The mysterious affair of the Marquise de Douhault
On October 7, 1741, a little girl named Adelaïde-Marie was born in a castle. His father is Count Rogres de Lusignan de Champignelles, lieutenant general of the armies of the King of France. Married at the age of majority to the Marquis Louis-Joseph de Douhault, 27 years older, Adélaïde-Marie moved to the Château de Chazelet, the manor house of her husband, in 1765.
The story begins in 1766 when un night, the marquise, hears cries and a noise of struggle in the castle. She discovers Louis-Joseph holding his valet of confidence, named Lajoie, by the throat. She intervenes but the furious Marquis turns against his wife and hurts her under the right breast with his sword, for a reason that remains unknown to this day. His state of health being considered worrying by the surgeon, le Comte de Champignelle, his father, was warned.RKnown as epileptic and dangerous, the Count of Champignelle, by letter from the king's stamp, had him interned in Charenton ...
For almost 18 years, the Marquise de Douhault lived peacefully at the Château de Chazelet. Much loved by her relatives and the inhabitants of the village, she created a dispensary for sick people.
But in 1784, the count of Champignelles his father died suddenly. Then it was the turn of her husband, the Marquis de Douhault, still interned to disappear, in 1787.
At forty-three, the Marquise de Douhault inherited an immense fortune. Only sone brother, Armand, succeeds in appropriating the considerable assets of his family by asking for loans from his mother, an old countess, little acquainted with financial affairs, who entrusts her with the responsibility of managing his fortune and thus enables him to keep his rank at court. But Armand, count of Champignelle, is a spender and he quickly finds himself ceasing to pay the amount of the pension to his mother who then addresses a series of anguished letters to his daughter. She wants to know more and decides to go to Paris to meet her brother.The Marquise is determined to ask for explanations from her brother.
She decides to stop on the way to Orléans with her cousin De La Roncières, cousin on the side of her late husband. Buthe January 15, 1788 after a joyful stroll on the banks of the Loire, she was overcome by dizziness after smoking tobacco. They take her to her room where she then sinks into deep lethargy.His death was declared two days later. She is mysteriously hastily buried in Orleans. His body is buried in a mass grave.
His heirs then shared his fortune and his land.
A year later, in spring 1789, a woman imprisoned at the Salpêtrière sent a letter to the Duchess of Polignac, by roundabout ways, by which she claimed to be called the Marquise de Douhault. She tells him that, sick, she was drugged and locked up under a letter of stamp. However, a death certificate attests to the death of the Marquise de Douhault on January 17, 1788 in Orléans.
Surprised, the duchess nevertheless sent her some gentlemen to meet her and enlighten her about the identity of the stranger. A week later, in early July 1789, the prisoner was released.
Terror and Revolution pass. The so-called Marquise and Count de Champignelle survive these events. The brother of the deceased rebels constantly against the pretensions of the so-called marquise. He claims that she is actually called Anne Buiret, a notorious fabulator. A few years later, in 1804, during a resounding trial, which took place at the imperial criminal court in Bourges, the parade of witnesses began.
The Marquise's former servants formally recognize it! In particular his chambermaid who had followed her to Orleans and who returned to Chazelet upset, herself fell ill with the same tobacco, while her brother and her cousins call her under the term of "the false marquise".Anne Buiret's former husband testifies for his part that in no case the woman he sees in front of him is his wife. Françoise Perisse the former maid of the marquise and who accompanied her on her trip to Orleans told the court that her mMistress was certainly deceased, but that the woman at the helm was undoubtedly the Marquise !!
Before retracting under questionable conditions, two former prisoners of the Salpêtrière affirm in their turn that they attended the entry into prison of this woman and that as soon as she woke up she declared herself a widow Douhault while being astonished at end up there.
In its conclusions, the court relieves the tale of Champignelle from all charges. But strangely, the imperial prosecutor refuses to prosecute the woman for identity theft. It appears from this judgment that she is neither Anne Buiret nor the Marquise de Douhault and from that moment becomes like "the nameless woman", from which the writer Wilkie Collins will then be inspired (The woman in white).
The Marquise de Douhault will live a very long time and will share her old people with one of her lawyers, Delorme, a faithful defender of her cause from the start. He was one of the sons of the former manager of the Marquis de Douhault of the Château de Chazelet…
This case remains one of the most mysterious criminal cases. She will have unleashed passions. It remains unclear ...
