 Section 1 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-Prentano, translated by George Madement. Section 1, Marie Madeleine de Brunville, Part 1, Her Life. In the judicial annals of France, there has never been a more striking or celebrated figure than the Marquis de Brunville. 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 Pierrot, 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 Marquis de Brunville, a study in a revue de Dermont. 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 Clémont 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 Cathaytion. The writer of the following pages has been able to make use of some fresh documents. In the trial of the Marquis de Brunville, 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 Brunvilleier 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 Dobré Marquis de Brunvilleier was born on July 22, 1630. She was the eldest of the five children of Anton de Dobré, Lord of Ophémon and Villier, councillor of state, Maître de Riquette, civil lieutenant of the city, mayoralty and Vicente of Paris and lieutenant-general of the minds of France. Dreu de Bré was himself the son of a treasurer of France, originally from Soiton. Madeleine de Bré 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 peccadillos. 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 penetrate her 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 Dobre wedded a young officer of the Norman regiment, Antoine Gobelain de Brunville, Baron of Noura, the son of a president of the Audit Office. He was a direct descendant of Gobelain, the founder of the celebrated manufacturer. Mademoiselle Dobre 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 Marquis de Brunville 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 expedience 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 the 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 Brunville, 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 Mont-Tobain and said to be a bi-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 Palomour. 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 Branvilleier with her blue eyes and dainty figure was the most charming creature in the world. Lady Branvilleier observes Voltaire the Advocate. Did not make a mystery of her amour? She gloried in it in society whence there resulted much écla. 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 rites with which ancient customs endowed a father, obtained a lettre de Cache against his daughter's lover. On March 19th, 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 Exile whom he learned 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 Parliament on behalf of Madame de Branvilleier. Exile, whose real name was Edgedy 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 2nd to June 27th, 1663. Sainte-Croix was there from March 19th to May 2nd. A captain of police named Dégret who will play an important part in the sequel met Exile on leaving prison with an order to conduct him to Calais and embark him for England. But whether Exile 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 Exile 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 Exile. He owed it to a celebrated Swiss chemist named Christophe Glazer who had set up an establishment in the faux-borgs Sainte-Chamin 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. Glazer was apothecary and ordinary to the king and monsieur and demonstrator in chemistry to the jardin des plantes. He was, moreover, a scientist of real merit. Sulfate of Potassium which he discovered long bore his name. Glazer 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 Glazer's recipe. These poisons, however, as we shall see, were very simple. In these days they would appear clumsy. Exile, who goes out of our story, remained connected with Queen Christina and in 1681 made an excellent marriage when he wedded the Countess Ludovica Funtaguzzi, the cousin of Duke Francis of Modena. As soon as Sainte-Croix left the Bastille he renewed his relations with the Marquis de Browne-Villiers. 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 accused 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-Chamin a carriage from which a lighted a young officer and a fashionable lady. They went on foot to the rue du Petit-Lion in which glass of 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 Nicholas de la Vénie, the lieutenant of police, that a woman brought up in a respectable family whose form and constitution were delicate and who in appearance were 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. François Roussel says that she has been in the service of Lady Brown-Villiers. 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 Marquis had tested the strength of Glazer'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 Whitsontide drew on in the year 1666, Antoine Dré Dobre who had been suffering for some months from strange disorders, set out for his estates at Ofemont 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 vomiting continuing with increasing violence till his death, which occurred at Paris whether he had himself transported in order to secure the services of the best physicians and whether his daughter had not failed to accompany him. Madeleine de Bramp-Villiers confessed afterwards that she had poisoned her father 28 or 30 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 medicine she handed him with her engaging smile. The greatest crime, said Madame de Sevigny are a mere trifling comparison with being eight months poisoning her father and receiving all his caresses and tendernesses to which she replied by doubling the dose. Madeleine was nothing to her. Dobre died at Paris on September the 10th 1666, aged 66 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 Marquis whose name was the same as his father succeeded him in the family estates and the office of civil lieutenant. Delivered thus from a formidable censor Madame de Brunvilley no longer put any restraint on her debaucheries. She had several lovers at once in addition to Saint Croix. By him she had two children among her own. She was the mistress of de Puget, Marquis de Nadeyac, captain of light horse and cousin of her husband. Another lover was a cousin of her own 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 Saint Croix appeared to be unfaithful to her and when she learnt that her husband was keeping a woman named du Fay in her rage she thought of stabbing her. She had naturally a great delicacy of feeling the confessor was to write of her and was highly