period he
had been all-powerful with the Queen-mother, and her own consequent
loss of influence; and when questioned as to the nature of the sorcery
by which she had so long governed her royal mistress, she answered that
it was simply the magic exercised by a strong mind over a weak one.[311]
To the other charges she responded with equal composure and
conclusiveness; and many among them were of so puerile a character that,
despite the fearful position in which she was placed, she could not
suppress a smile of mingled pity and amusement.

She was foredoomed, however; and on the 8th of July the sentence was
pronounced. It was in truth a frightful one! Both the husband and the
wife were declared guilty of _lese-majeste_ divine and human; and she
herself was condemned to lose her head, and to be afterwards burned;
their house was to be levelled with the ground; their property, not only
in France, but also all that they possessed at Rome and Florence, was to
be confiscated to the Crown; and their son deprived of his rank, and
rendered incapable of holding any office in the kingdom.[312]

When this sentence was declared the wretched woman, who had never
anticipated a more severe fate than exile, exclaimed in a piteous voice:
"Oime poveretta!" but shortly recovering herself, she resumed the same
calm courage which she had previously evinced.

Perhaps the most merciful portion of her sentence was that which
condemned her to suffer on the same day; and for this she was
undoubtedly indebted to the impatience of De Luynes, who did not feel
himself secure of the succession until she should have ceased to
breathe. The revelations which she had made of the extent of her wealth
during the preliminary examinations in the prison had sealed her fate,
as they so far exceeded all his anticipations that they silenced every
throb of compunction and negatived every other feeling; and they thus at
least spared her a night of agony during which she might have brooded
over the miserable prospects of her idolized son.

It is painful to reflect upon the position which the Marquise had
filled, and to see her thus shaken and withered both in mind and body;
abandoned by the protectress to whom she had clung so long and so
confidingly; widowed by violence; separated from her only surviving
child; and compelled to drain her cup of bitterness to the very dregs.
Not a pang was, however, voluntarily spared to her. She might, in
consideration of her r