On August 22 the civil lieutenant summoned Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier to appear at the examination of the documents found in the -box. Pennautier was in the country; the marchioness was represented by -her attorney, who repeated his protests. A third personage appeared on -the scene, namely, La Chaussée. He fancied his audacity would save him, -and from the first had opposed the sealing of the house, on the ground -that he had deposited with the deceased, in whose service he had been -for seven years, 200 pistoles and 100 silver crowns which should be, he -said, behind the window of the study in a bag, with a note proving that -the money belonged to him. He claimed also a number of papers, which he -described. The knowledge that La Chaussée displayed of Sainte-Croix’ -laboratory awakened suspicion. When Commissary Picard told the whilom -valet that the confiscated box had just been opened, he stood petrified -with confusion for a moment, then fled precipitately, leaving the -commissary in open-eyed amazement. The same day he left Gaussin, a -bath-proprietor whose service he had entered, and,<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> concealing himself -during the day, roamed about Paris at night-time till he was arrested on -September 4 at six o’clock in the morning by a police officer named -Thomas Regnier. La Chaussée was very crestfallen as he walked down the -street.</p> - -<p>From that moment the gravest suspicions were entertained against Madame -de Brinvilliers, but there was a reluctance to arrest her because of her -rank. Regnier repaired to Picpus and told her bluntly that he had found -La Chaussée, and that he had learned a good many things from the -commissary. The marchioness blushed. ‘What is it, madam? You say -nothing?’ But the lady, changing the subject, asked him to escort her to -mass. When they returned, she spoke to him again about the box. She -seemed a prey to uneasiness. ‘But madam,’ said Regnier, ‘surely you are -not mixed up in this business?’ ‘Why should I be?’ she replied. ‘That -villain La Chaussée, when with Commissary Picard, must have said -something against you, and would say it again if he was captured.’ ‘It -would be well to take the villain to Picardy,<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a>’ said the marchioness. -She said also that she had long been pressing Sainte-Croix to return the -box, and that Pennautier was involved with herself in the matter. -Regnier left Madame de Brinvilliers and went to find Briancourt at -Vertus. He told him, to begin with, that he had arrested La Chaussée, -and Briancourt exclaimed, ‘Then she is a lost woman!’ He went on to -speak of the poison which she had often talked about, and said that she -had several sorts of it in her house.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile Madame Antoine d’Aubray, widow of the last civil lieutenant -and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going -on—that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had -suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Châtelet -on September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for -damages against La Chaussée and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had -just fled to England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All -suspicions were at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussée heard -before the Châtelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> -the defendant to the preliminary torture, <i>manentibus indiciis</i>. If the -wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the -salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d’Aubray made a -passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> endeavouring -to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully -sustained, and that it was not permissible to have recourse to a -preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch the criminals -from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> In spite -of a skilful defence, La Chaussée was condemned to death on March 24, -1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning, and -condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the -‘question ordinary and extraordinary,’ and that Madame de Brinvilliers -was to be beheaded for contempt of court.</p> - -<p>When submitted to torture, La Chaussée displayed uncommon courage and -denied everything. The mode of torture adopted<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> was that of the boot. -The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were -driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in -succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the -machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and -refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussée -voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy’s -tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. ‘What -accuser,’ says La Reynie, ‘would have been listened to for a moment if -God had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges -could not condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on -conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the -heart of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute -silence, confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?’ La -Chaussée was broken on the wheel the same day.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Taking refuge in London, the marchioness<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> led a wretched existence, in -distress which she found insupportable, and a prey to incessant fears.</p> - -<p>Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> had from the first taken a very strong personal interest in -this case. It was his sincere desire that the investigation should be -made as complete and luminous as possible, and he was determined to -follow up and strike at all the accomplices, however high they were -placed. The Secretaries of State had not awaited the declarations made -by La Chaussée on May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government -to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several -letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de -Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles <span class="smcap">II</span>. The king of -England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not -allow the arrest to be made by English officers; that would have to be -undertaken by France. Croissy was highly embarrassed. The embassy was -not provided with tools for such jobs. Colbert insisted, and at length -the ambassador was on the point of winning Charles’s consent<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> to the -employment of English police, when Madame de Brinvilliers, taking -fright, quitted England for the Netherlands.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile her husband, this amazing Marquis de Brinvilliers, had quietly -taken up his abode, with his children and domestics, in the chateau of -Offémont, belonging to the estate of his father-in-law and two -brothers-in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of -the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two <i>lettres de -cachet</i> had been signed by Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, bearing date February 22 and March -31, 1674, ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within -three leagues of it, that he decided to allow the widow of the civil -lieutenant to enter upon the enjoyment of her own property.</p> - -<p>We have very little information on the life of the marchioness between -her departure from London and her arrest on March 25, 1676, at Liége in -a convent where she had taken shelter. She had gone from London to the -Netherlands, then into Picardy, the country conquered by King Louis, -thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent,<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> but -was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she -fled to Antwerp, then to Liége. She had nothing to support her but an -annuity of 500 livres, which fell to 250 on the death of her sister; she -was sometimes ‘reduced to borrowing a crown.’ While at Cambrai, she -appears to have sent asking her husband to join her there; his answer -was, ‘She would poison me like the rest.’</p> - -<p>It came to the ears of Louvois that Madame de Brinvilliers was in hiding -at Liége. He at once despatched Desgrez, the captain of police, a man of -tried ability. Desgrez was instructed to make all speed, for the French -troops then in possession of Liége were on the point of handing over the -town to the Spaniards. Michelet and the majority of historians have -woven the arrest of the marchioness into a romance. Desgrez, a handsome -fellow, disguises himself as a courtly abbé, and wins a warm welcome -from the lady, always eager for gallant adventures: at the rendezvous, -the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of -archers.<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest -manner, ‘on the last day,’ writes La Reynie, ‘that the king’s authority -was recognised in the town of Liége.’ It was not even Desgrez who -carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a -former clerk of Fouquet’s named Bruant, otherwise Descarrières. ‘The -burgomasters,’ wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, ‘have behaved so -well that they confided to me their master-key to go and arrest this -lady, without wanting to know why it was to be done.’ Next day, March -26, Descarrières wrote again to Louvois: ‘I arranged that the detective -(Desgrez) should be present as privy to the capture'; he informed him -also that a small box was seized on the lady’s person, at which ‘she -appeared much agitated, and at first told mayor Goffin that her -confession was in the casket,’ begging him to have it restored to her. -Descarrières sealed the box with his own seal and that of Desgrez.</p> - -<p>La Reynie says upon this subject: ‘It was God who ordained that this -wretched woman, who fled from kingdom to kingdom, should<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> be careful to -write and carry with her the proofs necessary to her condemnation.’ This -confession, in which the marchioness recalls in a few pages all the -crimes of her life, was published by Armand Fouquier; but its flavour is -so strong that the editor was not able to reproduce the original text, -but had to translate the principal passages into Latin.</p> - -<p>From Liége the marchioness was led under guard to Maestricht, where she -arrived on March 29; she was there locked up, and rigorously watched in -the town hall. Immediately after her arrest, the prisoner tried to -commit suicide by swallowing the fragments of a glass which she had -broken between her teeth. She swallowed pins, too, but did not succeed -in killing herself. Resne, one of the sentries, vigorously abused her: -‘You are a wicked woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of -your family, you want to do away with yourself!’ She answered, ‘If I did -so, it was under evil counsel.’ On another occasion Desgrez was informed -that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible -fashion. ‘Ah, you<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> wretch!’ he cried. ‘I see that you want to do for -yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!’ She replied: ‘If I had -only had good advice! We often have our evil moments.’ The archers who -guarded her during her journey from Liége to Paris gave the judges a -description of this third attempt at suicide which it is impossible to -reproduce. The following is a note from Emmanuel de Coulanges, forwarded -by Madame de Sévigné to Madame de Grignan: ‘She stuck a stick into -herself; guess where: it was not in her eye, nor her mouth, nor her ear, -nor her nose, nor was she absolutely brutal.’</p> - -<p>During the journey Madame de Brinvilliers was escorted by the Marshal -d’Estrades in person as far as Huy, and from Huy to Rocroi by the troops -of Monsieur de Montal. The prisoner’s character displayed itself in all -its untamed energy. Locked up at Maestricht, she suggested to Antoine -Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a -gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for -her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> pistoles. At other -times she urged him to help her throttle Desgrez, kill the <i>valet de -chambre</i>, detach the two leading horses from the coach, take the -documents, the casket with her confession, and another important paper, -and burn them all, for which purpose he was to carry a lighted match.</p> - -<p>She wrote to former servants who remained faithful to her, and actually -succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for they endeavoured to -rescue her, and tried to bribe her guardians.</p> - -<p>She persisted in the plan she had devised in regard to the accusation -under which Pennautier lay. She asked Barbier for ink to write to him; -he gave her some, and feigned to have despatched the letter. And when he -asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, ‘Yes, yes,’ she replied, -‘and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.’ Another time -she said: ‘He must be much more frightened than I am. I have been -questioned about him, but I have said nothing, and have too much feeling -to charge him: half of the aristocracy are involved too, and I should -ruin them<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> all if I spoke.’ This she repeated several times.</p> - -<p>At Mézières the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement -counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first -interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sévigné, wrote to -Madame de Grignan: ‘The king has required the Parlement to depute -Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to -interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don’t wish to wait till she -arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.’</p> - -<p>The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is -dated Mézières, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic -denials.</p> - -<p>‘Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she -set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written -such things she was out of her mind.</p> - -<p>‘Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said -she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if she had not poisoned her father<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> and brothers, she said she -knew nothing about it.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if it was not La Chaussée who had poisoned her brothers, she said -she knew nothing of all that.</p> - -<p>‘Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom -she had written them; she said she did not remember.</p> - -<p>‘Asked why she wrote to Théria to secure the box, she said she did not -know what that was.</p> - -<p>‘Asked why, in writing to Théria, she said she was lost if he did not -get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.’</p> - -<p>The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival -in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer -Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he -carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges.</p> - -<p>On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:—</p> - -<p>‘I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this -business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> -obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean -this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people -who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. -I think it would be much to the purpose if you did not show yourself too -much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor -severely examined me about you at Mézières.’</p> - -<p>There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the ‘Bernardins -widow,’ that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des -Bernardins.</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in -regard to Pennautier. ‘I do not know at all,’ she said on the night -before her death, ‘that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication -with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without -betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the -box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their -friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in -this suspicion I ventured to<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> write to him as though I knew it was so, -running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing -thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, -Monsieur Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, -considering the step I am taking, and that will induce him to exert -himself on my behalf as much as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; -and if he is innocent, my letter is waste labour. I risk nothing but the -indignation of a person who would be careful not to stand up for me, nor -to render me any service if I had written him nothing.’</p> - -<p>The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier -to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky -functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room -that Ravaillac<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> had occupied.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier’s -predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to -arouse<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having -poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an -office of considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits -drawn up by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging -documents were in everybody’s hands.</p> - -<p>The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in -the opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who -diligently spread false reports about him. The people regarded his -influence and wealth with amazement, the nobility with envy. On the -other hand, Pennautier, like Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a -circumstance which does honour to the time. ‘It is wonderful,’ says -Saint-Simon, ‘how many of the most notable men are working on his -behalf.’ This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the -recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed Fouquet’s friends was -present to every mind. The Cardinal de Bonsy, the Duke de Verneuil, the -Archbishop of Paris, Harlay de Champvallon, and Colbert were among the -most active. The judges, who were<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> suspected by Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> himself of -having been corrupted, gave proof of an admirable independence.</p> - -<p>Pennautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on -June 15, 1676, when the police made a sudden raid upon his room. What he -had written was as follows:—'I think that, for our friend, a stay of a -month in the country will suffice....’ Startled by this sudden -interruption, Pennautier nervously put this note in his mouth as though -to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which -the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had -entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of -convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the -pamphlets of Sainte-Croix’ widow, he established incontestably the -falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to -base their accusations. These latter found themselves reduced to -maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the -seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix’ place had been falsified.<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a></p> - -<p>‘I am accused of having poisoned Saint-Laurent,’ added Pennautier; ‘but -has it been so much as proved that he died of poison? It is at least -singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for -the reports of the doctors, as well as the circumstances under which he -died, prove that his death was natural.’</p> - -<p>The close of Pennautier’s reply was crushing for his accuser. He pointed -out that Madame de Saint-Laurent had waited six years before bringing -her case into court. How was that silence explained? Saint-Laurent being -dead, Pennautier was appointed to his office of receiver-general for the -clergy. ‘Saint-Laurent’s wife gave him her nomination on June 12, 1669; -the same day they drew up a sort of contract together, by which the lady -reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 -pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the -right to return to this office, in accordance with the deed of -defeasance given him by Saint-Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette -resigned that office in his favour on March 17,<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> 1669. The dame de -Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the -office until the last day of December 1675, when the agreement -terminated; and if Pennautier had been willing to renew the agreement -with her, when the general assembly of the clergy did him the honour to -elect him receiver-general for ten years, which will end on the last day -of December 1685, those who know the dame de Saint-Laurent are convinced -that she would never have accused Pennautier of poisoning the Sieur de -Saint-Laurent her husband.’</p> - -<p>We have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important -part played by Pennautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in -France under the direction of Colbert.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Nothing was talked about in Paris but Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier—'a grave injustice to the war,’ as Madame de Sévigné said.</p> - -<p>Through the privilege of nobility, Madame de Brinvilliers was brought -before the highest<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> judicial tribunal in the kingdom—the High Court and -the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested a counsel to assist her in -her defence, but the request was refused, at least provisionally.</p> - -<p>The court was presided over by the first president, Lamoignon. Between -April 29 and July 16, 1676, the case occupied twenty-two sittings. The -marchioness displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant -subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything -obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, -but never failed in the respect due to the judges—a respect in which -pride and nobility mingled, and which made the audience feel that she -considered herself at least the equal of the men judging her.</p> - -<p>When they came to read the account of the examination at Mézières on -April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The following -is an extract from the official report of the proceedings:—</p> - -<p>‘At the reading of these interrogatories, the first president wished to -intervene and postpone<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> it until after the confession had been read. -This raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was -allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as -sodomy and incest, which being on this occasion only a matter of -confession, it seemed that they should be kept a great secret; some were -for, others against.</p> - -<p>‘Monsieur de Palluau said that, having consulted the law-doctors, he had -been told that, a confession having been found <i>en route</i>, it ought to -have been burnt under penalty, as some believed, of mortal sin.</p> - -<p>‘Other doctors held that the said Palluau, in his capacity as judge, had -had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to -interrogate her on the aforesaid paper beginning, <i>I accuse myself, my -father,</i> etc.</p> - -<p>‘The first president held that the question was extremely uncertain, yet -he thought the papers ought to be read.</p> - -<p>‘The President de Mesmes held that this sort of confession had been -utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epistle of St.<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> Leo, -showing that the judges had made use of them.</p> - -<p>‘Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion.</p> - -<p>‘The first president answered that the epistle of St. Leo was utterly -opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes, and that there was -nothing for it but to resume the reading.</p> - -<p>‘The question having been argued, the reading was continued.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if she had not made her confession, and to whom she ought to -confess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a -confession, and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess.</p> - -<p>‘Monsieur Roujault reported in the afternoon that he had put the -question to Monsieur Benjamin, an ecclesiastical judge, to Monsieur du -Saussoy and other casuists, and to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and -professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, -and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy of the -confessional could only be between the confessor and the penitent, and a -paper having been found purporting to<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> be a confession, it might be read -by the judges.’</p> - -<p>On July 13, 1676, a terrible deposition was heard—that of Briancourt, -who related in detail his mistress’s life. He spoke in a voice broken by -emotion. The marchioness contradicted him with the same cold, haughty -impassivity. ‘Her spirit quite overawes us,’ said President Lamoignon. -‘We worked yesterday at her case till eight o’clock in the evening; she -was confronted with Briancourt for thirteen hours, and to-day another -five, and she has gone through both ordeals with surprising courage. No -one could have more respect for the judges, nor more scorn for the -witness confronting her: she taunted him with being a besotted lackey, -bundled out of the house for his disorderly conduct, and one whose -testimony should not be received against her.’ But she was lost. The -marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious -punishment—the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre -Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of -torture,<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the -scaffold, the stake, the ‘tomb of fire’ whence the hand of the -executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The -judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at -the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes -streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: ‘I warned you -many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your -crimes would ruin you,’ the marchioness replied—a wonderful reply in -its pride and self-control—'You are chicken-hearted, you are crying!’ -Could one find such a saying in Roman history, or in Corneille? We -prefer the bare cold version of the official minute to the version -reported by President Lamoignon to the abbé Pirot: ‘She insulted -Briancourt about the tears he shed at the remembrance of the death of -her brothers, when he declared that she had made him her confidant in -regard to their poisoning, and told him that he was a villain to weep -before all these gentlemen—that it resulted from a mean spirit. All -this<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> was said with great coolness, and without any appearance of -changing countenance during the five hours we all watched her to-day.’</p> - -<p>Advocate Nivelle, on whom fell the heavy task of presenting the defence -of the accused lady, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. -His defence was still renowned in the eighteenth century. It was broad -in style, and some of his phrases were of great beauty.</p> - -<p>‘The enormity of the crimes,’ he said, ‘and the rank of the person -accused require proofs of the most convincing clearness, written, so to -speak, with rays of sunlight.’ He went on to ask if the proofs adduced -against Madame de Brinvilliers were of this quality. He succeeded in -throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty -depositions—that of Sergeant Cluet, for instance, who was devoted body -and soul, he said, to the opposite party; to the widow d’Aubray, who -sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremest animosity. The -deposition of Edme Briscien, he maintained, should be entirely rejected, -for the witness was not confronted with the marchioness, and on that -point the rules of<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took -advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussée’s declaration after -torture. The argument based on Sainte-Croix’ famous box seemed to him to -have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which -Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the -marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison -bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady’s letters to -Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last -to the written confession seized at Liége, Nivelle strongly protested -against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. -‘The last proof,’ he said, ‘relates to a paper found among those of the -marchioness, in which she had written a religious confession. It is -astounding that the accusers desired the judges to read this paper, for -it was of a nature which laws human and divine hold sacred and -inviolable under the seal of secrecy and silence demanded by the rules -of one of the most august of mysteries, as I will prove by invincible -arguments.’<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> These arguments were exhausted in a minute study of the -writings of the Church fathers and of ecclesiastical history, from which -the advocate produced numerous examples and excerpts likely to imbue the -judges with the profoundest respect for the secrecy of confession, under -whatever form it might present itself.</p> - -<p>Finally, Nivelle set himself to win a little sympathy, or at any rate -pity, for his client. He depicted this woman as a frail thing, of noble -birth, beautiful and sensitive by nature, a butt for several months past -to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of -archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been -deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Whitsunday had been -refused permission to hear mass. Undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed -to that revulsion of feeling in favour of the marchioness which was so -strongly marked during the last days.</p> - -<p>The advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the -prosecutrix: ‘The accuser ought not to press hardly against the<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> lady, -because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her -husband in the exemplary punishment of that wretched criminal (La -Chaussée) who slew him; she should rather wish that the family to which -she is allied should not be sullied with an eternal disgrace, and that -she should not incur the reproach of being wanting in natural feeling -for her nephews, whom she ought to consider as her own children. The -death of the late Messieurs d’Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if -they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that -the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they -recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would -themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing -their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would -prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in -preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish themselves -rather than to avenge them. But if they find their consolation in the -acquittal of Lady Brinvilliers; if her children—who<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> would suffer -punishment as if they were guilty, and to whom life would become a -torture and death a consolation—find in it the preservation of the -honour of a family so notable as that from which their mother is -sprung—these wise magistrates who are to judge her will also have more -glory in giving to the public a famous example of their justice, their -piety, and their sovereign equity, by declaring her innocent.’</p> - -<p>On July 15, 1676, Madame de Brinvilliers appeared for the last time -before her judges for her final cross-examination, and in the course of -this long ordeal, in which for three hours her whole life was -remorselessly dissected, she did not flag for a moment. She denied -everything; she did not know what poison and antidote meant; her -pretended confession was sheer madness. ‘She did not appear affected by -what the first president said, though, after he had done his part as -judge, he assumed the tone of a merciful friend, and addressed to her -words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in -some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,’ -we read in a summary report of the<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> trial, ‘dwelt upon the dreadful -illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her -that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her -seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the -reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with -her. The President de Novion reminded her that her brother the civil -lieutenant had suspected other persons, and that this suspicion had -embittered his last moments. The first president told her also’ (and -this is one of the most curious features of the trial for the study of -the moral ideas of the period), ‘that the greatest of all her crimes, -horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and -brothers, but her attempt to poison herself. She was kept for another -half hour, but would say nothing, merely showing signs of a little -distress at heart.’</p> - -<p>‘The first president wept bitterly,’ writes the abbé Pirot, ‘and all the -judges shed tears.’ She alone kept her head proudly erect, and preserved -undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes.</p> - -<p>Taine has given in one line a marvellous<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> definition of the character of -Racine’s heroines and the art of the poet himself: ‘We imagine the tears -which never appear in their beautiful eyes.’ The sequel of our story -will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de -Brinvilliers in some points resembled some of Racine’s heroines, and -will help to show with what exactitude the incomparable poet reproduced -the models presented him by the society of his time.</p> - -<p>In closing this memorable scene on July 15, President Lamoignon told the -prisoner that, out of charity and on the plea of her sister the -Carmelite nun, a person of the greatest merit and the highest virtue was -being sent to her to console her and to exhort her to think of her -soul’s salvation. We are about to see coming upon the stage one of the -most interesting figures in the drama, the sympathetic abbé, Edme Pirot.</p> - -<h3><a name="III_HER_DEATH" id="III_HER_DEATH"></a>III. HER DEATH</h3> - -<p>Edme Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Auxerre -on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> of -Brinvilliers. His discussions with Leibnitz had made his name famous -throughout Europe. His was an ardent and sensitive soul: his heart was -torn when he came in contact with the griefs of others. ‘The delicacy of -my temperament was so great,’ he said, ‘that I could never bear the -sight of blood, not even my own, and at one time I had turned quite -faint at the sight of a wound being dressed, and never since ventured to -come within sight of a similar operation.’ He had an acute and subtle -intellect, endowed with a remarkable faculty for psychological insight.</p> - -<p>President Lamoignon, in appointing the abbé Pirot to attend Madame de -Brinvilliers, had given a fresh proof of his knowledge of men. He knew -that the gentle and soul-stirring words of the priest would act on the -heart of the prisoner, and perhaps obtain what all the machinery of -justice had not succeeded in achieving—the revelation of her -accomplices, the composition of her poisons and the proper antidotes to -employ. ‘It is for the public interest,’ said Lamoignon to the abbé -Pirot, ‘that her crimes should die with her,<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> and that she should -acquaint us with all the consequences her poison might have, so far as -she knows them; without which we should be unable to counteract them, -and her poisons would survive her.’ Further, it was his earnest desire -to find in Pirot a priest whose exhortations would, at the hour of -death, touch this rebellious soul and set it on the narrow road to -salvation.</p> - -<p>The good abbé has described the last day of Madame de Brinvilliers -minute by minute. His story fills two volumes, one of the most -extraordinary monuments literature can show. It is written with no -regard for artistic effect: the conversations are reported at length, -with repetitions and interminably wearisome details; but the clear, -exact, and flowing style, the just and restrained expression of the -keenest passions, continually remind us of the tragedies of Racine. -<i>Phédre</i> and the abbé Pirot’s story were composed in the same year; if -the priest had given any thought to the public as he wrote, and had paid -some attention to his style and to the avoidance of repetitions and -prolixity, posterity unquestionably might<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> well have signed both works -with the same name.</p> - -<p>Michelet has strikingly described the appearance of the priest in the -tower of the Conciergerie:—</p> - -<p>‘Quaking with terror, Pirot was ushered into the Conciergerie, and taken -to the top of the Montgommery tower; there he entered a room in which -there were four persons—two warders, a wardress, and, farthest away -from him, the monster.</p> - -<p>‘The monster was quite a little woman, dainty, with very soft blue eyes, -marvellously beautiful. As soon as she saw Pirot, she prettily thanked a -priest who up to then had attended her, and expressed with easy grace -her absolute confidence in the learned abbé. He saw at once how much she -was loved by those who lived with her. When she spoke of her death, the -two men and the woman burst into tears. She seemed to love them too, and -was kind and gentle with them, not proud at all; she made them eat at -her table.</p> - -<p>‘“To be sure, sir,†she said to Pirot, “you are the priest that the -first president has sent<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> to console me; it is with you that I am to -pass the little that remains of life: and I have long been impatient to -see you.â€</p> - -<p>‘“I come, madam,†answered Pirot, “to render you in spiritual matters -what service I can. I could wish it were in any other matter than this.â€</p> - -<p>‘“Sir,†she rejoined, “we must submit to everything.â€â€™</p> - -<p>And at that moment, turning towards an Oratorian named Father de -Chevigny, she said: ‘Father, I am obliged to you for bringing this -gentleman, and for all the other visits you have been good enough to pay -me; pray God for me, I beseech you: henceforth I shall speak to scarcely -any one but the father here. I have matters to discuss with him that are -spoken of in secret. Farewell.’</p> - -<p>The Oratorian retired.</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers seems to have been won at the outset by the -affectionate expression of her confessor, and by his sincere and -sympathetic words. Judgment had not yet been pronounced. ‘My death is -certain,’ she said; ‘I must not delude myself with hope. I have<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> to tell -you the story of all my life.’ But the conversation drifted away to what -was being said of her in society. ‘I can imagine pretty well that they -are talking a good deal about me, and that I have been for some time a -byword among the people.’ And her eyes flashed.</p> - -<p>Pirot tried to show her that, assuming she was guilty, her duty was to -disclose all her accomplices, to reveal the composition of her poisons -and the means of counteracting them. She interrupted him: ‘Sir, are -there not some sins that are unpardonable in this world, either from -their gravity or their number? Are there not some so atrocious or so -numerous that the Church cannot remit them?’ ‘Believe, madam, that there -are no sins irremissible in this life,’ answered the priest, and he -enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and an infectious faith. -Conviction by degrees took possession of the prisoner’s soul, and with -it there dawned a gleam of regeneration, hope in a future life serene -and happy—glorious, as the abbé said—and with the thought her heart -was changed. ‘“Sir,†she answered me, “I am<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> convinced of all you tell -me. I believe that God can pardon all sins; I believe that He has often -exercised this power; but all my trouble now is to know whether He will -apply His power to one so wretched as I.†I told her that she must hope -that God would take pity on her in His infinite mercy. She began to -describe in general terms the whole of her life, and from that moment I -saw that her heart was touched, and she burst into tears beholding her -wretchedness.’ By the contagion of his sympathetic kindness, and by the -light of redemption, Pirot had in a few hours melted this heart of brass -like wax.</p> - -<p>‘After she had given me an outline of her life, knowing that I had not -yet said mass, she intimated spontaneously that it was time to say it, -and that I might go down to the chapel for that purpose. She begged me -say it to our Lady on her behalf, so as to obtain the pardon of which -she stood in need, and asked me to come up again as soon as the -sacrifice had been completed, saying that she would be present in -spirit, since she was not permitted to attend in person, and that she -thought of telling me in<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> detail on my return that which she had so far -told me only in general terms.</p> - -<p>‘After my mass,’ continues Pirot, ‘as I was taking a sip of wine in the -jailer’s room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur de -Sency, librarian to the Palais, that Madame de Brinvilliers was -condemned. I went upstairs and found the marchioness awaiting me in -great serenity.</p> - -<p>‘“It is only by dying by the hand of the executioner,†she said, “that I -can win salvation. If I had died at Liége before my arrest, where should -I be now? And if I had not been taken, what would my end have been? I -will confess my crime to the judges to whom I have denied it hitherto. I -fancied I could conceal it, flattering myself that without my confession -there would have been nothing to convict me, and that I was not bound to -accuse myself. To-morrow, at my last examination, I mean to repair the -ill that I have done at the others.</p> - -<p>‘“I beg you, sir,†she went on suddenly, “to make my excuses to the -first president. You will please see him on my behalf after my death, -and will tell him that I ask his pardon,<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> and that of all the judges, -for the effrontery they have seen in me; that I believed it would serve -my defence, and that I never believed there would be proof enough to -condemn me without my avowal; that I now see things in a different -light, and that I was touched yesterday by what he said to me, and that -I put violent constraint on myself to prevent my features from showing -what I felt. Ask him to forgive me for the offence I gave to the whole -bench assembled to judge me, and to beg the other judges to pardon me.â€</p> - -<p>‘It was thus,’ Pirot continues, ‘that she went on relating to me the -whole matter until half-past one, when a servant came and brought the -cloth for dinner. She took nothing but two fresh eggs and a little soup, -and talked to me, while I was eating, about indifferent things, with -very great freedom of mind and a tranquillity which surprised me, as if -she were entertaining me at dinner in a country house. She invited to -the table the two men and the women who were her usual guard. “Sir,†she -said to me, after she had told them to sit down, “you will not mind our -dispensing with ceremony<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> for you? They are accustomed to eat with me to -keep me company, and we shall do so to-day if you do not object. This,†-she said to them, “is the last meal I shall take with you.†And turning -towards the woman who was beside her, she said: “Madam, my poor Du Rus, -you will soon be quit of me; I have long been a trouble to you, but it -will soon be over. To-morrow you will be able to go to Dranet. You will -have time enough for that. In seven or eight hours you will have me no -longer to bother you, for I do not think you have the heart to see my -end.â€</p> - -<p>‘She said all this with a coolness and serenity which indicated rather a -natural equality of mind than an affected pride. And as these people -from time to time burst into tears and withdrew to conceal them from -her, she, noticing it, threw me a glance of pity, though she shed no -tears, as though sorry for their grief, almost as a mother might do on -her deathbed, when, seeing around her her weeping servants, she looks at -the confessor kneeling near her and marks the sorrow their affection -gives him.<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a></p> - -<p>‘From time to time she urged me to eat, and scolded the jailer for -putting cabbage in the soup. She asked me with much politeness to allow -her to drink my health. I thought that I might do her some pleasure in -drinking to hers, and it was not difficult to show her this little -attention. She asked me to excuse her for not serving me, careful not to -say that she had no knife for that purpose, so as not to give the -slightest shadow of complaint.</p> - -<p>‘“Sir,†she said to me at the end of the meal, “it is fast-day -to-morrow, and though it will be a very tiring day for me‗she was to -undergo torture and then be beheaded—“I have no intention of eating -meat.†“Madam,†I replied, “if you need a meat soup to sustain you, -there will be no occasion to stand on scruples; it will not be out of -fastidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the Church is -not rigorous in such a case.†“Sir,†she replied, “I would not be -particular if I needed it and you ordered it; but I am sure it will not -be necessary. All I require is a little soup this evening at -supper-time, and again at eleven o’clock; to-day they will make it a -little<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> stronger than usual, and with that, and a couple of eggs I can -take at the torture, I shall get through to-morrow.â€</p> - -<p>‘It is true,’ adds the good priest, ‘that I was thunderstruck at all -this composure, and I shivered when I heard her tell the jailer, so -quietly, that the soup was to be stronger that evening than usual, and -that two servings were to be kept for her before midnight.</p> - -<p>‘I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de -Brinvilliers, and as it was generally believed that she had always had -little enough love for him, I was surprised to find that she had so -much. Indeed, it appeared to me to verge towards excess, and for half an -hour I saw her more distressed for him than for herself.’ And when -Pirot, to test her, said that her husband appeared very insensible to -her approaching fate, he drew from her a dignified reply: he must not -judge things so hastily, she told him, or without intimate knowledge, -and that up to that day she had only had to congratulate herself on her -husband.</p> - -<p>She asked for a pen, and with a rapid hand<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> wrote this astonishing -letter to the Marquis de Brinvilliers:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Being as I am on the point of going to give account of my soul to -God, I want to assure you of my affection, which will endure to the -last moment of my life. I ask your pardon for all that I have done -that I ought not to have done. I die an honourable death, brought -upon me by my enemies. I forgive them with all my heart, and -beseech you to forgive them. I hope that you will also forgive me -for the disgrace that may be reflected on you. But remember that we -are here only for a time, and perhaps ere long you yourself will -have to go and render to God an exact account of all your actions, -even your idle words, as I am now preparing to do. Watch over our -temporal affairs and our children: bring them up in the fear of the -Lord, and yourself set them an example. On this consult Monsieur -Marillac and Madame Cousté. Offer up for me as many prayers as you -can, and be assured that I die yours devotedly,</p> - -<p class="r"> -<span class="smcap">d’Aubray</span>.’<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>Pirot objected that what she said about her<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> death and her enemies was -not correct. ‘How so, sir?’ she said. ‘Are not those who have driven me -to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them -their rancour?’</p> - -<p>Pirot’s answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation -which plunged her into great astonishment.</p> - -<p>Then the confession was resumed.</p> - -<p>‘King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,’ said Pirot, ‘his -heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was -bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, -and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the -cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like -that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of -the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not -cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred -kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness -and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All -these words and a thousand others<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> like them,’ adds Pirot, ‘caused her -to weep bitterly.’</p> - -<p>Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, -who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was -disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her -accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness -replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that -till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for -death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of -Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once.</p> - -<p>She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. -‘“Sir,†she said to me, “I have not asked to see them; that would only -have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them.â€â€™ -Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and -that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and -humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair -prisoner’s character to the bottom. ‘Ah!’ she said, interrupting him, -‘those are<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my -hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still -attached to this world’s glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with -which I am loaded.’ And to the priest’s remarks she replied: ‘I tell -myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of -pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural -to me.’ And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: -‘At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments -when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose -acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so -dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.’</p> - -<p>Pirot supped that evening with the prisoner; then, when night had -fallen, he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great -agitation, and on reaching his apartment he had recourse to his -breviary. ‘The image of the lady I had seen all day so powerfully -possessed me that I could hardly attend to what I was reading: it seemed -to me that I was<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a> for nearly half an hour circling round <i>Domine, labia -mea aperies</i>, returning always to where I had begun. At last, seeing -that I must get on, I applied myself a little more diligently to my -reading, so as to be less distracted by this idea. But in spite of all -my close attention, I was quite three hours in reciting my office.’</p> - -<p>He has described at length his sleeplessness, the thoughts that crowded -upon his mind, the anguish which choked him: ‘I got no sleep at all. -Those who know the delicacy of my nature, how sensitive I am to the -misery and pain I see in persons who are indifferent to me, will have no -difficulty in realising the depth of my sorrow for a lady whom I had -seen so afflicted, and who was so near to my heart by reason of the -interest I was bound to take in the salvation of the soul intrusted to -me.’ Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven, he cried: ‘O God, -I am greatly concerned for her whose salvation is as dear to me as my -own; I die every moment for her, and all the reward I ask in the -conflict I have to maintain with her before she closes her career is to -see her crowned with Thee!<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a>’</p> - -<p>In the morning Pirot returned to the prisoner. ‘I was taken up the -tower, where I found Father de Chevigny in tears as he closed a prayer -with the lady, who greeted me with the same courage that I had seen in -her on the previous evening.’</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers has slept as peacefully as a child.</p> - -<p>One of the first questions she put to her confessor related to a fear -which had arisen in her mind, and the thought of which gave her much -torture. ‘Sir,’ she said to me, ‘you gave me yesterday some hope that I -might be saved, but I cannot have the presumption to promise myself that -that will be till after a long time in purgatory. How shall I know -whether I am in purgatory or hell?’ Pirot reassured her.</p> - -<p>Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Brinvilliers was to -descend to hear her sentence read. ‘She was prepared for death and -torture; but she had not thought of the public penance or of the fire. -She answered fearlessly, “In a moment, but just now we are finishing our -conversation, this gentleman<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> and I.†We shortly finished our talk in -great serenity.’</p> - -<p>On leaving the prisoner, Pirot betook himself to the chapel of the -Conciergerie. ‘I said mass for her, and went into the jailer’s room. I -found him there, and he told me that he had accompanied her to the -torture-chamber, and that after her sentence had been read, when the -executioner approached to seize her, she looked him up and down without -saying a word, and seeing a rope in his hand, she offered him her hands -already clasped. I learned after dinner from the procurator-general that -she had been agitated at the reading of her sentence, and that she got -it read a second time.’</p> - -<p>The sentence was dated July 16, 1676:—</p> - -<p>‘The court has declared and declares the said d’Aubray de Brinvilliers -duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maître Dreux d’Aubray her -father, and the said d’Aubray, civil lieutenant and counsellor in the -said court, her brothers, and for reparation has condemned and condemns -the said d’Aubray de Brinvilliers to do public penance before the<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> -principal door of the church of Paris, where she will be taken in a -cart, bare-footed, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a lighted -torch of two pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare -that wickedly, from revenge and to have their property, she has poisoned -her father and two brothers, and attempted the life of her late sister, -of which she repents, and asks pardon of God, the king, and justice; -this done, to be led and conducted in the said cart to the Place de -Grève of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold, which -will be erected for that purpose on the said place; her body to be -burned, and her ashes thrown to the winds: the question ordinary and -extraordinary to be first applied in order to obtain revelation of her -accomplices.’</p> - -<p>She declared in the evening that the part of the sentence which had so -startled her at the first reading that she could not hear the rest, was -the passage which stated that she was to be put in a cart. Her pride was -aroused.</p> - -<p>After the sentence had been read, the condemned woman was led into the -torture-chamber,<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> and when she saw the apparatus, she said: ‘Gentlemen, -it is useless, I will tell everything without torture. Not that I think -I can escape it—my sentence orders me to be tortured, and I suppose it -will not be dispensed with—but I will declare all beforehand. I have -denied everything hitherto, because I imagined I was thus defending -myself, and that I was not bound to confess anything. I have been -convinced of the contrary, and I will behave in accordance with the -instructions given me. And I can assure you that if I had seen three -weeks ago the person whom I have had given me the last twenty-four -hours, you would three weeks ago have known what you are going to learn -now.’ Then raising her voice, she made a clear and complete avowal of -the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poisons she had -employed, she knew only arsenic, vitriol, and the poison of toads. The -strongest poison was ‘rarefied arsenic.’ The only antidote which she had -used herself when poisoned by Sainte-Croix was milk. As to her -accomplices, apart from Sainte-Croix and her lackeys she<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> declared that -she had never had or known any.</p> - -<p>The judges were struck by the frankness of her words. And as we know, -she spoke at that moment with entire sincerity.</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers underwent the cruelest torture then applied by -the Parlement of Paris: the ordeal of water. Enormous quantities of -water were introduced into the stomach of the condemned through a funnel -placed between the teeth. This water, rapidly accumulating inside the -body, produced the most horrible agonies.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the poor abbé Pirot was suffering as much from the torture as -the sufferer herself: ‘I did not see her from half-past seven until two -o’clock in the afternoon. I can say that this was the only bad time I -had that day; apart from the time I spent without her, the rest cost me -nothing. But while she was under torture I was extraordinarily restless, -saying to myself at every moment, “They are now giving her torture.â€â€™</p> - -<p>He took refuge in a little room where, in spite of the promises of the -jailer, he was<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> besieged by importunate visitors. Curious ladies of the -court flocked to him. While there some one handed to him a little medal, -with a message from the wife of President Lamoignon, saying that she had -received it from the pope, with the authority to bestow indulgence on -any dying person she chose, and that she gave it to Madame de -Brinvilliers.</p> - -<p>At last Pirot was told that he would find the marchioness lying on a -mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and -sympathetic words, and his exhortation to repentance, Pirot had little -by little bent this character of iron. He had sent the condemned lady -resigned and submissive to the judges. But under the pangs of torture -which made strong men yield, under the brutal force she had to suffer, -all the pride of her proud nature started up, the worst instincts were -awakened. In revenge, she accused Briancourt of false witness; she -charged Desgrez, who had arrested her at Liége, with purloining -documents. Pirot found her full of hatred and stubbornness, her eyes -blazing. ‘She was highly excited, her face red as fire,<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a> her eyes -gleaming, her mouth distorted. She asked for wine, which I had brought -to her at once.’</p> - -<p>The rest of the story is really touching. The abbé Pirot watched with -the care of an anxious mother over the reputation of the lady about to -die. ‘I expressly notice this circumstance,’ he says, ‘to undeceive -those who believe that she was too fond of wine and was guilty of taking -it to excess, and that she could not refrain from drinking it freely on -the day of her death. I saw nothing of the kind. It is true that on -Thursday, as on Friday, she had a cup from which at times she tasted as -much as a fly might swallow; but this was only to keep up her strength -and to refresh herself, at a time when the strain of recalling to mind -her whole life, in order to assure herself of any criminality there -might have been in it, much exhausted and excited her; and if care was -taken to have good wine on the day of her death, it was only to cheer -her a little in her natural depression of spirits. It has even been cast -up against her, unjustly, that a bottle was provided for her on the way -to<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> the scaffold: I am responsible for that. I feared that her heart -might fail her, and knowing that at one time it was common to offer -criminals strong drink of some kind, to give them courage to suffer -death, I thought that, as I had seen her necessity that day of -refreshing herself now and then, it would be well to have wine ready; -and, to tell the truth, I thought a little of myself. The wine was only -used by the executioner, who drank a mouthful immediately after the -execution.’</p> - -<p>Before setting out for her punishment the marchioness was to be allowed -to pray for a few moments in the chapel of the Conciergerie, before the -Holy Sacrament exposed for the purpose; but she had to appear there -surrounded by other prisoners, who were all admitted to the chapel when -the Host was placed on the altar. ‘When we entered the vestry of the -Conciergerie, she asked the jailer for a pin to fasten the kerchief she -had on her neck, and as he went in all good faith to look for one, she -said to him: “You must not be afraid of anything now: the gentleman will -be my surety, and will answer for it that I do not want to do<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> myself -harm.†“Madam,†he replied, giving her a pin, “I beg pardon, I never -mistrusted you, and if anybody ever did so, it was certainly not I.†He -fell on his knees before her, and thus kneeling kissed her hands. She -begged him to pray to God for her. “Madam,†he replied, his voice choked -with sobs, “I will pray for you to-morrow with all my heart.â€â€™</p> - -<p>‘Meanwhile,’ says Pirot, ‘she had not yet recovered the penitent spirit -which I had seen in her that morning and the night before.’ She spoke of -the sentence. The punishment did not terrify her, but she was bitterly -indignant at the degrading circumstances introduced into it—the public -penance, the scattering of her ashes to the winds. Pirot replied: -‘Madam, it matters nothing to your salvation whether your body be laid -in the earth or be cast into the fire. It will rise glorious from the -ashes if your soul is in grace.’ And further: ‘Yes, madam, this flesh -which men are soon to burn will rise one day, the same but glorified, -provided that your soul rejoices in God; it will be born again, bright -as the<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> sun, no more to suffer, subtle and quick as a spirit.’</p> - -<p>By degrees Pirot regained his hold upon the fair penitent. ‘The cloud of -nature was dissolved, her agitation appeared no longer, and, instead of -the hard fierce looks, the biting of lips, and the other impetuous -manifestations of a shattered pride, there were only tears and sobs, -remorse for sin and yearnings for repentance, that would make one’s -heart bleed. I could not keep back my tears, and for an hour and a half -I wept with her, speaking, nevertheless, with more force than I had yet -done. She was still more affected by my tears than by my words, and, -pondering on the cause of my tears, she said: “Sir, my distress must be -great to compel you to weep so much, or you take a great interest in -what concerns me.â€â€™</p> - -<p>Then she confessed the calumnies she had been unable to avoid conceiving -under torture against Briancourt and Desgrez. Pirot was alarmed, and -when he told her that she ought to repair the fresh sin by a fresh -declaration she appeared surprised. However, the opportunity was about -to be afforded, for about six<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> o’clock the procurator-general sent for -the abbé Pirot.</p> - -<p>‘Sir,’ he said, ‘this is a most vexatious woman.’</p> - -<p>‘How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I -now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.’</p> - -<p>‘Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her -accomplices.’</p> - -<p>Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along -with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated -to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could -only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. ‘Sir,’ -she said, ‘it is true that you told me that at first and at greater -length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than -I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you -had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them -everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.’ -Monsieur de Palluau at once said, ‘This is more than enough, sir; -adieu.’ ‘He went<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> away at once, and we were given only a short time to -spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a -quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much -questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was -her courtesy.’ Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, -Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and -Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the -torture-chamber.</p> - -<p>Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the -altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner -came up to speak of ‘a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price -of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said -that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior -to herself.’</p> - -<p>As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank—the -Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, -the Abbé de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride -was<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her -confessor: ‘Sir, what a strange curiosity!’</p> - -<p>She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned -criminals, holding in one hand the penitent’s candle, and in the other a -crucifix.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>On leaving the Conciergerie she was lifted into the cart. ‘It was one of -the smaller carts you see in the streets loaded with rubbish; it was -very short and narrow, and I feared there was not room enough for her -and me. Yet four of us got in, the executioner’s assistant sitting on -the board which closed it in front, with his feet on the shafts on -either side of the horse. She and I sat on the straw put down to cover -up the wood, and the executioner stood upright at the back. She got in -first, and leant her back against the front-board and against the side, -slightly at an angle. I was near her, pressing against her to make room -for the executioner’s feet, my back against the side of the cart, and my -knees doubled up uncomfortably.<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a>’</p> - -<p>The cart proceeded slowly towards the Place de Grève, which extended -from the Hôtel de Ville to the Seine. It was not easy to get through the -crowd which pressed around it. The streets were black with people, and -the windows crowded with sightseers. At this moment the lady’s features -underwent a sudden change of expression: ‘They were dreadfully -convulsed, the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes, and the whole -countenance wild.’ ‘Sir,’ she said to her confessor, ‘would it be -possible, after all that is passing now, for Monsieur de Brinvilliers to -have so little feeling as to remain in this world?’</p> - -<p>Pirot answered as best he could, endeavouring to ease her mind; but what -he said fell on deaf ears, for the marchioness ‘then suffered one of the -strongest convulsions of her nature in the vivid apprehension of so much -shame. Her face contracted, her brows were knitted, her eyes flashed, -her mouth was distorted, and her whole aspect was embittered.’ ‘I do not -think,’ adds Pirot, ‘that there was a moment in all the time that I had -been with her when her appearance betokened more<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> indignation, and I am -not surprised that Monsieur Le Brun, who is said to have seen her at -that spot, where he could look close at her for some minutes, made so -fiery and terrible a head as he is said to have done in the portrait he -took of her.’ Le Brun’s sketch is now No. 853 at the exhibition of the -Louvre; it is in red and black chalks. It is an admirable drawing, -unquestionably the artist’s masterpiece. Pirot is sketched in silhouette -beside the lady.</p> - -<p>As the cart passed slowly through the crowd, voices were raised crying -out for blood, and heaping curse on curse; but others spoke pitiful -words, and she heard prayers for her salvation. There was a sudden -revulsion of opinion in her favour, which grew stronger and stronger -till the hour of her death.</p> - -<p>The shirt in which she was clothed filled her with amazement. ‘Sir,’ she -said to her confessor, ‘look; I am dressed all in white.’</p> - -<p>All at once a new contraction marked her features. She had just noticed -Desgrez riding near her, the man who had arrested her at Liége, and -subjected her to some rough treatment.<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> She asked the executioner to -move so as to hide this man from her; then she felt remorse for this -‘delicacy,’ and asked the executioner to return to his former position. -‘It was the last time her countenance showed any grimace,’ says Pirot. -From that moment she was wholly under the fortifying influence of the -priest who assisted her. Hope arose in her soul, more and more clear and -radiant, and gave strength to her heart.</p> - -<p>She knelt down on the step of the great door of Notre Dame, and there -repeated with docility the formula dictated by the executioner, in which -she publicly confessed her crimes. ‘Some people say that she hesitated -in saying her father’s name,’ observes Pirot; ‘but I noticed nothing of -the sort.’</p> - -<p>Then they remounted the cart to wend towards the Place de Grève. ‘Not a -word of reproach or complaint against any one escaped her; she showed no -sign of vulgar fear. If she dreaded death, it was only in anticipation -of the judgment of God, and neither the sight of the Grève, the -proximity of the scaffold, nor the appearance of all the terrible -apparatus used<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> in this kind of execution gave her the least shadow of -fright.’</p> - -<p>The cart stopped. The executioner said to her: ‘Madam, you must -persevere: it is not enough to have come here and to have responded -hitherto to what this gentleman has been saying, you must go on to the -end as you have begun.’ ‘This he said in a noticeably humane manner,’ -observes Pirot, ‘and I was edified by it. It is true that she answered -never a word, but she courteously bent her head as though to show that -she took well what he had said and that she meant to continue in the -temper in which he saw her. He confessed to me that he was surprised at -her firmness.’</p> - -<p>At this moment a clerk of the Parlement appeared. The commissaries were -sitting in the Hôtel de Ville ready to receive any declaration Madame de -Brinvilliers might still have to make about her accomplices. ‘Sir,’ she -replied, ‘I have no more to say; I have told all I know.’ She renewed -the declaration whereby she freed Briancourt and Desgrez from the -accusations fabricated against them at her torture.<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a></p> - -<p>The executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold. ‘She looked at -me,’ says Pirot, ‘with a gentle countenance and an expression full of -gratitude and tenderness, and with tears in her eyes. “Sir,†she said to -me in a pretty loud tone, which showed how self-possessed she was, but -as courteous as it was firm, “we are not yet to separate. You promised -not to leave me till my head is off; I hope that you will keep your -word.†And as I answered nothing, because the tears and sighs which I -could only with difficulty restrain robbed me of all power of speech, -she added, “I beseech you, sir, to forgive me and not to regret the time -you have given to me. I am sorry, for my part, to have given you so -little satisfaction, at least at certain moments; I beg your pardon for -it. But I cannot die without asking you to say a <i>De profundis</i> on the -scaffold at the moment of my death, and a mass to-morrow. Remember me, -sir, and pray for me.â€â€™ Pirot remarks, ‘If I had not been at that moment -more deeply moved than I had ever been in my life, I should have had -many things to reply to her courtesies, and I should have promised her -more than one<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> mass; but I found it impossible to say anything more than -“Yes, madam, I will do all that you bid me.â€â€™</p> - -<p>Just as she was walking up the steps Madame de Brinvilliers found -herself next to Desgrez. She then asked his forgiveness for the trouble -she had given him, and begged him to say a few masses and to pray for -her. She ended her ‘compliment’ by saying that ‘she was his servant, and -so she would die on the scaffold.’ Then she added, ‘Adieu, sir.’</p> - -<p>The throng was immense. Madame de Sévigné, who had come to witness the -execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge Notre Dame, -writes: ‘Never was such a crowd seen, nor Paris so moved or so eager.’</p> - -<p>The marchioness knelt down on the scaffold, her face turned towards the -river. ‘It was at that moment,’ says Pirot, ‘that I saw her so intent -upon herself, so wholly occupied with what I had said we would do on the -scaffold, telling me with such wonderful composure all that was -necessary, and making me pass from one thing to another in due order -without<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> any prompting from me, wholly absorbed in what I said to her to -prepare her for death, without the appearance of any wandering in her -thoughts.</p> - -<p>‘She was absolutely without fear. She was gentle, courteous, steadfast, -and self-forgetful. She had very great patience to endure with -extraordinary docility all the executioner’s preparations. He undid her -hair while she was on her knees; he cut it behind and at both sides; to -do so he made her turn her head several times in different ways, and he -even turned it himself sometimes with no great gentleness: that lasted -quite half an hour. She felt keenly the shame of the proceeding in the -sight of so great a company; but she overcame her grief and submitted to -everything even with joy. I fancy that she had never allowed her hair to -be done so quietly as she then let it be cut and shaved; the -executioner’s hand felt no rougher to her than that of a maid doing her -hair; she punctually obeyed his instructions as to turning, lowering, -and raising her head when he pleased. He tore off the top of the shirt -which he had put over her<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> cloak when she left the Conciergerie, so as -to uncover her shoulders. She let him bind her hands as though he were -putting on golden bracelets, and knot the rope about her neck as if it -had been a necklace of pearls.</p> - -<p class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<a href="images/i-112_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/i-112_sml.jpg" width="429" -style="border:double 6px gray;" -height="550" alt="MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS - -ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY -CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE -ABBÉ PIROT - -(From a Sketch by Charles Le Brun, preserved in the Louvre)" title="MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS<br /> -<small>ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY -CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE -ABBÉ PIROT<br /> - -(From a Sketch by Charles Le Brun, preserved in the Louvre)</small> -<br /> -<a href="images/i-112_lg.jpg"> -<img class="enlargeimage" -src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" -alt="enlarge-image" -title="enlarge-image" -width="18" -height="14" /></a> -</span> -</p> - -<p>‘“I should like to be burned alive,†she said, “to render my sacrifice -more meritorious, if I could have sufficient confidence in my courage to -bear that kind of death without falling into despair.â€â€™</p> - -<p>The Abbé Pirot chanted the <i>Salve</i>, and the people crowding round the -scaffold continued the chant that he began. Then he told the lady that -he was about to give her absolution. Thereupon she said, her soul at -peace, ‘Sir, you promised me just now to give me a second penitence on -the scaffold, when I pleaded that what you gave me was too easy, and now -you say nothing about it.’ ‘I asked her to say an <i>Ave</i> and a <i>Sancta -est Maria mater gratiae</i>. At the end of which, saying to her, “Madam, -renew your contrition,†I gave her absolution, saying only the -sacramental words because time was pressing.’</p> - -<p>The expression of her face was transformed.<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> It was an expression of -hope and joy, of serene faith and love, mingled with the exaltation of -the penitent. ‘Never have I seen anything more touching,’ says Pirot, -‘than her eyes appeared to me, and if I had to paint a countenance full -of contrition and sorrow of heart and hope of pardon, I could wish for -no other features than those I remember still, and shall remember all my -life long.’</p> - -<p>Guillaume the executioner bandaged the eyes of the condemned woman. She -repeated the last prayers along with her confessor. Guillaume with the -back of his sleeve wiped away the beads of sweat which covered his brow. -Suddenly Pirot heard a dull blow, and ceased to speak. ‘Madame de -Brinvilliers held her head very straight. The executioner severed it at -a single stroke, which cut so clean that it remained for a moment on the -trunk before falling. I was indeed in agony for an instant, fearing that -he had missed his aim and that he would have to strike a second time.’</p> - -<p>‘Sir,’ said the headsman, ‘isn’t it a fine stroke?’</p> - -<p>He added: ‘On these occasions I always<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> commend myself to God, and -hitherto he has been with me; five or six days ago this lady was -troubling me and I couldn’t get her out of my head: I will have six -masses said.’ And, uncorking a bottle, he drank a good draught of wine.</p> - -<p>The body was borne to the stake; the flames consumed it, and then the -ashes were scattered; but the mob struggled to collect some fragments of -the charred bones: all who had been able to get near the scaffold had -seen the face of the criminal illumined with a halo, and they departed -saying that the dead woman was a saint. Madame de Sévigné writes that -Pirot repeated the saying to every one he met.</p> - -<p>The children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers took the name of Offémont.</p> - -<p>Pennautier was acquitted and left the prison on July 27. He recovered -his high position and the repute in which he had been held.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>In declaring that she had had no other accomplices than Sainte-Croix and -her lackeys Madame de Brinvilliers was speaking the truth. But at that -period crimes as great as hers were<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> being committed in Paris, and it -was not long before the judges discovered them. There was for instance -the celebrated case heard by the ‘Chambre Ardente,’ to which that of -Madame de Brinvilliers serves as introduction.<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="THE_POISON_DRAMA_AT_THE_COURT_OF_LOUIS_XIV" id="THE_POISON_DRAMA_AT_THE_COURT_OF_LOUIS_XIV"></a>THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV</h2> - -<h3><a name="I_THE_SORCERESSES" id="I_THE_SORCERESSES"></a>I. THE SORCERESSES</h3> - -<h4><i>The Dinner of La Vigoureux.</i></h4> - -<p class="nind">T<small>HE</small> trial of Madame de Brinvilliers had just caused an immense -sensation. The penitentiaries of Notre Dame, without naming any person, -declared that ‘the majority of those who had confessed to them for some -time accused themselves of poisoning somebody.’ The court and the city -were still disturbed by the catastrophe which had at St. Cloud suddenly -carried off the charming Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, by the sudden -death of Hugues de Lionne, the great statesman, and by the startling -fate which had just befallen the Duke of Savoy. A note found on -September 21, 1677, in the confessional of the Jesuits in<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> Rue -Saint-Antoine denounced a plot to poison the king and the dauphin. On -December 5 following, La Reynie, lieutenant of police, caused the arrest -of Louis de Vanens, who said he had been an officer. The papers seized -on him and on Finette, his mistress, brought to light an association of -alchemists, coiners, and magicians, in which priests, officers, -important bankers like Cadelan were associated with light women, -lackeys, and vagabonds. The Parlement was investigating the matter, when -La Reynie put his hand on a second association, like the first to all -appearance, but soon to reveal itself to the eyes of the magistrates as -an affair of much greater importance still.</p> - -<p>Towards the end of the year 1678, an advocate in small practice named -Maître Perrin was dining in Rue Courtauvilain with a certain Madame -Vigoureux, wife of a ladies’ tailor—the trade, it will be seen, existed -before to-day. The company was merry, and the wine flowed freely. Among -the party was a ‘big, powerful, large-faced woman,’ who choked with -laughter as she poured out for herself bumpers of burgundy that would -have made a grenadier<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> stagger. Her name was Marie Bosse, and she was -the widow of a horse-dealer. She was further a well-known -fortune-teller—'devineresse,’ as they said in those days. ‘A fine -trade!’ she cried, and spoke of the grand people who frequented her -little rookery in the Rue du Grand-Huleu—duchesses and marchionesses -and princes and lords. ‘Another three poisonings, and she would retire -with her fortune made!’ At this remark the guests began to laugh still -more loudly: this fat woman was irresistibly funny. Maître Perrin alone -saw, by a sharp and rapid frown on the face of Madame Vigoureux, that -there was something serious in it. He knew Desgrez, the police officer -who had arrested Madame de Brinvilliers, and to him he related the -incident. Desgrez did not laugh at all, and that very day he sent the -wife of one of his archers to the fortune-teller with a complaint -against her husband. The fortune-teller, at the first visit, promised -her assistance; at the second, she gave her a phial of poison, which the -wife at once carried home to her dumfounded husband. La Reynie -forthwith<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> ordered the arrest of Madame Vigoureux, of Marie Bosse, with -her daughter Manon, and her two sons, one of whom was a soldier in the -guards, and the other, a boy of fifteen, was just leaving the workhouse -of Bicêtre, where he had been placed to ‘improve his morals and give him -a taste for work.’ Marie Bosse was arrested at her own house on the -morning of January 4, 1679, in bed with her two sons. Her daughter had -just risen. ‘There was only one bed, in which they all slept together.’ -The preliminary inquiry brought to light a crime, the news of which -created a sensation almost as great as that evoked by the poisonings by -Madame de Brinvilliers.</p> - -<p>An order in council, dated January 10, instructed La Reynie to proceed -against the women Bosse, Vigoureux, and their accomplices. On March 12 -an officer set about the arrest of Catherine Deshayes, wife of Antoine -Monvoisin, a peddling jeweller. This woman, usually known as La Voisin, -was the greatest criminal of whom history has any record. She was -arrested as she left the church of Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle after -hearing mass.<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> In her track La Reynie was to penetrate into a region of -crime that the imagination can scarcely conceive. ‘Human life is -publicly trafficked in,’ he wrote in utter consternation: ‘death is -almost the only remedy employed in family embarrassments; impieties, -sacrileges, abominations are common practices in Paris, in the country, -in the provinces.’</p> - -<h4><i>Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century</i></h4> - -<p>To understand the facts and the characters of the persons we are going -to study, we must dwell briefly upon the beliefs of that time—a time -when beliefs were dominant influences in the life of men. We know what -power religious sentiments had in the seventeenth century—sentiments of -an intensity and a simplicity we know little of to-day, and the -corruption of which could not but engender the most absurd -superstitions. That was the epoch when the sweet Marguerite Alacoque, in -her divine ecstasy, exchanged her heart with that of Christ, and wrote -in her own blood, under dictation from on high, the contract which -ascribed to God these words: ‘I constitute<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> thee heiress of my heart and -all its treasures for time and eternity; I promise thee that thou shalt -only lack succour when I lack power; thou shalt be for ever the -well-beloved disciple, the plaything of my good pleasure and the -burnt-offering of my love.’ And that, too, was the period when Catherine -Monvoisin, the terrible sorceress of Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, found -numerous and ardent followers.</p> - -<p>The beliefs in the action of the devil, and in the power of the -sorcerers, so deeply rooted in the imagination of the seventeenth -century, were summed up in 1588 in the <i>Démonomanie des Sorciers</i> of the -famous Jean Bodin. He defined the sorcerer as one who ‘by devilish and -unlawful means endeavours to attain some end'; but in his book he speaks -for the most part of witches. As Sprenger, the German inquisitor, -remarked, ‘We should talk of the heresy of the witches, and not of -sorcerers, for these are of little account.’ In Bodin are to be found -most of the practices in black magic still flourishing at the end of the -seventeenth century. Sorcerers and witches formed a sort of vast -fraternity. There were entire families<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> whose formulae and whose -customers were handed down as heritable property. Jeanne Harvillier, -burnt to death on April 30, 1579, may serve as type. Her mother, a witch -like herself, had been burnt to death thirty years before. Such a death -was the natural end to her career, an end foreseen, and one that -terrified those fascinated by the strange vocation much less than one -would imagine. Jeanne was born about 1528, at Verberie near Compiègne. -At the age of twelve she was presented by her mother to the devil, who -appeared to her in the shape of a very tall dark man. Jeanne renounced -God, and consecrated herself to the ‘Spirit.’ ‘At the same time she had -carnal intercourse with him, which continued from the age of twelve to -the age of fifty, when she was arrested. It sometimes happened that her -husband, lying by her side, failed to perceive what was going on.’ This -was the <i>incubat</i>. Jeanne Harvillier was brought to justice on the -charge of causing the death of men and beasts by witchcraft. She -confessed to it with the greatest frankness, and told the story of her -last homicide: ‘She laid some<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> powders, prepared for her by the devil, -in the place where the man who had beaten his daughter was to pass.’ -Another man came by to whom she wished no harm, and immediately he felt -a sharp pain all over his body. She promised to cure him, and in fact -took her place at the bedside of the sick man and tended him with the -gentleness of a sister of mercy. She fervently besought the devil to -restore life to the dying man, but the devil replied that it was -impossible.</p> - -<p>Bodin gravely recounts how witches on the Sabbath flew through the air -on broomsticks. He adds: ‘What we have said of the travels of the -witches, both in body and in spirit, and the frequent and memorable -experiences of the same, show as in broad daylight, and bring to the -test of touch and sight, the error of those who have written that the -flights of witches are imaginary, and nothing but a trance.’ This last -opinion had been maintained by John Wier, physician to the Duke of -Cleves, in a book which is almost a work of genius for that period. -Bodin devoted all his energy to its refutation, for to throw any doubt -upon<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> the fact that the devil transports witches from one place to -another would be, he said, to bring gospel history into ridicule.</p> - -<p>Coming to study the maladies attributed to the incantations of -sorcerers—consumption, hysteria, melancholy, delusions, debility—John -Wier found the remedies to consist in a regular life, in conformity with -the laws of God, and in the skill of physicians. What an abominable -doctrine! says Bodin. He had lost all respect, then, for anything. Bodin -was beside himself. John Wier, he says, wrote under the dictation of -Satan. Moreover, had he not himself confessed that he was a disciple of -Agrippa, ‘the greatest sorcerer that ever was'? When Agrippa died in the -hospital of Grenoble, a black dog which he called ‘Monsieur’ instantly -went and sprang into the river. Wier declared, it is true, that this dog -was not the devil, but there was not a single sensible person who -believed him.</p> - -<p>Without taking a side in this famous dispute between Bodin and John -Wier, we are bound to state that the writings of the latter had no -success, at any rate in France,<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> while Bodin’s book became a classic. -Bossuet, for all his powerful intellect, firmly believed in sorcery. At -the close of the seventeenth century, Bonet was obliged to go to a -Protestant republic to get his treatise on medicine printed, in which he -spoke lightly of magic and demoniacal possession. We have to come far -into the eighteenth century to find one Abraham de Saint-André—and he -was physician to Louis <span class="smcap">XV</span>—daring, in his famous <i>Letters</i>, to cast -doubt on the magic and witchcraft of sorcerers.</p> - -<p>The following case, tried at the period in which the events of our story -occurred, and reproduced here after the archives of the Bastille, will -enable us to understand the ardour of belief with which the sorcerers -themselves were animated.</p> - -<p>By sentence of the Tournelle on September 2, 1687, a certain Pierre -Hocque was condemned to the galleys. He was a shepherd, skilled in -magic, who had, as the judgment declared, caused the death, by a spell -he cast over them, of 395 sheep, 7 horses, and 11 cows belonging to -Eustache Visié, receiver of taxes<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> at Pacy-en-Brie. Hocque was chained -up with the other galley prisoners. Nevertheless, the cattle of Eustache -Visié continued to die. He had no sooner bought a cow or a sheep and -placed it in his farm than it perished. Clearly the only remedy was to -get Pierre Hocque to remove the direful spell he had imposed. Visié won -over, by a promise of money, the galley prisoner who was fastened to the -chain next to Hocque—a man named Béatrix. He spoke to the shepherd, who -replied that he had in fact cast a poison-spell over the cattle of -Visié, and that, failing himself, only two shepherds named Bras-de-Fer -and Courte Epée had the power to remove the fatal charm. At the urgent -request of Béatrix, Hocque dictated a letter to be sent to Bras-de-Fer, -but the letter was no sooner despatched than he fell into a horrible -despair. He cried hoarsely that Béatrix had made him do something that -would cause his death, which he would be unable to escape from the -moment Bras-de-Fer began to raise the spell he had cast on the cattle. -And the unhappy wretch writhed about in such dreadful contortions<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> that -the other prisoners would have murdered Béatrix but for the intervention -of the guards. The despair and the convulsions lasted for several days, -and then Hocque died. ‘And it was the exact time,’ says the official -document, ‘when Bras-de-Fer began to exorcise the cattle.’ The judges -add: ‘It is established that Pierre Hocque died because Bras-de-Fer -removed the poison-spell from the horses and cows, and it is true that -since that time no more of Eustache Visié’s horses and cows have died.’</p> - -<p>The conviction of the unhappy sorcerer that he was bound to die as soon -as his mate undid his work was so strong that he did die. Is it possible -to imagine a more striking proof of the robust faith people then had in -all these devilries?</p> - -<h4><i>The practices of the Witches</i></h4> - -<p>To magic, black or white, the witches added medicine and pharmacy. They -kept drugstores with phials innumerable: syrups, juleps, ointments, -balms, emollients in infinite variety. They were old wives’ remedies, -but their<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> efficacy had been proved by experience, and their preparation -was perfected from age to age. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance -physician, burnt in 1527 the medical books of his time, declaring that -nothing but the formulae of the witches was of any use. The old hags had -soothing draughts for pain, healing ointments for wounds, and they acted -on nervous maladies by suggestion. That was the serious side of their -art. Most often the witch was a midwife too; but just as in that strange -world the poisoner lurked behind the druggist, and the alchemist and the -coiner were one, so the midwife played the part of baby-farmer. Finally, -the witches were fortune-tellers, who cast one’s horoscope according to -the drawing of cards or the lines of the hand.</p> - -<p>What were the declarations of the witches arrested by La Reynie? Marie -Bosse said that ‘nothing better could be done than to exterminate all -that sort of people who examine the hand, because they are the ruin of -many a woman, women of quality as well as others; the fortune-teller -soon finds out their weak spot, and thereby knows how to take them<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> and -lead them wherever she will.’ She added that in Paris there were more -than 400 fortune-tellers and magicians ‘who ruined a great many people, -especially women, and of all conditions.’ She went on to speak of the -money her cronies earned, telling how they bought places for their -husbands and built houses, and that they did not realise such fortunes -merely by looking at people’s hands. La Voisin said that nothing could -be better than to hunt up all the people who looked at hands, that those -engaged in the business ‘heard strange things when love intrigues were -not prospering, that poisonings were an everyday occurrence, that many -of them were paid as much as 10,000 livres’ (£2000 of our money). -Similar declarations were made by Leroux, another witch, and by the -magician Lesage. ‘It is extremely important,’ said the latter, ‘to get -to the bottom of these wretched practices, and to fathom this mystery of -iniquity which exists among all those who ostensibly are seekers after -treasure, after the philosopher’s stone, and other like things, but who -keep up their trade by very different<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> means: abortions and other crimes -are greater treasures than the philosopher’s stone and fortune-telling; -the people who apply to the workers in mystery discuss usually the -poisoning of a husband, or a wife, or a father, and even sometimes of -babies at the breast.’ He went on to say that ‘these wretched people had -obtained the protection of very powerful friends, so that they acted -with perfect assurance and in almost perfect freedom.’ These statements -are confirmed by the documents La Reynie was able to get together.</p> - -<p>What the public asked of the witches was, first of all, to withdraw the -veil from the future, and then to enable them to discover treasures. For -this purpose various means were employed, all tending to the same -end—to compel the ‘Spirit,’ that is the devil, by charms and -incantations to present himself and reveal the mysterious spot where -treasures lay hid. ‘A woman,’ writes Ravaisson, ‘usually a prostitute on -the eve of accouchement, was placed at the centre of a circle drawn on -the floor, and surrounded with dark candles; when the child was born, -the<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> mother gave up her son to be consecrated to the devil. After -pronouncing filthy incantations, the priest cut the victim’s throat, -sometimes under the very eyes of its mother; but more often he carried -it away to sacrifice it elsewhere, because at the last moment outraged -nature asserted her rights, and these unhappy creatures snatched their -babes from death. At other times, they were content to cut the throat of -a deserted child; of such there was no lack; imprudent girls, light -women, gave the witches authority to dispose of the fruits of an -unlawful love. There were even licensed midwives who did a large -business in procuring abortion; the children after being baptized were -put to death and carried at once to the cemetery; most often they were -buried in the corner of a wood or consumed in an oven.’ And the witch -Marie Bosse added: ‘There are so many of this sort of people in Paris -that the city is choke-full of them.’</p> - -<p>These were the practices, with others more abominable still, which -caused La Reynie to write: ‘It is difficult to think merely that these -crimes are possible; one can hardly<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> bring oneself to consider them. Yet -it is those who have committed them that themselves declare them, and -these villains give so many particulars that it is difficult to harbour -any doubt.’</p> - -<h4><i>The Alchemists</i></h4> - -<p>Alongside of the group of witches and magicians appears another group, -that of the alchemists and ‘philosophers,’ represented by such people as -Vanens, Chasteuil, Cadelan, Rabel, and Bachimont. We have mentioned the -arrest of Louis de Vanens on December 5, 1677.</p> - -<p>The origins of this association of alchemists and seekers after the -philosopher’s stone were highly dramatic. François Galaup de Chasteuil, -second of the name—he belonged to an illustrious family of Languedoc, -which had produced men of the highest distinction in arms, religion, and -literature—was its chief, or to use the cant expression of the cabala, -its ‘author.’ His life had been more than ordinarily romantic. Born at -Aix, on November 15, 1625, he was the second son of Jean<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> Galaup de -Chasteuil, attorney-general of the Exchequer Court of Aix. His elder -brother Hubert, solicitor-general to the Parlement of the same town, was -‘renowned for the nobility of his mind and the profundity of his -knowledge'; his younger brother Pierre was a poet, the friend of -Boileau, La Fontaine, and Mademoiselle de Scudéry. After a successful -student career, François was admitted doctor of law. In 1644 he became a -knight of Malta. He did signal service to the Order, and Lascaris, the -grand master, placed on his breast the cross of honour. He then became -captain of the guards of the great Condé. In 1652 he retired to Toulon, -fitted out a ship, and under the Maltese flag went privateering against -the Mussulmans. Algerian corsairs captured him and led him into -captivity. After two years of slavery he came to Marseilles, where he -turned monk and became prior of the Carmelites. He smuggled into the -convent a young girl—a slender, fair-haired child, with large, bright -blue eyes; and there he kept her locked up in his cell. When she was on -the point of<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> giving birth to her child, Chasteuil, assisted by a lay -brother, strangled her in her bed, and on a pitch-dark night carried her -into the chapel of the convent, where he lifted several slabs of the -floor and dug out a grave in which to bury her. The silence of the -arches was disturbed by a dull sound. A pilgrim, lying asleep against a -pillar, woke up, and saw the sinister toilers by the light of the moon -which shone through the stained windows. Transfixed with fright, he -remained hidden out of sight in a dark corner until dawn, when the -chapel was opened, and he ran to inform the magistrates. Chasteuil was -arrested, tried, and condemned. He was on the way to execution when, at -the foot of the gibbet, up came Louis de Vanens, captain of the galleys, -along with several soldiers. Chasteuil and Vanens were old friends. -Chasteuil was rescued, and, taking his rescuer with him, he fled to -Nice.</p> - -<p>Hiding in a quiet spot, the two friends began working at the -philosopher’s stone, that is, at converting copper into silver and gold. -Chasteuil had some experience of alchemy, and<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> fancied he was master of -the famous secret. Full of gratitude for the service done him, he gave -Vanens the secret so far as silver was concerned, but would tell him -nothing about the gold, ‘not thinking Vanens prudent enough for that.’ -Shortly afterwards we find Chasteuil in the service of the Duke of -Savoy, captain of the guards of the White Cross, and—extraordinary -fact—tutor to his son! While occupied with the education of the young -Prince of Piedmont, Chasteuil continued his ‘philosophy,’ and discovered -an oil, which, as he appeared convinced himself, would turn metals into -gold. He also wrote translations of authors sacred and profane—the -minor prophets, Petronius, the Thebaïd of Statius; and he dabbled in -poetry. He had just passed his fortieth year. A contemporary gives us -his portrait: ‘Middle height, very thin, always troubled with a nasty -cough caused by a wound he received in the body, round-shouldered, -slightly crooked, with a wry mouth, scanty beard, hair black and flat, -complexion swarthy and sallow.’ Moréri adds: ‘Monsieur de Chasteuil was -one of the most accomplished of<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> gentlemen, and a perfect master of the -platonic philosophy.’</p> - -<p>Vanens and Chasteuil struck up an alliance with Robert de Bachimont, -lord of La Miré, who had married a cousin of Superintendent Fouquet. -Bachimont had at Paris a house near the Temple, with four smelting -furnaces: a large one on the third floor, two smaller ones in an -ante-room, and a large one in the cellar. He also had apartments at -Compiègne in the <i>Ecu de France</i>, where there was nothing but crucibles, -alembics, vessels of glass and of earthenware, cucurbits, philosophical -stoves open and closed, grates and mortars, retorts and matrasses, -sal-ammoniac and iron filings, and a thousand varieties of powders, -pastes, and liquids. Finally, he had another establishment at the abbey -of Ainay, near Lyons, completely fitted up for the fusion of metals, the -distillation of herbs, and other practices of alchemy. Before long the -association was enlarged by the addition of a person of some importance, -Louis de Vasconcelos y Souza, Count of Castelmelhor, who had been -practically the governor of Portugal for five or six years as<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> the -favourite of King Alfonso <span class="smcap">VI.</span> Bachimont says that Castelmelhor taught -him the secret of colouring glass red. After the death of the Duke of -Savoy on June 12, 1675, Castelmelhor withdrew to England, where he -gained the favour of Charles <span class="smcap">II.</span>, an ardent alchemist and astrologer. He -was present at the death of the English king, and it was he that brought -in the Catholic priest who gave him extreme unction.</p> - -<p>Chasteuil and his partners spent their time in the quest for the -philosopher’s stone, contact with which was to convert metals into gold; -and, like the majority of alchemists, they believed that it was to be -found in the solidification of mercury. ‘The hermetic philosophers,’ -writes M. Huysmans, ‘discovered—and modern science to-day does not deny -that they were right—that the metals are compound bodies of identical -composition. Their varieties are due simply to the different proportions -of the elements in combination; it is possible then, by the aid of an -agent that would alter these proportions, to change these bodies one -into another—to transmute<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> mercury, for instance, into silver, and lead -into gold. And this agent is the philosopher’s stone, mercury: not -ordinary mercury, which, to alchemists, is only a bastard metal’ (M. -Huysmans uses another expression), ‘but the mercury of the philosophers, -called also <i>lion vert</i>.’</p> - -<p>Among the papers of La Voisin was found an <span class="smcap">MS</span>. poem in honour of the -philosopher’s stone:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘De l’or glorifié qui change en or ses frères.’<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>The secret consisted in an elixir, of which a single drop, cast</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i8">‘dans une mer profonde<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Où couleraient fondus tous les métaux du monde,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Suffirait pour la teindre et fixer en soleil.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a><br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Chasteuil and his fellows did not merely seek the solidification of -mercury, which was to produce the philosopher’s stone, but the -liquefaction of gold by cold: this was to furnish a universal panacea. -‘Liquid gold restores health and strength, gives flesh to<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> greybeards -and colour to the cheeks of girls, cures the plague,’ and so on.</p> - -<p>Solid mercury being unobtainable, they sought, for the transmutation of -metals, those powders or oils about which we hear so frequently at that -period; and, as we shall see, they had the best reasons in the world for -believing that they had put their finger on the secret, at least as far -as silver<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> was concerned.</p> - -<p>In 1676 our partners all established themselves at Paris, where they -added to their company three collaborators, all important in different -ways: the quack Rabel, a physician celebrated in his day; a rich banker -of Paris named Pierre Cadelan, secretary to the king; and a young -Parlement advocate named Jean Terron du Clausel. Du Clausel lodged with -Vanens in the Rue d’Anjou, in a house which had for sign <i>Le Petit Hôtel -d’Angleterre</i>. He was a valuable addition to the band, because he could -distil at pleasure, being ‘licensed.’ Rabel seems to have been possessed -of considerable real science. Rabel water, which he<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> invented, is still -used in our own day—a mixture of alcohol and sulphuric acid, which acts -as an astringent in cases of hæmorrhage. Rabel had compounded another -elixir, whose innumerable merits were celebrated in notices in prose and -verse which the most glowing of modern advertisements have not -surpassed. Cadelan supplied funds. Bodin speaks in very precise terms -about the alchemists: ‘They extract the quintessence of plants, and make -admirable and salutary oils and waters, and discourse subtly on the -virtues and the transmutation of metals; but they also make false -money.’ At the moment when Cadelan and his associates were arrested, he -was on the point of farming the Paris mint. Was this in order to make -false <i>louis d’or</i>, as historians have supposed? We believe rather that -it was to find means of circulating the products of the alchemical -experiments of his associates, for by that time they had no manner of -doubt about the efficacy of Chasteuil’s formulae. A bar of silver cast -by Vanens, and taken by Bachimont to the mint, had just been accepted -there at a good price as pure metal. It is scarcely<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> necessary to add -that this could only have been due to an error of the mint official; -this famous silver made out of copper by Vanens and Chasteuil was -nothing but ‘white metal.’ Nevertheless, it was a success which opened -before the eyes of our partners splendid vistas of future wealth.</p> - -<p>When Louis de Vanens was arrested on December 5, 1677, Louvois believed -that he had seized a spy. But he had put his hand on an alchemist, and -soon the whole band—Terron, Cadelan, Monsieur and Madame Bachimont, -Barthomynat (known as La Chaboissière), de Vanens’ valet—were laid by -the heels, some in the Bastille, the others at Pierre-en-Cize. Chasteuil -had just died quietly at Verceil. Rabel had escaped into England, where -Charles <span class="smcap">II</span> lodged and fed him, gave him a pension, and loaded him with -presents. Later he returned to France, and was incarcerated in his turn.</p> - -<p>We regarded it as essential to say something of this band of alchemists -and ‘philosophers’ by way of introduction to Louis de Vanens. This young -noble of Provence, ‘a man of<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> well-knit and graceful figure,’ had -brilliant connections at court, where he was on a footing of intimacy -with the king’s dazzling mistress, Madame de Montespan. On the other -hand, he was an assiduous visitor to La Voisin, and was even for some -time her ‘author.’ Vanens was the link between the alchemists and the -witches. He was devoted to demoniacal practices. His valet, La -Chaboissière, declared that one night he had to accompany his master and -a cleric into the woods on the outskirts of Poissy, where they searched -for treasures with incantations and invocations to the ‘spirit.’ Vanens -was a diabolical character. He was confined at the Bastille in the same -room with other prisoners, as the custom was. He had with him a sort of -white and tan spaniel. As midnight approached, he recited some prayer -over the body of the dog, and went through the ceremony of consecration. -Then he took a prayer-book containing a picture of the Virgin, and laid -the picture on the back of the dog, saying, ‘Avaunt, devil! Behold thy -good mistress!’ To the remarks of his companions in captivity, he -replied:<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> ‘Neither God nor the king shall prevent me from doing what I -have done.’ To gauge the strange and passionate vigour of these -superstitions, we must remember that Vanens was in the Bastille, quite -aware that these practices might bring him to the stake.</p> - -<p>We shall see in the sequel the importance of Vanens when we recall the -following lines found in the notes of Nicolas de la Reynie: ‘To see La -Chaboissière again about his reluctance to have written down in his -statement, after hearing it read, that Vanens had been concerned in -giving Madame de Montespan counsel which deserves that he should be -drawn and quartered.’</p> - -<h4><i>La Voisin</i></h4> - -<p>To the portraits of Chasteuil the alchemist and of Vanens, we must add -that of the most famous of the witches, Catherine Deshayes, known as La -Voisin. It was of her that La Fontaine wrote:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Une femme à Paris faisait la pythonisse.’<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>La Voisin stated to La Reynie: ‘Some<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> women asked if they would not soon -become widows, because they wished to marry some one else; almost all -asked this and came for no other reason. When those who come to have -their hands read ask for anything else, they nevertheless always come to -the point in time, and ask to be ridded of some one; and when I gave -those who came to me for that purpose my usual answer, that those they -wished to be rid of would die when it pleased God, they told me that I -was not very clever.’ Margot, La Voisin’s servant, said that the whole -world came there, adding: ‘La Voisin is to-day dragging a great ruck -down with her—a long chain of persons of all sorts and conditions.’ The -Parisians used to go in companies to the house of the fortune-teller: -they were quite pleasure parties. The merry crew would overflow into the -garden lawns surrounding the cottage at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. This was -the district, but sparsely inhabited, between the ramparts and the St. -Denis quarter.</p> - -<p>The sorceress was brought into the city drawing-rooms as nowadays -fashionable singers are brought. ‘At that time, La Voisin had<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> as much -money as she wanted. Every morning, before she rose, people were waiting -for her, and she had visitors all the rest of the day: after that, in -the evening, she kept open house, engaged fiddlers, and enjoyed herself -thoroughly; this went on for several years.’ This life had little -resemblance, it will be seen, to that of her ancestress, the witch -described by Michelet: ‘You will find her in the most dismal places, -isolated,—in houses of ill-fame and ruined huts and hovels. Where could -she have lived except on wild heaths—the hapless wretch who was so -hunted down, the accursed, proscribed, hated poisoner?’</p> - -<p>La Voisin earned in a year as much as £2000 or even £4000 in English -money; but her gains were spent in revelry. She entertained her lovers -in princely style, for she would have thought it unworthy of her if they -were not comfortable; and her lovers were many. We find in the first -rank of them André Guillaume, the executioner of Paris, who beheaded -Madame de Brinvilliers, and who, by a horrible coincidence, only just -escaped executing La Voisin herself: among<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> them also the Viscount de -Cousserans, the Count de Labatie, Fauchet the architect, a wine merchant -of the neighbourhood, Lesage the magician, the alchemist Blessis, and -others.</p> - -<p>We must add that Blessis and Lesage spent much money on her, ostensibly -in connection with the philosopher’s stone, for La Voisin had a sincere -faith in alchemy. She subsidised great enterprises, and helped to -establish manufactures, being much interested in scientific and -industrial progress; but in regard to industrial undertakings she fell -mainly into the hands of sharpers who swindled her out of her money.</p> - -<p>However, La Voisin, proud of her trade as sorceress, which brought -persons of the highest rank to bend before her in obsequious and -suppliant attitudes, did not stick at any expense that seemed likely to -augment her glory. She delivered her oracular sayings clothed in a robe -and a cloak specially woven for her, for which she paid 15,000 livres -(£3000 of English money). The queen herself had no finery more beautiful -than this ‘imperial robe,’ which ‘was the talk of all Paris.’ The<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> cloak -was of crimson velvet studded with 205 two-headed eagles of fine gold, -lined with costly fur; the skirt was of bottle-green velvet, edged with -French point. Even her shoes were embroidered with golden two-headed -eagles. The mere weaving of the eagles on the cloak cost 400 livres (£80 -to-day). We possess the bills of the maker.</p> - -<p>But under the glittering shows of wealth La Voisin had preserved most -dissolute manners. She was constantly drunk. She indulged in fishwife’s -brawls with Lesage. Latour, who was her ‘great author,’ used to thrash -her. She fought with Marie Bosse and tore her hair out. ‘One day, Latour -being with her on the ramparts, she got him to give her husband fifty -blows with a stick, while she held Latour’s hat.’ On that occasion, -Latour bit poor Monvoisin’s nose. But on the other hand, the sorceress -regularly attended the church of the Abbé de Saint-Amour, rector of the -University of Paris, an austere Jansenist; and Madame de la Roche-Guyon -stood god-mother to her daughter.</p> - -<p>The husband whom La Voisin so brutally<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> got beaten, appears to have been -a decent man. In those days there was at Montmartre a chapel dedicated -to St. Ursula, who enjoyed the power to ‘improve’ husbands. The -procedure was to carry there, some Friday morning, a shirt of the wicked -spouse. Our sorceress had the most implicit faith in the efficacy of -this practice, and we must do her the justice to state that she always -began by sending to Montmartre women who came to her with tales of their -troubles. She availed herself of the remedy on her own account, and poor -Monvoisin had to march to the place carrying his shirt under his arm. He -was a husband for whose improvement St. Ursula does not appear to have -been required to spend much effort.</p> - -<p>Lesage, the witch’s lover, advised her to get rid of Monvoisin. A -sheep’s heart was bought, ‘to which Lesage did something,’ and then it -was buried in the garden behind the gate. Lo and behold, Monvoisin was -seized with severe pain in the stomach. He cried out that if there was -anybody who wished to do for him, he had better shoot him at once -instead of<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> letting him linger. La Voisin, struck with remorse, hastened -to the Augustines to confess and obtain a general absolution; she took -the sacrament, and on her return compelled Lesage to undo his wicked -charms.</p> - -<p>She related very simply and frankly to La Reynie the first steps of her -career. Her husband, at that time, was doing nothing, but he had been a -hawking jeweller, and then a shopkeeper on the Pont-Marie. He had lost -his shop, and then, seeing her husband ruined, ‘she had devoted herself -to cultivating the powers that God had given her.’ ‘It was chiromancy -and face-reading that I learnt at the age of nine. I have been -persecuted for fourteen years: that is the work of the missionaries’ -(these were the members of a community established by St. Vincent de -Paul, then very popular, who were actively occupied in converting -sinners and removing scandals of all kinds). ‘However,’ she continued, -‘I gave an account of my art to the vicars-general, the Holy See being -vacant, and to several doctors of the Sorbonne to whom I had been sent, -and they found nothing to object to.<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a>’ Marie Bosse also spoke of the -time when her friend went to the Sorbonne to argue on astrology with the -professors.</p> - -<p>Thus La Voisin set up as fortune-teller in order to restore order and -comfort to her household. One of her friends, La Lepère, told her -sometimes that she ought not to engage in such great crimes. ‘You are -mad!’ cried the witch, ‘the times are too bad. How am I to feed my -family? I have six persons on my hands!’ And in fact, until her arrest, -La Voisin had been the constant support of her old mother, to whom she -gave money every week.</p> - -<p>La Voisin’s claim that her art was founded on face-reading was quite -genuine. She had made a profound study of physiognomy. We find -innumerable references to this subject in the documents of her case, and -also a ‘Treatise on physiognomy, supported on six immovable columns: (1) -sympathy between body and mind; (2) relations between rational and -irrational animals; (3) the differences between the sexes; (4) national -diversities; (5) physical temperaments; (6) diversities of<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> age; not -depending on a single sign, for men are often attacked by some defect -which force of mind, aided by grace, can assuredly overcome.’ When the -Countess de Beaufort de Canillac came to consult the fortune-teller, -‘the lady wishing to give me her hand without unmasking, I told her that -I did not know physiognomies of velvet, whereupon the lady removed her -mask.’ La Voisin confessed that she read much more in the features than -in the lines of the hand, ‘it being no easy thing to conceal a passion -or any considerable disturbing emotion.’ She was not merely a -physiognomist, but an expert psychologist, and that was how she gave a -real foundation to her sorcery. We may cite the following incident among -many others.</p> - -<p>Marie Brissart, widow of a Parlement counsellor, tenderly loved and -handsomely supported a captain of guards named Louis Denis de Rubentel, -Marquis de Mondétour, who became lieutenant-general in 1688. He was a -personage of whom Saint-Simon, a severe censor, speaks thus: ‘He had -been able to contemn basenesses, and to withdraw into<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> his virtue, which -was beyond his wealth.’ Madame Brissart used to send him money when he -was on service, after having equipped him from top to toe on his -departure. It happened that the cavalier displayed some coldness towards -his mistress, with the idea of getting her purse to open still more -generously. The widow, seeing nothing of her captain, became alarmed, -and hastened to La Voisin. She began her incantations, with the -assistance of Lesage. The magician walked up and down the garden with a -wand, with which he struck the earth, repeating the words, <i>Per Deum -sanctum, per Deum vivum!</i> Then he said: ‘Louis Denis de Rubentel, I -conjure thee in the name of the Almighty to go find Marie Miron (Madame -Brissart’s maiden name): she to possess thee wholly, body, soul, and -spirit, and thou to love none but her!’ On another occasion, he put into -a little ball of wax a paper on which the names of Rubentel and Madame -Brissart were written, and in the presence of the latter threw the ball -into the fire, where it burst with a loud noise. These fine charms were -still without result,<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> when one morning La Voisin, with the intuition of -a clairvoyant, said to her weeping client: ‘You write every day and send -your maid to Rubentel, but he pays no attention to you; it is mad -conduct to write and send every day'; and the lady having ceased to -write and send, Monsieur de Rubentel, who in turn began to be afraid -lest so precious a fount should dry up, returned to her ‘without -anything else having been done; yet the lady, believing that La Voisin -had done some extraordinary thing, gave her twelve pistoles.’</p> - -<p>The witch heard all sorts of confessions. There were wonderful dreams of -adoring affection told her by lovers of twenty years, who came to her -red with emotion, or wrote thrilling letters in order to bring their -torment to an end, begging her to soften the hard hearts of their -mistresses, or to bend the opposition of a cruel father. Or it was the -fierce carnal love of mature women obstinately clinging to the lovers -who were neglecting them for fresher girls. There were also the passions -of ambitious women, greedy for money and honours, which bring us to the -horrors of the ‘black mass.<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a>’</p> - -<p>La Voisin was assisted in these monstrous rites by a priest ‘squint-eyed -and old,’ with bloated face, and prominent blue veins forming a network -on his cheeks—the terrible Abbé Guibourg. Formerly chaplain to the -Count de Montgommery, he was at this time sacristan of St. Marcel, at -St. Denis. He used to say mass, according to the proper rites, wearing -the alb, stole, and maniple. ‘The women on whose bodies mass was said -were laid stark naked, without even their chemise, upon a table which -served as altar; their arms were stretched out, and they held a taper in -each hand.’ Sometimes they did not actually undress themselves, ‘but -only tucked up their garments as high as the throat.’ The chalice was -placed on the bare belly. At the moment of the <i>offertoire</i>, a child had -its throat cut. Guibourg usually stuck a long needle into its neck. The -blood of the expiring victim was poured into the chalice, and mixed with -the blood of bats and other materials obtained by filthy means. Flour -was added to solidify the mess, which was thus made to resemble the -Host, to be consecrated at the moment when, in the sacrifice of the<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> -mass, transubstantiation takes place. The scene is reconstructed by La -Reynie according to the testimony of the accused.</p> - -<p>Black masses were not the only sorceries whose rites required the -sacrifice of children. La Voisin and her fellow-witches perpetrated a -terrible slaughter of them. Children deserted by their unmarried -mothers, others bought from poor women, did not suffice: several -sorceresses were convicted of having killed their own children for these -atrocious proceedings. Here, for instance, is a horrible detail: the -daughter of La Voisin, on the very eve of her trouble, not trusting her -mother, fled the house, and only returned after placing her infant in -safety. The witches ran off with children in the streets. La Reynie -wrote to Louvois: ‘Remember the great disturbance in Paris in 1676, when -there were seditious gatherings and mobs and runnings to and fro in -several parts of the city, through the rumour that people carried off -children to cut their throats, though no one then understood what the -cause of the rumour could be. The mob, however, proceeded to various -excesses<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> against the women suspected of being child-stealers. The king -ordered an inquiry. Proceedings were taken (against those who rose -against the witches), and a woman who was guilty of violence was -condemned to death, but obtained a special pardon.’</p> - -<p>La Voisin, like all the sorceresses, practised medicine. Among her -papers were found recipes for the cure of pimples, a remedy for -headache, the prescription for ‘a quintessence of hellebore which kept -the Dean of Westminster alive for 166 years.’ She was a midwife, and -especially a procurer of abortion. ‘Above the room (where she gave -consultations) there was a sort of loft in which she procured abortions, -and behind the room there was a recess with a stove, in which were found -the charred remains of small human bones.’ Little children were burned -in this stove. One day, in an effusive moment, La Voisin confessed that -‘she had burnt in the stove, or buried in the garden, the bodies of more -than 2500 children prematurely born.’ Here again we come upon surprising -particulars. The witch was very insistent that children thus<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> brought -into the world should be baptized before death. One evening La Lepère, a -midwife friend of La Voisin, happened to be in the famous room with the -witch’s husband. La Voisin, who was in the loft, came down suddenly in -joyous haste and with radiant countenance, crying: ‘What luck! the child -has been dipped!’</p> - -<p>Such was the strange and horrible creature—the last of the great -sorceresses who haunted the imagination of Michelet—the extraordinary -woman whose crimes sent a shudder through the man who had heard the -confessions of the most redoubtable criminals of his time—Nicolas de la -Reynie.</p> - -<p>We have a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine Coypel. She is represented on -the way to execution in the linen shift of condemned criminals. -Contemporaries depict her as a small stoutish woman, rather pretty, -owing to her eyes, which were extraordinarily bright and piercing. The -artist has given her a froglike expression, but no doubt he sketched her -under the influence of a preconceived idea. Madame de Sévigné, who had a -singular taste for this sort<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> of spectacle, saw her mount to the stake: -‘La Voisin,’ she wrote, ‘very prettily surrendered her soul to the -devil.’ The confessor of the sorceress has given his testimony to her -edifying end: ‘I am loaded with so many crimes,’ she said with simple -and profound emotion, ‘that I could not wish God to work a miracle to -snatch me from the flames, because I cannot suffer too much for the sins -I have committed.’</p> - -<h4><i>The Magician Lesage</i></h4> - -<p>La Voisin’s principal coadjutor was the magician Lesage. He was one by -himself in this world of sorceresses, alchemists, and magicians. A -sceptic among believers, he duped the women with whom he worked as well -as the fashionable ladies who came to avail themselves of his art.</p> - -<p>Originally from Venoix near Caen, his real name was Adam CÅ“uret. His -portrait is sketched by La Vigoureux: ‘he wore a ruddy wig, was ill -formed, clothed as a rule in grey, with a cloak of homespun.’ He was a -wool merchant. Though he had a wife in Lower Normandy, he promised La -Voisin that he<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> would marry her if she became a widow. The first alias -he chose was Duboisson. In 1667 he was arrested, condemned to the -galleys for dealings with the devil, and liberated in 1672 through the -kind offices of La Voisin. The galley in which he rowed was lying in -sight of the port of Genoa when the pardon reached him.</p> - -<p>Set at liberty, CÅ“uret returned to Paris, where he renewed his -relations with the witches.</p> - -<p>His whole art consisted in a remarkable talent for jugglery, by which he -deceived the witches themselves, persuading them that he possessed ‘all -the science of the cabala.’ They adopted him as partner in their -lucrative operations. The reports of the examination of La Voisin give -curious information on this head. ‘Lesage took a live pigeon in the Vale -of Misery (on the quay of La Mégisserie, where poultry was sold) and -burnt it in a warming-pan. Having then sifted its ashes, he put them in -his room. It was the beginning of Lent, during which he used to recite -the Passion of our Lord daily, with his feet in water, though it was -freezing hard. Then he put a white cloth<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> on the table, lit two tapers, -and sent for three crystal glasses, with which having performed his -“mystery,†which was Greek to La Voisin, he shut them up in a cupboard -with a twig of laurel, and then, though he retained the key, he asked -her for the three glasses and the laurel twig which he had locked in the -cupboard. They were not found there; and then he said that he would give -her nothing else to keep, and having sent her into the garden, she found -them all three in a row in the summer-house. And when she asked him how -he did that, Lesage said that he was one of the apostles and of the -company of the Sibyls.’</p> - -<p>At other times Lesage celebrated a sort of mass, got up as a priest. At -the moment of the offertory he would break two pieces of ordinary bread, -and after having made La Voisin and her husband kneel down, he gave them -each a piece of bread ‘just as if they were at communion, and then made -them drink some holy water which, as he said, he had turned into wine, -and it was a liquid of an extremely pleasant taste.’ ‘A sergeant having -come to La Voisin’s house to distrain on her at the instance of an<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> -upholsterer named Lenoir, La Voisin sent for Lesage, told him that she -was ruined, and that there was something in the cupboard which must be -taken away, namely, a consecrated wafer; and at the same time Lesage -sent away the Marquise de Lusignan, who happened to be in the house, and -told her to go home, and when she got there to put a white napkin on her -bed, for something he was going to send her. And in fact the wafer was -found by the marquise at her own house, without any one seeing who had -taken it there.’</p> - -<p>The pretended sorceries of Lesage thus consisted simply of clever -conjuring tricks. They sufficed to amaze his clients. He made them -write, for instance, requests to the devil in notes which he then -pretended to throw in the fire, enclosed in balls of wax; and some days -after he gave them back to them, saying that the devil, who had received -them through the flames, had returned them.</p> - -<p>Lesage was arrested for the second time on March 17, 1679, and we shall -see the importance of the statements he made to the magistrates.<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a></p> - -<h4><i>The ‘Chambre Ardente'</i></h4> - -<p>The consternation of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, his ministers, and the lieutenant of -police at the discovery of such crimes may be imagined. The terror was -all the intenser because chemists and able physicians were then -powerless to discover traces of poison in a corpse. The matter was -intrusted to a special commission, in the hope that by a more -expeditious and energetic procedure than that of the ordinary courts, it -would succeed in cutting the evil at the root. This was the famous -Chambre Ardente.</p> - -<p>The president was Louis Boucherat, Count de Compans—an amiable man, -says Madame de Sévigné, and of much good sense. Later, he became -Chancellor of France. Louis Bazin, Lord of Bezons, nominated to act as -judge-advocate along with La Reynie, was a member of the Academy. The -office of clerk was filled by Sagot, La Reynie’s confidential secretary -and ordinary clerk of the Châtelet. ‘The Commission,’ writes Ravaisson, -‘was composed of the élite of the councillors of state, and all these -magistrates have left a high reputation.<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a>’ The court was called the -Chambre Ardente, because in former days tribunals specially constituted -to deal with great crimes sat in a chamber hung with black and lit by -torches and candles.</p> - -<p>The court met for the first time on April 10, 1679, and decided to keep -its proceedings secret, so as to withhold details of these practices -from the knowledge of the public. The magistrates themselves had no -doubt of the efficacy of these dealings with the devil, nor of the -formidable composition of the poisons.</p> - -<p>The method of procedure was as follows:—</p> - -<p>The individuals regarded as suspicious by La Reynie, the examining -magistrate, were arrested by royal warrant, that is, by a <i>lettre de -cachet</i>, which took the place of the modern magistrate’s warrant. The -first depositions were submitted to the attorney-general, and it was -only on his requisition that the officials proceeded to the -confrontation of the prisoners, after which the commissaries submitted a -detailed report to the court. The attorney presented to them his general -conclusions, and the court decided whether the accused person should be -‘recommended,’<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> that is, remain a prisoner in virtue of a warrant issued -by them. In that case the investigation followed its course. When this -was ended, all the documents concerning the accused were read to the -judges, the king’s attorney delivered his address in favour of acquittal -or condemnation, the accused was heard for the last time, and the court -pronounced judgment, which was without appeal.</p> - -<p>The Chambre Ardente sat in the hall of the Arsenal. From April 10, 1679, -the day of its first meeting, to July 21, 1682, when it closed its -doors, it held 210 sittings, after having been suspended, for reasons -that will be explained later, from October 1, 1680, to May 19, 1681.</p> - -<p>The Chambre Ardente deliberated on the fate of 442 accused persons, and -ordered the arrest of 367 of these. Of these arrests, 218 were -sustained. Thirty-six prisoners were condemned to the extreme penalty, -torture ordinary and extraordinary and execution; two of them died a -natural death in jail; five were condemned to the galleys; twenty-three -were exiled; but the most guilty had accomplices in<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> such high places -that their cases were never carried to an end. We must add the prisoners -who committed suicide in prison, such as La Dodée, a sorceress aged -thirty-five, still very pretty, who was arrested with La Trianon, and -cut her throat at Vincennes after her first examination; ‘she covered -the wound with her chemise, in which the greater part of her blood -flowed, and was found dead when her room was opened in the morning to -take her her breakfast.’</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Among the many cases which came before this court one or two will serve -as types.</p> - -<p>Madame de Dreux was the wife of a Parlement <i>maître des requêtes</i>. She -was not yet thirty, and was endowed with much grace and beauty, a -delicate and dainty beauty, with infinite charm and distinction. She was -so fond of Monsieur de Richelieu, declared La Joly, one of the -sorceresses tried by the court, ‘that as soon as she knew that Monsieur -de Richelieu was even looking at any one else, she thought of doing away -with him.’ She had further poisoned ‘Monsieur Pajot and Monsieur<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> de -Varennes and many others,’ and, in particular, one of her lovers, to -avoid, as she said, the bother and annoyance of a rupture. She had also -tried to poison her husband, and to get rid of Madame de Richelieu by -sorcery. All these details were widely known in Paris, where society, -difficult as it is to believe it, was wonderfully amused by them. The -husband was riddled with epigrams, which Madame de Sévigné declares -‘divinely diverting.’ Madame de Dreux was too pretty, really!—and -besides, she was a cousin of two of the judges of the Chambre Ardente; -the result was that on April 27, 1680, the judges contented themselves -with admonishing her. ‘Monsieur de Dreux and her whole family,’ writes -Madame de Sévigné, ‘went to the court to meet her.’ Set at liberty, the -young woman was fêted and petted by the whole world of fashion. ‘There -was joy and triumph and kisses from all her family and friends. Monsieur -de Richelieu did wonders in this business.’ A fact which will appear -incredible is, that after she left prison, Madame de Dreux returned to -the sorceresses, met La Joly in the Jesuits’ church, and asked<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> and -obtained from her powders to poison a lady whom Monsieur de Richelieu -was ‘considering.’</p> - -<p>Truth to tell, La Joly was arrested while this was going on, and, as a -result of her revelations, a fresh warrant was issued against Madame de -Dreux; but she was warned, and escaped. She was proceeded against for -contumacy. Her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu were then seen pleading -for her in company. On January 23, 1682, Madame de Dreux was condemned -to banishment beyond the kingdom, but the king allowed her to remain in -France provided she lived in Paris with her husband.</p> - -<p>Madame Leféron, who also belonged to judicial society, was less pleasant -in appearance. The daughter of a Parlement counsellor, her maiden name -was Marguerite Galart. Her husband, president of the first court of -<i>enquêtes</i>, is represented in the <i>Tableau du Parlement</i> of 1661 as ‘a -good judge, of solid judgment and firm opinion, never changing except on -good grounds, unprejudiced, loving rule and order, a good and -disinterested man.’ He had given proof of independence of character at -the time<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> of Fouquet’s case, by showing clemency to the superintendent. -Madame Leféron found him a bore, avaricious, and further—how can one -say it?—insufficient. Yet the fair dame had passed her fiftieth year. -But she was madly smitten with one Monsieur de Prade, who on his side -was in love with her money. She asked La Voisin for poisons to kill her -husband, and de Prade went to her for charms to help him win the heart -of his mistress. La Voisin gave them all they wanted: phials to the -lady, and to the gallant a mask of virgin wax representing the face of -Madame Leféron. This, enclosed in a zinc box, was to be warmed every now -and then, which would warm the heart of the lady. De Prade gave La -Voisin a note for 20,000 livres—£4000 to-day.</p> - -<p>The phials produced their effect, and Leféron died on September 8, 1669. -The waxen mask was equally successful, and Madame Leféron married de -Prade. On February 20, 1680, as she went to the stake, La Voisin said to -Sagot, clerk to the court: ‘It is quite true that Madame Leféron came to -see me, most joyous at being a widow, and when I asked her if the<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> phial -of liquid had taken effect, she said, “Effect or not, he is done for!â€â€™ -De Prade appeared no less happy. He scoured the city in a brand-new -carriage, ‘with three or four lackeys behind.’ His joy was short. The -lady saw that her new husband thought chiefly of getting ‘donations’ out -of her, and the husband soon saw that his wife was trying to poison him -in his turn. He fled to the Turks. On April 7, 1680, Madame Leféron was -condemned to banishment beyond the borders of the viscounty of Paris and -to a fine of 1500 livres, though there were, as Louvois wrote to Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span>, thirteen or fourteen witnesses of her crime.</p> - -<p>Madame de Dreux and Madame Leféron owed this remarkable indulgence to -Madame de Poulaillon. Born Marguerite de Jehan, of a noble Bordeaux -family, she had come to Paris when very young to associate with the -alchemists, having a passion for the occult sciences. She had married -Alexandre de Poulaillon, much older than herself, but very rich. -Contemporaries are unanimous in praising the pretty face, the delicate -and keen intelligence, and the<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> exquisite distinction of the young lady. -Unhappily for herself, she met a certain La Rivière, who had a wonderful -talent for getting money out of ladies. As we know, in the seventeenth -century, a talent of this sort was not the discreditable thing it is -to-day. Her excellent husband, becoming suspicious, drew his -purse-strings tight and locked his safes. Madame de Poulaillon had -recourse to various expedients. She sold the house furniture, chairs, -sofas, ‘the big gilded bed upholstered in English watered silk,’ the -plate, and even the clothes of her husband. He, in a furious temper—we -may suppose so, at least—ceased to give his wife even money for her -toilet, and bought her dresses and ribbons himself.</p> - -<p>In despair, the young woman opened relations with La Vigoureux: she -required money for her lover, and the riddance of her husband. With this -intent she planned the most audacious strokes. Two or three hired -bravoes would do: ‘While one held Poulaillon by the throat in his study, -the other would throw bags of money out of the window, and she would -open the study door herself.’ Another time she thought of<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> getting her -husband kidnapped alive. She was quite ready herself for the enterprise, -but failed to find men to assist her. At last she saw Marie Bosse, who -from the first appeared to her more plucky. However, Madame de -Poulaillon displayed so furious a haste to get rid of her ‘old goodman,’ -that Marie Bosse, hardened as she was, fairly took fright. She would not -give her in one dose the powder necessary for the poisoning, for fear -that the lady, by giving it all at once, would create a scandal. The -sorceress was prudent enough to begin with the shirt, one of the most -horrible of these hags’ inventions. The shirts of the husband were -washed in arsenic. This left no trace. Whoever put them on was before -long attacked by a violent inflammation in the limbs and the lower part -of the body. And every one sympathised with the wife whose husband was -suffering from a disgraceful malady caused by debauchery! Arsenic was -put also into the injections, which in those days were in common use. -The contents of a phial poured into the wine or soup hastened the -operation.<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a></p> - -<p>The negotiations between Madame de Poulaillon and Marie Bosse were -carried on in the church of the Carmelites. The young woman gave 4000 -livres (£800) for the phial and the preparation for the shirts. -Poulaillon was warned by an anonymous letter; moreover, his wife could -not obtain the necessary assistance from her servants. Then in her rage -she applied to some soldiers, and asked them to wait for her husband at -the corner of a road she pointed out to them, where it would be the -easiest thing in the world, she said, to do for him. The soldiers took -her money and hastened to inform Poulaillon, who now lost all patience, -shut his wife up in a convent, and laid an information before the -Châtelet. It was at this time that the lady had a writ issued against -her by the Chambre Ardente.</p> - -<p>As soon as he saw the storm threatening, La Rivière, to whom Madame de -Poulaillon had sacrificed everything, fled to Burgundy, where he hid -behind the skirts of Madame de Coligny, daughter of the famous -Bussy-Rabutin, and widow of the Marquis de Coligny. She fell in love -with La Rivière, who, kept<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> informed of the progress of the trial, joked -pleasantly with his new flame on the misfortunes of his old mistress. -She, though madly in love with the gallant, was shocked. ‘If the -misfortune of the lady who has so much merit, I hear, and who loves you -and has loved you so passionately, no longer touches you, what reason -have I to flatter myself I shall keep you always?’ This brilliant -cavalier, who insisted on being called the Marquis de la Rivière, Lord -de Courcy, was really a bastard son of the Abbé de la Rivière, Bishop of -Langres.</p> - -<p>Madame de Poulaillon was finally examined on June 5, 1679. The -attorney-general had demanded the penalty of torture and death on the -Place de Grève; but the memory of the edifying and touching end of -Madame de Brinvilliers was still strong in the minds of the judges, and -had almost stricken them with remorse. Madame de Poulaillon displayed -before her judges even more grace, more submission to the hand of God, -more sweet and tranquil resignation. So strongly were these men of law -moved, that they could not bring<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> themselves to order the severing of -that charming head. ‘This lady, who had infinite spirit,’ notes Sagot -the clerk, ‘cared little about death, and though she did not expect to -escape, showed during her whole examination an extraordinary presence of -mind, which won the judges’ admiration and pity.’ La Reynie writes that -the judges were touched ‘by her spirit, and by the grace with which at -the last she explained her unhappiness and her crime.’ ‘The -commissioners,’ says Sagot, ‘remained in deliberation for four whole -hours, all of them, especially those who had some interest in these -ladies, being prepared for anything which might serve, if not for the -discharge of Madame de Poulaillon, at any rate for the mitigation of the -facts they could not dispute, in so far as that could be done without a -manifest miscarriage of justice. Monsieur de Fieubet was the one who -dilated most on this view, employing all the power of his natural -eloquence; and he it was who saved the life of Madame de Poulaillon, -having brought round to his way of thinking three of the six judges who -had previously decided for death. This was a precedent<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> fortunate for -Mesdames de Dreux and Leféron and other prisoners, and in fact it was -through this that the court lost credit.’</p> - -<p>‘The great difficulty,’ adds La Reynie, ‘was afterwards to console -Madame de Poulaillon when she found that she was only condemned to exile -instead of the death she had herself pronounced in presence of the -judges, after having declared the joy she had in thus expiating her -crime, and at the same time winning deliverance from all her other -woes.’ On the demand of the young lady herself, her punishment was -increased by royal warrant to detention with the Penitents at Angers. -Meanwhile La Rivière, after making Madame de Coligny a mother, married -her without a trace of compunction. True, shortly afterwards, -Bussy-Rabutin and his daughter, undeceived about the man, endeavoured to -dissolve the union; but the gay spark resisted, and Madame de la Rivière -was forced to pension him off at a very high figure before he would -agree to desert her.</p> - -<p>The best society applauded the acquittal of Madame de Poulaillon, while -the middle classes<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> murmured, with so much the more reason that soon -afterwards a certain widow lady named Brunet was condemned with the -greatest harshness, though no more guilty than Mesdames de Poulaillon, -de Dreux, and Leféron.</p> - -<p>She had been the wife of a wholesale tradesman in the city. Monsieur and -Madame Brunet entertained very largely, for they provided excellent -music. The fashionable flutist, Philibert Rébillé, musician to the king, -was constantly to be heard there. Brunet worshipped the flutist for his -delightful skill, and Madame Brunet for his charming person. As the -excellent people kept a good table, and the wife was charming, the -artiste responded with great enthusiasm to this double passion. It was -perfect bliss, which might have lasted for a long time to the melodious -sounds of the flute, if Brunet, with the idea of permanently attaching -to himself so pleasant a musician, had not taken it into his head to -offer him his daughter with a handsome dowry, and if Philibert, -delighted with the ducats and the daughter, had not accepted them with -alacrity. Madame Brunet uttered a cry of horror! Philibert explained<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> to -her that he had consulted apostolic notaries, and that for a -consideration it would be possible to obtain canonical letters which -would set things right; and festivities were got up for the betrothal. -In desperation Madame Brunet confided in La Voisin: ‘If she had to do -penance for ten years, it was necessary that God should carry off -Brunet, her husband, for she could not abide to see Philibert, whom she -loved passionately, in the arms of her daughter.’ She even took her -lover to the sorceress. Philibert deposed at the trial that, under -pretext of showing him a garden, Madame Brunet took him to see a woman -who proceeded to look at his hand: ‘I know not who she is, for the woman -was so drunk that she could not say a word.’ La Voisin, on being -questioned, related the proceedings of Madame Brunet, adding: ‘There are -other details which I would not tell for anything in the world, I would -rather have a dagger thrust into my heart: that is kept for confessors, -not for judges.’ François Ravaisson, in publishing this dramatic -declaration, thus comments on it: ‘These details were imparted by<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> La -Voisin to La Reynie later; they did honour to Philibert’s disposition. -The details given by the judges brought this flute-player into the -height of fashion, and ladies of the court and the city scrambled for -him when he came out of prison.’</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, Marie Bosse undertook the operation, for 2000 livres—£400 -to-day.</p> - -<p>Brunet was poisoned in 1673, and Philibert married the widow.</p> - -<p>‘My friends advised me,’ he declared naïvely before the judges, ‘to wed -the mother rather than the daughter, which I did, under the good -pleasure of the king, who signed the contract.’</p> - -<p>The flute-player’s wife was condemned on May 15, 1679. She begged in -vain to be allowed to see husband and children for the last time. Her -hand was cut off while she was still alive, then she was hanged, and her -body cast into the fire. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, who was fond of his flutist, advised -him to leave France if he was conscious of guilt. But Philibert was a -man of mettle. He went like a gentleman and gave himself up as a -prisoner<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> at Vincennes. He was acquitted on April 7, 1680.</p> - -<h4><i>Louis XIV and the Poison Affair</i></h4> - -<p>Meanwhile the Chambre Ardente was extending its prosecutions over an -ever-widening circle and into higher and higher ranks of society, and by -degrees a singular disquietude awoke, an astonishing uneasiness: it was -no longer the poisoners whom people dreaded, but the magistrates. People -talked about a lady of the highest rank who was declaring everywhere -that the judges and all their proceedings ought to be burnt. La Reynie -asked for the protection of an escort when he went to Vincennes, where -the principal accused persons were. Madame de Sévigné, speaking of the -great lieutenant of police, wrote: ‘His life is a proof that there are -no poisoners now.’ On February 4, 1680, Louvois wrote to the president -of the court:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘His Majesty, having been informed of what was said in Paris in -regard to the decrees issued a few days ago by the Chamber, has -commanded me to acquaint you with His<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> Majesty’s desire that you -should assure the judges of his protection, and let them understand -that he expects them to continue dispensing justice with firmness.’</p></div> - -<p>Louis sent for Boucherat, the president, the two examining -commissioners, La Reynie and Bezons, and the attorney-general, and they -went out to Versailles. ‘On rising from dinner,’ writes La Reynie, ‘His -Majesty recommended us to do justice and our duty, in extremely strong -and precise terms, indicating to us that he desired, on behalf of the -public weal, that we should penetrate as deeply as possible into the -terrible traffic in poisons, so as to cut its root if this were -possible; he commanded us to do strict justice, without distinction of -person, rank, or sex; and this His Majesty told us in clear and vigorous -terms.’</p> - -<p>The determination so vigorously expressed by the king filled La Reynie -with confidence and zeal; it encouraged him in the accomplishment of the -arduous task imposed on him. And such courage was necessary: what -frightful revelations he heard! Was it due to these<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> revelations that, -suddenly, the intentions of the court of Versailles underwent -modification? La Voisin had just been condemned to suffer torture. She -was subjected to it, but only as a matter of form. ‘La Voisin was not -tortured at all,’ writes La Reynie in indignation, ‘and this means not -having been applied, has naturally produced no effect.’ It was feared -that the sorceress, whose discretion had been so remarkable hitherto, -might say too much in the agony of torture, and, independently of La -Reynie, the torturers had received their orders. The judges had also -received independent orders, and their reluctance to interrogate the -accused woman was such that, at the moment of her execution, La Voisin, -struck with remorse, conceived it her duty to confess spontaneously -before being handed over to the confessor: ‘She felt obliged to say, to -ease her conscience, that a large number of persons of all ranks and -conditions had applied to her for means to procure the death of many -persons, and that debauchery was the chief motive of all these crimes.’</p> - -<p>But after the execution of La Voisin, the<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a> examinations of her partner -Lesage, of her accomplice the Abbé Guibourg, and of her daughter, -Marguerite Monvoisin, were proceeded with. On August 2, 1680, Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> -wrote from Lille to La Reynie:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘Having seen the declaration made on the 12th of last month by -Marguerite Monvoisin, prisoner at my castle of Vincennes, I write -you this letter to inform you of my intention that you should -devote all possible care to elucidate the facts contained in the -said declaration—that you should take care to have written down in -separate reports the examinations, confrontations, and everything -concerning the inquiry that may be made of the said declaration, -and that meanwhile you defer reporting to my royal Chamber sitting -at the Arsenal the depositions of Romani and Bertrand.’</p></div> - -<p>Romani and Bertrand were two prisoners with whom we shall have a good -deal to do by and by.</p> - -<p>Thus Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> gave orders for the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, -and those of Romani and Bertrand, to be detached from the<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> documents -submitted to the court. On the other hand, Louvois had had the -imprudence to promise Lesage his life if he revealed all he knew. Lesage -related most horrible things. Word then went round not to listen to any -more; he was a liar. But on September 30 and October 1, 1680, these -narratives were confirmed in the most precise manner by the sorceress -Françoise Filastre while under torture. The declarations of Filastre -struck on the ears of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> like a clap of thunder. In the registers -of the royal council we read as follows:—</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The king, having had shown to him the official report of the -torture of Françoise Filastre, being unwilling to permit, for good -and just considerations important to his service, that certain -facts should be inserted in the copies made for the convenience of -the Court of the Arsenal, His Majesty in Council has commanded that -the minutes and originals of the said proceedings be laid before -the chancellor by the clerk to the commission, and that the said -clerk draw up in his presence a<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> summary of the said proceedings, -in which the said facts shall not be inserted. Given by His Majesty -in Council held at Versailles, May 14, 1681.</p> - -<p class="r"> -(<i>Signed</i>) <span class="smcap">Le Tellier</span>.’<br /> -</p></div> - -<p>Thus the king for the second time intervened, and withdrew from the -court certain documents containing new declarations. He saw now, -moreover, that these were in accordance with the truth, and that if the -examinations were continued, it would be impossible to prevent them from -being divulged. On October 1, 1680, the sittings of the court were -suspended.</p> - -<p>The documents which the king had thus caused to be separated from the -rest were locked and sealed up in a casket, which was deposited with -Sagot, the clerk, who lived in the Rue Quincampoix. When Sagot died, on -October 10, 1680, the casket was removed to Rue -Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, to the house of his successor in the -clerkship to the Châtelet and the Chambre Ardente, Nicolas Gaudion. On -July 13, 1709, the casket was taken to the king’s private room, where, -in the<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> presence of Chancellor Pontchartrain, Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> burnt the papers -in his grate: ‘His Majesty in Council, after having looked through and -examined the minutes and proceedings laid before him by the chancellor, -and having had them burnt in his presence, commanded that Gaudion should -then be wholly and formally discharged of the same.’</p> - -<p>Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> had just suffered a cruel blow, not only in his deepest -affections, but in his dignity as sovereign, by the declarations of -obscure and infamous criminals made before the Chambre Ardente. The very -throne of France was befouled by them. Colbert and Louvois were for a -moment in dire alarm. The all-powerful monarch, aided by his two great -ministers, believed that he had buried in unfathomable darkness the -terrible story of his shame and grief. But one flame had not been -extinguished. It had not been noticed. But it has continued to burn, and -grown larger, and thrown its blaze widely around. It is in the full -daylight glare that the facts are about to appear before our eyes.<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a></p> - -<h3><a name="II_MADAME_DE_MONTESPAN" id="II_MADAME_DE_MONTESPAN"></a>II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN</h3> - -<p>The Marquise Françoise Athénais de Montespan was born in 1641 at the -castle of Tonnay-Charente, the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke -de Mortmart, lord of Vivonne, and of Diane de Granseigne, daughter of -Jean de Marsillac. She was called Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente until -her marriage. ‘Her mother,’ says Madame de Caylus, ‘was anxious to imbue -her with principles of sound piety.’ The piety of Mademoiselle de -Tonnay-Charente was violent and inflammatory. Appointed in 1660 maid of -honour to the queen, ‘she gave her an extraordinary opinion of her -virtue by taking communion every day.’ In 1679, when she had been for -several years the king’s mistress, she much astonished the Princess -d’Harcourt by sending her on January 1, as a new year’s gift, a -hair-shirt, a scourge, and a prayer-book adorned with diamonds.</p> - -<p>Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente married, on January 28, 1663, a noble of -her own province, L. H. de Pardaillan, Marquis de<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> Montespan, who was a -year younger than herself. If she ever loved him, it was not for long. -As a lady-in-waiting to the queen, she was fascinated by the -magnificence surrounding Louise de la Vallière, the favourite of Louis, -who had become, in spite of her reserve and her timid and gentle -bearing, the object of intense and widespread jealousy, hatred, and -wrath. Madame de Montespan especially displayed her spiteful envy in -malicious gibes and insulting irony. Everybody knows it was not long -before she replaced her.</p> - -<p>Louise de la Vallière had kept in the shade, shunning publicity and -honours; Madame de Montespan in her pride wished to dazzle all eyes. -‘Thunderous and triumphant’ is Madame de Sévigné’s description of her in -her radiant glory at Versailles. She draws elsewhere a picture of the -court in which the king’s favourite shone: ‘At three o’clock the king -and queen, with Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, all the princes and -princesses, Madame de Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers and -ladies, in a word, all that is known as the court of France, were found -in<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> these handsome apartments of the king. They are divinely furnished, -everything is magnificent. Madame de Montespan was dressed in <i>point de -France</i>, her hair done in a thousand curls, two hanging from her temples -very low upon her cheeks; black ribbons on her head, with her pearls as -<i>maréchale</i> of the Hospital, and embellished with earrings and pendants; -in a word, a triumph of beauty that threw the ambassadors into admiring -wonder. She knew that people were complaining how she prevented all -France from seeing the king; she has restored him to us, as you see, and -you would not believe what joy it has given everybody, and what beauty -it has given the court.’</p> - -<p>‘Her beauty is marvellous,’ writes Madame de Sévigné on another day, -‘and her get-up is as wonderful as her beauty, and her gaiety as her -get-up.’ Greater still was the renown of her wit. ‘She was always the -best of company,’ says Saint-Simon, ‘with graces which palliated her -high and mighty airs, and were indeed suited to them. It was impossible -to have more wit, more fine polish, more striking expressions, -eloquence, natural propriety, which<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> gave her, as it were, an individual -style of talk, but delicious, and which by force of habit was so -communicable that her nieces and the persons constantly about her, her -women, and those who, without being her servants, had been brought up -along with her, all caught the style, which is recognisable to-day among -the few survivors.’</p> - -<p>She surrounded herself with a brilliant luxury. Here is one of her -dresses as described by Madame de Sévigné: ‘Gold upon gold, gold -embroideries, gold edgings, and, over all, gold crimpings, sewed with -one sort of gold blended with another sort, which makes up the divinest -stuff imaginable: it was the fairies who made this masterpiece in -secret.’</p> - -<p>In her estates at Clagny, with their immense park, a second Versailles -was to be seen alongside Versailles itself. The king had first had built -there for his mistress a bijou residence—a country villa. ‘She said -that that might do for an opera girl.’ The house was pulled down and the -château erected, after the plans of Mansard. At Versailles the favourite -had twenty rooms on the first floor; the queen<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> occupied eleven rooms on -the second. Dangeau notes that Madame de Montespan’s train was borne by -the Maréchale de Noailles; the queen’s was carried by a simple page.</p> - -<p>The influence of the young favourite spelled fortune, hope, and honour -to ministers, courtiers, and generals. Her father became governor of -Paris, her brother a marshal of France. In her drawing-room, frequented -by all the most distinguished persons in rank and literature, a quite -unique style of wit came into existence, which her contemporaries often -refer to—a wit at once choice and subtle, natural and pleasant. It must -be added that, by a wonderful coincidence, her reign, which lasted -thirteen years, exactly corresponded with the zenith of the age of Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span>.</p> - -<p>Madame de Montespan used to go about escorted by royal bodyguards. As -she journeyed throughout the whole length and breadth of France, -governors and lord-lieutenants offered her their homage in great -ceremony, and cities sent deputations to her. She passed through the -provinces in a six-horse coach, followed by another coach also drawn by -six<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> horses, in which sat six ladies of her suite, and then came the -baggage-wagons and six mules and a dozen cavaliers. It is like a fairy -tale from Perrault.</p> - -<p>She had by Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> seven children, whom the Parlement was to -legitimatise and declare royal children of France. The oldest, the Duke -de Maine, received the principality of Dombes and the county of Eu; in -1675, when five years old, he was appointed to the infantry regiment of -Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of -Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys -and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the -daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the Duke de Bourbon; the -second, Mademoiselle de Blois, made a still more brilliant match. ‘The -king,’ says Saint-Simon, ‘determined to marry Mademoiselle de Blois to -the Duke de Chartres; this was the king’s only nephew, and far higher -than the princes of the blood.’</p> - -<p>Madame Palatine<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> said of the Marquise de Montespan: ‘She is more -ambitious than dissipated.’<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> There is justice in the saying. She had an -immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Vallière loved the king as a -mistress, Madame de Maintenon as a governess, Madame de Montespan as a -tyrant.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>It was in 1666 that historians note the first signs of Madame de -Montespan’s ambition. She was then aspiring to the king’s love, and it -is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in commenting on the -proceedings of the Chambre Ardente, places her first visits to the -sorceresses.</p> - -<p>Marguerite Monvoisin, La Voisin’s daughter, spoke thus before the -judges: ‘Every time that anything fresh happened to Madame de Montespan, -or she feared any diminution in the favour of the king, she told my -mother, so that she might provide a remedy; and my mother at once had -recourse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother -powders to be given to the king.’ La Voisin’s daughter explained that -these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, -according to the various formulae of witchcraft.<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> Among the ingredients -were cantharides, the dust of dried moles, blood of bats, and other vile -substances. Of these a paste was made, which was placed under the -chalice during the sacrifice of the mass, and blessed by the priest at -the moment of the offertory. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> swallowed this compound mixed -with his food.</p> - -<p>‘My mother,’ said the girl, ‘several times took to Madame de Montespan -at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to -the king—some which had passed under the chalice and others which had -not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the -demoiselle DesÅ“illets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave -her some in the church of the Petits Pères, and another time on the road -to St. Cloud.’</p> - -<p>The depositions of Marguerite Monvoisin are important. She had never -been mixed up with her mother’s sorceries, but she had known about them. -La Reynie observes that her declarations exhibit ‘a certain air of -ingenuousness, or else, if they are false, every one is mightily -deceived.’ He adds that ‘she<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> mentions so many circumstances and so many -different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is -morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which -she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has -invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine; she mentions living -people.’ The examining judge says further, that the very denials of the -sorceresses accused by Marguerite of complicity with Madame de -Montespan, their embarrassment, their contradictions, their refusal to -answer when they were conscious of being hard pressed, confirm her -testimony.</p> - -<p>When Marguerite Monvoisin made her depositions, her mother had been dead -for several months. In the examination of July 12, 1680, we read:—</p> - -<p>‘Why did you not sooner give information of these evil designs against -the person of the king?’</p> - -<p>‘I could not tell what I had heard without ruining my mother; I did not -believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advice of no one, and have -declared all I know on the matter.<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a>’</p> - -<p>‘Did you not know you were bound to tell, and that it would be a great -crime to hide anything concerning this matter?’</p> - -<p>‘I knew well enough the importance of the things I have stated; I knew -it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had done so; and I -knew there was nothing but was of great importance.’</p> - -<p>‘Did you know it would be a great crime to make the slightest addition -to the facts which you have declared?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes, and those of whom I have spoken can tell you a good deal; I think -I have diminished rather than increased; I had no other idea but to -state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mother; if -I remember any other circumstance, or if any is recalled to my memory, I -will confess the truth.’</p> - -<p>Several writers have thought that the sorceresses compromised the -greatest names in France before the judges in the hope of saving their -lives, by connecting themselves with personages so high in station that -no one would dare to lift a hand against them. Quite the<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> contrary. We -see La Voisin concealing, up to the very moment of her execution, her -relations with the king’s mistress, for her greatest fear was that the -horrible punishment meted out to regicides might be applied to her. In -an expansive moment, she said to her guards at Vincennes: ‘I fear, more -than anything else that I am asked about, a certain journey to court.’ -We shall have much to do presently with this journey the sorceress made -to court on behalf of Madame de Montespan. It was at the last moment, -after hearing her death-sentence, against which there was no appeal, -that Françoise Filastre made her startling depositions of September 30 -and October 1, 1680, as the result of which Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, in terror, caused -the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be suspended.</p> - -<p>The statements of Marguerite Monvoisin were confirmed in detail by those -of the Abbé Guibourg, with whom she had no means of communicating after -her arrest. Thus, as La Reynie says, they were proved ‘according to the -rules of justice.’</p> - -<p>To-day, history furnishes still further proofs.<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> We have just heard the -daughter of La Voisin: ‘Every time anything fresh happened to Madame de -Montespan, or she feared some diminution in the favour of the king, she -told my mother.’ Now, if we follow in the correspondence of Madame de -Sévigné and the court chronicles the checkered story of the relations -between Madame de Montespan and the king from 1667 to 1680, and compare -it further with the depositions made before the Chambre Ardente, we find -a precise confirmation of the declarations of Marguerite Monvoisin. It -was several times observed by La Reynie that ‘the time mentioned by the -accused is of consequence to Madame de Montespan.’</p> - -<p>How, and by whom, was the haughty favourite led to the haunts of the -witches? Historians have put forth many hypotheses on this subject. They -were not acquainted with the declaration of La Chaboissière, the valet -of Vanens, whom we have already mentioned: ‘that the chevalier de Vanens -deserved to be drawn and quartered for the counsel he had given to -Madame de Montespan.’ La<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> Chaboissière had scarcely let this confession -escape him than he wished in great agitation to retract it, and begged -that the words might not be written down in the report of his -examination. La Reynie disentangled this confession from the chaos of -official documents, and sharply underlined it as the starting-point of -the drama.</p> - -<p>The relations between the favourite and the sorceresses began, then, at -the very time when her dawning love for the king was noticed. In 1667 we -find her in Rue de la Tannerie, in the company of the magician Lesage -and the Abbé Mariette, priest of St. Séverin. The latter belonged to a -good Parisian family; he was tall and well made, with a very pale -complexion and black hair. At one end of a little room an altar was -erected: Mariette, in sacerdotal vestments, uttered incantations, Lesage -sang the <i>Veni Creator</i>, then Mariette read a gospel on the head of -Madame de Montespan, who knelt before him and recited exorcisms against -Louise de la Vallière. She added—the very words are found in one of -Lesage’s declarations—'I ask for the affection of the<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> king and of the -Dauphin, that it may be continued, that the queen may be barren, that -the king leave her bed and table for me, that I obtain from him all that -I ask for myself and my relatives; that my servants and domestics may be -pleasing to him; that, beloved and respected by great nobles, I may be -called to the councils of the king and know what passes there; and that, -this affection being redoubled on what has existed in the past, the king -may leave La Vallière and look no more upon her; and that, the queen -being repudiated, I may espouse the king.’</p> - -<p>On another occasion, in the church of St. Severin, the Abbé Mariette, in -the presence of Madame de Montespan, recited charms over the hearts of -two pigeons which had been consecrated in the names of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> and -Louise de la Vallière during the sacrifice of the mass.</p> - -<p>Early in the year 1668, Mariette and Lesage had the audacity to proceed -to Saint-Germain, the headquarters of the court, and in the very château -itself, in the portion occupied by Madame de Thianges, Madame de -Montespan<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a>’s sister, they resumed their sorceries. Aromatic fumigations -filled the room with a bluish vapour, with which was mingled the pungent -scent of incense. Madame de Montespan formulated the incantation. -‘This,’ declared Lesage, ‘was to obtain the favour of the king, and to -cause Mademoiselle de la Vallière’s death.’ Mariette said it was merely -to get her sent away. Now it happened that, not long after these -proceedings, in that very year 1668, Madame de Montespan realised her -dream and was taken to the king’s heart. The star of La Vallière rapidly -paled. In 1669 Madame de Montespan was brought to bed of the first of -the seven children she gave to Louis. If she had ever doubted the -efficacy of these dealings with the devil, confidence would have dated -from that day.</p> - -<p>An incident, which might have had terrible consequences, ruffled this -happiness so long desired. Mariette and Lesage owed to La Voisin the -lucrative connection with Madame de Montespan. But they showed base -ingratitude, and proceeded to perform incantations for the marquise, no -longer with the<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> assistance of La Voisin, but with that of a rival -sorceress, La Duverger. La Voisin was indignant, and as La Reynie says, -‘made a to-do about it. The matter became known, and the king, having -learnt that these people were accustomed to perform impious and -sacrilegious rites, ordered the arrest of Mariette and Dubuisson (the -name taken by Lesage at this period), and they were sent to the Bastille -in March 1668.’ From the Bastille they were brought before the Châtelet -on the charge of sorcery. The court chroniclers, though ignorant of her -reasons for so doing, note that Madame de Montespan at this time -suddenly left Paris. But Mariette and Lesage had too much interest in -holding their tongues to inform against her. ‘Besides,’ writes La -Reynie, ‘the first judge who heard the case being a cousin-german of -Mariette through his wife, La Voisin being at large on the credit of -interested persons with whom she had dealings, and these wretched -practices being then unknown, investigation was not carried very far. It -was solely a question of seeing how the matter could be dealt with in -such a way as to save Mariette<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> on account of his family.’ The little -that could not be concealed brought Lesage condemnation to the galleys -and Mariette banishment. The king increased the sentence of the latter -to imprisonment; but the prisoner escaped from St. Lazare, where he had -been confined. As to Lesage, La Voisin, thanks to her connections, was -not long in getting him set at liberty. In a memorandum addressed to -Louvois, La Reynie exhibits the conclusions to be drawn from the trial -of 1668. After very appositely calling attention to the fact that the -statements of the accused were the less suspicious because, dating from -a period when as yet there could be no question of the scarcely dawning -relations between Louis and Madame de Montespan, the lieutenant of -police says that Mariette and Lesage could only have known of those -relations through Madame de Montespan herself, and adds: ‘It appears -from the trial of Lesage and Mariette in 1668, that Madame de Montespan -had been dealing with La Voisin at any rate since 1667, and that about -that time she was by her introduced to Lesage and Mariette;<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> that -Mariette, in his room and in the presence of Lesage, used to read the -Gospels over the head of Madame de Montespan.</p> - -<p>‘So early as that, then, a scheme was on foot.</p> - -<p>‘When I questioned the two surviving accomplices on the matter, they -said, separately, that this scheme was to secure the favour of the king; -that for that purpose La Voisin then gave some powders which were placed -under the chalice given to Madame de Montespan, and that she recited an -incantation in which her own name and the king’s occurred; that she -performed other ceremonies at Saint-Germain; that she had masses said on -the hearts of pigeons at St. Séverin, and other impious and sacrilegious -rites performed in Mariette’s room, for this purpose, and as the one -says, to slay, the other merely to get rid of, Madame de la Vallière.’ -(These enchantments to procure the death of Mademoiselle de la Vallière -were made upon human bones.)</p> - -<p>‘Lesage and Mariette said nothing about it until the former, urged by -explicit commands to tell the truth, and Mariette, impelled<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> by the -facts themselves to reveal them, both, separately, established these -facts.’</p> - -<p>La Reynie observes further that Lesage and Mariette mentioned certain -details, afterwards proved to be accurate, of which they could have got -information from Madame de Montespan alone.</p> - -<p>We have already mentioned the reasons why the declarations of Marguerite -Monvoisin inspired confidence; the corresponding depositions of Lesage -deserve equal attention. On October 8, 1679, Louvois wrote to Louis -<i>XIV</i>: ‘Monsieur de la Reynie showed me his conviction that, if I spoke -to Lesage, he would in the end make up his mind to tell me all he knew, -and he believed this to be the more important because this man has not -up to the present been convicted himself of poisoning any one, but has a -perfect knowledge of all the poisonings effected in Paris for the last -seven or eight years. I went yesterday to Vincennes, and spoke to him in -the way Monsieur de la Reynie desired, giving him to hope that your -Majesty would pardon him provided he made the declarations necessary for -bringing<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> to the knowledge of justice all that has happened in regard to -the poisons. He promised to do so, and told me that he was much -surprised at my urging him to tell all he knew.’ In a letter of October -11, 1679, Louvois renewed his pressure on Lesage to induce him to speak -fully and in entire frankness. The magician hesitated, tried to -dissimulate, repeating to all who urged him how vastly he was astonished -at their persistence; but this reluctance only stimulated the ardour of -La Reynie. He returned to the charge; like Louvois, he gave hints of a -royal pardon. At last Lesage spoke. His principal declarations were -written among the papers which Louis had burnt in the fireplace of his -study, as we have said; hence we no longer possess them in their -entirety; but from the notes left by La Reynie, as well as from the -fragments of the magisterial examination which were preserved and will -be found in part reproduced below, we know that the revelations of -Lesage entirely confirmed those of Marguerite Monvoisin.<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a></p> - -<p>The scandal of the amours of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> was only the more intense because -the young Marquis de Montespan was by no means a complaisant husband, a -singular fact at that period and in that society. ‘He was an extravagant -and extraordinary man,’ says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, ‘who -complained to everybody of the friendship of the king for his wife.’ -There were scenes between the spouses, and he struck her. He provoked -scenes with the king. ‘When Montespan went to Saint-Germain sermonising -thus, Madame de Montespan was in despair. He used to come to see me very -often,’ says Mademoiselle de Montpensier; ‘he is a relative of mine, and -I scolded him. He came one evening and repeated to me an harangue he had -delivered to the king, in which he quoted innumerable passages of -Scripture, about David, for instance, and finally used strong terms to -induce him to give back his wife and fear the judgment of God. I said to -him, “You are mad!†I was at Saint-Germain next day and said to Madame -de Montespan: “I have seen your<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> husband in Paris, and he is madder than -ever; I sharply scolded him and told him that if he didn’t hold his -tongue he would deserve to be locked up.†She said to me: “He is here -telling his tales at court; I am ashamed to see that my parrot and he -are amusing the mob.â€â€™</p> - -<p>Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> was naturally irritated by the attitude of this surprising -husband. Almighty as he was, he resorted to the tricks and subterfuges -of a vulgar lover. His anxiety was redoubled when his mistress became a -mother. The king was very fond of his children, particularly those he -had by Madame de Montespan. In the eyes of the law these children -belonged to the husband; and Louis trembled with fear lest Montespan, -out of vengeance or irony, should come and take from him his son and -daughter.</p> - -<p>Montespan found a supporter in his uncle the Archbishop of Sens. ‘When -the king’s passion was known,’ says the Abbé Boileau, brother of the -poet, ‘the archbishop sentenced to public penance a woman of the town -who lived as the marchioness, his niece, was living, in open -concubinage, and he caused the publication<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> in his diocese of the old -canons against the violation of the religious law.’ The diocese of Sens -included Fontainebleau, where the court was then held. Madame de -Montespan was compelled to take her departure in confusion. She felt -that it was she who was being pointed at. She dared not return into the -jurisdiction of the archbishop until after the prelate’s death in 1674.</p> - -<p>When the Marquis understood that his efforts were vain, and that from -the height of his throne Louis would reply only with <i>lettres de -cachet</i>, he put on mourning, clothed all his household in black, and -drove to the court in a coach draped in black, to take leave in great -ceremony of his relatives, friends, and acquaintances. On that day the -husband in his costume of black was not the butt of ridicule; jests were -silenced, and the king on the throne was scorned and despised. A man of -genius lent the monarch his aid. Molière wrote his <i>Amphitryon</i>. The -play was represented in this year 1668, and the mockers resumed their -places in the royal camp.</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘Un partage avec Jupiter<br /></span> -<span class="i1">N’a rien du tout qui déshonore.'<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a><br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p><a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a></p> - -<p class="nind">Viscounts and marquises on gilded benches applauded the taunt and -punctuated the cruel railleries with bursts of laughter. Yet the king -was injured, especially in the opinion of the Parisian middle class. He -was conscious of it; and one day said himself to his mistress that if -she had left house, children, and husband to follow him, he had -neglected the care of his reputation, which was much blighted through -his having loved a woman whom he had such good reasons for not regarding -as he had done.</p> - -<p>Montespan set out for his country seat. Some men of the company he -commanded fell a-quarrelling with the under-bailiff of Perpignan; the -fact was of no importance, but it came to the knowledge of the -ministers, and Louvois wrote at once to the Lord Lieutenant: ‘September -21, 1669. I cannot express my surprise that a thing of the nature of -that which Monsieur de Montespan has done should have passed without my -learning of it. I send you a despatch from the king for the supreme -council of Roussillon, in which His Majesty commands the council to hold -an inquiry. In whatever<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> manner you may employ it, it must not be -forgotten, whether in the informations of the sub-bailiff of Perpignan -or in that about the disorders that occurred at Illes, to implicate the -commander of the company (Montespan) and the largest possible number of -cavaliers, so that they may take fright and the majority desert, -especially the commander; after which it would not be a difficult matter -to bring about the ruin of the company. If you have the names of the -cavaliers who insulted the sub-bailiff, they must be arrested at once, -to make an example of them, and so that you may have, from their -depositions at the time of their execution, more proof against the -captain—to try in some way or other to implicate him in the -informations, so that he may be cashiered with an appearance of justice. -If you could manage that he is accused sufficiently for the supreme -council to have grounds for pronouncing some condemnation on him, it -would be a very good thing; you will guess the reasons well enough, -however little you may be informed of what is going on in this part of -the world.’ The cynicism of Louis and his minister passes<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a> all bounds. -Montespan had to flee for refuge to Spain; but from that day Louis’ -position in regard to the injured husband, so far from improving, became -sensibly worse. Abroad, Montespan could more boldly and independently -press his claims on the children of the king, and provoke a scandal in -the eyes of all Europe.</p> - -<p>Louis got a demand for separation <i>a mensa et thoro</i>, formulated by -Madame de Montespan, brought before the Châtelet. Notwithstanding the -pressure exerted by king and ministers, who bullied the judges, the -matter remained in suspense. The judges could not bring themselves to -commit the iniquity demanded of them. They gave way at last, partly -under pressure from the First President de Novion, who had been won by a -promise of the Great Seal. The separation was declared on July 7, 1674, -by Procureur-Général Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges. The -judgment adduced the wasting of the property of the commonalty by the -Marquis de Montespan, the domestic discord between the marquis and his -wife, and the ill-treatment of which the marchioness complained<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> on the -part of her husband. This decree pronounced against Montespan was a -monstrous proceeding. After having dishonoured his crown, Louis -dishonoured justice; but there was a higher justice which, as we shall -see, he was not to escape.</p> - -<p>The decree of July 7, 1674, did not assure the king peace of mind. In -1678 Montespan had to return for a short time to Paris on account of a -lawsuit. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> wrote to Colbert (June 15): ‘I understand that -Montespan is indulging in indiscreet talk; he is a madman whom you will -do me the pleasure to have closely watched; and so that he may have no -pretext for remaining in Paris, see Novion so that the Parlement may -hurry. I know that Montespan has threatened to see his wife, and that he -is capable of it, and that the consequences might be formidable (the -question of the children again); I rely on you to prevent him speaking. -Do not forget the details of this matter, and especially see to it that -he leaves Paris at the earliest moment.’ Such were the jobs to which the -Colberts and the Louvois had to stoop; but such also were the annoyances -and<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> troubles beneath which Louis bent his brow—a brow already reddened -with shame, and soon to be furrowed with grief.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> loved his mistresses, not for their own sakes, but for his. -The new passion lasted three years. Perhaps some one will say that that -is a good while. In 1672, jealousy, which perpetually ravaged the proud -soul of Madame de Montespan, burst out in storms of which Madame de -Sévigné speaks thus: ‘She is in inexpressible rages; she has seen no one -for a fortnight; she writes from morning till night, and when she goes -to bed tears it all up. Her state makes me quite sorry. No one pities -her, though she has done good turns to many people.’ Madame de Montespan -returned to La Voisin; and it is not without emotion that we see this -wonderful woman, with her matchless grace and her superior intelligence, -after having stepped into crime, sinking into it lower and lower. From -the hands of the Abbé Mariette, who recited the Gospels over her head -and made incantations on the hearts of pigeons, she comes into<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> those of -the Abbé Guibourg, who said the black mass.</p> - -<p>Guibourg claimed to be an illegitimate member of the family of -Montmorency. He was seventy years old; his complexion was that of a -confirmed toper. He had a horrible squint. In these monstrous ceremonies -he cut the throats of his own children by his mistress, a fat ruddy -wench named Chanfrain.</p> - -<p>To obtain the desired result from the black mass, it was necessary that -it should be celebrated three times in succession. The three masses were -said in 1673, at intervals of a fortnight or three weeks—the first in -the chapel of the Château of Villebousin, in the village of Mesnil, near -Montlhéry. Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, the maid of Madame de Montespan, -was intimately connected with Leroy, governor of the pages of the Petite -Ecurie, who owned a house at Mesnil. Guibourg had lived in the château -as almoner of the Montgommerys. It has been described by M. J. Lair: ‘A -building of the fourteenth century, and well chosen for sinister -incantations, the château, situated half a league from the road from -Paris to<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> Orleans, was surrounded by deep moats, filled with running -water.’ Leroy betook himself to St. Denis, where he saw the Abbé -Guibourg. He promised fifty pistoles, that is, about £20, and a living -worth 2000 livres. At the day fixed there met at Villebousin Madame de -Montespan, the Abbé Guibourg, Leroy, ‘a tall person’ who was certainly -Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, and a person of name unknown who is said to -have been a retainer of the Archbishop of Sens. In the chapel of the -chateau the priest said mass on the bare body of the favourite as she -lay across the altar. At the consecration, he recited his incantation, -the words of which he gave later to the commissaries of the Chambre -Ardente: ‘Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to -accept the sacrifice I present to you of this child for the things I ask -of you, which are that the affection of the king and my lord the dauphin -for me may be continued; and that, honoured by the princes and -princesses of the court, nothing be denied me of all that I shall ask -the king, as well for my relatives as my servitors.’ ‘Guibourg had -bought for a crown (12s. 6d.<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> to-day) the child who was sacrificed at -this mass,’ writes La Reynie, ‘and who was offered to him by a fine -girl; and having drawn blood from the child, whom he stabbed in the -throat with a penknife, he poured it into the chalice, after which the -child was taken away and carried to another place.’</p> - -<p>The details of the mass at Mesnil were revealed by Guibourg, and further -confirmed by the deposition of La Chanfrain, his mistress.</p> - -<p>The second mass on the body of Madame de Montespan took place a -fortnight or three weeks after the first, at St. Denis, in a tumbledown -hut. The third took place in a house at Paris, whither Guibourg was -conducted blindfold, and from which he was brought back in the same way -as far as the arcade of the Hôtel de Ville.</p> - -<p>At this time the journal of the health of the king, drawn up by D’Aquin, -the chief physician, states that Louis suffered from violent headaches. -Towards the end of this year, 1673, he was attacked by dizziness of such -a kind that at times his sight became clouded and he felt on the point -of collapse. ‘Is it rash,<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a>’ observes Monsieur Loiseleur very justly, ‘to -see in these headaches and faintnesses the effect of powders provided by -La Voisin?’ The hypothesis of Monsieur Loiseleur will be sustained in -detail by a declaration of the magician Lesage which will be found -below.</p> - -<p>It remains to inquire how Madame de Montespan contrived to get the -powders prepared by the sorceress into the food of the king, surrounded -as he was by officers of the buttery. Two revelations, both of November -8, 1680, made, the first by Lemaire, locked up at Vincennes with the -Abbé Guibourg, the second by Lesage, will give the indication we desire.</p> - -<p>We read in the notes La Reynie took for his personal guidance by way of -memoranda: ‘November 8, 1680, Lemaire asked to speak to me; told me that -being in the same room with Guibourg and another man, Guibourg told them -such strange things, especially in regard to Madame de Montespan, that -he does not know what to make of it, and that if there was any officer -who ought to be suspected, it would be Duchesne, the butler; that -Duchesne<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> was a footman in the house of Madame d’Aubray, that he has -since served Monsieur Bontemps, and then Madame de Montespan, who was -very kind to him, and made him officer of the buttery, and that he is -always at Madame de Montespan’s service.’ Further: ‘From the last -examinations of Lesage, and that of November 8 particularly, it appears -that Gilot, also an officer of the buttery, was involved in the impious -trade in 1668, and that he sought Lesage’s assistance for the designs of -Madame de Montespan.’</p> - -<p>The crisis of the year 1675 was more serious. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> suddenly had -great fits of devotion. People with their eyes open saw that he was -tiring of his mistress. Madame de Montespan, on the Thursday in Holy -Week, had been refused absolution by a priest of her parish. Much put -out, she hastened to the curé of Versailles, and spoke to him hotly, but -the curé approved of his subordinate’s action. And the great voice of -Bossuet, which had consistently been upraised against the double -adultery, resounded with a new force. ‘When we were at Versailles, one -fast day, about<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> Easter, Madame de Montespan went away,’ writes -Mademoiselle de Montpensier. ‘Every one was vastly astonished at this -retreat. I went to Paris, and saw her in the house where her children -were. Madame de Maintenon was with her. She saw nobody. As everybody was -on the alert about her return, although nobody seemed to pay any -attention to it, it was known that M. Bossuet, then tutor to the -dauphin, and at present bishop of Meaux, went there every day muffled in -a grey cloak.’ We have other information from Bossuet’s private -secretary, the Abbé Le Dieu. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> ordered his mistress to retire. -When Bossuet went to see the exiled lady, she ‘loaded him with -reproaches; she told him that his pride had urged him to get her driven -away, that he wanted to make himself sole master of the king’s mind.’ -Then, when she understood that her wrath smote in vain against the -serene firmness of the prelate, ‘she sought to win him by flatteries and -promises; she dangled before his eyes the chief dignities in Church and -State.’