 Section 3 of Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jane Bennett, Melbourne, Australia Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV by Franz Funk Brentana, translated by George Maidment Section 3 Marie Madeleine de Bramvelier Part 3 Her Death Edmé Pirot was a professor of theology at the Sorbonne. Born at Oxair on August 12, 1631, he was of the same age as the Marchioness of Bramvelier. His discussions with Leibniz 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 Lamouignol, in appointing the Abbe Pirot to attend Madame de Bramvelier, 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. It is for the public interest, said Lamouignol, to the Abbe Pirot, that her crown 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 Bramvelier, minute by minute. His story, it feels, too long to describe. 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 we're as some 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. Fédre and the Abbe Pirot 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 of them. 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 Montgomery Tower. There he entered a room in which there were four persons, two warders, a wardress, and further two servants. There he entered a room in which there were four persons, two warders, a wardress, and furthest 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 abbey. 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 the meet 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 it 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 Chévenier, 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 anyone 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 one 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 great deal about me and that I have been for some time a byword among the people. And her eyes flashed. Piero 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 me, madam, that there are no sins irremissible in this life," answered the priest. And he enlarged on this theme with force and warmth and in 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 abbess 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, Piero 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 Piero, as I was taking a sip of wine in the jailer's room before returning to the tower, I learned from Monsieur Dessensi, librarian to the palais, that Madame de Blainvilliers 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 Liège 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. Tomorrow, 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 tranquility 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 today 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 doodles, you will soon be quit of me. I have long been a trouble to you, but it will soon be over. Tomorrow you will be able to go to Drani. You will have time enough for that. 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 to give not the slightest shadow of complaint. Sir, she said to me at the end of the meal, it is fast dead tomorrow, 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 vestidiousness, but from pure necessity, and the law of the church is not rigorous in such a case. Monsignor, 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. Today 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 tomorrow. 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 the two servings were to be kept for her before midnight. I saw in her at this moment much affection for Monsieur de Bramvillier, 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 Piero, 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 Bramvillier. 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 de Bray. Pyrrha objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was not correct. How so, Monsignor, she said, are not those who have driven me to death my enemies? And is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them their ranker? Pyrrha'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 Pyrrha. 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 I 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, at Pyrrha, 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, but 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 Pyrrha who would rather the confession had been made at once. She spoke of the children, displaying a tender affection for them. More senior, 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. Pyrrha 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 Pyrrha had probed his fair prisoner's character to the bottom. Ah! she said interrupting him. Those are grand virtues. Do you know that, humble 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, Saint Croix, whose acquaintance has been so fatal to me. Nor I hate his friendship which is so dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes. Pyrrha usupped that evening with the prisoner. Then when night had fallen he withdrew, promising to return in the morning. He was in great attrition 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 around Domine, Dabia mea api reis, 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 entrusted to me. Stretching out his clasped hands towards heaven he cried, Oh 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 Piro returned to the prisoner. I was taken up the tower where I found Father de Chevinier in tears as he closed a prayer with the lady who greeted me with the same carriage that I had seen in her on the previous evening. Madame de Blanc-Villiers 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. Monsignor, as she said, 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? Piro reassured her. Soon afterwards a message came that Madame de Blanc-Villiers was to descend to hear her sentence read. She was prepared for death and torture but she had not thought of the public penance nor 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. Upon leaving the prisoner, Piro took 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 he came 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 had got it read a second time. The sentence was dated July 16, 1676. The court has declared and declares the said Dobre de Blanc-Villiers accused and convicted of having poisoned Maître Dre Dobre, her father and the said Dobre, civil lieutenant and councillor in the said court, her brothers and for reparation has condemned and condemns the said Dobre de Blanc-Villiers to do public penance before the principal door of the church of Paris where she will be taken in a cart, barefooted, 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 King and Justice. This done to be led and