City of Light, City of Poison

by Holly Tucker

215“of Madame de Montespan”: Interrogatoire de la fille Voisin, 9 October 1680 (6: 332–334). See also Declaration of Filastre, n.d., BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol. 80; Confrontation between Guibourg and Voisin’s daughter, 23 October 1680, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fols. 237–238; Interrogation of Voisin’s daughter, 30 August 1680, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fols. 239 and 245–246. Ravaisson’s transcription is incomplete.

  215change his mind: Mémoire de M. de la Reynie sur le fait touchant les abominations, le sacrifice de l’enfant pour La des Oeillets et pour l’étranger prétendu milord anglais, n.d. (6: 398).

  216“justice’s failures”: Second mémoire envoyé par M. de la Reynie, 11 Octobre 1680 (6: 339).

  216“darkness that surrounds me”: Ibid.

  216whatever he felt necessary: Ibid., and “Mémoire de Sagot” ca. end of 1681. (6: 346–348).

  CHAPTER 31

  “A Strange Agitation”

  217Guibourg also blessed: Confrontation between Guibourg and Voisin’s daughter, 23 October 1680, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol. 237. This joint interrogation is not included in Ravaisson.

  218on the road to Versailles: Projet d’un rapport de M. de la Reynie au Roi (6: 364–375), n.d.

  218with anyone at court: La Reynie to Louvois, 22 October 1680 (6: 351).

  219saying her name aloud: Colbert, Mémoire contre les faits calomnieux, 419–420.

  219did not believe Oeillets one bit: Louvois to La Reynie, 24 November 1680; Louvois to La Reynie, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol 193; note autographe de la Reynie, 15 February 1681.

  220totaled 442 people: BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol. 17.

  220“most general of terms”: La Reynie to Louvois, 23 January 1681, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol. 61. I cite here only the original, given its graphic complexities; for Ravaisson’s transcription, see 6: 417–419.

  220“these sad affairs”: Ibid., fol. 62.

  220“the public good”: Ibid., fol. 63.

  221“strange agitation”: Compte rendu au Roy par M. de la Reynie, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fols. 64–227, esp. 95, 102, 106, 109. La Reynie’s “conjectures” initiated the review of evidence by Louvois, Colbert, and the king that resulted in reopening the tribunal in May 1681. Although La Reynie’s letter is not dated, he would have had to compose his treatise before that date but after Louvois’s meetings with Oeillets in November 1680, to which he makes reference in his treatise.

  221“for justice”: Ibid., fols. 114, 141.

  221a secret court: Ibid., fol. 94.

  221two hundred pages: BNF, mss. français, 7608, fols. 6–14.

  222Claude Duplessis: Colbert, Lettres instructions et mémoires (6: 67–68, 407–430).

  222“such abominations”: Clément, Montespan 99. See also Colbert, Lettres instructions et memoires (6: 417).

  222unable to identify Oeillets: Colbert, 420.

  223God-given wisdom in this matter: Ibid.

  223“desires of the king”: Ibid., 422.

  223“the Affair would not end”: Ibid., 423.

  224“no memory of it remains”: Ibid., 424.

  225emptying Vincennes: BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol. 380.

  225remains unknown: Petitfils, Affaire, 235–237.

  225uncomfortably on the floor: Louvois to M. Chauvelin, 26 August 1682 (7: 112–113).

  225“smallest noise”: Petitfils, Affaire, 237.

  CHAPTER 32

  Lock and Key

  226seals be removed: See BNF, mss. français, 7608, fols. 32–33 and 34–49, which contain an inventory of the documents in Sagot’s home.

  227declared Madame de Sévigné: Sévigné, 3: 354.

  228“pull out their roots”: Edit du Roy pour la punition de différens crimes, 3–4.

  228track all such sales: Ibid., 6–7.

  228“she has ever given me”: Fraser, 197.

  228“He needs you”: Maintenon, Correspondence générale, vol. 2, edited by Théophile Lavillée (Paris: Charpentier, 1865), p. 301.

  229“bubbly spirit”: L’Abbé de Choisy, cited in Saint-Amand, 72.

  229more than passion: Saint-Amand, 68.

  229the Montorgeuil neighborhood: Lemoine convincingly refutes claims that Oeillets died in 1686 during sequestration, attributing Louvois’s reference to her death as a misreporting. See Louvois to La Reynie (7: 134) and Lemoine, 41–42.

  229the couple once shared: Somerset, 142.

  229walked out the door: Ibid., 144.

  230the early hours of the morning: Ibid.

  230he made sure in his will: La Reynie’s will and will addenda are reproduced in Nabour.

  Epilogue

  231or the galleys: BNF, mss. français, 7608, fols. 1–2, which list each day the tribunal met, marking pauses between 28 August and 23 November 1679, 16 May and 3 August 1680, and 31 September 1680 and 16 May 1681, and include a supplementary accounting by La Reynie, BNF, mss. français, 7608, fol. 380.

  232well-protected courtyard: For a detailed presentation of the archive’s history, see Funck-Brentano, Archives de la Bastille: La Formation du Dépôt.

  233slated for demolition: Funck-Brentano, Archives, 10. In 1684 the dungeon of Vincennes was decommissioned as a prison; the remaining records were transferred to the Bastille and were among many of those destroyed in 1789.

  233rediscovered them: Funck-Brentano, Archives, 12–13.

  234massive Bastille collection: Ravaisson’s son, Louis, continued his father’s work, publishing a seventeenth volume.

  237“that I commit them all”: Fraser, 181.

  238“out of Vincennes”: Ferronaye took offense to Louvois’s letter, claiming to have difficulties with Desgrez. Unsurprisingly, Louvois shot back another letter, threatening once again to go to the king. Louvois to Ferronnaye, 8 May, 1680 (6: 209–210). In a menacing letter to the jailer, Louvois wrote: “I will let you give some thought to what His Majesty would do if such rumors made it to [his] ears. I believe it is not necessary to tell you that, by whatever means necessary, it is important that this disorder cease now” (6: 208). See also Louvois from Desgrez, 15 March 1680 (6: 191); Louvois to Ferronnaye, 2 May 1680 (6: 208).

  238Louvois ordered Ferronnaye: Louvois to Ferronnaye, 16 July 1680 (6: 254).

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