POISONING. 



751 



cidents reached the marchioness, she endeavoured, 

 by brihing the officers of justice, to get possession 

 of this casket ; and failing in the attempt, she fled 

 the kingdom. The servant above alluded to, La 

 Chausee, was imprudent enough to remain in Paris, 

 and fulling under suspicion, was arrested, brought 

 to trial, and finally to the confession of several 

 murders, not before suspected. He was broken 

 alive on the wheel in 1673. 



The marchioness sought an asylum in a convent 

 at Liege. A very active officer, named Desgrais, 

 was despatched to apprehend her. Unable, with- 

 out her consent, to remove her from her privileged 

 place of asylum, he put on the dress of an abbe, 

 found means to make her acquaintance, assumed 

 the character of a lover, enticed her in this way to 

 accompany him on a party of pleasure, and arrested 

 her. What a love-suit, a bailiff and a poisoner ! 

 Among her effects seized at the convent was a full 

 confession of her crimes, written out in her own 

 hand. She therein admitted, that she had set fire 

 to houses ; and that she had by poisoning occasioned 

 the death of more persons than any one suspected. 

 She was brought to Paris, tried, convicted, and 

 confessed her enormities. She even made a show 

 of penitence, and went with great firmness to the 

 place of execution, on the 16th of July, 1676. 

 Beholding the great crowd assembled to see her 

 die, she cried out, in a contemptuous manner, 

 "You have come to see a fine spectacle!" She had 

 flattered herself, on account of her respectable con- 

 nections, with the hope of a pardon. When unde- 

 ceived in this respect, she said " C'est done tout 

 de ban," " They are in earnest, it seems," and sub- 

 mitted to her fate. She was beheaded and after- 

 wards burned. 



And what imagination have our readers formed 

 of the appearance of such a demon as we have de- 

 scribed? Do they suppose she had a deep-set fiery 

 eye, blazing from its socket, with the flames of 

 fiendish passion that consumed her, an aquiline 

 nose, sunken cheeks, thin lips, inflexible and mer- 

 ciless, and a sallow complexion? She was like 

 Anne Turner, uncommonly fair ; her features were 

 extremely regular, her face round, full, and beauti- 

 ful, and she wore a serene look, a tranquillity of 

 air, which seemed to breathe of goodness. So 

 much, cries the bewildered Pitaval, for metopo- 

 scopy ! 



But her execution did not put a stop to the hor- 

 rible practice of secret poisoning. Mysterious 

 deaths were of frequent occurrence, and the arch- 

 bishop of Paris was informed, from different parts 

 of his diocess, that the crime of poisoning was still 

 confessed, both in high and low families. The 

 number and consideration of the persons suspected 

 was so great, that it was deemed expedient to in- 

 stitute, at the Bastile, a tribunal to detect and 

 punish them. This court was established in 1679, 

 under the name of Chambre de Poison or Chambre 

 ardente. Two women, La Vigoreux and La 

 Voisin, a priest named Le Sage, and some others 

 were first arrested, for carrying on a traffic in poi- 

 sons. They pretended to necromancy and raising 

 the spirits of the departed, and furnished love po- 

 tions and philtres to those who desired them. 

 Many persons, probably without criminal inten- 

 tions, urged by curiosity or superstition, resorted 

 to these wretched impostors. La Voisin kept a 

 list of all her dupes, on the authority of which 

 they were arrested and brought to private trial, 

 before the burning chamber. Some of the first 



personages of the kingdom were thus implicated ; 

 among them two nieces of the cardinal Maza- 

 rin, the duchess of Bouillon, the countess of Sois- 

 sons, (mother of prince Eugene), and the marshal 

 Luxembourg. Nothing was proved against the 

 duchess of Bouillon, but that she had resorted to 

 Le Sage, in his capacity of sorcerer. He pre- 

 tended to foretell the future, and to afford those 

 who consulted him, the gratification of beholding 

 his satanic majesty. La Reynie, one of the judges 

 of the burning chamber, was indiscreet enough to 

 ask the duchess if she had ever seen the devil. 

 She replied, that she saw him at that very moment, 

 that he was very ugly and very hideous, and ap- 

 peared before her in the guise of a counsellor. 

 The prudent magistrate drew off from the interro- 

 gation. 



A more serious charge was brought against the 

 countess de Soissons and the marshal de Luxem- 

 bourg. Le Sage, La Voisin and La Vigoreux un- 

 questionably dealt in secret poisons, and particu- 

 larly in a powder, which had got the name of 

 succession powder from the real or supposed fre- 

 quency with which it was used to hasten or change 

 the succession, in the families of the rich ! The 

 names of all who resorted to them, had been re- 

 ported to the government, with the charge of pur- 

 chasing poison. The king intimated to Madame 

 de Soissons, that, if she was guilty, she had better 

 escape by flight. She replied that she was inno- 

 cent, but could not endure the scandal of a public 

 trial. She repaired to Brussels and died in 1708, 

 about the time that her son, the prince Eugene, by 

 his humiliating victories over Louis XIV., suffi- 

 ciently avenged his mother for whatever injustice 

 the king had allowed to be done her, of which, 

 by the way, we do not think she had many to com- 

 plain of. Great ladies, who go to professed poi- 

 soners, to see them raise the devil, must expect 

 some little trouble. 



Voltaire states, with great circumstance, that 

 Francis Henry de Montmorency-Boutteville, duke, 

 peer, and marshal of France, who united the great 

 name of Montmorency to that of the imperial 

 house of Luxembourg, already renowned as a great 

 captain in Europe, was denounced to the burning 

 chamber. The foundation of the charge was the 

 following. The marshal wished to recover some 

 lost papers of value. Bonard, one of his people, 

 applied to Le Sage, to know where they were to 

 be found. Bonard's first conjurations were un- 

 successful. In despair, he applied to his mas- 

 ter, the marshal Luxembourg, for a sort of power 

 of attorney, to do all things necessary to recover 

 the papers; and in this instrument, between the 

 body of the paper and the signature, were two 

 lines, in a different hand-writing, by which the 

 marshal gave himself to the devil. Thus far the 

 charge would have worn the aspect of ridicule ; 

 and at the worst, would have seemed a piece 

 of indiscreet trifling, on the part of the marshal. 

 But the wretches, with whom Bonard dealt, on 

 behalf of the marshal and in virtue of his power 

 of attorney, did not, like some others, confine 

 themselves to the settlings of a tea-cup. Le 

 Sage swore that the marshal had applied to him to 

 poison a female, who had the papers in her hands, 

 and who refused to give them up; and his accom- 

 plices testified, that they had accordingly poisoned 

 her, cut her body in pieces, and thrown it into the 

 river ; and all this at the instigation of the marshal. 



Such were the charges against him. He sur- 



