Strange True Stories of Louisiana
Page 36
II.
MADAME LALAURIE.
On the 30th of August, 1831, before Octave de Armas, notary, one E. SoniatDufossat sold this property to a Madame Lalaurie. She may have dwelt inthe house earlier than this, but here is where its tragic history begins.Madame Lalaurie was still a beautiful and most attractive lady, thoughbearing the name of a third husband. Her surname had been firstMcCarty,--a genuine Spanish-Creole name, although of Irish origin, ofcourse,--then Lopez, or maybe first Lopez and then McCarty, and thenBlanque. She had two daughters, the elder, at least, the issue of herfirst marriage.
The house is known to this day as Madame Blanque's house,--which, younotice, it never was,--so distinctly was she the notable figure in thehousehold. Her husband was younger than she. There is strong sign of hislesser importance in the fact that he was sometimes, and only sometimes,called doctor--Dr. Louis Lalaurie. The graces and graciousness of theiraccomplished and entertaining mother quite outshone his step-daughters aswell as him. To the frequent and numerous guests at her sumptuous boardthese young girls seemed comparatively unanimated, if not actuallyunhappy. Not so with their mother. To do her full share in the uppercircles of good society, to dispense the pleasures of drawing-room anddining-room with generous frequency and captivating amiability, was theeager pursuit of a lady who nevertheless kept the management of her moneyaffairs, real estate, and slaves mainly in her own hands. Of slaves shehad ten, and housed most of them in the tall narrow wing that we havealready noticed.
We need not recount again the state of society about her at that time. Thedescription of it given by the young German duke whom we quoted withoutdate in the story of "Salome Muller" belongs exactly to this period.Grymes stood at the top and front of things. John Slidell was alreadyshining beside him. They were co-members of the Elkin Club, then in itsglory. It was trying energetically to see what incredible quantities ofMadeira it could drink. Judge Mazereau was "avocat-general" and was beinglampooned by the imbecile wit of the singers and dancers of the calinda inCongo Square. The tree-planted levee was still populous on summer eveningswith promenaders and loungers. The quadroon caste was in its dyingsplendor, still threatening the moral destruction of private society, andhated--as only woman can hate enemies of the hearthstone--by the proud,fair ladies of the Creole pure-blood, among whom Madame Lalaurie shonebrilliantly. Her elegant house, filled with "furniture of the most costlydescription,"--says the "New Orleans Bee" of a date which we shall cometo,--stood central in the swirl of "downtown" gayety, public and private.From Royal into Hospital street, across Circus street--rue de laCirque--that was a good way to get into Bayou Road, white, almost assnow, with its smooth, silent pavement of powdered shells. This roadfollowed the slow, clear meanderings of Bayou St. Jean, from red-roofedand embowered suburb St. Jean to the lake, the swamp of giant, grizzlybearded cypresses hugging it all the way, and the whole five miles teemingwith gay, swift carriages, some filled with smokers, others with ladiesand children, the finest equipage of all being, as you may recollect, thatof John Fitz Miller. He was at that very time master of Salome Muller, andof "several others fairer than Salome." He belongs in the present storyonly here in this landscape, and here not as a typical, but only as aneasily possible, slaveholder. For that matter, Madame Lalaurie, let it beplainly understood, was only another possibility, not a type. The twostories teach the same truth: that a public practice is answerable forwhatever can happen easier with it than without it, no matter whether itmust, or only may, happen. However, let the moral wait or skip it entirelyif you choose: a regular feature of that bright afternoon throng wasMadame Lalaurie's coach with the ever-so-pleasant Madame Lalaurie insideand her sleek black coachman on the box.
"Think," some friend would say, as he returned her courteous bow--"thinkof casting upon that woman the suspicion of starving and maltreating herown house-servants! Look at that driver; his skin shines with goodkeeping. The truth is those jealous Americans"--
There was intense jealousy between the Americans and the Creoles. TheAmericans were just beginning in public matters to hold the odds. Inprivate society the Creoles still held power, but it was slipping fromthem even there. Madame Lalaurie was a Creole. Whether Louisiana or St.Domingo born was no matter; she should not be criticised by American envy!Nor would the Creoles themselves go nosing into the secretest privacy ofher house.
"Why, look you, it is her common practice, even before her guests, toleave a little wine in her glass and hand it, with some word of kindness,to the slave waiting at her back. Thin and hollow-chested--the slaves?Yes, to be sure: but how about your rich uncle, or my dear old mother: arethey not hollow-chested? Well!"
But this kind of logic did not satisfy everybody, not even every Creole;and particularly not all her neighbors. The common populace too hadunflattering beliefs.
"Do you see this splendid house? Do you see those attic windows? There areslaves up there confined in chains and darkness and kept at the point ofstarvation."
A Creole gentleman, M. Montreuil, who seems to have been a neighbor, madeseveral attempts to bring the matter to light, but in vain. Yet rumors andsuspicious indications grew so rank that at length another prominentcitizen, an "American" lawyer, who had a young Creole studying law in hisoffice, ventured to send him to the house to point out to Madame Lalauriecertain laws of the State. For instance there was Article XX. of the oldBlack Code: "Slaves who shall not be properly fed, clad, and provided forby their masters, may give information thereof to the attorney-general orthe Superior Council, or to all the other officers of justice of aninferior jurisdiction, and may put the written exposition of their wrongsinto their hands; upon which information, and even ex officio, should theinformation come from another quarter, the attorney-general shallprosecute said masters," etc. But the young law student on making hisvisit was captivated by the sweetness of the lady whom he had been sent towarn against committing unlawful misdemeanors, and withdrew filled withindignation against any one who could suspect her of the slightestunkindness to the humblest living thing.