WEBVTT - The Devil and the Duchess de Praslin 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.320 Hey, and happy holidays. Before we get started with this episode, 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:08.119 I just wanted to give a quick shout out to 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.920 your miney that Noble Blood officially has merch. The link 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.400 to the merch store will be in the description of 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.520 the episode, and I also want to give a special 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.560 shout out. I'm trying something new and hopefully exciting, a 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:23.360 pamphlet club where if you subscribe, I send an annotated 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.000 script from one of my favorite Noble Blood episodes with 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.600 brand new context and information along once a month. But 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:31.280 the thing with this club is if you want to 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.040 get in, you gotta sign up now. Once it starts, 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:35.720 you can't get in. You can always get up, but 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.560 you can't get back in. That sounds like the Hotel California. Again, 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.919 Happy holidays, and thank you so much to all of 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.159 the support for Noble Blood. I hope you all stay 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:49.800 safe and healthy and keep your heads literally and metaphorically. 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.120 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.120 and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener discretion as 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:07.000 advised from the outside. Henriette de Luzy de port Field 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.120 had a lovely life. She and her husband, the Minister 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:15.280 Henry Field, were prominent figures in the high society of 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:20.560 nineteenth century New York in Massachusetts, Henriette had emigrated from 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:24.440 France before coming to America and working as the principal 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.119 of a female art school. Her husband, Henry, was nine 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.880 years her junior, and by all accounts, they were wildly 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.560 in love. They were fixtures at parties and literary soirees. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:41.360 Henriette became personal friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Fields 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.000 were neighbors with Nathaniel Hawthorne. One evening, the Fields were 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.800 attending a party at the Century Club in New York 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:54.800 when Henriette heard someone hissing at her from across the room. Murderous, 0:01:55.160 --> 0:02:00.160 the voice said, murderous. It was an old man from 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:05.080 the Continent, Count Garski, squinting at Henriette and hissing at 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.880 her through his loose false teeth. Murderous. He called, she's 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:15.119 a murderous It was a small scandal. The elderly man 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.359 was escorted out of the club with murmurs of apology 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.480 to Mr. And Mrs Field. The party continued, but with 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.720 a strange tension in the air. The polite smiles of 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:31.520 things not said most people in New York didn't know 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:35.320 the rumors attached to Henriette de Lucy deport Field, the 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.760 woman once known in France as Madame Delucy, But Count 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:44.120 Gorsky did. There was a generation of nobles in Europe 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.800 who hadn't forgotten what had happened to the beautiful Duchess 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.720 de Proland, the only daughter of a noble family. Count 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:59.280 Gorsky hadn't forgotten the gruesome tragedy that befell her, and 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.120 there were pete that believed that Henriette de Lucy, the 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.600 woman who once worked as a governess to the Duchess's children, 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:12.600 got away with murder. I'm Dani Schwartz, and this is 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:22.639 noble blood. The Duchess was having nightmares. She had been 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.960 having nightmares for months, the same one every night that 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:31.400 the devil, wearing a red brocade suit, was appearing to 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.880 her in her bedchamber. By the time she woke up, 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.560 he was gone. She told the servants about it and 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.600 her friends. Everyone looked at her with sympathy. You're going 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:47.240 through a challenging time, they reminded her. It's stress and worry. 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:52.320 Things will get better soon. Recurring nightmares aside. Most people 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.200 envaded the Duchess, nown to her friends as Fanny, she 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.960 was the only daughter of a famous French general and politician, 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:04.760 Horace Sebastiani. Fanny's mother had died in childbirth, but she 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.520 was doated on by the rest of her family. She 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:12.000 was their beautiful, shining jewel, a bona fide heiress, niece 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.040 of the Duke of Colignier, and destined for a prominent 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.599 place in French social circles. When Fanny was seventeen in 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.880 eighteen twenty four, she married the dashing Charles Theobald, who 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.880 went on to become a chevalier Donner and the Duke 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.680 of Chasse Prelan and then a Peer of France. He 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:35.040 was from an important family, related directly to the reigning 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.520 king in France, Louis Philippe, But even more important than 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.280 that to Fanny was that it was a love match. 