conducted in the said cart to the plaster grave 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 couldn't 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 everything 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 24 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 avail of the crimes of her life. As to the composition of the poison 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 Sanqua was milk. As to her accomplices apart from Sanqua 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 Bramvilliers 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 Piero was suffering as much from the torturer 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 someone handed to him a little medal with a message from the wife of President Lamouignol 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 Bramvelier. At last Piero was told that he would find the Marchionettes lying on a mattress near the fire. It was a thrilling moment. By his gentle and sympathetic words and his exhortation to repentance Piero 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 had to suffer all the pride of her proud nature started up. The worst instincts were awakened. In revenge she accused Breancourt of false witness she charged de Grey who had arrested her at Liège with perloining documents. Piero found her full of hatred and stubbornness her eyes blazing she was highly excited her face read 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 abbey Piero watched with the care of an anxious mother the reputation of the lady about to die I expressly notice this circumstance he says to under see if those who believe that she was too fond of wine and 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 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 then to tell the truth I thought a little of myself the wine was only used by the executioner who drank her mouth full immediately after the execution before setting out for her punishment the Marchioness was to be allowed to pray for a few months 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 jailor 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 tomorrow with all my heart meanwhile says Pirol 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 Pirol 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 Pirol 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 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 Monseigneur 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 calamity she had been unable to avoid conceiving under torture against briancor and agré Pirol 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 abbey Pirol 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 drew a the clerk of the court Pirol repeated to the machinese what had just been said to him adding that she could only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew Monseigneur 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 Monseigneur de Paloal 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 Pirol with the authority of the prisoner cleared Briencourt and de Grève from the accusations brought against them in the torture chamber Madame de Brunville 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 Countess de Soissons, mademoiselle de l'Ondeauvie, Madame de Roque-laire, the Abbey de Chaluce all jostling one another to see her her pride was offended and after freely staring at them she said to her confessor what a strange curiosity she went on barefooted clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned criminals sitting in one hand the penitence 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 leaned 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 plaster grave which extended from the Hotel de Ville to the Sain 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 ladies' features underwent a sudden change of expression they were dreadfully convulsed the keenest agony being expressed in the eyes and the whole countenance wild Monseigneur she said to her confessor would it be possible after all that is passing now for Monsieur de Bramvilliers to have so little feeling as to remain in this world Piero answered as best he could endeavouring to ease her mind but what he said fell on deaf ears for the Marchioners then suffered one of the strongest convulsions of her nature and 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 at Piero that there was a moment in all the time that I had been with her when her appearance be tokened more indignation and I am not surprised that Monsieur de Bramvilliers 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 ahead as he is said to have done in the portrait he took of her Le Brun's sketch is now number 853 at the exhibition of the Louvre it is in red and black chalks it is an admirable drawing unquestionably the artist's masterpiece Piero 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 Monsieur 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 de Grey riding near her the man who had arrested her at Liège and subjected her to some rough treatment she asked the executioner to move so as to hide the 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 Piero 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 Piero but I noticed nothing of the sort then they remounted the cart to win towards the place to grab not a word of reproach or complaint against anyone 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 grave 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's 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 notice of the humane manner observes Piero 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 parliament appeared the commissaries were sitting in the hotel de Ville ready to receive any declaration madame de Brunville 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 Briencourt and Degret from the accusations fabricated against them at her torture the executioner placed the ladder against the scaffold she looked at me says Piero 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 powers of speech she added I beseech you 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 day profundus on the scaffold at the moment of my death and a mass tomorrow remember me Monseigneur and pray for me Piero 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 de Grae 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 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 Sévigny who had come to witness the execution from the window of one of the houses on the bridge writes the Margie and S. knelt down on the scaffold her face turned towards the river it was at that moment says Piero 