sensitive on a point of honour and 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 Norart was sold by order of the court to satisfy their creditors. In her ungovernable fury the Marquis attempted to set a 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 Braunfilier had already tried to procure the assassination of the elder by two hired bravos on the road to Orléans. One of those audacious strokes which to the end of her days she never seized 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 livre. In 1669 Madame de Braunfilier succeeded in introducing a wretch named Jean Amaline 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 ooze his head no doubt it is the glass la Croix 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 Ville Croix in Bolts to spend Easter with his family in 1670 Easter fell on April the 6th his brother the councillor made one of the party and took La Chaussée with him as his only attendant while they stayed at Ville Croix 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 the 12th 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 Dobre 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 Brunfilier 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 bed clothes 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 Brunfilier was at Saint Impiccadilly she told Briencourt, the tutor who had become her lover that the poisoning of her brother the counsellor 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 great deal to be done these sentiments were sincere Madame de Brunfilier 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 nanny 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 17th, 1670 the councillor died in the following September in this case Dr Bachel, the civil lieutenant's usual attendant along with surgeons Duvois and Dupré and the apothecary Gava declared after an autopsy that the deceased had been poisoned but so little were the perpetrators of the crime suspected that Lachocet drew a hundred crowns left him by his master as a reward for his faithful service we must follow the career of the Marquis 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 Marquis in great familiarity with Lachocet and she made him hide behind her bed when the sière 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 34 in number and signed him by the Marchionettes the two promissory notes signed by her after the murder of her father and brothers and several bottles of poison the said Lady Bramvillier 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 poignetted 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 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 minutes of the offended woman what scenes for a romance are 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 Brunville was dominated by the unconquerable impulse to lead the conversation continually to the subject of her crimes she would talk about poisons to anyone 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 catch word poison was called afterwards powder of inheritance when she came to her senses shortly afterwards the Marquis told her servant that she didn't 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 Manuel de Villere 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 Brancourt 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 Cébria Coeur before the judges the Marquis de Bambilier rushed into my room like a mad woman 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 Saint Coeur 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 Bambilier's own confession that this little boy was actually Saint Coeur's child this deposition of Bria Coeur 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 Marquis had still to get rid of her sister Thérèse Dobré and her sister-in-law Marie Thérèse Mangol widow of the civil-left tenant that is what remained to be done seeing the imminent peril of mademoiselle Dobré and even of Madame Dobré though the widow's danger was not so near as the younger ladies and because L'Aussée had not yet entered the house of Madame Dobré and Madame de Bambilier said that she wished the widow's business to be managed in two months or not at all he, Bria Coeur, begged the Marquis 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 rich saint-coeur 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 Dobré even though she had once written to Madame de Bambilier a letter in which she accused him of being a rogue and rake it was unquestionably Bria Coeur's attitude which saved the lives of Madame de Bambilier's sister and sister-in-law he had further warned mademoiselle Dobré through the Marquis's made mademoiselle de Villere to be on her guard in her confession the Marquis declared that if she had thought of poisoning her sister it was out of hatred by way of revenge for Marquis she had made to her about her conduct Bria Coeur had only succeeded in diverting the peril upon himself Madame de Bambilier resolved to rid herself of a lover who responded to her confidences by playing the censor the customary man's poison was obviously the first to suggest itself Sainte-Croix, says Bria Coeur had introduced into the Bambilier household a porter related to La Chaussée and a lackey named Basil 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 Bambilier had to dismiss him there followed a remarkably romantic scene as Bria Coeur described it before the court two or three days after Basil's departure Lady Bambilier 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 wainscotted 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 10 o'clock and looking through the windows into the room the curtain's 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 Bremvilliers in the room Nerve-Saint-Paul about half past eleven continues Bria Coeur Lady Bremvilliers 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's 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 Marquis 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 sprung 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 Brunvilier 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 Basile 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 happened 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, Briencourt had once said about procuring pistols deeming them necessary to his safety Then he went to ask the advice of Monsieur Bollcager a professor of the law school who had introduced him to Madame de Browne-Villiers From the first day he saw the terrible Marchionettes Briencourt 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 Bollcager