</p> - -<p>This exile lasted from April 14 to May 11.<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> On the other hand, the -magician Lesage, in an examination held on November 16, 1680, declared -that ‘if he were in the last torments, he could tell nothing except that -in 1675, at the beginning of summer (the exact date), when Madame de -Montespan was trying to maintain her position, La Voisin and La -DesÅ“illets worked or pretended to work for her; but in reality, -powerless to keep for her the love of the king, they merely gave her -powders which, taken in certain doses, would have acted as poison.’ So -Lesage said; and the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, summed up by La -Reynie, are identical: ‘The powders her mother sent to Madame de -Montespan were love powders to be given to the king. Once when her -mother took some powders to Clagny she was accompanied by the magician -Latour, her eldest brother, a servant named Marie, since dead, and -Fernand, a good friend of Latour, and La Vautier; but these did not -enter Clagny. She could not say if Latour went in with her mother, but -they all came back together, and had lunch at the sign of the <i>Heaume</i>, -near the Bois de Boulogne, with violins; they made some noise<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> among -them. Her brother, who told her about it, told her that her mother -brought back fifty louis-d’or. Her mother, besides the powders she gave -to Madame de Montespan, did not send any except by Mademoiselle -DesÅ“illets, who was the go-between for that purpose. As to the -powders which had passed beneath the chalice, they came from a priest -called the Prior (the Abbé Guibourg). As to the others which had not -been under the chalice, her mother kept them in the drawer of a cabinet -of which she had the key. There were black ones, white, and grey, which -she mixed in the presence of DesÅ“illets. Her father once wanted to -break the cabinet where the powders were kept, saying that some harm -would come of it.’ And the result of these practices was, once more, of -such a nature as to give confidence in the power of sorcery: Madame de -Montespan regained her position with the king. It is true that Madame de -Richelieu said, ‘I am always there as a third party.’ In spite of this -‘third party,’ Madame de Montespan became the mother of the Comte de -Toulouse and Mademoiselle de<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> Blois. Madame de Sévigné writes to her -daughter on June 28, 1675: ‘Your idea about <i>Quantova</i> (Madame de -Montespan) is very good; if she cannot recover the old ground, she will -push her authority and her greatness beyond the clouds; but she must -make sure of being loved all the year round without scruple. Meanwhile -her house is filled with the whole court, and her consideration is -unbounded.’ On July 31, Madame de Sévigné writes again: ‘The attachment -for <i>Quantova</i> is always extreme: it’s pretty much in order to vex the -curé and everybody else.’</p> - -<p>In 1675 Madame de Montespan had been dismissed, from religious scruples; -in 1676 she was to be sent away for reasons which furnished her with -quite another ground for irritation. The king was then suddenly seized -with a terrible hunger for a multiplicity of amours, soon over, sudden, -and varied. Madame de Sévigné characterises this strange condition in a -picturesque phrase: ‘There’s a scent of new game in the land of -<i>Quanto</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> At short intervals the Princess<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> de Soubise, Madame de -Louvigny, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Théobon, Madame de Ludres, and no -doubt others, succeeded one another in the affections and the bed of the -king.</p> - -<p>Madame de Soubise makes an amusing appearance in the gallery of royal -mistresses. She loved Louis out of love for her husband. After -collecting for him all the honours and dignities, the offices and the -hard cash that he desired, Madame de Soubise struck her tents and -retired in good order. She had made the least possible stir and went -back to her husband, who was enchanted with the adventure. The Prince of -Soubise thought, with the poet, that a share with Jupiter had no -dishonour so long as Jupiter could pay a good price.</p> - -<p>These intrigues find a double echo, in the writings of Madame de Sévigné -and in the records of the Chambre Ardente. On September 2, 1676, Madame -de Sévigné writes: ‘The vision of Madame de Soubise has passed quicker -than a lightning-flash: they have made it up again. <i>Quanto</i> the other -day at cards had her head resting familiarly on her friend<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a>’s shoulder, -and we fancied that piece of affectation meant “I am better than ever.â€â€™ -But on September 11 the position has changed. ‘Everybody believes that -the star of Madame de Montespan is paling. There are tears, unfeigned -disappointments, affected cheerfulness, sulks; at last, my dear, it is -all over. Some tremble, others rejoice, some wish for immutability, the -majority for a dramatic change; in a word, we are all eyes and ears for -what the most clear-sighted say.’ ‘Every one thinks that the king loves -her no longer,’ we read in a letter of September 30, ‘and that Madame de -Montespan is embarrassed between the consequences which would follow the -return of his favours and the danger of no longer enjoying them—the -fear that they are being sought elsewhere. Apart from that, she has not -very nicely accepted the position of friend: so much beauty as she still -has, and so much pride, find it difficult to come down to second place. -Jealousies are keen. Have they ever stopped anything?’ Again, on October -15, 1676: ‘If <i>Quanto</i> had packed up her traps at Easter the year she -returned<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> to Paris, she would not have been in her present distress; it -would have been sensible to adopt that course, but human weakness is -great; one wishes to make the most of the remains of one’s beauty, and -this economy brings ruin rather than riches.’ Madame de Ludres had just -succeeded Madame de Soubise.</p> - -<p>The anxieties of Madame de Montespan were further enhanced by the -brilliance, increasing every day, of a new star in the sky of -Versailles. At its rising it had shed a pale, discreet, modest light, -but a light which twinkled with little mocking scintillations. The widow -Scarron, now become Madame de Maintenon, had been chosen as governess of -the children of the king and Madame de Montespan. What strides the -governess’s fortune had taken in a few years! ‘But let us speak of the -friend’ (Madame de Maintenon), writes Madame de Sévigné on May 6, 1676: -‘she is still more triumphant than the Montespan. Everything is -submitted to her dominion. All the chamber-women of her neighbour are -hers: one hands her the rouge-pot on her knees; another brings her her -gloves; a third<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> puts her to sleep; she salutes no one, and I fancy that -really she laughs in her sleeve at this servitude.’</p> - -<p>Madame de Sévigné thus tells us what was passing at court; Marguerite -Monvoisin will tell us what was going on among the sorceresses. ‘The -daughter of La Voisin,’ writes La Reynie, ‘says that she has seen this -sort of mass celebrated over the body by Guibourg in her mother’s house. -She helped her mother to get things ready: a mattress on seats, two -stools at the sides, on which were candlesticks with candles; after -which Guibourg came out of the little side-chamber clothed in his -chasuble—white, spotted with black fir-cones—and after that La Voisin -brought in the woman on whose body the mass was to be said. Madame de -Montespan had this sort of mass said three years ago (<i>i.e.</i> in 1676) at -her mother’s house, where she came about ten o’clock and only left at -midnight. And when La Voisin told her that it was necessary for her to -fix a time when the other two masses might be said, which were necessary -if her affair was to be successful, Madame de<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> Montespan said that she -could not find time, that La Voisin would have to do what was necessary -to assure success, which she promised her and did, and the masses were -said on La Voisin herself by Guibourg.’ (This again shows the sincerity -of the sorceress in the carrying out of these practices.) ‘The girl -Voisin having notified all the circumstances of the proceeding, the -arrangement of the place, that of the person—she knew Madame de -Montespan—the preparations of the priest clothed in his sacerdotal -vestments, the terms of the incantation, in which the documents show -that the names of Louis de Bourbon and Madame de Montespan were -mentioned—the girl Voisin adds that a child had its throat cut at the -mass said for Madame de Montespan at her mother’s.’</p> - -<p>‘When I was grown up,’ said Marguerite Monvoisin, ‘my mother was no -longer reluctant to trust me, and I was present at this sort of mass, -and saw that the lady was stark naked on the mattress, with her head -hanging down, supported by a pillow on an overturned chair, the legs too -hanging over, a napkin<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> on the belly, a cross on the napkin, and the -chalice on the belly.’ She adds that this lady was Madame de Montespan. -‘At the mass of Madame de Montespan,’ said Marguerite in the course of -another examination, ‘a child was presented which apparently had been -prematurely born, and it was put into a basin. Guibourg cut its throat, -poured the blood into a chalice, and consecrated it with the wafer, -finished his mass, then proceeded to take the child’s entrails. My -mother next day carried the blood and wafer to Dumesnil to be distilled, -in a glass vessel which Madame de Montespan took away.’ These facts were -confirmed on October 23, 1680, by the confrontation of Marguerite -Monvoisin with Guibourg—with this variation, that Guibourg tried to -shuffle on to La Voisin the butchery of the child.</p> - -<p>‘Guibourg said that it was not true that he had opened the child, -because it would have stained his alb: he found the child already -opened.</p> - -<p>‘The girl Voisin, on the contrary, declared that he cut open the heart -himself, took out<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> some clotted blood, and put it into the vessel into -which the other blood and the rest had been put, which Madame de -Montespan took away; and that to make the clotted blood go in, a common -glass was broken, which, with its foot knocked off, was made to act as a -funnel.</p> - -<p>‘Guibourg said that he did not open the child’s stomach, but that having -found it open, he did in fact draw out the entrails and open the heart -to get out the blood that was in it, and that he put it into a crystal -vase with some portions of the consecrated wafer: the whole was carried -off by the lady on whose body he had said mass; and that he always -believed the lady was Madame de Montespan.’</p> - -<p>This picture is fraught with so much horror that we could not bring -ourselves to admit its authenticity if the evidence of Marguerite -Monvoisin and the Abbé Guibourg were not corroborated by confessions -extorted from other accomplices of these crimes, who were arrested at -different dates and examined separately—Lesage, Lacoudraye, Delaporte, -Vertemart, Françoise Filastre, the Abbé Cotton—<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a>confirmed by the -declarations of several witnesses who had picked up, before the trial, -fragments of talk which escaped the accused. La Reynie emphasises the -fact that the declarations of Lesage and the girl Monvoisin were made at -an interval of sixteen months, and without their having had any -opportunity during those months of communicating with each other.</p> - -<p>On October 11, 1680, La Reynie writes to Louvois, who wished to save -Madame de Montespan while prosecuting the charges against the other -persons, and proposed, with that end, to withdraw from the case the -declarations made under torture by Filastre and the Abbé Cotton, which -contained the gravest charges against the favourite: ‘It is certain, -even if we found a legitimate expedient for concealing from the judges -for the present the facts which it would be well to keep secret, even -for the sake of justice itself, that these very facts would crop up -again from the woman Chappelain, from Guibourg, Galet, Pelletier, -Delaporte, and perhaps from several more when under trial.<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a>’</p> - -<p>On the subject of the deposition made by Guibourg, La Reynie writes: ‘It -is morally impossible that Guibourg has deceived us in his declaration, -and that he invented what he tells about the incantations said in course -of the masses on the women’s bodies. His mind is not active or -consistent enough for such continuous thought as would have been -necessary to invent what he had said on this subject, because, even -supposing he were capable of such application, he has not enough -acquaintance with what goes on in the world, and could not have devised -so consistent a story in regard to Madame de Montespan.’ Elsewhere he -writes: ‘Guibourg and the girl Monvoisin have corroborated one another -about circumstances so particular and so horrible that it is difficult -to conceive two persons being able to imagine and fabricate them unknown -to each other. It seems that these things must have occurred, or they -could not have been described.’</p> - -<p>The illustrious magistrate adds the following reflections:—</p> - -<p>‘1. The time of the relations of La Voisin with Latour, the journeys to -Saint-Germain,<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> and the powders which she made him work at, was the year -1676.</p> - -<p>‘2. The time of the abominations described by Guibourg and the girl -Monvoisin fits the same period.</p> - -<p>‘3. Two years ago Lesage spoke of Latour, the poisons, DesÅ“illets, -and the journeys of La Voisin in 1676.</p> - -<p>‘4. It was established at the trial that two or three years before -Lesage was taken, he testified that he feared the business would ruin -him. They said at that time that the king had the vapours. He declared -that he wished to leave La Voisin on that account, and because of the -dealings she had with DesÅ“illets.</p> - -<p>‘From the beginning of these inquiries, these same facts have been -spoken of; La Bosse, the first to be tried, gave the first inkling of -them; she spoke of them under torture; but, because the king had not yet -allowed this sort of facts to be collected in regard to persons of -consideration, and because there was nothing to make us pay the least -attention to them, no mention was made in the report of the torture<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> of -La Bosse of what she had said about Madame de Montespan.’</p> - -<p>In this year 1676, Madame de Montespan not only had recourse to the -incantations of the black mass; at her instigation, the sorceresses sent -La Boissière and Françoise Filastre to Normandy to a certain Louis -Galet, who had ‘fine secrets’ in regard to poison and love. Galet gave -them powders. As soon as his name was uttered by the prisoner before the -Chambre Ardente, an order was given for his arrest. He was flung into -prison at Caen on February 23, 1680. While still far away from the other -prisoners, detained at Vincennes or the Bastille, he was put through -interrogations, and the depositions made by him and the others coincided -with remarkable accuracy. And La Reynie’s conclusion is: ‘Guibourg and -Galet having confessed after the torture of La Filastre, they gave -between them a complete proof of these facts.’</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>It must be confessed that Madame de Montespan would have been of a -singularly incredulous nature if she had not retained a blind -confidence<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> in the influence of the devil as invoked by the magicians -and sorceresses. Madame de Ludres was discarded, and Louis fell at -Madame de Montespan’s feet again. On June 11, 1677, Madame de Sévigné -wrote to Madame de Grignan: ‘Oh, my daughter, what a triumph at -Versailles! what redoubled pride! what a re-entry into possession! I was -in the room for an hour. She was in bed, decked out, with her hair done: -she was resting for the <i>medianoche</i> (supper about midnight). She -launched shafts of contempt at poor <i>Io</i> (Madame de Ludres), and laughed -at her having the audacity to complain of her. Imagine all that an -ungenerous pride could make her say in triumph, and you will get near -the truth. It is said that the little woman (Madame de Ludres) will -resume her ordinary duties about Madame. She went off to walk in perfect -solitude with La Moreuil in the garden of the Marshal Du Plessis.’ On -June 18, Madame de Sévigné wrote to Bussy-Rabutin: ‘Madame de Montespan -wanted to strangle her (Madame de Ludres), and makes her life terrible.’ -On July 7, to Madame de Grignan: ‘Poor <i>Isis</i> (Madame de Ludres) has<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> -not been to Versailles. She has remained in her solitude. When a certain -person (Madame de Montespan) speaks of her, she says, “that rag.†The -event makes everything permissible.’</p> - -<p>‘<i>Quanto</i> and her friend Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> are together longer and more eagerly -than ever they were. The ardour of the first years has returned, and all -fears are banished, all restraint removed, which persuades us that never -was empire seen more firmly established.’ And a little later: ‘Madame de -Montespan was the other day covered with diamonds; the brilliance of so -blazing a divinity was more than one could bear. The attachment seems -greater than ever: they are all eyes for one another: never has love -been seen to resume its sway like this.’</p> - -<p>Yet, courted and victorious as she was, the favourite appeared a prey to -torment; she was agitated, in a terrible fever. On January 13, 1678, the -Comte de Rébenac wrote to the Marquis de Feuquières: ‘Madame de -Montespan’s gambling has reached such a pitch that losses of 100,000 -crowns (£60,000 to-day) are common. On Christmas Day she lost 700,000<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> -crowns; she staked 150,000 pistoles (£280,000 at the present day) on -three cards, and won.’ She lost her head in her triumph—her last -triumph, dazzling but ephemeral, and about to be followed by days of -cruel anguish.</p> - -<p>In March 1679, Madame de Maintenon asked the Abbé Gobelin ‘to pray and -to have prayers said for the king, who is on the brink of a deep -precipice.’ This ‘precipice’ was the heart of Marie Angélique de -Scoraille, demoiselle de Fontanges. She was eighteen years old, fair, -with glossy flaxen hair; her large eyes, with their look of childish -wonderment, were a light grey, deep and limpid; her skin was white as -milk, her cheeks a lovely rose-pink; and in disposition, said her -contemporaries, she was a genuine heroine of romance. She lived at Court -in the capacity of maid of honour to Madame, as Madame de Ludres and -Mademoiselle de la Vallière had done before her. ‘Mademoiselle de -Fontanges,’ says Madame Palatine, ‘is lovely as an angel, from head to -foot.’ If we may trust Bussy-Rabutin, ‘her relatives, seeing her beauty -and grace, and having more love for their fortune than for<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> their -honour, clubbed together to fit her out for Court, and to provide her -with means corresponding to the position she was entering.’</p> - -<p>This was a thunderbolt for Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> and Madame de Montespan. We read in -the <i>Précis historique de Saint-Germain-en-Laye</i>, by Lorot and Sivry: -‘Madame de Montespan left Saint-Germain suddenly because of the jealousy -she has conceived for Mademoiselle de Fontanges.’ But the royal lover -did not allow his mistresses to leave him at their own whim. He had -imposed on Louise de la Vallière the bitter martyrdom of following as an -expiatory victim the triumph of Madame de Montespan; he now compelled -Madame de Montespan to witness the triumph of Mademoiselle de Fontanges. -The proud marquise resigned herself to it, at least in appearance. On -March 30, 1679, she wrote to the Duke de Noailles: ‘All is very quiet -here; the king only comes into my room after mass and after supper. It -is much better to see each other seldom but pleasantly, than often with -embarrassment,’ Soon even this apparent satisfaction was withdrawn<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> from -her. The desertion was public and complete.</p> - -<p>According to Madame de Sévigné, ‘there was a ball at Villers-Cotterets, -at Monsieur’s place. There were masques. Mademoiselle de Fontanges -appeared there in great brilliance, and adorned by the hands of Madame -de Montespan.’ Bussy rejoiced at the disgrace. ‘Madame de Montespan has -fallen, the king regards her no more, and you may be sure the courtiers -follow his example.’</p> - -<p>On April 6, Madame de Sévigné wrote: ‘Madame de Montespan is enraged; -she cried a good deal yesterday, and you may guess the martyrdom her -pride is suffering.’ On June 15, she replies to her daughter: ‘It is an -infernal position, as you say, that of her who goes four paces ahead’ -(alluding to Madame de Montespan).</p> - -<p>She launched out into epigrams against her fortunate rival, just as she -had satirised Louise de la Vallière. ‘Madame de Montespan,’ writes -Bussy-Rabutin, ‘seeing that the great Alcandre (Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>) was drifting -away from her more and more every day, became so choleric that she began -publicly to abuse<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She told every one that -the great Alcandre was surely not very fastidious to love a creature who -had had her little love affairs in the country; that she had neither wit -nor education; and that, properly speaking, she was only a beautiful -painting. She said a thousand other things about her equally irritating. -Indeed, she always displayed the same proud spirit which nothing had -been able to quell.’</p> - -<p>Mademoiselle de Fontanges responded by loading her predecessor and all -her children with costly presents. She had just been proclaimed a -duchess with an annuity of 20,000 crowns. The fury of Madame de -Montespan broke out. She had a violent scene with Louis, and when the -king reproached her with her pride, her domineering spirit, and other -defects, she replied with haughty scorn, concentrating all the violence -of her wrath in one of those hard and bitter words which had made her so -much feared in the time of her reign; she answered, ‘that if she had the -imperfections of which he accused her, at any rate she did not smell -worse than he.<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a>’</p> - -<p>‘My mother,’ said the girl Monvoisin, ‘told me that Madame de Montespan -wanted at that time to go to extremities, and tried to induce her to do -things for which she had much repugnance. My mother gave me to -understand that it was against the king, and after hearing what had -passed at the house of Trianon (a sorceress, partner of La Voisin), I -could not doubt it.’ The deserted mistress resolved to put an end to -Louis and Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She applied to the sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, and had no difficulty in getting together four -accomplices in the terrible room in the Rue Beauregard: these four were -La Voisin and La Trianon, who undertook to put Louis out of the way, and -Romani and Bertrand, ‘artists in poisons,’ who promised to kill -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. Madame de Montespan gave them money.</p> - -<p>The king was to be poisoned first. La Voisin and her associates intended -at first to put magic powders, prepared according to the formulae of the -conjuring books, on the clothes of the king, or in some place where he -was<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> to pass, ‘which Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, the companion of Madame -de Montespan, said could be done easily.’ The king would die of decline. -But after reflection, La Voisin decided on means, the execution of which -struck her as more certain. In conformity with the ancient custom of the -kings of France, Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> used to receive in person on certain days the -petitions presented by his subjects. Everybody was introduced to his -presence without distinction of rank or condition. It was resolved to -prepare a petition and steep it in powders that had gone under the -chalice; the king would take it in his hands and get his death-blow. La -Trianon undertook the preparation of the paper, and La Voisin to place -it in the hands of the king.</p> - -<p>The petition was drawn up. The king’s intervention was asked in favour -of a certain Blessis, an alchemist whom the Marquis de Termes was -keeping confined in his château. La Voisin betook herself to her friend -Léger, a <i>valet de chambre</i> of Montausier, and asked of him a letter of -recommendation to one of<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> his friends at Saint-Germain, who would get -her passed in among the first to an audience with the king, so that she -might herself hand him her petition. Léger replied that it was -unnecessary for her to go to Saint-Germain, as he would undertake to -forward the petition by a sure route; but the sorceress insisted on -presenting it herself.</p> - -<p>The boldness of La Voisin terrified the most courageous of her -companions. The majority of them feared, not death, but the horrible -tortures reserved by the law for regicides. In order to frighten her, La -Trianon cast her horoscope. This document was found among the papers -seized on the sorceress by the Chambre Ardente. La Trianon foretold that -La Voisin would be implicated in a trial for a crime against the state. -‘Bah!’ she replied, ‘there are 100,000 crowns to be gained.’ That was -the price agreed upon by La Voisin and Madame de Montespan for the -poisoning of Louis <small>XIV</small>.</p> - -<p>La Voisin set out for Saint-Germain on Sunday, March 5, 1679, -accompanied by Romani and Bertrand. She returned on<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> Thursday, March 9, -very much put out: she had not been able to approach the king so as to -give him the petition. She could have put it on the table placed near -the king for that purpose, but the paper was useless unless it were -placed in the king’s own hands. She said that she would return to -Saint-Germain, and when her husband asked her what the urgency was, she -replied: ‘I must accomplish my design or perish in the attempt!’ ‘What! -perish!’ exclaimed Monvoisin, ‘that’s a good deal for a piece of paper.’</p> - -<p>On Friday, March 10, the ‘missionaries'—priests of a community founded -by St. Vincent de Paul, which has already been mentioned—paid a visit -to the sorceress. La Voisin took fright, and gave the petition to her -daughter to burn, which Marguerite did at dawn on Saturday morning. It -is needless to say that the paper had always been kept in an envelope, -for to touch it, said the sorceresses, would be certain death. On -Sunday, March 12, La Voisin was arrested; it was on Monday the 13th that -she had meant to return to Saint-Germain. News of<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> the arrest got -abroad, and on Wednesday, March 15, Madame de Montespan fled from Court.</p> - -<p>In a succession of hasty notes—the sentences are not even completed, -and we have filled them out for greater clearness—La Reynie builds up a -proof of the attempt on the life of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, planned by La Voisin as -the instrument of Madame de Montespan:—</p> - -<p>‘By the depositions of the girl Voisin, Romani, and Bertrand, it is -proved that the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain was to present the -petition: Bertrand wrote it out, went to learn from La Voisin what she -had done, learnt that she had been there since Sunday without being able -to present it, had brought it back, and was going to return. From this -it is evident that the ultimate object of the journey of La Voisin to -Saint-Germain was to present the petition.</p> - -<p>‘La Trianon and La Vautier agree as to the journey. La Trianon noted in -her horoscope the state affair, the crime of high treason; when -questioned she gave bad answers; among the facts confessed to, denies -the petition; if<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> it were an unimportant matter, would have no interest -in denying it: must have had an object, which can be nothing else than -what the girl Voisin says.</p> - -<p>‘The journey to Saint-Germain is the more suspicious in that La Voisin, -questioned as to her various journeys, has never mentioned that one, and -would have made no ado about mentioning it if there were nothing in it.</p> - -<p>‘To which must be added the confession made by Voisin to her guards in -prison, about the fear she had that she would be asked to explain her -journey. She said, “God has protected the king!â€â€™</p> - -<p>La Reynie adds: ‘La Trianon agrees that she told the girl Voisin that -the journey to Saint-Germain was the cause of her mother’s arrest, that -this journey would do her harm, that she would be involved in some -affair of state. At the same time, La Voisin did not appear to be -pleased with Blessis (and consequently had no reason to make any efforts -to secure his liberty). What is still more considerable, La Trianon and -the girl Monvoisin agree that the state crime mentioned in the<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> -horoscope was the journey to Saint-Germain.’ ‘Finally,’ observes La -Reynie, ‘this petition has been mentioned at the trial, long before the -girl Monvoisin was arrested.’ On September 27, 1679, Louvois wrote to -Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>: ‘Your Majesty will find in this packet what Lesage has said -about the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain; he cites so many people -as witnesses to his allegations that it is difficult to believe he -invented them.’ And La Reynie gives confirmation: ‘Before making her -declaration, the girl Monvoisin said something about it to two prisoners -who are with her. Finally, she tried to do away with herself by -strangling before making these same declarations.’</p> - -<p>The assassination of the Duchess de Fontanges was intended to crown the -vengeance of Madame de Montespan. La Voisin exclaimed, in regard to -this, when dining with La Trianon: ‘Oh! what a fine thing is a lover’s -spite!’ Romani and Bertrand were engaged to poison the young lady at the -same time that La Voisin was killing Louis <i>XIV</i>; but the poisons -employed against her were to be less<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> rapid, so that ‘she might die a -lingering death,’ said the accomplices, ‘and that it might be said that -she had died of grief at the death of the king.’</p> - -<p>Romani had planned to disguise himself as a cloth merchant. Bertrand was -to follow him as a valet. They were to present their wares to the -duchess, and even if she did not take any cloth, ‘she would not refrain -from taking gloves,’ said Romani, ‘because those he would bring from -Grenoble would be very well made, and ladies never failed to take some -of them when they were well made, and the gloves would have the same -effect as the piece of cloth.’ They actually sent to Rome and Grenoble -for gloves of the finest quality, and Romani ‘prepared’ them according -to the recipes of the magicians.</p> - -<p>We find among La Reynie’s papers a series of little notes which clearly -prove the plot against the life of Madame de Fontanges.</p> - -<p>A last feature in the case is not the least surprising.</p> - -<p>We have just seen that Madame de Montespan fled from Court when she -learnt of the<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> arrest of the sorceress and her accomplices. Her terror, -and, above all, her fury were extreme. At the moment when her fortune -was for ever ruined, when she felt that she herself was lost, she wished -at least to have the terrible joy of seeing the Duchess de Fontanges -perish at her hands. The sorceress who had been the chief instrument of -her passions was about to be interrogated, and would undoubtedly -disclose to the attentive eyes of the judges the horrible practices in -which the king’s mistress had been concerned. It was at this very moment -that Madame de Montespan, burning to realise her designs, entered into -relations with Françoise Filastre, the friend of La Voisin, and after -her the most terrible sorceress in Paris. Filastre was one of those who -had devoted their children to the devil, and murdered them immediately -after birth. She went to Normandy to find Galet, who has already been -mentioned, then went to Auvergne to obtain secrets for ‘poisoning -without any sign appearing.’ Returning to Paris, she took steps to win -an entrance to the house of Madame de Fontanges; but her<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> arrest -prevented her from carrying her scheme into execution.</p> - -<p>Nature gave to Madame de Montespan the terrible satisfaction she had -sought to obtain from magic and poison. On June 28, 1681, the Duchess de -Fontanges died at the age of twenty-two, in the abbey of Port Royal. She -was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia, tubercular in origin, the action of -which was hastened by loss of blood following an accouchement. The young -woman died convinced that she had been poisoned, and suspecting her -rival. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, who had the same idea, feared that the autopsy might -reveal the crime, and sought to prevent it; but the relatives insisted -on it. The physicians concluded that it was a natural death. But the -opinion was still held that Madame de Fontanges had succumbed to poison -administered by Madame de Montespan, an opinion echoed by Madame de -Caylus, Madame de Maintenon, Madame Palatine, and Bussy-Rabutin.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente the magician Lesage had -allowed the<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> following remark to escape him: ‘If Filastre were captured, -they would learn some strange things.’ She was taken: she denied -everything before the commissioners; but on October 1, 1680, while under -torture, she confirmed in the most precise manner the revelations made -by the prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; and on that very day -Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> in terror ordered the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be -suspended. On October 17, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie: ‘I have -received the letters you have done me the honour to write to me, and the -king heard them read with pain.’ Louis, then, ordered the closing of the -Chambre Ardente, and when on May 19, 1681, the sittings were resumed at -the entreaty of La Reynie, the judges were forbidden ‘to take any steps -in regard to the declarations contained in the reports of the torture -and execution of La Filastre.’ From that day Louis had no further doubts -as to the guilt of his mistress. One more proof was to be furnished him.</p> - -<p>The name of Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, Madame de Montespan’s maid, -recurs on<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> every page of the proceedings. She was continually going -backwards and forwards between her mistress and the sorceresses. The -prisoners almost all knew her: they spoke of her in the most positive -manner. The girl Monvoisin pointed out her house, where she had been -several times. Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets had a friend named Madame de -Villedieu, who frequently visited the sorceresses, but for her own -private ends. When La Voisin was arrested, the two friends talked about -the incident.</p> - -<p>‘How can you be easy in mind when you have been so often to the -sorceress?’ asked Madame de Villedieu.</p> - -<p>‘The king will not allow me to be arrested.’</p> - -<p>The remark was voluntarily reported by Madame de Villedieu to the -detective Desgrez. And, in fact, when La Reynie on October 22, 1680, -wrote to Louvois: ‘What has been said in regard to Mademoiselle -DesÅ“illets at the beginning and repeated at the end is so strong that -it is impossible to prevent her from being confronted with the people -who have spoken about her,’ his words fell on deaf ears at Versailles. -When Madame de Villedieu was<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> taken to Vincennes, she said: ‘It is -astonishing that I am being imprisoned when I went only once to La -Voisin, while you leave Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets at liberty, who has -been there more than fifty times.’</p> - -<p>Louvois at last decided to order Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets to appear, -not before the judges, but before himself in his private room. On -November 18, 1680, he wrote to La Reynie:—</p> - -<p>‘Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets declares with marvellous assurance that not -one of those who have named her know her, and, to assure me of her -innocence, she charged me to urge the king to allow her to be taken to -the place where those who have deposed against her are confined. She -stakes her life that no one will be able to tell who she is. His Majesty -has therefore been pleased to decide that I shall take her to Vincennes -next Friday, and bring down Lesage, the girl Voisin, Guibourg, and the -other persons who, as you inform me, have spoken of her. The person of -whom I have just spoken will enter and show herself to them, and I will -ask them if they know her, without naming her to them.<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a>’</p> - -<p>The result did not justify Louvois’ hopes. La Reynie showed at that time -that, unknown to him and in spite of his vigilance, some one was holding -communication with the prisoners in Vincennes, who were receiving -information from without. This ‘some one’ was Madame de Montespan. No -doubt the lieutenant of police took greater precautions on this -occasion. The prisoners were not able to receive preliminary coaching, -with the result that one and all immediately recognised the favourite’s -maid.</p> - -<p>Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, moreover, was under great illusions as to -the impunity that would be assured to her. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> did not allow her -to appear before the judges, nor even to be confronted with the -prisoners, but he had her shut up for the rest of her days in close -confinement. The wretched woman died on September 8, 1686, in the -general hospital of Tours. And poor Madame de Villedieu, whose only -crime was that she was for a moment in the confidence of Mademoiselle -DesÅ“illets, was visited with the same fate, because of the necessity -of keeping the great secret.<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a></p> - -<p>When he learned suddenly of all the crimes with which the woman he had -most loved was stained—the woman whom, in the eyes of Europe, he had -made queen of the French Court, who was the mother of his favourite -children—what were the sentiments and the attitude of King Louis? What -passed in his soul, immured, for posterity as for his contemporaries, in -that ‘terrible majesty’ of which Saint-Simon speaks?</p> - -<p>About the middle of August 1680, Louvois, who in this dreadful business -devoted all his intelligence and all his influence to protect Madame de -Montespan, arranged a <i>tête-à -tête</i> with the king. Madame de Maintenon -anxiously observed them from a distance. ‘Madame de Montespan at first -wept,’ she says, ‘threw reproaches upon him, and at last spoke with -pride.’ At the first moment, under the shock of the king’s declarations, -Madame de Montespan had been utterly crushed, had burst into tears of -confusion and humiliation; then, regaining command of herself, the -masterful woman had risen to the height of her pride, with all the force -of her passion and<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> her hatred for her rivals. If it was true, she -declared, that she had been driven to great crimes, it was because her -love for the king was great, and great also were the harshness, cruelty, -and infidelity of him to whom she had sacrificed everything. And the -king might strike at her, but he could not forget that he would, with -the same stroke, injure in the eyes of France and Europe the mother of -his children—children who had been made legitimate children of France. -Madame de Montespan left this interview irrevocably ruined, but at the -same time definitively saved.</p> - -<p>We must remember the rank to which Louis had raised his mistress. It was -of the utmost importance to him to avoid a scandal. Even by exiling the -fallen favourite, thus absolutely disgracing her, he would run the risk -of unloosing storms. La Reynie, who, thanks to his genius for reading -the hearts of men, knew Madame de Montespan’s character thoroughly, -warned Louvois: ‘We cannot but fear extraordinary scandals, the -consequence of which cannot be foreseen.<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a>’ Louvois, Colbert, and Madame -de Maintenon herself united their efforts to soften too violent a fall. -Colbert had just betrothed his younger daughter to Madame de Montespan’s -nephew. We know, moreover, how much the famous statesman had at heart -the national greatness to which he had so arduously contributed, and -which in his view could not be dissevered from the greatness of the -king. Madame de Maintenon had tenderly trained the children of Madame de -Montespan, and retained a real affection for them all her life long. Let -us add that Louis, with all his faults—his selfishness, his coarseness, -his lack of feeling, his mediocre intellect—had at least a high -sentiment of the royal dignity, and that in this awful crisis he did not -for a moment depart from that calm and tranquil majesty at which all who -approached him never ceased to wonder. Madame de Montespan was not -driven from Court. She left her splendid apartments on the first floor -for apartments remoter from the centre of the king’s life. Louis -continued to receive her in public, and publicly paid her visits which -deceived careless observers;<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> but practised eyes perceived the profound -change which had taken place beneath these external appearances. Madame -de Sévigné wrote to her daughter that Louis treated Madame de Montespan -with harshness; Bussy-Rabutin wrote that he treated her with scorn. Thus -began the expiatory martyrdom which lasted for twenty-seven years.</p> - -<p>On March 15, 1691, Madame de Montespan retired to Paris, going into the -community of St. Joseph which she had founded. Louis granted her a right -royal pension, 10,000 pistoles—£20,000 of to-day—a month; but when, in -1692, the double marriage of Madame de Montespan’s children, -Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke de Maine, was celebrated with the -Duke de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Charolais, Louis did not allow -their mother to appear at the ceremony or to sign the contract.</p> - -<p>In the early days of her retirement Madame de Montespan had the greatest -difficulty in accommodating herself to the calm monotony of her retreat -at St. Joseph’s. ‘She aired her leisure and anxieties,’ says -Saint-Simon, ‘at<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> Bourbon, at Fontevrault, at her estate at Antin, and -for years was quite unable to regain repose of mind.’ What were these -anxieties? Saint-Simon could not explain them; but we are acquainted -with them to-day.</p> - -<p>Madame de Montespan was much distressed at abandoning the glory of the -world; but from the day when the renunciation was made, she threw -herself with as much passion into penitence as she had displayed in -ambition and love. ‘From the moment of her retirement to St. Joseph’s,’ -says Saint-Simon, ‘till her death, her conversion never belied itself, -and her penitence continually augmented.’ She might have been seen then, -in the Carmelite convent in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, imploring -from her old rival, whom she had so harshly persecuted—the gentle and -saintly Louise de la Vallière, Sister Louise de la Miséricorde—the -words which give ease of mind and forgetfulness of the past. Though she -tenderly loved those of her children whom she had borne to Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, it -was towards the Duke d’Antin, the son she had by the Marquis de -Montespan, that she diverted her solicitude,<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> from a sense of duty, and, -as Saint-Simon tells us, ‘she occupied herself with enriching him.’ ‘The -king had no manner of dealings with her,’ writes the great chronicler, -‘even through their children. Their attentions were discouraged, they -thenceforth saw her only rarely and after having asked permission. The -Père de la Tour wrung from her a terrible act of penitence, namely, to -beg her husband’s pardon and place herself again in his hands. She wrote -herself in the most submissive terms, offering to return to him if he -would deign to receive her, or to repair to whatever place he pleased to -command. To any one who knew Madame de Montespan, this was a sacrifice -of the most heroic kind. She had all the merit of it without undergoing -the experience. Monsieur de Montespan sent word that he would neither -receive her nor lay any commands upon her, and that he never wished to -hear her name mentioned for the rest of his life.’</p> - -<p>She had no further relations with the Court, the ministers, -<i>intendants</i>, or judges; she asked nothing of any man, either for her or -hers,<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> and employed the vast income she owed to the king in doing good -all around her, bestowing alms with ceaseless and unparalleled -generosity, and endowing religious foundations. ‘Beautiful as the day,’ -says Saint-Simon, ‘till the last hour of her life; though she was not -ill, she always fancied that she was, and that she was going to die.’ -This anxiety encouraged a taste for travelling, and in her travels she -always took with her seven or eight persons as a suite. Between her -outbursts of piety and the blossoming forth of her charity, incessant -remorse thus made its appearance, as well as the continual need she felt -of deadening her thoughts. Only Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, Louvois, and La Reynie could -have explained the following page borrowed from Saint-Simon:—</p> - -<p>‘Little by little she proceeded to give all that she had to the poor. -She worked for them several hours a day at humble and rough tasks, to -wit, making shirts and other such-like things, and she made those about -her work at them too. Her table, which she had loved to excess, became -particularly frugal; her fasts were multiplied, her piety interrupted<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> -her entertaining and the harmless little card-play at which she amused -herself, and at all hours of the day she would leave everything to go -and pray in her closet. Her mortification of the flesh was constant: her -chemises and sheets were of the roughest and coarsest unbleached linen, -but they were concealed under ordinary sheets and underwear. She -continually wore steel bracelets and garters, and a girdle of steel -which often wounded her; and her tongue, formerly so terrible a member, -had its penance also. She was further so tortured by horror of death -that she paid several women whose sole employment was to watch her. She -lay at night with all the bed-curtains thrown back, with many candles in -her room, her watchers around her, and whenever she woke up she wished -to find them chatting, playing cards, or eating, to make sure that they -did not fall a-nodding.’</p> - -<p>The hour so much dreaded at last struck. She had a singular presentiment -of it a year beforehand. At the first attack of illness she saw that her -end was near. It came on May 27, 1707, at Bourbon.</p> - -<p>‘She profited by a brief respite from pain to<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> confess and receive the -sacraments. Previously she had all her servants, even the humblest, -brought in, made public confession of her public sins, and besought -pardon for the scandal she had so long given, and even for her fits of -temper, with a humility so real and deep and penitent that nothing could -have been more edifying. She then received the last sacraments with -ardent piety. The dread of death which all her life had so continually -troubled her suddenly vanished and troubled her no more. She thanked God -in the presence of them all for permitting her to die in a place where -she was far away from the children of her sin, and during her illness -spoke of them only this once. She was engrossed in the thought of -eternity, in some hope of a cure with which they tried to flatter her, -and in her condition as a sinner whose fear was tempered by a steady -confidence in the mercy of God, with no regrets, solely intent on -rendering to Him the sacrifice most pleasing to Him, with a gentleness -and peacefulness which accompanied all her actions.’</p> - -<p>The courtiers were surprised at the indifference<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> Louis displayed on -learning of the death of his sometime mistress. To the Duchess of -Burgundy, who remarked on it, he replied that, since he had dismissed -her, he had counted on never seeing her again, and that she was from -that time dead to him. He openly reproved the grief manifested by Madame -de Montespan’s children; and, to the stupefaction of the Court, he -forbade them to wear mourning, a circumstance the more incomprehensible -because at that same date the Princess de Conti, daughter of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> -and Louise de la Vallière, was wearing mourning for Madame de la -Vallière her aunt.</p> - -<p>It would be unjust to judge Madame de Montespan solely by what has been -here said. We have spoken only of the crimes to which she was driven by -the violence of her passions. We have not recalled the wealth she -distributed with as much liberality as discretion, or the brilliance -given to the Court by her grace and wit, or the enlightened protection -which the greatest writers and artists found in her, the radiant -kindliness with which she sweetened the declining years of the great -Corneille—in<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> a word, the innumerable deeds of kindness she performed -with as much intelligence as affection, the fruits of some of which -remain to this day. It would require a Racine, with his penetrating -mind, his ability to reconcile opposite extremes in one and the same -character, and the harmonious majesty of his language, to speak of -Madame de Montespan. Bright and radiantly beautiful, of queenly -elegance, charming by the distinction of her manners and the delicate -wit of her conversation, light-hearted and joyous, she dominated the -whole Court of France—this horrible client of the Abbé Guibourg, of La -Filastre and La Voisin.</p> - -<h3><a name="III_A_MAGISTRATE" id="III_A_MAGISTRATE"></a>III. A MAGISTRATE</h3> - -<p>Lieutenant of police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was the mainspring of -the proceedings against the poisoners. He alone carried through the vast -operations, bristling with difficulties. And it would be impossible to -find any point of his administration in which his genius and his -character appear in a more striking or complete manner. It is thanks to -him, and to<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> the careful notes he took daily on the cases of the -prisoners, that we have been able to discover the facts of which Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span> believed he had destroyed every trace when he ordered the burning of -the various documents in his private room.</p> - -<p>Saint-Simon, who has utterly shattered reputations which seemed firm as -rock, pauses with respect before Nicolas de la Reynie, though the -functions with which he was endowed were a subject of genuine abhorrence -to him. ‘La Reynie, councillor of state,’ he writes, ‘so well known for -having been the first to lift the office of lieutenant of police from -its natural low estate, and for making it a sort of ministerial office; -a man of great importance too, because of the king’s direct confidence -in him, his constant relations with the Court, and the number of things -in which he is concerned, and in which he has infinite powers of serving -or harming in innumerable ways people of the greatest importance, -obtained at length in 1697, at the age of eighty, permission to resign -so arduous an employment, which he had for the first time ennobled by -the equity, moderation,<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> and disinterestedness with which he had -fulfilled it, without swerving from the greatest scrupulousness, and -doing the least possible injury as seldom as possible; he was, moreover, -a man of great virtue and capacity, who in an office which he had, so to -speak, created, and in which he was bound to draw upon him the hatred of -the public, nevertheless won universal esteem.’</p> - -<p>We have a portrait of La Reynie by his friend Mignard, and an admirable -etching of the painting by Van Schuppen. Engraving has never reproduced -human features with more clearness, colour, and lifelikeness. The face -bespeaks a clear, powerful, and well-balanced intelligence; the eyes -express a firm and thoughtful kindliness. Such was the La Reynie who -investigated the great poison cases.</p> - -<p>Though Bazin de Bezons of the French Academy had been associated with -him in the Chambre Ardente as examining commissioner, it was the -lieutenant of police who did all the work. The number of depositions, -interrogatories, confrontations, pleadings, and other documents which he -collected is enormous;<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> and we see the magistrate with sure hand cutting -a way through this tangled forest, guided by his experience, his -knowledge of the human soul, and his clear intellect.</p> - -<p>The memorials he has left on questions of the greatest difficulty are -useful and interesting to study, because of the method of work they -reveal. It is exactly the method which our old professors of rhetoric -used to teach for the orderly arrangement of a French dissertation or an -historical essay. The principal and fundamental fact is noted down about -the middle of the left-hand page, with a large bracket embracing -sub-divisions; each of these sub-divisions is in turn accompanied by a -bracket embracing sub-divisions of these sub-divisions; and so on to the -end of the right-hand page, which is filled from top to bottom with -minute and close writing: there you have a multitude of slight facts -following one another in methodical order, all focussing on the -principal fact, found, as we have said, in the middle of the left-hand -page. There is no college student but has built up his schemes for -French essays on this model. But there is no question, in La Reynie’s -portfolios, of<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> rhetorical dissertations or Latin compositions; he deals -there with irrevocable sentences about to be pronounced ‘on the flesh -and blood of men,’ to use his own phrase. And if we go from these -bracketed plans to the memoirs and reports to which they guided the -magistrate’s thought, we find ourselves in possession of marvels of -clear thinking and judging.</p> - -<p>During the long poison case, La Reynie showed himself indefatigable in -work. He had no other concern than right and the triumph of justice. And -in proportion as the number of criminals increased, and the greatest -names in the French nobility and Parlement were found to be compromised -by his inquiries—in proportion as relatives, friends, all who feared -for themselves, and nobility and Parlement fearing for their honour and -their privileges, were up in arms against him, his courage grew, his -activity redoubled; he pushed on his inquiries, urging the king, urging -the ministers, demanding new warrants, fresh arrests, seeking permission -to extend his formidable investigations over an ever-widening circle.<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a></p> - -<p>Sorceresses and magicians thronged about the royal Court like swarms of -wasps about a hive of honey. In this monstrous hive were concentrated -the wealth and honours which awoke and stimulated the ambitions and -passions in which the sorceresses found their booty.</p> - -<p>The sorceresses had little lodgings at Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau, -Versailles, around the palaces. They won admission to the Court as -fruit-sellers or dealers in perfumes distilled by the magicians; they -offered pastes for softening the skin and waters for improving the -complexion. They allied themselves with the domestics of great houses, -and domiciled themselves with the laundresses connected with them. They -were intimates of those persons who hung about the Court with the -curious profession of presenters of petitions. They sometimes even -entered the service of a duke or a marchioness. La Chéron was with -Monsieur de Noailles and Monsieur de Rabaton in succession. La Vigoureux -was actively engaged in finding places for serving-maids and lackeys. We -have seen the relations between the <a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a>fortune-tellers and Leroy, governor -of the pages of the Petite Ecurie. Girardin, governor of the dauphin’s -pages, was connected with the magician Belot. Blessis, a crony of La -Voisin, was presented to the queen by Madame de Béthune, by the queen to -the dauphin, and by the dauphin to the king.</p> - -<p>Among the <i>bourgeoises</i> of Paris who were struck at by the depositions -of the fortune-tellers we have indicated the principal ones, and then, -coming to the Court ladies, the most illustrious of all, Madame de -Montespan. But how many others La Reynie had to deal with! The beautiful -Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta of England, was accused, not without the -greatest probability, of having had a mass said against her husband, -with the incantations of sorcery, in the Palais-Royal itself. Madame de -Polignac and Madame de Gramont tried to get Louise de la Vallière -poisoned. The Countess de Soissons, Olympe Mancini, who had inspired -Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> with his first passion, was compromised so deeply that, warned -by the king, she fled into the Netherlands. Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> said to the -Princess de Carignan, Madame de Soissons<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a>’ mother: ‘I was determined -that the countess should escape; perhaps some day I shall render an -account therefor to God and my people.’</p> - -<p>When Madame de Montespan was at the height of her power, rivals, jealous -of her good fortune, applied to the sorceresses for formulae and powders -to ‘send her packing,’ just as she had done with the idea of getting rid -of La Vallière. These were the Duchess of Angoulême, Madame de Vitry, -and her own sister-in-law, Antoinette de Mesmes, Duchess de Vivonne. The -practices to which this last had recourse were precisely the same as -those with which the secret life of Madame de Montespan has acquainted -us. She applied to La Filastre and La Chappelain, who were also employed -by the dazzling mistress of the king. The sorceresses did not hesitate -between the two sisters-in-law, thinking to come off well either way: if -the one wished to retain the affection of the king, the other sought to -possess herself of it, and in either case money would fall into their -purses. Louis did not allow the Duchess de Vivonne to be proceeded -against, related so closely as she was to Madame de Montespan.<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> It is -probable also that he was dissuaded from it by Colbert, who had married -one of his daughters to the Duke de Mortemart, son of the duchess.</p> - -<p>We may imagine the emotion, agitation, and anxieties aroused at Court -and in Paris by the prosecutions directed by the Chambre Ardente against -so large a number of persons belonging to the most distinguished -families: the arrests of Mesdames de Dreux and Leféron, of Poulaillon -and the Abbé Mariette, relatives of the chief magistrates; the warrants -issued against the Duchess de Bouillon, the Princess de Tingry, the wife -of Marshal la Ferté, the Countess de Roure; the hasty flight out of the -kingdom of the Marchioness d’Alluye, the Viscountess de Polignac, the -Count Clermont-Lodève, the Marquis de Cessac, the Countess de Soissons; -the imprisonment in the Bastille of the famous Marshal de Luxembourg, -who had employed magicians to beg the devil to remove his wife. ‘Every -one is agitated,’ wrote Madame de Sévigné, on January 26, 1680, ‘every -one is sending for news and going into houses to pick them up.<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a>’</p> - -<p>Further, the public imagination was impressed; crimes were the stock -topic of conversation. The most trifling accidents were attributed to -poison. Every husband was accused of poisoning his mother-in-law. Terror -reigned in Paris.</p> - -<p>Then there was a reaction. Nobles and lawyers displayed equal irritation -at the Chamber’s daring to push its investigations the length of them. -Were rank and name no longer a rampart high enough against the -inquisitions of a lieutenant of police? There was an end to society. The -result was, that ere long the only person in the whole matter who -appeared really criminal in the eyes of people of importance was La -Reynie himself. ‘To-day,’ says Madame de Sévigné, ‘the cry is, the -innocence of the accused and the horrid scandal! You know this sort of -parrot cry. Nothing else is talked about in any company. There is -scarcely another example of such a scandal in any Christian court.’ And -some days later, playing sedulous echo to the general gossip, the -charming marchioness said it was a shame to haul up people of position -for<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> such a pack of nonsense. ‘The reputation of Monsieur de la Reynie -is abominable,’ she wrote to her daughter on May 31, 1680; ‘what you say -is exactly to the point; his being alive proves that there are no -poisoners in France.’ La Reynie had just discovered, indeed, a plot to -murder him.</p> - -<p>The reader will remember the demonstration organised against the -lieutenant of police at the time of the liberation of Madame de Dreux, -who was carried off in triumph between her husband, the <i>maître des -requêtes</i>, and her lover, Monsieur de Richelieu. The nobility got up a -similar demonstration when Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess de Bouillon, -appeared before the Chambre Ardente. She had done her best to find means -of quickly ridding herself of her husband, so that she might marry the -Duke de Vendôme. The Duke de Bouillon was informed of it by Louis -himself. Yet the duke accompanied his wife on January 29, 1680, to the -Arsenal, giving her his right hand, while the Duke de Vendôme gave her -his left: an exact repetition of the scene when Madame de Dreux left the -Chambre<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> Ardente between her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu.</p> - -<p>Madame de Sévigné has noted down the details of this merry frolic. -Madame de Bouillon arrived in a coach drawn by six horses, seated -between her husband and her lover, followed by twenty other coaches, -packed full of the smartest noblemen and daintiest ladies of the Court. -The Marquis de la Fare confirms this account: ‘The Duchess de Bouillon -made a proud and confident appearance before the judges, accompanied by -all her friends, who were in large numbers, and a most distinguished -crowd.’ ‘Madame de Bouillon entered the Chambre like a little queen,’ -says Madame de Sévigné; ‘she sat down on a chair prepared for her, and -instead of replying to the first question, she asked that what she -wanted to say might be written down: which was, that she only came there -out of respect for the king; she had none at all for the Chambre, which -she did not recognise; and that she did not mean to allow any derogation -to the ducal privilege.’ (This privilege consisted in the right of not -being tried except by all the courts<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> united in Parlement.) ‘She would -not say a word till that was written down, and then she took off her -glove and showed a very beautiful hand. She replied honestly enough -until her age was asked.</p> - -<p>‘“Do you know La Vigoureux?â€</p> - -<p>‘“No.â€</p> - -<p>‘“Do you know La Voisin?â€</p> - -<p>‘“Yes.â€</p> - -<p>‘“Why do you wish to do away with your husband?â€</p> - -<p>‘“I do away with him? Why, you have only to ask him if he thinks so; he -gave me his hand to this very door.â€</p> - -<p>‘“But why did you go so often to La Voisin’s house?â€</p> - -<p>‘“I wanted to see the Sibyls she promised to show me; that company would -be well worth all my journeys.â€</p> - -<p>‘She was asked if she had not shown the woman a bag of money. She said -“No,†and for more than one reason, and this she said with a very -mocking and disdainful air.</p> - -<p>‘“Well, gentlemen, is that all you have to say to me?<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a>â€</p> - -<p>‘“Yes, madam.â€</p> - -<p>‘She rose and said aloud as she went out, “Really, I should never have -believed that clever men could ask so many silly questions.â€</p> - -<p>‘She was received by all her friends and relatives with adoration, she -was so pretty, naïve, natural, bold, so pleasant in appearance and so -quiet in mind.’ One of the replies she made to La Reynie, who asked her -if she had really seen the devil at the sorceress’s, was: ‘I see him -now: he is ugly, old, and disguised as a councillor of state.’ This soon -got abroad outside the Chambre, and set all Paris and the Court in good -humour.</p> - -<p>The charges against the Duchess de Bouillon were, nevertheless, very -serious. It was proved to the commissioners that she had asked the -sorceresses to poison the Duke de Bouillon or to procure his death by -witchcraft. Madame de Sévigné thought the matter of little importance. -‘The Duchess de Bouillon,’ she wrote to her daughter, ‘went and asked La -Voisin for a little poison to get rid of an old husband who was boring -her to death, and an invention to marry a young man who wanted her, -without<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> any one knowing it. This young fellow was Monsieur de Vendôme, -who took her to the Arsenal holding one hand, Monsieur de Bouillon -holding the other. When a Mancini only commits a folly like that, it is -winked at; these sorceresses do the thing seriously, and horrify all -Europe about a trifle.’ Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> took a more severe view of it, and -decided that Madame de Bouillon should be confronted with La Voisin. The -pretty face of the young duchess became graver when she heard this, and -she begged to be spared this indignity. The king complied, but exiled -her to Nérac, whence he would not allow her to return, in spite of the -entreaties of her many friends.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The revelations which ensued before the Chambre struck a more cruel blow -at La Reynie’s soul than the anger of the world. Wrapped in his -consciousness of rectitude, he heard cries and threats only as the faint -murmurs of a distant mob.</p> - -<p>Three sentiments dominated him and guided his whole life: the religious -sentiment, which declared itself in a strong, sane, simple piety,<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> the -piety of a man possessing a quiet conviction of the truth of his faith; -love for his king, a love composed of respect and admiration, with -shades of affection like that of a son for a father, and allied also to -a religious veneration; finally, a high sentiment of his judicial office -with an immovable respect for justice. His worship of the king extended -to all that concerned and surrounded him, to all that he loved and -honoured. The greatness of Louis <small>XIV</small> is easily explained, in spite of -his personal mediocrity, when we see with what passion and by what men -he was served. The revelations about Madame de Montespan, the mother of -the king’s children, the woman who had almost won a seat on the throne -of France, were anguish to La Reynie. It is touching to see his grief -becoming more keen, more poignant, as evidence accumulated and -conviction forced itself upon his mind. ‘Private facts,’ he writes at -the head of a memorandum in which the charges against Madame de -Montespan are summed up, ‘which were painful to listen to, the idea of -which is so grievous to recall and which are still more<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> difficult to -relate.’ In the light of these revelations his judgment, usually so -clear, precise, and sure, became confused, and being unable to believe -what he saw, he fancied that his own vision was becoming imperfect. ‘I -recognise my weakness. In spite of myself, the nature of these private -circumstances (those concerning Madame de Montespan) impresses my mind -with more fear than is reasonable. These crimes scare me.’ Then he -recurs to the documents with judicial composure. ‘These are the very -deeds we must look upon and draw our inferences from.’ But it was just -the inferences deduced from these actions that his mind could not admit. -‘I recognise that I cannot pierce the thick darkness with which I am -surrounded. I ask for time to think more about it; and perhaps it will -happen that, after much thinking, I shall see even less than I see now. -After well considering everything, I have found no other course to -suggest than to seek for further enlightenment, and to await the aid of -Providence, which has drawn from the feeblest imaginable beginnings the -knowledge of this infinite number of strange things<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> it was so necessary -to know. All that has happened hitherto leads us to hope (and I do hope -with great confidence) that God will at length reveal this abyss of -crime, that He will at the same time show the means to escape from it, -and inspire the king with all that he ought to do in a matter of such -importance.’</p> - -<p>In studying these reports of La Reynie to Louvois, we discover a -circumstance as impressive as curious. In the course of his memoranda, -the magistrate clearly and logically unfolds the reality of the charges -against the favourite, but when in closing it falls upon him to draw -practical conclusions, his mind shrinks from the task, his thought takes -fright like a horse shying before an unexpected obstacle. ‘I have done -what I could, when I examined the proofs and the presumptions, to assure -myself and remain convinced that the facts are genuine, and I could not -succeed. I have sought, on the other hand, everything that might -persuade me that they were false, and that too has been impossible.’</p> - -<p>His distress was augmented by the conflict<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> which arose in his -conscience between the duties he owed to justice and those he owed his -king. ‘At that time when my mind was so cast down,’ he wrote, ‘I -besought God in His mercy to permit me to preserve the fidelity I owed -to my office, and to enable me to walk sincerely in all that it pleased -the king to command me.’ Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> ordered that a portion of the case -should be withdrawn from the cognisance of the judges. The blow was so -hard to La Reynie that his strength of mind wellnigh failed under it. ‘I -hope,’ he wrote to Louvois on October 17, 1681, ‘that his Majesty in his -favour and goodness will have compassion on my weakness when he -considers that, with the fear and respect I could not fail to be in, -occupied moreover and filled with the idea of a judge who, in giving a -decision contrary to the truth, should judge and be a party to a -judgment involving the life of men, I could not at the moment recognise -the false position in which I was, nor represent to his Majesty that the -affair in question was in the nature of the case not susceptible of the -proposed expedient.<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a>’</p> - -<p>For a moment his resolution seems to have been taken: he would put -himself blindly and unreservedly in the hands of the king who had -received from God, he writes, higher lights than those of other men; but -the next instant the judge reappears in him and determines him, alone, -unaided, subordinate official as he was, to enter into a struggle -against the powerful ministers supported by the will and favour of the -king.</p> - -<p>At this moment his character reveals itself in all its greatness.</p> - -<p>He went straight to Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> and laid before him the charges against -his mistress; then he wrote energetically to Louvois: ‘In spite of all -the care that has been taken, all these facts (against Madame de -Montespan) have cropped up so often, in so many different quarters, and -with so many details, that the king has been obliged to allow the -interrogation of the prisoners about the favourite, but in private.’</p> - -<p>Louvois, one of the most intimate and well-liked friends of Madame de -Montespan, did everything he could to save her. Madame<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> de Maintenon, -indeed, was hostile to her, and he feared her growing favour. Besides, -as the Venetian ambassador observes, Louvois ‘worshipped the French -monarchy, to which everything seemed to him subordinate.’ He felt bound -to protect the prestige of the crown against the injury which the -condemnation of the favourite would do it. Finally, in defending her, he -thought he would ingratiate himself with Louis.</p> - -<p>Louvois endeavoured to bring La Reynie over to his views, to persuade -him, at first gently, that it was important that the examining judge -should find Madame de Montespan innocent. Louvois spoke, urged, -demonstrated: La Reynie listened, but did not heed. The minister then -changed his tone. He sought to prove to the magistrate that Madame de -Montespan must really be innocent. He went to Paris on February 15, -1681, to explain the matter to him. Had not Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, -the favourite’s maid, written that ‘she was not guilty, and that what he -(La Reynie) had been told about her dealings with La Voisin could not be -true; that there were<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> twenty women about Madame de Montespan, of whom -eighteen hated her, and that they might be asked for information about -her, but she thought that the Countess de Soissons had two maids, one of -whom was almost her own height, and that the countess might well have -taken her name (the name of Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets), to injure both -her and Madame de Montespan, whom she hated.’</p> - -<p>La Reynie replied that all that was wanted was to confront the young -lady with the prisoners at Vincennes. We have already shown that the -confrontation took place and that Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets was -recognised. Louvois had perforce to devise another defence, to which the -inflexible La Reynie made answer: ‘After reflecting on what Mademoiselle -DesÅ“illets said to Monsieur de Louvois at Vincennes, about her having -a niece who was very often with the sorceresses, and who might easily -have been mistaken for her, I think it doubtful, because she only said -so after having been recognised by the prisoners, and because Madame de -Villedieu her good friend, who is at Vincennes, and had had<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> warnings, -tried to mislead us in the same way; it appears a concerted plan; and -when I asked her what Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets was like, she told me -that she was small, short, and well-developed, which is a false -description and exactly fits the niece.’</p> - -<p>When it was pointed out to La Reynie that La Voisin had denied all -knowledge of Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets, he replied: ‘The denial of La -Voisin, persisted in till her death, must be the more suspicious in that -it was so obstinately kept up, because it is now proved that they had -dealings together. If Mademoiselle DesÅ“illets herself denies these -dealings, that itself can only increase the suspicion.’</p> - -<p>Louvois dwelt also on a retractation made by La Filastre after her -conversation with her confessor at the moment of going to execution; but -the lieutenant of police replied: ‘The declaration made by La Filastre -exonerating Madame de Montespan applies solely to the poisoning of -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. There are two other facts: that of the mass -said over her by Guibourg, and further, the agreement between them in -regard<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> to the powders prepared by Galet for the king, in which Madame -de Montespan was named; and the charges founded on these two facts do -not depend wholly on what was said under torture, but were confirmed -afresh by the same declaration in which La Filastre retracted the first -charge.’</p> - -<p>La Reynie thus defended himself and justice, and soon, strong in the -rights of the law, he went on from defence to attack. He revealed to the -minister the relations which several of the Vincennes prisoners who were -mixed up in Madame de Montespan’s affair had had with persons of the -Court.</p> - -<p>These had given instruction and counsel. La Reynie condemned these -manÅ“uvres before the very minister who, at the instigation of the -king, had been their author.</p> - -<p>‘And several of these prisoners of rank,’ he added courageously, ‘have -found means of having some of the charges brought against them -withdrawn.’</p> - -<p>La Reynie was not satisfied with denying the innocence of Mademoiselle -DesÅ“illets; he told Louvois: ‘It is difficult for her to be<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> left at -liberty after such charges. Apprised of all that has been said against -her, she is busy taking measures to render her conviction impossible, -and she will take these measures along with other ill-disposed persons.’</p> - -<p>In case he should not be authorised to arrest her, La Reynie asks that -he may at least be permitted to proceed to her examination; and he -sketches for Louvois a very skilful plan, showing the ingenious and -subtle means by which, without violence or scandal, the confidante might -be induced to reveal the truth.</p> - -<p>It is hardly necessary to say that these propositions were rejected by -Louis and his minister. The magistrate, nevertheless, persevered in the -path he had marked out for himself, even after Louvois, to overcome his -scruples, had enlisted the assistance of Colbert, the second of the -all-powerful ministers.</p> - -<p>Boileau once said: ‘I admire Monsieur Colbert’s inability to endure -Suetonius because Suetonius had revealed the infamy of the emperors.’ -There we have the explanation of his conduct, apart from the personal -interest he had in the innocence of Madame de Montespan.<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a></p> - -<p>Colbert had only followed at a distance the work of the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, and he knew only vaguely the charges brought -against the king’s mistress. He applied to a celebrated advocate of the -time, Maître Duplessis, for a statement establishing the innocence of -Madame de Montespan, and indicating means of quashing the unhappy -proceedings. Colbert even did his best to supply him with arguments.</p> - -<p>Duplessis drew up the statement desired. Colbert acknowledged its -receipt on February 25, 1681: ‘I have seen and examined with care the -memorandum you have sent me; I have to receive another to-morrow on the -second charge (the attempted poisoning of Mademoiselle de Fontanges), -which is no less serious than the first (the attempt on Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> by -means of the petition), and the disproof of which is, in my opinion, -more complete and perfect.’ And Duplessis sent him a second statement -with these words: ‘Have the goodness to look at the general observation -at the beginning, because it may provide answers to many things which -appear sufficiently well<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> proved.’ The memorials of Duplessis, backed up -by Colbert, had no more effect on La Reynie than the arguments of -Louvois. The advocate and the minister asked that the prisoners should -be dealt with summarily by the Chambre, that torture should not be -applied so that they might not reveal the gravest facts, and that as -soon as the case had been rapidly despatched, all the documents should -be burnt forthwith. But La Reynie said that it was impossible not to -follow the rules of justice, and that the Chambre could only judge -according to custom and law.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The Chambre Ardente was in a quandary. On the one hand it saw the -necessity of yielding to the absolute refusal of Louis to authorise the -reading in court of the documents in which Madame de Montespan was -concerned; on the other, there was the no less absolute refusal of La -Reynie to allow the judges to pronounce a sentence in which all the -guarantees custom gave the accused were not respected. It seemed a -complete deadlock. The king had gradually allowed himself to be led very -far from the<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> resolutions of rigorous equity which he had at first -displayed. He had violated the secrets of the documents so far as to -communicate to persons of note such parts of the reports of the -investigations as concerned them; he had connived at the flight of the -Prince de Clermont-Lodève, the Countess de Soissons, and many others. He -had trembled at the thought of what revelations La Voisin might make: ‘I -explained to the king,’ wrote Louvois to Bazin de Bezons on December 3, -1679, ‘of the reasons you and the commissioners have for beginning the -investigation of La Voisin’s case, but his Majesty did not give his -approval; and this evening I shall give orders to Boucherat and La -Reynie not to bring it into court.’</p> - -<p>On July 18, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie from Montreuil-sur-Mer: -‘The king has not thought fit to give the order you request that the -commissioners may be authorised to give judgment in case of necessity, -his Majesty not regarding it as seemly that the Chambre should judge -prisoners in his absence.’ In spite of the efforts made to enwrap the<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> -sittings at the Arsenal in impenetrable secrecy, public opinion was not -deceived, and we find evidence in many private letters that the king was -preventing the prosecution of ‘people of the Court.’ ‘You are aiming at -riff-raff,’ exclaimed Lalande, one of the prisoners, in open court on -July 31, 1681, ‘and you ought to aim higher.’</p> - -<p>At length, as we have seen, after the declaration of La Filastre on -October 1, 1680, the sittings of the Chambre were suddenly suspended.</p> - -<p>‘This day, October 1, 1680, in execution of the decree of September 30 -of the said year, which condemned Françoise Filastre and Jacques Joseph -Cotton to death, they have been put to torture ordinary and -extraordinary; but the said Filastre having made, both at and apart from -torture, declarations of great importance, and the king having seen the -report containing fresh declarations made by her in the chapel of the -said château of the Bastille before going to execution, his Majesty, for -considerations important to his service, was unwilling that the said -matters should be laid in<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> gross before the Chambre, and gave orders to -Monsieur Boucherat, President of the said court, to close the sittings.’</p> - -<p>From that day there was open conflict between the lieutenant of police -on the one hand and the ministers supported by all the ladies and -courtiers on the other. ‘The king,’ wrote La Reynie’s secretaries, ‘was -strongly urged by the courtiers, and even by persons in high places, to -close the Chambre entirely, under various pretexts, the most specious of -which was that a longer investigation of the poisoning cases would bring -the nation into discredit abroad.’ La Reynie pleaded in answer the -respect due to justice, the duty incumbent on the king to have the -greatest criminals who had ever appeared in his kingdom brought to trial -and punished, and finally, the necessity of purging France of these -appalling practices in poison and sacrilege, which had taken in a few -years proportions that no one would have conceived possible. He went to -Versailles and talked to the king for four days in succession, and for -four hours each day. It is a pity that we have no record of the words he -addressed<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> to the king and his ministers. Single-handed, he vanquished -them all.</p> - -<p>‘Monsieur de la Reynie having been heard by the king in his cabinet, in -presence of the Chancellor and Monsieur de Colbert and the Marquis de -Louvois, on four different days, and for four hours each day, his -Majesty at length resolved on the continuation of the Chambre, and -ordered Monsieur de la Reynie to continue his ordinary investigations; -nevertheless, to take no steps on any of the declarations contained in -the reports of the torture and execution of La Filastre, which his -Majesty, for considerations relating to his service, does not wish to be -divulged.’</p> - -<p>The court sitting at the Arsenal resumed its labours on May 19, 1681, -but on the condition laid down by the king that nothing further should -be done in regard to the declarations in which Madame de Montespan had -been involved. On December 17, the facts which he had wished to keep -from the knowledge of the judges reappeared with new force at the -examination of La Joly. Louvois at once wrote to Bazin de Bezons, the -fellow-commissioner<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> of La Reynie, instructing him to be careful to put -all these declarations into separate portfolios not to be shown to the -judges. La Reynie in fact perceived that the difficulties of the Court, -in regard to a regular performance of its duties, were increasing from -day to day, and it was not long before he understood, and made his -colleagues see also, that the mere fact of the suppression of the report -containing the replies of Filastre under torture rendered it impossible -to investigate legally the cases of the principal prisoners. This he -clearly demonstrated in notes really admirable in their outspokenness -and sound judgment. And to measure their dignity and courage, we must -remember that his words were addressed directly to Louvois and Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span>. But Louis’ character was not great enough to allow him to sacrifice -his pride to the public good, to consent to such a humiliation in the -eyes of his subjects and of Europe. He adhered to his veto on the -communication of the Montespan documents to the Chambre. On his part, La -Reynie remained inflexible, refusing to allow a case to be tried in -which the whole of the<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> documents were not submitted to the court. Yet -something had to be done: a Chamber must be either open or shut.</p> - -<p>After having done everything possible to enable justice to follow its -course in complete independence, so as to reach the guilty however -high-placed they were, La Reynie indicated the only solution which would -permit the magistrates—since they were not allowed to fulfil their duty -to the full—not to fail in so much of their duty as lay in the limited -field still open to them.</p> - -<p>There were at that time in France tribunals in which judges sat, and -<i>lettres de cachet</i> which operated without legal formalities, at the -mere command of the king. Elsewhere we have shown how, almost at the -same period, d’Aguesseau, the most illustrious of French judges, asked -for <i>lettres de cachet</i> in the course of a case in which he was engaged. -Like d’Aguesseau, La Reynie might have said: ‘I am not accused of a -fondness for extraordinary ways and a hatred of the forms known to -justice, yet I find here many reasons for having recourse to orders from -the king’ (<i>lettres de cachet</i>).<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a></p> - -<p>‘His Majesty being unwilling to give the Chambre cognisance of certain -facts,’ he wrote on April 17, 1681, to Louvois, ‘or that it should try -certain prisoners and certain accused parties, reserving them to himself -because of their importance, to deal with them through his own justice -and the other means he proposes to make use of, it seems to me that we -can arrive at the end the king is aiming at by very simple methods, and -there can be no objection since the commissioners of the Chambre will -have no knowledge of the matters concerning which they are not to be -judges.’</p> - -<p>What was required, according to La Reynie, was to give up the -investigation of the cases of those who had knowledge of facts -implicating Madame de Montespan; and since it was impossible to try them -according to the rules of justice, to be satisfied with imprisoning them -under <i>lettres de cachet</i> in the royal fortresses. In face of the -attitude taken up by La Reynie in refusing to proceed to a judgment -which would violate the traditional forms and the securities they -granted to the accused, the king and his ministers had perforce to -yield.<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a></p> - -<p>La Reynie enumerates a long list of the criminals charged with monstrous -crimes who hoped by this means to escape the rigour of trial, the -anguish of torture and death by the stake or the gibbet, and he adds:—</p> - -<p>‘There are 147 prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; of this number -there is not one against whom there are not serious charges of poisoning -or dealings in poison, and further charges of sacrilege and impiety. The -majority of these criminals are likely to escape punishment.</p> - -<p>‘La Trianon, an abominable woman, in regard to the nature of her crimes -and her dealings with poison, cannot be tried, and the public, in losing -the satisfaction of an example, is no doubt losing also the fruit of -some new discovery and the total conviction of her accomplices.</p> - -<p>‘Nor can the woman Chappelain be tried, because La Filastre was -confronted with her: a woman of large connection, long devoted to the -study of poisons, suspected of several poisonings, continually -practising impieties, sacrilege, and sorcery; accused by La Filastre<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> of -having taught her the practice of her abominations with priests; deeply -implicated in the case of Vanens.</p> - -<p>‘For the same reasons, Galet cannot be tried; although a peasant, a -dangerous man, and dealing openly in poisons.</p> - -<p>‘Lepreux, a priest of Notre Dame, engaged in the same practices as La -Chappelain, accused of sacrificing the child of La Filastre to the -devil.</p> - -<p>‘Guibourg—this man, who cannot be compared to any other in regard to -the number of his poisonings, his dealings with poison and sorcery, his -sacrilege and impiety, knowing and known by every notorious criminal, -convicted of a great number of horrible crimes—this man, who has -mutilated and sacrificed several children; who, apart from the sacrilege -of which he is convicted, confesses to inconceivable abominations; who -says he has practised by diabolical means against the life of the king; -of whom we hear every day new and execrable things, and who is loaded -with accusations of crimes against God and king—he, too, will assure -impunity to other criminals.<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a></p> - -<p>‘His concubine, the woman Chanfrain, guilty with him of the murder of -some of her children, who has shared in some of Guibourg’s sacrifices, -and who, according to appearances and the turn the case was taking, was -the infamous altar on which he performed his ordinary abominations, will -also remain unpunished.</p> - -<p>‘There is also a large number of other accused persons who will remain -free from punishment for their crimes. The girl Monvoisin cannot be -tried, nor Mariette, whatever may come to light about him. Latour, -Vautier, and his wife will not only remain unpunished, but, for -considerations prompting to the concealment of their secret crimes, -their case will not be heard through.’</p> - -<p>La Reynie says further, not without a touch of melancholy: ‘In all this -there is reason to wonder at the providence of God. If Mariette had been -captured before the trial of La Voisin, and they had spoken about the -business of Madame de Montespan, this monster (La Voisin) would have -escaped justice, and La Filastre also, if she had put forward what she -said at her torture.<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a>’</p> - -<p>It remained to close the Chambre without too great a shock to public -opinion, or leading people to believe that after so much noise the whole -thing was to be smothered. ‘We must wind up the Chambre,’ writes La -Reynie, ‘but we must avoid doing so with an appearance of weariness and -disgust combined, so that the large number of persons interested may not -find occasion to discredit justice, and so that the wicked people who -remain, known or unknown, may not cease to be in terror, or, losing -their fear, recommence their ill-deeds with the same freedom as they had -before.’</p> - -<p>The magistrates who composed the Chambre were themselves keenly desirous -that its closing should be announced. Among other reasons, the -lieutenant of police gives their reluctance and aversion to condemn, ‘a -reluctance which good men cannot help feeling,’ and their sorrow at not -being able to try the principal offenders.</p> - -<p>It was important, then, not to appear to close the Chambre from any -feeling of weariness, and above all not to awake any suspicion of the -real causes at work. The public was already murmuring. Compelled as they -were, on<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> account of the complicity of Madame de Montespan, to allow all -the accused who had had dealings with La Voisin to go scot-free—to wit, -the Abbé Guibourg, Lesage, and other guilty persons—the judges took up -again the case of Vanens, which had lain dormant. But here again the -principal actor, Vanens, escaped the rigour of the law through his -connection with the favourite. The commissioners of the Chambre had the -good luck to find unexpectedly, in one of the reports, a denunciation -against a certain Pinon du Martroy, a councillor to the Parlement, who -had been involved in the disgrace of Fouquet. At the time when judgment -had been passed on the financiers after the fall of Fouquet, the goods -of Pinon had been seized, and Guibourg said that, to wreak vengeance and -secure Fouquet’s release from prison, he had performed incantations -against the king, as well as practised sorcery. Pinon was dead, but he -was said to have had a confidant in Jean Maillard, auditor to the -exchequer. This man was secured, and as he occupied a prominent -position, his case created a great sensation. He was condemned on<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> -February 20, 1682, for having ‘known and not revealed the detestable -designs formed against the person of the king.’ The councillor denied -everything at his torture, and adhered to his denial till the moment of -his death. It is certain that among the various accusations brought -before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, those directed against -Maillard are among those that were least fully proved. The execution -took place on February 21, and, contrary to custom, at midday.</p> - -<p>It was followed on July 16, 1682, by that of La Chaboissière, Vanens’ -valet. This wretch was condemned to be hanged after preliminary torture. -He was less guilty than Vanens, of whom he had only been the tool; but -his low rank had put him beyond the pale. Then the proceedings were -brought to a close in due form, without any appearance of a serious -miscarriage of justice in the eyes of the crowd. The Chambre Ardente was -finally closed by a <i>lettre de cachet</i> of July 21, 1682.</p> - -<p>La Reynie did not consider that his work was yet done. In his -correspondence with Louvois, he had constantly harped on the idea<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> that -they should profit by the experience gained during the long -investigations of the court to avoid the recurrence of such crimes. He -was intrusted, along with Colbert, with the drafting of an order. On -August 30, 1682, appeared the famous edict against soothsayers and -poisoners, which was the joint work of these two great men; magicians -and sorceresses were driven from France, the manufacture and sale of -poisons necessary in trade and medicine were regulated by ordinances -which have triumphed over time and revolutions, and after two centuries -are still in force to-day.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>The numerous prisoners whose connection, close or remote, with the -machinations of Madame de Montespan safe-guarded them from trial, were -transferred under <i>lettre de cachet</i> into different fortresses—those -which appeared the safest in the kingdom. With excessive precaution, -Louvois ordered that each of them should be fastened to his prison by an -iron chain, one link of which was to be imbedded in the wall and another -fixed to the person of the prisoner.<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a></p> - -<p>All these unhappy creatures remained in this condition till their death, -some of them for more than forty years. The minister sent the most -rigorous instructions to prevent them from holding communication with -anybody outside, and to secure that the staff employed in providing for -their material and spiritual wants should be reduced to the lowest -possible number and composed of persons in whom entire confidence might -be placed. And to destroy in advance any effect which the revelations of -the prisoners might make on the minds of the governors of citadels and -fortresses, Louvois sent these officers word that their new guests were -villains who had invented infamous calumnies against Madame de -Montespan, the falsity of which had been proved before the Chambre, and -that if any of them happened to open his lips on the subject, he was to -be answered at once with a sound flogging.</p> - -<p>The most important of the prisoners—Guibourg, Lesage, Galet, and -Romani—were conveyed to the citadel of Besançon. Guibourg died there -three years after his entrance.</p> - -<p>Fourteen women were taken to the castle<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> of St. André de Salins. Louvois -wrote in regard to them on August 26, 1682, to the lord-lieutenant of -Franche-Comté:—</p> - -<p>‘The king having thought fit to send to the château of St. André de -Salins some of the people who were arrested in virtue of warrants of the -court that dealt with the matter of the poisons, his Majesty has -commanded me to inform you that his intention is that you prepare two -rooms in the said château, so that six of these prisoners may be kept -safely in each of them, the which prisoners are to have each a mattress -in the place arranged for them, and to be fastened either by a hand or a -foot to a chain which shall be fastened to the wall, the said chain -however to be long enough not to prevent them from lying down. As these -people are criminals who deserve extreme penalties, the intention of the -king is that they be thus fastened for fear they should injure the -people set to guard them, who will go in and out to bring them food and -attend to them generally. His Majesty’s intention is that you prepare -two similar rooms in the citadel of Besançon, so that twelve of the<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> -prisoners may be kept securely there. You will observe that these rooms -are to be so situated that no one can hear what these people say.’