Poisoning in the Seventeenth Century.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XXI, Issue 2090, 27 September 1899, Page 3

Poisoning m the Seventeenth Century.

The seventeenth, century remains m ou imagination as tha culminating point o all the elegance mi greatness of France We call it le grand sieele, and Louis Xl\ is le grand roi. If we would form j better opinion of. our own time, m con trast with past ages, and see the shadows behind the glaring light of the seven^ teenth century, we can do no better that to read a work just published on the ' Drama of the Poisons,' by M. FunckBrentano. This elaborate work is very fully documented, if I may be allowed to use a modern expression applied to all historical works which are considered worth reading. M. Funck-Brentano has plunged into the history of the Bastille m the Archives of the Prefecture of Police where all the papers containing particulars of the poisons are preserved ; he has found m the library of Rouen the papers concerning Le Voisin, one of the women who made a trade of furnishing poison. The trial of the Marchioness He Brinvilliers, who was one of the chief poisoners is still remembered. Her rank has given her an historic notoriety ; but she was only one among a number of men and Women who used poison freely m the seventeenth century. There 'were regular associations of alchemists, magicians, sorcerers, poisoners. When the lieutenant of police, La Reynie, first penetrated this world of crime, ne was so moved that he wrote :' Human life has become a matter of trade ; poisoning is the great remedy m all family embarrassments; impiety, sacrilege, abominations are common practises iv Paris, m the country, m the provinces.' " The belief m sorcery was still popular m the seventeenth century. Jean Bodin, the illustrious author of ' Six Books on the Republic,' wrote a treatise called ' Demonomania, or a treatise on Sorcerers.' His definition of a sorcerer is this : A person who, by diabolical and forbidden means, attempts to obtain something. ' Sorcerars, men and wemen, formed a vast association ; they had traditional secrets, formulas, habit?, ceremonies, generally of the most infamous, impious, and indecent character.' They had their own mass, called the black mass. They were doctors and alchemists. They revealed the future, they found hidden treasure ; they were alchemists, and tried to discover the philosopher's stone for converting all metals into gold. The woman called Le Voisin was a typical specimen of the sorceress of the seventeenth century— very different from the more ancient sorceress described by Michelet. She earned annually as much as 400,C00 francs ; she had many lovers, and gave dinners. Among her lovers was the executioner of Paris, Andre Guillaume, who beheaded Madame de Brinvilliers. Le Voisin was a mere charlatan ; she delivered her oracles to persons of all ranks m a splendid gown, and with a mantle covered with golJen eagles. She was a real believer m alchemy. She wag also a doctor, like all sorceresses, and had recipes for every malady, bho watt known to help abortive practices, and once m a moment of sincerity, she confessed to having burnt or interred m her garden the bodies of more than 2500 children, prematuely born. Curiously enough, she insisted upon these children being baptised. The crimes of this horrible creature were sttch that the lieutenant of police Was appalled by the confession of them One can easily image the stupor of Louis XIV when they were revealed to him. A special commission was appointed to investigate what was called the affair of the poisons. This commission is known m history under the name of the ' chambre ardente.' The arrests worn made by lettre de cachet. Four hundred and forty-two persons appeared before the special commission, and 218 persons were kept m prison. Thirty-six persons were condemned to death and executed, five were condemned to the gallows, 23 were banishrd. The declarations of tho vendors of poison before the chambre ardpntro were of such gravity that Louis XIV gave special orders that they should bo kept secret. The name of Madame de Montespan, the King's favourite, was pronounced. Her ambition was extreme. She had made great efforts to supplant Mdlle. de la Val Here, , and by degrees had established her empire over the King. Her favour lasted 14 years, and she had no less than seveu children by Louis XLV, the eldest being the Due dv Maine. The eldest daughter Mdlle. de Nantes, married the Due de Bourbon ; another daughter, Mdlle. de Blois, married the Dnc d'Orleans. Marguerite le Vois : n, the daughter, declared before the judges that Madame do Moutespan paid frequent \is!ts to her mother whenever she feared a diminution of the King's good graces and a rival. Her mother then had recourse to some priest', who said special masses, and gave her philters for the Kin^, m the form of powders. When M-sr^uerite le Voison made this deposition, her mother had been burnt on the scaffold several months before. Many historians have thought that, if the sorceress tried to compromise people m high positions, it was m the hope of saving their own lives ; but Le Voisin never pnonounced the name of Madame de Montespan, perhaps because she feared the terrible punishment of the regicides. The relations of Madame de Montespan with the sorcerers seem to have begun m 1667, when the King first turned his eyes towardsher.