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 facility all the executioner's preparations he undid her hair while she was on her knees he cuffed 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 conciergery so as to uncover her shoulders she let him bind her hands as though he were putting on golden bracelets and not the rope about her neck as if it had been a necklace of pearls 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 abeepiro chanted the salve and the people crowding around 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 Monsignor 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 mata grazie 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 Piro than her eyes appeared to me and if I had to paint accountants 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 Piro heard a dull blow and ceased to speak Madame de Brunville held her head very straight the executioner severed it at a single stroke which cuts 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 draft of wine the body was born 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 Sevinier writes that Piro repeated the saying to everyone he met the children of the Marquis de Brunville took the name of Ophémon Penotier was acquitted and left the prison on July 27th 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 Brunville 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 d'Ont to which that of Madame de Brunville serves as introduction end of section 3 Marie Madeleine de Brunville part 3 her death section 4 of princes and poisoners studies of the court of Louis XIV this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jane Bennett Melbourne Australia princes and poisoners studies of the court of Louis XIV by Franz Funk Brintano translated by George Maidment section 4 the poison drama at the court of Louis part 1 the sorceresses the dinner of la vigour the trial of Madame de Brunville 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 Saint-Clu suddenly carried off the charming Henrietta Duchess of Orléans by the sudden death of Hugh de Leon 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 the 5th following La Réignée, lieutenant of police caused the arrest of Louis de Vannon 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 Cadillac were associated with light women, lackeys and vagabonds the parlement was investigating the matter when La Réignée 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 Parin was dining in Rue Côte-au-Villain with a certain Madame Viguerre, wife of a lady's tailor the trade it will be seen existed before today 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 Botz and she was the widow of a horse dealer she was further a well-known fortune teller de Vienneth 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 de Grand-Hulure 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 Parin alone saw by a sharp and rapid frown on the face of Madame Viguerre that there was something serious in it he knew de Grae the police officer who had arrested Madame de Brunville and to him he related the incident de Grae 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 file of poison which the wife had once carried home to her dumbfounded husband La Renée fourth with ordered the arrest of Madame Viguerre of Marie Boss with her daughter Manon and her two sons one of whom was a soldier in the guards and the other a boy of 15 was just leaving the workhouse of Bissetre where he had been placed to improve his morals and give him a taste for work Marie Boss 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 Brunville an order in council dated January 10 instructed La Renée to proceed against the women boss Viguerre and their accomplices on March 12 an officer set about the arrest of Catherine de Che wife of Antoine Montvoise a peddling jeweler this woman, usually known as La Voise was the greatest criminal of whom history has any record she was arrested as she left the church of Notre Dame de Brunville after hearing mass in her track La Renée 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 impiety, sacrilegious, abominations are common practices in Paris in the country, in the provinces end of the sorceresses Section 5 of Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jane Bennett Melbourne, Australia Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV by Franz Funk Brentano translated by George Maidment Section 5 the Poison Drama at the Court of Louis Part 1 the Sorceresses Sorcery in the 17th 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 17th century sentiments of an intensity and a simplicity we know little of today and the corruption of which could not but engender the most absurd superstitions that was the epoch when the sweet Marguerite Alacoc 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 the heiress of my heart and all its treasures for time and eternity I promise thee that thou shalt only lack succor when I like power thou shalt be forever the well-beloved disciple the plaything of my good pleasure and the burned offering of my love and that too was the period when Catherine Montfoyer's now 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 17th century were summed up in 1588 in the Des Monomani des Sorciers of the famous Jean Baudin 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 Springer, the German inquisitor, remarked we should talk of the heresy of the witches and not of sorcerers for these are of little account in Baudin are to be found most of the practices in black magic still flourishing at the end of the 17th century sorcerers and witches formed a sort of vast fraternity they were entire families whose formulae and whose customers were handed down as heritable property Jean Havillier, burnt to death on April 30, 1579 may serve as type her mother, a witch like herself had been burnt to death 30 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 Jean was born about 1528 at Verberie des Compiègnes at the age of 12 she was presented by her mother to the devil who appeared to her in the shape of a very tall dark man Jean renounced God and consecrated herself to the spirit at the same time she had carnal intercourse with him which continued from the age of 12 to the age of 50 when she was arrested it sometimes happened that her husband lying by her side failed to perceive what was going on this was the incubate Jean Havillier 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 Weir physician to the Duke of Cleve 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 melodies attributed to the incantations of sorcerers consumption, hysteria, melancholy, delusions, debility