was the amount usually administered for the question " ordinary," ten for the " extraordi nary." During the latter, a trestle of three and a half feet was substituted. This torture the Marquise endured with the utmost resolution. Upon observing three barrels containing the water, " Surely, that is for the purpose of drowning me," she said, " for nobody expects that a person of my size is going to drink all that." The officers in charge of the proceeding vainly endeavored to obtain from her the names of her accomplices, as well as the an tidotes to the poisons employed. To the first she answered that there were none. To the second, that she had heard Sainte Croix say that, if a glass of milk were taken imme diately after the administering of the poison, no ill effects would be experienced. Beyond that, she knew nothing. In all probability, these answers were true. The crime was not one which necessitated the employment of many individuals in its commission, and it is scarcely probable that the Chevalier en trusted to his mistress many of the secrets of his mysterious profession. Desgrais, on horseback, followed the pro cession to the scaffold. Observing him, she requested that the executioner take up a position between them, " so that I shall not be compelled to look at that scoundrel who captured me." " On the scaffold," writes
Madame de Sevigne, " she was kept waiting for a quarter of an hour, while the execu tioner made the final preparations, a needless piece of cruelty, over which there arose a great murmur. The next day there were those that sought her bones as precious relics, for the people said that she was a saint." The death of the criminals by no means ended the matter. Ugly rumors were afloat that would not down. Too many expectant heirs by far, too many young wives, had recently seen their secret hopes realized. The Chambre Ardente 1 appears to have been a cross between Inquisition and Star Cham ber. To this tribunal extraordinary did Louis XIV. entrust the mission of laying bare these secret crimes of the French no blesse. Sainte Croix was no ordinary dealer in poisons, and his clients were numbered among the aristocracy. Disclosures followed thick and fast. After such persons as the Princess Louise of Savoy, the Duchesse de Bouillon, niece of Mazarin, the Comtesse de Soissons, mother of Prince Eugene, and the Marechal de Luxembourg, had been exam ined, the matter was deemed to have gone quite far enough. Too many of the high born of France were becoming involved, and the investigation was accordingly dis continued. 1 Fiery Chamber.
HUMORS OF THE ENGLISH JURY BOX. By Lawrence Irwell. IN "Twelfth Night," Sir Toby says: "There have been Grand Jurymen before Noah was a sailor," and although we do not know upon what authority he made this re markable assertion, I have no hesitation in guaranteeing that in the event of a jury having
been empanelled on the Ark, upon the list being read over, one or more of the gentlemen summoned asked to be excused. The habit has so become an essential part of every desirable juror's make-up as to suggest that it must have been handed down from tirrte immemorial.
