'My mother,' said the girl, 'several times took to Madame de Montespan at Saint-Germain, Versailles, and Clagny, these love-powders to give to the king--some which had passed under the chalice and others which had not; my mother sent some to Madame de Montespan by the hand of the demoiselle Desoeillets (one of her waiting-maids), and I myself gave her some in the church of the Petits Pères, and another time on the road to St. Cloud.'
The depositions of Marguerite Monvoisin are important. She had never been mixed up with her mother's sorceries, but she had known about them. La Reynie observes that her declarations exhibit 'a certain air of ingenuousness, or else, if they are false, every one is mightily deceived.' He adds that 'she mentions so many circumstances and so many different transactions which are not self-contradictory, that it is morally impossible for them to have been invented, in addition to which she is not clever enough to invent and to follow up what she has invented. Several of these facts are proved genuine; she mentions living people.' The examining judge says further, that the very denials of the sorceresses accused by Marguerite of complicity with Madame de Montespan, their embarrassment, their contradictions, their refusal to answer when they were conscious of being hard pressed, confirm her testimony.
When Marguerite Monvoisin made her depositions, her mother had been dead for several months. In the examination of July 12, 1680, we read:--
'Why did you not sooner give information of these evil designs against the person of the king?'
'I could not tell what I had heard without ruining my mother; I did not believe myself obliged to tell; I asked advice of no one, and have declared all I know on the matter.'
'Did you not know you were bound to tell, and that it would be a great crime to hide anything concerning this matter?'
'I knew well enough the importance of the things I have stated; I knew it before I told them, and was sure of it after I had done so; and I knew there was nothing but was of great importance.'
'Did you know it would be a great crime to make the slightest addition to the facts which you have declared?'
'Yes, and those of whom I have spoken can tell you a good deal; I think I have diminished rather than increased; I had no other idea but to state the truth, having nothing more to fear in regard to my mother; if I remember any other circumstance, or if any is recalled to my memory, I will confess the truth.'