John Weir 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 Weir, he says, wrote under the dictation of Satan moreover had he not himself confessed that he was a disciple of a gripper the greatest sorcerer that ever was when a gripper died in the hospital of Grenoble a black dog which he called Monsieur instantly went and sprang into the river Weir 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 Weir 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 for all his powerful intellect, firmly believed in sorcery at the close of the 17th century Bonnet 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 18th 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 tournel on September 2 1687 a certain Pierre Hock was condemned to the galleys he was a shepherd, skilled in magic who had as the judgement declared caused the death by a spell he cast over them of 395 sheep, 7 horses and 11 cows belonging to Eustache Vizier receiver of taxes at Posse-en-Buit Hock was chained up with the other galley prisoners nevertheless the cattle of Eustache Vizier 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 Hock to remove the devil's spell he had imposed Vizier won over, by a promise of money the galley prisoner who was fastened to the chain next to Hock a man named Beatrix he spoke to the shepherd who replied that he had in fact cast a poison spell over the cattle of Vizier and that failing himself only two shepherds named Brataphère and Côte-Epée had the power to remove the fatal charm at the urgent request of Beatrix Hock dictated a letter to be sent to Brataphère but the letter was no sooner dispatched 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 Brataphère 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 mooted Beatrix but for the intervention of the guards the despair and the convulsions lasted for several days and then Hock died and it was the exact time says the official document when Brataphère began to exorcise the cattle the judges add it is established that Pierre Hock died because Brataphère removed the poison spell from the horses and cows and it is true that since that time no more of Eustache Vizier'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? End of Section 5 Sorcery in the 17th century Section 6 of Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jane Bennett Melbourne, Australia Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV by Franz Funk Brentano translated by George Maidment Section 6 The Poison Drama at the Court of Louis Part 1 The Sorceresses The Practices of the Witches To magic, black or white The Witches added medicine and pharmacy They kept drug stores with files innumerable Syrups, tulips, ointments, balms and mollions 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 Parachelsus, 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 hacks 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 drugst and the alchemist and the koiner 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 Hrenie? Marie Boss 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 Lavoisin 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 the poisonings were an everyday occurrence that many of them were paid as much as 2,000 leave 2,000 pounds of arm money similar decorations were made by Le Roux, another witch and by the magician Le Sarge 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 the 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 Reine 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 hidden a woman writes Raveson usually a prostitute on the eve of Akushmon 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 baptised 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 boss added there are so many of this sort of people in Paris that the city is choked full of them these were the practises with others more abominable still which caused la rene 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 End of Section 6 The Practises of the Witches Section 7 of Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jean Bennett Melbourne, Australia Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV by Franz Funk Brentano Translated by George Maidment Section 7 The Poison Drama of the Court of Louis Part 1 The Sorceresses The Alchemists Alongside of the group of witches and magicians is another group that of the Alchemists and Philosophers Represented by such people as Fanon, Chastoy, Cadillac, Rabel and Bashimo We have mentioned the arrest of Louis de Fanon on December 5, 1677 The origins of this association of Alchemists and Seekers after the Philosophers don't were highly dramatic François Galop de Chastoy Second of the name He belonged to an illustrious family of L'unguitoc which had produced men of the highest distinction in arms, religion and literature was its chief or to use the Kant expression of the cabala its author His life had been more than ordinarily romantic Born at a ex on November 15, 1625 he was the second son of Jean Galop de Chastoy Attorney-General of the Exchequer Court of Acts His elder brother Hubert Solicitor-General to the Parliament 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 Bois-Lô, La Fontaine and mademoiselle de Scuderi 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 Lascaras, the Grand Master placed on his breast the Cross of Honor 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 Muslims Algerian corsairs captured him and led him into captivity After two years of slavery he came to Marseille 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 Chastoy, 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 archers 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 Chastoy was arrested, tried and condemned He was on his way to execution when at the foot of the gibbet up came Louis de Vannon captain of the galleys along with several soldiers Chastoy and Vannon were old friends Chastoy was rescued and taking his rescue with him he fled to Nice hiding in a quiet spot the two friends began working at the philosopher's stone that he is at converting copper into silver and gold Chastoy had some experience of alchemy and fancied he was master of the famous secret Full of gratitude for the service done him he gave Vannon the secret so far as silver was concerned but would tell him nothing about the gold not thinking Vannon prudent enough for that Shortly afterwards we find Chastoy 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 Chastoy 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 Stadius and he dabbled in poetry he had just passed his 40th 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 rye mouth scanty beard, hair black