ass that resort was had to the supernatural to satisfy the
doubts of the king,--no unusual method of settling difficulties in the
days when the belief in things occult was still rife.

At the instance of one of the parties,--it is not absolutely certain
which,--Philippe decided to refer the matter of the death of this son to
the decision of a learned and devout nun, or Beguine, of Nivelle in
Brabant, reputed to have the gift of second sight and mysterious
knowledge of things past, present, and to be. It is not impossible that
the oracle was tampered with by the enemies of Pierre de la Brosse; but,
however that may be, she returned an answer that set Philippe's heart at
rest. He was told to credit no ill against his good and loyal wife.
Marie was thereby saved from a most dangerous position; but she could
not fail to harbor resentment against the instigator of the attack upon
her.

Though, in spite of the intrigues of the queen and the nobles led by her
brother, for two years Pierre de la Brosse continued in favor, his fate
was preparing; and in the spring of 1278 it overtook him, when letters
written by him or forged by his enemies were put into the hands of the
king. There was treason in these letters, alleged to have been taken
from Pierre's correspondence with Spain. He was arrested and confined in
Vincennes, and a court of nobles, dominated by the Dukes of Burgundy and
Brabant and the Count of Artois, held a sort of trial and condemned him.
The nobles lost no time in disposing of the fallen favorite, whom they
conducted at once to the scaffold, while the people of Paris, convinced
of the fact that Pierre had been a good minister and that he was being
unjustly condemned, indulged in serious riots. There was a popular
belief, indeed, voiced by a Parisian chronicler, that Pierre was
sacrificed to the hatred of the queen and the nobles: "Against the will
of the King, as I believe, was he hanged.... He was destroyed more by
envy than by guilt." The insinuations against the queen were no doubt
one of the main causes of his downfall.

History has never been able to determine whether Marie was really guilty
of some attempt upon the life of the children of her husband's first
wife. There is a very curious letter written by Pope Nicholas III. to
Philippe and Marie that leads one to think that he at least credited the
queen with some of the evil charged against her. After begging Philippe
not to search deeper into the affair