that he had wickedly and maliciously poi soned his said victims, asking for this the pardon of God and of justice, he should be conducted to a scaffold erected in the Place de Greve, and there his arms, legs, and loins should be broken while he was yet alive; his body should then be cast into a burning pile at the foot of the scaffold, and his ashes scattered to the winds. As for Madame Desrues, judgment was suspended in her case until after her hus band's execution. Previous to the carrying out of the sen tence pronounced against him, Desrues was submitted to the torture; but all efforts to tear a confession from him were in vain. Lying upon a mattress before a fire after the application of the torture, he conversed calmly with the magistrates. "You are doing," he said, "what you believe to be your duty. But before God, who hears us, you are wrong. I am innocent of all that is im puted to me. I loved that boy too well to cause his death. My only crime, and that I expiate, was in endeavoring to conceal this accident. That was a sin, and God punishes me. Believe me, gentlemen, both these deaths were from natural causes." They asked him if he would not acknowl edge the complicity of his wife. "Poor Marie," he replied, " she knew nothing of my affairs. I deceived her, as I did others, as to these unfortunate deaths. If the boy's watch was found in her possession, it was because I gave it to her, telling her I had bought him another. I did not wish to bury it with him, and I kept it; that was wrong." But how had he concealed these two deaths, especially that of Madame de la Motte, from his wife? " Oh! " he replied, "I don't remember; " and turned over on the mattress, refusing to reply further, and mur muring prayers. At the Hotel de Ville Desrues and his wife met for the last time. In this interview Desrues displayed much feeling. He pitied this companion of his life, whom he seems
to have loved sincerely. " Ah, my dear, good friend! " he repeated several times, on seeing her. He asked permission to kiss her, and recommended his children to her, "Bring them up," he said, " in the fear of God. Leave Paris, go to Chartres, and rec ommend yourself to the bishop, who has always been good to me." He manifested, in a word, in his last moments the calmness of a philosopher and the resignation of a Christian. He sustained this r61e to the very end. As they were conducting him to the scaffold, he perceived a crucifix. " Oh, Man! " he cried, " I am about to suffer as thou didst!" At the first blows of the bar he uttered several sharp cries. After a heavy blow upon the breast his moans ceased, his eyes remained closed; the small, frail body had ceased to live. Desrues left a dying statement in writing. In it he said that, to acquit his conscience, he felt obliged to declare once more that he had taken no part in the death of Madame de la Motte or her son. He had only to reproach himself for the concealment of the body. He repented of all the lies he had told con cerning this mysterious disappearance, and he asked pardon of God and of the saints. His wife had had no knowledge of these affairs. He had resorted to every conceiv able means to conceal them from her. It was not he who signed the power of attorney at M. Pourra's house in Lyons; it was a woman. He again and again asserted the innocence of Madame Desrues. He had always kept his mouth closed to her; when she had wished to question him he had always begged her not to interrogate him, contenting himself with saying to her, " I am arranging matters with them; be per fectly easy on that point. I am acting for the best. Question me no further." It was he who had exacted that his wife should say that she had witnessed Madame de la Motte's departure for Versailles; the poor woman was obedience itself. The last victim of Desrues was this same
