the man who carried away Cardillac's dead body. Then let him hurry
off to La Regnie and say, 'I saw a man stabbed in the Rue St. Honore,
and as I stood close beside the corpse another man sprang forward and
stooped down over the dead body; but on finding signs of life in him he
lifted him on his shoulders and carried him away. This man I recognise
in Olivier Brusson.' This evidence would lead to another hearing of
Brusson and to his confrontation with Miossens. At all events the
torture would be delayed and further inquiries would be instituted.
Then will come the proper time to appeal to the king. It may be left to
your sagacity, Mademoiselle, to do this in the adroitest manner. As far
as my opinion goes, I think it would be best to disclose to him the
whole mystery. Brusson's confessions are borne out by this statement of
Count Miossens; and they may, perhaps, be still further substantiated
by secret investigations at Cardillac's own house. All this could not
afford grounds for a verdict of acquittal by the court, but it might
appeal to the king's feelings, that it is his prerogative to speak
mercy where the judge can only condemn, and so elicit a favourable
decision from His Majesty." Count Miossens followed implicitly
D'Andilly's advice; and the result was what the latter had foreseen.

But now the thing was to get at the king; and this was the most
difficult part of all to accomplish, since he believed that Brusson
alone was the formidable assassin who for so long a time had held all
Paris enthralled by fear and anxiety, and accordingly he had conceived
such an abhorrence of him that he burst into a violent fit of passion
at the slightest allusion to the notorious trial. De Maintenon,
faithful to her principle of never speaking to the king on any subject
that was disagreeable, refused to take any steps in the affair; and so
Brusson's fate rested entirely in De Scuderi's hands. After long
deliberation she formed a resolution which she carried into execution
as promptly as she had conceived it. Putting on a robe of heavy black,
silk, and hanging Cardillac's valuable necklace round her neck, and
clasping the bracelets on her arms, and throwing a black veil over her
head, she presented herself in De Maintenon's salons at a time when she
knew the king would be present there. This stately robe invested the
venerable lady's noble figure with such majesty as could not fail to
inspire respect, even in the mob of idle lounge