The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide, and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV

by Anne Somerset

  Mme Voisin had never managed to present her petition. Being admitted to the palace had not posed a problem, for anyone suitably attired was permitted to come to court, but gaining access to the King had proved another matter entirely. Realising that she would need the aid of an insider at court to stand any chance of a personal encounter, la Voisin had applied to the Duc de Montausier’s valet. After she had asked him to arrange for her to be advantageously placed, the serving man had done his best to be helpful, but his influence had been too limited to achieve anything. In early March 1679 la Voisin had gone to Saint-Germain on three consecutive days in hopes of presenting her petition, but she never came anywhere near the King. She had intended to try again, but before she could do so she had been arrested.

  La Reynie was worried that there had been any prospect of la Voisin having even the briefest contact with the King. He had become still more concerned when la Voisin had mentioned during one interview that Lesage had offered to ‘fit up’ the petition in a manner that would guarantee a successful outcome. La Voisin said melodramatically that she had not known what Lesage had meant by this and had not wanted to find out more.38 If Lesage had made such an offer (which he denied) in all probability he had merely intended to say an incantation intended to improve the chances of the petition being granted. Unfortunately, a much more frightening explanation took seed in the mind of La Reynie.

  * * *

  Besides his anxiety on this score La Reynie was disturbed by some other things he had learned about la Voisin. Ever since Lesage had declared that he had heard la Voisin boasting she was on the brink of earning 100,000 écus, La Reynie had pondered anxiously what sort of feat could ever have netted the divineress the vast payment. When pressed to offer an explanation, Lesage had answered vaguely that he believed the sum was in some way connected with visits la Voisin had made to Saint-Germain about five years earlier. He alleged that she had gone there to deliver powders but, to the end of her life, la Voisin insisted she had never been to Saint-Germain on such a mission. However, after la Voisin had been executed, La Reynie became convinced she had been lying, for some women who had shared a cell with her testified that she had evinced a terrible dread of being questioned more closely about her visits to Saint-Germain.39

  La Reynie noted that la Voisin had not denied telling people she had golden prospects and that she would soon be in possession of 100,000 écus. When La Reynie had questioned her as to the source, she answered that she had hoped Blessis’s projects would bring her huge profits or, alternatively, that another of her associates, Latour, would show her how to stabilise the ‘spirit of mercury’, which would unlock the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone. During her final interrogation she had declared that the 100,000 écus had been an insubstantial vision, ‘a thing up in the air’, but La Reynie remained convinced there had been more to it than that.40

  * * *

  If La Reynie had hoped that Marie Montvoisin would cast light on these matters, his initial interviews with her proved disappointing. At the end of March 1680 Marie was questioned about her mother’s activities and she replied that though she had realised that odd things took place in her home, she had not witnessed them. ‘Being young, she was always made to retire’ when her mother saw clients, although the smell of sulphur and incense, which often emanated from la Voisin’s cabinet, had left Marie in no doubt that bizarre rituals were being performed within. She recalled that on one occasion Lesage and her mother had despatched her to buy a live white pigeon. When she had brought it back, they had cut its throat and collected its blood in a goblet. However, they had then sent her away, so she did not know what they had done with it.

  Marie was then asked what she knew about the petition her mother had tried to present to the King just before her arrest. Marie said the petition had been drawn up by one of Blessis’s friends named Romani and it had been he who had been adamant that la Voisin must hand it to the King in person. Marie remembered that Romani had commented, ‘Provided that the King opened the petition himself it would be enough.’

  Marie added that she had heard Romani talk of another scheme. His brother was a priest and he acted as confessor to Mme de Montespan’s former personal maid, Mlle des Oeillets. Romani had wanted to meet Mlle des Oeillets and had announced he would gain access to her by pretending to be a silk merchant with wares to sell. Having secured an introduction in this way, he was confident she would prove a valuable contact.41 While there was nothing inherently sinister in this, La Reynie was interested by the possibility that Mlle des Oeillets – who Lesage had claimed was a client of la Voisin’s – had been associated with another member of la Voisin’s circle.