turned very pale and said nothing except that I must keep my secret and not speak about it to the curée of Saint-Paul or anyone else He assured me that he would see to everything and that I ought not to leave the Browne-Villiers house so soon but wait some time while he sought some new employment for me Briencourt 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 Briencourt the Marquis told me that Monsieur Bollcager 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 Saint-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 Saint-Paul's house carrying two pistols having left a man at the street door to see that it remained open I told Saint-Paul 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 Aubertal Generale 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 Brunvilleier 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 dinner at his house The Marciennes put Saint-Paul 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 Saint-Paul and the Marciennes went to the ladies 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 Marciennes began to poison him Then struck with remorse she called in to attend him one of the most famous physicians of the time Dr. Breyet She wished to marry Saint-Paul writes Madame de Sévigny and with that intention often gave her husband poison Saint-Paul, not anxious to have so evil a woman as his wife gave counter poisons to the poor husband With the result that shuttle cocked about like this five or six times now poisoned, now unpoisoned he still remained alive Pravilier emerged from this violent treatment with a weakness in the legs Afterwards he always carried Thériaque 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 Aubevillier 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 Marciennes came to see him then she sent from time to time to ask how he was doing It was at Aubevillier that one evening on July the 31st 1672 he received from his late mistress a very urgent note begging him to go immediately to Pigpus where she had an important communication to make to him There had just happened an event which was to entail incalculable consequences On July 30th Sainte-Croix died in his mysterious dwelling in the cul-de-sac at the Place Maubeur A widespread legend makes Sainte-Croix's 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 at 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 Bramvilliers soon learned of the death of her lover Her first cry was The Little Box End of Section 1 Marie Madeleine de Bramvilliers Part 1 Her Life Section 2 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 2 Marie Madeleine de Bramvilliers Part 2 Her Trial Sainte-Croix died overwhelmed in debt His things were all put under seal The seals were raised on August 8, 1672 by Commissari Picard assisted by a sergeant named Coybois 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 Commissari the key of the private room in which the furnace was kept Entering, they saw up 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 files some of which were filled with clear liquid like water others with a liquid of reddish colour and in addition there were the letters addressed by Madame de Bramvilliers de Sainte-Croix the two promissory notes signed by the Marchionnés after the poisoning of her father and brothers and a receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 leave lent by Penultier Receiver General of the clergy to M. Madame de Bramvilliers 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 Stier Penultier 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 Bramvilliers 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 Marquis de Bramvilliers who lives in Rue Nerve Saint-Port 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 anyone 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 25th 1670 signed Saint Croix below were these words there is a single packet addressed to Monsieur Penaudier which is to be given to him the very energy of these formerly impressed commissary Picard he sealed up the case and confided it to the care of two sergeants Cluay and Couillebois so that the inventory might be made by the civil lieutenant in person Sergeant Couillebois took the box home it was Saint Croix's widow who on August the 8th that is the day when the box was discovered sent word to Madame de Bramville that things belonging to her were under seal the Marchioness instantly sent someone to find the box as that was no longer in Saint Croix's house a servant was sent off to commissary Picard to tell him that Madame de Bramville desired to speak to him without delay Picard answered that he was busy the Marchioness however herself hurried to Madame de Saint 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 fairly amusing she said for commissary Picard to carry off a box that belongs to me she got someone to take her to Sergeant Clouet whom she made come down so that she might speak to him from her carriage the lady told him that Penotier 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 Penotier and herself and that they had done everything in concert we see here the first step in a manoeuvre which Madame de Bramvillier afterwards developed knowing that several of the papers in the box concerned Penotier she sought to link her cause with the financiers speculating on his high position and influence Clouet 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 the ninth the commissary received a visitor from a Châtelet attorney named Delamar to whom the Marchioness had entrusted her interests he told the commissary that the little box was of great importance to Bramvillier 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 Breancourt who told him that the Marchioness would give him anything he could wish for Madame de Bramvillier understood that the box was not to be given up and made preparations for flight Delamar her attorney Picpeauce had 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 Clouet and Croix-bois to come to Picpeauce she changed the line of her defence and told Croix-bois that Sanquois was clever enough to have forged the letters but that she would find a way out and had good friends to Madame de Sanquois who also went to Picpeauce she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sanquois 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 Penaultier if it trickles on me it will rain on Penaultier she said to the wife of a Châtelet-Clarke named Forcet who spoke to her of the rumours of poisoning that were already going about there's nothing in it it will blow over there is a man accused with