WEBVTT - The Marquise and Her Poisons 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:12.160 and Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. Since it's the 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.920 week of Halloween, Let's start with a scary story. This 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.520 is one called The Leather Funnel, written by Sir Arthur 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.480 Conan Doyle. It was written during one of the many 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.680 periods in his life he was exhausted with writing stories 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:30.400 about his famous detective Sherlock Holmes, and somewhat resentful of 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:35.120 how successful that one character had become. Like all good 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.640 scary stories, this one begins with a visitor coming to 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:43.160 stay at the mysterious residence of a distant, eccentric friend. 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:49.199 As soon as the guest arrives, Thost apologizes profusely he 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.360 doesn't have a spare bedroom, but he does have a wide, 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.920 comfortable couch in his library. Our guest is, of course 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:01.120 enchanted by the idea of an evening company by a 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:06.320 low crackling fireplace and the warm parchment smell of books, 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.320 and he readily agrees. But as soon as the men 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.040 enter the library, the guest realizes that there are more 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.920 than just books there. As it turns out, the host 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.440 is a collector and his library is where he displays 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:27.839 his treasures, strange and maccabbre historical objects, most of which 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:32.320 the guest can't even identify. One such object in particular, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:38.200 catches his interest a large, dark funnel constructed of leather 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:42.760 with brass accents, maybe a foot long at its widest diameter. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.960 At the tapered side, the tube had deep notches in it, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.280 like it was whittled away by a very sharp knife. 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.240 The host catches the guests staring ah. He says, I 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.760 see you've noticed my funnel. I've been wondering about this thing. 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.520 I'll tell you what. Why don't you sleep with it 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.320 next your head and see if you can glean anything 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.400 about it from your dreams. Our host was not just 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.800 a collector, but also a student of the occult and 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:15.400 the paranormal workings of the mystical arts. The guest agreed 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.520 and went to sleep on the couch in the library that, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:23.040 for all of its strange objects, still did have a warm, 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:28.000 glowing fireplace and the familiar and wonderful smell of books. 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.639 As it so happened, that night, the man had a dream. 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.160 He dreamt he was in a French prison cell where 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.120 a woman in a white night dress was being tortured. 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.120 The woman's body was bent over something that looked like 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.000 a wooden beam, just taller than her hip. She was 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.239 pulled over it backwards, so that her head was pulled 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.560 down to the floor and her belly was thrust upwards. 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.040 Her ankles and wrists were chained to the ground while 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:02.840 a nervously murmuring pre east watched on. The prison guards 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:07.280 took a funnel, the same leather funnel, and forced it 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.640 into her mouth. In his dream, the guests saw the 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.840 massive jugs of water set nearby. Surely they can't be 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.680 planning on forcing her to drink those. He thought, she'll drown, 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:25.320 her stomach will burst. But to his horror, the guards 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.000 in the dream picked up the first jug of water 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.919 and poured it into the funnel. The woman flailed and recoiled, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:39.880 rattling the chains and thrashing violently. The priest left the room, 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:44.160 horrified and seeing that there still remained another jug full 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.520 of water to torture the woman with. The man awoke 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.880 from his dream with a start, soaked with sweat, as 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.040 though he had been the one doused with water in 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:59.040 the morning. The host asked if he had any dreams. Dutifully, 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.120 the man recount did everything he had seen the night before, 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.680 the woman, the wooden beam, the jugs of water, the priest. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.760 The host's eyes lit up, and he raced back to 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.680 a bookshelf to pull out a book. After a few 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.560 moments of frantic flipping, he found what he had been 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:22.600 looking for, a chapter about Madame de Brinvillier, a marquise 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.080 who had been found guilty of poisoning her brothers and 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.200 her father, and who had been tortured into confession with 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:35.359 what was ironically called the water cure. You see, the 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.720 host explained, what you saw in your dream actually happened, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.039 and this is the very funnel they used to inflict 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.080 her torture. But what have the knife marks around the mouthpiece, 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:53.440 the guest asked, Ah, said the host, The Marquise fought 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.320 like a tiger. It seems like she had the teeth 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:01.040 to match. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's st worry is fictional, 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.760 as is the power of dreams to reveal unknown truths, probably, 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:11.359 but the story Doyle was referencing is absolutely true. The 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.800 Marquise de Brinvilliers is one of history's most famous poisoners, 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.240 a woman who's often painted as either evil or beautifully 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:24.640 mad with love or both. It's impossible to know now 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.240 the full extent of her crimes. What we can know 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.320 is that she was a woman confident that she would 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.719 get away with them, and the funny thing is she 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:41.279 almost did. I'm danis sports and this is noble blood. 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.080 If you had to be born a girl in sixty 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:51.960 you couldn't hope to be born much better than Marie 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:57.719 Meline Marguerite Debre, the future Marquise de Brinvilliers. Her father 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.320 was a prominent Parisian bureaucrat, himself the son of a 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:06.080 much respected treasurer. The family was incredibly well connected and 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.080 also very rich, which meant that Marie's two brothers would 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.320 each come into a sizeable inheritance, and that there was 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:15.719 no reason in the world to think that their sister 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.960 wouldn't marry extremely well and live in comfort for her 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:24.120 entire life. Marie was the family's eldest child. No one 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.880 would describe her as beautiful, maybe striking was a bit closer. 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:33.960 After meeting her, her general appearance would fade from your memory, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:40.400 but specific features would be tattooed onto your brain. Extraordinarily thick, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:47.520 brown hair, bone, white, nearly translucent skin, blue eyes. She 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.120 was better than her brothers at her letters, spelling words 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:57.080 easily and writing with thick, clean, bold, firm lines that 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.160 made her tutors press their lips together in pleasure her 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:04.599 and made her parents worry. Her siblings and playmates thought 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.839 she came across as haughty and distant at best, or 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.760 maybe slow in the head, even for her unwillingness to 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.720 join them in silly games. But the truth was Marie 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:20.920 was just uncommonly observant. She preferred to watch and to learn. 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:26.280 Even as an adolescent, The future Marquise de Burunvillier was 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:31.120 shrewd and sharp as a fresh cut blade. Studious as 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.560 she was, she refused to learn her prayers or waste 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:39.679 her mornings in church unless absolutely forced. She was bored 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.880 and disinterested by religion, which seemed in her youth as 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.960 just a minor defect of an aristocratic woman. But looking 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.080 back on the woman that she became, maybe it was 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.360 a sign from the beginning. Maybe there is always a 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.920 certain wickedness that lingered beneath her skin that repelled her 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.320 from studying the Holy scripture, the same way a demon 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.480 news to pull itself away from holy water at age 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.240 twenty one. In sixteen fifty one, Marie got married to 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:14.200 a titled nobleman and twine, gou Blond de Brunevillier, a 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.520 marquis and a baron. Love might have been too much 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.280 to ask for from the much older man, who, even 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.840 from their wedding night, seemed to prefer the company of 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.720 mistresses to his new wife. But the Marquis treated Marie 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:31.240 with something even less than affection, less than mild interest, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:36.960 something worse even than outright hatred, because at least hatred 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.760 has a spark of passion to it. The Marquis treated 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:46.920 the Marquise with complete and utter indifference. He left his 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.880 wife alone while he spent evenings in smoke filled parlors, 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:55.679 sipping champagne and tasting sweets and oranges, racking up gambling 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.840 debts and new women to take home. The Marquise, who had, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.280 above all else in childhood hated boredom, was left to 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:09.640 fend for herself. Well, that's not entirely true. The Marquis 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.560 did give his wife one kindness. He introduced her to 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.360 one of his young military friends, a tall and handsome 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.520 young officer the marquis own age named Gaudine de Saint Croix. 