</p> - -<p>Auzillon, one of the staff of the provost of the Isle de France, -escorted the principal sorceresses, Pelletier, Poulain, Delaporte, the -girl Monvoisin, and Catherine Leroy, to the citadel of -Belle-Isle-en-Mer.</p> - -<p>La Chappelain, the companion of La Filastre, was imprisoned in the -castle of Villefranche, where she died forty years later, on June 4, -1724. She lived there in company with another sorceress who, like her, -had been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chambre Ardente, and for -the same reasons—namely, La Guesdon.</p> - -<p>The governor of Villefranche wrote in August 1717, that ‘of two old -prisoners of state for poison, the survivors of four who had been locked -up there for thirty-six years, La Guesdon died on the 15th instant, -leaving forty-five livres in silver, which she had saved during that -time out of her eight sous a day for food: of these she instructed her -surviving companion to take what she needed for her<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> personal use, and -to use the balance in paying for prayers for her—this is one pensioner -the less for the king. The woman was seventy-six years old; the survivor -(La Chappelain) is no younger. They were in the same room.’</p> - -<p>Finally, a few prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes, wholly ignorant -of the poison affair, and others whose innocence was recognised by the -commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, had been shut up, unluckily for -themselves, in the same room with prisoners implicated in the crimes of -Madame de Montespan. This chance meeting condemned them to perpetual -confinement.</p> - -<p>‘Manon Bosse,’ writes La Reynie, ‘was sent to the nuns of Baffens, at -Besançon, under the name of Mademoiselle Manon Dubosc, where the king -pensioned her to the tune of 250 livres; she was never liberated, -because she had been locked up with the daughter of La Voisin, who had -told her everything.’</p> - -<p>La Gaignière, under the same circumstances, was put in the common -workhouse. Nanon Aubert also had been placed with La Voisin<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a>’s daughter: -‘This was the reason that she was not set at liberty, but in 1683 she -was placed with the Ursulines of Besançon, and afterwards with those of -Vesoul, with orders to say that she was detained for dealings with a -lady of quality accused of poison, and she was made to pass for a young -lady of rank. The king payed a pension of 250 livres per annum.’</p> - -<p>The most characteristic example is that of Lemaire, brother of the woman -Vertemart. His complete innocence was absolutely proved. There was no -possible charge against him but his having been shut up with the Abbé -Guibourg, who ‘had told him everything.’ On August 4, 1681, Louvois -wrote to La Reynie: ‘At present Lemaire is not to be set at liberty. I -have written to Desgrez what will enable him, if he shows him my letter, -to endure his long detention with less pain.’ Louvois and Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> were -struck by the revolting iniquity of this detention. In August 1682, -Louvois sent to Lemaire the considerable sum of 150 pistoles, promising -to forward an equal sum every year on condition that he took himself out -of the kingdom, never set foot in<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> it again all his life, and spoke to -nobody in the world of what he had heard while at Vincennes. If he ever -broke one of these engagements, the king would have him seized and -incarcerated for the rest of his days.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>La Reynie died on June 14, 1709, at the age of eighty years. In his will -there is a touching clause which depicts this excellent man to the life. -He asks that his body may be interred in the parish cemetery, and not in -the church, ‘being unwilling that my corpse should be laid in a spot -where the faithful assemble, and that the decay of my body should -increase the pollution of the air, and thereby endanger the life of -ministers and people.’ The lieutenant of police, who had devoted a part -of his life to the sanitation and good government of the great city -confided to his administration, gave an excellent practical lesson on -his death-bed, doubtless to the wounding of his dearest sentiments as a -Catholic and a believer.</p> - -<p>Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was in fact a character of rare worth. In -our account of<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> him, we have not had to show him as the man of fine -culture, the scholar in constant correspondence with Baluze, purchasing -and collecting Greek and Latin manuscripts, the skilled patron of the -printing-press, the bibliophile to whom we owe the preservation of the -original text of Molière. He was a worthy representative of his period, -the great epoch in French history. The seventeenth century attained the -furthest extremes in good as in evil. It was then that France produced -her greatest captains, her greatest statesmen, her most illustrious -judges; it was then that the greatest names in literature, art, -philosophy, and scholarship dazzled the world; then that the ‘daughters -of charity’ displayed their devotion; that Madame de Chantal diffused -around her the sweet perfume of her virtues; but it was then, too, that -a Marquise de Brinvilliers extended the boundaries of crime, and an Abbé -de Guibourg murdered children upon an altar, over the bare body of a -Marquise de Montespan.<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="THE_DEATH_OF_MADAME" id="THE_DEATH_OF_MADAME"></a>THE DEATH OF ‘MADAME'<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></h2> - -<p class="nind">W<small>ho</small> has not read Bossuet’s funeral oration on Henrietta Anne of England, -Duchess of Orleans? Who has not thrilled at the echo of that powerful -and poignant apostrophe?—'O woful night! O awful night, when there rang -through the air like a sudden thunderclap the amazing tidings, Madame is -dying, Madame is dead!... Madame passed from morn to eve like the grass -of the field. In the morning she flourished, with what graces you know; -in the evening we saw her cut down.... What awful speed! In nine hours -the work is accomplished.’ Bossuet’s masterpiece has crowned the memory -of Madame with an immortal halo in which the charms, the quick and -exquisite imagination of the young<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> princess, who enchanted her -contemporaries,—the lady who set the tone for taste and wit in the -midst of the wittiest and most brilliant Court the world has ever -known—will shine resplendent through the ages.</p> - -<p>The circumstances in which this startling death occurred have aroused -the attention of historians. Madame had returned from England, where she -had succeeded in getting the Treaty of Dover signed on June 1, 1670, by -the ministers of her brother Charles <span class="smcap">II</span>—the treaty assuring Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> -of the alliance of England against Holland, and permitting him to -conquer Flanders and Franche-Comté for France. Madame remained at Dover -from May 24 to June 12; she then re-embarked for France, happy in the -successful result of her mission; and she arrived at Saint-Germain on -the 18th. ‘At the age of twenty-six,’ says Madame de la Fayette, ‘she -saw herself the link between the two greatest kings of the century; she -had in her hands a treaty on which depended the fate of a part of -Europe; the pleasure and the importance given by affairs of moment being -joined in her with<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> the attractions bestowed by youth and beauty; there -was a grace and a sweetness enveloping her whole person that won for her -a kind of homage, which must have been the more pleasant in that it was -rendered rather to her personality than to her rank.’</p> - -<p>Need anything be said of the manners of Monsieur? ‘The miracle of firing -the heart of this prince,’ says Madame de la Fayette, ‘was reserved for -no woman in the world.’ And yet his heart was wonderfully tender! Madame -had definitively secured the exile of the Chevalier de Lorraine, the -infamous friend of her husband.</p> - -<p>Madame died suddenly at St. Cloud, a prey to the most cruel anguish, on -the night of the 29th of June 1670, about three o’clock in the morning. -Rumours of poison were instantly set afloat, which were not long in -gaining strength and currency. They formed the general opinion at Court, -in Paris, in the whole of France, in England, Holland, and Spain, where -Madame’s daughter became queen. Charles <span class="smcap">II</span> refused to receive the letter -in which the Duke of Orleans informed him of<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> his sister’s death. ‘The -Duke of Buckingham, the English ambassador,’ wrote Colbert de Croissy, -‘is in transports of rage.’ The people of London were hardly restrained -from violent outbursts against the Frenchmen residing there. The streets -rang with the cry of ‘Down with the French!’ The French embassy had to -be protected. Monsieur’s second wife, Madame Palatine, was always -convinced that Madame had died of poison, and everything tends to show -that Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, at all events in the first moments, shared these -suspicions.</p> - -<p>In regard to the possible authors of the crime, some accused the Dutch, -against whom the Treaty of Dover was directed; others accused Monsieur -himself and the Chevalier de Lorraine. In either case, the historical -interest of the problem is very great; the popular imagination -heightened it through the magnificent commentary with which Bossuet -embroidered the death of the beautiful princess; and it has been -enhanced by all the efforts made for more than a century past to solve -it. ‘For fifty years and more,’ writes one of the masters of modern -erudition, M. Arthur de<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a> Boislisle, ‘the question has been more closely -studied, and the evidence weighed with more care, at least by impartial -and serious writers familiar with the documents of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>’s reign or -with scientific problems. But it happens that some have abstained from -giving a decisive verdict, and others have varied between poison, in -which Walckenaer, Paul Lacroix, and François Ravaisson very firmly -believed, and death by accident or disease, accepted by Mignet, -Loiseleur, and Littré; with the result that the question has become -darkened rather than illuminated between conclusions diametrically -opposed, but coming from men of equal authority.’ Monsieur de Boislisle -himself refrains from stating any conclusion, and recently we have -Doctor Legué, a specialist, in his interesting book, <i>Médecins et -Empoisonneurs</i>, devoting a new study to the question, and endeavouring -to prove that Madame was poisoned by corrosive sublimate.</p> - -<p>Thanks to a minute study of the documents, guided by the work of -Monsieur de Boislisle we have just quoted, thanks above all to the -skilful guidance of two masters of modern<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> science, we arrive, as will -be seen by and by, at an indisputable solution.</p> - -<h4>I</h4> - -<p>In accordance with the first principle of historical criticism, it is -important at the outset to determine exactly the value of the sources -whence we may derive particulars serviceable to our investigation. The -sources are divided into three well-marked categories—(1) The reports -of the physicians and surgeons; (2) the accounts of the persons who were -able to approach Madame in her last moments, or were in a position to -hear authoritative descriptions; (3) the official correspondence of the -courts of London and Paris.</p> - -<p>The first category presents to us five reports of the post-mortem -examination:—</p> - -<p>(<i>a</i>) The official report signed by the fifteen physicians and surgeons, -French and English, who were present at the autopsy.</p> - -<p>(<i>b</i>) The <i>Account of the Illness, Death, and Autopsy of Madame</i>, by the -Abbé Bourdelot, physician. Bourdelot was one of the French physicians -present at the post-mortem.<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a></p> - -<p>(<i>c</i>) The report of Vallot, physician to the late queen-mother. Vallot -was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians of his time. He was -present among the French doctors at the autopsy. His report was -officially carried to London by the Marshal de Bellefonds.</p> - -<p>(<i>d</i>) The <i>Memoir of a Surgeon of the King of England who was present at -the Opening of the Body</i>. This surgeon’s name was Alexander Boscher.</p> - -<p>(<i>e</i>) The account of Hugh Chamberlain, physician-in-ordinary to the King -of England, also present at the operation. This document, like the -preceding, is exceedingly useful for checking the official report and -the report of the French physicians. Some writers have believed that -Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, fearing a rupture with England, dictated the opinion the -French physicians were to give. Boscher and Chamberlain were absolutely -independent representatives of the English Government.</p> - -<p>To these five documents, of unquestionable authenticity, may be added -the notice inserted in the <i>Gazette</i> of July 5, 1670, which was -officially inspired by the Court physicians, and<a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> the opinion of the -famous Guy Patin, Dean of the Medical School of Paris, though he was not -actually present at the autopsy.</p> - -<p>In our second category, the narratives of persons who approached Madame -in her last moments, or heard authoritative accounts, we must mention -prominently the account written by the charming Countess de la Fayette, -<i>The History of Madame Henrietta of England, first wife of Philip of -France, Duke of Orleans</i>. The Countess de la Fayette was attached to the -suite of Madame; she never left her during the day on which she died. -She has left a simple, precise, and sober account of the short illness, -in which every line bears the stamp of truth.</p> - -<p>Next to this valuable document must be cited the letter of Bossuet, who -was present at the final scene, and the story of Feuillet, canon of St. -Cloud, who was with Madame before Bossuet arrived.</p> - -<p>The third category comprises the correspondence exchanged between the -courts of England and France and their representatives: these would be -documents of the greatest value, if<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a> their official and diplomatic -character had not imposed the greatest reserve on the writers, and even -dictated their sentiments. There are first of all the letters of Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span> and Hugues de Lionne to Charles <span class="smcap">II</span> and to Colbert de Croissy, -ambassador at London; then, the despatches of Louis and of Hugues de -Lionne to Monsieur de Pomponne, ambassador at the Hague; on the English -side, five letters addressed by Lord Montagu, ambassador at the French -Court, to Lord Arlington, secretary of state to Charles <span class="smcap">II</span>, and the -letters of Lord Arlington to Sir William Temple.</p> - -<p>Such are the only documents worthy of credence we have at our disposal -for studying the circumstances of the death of Madame, for it is -necessary to reject in the most absolute manner the accounts of -Saint-Simon and of Monsieur’s second wife, Madame Palatine. Chéruel, and -more especially Monsieur de Boislisle, have shown the improbabilities -and absurdities of these, and we shall not refer to them again. The work -of Monsieur de Boislisle is particularly interesting in showing that -these two famous narratives had a<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> common source. As to the testimony of -d’Argenson, Voltaire, and others, destitute, in the nature of the case, -of any authority comparable to that of the authors we have mentioned -above—it is unnecessary in the points where it confirms the others; on -the points where it contradicts them, it cannot prevail; and on the -points where it contains new information, it is dangerous to follow, for -we lack any evidence by which to check it. Littré acted judiciously in -neglecting these writers when compiling his study on the death of -Madame, and the reproach levelled against him by Loiseleur is without -justification. On the contrary, it is perhaps to this happy stroke of -criticism that Littré owed the success of his argument.</p> - -<h4>II</h4> - -<p>We proceed to recount, in the simplest and most precise manner in our -power, the circumstances of the death of Madame; and from this narrative -alone we shall see emerge one of the facts we intend to establish, -namely, that Madame could not have been poisoned.<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a></p> - -<p>Henrietta of England, ‘more comparable to the jasmine than to the rose, -very slender, delicate, slightly round-shouldered—not less pleasing for -that—exhausted, not only by four accouchements in rapid succession, but -by the fast life then led at Court, was only kept up,’ says Monsieur de -Boislisle, ‘by that sanguine temperament which is the prerogative of -high-strung women.’ In 1664 Guy Patin wrote: ‘The Duchess of Orleans was -taken ill at Villers-Cotterets, and her physicians have prescribed ass’s -milk.’ The presumption is, then, that she suffered from some stomachic -disorder. ‘The king,’ wrote Hugues de Lionne to Colbert de Croissy, -‘tells us that more than three years ago she complained of a pain in the -side which compelled her to lie flat for three or four hours without -finding ease in any posture.’ Madame was constantly afflicted with a -pain at one fixed spot in the breast. ‘She further used to complain,’ -wrote the Abbé Bourdelot, ‘of a cruel burning pain, not in the abdomen, -but in the chest.’ She was always wanting to vomit. ‘Most often she -could take only milk for food, and remained<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> in bed for days together.’ -These facts indicate, as Dr. Le Gendre tells us, that Madame suffered -from a chronic inflammation of the stomach, a form of gastritis. The -reports of the autopsy show, further, that Madame was afflicted with -pulmonary tuberculosis, and it is not rare for these two morbid -conditions to co-exist.</p> - -<p>During the journey she made in Flanders with the king and Monsieur -before her departure for England, the appearance of the young princess -caused much alarm. ‘She was reduced to living on milk,’ writes Madame de -la Fayette, ‘and retired to her own room as soon as she got out of the -coach, and as a rule she went to bed.... One day, when the talk fell on -astrology, Monsieur said that it had been foretold that he would have -several wives, and judging from the state Madame was in, he was -beginning to believe it.’</p> - -<p>Madame returned from England on June 18. Her condition had become very -much worse. Next day she kept her bed. ‘She went into the queen’s room,’ -wrote Mademoiselle de<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> Montpensier, ‘like a dressed-up corpse with rouge -on its cheeks, and when she went out, everybody, including the queen, -said that she had death written on her face.’ ‘On June 24, 1670,’ writes -Madame de la Fayette, ‘a week after her return from England, Monsieur -and she went to St. Cloud. The first day she went there she complained -of pains in the side and abdomen, to which she was subject. -Nevertheless, as it was extremely hot, she desired to bathe in the -river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he could to prevent -her, but in spite of all he said she bathed on Friday the 27th, and on -Saturday she was so ill that she did not bathe. I arrived at St. Cloud -on Saturday at six o’clock in the evening. I found her in the gardens. -She told me that I should think her looking cross, and that she was not -at all well. She had supped as usual, and she walked in the moonlight -till midnight.’ The preceding lines, every detail of which is of great -importance, have been neglected by the historians who have concluded she -was poisoned.</p> - -<p>‘On Sunday the 29th, at dinner, Madame<a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> ate as usual, and after dinner -she lay down on some cushions, as she often did when she was at liberty. -She had made me place myself near her,’ says Madame de la Fayette, ‘so -that her head was almost on me. An English painter was painting -Monsieur’s portrait; we were talking about all sorts of things, and -meanwhile she fell asleep. During her nap she changed so considerably -that after watching her for a long time I was surprised at it, and -thought that her spirit must do a great deal towards adorning her -countenance, since it was so pleasant when she was awake and so little -attractive when she was asleep. But I was wrong in this reflection, for -I had several times seen her sleeping, and had never yet seen her less -lovely. When she awoke, she rose from the place where she had been -lying, but with so haggard a face that Monsieur was surprised and called -my attention to it. She then went away into the drawing-room, where she -walked up and down for some time with Boisfranc, Monsieur’s treasurer, -and while talking to him, complained several times of the pain at her -side.<a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a>’</p> - -<p>We are coming to the moment when any poisoning must have taken place; we -see already that the mischief was done.</p> - -<p>‘Monsieur went downstairs to return to Paris. He found Madame de -Meckelbourg on the steps, and came up again with her. Madame left -Boisfranc and came to Madame de Meckelbourg. As she was speaking to her, -Madame de Gamaches brought to her, as well as to me, a glass of chicory -water that she had asked for some time before. Madame de Gourdon, her -tire-woman, gave it to her. She drank it, and then, replacing the cup on -the salver with one hand, she pressed her side with the other, saying, -in a tone that betokened severe pain, “Oh! what a dreadful twinge! Oh, -what a pain! I can bear it no longer!â€</p> - -<p>‘She reddened in uttering these words, and the next moment turned a -livid pallor, which surprised us all; she continued to cry out, and told -us to take her away, as she could no longer stand. We took her in our -arms; she tottered along half doubled-up; I held her while some one -unlaced her. She moaned all the time, and I noticed that she<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a> had tears -in her eyes. I was amazed and affected by it, for I knew that she was -the most patient creature in the world. Kissing the arms I was holding, -I said that she was evidently in great pain, and she told me I could not -imagine how great. She was put to bed, and as soon as she was there, she -cried out more loudly than she had yet done, and threw herself from one -side to the other like a person in infinite agony. Some one went off to -find her chief physician, Monsieur Esprit; he came, said it was colic, -and prescribed the ordinary remedies for such ailments. All the time the -pain was dreadful. Madame said that it was much worse than we thought, -and that she was dying, and begged some one to go in search of a -confessor for her.’</p> - -<p>The young princess believed that she was poisoned. A sort of antidote -was brought her in the shape of oil and powdered adder, which made her -vomit. After some hours of frightful agony, Henrietta of England expired -while Bossuet was reciting the last exhortations.</p> - -<p>Face to face with death, Madame displayed a<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a> greatness of soul to which -all who approached her have borne touching testimony. ‘Madame was gentle -towards Death,’ said Bossuet, ‘as she had been with all the world. Her -great heart was neither embittered nor wrathful against the dread foe. -Nor did she face him with proud disdain, but was content to look him in -the face without emotion and to welcome him without distress.’</p> - -<h4>III</h4> - -<p>This bare narrative of the facts would be sufficient to weaken the -opinion of those who believe that the Princess Henrietta died of poison. -The following observations will contribute to deprive it of all credit. -Writers are unanimously agreed about the fact that Madame could only -have been poisoned by the glass of chicory water given her by Madame de -Gamaches. Now as soon as suspicions awoke in the mind of Madame and her -circle, that is to say, the moment after the drink had been taken, -Monsieur ordered some of the water to be given to a dog; Madame -Desbordes, the princess’s maid, who was heartily devoted to<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a> her, told -her that she had made the drink, and had herself drunk some of it, and -Madame de Meckelbourg also drank some. We are thus bound to acknowledge -that the famous chicory water could not have been poisoned. Monsieur J. -Lair, with his clear and vigorous mind, has well analysed the scene: -‘The decoction of which so many persons had drunk was harmless; it was -the cup that ought to have been examined.’ ‘The details given by Madame -de la Fayette and others,’ writes Monsieur de Boislisle, ‘exclude the -idea of poison poured into the glass itself; and indeed Madame Palatine -says that what was poisoned was not the water itself, nor the vessel in -which it was made, but the cup which was reserved for the princess, and -which no one else would have dared to use.’</p> - -<p>It is a fact that the seventeenth-century poisoners sought to prepare -goblets and silver cups in such a way as to poison the persons who were -afterwards to use them. Among the constant friends of La Voisin, La -Bosse, La Chéron, and La Vigoureux, the most renowned sorceresses of the -period, we find a certain<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> François Belot, one of the king’s bodyguard, -making a specialty of this, and deriving a comfortable income from it, -until the day when this trade led him to the Place de Grève, where he -was broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679. His method of procedure was as -follows: ‘He crammed a toad with arsenic, placed it in a silver goblet, -and then, pricking its head, made it urinate, and finally crushed it in -the goblet.’ During this pleasant operation he mumbled his wicked -charms. ‘I know a secret,’ said Belot, ‘such that in doctoring a cup -with a toad and what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink -from it afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be -done for, and the cup could only be disinfected by throwing it into a -hot fire. After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a -human being, but upon a dog, and I should intrust the cup to nobody.’ -But it happened that a client of Belot’s, being somewhat sceptical, got -a dog to drink out of the doctored cup, and found that the animal was -not harmed in the least; he even picked a violent quarrel with the -magician about the matter, taunting him<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> with the worthlessness of his -wares. Belot spoke frankly to the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente: -‘I know that the toad cannot do anybody any harm; what I did with the -silver cups and trenchers was done solely to get hold of such cups and -trenchers.’ His skill, nevertheless, enjoyed a very substantial -reputation. At the same date the magician Blessis was believed to know -how to manipulate mirrors in such a way that any one who looked in them -received his deathblow.</p> - -<p>These facts seem mere childish folly under scientific investigation. The -knowledge people had of poisons in the eighteenth century was limited to -arsenic, antimony, and sublimate; it did not enable them so to poison a -cup as to cause sudden death to the person using it, without his being -aware of the poison at the moment of drinking it. The opinion of -Professor Brouardel on this point is explicit; and Dr. Legué, convinced -as he is of the poisoning of Madame, admits that the story of the cup -can only make any well-informed man smile.</p> - -<p>The conclusion is that as Madame could not<a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a> have been poisoned by the -water she drank, or by the cup containing the water, she could not have -been poisoned at all.</p> - -<h4>IV</h4> - -<p>‘Her body was opened,’ writes Bossuet, ‘among a large concourse of -physicians and surgeons and all sorts of people, because, having begun -to feel extreme pain when drinking three mouthfuls of chicory water, -given her by the dearest and most intimate of her women, she said at -once that she was poisoned.’ It was with the same idea that the English -ambassador attended the operation along with an English physician and -surgeon.</p> - -<p>After having shown that Madame could not have been poisoned, it remains -to settle what disease it was of which she died. Our task is simplified -by the marvellous study in which Littré proved that she succumbed to an -acute peritonitis, the immediate and inevitable result of the -perforation of the stomach by an ulcer. This study, Dr. Paul Le Gendre -tells us, is the finest extant example of a retrospective medical -demonstration. We have it<a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a> now under our eyes; but we find it condensed -by the pen of the most elegant writer of our time, M. Anatole France, -who will allow us to borrow this quotation: ‘Littré, an expert in -medical observation, does not hesitate to diagnose a simple ulceration -of the stomach, which Professor Cruveilhier was the first to describe, -and which Madame’s physicians could not recognise because they knew -nothing about it. It is unquestionable that for some time Madame had -been suffering from abdominal pains after her meals. The liquid she took -on June 29 brought about the perforation of the ulcerated wall, and this -caused the terrible pain in her side and the peritonitis which we have -mentioned. The physicians who opened the body found, indeed, that the -stomach was pierced with a little hole; but as they could not account -for the pathological origin of this hole, they fancied after the event -that it had been made inadvertently during the autopsy, “upon which,†-says the surgeon of the king of England, “I was the only one to insist.†-The incident is reported as follows by the Abbé Bourdelot: “It happened -by misadventure<a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a> during the dissection that the point of the scalpel -made an opening at the top of the ventricle, and many of the gentlemen -asked how it came about. The surgeon said that he had done it by -accident, and Monsieur Vallot said that he had seen when the cut was -made.â€â€™</p> - -<p>Littré objects, with reason, that it is difficult to make inadvertently -an incision with the point of a pair of scissors—there is no question -of a scalpel—in a tough and distended membrane like the stomach during -an autopsy. The illusion of the physicians present at the operation is -the more easily explained because in that lesion, as it is now known, -the edges of the opening are perfectly clean and sharp, very regular, so -that the hole seems to have been made artificially. Jaccoud points out -‘the very sharp delimitation of the ulcer, the absence of inflammation, -and of peripheral suppuration.’ ‘The section of the tissues,’ writes -Monsieur Bouveret, ‘is so clean that, to adopt a classical comparison, -the ulcer appears as though cut out with a punch.’ It varies in -dimensions from the size of a lentil to that of a five-franc piece.<a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a></p> - -<p>M. Anatole France admirably explains the state of mind of the physicians -who drew up the report of the autopsy. ‘The French physicians were -afraid of finding in the viscera of the princess indications of a crime -which might throw suspicion on the royal family. They dreaded even -everything which lent itself to doubt, and thereby to malevolence. -Knowing that the least uncertainty as to the cause of death or the -condition of the corpse would be interpreted by the public in a sense -that would ruin them, they had reasons of self-interest and the zeal of -fear to urge them to explain everything. Now, in their inability to -connect with a normal pathological type a lesion unknown to them all, -and perhaps suspicious to some, it was much to their advantage to -explain this enigmatical wound as an accident during the autopsy. And we -can understand their believing what they wished to believe. The English -surgeons, as ignorant as they, accepted their conclusion in default of a -better.’ ‘The fact is,’ says Littré in conclusion, ‘that they were bound -to find a hole, and they did find it. All dispute was silenced in the -presence of three<a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a> things: the sudden attack, the peritonitis, and the -presence of oil ['and of bile,’ adds Dr. Le Gendre] which the reports of -the autopsy show to have been in the lower bowel.’ In the lower bowel -was found, indeed, a substance which the reports of the French -physicians describe as ‘fat like oil.'<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> It was, in fact, oil—the oil -which Madame had drunk as an antidote, and which had been discharged -from the stomach.</p> - -<p>Further, even supposing, against all probability, that the hole had -actually been made accidentally by young Félix, who was the operator, -all the details of Madame’s health known before death, and the details -revealed by the autopsy, are so conclusive in favour<a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> of the diagnosis -of a simple ulcer ending in perforation, that we should be led to the -admission that there must have existed, in another part of the wall of -the stomach, another small hole which escaped the notice of the -physicians and surgeons present at the autopsy. There would have been -nothing surprising in this, for their attention was not directed to this -point. It might even be supposed that the scissors of Félix, if they had -really cut the wall of the stomach by inadvertence, only increased the -size of the natural perforation already existing. Allowance must indeed -be made for the state of putrid softening in which the organs are bound -to have been, the corpse having remained exposed all through a day of -intense heat.</p> - -<p>‘To sum up, before June 29, there were gastric pains caused by -ulceration; on the 29th, bursting of the ulcer and acute peritonitis.’ -Peritonitis is distinctly indicated by the reports. Such are the -conclusions of Littré: Dr. Paul Le Gendre, a most competent authority, -unhesitatingly confirms them, as also does Professor Brouardel, who -writes<a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a> as follows: ‘Admitting ulceration of the stomach, all the -phenomena supervene with classic exactitude.’</p> - -<p>If we refer to the works of the celebrated Cruveilhier, who was the -first to describe simple ulcers, we find by an interesting coincidence, -in the very case he presents as a type, the closest correspondence with -the illness of Madame, and a fresh proof of the soundness of Littré’s -opinion.</p> - -<p>‘Now since the complications following perforation of the stomach and -rapidly causing death,’ writes Cruveilhier, ‘supervene suddenly, and -sometimes directly after taking food or drink, the question of poison -has been raised pretty often. I have never seen a more remarkable case -in this respect than that of a coalman, aged twenty-three, and of an -athletic vigour, who, carrying a sack of coal, stopped at an inn and -drank a glass of wine. He went on his way; but a few minutes afterwards -was seized with horrible pains, was attended first at his own house, -then carried dying to the hospital of the Faubourg Saint-Denis; his case -showed every indication of peritonitis<a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> through perforation, and he died -three hours after his admission to the hospital, in full consciousness. -I was able to get from his own lips the valuable information that he had -been suffering from his stomach for several months, and that digesting -his food was always painful. The Coal-dealers’ Society, convinced that -their comrade was the victim of poison, and that the agent of the -poisoning was the glass of wine taken immediately before he was attacked -by these symptoms, decided to bring an indictment against the -wine-merchant, and with this end required the autopsy to be made in -presence of a deputation from their body. It was a case of spontaneous -perforation through a simple ulcer in the stomach.’</p> - -<p>The ‘estimate’ of Littré (to use the phrase he himself uses to describe -his work) is thus confirmed in every way. Loiseleur thought fit to -object the rarity of the case. That is no argument: the case may be rare -and yet have been that of Madame. And besides, Loiseleur makes too much -of its rarity. Brinton estimates that perforation of the stomach in -cases of simple ulcer occurs in<a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a> thirteen per cent., and that it is most -common in women under thirty. Madame was twenty-six.</p> - -<p>Loiseleur admits peritonitis, but thinks it was inflammation supervening -on a chill. ‘Why,’ he writes, ‘does Littré pass by in absolute silence -the last words in the statement of Madame de la Fayette, quite as grave -and significant as the first?—“As it was extremely warm, she wished to -bathe in the river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he -could to prevent her; but in spite of all he said, she bathed on Friday, -and on Saturday was so ill that she did not bathe,†and further on: “She -walked in the moonlight until midnight.â€â€™ There is only one drawback to -Monsieur Loiseleur’s theory, but that is a serious one: peritonitis as -an original malady, and especially peritonitis through chill, which -Loiseleur wishes to substitute for the disease diagnosed by Cruveilhier -and Littré, is no longer recognised by modern science. ‘The last cases -which were thought to be of this kind,’ says Dr. Paul Le Gendre, ‘were -perforations of the appendix.<a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a>’</p> - -<p>Let us come lastly to the work of Dr. Legué, <i>Médecins et -Empoisonneurs</i>, the most important part of which is occupied with a -minute study of the circumstances surrounding the death of Madame. -Monsieur Legué’s conclusion is, poisoning by sublimate poured into the -famous chicory water. His study is interesting, like the whole book, but -his conclusions crumble away under the following considerations:—</p> - -<p>1. Professor Brouardel writes: ‘If the chicory water had contained the -smallest dose of sublimate, Madame would have pushed the glass from her -after the first sip. Sublimate has a revolting taste. In the medicinal -dose (one gramme to a litre) the taste is atrocious.’</p> - -<p>Madame had been taking chicory water for several days in the evening, -and this evening she drank it as usual.</p> - -<p>2. ‘To kill a person,’ adds Professor Brouardel, ‘at least ten or -fifteen centigrammes are necessary. This dose corresponds to a quantity -of solution representing about 200 grammes of liquid. It seems -impossible for<a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a> any one to imbibe that without being stopped by its -horrid taste.’</p> - -<p>Madame certainly did not drink 200 grammes of her chicory water; she -took a few sips only.</p> - -<p>3. ‘Poisoning by sublimate,’ writes the professor, ‘produces lesions of -the abdominal mucous membrane, which could not have escaped the notice -of the physicians who made the autopsy.’</p> - -<p>We have five accounts of the autopsy, which are unanimous in stating -that the stomach, except for the little hole of which we have spoken, -was in a good condition.</p> - -<p>4. The facts on which Dr. Legué relies for his diagnosis of poison by -sublimate, and which he borrows from the account of the Abbé Bourdelot, -occurred, not after the drinking of the cup of chicory water, but -before. In transcribing the account in question, Monsieur Legué has -inadvertently omitted the passage: ‘There is indication of the bile -having been accumulating for a long time,’ where it may be clearly seen -from the following lines that the author is speaking of a state long -before the fatal attack.<a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a></p> - -<p>Thus Monsieur Legué’s argument is in no way sustained.</p> - -<p>The historian may remark, finally, that Madame’s daughter, Marie Louise, -the young Queen of Spain, died in 1689, almost at the same age as her -mother, after drinking a glass of iced milk, and on this occasion also -rumours of poison spread abroad. When Charles <span class="smcap">II</span>, Madame’s brother, died -somewhat suddenly, there was more talk of poison; and when the -granddaughter of Madame, the young and charming Duchess of Burgundy, was -stricken with the disease which carried her off, people believed that -she too had been poisoned. In earlier days, when Madame’s mother, -Henrietta Maria of France, widow of Charles <span class="smcap">I</span>, died on September 10, -1669, at her country house of Colombes, her physician Vallot had been -accused of accidentally poisoning her by giving her pills chiefly -composed of opium.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Thanks to the assistance of eminent masters like Professor Brouardel and -Dr. Paul Le Gendre, and armed historically with the learned -investigations of M. Arthur de Boislisle,<a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a> we have been fortunate in -resuscitating the admirable study of Littré in all its striking -accuracy. The great writer concludes with an eloquent page, a hymn of -triumph in honour of modern science, ‘which might perhaps have kept -Madame in that great place she filled so well.’ We will end with the -same observation that we placed at the end of our study of the Iron -Mask,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> in which we showed how the solution was indicated at least a -century ago, and remarked that, in these very problems which are -regarded as insoluble, history, handled with rigour and precision, gives -conclusions as certain as those of the exact sciences.<a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="RACINE_AND_THE_POISONS_QUESTION" id="RACINE_AND_THE_POISONS_QUESTION"></a>RACINE AND THE POISONS QUESTION</h2> - -<p class="nind">M<small>ONSIEUR</small> L<small>ARROUMET’S</small> book on Racine in the <i>Grands Ecrivains Français</i> -series is a charming little work. In the first part he studies the -poet’s life, and shows very accurately the influence exercised on his -art by the <i>milieu</i> in which he lived. In the second part he studies -Racine’s poetics with great ingenuity. The very style of M. Larroumet, -eminently refined and sober—we might call it pearl-grey in tone—with -little flaws here and there which, to our mind, enhance its piquancy, is -perfectly adapted to the author he is analysing. We get a clear picture -of what manner of man Racine was—sensitive and refined, all delicacy -and decorum. M. Larroumet, it is well known, excels in bringing vividly -before us the dwellings and the furniture of our great writers, -according to inventories made after their<a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a> decease. In the case of -Racine he achieves another success, in the happiest manner. His picture -of the famous poet’s family life, after he had renounced the stage, is -delightful:—</p> - -<p>‘In the midst of this family, which reproduced in charming variety the -traits of his own sensitive and restless nature, Racine practised all -the virtues of a good father. He became a child again with his Babet, -Fanchon, Madelon, Nanette, and Lionval; the two eldest alone, boy and -girl, did not bear these diminutives, out of respect for the rights of -seniority. He preferred the happiness springing from their society to -courting the great.</p> - -<p>‘One day he had returned from Versailles, where he had gone to pay his -respects, when a squire of the Duke’s brought him an invitation to -dinner for the same evening. “I shall not have the honour of dining with -him,†he said; “I have not seen my wife and children for more than a -week, and they are looking forward to a treat in eating a very fine carp -with me to-day; I cannot give up my dinner with them.†And he had the -carp brought up, adding: “Decide yourself if I can help dining<a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> to-day -with these poor children, who have made up their minds to regale me -to-day, and would have no more pleasure if they ate this dish without -me. I beg you to plead this reason forcibly with his Serene Highness.â€â€™</p> - -<p>Racine, as we know, after giving up writing for the theatre, subsided -into the most remarkable piety. But here again is a charming trait: ‘I -remember,’ says Louis Racine, ‘processions in which my sisters were the -clergy, I was the rector, and the author of <i>Athalie</i>, singing with us, -carried the cross.’ And the inseparable figure of the excellent Boileau, -who had then become as deaf as a post, appears close by: ‘Monsieur -Despréaux,'<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> writes Racine to his son Jean Baptiste, ‘entertained us -in the best of fashions; then he took Lionval and Madelon to the Bois de -Boulogne, joking with them, and telling them that he meant to lose them. -He did not hear a word of what the poor children said to him.’</p> - -<p>But before becoming this model paterfamilias, this pattern of piety and -virtue, Racine had spent an eminently brilliant and passionate<a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> youth. -Everybody knows that Du Parc and Champmeslé<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> were not content with -merely playing in his pieces.</p> - -<p>The amours of Racine and Mademoiselle Du Parc had a terrible development -in 1679, which was one of the reasons, if not the principal and the -determining reason, of the resolution then taken by the poet to abandon -the career of dramatic author. M. Larroumet recalls this page in his -life in the following terms:—</p> - -<p>‘The mysterious poison affair was being unravelled before the Chambre -Ardente. On November 21, 1679, one of the prisoners, La Voisin, brought -Racine into the case. She declared that “Racine, having secretly -espoused Du Parc, was jealous of everybody, and particularly of her, La -Voisin, with whom he was much offended, and that he had made away with -her by poison on account of his extreme jealousy; and that during Du -Parc’s illness, Racine never left her bedside, that he drew a valuable -diamond from her finger, and had also stolen the jewels and principal -effects of Du Parc, which were worth a great deal of<a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> money.†This is -assuredly nothing but the abominable invention of a ruined woman,’ adds -M. Larroumet, ‘one of those calumnies which malice, corruption, and -greed give rise to in the entourage of women of gallantry. Racine had -been compelled to forbid his mistress to receive La Voisin. From this -arose her furious wrath, and, eleven years afterwards, she tried to -avenge herself by implicating the poet in a formidable accusation. -Proofs she gave none, and the proceedings of the affair, published in -the <i>Archives de la Bastille</i>, contain no trace of any. However, a -letter written on January 11, 1680, by Louvois to Bazin de Bezons, ends -thus: “The orders of the king necessary for the arrest of Racine will be -sent to you whenever you ask for them.†It is impossible to doubt that -the Racine in question was the poet. But no arrest was made. Racine had -been able to clear himself in the eyes of Louvois and the king.’</p> - -<p>This episode in the life of the great poet is worthy of arresting our -attention, so much the more because it was perhaps the cause of his -abandonment, to be for ever regretted,<a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> of a career on which he had -thrown the brightest lustre.</p> - -<p>It was neither Louvois nor Louis <small>XIV</small> who suppressed the <i>lettre de -cachet</i> with which the deposition of La Voisin had threatened Racine. -Bazin de Bezons, a commissioner of the Chambre Ardente and member of the -Academy, determined to spare his colleague the affront of an arrest in -such circumstances, and thought he might well wait until the -denunciations of La Voisin were confirmed from another source.</p> - -<p>Racine, as a matter of fact, had been the lover of Du Parc, whose maiden -name was Marguerite Thérèse de Gorla, daughter of a surgeon of Lyons. La -Voisin knew her very intimately, and called her her ‘gossip.’</p> - -<p>Here follows, word for word, the part of the celebrated examination of -La Voisin on November 21, 1679, so far as it relates to Racine:—</p> - -<p>‘Who made her acquainted with Du Parc, comedian?</p> - -<p>‘She had known her for fourteen years. They were very good friends -together, and<a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a> she knew all her affairs during that time. She had for -some time had the intention of declaring to us that Du Parc must have -been poisoned, and that Jean Racine was suspected. The rumour was -strong. What more especially gave rise to the presumption was that -Racine had always prevented her, who was the good friend of Du Parc, -from seeing her during the whole course of the illness of which she -died, although Du Parc constantly asked for her; but although she went -to see her, they had never been willing to let her in, and this was by -order of Racine, as she learnt from the stepmother of Du Parc, whose -name was Mademoiselle de Gorla, and from Du Parc’s daughters, who are at -the Hôtel de Soissons, and informed her that Racine was the cause of -their misfortune.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if he had ever proposed to her to do away with Du Parc by poison.</p> - -<p>‘The proposal would have been well received.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -for the same purpose.<a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a></p> - -<p>‘She knew nothing about that.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if she did not know a lame actor.</p> - -<p>‘Yes, Béjart, whom she had only seen twice.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if Béjart had not some spite against Du Parc.</p> - -<p>‘No; and what she knew about Racine she obtained first from Mademoiselle -de Gorla.</p> - -<p>‘Asked what De Gorla said to her, and strictly cross-examined.</p> - -<p>‘De Gorla told her that Racine, having secretly espoused Du Parc [here -follows a repetition of the statement already made]; that she (Du Parc) -had not even been allowed to speak to Manon, her maid, who is a midwife, -though she asked for Manon and got some one to write asking her to come -to Paris to see her, as well as La Voisin herself.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if De Gorla told her the manner in which the poisoning had been -carried out, and who had been made use of in the matter.</p> - -<p>‘No.’</p> - -<p>Such were the declarations of La Voisin before the commissioners of the -Chambre Ardente. She repeated them exactly in her<a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> final examination -before the judges: ‘She had known Mademoiselle Du Parc, the actress; had -been a friend of hers for fourteen years; her stepmother, named De -Gorla, had told her that Racine had poisoned her, and she only knew of -Du Parc’s death when she saw the body at the door on the way to burial.’</p> - -<p>Finally, in the anguish of torture, La Voisin maintained her -declarations.</p> - -<p>‘Asked if she knew nothing more concerning what she had said at the -trial about the poisoning of Du Parc.</p> - -<p>‘She had told the truth in all that she had said on the subject.’</p> - -<p>M. Larroumet gaily and gracefully flings these declarations overboard as -‘an abominable invention of a ruined woman.’ We know La Voisin from what -has already been said about her above. It is inconceivable that such a -creature should have nursed a grievance against Racine for not having -allowed her to reach his sick mistress, to such an extent as to -fabricate against him, eleven years later, so monstrous an accusation. -This hypothesis is so much the more unlikely in that, if La<a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a> Voisin had -wanted to ruin Racine by her charges, she would have formulated precise -and direct complaints against him; while she, as a matter of fact, only -repeated gossip she had heard. Then, too, Du Parc’s daughters were still -alive, and it would have been easy to confront them with the sorceress.</p> - -<p>The examinations to which La Voisin was subjected were very numerous. -They brought out innumerable details on a multitude of crimes, in which -a very large number of people was implicated. There were many -confrontations. The declarations of the terrible sorceress were -submitted to careful investigation by examining magistrates like Nicolas -de la Reynie. All her declarations were found to be accurate.</p> - -<p>We have seen that, far from inventing imaginary charges for the purpose -of implicating in her own case people of high position, and so saving -herself (as some historians have insinuated), La Voisin endeavoured to -keep silence about the crimes of her clients—a curious piece of -professional discretion. And we venture to say that if she had declared -before the judges that she had given<a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a> Racine poison to get rid of Du -Parc, we should have unhesitatingly believed her. But she did not say -anything of the kind. She declared simply that, in Du Parc’s immediate -circle, it was the conviction that the actress had been poisoned by her -lover, and that, throughout her illness, he had prevented La Voisin from -approaching the bed, as well as Manon, her maid, ‘who was a midwife.’</p> - -<p>It is further important to note—and this observation has not been made -by any historian—that the belief in Racine’s having poisoned Du Parc -was shared by more than one prisoner before the Chambre Ardente. La -Voisin was not the only one to make the accusation before the judges, as -the following question put by one of the magistrates clearly shows:</p> - -<p>‘Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -(a sorceress and poisoner like herself) for the same purpose (the -poisoning of Du Parc by Racine).’</p> - -<p>A great part of the records of the Chambre Ardente having been -destroyed, as we have shown, we have no trace of the examination to -which the magistrate here alluded. Nevertheless<a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a> it is testimony which -cannot be gainsaid.</p> - -<p>Such are the only documents in the great poison case in which Racine is -mentioned. Is it possible to derive any positive conclusions from them?</p> - -<p>The circumstances surrounding the death certainly appeared suspicious to -the family of the actress, and Racine was pointed at. The poet had -stationed himself at the bedside as a custodian rather than a nurse. He -prevented La Voisin, the sorceress, midwife, and procurer of abortion, -from approaching, and likewise Manon, also a midwife, and this in -defiance of the desire formally expressed by Du Parc. Why did the poet, -contrary to the wishes of the sick woman, prevent these women from -attending her? Du Parc was his mistress. Dr. Legué quotes the testimony -of Boileau, who was closely connected with Du Parc, stating that she -died as a result of childbirth. The chronicler Robinet describes Racine -as following ‘more dead than alive’ in the funeral procession. The -opinion expressed by Dr. Legué that Du Parc died through an<a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a> illegal -operation is not unlikely. In such matters it is never possible to speak -with assurance, and when so great a personality as Racine is concerned, -one is bound to maintain the greatest reserve. This operation, if it -took place, brought on peritonitis, which, as in the case of Henrietta -of England, gave rise to suspicions of poison. We have seen that -abortions were at that time of frequent occurrence in Paris.</p> - -<p>Remorse for this crime would explain the amazing resolution to renounce -the theatre taken by Racine at the age of thirty-eight, in the fulness -of strength, at the height of his talent, in the heyday of success. It -would explain also the austerity and excess of his devoutness after this -singular conversion, and the horror he conceived for an art to which he -owed his glory and his fortune.</p> - -<p>Another question suggests itself, which we should like equally to be -able to solve with more certainty. Racine had the most intimate -relations with Du Parc, as the latter had with La Voisin. In 1679, the -year in which the great poisoning matter came to light, <i>Phèdre</i><a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a> -appeared. Is it rash to suppose that, through his conversations with Du -Parc, La Voisin’s confidante, the poet with his keen observation had -seen the features of the passion-tost marchionesses, criminals for love, -who had been the clients of the sorceresses, and that from these -fleeting suggestions he had succeeded in reconstructing their whole -characters?</p> - -<p>‘Imagine,’ writes Monsieur Brunetière, ‘Racine’s agitation when this -case became public. At Paris, in the heart of Paris—the Paris of Louis -<span class="smcap">XIV</span>—in the Rue Verdelet or the Rue Michel-Lecomte, Orestes was -assassinating Pyrrhus, Roxane was selling herself to some witch to -secure the love of Bajazet or the death of Attalide; the famous Locusta -was not an invention of Tacitus, and every day some Phèdre was poisoning -some Hippolyte. And all these horrors were what he, Racine, had been for -ten years toiling to envelop and to disguise, as it were, with the charm -of his verse—murder and lust! adultery and incest! the delirium of the -senses! the madness of homicide! This was what for ten years he had been -endeavouring to win plaudits for, and when<a name="page_360" id="page_360"></a> a Hermione or a Nero issued -from the Hôtel de Bourgogne<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> intent on committing the crime they had -seen glorified under their eyes—what, was it this that he called his -glory! O shame and agony and remorse! And from the moment that such a -question started up before the conscience of such a man, how think you -he could have answered but by quitting the stage? The truth even of his -own art rose up against him. What brought his pictures into condemnation -was just their accent of truth!<a name="page_361" id="page_361"></a>’</p> - -<h2><a name="THE_DEVINERESSE" id="THE_DEVINERESSE"></a>THE ‘DEVINERESSE’</h2> - -<p class="nind"><i>L<small>A</small> D<small>EVINERESSE</small></i>, a fairy comedy by Donneau de Visé and Thomas -Corneille—the latter is usually called by his contemporaries Corneille -de Lisle—was represented at Paris in 1679, the year of the great poison -case.</p> - -<p>In his reports to the king and the Secretaries of State Nicolas de la -Reynie insisted on the necessity, not only of punishing the guilty, but -of preventing the spread and, if possible, the recurrence of crimes like -those which had been brought to light. We have shown how he had drawn -up, in collaboration with Colbert, the decree registered in the -Parlement on August 31, 1682, by which the magicians were expelled from -France, and by which, more especially, the making and the sale of -poisons necessary in medicine and in trade were placed under rigorous -regulations. This was a masterly work: as we have mentioned, these -regulations<a name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> are in force to this day, after the lapse of two centuries.</p> - -<p>La Reynie thought that it was advisable, apart from these preventive -measures, to put the public on their guard against the dangerous -infatuation which had thrown so many pretty and passionate women body -and soul into the hands of the fortune-tellers. Let us recall the -declarations of one of the latter: ‘Persons who look into the hand are -the ruin of all women, women of quality as well as others, because their -weakness is soon found out, and when discovered is taken advantage of, -and they are driven to whatever length the witches please.’ As -lieutenant of police La Reynie had a general control of the theatres; he -revised and censored the manuscripts of the playwrights; he was in -constant touch with them. He was the friend of more than one writer of -talent, for the magistrate was doubled in him with the refined and -delightful man of letters, who had both delicate taste and an excellent -library. In this year 1679 he had particularly close relations with -Donneau de Visé, founder and editor of the <i>Mercure galant</i>, and -assuredly<a name="page_363" id="page_363"></a> one of the most curious figures in our literary history. -Boursault had just written his witty comedy, also entitled the <i>Mercure -galant</i>, in which he directed lively and incisive satire upon the -journalism then at its dawn, which had already taken, under the -influence of Donneau de Visé, many of the characteristics of modern -journalism.</p> - -<p>The <i>Mercure</i>, said Boursault, is a delightful thing:—</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">‘On y trouve de tout, fable, histoire, vers, prose,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Sièges, combats, procès, mort, mariage, amour,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Nouvelles de Province et nouvelles de Cour.’<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Visé begged La Reynie not to authorise the representation of the piece -under the same title as the journal; La Reynie acquiesced, and -Boursault, putting a good face on the matter, called his piece <i>La -Comédie sans titre</i>. Moreover, Visé was in high favour at Court. When -Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span> saw the success of the <i>Mercure</i>, he hastened to award the -editor-in-chief a pension of 500 crowns, gave him apartments in the -Louvre, and appointed him his historiographer. Visé’s pen became an -accommodating tool.<a name="page_364" id="page_364"></a></p> - -<p>Donneau de Visé was not only a journalist; he was a dramatic author, and -as a dramatic author he was, as he was in journalism, very modern. He -had found means of achieving a noisy notoriety by beginning with an -extremely violent attack on Corneille and Molière. Against the latter he -composed his comedy <i>Zélinde, ou la véritable critique de l’Echole des -Femmes et la critique de la critique</i>, in which he has left a portrait -of the poet that has become famous, and which is, in our eyes, not a -criticism but a splendid eulogy. ‘I came down,’ says a lace merchant; -‘Elomire [an anagram on Molière] did not say a single word. I found him -leaning up against my shop in the attitude of a man in a dream. He had -his eyes fixed on three or four persons of quality who were bargaining -for lace; he appeared attentive to their words, and seemed by the -movement of his eyes to be scanning the depths of their souls to see -there what they did not say.’</p> - -<p>La Reynie thought of utilising the talent and the notoriety of the -dramatic author, and, not satisfied with granting him what he asked<a name="page_365" id="page_365"></a> in -regard to the title of Boursault’s comedy, he gave him in addition the -subject for a piece which was destined to obtain the greatest success. -To prove to demonstration in Paris, by means of a play to which the -public, excited by the great poison case, would flock in crowds, that -the pretended skill of magicians and sorceresses was only deception and -trickery, seemed assuredly the best way to dissuade the ingenuous mob -from dealing with them. From this idea issued <i>La Devineresse ou les -Faux enchantements</i>, a comedy represented for the first time in Paris by -the king’s company on November 19, 1679, and published in the following -February. We have mentioned that Donneau de Visé was one of the pioneers -of the modern literary life, and <i>La Devineresse</i> will be a fresh proof -of the assertion. Let us note first that Visé was the father of a -literary custom which is in these days highly popular, collaboration. -One of the masters of dramatic criticism, Edouard Thierry, writes on -this subject: ‘Collaboration, an unfamiliar term which existed at most -as a term in jurisprudence, was nevertheless not absolutely unknown at -the<a name="page_366" id="page_366"></a> theatre. There had been the <i>Psyche</i> at the Palais-Royal, completed -by Pierre Corneille on the plan and under the direction of Molière; but -this was considered only as work done to order; it belonged in the end -to the person who hired the worker. There had been the <i>Plaideurs</i> of -Racine, and some other successful parodies, composed by several hands, -it was said; but this was only an amusement, a literary picnic of gay -wits who stimulated each other to satire; nobody up to that time had -thought of raising the game to the level of an industry.’ From the very -first, collaboration as a business gave results which exceeded the most -sanguine hopes. Visé, who had made his peace with the elder Corneille, -entered into partnership with his younger brother. This Thomas -Corneille, who was a remarkable vaudeville-writer and also a remarkable -scholar, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, has -been unjustly thrown into the shade by the glory of his elder brother.</p> - -<p><i>La Devineresse</i> was not merely a modern piece in respect of this new -trick of collaboration; it was the origin and doubtless the model<a name="page_367" id="page_367"></a> of -those spectacular pieces, with shifting scenery and mechanical effects, -which give the Châtelet its success to-day. And we shall find, not only -that the idea sprang from this, but that the comedy contains scenes and -stage business which have come down to us in direct succession through a -line of such pieces—such as the talking headless man, the dismembered -man whose limbs rearrange themselves spontaneously, dropsy passing from -one subject to another, the fairy, wizard or devil who comes into a room -through the wall.</p> - -<p>Finally, the <i>Devineresse</i> must occupy a select place in the annals of -the modern stage from the manner in which the authors managed to float -it. One of them, Donneau de Visé, was a journalist, and consequently a -master of the advertising art. He had the idea, among others, of getting -up for 1680 an almanac of the <i>Devineresse</i>, in which there was a large -engraved plate representing the principal scenes in the piece, the -features of the spectacle, grouped around a monstrous satanic figure; -these of course were the principal tricks in false magic performed by -the sorceress and her mate.<a name="page_368" id="page_368"></a> These pictures are still in existence,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> -and present to our eyes a curious representation, not only of the -theatrical scenes of the eighteenth century, but also of the interior of -the houses in which the sorceresses received their clients. These -circumstances, together with the striking actuality and the wit of the -authors, secured to the <i>Devineresse</i> an unprecedented success, both -financially and in arousing the curiosity of the public. All Paris ran -to see it. Its representations extended over five months, and, what in -those days appeared remarkable, it ran for forty-seven nights in -succession; the first eighteen performances brought in double the usual -receipts. Seconded by the skill and talent of the authors, the -lieutenant of police had attained his end.</p> - -<p>The fortune-teller who is the chief character in the piece was none -other than La Voisin, whose name Corneille and Visé slightly disguised -in calling their sorceress Madame Jobin. In the comedy are to be found -echoes of the<a name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> replies made by the sorceress before the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, a fact which indicates the share of La Reynie. The -principal ally of La Voisin was called Du Buisson, that of Madame Jobin -is called Du Clos. Their practices are the same, but turned to ridicule -by the authors, who make their Madame Jobin a mere schemer with no other -idea than to snap up the crown-pieces of the public. In the essentials -of the character we are thus very far from the terrible sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois.</p> - -<p>In the course of the second scene of the second act, Madame Jobin -explains to her brother what her art consists in.</p> - -<p>‘This is what the majority of men are. They swallow all the stupidities -retailed to them, and when once they have let themselves go, nothing is -capable of undeceiving them. See, my brother, Paris is the place in the -world where there are most clever people and also most dupes. The -sorceries I am accused of, and other things which would appear still -more supernatural, want a lively imagination to invent them and skill to -make use of them.<a name="page_370" id="page_370"></a> It is through these that people have belief in us, -and magic and devils have nothing to do with it. The fright people get -into who are shown this sort of thing blinds them enough to prevent them -from seeing they are deceived. As to my meddling with fortune-telling, -as you will be told, that is an art in which the thousand folk who put -themselves every day in our hands make our information easy to get at. -Besides, chance accounts for the greater part of our success in this -line. All you want is presence of mind, and boldness and intrigue, to -know the world, to have people in your houses, to note carefully things -that happen, to get information on their little love affairs, and -especially to say a good many things when any one comes to consult you. -There is always one of them true, and two or three, said quite -haphazard, are enough to give you a vogue. After that it will be of no -good to say that you know nothing; no one will believe you, and, good or -evil, they make you talk.’</p> - -<p>The comedy itself is far from being without merit. You will not see in -it, to be sure, the breadth and the sureness of touch<a name="page_371" id="page_371"></a> of that Molière -whom Visé had so much ridiculed, and the pleasure one may find in -reading it is spoilt by the feeling that Molière would have made so much -more of such a subject, in which so many laughable and so many moving -things are concentrated. Nevertheless, the majority of modern -extravaganzas would have to yield in many respects to the <i>Devineresse</i>, -as regards both construction and literary merit. In the course of the -preface to the published edition of their piece, the authors are careful -to speak of the famous rules ascribed to Aristotle without which no -dramatic piece could be constructed in the time of Racine and Boileau. -And in fact Visé and Corneille did observe them—these three famous -unities of time, place, and action. In an extravaganza, mark! That, -assuredly, is what an author of our day would consider the most -extravagant feature of their work.</p> - -<p>The preface states the subject of the comedy: ‘A woman mad after the -sorceresses, a lover interested in opening her eyes about them, and a -rival who wishes to prevent their marriage, form a subject which opens -the plot in the<a name="page_372" id="page_372"></a> first act, a plot only unravelled in the last act by -the unmasking of the false devil. The other actors, or at least a part -of them, are envoys of one or other of the two interested persons, who, -by the reports they give, augment the credulity of the countess or make -the marquis believe still more firmly that the sorceress is a knave. -Thus these characters cannot be regarded as unnecessary. It is true that -there are some who, knowing neither the countess nor the marquis, only -consult Madame Jobin on their own behalf; but, being as famous as she is -here depicted, was it likely that during twenty-four hours there only -came to her persons who knew one another or furthered the principal -action?’</p> - -<p>From the outset the comedy is well constructed, and the character of the -persons comes out clearly. The seasoning of the dialogue is a little -strong, indeed; but the wit springs always from an acute and delicate -power of observation. We may mention the scene in which the sorceress, -who easily dupes persons of cultivated mind and even those who never -relax their vigilance, is utterly nonplussed by<a name="page_373" id="page_373"></a> the primitive -simple-mindedness of a village girl. The dénouement is brought about by -the presence of mind of the marquis, who seeks to undeceive the countess -whom he loves. The sorceress has foretold frightful misfortunes to the -countess if she should marry the marquis, being paid for so doing by a -Madame Noblet who has fallen deeply in love with the latter. The -marquis, armed with a pistol, springs at the throat of a devil whom the -sorceress has summoned through the wall. The devil falls on his knees: -‘Mercy, sir; I am a good devil!’</p> - -<p>It remains to inquire whether the lieutenant of police had as much -success as the authors of the piece; that is, whether the practices he -wished to extirpate in France disappeared under his efforts. La Reynie -did succeed, as much as he could hope, in the struggle he had undertaken -against the poisoners. Magic, however, was a hardy plant. ‘You would -never believe how desperately silly they are at Paris,’ wrote Madame -Palatine on October 8, 1701. ‘Everybody is anxious to become an adept in -the art of invoking spirits and<a name="page_374" id="page_374"></a> other devilries.’ Black masses were -again said in the outskirts of Paris, in circumstances so horrible that -‘a beggar girl aged thirteen years, who had been taken there, died of -fright': she was buried in her clothes by sub-deacon Sebault, and -Guignard, curé of Notre Dame de Bourges, who had said the monstrous -office. And according to M. Huysmans, black masses are said to this very -day.</p> - -<p>When, two thousand years before our era, the Chaldean mages and the high -priests of Egypt on clear nights pierced the starry sky with their -patient gaze, did they read there that after thirty centuries a grave -magistrate and chief of police would fight their descendants by means of -a fairy extravaganza, with trap-doors and puns and transformation -scenes?<a name="page_375" id="page_375"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> - -<p class="c"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#J">J</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#V">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a></p> - -<p class="nind"> -<a name="A" id="A"></a>A<small>LACOCQUE</small>, Marguerite, <a href="#page_121">121</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="B" id="B"></a>B<small>ACHIMONT</small>, Robert de, alchemist, <a href="#page_137">137</a>.<br /> -Barbier, archer of the guard, <a href="#page_055">55</a>, <a href="#page_056">56</a>, <a href="#page_058">58</a>.<br /> -Bazin de Bezons, <a href="#page_163">163</a>.<br /> -Belot, François, poisoner, <a href="#page_331">331</a>.<br /> -Black Mass, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>, 155 ff.<br /> -Bocager, law professor, <a href="#page_031">31</a>, <a href="#page_032">32</a>.<br /> -Bodin’s <i>Démonomanie des Sorciers</i>, <a href="#page_122">122-126</a>.<br /> -Boileau, <a href="#page_348">348</a>.<br /> -Boscher, Alexander, physician, <a href="#page_319">319</a>.<br /> -Bosse, Marie, sorceress, <a href="#page_119">119</a>, <a href="#page_129">129</a>, <a href="#page_172">172</a>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_179">179</a>.<br /> -Bossuet, <a href="#page_126">126</a>, <a href="#page_219">219</a>, <a href="#page_220">220</a>, <a href="#page_313">313</a>, <a href="#page_329">329</a>, <a href="#page_333">333</a>.<br /> -Boucherat, Louis, <a href="#page_163">163</a>.<br /> -Bouillon, Duchess de, <a href="#page_275">275-279</a>.<br /> -Bourdelot, Abbé, physician, <a href="#page_318">318</a>, <a href="#page_323">323</a>, <a href="#page_334">334</a>.<br /> -Boursault, journalist, <a href="#page_363">363</a>.<br /> -Briancourt, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_024">24-32</a>, <a href="#page_035">35</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a>, <a href="#page_068">68</a>, <a href="#page_069">69</a>.<br /> -Brinvilliers, Antoine Gobelin de, <a href="#page_004">4</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_034">34</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a>.<br /> -Brinvilliers, Madame de, her career, <a href="#page_001">1-116</a>.<br /> -Brissart, Marie, <a href="#page_152">152-154</a>.<br /> -Brunet, Madame, <a href="#page_177">177-179</a>.<br /> -Bussy-Rabutin, <a href="#page_173">173-176</a>, <a href="#page_239">239</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="C" id="C"></a>C<small>ADELAN</small>, Pierre, banker, <a href="#page_140">140</a>, <a href="#page_141">141</a>.<br /> -Castelmelhor, Count of, <a href="#page_137">137</a>, <a href="#page_138">138</a>.<br /> -Chamberlain, Hugh, physician, <a href="#page_319">319</a>.<br /> -Chambre Ardente, the, <a href="#page_163">163-180</a>, <a href="#page_275">275</a>, <a href="#page_279">279</a>, <a href="#page_291">291</a>, <a href="#page_296">296</a>, <a href="#page_302">302</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a>.<br /> -Chasteuil, F. Galaup de, alchemist, <a href="#page_133">133-142</a>.<br /> -Chevigny, Father de, <a href="#page_080">80</a>, <a href="#page_093">93</a>.<br /> -Cluet, Sergeant, <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_040">40</a>.<br /> -Colbert, <a href="#page_050">50</a>, <a href="#page_257">257</a>, <a href="#page_290">290</a>.<br /> -Coligny, Madame de, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_174">174</a>.<br /> -Corneille, Thomas, <a href="#page_361">361</a>.<br /> -Creuillebois, Sergeant, <a href="#page_036">36</a>, <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_041">41</a>.<br /> -Croissy, Marquis de, ambassador in England, <a href="#page_050">50</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="D" id="D"></a>D’Aubray, Antoine, brother of Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_020">20</a>.<br /> -D’Aubray, Antoine, father of Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_003">3</a>, <a href="#page_013">13</a>.<br /> -Delamarre, attorney for Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_040">40</a>, <a href="#page_041">41</a>.<a name="page_376" id="page_376"></a><br /> -Descarrières, political agent, <a href="#page_053">53</a>.<br /> -Desgrez, captain of police, <a href="#page_009">9</a>, <a href="#page_052">52</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a>, <a href="#page_119">119</a>.<br /> -Des[oe]illets, Mademoiselle, <a href="#page_221">221</a>, <a href="#page_222">222</a>, <a href="#page_252">252-254</a>, <a href="#page_286">286</a>.<br /> -Donneau de Visé, dramatist, <a href="#page_361">361-365</a>.<br /> -Dreux, Madame de, <a href="#page_166">166-168</a>.<br /> -Du Parc, Mademoiselle, <a href="#page_349">349-359</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="E" id="E"></a>E<small>XILI</small>, Italian poisoner, <a href="#page_009">9-11</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="F" id="F"></a>F<small>ILASTRE</small>, Françoise, sorceress, <a href="#page_184">184</a>, <a href="#page_249">249</a>.<br /> -Fontanges, Duchess de, mistress of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, <a href="#page_237">237</a>, <a href="#page_240">240</a>, <a href="#page_250">250</a>.<br /> -France, Anatole, on ‘Madame,’ <a href="#page_334">334</a>, <a href="#page_336">336</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="G" id="G"></a>G<small>ALET</small>, Louis, poisoner, <a href="#page_234">234</a>.<br /> -Glaser, Christophe, chemist, <a href="#page_010">10</a>, <a href="#page_012">12</a>.<br /> -Godin, <i>alias</i> Sainte-Croix, <i>q.v.</i><br /> -Guibourg, Abbé, <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_215">215-218</a>, <a href="#page_227">227-231</a>.<br /> -Guillaume, executioner, <a href="#page_114">114</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="H" id="H"></a>H<small>ARVILLIER</small>, Jeanne, witch, <a href="#page_123">123</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a>.<br /> -Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, <a href="#page_313">313-345</a>.<br /> -Hocque, Pierre, sorcerer, <a href="#page_126">126-128</a>.<br /> -Huysmans, J. K., on philosopher’s stone, <a href="#page_138">138</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="J" id="J"></a>J<small>OLY</small>, sorceress, <a href="#page_167">167</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="L" id="L"></a>L<small>A</small> Chaboissière, valet, <a href="#page_142">142</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_198">198</a>, <a href="#page_304">304</a>.<br /> -La Chaussée, valet, <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_045">45</a>, <a href="#page_047">47-49</a>.<br /> -La Fayette, Madame de, <a href="#page_314">314</a>, <a href="#page_315">315</a>, <a href="#page_320">320</a>, <a href="#page_324">324-327</a>.<br /> -Lamoignon, President of High Court, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_068">68</a>, <a href="#page_069">69</a>, <a href="#page_076">76</a>.<br /> -La Reynie, Nicolas de, lieutenant of police, <a href="#page_012">12</a>, <a href="#page_049">49</a>, <a href="#page_052">52</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>, <a href="#page_121">121</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>,<br /> -<a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_156">156</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>, <a href="#page_181">181</a>, <a href="#page_182">182</a>, <a href="#page_194">194</a>, <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_203">203-205</a>, <a href="#page_231">231</a>, <a href="#page_234">234</a>, <a href="#page_245">245-247</a>, <a href="#page_265">265-312</a>,<br /> -<a href="#page_361">361-374</a>.<br /> -La Rivière, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>.<br /> -Leféron, Marguerite, poisoner, <a href="#page_168">168-170</a>.<br /> -Leroy, poisoner, <a href="#page_215">215</a>, <a href="#page_216">216</a>.<br /> -Lesage, magician, <a href="#page_130">130</a>, <a href="#page_148">148</a>, <a href="#page_149">149</a>, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_159">159</a>, <a href="#page_160">160-162</a>, <a href="#page_184">184</a>, <a href="#page_199">199-201</a>, <a href="#page_203">203</a>,<br /> -<a href="#page_206">206</a>, <a href="#page_221">221</a>.<br /> -Littré on death of ‘Madame,’ <a href="#page_335">335</a>, <a href="#page_336">336</a>.<br /> -Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, <a href="#page_179">179</a>, <a href="#page_181">181</a>, <a href="#page_183">183-186</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a>, <a href="#page_210">210</a>, <a href="#page_212">212-214</a>, <a href="#page_217">217</a>, <a href="#page_219">219</a>, <a href="#page_220">220</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>,<br /> -<a href="#page_258">258</a>, <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_272">272</a>, <a href="#page_283">283</a>, <a href="#page_284">284</a>, <a href="#page_296">296</a>, <a href="#page_363">363</a>.<br /> -Louvois, <a href="#page_052">52</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>, <a href="#page_205">205</a>, <a href="#page_210">210</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>, <a href="#page_284">284</a>, <a href="#page_285">285</a>, <a href="#page_287">287</a>, <a href="#page_292">292</a>, <a href="#page_307">307</a>.<br /> -Ludres, Madame de, mistress of Louis <span class="smcap">XIV</span>, <a href="#page_226">226</a>, <a href="#page_235">235</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="M" id="M"></a>M<small>AINTENON</small>, Madame de, <a href="#page_220">220</a>, <a href="#page_226">226</a>, <a href="#page_257">257</a>.<br /> -Mariette, Abbé, <a href="#page_199">199</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a>.<br /> -<i>Mercure Galant</i>, <a href="#page_362">362</a>, <a href="#page_363">363</a>.<br /> -Michelet, <a href="#page_001">1-3</a>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>.<br /> -Molière’s <i>Amphitryon</i>, <a href="#page_209">209</a>.<br /> -Montespan, Madame de, <a href="#page_187">187-265</a>.<br /> -Montespan, Marquis de, <a href="#page_207">207-214</a>.<br /> -Monvoisin, Catherine, poisoner and sorceress, <a href="#page_120">120</a>, <a href="#page_130">130</a>, <a href="#page_144">144-159</a>, <a href="#page_169">169</a>,<br /> -<a href="#page_170">170</a>, <a href="#page_182">182</a>, <a href="#page_201">201-203</a>, <a href="#page_242">242-244</a>, <a href="#page_349">349-358</a>.<br /> -Monvoisin, Marguerite, <a href="#page_193">193-195</a>, <a href="#page_221">221</a>, <a href="#page_227">227-231</a>, <a href="#page_241">241</a>.<a name="page_377" id="page_377"></a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="N" id="N"></a>N<small>ADAILLAC</small>, Marquis de, <a href="#page_015">15</a>.<br /> -Nivelle, advocate for Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_070">70-74</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="P" id="P"></a>P<small>ALATINE</small>, Madame, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_373">373</a>.<br /> -Palluau, Parlement counsellor, <a href="#page_057">57</a>, <a href="#page_066">66</a>.<br /> -Pennautier, receiver for clergy, <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_044">44</a>, <a href="#page_060">60-64</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.<br /> -Picard, commissary, <a href="#page_036">36</a>, <a href="#page_038">38</a>, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_041">41</a>.<br /> -Pirot, Abbé, <a href="#page_005">5</a>, <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_075">75-115</a>.<br /> -Poulaillon, Madame de, <a href="#page_170">170-176</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="R" id="R"></a>R<small>ABEL</small>, alchemist, <a href="#page_140">140-142</a>.<br /> -Racine, <a href="#page_346">346-360</a>.<br /> -Rébillé, Philibert, royal flutist, <a href="#page_177">177-180</a>.<br /> -Regnier, police officer, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a>.<br /> -Romani, poisoner, <a href="#page_246">246</a>, <a href="#page_248">248</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="S" id="S"></a>S<small>AINTE</small>-Croix, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_006">6-12</a>, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_022">22</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_029">29</a>,<br /> -<a href="#page_030">30</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_035">35-38</a>.<br /> -Saint-Simon on Pennautier, <a href="#page_044">44</a>, <a href="#page_061">61</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Madame de Montespan, <a href="#page_189">189</a>, <a href="#page_192">192</a>, <a href="#page_259">259</a>, <a href="#page_261">261-263</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on La Reynie, <a href="#page_266">266</a>.</span><br /> -Sévigné, Madame de, on Madame de Brinvilliers, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_034">34</a>, <a href="#page_064">64</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Madame de Dreux, <a href="#page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on La Reynie, <a href="#page_180">180</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Madame de Montespan, <a href="#page_188">188-190</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a>, <a href="#page_223">223</a>, <a href="#page_224">224</a>, <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_235">235</a>, <a href="#page_236">236</a>, <a href="#page_239">239</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Madame de Maintenon, <a href="#page_226">226</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on poison cases, <a href="#page_273">273</a>, <a href="#page_274">274</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Duchess de Bouillon, <a href="#page_276">276-278</a>.</span><br /> -Soubise, Madame de, mistress of Louis <small>XIV</small>, <a href="#page_224">224</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="T" id="T"></a>T<small>RIANON</small>, sorceress, <a href="#page_243">243</a>, <a href="#page_245">245</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="V" id="V"></a>V<small>ALLIÈRE</small>, Louise de la, <a href="#page_188">188</a>.<br /> -Vanens, Louis de, alchemist, <a href="#page_118">118</a>, <a href="#page_135">135-137</a>, <a href="#page_142">142</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a>.<br /> -Vigoureux, Madame, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.<br /> -Vivonne, Duchess de, <a href="#page_272">272</a>.<br /> -Vosser, Marie (Madame de St. Laurent), <a href="#page_060">60</a>, <a href="#page_063">63</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="W" id="W"></a>W<small>IER</small>’s book on demonology <a href="#page_124">124</a>, <a href="#page_125">125</a>.<br /> -</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p class="c">Printed by<span class="ov"> T. and A. 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The house is now occupied by -the nursing sisterhood of the Bon-Secours.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> [The then law courts of Paris.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> [The supreme judicial tribunal of France.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> [The criminal court.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> [The assassin of Henry of Navarre.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> -</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i8">['into a sea profound<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Where flowed earth’s metals in a molten mass,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Would tinge and dye the whole in sunbright gold.']<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> [In the original, a play on the double meaning of -<i>argent</i>—‘silver’ and ‘money.']</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> [Second wife of ‘Monsieur,’ the king’s brother.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> ['To share with Jupiter is no whit dishonouring.']</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> [Madame de Montespan.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Written in collaboration with Professor Paul Brouardel, -Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and Doctor Paul le Gendre, -physician to the Tenon infirmary.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The report of Chamberlain, the English physician, says -distinctly that it was oil. ‘The lower bowel was full of a bilious -humour, with oil floating upon it’ (Mrs. Everett-Green’s <i>Lives of the -Princesses of England</i>, vi. 589). This observation is important because -Littré’s opinion has been disputed by Dr. Legué. ‘Littré maintains that -the physicians noticed the presence of oil; but that is because he -strains an equivocal phrase in the report of the autopsy—“full to its -utmost capacity of a sanious, putrid, yellowish, watery substance, <i>fat -like oil</i>.†Frankly, is this not giving to the text a signification -which never entered into the mind of the physicians?’ (<i>Médecins et -Empoisonneurs</i>, pp. 255, 256.) Neither Dr. Legué nor Littré, however, -knew the English reports published by Mrs. Everett-Green.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Legends of the Bastille</i>, p. 146.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> [Boileau.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> [Two of the most famous actresses of the time.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> [The theatre so called.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> In a copy of the <i>Devineresse</i> in the Arsenal Library. -There are others, a little different, in the large folio collection of -almanacs in the print department of the National Library.</p></div> -</div> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="padding:2%;border:3px dotted gray;"> -<tr><th align="center">Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:</th></tr> -<tr><td align="center"><span class="errata">exceded</span> that of Exili=> exceeded that of Exili {pg 10}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">wedges in <span class="errata">successsion</span>=>wedges in succession {pg 49}</td></tr> -</table> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<img src="images/back.jpg" width="355" height="550" alt="book-back-cover" title="" /> -</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Princes and Poisoners, by Frantz Funck-Brentano - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43238-h.htm or 43238-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/3/43238/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Princes and Poisoners - Studies of the Court of Louis XIV - -Author: Frantz Funck-Brentano - -Translator: George Maidment - -Release Date: July 17, 2013 [EBook #43238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - PRINCES AND POISONERS - - _BY THE SAME AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR_ - -LEGENDS OF THE BASTILLE. BY FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO. With an Introduction -by VICTORIEN SARDOU. Translated by GEORGE MAIDMENT. 1899. Crown 8vo. -Cloth, 6_s._ - -CONTENTS.--I. The Archives; II. History of the Bastille; III. Life in -the Bastille; IV. The Man in the Iron Mask; V. Men of Letters in the -Bastille; VI. Latude; VII. The Fourteenth of July. - -LONDON: DOWNEY AND CO., LIMITED. - -[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE - -LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE - -(_Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the painting by Mignard_)] - - - - - Princes and Poisoners - - STUDIES OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - BY - FRANTZ FUNCK-BRENTANO - - TRANSLATED BY - GEORGE MAIDMENT - - [Illustration: colphon] - - LONDON - _DUCKWORTH and CO._ - 3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. - 1901 - - _Second Impression, May 1901_ - - _All rights reserved._ - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Twelve months ago I had the honour of introducing M. Frantz -Funck-Brentano to the English public by my translation of his _Legendes -et Archives de la Bastille_, and in my preface to that book I gave a -rapid sketch of his career which need not be repeated. If history is to -be continually reconstructed, or rather, perhaps, to undergo a process -of destructive distillation, there is no one more competent than M. -Funck-Brentano to perform the feat. We lose our illusions with our -teeth; the fables that charmed our childhood dissolve in the modern -historian's test-tube, and the mysteries that fascinated our forebears -become clear with a few drops of his critical acid. - -In his former book, M. Funck-Brentano solved once for all the mystery -of the Man in the Iron Mask, showed up the impostor Latude in his true -colours, and gave us surprising information about the latter days of the -Bastille. In the present volume, the fruit of several years' research -among the archives at the Arsenal Library, he conclusively dispels the -cloud of suspicion that has hung over the sudden death of Charles I's -winsome and ill-fated daughter Henrietta; gives us for the first time -the authentic history of that beautiful poisoner Madame de Brinvilliers; -suggests a very plausible explanation of Racine's hitherto inexplicable -retirement from dramatic writing; and throws a strange light upon the -private history of Madame de Montespan and other fair ladies of Louis -XIV's Court. If it be objected that some of the details of the 'black -mass' and kindred abominations are too gruesome for print, it may be -urged in reply that these details are related with the cold impartial -pen of a serious historian, not coloured or heightened with a view to -melodramatic effect. 