me who will give four or six thousand leave 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 the 11th Madame de Brownvilleier was represented by her attorney who made the following declaration that if there was found a promise signed by Lady Brownvilleier for the summer of 30,000 leave 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 Brownvilleier and Penaultier were soon the engrossing topic of conversation in Paris fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons found in the box of which Madame de Savignier made herself the sedulous echo the marchionaries hastened to pay a visit to Penaultier he was not at home his wife turned her out neck and crop Penaultier responded by taking a step which did him honour he went to Pigpul to see Madame de Brownvilleier asked later after his arrest what was his motive in going there he replied that not believing Madame de Brownvilleier 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 Brownvilleier had done Penaultier great service in a moment of difficulty by the loan of 30,000 Lever and he seized the opportunity to show that he had not forgotten their kindness Piel de Rach de Penaultier Penaultier was the name of an estate in the neighbourhood of Carcassonne though scarcely 35 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 left inns on such questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacturer of fine cloth the Languedoc canal the purchase of Greek manuscripts in the Levant the name of Penaultier is linked with that of Colbert in enterprises of the utmost utility from a petty cashier says Saint Simon Penaultier 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 the 22nd the civil lieutenant summoned Madame de Bramvilliers and Penaultier to appear at the examination of the documents found in the box Penaultier was in the country the Marchioness was represented by her attorney who repeated his protests a third personage appeared on the scene namely La Chaucerre he fancied his audacity would save him and from the first had opposed the ceiling of the house on the ground that he had deposited with the deceased in whose service he had been for seven years two hundred pistoles and a hundred 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 Chaucerre displayed of Saint Croix's laboratory awakened suspicion when Commissary Picard told the Wailon Valley that the confiscated box had just been opened he stood petrified with confusion for a moment then fled precipitately leaving the Commissary an open-eyed amazement the same day he left Gaussin the 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 the fourth at six o'clock in the morning by a police officer named Tomas Renier La Chaucerre was very crestfallen as he walked down the street from that moment the gravest suspicions were entertained against madame de Bramvilliers but there was a reluctance to arrest her because of her rank Renier repaired to Picpoux and told her bluntly that he had found La Chaucerre 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 to pray to uneasiness but madam said Renier surely you are not mixed up in this business why should I be she replied that villain La Chaucerre when with Commissary Picca must have said something against you and would say it again if he was captured it would be well to take the villain to Piccadilly said the Marchioness she said also that she had long been pressing Saint Croix to return the box and that Panodier was involved with herself in the matter Renier left Madame de Bramvilliers and went to find Brancourt at Vertu he told him to begin with that he had arrested La Chaucerre and Brancourt 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 Dobre Widow of the last civil lieutenant and sister in law of the Marchioness had learnt 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 the 10th and was admitted a plaintiff in a civil action for damages against La Chaucerre and Madame de Bramvilliers had just fled to England with no other attendant than a kitchen maid all suspicions were at once confirmed the action against La Chaucerre heard before the Châtelet ended on February 23rd 1673 in a decree sentencing the defendant to the preliminary torture if the wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture it would be the salvation both of himself and of the Marchioness Madame Dobre made a passionate intervention she appealed to the Parliament 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 punishment the case was reopened at the tournel in spite of a skillful defence La Chaucerre was condemned to death on March 24th 1673 the sentence said 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 Bramvilliers was to be beheaded for contempt of court when submitted to torture La Chaucerre 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 Chaucerre voluntarily confessed his crimes including the poisoning of Villa Coise Tarte and then spoke of the inequities of Madame de Bramvilliers what accuser says La Rainie 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 parliament 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 Chaucerre was broken on the wheel the same day taking refuge in London the Marchionnaires 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 Chaucerre on May 24th 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 Croissie 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 Croissie 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 Bramvillier taking fright quitted England for the Netherlands meanwhile her husband this amazing Marquis de Bramvillier had quietly taken up his abode with his children and domestics in the chateau of Offermont 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 lethres de Cauchy had been signed by Louis XIV bearing the dates February 22nd and March 31st 1674 ordering him to leave the chateau and never approach within three leagues of it but 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 Marchionettes between her departure from London and her arrest on March 25th 1676 at Liège in a convent where she had taken shelter she had gone from London to the Netherlands then into Piccadilly 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 Liège 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 Louvoir that Madame de Bonville was in hiding at Liège he at once dispatched a gré a man of tried ability de Gré was instructed to make all speed for the French troops then in possession of Liège were on the point of handing over the town to the Spaniards Michelet and the majority of historians have woven the arrest of the