La Fontaine has treated the same subject in three of his fables. It is in one of these, _Les Devineresses_, published in 1678, consequently before the famous drama _Les Poisons_, in which he shows himself very well acquainted with what the police had not yet been sufficiently clever to discover. He knew marvellously well the existence of the _poudre de succession_ and of the _poudre pour l'amour_: Une femme, a Paris, faisait la pythonisse. On l'allait consulter sur chaque evenement; Perdait-on un chiffon, avait-on un amant, Un mari vivant trop, au gre de son epouse, Une mere facheuse, une femme jalouse, Chez la Devineuse on courait, Pour se faire annoncer ce que l'on desirait. The warning was not heeded, and it needed the "burning chamber" of 1680 to make honest people comprehend that "clairvoyant" was too often another name for "seller of poisons." La Fontaine had, however, given no new information about the confidence inspired. This fact was already too well known. This dangerous agency, of which we have already had a glimpse on the occasion of the first search for Lesage and Mariette, merits some descriptive details. In Paris, during a period of twenty years, it was so mixed up with intrigues and crimes that it exercised a real influence over the morals of the Parisian world and through it over the affairs at Court. Like a wave of madness it swept over the heads especially of the women. Many of these, even those not directly mingling in political life, were in a state of revolt, inconsolable for having lost the importance acquired during the civil troubles. Women had been emancipated by the force of affairs. During the actual fighting and the general disorders which ensued, the habit of remaining in the shade of obedience was lost; also the considering themselves only as objects of luxury. Louis XIV. had undertaken the task of bringing the sex back to the playing of a decorative or utilitarian role. It was almost as if to-day we should demand of our daughters, so free, so mingled with the general movement, to return suddenly to the self-effacement and the thousand restraints of our own youth. They would be transported with rage. In 1666, the larger portion of the clients of the necromancer sought above everything else a secret by the aid of which they might shake off the yoke that had again fallen upon their shoulders. The husband was the natural incarnation of this yoke. It was therefore against him that the revolt was habitually directed. The wives addressed themselves to a clairvoyant. The first consultation was generally innocent enough.