It was neither Louvois nor Louis XIV who suppressed the lettre de cachet with which the deposition of La Voisin had threatened Racine. Bazin de Bezons, a commissioner of the Chambre Ardente and member of the Academy, determined to spare his colleague the affront of an arrest in such circumstances, and thought he might well wait until the denunciations of La Voisin were confirmed from another source.
Racine, as a matter of fact, had been the lover of Du Parc, whose maiden name was Marguerite Thérèse de Gorla, daughter of a surgeon of Lyons. La Voisin knew her very intimately, and called her her ‘gossip.’
Here follows, word for word, the part of the celebrated examination of La Voisin on November 21, 1679, so far as it relates to Racine:—
‘Who made her acquainted with Du Parc, comedian?
‘She had known her for fourteen years. They were very good friends together, and she knew all her affairs during that time. She had for some time had the intention of declaring to us that Du Parc must have been poisoned, and that Jean Racine was suspected. The rumour was strong. What more especially gave rise to the presumption was that Racine had always prevented her, who was the good friend of Du Parc, from seeing her during the whole course of the illness of which she died, although Du Parc constantly asked for her; but although she went to see her, they had never been willing to let her in, and this was by order of Racine, as she learnt from the stepmother of Du Parc, whose name was Mademoiselle de Gorla, and from Du Parc’s daughters, who are at the Hôtel de Soissons, and informed her that Racine was the cause of their misfortune.
‘Asked if he had ever proposed to her to do away with Du Parc by poison.
‘The proposal would have been well received.
‘Asked if she was not aware that application had been made to Delagrange for the same purpose.
‘She knew nothing about that.
‘Asked if she did not know a lame actor.