Almost immediately afterwards she quitted Paris with plenty of money,
her husband, who was well off, having left her all his property. The
Paris police, through their agents and spies, ascertained that she
proceeded direct to Bordeaux, where, in a very short time, she united
herself to a handsome young man, the only son of an exceedingly wealthy
Bordeaux wine-merchant. She had changed her name at this stage to Marie
Tailleux. She had a well-developed figure, an enormous quantity of jet
black hair, and perfect teeth. In other respects she was considered
to be ugly, by some even repulsive. And yet she exercised a fatal
fascination over men, though women feared and hated her.
She went from Bordeaux to London with the wine-merchant’s son, and
six months later the English people were treated to a sensation.
‘Madame and Monsieur Tailleux’ travelled extensively about England and
Scotland. Monsieur fell ill, soon after arriving, of some nameless
disease. His illness was characterised by prostration, languor,
bloodlessness. He consulted several doctors, who prescribed for him
without effect.
The pair at last took up their residence at a very well-known
metropolitan hotel, where they lived in great style, spent money
lavishly, and were supposed to be people of note. But one morning
monsieur was found dead in bed, and as no doctor had been treating
him for some time, and the cause of death could not be certified, an
inquest was ordered and a post-mortem became necessary. Those who made
the examination had their suspicions aroused. They believed there had
been foul play--at any rate, the man had died of poison. The police
were communicated with: result, the arrest of madame, and columns and
columns of sensational reports in the papers.
Amongst madame’s belongings was found a little carved ebony box
containing twelve receptacles for twelve tiny phials. Some of these
phials were empty, others full of liquid that varied in colour; that
is, in one phial it was yellow, in another red, in another green, in
another blue, and yet another held what seemed to be clear water.
The chemical analysis of the contents of the stomach quite failed
to justify the suspicions of poison. But the blood had a peculiar,
watery appearance; the heart was flabby and weak. Madame accounted for
possession of the phials by saying they contained gipsy medicine of
great efficacy in certain diseases. There was such a small quantity in
each phial as to make analysis practically impossible; certain animals,
however, were treated with some of the contents, and seemed actually to
improve under the treatment. Under the circumstances, of course, there
was nothing for it but to release madame, as the magistrate said there
was no case to go before a jury.
It is worth while to quote the following description of the woman at
this time. It appeared in a report in the _Times_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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