第18章

I forgot to say that she was very little and thin.Such is, roughly given, a description of her body and mind, which I very soon came to know, taking pains from the first to observe her, so as to lose no time in acting on what I discovered."As she was giving a first brief sketch of her life to her confessor, the marquise remembered that he had not yet said mass, and reminded him herself that it was time to do so, pointing out to him the chapel of the Conciergerie.She begged him to say a mass for her and in honour of Our Lady, so that she might gain the intercession of the Virgin at the throne of God.The Virgin she had always taken for her patron saint, and in the midst of her crimes and disorderly life had never ceased in her peculiar devotion.As she could not go with the priest, she promised to be with him at least in the spirit.He left her at half-past ten in the morning, and after four hours spent alone together, she had been induced by his piety and gentleness to make confessions that could not be wrung from her by the threats of the judges or the fear of the question.The holy and devout priest said his mass, praying the Lord's help for confessor and penitent alike.

After mass, as he returned, he learned from a librarian called Seney, at the porter's lodge, as he was taking a glass of wine, that judgment had been given, and that Madame de Brinvilliers was to have her hand cut off.This severity--as a fact, there was a mitigation of the sentence--made him feel yet more interest in his penitent, and he hastened back to her side.

As soon as she saw the door open, she advanced calmly towards him, and asked if he had truly prayed for her; and when he assured her of this, she said, "Father, shall I have the consolation of receiving the viaticum before I die?""Madame," replied the doctor, "if you are condemned to death, you must die without that sacrament, and I should be deceiving you if Ilet you hope for it.We have heard of the death of the constable of Saint-Paul without his obtaining this grace, in spite of all his entreaties.He was executed in sight of the towers of Notre-Dame.

He offered his own prayer, as you may offer yours, if you suffer the same fate.But that is all: God, in His goodness, allows it to suffice.""But," replied the marquise, "I believe M.de Cinq-Mars and M.de Thou communicated before their death.""I think not, madame," said the doctor; " for it is not so said in the pages of Montresor or any other book that describes their execution.""But M.de Montmorency?" said she.

"But M.de Marillac?" replied the doctor.

In truth, if the favour had been granted to the first, it had been refused to the second, and the marquise was specially struck thereby, for M.de Marillac was of her own family, and she was very proud of the connection.No doubt she was unaware that M.de Rohan had received the sacrament at the midnight mass said for the salvation of his soul by Father Bourdaloue, for she said nothing about it, and hearing the doctor's answer, only sighed.

"Besides," he continued, "in recalling examples of the kind, madame, you must not build upon them, please: they are extraordinary cases, not the rule.You must expect no privilege; in your case the ordinary laws will be carried out, and your fate will not differ from the fate of other condemned persons.How would it have been had you lived and died before the reign of Charles VI? Up to the reign of this prince, the guilty died without confession, and it was only by this king's orders that there was a relaxation of this severity.