and flat complexion swarthy and sallow Morerri adds Monsieur de Chastoy was one of the most accomplished of gentlemen and a perfect master of the Platonic philosophy Vannon and Chastoy struck up an alliance with Robert de Basimont Lord of La Mireille who had married a cousin of superintendent Fouquet Basimont had at Paris a house near the temple with four smelting furnaces a large one on the third floor two smaller ones in an anti-rotum and a large one in the cellar he also had apartments at Compiègne in the Écoute 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 mattresses salamoniac and iron filings and a thousand varieties of powders, pastes and liquids finally he had another establishment at the Abbey of Aenée near Lyon 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 de Isusa count of Castel Meloir who had been practically the governor of Portugal for five or six years as the favorite of King Alfonso VI Basimont says that Castel Meloir taught him the secret of colouring glass red after the death of the Duke of Seboi on June 12th 1675 Castel Meloir withdrew to England where he gained the favor 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 Justoy and his partner 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 Monsieur Huisman discovered and modern science today 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 Monsieur Huisman uses another expression but the mercury of the philosophers called also Lyon there among the papers of la voisin was found a manuscript poem in honour of the philosopher's stone De l'eau glorifiez qui change en aux ces frais the secret consisted in an elixir of which a single drop cast dans une mer profonde beaucoup les rien font du tout les métaux du monde suffirait pour la tendre et fixait en soleil Justo and his followers 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 grey beards 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 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 rebelle a physician celebrated in his day a rich banker of Paris named Pierre Cadillac secretary to the king and a young parliament advocate named Jean Terrand du Clausel du Clausel lodged with Vannan in the rue d'Anchoux in a house which had four signs the petit hôtel d'Angleterre he was a valuable addition to the band because he could distill at pleasure being licensed rebelle seems to have been possessed of considerable real science rebelle water which he invented is still used in our own day a mixture of alcohol and sulfuric acid which acts as an astringent in cases of hemorrhage rebelle had compounded another Alexia whose innumerable merits were celebrated in notices in prose and verse which the most glowing of modern advertisements have not surpassed Cadillac supplied funds Baudin 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 Cadillac and his associates were arrested he was on the point of farming the Paris Mint was this in order to make false Louis's door 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 Chasse-Douille's formulae a bar of silver cast by Van Oan and taken by Bashimon 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 Van Oan and Chasse-Douille 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 Van Oan was arrested on December 5th 1677 Louvoir believed that he had seized a spy but he had put his hand on an alchemist and soon the whole band Teron Cadillac Monsieur Madame Bashimon Bathominat, known as La Chaboisier de Van Oan's valet were laid by the heels some in the Bastille the others at Pierre-en-Cise Chasse-Douille had just died quietly at Versailles Ravel 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 tomb we regarded it as essential to say something of this band of alchemists and philosophers by way of introduction to Louis de Van Oan this young noble of Provence a man of well-neaten graceful figure had brilliant connections at court where he was on a footing of intimacy with the king's dazzling mistress Madame de Montespart on the other hand he was an assiduous visitor to Lavoisin and was even for some time her author Van Oan was the link between the alchemists and the witches he was devoted to demoniacal practices his valet La Chaboisier 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 and incantations and invocations to the spirit Van Oan was a diabolical character he was confined at the bustier 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 Abort, 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 vigor of these superstitions we must remember that Van Oan was in the Bastille quite aware that these practices might bring him to the stake we shall see in the sequel the importance of Van Oan when we recall the following lines found in the notes of Nicolas de la Renée to see La Chaboisier again about his reluctance to have written down in his statement after hearing at Brett that Van Oan had been concerned in giving Madame de Montespan counsel which deserves that he should be drawn End of Section 7 The Alchemists Section 8 Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jane Bennet Melbourne, Australia Princes and Poisoners Studies of the Court of Louis XIV by Franz Funk Brintano Translated by George Maidment The Poison Drama at the Court of Louis Part I The Sorceresses La Voison To the portraits of Chastoy the Alchemist and of Van Oan we must add that of the most famous of the witches Catherine de Che known as La Voison It was of her that La Fontaine wrote La Voison stated to La Renée Some women asked if they would not soon become widows because they wished to marry someone 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 someone 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 Marco La Voison's servant said that the whole world came there adding La Voison is today 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 pleasurable hearties The merry crew would overflow into the garden lawn surrounding the cottage at Villeneuve-sur-Grobois This was the district but sparsely inhabited between the ramparts and the Sandini quarter The sorceress was brought into the city drawing rooms as nowadays fashionable singers are brought At that time La Voison 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 ancestors The witch described by Michelet You will find her in the most dismal places Isolate it 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 Voison earned in a year as much as two thousand or even four thousand pounds 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 Brunville and who by a horrible coincidence only just escaped executing La Voison herself Among them also the Viconde de Coussinin the Count de la Barquée, Fauchée