Instead of operating as a warning, the execution of the marchioness would rather seem to have stimulated others to the commission of the horrible species of crime for which she suffered. After her death, poisoning is said to have become prevalent to an extraordinary degree. Loud complaints arose from numbers of families, members of which were supposed to have been taken off secretly by their enemies, or by those who were eager to inherit their riches. It was with reference to the latter motive that the name of “powder of succession” was given to the drug administered. We may believe that the complaints were not unfrequently groundless—for it has always been the practice of weak minds to ascribe sudden death to poison—but still, it is certain that there were very many cases in which the suspicion was borne out by facts. So general did the clamour become, that, in January, 1660, the king issued an ordinance, naming commissioners, who were to hold their sittings at the Arsenal, for the purpose of trying poisoners and magicians! This commission is known by the name of _la Chambre Ardente_. It has been supposed, that it derived this appellation from its being established to take cognizance of crimes which were punishable by fire. This appears to be a mistake; the name having, in old times, been given to the hall in which criminals of high birth were tried, and which was so called because it was hung with black, and lighted with torches. The same title was, however, borne by a sort of committee, which Francis II. instituted in each parliament, for the trial of protestants, and which mercilessly condemned them to the flames.