_An Illustration of Sayings and Doings._
(_For the Mirror._)
It was the vesper-hour when the lovely Lady Victorine entered the church
of St. Genevieve with her liege lord the Marquess de Montespan, and
proceeding slowly down a side aisle of that magnificent fane, prostrated
herself upon the steps of an altar of black marble, upon which burned
in silver cassolettes, two small glimmering fires, sparingly fed with
frankincense, and serving rather to render visible, than to illumine
the gloom of the niche in which the altar stood; whilst the tapers which
twinkled like glow-worms here and there in the body of the spacious
temple, indicated the presence of worshippers, who, in the uncertain and
vasty darkness, were scarcely beheld. The Marquess de Montespan kneeled
beside his fair lady, and a couple of domestics at a respectful distance
from the noble pair, whilst the solemn pealing of the organ intermingled
with the low murmurings of human voices, and the sweet, full-toned
responses of the choir, aided and attested the devotion of those who now
attended vespers in the church of St. Genevieve. The sacred service was
nearly concluded, when the attention of the congregation was painfully
diverted from the solemn duty in which they were engaged, by thrilling
shrieks proceeding from one of the side aisles, and an uncommon stir and
tumult about the dark oratory of the Montespans, to which, therefore, a
crowd was presently attracted. Alas! for the brevity and vanity of human
life! The marquess, who had but so short a time since entered the church
in manly prime, health, and strength, and in the full flush of happiness
and hope, now suddenly, ay, even as he knelt beside his beautiful wife,
and even as their spirits mingled in the same acts of devotion, the
marquess now, struck by the angel of death, laid cold, senseless, and
motionless, in the arms of his servants, who were vainly endeavouring to
recall that vital spark which was totally extinct. Victorine, the young
and lovely marchioness, thus suddenly and awfully reduced to widowhood,
had fallen into such violent hysterics, as to render the task of
supporting her almost dangerous to a noble youth who had voluntarily
undertaken it. The consternation of the spectators at this tragical
spectacle may be well imagined; but some two or three of them had,
nevertheless, presence of mind sufficient to fetch a physician, and
after medical aid had somewhat restored to composure the unhappy
Victorine, she, with her deceased husband, upon whom, alas, all efforts
of art had been bestowed in vain, was carefully conveyed to the Hotel
de Montespan. Upon the breast of the Comte de Villeroi had the head
of the afflicted marchioness rested, in the eventful hour of her sad
bereavement, and in less than six months did he supply to her the
place of her departed lord. This event occurred, it was then deemed,
prematurely, and the precise and censorious blamed the indelicate haste
with which Victorine had exchanged her weeds for bridal attire; but
the kind-hearted observed, "Poor young creature, all Paris knows that
Villeroi was the elected of her heart, long ere she was forced into a
marriage with Montespan; no wonder therefore is it, that the first act
of her recovered liberty should be, that of throwing herself into his
arms;" so, "all Paris," after this appeal to its knowledge of private
history, and best sympathies, could do no less than take the charitable
side of the question, and Madame la Comtesse de Villeroi was allowed,
unmolested by the voice of public censure, to reign awhile as bride
and belle in the high circles which her beauty and agreeable qualities
so well fitted her to adorn. Ere long, however, it was surmised that
Victorine found herself not quite so happy in her union with the object
of her first affection as she had anticipated she should be; she was
pale, spiritless, and absent; sometimes started when addressed, as if
only accustomed to the accents of authority unmingled with kindness; her
cheeks were hollow, her eyes sunken and ray-less, and her smile was the
very mockery of mirth; evidently she was not happy, and the apparently
affectionate attentions lavished upon her by the comte, tended not to
diminish suspicions that he was not altogether so amiable at home, as he
took pains to appear in society. However, balls and fêtes followed the
union of the young couple very gaily for some months, and everybody said
that the Comtesse de Villeroi, rich, beautiful, and beloved, ought to be
the happiest creature in existence.
Something more than a year after the demise of the Marquess de
Montespan, Paris was thrown into considerable consternation by a report
originating with some of the petty officers of the sacred establishment,
that the church of St. Genevieve was haunted; old Albert Morel, the
sexton, protesting upon the faith of a good Catholic, that he had heard,
when occasionally in the church, alone, a strange rattling noise
proceed from the vaults beneath it. "What this could be," he remarked,
"was past comprehension, unless it were ghosts playing at skittles
with their own dead bones." Some people laughed at this idea, and some
sapiently shaking their heads, declared with ominous looks, that Morel
was no fool, but knew what he knew, whilst every one agreed that some
foundation, at least there must be, for the fearful tale. At length, in
the church of St. Genevieve, it became necessary for the interment of
some individual of rank, to open the very vault from whence seemed
chiefly or entirely to proceed the strange and alarming sounds, and this
happened to be that, in which were deposited the mortal remains of the
Marquess de Montespan; from his coffin, (a mere wooden shell,) it was
now ascertained that the rattling proceeded, and as upon inspection, a
hole was observed to have been drilled in the wood, as if by the teeth
of some animal, it was judged expedient to open and examine it further.
