Most of Somerset's information is from the Bastille Archives, where one can read the word-by-word interrogations of the hundreds of people arrested for poisoning, witchcraft and infanticide. Through the French on-line library — Gallica — I've been able to download all seven volumes, and so have them on my computer. In this way, I've been able to check Somerset's specific references by going to the volume and page cited.This, in turn, led me back to Gallica, on a search for more information about Villedieu, Claude's friend who was convicted and imprisoned in a convent for the rest of her life. I was initially intrigued because I thought this might be Mlle. de Villedieu, a writer of erotic semi-autobiographical fiction, but no: it's Madame de Villedieu, the spurned wife of the man the erotic novelist ran off with. Tant pis.
Madame de Villedieu's testimony indicates that she'd known Claude for some time, and that Claude had been to see the "witch" Madame Voisin at least fifty times. What strikes me as curious is that Madame Voisin insisted — even under horrifying torture, even when her death by burning was certain — that she'd never laid eyes on Claude, much less on Claude's employer Athénaïs (the Sun King's mistress and mother of several of his children). Why the protection? Voisin was spilling the beans on practically everyone else at court — why not a word about Athénaïs and her maid?
Or is Villedieu's testimony false? That seems unlikely to me, although she might well have been quite angry to find herself in prison while her friend Claude remained free, courtesy of the King's protection.
It's quite an intriguing Affair, and I suspect I'll be lost in it for some time.
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Afternote (after indeed much more research): Madame de Villedieu was not, in fact, speaking of Claude, for she described her as someone completely different.
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