  * * *

  More than three months elapsed before Marie Montvoisin was interviewed again but when she was next questioned on 5 July 1680,42 she began to hint that there had been some deeper purpose behind la Voisin’s attempts to present the King with a petition. She said la Voisin’s colleague and fellow divineress, Catherine Trianon, had known of la Voisin’s plans and had been fearful of the consequences. On being informed by Marie that la Voisin had been arrested, la Trianon had not appeared surprised. Instead, she had merely commented that she had predicted la Voisin’s visit to Saint-Germain would bring misfortune on her and that she had been engaged in a dangerous business.

  Marie also revealed that though her mother had failed to present her petition during her abortive visit to Saint-Germain, she had intended to try again. When la Voisin’s husband had asked her why she was so obsessed about handing over the petition, she had answered excitably that she must achieve her objective or perish in the attempt. ‘What, perish?’ the startled Montvoisin had exclaimed. ‘It’s a bit much for a piece of paper.’

  During this interrogation Marie was asked if she had ever met the priest Étienne Guibourg. Later she would declare that she had watched Guibourg perform the most atrocious acts imaginable but for the moment she maintained that she barely knew him. She said she had glimpsed Guibourg on two or three occasions at her mother’s house but had never really become acquainted with him.

  Marie seemed taken aback by another question that was put to her in the course of the interview. She was asked whether she had been aware if the petition that had so exercised her mother had been treated in some unspecified fashion. From this Marie deduced there were suspicions that the document had been impregnated with poison. Startled, she blurted out that she did not think one could do something like that to a piece of paper and that, if the petition had really posed a danger, she would not have failed to warn the authorities.

  Once back in her cell, Marie reflected on all this at her leisure. Having pondered her situation for a week, on 12 July she called La Reynie and Bezons to her, saying that she had important things to tell them.43

  Marie proceeded to make a series of horrifying allegations.44 She began by stating she had only just learned her mother had been executed and that this had spurred her into making a declaration. Hitherto she had been afraid that if she revealed all she knew, she would harm her mother, but now there was no point in trying to protect her. Marie then confirmed that the petition which was to have been presented to the King had been poisoned. The intention was to kill the King and the plot had been formulated with the connivance of la Trianon.

  She went on to say that la Voisin had conceived another wicked plan with Romani, the friend of Blessis whom Marie had already mentioned. She had a good reason to hold a grudge against this man. In the months prior to her arrest, la Voisin had tried to persuade him to marry her daughter but, having discovered that Marie had already given birth to another man’s child, Romani had shown little interest in the idea. Marie was now able to take a spectacular revenge for the manner he had spurned her.

  She explained that Romani had intended to pose as a silk merchant while pretending that a friend of his named Bertrand was his servant. Thus disguised, he had hoped to approach the King’s mistress, Mlle de Fontanges. Once admitted to her presence, he was going to offer
her a piece of gorgeous cloth, which had previously been treated with poison and which would kill her if she wore it. In case Mlle de Fontanges showed no interest in purchasing the cloth, Romani was also going to bring with him a pair of exquisite gloves, which she would be unable to resist. They, too, were to have been coated with poison and, like the cloth, would prove fatal to their wearer.

  It was envisaged that by the time the poison took its effect on Mlle de Fontanges, the King would already be dead, having succumbed to the fumes emanating from la Voisin’s petition. Marie said she had heard her mother and Romani say that when Mlle de Fontanges died it would be assumed that grief had killed her. What was more, Romani had hoped to despatch another victim using similar methods. According to Marie, he was intending to murder the Marquis de Termes, Blessis’s captor, by making him a gift of a poisoned dressing gown.

