[164]. See another account of this scene, in Private Correspondence of the Duke of Marlborough, vol. i. p. 295.
[165]. Conduct, p. 244.
[166]. Burnet’s History, b. iv. vol. vi. p. 314.
[167]. Biographia Britannica, art. Gilbert Burnet.
[168]. Biographia Britannica.
[169]. The Countess de Soissons was one among many ladies of rank, and some belonging to the court, who, merely to satisfy curiosity, ever powerful in female hearts, visited a woman of the name of Voisin, who carried on a traffic in poisons, and was convicted by the Chambre Ardente, and burnt alive on the twenty-second of February, 1680. This woman kept a list of all who had been dupes to her imposture; and in it were found the names of the Countess de Soissons, her sister the Duchess de Bouillon, and Marshal de Luxembourg. In order to avoid the disgrace of imprisonment without a fair trial, the Countess fled to Flanders; her sister was saved by the interest of her friends; and the Marshal, after some months’ imprisonment in the Bastile, was declared innocent.—See Beckman’s History of Inventions, vol. i. p. 94, 95.
[170]. Burnet, Hist. p. 290.
[171]. Conduct, p. 254.
[172]. Cunningham, Burnet, Tindal.
[173]. Private Correspondence, vol. i. p. 317.