'Truth's a dog that must to kennel,' says Lear's -Fool; Louis the Magnificent tried to stifle the damning evidence against -his jealous, passionate mistress; when Time and patient research among -long-forgotten papers have combined to bring the truth to light, it -would ill become us to blame a scholar like M. Funck-Brentano for not -joining the monarch's conspiracy of silence. - -G. M. - -_November 1900._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS-- - - I. HER LIFE, 1 - - II. HER TRIAL, 36 - -III. HER DEATH, 76 - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF -LOUIS XIV-- - - I. THE SORCERESSES-- - - The Dinner of La Vigoreux, 117 - - Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century, 121 - - The Practices of the Witches, 128 - - The Alchemists, 133 - - La Voisin, 144 - - The Magician Lesage, 159 - - The 'Chambre Ardente,' 163 - - Louis XIV and the Poison Affair, 180 - - II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN, 187 - -III. A MAGISTRATE--GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE, 265 - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME,' 313 - -RACINE AND THE POISON AFFAIR, 346 - -'LA DEVINERESSE,' 361 - -INDEX, 375 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - -PORTRAIT OF GABRIEL NICOLAS DE LA -REYNIE, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE. -Engraved by Van Schuppen, after the picture by -Mignard, _Frontispiece_ - -PORTRAIT OF MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS, -after the sketch by Charles Lebrun, _facing page 112_ - - - - -MARIE MADELEINE DE BRINVILLIERS - - - - -I. HER LIFE - - -In the judicial annals of France there has never been a more striking or -celebrated figure than the Marquise de Brinvilliers. The enormity of her -crimes, the brilliance of her rank, the circumstances accompanying her -trial and death,--the story of which, as told by her confessor, the abbe -Pirot, is one of the masterpieces of French literature,--finally, the -strange energy of her character, which after her execution caused her to -be regarded as a saint by a portion of the population of Paris: all -these things will for long years to come attract to her the attention of -all who are interested in the history of the past. - -Michelet devoted to the Marquise de Brinvilliers a study in the _Revue -des Deux Mondes_. But his story is very inaccurate and leaves many -gaps. From the historical point of view, the little novel of Dumas is -much to be preferred. The beautiful criminal has also been dealt with by -Pierre Clement in his _Police of Paris under Louis XIV_, and more -recently by Maitre Cornu, in his discourse at the reopening of the -lecture-term of the advocates to the Court of Cassation. The writer of -the following pages has been able to make use of some fresh documents. - -In the trial of the Marquise de Brinvilliers there is much to interest -the historian. It was the first of the terrible poison cases which -caused such a sensation at the court of Louis XIV in the central years -of his reign, and in which the greatest names in France were implicated; -and Madame de Brinvilliers herself represents the most salient and most -easily studied features of a type of woman which, as we shall see, -repeated itself after her even on the steps of the throne. - - * * * * * - -Marie Madeleine--and not Marguerite--d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, -was born on July 22, 1630. She was the eldest of the five children of -Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, lord of Offemont and Villiers, councillor of -state, _maitre des requetes_, civil lieutenant of the city, mayoralty, -and viscounty of Paris, and lieutenant-general of the mines of France. -Dreux d'Aubray was himself the son of a treasurer of France, originally -from Soissons. Madeleine d'Aubray received a good education, in a -literary point of view at any rate. The spelling of her letters is -correct, a rare thing with the ladies of her time. Her handwriting is -remarkable: bold, firm, like a man's, and such as the observer would be -disposed to ascribe to an earlier period. But her religious education -was entirely neglected. At her interviews with her confessor on the eve -of her death she displayed an utter ignorance of the most elementary -maxims of religion,--those which people learn as children, and never -during the whole course of their life forget. - -Of moral principles she was absolutely destitute. From the age of five -she was addicted to horrible vices. At seven she was only by courtesy a -maiden. These are what Michelet calls 'a young girl's peccadilloes.' As -time went on, she yielded herself to her young brothers. On these points -her own testimony renders mistake impossible. She will show herself to -have been endowed with an ardent, affectionate nature, which gave her -passions command of an amazing energy; but this energy acted only under -the empire of her passions, for she was powerless to resist the -impressions which penetrated and ere long dominated her. She was -extremely sensitive to affronts, and particularly to those which touched -her pride. She was one of those natures which under good guidance are -capable of heroic deeds, but which are also capable of the greatest -crimes when they are wholly abandoned to evil instincts. - -In 1651, at the age of one-and-twenty, Marie Madeleine d'Aubray wedded a -young officer of the Norman regiment, Antoine Gobelin de Brinvilliers, -baron of Nourar, the son of a president of the audit office. He was a -direct descendant of Gobelin, the founder of the celebrated manufacture. -Mademoiselle d'Aubray brought her husband a dowry of 200,000 livres, and -as he too was wealthy, the young couple enjoyed what was for that time -a large fortune. - -The young marchioness was charming--a pretty, sprightly woman, with -large expressive eyes. She made a great impression by her frank, -decided, and vivacious manner of speaking. She was of an amiable and -cheerful temperament, and dreamed of nothing but pleasure. A priest -endowed with great keenness of judgment, who studied the Marquise de -Brinvilliers in terrible circumstances, has described her as follows:-- - -'She was naturally intrepid and of a great courage. She appeared to have -been born with inclinations towards good, with an air of complete -indifference, with a keen and penetrating intellect, forming clear views -of things, and expressing them in words few and fit but very precise; -wonderfully ready in finding expedients for getting out of a difficulty, -and quick to make up her mind upon the most embarrassing questions; -frivolous, moreover, with no application, uneven and inconstant, -becoming impatient if the same subject were often talked about. - -'Her soul had something naturally great--a composure in face of the most -unexpected emergencies, a firmness that nothing could move, a resolution -to await and even suffer death if need be. - -'She had thick and beautiful chestnut hair, with comely and well-rounded -features--her eyes blue, tender, and of perfect beauty, her skin -extraordinarily white, her nose well-shaped enough; nothing in her -countenance was unpleasing. - -'Sweet as her face naturally appeared, when some vexatious idea crossed -her imagination she showed it plainly by a grimace that might at first -sight scare you; and from time to time I noticed contortions that -bespoke disdain, indignation, and scorn. - -'She was of a very slight and dainty figure.' - -To the Marquis de Brinvilliers luxury and large expenditure had become -second nature; he loved gaming and pleasure generally; and his marriage -was very far from banishing his joyous habits. In 1659 he formed a close -intimacy with a certain Godin, known more often as Sainte-Croix, a -captain of horse in the Tracy regiment, originally from Montauban, and -said to be a by-blow of a noble Gascon family. Sainte-Croix was young -and handsome; 'endowed,' says a memoir of the time, 'with all the -advantages of intelligence, and perhaps, too, with those qualities of -heart under whose empire a woman rarely fails, in the long-run, to -fall.' In after days, Maitre Vautier had to sketch the portrait of -Sainte-Croix in the course of an address before the Parlement. -'Sainte-Croix,' he said, 'was in poverty and distress, but he had a rare -and singular genius. His countenance was prepossessing, and gave promise -of intelligence. Such indeed he had, and of such sort as to give -universal pleasure. He took his pleasure in the pleasure of others; he -entered into a religious scheme as joyfully as he accepted the -suggestion of a crime. Keenly sensitive to insult, he was susceptible to -love, and in love jealous to madness, even of persons on whom public -debauchery assumed rights that were not unknown to him. His extravagance -was amazing, and supported by no occupation; for the rest, his soul was -prostituted to every form of crime. He dabbled also in external piety, -and it has been claimed that he wrote devotional books. He spoke -divinely of the God in whom he did not believe, and favoured by this -mask of piety, which he never removed save with his friends, he appeared -to participate in good deeds while really immersed in crime.' Though he -was an officer and married, Sainte-Croix sometimes assumed the garb and -the title of Abbe. - -Sainte-Croix was a brilliant and gallant cavalier; and the Marquise de -Brinvilliers, with her blue eyes and dainty figure, was the most -charming creature in the world. 'Lady Brinvilliers,' observes Vautier -the advocate, 'did not make a mystery of her amour; she gloried in it in -society, whence there resulted much _eclat_.' She gloried in it also -before her husband, who responded by boasting of his own love for other -ladies; but as she ventured also to brag about it before her father, the -civil lieutenant, a man of the old school, he, strong in the rights with -which ancient customs endowed a father, obtained a _lettre de cachet_ -against his daughter's lover. On March 19, 1663, Sainte-Croix was -arrested 'in the marquise's own carriage as he sat by her side,' and -was thrown into the Bastille. - -Various writers who have dealt with these facts depict Sainte-Croix as -the prison companion of the famous Exili, from whom he learnt the secret -of Italian poisons. Restored to liberty, Sainte-Croix is said to have -handed the terrible prescriptions to his mistress and others, who in -their turn spread them through France. - -We find this opinion expressed in the documents of the time, among -others in the speech delivered by Maitre Nivelle before the Parlement, -on behalf of Madame de Brinvilliers. - -Exili, whose real name was Eggidi or Gilles, was an Italian gentleman -attached to the service of Queen Christina of Sweden. It is true that he -was confined in the Bastille at the same period as Sainte-Croix. He -remained there from February 2 to June 27, 1663; Sainte-Croix was there -from March 19 to May 2. A captain of police named Desgrez--who will play -an important part in the sequel--met Exili on leaving prison with an -order to conduct him to Calais and embark him for England; but, whether -Exili gave him the slip on the way, or that he had no sooner reached -England than he returned to France, we soon find the Italian again in -Paris, and in the house of Sainte-Croix himself, with whom he stayed for -six months. After all, it was not Exili who trained Sainte-Croix in the -'art of poisons,' to adopt the phrase of the time. Long before he -entered the Bastille the young cavalry officer had acquired a knowledge -of poisons which far exceeded that of Exili. He owed it to a celebrated -Swiss chemist named Christophe Glaser, who had set up an establishment -in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he had attained a considerable -standing, after the publication in 1665 of a _Treatise on Chemistry_, -which had a noteworthy success at the time, and was often reprinted and -translated. Glaser was apothecary in ordinary to the king and -Monsieur,[1] and demonstrator in chemistry to the Jardin des Plantes. He -was, moreover, a scientist of real merit. Sulphate of potassium, which -he discovered, long bore his name. Glaser was the principal, probably -the only person who furnished Sainte-Croix and his mistress with -poisons. In their correspondence the two lovers call the poisons which -they used 'Glaser's recipe.' These poisons, however, as we shall see, -were very simple; in these days they would appear clumsy. Exili, who -goes out of our story, remained connected with Queen Christina, and in -1681 made an excellent marriage when he wedded the Countess Ludovica -Fantaguzzi, cousin of Duke Francis of Modena. - - * * * * * - -As soon as Sainte-Croix left the Bastille he renewed his relations with -the Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her passion had only been heightened by -the imprisonment of her lover. Wounded in her pride, she felt the birth -within herself of an implacable and violent hatred of her father. Her -dissipations, her gaming, her wild flings in her lover's company (she -paying expenses, after the fashion of that period), had embarrassed her -fortune. 'I accuse myself,' she said in her confession, 'of having given -a great deal of my wealth to this man, and he ruined me.' The desire of -attaining possession of her paternal inheritance, and the yearning, -growing day by day more imperious, for wreaking vengeance on her father -for the affront put upon her, suggested to her a frightful crime. There -might frequently have been seen, drawing up at the market-square of -Saint-Germain, a carriage from which alighted a young officer and a -fashionable lady. They went on foot to the Rue du Petit-Lion, in which -Glaser the chemist lived. Arrived at his house, they sought a retired -room. The neighbours, puzzled by these strange goings-on, spoke of false -money. Soon this young lady might have been seen, under the edifying -appearance of piety and religion, going into the hospitals; she bent -over the beds of the patients with words of gentleness and affection; -she carried them confections, wine, and biscuits; but the patients whom -she approached inevitably succumbed, ere long, in horrible anguish. 'Who -would have dreamt,' writes Nicolas de la Reynie, the lieutenant of -police, 'that a woman brought up in a respectable family, whose form and -constitution were delicate and who in appearance was sweet-natured, -would have made an amusement of going to the hospitals to poison the -patients, for the purpose of observing the different effects of the -poison she gave them?' She poisoned her own servants, too, 'to try -experiments.' 'Francoise Roussel says that she has been in the service -of Lady Brinvilliers. The latter one day gave her some preserved -gooseberries to eat, on the point of a knife, and soon afterwards she -felt ill; she gave her also a moist slice of ham, which she ate, and -since then she has had severe abdominal pains, feeling as though her -heart were being stabbed.' The poor woman was ill for three years. - -When the marquise had tested the strength of 'Glaser's recipe,' and had -noted the inability of the surgeons to discover traces of poison in the -corpses, the poisoning of her father was resolved on. - -As Whitsuntide drew on in the year 1666, Antoine Dreux d'Aubray, who had -been suffering for some months from strange disorders, set out for his -estates at Offemont, a few leagues from Compiegne. He asked his daughter -to bring her children and spend a few weeks with him, and when she -arrived he scolded her affectionately for having been so long in -coming. On the day after her arrival his sickness was redoubled; 'he had -great vomitings, continuing with increasing violence till his death,' -which occurred at Paris, whither he had himself transported in order to -secure the services of the best physicians, and whither his daughter had -not failed to accompany him. Madeleine de Brinvilliers confessed -afterwards that she had poisoned her father twenty-eight or thirty times -with her own hands, and at other times by the hands of a lackey named -Gascon, presented to her by Sainte-Croix. The poison was given both in -water and in powder, and the process lasted eight months. 'She could not -manage it,' she said. It is clear that the poison she employed was -simply arsenic. When in the course of time the facts were known, all -Europe clamoured with indignation at the thought of this woman heaping -caresses on her dying father, and responding to his embraces by pouring -poison into the medicines she handed him with her engaging smile. 'The -greatest crimes,' said Madame de Sevigne, 'are a mere trifle in -comparison with being eight months poisoning her father and receiving -all his caresses and tendernesses, to which she replied by doubling the -dose. Medea was nothing to her.' - -D'Aubray died at Paris on September 10, 1666, aged sixty-six years. The -physicians who made an autopsy of the body attributed death to natural -causes; but the rumour at once got abroad that he had died of poison. -The elder brother of the marquise, whose name was the same as his -father's, succeeded him in the family estates and the office of civil -lieutenant. - -Delivered thus from a formidable censor, Madame de Brinvilliers no -longer put any restraint on her debaucheries. She had several lovers at -once, in addition to Sainte-Croix. By him she had 'two children among -her own'; she was the mistress of F. de Pouget, Marquis de Nadaillac, -captain of light horse, and cousin of her husband. Another lover was a -cousin of her own, by whom she had a child. Finally, she granted her -favours to a mere youth, her children's tutor, of whom there will be -much more to say. In spite of this, she felt keenly irritated when -Sainte-Croix appeared to be unfaithful to her; and when she learnt that -her husband was keeping a woman named Dufay, in her rage she thought of -stabbing her. 'She had naturally a great delicacy of feeling,' her -confessor was to write of her, 'and was highly sensitive on a point of -honour and in regard to injuries.' - -Her expenses and prodigalities redoubled, and it was not long before her -share of her father's wealth had melted away. At this point occurs an -incident which bears witness at once to the distress into which she had -fallen and to the savage energy of her character. In 1670, a property -belonging to herself and her husband at Norat, was sold by order of the -Court to satisfy their creditors; in her ungovernable fury the marquise -attempted to set the place on fire. - -The greater part of her father's estate had come to her two brothers, -one of whom had been appointed civil lieutenant, as we have seen; the -other was councillor to the Court. Madame de Brinvilliers had already -tried to procure the assassination of the elder by two hired bravoes on -the road to Orleans--one of those audacious strokes which to the end of -her days she never ceased to devise. She declared at this moment that -her brother was 'no good.' Pressed by need of money, she 'resolved on -fresh poisonings so as not to lose the fruits of the first.' -Sainte-Croix was fully agreed as to the necessity of the proceedings; -but before he set about carrying them into effect he got from his -mistress two promissory notes, one for 25,000, the other for 30,000 -livres. - -In 1669, Madame de Brinvilliers succeeded in introducing a wretch named -Jean Hamelin, commonly known as La Chaussee, into her brother the -councillor's household as a footman. The two brothers lived in the same -house, and La Chaussee had every facility for giving poison to both. One -day when he was waiting at table, the dose he put into the glass he was -handing was so strong that the civil lieutenant rose up in great -agitation, crying, 'Ah, wretch, what have you given me? I think you want -to poison me!' And he bade his secretary taste the stuff. The latter -took some on a spoon and declared that he detected a strong taste of -vitriol. La Chaussee did not lose his head. 'No doubt it is the glass -Lacroix (the valet) used this morning,' he said, 'when he took -medicine.' And he hastily threw the contents of the glass into the fire. - -The civil lieutenant went to his estate at Villequoy in Beauce, to spend -Easter with his family. In 1670 Easter fell on April 6. His brother the -councillor made one of the party, and took La Chaussee with him as his -only attendant. While they stayed at Villequoy La Chaussee helped in the -kitchen. One day a tart came to table, of which all who ate were very -ill on the morrow, while the others remained quite well. On April 12 -they returned to Paris, and the civil lieutenant had the appearance of a -man who had suffered great pain. - -The details of the poisoning are horrible. As D'Aubray did his best to -restore his health, the poison did not take effect so quickly as usual; -he was very difficult to kill. La Chaussee, assiduous in his attentions, -gave his master poison at every possible opportunity. His body was so -offensive during his illness that it was impossible to remain in the -room with him; and he was so irritable that no one could approach him. -Madame de Brinvilliers rarely showed herself, but sent her pious sister -to take her place. Meanwhile La Chaussee was unremitting in his care; no -one but him could change the bedclothes or the mattress. The unhappy man -suffered unspeakable torture. La Chaussee could not help exclaiming: -'This fellow holds out well! He's giving us a good deal of trouble! I -don't know when he will give up the ghost!' - -Madame de Brinvilliers was at Sains in Picardy. She told Briancourt, the -tutor who had become her lover, that the poisoning of her brother the -councillor was in progress. She explained to him that she wanted to set -up 'a good house'; that her eldest son, who was already nicknamed the -President, would one day fill the post of civil lieutenant, and added -that 'there was still a good deal to be done.' These sentiments were -sincere. Madame de Brinvilliers endeavoured to bring up and establish -her children--'who were her own flesh,' as she said--in conformity with -the brilliant dreams she nourished for the future of her 'house.' True, -she began to poison her eldest daughter, but that was because she -thought her a ninny. She was seized with regret, however, and made her -drink milk as an antidote. - -Such was one of her dominant preoccupations. To this must be added her -longing to live with 'honour,' that is, with a brilliant household, with -beautiful ornaments, keeping up a great style, and entertaining her -lovers with magnificence. She longed for 'the glory of the world,' a -phrase continually on her lips. It was for 'honour' that she poisoned so -many people. Such was her own statement. - -The martyrdom of her brother the civil lieutenant lasted three months. -'He grew thin,' declares his physician, 'and emaciated; lost his -appetite, often vomited, and had burning pains in the stomach.' He died -on June 17, 1670. The councillor died in the following September. In -this case, Dr. Bachot, the civil lieutenant's usual attendant, along -with surgeons Duvaux and Dupre and the apothecary Gavart, declared -after an autopsy that the deceased had been poisoned; but so little were -the perpetrators of the crime suspected that La Chaussee drew a hundred -crowns left him by his master as a reward for his faithful service. - - * * * * * - -We must follow the career of the marquise after the poisoning of her -father and brothers, to understand to what depths her ill-regulated -passion had thrown this woman, who belonged to the highest ranks of -society by her name, her fortune, and the position of her family, and -who was so charmingly endowed by Nature. - -She was at the mercy of a lackey, who held her honour and her life in -his miserable hands. 'She used to receive him privately in her -sitting-room, where she gave him money, saying, "He is a good fellow, -and has done me great service"; and she caressed him.' Visitors coming -upon her unawares found the marquise 'in great familiarity with La -Chaussee,' and 'she made him hide behind her bed when the Sieur Couste -came to see her.' - -Sainte-Croix was a more formidable accomplice. What must have been the -agony of this proud and passionate woman when she understood little by -little that this man, to whom she had sacrificed everything, had seen in -her only an instrument of his own pleasure and fortune, and now profited -by his mastery of her secrets to squeeze money out of her by the most -vulgar methods of intimidation! Sainte-Croix had locked up in a small -box, which was to become famous, the letters, thirty-four in number, -sent him by the marchioness, the two promissory notes signed by her -after the murder of her father and brothers, and several bottles of -poison. 'The said Lady Brinvilliers coaxed Sainte-Croix to give her his -box, and wished him to give her her note for two or three thousand -pistoles; otherwise she would have him poniarded.' The woman speaks out -in this last phrase. At other times, desperate, frantic with terror, she -thought of poisoning herself. She implored Sainte-Croix to give her the -box, and when she received no answer, sent him this touching note: 'I -have thought it best to put an end to my life, and I have therefore -taken this evening what you gave me at so dear a price--the recipe of -Glaser; by which you will see that I have willingly sacrificed my life -to you; but I do not promise you, before I die, that I will not await -you somewhere to bid you a last farewell.' In the last line she becomes -herself again; there you have the menace of the offended woman. - -What scenes for a romancer to write! One day, by way of reply to these -cries of blood, Sainte-Croix made her swallow poison. It was arsenic; -but the pain she felt warned her immediately, and she absorbed great -quantities of warm milk and so saved herself. She was ill from the -effects for several months. She declared after the death of Sainte-Croix -'that she had done what she could to get the box from him while he was -alive, and if she had succeeded, she would afterwards have cut his -throat.' - -Like all criminals, Madame de Brinvilliers was dominated by the -unconquerable impulse to lead the conversation continually to the -subject of her crimes. She would talk about poisons to any one she met. -Her servants found bottles of arsenic in her dressing-room. One day, -when very merry--she had taken too much wine--she went up to her room -carrying a sort of casket in her hand, and meeting one of her servants -told her 'that she had the wherewithal to wreak vengeance on her -enemies, and that there were many inheritances in that box'--a terrible -phrase which was repeated at her trial and became a catchword; poison -was called afterwards 'powder of inheritance.' 'When she came to her -senses shortly afterwards the marquise told her servant that she did not -know what she was saying when she spoke of inheritances, and that her -troubles were sending her out of her mind.' She fancied that she had -also betrayed herself before her maid, Mademoiselle de Villeray, and it -is possible that in 1673, to secure her silence, she poisoned her too. - -Little by little she came to reveal her crimes in all their details to -Briancourt. In the course of her conversations with him, she displayed -no regret at the death of her brothers, whom she despised, but she often -wept when speaking of her father. 'On the morning after one of these -confidences,' said Briancourt before the judges, 'the Marquise de -Brinvilliers rushed into my room like a madwoman, and told me that she -much mistrusted me, having confided to me matters of the utmost -consequence, in which her life was involved. I told her that I would -never speak of the things confided to me, but I begged her, with tears -in my eyes, that if she was not satisfied with my conduct she would -allow me to return to Paris. The lady replied: "No, no,--if you will -only be discreet; I will make your fortune, and I am sure of your -discretion." About the same time the lady fetched Sainte-Croix back, and -they held long conversations together. He showed me the greatest marks -of friendliness, assuring me of his services, and begged me to watch -over the little boy, of whom he was fond.' We know by Madame de -Brinvilliers' own confession that this little boy was actually -Sainte-Croix' child. - -This deposition of Briancourt constitutes one of the most curious -documents in our possession. This man was well disposed and at heart -upright, but lacked backbone. His terrible mistress ruled and awed him. -Yet he had flashes of that boldness into which feeble natures are -occasionally drawn. After having poisoned her father and brothers the -marquise had still to get rid of her sister, Therese d'Aubray, and her -sister-in-law, Marie Therese Mangot, widow of the civil lieutenant. That -is what 'remained to be done.' 'Seeing the imminent peril of -Mademoiselle d'Aubray and even of Madame d'Aubray (though the widow's -danger was not so near as the younger lady's), and because La Chaussee -had not yet entered the house of Madame d'Aubray, and Madame de -Brinvilliers said that she wished the widow's business to be managed in -two months or not at all, he (Briancourt) begged the marquise to take -care what she was at, said that she had cruelly put her father and -brothers to death and wished to do the same with her sister; that he had -never come upon an example of such cruelty in all the annals of -antiquity, and that she was the cruelest and wickedest woman that ever -had been or would be; that he begged her to reflect on what she meant to -do, and to remember how that wretch Sainte-Croix had ruined her and her -family; that he saw no safety for her, but sooner or later she would -perish; that he himself would never allow the murder of Mademoiselle -d'Aubray, even though she had once written to Madame de Brinvilliers a -letter in which she accused him of being a rogue and rake.' It was -unquestionably Briancourt's attitude which saved the lives of Madame de -Brinvilliers' sister and sister-in-law; he had further warned -Mademoiselle d'Aubray, through the marquise's maid Mademoiselle de -Villeray, to be on her guard. In her confession the marquise declared -that if she had thought of poisoning her sister it was out of hatred, by -way of revenge for remarks she had made to her about her conduct. - -Briancourt had only succeeded in diverting the peril upon himself. -Madame de Brinvilliers resolved to rid herself of a lover who responded -to her confidences by playing the censor. The customary means, poison, -was obviously the first to suggest itself. 'Sainte-Croix,' says -Briancourt, 'had introduced into the Brinvilliers household a porter -related to La Chaussee, and a lackey named Bazile, who was -extraordinarily assiduous in serving me with food and drink; but seeing -these attentions and, further, some sign of roguery in this fellow, I -handled him so roughly that Madame de Brinvilliers had to dismiss him.' - -There followed a remarkably romantic scene, as Briancourt described it -before the court. - -'Two or three days after Bazile's departure, Lady Brinvilliers told me -that she had a very handsome bed, and hangings embroidered to match; -that it was a bed which Sainte-Croix had pawned and which she had -redeemed. She had it put up in her large room, where there was a close -and wainscoted chimney-piece, and told me that I must come that night -and sleep in that bed, and that she would expect me at midnight, but -that I must not come earlier, because she had to arrange with her cook. -Instead of going down at midnight to a gallery which commanded the -windows of the room, I came down at ten o'clock, and looking through the -windows into the room, the curtains not being drawn, I saw the lady -walking up and down and dismissing all her servants.' - -We may remark in passing that this gallery still exists at the present -day in the mansion inhabited by Madame de Brinvilliers in the Rue -Neuve-Saint-Paul.[2] - -'About half-past eleven,' continues Briancourt, 'Lady Brinvilliers, -having undressed and put on her dressing-gown, took a few turns in the -room, holding a torch in her hand; then she went to the chimney-piece, -which she opened. Sainte-Croix stepped out, dressed in rags, with a -worn-out jerkin and an old hat, and kissed the lady, and for a quarter -of an hour they talked together. Then Sainte-Croix went back into the -chimney-piece, and the lady pushed its two folding-doors to, so as to -shut him in, and then came to the door, in some agitation; my own -agitation was no less. Should I enter, or should I go away? But the lady -seeing my confusion said: "What is the matter? Don't you want to come?" -I saw much rage in her countenance, which was changed in an -extraordinary degree. I went into the room, and the lady asked me if the -bed was not very fine; I said that it was, and the lady rejoined, "Let -us lie down then." Then the marquise got into bed. I had placed the -torch on a stand, and she said, "Undress yourself and put out the light -very quickly." I pretended to be undoing my shoes, desiring to know how -far the lady's cruelty would go, and she said, "What is the matter with -you? You look very solemn." Then I rose and, giving the bed a wide -berth, said to the lady: "Ah, how cruel you are! What have I done that -you want to have me murdered?" The lady sprang out of bed and flung -herself upon me from behind; but freeing myself, I went straight to the -chimney-piece. Sainte-Croix came out, and I said to him: "Ah, villain, -you have come to stick a knife into me!" and as the torch was burning, -Sainte-Croix made to flee, while Lady Brinvilliers rolled on the floor -declaring that she would live no longer, but die; at the same time she -sought her case of poisons, opened it, and was on the point of taking -poison. I prevented her and said, "You wanted to get me poisoned by -Bazile, and now you want to get me stabbed by Sainte-Croix." The lady -threw herself at my feet, declaring that such had not happened to me and -would never happen, and that she would pay with her death for what she -had just done--that she saw clearly that it was all up with her and that -she could not survive such an occurrence. I told her that I would -forgive her and forget all about what she had done, but that I was -determined to go away in the morning, since they wanted to get rid of -me, and I made the lady promise that she would not poison herself. I -remained in the room until six o'clock in the morning with the lady, -whom I compelled to go back to bed, I remaining on a sofa beside the bed -near her.' - -After this scene, Briancourt at once set about procuring pistols, -deeming them necessary to his safety; then he went to ask the advice of -Monsieur Bocager, a professor of the law school, who had introduced him -to Madame de Brinvilliers. - -From the first day he saw the terrible marchioness, Briancourt had -advanced from surprise to surprise; but his greatest astonishment -awaited him in the study of the law professor. The young man said to -him, 'Sir, I have a great secret to communicate to you; I think that you -will give me good advice, and that you will tell the first president, -whom you often see, what is going on, so that he may take the proper -steps.' The professor's discomposure was evident in his features, and he -leaned back uncomfortably in his chair. 'Monsieur Bocager turned very -pale, and said nothing, except that I must keep my secret and not speak -about it to the cure of St. Paul or any one else. He assured me that he -would see to everything, and that I ought not to leave the Brinvilliers' -house so soon, but wait some time, while he sought some new employment -for me.' Briancourt asked himself whether all that he heard and saw were -real events in a real world. How far had this terrible woman been to -seek her accomplices? How far had she pushed her crimes? - -'Two days afterwards,' continues Briancourt, 'the marquise told me that -Monsieur Bocager was not so upright a man as I imagined, as I should see -some day. And as I was passing down the street in the evening, just -opposite St. Paul's, two pistol-shots were fired at me, without my being -able to tell whence they came, and one of them pierced my coat. Seeing -that I was marked down, I went next day to Sainte-Croix' house, carrying -two pistols, having left a man at the street door to see that it -remained open. I told Sainte-Croix that he was a villain and a -scoundrel, that he would be broken on the wheel, and that he had caused -the death of several people of quality. He declared that he had never -caused anybody's death, but that if I would go behind the Hopital -General with pistols he would give me every kind of satisfaction; to -which I replied that I was not a soldier, but that if I were attacked I -should defend myself.' - -Such was the strange existence of the poor bachelor in theology, tutor -to the children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers. In his fear of poison he -was continually swallowing some nostrum or other by way of antidote. - -The marquis himself lived in equal terror. He knew what was going on, -and took things philosophically. Here is a sketch of a dinner at his -house. 'The marchioness put Sainte-Croix on her right; the marquis was -at the sideboard end of the table. The latter was very carefully served -by a domestic specially attached to his person, to whom he always said: -"Don't change my glass, but rinse it every time you give me anything to -drink."' When the evening was over, the marquis retired to his room; -Sainte-Croix and the marchioness went to the lady's room, and Briancourt -went upstairs with the children. With the horrors of crime there were -thus mingled scenes of burlesque. - -Accommodating as her husband was, the marchioness began to poison him; -then, struck with remorse, she called in to attend him one of the most -famous physicians of the time, Dr. Brayer. - -'She wished to marry Sainte-Croix,' writes Madame de Sevigne, 'and with -that intention often gave her husband poison. Sainte-Croix, not anxious -to have so evil a woman as his wife, gave counter-poisons to the poor -husband, with the result that, shuttlecocked about like this five or six -times, now poisoned, now unpoisoned, he still remained alive.' -Brinvilliers emerged from this violent treatment with a weakness in the -legs. Afterwards he always carried theriac about with him, that being -regarded as an antidote; he took it from time to time, and gave doses to -his people. - -Briancourt, however, succeeded in escaping from the service of his -formidable mistress, and, under the baleful impression of what he had -seen in the world, he retired to Aubervilliers, where he lived in -solitude, giving lessons in the establishment of the Fathers of the -Oratory there. Seven or eight months had passed when the marchioness -came to see him; then she sent from time to time to ask how he was -doing. It was at Aubervilliers that one evening, on July 31, 1672, he -received from his late mistress a very urgent note, begging him to go -immediately to Picpus, where she had an important communication to make -to him. There had just happened an event which was to entail -incalculable consequences: on July 30 Sainte-Croix died in his -mysterious dwelling in the cul-de-sac of the Place Maubert. - -A widespread legend makes Sainte-Croix' death the result of a chemical -experiment; it is said that the glass mask with which he covered his -face to protect it from the poisonous vapours had broken. But he really -died a natural death after an illness of some months, in the course of -which he was visited by several persons who have left their testimony in -regard to the matter. In the legendary laboratory of the cul-de-sac -there was found indeed a furnace of 'digestion.' Sainte-Croix -'philosophised' there, that is, worked at the philosopher's stone, and -more particularly at solidifying mercury, that eternal dream of the -alchemists. - -Madame de Brinvilliers soon learned of the death of her lover. Her first -cry was, 'The little box!' - - - - -II. HER TRIAL - - -Sainte-Croix died overwhelmed in debt. His things were all put under -seal. The seals were raised on August 8, 1672, by Commissary Picard, -assisted by a sergeant named Creuillebois, two notaries, the agent of -the widow, and an agent of the creditors. The three first meetings had -passed without incident when a Carmelite monk who was present handed to -the commissary the key of the private room in which the furnace was -kept. Entering, they saw on the table a rolled-up paper bearing the -words, 'My confession.' The persons present decided without hesitation -to keep the paper secret, and to burn it on the spot. They found, -further, at the end of a shelf, a small box, oblong in shape and red in -colour, from which hung a key. It contained some phials, some of which -were filled with a clear liquid like water, others with a liquid of -reddish colour; and in addition, there were the letters addressed by -Madame de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix, the two promissory notes signed -by the marchioness after the poisoning of her father and brothers, and a -receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 livres lent by -Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, to Monsieur and Madame de -Brinvilliers through the agency of Sainte-Croix. These two last papers -were in a sealed envelope on which was written: 'Papers to be restored -to the Sieur Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, as belonging to -him; and I humbly beg those into whose hands they fall, to be good -enough to return them to him at my death, they being of no consequence -except to him alone.' - -Sainte-Croix had addressed the little box, with its contents, to Madame -de Brinvilliers in these terms: 'I humbly beg those into whose hands -this box falls to do me the favour to return it into the hands of the -Marquise de Brinvilliers, who lives in Rue Neuve-Saint-Paul, since all -that it contains concerns her and belongs to her alone, and moreover it -is of no use to anybody in the world but herself; and in case she dies -before I do, to burn it, and all that is in it, without opening it or -meddling with it; and so that no one may pretend ignorance, I swear by -the God I adore, and all that is most holy, that I state nothing but the -truth. If perchance any one contravenes my intentions, just and -reasonable as they are, I charge it in this world and the next upon his -conscience, for discharge of my own, and declare that this is my last -will. Made at Paris, afternoon, May 25, 1670. _Signed_: Sainte-Croix.' -Below were these words: 'There is a single packet addressed to Monsieur -Pennautier, which is to be given to him.' The very energy of these -formulae impressed Commissary Picard. He sealed up the case and confided -it to the care of two sergeants, Cluet and Creuillebois, so that the -inventory might be made by the civil lieutenant in person. Sergeant -Creuillebois took the box home. - -It was Sainte-Croix' widow who on August 8--that is, the day when the -box was discovered--sent word to Madame de Brinvilliers at Picpus that -things belonging to her were under seal. The marchioness instantly sent -some one to find the box. As that was no longer in Sainte-Croix' house, -a servant was sent off to Commissary Picard to tell him that Madame de -Brinvilliers desired to speak to him without delay. Picard answered that -he was busy. The marchioness, however, herself hurried to Madame de -Sainte-Croix, insisting on the box being given to her. It was nine -o'clock at night. 'She complained of its having been sealed up, offered -money to obtain it, proposed to break the seals in order to take out -what was inside, and to substitute something else.' But the box had been -taken away. 'It's very amusing,' she said, 'for Commissary Picard to -carry off a box that belongs to me!' She got some one to take her to -Sergeant Cluet, whom she made come down, so that she might speak to him -from her carriage. 'The lady told him that Pennautier had come to her, -and told her that he was anxious about the box, and would give fifty -golden louis to have what was in it. She also said that all that was in -the said box concerned Pennautier and herself, and that they had done -everything in concert.' We see here the first step in a manoeuvre -which Madame de Brinvilliers afterwards developed. Knowing that several -of the papers in the box concerned Pennautier, she sought to link her -cause with the financier's, speculating on his high position and -influence. - -Cluet answered that he could do nothing without the commissary. -Accordingly the marchioness hurried off to him at eleven o'clock at -night. Picard sent down word that he could not receive her till the -morning. - -In the morning, August 9, the commissary received a visitor from a -Chatelet[3] attorney named Delamarre, to whom the marchioness had -intrusted her interests. He told the commissary that the little box was -of great importance to Madame de Brinvilliers, begging him to send it -back to her, and saying 'that she would give him all she had in the -world.' 'There came also a man in black' (it was Briancourt) 'who told -him that the marchioness would give him anything he could wish for.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers understood that the box was not to be given up, -and made preparations for flight. 'Delamarre, her attorney, repaired to -Picpus at ten o'clock at night and carried off her principal furniture, -which was even thrown hastily out of the windows.' The marchioness, -however, sent for Cluet and Creuillebois to come to Picpus. She changed -the line of her defence, and told Creuillebois that 'Sainte-Croix was -clever enough to have forged the letters, but that she would find a way -out, and had good friends.' To Madame de Sainte-Croix, who also went to -Picpus, she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could -only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sainte-Croix for a long -time, that these were forged letters, and that she had a complete -justification. She went on, in order to spread it abroad that her -interests were connected with those of Pennautier: 'If it trickles on -me, it will rain on Pennautier.' She said to the wife of a Chatelet -clerk named Fausset, who spoke to her of the rumours of poisoning that -were already going about. 'There is nothing in it: it will blow over; -there is a man accused with me who will give four or six thousand livres -to arrange matters,' adding that 'he was not of high rank, but was very -rich.' - -The seals placed on the box were raised by the civil lieutenant on -August 11. Madame de Brinvilliers was represented by her attorney, who -made the following declaration: 'That if there was found a promise -signed by Lady Brinvilliers for the sum of 30,000 livres, it was a -document obtained from her by fraud, against which, in case the -signature proved genuine, she intended to appeal, in order to have it -declared null and void.' - -The liquids and the powder contained in the chest were tested on -animals, death being the result. Experts decided that they contained -poison, but could not determine its nature. The general belief was that -it was arsenic. - -Madame de Brinvilliers and Pennautier were soon the engrossing topic of -conversation in Paris. Fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons -found in the box, of which Madame de Sevigne made herself the sedulous -echo. - -The marchioness hastened to pay a visit to Pennautier. He was not at -home. His wife turned her out neck and crop. Pennautier responded by -taking a step which did him honour: he went to Picpus to see Madame de -Brinvilliers. Asked later, after his arrest, what was his motive in -going to Picpus, he replied that, not believing Madame de Brinvilliers -guilty of such a crime, he went to pay her his respects, as is usual on -such occasions. Speaking of this step of his, his enemies wrote: -'Actuated by a sentiment of courtesy, he neglected his most obvious -interests, in which life, honour, and fortune were at stake; his -excessive politeness made him forgetful of all his interests. What a -rare and marvellous character! How free from thoughts of self!' These -lines, written with ironical intention, really express the truth. Not -long before, Monsieur and Madame de Brinvilliers had done Pennautier a -great service in a moment of difficulty by the loan of 30,000 livres; -and he seized the opportunity to show that he had not forgotten their -kindness. - -P. L. Reich de Pennautier--Pennautier was the name of an estate in the -neighbourhood of Carcassonne--though scarcely thirty-five years old, had -already made an enormous fortune. His two appointments as -receiver-general for the clergy and treasurer of the Languedoc Exchange -brought him in hundreds of thousands of francs annually. He was one of -the most active and intelligent of Colbert's lieutenants. On such -questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacture of fine cloth, -the Languedoc canal, the purchase of Greek MSS. in the Levant, the -draining of the fens of Aigues-Mortes, the name of Pennautier is linked -with that of Colbert in enterprises of the utmost utility 'From a petty -cashier,' says Saint-Simon, 'Pennautier became treasurer of the clergy -and treasurer of the States of Languedoc, and enormously rich. He was a -tall and well-made man, with a gallant and dignified air, courteous and -eminently obliging; he had plenty of intelligence, and had many -connections in society. - -On August 22 the civil lieutenant summoned Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier to appear at the examination of the documents found in the -box. Pennautier was in the country; the marchioness was represented by -her attorney, who repeated his protests. A third personage appeared on -the scene, namely, La Chaussee. He fancied his audacity would save him, -and from the first had opposed the sealing of the house, on the ground -that he had deposited with the deceased, in whose service he had been -for seven years, 200 pistoles and 100 silver crowns which should be, he -said, behind the window of the study in a bag, with a note proving that -the money belonged to him. He claimed also a number of papers, which he -described. The knowledge that La Chaussee displayed of Sainte-Croix' -laboratory awakened suspicion. When Commissary Picard told the whilom -valet that the confiscated box had just been opened, he stood petrified -with confusion for a moment, then fled precipitately, leaving the -commissary in open-eyed amazement. The same day he left Gaussin, a -bath-proprietor whose service he had entered, and, concealing himself -during the day, roamed about Paris at night-time till he was arrested on -September 4 at six o'clock in the morning by a police officer named -Thomas Regnier. La Chaussee was very crestfallen as he walked down the -street. - -From that moment the gravest suspicions were entertained against Madame -de Brinvilliers, but there was a reluctance to arrest her because of her -rank. Regnier repaired to Picpus and told her bluntly that he had found -La Chaussee, and that he had learned a good many things from the -commissary. The marchioness blushed. 'What is it, madam? You say -nothing?' But the lady, changing the subject, asked him to escort her to -mass. When they returned, she spoke to him again about the box. She -seemed a prey to uneasiness. 'But madam,' said Regnier, 'surely you are -not mixed up in this business?' 'Why should I be?' she replied. 'That -villain La Chaussee, when with Commissary Picard, must have said -something against you, and would say it again if he was captured.' 'It -would be well to take the villain to Picardy,' said the marchioness. -She said also that she had long been pressing Sainte-Croix to return the -box, and that Pennautier was involved with herself in the matter. -Regnier left Madame de Brinvilliers and went to find Briancourt at -Vertus. He told him, to begin with, that he had arrested La Chaussee, -and Briancourt exclaimed, 'Then she is a lost woman!' He went on to -speak of the poison which she had often talked about, and said that she -had several sorts of it in her house. - -Meanwhile Madame Antoine d'Aubray, widow of the last civil lieutenant -and sister-in-law of the marchioness, had learned what was going -on--that her husband had actually died of poison as the doctors had -suspected. Hastening to Paris, she presented a petition to the Chatelet -on September 10, and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for -damages against La Chaussee and Madame de Brinvilliers. The latter had -just fled to England, with no other attendant than a kitchenmaid. All -suspicions were at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussee heard -before the Chatelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing -the defendant to the preliminary torture, _manentibus indiciis_. If the -wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the -salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d'Aubray made a -passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring -to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully -sustained, and that it was not permissible to have recourse to a -preliminary dubious in itself and one that might snatch the criminals -from due punishment. The case was reopened at the Tournelle.[5] In spite -of a skilful defence, La Chaussee was condemned to death on March 24, -1673. The sentence set forth that he was convicted of poisoning, and -condemned to be broken alive on the wheel after being put to the -'question ordinary and extraordinary,' and that Madame de Brinvilliers -was to be beheaded for contempt of court. - -When submitted to torture, La Chaussee displayed uncommon courage and -denied everything. The mode of torture adopted was that of the boot. -The legs of the condemned man were placed between boards, which were -driven by degrees closer together by the introduction of eight wedges in -succession, the legs being thus horribly mangled. Released from the -machine, he was carried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and -refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussee -voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy's -tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. 'What -accuser,' says La Reynie, 'would have been listened to for a moment if -God had not permitted the capture of this valet, whom the first judges -could not condemn for want of proof, but whom the Parlement condemned on -conjectures and strong presumptions; and if God had not touched the -heart of this wretch, who, after having suffered torture in absolute -silence, confessed his crimes a moment before being executed?' La -Chaussee was broken on the wheel the same day. - - * * * * * - -Taking refuge in London, the marchioness led a wretched existence, in -distress which she found insupportable, and a prey to incessant fears. - -Louis XIV had from the first taken a very strong personal interest in -this case. It was his sincere desire that the investigation should be -made as complete and luminous as possible, and he was determined to -follow up and strike at all the accomplices, however high they were -placed. The Secretaries of State had not awaited the declarations made -by La Chaussee on May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government -to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several -letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de -Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles II. The king of -England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not -allow the arrest to be made by English officers; that would have to be -undertaken by France. Croissy was highly embarrassed. The embassy was -not provided with tools for such jobs. Colbert insisted, and at length -the ambassador was on the point of winning Charles's consent to the -employment of English police, when Madame de Brinvilliers, taking -fright, quitted England for the Netherlands. - -Meanwhile her husband, this amazing Marquis de Brinvilliers, had quietly -taken up his abode, with his children and domestics, in the chateau of -Offemont, belonging to the estate of his father-in-law and two -brothers-in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of -the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two _lettres de -cachet_ had been signed by Louis XIV, bearing date February 22 and March -31, 1674, ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within -three leagues of it, that he decided to allow the widow of the civil -lieutenant to enter upon the enjoyment of her own property. - -We have very little information on the life of the marchioness between -her departure from London and her arrest on March 25, 1676, at Liege in -a convent where she had taken shelter. She had gone from London to the -Netherlands, then into Picardy, the country conquered by King Louis, -thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent, but -was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she -fled to Antwerp, then to Liege. She had nothing to support her but an -annuity of 500 livres, which fell to 250 on the death of her sister; she -was sometimes 'reduced to borrowing a crown.' While at Cambrai, she -appears to have sent asking her husband to join her there; his answer -was, 'She would poison me like the rest.' - -It came to the ears of Louvois that Madame de Brinvilliers was in hiding -at Liege. He at once despatched Desgrez, the captain of police, a man of -tried ability. Desgrez was instructed to make all speed, for the French -troops then in possession of Liege were on the point of handing over the -town to the Spaniards. Michelet and the majority of historians have -woven the arrest of the marchioness into a romance. Desgrez, a handsome -fellow, disguises himself as a courtly abbe, and wins a warm welcome -from the lady, always eager for gallant adventures: at the rendezvous, -the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of -archers. As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest -manner, 'on the last day,' writes La Reynie, 'that the king's authority -was recognised in the town of Liege.' It was not even Desgrez who -carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a -former clerk of Fouquet's named Bruant, otherwise Descarrieres. 'The -burgomasters,' wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, 'have behaved so -well that they confided to me their master-key to go and arrest this -lady, without wanting to know why it was to be done.' Next day, March -26, Descarrieres wrote again to Louvois: 'I arranged that the detective -(Desgrez) should be present as privy to the capture'; he informed him -also that a small box was seized on the lady's person, at which 'she -appeared much agitated, and at first told mayor Goffin that her -confession was in the casket,' begging him to have it restored to her. -Descarrieres sealed the box with his own seal and that of Desgrez. - -La Reynie says upon this subject: 'It was God who ordained that this -wretched woman, who fled from kingdom to kingdom, should be careful to -write and carry with her the proofs necessary to her condemnation.' This -confession, in which the marchioness recalls in a few pages all the -crimes of her life, was published by Armand Fouquier; but its flavour is -so strong that the editor was not able to reproduce the original text, -but had to translate the principal passages into Latin. - -From Liege the marchioness was led under guard to Maestricht, where she -arrived on March 29; she was there locked up, and rigorously watched in -the town hall. Immediately after her arrest, the prisoner tried to -commit suicide by swallowing the fragments of a glass which she had -broken between her teeth. She swallowed pins, too, but did not succeed -in killing herself. Resne, one of the sentries, vigorously abused her: -'You are a wicked woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of -your family, you want to do away with yourself!' She answered, 'If I did -so, it was under evil counsel.' On another occasion Desgrez was informed -that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible -fashion. 'Ah, you wretch!' he cried. 'I see that you want to do for -yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!' She replied: 'If I had -only had good advice! We often have our evil moments.' The archers who -guarded her during her journey from Liege to Paris gave the judges a -description of this third attempt at suicide which it is impossible to -reproduce. The following is a note from Emmanuel de Coulanges, forwarded -by Madame de Sevigne to Madame de Grignan: 'She stuck a stick into -herself; guess where: it was not in her eye, nor her mouth, nor her ear, -nor her nose, nor was she absolutely brutal.' - -During the journey Madame de Brinvilliers was escorted by the Marshal -d'Estrades in person as far as Huy, and from Huy to Rocroi by the troops -of Monsieur de Montal. The prisoner's character displayed itself in all -its untamed energy. Locked up at Maestricht, she suggested to Antoine -Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a -gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for -her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand pistoles. At other -times she urged him to help her throttle Desgrez, kill the _valet de -chambre_, detach the two leading horses from the coach, take the -documents, the casket with her confession, and another important paper, -and burn them all, for which purpose he was to carry a lighted match. - -She wrote to former servants who remained faithful to her, and actually -succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for they endeavoured to -rescue her, and tried to bribe her guardians. - -She persisted in the plan she had devised in regard to the accusation -under which Pennautier lay. She asked Barbier for ink to write to him; -he gave her some, and feigned to have despatched the letter. And when he -asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, 'Yes, yes,' she replied, -'and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.' Another time -she said: 'He must be much more frightened than I am. I have been -questioned about him, but I have said nothing, and have too much feeling -to charge him: half of the aristocracy are involved too, and I should -ruin them all if I spoke.' This she repeated several times. - -At Mezieres the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement -counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first -interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sevigne, wrote to -Madame de Grignan: 'The king has required the Parlement to depute -Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to -interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don't wish to wait till she -arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.' - -The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is -dated Mezieres, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic -denials. - -'Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she -set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written -such things she was out of her mind. - -'Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said -she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it. - -'Asked if she had not poisoned her father and brothers, she said she -knew nothing about it. - -'Asked if it was not La Chaussee who had poisoned her brothers, she said -she knew nothing of all that. - -'Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom -she had written them; she said she did not remember. - -'Asked why she wrote to Theria to secure the box, she said she did not -know what that was. - -'Asked why, in writing to Theria, she said she was lost if he did not -get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.' - -The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival -in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer -Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he -carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges. - -On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:-- - -'I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this -business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional -obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean -this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people -who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. -I think it would be much to the purpose if you did not show yourself too -much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor -severely examined me about you at Mezieres.' - -There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the 'Bernardins -widow,' that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des -Bernardins. - -Madame de Brinvilliers disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in -regard to Pennautier. 'I do not know at all,' she said on the night -before her death, 'that Monsieur Pennautier ever had any communication -with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and I could not accuse him without -betraying my conscience. But as a note concerning him was found in the -box, and as I saw him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their -friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in -this suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, -running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing -thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, -Monsieur Pennautier will believe that I must know the secret, -considering the step I am taking, and that will induce him to exert -himself on my behalf as much as on his own, for fear lest I accuse him; -and if he is innocent, my letter is waste labour. I risk nothing but the -indignation of a person who would be careful not to stand up for me, nor -to render me any service if I had written him nothing.' - -The letters of the prisoner increased the suspicions against Pennautier -to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky -functionary, and he was shut up in the Conciergerie in the same room -that Ravaillac[6] had occupied. - - * * * * * - -Marie Vosser, widow of Hannyvel de Saint-Laurent, Pennautier's -predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy, was striving to -arouse public opinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having -poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an -office of considerable emolument. She overwhelmed him with affidavits -drawn up by Vautier, one of the best advocates in Paris. These damaging -documents were in everybody's hands. - -The rapidly acquired wealth of Pennautier, far from protecting him in -the opinion of the public, had raised up a thousand enemies who -diligently spread false reports about him. The people regarded his -influence and wealth with amazement, the nobility with envy. On the -other hand, Pennautier, like Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a -circumstance which does honour to the time. 'It is wonderful,' says -Saint-Simon, 'how many of the most notable men are working on his -behalf.' This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the -recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed Fouquet's friends was -present to every mind. The Cardinal de Bonsy, the Duke de Verneuil, the -Archbishop of Paris, Harlay de Champvallon, and Colbert were among the -most active. The judges, who were suspected by Louis XIV himself of -having been corrupted, gave proof of an admirable independence. - -Pennautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on -June 15, 1676, when the police made a sudden raid upon his room. What he -had written was as follows:--'I think that, for our friend, a stay of a -month in the country will suffice....' Startled by this sudden -interruption, Pennautier nervously put this note in his mouth as though -to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which -the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had -entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of -convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the -pamphlets of Sainte-Croix' widow, he established incontestably the -falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to -base their accusations. These latter found themselves reduced to -maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the -seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix' place had been falsified. - -'I am accused of having poisoned Saint-Laurent,' added Pennautier; 'but -has it been so much as proved that he died of poison? It is at least -singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for -the reports of the doctors, as well as the circumstances under which he -died, prove that his death was natural.' - -The close of Pennautier's reply was crushing for his accuser. He pointed -out that Madame de Saint-Laurent had waited six years before bringing -her case into court. How was that silence explained? Saint-Laurent being -dead, Pennautier was appointed to his office of receiver-general for the -clergy. 'Saint-Laurent's wife gave him her nomination on June 12, 1669; -the same day they drew up a sort of contract together, by which the lady -reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 -pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the -right to return to this office, in accordance with the deed of -defeasance given him by Saint-Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette -resigned that office in his favour on March 17, 1669. The dame de -Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the -office until the last day of December 1675, when the agreement -terminated; and if Pennautier had been willing to renew the agreement -with her, when the general assembly of the clergy did him the honour to -elect him receiver-general for ten years, which will end on the last day -of December 1685, those who know the dame de Saint-Laurent are convinced -that she would never have accused Pennautier of poisoning the Sieur de -Saint-Laurent her husband.' - -We have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important -part played by Pennautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in -France under the direction of Colbert. - - * * * * * - -Nothing was talked about in Paris but Madame de Brinvilliers and -Pennautier--'a grave injustice to the war,' as Madame de Sevigne said. - -Through the privilege of nobility, Madame de Brinvilliers was brought -before the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom--the High Court and -the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested a counsel to assist her in -her defence, but the request was refused, at least provisionally. - -The court was presided over by the first president, Lamoignon. Between -April 29 and July 16, 1676, the case occupied twenty-two sittings. The -marchioness displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant -subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything -obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, -but never failed in the respect due to the judges--a respect in which -pride and nobility mingled, and which made the audience feel that she -considered herself at least the equal of the men judging her. - -When they came to read the account of the examination at Mezieres on -April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The following -is an extract from the official report of the proceedings:-- - -'At the reading of these interrogatories, the first president wished to -intervene and postpone it until after the confession had been read. -This raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was -allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as -sodomy and incest, which being on this occasion only a matter of -confession, it seemed that they should be kept a great secret; some were -for, others against. - -'Monsieur de Palluau said that, having consulted the law-doctors, he had -been told that, a confession having been found _en route_, it ought to -have been burnt under penalty, as some believed, of mortal sin. - -'Other doctors held that the said Palluau, in his capacity as judge, had -had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to -interrogate her on the aforesaid paper beginning, _I accuse myself, my -father,_ etc. - -'The first president held that the question was extremely uncertain, yet -he thought the papers ought to be read. - -'The President de Mesmes held that this sort of confession had been -utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epistle of St. Leo, -showing that the judges had made use of them. - -'Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion. - -'The first president answered that the epistle of St. Leo was utterly -opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes, and that there was -nothing for it but to resume the reading. - -'The question having been argued, the reading was continued. - -'Asked if she had not made her confession, and to whom she ought to -confess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a -confession, and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess. - -'Monsieur Roujault reported in the afternoon that he had put the -question to Monsieur Benjamin, an ecclesiastical judge, to Monsieur du -Saussoy and other casuists, and to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and -professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, -and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy of the -confessional could only be between the confessor and the penitent, and a -paper having been found purporting to be a confession, it might be read -by the judges.' - -On July 13, 1676, a terrible deposition was heard--that of Briancourt, -who related in detail his mistress's life. He spoke in a voice broken by -emotion. The marchioness contradicted him with the same cold, haughty -impassivity. 'Her spirit quite overawes us,' said President Lamoignon. -'We worked yesterday at her case till eight o'clock in the evening; she -was confronted with Briancourt for thirteen hours, and to-day another -five, and she has gone through both ordeals with surprising courage. No -one could have more respect for the judges, nor more scorn for the -witness confronting her: she taunted him with being a besotted lackey, -bundled out of the house for his disorderly conduct, and one whose -testimony should not be received against her.' But she was lost. The -marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious -punishment--the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre -Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of -torture, the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the -scaffold, the stake, the 'tomb of fire' whence the hand of the -executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The -judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at -the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes -streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: 'I warned you -many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your -crimes would ruin you,' the marchioness replied--a wonderful reply in -its pride and self-control--'You are chicken-hearted, you are crying!' -Could one find such a saying in Roman history, or in Corneille? We -prefer the bare cold version of the official minute to the version -reported by President Lamoignon to the abbe Pirot: 'She insulted -Briancourt about the tears he shed at the remembrance of the death of -her brothers, when he declared that she had made him her confidant in -regard to their poisoning, and told him that he was a villain to weep -before all these gentlemen--that it resulted from a mean spirit. All -this was said with great coolness, and without any appearance of -changing countenance during the five hours we all watched her to-day.' - -Advocate Nivelle, on whom fell the heavy task of presenting the defence -of the accused lady, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. -His defence was still renowned in the eighteenth century. It was broad -in style, and some of his phrases were of great beauty. - -'The enormity of the crimes,' he said, 'and the rank of the person -accused require proofs of the most convincing clearness, written, so to -speak, with rays of sunlight.' He went on to ask if the proofs adduced -against Madame de Brinvilliers were of this quality. He succeeded in -throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty -depositions--that of Sergeant Cluet, for instance, who was devoted body -and soul, he said, to the opposite party; to the widow d'Aubray, who -sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremest animosity. The -deposition of Edme Briscien, he maintained, should be entirely rejected, -for the witness was not confronted with the marchioness, and on that -point the rules of procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took -advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussee's declaration after -torture. The argument based on Sainte-Croix' famous box seemed to him to -have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which -Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the -marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison -bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady's letters to -Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last -to the written confession seized at Liege, Nivelle strongly protested -against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. -'The last proof,' he said, 'relates to a paper found among those of the -marchioness, in which she had written a religious confession. It is -astounding that the accusers desired the judges to read this paper, for -it was of a nature which laws human and divine hold sacred and -inviolable under the seal of secrecy and silence demanded by the rules -of one of the most august of mysteries, as I will prove by invincible -arguments.' These arguments were exhausted in a minute study of the -writings of the Church fathers and of ecclesiastical history, from which -the advocate produced numerous examples and excerpts likely to imbue the -judges with the profoundest respect for the secrecy of confession, under -whatever form it might present itself. - -Finally, Nivelle set himself to win a little sympathy, or at any rate -pity, for his client. He depicted this woman as a frail thing, of noble -birth, beautiful and sensitive by nature, a butt for several months past -to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of -archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been -deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Whitsunday had been -refused permission to hear mass. Undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed -to that revulsion of feeling in favour of the marchioness which was so -strongly marked during the last days. - -The advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the -prosecutrix: 'The accuser ought not to press hardly against the lady, -because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her -husband in the exemplary punishment of that wretched criminal (La -Chaussee) who slew him; she should rather wish that the family to which -she is allied should not be sullied with an eternal disgrace, and that -she should not incur the reproach of being wanting in natural feeling -for her nephews, whom she ought to consider as her own children. The -death of the late Messieurs d'Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if -they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that -the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they -recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would -themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing -their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would -prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in -preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish themselves -rather than to avenge them. But if they find their consolation in the -acquittal of Lady Brinvilliers; if her children--who would suffer -punishment as if they were guilty, and to whom life would become a -torture and death a consolation--find in it the preservation of the -honour of a family so notable as that from which their mother is -sprung--these wise magistrates who are to judge her will also have more -glory in giving to the public a famous example of their justice, their -piety, and their sovereign equity, by declaring her innocent.' - -On July 15, 1676, Madame de Brinvilliers appeared for the last time -before her judges for her final cross-examination, and in the course of -this long ordeal, in which for three hours her whole life was -remorselessly dissected, she did not flag for a moment. She denied -everything; she did not know what poison and antidote meant; her -pretended confession was sheer madness. 'She did not appear affected by -what the first president said, though, after he had done his part as -judge, he assumed the tone of a merciful friend, and addressed to her -words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in -some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,' -we read in a summary report of the trial, 'dwelt upon the dreadful -illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her -that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her -seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the -reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with -her. The President de Novion reminded her that her brother the civil -lieutenant had suspected other persons, and that this suspicion had -embittered his last moments. The first president told her also' (and -this is one of the most curious features of the trial for the study of -the moral ideas of the period), 'that the greatest of all her crimes, -horrible as they were, was, not the poisoning of her father and -brothers, but her attempt to poison herself. She was kept for another -half hour, but would say nothing, merely showing signs of a little -distress at heart.' - -'The first president wept bitterly,' writes the abbe Pirot, 'and all the -judges shed tears.' She alone kept her head proudly erect, and preserved -undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes. - -Taine has given in one line a marvellous definition of the character of -Racine's heroines and the art of the poet himself: 'We imagine the tears -which never appear in their beautiful eyes.' The sequel of our story -will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de -Brinvilliers in some points resembled some of Racine's heroines, and -will help to show with what exactitude the incomparable poet reproduced -the models presented him by the society of his time. - -In closing this memorable scene on July 15, President Lamoignon told the -prisoner that, out of charity and on the plea of her sister the -Carmelite nun, a person of the greatest merit and the highest virtue was -being sent to her to console her and to exhort her to think of her -soul's salvation. We are about to see coming upon the stage one of the -most interesting figures in the drama, the sympathetic abbe, Edme Pirot. - - - - -III. HER DEATH - - -Edme Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Auxerre -on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness of -Brinvilliers. His discussions with Leibnitz had made his name famous -throughout Europe. His was an ardent and sensitive soul: his heart was -torn when he came in contact with the griefs of others. 'The delicacy of -my temperament was so great,' he said, 'that I could never bear the -sight of blood, not even my own, and at one time I had turned quite -faint at the sight of a wound being dressed, and never since ventured to -come within sight of a similar operation.' He had an acute and subtle -intellect, endowed with a remarkable faculty for psychological insight. - -President Lamoignon, in appointing the abbe Pirot to attend Madame de -Brinvilliers, had given a fresh proof of his knowledge of men. He knew -that the gentle and soul-stirring words of the priest would act on the -heart of the prisoner, and perhaps obtain what all the machinery of -justice had not succeeded in achieving--the revelation of her -accomplices, the composition of her poisons and the proper antidotes to -employ. 'It is for the public interest,' said Lamoignon to the abbe -Pirot, 'that her crimes should die with her, and that she should -acquaint us with all the consequences her poison might have, so far as -she knows them; without which we should be unable to counteract them, -and her poisons would survive her.' Further, it was his earnest desire -to find in Pirot a priest whose exhortations would, at the hour of -death, touch this rebellious soul and set it on the narrow road to -salvation. - -The good abbe has described the last day of Madame de Brinvilliers -minute by minute. His story fills two volumes, one of the most -extraordinary monuments literature can show. It is written with no -regard for artistic effect: the conversations are reported at length, -with repetitions and interminably wearisome details; but the clear, -exact, and flowing style, the just and restrained expression of the -keenest passions, continually remind us of the tragedies of Racine. -_Phedre_ and the abbe Pirot's story were composed in the same year; if -the priest had given any thought to the public as he wrote, and had paid -some attention to his style and to the avoidance of repetitions and -prolixity, posterity unquestionably might well have signed both works -with the same name. - -Michelet has strikingly described the appearance of the priest in the -tower of the Conciergerie:-- - -'Quaking with terror, Pirot was ushered into the Conciergerie, and taken -to the top of the Montgommery tower; there he entered a room in which -there were four persons--two warders, a wardress, and, farthest away -from him, the monster. - -'The monster was quite a little woman, dainty, with very soft blue eyes, -marvellously beautiful. As soon as she saw Pirot, she prettily thanked a -priest who up to then had attended her, and expressed with easy grace -her absolute confidence in the learned abbe. He saw at once how much she -was loved by those who lived with her. When she spoke of her death, the -two men and the woman burst into tears. She seemed to love them too, and -was kind and gentle with them, not proud at all; she made them eat at -her table. - -'"To be sure, sir," she said to Pirot, "you are the priest that the -first president has sent to console me; it is with you that I am to -pass the little that remains of life: and I have long been impatient to -see you." - -'"I come, madam," answered Pirot, "to render you in spiritual matters -what service I can. I could wish it were in any other matter than this." - -'"Sir," she rejoined, "we must submit to everything."' - -And at that moment, turning towards an Oratorian named Father de -Chevigny, she said: 'Father, I am obliged to you for bringing this -gentleman, and for all the other visits you have been good enough to pay -me; pray God for me, I beseech you: henceforth I shall speak to scarcely -any one but the father here. I have matters to discuss with him that are -spoken of in secret. Farewell.' - -The Oratorian retired. - -Madame de Brinvilliers seems to have been won at the outset by the -affectionate expression of her confessor, and by his sincere and -sympathetic words. Judgment had not yet been pronounced. 'My death is -certain,' she said; 'I must not delude myself with hope. I have to tell -you the story of all my life.' But the conversation drifted away to what -was being said of her in society. 'I can imagine pretty well that they -are talking a good deal about me, and that I have been for some time a -byword among the people.' And her eyes flashed. - -Pirot tried to show her that, assuming she was guilty, her duty was to -disclose all her accomplices, to reveal the composition of her poisons -and the means of counteracting them. She interrupted him: 'Sir, are -there not some sins that are unpardonable in this world, either from -their gravity or their number? Are there not some so atrocious or so -numerous that the Church cannot remit them?' 'Believe, madam, that there -are no sins irremissible in this life,' answered the priest, and he -enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and an infectious faith. -Conviction by degrees took possession of the prisoner's soul, and with -it there dawned a gleam of regeneration, hope in a future life serene -and happy--glorious, as the abbe said--and with the thought her heart -was changed. '"Sir," she answered me, "I am convinced of all you tell -me. I believe that God can pardon all sins; I believe that He has often -exercised this power; but all my trouble now is to know whether He will -apply His power to one so wretched as I." I told her that she must hope -that God would take pity on her in His infinite mercy. She began to -describe in general terms the whole of her life, and from that moment I -saw that her heart was touched, and she burst into tears beholding her -wretchedness.' By the contagion of his sympathetic kindness, and by the -light of redemption, Pirot had in a few hours melted this heart of brass -like wax. - -'After she had given me an outline of her life, knowing that I had not -yet said mass, she intimated spontaneously that it was time to say it, -and that I might go down to the chapel for that purpose. She begged me -say it to our Lady on her behalf, so as to obtain the pardon of which -she stood in need, and asked me to come up again as soon as the -sacrifice had been completed, saying that she would be present in -spirit, since she was not permitted to attend in person, and that she -thought of telling me in detail on my return that which she had so far -told me only in general terms. - -'After my mass,' continues Pirot, 'as I was taking a sip of wine in the -jailer's room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur de -Sency, librarian to the Palais, that Madame de Brinvilliers was -condemned. I went upstairs and found the marchioness awaiting me in -great serenity. - -'"It is only by dying by the hand of the executioner," she said, "that I -can win salvation. If I had died at Liege before my arrest, where should -I be now? And if I had not been taken, what would my end have been? I -will confess my crime to the judges to whom I have denied it hitherto. I -fancied I could conceal it, flattering myself that without my confession -there would have been nothing to convict me, and that I was not bound to -accuse myself. To-morrow, at my last examination, I mean to repair the -ill that I have done at the others. - -'"I beg you, sir," she went on suddenly, "to make my excuses to the -first president. You will please see him on my behalf after my death, -and will tell him that I ask his pardon, and that of all the judges, -for the effrontery they have seen in me; that I believed it would serve -my defence, and that I never believed there would be proof enough to -condemn me without my avowal; that I now see things in a different -light, and that I was touched yesterday by what he said to me, and that -I put violent constraint on myself to prevent my features from showing -what I felt. Ask him to forgive me for the offence I gave to the whole -bench assembled to judge me, and to beg the other judges to pardon me." - -'It was thus,' Pirot continues, 'that she went on relating to me the -whole matter until half-past one, when a servant came and brought the -cloth for dinner. She took nothing but two fresh eggs and a little soup, -and talked to me, while I was eating, about indifferent things, with -very great freedom of mind and a tranquillity which surprised me, as if -she were entertaining me at dinner in a country house. She invited to -the table the two men and the women who were her usual guard. "Sir," she -said to me, after she had told them to sit down, "you will not mind our -dispensing with ceremony for you? They are accustomed to eat with me to -keep me company, and we shall do so to-day if you do not object. This," -she said to them, "is the last meal I shall take with you." And turning -towards the woman who was beside her, she said: "Madam, my poor Du Rus, -you will soon be quit of me; I have long been a trouble to you, but it -will soon be over. To-morrow you will be able to go to Dranet. You will -have time enough for that. In seven or eight hours you will have me no -longer to bother you, for I do not think you have the heart to see my -end." - -'She said all this with a coolness and serenity which indicated rather a -natural equality of mind than an affected pride. And as these people -from time to time burst into tears and withdrew to conceal them from -her, she, noticing it, threw me a glance of pity, though she shed no -tears, as though sorry for their grief, almost as a mother might do on -her deathbed, when, seeing around her her weeping servants, she looks at -the confessor kneeling near her and marks the sorrow their affection -gives him. - -'From time to time she urged me to eat, and scolded the jailer for -putting cabbage in the soup. She asked me with much politeness to allow -her to drink my health. I thought that I might do her some pleasure in -drinking to hers, and it was not difficult to show her this little -attention. She asked me to excuse her for not serving me, careful not to -say that she had no knife for that purpose, so as not to give the -slightest shadow of complaint. - -'"Sir," she said to me at the end of the meal, "it is fast-day -to-morrow, and though it will be a very tiring day for me"--she was to -undergo torture and then be beheaded--"I have no intention of eating -meat." "Madam," I replied, "if you need a meat soup to sustain you, -there will be no occasion to stand on scruples; it will not be out of -fastidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the Church is -not rigorous in such a case." "Sir," she replied, "I would not be -particular if I needed it and you ordered it; but I am sure it will not -be necessary. All I require is a little soup this evening at -supper-time, and again at eleven o'clock; to-day they will make it a -little stronger than usual, and with that, and a couple of eggs I can -take at the torture, I shall get through to-morrow." - -'It is true,' adds the good priest, 'that I was thunderstruck at all -this composure, and I shivered when I heard her tell the jailer, so -quietly, that the soup was to be stronger that evening than usual, and -that two servings were to be kept for her before midnight. - -'I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de -Brinvilliers, and as it was generally believed that she had always had -little enough love for him, I was surprised to find that she had so -much. Indeed, it appeared to me to verge towards excess, and for half an -hour I saw her more distressed for him than for herself.' And when -Pirot, to test her, said that her husband appeared very insensible to -her approaching fate, he drew from her a dignified reply: he must not -judge things so hastily, she told him, or without intimate knowledge, -and that up to that day she had only had to congratulate herself on her -husband. - -She asked for a pen, and with a rapid hand wrote this astonishing -letter to the Marquis de Brinvilliers:-- - - 'Being as I am on the point of going to give account of my soul to - God, I want to assure you of my affection, which will endure to the - last moment of my life. I ask your pardon for all that I have done - that I ought not to have done. I die an honourable death, brought - upon me by my enemies. I forgive them with all my heart, and - beseech you to forgive them. I hope that you will also forgive me - for the disgrace that may be reflected on you. But remember that we - are here only for a time, and perhaps ere long you yourself will - have to go and render to God an exact account of all your actions, - even your idle words, as I am now preparing to do. Watch over our - temporal affairs and our children: bring them up in the fear of the - Lord, and yourself set them an example. On this consult Monsieur - Marillac and Madame Couste. Offer up for me as many prayers as you - can, and be assured that I die yours devotedly, - -D'AUBRAY.' - - - -Pirot objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was -not correct. 'How so, sir?' she said. 'Are not those who have driven me -to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them -their rancour?' - -Pirot's answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation -which plunged her into great astonishment. - -Then the confession was resumed. - -'King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,' said Pirot, 'his -heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was -bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, -and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the -cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like -that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of -the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not -cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred -kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness -and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All -these words and a thousand others like them,' adds Pirot, 'caused her -to weep bitterly.' - -Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, -who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was -disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her -accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness -replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that -till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for -death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of -Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once. - -She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. -'"Sir," she said to me, "I have not asked to see them; that would only -have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them."' -Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and -that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and -humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair -prisoner's character to the bottom. 'Ah!' she said, interrupting him, -'those are grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my -hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still -attached to this world's glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with -which I am loaded.' And to the priest's remarks she replied: 'I tell -myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of -pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural -to me.' And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: -'At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments -when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose -acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so -dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.' - -Pirot supped that evening with the prisoner; then, when night had -fallen, he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great -agitation, and on reaching his apartment he had recourse to his -breviary. 'The image of the lady I had seen all day so powerfully -possessed me that I could hardly attend to what I was reading: it seemed -to me that I was for nearly half an hour circling round _Domine, labia -mea aperies_, returning always to where I had begun. At last, seeing -that I must get on, I applied myself a little more diligently to my -reading, so as to be less distracted by this idea. But in spite of all -my close attention, I was quite three hours in reciting my office.' - -He has described at length his sleeplessness, the thoughts that crowded -upon his mind, the anguish which choked him: 'I got no sleep at all. -Those who know the delicacy of my nature, how sensitive I am to the -misery and pain I see in persons who are indifferent to me, will have no -difficulty in realising the depth of my sorrow for a lady whom I had -seen so afflicted, and who was so near to my heart by reason of the -interest I was bound to take in the salvation of the soul intrusted to -me.' Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven, he cried: 'O God, -I am greatly concerned for her whose salvation is as dear to me as my -own; I die every moment for her, and all the reward I ask in the -conflict I have to maintain with her before she closes her career is to -see her crowned with Thee!' - -In the morning Pirot returned to the prisoner. 'I was taken up the -tower, where I found Father de Chevigny in tears as he closed a prayer -with the lady, who greeted me with the same courage that I had seen in -her on the previous evening.' - -Madame de Brinvilliers has slept as peacefully as a child. - -One of the first questions she put to her confessor related to a fear -which had arisen in her mind, and the thought of which gave her much -torture. 'Sir,' she said to me, 'you gave me yesterday some hope that I -might be saved, but I cannot have the presumption to promise myself that -that will be till after a long time in purgatory. How shall I know -whether I am in purgatory or hell?' Pirot reassured her. - -Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Brinvilliers was to -descend to hear her sentence read. 'She was prepared for death and -torture; but she had not thought of the public penance or of the fire. -She answered fearlessly, "In a moment, but just now we are finishing our -conversation, this gentleman and I." We shortly finished our talk in -great serenity.' - -On leaving the prisoner, Pirot betook himself to the chapel of the -Conciergerie. 'I said mass for her, and went into the jailer's room. I -found him there, and he told me that he had accompanied her to the -torture-chamber, and that after her sentence had been read, when the -executioner approached to seize her, she looked him up and down without -saying a word, and seeing a rope in his hand, she offered him her hands -already clasped. I learned after dinner from the procurator-general that -she had been agitated at the reading of her sentence, and that she got -it read a second time.' - -The sentence was dated July 16, 1676:-- - -'The court has declared and declares the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers -duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maitre Dreux d'Aubray her -father, and the said d'Aubray, civil lieutenant and counsellor in the -said court, her brothers, and for reparation has condemned and condemns -the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers to do public penance before the -principal door of the church of Paris, where she will be taken in a -cart, bare-footed, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a lighted -torch of two pounds weight, and there on her knees to say and declare -that wickedly, from revenge and to have their property, she has poisoned -her father and two brothers, and attempted the life of her late sister, -of which she repents, and asks pardon of God, the king, and justice; -this done, to be led and conducted in the said cart to the Place de -Greve of this city, to have her head cut off there on a scaffold, which -will be erected for that purpose on the said place; her body to be -burned, and her ashes thrown to the winds: the question ordinary and -extraordinary to be first applied in order to obtain revelation of her -accomplices.' - -She declared in the evening that the part of the sentence which had so -startled her at the first reading that she could not hear the rest, was -the passage which stated that she was to be put in a cart. Her pride was -aroused. - -After the sentence had been read, the condemned woman was led into the -torture-chamber, and when she saw the apparatus, she said: 'Gentlemen, -it is useless, I will tell everything without torture. Not that I think -I can escape it--my sentence orders me to be tortured, and I suppose it -will not be dispensed with--but I will declare all beforehand. I have -denied everything hitherto, because I imagined I was thus defending -myself, and that I was not bound to confess anything. I have been -convinced of the contrary, and I will behave in accordance with the -instructions given me. And I can assure you that if I had seen three -weeks ago the person whom I have had given me the last twenty-four -hours, you would three weeks ago have known what you are going to learn -now.' Then raising her voice, she made a clear and complete avowal of -the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poisons she had -employed, she knew only arsenic, vitriol, and the poison of toads. The -strongest poison was 'rarefied arsenic.' The only antidote which she had -used herself when poisoned by Sainte-Croix was milk. As to her -accomplices, apart from Sainte-Croix and her lackeys she declared that -she had never had or known any. - -The judges were struck by the frankness of her words. And as we know, -she spoke at that moment with entire sincerity. - -Madame de Brinvilliers underwent the cruelest torture then applied by -the Parlement of Paris: the ordeal of water. Enormous quantities of -water were introduced into the stomach of the condemned through a funnel -placed between the teeth. This water, rapidly accumulating inside the -body, produced the most horrible agonies. - -Meanwhile the poor abbe Pirot was suffering as much from the torture as -the sufferer herself: 'I did not see her from half-past seven until two -o'clock in the afternoon. I can say that this was the only bad time I -had that day; apart from the time I spent without her, the rest cost me -nothing. But while she was under torture I was extraordinarily restless, -saying to myself at every moment, "They are now giving her torture."' - -He took refuge in a little room where, in spite of the promises of the -jailer, he was besieged by importunate visitors. Curious ladies of the -court flocked to him. While there some one handed to him a little medal, -with a message from the wife of President Lamoignon, saying that she had -received it from the pope, with the authority to bestow indulgence on -any dying person she chose, and that she gave it to Madame de -Brinvilliers. - -At last Pirot was told that he would find the marchioness lying on a -mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and -sympathetic words, and his exhortation to repentance, Pirot had little -by little bent this character of iron. He had sent the condemned lady -resigned and submissive to the judges. But under the pangs of torture -which made strong men yield, under the brutal force she had to suffer, -all the pride of her proud nature started up, the worst instincts were -awakened. In revenge, she accused Briancourt of false witness; she -charged Desgrez, who had arrested her at Liege, with purloining -documents. Pirot found her full of hatred and stubbornness, her eyes -blazing. 