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.240 By any estimation, Sant Croix was not the sort of 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.679 person a young, married aristocratic woman should be associating with. 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.280 He was an officer, yes, but just a simple captain 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:39.040 in the cavalry. His birth could virtuously be called dubious, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.760 although everyone knew he was probably just a bastard. But 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.680 Sant Croix had a winning habit of smiling when he 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:48.840 talked to people, acting as if he was including them 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.520 in on a secret. He mirrored not only hand gestures 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.439 back at people, but personalities. With vicars, he was pious 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:02.320 and straight backed, with gamblers lush an indulgent, and with 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:08.240 the Marquise de Burnevillier he was clever and patient and romantic. 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.079 Far from being angry that his wife began in affair 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.720 with one of his oldest friends, the Marquis was delighted 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.439 it gave him more time to spend with his mistresses. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.560 Weeks would go by before the Marquis and the Marquise 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.800 slept under the same roof. Husband and wife would occasionally 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.479 lock eyes from across the rooms of salons and parties. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.480 Parties were the Marquis gambled and the Marquise glittered like 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:43.839 a jewel on the arm of her lover, Sancroix. Meanwhile, 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.320 the marquise skill in picking up new mistresses was matched 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.960 only by his skill in picking up new debts. And 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.720 when every creditor in town began to send out collection notices, 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:00.400 the nobleman ran, fleeing the country and leaving his wife 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:04.520 in the capable hands of his former friend. The Marquise 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.600 de Burnevilliers and Saint Croix were far from subtle. People 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.880 began talking about the way the woman behaved, flaunting her affair, 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:19.520 ignoring even the pretense of her marriage. It was almost disgraceful. 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:24.960 And remember this was coming from people in France. Word 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.560 got to Madame de Bernevillier's brothers about the way their 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:33.360 sister was living in sin. They were outraged, and as 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.280 a pair they arrived on the doorstep of her Paris 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.920 home unannounced, to beg her to abandon Saint Croix in 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:45.319 order to preserve the honor of the family. When she refused, 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.319 their pleads turned to threats. They swore they would get 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:54.679 a magistrate. The Marquise de Bernevilliers laughed in their faces. 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.640 She wished them a good day, shut the door and 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.840 returned to her lover in the foyer. Burning with humiliation, 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:06.679 the marquise's brothers went to their father, the esteemed bureaucrat 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.760 Drew d'lbrey. The pair told their father what their sister 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:13.319 had been doing, how she had taken up with a 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:18.880 common soldier, flaunting her disrespect of her marital vows. Their 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:23.240 father took a deep breath, He rose and walked around 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.480 to his desk, where he carefully dipped his favorite pen 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.720 and ink and began to write. In silence, The brothers 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:36.280 looked at one another, confused. For several silent moments, they 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.080 watched their father write something on parchment, crossing out a 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:45.480 word here there before Finally, he pursed his lips with satisfaction, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.360 dusted the ink to dry it, and sealed the letter 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:55.080 with his personalized wax stamp. Finally, he spoke, I will 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.760 take care of your sister. On a brisk day at 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.960 the end of March, police stopped a carriage on a 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:06.120 crowded street and pulled a man out. When the man 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:10.560 demanded an explanation, the policeman brandished a letter from the 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:16.920 King himself authorizing the arrest. Onlookers gawkeed the man agreed 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.800 to go without struggle. But please, sir, he told the policeman, 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.959 there's no need to scandalize the young woman. I'm riding 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.640 with the crowds. Don't need to see her face. Take me, 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.640 but please let the carriage continue its journey home safely. 