Pirot objected that what she said about her death and her enemies was not correct. 'How so, sir?' she said. 'Are not those who have driven me to death my enemies, and is it not a Christian sentiment to forgive them their rancour?' Pirot's answer was as might be expected, but it was to her a revelation which plunged her into great astonishment. Then the confession was resumed. 'King David was troubled at the sight of his sin,' said Pirot, 'his heart pined with grief at the remembrance of his crimes. His flesh was bruised, his bones were broken, his heart quailed, his face, his bread, and his bed were bathed in his tears, his voice became hoarse with the cries he uttered to heaven in imploring mercy. His groaning was like that of the turtle-dove that ceaseth not. That also is the picture of the Magdalene. She watered the feet of Christ with her tears and did not cease to kiss them. Her holy tears which are never spent, her sacred kisses which continue without interruption, are marks of the greatness and constancy of her contrition for her sins, and her love for God. All these words and a thousand others like them,' adds Pirot, 'caused her to weep bitterly.' Twice after dinner the priest was interrupted by the procurator-general, who came to see in what condition the prisoner was, and if she was disposed to confess her crimes before the court, to name her accomplices, and reveal the nature of her poisons. The marchioness replied that she would tell everything, but not till the morrow; that till then she did not wish to be interrupted in her preparation for death; and she persisted in her resolution in spite of the entreaties of Pirot, who would rather the confession had been made at once. She spoke of her children, displaying a tender affection for them. '"Sir," she said to me, "I have not asked to see them; that would only have upset both them and me. I beseech you to be a mother to them."' Pirot replied that it was the Virgin who would serve them as mother, and that the marchioness should pray to her to maintain them in purity and humility all their life long. From the first, Pirot had probed his fair prisoner's character to the bottom. 'Ah!' she said, interrupting him, 'those are grand virtues! Do you know that, humbled though I be by my hapless present state, yet I do not feel humble enough? I am still attached to this world's glory, and it is hard to bear the shame with which I am loaded.' And to the priest's remarks she replied: 'I tell myself all that when I reflect, but that does not prevent feelings of pride and glory sometimes passing through my mind, as they are natural to me.' And she added words that must have terrified the unhappy priest: 'At this present hour in which I speak to you, there are still moments when I cannot regret having known the man (Sainte-Croix) whose acquaintance has been so fatal to me, or hate his friendship which is so dire to me and has brought upon me so many misfortunes.'