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.440 He was only two years older than her when they 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.799 got married, and the pair went on to have ten children, 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:53.080 although not all of them survived childhood. Fanny adored her husband. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:57.480 She even tolerated them splitting their time between her family's 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.440 beautiful home in Paris and his fa his dank Ancestral 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.080 de Praulon Castle, a dreary property in Milan. The pair 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.480 had been married for over twenty three years, but that's 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:15.680 when things were changing between them. It started with a governess. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.400 While they were staying in Paris, the Duchess hired a 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.440 new governess for her brood of children, a pretty young 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.719 woman named Henriette de Lucy. There were no complaints about 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:31.320 her services or her performance as a governess. The children 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.160 absolutely adored her, and they had never been better behaved. 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.720 But that was the problem. The children adored Henriette de 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.120 Lucy so much that they seemed to prefer her to 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.560 their own mother. And then there was the Duchess's husband, Charles, 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:52.359 the Duc de Pralan. He was becoming distant, kissing the 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.080 Duchess on the cheek instead of the lips, rarely coming 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.760 to her bed, ignoring her for most of the day. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.080 The pair lived in the same house like ghosts. The 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.040 Duchess would hear him making a joke to Henriette from 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.760 across the house and then listened to their laughter. She 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.080 was nearing forty, it was true, and after ten children, 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.800 her body had changed. But her husband was pulling away 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:21.880 from her. Her children were pulling away from her. She 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.200 didn't know what she could do about it. This is 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:32.839 when the nightmares started. Fanny insisted that her husband fire 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.880 Henriette Lucy, who by this point had been working for 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.720 their family for six years. The Duke played dumb. Was 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.640 there a problem with her service? The Duchess looked away. 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.400 The rumors had become a standard topic of conversation in 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.520 their social circles. Servants averted their eyes from the duchess 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.040 and hallways. Everyone knew that the Duke and Henriette were 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.680 having an affair, including the duchess. So the Duchess doubled down. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:06.320 She insisted that Charles fire the governess. Charles gave a 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.800 miserable little laugh, my dear, he said, if she goes, 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.720 then so do I. But the humiliation had become too 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.360 much for the Duchess, and so she called her husband's 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:21.640 bluff fine. She replied, we'll divorce. Scandal be damned matches 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.400 for our daughters will suffer, but I don't care. I'll 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.840 take my inheritance and my money. I'll take the children. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.560 The Duke backed down, all right, he said, I'll fire 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.120 her for now. Why don't you and the children go 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.320 stay at the castle and maloon and I'll stay in 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:41.600 Paris to fire Henriette and make the appropriate arrangements. Pleased enough, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.080 the Duchess agreed and went to the country with the children. 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.120 But as you might have suspected, while the Duke did 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.000 dismiss the pretty Henriette de Lizzy, he also rented her 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:56.960 a luxurious apartment, and the pair of them spent a 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.480 full month together that summer while the Duchess and children 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.880 were away. But at the end of that summer in August, 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.200 the rest of the family returned to Paris on their 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.960 way to spend the fall. Indeed, when the Duchess arrived 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.160 back at their Paris home, she called out, but her 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:20.480 husband wasn't there. Odd even otter, she noticed a few 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.400 things wrong in her bed chamber. The hinges on her 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:28.680 bedroom door were missing. No matter, she would tell the 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.320 servant about it in the morning. Her husband returned that 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.920 night before supper, and he reminded Fanny that he had 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.120 fired Henriette like she had asked, that everything would be 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:43.160 all right from then on. That night was the last 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:54.520 time anyone saw the Duchess de Prelant alive. A small 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.400 warning to younger listeners here, it's about now that the 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:04.120 episode gets a little well bloody. On the morning of 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:10.839 August seventeenth, eighteen forty seven, around five am, strange noises 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.440 woke two of the servants in the prelaw house. Emma 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.280 le Clerk was the Duchess's personal maid. She had served 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.960 Fanny for over two decades since Fanny was sixteen and 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:26.120 newly engaged to the Duke, bright eyed over her exciting future. 