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:36.600 The policeman agreed, and so, even as the Marquise de 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:41.240 Bourunevillier shouted from its window in protest and anger, the 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:47.040 carriage continued on further and further away, until the sight 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.679 of Sant Croix, her lover, being arrested and pulled to prison, 0:13:52.440 --> 0:14:03.600 disappeared in the chaos of the peristree. In between Notre 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.680 Dame and the Palace of Justice on the Ille de 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.000 la Cite, in the heart of Paris lies the city's 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:14.960 oldest hospital, the Hotel Dieu. It was a grotesque place 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:20.560 where nuns and priest doctors patrolled filthy hallways, three thousand 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:25.160 patients waiting in varying proximity to death. The patients with 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:29.400 skin diseases and contagious viruses lay next to mothers in 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:34.040 labor beds contained six patients, three with their heads at 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:35.960 one end and three with their heads at the other. 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.360 Operations happened in the middle of wards, in the full 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:44.160 view of other patients, and all of the wards were 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.600 just feet from the hospital's dead house and dissecting rooms. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.600 The stench of death never left the place. Even so, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:58.120 the noble ladies of Paris came regularly to bestow their 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:03.000 largesse upon the less fortune it. They arrived in small groups, 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.400 clutching handkerchiefs to their noses to ward off the stench. 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:11.560 Among the most dedicated visitors was the Marquise to Brunevilliers. 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.120 Nearly every day, the Marquise arrived at the hospital bearing 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:20.600 suits and wine and biscuits, treats that she distributed among 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.360 the grateful and lonely sick who had been waiting in 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.760 boredom and misery. The Marquise gave each a treat and 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:32.160 a winning smile and a flick of her extraordinarily thick hair, 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:36.800 and they wondered if she was an angel. Brinvillier's lover, 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.280 San Croix, had been released from prison at the Bastille 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.240 after three months, and since he returned home, the pair 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:49.040 acted as the very models of Christian virtue. Brun Villiers 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.960 made her daily hospital visits. Sant Croix went to confession 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.760 and the two were never seen at clubs or parties together. Instead, 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:03.240 they were staying home and working together side by side 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:07.200 in the new laboratory the Marquise de Briunflier had paid for. 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.480 In prison. Sant Crois roommate was a man named Exili, 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.640 a mysterious Italian who had been arrested for coming into 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.080 France while he was in the service of the eccentric 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.720 Queen of Sweden. He was being detained while the French 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.880 government figured out exactly what he was there to do 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.960 and which of the stories from his past were true 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.520 and which were mere rumors. People said that Axily was 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.440 a magician and a poisoner, and that he had worked 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:41.120 in Rome under the illustrious Madam Olympia, and that he 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.520 had been responsible for the deaths of over one hundred 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.320 and fifty people with the strange tonics and waters that 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:52.400 he brewed. San Croix had always been a smart man, 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:56.240 always knowledgeable about the clear, colorless liquids that could be 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:00.440 tipped into a cup of wine, or the inheritance powder, 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.360 as they called it, that could be sprinkled over a 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.600 stew to haste in a wealthy relative's demise. But in 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.320 his time in a cell with exili he became an expert. 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:17.200 He learned about arsenic and belladonna, and vitriol, and aquato fauna, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:22.399 and in particularly noxious poison venen de cropas, or toad venom, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.199 which was brewed by boiling down the liquids of a 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:31.200 dead toad and carefully distilling its essence. And when Saint 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.119 Croix returned from prison, the Marquise de Burunevilier was still 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.760 bubbling with anger towards her brothers and towards her father, 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.480 the men in her life who had sold her to 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.560 an indifferent husband and then denied her the only happiness 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.240 she had ever known. What could she take from the 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.800 men who had tried to take everything from her? With 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.000 her brother's gone, the Marquise would inherit her father's vast estate. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:03.159 She could take their fortunes, but the Marquise thought she 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:16.399 could also take their lives, And so the Marquise and 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.199 Saint Croix set to work mixing their own variation on 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.119 the poison aquaitot fauna, which was already famous in the 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.440 back alleys of Europe among women who want to taste 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.560 in their widowhood. All the while, the pair behaved pious 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.520 as Saints Saint Croix with his church going and confessions, 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.160 and the Marquise de Burunevilliers with her regular hospital visits. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.800 And the Marquise had also been transformed into a dutiful daughter. 