Marciennes into a romance de Gré, a handsome fellow disguises himself as a courtier bay 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 Renée that the king's authority was recognised in the town of Liège it was not even de Gré who carried it through a political agent in the Netherlands a former clerk of Fouquet is named Breuang otherwise de Carrière the Berger masters wrote the letter to Louvoir on March 25th 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 done next day in March 26 de Carrière wrote again to Louvoir I arranged that the detective de Gré 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 de Carrière sealed the box with his own seal and that of de Gré he 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 Fouquet 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 Liège 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 that she had broken between her teeth she swallowed pins too but did not succeed in killing herself then 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 de Grey 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 Liège to Paris gave the judges a description of this third attempted suicide which it is impossible to reproduce the following is a note from Emmanuel de Couleur which forwarded by Madame de Sévigny to Madame de Grignin she stuck a stick into herself guess where it was not in her eye nor her mouth nor her nose it was simply brutal during the journey Madame de Bramvelier was escorted by the Marshal d'Estrade in person as far as Hui and from Hui to Roquois by the troops of Monsieur de Montal the prisoners character displayed itself in all its untamed energy locked up at Maistit she suggested to Antoine Barbier an archer of the guard of her confidence to make a gag and a rope ladder the gag was for de Gré and the rope ladder for her own escape she promised Barbier a thousand pistoles at other times she urged him to help her throttle de Gré 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 to send 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 Pénotier lay she asked Barbier for ink to write him she gave her some and feigned to have dispatched the letter and when he asked her if Pénotier 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 Mésier the Marchionnaires met Denis de Pallouin a parliament councillor whom the court had deputed to put her through a first interrogation Corbinelli the friend of Madame de Sévigny wrote to Madame de Grignan the king has required the parliament to depute Pallouin councillor in the High Court to go to Roquois where he is to interrogate the Bramvilliers 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 Pallouin subjected the Marchionnaires is dated in Mésier 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 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 enjoying 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 she did not get the box and win his case she said she did not remember the Marchionnaires was lodged in the Concierge on the day of her arrival in Paris on April 26 she was left under the guard of the archer Barbier to whom she continued to entrust letters which he said he carried to their addresses but which he really handed to the judges on April 29 she wrote to Panautier 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 optional 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 counsellors severely examined me about you Mr Panautier there follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the Bernardin widow that is the widow of Sainte-Croix who lodged in the Roudais-Bernardin Madame de Brunfilier disclosed by and by the motives of her conduct in regard to Panautier I do not know at all she said on the night before her death that Mr Panautier 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 him as though 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 Mr Panautier 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 Panautier to such an extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky functionary and he would shut up in the conciergerie in the same room that Rabayak had occupied Marie Vosay widow of Honeyvelde Saint Laurent Panautier's predecessor in the office of receiver for the clergy was striving to arouse public opinion against Panautier she accused him of having poisoned her husband on May the 2nd 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 Panautier 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 Panautier like Fouquet found some faithful friends a circumstance which does honour to the time it is wonderful 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 Boncy the Duke de Verne the Archbishop of Paris Alais de Champvalon 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 Panautier was writing a letter to one of his cousins in his office on June 15th 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 I think it was started by this sudden interruption Panautier 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 Brunville 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's widow he established incontestably the falsity of some points on which his adversaries were endeavouring to base their accusations these letter found themselves reduced to maintaining that the official reports drawn up at the time when the seals had been broken at Sainte-Croix's place had been falsified I am accused of having poisoned Sainte-Loyer added Panautier 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 proved that his death was natural the close of Panautier's reply was crushing for his accuser he pointed out that madame de Sainte-Loyer had waited six years before bringing her case into court how was that silence explained Sainte-Loyer being dead Panautier was appointed to his office of receiver general for the clergy Sainte-Loyer's wife gave him her nomination on June 12th 1669 the same day they drew up a sort of contract together by which the lady reserved half the emoluments of the office and Panautier gave 2,000 pistolas to the sire de Manet-Biliet who claimed from the lady the right to return to this office in accordance with the deed of de Fissons given him by Sainte-Loyer when the sire de Manet-Biliet resigned that office in his favour on March 17th 1669 the dame de Sainte-Loyer quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the office until the last day of December 1675 when the agreement terminated and if Panautier 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 in years which will end on the last day of December 1685 those who know the dame de Sainte-Loyer are convinced she