The Art of Seduction (63 page)

queen's behavior toward him, and a barely perceptible glance at him. He was overjoyed. Now the countess suggested they exchange letters, and Rohan spent days writing and rewriting his first letter to the queen. To his delight he received one back. Next the queen requested a private interview with him in the gardens of Versailles. Rohan was beside himself with happiness and anxiety. At nightfall he met the queen in the gardens, fell to the ground, and kissed the hem of her dress. "You may hope that the past will be forgotten," she said. At this moment they heard voices approaching, and the queen, frightened that someone would see them together, quickly fled with her servants. But Rohan soon received a request from her, again through the countess: she desperately wanted to acquire the most beautiful diamond necklace ever created. She needed a go-between to purchase it for her, since the king thought it too expensive. She had chosen Rohan for the task. The cardinal was only too willing; in performing this task he would prove his loyalty, and the queen would be indebted to him forever. Rohan acquired the necklace. The countess was to deliver it to the queen. Now Rohan waited for the queen both to thank him and slowly to pay him

back.

Yet this never happened. The countess was in fact a grand swindler; the queen had never nodded to him, he had only imagined it. The letters he had received from her were forgeries, and not even very good ones. The woman he had met in the park had been a prostitute paid to dress and act the part. The necklace was of course real, but once Rohan had paid for it, and handed it over to the countess, it disappeared. It was broken into parts, which were hawked all over Europe for enormous amounts. And when

Rohan finally complained to the queen, news of the extravagant purchase spread rapidly. The public believed Rohan's story—that the queen had indeed bought the necklace, and was pretending otherwise. This fiction was the first step in the ruin of her reputation.

Everyone has lost something in life, has felt the pangs of disappointment. The idea that we can get something back, that a mistake can be righted, is immensely seductive. Under the impression that the queen was prepared to forgive some mistake he had made, Rohan hallucinated all kinds of things—nods that did not exist, letters that were the flimsiest of forgeries, a prostitute who became Marie Antoinette. The mind is infinitely vulnerable to suggestion, and even more so when strong desires are involved. And nothing is stronger than the desire to change the past, right a wrong, satisfy a disappointment. Find these desires in your victims and creating a believable fantasy will be simple for you: few have the power to see through an illusion they desperately want to believe in.

Confuse Desire and Reality
—
The Perfect Illusion • 307

Symbol:
Shangri-La. Everyone has a vision in their mind of a
perfect place where people are kind and noble, where their

dreams can be realized and their wishes fulfilled, where life

is full of adventure and romance. Lead the target on a

journey there, give them a glimpse of Shangri-

La through the mists on the mountain,

and they will fall in love.

Reversal

There is no reversal to this chapter. No seduction can proceed without creating illusion, the sense of a world that is real but separate from reality.

Isolate the Victim

An iso-

lated person is weak.

By slowly isolating your vic-

tims, you make them more vul-

nerable to your influence. Their

isolation may be psychological: by filling

their field of vision through the pleasurable

attention you pay them, you crowd out every-

thing else in their mind. They see and think

only of you. The isolation may also be physi-

cal: you take them away from their normal mi-

lieu, friends, family, home. Give them the

sense of being marginalized, in limbo
—
they

are leaving one world behind and entering

another. Once isolated like this, they have

no outside support, and in their confu-

sion they are easily led astray.

Lure the seduced into your

lair, where nothing is

familiar.

Isolation—the Exotic Effect

In the early fifth century B.C., Fu Chai, the Chinese king of Wu, defeated his great enemy, Kou Chien, the king of Yueh, in a series of battles. Kou Chien was captured and forced to serve as a groom in Fu Chai's stables. He was finally allowed to return home, but every year he had to pay a large tribute of money and gifts to Fu Chai. Over the years, this tribute added up, so that the kingdom of Wu prospered and Fu Chai grew wealthy

One year Kou Chien sent a delegation to Fu Chai: they wanted to
In the state of Wu great
know if he would accept a gift of two beautiful maidens as part of the trib-
preparations had been
made for the reception of

ute. Fu Chai was curious, and accepted the offer. The women arrived a few
the two beauties. The king
days later, amid much anticipation, and the king received them in his
received them in audience
palace. The two approached the throne—their hair was magnificently coif-
surrounded by his ministers
and all his court. As they

fured, in what was called "the cloud-cluster" style, ornamented with pearl
approached him the jade
ornaments and kingfisher feathers. As they walked, jade pendants hanging
pendants attached to their
from their girdles made the most delicate sound. The air was full of some
girdles made a musical
sound and the air was

delightful perfume. The king was extremely pleased. The beauty of one of
fragrant with the scent of
the girls far surpassed that of the other; her name was Hsi Shih. She looked
their gowns. Pearl
him in the eye without a hint of shyness; in fact she was confident and co-
ornaments and kingfisher
feathers adorned their hair.

quettish, something he was not used to seeing in such a young girl.