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.320 Three years after Saint Croix had been sent to prison, 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:53.200 the Marquise's father visited Paris. His daughter called on him, 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:57.800 begging for his forgiveness for her youthful scandal and assuring 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.680 him that she had all but forgot in his letter 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.240 to the king. The two became so close that when 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.240 her father began to feel ill and decided to retire 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.760 to his country estate for some clean air, he invited 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.120 his daughter to come be at his bedside. His mood 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.800 lifted as soon as she arrived, and he jokingly chastised 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:23.480 her for not coming sooner. But then her father's condition deteriorated. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.720 It was slow at first and then suddenly quicker. He 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.520 called upon the best doctors, but in the end it 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:35.040 was of no use. It was his daughter, the Marquise 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:39.040 de Burnevillier, cooing at his bedside and wiping his forehead 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.320 with a wet cloth to soothe him in his final 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:45.800 moments before he died, and a similar fate befell the 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:51.800 Marquise's two brothers. Strangely, their health began to worsen soon after. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:56.080 They hired a servant on their sister's recommendation. She assured 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.719 them that there was absolutely no servant in Paris more loyal, 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.960 and there wasn't. The servant filled their wine glasses with 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.639 the dedication and precision of a man at the top 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.720 of his profession, and as they became sicker, he never 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.359 left their sides. He was at their bedsides day and 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.480 night as they died, first one and then the other. 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:25.560 The poisons had been masterfully brewed, slow acting and subtle, 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.119 so that even to a well trained eye, it seemed 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.320 as though the victims had merely taken ill and died 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:37.240 of natural causes. Brinevilliers had become an expert. She had 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.920 tested the doses dutifully. People didn't tend to pay attention 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.240 to the noble woman making a charitable visit to a hospital, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.560 and people paid even less attention to the impoverished sick 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.439 when they got even sicker. Who could have noticed the 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.080 way that the patients all seemed to take a turn 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.560 for the worse After the Marquise de Brinvilliers had come 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.320 by to drop off one of her little treats. You see, 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.199 it took years of trial and error to perfect the 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:11.359 dosage of her poisons, but fortunately for the Marquise, she 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:21.560 had found the perfect test subjects. For a decade, the 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:26.000 Marquise de Brinvillier lived a quiet life. Her affair with 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.359 Saint Croix had dampened as affairs are wont to do 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:32.720 in the aftermath of homicide, and the two drifted out 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.920 of touch, although Brinvilliers continued to pay for Saint croix laboratory, 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.400 where he continued his experiments with poisons. That's where Saint 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.800 Croix was found dead in sixteen seventy two, collapsed on 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.800 the floor of his laboratory, next to the broken fragments 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.680 of the glass mask that had been meant to protect 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.400 him from the deadly fumes with which he was working. 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.560 Saint Croix was no longer content with poisons made from 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.360 liquid or powder. He was chasing the idea that an 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:07.120 item could be so poisonous that merely touching it would 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.919 kill someone. There were rumors that the elder brother of 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.439 Charles the seventh had died after wiping his face with 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.880 a poisoned napkin at a tennis match, and that Catherine 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.920 de Medici had designed gloves that would kill the wearer. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:26.000 As san Croix worked on his own formula, his glass 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.960 mask protected him from the fumes. At least it had 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:35.280 until it fell off and broke. Sancroix died heavily in debt. 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:40.080 Like the Marquise de Burnevillier's long disappeared husband, her former 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.720 lover was addicted to the rush of gambling. When the 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:47.440 financiers examined his home, claiming whatever looked like it could 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:52.560 be sold, they came across a strange locked box. It 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:56.080 was eighteen inches long, seemed to be wrapped in red 0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.440 dyed leather, and there was a letter across the top. 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.679 I very humbly beg those persons in whose hands this 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:07.200 casket may fall into, to be good enough to return 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.240 to Madame the Marquise de Burnevilliers, as all that it 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:14.919 contains concerns her alone, and in case she should have 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:19.639 predeceased me, everything in it is to be burnt without examination. 