Sainte-Croix had the right to claim the merit of this scheme for enriching the Marchioness, and at the same time relieving her from a guardianship that was impenetrable by her lover. The murder of her brothers seemed a trifling affair after the poisoning of her father, and she readily consented to assist in procuring a situation for the poisoner's assistant--a man named Lechaussée--in the household of her brothers, who happened, very fortunately, to be in want of a servant at the moment. How this wretch administered the poison to the two brothers, who died instantly from its effect, the curious reader may ascertain--together with the other dramatic particulars--by consulting Mr. Albert Smith's book, in which the incidents are told with great force and skill. By eavesdropping in somewhat improbable places--notably at a grand fête at the Hôtel de Cluny, given by the Marquis de Lauzan, the Italian poisoner Exili becomes master of the guilty pair's secrets. The Marchioness's jealousy had been aroused during the evening by Sainte-Croix's attention to an actress; and she left the great _salon_, and retired with her friend to a cabinet, in which, after the usual denial and reconciliation, secure, as they thought, from interruption, they discussed their demoniacal schemes. As they were about to pass from the room, "a portion of a large bookcase, masking a door, was thrown open, and Exili stood before them." The somewhat theatrical character that Leech gives to the figure of Sainte-Croix is much less apparent in this powerful drawing; and in the figures of Exili and the Marchioness there is not a trace of it. Though the Brinvilliers is masked according to a habit of the time, we feel that the mask conceals a beautiful face, distorted by fear, no doubt, but still lovely. The Italian is altogether excellent. Exili loses no time in turning his information to account, and in reply to Sainte-Croix, who asks him what he wants, he replies that his trade as a sorcerer is failing, and as a poisoner he is in "a yet worse position, thanks to the Lieutenant of Police, M. de la Regnie. "'I must have money,' he adds, 'to enable me to retire and die elsewhere than on the Grève.'" He ends by extorting from Sainte-Croix an undertaking to share with him the wealth obtained through the murder of the brothers. But if Exili relied upon the bond as a security of value, he displayed a degree of ignorance of the human nature of such individuals as Sainte-Croix that was surprising in so astute a person. "To elude the payment of Exili's bond," says the author, "he had determined upon destroying him, running the risk of whatever might happen subsequently through the physician's knowledge of the murders." And he had, therefore, ordered a body of the "Guard Royal to attend, when they would receive sufficient proof of the trade Exili was driving in his capacity of alchemist."