The commissioners decided that Brilland should be put to the question. “On entering the torture-chamber, he protested, in the first place, that everything that he might say would be owing to the violence of the pain, and that he knew nothing about the poison, and that he was innocent. Nevertheless, when the torture was applied, he accused Madame in this sense, that she and he had plotted the poisoning of the late prince from the time that he [Condé] was aware of her behaviour, and that, on leaving this town, his Excellency had recommended him to keep watch over her actions, and to take care of her, declaring that, after she was brought to bed, he should chastise her for her misconduct; and that when he [Brilland] informed her of this, the said project was resolved upon ...; that the said poison had been sent to the ...; that it had come from M. d’Épernon. He further said that La Doussinière, _maître d’hôtel_ of his aforesaid lord, had administered the aforesaid poison in a chicken stuffed with eggs.”[132] After this so-called confession had been extracted from him, the wretched man was released from the rack and taken back to prison. There, on the following day, he was visited by the commissioners, who ordered his confession to be read over to him. “He disavowed it; protested that what he had said was false; declared that what he had done was to escape the violence of the pain: exonerated those whom he had accused; and maintained his innocence and that he was ignorant of the poison. At the same time, he confirmed the truth of all the aforesaid confessions that he had made and signed in the course of the trial, with the exception of that made under torture ... and declared that he believed _Madame la Princesse_ and those whom he had accused to be innocent, and that he knew nothing about the poison.” Brilland was found guilty and condemned to the most barbarous of all forms of punishment--to be dismembered by horses. Against this sentence he appealed.