Frederick Schiller - The Pitaval Casebook

“12. A pack with six different seals similar to the previous packs, in which twenty seven little pieces of folded paper were contained, each with the inscription: “various specific secrets.”

“13. A parcel with the same previous inscription, in which people found six different smaller packs addressed to different persons and contained together sixty five pounds of sublimated mercury.”

We add this list of poisons immediately to one of the reports which the doctors made about their investigations.

“Saint Croix's artificial poison” said one of the doctors, “amazed people after all the analysis made about it.

It is so well hidden that people could not recognize it; it is so finely made that it undermines all the knowledge of a doctor. These poisons were experimented mostly either with the elements, or with animals.

In water, the poison sinks on the bottom because of its weight; it catalyzes and sinks under. Under fire, all the foreign and harmless components are separated and washed away, only remains an acid, bitter substance. On animals, people remarked traces of their presence all over the whole body; it spreads all over the members, penetrates all the veins, burns and corrodes all the organs. Experiencing any of Saint Croix's poisons is destructive, pronouncing any rule about them uncertain and expressing any aphorism ridicule. They float on the water; they leave by the test of fire only a sweet, harmless substance, and are hidden in the animal bodies so skilfully that people cannot recognize them. People have done all kinds of tests with them.

First, from one of the bottles, people poured some drops onto wine stones and into sea water; however, the drops did not really catalyze on the bottom of the recipient in which people made the experiment. People made another experiment by pouring the namely water in a recipient full of warm sand; however, not any of the bitter smelling of the matter remained on the sand. The third attempt would be made with a young Indian hen, a pigeon and a dog. These animals died immediately afterwards. As people opened their corpses on the following day, really nothing more was found than a little dried blood in the heart. People made still another experiment with one of the white powder with a cat by giving it some of the poison with sheep bladder. It spitted for half an hour; and on the following day, people found it dead. People saw, however, in the autopsy that not a unique organ was attacked by the poison. A second experiment with the same powder would be undertaken on a pigeon which died also a short time afterwards. In the autopsy, people found nothing more than a little reddish water in the stomach.”

People could derive from these proofs how far Saint Croix has perfected himself, little by little, into this horrible art. In fact, with these means, he was the most dangerous man who could declare war to the whole world, to the whole human race and yet remain unpunished.

Apart from this range of the most fearful poisons; this little coffer also contained, to Lady Brinvillier's misfortune, all the papers written by her. People found in there, not only all the letters which she has written to him, but rather also the precise one written by her to Saint Croix for the payment of 30 000 Pounds.

In one of the letters, the Marquess wrote: “Decided to end my life, I have this evening taken something from the substance which your friendly hand has given to me. I used Glazer's formula. You see that I can sacrifice my life for you. However, I do not give up the wish of seeing you, maybe, again at a certain place to bid you a last farewell.” Apparently was this only one of the menaces which prevailed among the speech of irritated lovers, and usually is only the sign of a nearing reconciliation. However, people realized that between these two souls associated in the darkest crime, the best harmony has not always prevailed.

The Marquess learned, at the same time, of Saint Croix's death and the sealing of his belongings. The pain over the loss of her lover would be added to the nervousness caused by these parcels. As people will immediately see, the love between these two human beings who must have feared each other, has already for long dampened. And the fatal coffer left her, now, really not any time to think about something else. All the efforts she made to get hold of it, we read from the following eyewitnesses.

Peter Frater, Inspector Picard's scribe, said during the witness hearings that Lady Brinvillier came in the evening, around ten o’clock, in his master's house to speak with him. The scribe has answered to her that his master was already in bed. Then, she demanded that he should announce her to the Inspector, that she wanted to see him, because of the little coffer which was among the sealed belongings of Saint Croix and belonged to her, and which she wanted to claim back, unopened. The Inspector answered to her, through him, that he has already gone to bed; and has asked her to send a man, on the next morning, to pick up the little coffer.

Another witness named Cluet testified: Lady Brinvillier has said that her oldest brother was a good for nothing; if it only depended upon her, she would have already for long had him murdered by two noblemen, as he was still an Intendant in Orleans. She has been kind to Saint Croix only in order to obtain the little coffer from him, and she would have very much, after his death, given fifty golden Louis coins to anyone who could get it for her; she did not want anyone to see its content which was matter of importance only to her. When he told her afterwards that Inspector Picard has affirmed finding specific belongings in the little coffer, she became suddenly red, and has immediately sought to divert the conversation onto something else. He has also taken the freedom to ask her whether or not she did not have any share in the poisonings of which Saint Croix was suspected. She has then answered with visible confusion: “Why me?”.

At the same time, she was extremely ashamed and without knowing what she was talking about, added that she has been with Saint Croix long enough to be entitled to the little coffer, and if she will get it, she would allow her interlocutor to be hanged.

The Marquess saw, soon, distinctively enough, that it was too late to recover the little coffer.

It was in the hands of the authority, and she could not hope that it would be delivered to her without further investigation. Hence, to remove herself from the nearing danger, she resolved to seek her salvation by fleeing. She left suddenly Picpus where she was then staying in the night and fled to Lüttich.

Before she left, she took care still of an administrative procedure to be filed in her name with the seal department. This department reported the following in an affidavit: “Appears before us Alexander LaMare as representative of Lady Mary Margaret of Aubray, Marquess of Brinvillier and affirms that if in a small coffer, a signed letter of promise from a mentioned Marquess of Brinvillier promising a sum of 30 000 Pounds should be found, such a promise was obtained through malice and by surprise from her, and hence, she wished to declare it null and void.”

All these details gave grounds to enough suspicion against the Marquess that she has made common cause with Saint Croix. Only that suspicion were just not sufficient to convince people. At once, however, the judges received a new light through LaChaussée who delivered Justice in their hands through his silliness. He, namely, made objections to the seal department, because of particular claims which he still has to make upon Saint Croix. He claimed that during the seven years which he spent in his service, he has lent him hundreds of Pistols and hundreds of Thalers in silver coins which must be found in a linen purse behind the cabinet window, with Saint Croix's written statement confirming his testimony. People would further find in the same place a cession of 300 Pounds, established to a certain LaSerre, which he has received from the deceased Member of Parliament Aubray, and three receipts from his master, about one hundred Pounds each. He demanded hence these papers as well as his money back.