o the Seine where it's
deepest. Who shall be our warrant that some monster or other isn't
lying in wait for our mistress's life? Very likely, if she opens the
casket, she may tumble down dead, as the old Marquis de Tournay did
when he opened a letter which came to him, he didn't know where from."

After a long consultation, they came to the conclusion that they would,
next morning, tell their lady everything that had happened, and even
hand her the mysterious casket, which might, perhaps, be opened if
proper precautions were taken. On carefully weighing all the
circumstances connected with the apparition of the stranger, they
thought that there must be some special secret or mystery involved in
the affair, which they were not in a position to unravel, but must
leave to be elucidated by their superiors.

There were good grounds for Baptiste's fears. Paris, at the time in
question, was the scene of atrocious deeds of violence, and that just
at a period when the most diabolical inventions of hell provided the
most facile means for their execution.

Glaser, a German apothecary, the most learned chemist of his day,
occupied himself--as people who cultivate his science often do--with
alchemical researches and experiments. He had set himself the task of
discovering the philosopher's stone. An Italian of the name of Exili
associated himself with him; but to him the art of goldmaking formed a
mere pretext. What he aimed at mastering was the blending, preparation,
and sublimation of the various poisonous substances which Glaser hoped
would give him the results he was in search of, and at length Exili
discovered how to prepare that delicate poison which has no odour nor
taste, and which, killing either slowly or in a moment, leaves not the
slightest trace in the human organism, and baffles the utmost skill of
the physician, who, not suspecting poison as the means of death,
ascribes it to natural causes. But cautiously as Exili went about this,
he fell under suspicion of dealing with poisons, and was thrown into
the Bastille. In the same cell with him there was presently quartered
an officer of the name of Godwin de Sainte-Croix, who had long lived
in relations with the Marquise de Brinvilliers which brought shame
upon all her family; and at length, as her husband cared nothing
about her conduct, her father (Dreux d'Aubray, Civil Lieutenant of
Paris) had to part the guilty pair by means of a _lettre de cachet_
against Sainte-C