The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV (51 page)

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.
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Marie proceeded to make a series of horrifying allegations.
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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.

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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’.
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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.
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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’.
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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.
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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 statement
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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.

La Voisin had been planning to make further use of Marie. Shortly before her arrest she had told her daughter that she intended to send her to Clagny to ask Mme de Montespan for a down payment of 2000 écus. This sum could be used by Romani to purchase the rich cloth and gloves that would be used to kill Mlle de Fontanges.

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As Marie’s tale had unfolded, the King had been kept fully informed, but we do not know what he thought of it. Louis had spent the summer of 1680 touring northern France and the border regions of Flanders. Mme de Montespan had followed with the rest of the court but it is clear that throughout the voyage she saw very little of him. This was interpreted merely as being a sign of her continuing decline, but the King’s aloofness was doubtless also attributable to the reports concerning her that were being sent from Paris.

Louis now had to contemplate the possibility that the woman with whom he had had the most prolonged and passionate love affair of his life, and who had borne him seven children, had sustained their relationship by participating in repellent practices, and recourse to witchcraft and drugs. When these methods had failed her, she had allegedly turned to poison to satisfy her twisted desires.

It is not clear whether the King believed any of this, but one thing is noteworthy. When he had been told in January 1680 that Mlle des Oeillets had been accused of dealings with la Voisin he had protested that this must be a monstrous slur, for it was unthinkable that she could be involved in anything disreputable. Now that Mme de Montespan had come under suspicion the King, so far as we know, did not raise similar objections.

Following Marie Montvoisin’s disclosures on 12 July, La Reynie had at once written to Louvois to tell him what she had said. On 21 July Louvois wrote back from Calais saying he had informed the King of all this. Without mentioning Mme de Montespan, Louvois stated that the King desired La Reynie to do everything he could to establish the truth about the petition to which so many prisoners had alluded.
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