At Mézières the marchioness met Denis de Palluau, a Parlement counsellor, whom the court had deputed to put her through a first interrogation. Corbinelli, the friend of Madame de Sévigné, wrote to Madame de Grignan: 'The king has required the Parlement to depute Palluau, counsellor in the High Court, to go to Rocroi, where he is to interrogate the Brinvilliers, because they don't wish to wait till she arrives here, where the whole bar is connected with the poor criminal.' The first examination to which Palluau subjected the marchioness is dated Mézières, April 17, 1676. The prisoner took refuge in systematic denials. 'Questioned on the first article of her confession, as to the house she set on fire, she said she had not done so, and that when she had written such things she was out of her mind. 'Questioned on the six remaining articles of her confession, she said she did not know what that was, and remembered nothing about it. 'Asked if she had not poisoned her father and brothers, she said she knew nothing about it. 'Asked if it was not La Chaussée who had poisoned her brothers, she said she knew nothing of all that. 'Eight letters were shown her, and she was enjoined to disclose to whom she had written them; she said she did not remember. 'Asked why she wrote to Théria to secure the box, she said she did not know what that was. 'Asked why, in writing to Théria, she said she was lost if he did not get the box and win his case, she said she did not remember.' The marchioness was lodged in the Conciergerie on the day of her arrival in Paris, namely, April 26. She was left under the guard of the archer Barbier, to whom she continued to intrust letters, which he said he carried to their addresses, but which he really handed to the judges. On April 29 she wrote to Pennautier:-- 'I hear from my friend that you are intending to help me in this business, and you may be sure that this will be to me an additional obligation to all your kindnesses. Wherefore, sir, if you really mean this, you must please not lose any time, and not be seen with the people who will go to find out from you in what way you wish to manage things. I think it would be much to the purpose if you did not show yourself too much, but your friends must know where you are, for the counsellor severely examined me about you at Mézières.' There follows a recommendation to buy the silence of the 'Bernardins widow,' that is, the widow of Sainte-Croix, who lodged in the Rue des Bernardins.