  It was now incumbent on Marie to put forward a reason why her mother should have become involved in this assassination plot. She suggested that money was behind it, for she knew her mother was expecting a payment of 100,000 écus. She had also heard la Voisin talk of escaping to England, the implication being that after she had killed the King, France would no longer be safe for her. What was more, Marie had an idea as to the identity of the person who had commissioned her mother to carry out this deed. She recalled that la Trianon had once asked la Voisin how she could be sure they would be well rewarded for their efforts, to which la Voisin had answered she was confident Mme de Montespan would not betray them.

  Marie turned out to have a great deal more to say on the subject of Mme de Montespan. She now saw fit to reveal that Mme de Montespan had been a client of her mother’s for five or six years. Her mother and others had performed spells designed to strengthen the King’s love for her, and on numerous occasions la Voisin had also delivered love powders to Mme de Montespan at Saint-Germain and Clagny. Sometimes la Voisin had taken priests with her and Étienne Guibourg had been one of those who had regularly accompanied her. However, it had recently become apparent that all these measures had proved ineffective. Realising that the King’s love for her was inexorably declining, Mme de Montespan had determined to punish him for his rejection of her.

  Marie concluded with some new information about another person whose name had already featured in the inquiry. She declared that not only had Mlle des Oeillets known all about her employer’s dealings with la Voisin, but the maid herself had regularly come to la Voisin for consultations. She had tried to preserve her anonymity by asking la Voisin never to address her by name but one day Marie had discovered who the mystery client was when la Voisin had thoughtlessly called out to Mlle des Oeillets as she was leaving.

  * * *

  It all added up to an extraordinary story and if even only part of it was true the implications were terrifying. In a bid to assess the truth of it La Reynie next interrogated Romani, who had been arrested in consequence of Marie’s claims that he had planned to poison Mlle de Fontanges. Romani struck La Reynie as a person ideally fitted to lead an audacious secret conspiracy. He was a highly personable man of thirty-five who had ‘had all sorts of professions’, though at the time of his arrest this former soldier, servant and postal clerk was unemployed. He had a natural wit and frank air that was very appealing but, according to Marie Montvoisin, he was also such a master of disguise that he had sometimes been quite unrecognisable when he visited her mother. La Reynie found this easy to believe, for even though Romani’s answers under interrogation do not convey an impression of enormous cunning, the Police Chief summed him up as ‘the most crafty and subtle man one could possibly imagine’.45

  La Reynie’s apprehension became still more acute when Romani corroborated some aspects of Marie’s story. He agreed that he had encouraged la Voisin to present her petition in person, for he had thought this the best way of securing the release of his friend Blessis. He also confirmed that he had hoped to devise a way of selling gloves or rich materials to Mlle de Fontanges, although he insisted he had simply desired to make some money and that his intentions had been in no way malign. When asked how he intended to finance the enterprise, or from where he would obtain his wares, he became vague, saying he had not thought as far ahead as that. La Reynie was no less disturbed when Romani acknowledged that he had been introduced to Mlle des Oeillets by his brother. Though he claimed to have spoken to her no more than two or three times, he said he had thought she might use her influence to procure him a job in a noblewoman’s household.46

  * * *

  On 26 July Marie Montvoisin was questioned again. The written record of the interview is missing but it may have been now that she put forward a slight refinement of her earlier tale. Certainly, about this time she explained how it had been agreed that if la Voisin did not manage to present her petition to the King la Trianon would murder him instead. She had planned to do this by going to court and throwing herself before him as he passed. Then, while she clasped his knees in seeming supplication, she would deftly slip some poisonous powder into his pocket. The next time the King used his handkerchief he would die.

  As the Controller-General of Finance, Colbert, later pointed out, carrying out this plan would have been ‘an absolutely impossible thing’.47 It was preposterous to think that la Trianon would have been permitted to accost the King in this fashion, let alone that she could then have accomplished the feat of filling his pocket with poison unobserved. Nevertheless, despite its obvious flaws, Marie’s story was taken seriously.

