Twenty years separate the cases of these two women, the length of France
lies between the scenes in which they are placed: Mme Boursier, Paris,
1823; Mme Lacoste, Riguepeu, a small town in Gascony, 1844. I tie their
cases together for reasons which cannot be apparent until both their
stories are told--and which may not be so apparent even then. That is
not to say I claim those reasons to be profound, recondite, or settled
in the deeps of psychology. The matter is, I would not have you believe
that I join their cases because of similarities that are superficial.
My hope is that you will find, as I do, a linking which, while neither
profound nor superficial, is curious at least. As I cannot see that
the one case transcends the other in drama or interest, I take them
chronologically, and begin with the Veuve Boursier:
At the corner of Rue de la Paix and Rue Neuve Saint-Augustine in 1823
there stood a boutique d'epiceries. It was a flourishing establishment,
typical of the Paris of that time, and its proprietors were people
of decent standing among their neighbours. More than the prosperous
condition of their business, which was said to yield a profit of over
11,000 francs per annum, it was the happy and cheerful relationship
existing between les epoux Boursier that made them of such good
consideration in the district. The pair had been married for thirteen
years, and their union had been blessed by five children.
Boursier, a middle-aged man of average height, but very stout of build
and asthmatically short of neck, was recognized as a keen trader. He did
most of his trading away from the house in the Rue de la Paix, and paid
frequent visits, sometimes entire months in duration, to Le Havre and
Bordeaux. It is nowhere suggested that those visits were made on any
occasion other than that of business. M. Boursier spent his days away
from the house, and his evenings with friends.
It does not anywhere appear that Mme Boursier objected to her husband's
absenteeism. She was a capable woman, rather younger than her husband,
and of somewhat better birth and education. She seems to have been
content with, if she did not exclusively enjoy, having full charge of
the business in the shop. Dark, white of tooth, not particularly pretty,
this woman of thirty-six was, for her size, almost as stout as her
husband. It is said that her manner was a trifle imperious, but that
no doubt resulted from knowledge of her own capability, proved by
the successful way in which she handled her business and family
responsibilities.
The household, apart from Mme and M. Boursier, and counting those
employed in the epicerie, consisted of the five children, Mme Boursier's
aunt (the Veuve Flamand), two porters (Delonges and Beranger), Mlle
Reine (the clerk), Halbout (the book-keeper), and the cook (Josephine
Blin).
On the morning of the 28th of June, which would be a Sunday, Boursier
was called by the cook to take his usual dejeuner, consisting of chicken
broth with rice. He did not like the taste of it, but ate it. Within a
little time he was violently sick, and became so ill that he had to go
to bed. The doctor, who was called almost immediately, saw no cause for
alarm, but prescribed mild remedies. As the day went on, however, the
sickness increased in violence. Dr Bordot became anxious when he saw the
patient again in the evening. He applied leeches and mustard poultices.
Those ministrations failing to alleviate the sufferings ofthe invalid,
Dr Bordot brought a colleague into consultation, but neither the
new-comer, Dr Partra, nor himself could be positive in diagnosis.
Something gastric, it was evident. They did what they could, though
working, as it were, in the dark.
The patient was no better next day. As night came on he was worse than
ever. A medical student named Toupie was enlisted as nurse and watcher,
and sat with the sufferer through the night--but to no purpose. At four
o'clock in the morning of the Tuesday, the 30th, there came a crisis in
the illness of Boursier, and he died.
The grief exhibited by Mme Boursier, so suddenly widowed, was just
what might have been expected in the circumstances from a woman of her
station. She had lost a good-humoured companion, the father of her
five children, and the man whose genius in trading had done so much to
support her own activities for their mutual profit. The Veuve Boursier
grieved in adequate fashion for the loss of her husband, but, being
a capable woman and responsible for the direction of affairs, did not
allow her grief to overwhelm her. The dead epicier was buried without
much delay--the weather was hot, and he had been of gross habit--and the
business at the corner of Rue de la Paix went on as near to usual as the
loss of the 'outside' partner would allow.
Rumour, meantime, had got to work. There were circumstances about the
sudden death of Boursier which the busybodies of the environs felt
they might regard as suspicious. For some time before the death of the
epicier there had been hanging about the establishment a Greek called
Kostolo. He was a manservant out of employ, and not, even on the
surface, quite the sort of fellow that a respectable couple like the
Boursiers might be expected to accept as a family friend. But such, no
less, had been the Greek's position with the household. So much so that,
although Kostolo had no money and apparently no prospects, Boursier
himself had asked him to be godfather to a niece. The epicier found the
Greek amusing, and, on falling so suddenly ill, made no objection when
Kostolo took it on himself to act as nurse, and to help in the preparing
of drinks and medicines that were prescribed.
It is perhaps to the rather loud-mouthed habits of this Kostolo that the
birth of suspicion among the neighbours may be attributed. On the death
of Boursier he had remarked that the nails of the corpse were blue a
colour, he said, which was almost a certain indication of poisoning.
Now, the two doctors who had attended Boursier, having failed to account
for his illness, were inclined to suspect poisoning as the cause of
his death. For this reason they had suggested an autopsy, a suggestion
rejected by the widow. Her rejection of the idea aroused no immediate
suspicion of her in the minds of the doctors.
Kostolo, in addition to repeating outside the house his opinion
regarding the blueness of the dead Boursier's nails, began, several
days after the funeral, to brag to neighbours and friends of the warm
relationship existing between himself and the widow. He dropped hints of
a projected marriage. Upon this the neighbours took to remembering how
quickly Kostolo's friendship with the Boursier family had sprung up, and
how frequently he had visited the establishment. His nursing activities
were remembered also. And it was noticed that his visits to the Boursier
house still went on; it was whispered that he visited the Veuve Boursier
in her bedroom.
The circumstances in which Boursier had fallen ill were well known.
Nobody, least of all Mme Boursier or Kostolo, had taken any trouble to
conceal them. Anybody who liked to ask either Mme Boursier or the
Greek about the soup could have a detailed story at once. All the
neighbourhood knew it. And since the Veuve Boursier's story is
substantially the same as other versions it may as well be dealt with
here and now.
M. Boursier, said his widow, tasted his soup that Sunday morning. "What
a taste!" he said to the cook, Josephine. "This rice is poisoned."
"But, monsieur," Josephine protested, "that's amazing! The potage ought
to be better than usual this morning, because I made a liaison for it
with three egg-yolks!"
M. Boursier called his wife, and told her he couldn't eat his potage au
riz. It was poisoned. Mme Boursier took a spoonful of it herself, she
said, and saw nothing the matter with it. Whereupon her husband, saying
that if it was all right he ought to eat it, took several spoonfuls
more.
"The poor man," said his widow, "always had a bad taste in his mouth,
and he could not face his soup." Then, she explained, he became very
sick, and brought up what little of the soup he had taken, together with
flots de bile.
All this chatter of poison, particularly by Kostolo and the widow,
together with the persistent rumours of an adulterous association
between the pair, gave colour to suspicions of a criminal complicity,
and these in process of time came to the ears of the officers of
justice. The two doctors were summoned by the Procureur-General, who
questioned them closely regarding Boursier's illness. To the mind of
the official everything pointed to suspicion of the widow. Word of the
growing suspicion against her reached Mme Boursier, and she now hastened
to ask the magistrates for an exhumation and a post-mortem examination.
This did not avert proceedings by the Procureur. It was already known
that she had refused the autopsy suggested by the two doctors, and it
was stated that she had hurried on the burial.
Kostolo and the Widow Boursier were called before the Juge
d'instruction.