Chapter Two:

By now, La Maupin is described as a beauty in full bloom, tall, statuesque athletic body, haughty bearing, long auburn curly hair with golden reflections, the fairest skin, blue eyes, slightly aquiline nose, exquisite luscious lips and perfect breastsShe still does not seem to be granted feature roles in Marseilles Opera House, and probably continues her act with Srannes at the same time.

But soon, she gets tired of her lover: is it because he no longer fits her new lifestyle? Or because she now becomes bored with men in general, feeling new attractions?

She has an affair with a young noble girl, who is seduced by this dominant and overwhelming amazon.

After three passionate months together, the young girls family discovers the truth, and, fearing scandal, sends her to a nunnery in Avignon, 60 miles north of Marseilles. La Maupin is infuriated, she cannot stand to be antagonized nor resisted.

She knocks at the convents door , meets the Superior Sister, and pretends she wants to join the community as a novice (actually desiring to meet her dear girlfriend again). She plots an horrendous stratagem to escape with her.

One night she digs a dead nun out of the nunnerys graveyard, and lays the corpse in her friends bed. She sets the convent on fire, to cause distraction, and they both get away.

Hand in hand, they run for cover to the woods nearby, hearing behind them the eerie howls of the fire and the tragic crackling sounds of the convents burning woodwork and carpentry. When they reach the forests edge, they stop and look back to see the huge flames crowning the building like a devilish Medusas hair of fire: the young girl is in tears, and La Maupins face beams with an evil grin.

Such an outrage! Julie dAubigny La Maupin is put on trial , in absentia , by the Provence Parliament in Aix. For the motives of abducting the young girl, unearthing the buried corpse, and burning the religious buildings, she is sentenced to death on the bonfire, the usual punishment for crimes against religion.

Meanwhile, she and her friend hide and live like outlaws, in poverty. The young girl, out of guilt and shame, eventually returns to her family, but Julie cant go back: she has a death sentence pending. She heads to Paris, zig-zagging her way North, East and West.

Orlans : She sings and fences in taverns again.

Poitiers : She is hosted by an old singing Master ( and drunkard), Marechal, who perfects her vocal technique, says her future in Opera is bright, and gives her a recommendation letter for a friend of his in Paris, a theater director.

Tours : She enters a tavern in her mans attire, wearing a long cloak, holding her foil by her hip. Next to her table, four young aristocrats are drinking. They begin to tease her, and she answers in her daredevil usual way. Their leader persists, and as she stands up to leave the room to avoid a quarrel, he grabs her by the wrist to keep her standing still. Thats too much!

She unsheathes her sword and threatens him, he laughs, and they fight. After a few attacks, parries and ripostes , she pins him between chest and shoulder, and the iron pierces through, protruding ten inches out of his back. He turns his head over his shoulder and sees the blade tainted with his own blood. Big silence in the tavern. All jaws drop. She withdraws her foil, and walks out like a queen.

This young wounded man is named Louis Joseph dAlbert de Luynes, heir to the Duc de Luynes, one of the highest and oldest noble families of France. A surgeon comes to clean and bandage his wound, but Luynes tears off these bandages: he wants this woman to change them! One of his friends finds La Maupin in the nearest inn. He explains that Luynes apologizes for his behavior, and how he needs her to help in his recovery. She says she will come with her answer later.

In the middle of the night, she creeps into dAlberts room, and letting her mans cloak fall to the ground, she appears to him in a feminine tulle negligee She heals him beyond his expectations.

They become passionate lovers, but soon dAlbert has to rejoin his Army Regiment. Their affair will continue intermittently, until his wedding, some years later.

Alone again, Julie still cant decide whether or not to go to Paris. Too dangerous. Now we find her in Rouen , singing again. She meets an Opera singer named Thvenard, who falls in love with her, and convinces her to try their luck in Paris.

When they reach the capital town, she first addresses her former lover, le Comte dArmagnac, and asks him to plead her cause to the King. In remembrance of their past, this he does. Louis XIV, to please his cousin, pardons and cancels the death sentence of the Aix Parliament.

Free at last!

Thevenard is hired in the Paris Opera House, as is La Maupin, soon afterwards, with her letter of recommendation. She has lived several lives to the fullest, yet she is only twenty years old!

( to be continued)

(Pictures, from top to bottom:

(1) Mademoiselle de Maupin, dressed as a male fencer, by Kirchneer

(2) Women training in a salle d'armes, with a Matre d'Armes on the left

(3) La Maupin ( and Luynes?) , painting by Delaroche ( I think)