224
The Green Bag1.
bent upon avenging his death. Upon her application a warrant was issued, and the valet was arrested. Upon his trial, had at the Chitelet, the judges were of the opinion that sufficient proofs of guilt had not been shown. In ac cordance with the system then in force,' he was condemned to the torture preliminary in order to extort evidence against himself. Knowing that if they could only endure the torment long enough without confessing, their subsequent acquittal was assured, crim inals would very often undergo this ordeal without revealing anything. That this avenue of escape might not be open to La Chaussee, the prosecutrix appealed. Her plea was sustained, and the appellate tribunal decreed " Jean Amelin, called La Chaussee, proved and convicted of having poisoned the late Civil Lieutenant and the Counsellor. For this he is condemned to be broken on the wheel, first being put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary to force a revela tion of his accomplices." The torment selected was that of the boot, and the legs and feet of La Chaussee were crushed between planks. With half the al lotted amount of pain yet uninfected, the wretched valet gave way. Stretched on a mattress in the torture chamber, he made full confession. A short time afterward he suffered death on the Place de Greve, as pre scribed in the sentence. After having been bound to a wheel, his legs and arms were broken with an iron bar. In this condition he received the coup de grace. Before proceeding further, it may be well to remark that Penautier was acquitted at his subsequent trial. He was a man of too great utility to Prime Minister Colbert to permit of his conviction. As for Exili, he appears to have vanished from off the face of the earth. No trace of him was ever discovered. It was now the turn of the Marquise de
Brinvilliers. As has been seen, she was in sanctuary at Liege. For Sainte Croix, dead, she had quickly consoled herself. One Theria, of whom but little is known, now oc cupied first place in her affections. The task of arresting the criminal was assigned to Desgrais, one of the most skillful of the po lice. Disguised as an abbe, he visited the Marquise, and succeeded in ingratiating him self into her confidence to such an extent that she actually consented to accord him a rendezvous without the convent walls. Madame kept the appointment, — so did Desgrais,— and so, likewise, did a number of his agents. But little time was wasted in love-making. The Marquise was seized and immediately placed in a closed carriage. Desgrais returned to the convent, and ob taining access to her room took possession of all private papers. Rarely, indeed, can a criminal be found who is able to refrain from disclosing his crime, either in whole or in part. Once committed, there seems to be an uncon trollable impulse to talk. It would be an exceedingly interesting task to endeavor to compute the percentage of cases where the offender was brought to justice solely be cause of his own statements. Sainte Croix wrote a confession of his crimes — the Mar quise did the same. This interesting docu ment, found among her papers, began with the words, " I confess myself to God and to you, my father." It told of the poisoning of her father and brothers, of an attempt upon the life of her sister, and of numerous other crimes. Upon her arrival at Paris she was imme diately placed in the Conciergerie, and her trial began. Of the numerous witnesses pro duced by the prosecution, one only need be considered. The talkative tendency just re ferred to is well illustrated thereby. The woman Huet testified that one day having