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.880 That morning in August, Emma heard a crash and the 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.680 sound of a struggle. There was an echo of a 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.520 screen in the air. She and the Duke's valet, who 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.160 had also woken up, raced to Fanny's bedroom, but they 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.600 found that the door was locked from the inside. From 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.439 the other side of the door, they could hear soft whimpering. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.520 The door to the Duchess's bathroom was also locked, as 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.240 was the door into the Duchess's room from the garden, 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.720 but the valet broke a pane of glass and forced 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.560 his way in, but by the time they got there, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:05.960 the whimpering had stopped. Fanny, the Duchess de Proloan was dead. 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.240 The Duchess's bedroom had been designed as a copy of 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:14.600 Marie Antoinette's chamber from Versailles, with a four poster bed 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:19.360 on an elevated platform and furnishings in luxurious embroidered silk. 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.600 But now the entire room was splashed with blood. A 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.559 giant stain of blood spread across the bed, The chair 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.280 was flipped over, blood trailed all over the room, like 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.439 the duchess had been chased or tried to chase her attacker. 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.480 But whatever had happened, the two servants could see the 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.560 end result. The duchess was lying on the floor, her 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:47.680 head resting on a couch. She had been stabbed over 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.960 thirty times. Her skull had been bashed in, and her 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.599 throat was slashed. Within moments, other servants of the household 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.560 filed into the room and gasped. But strange july enough, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.720 it was another few minutes after that before the Duke 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.439 himself appeared, even though his bedroom shared in the anti 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.640 chamber with his wife's room. Hadn't he heard anything? Why 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.360 hadn't he sent out the alarm? The doorway from the 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:20.560 Duchess's room to the anti chamber was unlocked. Oh my god, 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.480 the duke cried when he finally did come into the room. 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:27.520 Oh my god, in heaven, some monster has murdered. Fanny 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.720 get a doctor. The valet tried to comfort his master. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:37.480 It had probably been burglars after Fanny's famously valuable jewels. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.480 The duchess had a set of diamonds that had been 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:46.160 gifted to her mother by Napoleon and Josephine themselves. Later, however, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.440 the police would discover that nothing was taken. It wasn't 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:55.280 a robbery. Alas, alas, my poor Fanny, the duke shouted 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.840 after his valet politely slipped away to get help. Would 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.679 monster has done the thing? The Duke threw himself onto 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:08.000 the blood stained bed, alas my motherless children. When the 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:12.600 policeman arrived, he examined the scene carefully. The room was 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.600 covered in blood, and it was also covered in strands 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.199 of the Duchess's hair that seemed to have been ripped 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:22.440 out of her head. The Duchess's fingernails were bloody, like 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.640 there had been a struggle. The bell she could have 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.920 used next to her bed to alert her servants had 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:33.359 had its rope cut from underneath the divan. The policeman 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.000 found a gun, but upon examining it, he found that 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.560 it hadn't been fired. Instead, the gun was covered in 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.360 blood and in Fanny's hair it looked as though it 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.800 had been used to bashen her head. Sir, do you 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.120 know who this weapon belongs to, the policeman asked the Duke. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:56.679 I do. The Duke replied, it's mine. The duke explained 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.440 to the policeman that he actually had heard this struggle 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.960 in his wife's chamber earlier in the morning, before even 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.960 the servants came in, and he the duke had brought 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.560 the gun to try to fight off his wife's attacker, 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.480 but by the time he came in, the attacker was 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.200 already gone, and when he went to hug his wife's 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.320 dead body, he became covered in blood. So he had 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:23.240 returned back to his room to change out of his 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:27.480 bloody clothes so that he wouldn't frighten the children. That's 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.000 when he came back into the room to find the 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:38.079 servants there. The police didn't exactly buy it. The police 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:42.320 searched charles room and found the bloody handle of a dagger, 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.280 although the blade would never be found. They also found 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:50.360 a bloodstained bathrobe that someone had tried to wash with soap, 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.840 a leather sheets, and an assortment of other items that 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.320 would be unidentifiable. Because someone had thrown them into the 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.200 fire and tried to burn them. The Duke's sink was 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:08.360 splattered with blood. The policeman politely asked if the Duke 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:13.920 might undergo a physical examination. The Duke coughed and protested 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.360 he was a peer of the realm, but eventually he agreed, 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:23.400 and the police found him covered in scratches and bite marks. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.920 The Duke was also limping, and when the policeman asked 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.560 what had happened to his leg, that's when the Duke exploded. 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.600 I have no further explanations to make to you, he said. 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:38.080 I am a peer of France and I do not 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.600 need to account for myself to police officers. Arresting a 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:48.400 duke would be incredibly controversial and politically dangerous for the policeman, 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:52.640 but he had no choice. He sent all of the 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.680 evidence he had to King Louis Philippe, who had to 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.840 sign off personally on the orders for the Duke to arrest, 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:05.600 which the King did reluctantly. The press and wealthy establishment 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:10.080 power slandered the policeman, but his report was so meticulous 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:13.520 that it was difficult to challenge him, especially once they 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:18.520 all found Fanny's diaries which detailed her husband's violent temper 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:24.119 and frequent threats. A trial, though, would be a scandal. 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.120 The Duke was a member of the King's court. A 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.720 trial would reflect terribly, not only on the King himself 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.480 but on all of French nobility. But with all of 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.760 this evidence, there would be no way of avoiding trial. 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.200 But with all of this evidence that the police had 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.640 seemed like there would be no way to avoid a trial, 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:53.840 or was there. Charles the Duc de Preulant was put 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.120 under house arrest and then transferred to the prison at 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.880 Luxembourg Palace, where they scrambled to put together a jury 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.200 of peers of the realm who could try such a 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:07.040 high ranking nobleman. Basically, the only people they could get 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.080 were childhood friends of the Duke. He had to be 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.120 tried in the Court of Peers, which was a court 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:18.360 exclusively for noblemen and pretty much known for its lenient 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:23.840 sentencing when it had to convict. But before the trial 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.680 took place, before any more scandal could be made of 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.680 the death of the Duchess de Prelance, the Duke drank 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.960 a vial of arsenic. The common people, when they heard 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.720 about his death were outraged. Had there been no guards 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:42.640 watching him. How did he get the poison to begin with. 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:46.600 The common theory at the time was that the nobleman 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.080 imprisoning him had actually given the arsenic to the Duke 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.240 as a way of protecting their image, having him die 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:58.520 before having to be scandalous. Lee found guilty. There was 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:00.960 even a rumor that the King had self had sent 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.359 the Duke the poison, along with a note saying that 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.560 he should do the honorable thing. However he got it. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.119 After Charles drank the poison, he smashed the bottle and 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.399 swallowed the shards of broken glass to leave no evidence. 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:23.680 He died six days later in excruciating agony. For those 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:28.520 six days, the Duke was repeatedly questioned interrogated, but he 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:33.080 continued to maintain his innocence. You know the awful crime 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.560 of which you are accused, the Lord Chancellor of the 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.040 Kingdom said at Charles's bedside. You know all of the 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.880 circumstances which have led to this accusation, and beg of you. 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.560 I implore of you, Duke, do not tell a lie. 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.960 Charles replied, I have not the strength to say anything. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.480 It would take a long time for me to tell 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.960 you the truth. And nothing but the truth. What strength? 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.200 Said the Lord Chancellor, clearly frustrated. We want a yes 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:06.720 or no. It requires great strength of mind to be 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.280 able to say yes or no to certain questions, and 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.400 it is a strength which I do not now possess, 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.960 the Duke said. The interrogation continued that way, with the 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.840 Duke never confessing for the murder of his wife. The 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:26.200 closest the Duke came to remorse was when the Duke said, quote, 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.400 I wished to say how much I regret I cannot 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.240 see my children before I die. I implore my family 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:43.040 to be kind to them. Henriette de Lucy, the prey 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.679 Law's former governess, was also imprisoned. She was arrested and 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.760 kept for three months while she was interrogated, but there 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:54.800 was no evidence that she had anything to do with 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.400 the murder of the Duchess, and so the charges against 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.760 her were dismissed. No trial continued against the Duke posthumously. 