Anecdote of a Family Tragedy
Early in the seventeenth century occurred the incomprehensible story of the Beausoleil family. The Baron de Beausoleil was a mining expert. His wife, Baroness Martine de Beausoleil was an expert dowser. The family was wealthy and of excellent standing.
Because of his expertise and her ability to find ore deposits, the Beausoleils had served as mining consultants in Germany, Switzerland, Moravia, Silesia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Hungary, England, and Scotland, as well as mining advisor to the Papal States for the Holy See. In 1626 he was commissioned by the Superintendent for Mines and Ore Deposits under Louis XIII to survey the entire area of France for its mineral wealth. Using a team of sixty mine workers they spent a year in southern France discovering more than forty mines. The written report of this work was full of references to astrological
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A late eighteenth century French dowser. The bent twig twisted in his hands when over water.
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and alchemic formulas, dowsing philosophies, and indicated that all the work was done under correct astrological dates.
Then, as they continued their work in Brittany, officials under the pretext of investigating the two for the use of the "black arts," impounded their reports, detailed maps of mine surveys, ore samples, as well as 100,000 ecus worth of precious stones and silver. In spite of the fact that the Beausoleils were successful in convincing higher authorities that their commission by the Crown was legitimate and that they had made no pact with the Devil, none of their impounded possessions were returned. Bird in his account of this in The Divining Hand observed that this injustice only foreshadowed worse to come.
Because they had received no expense monies, the Baroness wrote to the Superintendent of Mines. In reply, their work was gratefully acknowledged, a new commission issued, but no payment was made. Desperate because of the huge sums they had expended, Mme. de Beausoleil wrote again. This time it was a lengthy, complete report of all mining work done in France from 1602 to 1640 and dedicated this time, as Bird puts it, "not to Louis XIII but to France's sickly, diplomatically crafty, and ruthless Prime Minister—and real king—'His Ementissmus, Cardinal le duc de Richlieu'."
In her report Mme. de Beausoleil pointed out that she and her husband were neither "mining apprentices" nor had they been "constrained by necessity," but that they had worked "nine long years" to produce solid evidence of France's mineral wealth for the Royal Court. She suggested the formation of
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a mining administration of mining engineers with branches in each province. It would have seemed that such an inclusive report should have pleased even the grasping personality of Richlieu. but it was ignored. She had made the mistake of openly revealing the extensive use of alchemy, astrology, and the dowsing rod, and had praised the dowsing rod's effectiveness.
Richlieu's reaction was immediate and cruel. He remanded the Baroness and a daughter who was with her at the time of the arrest to the prison castle of Vincennes. The Baron was arrested and placed in the Bastille. Then when one of his young sons dared to visit his father, he too was imprisoned.
The Baron and his wife were never allowed to see each other again, and they remained in prison the rest of their lives. They had been incarcerated without trial, which was not unusual for certain offenses, and the charge was sorcery.13 It might be noted that this charge was brought only after their monumental work had been nearly completed—sorcery or no. A century and a half later, Napoleon acted on the advice of the Baroness de Beausoleil, and their work is still reference material.
