The principal distributor of the poisons, a widow, by the name of Monvoisin, but who was known under the appellation of La Voisin, was already in the Bastile, with about forty persons charged as her accomplices. The most prominent of these subordinate culprits were, a female, named La Vigoureux, and her brother, and Cœuvrit, a priest, who was called Lesage. La Voisin was a midwife; but her profession not proving lucrative, she deserted it for the more profitable speculation of turning to account the credulity, the folly, and at last the vices, of mankind. The most innocent part of her employment consisted in telling fortunes on the cards, discovering stolen goods, casting nativities, and selling charms and spells, to render women beautiful and beloved, and men invulnerable and fortunate! Her pretensions to supernatural skill did not stop here; for she boldly undertook to show spirits, and even the devil himself, to her dupes. Such is the cullibility of the crowd, whether of high or low degree, that the number of her visitors, the majority of whom were people of rank, soon enabled her to remove from a mean lodging into a splendid mansion, and keep an equipage and a train of attendants. That her house was made a convenience for the purposes of seduction, and for carrying on illicit connexions, there can be no doubt; many of those who frequented it, of both sexes, being notorious profligates. The round of La Voisin’s occupations was completed by the sale of poisons to those who were desirous of destroying the proof of incontinence, taking vengeance on a rival or an enemy, or getting rid of superannuated husbands and long-lived relatives.