•
Fu Chai, the king of

Fu Chai called for festivities to commemorate the occasion. The halls
Wu, looked into the lovely
of the palace filled with revelers; inflamed with wine, Hsi Shih danced be-
eyes of Hsi Shih
fore the king. She sang, and her voice was beautiful. Reclining on a couch
(495-472 B.C.) and
forgot his people and his

of white jade, she looked like a goddess. The king could not leave her side.
state. Now she did not
The next day he followed her everywhere. To his astonishment, she was
turn away and blush as she
witty, sharp, and knowledgeable, and could quote the classics better than he
had done three years
previously beside the little

could. When he had to leave her to deal with royal affairs, his mind was full
brook. She was complete
of her image. Soon he brought her with him to his councils, asking her ad-
mistress of the art of
vice on important matters. She told him to listen less to his ministers; he
seduction and she knew
how to encourage the king

was wiser than they were, his judgment superior.

to look again. Fu Chai

Hsi Shih's power grew daily. Yet she was not easy to please; if the king
hardly noticed the second
failed to grant some wish of hers, tears would fill her eyes, his heart would
girl, whose quiet charms
did not attract him. He

melt, and he would yield. One day she begged him to build her a palace
had eyes only for Hsi
outside the capital. Of course, he obliged her. And when he visited the
Shih, and before the
palace, he was astounded at its magnificence, even though he had paid
audience was over those at
the bills: Hsi Shih had filled it with the most extravagant furnishings. The
court realized that the girl
would be a force to be

grounds contained an artificial lake with marble bridges crossing over it. Fu
reckoned with and that she
Chai spent more and more time here, sitting by a pool and watching Hsi
would be able to influence
311

312 • The Art of Seduction

the king either for good

Shih comb her hair, using the pool as a mirror. He would watch her play
or ill.
. . .
• Amidst the
ing with her birds, in their jeweled cages, or simply walking through the
revelers in the halls of Wu,
palace, for she moved like a willow in the breeze. The months went by; he
Hsi Shih wove her net

of fascination about the
stayed in the palace. He missed councils, ignored his family and friends, ne
heart of the susceptible
glected his public functions. He lost track of time. When a delegation came
monarch. . . . "Inflamed

to talk to him of urgent matters, he was too distracted to listen. If anything
by wine, she now begins to

sing / The songs of Wu to
but Hsi Shih took up his time, he worried unbearably that she would be
please the fatuous king; /

angry.

And in the dance of Tsu

Finally word reached him of a growing crisis: the fortune he had spent
she subtly blends /All

rhythmic movements to her
on the palace had bankrupted the treasury, and the people were discon
sensuous ends." . . . But
tented. He returned to the capital, but it was too late: an army from the
she could do more than
kingdom of Yueh had invaded Wu, and had reached the capital. All was
sing and dance to amuse
lost. Fu Chai had no time to rejoin his beloved Hsi Shih. Instead of letting
the king. She had wit, and

her grasp of politics
himself be captured by the king of Yueh, the man who had once served in
astonished him. When
his stables, he committed suicide.

there was anything she

Little did he know that Kou Chien had plotted this invasion for years,
wanted she could shed tears

which so moved her lover's

and that Hsi Shih's elaborate seduction was the main part of his plan.
heart that he could refuse

her nothing. For she was,

as Fan Li had said, the

one and only, the

Interpretation.
Kou Chien wanted to make sure that his invasion of Wu
incomparable Hsi Shih,
would not fail. His enemy was not Fu Chai's armies, or his wealth and his
whose magnetic personality

resources, but his mind. If he could be deeply distracted, his mind filled
attracted everyone, many
with something other than affairs of state, he would fall like ripe fruit.
even against their own

will.
. . . •
Embroidered

Kou Chien found the most beautiful maiden in his realm. For three

silk curtains encrusted with
years he had her trained in all of the arts—not just singing, dancing, and
coral and gems, scented

calligraphy, but how to dress, how to talk, how to play the coquette. And it
furniture and screens inlaid

with jade and mother-of-

worked: Hsi Shih did not allow Fu Chai a moment's rest. Everything about
pearl were among the
her was exotic and unfamiliar. The more attention he paid to her hair, her
luxuries which surrounded

moods, her glances, the way she moved, the less he thought about diplo
the favorite. . . . On one
of the hills near the palace
macy and war. He was driven to distraction.
there was a celebrated pool

All of us today are kings protecting the tiny realm of our own lives,
of clear water which has
weighed down by all kinds of responsibilities, surrounded by ministers and
been known ever since as

the pool of the king of
advisers. A wall forms around us—we are immune to the influence of other
Wu. Here, to amuse her
people, because we are so preoccupied. Like Hsi Shih, then, you must lure
lover, Hsi Shih would
your targets away, gently, slowly, from the affairs that fill their mind. And
make her toilet, using the
what will best lure them from their castles is the whiff of the exotic. Offer
pool as a mirror while

the infatuated king combed

something unfamiliar that will fascinate them and hold their attention. Be
her hair. . . .

different in your manners and appearance, and slowly envelop them in this

—ELOISE TALCOTT HIBBERT,

different world of yours. Keep your targets off balance with coquettish
EMBROIDERED GAUZE:

changes of mood. Do not worry that the disruption you represent is mak
PORTRAITS OR FAMOUS