most beautiful
gloves in the world and unfailingly irresistible to ladies. These gloves
they prepared in accordance with certain magical recipes in such a way
that the Duchess, after wearing them, must die a lingering death in
which there could be no suspicion of poisoning.

The King was to be dealt with by means of a petition steeped in similar
powders, and should receive his death by taking it into his hands. La
Voisin herself was to go to Saint-Germain to present this petition on
Monday, March 13th, one of those days on which, according to ancient
custom, all comers were admitted to the royal presence.

Thus they disposed. But Fate was already silently stalking La Voisin.

It is to the fact that an obscure and vulgar woman had drunk one glass
of wine too many three months earlier that the King owed his escape.

If you are interested in the almost grotesque disparity that can lie
between cause and effect, here is a subject for you. Three months
earlier a tailor named Vigoureux, whose wife secretly practised magic,
had entertained a few friends to dinner, amongst whom was an intimate
of his wife's, named Marie Bosse. This Marie Bosse it was who drank that
excessive glass of wine which, drowning prudence, led her to boast of
the famous trade she drove as a fortune-teller to the nobility, and even
to hint of something further.

"Another three poisonings," she chuckled, "and I shall retire with my
fortune made!"

An attorney who was present pricked up his ears, bethought him of the
tales that were afloat, and gave information to the police. The police
set a trap for Marie Bosse, and she betrayed herself. Later, under
torture, she betrayed La Vigoureux. La Vigoureux betrayed others, and
these others again.

The arrest of Marie Bosse was like knocking down the first of a row of
ninepins, but none could have suspected that the last of these stood in
the royal apartments.

On the day before she was to repair to Saint-Germain, La Voisin,
betrayed in her turn, received a surprise visit from the police--who, of
course, had no knowledge of the regicide their action was thwarting--and
she was carried off to the Chatelet. Put to the question, she revealed
a great deal; but her terror of the horrible punishment reserved
for regicides prevented her to the day of her death at the stake--in
February of 1680 from saying a word of her association with Madame de
Montespan.

But there were others whom she betrayed under torture