'She was highly excited, her face red as fire, her eyes -gleaming, her mouth distorted. She asked for wine, which I had brought -to her at once.' - -The rest of the story is really touching. The abbe Pirot watched with -the care of an anxious mother over the reputation of the lady about to -die. 'I expressly notice this circumstance,' he says, 'to undeceive -those who believe that she was too fond of wine and was guilty of taking -it to excess, and that she could not refrain from drinking it freely on -the day of her death. I saw nothing of the kind. It is true that on -Thursday, as on Friday, she had a cup from which at times she tasted as -much as a fly might swallow; but this was only to keep up her strength -and to refresh herself, at a time when the strain of recalling to mind -her whole life, in order to assure herself of any criminality there -might have been in it, much exhausted and excited her; and if care was -taken to have good wine on the day of her death, it was only to cheer -her a little in her natural depression of spirits. It has even been cast -up against her, unjustly, that a bottle was provided for her on the way -to the scaffold: I am responsible for that. I feared that her heart -might fail her, and knowing that at one time it was common to offer -criminals strong drink of some kind, to give them courage to suffer -death, I thought that, as I had seen her necessity that day of -refreshing herself now and then, it would be well to have wine ready; -and, to tell the truth, I thought a little of myself. The wine was only -used by the executioner, who drank a mouthful immediately after the -execution.' - -Before setting out for her punishment the marchioness was to be allowed -to pray for a few moments in the chapel of the Conciergerie, before the -Holy Sacrament exposed for the purpose; but she had to appear there -surrounded by other prisoners, who were all admitted to the chapel when -the Host was placed on the altar. 'When we entered the vestry of the -Conciergerie, she asked the jailer for a pin to fasten the kerchief she -had on her neck, and as he went in all good faith to look for one, she -said to him: "You must not be afraid of anything now: the gentleman will -be my surety, and will answer for it that I do not want to do myself -harm." "Madam," he replied, giving her a pin, "I beg pardon, I never -mistrusted you, and if anybody ever did so, it was certainly not I." He -fell on his knees before her, and thus kneeling kissed her hands. She -begged him to pray to God for her. "Madam," he replied, his voice choked -with sobs, "I will pray for you to-morrow with all my heart."' - -'Meanwhile,' says Pirot, 'she had not yet recovered the penitent spirit -which I had seen in her that morning and the night before.' She spoke of -the sentence. The punishment did not terrify her, but she was bitterly -indignant at the degrading circumstances introduced into it--the public -penance, the scattering of her ashes to the winds. Pirot replied: -'Madam, it matters nothing to your salvation whether your body be laid -in the earth or be cast into the fire. It will rise glorious from the -ashes if your soul is in grace.' And further: 'Yes, madam, this flesh -which men are soon to burn will rise one day, the same but glorified, -provided that your soul rejoices in God; it will be born again, bright -as the sun, no more to suffer, subtle and quick as a spirit.' - -By degrees Pirot regained his hold upon the fair penitent. 'The cloud of -nature was dissolved, her agitation appeared no longer, and, instead of -the hard fierce looks, the biting of lips, and the other impetuous -manifestations of a shattered pride, there were only tears and sobs, -remorse for sin and yearnings for repentance, that would make one's -heart bleed. I could not keep back my tears, and for an hour and a half -I wept with her, speaking, nevertheless, with more force than I had yet -done. She was still more affected by my tears than by my words, and, -pondering on the cause of my tears, she said: "Sir, my distress must be -great to compel you to weep so much, or you take a great interest in -what concerns me."' - -Then she confessed the calumnies she had been unable to avoid conceiving -under torture against Briancourt and Desgrez. Pirot was alarmed, and -when he told her that she ought to repair the fresh sin by a fresh -declaration she appeared surprised. However, the opportunity was about -to be afforded, for about six o'clock the procurator-general sent for -the abbe Pirot. - -'Sir,' he said, 'this is a most vexatious woman.' - -'How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I -now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.' - -'Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her -accomplices.' - -Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along -with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated -to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could -only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. 'Sir,' -she said, 'it is true that you told me that at first and at greater -length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than -I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you -had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them -everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.' -Monsieur de Palluau at once said, 'This is more than enough, sir; -adieu.' 'He went away at once, and we were given only a short time to -spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a -quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much -questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was -her courtesy.' Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, -Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and -Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the -torture-chamber. - -Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the -altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner -came up to speak of 'a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price -of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said -that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior -to herself.' - -As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank--the -Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, -the Abbe de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride -was offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her -confessor: 'Sir, what a strange curiosity!' - -She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned -criminals, holding in one hand the penitent's candle, and in the other a -crucifix. - - * * * * * - -On leaving the Conciergerie she was lifted into the cart. 'It was one of -the smaller carts you see in the streets loaded with rubbish; it was -very short and narrow, and I feared there was not room enough for her -and me. Yet four of us got in, the executioner's assistant sitting on -the board which closed it in front, with his feet on the shafts on -either side of the horse. She and I sat on the straw put down to cover -up the wood, and the executioner stood upright at the back. She got in -first, and leant her back against the front-board and against the side, -slightly at an angle. I was near her, pressing against her to make room -for the executioner's feet, my back against the side of the cart, and my -knees doubled up uncomfortably.' - -The cart proceeded slowly towards the Place de Greve, which extended -from the Hotel de Ville to the Seine. It was not easy to get through the -crowd which pressed around it. The streets were black with people, and -the windows crowded with sightseers. At this moment the lady's features -underwent a sudden change of expression: 'They were dreadfully -convulsed, the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes, and the whole -countenance wild.' 'Sir,' she said to her confessor, 'would it be -possible, after all that is passing now, for Monsieur de Brinvilliers to -have so little feeling as to remain in this world?' - -Pirot answered as best he could, endeavouring to ease her mind; but what -he said fell on deaf ears, for the marchioness 'then suffered one of the -strongest convulsions of her nature in the vivid apprehension of so much -shame. Her face contracted, her brows were knitted, her eyes flashed, -her mouth was distorted, and her whole aspect was embittered.' 'I do not -think,' adds Pirot, 'that there was a moment in all the time that I had -been with her when her appearance betokened more indignation, and I am -not surprised that Monsieur Le Brun, who is said to have seen her at -that spot, where he could look close at her for some minutes, made so -fiery and terrible a head as he is said to have done in the portrait he -took of her.' Le Brun's sketch is now No. 853 at the exhibition of the -Louvre; it is in red and black chalks. It is an admirable drawing, -unquestionably the artist's masterpiece. Pirot is sketched in silhouette -beside the lady. - -As the cart passed slowly through the crowd, voices were raised crying -out for blood, and heaping curse on curse; but others spoke pitiful -words, and she heard prayers for her salvation. There was a sudden -revulsion of opinion in her favour, which grew stronger and stronger -till the hour of her death. - -The shirt in which she was clothed filled her with amazement. 'Sir,' she -said to her confessor, 'look; I am dressed all in white.' - -All at once a new contraction marked her features. She had just noticed -Desgrez riding near her, the man who had arrested her at Liege, and -subjected her to some rough treatment. She asked the executioner to -move so as to hide this man from her; then she felt remorse for this -'delicacy,' and asked the executioner to return to his former position. -'It was the last time her countenance showed any grimace,' says Pirot. -From that moment she was wholly under the fortifying influence of the -priest who assisted her. Hope arose in her soul, more and more clear and -radiant, and gave strength to her heart. - -She knelt down on the step of the great door of Notre Dame, and there -repeated with docility the formula dictated by the executioner, in which -she publicly confessed her crimes. 'Some people say that she hesitated -in saying her father's name,' observes Pirot; 'but I noticed nothing of -the sort.' - -Then they remounted the cart to wend towards the Place de Greve. 'Not a -word of reproach or complaint against any one escaped her; she showed no -sign of vulgar fear. If she dreaded death, it was only in anticipation -of the judgment of God, and neither the sight of the Greve, the -proximity of the scaffold, nor the appearance of all the terrible -apparatus used in this kind of execution gave her the least shadow of -fright.' - -The cart stopped. The executioner said to her: 'Madam, you must -persevere: it is not enough to have come here and to have responded -hitherto to what this gentleman has been saying, you must go on to the -end as you have begun.' 'This he said in a noticeably humane manner,' -observes Pirot, 'and I was edified by it. It is true that she answered -never a word, but she courteously bent her head as though to show that -she took well what he had said and that she meant to continue in the -temper in which he saw her. He confessed to me that he was surprised at -her firmness.' - -At this moment a clerk of the Parlement appeared. The commissaries were -sitting in the Hotel de Ville ready to receive any declaration Madame de -Brinvilliers might still have to make about her accomplices. 'Sir,' she -replied, 'I have no more to say; I have told all I know.' She renewed -the declaration whereby she freed Briancourt and Desgrez from the -accusations fabricated against them at her torture. - -The executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold. 'She looked at -me,' says Pirot, 'with a gentle countenance and an expression full of -gratitude and tenderness, and with tears in her eyes. "Sir," she said to -me in a pretty loud tone, which showed how self-possessed she was, but -as courteous as it was firm, "we are not yet to separate. You promised -not to leave me till my head is off; I hope that you will keep your -word." And as I answered nothing, because the tears and sighs which I -could only with difficulty restrain robbed me of all power of speech, -she added, "I beseech you, sir, to forgive me and not to regret the time -you have given to me. I am sorry, for my part, to have given you so -little satisfaction, at least at certain moments; I beg your pardon for -it. But I cannot die without asking you to say a _De profundis_ on the -scaffold at the moment of my death, and a mass to-morrow. Remember me, -sir, and pray for me."' Pirot remarks, 'If I had not been at that moment -more deeply moved than I had ever been in my life, I should have had -many things to reply to her courtesies, and I should have promised her -more than one mass; but I found it impossible to say anything more than -"Yes, madam, I will do all that you bid me."' - -Just as she was walking up the steps Madame de Brinvilliers found -herself next to Desgrez. She then asked his forgiveness for the trouble -she had given him, and begged him to say a few masses and to pray for -her. She ended her 'compliment' by saying that 'she was his servant, and -so she would die on the scaffold.' Then she added, 'Adieu, sir.' - -The throng was immense. Madame de Sevigne, who had come to witness the -execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge Notre Dame, -writes: 'Never was such a crowd seen, nor Paris so moved or so eager.' - -The marchioness knelt down on the scaffold, her face turned towards the -river. 'It was at that moment,' says Pirot, 'that I saw her so intent -upon herself, so wholly occupied with what I had said we would do on the -scaffold, telling me with such wonderful composure all that was -necessary, and making me pass from one thing to another in due order -without any prompting from me, wholly absorbed in what I said to her to -prepare her for death, without the appearance of any wandering in her -thoughts. - -'She was absolutely without fear. She was gentle, courteous, steadfast, -and self-forgetful. She had very great patience to endure with -extraordinary docility all the executioner's preparations. He undid her -hair while she was on her knees; he cut it behind and at both sides; to -do so he made her turn her head several times in different ways, and he -even turned it himself sometimes with no great gentleness: that lasted -quite half an hour. She felt keenly the shame of the proceeding in the -sight of so great a company; but she overcame her grief and submitted to -everything even with joy. I fancy that she had never allowed her hair to -be done so quietly as she then let it be cut and shaved; the -executioner's hand felt no rougher to her than that of a maid doing her -hair; she punctually obeyed his instructions as to turning, lowering, -and raising her head when he pleased. He tore off the top of the shirt -which he had put over her cloak when she left the Conciergerie, so as -to uncover her shoulders. She let him bind her hands as though he were -putting on golden bracelets, and knot the rope about her neck as if it -had been a necklace of pearls. - -[Illustration: MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS - -ON THE WAY TO EXECUTION. HER DRESS IS COVERED BY THE SHIRT WORN BY -CONDEMNED CRIMINALS. ON THE RIGHT IS THE PROFILE OF HER CONFESSOR, THE -ABBE PIROT - -(_From a Sketch by Charles Le Brun, preserved in the Louvre_)] - -'"I should like to be burned alive," she said, "to render my sacrifice -more meritorious, if I could have sufficient confidence in my courage to -bear that kind of death without falling into despair."' - -The Abbe Pirot chanted the _Salve_, and the people crowding round the -scaffold continued the chant that he began. Then he told the lady that -he was about to give her absolution. Thereupon she said, her soul at -peace, 'Sir, you promised me just now to give me a second penitence on -the scaffold, when I pleaded that what you gave me was too easy, and now -you say nothing about it.' 'I asked her to say an _Ave_ and a _Sancta -est Maria mater gratiae_. At the end of which, saying to her, "Madam, -renew your contrition," I gave her absolution, saying only the -sacramental words because time was pressing.' - -The expression of her face was transformed. It was an expression of -hope and joy, of serene faith and love, mingled with the exaltation of -the penitent. 'Never have I seen anything more touching,' says Pirot, -'than her eyes appeared to me, and if I had to paint a countenance full -of contrition and sorrow of heart and hope of pardon, I could wish for -no other features than those I remember still, and shall remember all my -life long.' - -Guillaume the executioner bandaged the eyes of the condemned woman. She -repeated the last prayers along with her confessor. Guillaume with the -back of his sleeve wiped away the beads of sweat which covered his brow. -Suddenly Pirot heard a dull blow, and ceased to speak. 'Madame de -Brinvilliers held her head very straight. The executioner severed it at -a single stroke, which cut so clean that it remained for a moment on the -trunk before falling. I was indeed in agony for an instant, fearing that -he had missed his aim and that he would have to strike a second time.' - -'Sir,' said the headsman, 'isn't it a fine stroke?' - -He added: 'On these occasions I always commend myself to God, and -hitherto he has been with me; five or six days ago this lady was -troubling me and I couldn't get her out of my head: I will have six -masses said.' And, uncorking a bottle, he drank a good draught of wine. - -The body was borne to the stake; the flames consumed it, and then the -ashes were scattered; but the mob struggled to collect some fragments of -the charred bones: all who had been able to get near the scaffold had -seen the face of the criminal illumined with a halo, and they departed -saying that the dead woman was a saint. Madame de Sevigne writes that -Pirot repeated the saying to every one he met. - -The children of the Marquis de Brinvilliers took the name of Offemont. - -Pennautier was acquitted and left the prison on July 27. He recovered -his high position and the repute in which he had been held. - - * * * * * - -In declaring that she had had no other accomplices than Sainte-Croix and -her lackeys Madame de Brinvilliers was speaking the truth. But at that -period crimes as great as hers were being committed in Paris, and it -was not long before the judges discovered them. There was for instance -the celebrated case heard by the 'Chambre Ardente,' to which that of -Madame de Brinvilliers serves as introduction. - - - - -THE POISON DRAMA AT THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV - - - - -I. THE SORCERESSES - - -_The Dinner of La Vigoureux._ - -The trial of Madame de Brinvilliers had just caused an immense -sensation. The penitentiaries of Notre Dame, without naming any person, -declared that 'the majority of those who had confessed to them for some -time accused themselves of poisoning somebody.' The court and the city -were still disturbed by the catastrophe which had at St. Cloud suddenly -carried off the charming Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, by the sudden -death of Hugues de Lionne, the great statesman, and by the startling -fate which had just befallen the Duke of Savoy. A note found on -September 21, 1677, in the confessional of the Jesuits in Rue -Saint-Antoine denounced a plot to poison the king and the dauphin. On -December 5 following, La Reynie, lieutenant of police, caused the arrest -of Louis de Vanens, who said he had been an officer. The papers seized -on him and on Finette, his mistress, brought to light an association of -alchemists, coiners, and magicians, in which priests, officers, -important bankers like Cadelan were associated with light women, -lackeys, and vagabonds. The Parlement was investigating the matter, when -La Reynie put his hand on a second association, like the first to all -appearance, but soon to reveal itself to the eyes of the magistrates as -an affair of much greater importance still. - -Towards the end of the year 1678, an advocate in small practice named -Maitre Perrin was dining in Rue Courtauvilain with a certain Madame -Vigoureux, wife of a ladies' tailor--the trade, it will be seen, existed -before to-day. The company was merry, and the wine flowed freely. Among -the party was a 'big, powerful, large-faced woman,' who choked with -laughter as she poured out for herself bumpers of burgundy that would -have made a grenadier stagger. Her name was Marie Bosse, and she was -the widow of a horse-dealer. She was further a well-known -fortune-teller--'devineresse,' as they said in those days. 'A fine -trade!' she cried, and spoke of the grand people who frequented her -little rookery in the Rue du Grand-Huleu--duchesses and marchionesses -and princes and lords. 'Another three poisonings, and she would retire -with her fortune made!' At this remark the guests began to laugh still -more loudly: this fat woman was irresistibly funny. Maitre Perrin alone -saw, by a sharp and rapid frown on the face of Madame Vigoureux, that -there was something serious in it. He knew Desgrez, the police officer -who had arrested Madame de Brinvilliers, and to him he related the -incident. Desgrez did not laugh at all, and that very day he sent the -wife of one of his archers to the fortune-teller with a complaint -against her husband. The fortune-teller, at the first visit, promised -her assistance; at the second, she gave her a phial of poison, which the -wife at once carried home to her dumfounded husband. La Reynie -forthwith ordered the arrest of Madame Vigoureux, of Marie Bosse, with -her daughter Manon, and her two sons, one of whom was a soldier in the -guards, and the other, a boy of fifteen, was just leaving the workhouse -of Bicetre, where he had been placed to 'improve his morals and give him -a taste for work.' Marie Bosse was arrested at her own house on the -morning of January 4, 1679, in bed with her two sons. Her daughter had -just risen. 'There was only one bed, in which they all slept together.' -The preliminary inquiry brought to light a crime, the news of which -created a sensation almost as great as that evoked by the poisonings by -Madame de Brinvilliers. - -An order in council, dated January 10, instructed La Reynie to proceed -against the women Bosse, Vigoureux, and their accomplices. On March 12 -an officer set about the arrest of Catherine Deshayes, wife of Antoine -Monvoisin, a peddling jeweller. This woman, usually known as La Voisin, -was the greatest criminal of whom history has any record. She was -arrested as she left the church of Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle after -hearing mass. In her track La Reynie was to penetrate into a region of -crime that the imagination can scarcely conceive. 'Human life is -publicly trafficked in,' he wrote in utter consternation: 'death is -almost the only remedy employed in family embarrassments; impieties, -sacrileges, abominations are common practices in Paris, in the country, -in the provinces.' - - -_Sorcery in the Seventeenth Century_ - -To understand the facts and the characters of the persons we are going -to study, we must dwell briefly upon the beliefs of that time--a time -when beliefs were dominant influences in the life of men. We know what -power religious sentiments had in the seventeenth century--sentiments of -an intensity and a simplicity we know little of to-day, and the -corruption of which could not but engender the most absurd -superstitions. That was the epoch when the sweet Marguerite Alacoque, in -her divine ecstasy, exchanged her heart with that of Christ, and wrote -in her own blood, under dictation from on high, the contract which -ascribed to God these words: 'I constitute thee heiress of my heart and -all its treasures for time and eternity; I promise thee that thou shalt -only lack succour when I lack power; thou shalt be for ever the -well-beloved disciple, the plaything of my good pleasure and the -burnt-offering of my love.' And that, too, was the period when Catherine -Monvoisin, the terrible sorceress of Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, found -numerous and ardent followers. - -The beliefs in the action of the devil, and in the power of the -sorcerers, so deeply rooted in the imagination of the seventeenth -century, were summed up in 1588 in the _Demonomanie des Sorciers_ of the -famous Jean Bodin. He defined the sorcerer as one who 'by devilish and -unlawful means endeavours to attain some end'; but in his book he speaks -for the most part of witches. As Sprenger, the German inquisitor, -remarked, 'We should talk of the heresy of the witches, and not of -sorcerers, for these are of little account.' In Bodin are to be found -most of the practices in black magic still flourishing at the end of the -seventeenth century. Sorcerers and witches formed a sort of vast -fraternity. There were entire families whose formulae and whose -customers were handed down as heritable property. Jeanne Harvillier, -burnt to death on April 30, 1579, may serve as type. Her mother, a witch -like herself, had been burnt to death thirty years before. Such a death -was the natural end to her career, an end foreseen, and one that -terrified those fascinated by the strange vocation much less than one -would imagine. Jeanne was born about 1528, at Verberie near Compiegne. -At the age of twelve she was presented by her mother to the devil, who -appeared to her in the shape of a very tall dark man. Jeanne renounced -God, and consecrated herself to the 'Spirit.' 'At the same time she had -carnal intercourse with him, which continued from the age of twelve to -the age of fifty, when she was arrested. It sometimes happened that her -husband, lying by her side, failed to perceive what was going on.' This -was the _incubat_. Jeanne Harvillier was brought to justice on the -charge of causing the death of men and beasts by witchcraft. She -confessed to it with the greatest frankness, and told the story of her -last homicide: 'She laid some powders, prepared for her by the devil, -in the place where the man who had beaten his daughter was to pass.' -Another man came by to whom she wished no harm, and immediately he felt -a sharp pain all over his body. She promised to cure him, and in fact -took her place at the bedside of the sick man and tended him with the -gentleness of a sister of mercy. She fervently besought the devil to -restore life to the dying man, but the devil replied that it was -impossible. - -Bodin gravely recounts how witches on the Sabbath flew through the air -on broomsticks. He adds: 'What we have said of the travels of the -witches, both in body and in spirit, and the frequent and memorable -experiences of the same, show as in broad daylight, and bring to the -test of touch and sight, the error of those who have written that the -flights of witches are imaginary, and nothing but a trance.' This last -opinion had been maintained by John Wier, physician to the Duke of -Cleves, in a book which is almost a work of genius for that period. -Bodin devoted all his energy to its refutation, for to throw any doubt -upon the fact that the devil transports witches from one place to -another would be, he said, to bring gospel history into ridicule. - -Coming to study the maladies attributed to the incantations of -sorcerers--consumption, hysteria, melancholy, delusions, debility--John -Wier found the remedies to consist in a regular life, in conformity with -the laws of God, and in the skill of physicians. What an abominable -doctrine! says Bodin. He had lost all respect, then, for anything. Bodin -was beside himself. John Wier, he says, wrote under the dictation of -Satan. Moreover, had he not himself confessed that he was a disciple of -Agrippa, 'the greatest sorcerer that ever was'? When Agrippa died in the -hospital of Grenoble, a black dog which he called 'Monsieur' instantly -went and sprang into the river. Wier declared, it is true, that this dog -was not the devil, but there was not a single sensible person who -believed him. - -Without taking a side in this famous dispute between Bodin and John -Wier, we are bound to state that the writings of the latter had no -success, at any rate in France, while Bodin's book became a classic. -Bossuet, for all his powerful intellect, firmly believed in sorcery. At -the close of the seventeenth century, Bonet was obliged to go to a -Protestant republic to get his treatise on medicine printed, in which he -spoke lightly of magic and demoniacal possession. We have to come far -into the eighteenth century to find one Abraham de Saint-Andre--and he -was physician to Louis XV--daring, in his famous _Letters_, to cast -doubt on the magic and witchcraft of sorcerers. - -The following case, tried at the period in which the events of our story -occurred, and reproduced here after the archives of the Bastille, will -enable us to understand the ardour of belief with which the sorcerers -themselves were animated. - -By sentence of the Tournelle on September 2, 1687, a certain Pierre -Hocque was condemned to the galleys. He was a shepherd, skilled in -magic, who had, as the judgment declared, caused the death, by a spell -he cast over them, of 395 sheep, 7 horses, and 11 cows belonging to -Eustache Visie, receiver of taxes at Pacy-en-Brie. Hocque was chained -up with the other galley prisoners. Nevertheless, the cattle of Eustache -Visie continued to die. He had no sooner bought a cow or a sheep and -placed it in his farm than it perished. Clearly the only remedy was to -get Pierre Hocque to remove the direful spell he had imposed. Visie won -over, by a promise of money, the galley prisoner who was fastened to the -chain next to Hocque--a man named Beatrix. He spoke to the shepherd, who -replied that he had in fact cast a poison-spell over the cattle of -Visie, and that, failing himself, only two shepherds named Bras-de-Fer -and Courte Epee had the power to remove the fatal charm. At the urgent -request of Beatrix, Hocque dictated a letter to be sent to Bras-de-Fer, -but the letter was no sooner despatched than he fell into a horrible -despair. He cried hoarsely that Beatrix had made him do something that -would cause his death, which he would be unable to escape from the -moment Bras-de-Fer began to raise the spell he had cast on the cattle. -And the unhappy wretch writhed about in such dreadful contortions that -the other prisoners would have murdered Beatrix but for the intervention -of the guards. The despair and the convulsions lasted for several days, -and then Hocque died. 'And it was the exact time,' says the official -document, 'when Bras-de-Fer began to exorcise the cattle.' The judges -add: 'It is established that Pierre Hocque died because Bras-de-Fer -removed the poison-spell from the horses and cows, and it is true that -since that time no more of Eustache Visie's horses and cows have died.' - -The conviction of the unhappy sorcerer that he was bound to die as soon -as his mate undid his work was so strong that he did die. Is it possible -to imagine a more striking proof of the robust faith people then had in -all these devilries? - - -_The practices of the Witches_ - -To magic, black or white, the witches added medicine and pharmacy. They -kept drugstores with phials innumerable: syrups, juleps, ointments, -balms, emollients in infinite variety. They were old wives' remedies, -but their efficacy had been proved by experience, and their preparation -was perfected from age to age. Paracelsus, the great Renaissance -physician, burnt in 1527 the medical books of his time, declaring that -nothing but the formulae of the witches was of any use. The old hags had -soothing draughts for pain, healing ointments for wounds, and they acted -on nervous maladies by suggestion. That was the serious side of their -art. Most often the witch was a midwife too; but just as in that strange -world the poisoner lurked behind the druggist, and the alchemist and the -coiner were one, so the midwife played the part of baby-farmer. Finally, -the witches were fortune-tellers, who cast one's horoscope according to -the drawing of cards or the lines of the hand. - -What were the declarations of the witches arrested by La Reynie? Marie -Bosse said that 'nothing better could be done than to exterminate all -that sort of people who examine the hand, because they are the ruin of -many a woman, women of quality as well as others; the fortune-teller -soon finds out their weak spot, and thereby knows how to take them and -lead them wherever she will.' She added that in Paris there were more -than 400 fortune-tellers and magicians 'who ruined a great many people, -especially women, and of all conditions.' She went on to speak of the -money her cronies earned, telling how they bought places for their -husbands and built houses, and that they did not realise such fortunes -merely by looking at people's hands. La Voisin said that nothing could -be better than to hunt up all the people who looked at hands, that those -engaged in the business 'heard strange things when love intrigues were -not prospering, that poisonings were an everyday occurrence, that many -of them were paid as much as 10,000 livres' (L2000 of our money). -Similar declarations were made by Leroux, another witch, and by the -magician Lesage. 'It is extremely important,' said the latter, 'to get -to the bottom of these wretched practices, and to fathom this mystery of -iniquity which exists among all those who ostensibly are seekers after -treasure, after the philosopher's stone, and other like things, but who -keep up their trade by very different means: abortions and other crimes -are greater treasures than the philosopher's stone and fortune-telling; -the people who apply to the workers in mystery discuss usually the -poisoning of a husband, or a wife, or a father, and even sometimes of -babies at the breast.' He went on to say that 'these wretched people had -obtained the protection of very powerful friends, so that they acted -with perfect assurance and in almost perfect freedom.' These statements -are confirmed by the documents La Reynie was able to get together. - -What the public asked of the witches was, first of all, to withdraw the -veil from the future, and then to enable them to discover treasures. For -this purpose various means were employed, all tending to the same -end--to compel the 'Spirit,' that is the devil, by charms and -incantations to present himself and reveal the mysterious spot where -treasures lay hid. 'A woman,' writes Ravaisson, 'usually a prostitute on -the eve of accouchement, was placed at the centre of a circle drawn on -the floor, and surrounded with dark candles; when the child was born, -the mother gave up her son to be consecrated to the devil. After -pronouncing filthy incantations, the priest cut the victim's throat, -sometimes under the very eyes of its mother; but more often he carried -it away to sacrifice it elsewhere, because at the last moment outraged -nature asserted her rights, and these unhappy creatures snatched their -babes from death. At other times, they were content to cut the throat of -a deserted child; of such there was no lack; imprudent girls, light -women, gave the witches authority to dispose of the fruits of an -unlawful love. There were even licensed midwives who did a large -business in procuring abortion; the children after being baptized were -put to death and carried at once to the cemetery; most often they were -buried in the corner of a wood or consumed in an oven.' And the witch -Marie Bosse added: 'There are so many of this sort of people in Paris -that the city is choke-full of them.' - -These were the practices, with others more abominable still, which -caused La Reynie to write: 'It is difficult to think merely that these -crimes are possible; one can hardly bring oneself to consider them. Yet -it is those who have committed them that themselves declare them, and -these villains give so many particulars that it is difficult to harbour -any doubt.' - - -_The Alchemists_ - -Alongside of the group of witches and magicians appears another group, -that of the alchemists and 'philosophers,' represented by such people as -Vanens, Chasteuil, Cadelan, Rabel, and Bachimont. We have mentioned the -arrest of Louis de Vanens on December 5, 1677. - -The origins of this association of alchemists and seekers after the -philosopher's stone were highly dramatic. Francois Galaup de Chasteuil, -second of the name--he belonged to an illustrious family of Languedoc, -which had produced men of the highest distinction in arms, religion, and -literature--was its chief, or to use the cant expression of the cabala, -its 'author.' His life had been more than ordinarily romantic. Born at -Aix, on November 15, 1625, he was the second son of Jean Galaup de -Chasteuil, attorney-general of the Exchequer Court of Aix. His elder -brother Hubert, solicitor-general to the Parlement of the same town, was -'renowned for the nobility of his mind and the profundity of his -knowledge'; his younger brother Pierre was a poet, the friend of -Boileau, La Fontaine, and Mademoiselle de Scudery. After a successful -student career, Francois was admitted doctor of law. In 1644 he became a -knight of Malta. He did signal service to the Order, and Lascaris, the -grand master, placed on his breast the cross of honour. He then became -captain of the guards of the great Conde. In 1652 he retired to Toulon, -fitted out a ship, and under the Maltese flag went privateering against -the Mussulmans. Algerian corsairs captured him and led him into -captivity. After two years of slavery he came to Marseilles, where he -turned monk and became prior of the Carmelites. He smuggled into the -convent a young girl--a slender, fair-haired child, with large, bright -blue eyes; and there he kept her locked up in his cell. When she was on -the point of giving birth to her child, Chasteuil, assisted by a lay -brother, strangled her in her bed, and on a pitch-dark night carried her -into the chapel of the convent, where he lifted several slabs of the -floor and dug out a grave in which to bury her. The silence of the -arches was disturbed by a dull sound. A pilgrim, lying asleep against a -pillar, woke up, and saw the sinister toilers by the light of the moon -which shone through the stained windows. Transfixed with fright, he -remained hidden out of sight in a dark corner until dawn, when the -chapel was opened, and he ran to inform the magistrates. Chasteuil was -arrested, tried, and condemned. He was on the way to execution when, at -the foot of the gibbet, up came Louis de Vanens, captain of the galleys, -along with several soldiers. Chasteuil and Vanens were old friends. -Chasteuil was rescued, and, taking his rescuer with him, he fled to -Nice. - -Hiding in a quiet spot, the two friends began working at the -philosopher's stone, that is, at converting copper into silver and gold. -Chasteuil had some experience of alchemy, and fancied he was master of -the famous secret. Full of gratitude for the service done him, he gave -Vanens the secret so far as silver was concerned, but would tell him -nothing about the gold, 'not thinking Vanens prudent enough for that.' -Shortly afterwards we find Chasteuil in the service of the Duke of -Savoy, captain of the guards of the White Cross, and--extraordinary -fact--tutor to his son! While occupied with the education of the young -Prince of Piedmont, Chasteuil continued his 'philosophy,' and discovered -an oil, which, as he appeared convinced himself, would turn metals into -gold. He also wrote translations of authors sacred and profane--the -minor prophets, Petronius, the Thebaid of Statius; and he dabbled in -poetry. He had just passed his fortieth year. A contemporary gives us -his portrait: 'Middle height, very thin, always troubled with a nasty -cough caused by a wound he received in the body, round-shouldered, -slightly crooked, with a wry mouth, scanty beard, hair black and flat, -complexion swarthy and sallow.' Moreri adds: 'Monsieur de Chasteuil was -one of the most accomplished of gentlemen, and a perfect master of the -platonic philosophy.' - -Vanens and Chasteuil struck up an alliance with Robert de Bachimont, -lord of La Mire, who had married a cousin of Superintendent Fouquet. -Bachimont had at Paris a house near the Temple, with four smelting -furnaces: a large one on the third floor, two smaller ones in an -ante-room, and a large one in the cellar. He also had apartments at -Compiegne in the _Ecu de France_, where there was nothing but crucibles, -alembics, vessels of glass and of earthenware, cucurbits, philosophical -stoves open and closed, grates and mortars, retorts and matrasses, -sal-ammoniac and iron filings, and a thousand varieties of powders, -pastes, and liquids. Finally, he had another establishment at the abbey -of Ainay, near Lyons, completely fitted up for the fusion of metals, the -distillation of herbs, and other practices of alchemy. Before long the -association was enlarged by the addition of a person of some importance, -Louis de Vasconcelos y Souza, Count of Castelmelhor, who had been -practically the governor of Portugal for five or six years as the -favourite of King Alfonso VI. Bachimont says that Castelmelhor taught -him the secret of colouring glass red. After the death of the Duke of -Savoy on June 12, 1675, Castelmelhor withdrew to England, where he -gained the favour of Charles II., an ardent alchemist and astrologer. He -was present at the death of the English king, and it was he that brought -in the Catholic priest who gave him extreme unction. - -Chasteuil and his partners spent their time in the quest for the -philosopher's stone, contact with which was to convert metals into gold; -and, like the majority of alchemists, they believed that it was to be -found in the solidification of mercury. 'The hermetic philosophers,' -writes M. Huysmans, 'discovered--and modern science to-day does not deny -that they were right--that the metals are compound bodies of identical -composition. Their varieties are due simply to the different proportions -of the elements in combination; it is possible then, by the aid of an -agent that would alter these proportions, to change these bodies one -into another--to transmute mercury, for instance, into silver, and lead -into gold. And this agent is the philosopher's stone, mercury: not -ordinary mercury, which, to alchemists, is only a bastard metal' (M. -Huysmans uses another expression), 'but the mercury of the philosophers, -called also _lion vert_.' - -Among the papers of La Voisin was found an MS. poem in honour of the -philosopher's stone: - - 'De l'or glorifie qui change en or ses freres.' - -The secret consisted in an elixir, of which a single drop, cast - - 'dans une mer profonde - Ou couleraient fondus tous les metaux du monde, - Suffirait pour la teindre et fixer en soleil.'[7] - -Chasteuil and his fellows did not merely seek the solidification of -mercury, which was to produce the philosopher's stone, but the -liquefaction of gold by cold: this was to furnish a universal panacea. -'Liquid gold restores health and strength, gives flesh to greybeards -and colour to the cheeks of girls, cures the plague,' and so on. - -Solid mercury being unobtainable, they sought, for the transmutation of -metals, those powders or oils about which we hear so frequently at that -period; and, as we shall see, they had the best reasons in the world for -believing that they had put their finger on the secret, at least as far -as silver[8] was concerned. - -In 1676 our partners all established themselves at Paris, where they -added to their company three collaborators, all important in different -ways: the quack Rabel, a physician celebrated in his day; a rich banker -of Paris named Pierre Cadelan, secretary to the king; and a young -Parlement advocate named Jean Terron du Clausel. Du Clausel lodged with -Vanens in the Rue d'Anjou, in a house which had for sign _Le Petit Hotel -d'Angleterre_. He was a valuable addition to the band, because he could -distil at pleasure, being 'licensed.' Rabel seems to have been possessed -of considerable real science. Rabel water, which he invented, is still -used in our own day--a mixture of alcohol and sulphuric acid, which acts -as an astringent in cases of haemorrhage. Rabel had compounded another -elixir, whose innumerable merits were celebrated in notices in prose and -verse which the most glowing of modern advertisements have not -surpassed. Cadelan supplied funds. Bodin speaks in very precise terms -about the alchemists: 'They extract the quintessence of plants, and make -admirable and salutary oils and waters, and discourse subtly on the -virtues and the transmutation of metals; but they also make false -money.' At the moment when Cadelan and his associates were arrested, he -was on the point of farming the Paris mint. Was this in order to make -false _louis d'or_, as historians have supposed? We believe rather that -it was to find means of circulating the products of the alchemical -experiments of his associates, for by that time they had no manner of -doubt about the efficacy of Chasteuil's formulae. A bar of silver cast -by Vanens, and taken by Bachimont to the mint, had just been accepted -there at a good price as pure metal. It is scarcely necessary to add -that this could only have been due to an error of the mint official; -this famous silver made out of copper by Vanens and Chasteuil was -nothing but 'white metal.' Nevertheless, it was a success which opened -before the eyes of our partners splendid vistas of future wealth. - -When Louis de Vanens was arrested on December 5, 1677, Louvois believed -that he had seized a spy. But he had put his hand on an alchemist, and -soon the whole band--Terron, Cadelan, Monsieur and Madame Bachimont, -Barthomynat (known as La Chaboissiere), de Vanens' valet--were laid by -the heels, some in the Bastille, the others at Pierre-en-Cize. Chasteuil -had just died quietly at Verceil. Rabel had escaped into England, where -Charles II lodged and fed him, gave him a pension, and loaded him with -presents. Later he returned to France, and was incarcerated in his turn. - -We regarded it as essential to say something of this band of alchemists -and 'philosophers' by way of introduction to Louis de Vanens. This young -noble of Provence, 'a man of well-knit and graceful figure,' had -brilliant connections at court, where he was on a footing of intimacy -with the king's dazzling mistress, Madame de Montespan. On the other -hand, he was an assiduous visitor to La Voisin, and was even for some -time her 'author.' Vanens was the link between the alchemists and the -witches. He was devoted to demoniacal practices. His valet, La -Chaboissiere, declared that one night he had to accompany his master and -a cleric into the woods on the outskirts of Poissy, where they searched -for treasures with incantations and invocations to the 'spirit.' Vanens -was a diabolical character. He was confined at the Bastille in the same -room with other prisoners, as the custom was. He had with him a sort of -white and tan spaniel. As midnight approached, he recited some prayer -over the body of the dog, and went through the ceremony of consecration. -Then he took a prayer-book containing a picture of the Virgin, and laid -the picture on the back of the dog, saying, 'Avaunt, devil! Behold thy -good mistress!' To the remarks of his companions in captivity, he -replied: 'Neither God nor the king shall prevent me from doing what I -have done.' To gauge the strange and passionate vigour of these -superstitions, we must remember that Vanens was in the Bastille, quite -aware that these practices might bring him to the stake. - -We shall see in the sequel the importance of Vanens when we recall the -following lines found in the notes of Nicolas de la Reynie: 'To see La -Chaboissiere again about his reluctance to have written down in his -statement, after hearing it read, that Vanens had been concerned in -giving Madame de Montespan counsel which deserves that he should be -drawn and quartered.' - - -_La Voisin_ - -To the portraits of Chasteuil the alchemist and of Vanens, we must add -that of the most famous of the witches, Catherine Deshayes, known as La -Voisin. It was of her that La Fontaine wrote: - - 'Une femme a Paris faisait la pythonisse.' - -La Voisin stated to La Reynie: 'Some women asked if they would not soon -become widows, because they wished to marry some one else; almost all -asked this and came for no other reason. When those who come to have -their hands read ask for anything else, they nevertheless always come to -the point in time, and ask to be ridded of some one; and when I gave -those who came to me for that purpose my usual answer, that those they -wished to be rid of would die when it pleased God, they told me that I -was not very clever.' Margot, La Voisin's servant, said that the whole -world came there, adding: 'La Voisin is to-day dragging a great ruck -down with her--a long chain of persons of all sorts and conditions.' The -Parisians used to go in companies to the house of the fortune-teller: -they were quite pleasure parties. The merry crew would overflow into the -garden lawns surrounding the cottage at Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. This was -the district, but sparsely inhabited, between the ramparts and the St. -Denis quarter. - -The sorceress was brought into the city drawing-rooms as nowadays -fashionable singers are brought. 'At that time, La Voisin had as much -money as she wanted. Every morning, before she rose, people were waiting -for her, and she had visitors all the rest of the day: after that, in -the evening, she kept open house, engaged fiddlers, and enjoyed herself -thoroughly; this went on for several years.' This life had little -resemblance, it will be seen, to that of her ancestress, the witch -described by Michelet: 'You will find her in the most dismal places, -isolated,--in houses of ill-fame and ruined huts and hovels. Where could -she have lived except on wild heaths--the hapless wretch who was so -hunted down, the accursed, proscribed, hated poisoner?' - -La Voisin earned in a year as much as L2000 or even L4000 in English -money; but her gains were spent in revelry. She entertained her lovers -in princely style, for she would have thought it unworthy of her if they -were not comfortable; and her lovers were many. We find in the first -rank of them Andre Guillaume, the executioner of Paris, who beheaded -Madame de Brinvilliers, and who, by a horrible coincidence, only just -escaped executing La Voisin herself: among them also the Viscount de -Cousserans, the Count de Labatie, Fauchet the architect, a wine merchant -of the neighbourhood, Lesage the magician, the alchemist Blessis, and -others. - -We must add that Blessis and Lesage spent much money on her, ostensibly -in connection with the philosopher's stone, for La Voisin had a sincere -faith in alchemy. She subsidised great enterprises, and helped to -establish manufactures, being much interested in scientific and -industrial progress; but in regard to industrial undertakings she fell -mainly into the hands of sharpers who swindled her out of her money. - -However, La Voisin, proud of her trade as sorceress, which brought -persons of the highest rank to bend before her in obsequious and -suppliant attitudes, did not stick at any expense that seemed likely to -augment her glory. She delivered her oracular sayings clothed in a robe -and a cloak specially woven for her, for which she paid 15,000 livres -(L3000 of English money). The queen herself had no finery more beautiful -than this 'imperial robe,' which 'was the talk of all Paris.' The cloak -was of crimson velvet studded with 205 two-headed eagles of fine gold, -lined with costly fur; the skirt was of bottle-green velvet, edged with -French point. Even her shoes were embroidered with golden two-headed -eagles. The mere weaving of the eagles on the cloak cost 400 livres (L80 -to-day). We possess the bills of the maker. - -But under the glittering shows of wealth La Voisin had preserved most -dissolute manners. She was constantly drunk. She indulged in fishwife's -brawls with Lesage. Latour, who was her 'great author,' used to thrash -her. She fought with Marie Bosse and tore her hair out. 'One day, Latour -being with her on the ramparts, she got him to give her husband fifty -blows with a stick, while she held Latour's hat.' On that occasion, -Latour bit poor Monvoisin's nose. But on the other hand, the sorceress -regularly attended the church of the Abbe de Saint-Amour, rector of the -University of Paris, an austere Jansenist; and Madame de la Roche-Guyon -stood god-mother to her daughter. - -The husband whom La Voisin so brutally got beaten, appears to have been -a decent man. In those days there was at Montmartre a chapel dedicated -to St. Ursula, who enjoyed the power to 'improve' husbands. The -procedure was to carry there, some Friday morning, a shirt of the wicked -spouse. Our sorceress had the most implicit faith in the efficacy of -this practice, and we must do her the justice to state that she always -began by sending to Montmartre women who came to her with tales of their -troubles. She availed herself of the remedy on her own account, and poor -Monvoisin had to march to the place carrying his shirt under his arm. He -was a husband for whose improvement St. Ursula does not appear to have -been required to spend much effort. - -Lesage, the witch's lover, advised her to get rid of Monvoisin. A -sheep's heart was bought, 'to which Lesage did something,' and then it -was buried in the garden behind the gate. Lo and behold, Monvoisin was -seized with severe pain in the stomach. He cried out that if there was -anybody who wished to do for him, he had better shoot him at once -instead of letting him linger. La Voisin, struck with remorse, hastened -to the Augustines to confess and obtain a general absolution; she took -the sacrament, and on her return compelled Lesage to undo his wicked -charms. - -She related very simply and frankly to La Reynie the first steps of her -career. Her husband, at that time, was doing nothing, but he had been a -hawking jeweller, and then a shopkeeper on the Pont-Marie. He had lost -his shop, and then, seeing her husband ruined, 'she had devoted herself -to cultivating the powers that God had given her.' 'It was chiromancy -and face-reading that I learnt at the age of nine. I have been -persecuted for fourteen years: that is the work of the missionaries' -(these were the members of a community established by St. Vincent de -Paul, then very popular, who were actively occupied in converting -sinners and removing scandals of all kinds). 'However,' she continued, -'I gave an account of my art to the vicars-general, the Holy See being -vacant, and to several doctors of the Sorbonne to whom I had been sent, -and they found nothing to object to.' Marie Bosse also spoke of the -time when her friend went to the Sorbonne to argue on astrology with the -professors. - -Thus La Voisin set up as fortune-teller in order to restore order and -comfort to her household. One of her friends, La Lepere, told her -sometimes that she ought not to engage in such great crimes. 'You are -mad!' cried the witch, 'the times are too bad. How am I to feed my -family? I have six persons on my hands!' And in fact, until her arrest, -La Voisin had been the constant support of her old mother, to whom she -gave money every week. - -La Voisin's claim that her art was founded on face-reading was quite -genuine. She had made a profound study of physiognomy. We find -innumerable references to this subject in the documents of her case, and -also a 'Treatise on physiognomy, supported on six immovable columns: (1) -sympathy between body and mind; (2) relations between rational and -irrational animals; (3) the differences between the sexes; (4) national -diversities; (5) physical temperaments; (6) diversities of age; not -depending on a single sign, for men are often attacked by some defect -which force of mind, aided by grace, can assuredly overcome.' When the -Countess de Beaufort de Canillac came to consult the fortune-teller, -'the lady wishing to give me her hand without unmasking, I told her that -I did not know physiognomies of velvet, whereupon the lady removed her -mask.' La Voisin confessed that she read much more in the features than -in the lines of the hand, 'it being no easy thing to conceal a passion -or any considerable disturbing emotion.' She was not merely a -physiognomist, but an expert psychologist, and that was how she gave a -real foundation to her sorcery. We may cite the following incident among -many others. - -Marie Brissart, widow of a Parlement counsellor, tenderly loved and -handsomely supported a captain of guards named Louis Denis de Rubentel, -Marquis de Mondetour, who became lieutenant-general in 1688. He was a -personage of whom Saint-Simon, a severe censor, speaks thus: 'He had -been able to contemn basenesses, and to withdraw into his virtue, which -was beyond his wealth.' Madame Brissart used to send him money when he -was on service, after having equipped him from top to toe on his -departure. It happened that the cavalier displayed some coldness towards -his mistress, with the idea of getting her purse to open still more -generously. The widow, seeing nothing of her captain, became alarmed, -and hastened to La Voisin. She began her incantations, with the -assistance of Lesage. The magician walked up and down the garden with a -wand, with which he struck the earth, repeating the words, _Per Deum -sanctum, per Deum vivum!_ Then he said: 'Louis Denis de Rubentel, I -conjure thee in the name of the Almighty to go find Marie Miron (Madame -Brissart's maiden name): she to possess thee wholly, body, soul, and -spirit, and thou to love none but her!' On another occasion, he put into -a little ball of wax a paper on which the names of Rubentel and Madame -Brissart were written, and in the presence of the latter threw the ball -into the fire, where it burst with a loud noise. These fine charms were -still without result, when one morning La Voisin, with the intuition of -a clairvoyant, said to her weeping client: 'You write every day and send -your maid to Rubentel, but he pays no attention to you; it is mad -conduct to write and send every day'; and the lady having ceased to -write and send, Monsieur de Rubentel, who in turn began to be afraid -lest so precious a fount should dry up, returned to her 'without -anything else having been done; yet the lady, believing that La Voisin -had done some extraordinary thing, gave her twelve pistoles.' - -The witch heard all sorts of confessions. There were wonderful dreams of -adoring affection told her by lovers of twenty years, who came to her -red with emotion, or wrote thrilling letters in order to bring their -torment to an end, begging her to soften the hard hearts of their -mistresses, or to bend the opposition of a cruel father. Or it was the -fierce carnal love of mature women obstinately clinging to the lovers -who were neglecting them for fresher girls. There were also the passions -of ambitious women, greedy for money and honours, which bring us to the -horrors of the 'black mass.' - -La Voisin was assisted in these monstrous rites by a priest 'squint-eyed -and old,' with bloated face, and prominent blue veins forming a network -on his cheeks--the terrible Abbe Guibourg. Formerly chaplain to the -Count de Montgommery, he was at this time sacristan of St. Marcel, at -St. Denis. He used to say mass, according to the proper rites, wearing -the alb, stole, and maniple. 'The women on whose bodies mass was said -were laid stark naked, without even their chemise, upon a table which -served as altar; their arms were stretched out, and they held a taper in -each hand.' Sometimes they did not actually undress themselves, 'but -only tucked up their garments as high as the throat.' The chalice was -placed on the bare belly. At the moment of the _offertoire_, a child had -its throat cut. Guibourg usually stuck a long needle into its neck. The -blood of the expiring victim was poured into the chalice, and mixed with -the blood of bats and other materials obtained by filthy means. Flour -was added to solidify the mess, which was thus made to resemble the -Host, to be consecrated at the moment when, in the sacrifice of the -mass, transubstantiation takes place. The scene is reconstructed by La -Reynie according to the testimony of the accused. - -Black masses were not the only sorceries whose rites required the -sacrifice of children. La Voisin and her fellow-witches perpetrated a -terrible slaughter of them. Children deserted by their unmarried -mothers, others bought from poor women, did not suffice: several -sorceresses were convicted of having killed their own children for these -atrocious proceedings. Here, for instance, is a horrible detail: the -daughter of La Voisin, on the very eve of her trouble, not trusting her -mother, fled the house, and only returned after placing her infant in -safety. The witches ran off with children in the streets. La Reynie -wrote to Louvois: 'Remember the great disturbance in Paris in 1676, when -there were seditious gatherings and mobs and runnings to and fro in -several parts of the city, through the rumour that people carried off -children to cut their throats, though no one then understood what the -cause of the rumour could be. The mob, however, proceeded to various -excesses against the women suspected of being child-stealers. The king -ordered an inquiry. Proceedings were taken (against those who rose -against the witches), and a woman who was guilty of violence was -condemned to death, but obtained a special pardon.' - -La Voisin, like all the sorceresses, practised medicine. Among her -papers were found recipes for the cure of pimples, a remedy for -headache, the prescription for 'a quintessence of hellebore which kept -the Dean of Westminster alive for 166 years.' She was a midwife, and -especially a procurer of abortion. 'Above the room (where she gave -consultations) there was a sort of loft in which she procured abortions, -and behind the room there was a recess with a stove, in which were found -the charred remains of small human bones.' Little children were burned -in this stove. One day, in an effusive moment, La Voisin confessed that -'she had burnt in the stove, or buried in the garden, the bodies of more -than 2500 children prematurely born.' Here again we come upon surprising -particulars. The witch was very insistent that children thus brought -into the world should be baptized before death. One evening La Lepere, a -midwife friend of La Voisin, happened to be in the famous room with the -witch's husband. La Voisin, who was in the loft, came down suddenly in -joyous haste and with radiant countenance, crying: 'What luck! the child -has been dipped!' - -Such was the strange and horrible creature--the last of the great -sorceresses who haunted the imagination of Michelet--the extraordinary -woman whose crimes sent a shudder through the man who had heard the -confessions of the most redoubtable criminals of his time--Nicolas de la -Reynie. - -We have a portrait of La Voisin by Antoine Coypel. She is represented on -the way to execution in the linen shift of condemned criminals. -Contemporaries depict her as a small stoutish woman, rather pretty, -owing to her eyes, which were extraordinarily bright and piercing. The -artist has given her a froglike expression, but no doubt he sketched her -under the influence of a preconceived idea. Madame de Sevigne, who had a -singular taste for this sort of spectacle, saw her mount to the stake: -'La Voisin,' she wrote, 'very prettily surrendered her soul to the -devil.' The confessor of the sorceress has given his testimony to her -edifying end: 'I am loaded with so many crimes,' she said with simple -and profound emotion, 'that I could not wish God to work a miracle to -snatch me from the flames, because I cannot suffer too much for the sins -I have committed.' - - -_The Magician Lesage_ - -La Voisin's principal coadjutor was the magician Lesage. He was one by -himself in this world of sorceresses, alchemists, and magicians. A -sceptic among believers, he duped the women with whom he worked as well -as the fashionable ladies who came to avail themselves of his art. - -Originally from Venoix near Caen, his real name was Adam Coeuret. His -portrait is sketched by La Vigoureux: 'he wore a ruddy wig, was ill -formed, clothed as a rule in grey, with a cloak of homespun.' He was a -wool merchant. Though he had a wife in Lower Normandy, he promised La -Voisin that he would marry her if she became a widow. The first alias -he chose was Duboisson. In 1667 he was arrested, condemned to the -galleys for dealings with the devil, and liberated in 1672 through the -kind offices of La Voisin. The galley in which he rowed was lying in -sight of the port of Genoa when the pardon reached him. - -Set at liberty, Coeuret returned to Paris, where he renewed his -relations with the witches. - -His whole art consisted in a remarkable talent for jugglery, by which he -deceived the witches themselves, persuading them that he possessed 'all -the science of the cabala.' They adopted him as partner in their -lucrative operations. The reports of the examination of La Voisin give -curious information on this head. 'Lesage took a live pigeon in the Vale -of Misery (on the quay of La Megisserie, where poultry was sold) and -burnt it in a warming-pan. Having then sifted its ashes, he put them in -his room. It was the beginning of Lent, during which he used to recite -the Passion of our Lord daily, with his feet in water, though it was -freezing hard. Then he put a white cloth on the table, lit two tapers, -and sent for three crystal glasses, with which having performed his -"mystery," which was Greek to La Voisin, he shut them up in a cupboard -with a twig of laurel, and then, though he retained the key, he asked -her for the three glasses and the laurel twig which he had locked in the -cupboard. They were not found there; and then he said that he would give -her nothing else to keep, and having sent her into the garden, she found -them all three in a row in the summer-house. And when she asked him how -he did that, Lesage said that he was one of the apostles and of the -company of the Sibyls.' - -At other times Lesage celebrated a sort of mass, got up as a priest. At -the moment of the offertory he would break two pieces of ordinary bread, -and after having made La Voisin and her husband kneel down, he gave them -each a piece of bread 'just as if they were at communion, and then made -them drink some holy water which, as he said, he had turned into wine, -and it was a liquid of an extremely pleasant taste.' 'A sergeant having -come to La Voisin's house to distrain on her at the instance of an -upholsterer named Lenoir, La Voisin sent for Lesage, told him that she -was ruined, and that there was something in the cupboard which must be -taken away, namely, a consecrated wafer; and at the same time Lesage -sent away the Marquise de Lusignan, who happened to be in the house, and -told her to go home, and when she got there to put a white napkin on her -bed, for something he was going to send her. And in fact the wafer was -found by the marquise at her own house, without any one seeing who had -taken it there.' - -The pretended sorceries of Lesage thus consisted simply of clever -conjuring tricks. They sufficed to amaze his clients. He made them -write, for instance, requests to the devil in notes which he then -pretended to throw in the fire, enclosed in balls of wax; and some days -after he gave them back to them, saying that the devil, who had received -them through the flames, had returned them. - -Lesage was arrested for the second time on March 17, 1679, and we shall -see the importance of the statements he made to the magistrates. - - -_The 'Chambre Ardente'_ - -The consternation of Louis XIV, his ministers, and the lieutenant of -police at the discovery of such crimes may be imagined. The terror was -all the intenser because chemists and able physicians were then -powerless to discover traces of poison in a corpse. The matter was -intrusted to a special commission, in the hope that by a more -expeditious and energetic procedure than that of the ordinary courts, it -would succeed in cutting the evil at the root. This was the famous -Chambre Ardente. - -The president was Louis Boucherat, Count de Compans--an amiable man, -says Madame de Sevigne, and of much good sense. Later, he became -Chancellor of France. Louis Bazin, Lord of Bezons, nominated to act as -judge-advocate along with La Reynie, was a member of the Academy. The -office of clerk was filled by Sagot, La Reynie's confidential secretary -and ordinary clerk of the Chatelet. 'The Commission,' writes Ravaisson, -'was composed of the elite of the councillors of state, and all these -magistrates have left a high reputation.' The court was called the -Chambre Ardente, because in former days tribunals specially constituted -to deal with great crimes sat in a chamber hung with black and lit by -torches and candles. - -The court met for the first time on April 10, 1679, and decided to keep -its proceedings secret, so as to withhold details of these practices -from the knowledge of the public. The magistrates themselves had no -doubt of the efficacy of these dealings with the devil, nor of the -formidable composition of the poisons. - -The method of procedure was as follows:-- - -The individuals regarded as suspicious by La Reynie, the examining -magistrate, were arrested by royal warrant, that is, by a _lettre de -cachet_, which took the place of the modern magistrate's warrant. The -first depositions were submitted to the attorney-general, and it was -only on his requisition that the officials proceeded to the -confrontation of the prisoners, after which the commissaries submitted a -detailed report to the court. The attorney presented to them his general -conclusions, and the court decided whether the accused person should be -'recommended,' that is, remain a prisoner in virtue of a warrant issued -by them. In that case the investigation followed its course. When this -was ended, all the documents concerning the accused were read to the -judges, the king's attorney delivered his address in favour of acquittal -or condemnation, the accused was heard for the last time, and the court -pronounced judgment, which was without appeal. - -The Chambre Ardente sat in the hall of the Arsenal. From April 10, 1679, -the day of its first meeting, to July 21, 1682, when it closed its -doors, it held 210 sittings, after having been suspended, for reasons -that will be explained later, from October 1, 1680, to May 19, 1681. - -The Chambre Ardente deliberated on the fate of 442 accused persons, and -ordered the arrest of 367 of these. Of these arrests, 218 were -sustained. Thirty-six prisoners were condemned to the extreme penalty, -torture ordinary and extraordinary and execution; two of them died a -natural death in jail; five were condemned to the galleys; twenty-three -were exiled; but the most guilty had accomplices in such high places -that their cases were never carried to an end. We must add the prisoners -who committed suicide in prison, such as La Dodee, a sorceress aged -thirty-five, still very pretty, who was arrested with La Trianon, and -cut her throat at Vincennes after her first examination; 'she covered -the wound with her chemise, in which the greater part of her blood -flowed, and was found dead when her room was opened in the morning to -take her her breakfast.' - - * * * * * - -Among the many cases which came before this court one or two will serve -as types. - -Madame de Dreux was the wife of a Parlement _maitre des requetes_. She -was not yet thirty, and was endowed with much grace and beauty, a -delicate and dainty beauty, with infinite charm and distinction. She was -so fond of Monsieur de Richelieu, declared La Joly, one of the -sorceresses tried by the court, 'that as soon as she knew that Monsieur -de Richelieu was even looking at any one else, she thought of doing away -with him.' She had further poisoned 'Monsieur Pajot and Monsieur de -Varennes and many others,' and, in particular, one of her lovers, to -avoid, as she said, the bother and annoyance of a rupture. She had also -tried to poison her husband, and to get rid of Madame de Richelieu by -sorcery. All these details were widely known in Paris, where society, -difficult as it is to believe it, was wonderfully amused by them. The -husband was riddled with epigrams, which Madame de Sevigne declares -'divinely diverting.' Madame de Dreux was too pretty, really!--and -besides, she was a cousin of two of the judges of the Chambre Ardente; -the result was that on April 27, 1680, the judges contented themselves -with admonishing her. 'Monsieur de Dreux and her whole family,' writes -Madame de Sevigne, 'went to the court to meet her.' Set at liberty, the -young woman was feted and petted by the whole world of fashion. 'There -was joy and triumph and kisses from all her family and friends. Monsieur -de Richelieu did wonders in this business.' A fact which will appear -incredible is, that after she left prison, Madame de Dreux returned to -the sorceresses, met La Joly in the Jesuits' church, and asked and -obtained from her powders to poison a lady whom Monsieur de Richelieu -was 'considering.' - -Truth to tell, La Joly was arrested while this was going on, and, as a -result of her revelations, a fresh warrant was issued against Madame de -Dreux; but she was warned, and escaped. She was proceeded against for -contumacy. Her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu were then seen pleading -for her in company. On January 23, 1682, Madame de Dreux was condemned -to banishment beyond the kingdom, but the king allowed her to remain in -France provided she lived in Paris with her husband. - -Madame Leferon, who also belonged to judicial society, was less pleasant -in appearance. The daughter of a Parlement counsellor, her maiden name -was Marguerite Galart. Her husband, president of the first court of -_enquetes_, is represented in the _Tableau du Parlement_ of 1661 as 'a -good judge, of solid judgment and firm opinion, never changing except on -good grounds, unprejudiced, loving rule and order, a good and -disinterested man.' He had given proof of independence of character at -the time of Fouquet's case, by showing clemency to the superintendent. -Madame Leferon found him a bore, avaricious, and further--how can one -say it?--insufficient. Yet the fair dame had passed her fiftieth year. -But she was madly smitten with one Monsieur de Prade, who on his side -was in love with her money. She asked La Voisin for poisons to kill her -husband, and de Prade went to her for charms to help him win the heart -of his mistress. La Voisin gave them all they wanted: phials to the -lady, and to the gallant a mask of virgin wax representing the face of -Madame Leferon. This, enclosed in a zinc box, was to be warmed every now -and then, which would warm the heart of the lady. De Prade gave La -Voisin a note for 20,000 livres--L4000 to-day. - -The phials produced their effect, and Leferon died on September 8, 1669. -The waxen mask was equally successful, and Madame Leferon married de -Prade. On February 20, 1680, as she went to the stake, La Voisin said to -Sagot, clerk to the court: 'It is quite true that Madame Leferon came to -see me, most joyous at being a widow, and when I asked her if the phial -of liquid had taken effect, she said, "Effect or not, he is done for!"' -De Prade appeared no less happy. He scoured the city in a brand-new -carriage, 'with three or four lackeys behind.' His joy was short. The -lady saw that her new husband thought chiefly of getting 'donations' out -of her, and the husband soon saw that his wife was trying to poison him -in his turn. He fled to the Turks. On April 7, 1680, Madame Leferon was -condemned to banishment beyond the borders of the viscounty of Paris and -to a fine of 1500 livres, though there were, as Louvois wrote to Louis -XIV, thirteen or fourteen witnesses of her crime. - -Madame de Dreux and Madame Leferon owed this remarkable indulgence to -Madame de Poulaillon. Born Marguerite de Jehan, of a noble Bordeaux -family, she had come to Paris when very young to associate with the -alchemists, having a passion for the occult sciences. She had married -Alexandre de Poulaillon, much older than herself, but very rich. -Contemporaries are unanimous in praising the pretty face, the delicate -and keen intelligence, and the exquisite distinction of the young lady. -Unhappily for herself, she met a certain La Riviere, who had a wonderful -talent for getting money out of ladies. As we know, in the seventeenth -century, a talent of this sort was not the discreditable thing it is -to-day. Her excellent husband, becoming suspicious, drew his -purse-strings tight and locked his safes. Madame de Poulaillon had -recourse to various expedients. She sold the house furniture, chairs, -sofas, 'the big gilded bed upholstered in English watered silk,' the -plate, and even the clothes of her husband. He, in a furious temper--we -may suppose so, at least--ceased to give his wife even money for her -toilet, and bought her dresses and ribbons himself. - -In despair, the young woman opened relations with La Vigoureux: she -required money for her lover, and the riddance of her husband. With this -intent she planned the most audacious strokes. Two or three hired -bravoes would do: 'While one held Poulaillon by the throat in his study, -the other would throw bags of money out of the window, and she would -open the study door herself.' Another time she thought of getting her -husband kidnapped alive. She was quite ready herself for the enterprise, -but failed to find men to assist her. At last she saw Marie Bosse, who -from the first appeared to her more plucky. However, Madame de -Poulaillon displayed so furious a haste to get rid of her 'old goodman,' -that Marie Bosse, hardened as she was, fairly took fright. She would not -give her in one dose the powder necessary for the poisoning, for fear -that the lady, by giving it all at once, would create a scandal. The -sorceress was prudent enough to begin with the shirt, one of the most -horrible of these hags' inventions. The shirts of the husband were -washed in arsenic. This left no trace. Whoever put them on was before -long attacked by a violent inflammation in the limbs and the lower part -of the body. And every one sympathised with the wife whose husband was -suffering from a disgraceful malady caused by debauchery! Arsenic was -put also into the injections, which in those days were in common use. -The contents of a phial poured into the wine or soup hastened the -operation. - -The negotiations between Madame de Poulaillon and Marie Bosse were -carried on in the church of the Carmelites. The young woman gave 4000 -livres (L800) for the phial and the preparation for the shirts. -Poulaillon was warned by an anonymous letter; moreover, his wife could -not obtain the necessary assistance from her servants. Then in her rage -she applied to some soldiers, and asked them to wait for her husband at -the corner of a road she pointed out to them, where it would be the -easiest thing in the world, she said, to do for him. The soldiers took -her money and hastened to inform Poulaillon, who now lost all patience, -shut his wife up in a convent, and laid an information before the -Chatelet. It was at this time that the lady had a writ issued against -her by the Chambre Ardente. - -As soon as he saw the storm threatening, La Riviere, to whom Madame de -Poulaillon had sacrificed everything, fled to Burgundy, where he hid -behind the skirts of Madame de Coligny, daughter of the famous -Bussy-Rabutin, and widow of the Marquis de Coligny. She fell in love -with La Riviere, who, kept informed of the progress of the trial, joked -pleasantly with his new flame on the misfortunes of his old mistress. -She, though madly in love with the gallant, was shocked. 'If the -misfortune of the lady who has so much merit, I hear, and who loves you -and has loved you so passionately, no longer touches you, what reason -have I to flatter myself I shall keep you always?' This brilliant -cavalier, who insisted on being called the Marquis de la Riviere, Lord -de Courcy, was really a bastard son of the Abbe de la Riviere, Bishop of -Langres. - -Madame de Poulaillon was finally examined on June 5, 1679. The -attorney-general had demanded the penalty of torture and death on the -Place de Greve; but the memory of the edifying and touching end of -Madame de Brinvilliers was still strong in the minds of the judges, and -had almost stricken them with remorse. Madame de Poulaillon displayed -before her judges even more grace, more submission to the hand of God, -more sweet and tranquil resignation. So strongly were these men of law -moved, that they could not bring themselves to order the severing of -that charming head. 'This lady, who had infinite spirit,' notes Sagot -the clerk, 'cared little about death, and though she did not expect to -escape, showed during her whole examination an extraordinary presence of -mind, which won the judges' admiration and pity.' La Reynie writes that -the judges were touched 'by her spirit, and by the grace with which at -the last she explained her unhappiness and her crime.' 'The -commissioners,' says Sagot, 'remained in deliberation for four whole -hours, all of them, especially those who had some interest in these -ladies, being prepared for anything which might serve, if not for the -discharge of Madame de Poulaillon, at any rate for the mitigation of the -facts they could not dispute, in so far as that could be done without a -manifest miscarriage of justice. Monsieur de Fieubet was the one who -dilated most on this view, employing all the power of his natural -eloquence; and he it was who saved the life of Madame de Poulaillon, -having brought round to his way of thinking three of the six judges who -had previously decided for death. This was a precedent fortunate for -Mesdames de Dreux and Leferon and other prisoners, and in fact it was -through this that the court lost credit.' - -'The great difficulty,' adds La Reynie, 'was afterwards to console -Madame de Poulaillon when she found that she was only condemned to exile -instead of the death she had herself pronounced in presence of the -judges, after having declared the joy she had in thus expiating her -crime, and at the same time winning deliverance from all her other -woes.' On the demand of the young lady herself, her punishment was -increased by royal warrant to detention with the Penitents at Angers. -Meanwhile La Riviere, after making Madame de Coligny a mother, married -her without a trace of compunction. True, shortly afterwards, -Bussy-Rabutin and his daughter, undeceived about the man, endeavoured to -dissolve the union; but the gay spark resisted, and Madame de la Riviere -was forced to pension him off at a very high figure before he would -agree to desert her. - -The best society applauded the acquittal of Madame de Poulaillon, while -the middle classes murmured, with so much the more reason that soon -afterwards a certain widow lady named Brunet was condemned with the -greatest harshness, though no more guilty than Mesdames de Poulaillon, -de Dreux, and Leferon. - -She had been the wife of a wholesale tradesman in the city. Monsieur and -Madame Brunet entertained very largely, for they provided excellent -music. The fashionable flutist, Philibert Rebille, musician to the king, -was constantly to be heard there. Brunet worshipped the flutist for his -delightful skill, and Madame Brunet for his charming person. As the -excellent people kept a good table, and the wife was charming, the -artiste responded with great enthusiasm to this double passion. It was -perfect bliss, which might have lasted for a long time to the melodious -sounds of the flute, if Brunet, with the idea of permanently attaching -to himself so pleasant a musician, had not taken it into his head to -offer him his daughter with a handsome dowry, and if Philibert, -delighted with the ducats and the daughter, had not accepted them with -alacrity. Madame Brunet uttered a cry of horror! Philibert explained to -her that he had consulted apostolic notaries, and that for a -consideration it would be possible to obtain canonical letters which -would set things right; and festivities were got up for the betrothal. -In desperation Madame Brunet confided in La Voisin: 'If she had to do -penance for ten years, it was necessary that God should carry off -Brunet, her husband, for she could not abide to see Philibert, whom she -loved passionately, in the arms of her daughter.' She even took her -lover to the sorceress. Philibert deposed at the trial that, under -pretext of showing him a garden, Madame Brunet took him to see a woman -who proceeded to look at his hand: 'I know not who she is, for the woman -was so drunk that she could not say a word.' La Voisin, on being -questioned, related the proceedings of Madame Brunet, adding: 'There are -other details which I would not tell for anything in the world, I would -rather have a dagger thrust into my heart: that is kept for confessors, -not for judges.' Francois Ravaisson, in publishing this dramatic -declaration, thus comments on it: 'These details were imparted by La -Voisin to La Reynie later; they did honour to Philibert's disposition. -The details given by the judges brought this flute-player into the -height of fashion, and ladies of the court and the city scrambled for -him when he came out of prison.' - -Meanwhile, Marie Bosse undertook the operation, for 2000 livres--L400 -to-day. - -Brunet was poisoned in 1673, and Philibert married the widow. - -'My friends advised me,' he declared naively before the judges, 'to wed -the mother rather than the daughter, which I did, under the good -pleasure of the king, who signed the contract.' - -The flute-player's wife was condemned on May 15, 1679. She begged in -vain to be allowed to see husband and children for the last time. Her -hand was cut off while she was still alive, then she was hanged, and her -body cast into the fire. Louis XIV, who was fond of his flutist, advised -him to leave France if he was conscious of guilt. But Philibert was a -man of mettle. He went like a gentleman and gave himself up as a -prisoner at Vincennes. He was acquitted on April 7, 1680. - - -_Louis XIV and the Poison Affair_ - -Meanwhile the Chambre Ardente was extending its prosecutions over an -ever-widening circle and into higher and higher ranks of society, and by -degrees a singular disquietude awoke, an astonishing uneasiness: it was -no longer the poisoners whom people dreaded, but the magistrates. People -talked about a lady of the highest rank who was declaring everywhere -that the judges and all their proceedings ought to be burnt. La Reynie -asked for the protection of an escort when he went to Vincennes, where -the principal accused persons were. Madame de Sevigne, speaking of the -great lieutenant of police, wrote: 'His life is a proof that there are -no poisoners now.' On February 4, 1680, Louvois wrote to the president -of the court:-- - - 'His Majesty, having been informed of what was said in Paris in - regard to the decrees issued a few days ago by the Chamber, has - commanded me to acquaint you with His Majesty's desire that you - should assure the judges of his protection, and let them understand - that he expects them to continue dispensing justice with firmness.' - -Louis sent for Boucherat, the president, the two examining -commissioners, La Reynie and Bezons, and the attorney-general, and they -went out to Versailles. 'On rising from dinner,' writes La Reynie, 'His -Majesty recommended us to do justice and our duty, in extremely strong -and precise terms, indicating to us that he desired, on behalf of the -public weal, that we should penetrate as deeply as possible into the -terrible traffic in poisons, so as to cut its root if this were -possible; he commanded us to do strict justice, without distinction of -person, rank, or sex; and this His Majesty told us in clear and vigorous -terms.' - -The determination so vigorously expressed by the king filled La Reynie -with confidence and zeal; it encouraged him in the accomplishment of the -arduous task imposed on him. And such courage was necessary: what -frightful revelations he heard! Was it due to these revelations that, -suddenly, the intentions of the court of Versailles underwent -modification? La Voisin had just been condemned to suffer torture. She -was subjected to it, but only as a matter of form. 'La Voisin was not -tortured at all,' writes La Reynie in indignation, 'and this means not -having been applied, has naturally produced no effect.' It was feared -that the sorceress, whose discretion had been so remarkable hitherto, -might say too much in the agony of torture, and, independently of La -Reynie, the torturers had received their orders. The judges had also -received independent orders, and their reluctance to interrogate the -accused woman was such that, at the moment of her execution, La Voisin, -struck with remorse, conceived it her duty to confess spontaneously -before being handed over to the confessor: 'She felt obliged to say, to -ease her conscience, that a large number of persons of all ranks and -conditions had applied to her for means to procure the death of many -persons, and that debauchery was the chief motive of all these crimes.' - -But after the execution of La Voisin, the examinations of her partner -Lesage, of her accomplice the Abbe Guibourg, and of her daughter, -Marguerite Monvoisin, were proceeded with. On August 2, 1680, Louis XIV -wrote from Lille to La Reynie:-- - - 'Having seen the declaration made on the 12th of last month by - Marguerite Monvoisin, prisoner at my castle of Vincennes, I write - you this letter to inform you of my intention that you should - devote all possible care to elucidate the facts contained in the - said declaration--that you should take care to have written down in - separate reports the examinations, confrontations, and everything - concerning the inquiry that may be made of the said declaration, - and that meanwhile you defer reporting to my royal Chamber sitting - at the Arsenal the depositions of Romani and Bertrand.' - -Romani and Bertrand were two prisoners with whom we shall have a good -deal to do by and by. - -Thus Louis XIV gave orders for the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, -and those of Romani and Bertrand, to be detached from the documents -submitted to the court. On the other hand, Louvois had had the -imprudence to promise Lesage his life if he revealed all he knew. Lesage -related most horrible things. Word then went round not to listen to any -more; he was a liar. But on September 30 and October 1, 1680, these -narratives were confirmed in the most precise manner by the sorceress -Francoise Filastre while under torture. The declarations of Filastre -struck on the ears of Louis XIV like a clap of thunder. In the registers -of the royal council we read as follows:-- - - 'The king, having had shown to him the official report of the - torture of Francoise Filastre, being unwilling to permit, for good - and just considerations important to his service, that certain - facts should be inserted in the copies made for the convenience of - the Court of the Arsenal, His Majesty in Council has commanded that - the minutes and originals of the said proceedings be laid before - the chancellor by the clerk to the commission, and that the said - clerk draw up in his presence a summary of the said proceedings, - in which the said facts shall not be inserted. Given by His Majesty - in Council held at Versailles, May 14, 1681. - -(_Signed_) LE TELLIER.' - - - -Thus the king for the second time intervened, and withdrew from the -court certain documents containing new declarations. He saw now, -moreover, that these were in accordance with the truth, and that if the -examinations were continued, it would be impossible to prevent them from -being divulged. On October 1, 1680, the sittings of the court were -suspended. - -The documents which the king had thus caused to be separated from the -rest were locked and sealed up in a casket, which was deposited with -Sagot, the clerk, who lived in the Rue Quincampoix. When Sagot died, on -October 10, 1680, the casket was removed to Rue -Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, to the house of his successor in the -clerkship to the Chatelet and the Chambre Ardente, Nicolas Gaudion. On -July 13, 1709, the casket was taken to the king's private room, where, -in the presence of Chancellor Pontchartrain, Louis XIV burnt the papers -in his grate: 'His Majesty in Council, after having looked through and -examined the minutes and proceedings laid before him by the chancellor, -and having had them burnt in his presence, commanded that Gaudion should -then be wholly and formally discharged of the same.' - -Louis XIV had just suffered a cruel blow, not only in his deepest -affections, but in his dignity as sovereign, by the declarations of -obscure and infamous criminals made before the Chambre Ardente. The very -throne of France was befouled by them. Colbert and Louvois were for a -moment in dire alarm. The all-powerful monarch, aided by his two great -ministers, believed that he had buried in unfathomable darkness the -terrible story of his shame and grief. But one flame had not been -extinguished. It had not been noticed. But it has continued to burn, and -grown larger, and thrown its blaze widely around. It is in the full -daylight glare that the facts are about to appear before our eyes. - - - - -II. MADAME DE MONTESPAN - - -The Marquise Francoise Athenais de Montespan was born in 1641 at the -castle of Tonnay-Charente, the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke -de Mortmart, lord of Vivonne, and of Diane de Granseigne, daughter of -Jean de Marsillac. She was called Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente until -her marriage. 'Her mother,' says Madame de Caylus, 'was anxious to imbue -her with principles of sound piety.' The piety of Mademoiselle de -Tonnay-Charente was violent and inflammatory. Appointed in 1660 maid of -honour to the queen, 'she gave her an extraordinary opinion of her -virtue by taking communion every day.' In 1679, when she had been for -several years the king's mistress, she much astonished the Princess -d'Harcourt by sending her on January 1, as a new year's gift, a -hair-shirt, a scourge, and a prayer-book adorned with diamonds. - -Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente married, on January 28, 1663, a noble of -her own province, L. H. de Pardaillan, Marquis de Montespan, who was a -year younger than herself. If she ever loved him, it was not for long. -As a lady-in-waiting to the queen, she was fascinated by the -magnificence surrounding Louise de la Valliere, the favourite of Louis, -who had become, in spite of her reserve and her timid and gentle -bearing, the object of intense and widespread jealousy, hatred, and -wrath. Madame de Montespan especially displayed her spiteful envy in -malicious gibes and insulting irony. Everybody knows it was not long -before she replaced her. - -Louise de la Valliere had kept in the shade, shunning publicity and -honours; Madame de Montespan in her pride wished to dazzle all eyes. -'Thunderous and triumphant' is Madame de Sevigne's description of her in -her radiant glory at Versailles. She draws elsewhere a picture of the -court in which the king's favourite shone: 'At three o'clock the king -and queen, with Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, all the princes and -princesses, Madame de Montespan, all her suite, all the courtiers and -ladies, in a word, all that is known as the court of France, were found -in these handsome apartments of the king. They are divinely furnished, -everything is magnificent. Madame de Montespan was dressed in _point de -France_, her hair done in a thousand curls, two hanging from her temples -very low upon her cheeks; black ribbons on her head, with her pearls as -_marechale_ of the Hospital, and embellished with earrings and pendants; -in a word, a triumph of beauty that threw the ambassadors into admiring -wonder. She knew that people were complaining how she prevented all -France from seeing the king; she has restored him to us, as you see, and -you would not believe what joy it has given everybody, and what beauty -it has given the court.' - -'Her beauty is marvellous,' writes Madame de Sevigne on another day, -'and her get-up is as wonderful as her beauty, and her gaiety as her -get-up.' Greater still was the renown of her wit. 'She was always the -best of company,' says Saint-Simon, 'with graces which palliated her -high and mighty airs, and were indeed suited to them. It was impossible -to have more wit, more fine polish, more striking expressions, -eloquence, natural propriety, which gave her, as it were, an individual -style of talk, but delicious, and which by force of habit was so -communicable that her nieces and the persons constantly about her, her -women, and those who, without being her servants, had been brought up -along with her, all caught the style, which is recognisable to-day among -the few survivors.' - -She surrounded herself with a brilliant luxury. Here is one of her -dresses as described by Madame de Sevigne: 'Gold upon gold, gold -embroideries, gold edgings, and, over all, gold crimpings, sewed with -one sort of gold blended with another sort, which makes up the divinest -stuff imaginable: it was the fairies who made this masterpiece in -secret.' - -In her estates at Clagny, with their immense park, a second Versailles -was to be seen alongside Versailles itself. The king had first had built -there for his mistress a bijou residence--a country villa. 'She said -that that might do for an opera girl.' The house was pulled down and the -chateau erected, after the plans of Mansard. At Versailles the favourite -had twenty rooms on the first floor; the queen occupied eleven rooms on -the second. Dangeau notes that Madame de Montespan's train was borne by -the Marechale de Noailles; the queen's was carried by a simple page. - -The influence of the young favourite spelled fortune, hope, and honour -to ministers, courtiers, and generals. Her father became governor of -Paris, her brother a marshal of France. In her drawing-room, frequented -by all the most distinguished persons in rank and literature, a quite -unique style of wit came into existence, which her contemporaries often -refer to--a wit at once choice and subtle, natural and pleasant. It must -be added that, by a wonderful coincidence, her reign, which lasted -thirteen years, exactly corresponded with the zenith of the age of Louis -XIV. - -Madame de Montespan used to go about escorted by royal bodyguards. As -she journeyed throughout the whole length and breadth of France, -governors and lord-lieutenants offered her their homage in great -ceremony, and cities sent deputations to her. She passed through the -provinces in a six-horse coach, followed by another coach also drawn by -six horses, in which sat six ladies of her suite, and then came the -baggage-wagons and six mules and a dozen cavaliers. It is like a fairy -tale from Perrault. - -She had by Louis XIV seven children, whom the Parlement was to -legitimatise and declare royal children of France. The oldest, the Duke -de Maine, received the principality of Dombes and the county of Eu; in -1675, when five years old, he was appointed to the infantry regiment of -Marshal Turenne; in 1682, the king gave him the governorship of -Languedoc; on September 15, 1688, the office of general of the galleys -and the lieutenant-generalship of the Levant. The elder of the -daughters, Mademoiselle de Nantes, married the Duke de Bourbon; the -second, Mademoiselle de Blois, made a still more brilliant match. 