  On 13 August Marie went through her story one more time and provided a few more embellishments.48 She stated that whenever Mme de Montespan had feared the King’s love for her was wavering she had contacted la Voisin. The latter would then arrange for masses to be said so that the King’s desire would reawaken and la Voisin would also provide Mme de Montespan with love powders she could give to Louis. Some of these powders had been made stronger by being passed under Guibourg’s chalice while he was saying mass. Mme de Montespan’s maid, Mlle des Oeillets, would sometimes come to collect these powders for her mistress. Marie had seen her do this on numerous occasions and she was confident that if Mlle des Oeillets were brought before her she would recognise her. On the other hand, she had never laid eyes on Mme de Montespan.

  Marie then sorrowfully related how Mme de Montespan’s fury had mounted as, despite la Voisin’s best efforts, the King’s love for her had steadily receded. Athénaïs had therefore decided to adopt more extreme measures, which la Voisin had viewed with repugnance, but with which she reluctantly collaborated. La Trianon was also in on the murder plot, though she had not been directly employed by Mme de Montespan. Instead, she had been retained by another mystery individual, whom she had referred to as ‘Monsieur le Marquis’.

  On 17 August some attempt was made to verify Marie’s claims when a confrontation was arranged between her and la Trianon. Clearly aghast at being accused of such things, la Trianon frantically denied that she had been trying to kill the King, but Marie was merely spurred on by these rebuttals. Quite undaunted, on 20 August she made a new statement49 saying that, since la Trianon would not tell the truth, she had no alternative but to disclose fresh facts.

  Marie’s new revelations were shocking in the extreme. She declared that Guibourg had carried out black masses on the stomachs of naked women at her mother’s house and that Mme de Montespan had been one of those who had permitted her body to be thus defiled. Marie then went into abundant detail about what took place during these ceremonies, recalling how each lady had lain stretched out on a mattress, supported by two chairs placed fairly close together. The head protruded backwards over one side, but was cushioned by a pillow placed on another slightly lower chair, while at the other end the legs were left dangling. Guibourg would then place the cross and the chalice on the naked woman’s stomach.

  Marie said that to the best of her knowledge the first time such a mass had taken place at her mother’s had been six years ago. At that time la Voisin had considered Marie too young
to watch the proceedings, but Marie had been permitted to help with the preparations by arranging the mattress on the chairs and lighting candles. Once Marie was a bit older, her mother had allowed her to be present when black masses were celebrated.

  It was Marie’s recollection that Mme de Montespan had first had a black mass celebrated on her about three years earlier. Once the ceremony was over, la Voisin had told Mme de Montespan that if she wanted her wishes to be hearkened to, it was necessary to repeat the procedure on two separate occasions. At this the lady had protested that she really could not find the time, whereupon la Voisin had offered to spare her the inconvenience by acting as her proxy at the two remaining masses. The lady had assented to this proposal and Marie had been present when Guibourg had once again performed his ungodly ritual, with la Voisin in Mme de Montespan’s place.

  Marie’s testimony is so ambivalent that it is unclear whether or not she wished it to be thought she had been present when Mme de Montespan had had mass celebrated on her. Certainly, however, she now contradicted her earlier assertion that she had never met Mme de Montespan. She said that her mother had first begun delivering powders to Mme de Montespan about two and a half years ago and that since then she had several times used Marie as a courier. One day when Mme de Montespan had been visiting la Voisin the latter had brought Marie before her and asked if Mme de Montespan would be able to recognise her. It was then arranged that in a few days’ time Mme de Montespan was to go to a Paris church, where Marie would be waiting outside. When Marie saw the lady she was to signal her readiness by pretending to spit; then, as the two women walked past each other, she would slip Mme de Montespan a packet of powder. This worked so well that Marie was subsequently employed again on similar errands. On one occasion she was instructed to wait on the road between Ville Avray and Clagny, and when Mme de Montespan drove by she briefly halted the coach so that Marie could hand her more powders.