'How, sir? For my part, I am greatly consoled by the state in which I now see her, and I hope that God will have mercy upon her.' 'Ah, sir! she confesses her crime, but she does not reveal her accomplices.' Shortly afterwards the procurator-general returned to the chapel along with some commissaries and Drouet the clerk of the court. Pirot repeated to the marchioness what had just been said to him, adding that she could only hope for pardon if she revealed to the judges all she knew. 'Sir,' she said, 'it is true that you told me that at first and at greater length, and I have followed your instructions and know nothing more than I have declared. I have already testified to these gentlemen that you had well instructed me, and it was through that that I told them everything. I have told everything, sir, and have nothing more to say.' Monsieur de Palluau at once said, 'This is more than enough, sir; adieu.' 'He went away at once, and we were given only a short time to spend in that place, the day beginning to decline; it might be about a quarter to seven. I have no doubt she was pretty tired of so much questioning; however, I saw not the shadow of a complaint, so great was her courtesy.' Before the procurator-general and the rest retired, Pirot, with the authority of the prisoner, cleared Briancourt and Desgrez from the accusations brought against them in the torture-chamber. Madame de Brinvilliers remained a moment longer prostrate before the altar, then went out to meet her doom. At this moment the executioner came up to speak of 'a saddler to whom she owed the balance of the price of a carriage; she told him shortly that she would see to it, and said that very sweetly, but as she would have spoken to a man much inferior to herself.' As she left the chapel, she stumbled upon some fifty people of rank--the Countess de Soissons, Mademoiselle de Lendovie, Madame de Roquelaure, the Abbé de Chaluset, all jostling one another to see her. Her pride was offended, and after freely staring at them, she said to her confessor: 'Sir, what a strange curiosity!' She went on, barefooted, clothed in the coarse linen shirt of condemned criminals, holding in one hand the penitent's candle, and in the other a crucifix. * * * * *