the architect a wine merchant of the neighbourhood Lassage the magician the alchemist Blessy and others We must add the Blessy and Lassage spent much money on her ostensibly in connection with the philosopher's stone La Voison had a sincere faith in alchemy She subsidised great enterprises and helped to establish manufacturers 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 Voison proud of her trade as sorceress which brought persons of the highest ranks to bend before her in obsequious and supple and attitudes did not stick at any expense that seemed likely to all bend her glory She delivered her irracula sayings clothed in a robe and a cloak specially woven for her for which she paid 15,000 libra 3,000 pounds 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 libra 20 pounds today We possess the bills of the maker But under the glittering shows of wealth La Voison had preserved most disillute manners She was constantly drunk She indulged in fish-wipe sprawls with lasage Latour, who was her great author used to thrash her She fought with Marie Boss and tore her hair out On Sunday, Latour being with her on the ramparts she got him to give her husband 50 blows with a stick while she held Latour's hat On that occasion Latour bit poor Mont-Goisin'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 and austere Jansenist and Madame de la Roche-Guillon stood godfather to her daughter The husband whom La Voison so brutally got beaten appears to have been a decent man In those days there was at Montmartre a chapel dedicated to Saint Ursula who enjoyed the power to improve husbands The procedure was to carry there some Friday morning a shirt of the wicked spouse The 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 Mont-Goisin had to march to the place carrying his shirt under his arm He was a husband for whose improvement Ursula does not appear to have been required to spend much effort Lassage, the witch's lover advised her to get rid of Mont-Goisin A sheep's heart was bored to which Lassage did something and then it was buried in the garden behind the gate Lo and behold Mont-Goisin was seized with severe pain in the stomach He cried out that if there was anybody who wished to do for him she had better shoot him at once instead of letting him linger Lo-Goisin struck with remorse hastened to the Augustines to confess and obtain a general absolution She took the sacrament and on her return compelled Lassage to undo his wicked charms She related very simply and frankly to La Renée the first steps of her career Her husband at that time was doing nothing There had been a Hawking-Jula 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 chyramancy 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 vicar's 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 Boss also spoke of the time when her friend went to the Sorbonne to argue on astrology with the professors Thus, Lavoisin set up as fortune-teller in order to restore order and comfort to her household One of her friends, La Lapea 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 Lavoisin had been the constant support of her old mother to whom she gave money every week Lavoisin'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 at treatise on physiognomy supported on six immovable columns One, sympathy between body and mind Two, relations between rational and irrational animals Three, the differences between the sexes Four, national diversities Five, physical temperaments Six, 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 Lavoisin 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 Louis Bressart, 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 contend basenesses and withdraw into his virtue which was beyond his wealth Madame Brisa 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 Boise She began her incantations with the assistance of Lassage The magician walked up and down the garden with a wand with which he struck the earth repeating the words Perdème sanctum, perdème vivum Then he said Louis Denis de Rubentel Madame Brisa's maiden name She to possess the holy 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 Brisa 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 Boise 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 less so precious a fount should dry up returned to her without anything else having been done Yet the lady, believing that La Boise had done some extraordinary thing gave her twelve pistols 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 Boise was assisted in these monstrous rites by a priest, squintide and old with bloated face and prominent blue veins forming a network on his cheeks The terrible Abbey-Joui-Berg formerly chaplain to the Count de Mont-Gommery he was at this time Sacrestan of Saint-Marcelle at Saint-Denis He used to say mass according to the proper rites wearing the owl, stole and manifold the women on whose body's 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 beer-belly At the moment of the offer-tois a child had its throat cut Shibourg 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 Reine according to the testament of the accused Black masses were not the only sorceries whose rights required the sacrifice of children Lavoisin 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 Lavoisin, 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 Reine wrote to Louvoir 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 children 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 successes 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 that obtained a special pardon Lavoisin, 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 Lavoisin confessed that she had burned in the stove or buried in the garden The bodies of more than 2,500 children prematurely born Here again we come upon surprising particulars The witch was very insistent that children, thus brought into the world should be baptised before death One evening, Lavoisin, a midwife friend of Lavoisin happened to be in the famous room with the witch's husband Lavoisin, 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 crime sent a shudder through the man who had heard the confessions of the most redoubtable criminals of his time Nicolas de la Renée We have a portrait of Lavoisin by Antoine Coipel She has 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 frog-like expression but no doubt he sketched her under the influence of a preconceived idea Madame de Sevigny, who had a singular taste for this sort of spectacle saw her mount to the stake Lavoisin, 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 End of section 8, Lavoisin