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This affair caused an extraordinary sensation in Paris, but, with the death of the Marquise de Brinvilliers, it was considered closed. When this female "monster," as she was termed, had expiated her crimes, public interest in the matter waned and police investigations into the question of poisons ceased.

Shortly after the execution of Madame de Brinvilliers, however, the priests who were in charge of Notre-Dame, the most fashionable church in Paris, informed the police that "an enormous number" of their penitents, when in the sanctity of the confessional, accused themselves of poisoning their husbands. The active and intelligent Chief of Police, M. de La Reynie, refused to give any importance to this information; he thought that these women were so affected by the Brinvilliers case that they had become hysterical and that these painful derangements were better ignored.

The French Monarchy was at the height of its glory during this period; Louis XIV was successful alike in the cabinet and in the field, and overshadowed Europe with his diplomacy and his arms; his Court was the most brilliant that the world had known since the days of the Byzantine Caesars; the arts flourished under his splendid patronage and in every department of social life Paris was the arbiter of fashion, taste and manners. The ruthless ambition of Louis made him hated and feared in Europe, but his influence on his times was undisputed. In 1676 he was under forty years of age and embellished not only with the title of "Great," but with godlike attributes, being commonly known as "the Sun King."

This gorgeous personage had been for fifteen years united by powerful but illicit ties to the Marquise de Montespan, a great lady of imperious temper and remarkable beauty, who considered herself nearly as high-born as her royal lover and exercised a complete domination over him. She had not achieved her position—Queen of the Left Hand—easily, for Louis did not admire her type of bold, sharp-tongued "mâitresse femme," and she had to draw him from a sincere love for the gentle Louise de la Vallière. Once, however, she had brought the King under her enchantments, she was all-powerful: not only did she completely detach him from his wife, Marie Thérèse, but fickle and amorous as Louis naturally was, she contrived to keep him faithful to her by banishing out of his reach any potential rival. She had a large family by the King; these children were made legitimate and given titles and quasi-royal honours.

About the time of the Brinvilliers scandal the position of Madame de Montespan, which had appeared unassailable, was threatened by the King's sudden attraction towards Mlle. Fontanges, a rather stupid young woman, "beautiful as an angel" and belonging to that soft, tender and delicate type which Louis really most admired.

The powerful favourite contrived to keep this possible rival at bay, and no one believed that she would lose any of her influence over her lover; her rule had been so long and so absolute, her hold over the King was stronger than love, it was that of a bad habit.

Such was the situation in Paris towards the end of the year 1678, when this story opens.

What was known in France as l'affaire des poisons was deliberately hushed up by the Chief of Police, acting on royal instructions; small criminals were sacrificed and great ones allowed to escape; most of the examinations and trials were held in secret; at some of these only the King, M. de La Reynie and M. de Louvois, or some other minister, were present. Every effort was made to avert a hideous scandal involving the noblest names in France, and the greatest pre cautions were taken to this end. The King ordered all the voluminous reports of the case in all its ramifications to be destroyed, every dossier to be burnt.

For a long time complete obscurity veiled the subject, until, in 1789, the taking of the Bastille by the Parisian mob brought to light the secret archives of this fortress prison. These were, as the first investigators declared, "in a state of frightful chaos," but years of patient, erudite labour gradually unearthed from these confused masses of papers the reports of the Paris Police from 1655 to 1744. It was then discovered that a large number of the documents relating to l'affaire des poisons had not been destroyed; there were many lacunae in these and many valuable papers were totally missing, some were mutilated and others half-ruined by neglect, some had been torn in fragments and others were partly burned. The scholars, however, set to work with tireless diligence, and the result of their careful zeal was the partial reconstruction of this celebrated historic mystery.

This was finally reduced to a clear outline by the long labours of M. François Ravaisson, who, with exacting care, sorted, deciphered, catalogued, annotated and explained the mass of documents found in the archives of the Bastille. Wherever possible this admirable research worker filled in all gaps in his material from other sources available in France.

What emerged from these labours was not only a valuable picture of the life of a bygone period, full of minute details and the elucidation of a historic mystery that had puzzled generations, but the reconstructions of a wild, sinister tale of love and magic that would do credit to the imagination of any novelist and provide ample material for what is now called a "detective story" or "thriller".

It should be recalled that the French police were then the foremost in Europe; considering what evils they had to combat and the modest means at their disposal, their work was of a high order. Nothing like this police organization was known in England until nearly two hundred years later. British love of freedom revolted against secret policing, and even when Peel introduced his "Bobbies" and private detectives, these were resented as "foreign institutions." The result of these prejudices was unhappy, as the reading of any old English trial will show. National love of fair play was helpless in the face of haphazard methods resulting from lack of trained investigators and from amateur methods of collecting and sifting evidence.

M. de La Reynie, Lieutenant de Police at Paris during this odd and terrifying business of "the poisons," was honest, efficient and zealous. Living under an absolute Monarchy he was forced to suppress or destroy much of his evidence at the royal command, and obliged to allow many criminals whom he had tracked down to escape, and in conclusion to consign the whole case, to which he had devoted so much toil, to oblivion. Time, however, did him tardy justice, and when his archives did at last see daylight, they revealed his integrity, his courage, his industry and those qualities peculiar to the best type of Gallic mind, finesse, clarity, a logical intellect and a serene acceptance of life and all its perverse difficulties.

It is indeed only the characters of La Reynie and his colleagues that give sanity and the effect of reality to what would otherwise seem a fantastic farrago of incredible people and incredible incidents.

The following' novel gives, in the form of fiction, the authentic outline and details of the events, pieced together by M. Ravaisson from the dossiers of La Reynie.

Marjorie Bowen