The remains of the marquess were discovered in a state of dry
decomposition, with his head as completely severed from his body as
if by the stroke of the axe; but, horror of horrors! that head, that
skeleton skull, moved, as those who opened the coffin stood to gaze on
its revolting contents, and rolled to and fro by itself! Dismay seized
the spectators, who were about to rush in disorder from the spot, when
one more courageous than the rest, laying hold of the skull, shook it
violently for some moments, when, from one of the eye-sockets dangled
the tail of a rat! The cause of the strange sounds heard by Morel and
others, connected with the church of St. Genevieve, was now obvious;
the voracious animal had entered when lean and small, into the head of
the deceased marquess, by the eye, but after revelling upon the brain
of the unfortunate defunct for some time, had increased to a size which
rendered its exit by the same passage impossible, and its efforts at
extrication from horrible thraldom, caused the rattling of the disjoined
head in the coffin. It was proposed to saw asunder the skull, in
order to free the creature, and the advice of Albert Morel, that the
operation should be performed by one of the medical fraternity, who
might be glad to witness the fact of a rat being imprisoned in a human
head, was cheerfully taken. Some, however, objected to its being done,
without application for leave having been first made to the Comtesse de
Villeroi, as one to whom the proprietorship of her deceased husband's
remains naturally and solely appertained, and who might feel it as a
cruel insult towards herself, and a sacrilegious violation of the grave
of her first lord, the consigning without her knowledge and permission,
any part of his body to the hands of a surgeon. "Tush!" quoth old Morel,
"all nonsense that! for if one may believe what has long been town-talk,
'tis little that madame will care for her dead husband now she has a
living one who pleases her better than ever he could do, poor man!" The
sexton's arguments were conclusive, and it was agreed at last, that the
skull should be carried to Monsieur Nicolais, the celebrated surgeon,
who had unavailingly attempted by bleeding, to recover the late marquess
from the apoplexy which carried him off.
A large and brilliant party had assembled at the chateau de Vermont,
the residence of the gay and opulent Comte de Villeroi and his lady, to
celebrate the christening of their first born, when in the midst of a
splendid banquet, an alarm was given that the house was surrounded by
police and gens d'armes, who required in the king's name a surrender
of the persons of the Comte and Comtesse de Villeroi, they standing
attainted of foul and treasonable murder! The confusion and dismay which
seized all parties upon this terrible catastrophe, it is impossible
to describe; but it suffices to state, that the Comte de Villeroi was
impeached for, and fully committed for trial on the charge of having
feloniously aided and abetted Victorine de Villeroi, (late Montespan,)
in wilfully and maliciously causing the death of her late liege husband,
Herbert de Montespan, by thrusting a long pin, or bodkin of gold into
his right ear, well knowing that the same entering into his brain, would
cause his instantaneous dissolution. Master Nicolais, it appeared,
in sawing open the skull of the deceased with anatomical science and
precision, had found a pin or Golden Bodkin like that described in the
indictment, and like what were at this period much used by ladies in
fastening up their hair, bearing the initials, V.M. which he perceived
had been violently thrust through the orifice of the ear, into the brain
of the unfortunate victim. This inference as to the fiendish murderer
was inevitable, and just; and the horror-struck practitioner scrupled
not to incite the relations of the late marquess to summon witnesses,
and lay a criminal information against Victorine de Villeroi as
principal in, and Armand de Villeroi as accessary to, this abominable
transaction. Upon trial, the innocence of the Comte, as to the slightest
knowledge of his wife's secret and heinous crime, was so apparent that
it ensured him an honourable acquittal; but the guilt of that wretched
woman being established beyond all doubt by the evidence of the
goldsmith who had made for her, and engraved her initials upon, the
Golden Bodkin, of the domestics who had seen her when their master
fell asleep during the vespers at St. Genevieve, put her hand beneath
his head as if with the intent of waking, and raising him up, and
subsequently by her own confession, her guilt was thus incontrovertibly
established. She suffered those extreme penalties of the law which the
heinous nature of her crime demanded, and fully justified.
This historiette, in the leading incidents of which, every Frenchman
at all acquainted with the _Causes Cèlèbres_ of his country, will
detect matters of fact, we have "made a prief of in our notebook," as
one of those interesting cases, (not less remarkable because of rather
frequent occurrence) which incontestably prove, that under the just
government of the Omniscient, who hath willed that "Whosoever sheddeth
the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed."--Murder will out!