end all
those persons to whom, as Archbishop of Narbonne, he was obliged to pay
annuities. So also the Duchess de Bouillon, and the Countess de
Soissons,[9] whose names were found on the list, were accused of having
had dealings with the diabolical woman; and even Francois Henri de
Montmorenci, Boudebelle, Duke of Luxemburg,[10] peer and marshal of the
kingdom, was not spared. He too was prosecuted by the terrible _Chambre
Ardente_. He voluntarily gave himself up to be imprisoned in the
Bastille, where through Louvois'[11] and La Regnie's hatred he was
confined in a cell only six feet long. Months passed before it was made
out satisfactorily that the Duke's transgression did not deserve any
blame: he had once had his horoscope cast by Le Sage.

It is certain that the President La Regnie was betrayed by his blind
zeal into acts of cruelty and arbitrary violence. The tribunal acquired
the character of an Inquisition; the most trifling suspicion was
sufficient to entail strict incarceration; and it was left to chance to
establish the innocence of a person accused of a capital crime.
Moreover, La Regnie was hideous in appearance, and of a malicious
temperament, so that he soon drew down upon himself the hatred of those
whose avenger or protector he was appointed to be. The Duchess de
Bouillon, being asked by him during her trial if she had seen the
devil, replied, "I fancy I can see him at this moment."[12]

But whilst the blood of the guilty and the suspected alike was flowing
in streams in the Place Greve, and after a time the secret poisonings
became less and less frequent, a new kind of outrage came to light, and
again filled the city with dismay. It seemed as if a band of miscreant
robbers were in league together for the purpose of getting into their
possession all the jewellery they could. No sooner was any valuable
ornament purchased than, no matter how or where kept, it vanished in an
inconceivable way. But what was still worse, any one who ventured to
wear jewellery on his person at night was robbed, and often murdered
even, either in the public street or in the dark passage of a house.
Those who escaped with their lives declared that they had been knocked
down by a blow on the head, which felled them like a lightning flash,
and that on awaking from their stupor they had found that they had been
robbed and were lying in quite a different place from that where they
had received the blow. All who were murdered, som