Princes and Poisoners: Studies of the Court of Louis XIV

isted by a sergeant named Creuillebois, two notaries, the agent of the widow, and an agent of the creditors. The three first meetings had pas

ater, others with a liquid of reddish colour; and in addition, there were the letters addressed by Madame de Brinvilliers to Sainte-Croix, the two promissory notes signed by the marchioness after the poisoning of her father and brothers, and a receipt and power of attorney relating to a sum of 10,000 livres lent by Pennautier, receiver-general of the clergy, to Monsieur and Mad

I do, to burn it, and all that is in it, without opening it or meddling with it; and so that no one may pretend ignorance, I swear by the God I adore, and all that is most holy, that I state nothing but the truth. If perchance any one contravenes my intentions, just and reasonable as they are, I charge it in this world and the next upon his conscience, for discharge of my own, and declare that this is my last will. Made at Par

ng on the box being given to her. It was nine o'clock at night. 'She complained of its having been sealed up, offered money to obtain it, proposed to break the seals in order to take out what was inside, and to substitute something else.' But the box had been taken away. 'It's very amusing,' she said, 'for Commissary Picard to carry off a box that belongs to me!' She got some one to take her to Sergeant Cluet, whom she made come down, so that she might speak to him from her carriage. 'The lady told him that Pen

dingly the marchioness hurried off to him at eleven o'clock at night.

told the commissary that the little box was of great importance to Madame de Brinvilliers, begging him to send it back to her, and saying 'that she would give

s clever enough to have forged the letters, but that she would find a way out, and had good friends.' To Madame de Sainte-Croix, who also went to Picpus, she said that she had nothing to do with the box, that it could only contain trifles, that she had not seen Sainte-Croix for a long time, that these were forged letters, and that she had a complete justification. She went on, in order to spread it abroad that her inter

the following declaration: 'That if there was found a promise signed by Lady Brinvilliers for the sum of 30,000 livres, it was a document obtai

death being the result. Experts decided that they contained poison, but

conversation in Paris. Fantastic rumours circulated about the poisons fo

uilty 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 ma

was one of the most active and intelligent of Colbert's lieutenants. On such questions as the resuscitation of the French manufacture of fine cloth, the Languedoc canal, the purchase of Greek MSS. in the Levant, the draining of the fens of Aigues-Mortes, the name of Pennautier is linked with that of Colbert in enterprises of the

ith the deceased, in whose service he had been for seven years, 200 pistoles and 100 silver crowns which should be, he said, behind the window of the study in a bag, with a note proving that the money belonged to him. He claimed also a number of papers, which he described. The knowledge that La Chaussée displayed of Sainte-Croix' laboratory awakened suspicion. When Commissary Picard told the whilom valet that the confiscated box had just been o

n they returned, she spoke to him again about the box. She seemed a prey to uneasiness. 'But madam,' said Regnier, 'surely you are not mixed up in this business?' 'Why should I be?' she replied. 'That villain La Chaussée, when with Commissary Picard, must have said something against you, and would say it again if he was captured.' 'It would be well to take the villain to Picardy,' said the marchioness. She said also that she

at once confirmed. The action against La Chaussée heard before the Chatelet ended on February 23, 1673, in a decree sentencing the defendant to the preliminary torture, manentibus indiciis. If the wretched man gave proof of endurance under torture, it would be the salvation both of himself and of the marchioness. Madame d'Aubray made a passionate intervention. She appealed to the Parlement,[4] endeavouring to prove, in a fresh affidavit, that the charges had been fully sustained, and that it wa

arried on a mattress to a corner of the fireplace, and refreshed with brandy. In anticipation of instant death, La Chaussée voluntarily confessed his crimes, including the poisoning of Villequoy's tart, and then spoke of the iniquities of Madame de Brinvilliers. 'What accuser,' says La Reynie, 'would have been listened to for a moment if God had not permitted the

wretched existence, in distress which she fou

n May 24, 1673, before requesting the English Government to extradite the accused woman. In November and December 1672 several letters were exchanged between Colbert and his brother the Marquis de Croissy, then French ambassador at the court of Charles II. The king of England consented to the extradition, but declared that he could not allow the arrest to be ma

o brothers-in-law whom his wife had poisoned. He had taken possession of the surrounding domain, and actually it was not till two lettres de cachet had been signed by Louis XIV, bearing date February 22 an

he country conquered by King Louis, thence to Cambrai and Valenciennes, where she entered a convent, but was obliged to leave it on account of the war. From Valenciennes she fled to Antwerp, then to Liége. She had nothing to support her but an ann

ant adventures: at the rendezvous, the lover appears as a police officer, accompanied by a number of archers. As a matter of fact, the arrest was managed in the simplest manner, 'on the last day,' writes La Reynie, 'that the king's authority was recognised in the town of Liége.' It was not even Desgrez who carried it through, but a French political agent in the Netherlands, a former clerk of Fouquet's named Bruant, otherwise Descarrières. 'The burgomasters,' wrote the latter to Louvois on March 25, 'have behaved so well that they