'The -king,' says Saint-Simon, 'determined to marry Mademoiselle de Blois to -the Duke de Chartres; this was the king's only nephew, and far higher -than the princes of the blood.' - -Madame Palatine[9] said of the Marquise de Montespan: 'She is more -ambitious than dissipated.' There is justice in the saying. She had an -immeasurable pride. Mademoiselle de la Valliere loved the king as a -mistress, Madame de Maintenon as a governess, Madame de Montespan as a -tyrant. - - * * * * * - -It was in 1666 that historians note the first signs of Madame de -Montespan's ambition. She was then aspiring to the king's love, and it -is precisely at this time that La Reynie, in commenting on the -proceedings of the Chambre Ardente, places her first visits to the -sorceresses. - -Marguerite Monvoisin, La Voisin's daughter, spoke thus before the -judges: 'Every time that anything fresh happened to Madame de Montespan, -or she feared any diminution in the favour of the king, she told my -mother, so that she might provide a remedy; and my mother at once had -recourse to priests whom she got to say masses, and gave my mother -powders to be given to the king.' La Voisin's daughter explained that -these powders were for love, composed now in one way, now in another, -according to the various formulae of witchcraft. Among the ingredients -were cantharides, the dust of dried moles, blood of bats, and other vile -substances. Of these a paste was made, which was placed under the -chalice during the sacrifice of the mass, and blessed by the priest at -the moment of the offertory. Louis XIV swallowed this compound mixed -with his food. - -'My mother,' said the girl, 'several times took to Madame de Montespan -at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to -the king--some which had passed under the chalice and others which had -not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the -demoiselle Desoeillets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave -her some in the church of the Petits Peres, and another time on the road -to St. Cloud.' - -The depositions of Marguerite Monvoisin are important. She had never -been mixed up with her mother's sorceries, but she had known about them. -La Reynie observes that her declarations exhibit 'a certain air of -ingenuousness, or else, if they are false, every one is mightily -deceived.' He adds that 'she mentions so many circumstances and so many -different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is -morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which -she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has -invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine; she mentions living -people.' The examining judge says further, that the very denials of the -sorceresses accused by Marguerite of complicity with Madame de -Montespan, their embarrassment, their contradictions, their refusal to -answer when they were conscious of being hard pressed, confirm her -testimony. - -When Marguerite Monvoisin made her depositions, her mother had been dead -for several months. In the examination of July 12, 1680, we read:-- - -'Why did you not sooner give information of these evil designs against -the person of the king?' - -'I could not tell what I had heard without ruining my mother; I did not -believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advice of no one, and have -declared all I know on the matter.' - -'Did you not know you were bound to tell, and that it would be a great -crime to hide anything concerning this matter?' - -'I knew well enough the importance of the things I have stated; I knew -it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had done so; and I -knew there was nothing but was of great importance.' - -'Did you know it would be a great crime to make the slightest addition -to the facts which you have declared?' - -'Yes, and those of whom I have spoken can tell you a good deal; I think -I have diminished rather than increased; I had no other idea but to -state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mother; if -I remember any other circumstance, or if any is recalled to my memory, I -will confess the truth.' - -Several writers have thought that the sorceresses compromised the -greatest names in France before the judges in the hope of saving their -lives, by connecting themselves with personages so high in station that -no one would dare to lift a hand against them. Quite the contrary. We -see La Voisin concealing, up to the very moment of her execution, her -relations with the king's mistress, for her greatest fear was that the -horrible punishment meted out to regicides might be applied to her. In -an expansive moment, she said to her guards at Vincennes: 'I fear, more -than anything else that I am asked about, a certain journey to court.' -We shall have much to do presently with this journey the sorceress made -to court on behalf of Madame de Montespan. It was at the last moment, -after hearing her death-sentence, against which there was no appeal, -that Francoise Filastre made her startling depositions of September 30 -and October 1, 1680, as the result of which Louis XIV, in terror, caused -the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be suspended. - -The statements of Marguerite Monvoisin were confirmed in detail by those -of the Abbe Guibourg, with whom she had no means of communicating after -her arrest. Thus, as La Reynie says, they were proved 'according to the -rules of justice.' - -To-day, history furnishes still further proofs. We have just heard the -daughter of La Voisin: 'Every time anything fresh happened to Madame de -Montespan, or she feared some diminution in the favour of the king, she -told my mother.' Now, if we follow in the correspondence of Madame de -Sevigne and the court chronicles the checkered story of the relations -between Madame de Montespan and the king from 1667 to 1680, and compare -it further with the depositions made before the Chambre Ardente, we find -a precise confirmation of the declarations of Marguerite Monvoisin. It -was several times observed by La Reynie that 'the time mentioned by the -accused is of consequence to Madame de Montespan.' - -How, and by whom, was the haughty favourite led to the haunts of the -witches? Historians have put forth many hypotheses on this subject. They -were not acquainted with the declaration of La Chaboissiere, the valet -of Vanens, whom we have already mentioned: 'that the chevalier de Vanens -deserved to be drawn and quartered for the counsel he had given to -Madame de Montespan.' La Chaboissiere had scarcely let this confession -escape him than he wished in great agitation to retract it, and begged -that the words might not be written down in the report of his -examination. La Reynie disentangled this confession from the chaos of -official documents, and sharply underlined it as the starting-point of -the drama. - -The relations between the favourite and the sorceresses began, then, at -the very time when her dawning love for the king was noticed. In 1667 we -find her in Rue de la Tannerie, in the company of the magician Lesage -and the Abbe Mariette, priest of St. Severin. The latter belonged to a -good Parisian family; he was tall and well made, with a very pale -complexion and black hair. At one end of a little room an altar was -erected: Mariette, in sacerdotal vestments, uttered incantations, Lesage -sang the _Veni Creator_, then Mariette read a gospel on the head of -Madame de Montespan, who knelt before him and recited exorcisms against -Louise de la Valliere. She added--the very words are found in one of -Lesage's declarations--'I ask for the affection of the king and of the -Dauphin, that it may be continued, that the queen may be barren, that -the king leave her bed and table for me, that I obtain from him all that -I ask for myself and my relatives; that my servants and domestics may be -pleasing to him; that, beloved and respected by great nobles, I may be -called to the councils of the king and know what passes there; and that, -this affection being redoubled on what has existed in the past, the king -may leave La Valliere and look no more upon her; and that, the queen -being repudiated, I may espouse the king.' - -On another occasion, in the church of St. Severin, the Abbe Mariette, in -the presence of Madame de Montespan, recited charms over the hearts of -two pigeons which had been consecrated in the names of Louis XIV and -Louise de la Valliere during the sacrifice of the mass. - -Early in the year 1668, Mariette and Lesage had the audacity to proceed -to Saint-Germain, the headquarters of the court, and in the very chateau -itself, in the portion occupied by Madame de Thianges, Madame de -Montespan's sister, they resumed their sorceries. Aromatic fumigations -filled the room with a bluish vapour, with which was mingled the pungent -scent of incense. Madame de Montespan formulated the incantation. -'This,' declared Lesage, 'was to obtain the favour of the king, and to -cause Mademoiselle de la Valliere's death.' Mariette said it was merely -to get her sent away. Now it happened that, not long after these -proceedings, in that very year 1668, Madame de Montespan realised her -dream and was taken to the king's heart. The star of La Valliere rapidly -paled. In 1669 Madame de Montespan was brought to bed of the first of -the seven children she gave to Louis. If she had ever doubted the -efficacy of these dealings with the devil, confidence would have dated -from that day. - -An incident, which might have had terrible consequences, ruffled this -happiness so long desired. Mariette and Lesage owed to La Voisin the -lucrative connection with Madame de Montespan. But they showed base -ingratitude, and proceeded to perform incantations for the marquise, no -longer with the assistance of La Voisin, but with that of a rival -sorceress, La Duverger. La Voisin was indignant, and as La Reynie says, -'made a to-do about it. The matter became known, and the king, having -learnt that these people were accustomed to perform impious and -sacrilegious rites, ordered the arrest of Mariette and Dubuisson (the -name taken by Lesage at this period), and they were sent to the Bastille -in March 1668.' From the Bastille they were brought before the Chatelet -on the charge of sorcery. The court chroniclers, though ignorant of her -reasons for so doing, note that Madame de Montespan at this time -suddenly left Paris. But Mariette and Lesage had too much interest in -holding their tongues to inform against her. 'Besides,' writes La -Reynie, 'the first judge who heard the case being a cousin-german of -Mariette through his wife, La Voisin being at large on the credit of -interested persons with whom she had dealings, and these wretched -practices being then unknown, investigation was not carried very far. It -was solely a question of seeing how the matter could be dealt with in -such a way as to save Mariette on account of his family.' The little -that could not be concealed brought Lesage condemnation to the galleys -and Mariette banishment. The king increased the sentence of the latter -to imprisonment; but the prisoner escaped from St. Lazare, where he had -been confined. As to Lesage, La Voisin, thanks to her connections, was -not long in getting him set at liberty. In a memorandum addressed to -Louvois, La Reynie exhibits the conclusions to be drawn from the trial -of 1668. After very appositely calling attention to the fact that the -statements of the accused were the less suspicious because, dating from -a period when as yet there could be no question of the scarcely dawning -relations between Louis and Madame de Montespan, the lieutenant of -police says that Mariette and Lesage could only have known of those -relations through Madame de Montespan herself, and adds: 'It appears -from the trial of Lesage and Mariette in 1668, that Madame de Montespan -had been dealing with La Voisin at any rate since 1667, and that about -that time she was by her introduced to Lesage and Mariette; that -Mariette, in his room and in the presence of Lesage, used to read the -Gospels over the head of Madame de Montespan. - -'So early as that, then, a scheme was on foot. - -'When I questioned the two surviving accomplices on the matter, they -said, separately, that this scheme was to secure the favour of the king; -that for that purpose La Voisin then gave some powders which were placed -under the chalice given to Madame de Montespan, and that she recited an -incantation in which her own name and the king's occurred; that she -performed other ceremonies at Saint-Germain; that she had masses said on -the hearts of pigeons at St. Severin, and other impious and sacrilegious -rites performed in Mariette's room, for this purpose, and as the one -says, to slay, the other merely to get rid of, Madame de la Valliere.' -(These enchantments to procure the death of Mademoiselle de la Valliere -were made upon human bones.) - -'Lesage and Mariette said nothing about it until the former, urged by -explicit commands to tell the truth, and Mariette, impelled by the -facts themselves to reveal them, both, separately, established these -facts.' - -La Reynie observes further that Lesage and Mariette mentioned certain -details, afterwards proved to be accurate, of which they could have got -information from Madame de Montespan alone. - -We have already mentioned the reasons why the declarations of Marguerite -Monvoisin inspired confidence; the corresponding depositions of Lesage -deserve equal attention. On October 8, 1679, Louvois wrote to Louis -_XIV_: 'Monsieur de la Reynie showed me his conviction that, if I spoke -to Lesage, he would in the end make up his mind to tell me all he knew, -and he believed this to be the more important because this man has not -up to the present been convicted himself of poisoning any one, but has a -perfect knowledge of all the poisonings effected in Paris for the last -seven or eight years. I went yesterday to Vincennes, and spoke to him in -the way Monsieur de la Reynie desired, giving him to hope that your -Majesty would pardon him provided he made the declarations necessary for -bringing to the knowledge of justice all that has happened in regard to -the poisons. He promised to do so, and told me that he was much -surprised at my urging him to tell all he knew.' In a letter of October -11, 1679, Louvois renewed his pressure on Lesage to induce him to speak -fully and in entire frankness. The magician hesitated, tried to -dissimulate, repeating to all who urged him how vastly he was astonished -at their persistence; but this reluctance only stimulated the ardour of -La Reynie. He returned to the charge; like Louvois, he gave hints of a -royal pardon. At last Lesage spoke. His principal declarations were -written among the papers which Louis had burnt in the fireplace of his -study, as we have said; hence we no longer possess them in their -entirety; but from the notes left by La Reynie, as well as from the -fragments of the magisterial examination which were preserved and will -be found in part reproduced below, we know that the revelations of -Lesage entirely confirmed those of Marguerite Monvoisin. - -The scandal of the amours of Louis XIV was only the more intense because -the young Marquis de Montespan was by no means a complaisant husband, a -singular fact at that period and in that society. 'He was an extravagant -and extraordinary man,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'who -complained to everybody of the friendship of the king for his wife.' -There were scenes between the spouses, and he struck her. He provoked -scenes with the king. 'When Montespan went to Saint-Germain sermonising -thus, Madame de Montespan was in despair. He used to come to see me very -often,' says Mademoiselle de Montpensier; 'he is a relative of mine, and -I scolded him. He came one evening and repeated to me an harangue he had -delivered to the king, in which he quoted innumerable passages of -Scripture, about David, for instance, and finally used strong terms to -induce him to give back his wife and fear the judgment of God. I said to -him, "You are mad!" I was at Saint-Germain next day and said to Madame -de Montespan: "I have seen your husband in Paris, and he is madder than -ever; I sharply scolded him and told him that if he didn't hold his -tongue he would deserve to be locked up." She said to me: "He is here -telling his tales at court; I am ashamed to see that my parrot and he -are amusing the mob."' - -Louis XIV was naturally irritated by the attitude of this surprising -husband. Almighty as he was, he resorted to the tricks and subterfuges -of a vulgar lover. His anxiety was redoubled when his mistress became a -mother. The king was very fond of his children, particularly those he -had by Madame de Montespan. In the eyes of the law these children -belonged to the husband; and Louis trembled with fear lest Montespan, -out of vengeance or irony, should come and take from him his son and -daughter. - -Montespan found a supporter in his uncle the Archbishop of Sens. 'When -the king's passion was known,' says the Abbe Boileau, brother of the -poet, 'the archbishop sentenced to public penance a woman of the town -who lived as the marchioness, his niece, was living, in open -concubinage, and he caused the publication in his diocese of the old -canons against the violation of the religious law.' The diocese of Sens -included Fontainebleau, where the court was then held. Madame de -Montespan was compelled to take her departure in confusion. She felt -that it was she who was being pointed at. She dared not return into the -jurisdiction of the archbishop until after the prelate's death in 1674. - -When the Marquis understood that his efforts were vain, and that from -the height of his throne Louis would reply only with _lettres de -cachet_, he put on mourning, clothed all his household in black, and -drove to the court in a coach draped in black, to take leave in great -ceremony of his relatives, friends, and acquaintances. On that day the -husband in his costume of black was not the butt of ridicule; jests were -silenced, and the king on the throne was scorned and despised. A man of -genius lent the monarch his aid. Moliere wrote his _Amphitryon_. The -play was represented in this year 1668, and the mockers resumed their -places in the royal camp. - - 'Un partage avec Jupiter - N'a rien du tout qui deshonore.'[10] - -Viscounts and marquises on gilded benches applauded the taunt and -punctuated the cruel railleries with bursts of laughter. Yet the king -was injured, especially in the opinion of the Parisian middle class. He -was conscious of it; and one day said himself to his mistress that if -she had left house, children, and husband to follow him, he had -neglected the care of his reputation, which was much blighted through -his having loved a woman whom he had such good reasons for not regarding -as he had done. - -Montespan set out for his country seat. Some men of the company he -commanded fell a-quarrelling with the under-bailiff of Perpignan; the -fact was of no importance, but it came to the knowledge of the -ministers, and Louvois wrote at once to the Lord Lieutenant: 'September -21, 1669. I cannot express my surprise that a thing of the nature of -that which Monsieur de Montespan has done should have passed without my -learning of it. I send you a despatch from the king for the supreme -council of Roussillon, in which His Majesty commands the council to hold -an inquiry. In whatever manner you may employ it, it must not be -forgotten, whether in the informations of the sub-bailiff of Perpignan -or in that about the disorders that occurred at Illes, to implicate the -commander of the company (Montespan) and the largest possible number of -cavaliers, so that they may take fright and the majority desert, -especially the commander; after which it would not be a difficult matter -to bring about the ruin of the company. If you have the names of the -cavaliers who insulted the sub-bailiff, they must be arrested at once, -to make an example of them, and so that you may have, from their -depositions at the time of their execution, more proof against the -captain--to try in some way or other to implicate him in the -informations, so that he may be cashiered with an appearance of justice. -If you could manage that he is accused sufficiently for the supreme -council to have grounds for pronouncing some condemnation on him, it -would be a very good thing; you will guess the reasons well enough, -however little you may be informed of what is going on in this part of -the world.' The cynicism of Louis and his minister passes all bounds. -Montespan had to flee for refuge to Spain; but from that day Louis' -position in regard to the injured husband, so far from improving, became -sensibly worse. Abroad, Montespan could more boldly and independently -press his claims on the children of the king, and provoke a scandal in -the eyes of all Europe. - -Louis got a demand for separation _a mensa et thoro_, formulated by -Madame de Montespan, brought before the Chatelet. Notwithstanding the -pressure exerted by king and ministers, who bullied the judges, the -matter remained in suspense. The judges could not bring themselves to -commit the iniquity demanded of them. They gave way at last, partly -under pressure from the First President de Novion, who had been won by a -promise of the Great Seal. The separation was declared on July 7, 1674, -by Procureur-General Achille de Harlay, assisted by six judges. The -judgment adduced the wasting of the property of the commonalty by the -Marquis de Montespan, the domestic discord between the marquis and his -wife, and the ill-treatment of which the marchioness complained on the -part of her husband. This decree pronounced against Montespan was a -monstrous proceeding. After having dishonoured his crown, Louis -dishonoured justice; but there was a higher justice which, as we shall -see, he was not to escape. - -The decree of July 7, 1674, did not assure the king peace of mind. In -1678 Montespan had to return for a short time to Paris on account of a -lawsuit. Louis XIV wrote to Colbert (June 15): 'I understand that -Montespan is indulging in indiscreet talk; he is a madman whom you will -do me the pleasure to have closely watched; and so that he may have no -pretext for remaining in Paris, see Novion so that the Parlement may -hurry. I know that Montespan has threatened to see his wife, and that he -is capable of it, and that the consequences might be formidable (the -question of the children again); I rely on you to prevent him speaking. -Do not forget the details of this matter, and especially see to it that -he leaves Paris at the earliest moment.' Such were the jobs to which the -Colberts and the Louvois had to stoop; but such also were the annoyances -and troubles beneath which Louis bent his brow--a brow already reddened -with shame, and soon to be furrowed with grief. - - * * * * * - -Louis XIV loved his mistresses, not for their own sakes, but for his. -The new passion lasted three years. Perhaps some one will say that that -is a good while. In 1672, jealousy, which perpetually ravaged the proud -soul of Madame de Montespan, burst out in storms of which Madame de -Sevigne speaks thus: 'She is in inexpressible rages; she has seen no one -for a fortnight; she writes from morning till night, and when she goes -to bed tears it all up. Her state makes me quite sorry. No one pities -her, though she has done good turns to many people.' Madame de Montespan -returned to La Voisin; and it is not without emotion that we see this -wonderful woman, with her matchless grace and her superior intelligence, -after having stepped into crime, sinking into it lower and lower. From -the hands of the Abbe Mariette, who recited the Gospels over her head -and made incantations on the hearts of pigeons, she comes into those of -the Abbe Guibourg, who said the black mass. - -Guibourg claimed to be an illegitimate member of the family of -Montmorency. He was seventy years old; his complexion was that of a -confirmed toper. He had a horrible squint. In these monstrous ceremonies -he cut the throats of his own children by his mistress, a fat ruddy -wench named Chanfrain. - -To obtain the desired result from the black mass, it was necessary that -it should be celebrated three times in succession. The three masses were -said in 1673, at intervals of a fortnight or three weeks--the first in -the chapel of the Chateau of Villebousin, in the village of Mesnil, near -Montlhery. Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the maid of Madame de Montespan, -was intimately connected with Leroy, governor of the pages of the Petite -Ecurie, who owned a house at Mesnil. Guibourg had lived in the chateau -as almoner of the Montgommerys. It has been described by M. J. Lair: 'A -building of the fourteenth century, and well chosen for sinister -incantations, the chateau, situated half a league from the road from -Paris to Orleans, was surrounded by deep moats, filled with running -water.' Leroy betook himself to St. Denis, where he saw the Abbe -Guibourg. He promised fifty pistoles, that is, about L20, and a living -worth 2000 livres. At the day fixed there met at Villebousin Madame de -Montespan, the Abbe Guibourg, Leroy, 'a tall person' who was certainly -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, and a person of name unknown who is said to -have been a retainer of the Archbishop of Sens. In the chapel of the -chateau the priest said mass on the bare body of the favourite as she -lay across the altar. At the consecration, he recited his incantation, -the words of which he gave later to the commissaries of the Chambre -Ardente: 'Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Princes of Affection, I conjure you to -accept the sacrifice I present to you of this child for the things I ask -of you, which are that the affection of the king and my lord the dauphin -for me may be continued; and that, honoured by the princes and -princesses of the court, nothing be denied me of all that I shall ask -the king, as well for my relatives as my servitors.' 'Guibourg had -bought for a crown (12s. 6d. to-day) the child who was sacrificed at -this mass,' writes La Reynie, 'and who was offered to him by a fine -girl; and having drawn blood from the child, whom he stabbed in the -throat with a penknife, he poured it into the chalice, after which the -child was taken away and carried to another place.' - -The details of the mass at Mesnil were revealed by Guibourg, and further -confirmed by the deposition of La Chanfrain, his mistress. - -The second mass on the body of Madame de Montespan took place a -fortnight or three weeks after the first, at St. Denis, in a tumbledown -hut. The third took place in a house at Paris, whither Guibourg was -conducted blindfold, and from which he was brought back in the same way -as far as the arcade of the Hotel de Ville. - -At this time the journal of the health of the king, drawn up by D'Aquin, -the chief physician, states that Louis suffered from violent headaches. -Towards the end of this year, 1673, he was attacked by dizziness of such -a kind that at times his sight became clouded and he felt on the point -of collapse. 'Is it rash,' observes Monsieur Loiseleur very justly, 'to -see in these headaches and faintnesses the effect of powders provided by -La Voisin?' The hypothesis of Monsieur Loiseleur will be sustained in -detail by a declaration of the magician Lesage which will be found -below. - -It remains to inquire how Madame de Montespan contrived to get the -powders prepared by the sorceress into the food of the king, surrounded -as he was by officers of the buttery. Two revelations, both of November -8, 1680, made, the first by Lemaire, locked up at Vincennes with the -Abbe Guibourg, the second by Lesage, will give the indication we desire. - -We read in the notes La Reynie took for his personal guidance by way of -memoranda: 'November 8, 1680, Lemaire asked to speak to me; told me that -being in the same room with Guibourg and another man, Guibourg told them -such strange things, especially in regard to Madame de Montespan, that -he does not know what to make of it, and that if there was any officer -who ought to be suspected, it would be Duchesne, the butler; that -Duchesne was a footman in the house of Madame d'Aubray, that he has -since served Monsieur Bontemps, and then Madame de Montespan, who was -very kind to him, and made him officer of the buttery, and that he is -always at Madame de Montespan's service.' Further: 'From the last -examinations of Lesage, and that of November 8 particularly, it appears -that Gilot, also an officer of the buttery, was involved in the impious -trade in 1668, and that he sought Lesage's assistance for the designs of -Madame de Montespan.' - -The crisis of the year 1675 was more serious. Louis XIV suddenly had -great fits of devotion. People with their eyes open saw that he was -tiring of his mistress. Madame de Montespan, on the Thursday in Holy -Week, had been refused absolution by a priest of her parish. Much put -out, she hastened to the cure of Versailles, and spoke to him hotly, but -the cure approved of his subordinate's action. And the great voice of -Bossuet, which had consistently been upraised against the double -adultery, resounded with a new force. 'When we were at Versailles, one -fast day, about Easter, Madame de Montespan went away,' writes -Mademoiselle de Montpensier. 'Every one was vastly astonished at this -retreat. I went to Paris, and saw her in the house where her children -were. Madame de Maintenon was with her. She saw nobody. As everybody was -on the alert about her return, although nobody seemed to pay any -attention to it, it was known that M. Bossuet, then tutor to the -dauphin, and at present bishop of Meaux, went there every day muffled in -a grey cloak.' We have other information from Bossuet's private -secretary, the Abbe Le Dieu. Louis XIV ordered his mistress to retire. -When Bossuet went to see the exiled lady, she 'loaded him with -reproaches; she told him that his pride had urged him to get her driven -away, that he wanted to make himself sole master of the king's mind.' -Then, when she understood that her wrath smote in vain against the -serene firmness of the prelate, 'she sought to win him by flatteries and -promises; she dangled before his eyes the chief dignities in Church and -State.' - -This exile lasted from April 14 to May 11. On the other hand, the -magician Lesage, in an examination held on November 16, 1680, declared -that 'if he were in the last torments, he could tell nothing except that -in 1675, at the beginning of summer (the exact date), when Madame de -Montespan was trying to maintain her position, La Voisin and La -Desoeillets worked or pretended to work for her; but in reality, -powerless to keep for her the love of the king, they merely gave her -powders which, taken in certain doses, would have acted as poison.' So -Lesage said; and the declarations of the girl Monvoisin, summed up by La -Reynie, are identical: 'The powders her mother sent to Madame de -Montespan were love powders to be given to the king. Once when her -mother took some powders to Clagny she was accompanied by the magician -Latour, her eldest brother, a servant named Marie, since dead, and -Fernand, a good friend of Latour, and La Vautier; but these did not -enter Clagny. She could not say if Latour went in with her mother, but -they all came back together, and had lunch at the sign of the _Heaume_, -near the Bois de Boulogne, with violins; they made some noise among -them. Her brother, who told her about it, told her that her mother -brought back fifty louis-d'or. Her mother, besides the powders she gave -to Madame de Montespan, did not send any except by Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, who was the go-between for that purpose. As to the -powders which had passed beneath the chalice, they came from a priest -called the Prior (the Abbe Guibourg). As to the others which had not -been under the chalice, her mother kept them in the drawer of a cabinet -of which she had the key. There were black ones, white, and grey, which -she mixed in the presence of Desoeillets. Her father once wanted to -break the cabinet where the powders were kept, saying that some harm -would come of it.' And the result of these practices was, once more, of -such a nature as to give confidence in the power of sorcery: Madame de -Montespan regained her position with the king. It is true that Madame de -Richelieu said, 'I am always there as a third party.' In spite of this -'third party,' Madame de Montespan became the mother of the Comte de -Toulouse and Mademoiselle de Blois. Madame de Sevigne writes to her -daughter on June 28, 1675: 'Your idea about _Quantova_ (Madame de -Montespan) is very good; if she cannot recover the old ground, she will -push her authority and her greatness beyond the clouds; but she must -make sure of being loved all the year round without scruple. Meanwhile -her house is filled with the whole court, and her consideration is -unbounded.' On July 31, Madame de Sevigne writes again: 'The attachment -for _Quantova_ is always extreme: it's pretty much in order to vex the -cure and everybody else.' - -In 1675 Madame de Montespan had been dismissed, from religious scruples; -in 1676 she was to be sent away for reasons which furnished her with -quite another ground for irritation. The king was then suddenly seized -with a terrible hunger for a multiplicity of amours, soon over, sudden, -and varied. Madame de Sevigne characterises this strange condition in a -picturesque phrase: 'There's a scent of new game in the land of -_Quanto_.'[11] At short intervals the Princess de Soubise, Madame de -Louvigny, Mademoiselle de Rochefort-Theobon, Madame de Ludres, and no -doubt others, succeeded one another in the affections and the bed of the -king. - -Madame de Soubise makes an amusing appearance in the gallery of royal -mistresses. She loved Louis out of love for her husband. After -collecting for him all the honours and dignities, the offices and the -hard cash that he desired, Madame de Soubise struck her tents and -retired in good order. She had made the least possible stir and went -back to her husband, who was enchanted with the adventure. The Prince of -Soubise thought, with the poet, that a share with Jupiter had no -dishonour so long as Jupiter could pay a good price. - -These intrigues find a double echo, in the writings of Madame de Sevigne -and in the records of the Chambre Ardente. On September 2, 1676, Madame -de Sevigne writes: 'The vision of Madame de Soubise has passed quicker -than a lightning-flash: they have made it up again. _Quanto_ the other -day at cards had her head resting familiarly on her friend's shoulder, -and we fancied that piece of affectation meant "I am better than ever."' -But on September 11 the position has changed. 'Everybody believes that -the star of Madame de Montespan is paling. There are tears, unfeigned -disappointments, affected cheerfulness, sulks; at last, my dear, it is -all over. Some tremble, others rejoice, some wish for immutability, the -majority for a dramatic change; in a word, we are all eyes and ears for -what the most clear-sighted say.' 'Every one thinks that the king loves -her no longer,' we read in a letter of September 30, 'and that Madame de -Montespan is embarrassed between the consequences which would follow the -return of his favours and the danger of no longer enjoying them--the -fear that they are being sought elsewhere. Apart from that, she has not -very nicely accepted the position of friend: so much beauty as she still -has, and so much pride, find it difficult to come down to second place. -Jealousies are keen. Have they ever stopped anything?' Again, on October -15, 1676: 'If _Quanto_ had packed up her traps at Easter the year she -returned to Paris, she would not have been in her present distress; it -would have been sensible to adopt that course, but human weakness is -great; one wishes to make the most of the remains of one's beauty, and -this economy brings ruin rather than riches.' Madame de Ludres had just -succeeded Madame de Soubise. - -The anxieties of Madame de Montespan were further enhanced by the -brilliance, increasing every day, of a new star in the sky of -Versailles. At its rising it had shed a pale, discreet, modest light, -but a light which twinkled with little mocking scintillations. The widow -Scarron, now become Madame de Maintenon, had been chosen as governess of -the children of the king and Madame de Montespan. What strides the -governess's fortune had taken in a few years! 'But let us speak of the -friend' (Madame de Maintenon), writes Madame de Sevigne on May 6, 1676: -'she is still more triumphant than the Montespan. Everything is -submitted to her dominion. All the chamber-women of her neighbour are -hers: one hands her the rouge-pot on her knees; another brings her her -gloves; a third puts her to sleep; she salutes no one, and I fancy that -really she laughs in her sleeve at this servitude.' - -Madame de Sevigne thus tells us what was passing at court; Marguerite -Monvoisin will tell us what was going on among the sorceresses. 'The -daughter of La Voisin,' writes La Reynie, 'says that she has seen this -sort of mass celebrated over the body by Guibourg in her mother's house. -She helped her mother to get things ready: a mattress on seats, two -stools at the sides, on which were candlesticks with candles; after -which Guibourg came out of the little side-chamber clothed in his -chasuble--white, spotted with black fir-cones--and after that La Voisin -brought in the woman on whose body the mass was to be said. Madame de -Montespan had this sort of mass said three years ago (_i.e._ in 1676) at -her mother's house, where she came about ten o'clock and only left at -midnight. And when La Voisin told her that it was necessary for her to -fix a time when the other two masses might be said, which were necessary -if her affair was to be successful, Madame de Montespan said that she -could not find time, that La Voisin would have to do what was necessary -to assure success, which she promised her and did, and the masses were -said on La Voisin herself by Guibourg.' (This again shows the sincerity -of the sorceress in the carrying out of these practices.) 'The girl -Voisin having notified all the circumstances of the proceeding, the -arrangement of the place, that of the person--she knew Madame de -Montespan--the preparations of the priest clothed in his sacerdotal -vestments, the terms of the incantation, in which the documents show -that the names of Louis de Bourbon and Madame de Montespan were -mentioned--the girl Voisin adds that a child had its throat cut at the -mass said for Madame de Montespan at her mother's.' - -'When I was grown up,' said Marguerite Monvoisin, 'my mother was no -longer reluctant to trust me, and I was present at this sort of mass, -and saw that the lady was stark naked on the mattress, with her head -hanging down, supported by a pillow on an overturned chair, the legs too -hanging over, a napkin on the belly, a cross on the napkin, and the -chalice on the belly.' She adds that this lady was Madame de Montespan. -'At the mass of Madame de Montespan,' said Marguerite in the course of -another examination, 'a child was presented which apparently had been -prematurely born, and it was put into a basin. Guibourg cut its throat, -poured the blood into a chalice, and consecrated it with the wafer, -finished his mass, then proceeded to take the child's entrails. My -mother next day carried the blood and wafer to Dumesnil to be distilled, -in a glass vessel which Madame de Montespan took away.' These facts were -confirmed on October 23, 1680, by the confrontation of Marguerite -Monvoisin with Guibourg--with this variation, that Guibourg tried to -shuffle on to La Voisin the butchery of the child. - -'Guibourg said that it was not true that he had opened the child, -because it would have stained his alb: he found the child already -opened. - -'The girl Voisin, on the contrary, declared that he cut open the heart -himself, took out some clotted blood, and put it into the vessel into -which the other blood and the rest had been put, which Madame de -Montespan took away; and that to make the clotted blood go in, a common -glass was broken, which, with its foot knocked off, was made to act as a -funnel. - -'Guibourg said that he did not open the child's stomach, but that having -found it open, he did in fact draw out the entrails and open the heart -to get out the blood that was in it, and that he put it into a crystal -vase with some portions of the consecrated wafer: the whole was carried -off by the lady on whose body he had said mass; and that he always -believed the lady was Madame de Montespan.' - -This picture is fraught with so much horror that we could not bring -ourselves to admit its authenticity if the evidence of Marguerite -Monvoisin and the Abbe Guibourg were not corroborated by confessions -extorted from other accomplices of these crimes, who were arrested at -different dates and examined separately--Lesage, Lacoudraye, Delaporte, -Vertemart, Francoise Filastre, the Abbe Cotton--confirmed by the -declarations of several witnesses who had picked up, before the trial, -fragments of talk which escaped the accused. La Reynie emphasises the -fact that the declarations of Lesage and the girl Monvoisin were made at -an interval of sixteen months, and without their having had any -opportunity during those months of communicating with each other. - -On October 11, 1680, La Reynie writes to Louvois, who wished to save -Madame de Montespan while prosecuting the charges against the other -persons, and proposed, with that end, to withdraw from the case the -declarations made under torture by Filastre and the Abbe Cotton, which -contained the gravest charges against the favourite: 'It is certain, -even if we found a legitimate expedient for concealing from the judges -for the present the facts which it would be well to keep secret, even -for the sake of justice itself, that these very facts would crop up -again from the woman Chappelain, from Guibourg, Galet, Pelletier, -Delaporte, and perhaps from several more when under trial.' - -On the subject of the deposition made by Guibourg, La Reynie writes: 'It -is morally impossible that Guibourg has deceived us in his declaration, -and that he invented what he tells about the incantations said in course -of the masses on the women's bodies. His mind is not active or -consistent enough for such continuous thought as would have been -necessary to invent what he had said on this subject, because, even -supposing he were capable of such application, he has not enough -acquaintance with what goes on in the world, and could not have devised -so consistent a story in regard to Madame de Montespan.' Elsewhere he -writes: 'Guibourg and the girl Monvoisin have corroborated one another -about circumstances so particular and so horrible that it is difficult -to conceive two persons being able to imagine and fabricate them unknown -to each other. It seems that these things must have occurred, or they -could not have been described.' - -The illustrious magistrate adds the following reflections:-- - -'1. The time of the relations of La Voisin with Latour, the journeys to -Saint-Germain, and the powders which she made him work at, was the year -1676. - -'2. The time of the abominations described by Guibourg and the girl -Monvoisin fits the same period. - -'3. Two years ago Lesage spoke of Latour, the poisons, Desoeillets, -and the journeys of La Voisin in 1676. - -'4. It was established at the trial that two or three years before -Lesage was taken, he testified that he feared the business would ruin -him. They said at that time that the king had the vapours. He declared -that he wished to leave La Voisin on that account, and because of the -dealings she had with Desoeillets. - -'From the beginning of these inquiries, these same facts have been -spoken of; La Bosse, the first to be tried, gave the first inkling of -them; she spoke of them under torture; but, because the king had not yet -allowed this sort of facts to be collected in regard to persons of -consideration, and because there was nothing to make us pay the least -attention to them, no mention was made in the report of the torture of -La Bosse of what she had said about Madame de Montespan.' - -In this year 1676, Madame de Montespan not only had recourse to the -incantations of the black mass; at her instigation, the sorceresses sent -La Boissiere and Francoise Filastre to Normandy to a certain Louis -Galet, who had 'fine secrets' in regard to poison and love. Galet gave -them powders. As soon as his name was uttered by the prisoner before the -Chambre Ardente, an order was given for his arrest. He was flung into -prison at Caen on February 23, 1680. While still far away from the other -prisoners, detained at Vincennes or the Bastille, he was put through -interrogations, and the depositions made by him and the others coincided -with remarkable accuracy. And La Reynie's conclusion is: 'Guibourg and -Galet having confessed after the torture of La Filastre, they gave -between them a complete proof of these facts.' - - * * * * * - -It must be confessed that Madame de Montespan would have been of a -singularly incredulous nature if she had not retained a blind -confidence in the influence of the devil as invoked by the magicians -and sorceresses. Madame de Ludres was discarded, and Louis fell at -Madame de Montespan's feet again. On June 11, 1677, Madame de Sevigne -wrote to Madame de Grignan: 'Oh, my daughter, what a triumph at -Versailles! what redoubled pride! what a re-entry into possession! I was -in the room for an hour. She was in bed, decked out, with her hair done: -she was resting for the _medianoche_ (supper about midnight). She -launched shafts of contempt at poor _Io_ (Madame de Ludres), and laughed -at her having the audacity to complain of her. Imagine all that an -ungenerous pride could make her say in triumph, and you will get near -the truth. It is said that the little woman (Madame de Ludres) will -resume her ordinary duties about Madame. She went off to walk in perfect -solitude with La Moreuil in the garden of the Marshal Du Plessis.' On -June 18, Madame de Sevigne wrote to Bussy-Rabutin: 'Madame de Montespan -wanted to strangle her (Madame de Ludres), and makes her life terrible.' -On July 7, to Madame de Grignan: 'Poor _Isis_ (Madame de Ludres) has -not been to Versailles. She has remained in her solitude. When a certain -person (Madame de Montespan) speaks of her, she says, "that rag." The -event makes everything permissible.' - -'_Quanto_ and her friend Louis XIV are together longer and more eagerly -than ever they were. The ardour of the first years has returned, and all -fears are banished, all restraint removed, which persuades us that never -was empire seen more firmly established.' And a little later: 'Madame de -Montespan was the other day covered with diamonds; the brilliance of so -blazing a divinity was more than one could bear. The attachment seems -greater than ever: they are all eyes for one another: never has love -been seen to resume its sway like this.' - -Yet, courted and victorious as she was, the favourite appeared a prey to -torment; she was agitated, in a terrible fever. On January 13, 1678, the -Comte de Rebenac wrote to the Marquis de Feuquieres: 'Madame de -Montespan's gambling has reached such a pitch that losses of 100,000 -crowns (L60,000 to-day) are common. On Christmas Day she lost 700,000 -crowns; she staked 150,000 pistoles (L280,000 at the present day) on -three cards, and won.' She lost her head in her triumph--her last -triumph, dazzling but ephemeral, and about to be followed by days of -cruel anguish. - -In March 1679, Madame de Maintenon asked the Abbe Gobelin 'to pray and -to have prayers said for the king, who is on the brink of a deep -precipice.' This 'precipice' was the heart of Marie Angelique de -Scoraille, demoiselle de Fontanges. She was eighteen years old, fair, -with glossy flaxen hair; her large eyes, with their look of childish -wonderment, were a light grey, deep and limpid; her skin was white as -milk, her cheeks a lovely rose-pink; and in disposition, said her -contemporaries, she was a genuine heroine of romance. She lived at Court -in the capacity of maid of honour to Madame, as Madame de Ludres and -Mademoiselle de la Valliere had done before her. 'Mademoiselle de -Fontanges,' says Madame Palatine, 'is lovely as an angel, from head to -foot.' If we may trust Bussy-Rabutin, 'her relatives, seeing her beauty -and grace, and having more love for their fortune than for their -honour, clubbed together to fit her out for Court, and to provide her -with means corresponding to the position she was entering.' - -This was a thunderbolt for Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. We read in -the _Precis historique de Saint-Germain-en-Laye_, by Lorot and Sivry: -'Madame de Montespan left Saint-Germain suddenly because of the jealousy -she has conceived for Mademoiselle de Fontanges.' But the royal lover -did not allow his mistresses to leave him at their own whim. He had -imposed on Louise de la Valliere the bitter martyrdom of following as an -expiatory victim the triumph of Madame de Montespan; he now compelled -Madame de Montespan to witness the triumph of Mademoiselle de Fontanges. -The proud marquise resigned herself to it, at least in appearance. On -March 30, 1679, she wrote to the Duke de Noailles: 'All is very quiet -here; the king only comes into my room after mass and after supper. It -is much better to see each other seldom but pleasantly, than often with -embarrassment,' Soon even this apparent satisfaction was withdrawn from -her. The desertion was public and complete. - -According to Madame de Sevigne, 'there was a ball at Villers-Cotterets, -at Monsieur's place. There were masques. Mademoiselle de Fontanges -appeared there in great brilliance, and adorned by the hands of Madame -de Montespan.' Bussy rejoiced at the disgrace. 'Madame de Montespan has -fallen, the king regards her no more, and you may be sure the courtiers -follow his example.' - -On April 6, Madame de Sevigne wrote: 'Madame de Montespan is enraged; -she cried a good deal yesterday, and you may guess the martyrdom her -pride is suffering.' On June 15, she replies to her daughter: 'It is an -infernal position, as you say, that of her who goes four paces ahead' -(alluding to Madame de Montespan). - -She launched out into epigrams against her fortunate rival, just as she -had satirised Louise de la Valliere. 'Madame de Montespan,' writes -Bussy-Rabutin, 'seeing that the great Alcandre (Louis XIV) was drifting -away from her more and more every day, became so choleric that she began -publicly to abuse Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She told every one that -the great Alcandre was surely not very fastidious to love a creature who -had had her little love affairs in the country; that she had neither wit -nor education; and that, properly speaking, she was only a beautiful -painting. She said a thousand other things about her equally irritating. -Indeed, she always displayed the same proud spirit which nothing had -been able to quell.' - -Mademoiselle de Fontanges responded by loading her predecessor and all -her children with costly presents. She had just been proclaimed a -duchess with an annuity of 20,000 crowns. The fury of Madame de -Montespan broke out. She had a violent scene with Louis, and when the -king reproached her with her pride, her domineering spirit, and other -defects, she replied with haughty scorn, concentrating all the violence -of her wrath in one of those hard and bitter words which had made her so -much feared in the time of her reign; she answered, 'that if she had the -imperfections of which he accused her, at any rate she did not smell -worse than he.' - -'My mother,' said the girl Monvoisin, 'told me that Madame de Montespan -wanted at that time to go to extremities, and tried to induce her to do -things for which she had much repugnance. My mother gave me to -understand that it was against the king, and after hearing what had -passed at the house of Trianon (a sorceress, partner of La Voisin), I -could not doubt it.' The deserted mistress resolved to put an end to -Louis and Mademoiselle de Fontanges. She applied to the sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois, and had no difficulty in getting together four -accomplices in the terrible room in the Rue Beauregard: these four were -La Voisin and La Trianon, who undertook to put Louis out of the way, and -Romani and Bertrand, 'artists in poisons,' who promised to kill -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. Madame de Montespan gave them money. - -The king was to be poisoned first. La Voisin and her associates intended -at first to put magic powders, prepared according to the formulae of the -conjuring books, on the clothes of the king, or in some place where he -was to pass, 'which Mademoiselle Desoeillets, the companion of Madame -de Montespan, said could be done easily.' The king would die of decline. -But after reflection, La Voisin decided on means, the execution of which -struck her as more certain. In conformity with the ancient custom of the -kings of France, Louis XIV used to receive in person on certain days the -petitions presented by his subjects. Everybody was introduced to his -presence without distinction of rank or condition. It was resolved to -prepare a petition and steep it in powders that had gone under the -chalice; the king would take it in his hands and get his death-blow. La -Trianon undertook the preparation of the paper, and La Voisin to place -it in the hands of the king. - -The petition was drawn up. The king's intervention was asked in favour -of a certain Blessis, an alchemist whom the Marquis de Termes was -keeping confined in his chateau. La Voisin betook herself to her friend -Leger, a _valet de chambre_ of Montausier, and asked of him a letter of -recommendation to one of his friends at Saint-Germain, who would get -her passed in among the first to an audience with the king, so that she -might herself hand him her petition. Leger replied that it was -unnecessary for her to go to Saint-Germain, as he would undertake to -forward the petition by a sure route; but the sorceress insisted on -presenting it herself. - -The boldness of La Voisin terrified the most courageous of her -companions. The majority of them feared, not death, but the horrible -tortures reserved by the law for regicides. In order to frighten her, La -Trianon cast her horoscope. This document was found among the papers -seized on the sorceress by the Chambre Ardente. La Trianon foretold that -La Voisin would be implicated in a trial for a crime against the state. -'Bah!' she replied, 'there are 100,000 crowns to be gained.' That was -the price agreed upon by La Voisin and Madame de Montespan for the -poisoning of Louis XIV. - -La Voisin set out for Saint-Germain on Sunday, March 5, 1679, -accompanied by Romani and Bertrand. She returned on Thursday, March 9, -very much put out: she had not been able to approach the king so as to -give him the petition. She could have put it on the table placed near -the king for that purpose, but the paper was useless unless it were -placed in the king's own hands. She said that she would return to -Saint-Germain, and when her husband asked her what the urgency was, she -replied: 'I must accomplish my design or perish in the attempt!' 'What! -perish!' exclaimed Monvoisin, 'that's a good deal for a piece of paper.' - -On Friday, March 10, the 'missionaries'--priests of a community founded -by St. Vincent de Paul, which has already been mentioned--paid a visit -to the sorceress. La Voisin took fright, and gave the petition to her -daughter to burn, which Marguerite did at dawn on Saturday morning. It -is needless to say that the paper had always been kept in an envelope, -for to touch it, said the sorceresses, would be certain death. On -Sunday, March 12, La Voisin was arrested; it was on Monday the 13th that -she had meant to return to Saint-Germain. News of the arrest got -abroad, and on Wednesday, March 15, Madame de Montespan fled from Court. - -In a succession of hasty notes--the sentences are not even completed, -and we have filled them out for greater clearness--La Reynie builds up a -proof of the attempt on the life of Louis XIV, planned by La Voisin as -the instrument of Madame de Montespan:-- - -'By the depositions of the girl Voisin, Romani, and Bertrand, it is -proved that the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain was to present the -petition: Bertrand wrote it out, went to learn from La Voisin what she -had done, learnt that she had been there since Sunday without being able -to present it, had brought it back, and was going to return. From this -it is evident that the ultimate object of the journey of La Voisin to -Saint-Germain was to present the petition. - -'La Trianon and La Vautier agree as to the journey. La Trianon noted in -her horoscope the state affair, the crime of high treason; when -questioned she gave bad answers; among the facts confessed to, denies -the petition; if it were an unimportant matter, would have no interest -in denying it: must have had an object, which can be nothing else than -what the girl Voisin says. - -'The journey to Saint-Germain is the more suspicious in that La Voisin, -questioned as to her various journeys, has never mentioned that one, and -would have made no ado about mentioning it if there were nothing in it. - -'To which must be added the confession made by Voisin to her guards in -prison, about the fear she had that she would be asked to explain her -journey. She said, "God has protected the king!"' - -La Reynie adds: 'La Trianon agrees that she told the girl Voisin that -the journey to Saint-Germain was the cause of her mother's arrest, that -this journey would do her harm, that she would be involved in some -affair of state. At the same time, La Voisin did not appear to be -pleased with Blessis (and consequently had no reason to make any efforts -to secure his liberty). What is still more considerable, La Trianon and -the girl Monvoisin agree that the state crime mentioned in the -horoscope was the journey to Saint-Germain.' 'Finally,' observes La -Reynie, 'this petition has been mentioned at the trial, long before the -girl Monvoisin was arrested.' On September 27, 1679, Louvois wrote to -Louis XIV: 'Your Majesty will find in this packet what Lesage has said -about the journey of La Voisin to Saint-Germain; he cites so many people -as witnesses to his allegations that it is difficult to believe he -invented them.' And La Reynie gives confirmation: 'Before making her -declaration, the girl Monvoisin said something about it to two prisoners -who are with her. Finally, she tried to do away with herself by -strangling before making these same declarations.' - -The assassination of the Duchess de Fontanges was intended to crown the -vengeance of Madame de Montespan. La Voisin exclaimed, in regard to -this, when dining with La Trianon: 'Oh! what a fine thing is a lover's -spite!' Romani and Bertrand were engaged to poison the young lady at the -same time that La Voisin was killing Louis _XIV_; but the poisons -employed against her were to be less rapid, so that 'she might die a -lingering death,' said the accomplices, 'and that it might be said that -she had died of grief at the death of the king.' - -Romani had planned to disguise himself as a cloth merchant. Bertrand was -to follow him as a valet. They were to present their wares to the -duchess, and even if she did not take any cloth, 'she would not refrain -from taking gloves,' said Romani, 'because those he would bring from -Grenoble would be very well made, and ladies never failed to take some -of them when they were well made, and the gloves would have the same -effect as the piece of cloth.' They actually sent to Rome and Grenoble -for gloves of the finest quality, and Romani 'prepared' them according -to the recipes of the magicians. - -We find among La Reynie's papers a series of little notes which clearly -prove the plot against the life of Madame de Fontanges. - -A last feature in the case is not the least surprising. - -We have just seen that Madame de Montespan fled from Court when she -learnt of the arrest of the sorceress and her accomplices. Her terror, -and, above all, her fury were extreme. At the moment when her fortune -was for ever ruined, when she felt that she herself was lost, she wished -at least to have the terrible joy of seeing the Duchess de Fontanges -perish at her hands. The sorceress who had been the chief instrument of -her passions was about to be interrogated, and would undoubtedly -disclose to the attentive eyes of the judges the horrible practices in -which the king's mistress had been concerned. It was at this very moment -that Madame de Montespan, burning to realise her designs, entered into -relations with Francoise Filastre, the friend of La Voisin, and after -her the most terrible sorceress in Paris. Filastre was one of those who -had devoted their children to the devil, and murdered them immediately -after birth. She went to Normandy to find Galet, who has already been -mentioned, then went to Auvergne to obtain secrets for 'poisoning -without any sign appearing.' Returning to Paris, she took steps to win -an entrance to the house of Madame de Fontanges; but her arrest -prevented her from carrying her scheme into execution. - -Nature gave to Madame de Montespan the terrible satisfaction she had -sought to obtain from magic and poison. On June 28, 1681, the Duchess de -Fontanges died at the age of twenty-two, in the abbey of Port Royal. She -was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia, tubercular in origin, the action of -which was hastened by loss of blood following an accouchement. The young -woman died convinced that she had been poisoned, and suspecting her -rival. Louis XIV, who had the same idea, feared that the autopsy might -reveal the crime, and sought to prevent it; but the relatives insisted -on it. The physicians concluded that it was a natural death. But the -opinion was still held that Madame de Fontanges had succumbed to poison -administered by Madame de Montespan, an opinion echoed by Madame de -Caylus, Madame de Maintenon, Madame Palatine, and Bussy-Rabutin. - - * * * * * - -Before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente the magician Lesage had -allowed the following remark to escape him: 'If Filastre were captured, -they would learn some strange things.' She was taken: she denied -everything before the commissioners; but on October 1, 1680, while under -torture, she confirmed in the most precise manner the revelations made -by the prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; and on that very day -Louis XIV in terror ordered the sittings of the Chambre Ardente to be -suspended. On October 17, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie: 'I have -received the letters you have done me the honour to write to me, and the -king heard them read with pain.' Louis, then, ordered the closing of the -Chambre Ardente, and when on May 19, 1681, the sittings were resumed at -the entreaty of La Reynie, the judges were forbidden 'to take any steps -in regard to the declarations contained in the reports of the torture -and execution of La Filastre.' From that day Louis had no further doubts -as to the guilt of his mistress. One more proof was to be furnished him. - -The name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, Madame de Montespan's maid, -recurs on every page of the proceedings. She was continually going -backwards and forwards between her mistress and the sorceresses. The -prisoners almost all knew her: they spoke of her in the most positive -manner. The girl Monvoisin pointed out her house, where she had been -several times. Mademoiselle Desoeillets had a friend named Madame de -Villedieu, who frequently visited the sorceresses, but for her own -private ends. When La Voisin was arrested, the two friends talked about -the incident. - -'How can you be easy in mind when you have been so often to the -sorceress?' asked Madame de Villedieu. - -'The king will not allow me to be arrested.' - -The remark was voluntarily reported by Madame de Villedieu to the -detective Desgrez. And, in fact, when La Reynie on October 22, 1680, -wrote to Louvois: 'What has been said in regard to Mademoiselle -Desoeillets at the beginning and repeated at the end is so strong that -it is impossible to prevent her from being confronted with the people -who have spoken about her,' his words fell on deaf ears at Versailles. -When Madame de Villedieu was taken to Vincennes, she said: 'It is -astonishing that I am being imprisoned when I went only once to La -Voisin, while you leave Mademoiselle Desoeillets at liberty, who has -been there more than fifty times.' - -Louvois at last decided to order Mademoiselle Desoeillets to appear, -not before the judges, but before himself in his private room. On -November 18, 1680, he wrote to La Reynie:-- - -'Mademoiselle Desoeillets declares with marvellous assurance that not -one of those who have named her know her, and, to assure me of her -innocence, she charged me to urge the king to allow her to be taken to -the place where those who have deposed against her are confined. She -stakes her life that no one will be able to tell who she is. His Majesty -has therefore been pleased to decide that I shall take her to Vincennes -next Friday, and bring down Lesage, the girl Voisin, Guibourg, and the -other persons who, as you inform me, have spoken of her. The person of -whom I have just spoken will enter and show herself to them, and I will -ask them if they know her, without naming her to them.' - -The result did not justify Louvois' hopes. La Reynie showed at that time -that, unknown to him and in spite of his vigilance, some one was holding -communication with the prisoners in Vincennes, who were receiving -information from without. This 'some one' was Madame de Montespan. No -doubt the lieutenant of police took greater precautions on this -occasion. The prisoners were not able to receive preliminary coaching, -with the result that one and all immediately recognised the favourite's -maid. - -Mademoiselle Desoeillets, moreover, was under great illusions as to -the impunity that would be assured to her. Louis XIV did not allow her -to appear before the judges, nor even to be confronted with the -prisoners, but he had her shut up for the rest of her days in close -confinement. The wretched woman died on September 8, 1686, in the -general hospital of Tours. And poor Madame de Villedieu, whose only -crime was that she was for a moment in the confidence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets, was visited with the same fate, because of the necessity -of keeping the great secret. - -When he learned suddenly of all the crimes with which the woman he had -most loved was stained--the woman whom, in the eyes of Europe, he had -made queen of the French Court, who was the mother of his favourite -children--what were the sentiments and the attitude of King Louis? What -passed in his soul, immured, for posterity as for his contemporaries, in -that 'terrible majesty' of which Saint-Simon speaks? - -About the middle of August 1680, Louvois, who in this dreadful business -devoted all his intelligence and all his influence to protect Madame de -Montespan, arranged a _tete-a-tete_ with the king. Madame de Maintenon -anxiously observed them from a distance. 'Madame de Montespan at first -wept,' she says, 'threw reproaches upon him, and at last spoke with -pride.' At the first moment, under the shock of the king's declarations, -Madame de Montespan had been utterly crushed, had burst into tears of -confusion and humiliation; then, regaining command of herself, the -masterful woman had risen to the height of her pride, with all the force -of her passion and her hatred for her rivals. If it was true, she -declared, that she had been driven to great crimes, it was because her -love for the king was great, and great also were the harshness, cruelty, -and infidelity of him to whom she had sacrificed everything. And the -king might strike at her, but he could not forget that he would, with -the same stroke, injure in the eyes of France and Europe the mother of -his children--children who had been made legitimate children of France. -Madame de Montespan left this interview irrevocably ruined, but at the -same time definitively saved. - -We must remember the rank to which Louis had raised his mistress. It was -of the utmost importance to him to avoid a scandal. Even by exiling the -fallen favourite, thus absolutely disgracing her, he would run the risk -of unloosing storms. La Reynie, who, thanks to his genius for reading -the hearts of men, knew Madame de Montespan's character thoroughly, -warned Louvois: 'We cannot but fear extraordinary scandals, the -consequence of which cannot be foreseen.' Louvois, Colbert, and Madame -de Maintenon herself united their efforts to soften too violent a fall. -Colbert had just betrothed his younger daughter to Madame de Montespan's -nephew. We know, moreover, how much the famous statesman had at heart -the national greatness to which he had so arduously contributed, and -which in his view could not be dissevered from the greatness of the -king. Madame de Maintenon had tenderly trained the children of Madame de -Montespan, and retained a real affection for them all her life long. Let -us add that Louis, with all his faults--his selfishness, his coarseness, -his lack of feeling, his mediocre intellect--had at least a high -sentiment of the royal dignity, and that in this awful crisis he did not -for a moment depart from that calm and tranquil majesty at which all who -approached him never ceased to wonder. Madame de Montespan was not -driven from Court. She left her splendid apartments on the first floor -for apartments remoter from the centre of the king's life. Louis -continued to receive her in public, and publicly paid her visits which -deceived careless observers; but practised eyes perceived the profound -change which had taken place beneath these external appearances. Madame -de Sevigne wrote to her daughter that Louis treated Madame de Montespan -with harshness; Bussy-Rabutin wrote that he treated her with scorn. Thus -began the expiatory martyrdom which lasted for twenty-seven years. - -On March 15, 1691, Madame de Montespan retired to Paris, going into the -community of St. Joseph which she had founded. Louis granted her a right -royal pension, 10,000 pistoles--L20,000 of to-day--a month; but when, in -1692, the double marriage of Madame de Montespan's children, -Mademoiselle de Blois and the Duke de Maine, was celebrated with the -Duke de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Charolais, Louis did not allow -their mother to appear at the ceremony or to sign the contract. - -In the early days of her retirement Madame de Montespan had the greatest -difficulty in accommodating herself to the calm monotony of her retreat -at St. Joseph's. 'She aired her leisure and anxieties,' says -Saint-Simon, 'at Bourbon, at Fontevrault, at her estate at Antin, and -for years was quite unable to regain repose of mind.' What were these -anxieties? Saint-Simon could not explain them; but we are acquainted -with them to-day. - -Madame de Montespan was much distressed at abandoning the glory of the -world; but from the day when the renunciation was made, she threw -herself with as much passion into penitence as she had displayed in -ambition and love. 'From the moment of her retirement to St. Joseph's,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till her death, her conversion never belied itself, -and her penitence continually augmented.' She might have been seen then, -in the Carmelite convent in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, imploring -from her old rival, whom she had so harshly persecuted--the gentle and -saintly Louise de la Valliere, Sister Louise de la Misericorde--the -words which give ease of mind and forgetfulness of the past. Though she -tenderly loved those of her children whom she had borne to Louis XIV, it -was towards the Duke d'Antin, the son she had by the Marquis de -Montespan, that she diverted her solicitude, from a sense of duty, and, -as Saint-Simon tells us, 'she occupied herself with enriching him.' 'The -king had no manner of dealings with her,' writes the great chronicler, -'even through their children. Their attentions were discouraged, they -thenceforth saw her only rarely and after having asked permission. The -Pere de la Tour wrung from her a terrible act of penitence, namely, to -beg her husband's pardon and place herself again in his hands. She wrote -herself in the most submissive terms, offering to return to him if he -would deign to receive her, or to repair to whatever place he pleased to -command. To any one who knew Madame de Montespan, this was a sacrifice -of the most heroic kind. She had all the merit of it without undergoing -the experience. Monsieur de Montespan sent word that he would neither -receive her nor lay any commands upon her, and that he never wished to -hear her name mentioned for the rest of his life.' - -She had no further relations with the Court, the ministers, -_intendants_, or judges; she asked nothing of any man, either for her or -hers, and employed the vast income she owed to the king in doing good -all around her, bestowing alms with ceaseless and unparalleled -generosity, and endowing religious foundations. 'Beautiful as the day,' -says Saint-Simon, 'till the last hour of her life; though she was not -ill, she always fancied that she was, and that she was going to die.' -This anxiety encouraged a taste for travelling, and in her travels she -always took with her seven or eight persons as a suite. Between her -outbursts of piety and the blossoming forth of her charity, incessant -remorse thus made its appearance, as well as the continual need she felt -of deadening her thoughts. Only Louis XIV, Louvois, and La Reynie could -have explained the following page borrowed from Saint-Simon:-- - -'Little by little she proceeded to give all that she had to the poor. -She worked for them several hours a day at humble and rough tasks, to -wit, making shirts and other such-like things, and she made those about -her work at them too. Her table, which she had loved to excess, became -particularly frugal; her fasts were multiplied, her piety interrupted -her entertaining and the harmless little card-play at which she amused -herself, and at all hours of the day she would leave everything to go -and pray in her closet. Her mortification of the flesh was constant: her -chemises and sheets were of the roughest and coarsest unbleached linen, -but they were concealed under ordinary sheets and underwear. She -continually wore steel bracelets and garters, and a girdle of steel -which often wounded her; and her tongue, formerly so terrible a member, -had its penance also. She was further so tortured by horror of death -that she paid several women whose sole employment was to watch her. She -lay at night with all the bed-curtains thrown back, with many candles in -her room, her watchers around her, and whenever she woke up she wished -to find them chatting, playing cards, or eating, to make sure that they -did not fall a-nodding.' - -The hour so much dreaded at last struck. She had a singular presentiment -of it a year beforehand. At the first attack of illness she saw that her -end was near. It came on May 27, 1707, at Bourbon. - -'She profited by a brief respite from pain to confess and receive the -sacraments. Previously she had all her servants, even the humblest, -brought in, made public confession of her public sins, and besought -pardon for the scandal she had so long given, and even for her fits of -temper, with a humility so real and deep and penitent that nothing could -have been more edifying. She then received the last sacraments with -ardent piety. The dread of death which all her life had so continually -troubled her suddenly vanished and troubled her no more. She thanked God -in the presence of them all for permitting her to die in a place where -she was far away from the children of her sin, and during her illness -spoke of them only this once. She was engrossed in the thought of -eternity, in some hope of a cure with which they tried to flatter her, -and in her condition as a sinner whose fear was tempered by a steady -confidence in the mercy of God, with no regrets, solely intent on -rendering to Him the sacrifice most pleasing to Him, with a gentleness -and peacefulness which accompanied all her actions.' - -The courtiers were surprised at the indifference Louis displayed on -learning of the death of his sometime mistress. To the Duchess of -Burgundy, who remarked on it, he replied that, since he had dismissed -her, he had counted on never seeing her again, and that she was from -that time dead to him. He openly reproved the grief manifested by Madame -de Montespan's children; and, to the stupefaction of the Court, he -forbade them to wear mourning, a circumstance the more incomprehensible -because at that same date the Princess de Conti, daughter of Louis XIV -and Louise de la Valliere, was wearing mourning for Madame de la -Valliere her aunt. - -It would be unjust to judge Madame de Montespan solely by what has been -here said. We have spoken only of the crimes to which she was driven by -the violence of her passions. We have not recalled the wealth she -distributed with as much liberality as discretion, or the brilliance -given to the Court by her grace and wit, or the enlightened protection -which the greatest writers and artists found in her, the radiant -kindliness with which she sweetened the declining years of the great -Corneille--in a word, the innumerable deeds of kindness she performed -with as much intelligence as affection, the fruits of some of which -remain to this day. It would require a Racine, with his penetrating -mind, his ability to reconcile opposite extremes in one and the same -character, and the harmonious majesty of his language, to speak of -Madame de Montespan. Bright and radiantly beautiful, of queenly -elegance, charming by the distinction of her manners and the delicate -wit of her conversation, light-hearted and joyous, she dominated the -whole Court of France--this horrible client of the Abbe Guibourg, of La -Filastre and La Voisin. - - - - -III. A MAGISTRATE - - -Lieutenant of police Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was the mainspring of -the proceedings against the poisoners. He alone carried through the vast -operations, bristling with difficulties. And it would be impossible to -find any point of his administration in which his genius and his -character appear in a more striking or complete manner. It is thanks to -him, and to the careful notes he took daily on the cases of the -prisoners, that we have been able to discover the facts of which Louis -XIV believed he had destroyed every trace when he ordered the burning of -the various documents in his private room. - -Saint-Simon, who has utterly shattered reputations which seemed firm as -rock, pauses with respect before Nicolas de la Reynie, though the -functions with which he was endowed were a subject of genuine abhorrence -to him. 'La Reynie, councillor of state,' he writes, 'so well known for -having been the first to lift the office of lieutenant of police from -its natural low estate, and for making it a sort of ministerial office; -a man of great importance too, because of the king's direct confidence -in him, his constant relations with the Court, and the number of things -in which he is concerned, and in which he has infinite powers of serving -or harming in innumerable ways people of the greatest importance, -obtained at length in 1697, at the age of eighty, permission to resign -so arduous an employment, which he had for the first time ennobled by -the equity, moderation, and disinterestedness with which he had -fulfilled it, without swerving from the greatest scrupulousness, and -doing the least possible injury as seldom as possible; he was, moreover, -a man of great virtue and capacity, who in an office which he had, so to -speak, created, and in which he was bound to draw upon him the hatred of -the public, nevertheless won universal esteem.' - -We have a portrait of La Reynie by his friend Mignard, and an admirable -etching of the painting by Van Schuppen. Engraving has never reproduced -human features with more clearness, colour, and lifelikeness. The face -bespeaks a clear, powerful, and well-balanced intelligence; the eyes -express a firm and thoughtful kindliness. Such was the La Reynie who -investigated the great poison cases. - -Though Bazin de Bezons of the French Academy had been associated with -him in the Chambre Ardente as examining commissioner, it was the -lieutenant of police who did all the work. The number of depositions, -interrogatories, confrontations, pleadings, and other documents which he -collected is enormous; and we see the magistrate with sure hand cutting -a way through this tangled forest, guided by his experience, his -knowledge of the human soul, and his clear intellect. - -The memorials he has left on questions of the greatest difficulty are -useful and interesting to study, because of the method of work they -reveal. It is exactly the method which our old professors of rhetoric -used to teach for the orderly arrangement of a French dissertation or an -historical essay. The principal and fundamental fact is noted down about -the middle of the left-hand page, with a large bracket embracing -sub-divisions; each of these sub-divisions is in turn accompanied by a -bracket embracing sub-divisions of these sub-divisions; and so on to the -end of the right-hand page, which is filled from top to bottom with -minute and close writing: there you have a multitude of slight facts -following one another in methodical order, all focussing on the -principal fact, found, as we have said, in the middle of the left-hand -page. There is no college student but has built up his schemes for -French essays on this model. But there is no question, in La Reynie's -portfolios, of rhetorical dissertations or Latin compositions; he deals -there with irrevocable sentences about to be pronounced 'on the flesh -and blood of men,' to use his own phrase. And if we go from these -bracketed plans to the memoirs and reports to which they guided the -magistrate's thought, we find ourselves in possession of marvels of -clear thinking and judging. - -During the long poison case, La Reynie showed himself indefatigable in -work. He had no other concern than right and the triumph of justice. And -in proportion as the number of criminals increased, and the greatest -names in the French nobility and Parlement were found to be compromised -by his inquiries--in proportion as relatives, friends, all who feared -for themselves, and nobility and Parlement fearing for their honour and -their privileges, were up in arms against him, his courage grew, his -activity redoubled; he pushed on his inquiries, urging the king, urging -the ministers, demanding new warrants, fresh arrests, seeking permission -to extend his formidable investigations over an ever-widening circle. - -Sorceresses and magicians thronged about the royal Court like swarms of -wasps about a hive of honey. In this monstrous hive were concentrated -the wealth and honours which awoke and stimulated the ambitions and -passions in which the sorceresses found their booty. - -The sorceresses had little lodgings at Saint-Germain, Fontainebleau, -Versailles, around the palaces. They won admission to the Court as -fruit-sellers or dealers in perfumes distilled by the magicians; they -offered pastes for softening the skin and waters for improving the -complexion. They allied themselves with the domestics of great houses, -and domiciled themselves with the laundresses connected with them. They -were intimates of those persons who hung about the Court with the -curious profession of presenters of petitions. They sometimes even -entered the service of a duke or a marchioness. La Cheron was with -Monsieur de Noailles and Monsieur de Rabaton in succession. La Vigoureux -was actively engaged in finding places for serving-maids and lackeys. We -have seen the relations between the fortune-tellers and Leroy, governor -of the pages of the Petite Ecurie. Girardin, governor of the dauphin's -pages, was connected with the magician Belot. Blessis, a crony of La -Voisin, was presented to the queen by Madame de Bethune, by the queen to -the dauphin, and by the dauphin to the king. - -Among the _bourgeoises_ of Paris who were struck at by the depositions -of the fortune-tellers we have indicated the principal ones, and then, -coming to the Court ladies, the most illustrious of all, Madame de -Montespan. But how many others La Reynie had to deal with! The beautiful -Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta of England, was accused, not without the -greatest probability, of having had a mass said against her husband, -with the incantations of sorcery, in the Palais-Royal itself. Madame de -Polignac and Madame de Gramont tried to get Louise de la Valliere -poisoned. The Countess de Soissons, Olympe Mancini, who had inspired -Louis XIV with his first passion, was compromised so deeply that, warned -by the king, she fled into the Netherlands. Louis XIV said to the -Princess de Carignan, Madame de Soissons' mother: 'I was determined -that the countess should escape; perhaps some day I shall render an -account therefor to God and my people.' - -When Madame de Montespan was at the height of her power, rivals, jealous -of her good fortune, applied to the sorceresses for formulae and powders -to 'send her packing,' just as she had done with the idea of getting rid -of La Valliere. These were the Duchess of Angouleme, Madame de Vitry, -and her own sister-in-law, Antoinette de Mesmes, Duchess de Vivonne. The -practices to which this last had recourse were precisely the same as -those with which the secret life of Madame de Montespan has acquainted -us. She applied to La Filastre and La Chappelain, who were also employed -by the dazzling mistress of the king. The sorceresses did not hesitate -between the two sisters-in-law, thinking to come off well either way: if -the one wished to retain the affection of the king, the other sought to -possess herself of it, and in either case money would fall into their -purses. Louis did not allow the Duchess de Vivonne to be proceeded -against, related so closely as she was to Madame de Montespan. It is -probable also that he was dissuaded from it by Colbert, who had married -one of his daughters to the Duke de Mortemart, son of the duchess. - -We may imagine the emotion, agitation, and anxieties aroused at Court -and in Paris by the prosecutions directed by the Chambre Ardente against -so large a number of persons belonging to the most distinguished -families: the arrests of Mesdames de Dreux and Leferon, of Poulaillon -and the Abbe Mariette, relatives of the chief magistrates; the warrants -issued against the Duchess de Bouillon, the Princess de Tingry, the wife -of Marshal la Ferte, the Countess de Roure; the hasty flight out of the -kingdom of the Marchioness d'Alluye, the Viscountess de Polignac, the -Count Clermont-Lodeve, the Marquis de Cessac, the Countess de Soissons; -the imprisonment in the Bastille of the famous Marshal de Luxembourg, -who had employed magicians to beg the devil to remove his wife. 'Every -one is agitated,' wrote Madame de Sevigne, on January 26, 1680, 'every -one is sending for news and going into houses to pick them up.' - -Further, the public imagination was impressed; crimes were the stock -topic of conversation. The most trifling accidents were attributed to -poison. Every husband was accused of poisoning his mother-in-law. Terror -reigned in Paris. - -Then there was a reaction. Nobles and lawyers displayed equal irritation -at the Chamber's daring to push its investigations the length of them. -Were rank and name no longer a rampart high enough against the -inquisitions of a lieutenant of police? There was an end to society. The -result was, that ere long the only person in the whole matter who -appeared really criminal in the eyes of people of importance was La -Reynie himself. 'To-day,' says Madame de Sevigne, 'the cry is, the -innocence of the accused and the horrid scandal! You know this sort of -parrot cry. Nothing else is talked about in any company. There is -scarcely another example of such a scandal in any Christian court.' And -some days later, playing sedulous echo to the general gossip, the -charming marchioness said it was a shame to haul up people of position -for such a pack of nonsense. 'The reputation of Monsieur de la Reynie -is abominable,' she wrote to her daughter on May 31, 1680; 'what you say -is exactly to the point; his being alive proves that there are no -poisoners in France.' La Reynie had just discovered, indeed, a plot to -murder him. - -The reader will remember the demonstration organised against the -lieutenant of police at the time of the liberation of Madame de Dreux, -who was carried off in triumph between her husband, the _maitre des -requetes_, and her lover, Monsieur de Richelieu. The nobility got up a -similar demonstration when Marie Anne Mancini, Duchess de Bouillon, -appeared before the Chambre Ardente. She had done her best to find means -of quickly ridding herself of her husband, so that she might marry the -Duke de Vendome. The Duke de Bouillon was informed of it by Louis -himself. Yet the duke accompanied his wife on January 29, 1680, to the -Arsenal, giving her his right hand, while the Duke de Vendome gave her -his left: an exact repetition of the scene when Madame de Dreux left the -Chambre Ardente between her husband and Monsieur de Richelieu. - -Madame de Sevigne has noted down the details of this merry frolic. -Madame de Bouillon arrived in a coach drawn by six horses, seated -between her husband and her lover, followed by twenty other coaches, -packed full of the smartest noblemen and daintiest ladies of the Court. -The Marquis de la Fare confirms this account: 'The Duchess de Bouillon -made a proud and confident appearance before the judges, accompanied by -all her friends, who were in large numbers, and a most distinguished -crowd.' 'Madame de Bouillon entered the Chambre like a little queen,' -says Madame de Sevigne; 'she sat down on a chair prepared for her, and -instead of replying to the first question, she asked that what she -wanted to say might be written down: which was, that she only came there -out of respect for the king; she had none at all for the Chambre, which -she did not recognise; and that she did not mean to allow any derogation -to the ducal privilege.' (This privilege consisted in the right of not -being tried except by all the courts united in Parlement.) 'She would -not say a word till that was written down, and then she took off her -glove and showed a very beautiful hand. She replied honestly enough -until her age was asked. - -'"Do you know La Vigoureux?" - -'"No." - -'"Do you know La Voisin?" - -'"Yes." - -'"Why do you wish to do away with your husband?" - -'"I do away with him? Why, you have only to ask him if he thinks so; he -gave me his hand to this very door." - -'"But why did you go so often to La Voisin's house?" - -'"I wanted to see the Sibyls she promised to show me; that company would -be well worth all my journeys." - -'She was asked if she had not shown the woman a bag of money. She said -"No," and for more than one reason, and this she said with a very -mocking and disdainful air. - -'"Well, gentlemen, is that all you have to say to me?" - -'"Yes, madam." - -'She rose and said aloud as she went out, "Really, I should never have -believed that clever men could ask so many silly questions." - -'She was received by all her friends and relatives with adoration, she -was so pretty, naive, natural, bold, so pleasant in appearance and so -quiet in mind.' One of the replies she made to La Reynie, who asked her -if she had really seen the devil at the sorceress's, was: 'I see him -now: he is ugly, old, and disguised as a councillor of state.' This soon -got abroad outside the Chambre, and set all Paris and the Court in good -humour. - -The charges against the Duchess de Bouillon were, nevertheless, very -serious. It was proved to the commissioners that she had asked the -sorceresses to poison the Duke de Bouillon or to procure his death by -witchcraft. Madame de Sevigne thought the matter of little importance. -'The Duchess de Bouillon,' she wrote to her daughter, 'went and asked La -Voisin for a little poison to get rid of an old husband who was boring -her to death, and an invention to marry a young man who wanted her, -without any one knowing it. This young fellow was Monsieur de Vendome, -who took her to the Arsenal holding one hand, Monsieur de Bouillon -holding the other. When a Mancini only commits a folly like that, it is -winked at; these sorceresses do the thing seriously, and horrify all -Europe about a trifle.' Louis XIV took a more severe view of it, and -decided that Madame de Bouillon should be confronted with La Voisin. The -pretty face of the young duchess became graver when she heard this, and -she begged to be spared this indignity. The king complied, but exiled -her to Nerac, whence he would not allow her to return, in spite of the -entreaties of her many friends. - - * * * * * - -The revelations which ensued before the Chambre struck a more cruel blow -at La Reynie's soul than the anger of the world. Wrapped in his -consciousness of rectitude, he heard cries and threats only as the faint -murmurs of a distant mob. - -Three sentiments dominated him and guided his whole life: the religious -sentiment, which declared itself in a strong, sane, simple piety, the -piety of a man possessing a quiet conviction of the truth of his faith; -love for his king, a love composed of respect and admiration, with -shades of affection like that of a son for a father, and allied also to -a religious veneration; finally, a high sentiment of his judicial office -with an immovable respect for justice. His worship of the king extended -to all that concerned and surrounded him, to all that he loved and -honoured. The greatness of Louis XIV is easily explained, in spite of -his personal mediocrity, when we see with what passion and by what men -he was served. The revelations about Madame de Montespan, the mother of -the king's children, the woman who had almost won a seat on the throne -of France, were anguish to La Reynie. It is touching to see his grief -becoming more keen, more poignant, as evidence accumulated and -conviction forced itself upon his mind. 'Private facts,' he writes at -the head of a memorandum in which the charges against Madame de -Montespan are summed up, 'which were painful to listen to, the idea of -which is so grievous to recall and which are still more difficult to -relate.' In the light of these revelations his judgment, usually so -clear, precise, and sure, became confused, and being unable to believe -what he saw, he fancied that his own vision was becoming imperfect. 'I -recognise my weakness. In spite of myself, the nature of these private -circumstances (those concerning Madame de Montespan) impresses my mind -with more fear than is reasonable. These crimes scare me.' Then he -recurs to the documents with judicial composure. 'These are the very -deeds we must look upon and draw our inferences from.' But it was just -the inferences deduced from these actions that his mind could not admit. -'I recognise that I cannot pierce the thick darkness with which I am -surrounded. I ask for time to think more about it; and perhaps it will -happen that, after much thinking, I shall see even less than I see now. -After well considering everything, I have found no other course to -suggest than to seek for further enlightenment, and to await the aid of -Providence, which has drawn from the feeblest imaginable beginnings the -knowledge of this infinite number of strange things it was so necessary -to know. All that has happened hitherto leads us to hope (and I do hope -with great confidence) that God will at length reveal this abyss of -crime, that He will at the same time show the means to escape from it, -and inspire the king with all that he ought to do in a matter of such -importance.' - -In studying these reports of La Reynie to Louvois, we discover a -circumstance as impressive as curious. In the course of his memoranda, -the magistrate clearly and logically unfolds the reality of the charges -against the favourite, but when in closing it falls upon him to draw -practical conclusions, his mind shrinks from the task, his thought takes -fright like a horse shying before an unexpected obstacle. 'I have done -what I could, when I examined the proofs and the presumptions, to assure -myself and remain convinced that the facts are genuine, and I could not -succeed. I have sought, on the other hand, everything that might -persuade me that they were false, and that too has been impossible.' - -His distress was augmented by the conflict which arose in his -conscience between the duties he owed to justice and those he owed his -king. 'At that time when my mind was so cast down,' he wrote, 'I -besought God in His mercy to permit me to preserve the fidelity I owed -to my office, and to enable me to walk sincerely in all that it pleased -the king to command me.' Louis XIV ordered that a portion of the case -should be withdrawn from the cognisance of the judges. The blow was so -hard to La Reynie that his strength of mind wellnigh failed under it. 