Princes and Poisoners: Studies of the Court of Louis XIVFunck-Brentano, Frantz
History
Princes and Poisoners: Studies of the Court of Louis XIV
Funck-Brentano, Frantz
France -- Court and courtiers; France -- History -- Louis XIV, 1643-1715; Poisoners
Madame Leféron, who also belonged to judicial society, was less pleasant
in appearance. The daughter of a Parlement counsellor, her maiden name
was Marguerite Galart. Her husband, president of the first court of
_enquêtes_, is represented in the _Tableau du Parlement_ of 1661 as 'a
good judge, of solid judgment and firm opinion, never changing except on
good grounds, unprejudiced, loving rule and order, a good and
disinterested man.' He had given proof of independence of character at
the time of Fouquet's case, by showing clemency to the superintendent.
Madame Leféron found him a bore, avaricious, and further--how can one
say it?--insufficient. Yet the fair dame had passed her fiftieth year.
But she was madly smitten with one Monsieur de Prade, who on his side
was in love with her money. She asked La Voisin for poisons to kill her
husband, and de Prade went to her for charms to help him win the heart
of his mistress. La Voisin gave them all they wanted: phials to the
lady, and to the gallant a mask of virgin wax representing the face of
Madame Leféron. This, enclosed in a zinc box, was to be warmed every now
and then, which would warm the heart of the lady. De Prade gave La
Voisin a note for 20,000 livres--£4000 to-day.
The phials produced their effect, and Leféron died on September 8, 1669.
The waxen mask was equally successful, and Madame Leféron married de
Prade. On February 20, 1680, as she went to the stake, La Voisin said to
Sagot, clerk to the court: 'It is quite true that Madame Leféron came to
see me, most joyous at being a widow, and when I asked her if the phial
of liquid had taken effect, she said, "Effect or not, he is done for!"'
De Prade appeared no less happy. He scoured the city in a brand-new
carriage, 'with three or four lackeys behind.' His joy was short. The
lady saw that her new husband thought chiefly of getting 'donations' out
of her, and the husband soon saw that his wife was trying to poison him
in his turn. He fled to the Turks. On April 7, 1680, Madame Leféron was
condemned to banishment beyond the borders of the viscounty of Paris and
to a fine of 1500 livres, though there were, as Louvois wrote to Louis
XIV, thirteen or fourteen witnesses of her crime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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