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:25.119 But unable to resist temptation, the magistrate pried open the 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:30.719 lid and piqued inside. When word reached the Marquise de Burnevilliers, 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.199 that Saint Croix was dead, and that the police had 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.120 found in his possession a small red casket. The Marquise 0:23:37.160 --> 0:23:48.000 de Burnevilliers fled the country with whatever money she could gather. 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:52.480 In a few hours, Burnevilliers escaped to London, then to Holland, 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:56.200 and finally to Antwerp, where she found refuge in a convent. 0:23:57.000 --> 0:24:00.359 She lived in exile for almost three years, but the 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.600 French police had not stopped looking for her. Inside that 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:08.920 little red casket, the police had found tiny vials containing 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:12.520 a white powder that, when thrown on a fire, made 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:19.359 it burn blue arsenic. Also inside the casket, perfectly preserved, 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:24.159 were letters detailing the exact formula for poison that the 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.800 Marquise and her lover had spent years concocting. Letters written 0:24:28.800 --> 0:24:34.200 in the clean, bold, firm handwriting of the Marquise de Brinevilliers. 0:24:35.560 --> 0:24:39.360 She was found finally in that nunnery in Antwerp by 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:43.120 a magistrate who disguised himself as a priest. As soon 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:45.600 as she was caught, she broke a glass and tried 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:48.840 to swallow the pieces to end her life. When they 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:52.080 no longer allowed her glass, she tried to swallow a pin, 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:56.960 but unable to kill herself. The Marquise de Brinvilliers was 0:24:57.000 --> 0:25:00.840 brought to Paris to be tortured into confession. Her body 0:25:01.000 --> 0:25:04.040 was bent backwards across a wooden beam, with her arms 0:25:04.040 --> 0:25:07.280 and legs chained to the floor. A funnel was shoved 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:10.919 into her mouth, and the torturers forced down a full 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:15.639 gallon of water. You're killing me, Brunevilliers sputtered. When the 0:25:15.680 --> 0:25:19.800 gallon was finished, they demanded that she name her accomplices. 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:24.560 She claimed that she had none left. The torture continued. 0:25:26.359 --> 0:25:29.720 The Marquise de Burunevilier was carried off to her execution 0:25:29.840 --> 0:25:33.760 in a cart meant for livestock. Her hair was still 0:25:33.800 --> 0:25:39.000 brown and extraordinarily thick. Her eyes were blue. Her skin 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:44.280 was bone white and almost translucent, and everyone could see 0:25:44.280 --> 0:25:47.840 her from the back of the cart. When she reached 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:51.440 the execution platform a rough knife, sheared off her hair 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:53.640 to give the blade a clear path to her neck. 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:57.359 She was facing the sun when the executioner lowered a 0:25:57.400 --> 0:26:01.880 mask over her eyes. The marquis peace began to pray, 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:07.080 but the axe cut her off mid sentence. Usually after executions, 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:11.560 the corpses were stripped, but the Marquise's body remained clothed. 0:26:12.320 --> 0:26:15.320 A distant relative had bribed some one or another to 0:26:15.400 --> 0:26:19.239 preserve her dignity or the reputation of their family. In 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:24.920 that one small, final way, the corpse, still fully clothed, 0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:29.800 was placed on a pyre and burned to ash. History, 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:34.280 especially modern history, tends to have a problem with glamorizing 0:26:34.440 --> 0:26:38.439 female murderesses. Allow me to make it clear that I 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:41.560 think the Marquise is a villain, But perhaps you'll also 0:26:41.600 --> 0:26:45.159 allow me to tell you the story, maybe apocryphal, of 0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:48.639 what supposedly happened when the magistrate had finally caught her 0:26:48.680 --> 0:26:52.520 in that nunnery, and Marquise immediately tried to swallow glass. 0:26:53.560 --> 0:26:56.359 You wretched, The policeman shouted at her, you want to 0:26:56.440 --> 0:26:59.720 kill yourself. You already poisoned your father and your brothers, 0:27:00.760 --> 0:27:04.160 And the Marquise responded with a bon mo. So beautifully 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:07.760 modern it seems impossible to believe, like it should be 0:27:07.800 --> 0:27:12.000 the final line in a Billy Wilder film. Supposedly, the 0:27:12.119 --> 0:27:16.320 magistrate confronted her with her murders, and the Marquise looked 0:27:16.320 --> 0:27:19.760 back at him, and she said, we all have our 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:29.160 bad moments. That's the end of the Marquise de brine 0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:31.600 Villier's life. But it's not the end of the story. 0:27:32.440 --> 0:27:35.200 Keep listening after a brief ad break to hear how heard. 0:27:35.240 --> 0:27:47.919 Case shook the French aristocracy to its core. Enthralling as 0:27:48.000 --> 0:27:51.560 the Marquise de brine Villiers murders and gruesome as her 0:27:51.600 --> 0:27:56.199 torture and execution were, her life was nothing compared to 0:27:56.200 --> 0:27:59.000 the chaos that was about to hit the French court 0:27:59.160 --> 0:28:03.359 of Louis the four teeth, Because while Brinvillier was being tortured, 0:28:03.920 --> 0:28:07.280 she didn't give up the names of any co conspirators, 0:28:07.280 --> 0:28:10.600 but she did say something that left law enforcement reeling. 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:14.880 Between bouts of water torture, while choking on the funnel 0:28:14.920 --> 0:28:18.720 they pulled from her mouth, Brinvillier managed to say something 0:28:18.840 --> 0:28:22.960 truly chilling. So many of us are doing it, she remarked, 0:28:23.240 --> 0:28:27.399 But only I get caught. The terrifying thing was she 0:28:27.640 --> 0:28:31.760 was right. The Affair of the Poisons, as this frenzy 0:28:31.800 --> 0:28:34.880