'I -hope,' he wrote to Louvois on October 17, 1681, 'that his Majesty in his -favour and goodness will have compassion on my weakness when he -considers that, with the fear and respect I could not fail to be in, -occupied moreover and filled with the idea of a judge who, in giving a -decision contrary to the truth, should judge and be a party to a -judgment involving the life of men, I could not at the moment recognise -the false position in which I was, nor represent to his Majesty that the -affair in question was in the nature of the case not susceptible of the -proposed expedient.' - -For a moment his resolution seems to have been taken: he would put -himself blindly and unreservedly in the hands of the king who had -received from God, he writes, higher lights than those of other men; but -the next instant the judge reappears in him and determines him, alone, -unaided, subordinate official as he was, to enter into a struggle -against the powerful ministers supported by the will and favour of the -king. - -At this moment his character reveals itself in all its greatness. - -He went straight to Louis XIV and laid before him the charges against -his mistress; then he wrote energetically to Louvois: 'In spite of all -the care that has been taken, all these facts (against Madame de -Montespan) have cropped up so often, in so many different quarters, and -with so many details, that the king has been obliged to allow the -interrogation of the prisoners about the favourite, but in private.' - -Louvois, one of the most intimate and well-liked friends of Madame de -Montespan, did everything he could to save her. Madame de Maintenon, -indeed, was hostile to her, and he feared her growing favour. Besides, -as the Venetian ambassador observes, Louvois 'worshipped the French -monarchy, to which everything seemed to him subordinate.' He felt bound -to protect the prestige of the crown against the injury which the -condemnation of the favourite would do it. Finally, in defending her, he -thought he would ingratiate himself with Louis. - -Louvois endeavoured to bring La Reynie over to his views, to persuade -him, at first gently, that it was important that the examining judge -should find Madame de Montespan innocent. Louvois spoke, urged, -demonstrated: La Reynie listened, but did not heed. The minister then -changed his tone. He sought to prove to the magistrate that Madame de -Montespan must really be innocent. He went to Paris on February 15, -1681, to explain the matter to him. Had not Mademoiselle Desoeillets, -the favourite's maid, written that 'she was not guilty, and that what he -(La Reynie) had been told about her dealings with La Voisin could not be -true; that there were twenty women about Madame de Montespan, of whom -eighteen hated her, and that they might be asked for information about -her, but she thought that the Countess de Soissons had two maids, one of -whom was almost her own height, and that the countess might well have -taken her name (the name of Mademoiselle Desoeillets), to injure both -her and Madame de Montespan, whom she hated.' - -La Reynie replied that all that was wanted was to confront the young -lady with the prisoners at Vincennes. We have already shown that the -confrontation took place and that Mademoiselle Desoeillets was -recognised. Louvois had perforce to devise another defence, to which the -inflexible La Reynie made answer: 'After reflecting on what Mademoiselle -Desoeillets said to Monsieur de Louvois at Vincennes, about her having -a niece who was very often with the sorceresses, and who might easily -have been mistaken for her, I think it doubtful, because she only said -so after having been recognised by the prisoners, and because Madame de -Villedieu her good friend, who is at Vincennes, and had had warnings, -tried to mislead us in the same way; it appears a concerted plan; and -when I asked her what Mademoiselle Desoeillets was like, she told me -that she was small, short, and well-developed, which is a false -description and exactly fits the niece.' - -When it was pointed out to La Reynie that La Voisin had denied all -knowledge of Mademoiselle Desoeillets, he replied: 'The denial of La -Voisin, persisted in till her death, must be the more suspicious in that -it was so obstinately kept up, because it is now proved that they had -dealings together. If Mademoiselle Desoeillets herself denies these -dealings, that itself can only increase the suspicion.' - -Louvois dwelt also on a retractation made by La Filastre after her -conversation with her confessor at the moment of going to execution; but -the lieutenant of police replied: 'The declaration made by La Filastre -exonerating Madame de Montespan applies solely to the poisoning of -Mademoiselle de Fontanges. There are two other facts: that of the mass -said over her by Guibourg, and further, the agreement between them in -regard to the powders prepared by Galet for the king, in which Madame -de Montespan was named; and the charges founded on these two facts do -not depend wholly on what was said under torture, but were confirmed -afresh by the same declaration in which La Filastre retracted the first -charge.' - -La Reynie thus defended himself and justice, and soon, strong in the -rights of the law, he went on from defence to attack. He revealed to the -minister the relations which several of the Vincennes prisoners who were -mixed up in Madame de Montespan's affair had had with persons of the -Court. - -These had given instruction and counsel. La Reynie condemned these -manoeuvres before the very minister who, at the instigation of the -king, had been their author. - -'And several of these prisoners of rank,' he added courageously, 'have -found means of having some of the charges brought against them -withdrawn.' - -La Reynie was not satisfied with denying the innocence of Mademoiselle -Desoeillets; he told Louvois: 'It is difficult for her to be left at -liberty after such charges. Apprised of all that has been said against -her, she is busy taking measures to render her conviction impossible, -and she will take these measures along with other ill-disposed persons.' - -In case he should not be authorised to arrest her, La Reynie asks that -he may at least be permitted to proceed to her examination; and he -sketches for Louvois a very skilful plan, showing the ingenious and -subtle means by which, without violence or scandal, the confidante might -be induced to reveal the truth. - -It is hardly necessary to say that these propositions were rejected by -Louis and his minister. The magistrate, nevertheless, persevered in the -path he had marked out for himself, even after Louvois, to overcome his -scruples, had enlisted the assistance of Colbert, the second of the -all-powerful ministers. - -Boileau once said: 'I admire Monsieur Colbert's inability to endure -Suetonius because Suetonius had revealed the infamy of the emperors.' -There we have the explanation of his conduct, apart from the personal -interest he had in the innocence of Madame de Montespan. - -Colbert had only followed at a distance the work of the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, and he knew only vaguely the charges brought -against the king's mistress. He applied to a celebrated advocate of the -time, Maitre Duplessis, for a statement establishing the innocence of -Madame de Montespan, and indicating means of quashing the unhappy -proceedings. Colbert even did his best to supply him with arguments. - -Duplessis drew up the statement desired. Colbert acknowledged its -receipt on February 25, 1681: 'I have seen and examined with care the -memorandum you have sent me; I have to receive another to-morrow on the -second charge (the attempted poisoning of Mademoiselle de Fontanges), -which is no less serious than the first (the attempt on Louis XIV by -means of the petition), and the disproof of which is, in my opinion, -more complete and perfect.' And Duplessis sent him a second statement -with these words: 'Have the goodness to look at the general observation -at the beginning, because it may provide answers to many things which -appear sufficiently well proved.' The memorials of Duplessis, backed up -by Colbert, had no more effect on La Reynie than the arguments of -Louvois. The advocate and the minister asked that the prisoners should -be dealt with summarily by the Chambre, that torture should not be -applied so that they might not reveal the gravest facts, and that as -soon as the case had been rapidly despatched, all the documents should -be burnt forthwith. But La Reynie said that it was impossible not to -follow the rules of justice, and that the Chambre could only judge -according to custom and law. - - * * * * * - -The Chambre Ardente was in a quandary. On the one hand it saw the -necessity of yielding to the absolute refusal of Louis to authorise the -reading in court of the documents in which Madame de Montespan was -concerned; on the other, there was the no less absolute refusal of La -Reynie to allow the judges to pronounce a sentence in which all the -guarantees custom gave the accused were not respected. It seemed a -complete deadlock. The king had gradually allowed himself to be led very -far from the resolutions of rigorous equity which he had at first -displayed. He had violated the secrets of the documents so far as to -communicate to persons of note such parts of the reports of the -investigations as concerned them; he had connived at the flight of the -Prince de Clermont-Lodeve, the Countess de Soissons, and many others. He -had trembled at the thought of what revelations La Voisin might make: 'I -explained to the king,' wrote Louvois to Bazin de Bezons on December 3, -1679, 'of the reasons you and the commissioners have for beginning the -investigation of La Voisin's case, but his Majesty did not give his -approval; and this evening I shall give orders to Boucherat and La -Reynie not to bring it into court.' - -On July 18, 1680, Louvois wrote to La Reynie from Montreuil-sur-Mer: -'The king has not thought fit to give the order you request that the -commissioners may be authorised to give judgment in case of necessity, -his Majesty not regarding it as seemly that the Chambre should judge -prisoners in his absence.' In spite of the efforts made to enwrap the -sittings at the Arsenal in impenetrable secrecy, public opinion was not -deceived, and we find evidence in many private letters that the king was -preventing the prosecution of 'people of the Court.' 'You are aiming at -riff-raff,' exclaimed Lalande, one of the prisoners, in open court on -July 31, 1681, 'and you ought to aim higher.' - -At length, as we have seen, after the declaration of La Filastre on -October 1, 1680, the sittings of the Chambre were suddenly suspended. - -'This day, October 1, 1680, in execution of the decree of September 30 -of the said year, which condemned Francoise Filastre and Jacques Joseph -Cotton to death, they have been put to torture ordinary and -extraordinary; but the said Filastre having made, both at and apart from -torture, declarations of great importance, and the king having seen the -report containing fresh declarations made by her in the chapel of the -said chateau of the Bastille before going to execution, his Majesty, for -considerations important to his service, was unwilling that the said -matters should be laid in gross before the Chambre, and gave orders to -Monsieur Boucherat, President of the said court, to close the sittings.' - -From that day there was open conflict between the lieutenant of police -on the one hand and the ministers supported by all the ladies and -courtiers on the other. 'The king,' wrote La Reynie's secretaries, 'was -strongly urged by the courtiers, and even by persons in high places, to -close the Chambre entirely, under various pretexts, the most specious of -which was that a longer investigation of the poisoning cases would bring -the nation into discredit abroad.' La Reynie pleaded in answer the -respect due to justice, the duty incumbent on the king to have the -greatest criminals who had ever appeared in his kingdom brought to trial -and punished, and finally, the necessity of purging France of these -appalling practices in poison and sacrilege, which had taken in a few -years proportions that no one would have conceived possible. He went to -Versailles and talked to the king for four days in succession, and for -four hours each day. It is a pity that we have no record of the words he -addressed to the king and his ministers. Single-handed, he vanquished -them all. - -'Monsieur de la Reynie having been heard by the king in his cabinet, in -presence of the Chancellor and Monsieur de Colbert and the Marquis de -Louvois, on four different days, and for four hours each day, his -Majesty at length resolved on the continuation of the Chambre, and -ordered Monsieur de la Reynie to continue his ordinary investigations; -nevertheless, to take no steps on any of the declarations contained in -the reports of the torture and execution of La Filastre, which his -Majesty, for considerations relating to his service, does not wish to be -divulged.' - -The court sitting at the Arsenal resumed its labours on May 19, 1681, -but on the condition laid down by the king that nothing further should -be done in regard to the declarations in which Madame de Montespan had -been involved. On December 17, the facts which he had wished to keep -from the knowledge of the judges reappeared with new force at the -examination of La Joly. Louvois at once wrote to Bazin de Bezons, the -fellow-commissioner of La Reynie, instructing him to be careful to put -all these declarations into separate portfolios not to be shown to the -judges. La Reynie in fact perceived that the difficulties of the Court, -in regard to a regular performance of its duties, were increasing from -day to day, and it was not long before he understood, and made his -colleagues see also, that the mere fact of the suppression of the report -containing the replies of Filastre under torture rendered it impossible -to investigate legally the cases of the principal prisoners. This he -clearly demonstrated in notes really admirable in their outspokenness -and sound judgment. And to measure their dignity and courage, we must -remember that his words were addressed directly to Louvois and Louis -XIV. But Louis' character was not great enough to allow him to sacrifice -his pride to the public good, to consent to such a humiliation in the -eyes of his subjects and of Europe. He adhered to his veto on the -communication of the Montespan documents to the Chambre. On his part, La -Reynie remained inflexible, refusing to allow a case to be tried in -which the whole of the documents were not submitted to the court. Yet -something had to be done: a Chamber must be either open or shut. - -After having done everything possible to enable justice to follow its -course in complete independence, so as to reach the guilty however -high-placed they were, La Reynie indicated the only solution which would -permit the magistrates--since they were not allowed to fulfil their duty -to the full--not to fail in so much of their duty as lay in the limited -field still open to them. - -There were at that time in France tribunals in which judges sat, and -_lettres de cachet_ which operated without legal formalities, at the -mere command of the king. Elsewhere we have shown how, almost at the -same period, d'Aguesseau, the most illustrious of French judges, asked -for _lettres de cachet_ in the course of a case in which he was engaged. -Like d'Aguesseau, La Reynie might have said: 'I am not accused of a -fondness for extraordinary ways and a hatred of the forms known to -justice, yet I find here many reasons for having recourse to orders from -the king' (_lettres de cachet_). - -'His Majesty being unwilling to give the Chambre cognisance of certain -facts,' he wrote on April 17, 1681, to Louvois, 'or that it should try -certain prisoners and certain accused parties, reserving them to himself -because of their importance, to deal with them through his own justice -and the other means he proposes to make use of, it seems to me that we -can arrive at the end the king is aiming at by very simple methods, and -there can be no objection since the commissioners of the Chambre will -have no knowledge of the matters concerning which they are not to be -judges.' - -What was required, according to La Reynie, was to give up the -investigation of the cases of those who had knowledge of facts -implicating Madame de Montespan; and since it was impossible to try them -according to the rules of justice, to be satisfied with imprisoning them -under _lettres de cachet_ in the royal fortresses. In face of the -attitude taken up by La Reynie in refusing to proceed to a judgment -which would violate the traditional forms and the securities they -granted to the accused, the king and his ministers had perforce to -yield. - -La Reynie enumerates a long list of the criminals charged with monstrous -crimes who hoped by this means to escape the rigour of trial, the -anguish of torture and death by the stake or the gibbet, and he adds:-- - -'There are 147 prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes; of this number -there is not one against whom there are not serious charges of poisoning -or dealings in poison, and further charges of sacrilege and impiety. The -majority of these criminals are likely to escape punishment. - -'La Trianon, an abominable woman, in regard to the nature of her crimes -and her dealings with poison, cannot be tried, and the public, in losing -the satisfaction of an example, is no doubt losing also the fruit of -some new discovery and the total conviction of her accomplices. - -'Nor can the woman Chappelain be tried, because La Filastre was -confronted with her: a woman of large connection, long devoted to the -study of poisons, suspected of several poisonings, continually -practising impieties, sacrilege, and sorcery; accused by La Filastre of -having taught her the practice of her abominations with priests; deeply -implicated in the case of Vanens. - -'For the same reasons, Galet cannot be tried; although a peasant, a -dangerous man, and dealing openly in poisons. - -'Lepreux, a priest of Notre Dame, engaged in the same practices as La -Chappelain, accused of sacrificing the child of La Filastre to the -devil. - -'Guibourg--this man, who cannot be compared to any other in regard to -the number of his poisonings, his dealings with poison and sorcery, his -sacrilege and impiety, knowing and known by every notorious criminal, -convicted of a great number of horrible crimes--this man, who has -mutilated and sacrificed several children; who, apart from the sacrilege -of which he is convicted, confesses to inconceivable abominations; who -says he has practised by diabolical means against the life of the king; -of whom we hear every day new and execrable things, and who is loaded -with accusations of crimes against God and king--he, too, will assure -impunity to other criminals. - -'His concubine, the woman Chanfrain, guilty with him of the murder of -some of her children, who has shared in some of Guibourg's sacrifices, -and who, according to appearances and the turn the case was taking, was -the infamous altar on which he performed his ordinary abominations, will -also remain unpunished. - -'There is also a large number of other accused persons who will remain -free from punishment for their crimes. The girl Monvoisin cannot be -tried, nor Mariette, whatever may come to light about him. Latour, -Vautier, and his wife will not only remain unpunished, but, for -considerations prompting to the concealment of their secret crimes, -their case will not be heard through.' - -La Reynie says further, not without a touch of melancholy: 'In all this -there is reason to wonder at the providence of God. If Mariette had been -captured before the trial of La Voisin, and they had spoken about the -business of Madame de Montespan, this monster (La Voisin) would have -escaped justice, and La Filastre also, if she had put forward what she -said at her torture.' - -It remained to close the Chambre without too great a shock to public -opinion, or leading people to believe that after so much noise the whole -thing was to be smothered. 'We must wind up the Chambre,' writes La -Reynie, 'but we must avoid doing so with an appearance of weariness and -disgust combined, so that the large number of persons interested may not -find occasion to discredit justice, and so that the wicked people who -remain, known or unknown, may not cease to be in terror, or, losing -their fear, recommence their ill-deeds with the same freedom as they had -before.' - -The magistrates who composed the Chambre were themselves keenly desirous -that its closing should be announced. Among other reasons, the -lieutenant of police gives their reluctance and aversion to condemn, 'a -reluctance which good men cannot help feeling,' and their sorrow at not -being able to try the principal offenders. - -It was important, then, not to appear to close the Chambre from any -feeling of weariness, and above all not to awake any suspicion of the -real causes at work. The public was already murmuring. Compelled as they -were, on account of the complicity of Madame de Montespan, to allow all -the accused who had had dealings with La Voisin to go scot-free--to wit, -the Abbe Guibourg, Lesage, and other guilty persons--the judges took up -again the case of Vanens, which had lain dormant. But here again the -principal actor, Vanens, escaped the rigour of the law through his -connection with the favourite. The commissioners of the Chambre had the -good luck to find unexpectedly, in one of the reports, a denunciation -against a certain Pinon du Martroy, a councillor to the Parlement, who -had been involved in the disgrace of Fouquet. At the time when judgment -had been passed on the financiers after the fall of Fouquet, the goods -of Pinon had been seized, and Guibourg said that, to wreak vengeance and -secure Fouquet's release from prison, he had performed incantations -against the king, as well as practised sorcery. Pinon was dead, but he -was said to have had a confidant in Jean Maillard, auditor to the -exchequer. This man was secured, and as he occupied a prominent -position, his case created a great sensation. He was condemned on -February 20, 1682, for having 'known and not revealed the detestable -designs formed against the person of the king.' The councillor denied -everything at his torture, and adhered to his denial till the moment of -his death. It is certain that among the various accusations brought -before the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, those directed against -Maillard are among those that were least fully proved. The execution -took place on February 21, and, contrary to custom, at midday. - -It was followed on July 16, 1682, by that of La Chaboissiere, Vanens' -valet. This wretch was condemned to be hanged after preliminary torture. -He was less guilty than Vanens, of whom he had only been the tool; but -his low rank had put him beyond the pale. Then the proceedings were -brought to a close in due form, without any appearance of a serious -miscarriage of justice in the eyes of the crowd. The Chambre Ardente was -finally closed by a _lettre de cachet_ of July 21, 1682. - -La Reynie did not consider that his work was yet done. In his -correspondence with Louvois, he had constantly harped on the idea that -they should profit by the experience gained during the long -investigations of the court to avoid the recurrence of such crimes. He -was intrusted, along with Colbert, with the drafting of an order. On -August 30, 1682, appeared the famous edict against soothsayers and -poisoners, which was the joint work of these two great men; magicians -and sorceresses were driven from France, the manufacture and sale of -poisons necessary in trade and medicine were regulated by ordinances -which have triumphed over time and revolutions, and after two centuries -are still in force to-day. - - * * * * * - -The numerous prisoners whose connection, close or remote, with the -machinations of Madame de Montespan safe-guarded them from trial, were -transferred under _lettre de cachet_ into different fortresses--those -which appeared the safest in the kingdom. With excessive precaution, -Louvois ordered that each of them should be fastened to his prison by an -iron chain, one link of which was to be imbedded in the wall and another -fixed to the person of the prisoner. - -All these unhappy creatures remained in this condition till their death, -some of them for more than forty years. The minister sent the most -rigorous instructions to prevent them from holding communication with -anybody outside, and to secure that the staff employed in providing for -their material and spiritual wants should be reduced to the lowest -possible number and composed of persons in whom entire confidence might -be placed. And to destroy in advance any effect which the revelations of -the prisoners might make on the minds of the governors of citadels and -fortresses, Louvois sent these officers word that their new guests were -villains who had invented infamous calumnies against Madame de -Montespan, the falsity of which had been proved before the Chambre, and -that if any of them happened to open his lips on the subject, he was to -be answered at once with a sound flogging. - -The most important of the prisoners--Guibourg, Lesage, Galet, and -Romani--were conveyed to the citadel of Besancon. Guibourg died there -three years after his entrance. - -Fourteen women were taken to the castle of St. Andre de Salins. Louvois -wrote in regard to them on August 26, 1682, to the lord-lieutenant of -Franche-Comte:-- - -'The king having thought fit to send to the chateau of St. Andre de -Salins some of the people who were arrested in virtue of warrants of the -court that dealt with the matter of the poisons, his Majesty has -commanded me to inform you that his intention is that you prepare two -rooms in the said chateau, so that six of these prisoners may be kept -safely in each of them, the which prisoners are to have each a mattress -in the place arranged for them, and to be fastened either by a hand or a -foot to a chain which shall be fastened to the wall, the said chain -however to be long enough not to prevent them from lying down. As these -people are criminals who deserve extreme penalties, the intention of the -king is that they be thus fastened for fear they should injure the -people set to guard them, who will go in and out to bring them food and -attend to them generally. His Majesty's intention is that you prepare -two similar rooms in the citadel of Besancon, so that twelve of the -prisoners may be kept securely there. You will observe that these rooms -are to be so situated that no one can hear what these people say.' - -Auzillon, one of the staff of the provost of the Isle de France, -escorted the principal sorceresses, Pelletier, Poulain, Delaporte, the -girl Monvoisin, and Catherine Leroy, to the citadel of Belle-Isle-en-Mer. - -La Chappelain, the companion of La Filastre, was imprisoned in the -castle of Villefranche, where she died forty years later, on June 4, -1724. She lived there in company with another sorceress who, like her, -had been withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Chambre Ardente, and for -the same reasons--namely, La Guesdon. - -The governor of Villefranche wrote in August 1717, that 'of two old -prisoners of state for poison, the survivors of four who had been locked -up there for thirty-six years, La Guesdon died on the 15th instant, -leaving forty-five livres in silver, which she had saved during that -time out of her eight sous a day for food: of these she instructed her -surviving companion to take what she needed for her personal use, and -to use the balance in paying for prayers for her--this is one pensioner -the less for the king. The woman was seventy-six years old; the survivor -(La Chappelain) is no younger. They were in the same room.' - -Finally, a few prisoners at the Bastille and Vincennes, wholly ignorant -of the poison affair, and others whose innocence was recognised by the -commissioners of the Chambre Ardente, had been shut up, unluckily for -themselves, in the same room with prisoners implicated in the crimes of -Madame de Montespan. This chance meeting condemned them to perpetual -confinement. - -'Manon Bosse,' writes La Reynie, 'was sent to the nuns of Baffens, at -Besancon, under the name of Mademoiselle Manon Dubosc, where the king -pensioned her to the tune of 250 livres; she was never liberated, -because she had been locked up with the daughter of La Voisin, who had -told her everything.' - -La Gaigniere, under the same circumstances, was put in the common -workhouse. Nanon Aubert also had been placed with La Voisin's daughter: -'This was the reason that she was not set at liberty, but in 1683 she -was placed with the Ursulines of Besancon, and afterwards with those of -Vesoul, with orders to say that she was detained for dealings with a -lady of quality accused of poison, and she was made to pass for a young -lady of rank. The king payed a pension of 250 livres per annum.' - -The most characteristic example is that of Lemaire, brother of the woman -Vertemart. His complete innocence was absolutely proved. There was no -possible charge against him but his having been shut up with the Abbe -Guibourg, who 'had told him everything.' On August 4, 1681, Louvois -wrote to La Reynie: 'At present Lemaire is not to be set at liberty. I -have written to Desgrez what will enable him, if he shows him my letter, -to endure his long detention with less pain.' Louvois and Louis XIV were -struck by the revolting iniquity of this detention. In August 1682, -Louvois sent to Lemaire the considerable sum of 150 pistoles, promising -to forward an equal sum every year on condition that he took himself out -of the kingdom, never set foot in it again all his life, and spoke to -nobody in the world of what he had heard while at Vincennes. If he ever -broke one of these engagements, the king would have him seized and -incarcerated for the rest of his days. - - * * * * * - -La Reynie died on June 14, 1709, at the age of eighty years. In his will -there is a touching clause which depicts this excellent man to the life. -He asks that his body may be interred in the parish cemetery, and not in -the church, 'being unwilling that my corpse should be laid in a spot -where the faithful assemble, and that the decay of my body should -increase the pollution of the air, and thereby endanger the life of -ministers and people.' The lieutenant of police, who had devoted a part -of his life to the sanitation and good government of the great city -confided to his administration, gave an excellent practical lesson on -his death-bed, doubtless to the wounding of his dearest sentiments as a -Catholic and a believer. - -Gabriel Nicolas de la Reynie was in fact a character of rare worth. In -our account of him, we have not had to show him as the man of fine -culture, the scholar in constant correspondence with Baluze, purchasing -and collecting Greek and Latin manuscripts, the skilled patron of the -printing-press, the bibliophile to whom we owe the preservation of the -original text of Moliere. He was a worthy representative of his period, -the great epoch in French history. The seventeenth century attained the -furthest extremes in good as in evil. It was then that France produced -her greatest captains, her greatest statesmen, her most illustrious -judges; it was then that the greatest names in literature, art, -philosophy, and scholarship dazzled the world; then that the 'daughters -of charity' displayed their devotion; that Madame de Chantal diffused -around her the sweet perfume of her virtues; but it was then, too, that -a Marquise de Brinvilliers extended the boundaries of crime, and an Abbe -de Guibourg murdered children upon an altar, over the bare body of a -Marquise de Montespan. - - - - -THE DEATH OF 'MADAME'[12] - - -Who has not read Bossuet's funeral oration on Henrietta Anne of England, -Duchess of Orleans? Who has not thrilled at the echo of that powerful -and poignant apostrophe?--'O woful night! O awful night, when there rang -through the air like a sudden thunderclap the amazing tidings, Madame is -dying, Madame is dead!... Madame passed from morn to eve like the grass -of the field. In the morning she flourished, with what graces you know; -in the evening we saw her cut down.... What awful speed! In nine hours -the work is accomplished.' Bossuet's masterpiece has crowned the memory -of Madame with an immortal halo in which the charms, the quick and -exquisite imagination of the young princess, who enchanted her -contemporaries,--the lady who set the tone for taste and wit in the -midst of the wittiest and most brilliant Court the world has ever -known--will shine resplendent through the ages. - -The circumstances in which this startling death occurred have aroused -the attention of historians. Madame had returned from England, where she -had succeeded in getting the Treaty of Dover signed on June 1, 1670, by -the ministers of her brother Charles II--the treaty assuring Louis XIV -of the alliance of England against Holland, and permitting him to -conquer Flanders and Franche-Comte for France. Madame remained at Dover -from May 24 to June 12; she then re-embarked for France, happy in the -successful result of her mission; and she arrived at Saint-Germain on -the 18th. 'At the age of twenty-six,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'she -saw herself the link between the two greatest kings of the century; she -had in her hands a treaty on which depended the fate of a part of -Europe; the pleasure and the importance given by affairs of moment being -joined in her with the attractions bestowed by youth and beauty; there -was a grace and a sweetness enveloping her whole person that won for her -a kind of homage, which must have been the more pleasant in that it was -rendered rather to her personality than to her rank.' - -Need anything be said of the manners of Monsieur? 'The miracle of firing -the heart of this prince,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'was reserved for -no woman in the world.' And yet his heart was wonderfully tender! Madame -had definitively secured the exile of the Chevalier de Lorraine, the -infamous friend of her husband. - -Madame died suddenly at St. Cloud, a prey to the most cruel anguish, on -the night of the 29th of June 1670, about three o'clock in the morning. -Rumours of poison were instantly set afloat, which were not long in -gaining strength and currency. They formed the general opinion at Court, -in Paris, in the whole of France, in England, Holland, and Spain, where -Madame's daughter became queen. Charles II refused to receive the letter -in which the Duke of Orleans informed him of his sister's death. 'The -Duke of Buckingham, the English ambassador,' wrote Colbert de Croissy, -'is in transports of rage.' The people of London were hardly restrained -from violent outbursts against the Frenchmen residing there. The streets -rang with the cry of 'Down with the French!' The French embassy had to -be protected. Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine, was always -convinced that Madame had died of poison, and everything tends to show -that Louis XIV, at all events in the first moments, shared these -suspicions. - -In regard to the possible authors of the crime, some accused the Dutch, -against whom the Treaty of Dover was directed; others accused Monsieur -himself and the Chevalier de Lorraine. In either case, the historical -interest of the problem is very great; the popular imagination -heightened it through the magnificent commentary with which Bossuet -embroidered the death of the beautiful princess; and it has been -enhanced by all the efforts made for more than a century past to solve -it. 'For fifty years and more,' writes one of the masters of modern -erudition, M. Arthur de Boislisle, 'the question has been more closely -studied, and the evidence weighed with more care, at least by impartial -and serious writers familiar with the documents of Louis XIV's reign or -with scientific problems. But it happens that some have abstained from -giving a decisive verdict, and others have varied between poison, in -which Walckenaer, Paul Lacroix, and Francois Ravaisson very firmly -believed, and death by accident or disease, accepted by Mignet, -Loiseleur, and Littre; with the result that the question has become -darkened rather than illuminated between conclusions diametrically -opposed, but coming from men of equal authority.' Monsieur de Boislisle -himself refrains from stating any conclusion, and recently we have -Doctor Legue, a specialist, in his interesting book, _Medecins et -Empoisonneurs_, devoting a new study to the question, and endeavouring -to prove that Madame was poisoned by corrosive sublimate. - -Thanks to a minute study of the documents, guided by the work of -Monsieur de Boislisle we have just quoted, thanks above all to the -skilful guidance of two masters of modern science, we arrive, as will -be seen by and by, at an indisputable solution. - - -I - -In accordance with the first principle of historical criticism, it is -important at the outset to determine exactly the value of the sources -whence we may derive particulars serviceable to our investigation. The -sources are divided into three well-marked categories--(1) The reports -of the physicians and surgeons; (2) the accounts of the persons who were -able to approach Madame in her last moments, or were in a position to -hear authoritative descriptions; (3) the official correspondence of the -courts of London and Paris. - -The first category presents to us five reports of the post-mortem -examination:-- - -(_a_) The official report signed by the fifteen physicians and surgeons, -French and English, who were present at the autopsy. - -(_b_) The _Account of the Illness, Death, and Autopsy of Madame_, by the -Abbe Bourdelot, physician. Bourdelot was one of the French physicians -present at the post-mortem. - -(_c_) The report of Vallot, physician to the late queen-mother. Vallot -was regarded as one of the most eminent physicians of his time. He was -present among the French doctors at the autopsy. His report was -officially carried to London by the Marshal de Bellefonds. - -(_d_) The _Memoir of a Surgeon of the King of England who was present at -the Opening of the Body_. This surgeon's name was Alexander Boscher. - -(_e_) The account of Hugh Chamberlain, physician-in-ordinary to the King -of England, also present at the operation. This document, like the -preceding, is exceedingly useful for checking the official report and -the report of the French physicians. Some writers have believed that -Louis XIV, fearing a rupture with England, dictated the opinion the -French physicians were to give. Boscher and Chamberlain were absolutely -independent representatives of the English Government. - -To these five documents, of unquestionable authenticity, may be added -the notice inserted in the _Gazette_ of July 5, 1670, which was -officially inspired by the Court physicians, and the opinion of the -famous Guy Patin, Dean of the Medical School of Paris, though he was not -actually present at the autopsy. - -In our second category, the narratives of persons who approached Madame -in her last moments, or heard authoritative accounts, we must mention -prominently the account written by the charming Countess de la Fayette, -_The History of Madame Henrietta of England, first wife of Philip of -France, Duke of Orleans_. The Countess de la Fayette was attached to the -suite of Madame; she never left her during the day on which she died. -She has left a simple, precise, and sober account of the short illness, -in which every line bears the stamp of truth. - -Next to this valuable document must be cited the letter of Bossuet, who -was present at the final scene, and the story of Feuillet, canon of St. -Cloud, who was with Madame before Bossuet arrived. - -The third category comprises the correspondence exchanged between the -courts of England and France and their representatives: these would be -documents of the greatest value, if their official and diplomatic -character had not imposed the greatest reserve on the writers, and even -dictated their sentiments. There are first of all the letters of Louis -XIV and Hugues de Lionne to Charles II and to Colbert de Croissy, -ambassador at London; then, the despatches of Louis and of Hugues de -Lionne to Monsieur de Pomponne, ambassador at the Hague; on the English -side, five letters addressed by Lord Montagu, ambassador at the French -Court, to Lord Arlington, secretary of state to Charles II, and the -letters of Lord Arlington to Sir William Temple. - -Such are the only documents worthy of credence we have at our disposal -for studying the circumstances of the death of Madame, for it is -necessary to reject in the most absolute manner the accounts of -Saint-Simon and of Monsieur's second wife, Madame Palatine. Cheruel, and -more especially Monsieur de Boislisle, have shown the improbabilities -and absurdities of these, and we shall not refer to them again. The work -of Monsieur de Boislisle is particularly interesting in showing that -these two famous narratives had a common source. As to the testimony of -d'Argenson, Voltaire, and others, destitute, in the nature of the case, -of any authority comparable to that of the authors we have mentioned -above--it is unnecessary in the points where it confirms the others; on -the points where it contradicts them, it cannot prevail; and on the -points where it contains new information, it is dangerous to follow, for -we lack any evidence by which to check it. Littre acted judiciously in -neglecting these writers when compiling his study on the death of -Madame, and the reproach levelled against him by Loiseleur is without -justification. On the contrary, it is perhaps to this happy stroke of -criticism that Littre owed the success of his argument. - - -II - -We proceed to recount, in the simplest and most precise manner in our -power, the circumstances of the death of Madame; and from this narrative -alone we shall see emerge one of the facts we intend to establish, -namely, that Madame could not have been poisoned. - -Henrietta of England, 'more comparable to the jasmine than to the rose, -very slender, delicate, slightly round-shouldered--not less pleasing for -that--exhausted, not only by four accouchements in rapid succession, but -by the fast life then led at Court, was only kept up,' says Monsieur de -Boislisle, 'by that sanguine temperament which is the prerogative of -high-strung women.' In 1664 Guy Patin wrote: 'The Duchess of Orleans was -taken ill at Villers-Cotterets, and her physicians have prescribed ass's -milk.' The presumption is, then, that she suffered from some stomachic -disorder. 'The king,' wrote Hugues de Lionne to Colbert de Croissy, -'tells us that more than three years ago she complained of a pain in the -side which compelled her to lie flat for three or four hours without -finding ease in any posture.' Madame was constantly afflicted with a -pain at one fixed spot in the breast. 'She further used to complain,' -wrote the Abbe Bourdelot, 'of a cruel burning pain, not in the abdomen, -but in the chest.' She was always wanting to vomit. 'Most often she -could take only milk for food, and remained in bed for days together.' -These facts indicate, as Dr. Le Gendre tells us, that Madame suffered -from a chronic inflammation of the stomach, a form of gastritis. The -reports of the autopsy show, further, that Madame was afflicted with -pulmonary tuberculosis, and it is not rare for these two morbid -conditions to co-exist. - -During the journey she made in Flanders with the king and Monsieur -before her departure for England, the appearance of the young princess -caused much alarm. 'She was reduced to living on milk,' writes Madame de -la Fayette, 'and retired to her own room as soon as she got out of the -coach, and as a rule she went to bed.... One day, when the talk fell on -astrology, Monsieur said that it had been foretold that he would have -several wives, and judging from the state Madame was in, he was -beginning to believe it.' - -Madame returned from England on June 18. Her condition had become very -much worse. Next day she kept her bed. 'She went into the queen's room,' -wrote Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'like a dressed-up corpse with rouge -on its cheeks, and when she went out, everybody, including the queen, -said that she had death written on her face.' 'On June 24, 1670,' writes -Madame de la Fayette, 'a week after her return from England, Monsieur -and she went to St. Cloud. The first day she went there she complained -of pains in the side and abdomen, to which she was subject. -Nevertheless, as it was extremely hot, she desired to bathe in the -river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he could to prevent -her, but in spite of all he said she bathed on Friday the 27th, and on -Saturday she was so ill that she did not bathe. I arrived at St. Cloud -on Saturday at six o'clock in the evening. I found her in the gardens. -She told me that I should think her looking cross, and that she was not -at all well. She had supped as usual, and she walked in the moonlight -till midnight.' The preceding lines, every detail of which is of great -importance, have been neglected by the historians who have concluded she -was poisoned. - -'On Sunday the 29th, at dinner, Madame ate as usual, and after dinner -she lay down on some cushions, as she often did when she was at liberty. -She had made me place myself near her,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'so -that her head was almost on me. An English painter was painting -Monsieur's portrait; we were talking about all sorts of things, and -meanwhile she fell asleep. During her nap she changed so considerably -that after watching her for a long time I was surprised at it, and -thought that her spirit must do a great deal towards adorning her -countenance, since it was so pleasant when she was awake and so little -attractive when she was asleep. But I was wrong in this reflection, for -I had several times seen her sleeping, and had never yet seen her less -lovely. When she awoke, she rose from the place where she had been -lying, but with so haggard a face that Monsieur was surprised and called -my attention to it. She then went away into the drawing-room, where she -walked up and down for some time with Boisfranc, Monsieur's treasurer, -and while talking to him, complained several times of the pain at her -side.' - -We are coming to the moment when any poisoning must have taken place; we -see already that the mischief was done. - -'Monsieur went downstairs to return to Paris. He found Madame de -Meckelbourg on the steps, and came up again with her. Madame left -Boisfranc and came to Madame de Meckelbourg. As she was speaking to her, -Madame de Gamaches brought to her, as well as to me, a glass of chicory -water that she had asked for some time before. Madame de Gourdon, her -tire-woman, gave it to her. She drank it, and then, replacing the cup on -the salver with one hand, she pressed her side with the other, saying, -in a tone that betokened severe pain, "Oh! what a dreadful twinge! Oh, -what a pain! I can bear it no longer!" - -'She reddened in uttering these words, and the next moment turned a -livid pallor, which surprised us all; she continued to cry out, and told -us to take her away, as she could no longer stand. We took her in our -arms; she tottered along half doubled-up; I held her while some one -unlaced her. She moaned all the time, and I noticed that she had tears -in her eyes. I was amazed and affected by it, for I knew that she was -the most patient creature in the world. Kissing the arms I was holding, -I said that she was evidently in great pain, and she told me I could not -imagine how great. She was put to bed, and as soon as she was there, she -cried out more loudly than she had yet done, and threw herself from one -side to the other like a person in infinite agony. Some one went off to -find her chief physician, Monsieur Esprit; he came, said it was colic, -and prescribed the ordinary remedies for such ailments. All the time the -pain was dreadful. Madame said that it was much worse than we thought, -and that she was dying, and begged some one to go in search of a -confessor for her.' - -The young princess believed that she was poisoned. A sort of antidote -was brought her in the shape of oil and powdered adder, which made her -vomit. After some hours of frightful agony, Henrietta of England expired -while Bossuet was reciting the last exhortations. - -Face to face with death, Madame displayed a greatness of soul to which -all who approached her have borne touching testimony. 'Madame was gentle -towards Death,' said Bossuet, 'as she had been with all the world. Her -great heart was neither embittered nor wrathful against the dread foe. -Nor did she face him with proud disdain, but was content to look him in -the face without emotion and to welcome him without distress.' - - -III - -This bare narrative of the facts would be sufficient to weaken the -opinion of those who believe that the Princess Henrietta died of poison. -The following observations will contribute to deprive it of all credit. -Writers are unanimously agreed about the fact that Madame could only -have been poisoned by the glass of chicory water given her by Madame de -Gamaches. Now as soon as suspicions awoke in the mind of Madame and her -circle, that is to say, the moment after the drink had been taken, -Monsieur ordered some of the water to be given to a dog; Madame -Desbordes, the princess's maid, who was heartily devoted to her, told -her that she had made the drink, and had herself drunk some of it, and -Madame de Meckelbourg also drank some. We are thus bound to acknowledge -that the famous chicory water could not have been poisoned. Monsieur J. -Lair, with his clear and vigorous mind, has well analysed the scene: -'The decoction of which so many persons had drunk was harmless; it was -the cup that ought to have been examined.' 'The details given by Madame -de la Fayette and others,' writes Monsieur de Boislisle, 'exclude the -idea of poison poured into the glass itself; and indeed Madame Palatine -says that what was poisoned was not the water itself, nor the vessel in -which it was made, but the cup which was reserved for the princess, and -which no one else would have dared to use.' - -It is a fact that the seventeenth-century poisoners sought to prepare -goblets and silver cups in such a way as to poison the persons who were -afterwards to use them. Among the constant friends of La Voisin, La -Bosse, La Cheron, and La Vigoureux, the most renowned sorceresses of the -period, we find a certain Francois Belot, one of the king's bodyguard, -making a specialty of this, and deriving a comfortable income from it, -until the day when this trade led him to the Place de Greve, where he -was broken on the wheel on June 10, 1679. His method of procedure was as -follows: 'He crammed a toad with arsenic, placed it in a silver goblet, -and then, pricking its head, made it urinate, and finally crushed it in -the goblet.' During this pleasant operation he mumbled his wicked -charms. 'I know a secret,' said Belot, 'such that in doctoring a cup -with a toad and what I put into it, if fifty persons chanced to drink -from it afterwards, even if it were washed and rinsed, they would all be -done for, and the cup could only be disinfected by throwing it into a -hot fire. After having thus poisoned the cup, I should not try it upon a -human being, but upon a dog, and I should intrust the cup to nobody.' -But it happened that a client of Belot's, being somewhat sceptical, got -a dog to drink out of the doctored cup, and found that the animal was -not harmed in the least; he even picked a violent quarrel with the -magician about the matter, taunting him with the worthlessness of his -wares. Belot spoke frankly to the commissioners of the Chambre Ardente: -'I know that the toad cannot do anybody any harm; what I did with the -silver cups and trenchers was done solely to get hold of such cups and -trenchers.' His skill, nevertheless, enjoyed a very substantial -reputation. At the same date the magician Blessis was believed to know -how to manipulate mirrors in such a way that any one who looked in them -received his deathblow. - -These facts seem mere childish folly under scientific investigation. The -knowledge people had of poisons in the eighteenth century was limited to -arsenic, antimony, and sublimate; it did not enable them so to poison a -cup as to cause sudden death to the person using it, without his being -aware of the poison at the moment of drinking it. The opinion of -Professor Brouardel on this point is explicit; and Dr. Legue, convinced -as he is of the poisoning of Madame, admits that the story of the cup -can only make any well-informed man smile. - -The conclusion is that as Madame could not have been poisoned by the -water she drank, or by the cup containing the water, she could not have -been poisoned at all. - - -IV - -'Her body was opened,' writes Bossuet, 'among a large concourse of -physicians and surgeons and all sorts of people, because, having begun -to feel extreme pain when drinking three mouthfuls of chicory water, -given her by the dearest and most intimate of her women, she said at -once that she was poisoned.' It was with the same idea that the English -ambassador attended the operation along with an English physician and -surgeon. - -After having shown that Madame could not have been poisoned, it remains -to settle what disease it was of which she died. Our task is simplified -by the marvellous study in which Littre proved that she succumbed to an -acute peritonitis, the immediate and inevitable result of the -perforation of the stomach by an ulcer. This study, Dr. Paul Le Gendre -tells us, is the finest extant example of a retrospective medical -demonstration. We have it now under our eyes; but we find it condensed -by the pen of the most elegant writer of our time, M. Anatole France, -who will allow us to borrow this quotation: 'Littre, an expert in -medical observation, does not hesitate to diagnose a simple ulceration -of the stomach, which Professor Cruveilhier was the first to describe, -and which Madame's physicians could not recognise because they knew -nothing about it. It is unquestionable that for some time Madame had -been suffering from abdominal pains after her meals. The liquid she took -on June 29 brought about the perforation of the ulcerated wall, and this -caused the terrible pain in her side and the peritonitis which we have -mentioned. The physicians who opened the body found, indeed, that the -stomach was pierced with a little hole; but as they could not account -for the pathological origin of this hole, they fancied after the event -that it had been made inadvertently during the autopsy, "upon which," -says the surgeon of the king of England, "I was the only one to insist." -The incident is reported as follows by the Abbe Bourdelot: "It happened -by misadventure during the dissection that the point of the scalpel -made an opening at the top of the ventricle, and many of the gentlemen -asked how it came about. The surgeon said that he had done it by -accident, and Monsieur Vallot said that he had seen when the cut was -made."' - -Littre objects, with reason, that it is difficult to make inadvertently -an incision with the point of a pair of scissors--there is no question -of a scalpel--in a tough and distended membrane like the stomach during -an autopsy. The illusion of the physicians present at the operation is -the more easily explained because in that lesion, as it is now known, -the edges of the opening are perfectly clean and sharp, very regular, so -that the hole seems to have been made artificially. Jaccoud points out -'the very sharp delimitation of the ulcer, the absence of inflammation, -and of peripheral suppuration.' 'The section of the tissues,' writes -Monsieur Bouveret, 'is so clean that, to adopt a classical comparison, -the ulcer appears as though cut out with a punch.' It varies in -dimensions from the size of a lentil to that of a five-franc piece. - -M. Anatole France admirably explains the state of mind of the physicians -who drew up the report of the autopsy. 'The French physicians were -afraid of finding in the viscera of the princess indications of a crime -which might throw suspicion on the royal family. They dreaded even -everything which lent itself to doubt, and thereby to malevolence. -Knowing that the least uncertainty as to the cause of death or the -condition of the corpse would be interpreted by the public in a sense -that would ruin them, they had reasons of self-interest and the zeal of -fear to urge them to explain everything. Now, in their inability to -connect with a normal pathological type a lesion unknown to them all, -and perhaps suspicious to some, it was much to their advantage to -explain this enigmatical wound as an accident during the autopsy. And we -can understand their believing what they wished to believe. The English -surgeons, as ignorant as they, accepted their conclusion in default of a -better.' 'The fact is,' says Littre in conclusion, 'that they were bound -to find a hole, and they did find it. All dispute was silenced in the -presence of three things: the sudden attack, the peritonitis, and the -presence of oil ['and of bile,' adds Dr. Le Gendre] which the reports of -the autopsy show to have been in the lower bowel.' In the lower bowel -was found, indeed, a substance which the reports of the French -physicians describe as 'fat like oil.'[13] It was, in fact, oil--the oil -which Madame had drunk as an antidote, and which had been discharged -from the stomach. - -Further, even supposing, against all probability, that the hole had -actually been made accidentally by young Felix, who was the operator, -all the details of Madame's health known before death, and the details -revealed by the autopsy, are so conclusive in favour of the diagnosis -of a simple ulcer ending in perforation, that we should be led to the -admission that there must have existed, in another part of the wall of -the stomach, another small hole which escaped the notice of the -physicians and surgeons present at the autopsy. There would have been -nothing surprising in this, for their attention was not directed to this -point. It might even be supposed that the scissors of Felix, if they had -really cut the wall of the stomach by inadvertence, only increased the -size of the natural perforation already existing. Allowance must indeed -be made for the state of putrid softening in which the organs are bound -to have been, the corpse having remained exposed all through a day of -intense heat. - -'To sum up, before June 29, there were gastric pains caused by -ulceration; on the 29th, bursting of the ulcer and acute peritonitis.' -Peritonitis is distinctly indicated by the reports. Such are the -conclusions of Littre: Dr. Paul Le Gendre, a most competent authority, -unhesitatingly confirms them, as also does Professor Brouardel, who -writes as follows: 'Admitting ulceration of the stomach, all the -phenomena supervene with classic exactitude.' - -If we refer to the works of the celebrated Cruveilhier, who was the -first to describe simple ulcers, we find by an interesting coincidence, -in the very case he presents as a type, the closest correspondence with -the illness of Madame, and a fresh proof of the soundness of Littre's -opinion. - -'Now since the complications following perforation of the stomach and -rapidly causing death,' writes Cruveilhier, 'supervene suddenly, and -sometimes directly after taking food or drink, the question of poison -has been raised pretty often. I have never seen a more remarkable case -in this respect than that of a coalman, aged twenty-three, and of an -athletic vigour, who, carrying a sack of coal, stopped at an inn and -drank a glass of wine. He went on his way; but a few minutes afterwards -was seized with horrible pains, was attended first at his own house, -then carried dying to the hospital of the Faubourg Saint-Denis; his case -showed every indication of peritonitis through perforation, and he died -three hours after his admission to the hospital, in full consciousness. -I was able to get from his own lips the valuable information that he had -been suffering from his stomach for several months, and that digesting -his food was always painful. The Coal-dealers' Society, convinced that -their comrade was the victim of poison, and that the agent of the -poisoning was the glass of wine taken immediately before he was attacked -by these symptoms, decided to bring an indictment against the -wine-merchant, and with this end required the autopsy to be made in -presence of a deputation from their body. It was a case of spontaneous -perforation through a simple ulcer in the stomach.' - -The 'estimate' of Littre (to use the phrase he himself uses to describe -his work) is thus confirmed in every way. Loiseleur thought fit to -object the rarity of the case. That is no argument: the case may be rare -and yet have been that of Madame. And besides, Loiseleur makes too much -of its rarity. Brinton estimates that perforation of the stomach in -cases of simple ulcer occurs in thirteen per cent., and that it is most -common in women under thirty. Madame was twenty-six. - -Loiseleur admits peritonitis, but thinks it was inflammation supervening -on a chill. 'Why,' he writes, 'does Littre pass by in absolute silence -the last words in the statement of Madame de la Fayette, quite as grave -and significant as the first?--"As it was extremely warm, she wished to -bathe in the river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he -could to prevent her; but in spite of all he said, she bathed on Friday, -and on Saturday was so ill that she did not bathe," and further on: "She -walked in the moonlight until midnight."' There is only one drawback to -Monsieur Loiseleur's theory, but that is a serious one: peritonitis as -an original malady, and especially peritonitis through chill, which -Loiseleur wishes to substitute for the disease diagnosed by Cruveilhier -and Littre, is no longer recognised by modern science. 'The last cases -which were thought to be of this kind,' says Dr. Paul Le Gendre, 'were -perforations of the appendix.' - -Let us come lastly to the work of Dr. Legue, _Medecins et -Empoisonneurs_, the most important part of which is occupied with a -minute study of the circumstances surrounding the death of Madame. -Monsieur Legue's conclusion is, poisoning by sublimate poured into the -famous chicory water. His study is interesting, like the whole book, but -his conclusions crumble away under the following considerations:-- - -1. Professor Brouardel writes: 'If the chicory water had contained the -smallest dose of sublimate, Madame would have pushed the glass from her -after the first sip. Sublimate has a revolting taste. In the medicinal -dose (one gramme to a litre) the taste is atrocious.' - -Madame had been taking chicory water for several days in the evening, -and this evening she drank it as usual. - -2. 'To kill a person,' adds Professor Brouardel, 'at least ten or -fifteen centigrammes are necessary. This dose corresponds to a quantity -of solution representing about 200 grammes of liquid. It seems -impossible for any one to imbibe that without being stopped by its -horrid taste.' - -Madame certainly did not drink 200 grammes of her chicory water; she -took a few sips only. - -3. 'Poisoning by sublimate,' writes the professor, 'produces lesions of -the abdominal mucous membrane, which could not have escaped the notice -of the physicians who made the autopsy.' - -We have five accounts of the autopsy, which are unanimous in stating -that the stomach, except for the little hole of which we have spoken, -was in a good condition. - -4. The facts on which Dr. Legue relies for his diagnosis of poison by -sublimate, and which he borrows from the account of the Abbe Bourdelot, -occurred, not after the drinking of the cup of chicory water, but -before. In transcribing the account in question, Monsieur Legue has -inadvertently omitted the passage: 'There is indication of the bile -having been accumulating for a long time,' where it may be clearly seen -from the following lines that the author is speaking of a state long -before the fatal attack. - -Thus Monsieur Legue's argument is in no way sustained. - -The historian may remark, finally, that Madame's daughter, Marie Louise, -the young Queen of Spain, died in 1689, almost at the same age as her -mother, after drinking a glass of iced milk, and on this occasion also -rumours of poison spread abroad. When Charles II, Madame's brother, died -somewhat suddenly, there was more talk of poison; and when the -granddaughter of Madame, the young and charming Duchess of Burgundy, was -stricken with the disease which carried her off, people believed that -she too had been poisoned. In earlier days, when Madame's mother, -Henrietta Maria of France, widow of Charles I, died on September 10, -1669, at her country house of Colombes, her physician Vallot had been -accused of accidentally poisoning her by giving her pills chiefly -composed of opium. - - * * * * * - -Thanks to the assistance of eminent masters like Professor Brouardel and -Dr. Paul Le Gendre, and armed historically with the learned -investigations of M. Arthur de Boislisle, we have been fortunate in -resuscitating the admirable study of Littre in all its striking -accuracy. The great writer concludes with an eloquent page, a hymn of -triumph in honour of modern science, 'which might perhaps have kept -Madame in that great place she filled so well.' We will end with the -same observation that we placed at the end of our study of the Iron -Mask,[14] in which we showed how the solution was indicated at least a -century ago, and remarked that, in these very problems which are -regarded as insoluble, history, handled with rigour and precision, gives -conclusions as certain as those of the exact sciences. - - - - -RACINE AND THE POISONS QUESTION - - -Monsieur Larroumet's book on Racine in the _Grands Ecrivains Francais_ -series is a charming little work. In the first part he studies the -poet's life, and shows very accurately the influence exercised on his -art by the _milieu_ in which he lived. In the second part he studies -Racine's poetics with great ingenuity. The very style of M. Larroumet, -eminently refined and sober--we might call it pearl-grey in tone--with -little flaws here and there which, to our mind, enhance its piquancy, is -perfectly adapted to the author he is analysing. We get a clear picture -of what manner of man Racine was--sensitive and refined, all delicacy -and decorum. M. Larroumet, it is well known, excels in bringing vividly -before us the dwellings and the furniture of our great writers, -according to inventories made after their decease. In the case of -Racine he achieves another success, in the happiest manner. His picture -of the famous poet's family life, after he had renounced the stage, is -delightful:-- - -'In the midst of this family, which reproduced in charming variety the -traits of his own sensitive and restless nature, Racine practised all -the virtues of a good father. He became a child again with his Babet, -Fanchon, Madelon, Nanette, and Lionval; the two eldest alone, boy and -girl, did not bear these diminutives, out of respect for the rights of -seniority. He preferred the happiness springing from their society to -courting the great. - -'One day he had returned from Versailles, where he had gone to pay his -respects, when a squire of the Duke's brought him an invitation to -dinner for the same evening. "I shall not have the honour of dining with -him," he said; "I have not seen my wife and children for more than a -week, and they are looking forward to a treat in eating a very fine carp -with me to-day; I cannot give up my dinner with them." And he had the -carp brought up, adding: "Decide yourself if I can help dining to-day -with these poor children, who have made up their minds to regale me -to-day, and would have no more pleasure if they ate this dish without -me. I beg you to plead this reason forcibly with his Serene Highness."' - -Racine, as we know, after giving up writing for the theatre, subsided -into the most remarkable piety. But here again is a charming trait: 'I -remember,' says Louis Racine, 'processions in which my sisters were the -clergy, I was the rector, and the author of _Athalie_, singing with us, -carried the cross.' And the inseparable figure of the excellent Boileau, -who had then become as deaf as a post, appears close by: 'Monsieur -Despreaux,'[15] writes Racine to his son Jean Baptiste, 'entertained us -in the best of fashions; then he took Lionval and Madelon to the Bois de -Boulogne, joking with them, and telling them that he meant to lose them. -He did not hear a word of what the poor children said to him.' - -But before becoming this model paterfamilias, this pattern of piety and -virtue, Racine had spent an eminently brilliant and passionate youth. -Everybody knows that Du Parc and Champmesle[16] were not content with -merely playing in his pieces. - -The amours of Racine and Mademoiselle Du Parc had a terrible development -in 1679, which was one of the reasons, if not the principal and the -determining reason, of the resolution then taken by the poet to abandon -the career of dramatic author. M. Larroumet recalls this page in his -life in the following terms:-- - -'The mysterious poison affair was being unravelled before the Chambre -Ardente. On November 21, 1679, one of the prisoners, La Voisin, brought -Racine into the case. She declared that "Racine, having secretly -espoused Du Parc, was jealous of everybody, and particularly of her, La -Voisin, with whom he was much offended, and that he had made away with -her by poison on account of his extreme jealousy; and that during Du -Parc's illness, Racine never left her bedside, that he drew a valuable -diamond from her finger, and had also stolen the jewels and principal -effects of Du Parc, which were worth a great deal of money." This is -assuredly nothing but the abominable invention of a ruined woman,' adds -M. Larroumet, 'one of those calumnies which malice, corruption, and -greed give rise to in the entourage of women of gallantry. Racine had -been compelled to forbid his mistress to receive La Voisin. From this -arose her furious wrath, and, eleven years afterwards, she tried to -avenge herself by implicating the poet in a formidable accusation. -Proofs she gave none, and the proceedings of the affair, published in -the _Archives de la Bastille_, contain no trace of any. However, a -letter written on January 11, 1680, by Louvois to Bazin de Bezons, ends -thus: "The orders of the king necessary for the arrest of Racine will be -sent to you whenever you ask for them." It is impossible to doubt that -the Racine in question was the poet. But no arrest was made. Racine had -been able to clear himself in the eyes of Louvois and the king.' - -This episode in the life of the great poet is worthy of arresting our -attention, so much the more because it was perhaps the cause of his -abandonment, to be for ever regretted, of a career on which he had -thrown the brightest lustre. - -It was neither Louvois nor Louis XIV who suppressed the _lettre de -cachet_ with which the deposition of La Voisin had threatened Racine. -Bazin de Bezons, a commissioner of the Chambre Ardente and member of the -Academy, determined to spare his colleague the affront of an arrest in -such circumstances, and thought he might well wait until the -denunciations of La Voisin were confirmed from another source. - -Racine, as a matter of fact, had been the lover of Du Parc, whose maiden -name was Marguerite Therese de Gorla, daughter of a surgeon of Lyons. La -Voisin knew her very intimately, and called her her 'gossip.' - -Here follows, word for word, the part of the celebrated examination of -La Voisin on November 21, 1679, so far as it relates to Racine:-- - -'Who made her acquainted with Du Parc, comedian? - -'She had known her for fourteen years. They were very good friends -together, and she knew all her affairs during that time. She had for -some time had the intention of declaring to us that Du Parc must have -been poisoned, and that Jean Racine was suspected. The rumour was -strong. What more especially gave rise to the presumption was that -Racine had always prevented her, who was the good friend of Du Parc, -from seeing her during the whole course of the illness of which she -died, although Du Parc constantly asked for her; but although she went -to see her, they had never been willing to let her in, and this was by -order of Racine, as she learnt from the stepmother of Du Parc, whose -name was Mademoiselle de Gorla, and from Du Parc's daughters, who are at -the Hotel de Soissons, and informed her that Racine was the cause of -their misfortune. - -'Asked if he had ever proposed to her to do away with Du Parc by poison. - -'The proposal would have been well received. - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -for the same purpose. - -'She knew nothing about that. - -'Asked if she did not know a lame actor. - -'Yes, Bejart, whom she had only seen twice. - -'Asked if Bejart had not some spite against Du Parc. - -'No; and what she knew about Racine she obtained first from Mademoiselle -de Gorla. - -'Asked what De Gorla said to her, and strictly cross-examined. - -'De Gorla told her that Racine, having secretly espoused Du Parc [here -follows a repetition of the statement already made]; that she (Du Parc) -had not even been allowed to speak to Manon, her maid, who is a midwife, -though she asked for Manon and got some one to write asking her to come -to Paris to see her, as well as La Voisin herself. - -'Asked if De Gorla told her the manner in which the poisoning had been -carried out, and who had been made use of in the matter. - -'No.' - -Such were the declarations of La Voisin before the commissioners of the -Chambre Ardente. She repeated them exactly in her final examination -before the judges: 'She had known Mademoiselle Du Parc, the actress; had -been a friend of hers for fourteen years; her stepmother, named De -Gorla, had told her that Racine had poisoned her, and she only knew of -Du Parc's death when she saw the body at the door on the way to burial.' - -Finally, in the anguish of torture, La Voisin maintained her -declarations. - -'Asked if she knew nothing more concerning what she had said at the -trial about the poisoning of Du Parc. - -'She had told the truth in all that she had said on the subject.' - -M. Larroumet gaily and gracefully flings these declarations overboard as -'an abominable invention of a ruined woman.' We know La Voisin from what -has already been said about her above. It is inconceivable that such a -creature should have nursed a grievance against Racine for not having -allowed her to reach his sick mistress, to such an extent as to -fabricate against him, eleven years later, so monstrous an accusation. -This hypothesis is so much the more unlikely in that, if La Voisin had -wanted to ruin Racine by her charges, she would have formulated precise -and direct complaints against him; while she, as a matter of fact, only -repeated gossip she had heard. Then, too, Du Parc's daughters were still -alive, and it would have been easy to confront them with the sorceress. - -The examinations to which La Voisin was subjected were very numerous. -They brought out innumerable details on a multitude of crimes, in which -a very large number of people was implicated. There were many -confrontations. The declarations of the terrible sorceress were -submitted to careful investigation by examining magistrates like Nicolas -de la Reynie. All her declarations were found to be accurate. - -We have seen that, far from inventing imaginary charges for the purpose -of implicating in her own case people of high position, and so saving -herself (as some historians have insinuated), La Voisin endeavoured to -keep silence about the crimes of her clients--a curious piece of -professional discretion. And we venture to say that if she had declared -before the judges that she had given Racine poison to get rid of Du -Parc, we should have unhesitatingly believed her. But she did not say -anything of the kind. She declared simply that, in Du Parc's immediate -circle, it was the conviction that the actress had been poisoned by her -lover, and that, throughout her illness, he had prevented La Voisin from -approaching the bed, as well as Manon, her maid, 'who was a midwife.' - -It is further important to note--and this observation has not been made -by any historian--that the belief in Racine's having poisoned Du Parc -was shared by more than one prisoner before the Chambre Ardente. La -Voisin was not the only one to make the accusation before the judges, as -the following question put by one of the magistrates clearly shows: - -'Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange -(a sorceress and poisoner like herself) for the same purpose (the -poisoning of Du Parc by Racine).' - -A great part of the records of the Chambre Ardente having been -destroyed, as we have shown, we have no trace of the examination to -which the magistrate here alluded. Nevertheless it is testimony which -cannot be gainsaid. - -Such are the only documents in the great poison case in which Racine is -mentioned. Is it possible to derive any positive conclusions from them? - -The circumstances surrounding the death certainly appeared suspicious to -the family of the actress, and Racine was pointed at. The poet had -stationed himself at the bedside as a custodian rather than a nurse. He -prevented La Voisin, the sorceress, midwife, and procurer of abortion, -from approaching, and likewise Manon, also a midwife, and this in -defiance of the desire formally expressed by Du Parc. Why did the poet, -contrary to the wishes of the sick woman, prevent these women from -attending her? Du Parc was his mistress. Dr. Legue quotes the testimony -of Boileau, who was closely connected with Du Parc, stating that she -died as a result of childbirth. The chronicler Robinet describes Racine -as following 'more dead than alive' in the funeral procession. The -opinion expressed by Dr. Legue that Du Parc died through an illegal -operation is not unlikely. In such matters it is never possible to speak -with assurance, and when so great a personality as Racine is concerned, -one is bound to maintain the greatest reserve. This operation, if it -took place, brought on peritonitis, which, as in the case of Henrietta -of England, gave rise to suspicions of poison. We have seen that -abortions were at that time of frequent occurrence in Paris. - -Remorse for this crime would explain the amazing resolution to renounce -the theatre taken by Racine at the age of thirty-eight, in the fulness -of strength, at the height of his talent, in the heyday of success. It -would explain also the austerity and excess of his devoutness after this -singular conversion, and the horror he conceived for an art to which he -owed his glory and his fortune. - -Another question suggests itself, which we should like equally to be -able to solve with more certainty. Racine had the most intimate -relations with Du Parc, as the latter had with La Voisin. In 1679, the -year in which the great poisoning matter came to light, _Phedre_ -appeared. Is it rash to suppose that, through his conversations with Du -Parc, La Voisin's confidante, the poet with his keen observation had -seen the features of the passion-tost marchionesses, criminals for love, -who had been the clients of the sorceresses, and that from these -fleeting suggestions he had succeeded in reconstructing their whole -characters? - -'Imagine,' writes Monsieur Brunetiere, 'Racine's agitation when this -case became public. At Paris, in the heart of Paris--the Paris of Louis -XIV--in the Rue Verdelet or the Rue Michel-Lecomte, Orestes was -assassinating Pyrrhus, Roxane was selling herself to some witch to -secure the love of Bajazet or the death of Attalide; the famous Locusta -was not an invention of Tacitus, and every day some Phedre was poisoning -some Hippolyte. And all these horrors were what he, Racine, had been for -ten years toiling to envelop and to disguise, as it were, with the charm -of his verse--murder and lust! adultery and incest! the delirium of the -senses! the madness of homicide! This was what for ten years he had been -endeavouring to win plaudits for, and when a Hermione or a Nero issued -from the Hotel de Bourgogne[17] intent on committing the crime they had -seen glorified under their eyes--what, was it this that he called his -glory! O shame and agony and remorse! And from the moment that such a -question started up before the conscience of such a man, how think you -he could have answered but by quitting the stage? The truth even of his -own art rose up against him. What brought his pictures into condemnation -was just their accent of truth!' - - - - -THE 'DEVINERESSE' - - -_La Devineresse_, a fairy comedy by Donneau de Vise and Thomas -Corneille--the latter is usually called by his contemporaries Corneille -de Lisle--was represented at Paris in 1679, the year of the great poison -case. - -In his reports to the king and the Secretaries of State Nicolas de la -Reynie insisted on the necessity, not only of punishing the guilty, but -of preventing the spread and, if possible, the recurrence of crimes like -those which had been brought to light. We have shown how he had drawn -up, in collaboration with Colbert, the decree registered in the -Parlement on August 31, 1682, by which the magicians were expelled from -France, and by which, more especially, the making and the sale of -poisons necessary in medicine and in trade were placed under rigorous -regulations. This was a masterly work: as we have mentioned, these -regulations are in force to this day, after the lapse of two centuries. - -La Reynie thought that it was advisable, apart from these preventive -measures, to put the public on their guard against the dangerous -infatuation which had thrown so many pretty and passionate women body -and soul into the hands of the fortune-tellers. Let us recall the -declarations of one of the latter: 'Persons who look into the hand are -the ruin of all women, women of quality as well as others, because their -weakness is soon found out, and when discovered is taken advantage of, -and they are driven to whatever length the witches please.' As -lieutenant of police La Reynie had a general control of the theatres; he -revised and censored the manuscripts of the playwrights; he was in -constant touch with them. He was the friend of more than one writer of -talent, for the magistrate was doubled in him with the refined and -delightful man of letters, who had both delicate taste and an excellent -library. In this year 1679 he had particularly close relations with -Donneau de Vise, founder and editor of the _Mercure galant_, and -assuredly one of the most curious figures in our literary history. -Boursault had just written his witty comedy, also entitled the _Mercure -galant_, in which he directed lively and incisive satire upon the -journalism then at its dawn, which had already taken, under the -influence of Donneau de Vise, many of the characteristics of modern -journalism. - -The _Mercure_, said Boursault, is a delightful thing:-- - - 'On y trouve de tout, fable, histoire, vers, prose, - Sieges, combats, proces, mort, mariage, amour, - Nouvelles de Province et nouvelles de Cour.' - -Vise begged La Reynie not to authorise the representation of the piece -under the same title as the journal; La Reynie acquiesced, and -Boursault, putting a good face on the matter, called his piece _La -Comedie sans titre_. Moreover, Vise was in high favour at Court. When -Louis XIV saw the success of the _Mercure_, he hastened to award the -editor-in-chief a pension of 500 crowns, gave him apartments in the -Louvre, and appointed him his historiographer. Vise's pen became an -accommodating tool. - -Donneau de Vise was not only a journalist; he was a dramatic author, and -as a dramatic author he was, as he was in journalism, very modern. He -had found means of achieving a noisy notoriety by beginning with an -extremely violent attack on Corneille and Moliere. Against the latter he -composed his comedy _Zelinde, ou la veritable critique de l'Echole des -Femmes et la critique de la critique_, in which he has left a portrait -of the poet that has become famous, and which is, in our eyes, not a -criticism but a splendid eulogy. 'I came down,' says a lace merchant; -'Elomire [an anagram on Moliere] did not say a single word. I found him -leaning up against my shop in the attitude of a man in a dream. He had -his eyes fixed on three or four persons of quality who were bargaining -for lace; he appeared attentive to their words, and seemed by the -movement of his eyes to be scanning the depths of their souls to see -there what they did not say.' - -La Reynie thought of utilising the talent and the notoriety of the -dramatic author, and, not satisfied with granting him what he asked in -regard to the title of Boursault's comedy, he gave him in addition the -subject for a piece which was destined to obtain the greatest success. -To prove to demonstration in Paris, by means of a play to which the -public, excited by the great poison case, would flock in crowds, that -the pretended skill of magicians and sorceresses was only deception and -trickery, seemed assuredly the best way to dissuade the ingenuous mob -from dealing with them. From this idea issued _La Devineresse ou les -Faux enchantements_, a comedy represented for the first time in Paris by -the king's company on November 19, 1679, and published in the following -February. We have mentioned that Donneau de Vise was one of the pioneers -of the modern literary life, and _La Devineresse_ will be a fresh proof -of the assertion. Let us note first that Vise was the father of a -literary custom which is in these days highly popular, collaboration. -One of the masters of dramatic criticism, Edouard Thierry, writes on -this subject: 'Collaboration, an unfamiliar term which existed at most -as a term in jurisprudence, was nevertheless not absolutely unknown at -the theatre. There had been the _Psyche_ at the Palais-Royal, completed -by Pierre Corneille on the plan and under the direction of Moliere; but -this was considered only as work done to order; it belonged in the end -to the person who hired the worker. There had been the _Plaideurs_ of -Racine, and some other successful parodies, composed by several hands, -it was said; but this was only an amusement, a literary picnic of gay -wits who stimulated each other to satire; nobody up to that time had -thought of raising the game to the level of an industry.' From the very -first, collaboration as a business gave results which exceeded the most -sanguine hopes. Vise, who had made his peace with the elder Corneille, -entered into partnership with his younger brother. This Thomas -Corneille, who was a remarkable vaudeville-writer and also a remarkable -scholar, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, has -been unjustly thrown into the shade by the glory of his elder brother. - -_La Devineresse_ was not merely a modern piece in respect of this new -trick of collaboration; it was the origin and doubtless the model of -those spectacular pieces, with shifting scenery and mechanical effects, -which give the Chatelet its success to-day. And we shall find, not only -that the idea sprang from this, but that the comedy contains scenes and -stage business which have come down to us in direct succession through a -line of such pieces--such as the talking headless man, the dismembered -man whose limbs rearrange themselves spontaneously, dropsy passing from -one subject to another, the fairy, wizard or devil who comes into a room -through the wall. - -Finally, the _Devineresse_ must occupy a select place in the annals of -the modern stage from the manner in which the authors managed to float -it. One of them, Donneau de Vise, was a journalist, and consequently a -master of the advertising art. He had the idea, among others, of getting -up for 1680 an almanac of the _Devineresse_, in which there was a large -engraved plate representing the principal scenes in the piece, the -features of the spectacle, grouped around a monstrous satanic figure; -these of course were the principal tricks in false magic performed by -the sorceress and her mate. These pictures are still in existence,[18] -and present to our eyes a curious representation, not only of the -theatrical scenes of the eighteenth century, but also of the interior of -the houses in which the sorceresses received their clients. These -circumstances, together with the striking actuality and the wit of the -authors, secured to the _Devineresse_ an unprecedented success, both -financially and in arousing the curiosity of the public. All Paris ran -to see it. Its representations extended over five months, and, what in -those days appeared remarkable, it ran for forty-seven nights in -succession; the first eighteen performances brought in double the usual -receipts. Seconded by the skill and talent of the authors, the -lieutenant of police had attained his end. - -The fortune-teller who is the chief character in the piece was none -other than La Voisin, whose name Corneille and Vise slightly disguised -in calling their sorceress Madame Jobin. In the comedy are to be found -echoes of the replies made by the sorceress before the commissioners of -the Chambre Ardente, a fact which indicates the share of La Reynie. The -principal ally of La Voisin was called Du Buisson, that of Madame Jobin -is called Du Clos. Their practices are the same, but turned to ridicule -by the authors, who make their Madame Jobin a mere schemer with no other -idea than to snap up the crown-pieces of the public. In the essentials -of the character we are thus very far from the terrible sorceress of -Villeneuve-sur-Gravois. - -In the course of the second scene of the second act, Madame Jobin -explains to her brother what her art consists in. - -'This is what the majority of men are. They swallow all the stupidities -retailed to them, and when once they have let themselves go, nothing is -capable of undeceiving them. See, my brother, Paris is the place in the -world where there are most clever people and also most dupes. The -sorceries I am accused of, and other things which would appear still -more supernatural, want a lively imagination to invent them and skill to -make use of them. It is through these that people have belief in us, -and magic and devils have nothing to do with it. The fright people get -into who are shown this sort of thing blinds them enough to prevent them -from seeing they are deceived. As to my meddling with fortune-telling, -as you will be told, that is an art in which the thousand folk who put -themselves every day in our hands make our information easy to get at. -Besides, chance accounts for the greater part of our success in this -line. All you want is presence of mind, and boldness and intrigue, to -know the world, to have people in your houses, to note carefully things -that happen, to get information on their little love affairs, and -especially to say a good many things when any one comes to consult you. -There is always one of them true, and two or three, said quite -haphazard, are enough to give you a vogue. After that it will be of no -good to say that you know nothing; no one will believe you, and, good or -evil, they make you talk.' - -The comedy itself is far from being without merit. You will not see in -it, to be sure, the breadth and the sureness of touch of that Moliere -whom Vise had so much ridiculed, and the pleasure one may find in -reading it is spoilt by the feeling that Moliere would have made so much -more of such a subject, in which so many laughable and so many moving -things are concentrated. Nevertheless, the majority of modern -extravaganzas would have to yield in many respects to the _Devineresse_, -as regards both construction and literary merit. In the course of the -preface to the published edition of their piece, the authors are careful -to speak of the famous rules ascribed to Aristotle without which no -dramatic piece could be constructed in the time of Racine and Boileau. -And in fact Vise and Corneille did observe them--these three famous -unities of time, place, and action. In an extravaganza, mark! That, -assuredly, is what an author of our day would consider the most -extravagant feature of their work. - -The preface states the subject of the comedy: 'A woman mad after the -sorceresses, a lover interested in opening her eyes about them, and a -rival who wishes to prevent their marriage, form a subject which opens -the plot in the first act, a plot only unravelled in the last act by -the unmasking of the false devil. The other actors, or at least a part -of them, are envoys of one or other of the two interested persons, who, -by the reports they give, augment the credulity of the countess or make -the marquis believe still more firmly that the sorceress is a knave. -Thus these characters cannot be regarded as unnecessary. It is true that -there are some who, knowing neither the countess nor the marquis, only -consult Madame Jobin on their own behalf; but, being as famous as she is -here depicted, was it likely that during twenty-four hours there only -came to her persons who knew one another or furthered the principal -action?' - -From the outset the comedy is well constructed, and the character of the -persons comes out clearly. The seasoning of the dialogue is a little -strong, indeed; but the wit springs always from an acute and delicate -power of observation. We may mention the scene in which the sorceress, -who easily dupes persons of cultivated mind and even those who never -relax their vigilance, is utterly nonplussed by the primitive -simple-mindedness of a village girl. The denouement is brought about by -the presence of mind of the marquis, who seeks to undeceive the countess -whom he loves. The sorceress has foretold frightful misfortunes to the -countess if she should marry the marquis, being paid for so doing by a -Madame Noblet who has fallen deeply in love with the latter. The -marquis, armed with a pistol, springs at the throat of a devil whom the -sorceress has summoned through the wall. The devil falls on his knees: -'Mercy, sir; I am a good devil!' - -It remains to inquire whether the lieutenant of police had as much -success as the authors of the piece; that is, whether the practices he -wished to extirpate in France disappeared under his efforts. La Reynie -did succeed, as much as he could hope, in the struggle he had undertaken -against the poisoners. Magic, however, was a hardy plant. 'You would -never believe how desperately silly they are at Paris,' wrote Madame -Palatine on October 8, 1701. 'Everybody is anxious to become an adept in -the art of invoking spirits and other devilries.' Black masses were -again said in the outskirts of Paris, in circumstances so horrible that -'a beggar girl aged thirteen years, who had been taken there, died of -fright': she was buried in her clothes by sub-deacon Sebault, and -Guignard, cure of Notre Dame de Bourges, who had said the monstrous -office. And according to M. Huysmans, black masses are said to this very -day. - -When, two thousand years before our era, the Chaldean mages and the high -priests of Egypt on clear nights pierced the starry sky with their -patient gaze, did they read there that after thirty centuries a grave -magistrate and chief of police would fight their descendants by means of -a fairy extravaganza, with trap-doors and puns and transformation -scenes? - - - - -INDEX - - -Alacocque, Marguerite, 121. - -Bachimont, Robert de, alchemist, 137. - - -Barbier, archer of the guard, 55, 56, 58. - -Bazin de Bezons, 163. - -Belot, Francois, poisoner, 331. - -Black Mass, 131, 132, 155 ff. - -Bocager, law professor, 31, 32. - -Bodin's _Demonomanie des Sorciers_, 122-126. - -Boileau, 348. - -Boscher, Alexander, physician, 319. - -Bosse, Marie, sorceress, 119, 129, 172, 173, 179. - -Bossuet, 126, 219, 220, 313, 329, 333. - -Boucherat, Louis, 163. - -Bouillon, Duchess de, 275-279. - -Bourdelot, Abbe, physician, 318, 323, 334. - -Boursault, journalist, 363. - -Briancourt, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 19, 24-32, 35, 47, 68, 69. - -Brinvilliers, Antoine Gobelin de, 4, 33, 34, 51. - -Brinvilliers, Madame de, her career, 1-116. - -Brissart, Marie, 152-154. - -Brunet, Madame, 177-179. - -Bussy-Rabutin, 173-176, 239. - - -Cadelan, Pierre, banker, 140, 141. - -Castelmelhor, Count of, 137, 138. - -Chamberlain, Hugh, physician, 319. - -Chambre Ardente, the, 163-180, 275, 279, 291, 296, 302, 304. - -Chasteuil, F. Galaup de, alchemist, 133-142. - -Chevigny, Father de, 80, 93. - -Cluet, Sergeant, 38, 40. - -Colbert, 50, 257, 290. - -Coligny, Madame de, 173, 174. - -Corneille, Thomas, 361. - -Creuillebois, Sergeant, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Croissy, Marquis de, ambassador in England, 50. - - -D'Aubray, Antoine, brother of Madame de Brinvilliers, 18, 19, 20. - -D'Aubray, Antoine, father of Madame de Brinvilliers, 3, 13. - -Delamarre, attorney for Madame de Brinvilliers, 40, 41. - -Descarrieres, political agent, 53. - -Desgrez, captain of police, 9, 52, 53, 107, 111, 119. - -Desoeillets, Mademoiselle, 221, 222, 252-254, 286. - -Donneau de Vise, dramatist, 361-365. - -Dreux, Madame de, 166-168. - -Du Parc, Mademoiselle, 349-359. - - -Exili, Italian poisoner, 9-11. - - -Filastre, Francoise, sorceress, 184, 249. - -Fontanges, Duchess de, mistress of Louis XIV, 237, 240, 250. - -France, Anatole, on 'Madame,' 334, 336. - - -Galet, Louis, poisoner, 234. - -Glaser, Christophe, chemist, 10, 12. - -Godin, _alias_ Sainte-Croix, _q.v._ - -Guibourg, Abbe, 155, 215-218, 227-231. - -Guillaume, executioner, 114. - - -Harvillier, Jeanne, witch, 123, 124. - -Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans, 313-345. - -Hocque, Pierre, sorcerer, 126-128. - -Huysmans, J. K., on philosopher's stone, 138. - - -Joly, sorceress, 167, 168. - - -La Chaboissiere, valet, 142, 143, 198, 304. - -La Chaussee, valet, 17, 18, 19, 21, 45, 47-49. - -La Fayette, Madame de, 314, 315, 320, 324-327. - -Lamoignon, President of High Court, 65, 68, 69, 76. - -La Reynie, Nicolas de, lieutenant of police, 12, 49, 52, 53, 121, 132, -144, 156, 176, 181, 182, 194, 202, 203-205, 231, 234, 245-247, 265-312, -361-374. - -La Riviere, 173, 176. - -Leferon, Marguerite, poisoner, 168-170. - -Leroy, poisoner, 215, 216. - -Lesage, magician, 130, 148, 149, 153, 159, 160-162, 184, 199-201, 203, -206, 221. - -Littre on death of 'Madame,' 335, 336. - -Louis XIV, 179, 181, 183-186, 208, 210, 212-214, 217, 219, 220, 255, -258, 264, 272, 283, 284, 296, 363. - -Louvois, 52, 180, 205, 210, 255, 284, 285, 287, 292, 307. - -Ludres, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 226, 235. - - -Maintenon, Madame de, 220, 226, 257. - -Mariette, Abbe, 199, 200. - -_Mercure Galant_, 362, 363. - -Michelet, 1-3, 79. - -Moliere's _Amphitryon_, 209. - -Montespan, Madame de, 187-265. - -Montespan, Marquis de, 207-214. - -Monvoisin, Catherine, poisoner and sorceress, 120, 130, 144-159, 169, -170, 182, 201-203, 242-244, 349-358. - -Monvoisin, Marguerite, 193-195, 221, 227-231, 241. - - -Nadaillac, Marquis de, 15. - -Nivelle, advocate for Madame de Brinvilliers, 70-74. - - -Palatine, Madame, 192, 373. - -Palluau, Parlement counsellor, 57, 66. - -Pennautier, receiver for clergy, 37, 43, 44, 60-64, 115. - -Picard, commissary, 36, 38, 39, 41. - -Pirot, Abbe, 5, 6, 75-115. - -Poulaillon, Madame de, 170-176. - - -Rabel, alchemist, 140-142. - -Racine, 346-360. - -Rebille, Philibert, royal flutist, 177-180. - -Regnier, police officer, 46, 47. - -Romani, poisoner, 246, 248. - - -Sainte-Croix, lover of Madame de Brinvilliers, 6-12, 15, 17, 22, 25, 29, -30, 33, 35-38. - -Saint-Simon on Pennautier, 44, 61; - on Madame de Montespan, 189, 192, 259, 261-263; - on La Reynie, 266. - -Sevigne, Madame de, on Madame de Brinvilliers, 14, 34, 64, 111, 115; - on Madame de Dreux, 167; - on La Reynie, 180; - on Madame de Montespan, 188-190, 214, 223, 224, 225, 235, 236, 239; - on Madame de Maintenon, 226; - on poison cases, 273, 274; - on Duchess de Bouillon, 276-278. - -Soubise, Madame de, mistress of Louis XIV, 224. - - -Trianon, sorceress, 243, 245. - - -Valliere, Louise de la, 188. - -Vanens, Louis de, alchemist, 118, 135-137, 142, 143. - -Vigoureux, Madame, 118. - -Vivonne, Duchess de, 272. - -Vosser, Marie (Madame de St. Laurent), 60, 63. - - -Wier's book on demonology 124, 125. - -Printed by T. and A. 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The house is now occupied by the -nursing sisterhood of the Bon-Secours. - -[3] [The then law courts of Paris.] - -[4] [The supreme judicial tribunal of France.] - -[5] [The criminal court.] - -[6] [The assassin of Henry of Navarre.] - -[7] - - ['into a sea profound - Where flowed earth's metals in a molten mass, - Would tinge and dye the whole in sunbright gold.'] - - -[8] [In the original, a play on the double meaning of _argent_--'silver' -and 'money.'] - -[9] [Second wife of 'Monsieur,' the king's brother.] - -[10] ['To share with Jupiter is no whit dishonouring.'] - -[11] [Madame de Montespan.] - -[12] Written in collaboration with Professor Paul Brouardel, Dean of the -Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and Doctor Paul le Gendre, physician to -the Tenon infirmary. - -[13] The report of Chamberlain, the English physician, says distinctly -that it was oil. 'The lower bowel was full of a bilious humour, with oil -floating upon it' (Mrs. Everett-Green's _Lives of the Princesses of -England_, vi. 589). This observation is important because Littre's -opinion has been disputed by Dr. Legue. 'Littre maintains that the -physicians noticed the presence of oil; but that is because he strains -an equivocal phrase in the report of the autopsy--"full to its utmost -capacity of a sanious, putrid, yellowish, watery substance, _fat like -oil_." Frankly, is this not giving to the text a signification which -never entered into the mind of the physicians?' (_Medecins et -Empoisonneurs_, pp. 255, 256.) Neither Dr. Legue nor Littre, however, -knew the English reports published by Mrs. Everett-Green. - -[14] _Legends of the Bastille_, p. 146. - -[15] [Boileau.] - -[16] [Two of the most famous actresses of the time.] - -[17] [The theatre so called.] - -[18] In a copy of the _Devineresse_ in the Arsenal Library. There are -others, a little different, in the large folio collection of almanacs in -the print department of the National Library. - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -exceded that of Exili=> exceeded that of Exili {pg 10} - -wedges in successsion=>wedges in succession {pg 49} - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Princes and Poisoners, by Frantz Funck-Brentano - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCES AND POISONERS *** - -***** This file should be named 43238.txt or 43238.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/3/43238/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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