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 Ar

woman! After having dyed your hands in the blood of your family, you want to do away with yourself!' She answered, 'If I did so, it was under evil counsel.' On another occasion Desgrez was informed that the lady had endeavoured to commit suicide in a far more horrible fashion. 'Ah, you wretch!' he cried. 'I see that you want to do for yourself, and that you did poison your brothers!' She replied: 'If I had only had good advice! We ofte

cht, she suggested to Antoine Barbier, an archer of the guard who had won her confidence, to make a gag and a rope-ladder: the gag was for Desgrez and the rope-ladder for her own escape. She promised Barbier a thousand pistoles. At other times she urged h

actually succeeded in getting letters delivered to them, for th

n he asked her if Pennautier was one of her friends, 'Yes, yes,' she replied, 'and he is as much interested in my safety as I am myself.' Another time she said: 'He must be much more frightened than I am. I ha

friend of Madame de Sévigné, wrote to Madame de Grignan: 'The king has required the Parlement to depute Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocro

the marchioness is dated Mézières, April 17, 1676

e house she set on fire, she said she had not done so, and t

her confession, she said she did not know w

her father and brothers, she

ho had poisoned her brothers, she

s enjoined to disclose to whom she had wr

to secure the box, she said s

she was lost if he did not get the box and

ril 26. She was left under the guard of the archer Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust

she wrote to

, 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 thin

of the 'Bernardins widow,' that is, the widow of S

him many times with Sainte-Croix, I thought that their friendship had progressed so far as to have dealings in poisons, and in this suspicion I ventured to write to him as though I knew it was so, running no risk of injuring my own case thereby, and inwardly arguing thus: if there was any connection between them in regard to the poisons, Monsieur Pennautier will believ

n extent that a decree was issued for the arrest of the unlucky functionary, and

pinion against Pennautier. She accused him of having poisoned her husband on May 2, 1669, in order to succeed him in an office of considerable emolu

e Fouquet, found some faithful friends, a circumstance which does honour to the time. 'It is wonderful,' says Saint-Simon, 'how many of the most notable men are working on his behalf.' This generosity of sentiment was the more admirable in that the recollection of the disgrace which overwhelmed

note in his mouth as though to swallow it. This fact remained in the sequel the sole charge which the prosecutor could bring against him, after Madame de Brinvilliers had entirely exculpated him. His declarations under examination were of convincing frankness; moreover, in a statement printed in answer to the pamphlets o

e died of poison? It is at least singular to declare me guilty of a crime that was never committed, for the

lady reserved half the emoluments of the office, and Pennautier gave 2000 pistoles to the Sieur de Mannevillette, who claimed from the lady the right to return to this office, in accordance with the deed of defeasance given him by Saint-Laurent when the Sieur de Mannevillette resigned that office in his favour on March 17, 1669. The dame de Saint-Laurent quietly enjoyed this moiety of the emoluments of the office until the la

important part played by Pennautier in the restoration of c

de Brinvilliers and Pennautier-'a grave inj

icial tribunal in the kingdom-the High Court and the Tournelle in conjunction. She requested

e of will which was a constant subject of astonishment to her judges. She denied everything obstinately, and contradicted her accusers in a hard and haughty voice, but never failed i

n April 17, there occurred a scene which was not unexpected. The fo

raised a difficulty, and a discussion ensued as to whether it was allowable to question the lady on these particular crimes, such as sodomy and i

had been told that, a confession having been found en route, it oug

had no choice but to give a description of the confession, and to interro

estion was extremely uncertain, yet h

ad been utilised in Christian countries, and quoted the epis

ate, urged the

as utterly opposed to the contention of Monsieur de Mesmes,

been argued, the re

nfess, she answered that she had had no intention whatever of making a

to Monsieur de Lestocq, doctor and professor in theology, who all agreed that this paper should be seen, and Madame de Brinvilliers questioned on it; that the secrecy

nst her.' But she was lost. The marchioness saw looming before her the spectacle of her ignominious punishment-the public penance on her knees before the porch of Notre Dame, clad only in her shift, torch in hand; she saw the instruments of torture, the thought of which might make the boldest shudder, then the scaffold, the stake, the 'tomb of fire' whence the hand of the executioner would scatter her ashes, under the gaze of the mob. The judges themselves, who were about to condemn her, felt a tightening at the heart. And when Briancourt, at the close of his deposition, his eyes streaming with tears, his voice choked with sobs, said: 'I warned you many a time, madam, about your disorders and your cruelty, and that your crimes wou

dy, acquitted himself of it with remarkable success. His defence was still renowned in th

s of procedure were absolute. He very cleverly took advantage of some inconsistencies in La Chaussée's declaration after torture. The argument based on Sainte-Croix' famous box seemed to him to have as little weight. Indeed, the note of May 25, 1670, in which Sainte-Croix declared that the contents of the box belonged to the marchioness, was undoubtedly anterior to the introduction of poison bottles into the box; it applied only to the lady's letters to Sainte-Croix, in which there was no question of poison. Coming at last to the written confession seized at Liége, Nivelle strongly protested against the inferential proof of guilt which the judges drew from it. 'The last proof,' he said, 'relates

ral months past to calumnies prompted by hate, to the rough treatment and insults of archers, drunken soldiers, and coarse jailors; she had also been deprived of spiritual consolation, and even on Wh

death of the late Messieurs d'Aubray has been publicly avenged, and if they could now tell us what they feel, they would doubtless show that the affection they always bore to their sister was a sign that they recognised how incapable she was of so unnatural a crime; they would themselves plead for their own blood, and be far indeed from sacrificing their relatives and exposing them to infamous punishment; they would prove that their highest satisfaction is to preserve their honour in preserving her life, and that otherwise it would be to punish

ed to her words most admirably calculated to move her, and bring her to feel in some degree the lamentable state in which she was. The first president,' we read in a summary report of the trial, 'dwelt upon the dreadful illness of her father, on the perilous state she was in, and told her that she was engaged in perhaps the last act of her life; he invited her seriously to reflect on her evil conduct, which had drawn upon her the reproaches of her family, and even of those who had lived in sin with her. The President de Novion re

all the judges shed tears.' She alone kept her head proudly ere

appear in their beautiful eyes.' The sequel of our story will indicate, even more than the preceding pages, that Madame de Brinvilliers in some points resemb

melite 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 sou