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.520 Though his suicide had been an attempt to save face 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.280 for the peers of the realm, public opinion rose up 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.520 in a fury against the nobles. Here was a man 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:19.280 who faced no justice, they believed, because he was rich 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:24.760 and powerful nobles would rather have a murderer commit suicide 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.080 rather than force them to have to condemn othellow elite. 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.760 And that's if the Duke did kill himself. There were 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.359 also rumors that the Duke managed to get away, that 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.399 with the help of his powerful friends, he was able 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:44.520 to fake his own death and escape to Nicaragua. One 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.199 historian in Nicaragua alleged that Charles made his way across 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.160 the Atlantic and lived out the rest of his life 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:56.120 in Matagalpa, marrying another woman, fathering five children, growing out 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.240 a beard to disguise his appearance, and keeping away from 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:04.440 any French frigates containing people that might recognize him. The 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.000 escape is actually a real possibility. There is even a 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:12.480 paper trail, but a little more likely if a lot 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:16.720 less exciting a servant probably stole some of the Duke's 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.800 clothing and money and papers so that he could start 0:20:20.840 --> 0:20:25.600 a new life in Central America. As for Henriette, she 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.399 escaped the scandal by moving to New York, where she 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.159 became the principal of a girls school and married a 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:37.160 prominent minister. When Henriette died, she was old and beloved 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:41.440 by the literary community. Two of her casket bearers were 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:45.280 the poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant and Peter Cooper 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.000 of Cooper Union. The day of her funeral was marked 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:53.320 by the famous diarist George Templeton Strong, who wrote, quote 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.480 died Mrs Henry Field. I knew her at one time 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.960 quite well, and she was universally like being uncommonly clever 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:06.560 and cultivated. Her plainness made it incredible that the Duke 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:10.919 d'aprell law should have been in love with her. A 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:14.800 more glowing legacy, or at least a more romantic one, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:20.560 would come later. Henriette's grand niece became a writer named 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.000 Rachel Field, and she wrote a novel based on her 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:28.000 great aunt's life called All This and Heaven Too. It's 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:32.040 a romantic story about a governess falling in love with 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:35.200 a duke in a miserable marriage, who then must kill 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.520 himself in order to protect his true love from the 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.879 other nobles blaming her for the duchess's murder. It was 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.399 made into a film starring Betty Davis and Charles Boyer. 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.600 It really is all about perspective. When he tried to 0:21:50.640 --> 0:22:03.879 decide who the heroes are in any given story, that's 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:06.159 the story of the murder of the Duchess de Prelan, 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.120 but stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.879 a little bit more about the skeletons lurking in the 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:25.200 Duke's closet. It was months later that the children of 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.240 the Duke and Duchess de Prela were clearing out their 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.600 father's rooms at their parents home when they found a 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:36.360 hidden trunk. It was stuck underneath a few shirts at 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:40.720 the back of their father's closet. Inside the trunk was 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.840 a bright red costume that they had never seen before. 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.560 In red brocade, the type of costume that someone would 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:54.119 wear two a masked ball. It was a Mephistopheles costume, 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:59.400 a costume to look like the devil. If rumors are 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:03.159 to be leaved, The Duke had put the costume on 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:07.320 to sneak into his wife's room at night in the 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:13.480 hopes of frightening her into insanity. In the century, an 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:17.040 insane wife would have been easy enough to dispose of 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:26.960 without having to resort to murder. Noble Blood is a 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:29.680 production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.680 Aaron Monkey. The show was written and hosted by Dani 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:37.200 Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.640 and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:43.119 Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:46.120 show over at Noble blood tails dot com. For more 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.359 podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:52.760 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.