Whatever the controversy, Mata Hari's notoriety grew and the public flocked to see her out of curiosity. There were, however, circles where rumors of her lack of dance technique made it difficult to persuade her agent to secure contracts. When the Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo's director, Serge Diaghilev, first wanted to judge her dancing before allowing her to appear as a guest artist, Mata Hari was outraged. She argued that her fame was sufficient proof of her talent. Leon Baskt, costume designer for the company, wanted to see her figure before designing a "goddess" costume for her. She undressed completely for him but was never asked to perform in any part with the Russian Ballet.

There were moments in Mata Hari's career which were artistically very flattering. Gabriel Astruc arranged for her to appear in 1911 and 1912 at La Scala in Milan where she danced the part of Venus in the opera Bacchus and Gabrinus by Marenco. As usual in her interviews with local reporters, she exaggerated her ancestry and re-arranged her lineage to suit her current whims. She was at times a Hindu Temple dancer, or Javanese princess, or of royal Dutch descent.

It cannot be said that Mata Hari supported herself as a dancer. The money she made dancing was spent on costumes, music, and the like, but her sumptuous lifestyle was made possible by her lovers. She acquired sables, a stable of horses, jewelry, and a country residence in Neuilly, France, where she entertained her friends royally. Among her powerful and wealthy acquaintances were Jules Cambon, French Ambassador to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Colonel Baron Van Der Cappellen of the second regiment of Hussars, Henri Kapferer, director-owner of the Astra Corporation and one of the greatest Zeppelin pilots in Europe, the Marquis De Beaufort, and the list goes on and on.

Mata Hari arrived in Paris in 1905 and had a successful career until about 1912 when it was becoming more and more difficult to secure dance appearances. She offered her agent all her possessions as collateral for a loan with which she intended to pay her ever increasing debts. She lived high and spent far in advance of her earnings. Her preference for men in uniform dated back to her first impressions of her husband who she saw as her protector and savior at a desperate time in her life. All her future relationships were meaningless and continued as long as she was financially rewarded.

Her downfall began with two instances related to the coming of World War I. The first took place in 1916 on the ship Zeelandia which was taking Mata Hari from Holland to France via Vigo and Madrid. On board, a Dutchman by the name of Noedemaker, who was a British Agent, took the liberty to search Mata Hari's Cabin. She demanded a public apology but he denied the charges, so she slapped him publicly with such force, it made blood come out of his mouth. Henri Noedemaker committed suicide in 1921 surrounded by gossip told by his relatives that he took his life, "because he thought Mata Hari was shot as a result of the information he gave the British." The second and most vulnerable time in her life was when she met and fell in love with the Captain Vadime De Massloff to the first special imperial Russian regiment. He was twenty years younger than her, a gambler, and very immature. In her desperation to supply him with money for his debts she unwittingly agreed to spy for France "for a price". Her motives were suspect when she asked for permission to "take the healing waters" at Vittel for treatment. It was her desire to stop deceiving her young lover with other men. In order to do this she would leave her two wealthy lovers, the Marquis De Beaufort and the Baron Van Der Cappellen, and, after selling her furniture and art objects in Holland, together with the money she would receive for information as a spy for France, would then be free to marry her lover and, "be the happiest woman in the world."

It was not meant to be. When asked about her loyalty to France she attempted to prove it by spying and be repaid with the money she now so desperately needed for her love plan.What kind of spy was she?

She was instructed by Captain Ladoux of the French Intelligence to convince the Germans that she disliked the French And would be willing to spy for Germany. In agreeing to do so, she allowed herself to be later accused of being a double agent. It was a time when everyone was suspect.There was a sickness in the air called "espionitis" Innocent doodling on paper napkins in restaurants was interpreted as subversive by spies posing as waiters. Everyday, everywhere, innocent people were being accused as the war was going badly and they were looking for a scapegoat to appease the public. When Mata Hari was arrested and detained, her prosecutor, Captain Boushardon, described her as a woman "whose facility of languages, innumerable connections, remarkable intelligence and innate or acquired immorality all contribute to make her suspect. Without scruples, accustomed to make use of men, she is the type of woman who is born to be a spy." Fifteen years later Bouchardon, who reflected on the emotional war years, could not give a positive answer to Mata Hari's guilt.

Paul Allard expressed the general consensus of opinion: "I have read everything that has been written about the famous dancer-spy and I am just as far advanced as before. I still do not know what Mata Hari has done. In fact nobody knows what Mata Hari has done! Ask the average Frenchman, or even the more intelligent Frenchman what Mata Hari's crime was and you discover that he does not know. He is only convinced that she was guilty, but he does not know why." After an exhaustive investigation Mr.Allard found no tangible, absolute evidence of her guilt.

Mata Hari might have been the victim of a vendetta. When warned by the British of the possibility of her being suspected of spying, Captain Ladoux was embarrassed when she openly admitted to Sir Basil Thomson of British Intelligence that she was indeed spying for France. Her indiscreet behavior may have spurred him to teach this arrogant female a lesson. From then every service rendered by her became an act of treason. To him she became just another spy who could be pointed to as the cause of so many French setbacks.

That Mata Hari could loose her life in the process was of no importance to him.

Everyone she thought to be her friend deserted her perhaps out of fear, or jealousy, or revenge. Some she had known innocently were perceived as dangerous companions. Her private and intimate acts were described as opportunities to divulge secrets of state. Deserted and alone she wrote a letter to the Netherlands legation:

I beg your excellency to please intervene for me with the French
government. The third war council has condemned me to death and it is nothing but a grave error. There are some outward appearances, but no acts, and all my international connections are necessarily the results of my profession as a dancer, and nothing else. At this moment everything is wrongly explained and the most natural things are greatly exaggerated. Since I truly have not done any espionage in France, it is really terrible that I cannot defend myself.

Her outward appearance was calm enough even though after her arrest she was not given any comfort in her prison cell. She was not allowed exercise, or even to talk to under guard. Her hair was unkempt and she did not have any bathing facilities. In her last prison photograph Mata Hari looks strained and confused. During her incarceration she was denied cosmetics. She read Buddhist literature, exchanging eastern philosophies with the Catholic nuns who were assigned her cell.

Notorious stories circulated about her dancing in the nude in jail, how she insisted on baths of donkey milk, an her attempts to seduce her captors. All of them were totally untrue.

Mata Hari became resigned to her fate; although , when her heard the verdict she exclaimed, "It's impossible, it's impossible!"

When the time came for her to be escorted to the place of execution it was Mata Hari who had to console Sister Leonide, one of the nuns assigned to her.

"Don't be afraid sister," she said, "I'll know how to die."

Dr. Biznard reported there were no tears and no despair except a confusion as to the mentality of the French character that could have allowed this to happen. Mata Hari refused a blind fold. She refused to be bound to the pole. Of twelve shots fired, three found their mark. Marechal De Logis Petey gave her lifeless body the "coup de grace"

All her possessions were sold by the French to pay for the trail. Her body was not claimed by anyone so it was automatically taken to the dissecting room of one of the Paris medicinal science.

For all the negative things her husband said about Mata Hari during her lifetime, his epitaph to her sadly impressive. Rudlph Mac Leod said: "Whatever she's done in life, she did not deserve that."