Mata Hari was not tied to the stake, and refused a blindfold. She defiantly blew a kiss to the firing squad.

After the volley of shots Mata Hari slowly settled to her knees, her head always up, and without the slightest change of expression on her face.

Mata Hari has often been portrayed as a femme fatale, the dangerous, seductive woman who uses her sexuality to effortlessly manipulate men.

But others view her differently: naïve and easily duped, a victim of men rather than a victimizer.

The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale.

Mata Hari abandoned her early unhappy marriage and while still living in the Dutch East Indies, she studied the Indonesian traditions intensively for several months and joined a local dance company.

Back in Europe, struggeling to earn a living, she performed as a circus horse rider and also posed as an artist’s model.

By 1905 Mata Hari began to win fame as an exotic dancer. She posed as a Javanese princess, pretending to have been immersed in the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood.

Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body, Mata Hari captivated her audiences and became the long-time mistress of an industrial French millionaire.

Mata Hari‘s career went into decline after 1912. She had begun her career relatively late for a dancer, and had started putting on weight.

However, by this time she had become a successful mistress, known more for her sensuality and eroticism than for her beauty.

Mata Hari relationships with high-ranking military officers, politicians, and other influential powerful men frequently took her across international borders.

During the war she was involved in a very intense romantic-sexual relationship with a Russian pilot Captain Vadim Maslov serving with the French, whom she called the love of her life.

On 13 February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her room at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris and put on trial on 24 July, accused of spying for Germany.

Captain Maslov deeply embittered as a result of losing his eyes in combat declined to testify for her.

It was reported that Mata Hari fainted when she learned that Captain Maslov had abandoned her.