would never have accused Panautier of poisoning the sire de Sainte-Loyer her husband we have dwelt at some length on this incident because of the important part played by Panautier in the restoration of commerce and industry in France under the direction of Colbert nothing was talked about in Paris but madame de Brunville and Panautier a grave injustice to the war as madame de Sainte-Loyer said through the privilege of nobility madame de Brunville was brought before the highest judicial tribunal in the kingdom the High Court and the Tournel in conjunction she requested a council to assist her in her defence and was refused at least provisionally the court was presided over by the first president Lamouagne between April 29 and July 16 1676 the case occupied 22 sittings the Marché and S displayed an energy and force of will which was a constant subject of astonishment to her judges she denied everything 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 Mithier on April 17 there occurred a scene which was not unexpected the following 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 the 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 Palouin 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 Palouin 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 in Mayen held that this sort of confession had been utilised in Christian countries and quoted the epistle of Saint Leo showing that judges had made use of them Nivelle, advocate, urged the contrary opinion the first president answered that the epistle of Saint Leo was utterly opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Men 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 of whatever of making a confession and knew no priests or monks to whom she ought to confess Monsieur Rouaot reported in the afternoon that he had put the question to Monsieur Benjamin an ecclesiastical judge to Monsieur du Sosso and other casuists and to Monsieur de Lestoc doctor and professor in theology who all agreed that this paper should be seen and Madame Léa 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 13th 1676 a terrible deposition was heard that of Brioncour who related in detail his mistress's life he spoke in a voice broken by emotion the Marchionnaires contradicted him with the same cold, haughty impassivity her spirit quite overawes said Président Lamouignol we worked yesterday at her case till 8 o'clock in the evening she was confronted with Brioncour for 13 hours and today another 5 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 Marchionnaires 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 went the hand of the executioner would scatter her ashes under the gaze of the mop the judges themselves who were about to condemn her felt a tightening at the heart and when Brioncour at the close of his deposition his eyes streaming with tears his voice choked with sobs said I warned you many a time madame about your disorders and your cruelty and that your crimes would ruin you the Marchionnaires replied a wonderful reply and 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 Président Lamogno to the Abbey Pyrrall she insulted Brioncour 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 today 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 18th 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 Bramvillier were of this quality he succeeded in throwing doubt on the sincerity of several of the more weighty depositions of the present clue for instance who was devoted body and soul he said to the opposite party to the widow Dobre who sustained her part of plaintiff with the extremist animosity the deposition of et me brithien he maintained should be entirely rejected for the witness was not confronted with the marchiness and on that point the rules of procedure were absolute very cleverly took advantage of some inconsistencies in L'Archer Cé's declaration after torture the argument based on Sainte-Croix's famous box seemed to him to have as little weight indeed the note of May the 25th 1670 in which Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the marchiness was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison bottles into the box it applied only to the ladies letters to Sainte-Croix in which there was no suggestion of poison coming at last to the written confession seized at Liège Nivelle strongly protested against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges do from it the last proof he said relates to a paper found among those of the marchiness in which he had written a religious declaration 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 by a renewed 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 but for several months passed to calamities prompted by hate to the rough treatment and insults of archers, drunken soldiers and coarse jailers she had also been deprived of spiritual consolation and even on wit Sunday had been refused permission to hear mass undoubtedly Nivelle largely contributed to that revulsion of feelings in favour of the marchiners which was so strongly marked during the last days the advocate concluded his address with a powerful appeal to the prosecutor the accuser ought not to press hardly against the lady because she has already received satisfaction for the death of her husband in the solitary punishment of that Richard criminal 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 approach of being wanting a natural feeling for her nephews whom she ought to consider as her own children the death of the late messieurs de Bray has been publicly avenged and if they could now tell us what they feel they would doubt the 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 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 Brown Villier 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 Bray Villier appeared for the last time before her judges for her final cross examination 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 upon her evil conduct which had drawn upon her the approaches of her family and even of those who had lived in sin with her the president de Norvion reminded her that her brother the civil lieutenant ordered 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 and all the judges shed tears she alone kept her head proudly erect and preserved undimmed the stony clearness of her blue eyes Tant 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 Brunville 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 Lamogno 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 abbey Edmé Pirol End of section 2 part 2 her trial