secretary's
hand, put it to his lips, pretending to taste it himself, and then said
he had no doubt it was so, for he recognised the smell. He then threw
the wine into the fireplace.

As the lieutenant had not drunk enough to be upset by it, he soon forgot
this incident and the suspicions that had been aroused at the moment in
his mind. Sainte-Croix and the marquise perceived that they had made a
false step, and at the risk of involving several people in their plan
for vengeance, they decided on the employment of other means. Three
months passed without any favourable occasion presenting itself; at
last, on one of the early days of April 1670, the lieutenant took his
brother to his country place, Villequoy, in Beauce, to spend the Easter
vacation. Lachaussee was with his master, and received his instructions
at the moment of departure.

The day after they arrived in the country there was a pigeon-pie for
dinner: seven persons who had eaten it felt indisposed after the meal,
and the three who had not taken it were perfectly well. Those on whom
the poisonous substance had chiefly acted were the lieutenant, the
councillor, and the commandant of the watch. He may have eaten more, or
possibly the poison he had tasted on the former occasion helped, but at
any rate the lieutenant was the first to be attacked with vomiting two
hours later, the councillor showed the same symptoms; the commandant and
the others were a prey for several hours to frightful internal pains;
but from the beginning their condition was not nearly so grave as that
of the two brothers. This time again, as usual, the help of doctors was
useless. On the 12th of April, five days after they had been poisoned,
the lieutenant and his brother returned to Paris so changed that anyone
would have thought they had both suffered a long and cruel illness.
Madame de Brinvilliers was in the country at the time, and did not come
back during the whole time that her brothers were ill. From the very
first consultation in the lieutenant's case the doctors entertained
no hope. The symptoms were the same as those to which his father had
succumbed, and they supposed it was an unknown disease in the family.
They gave up all hope of recovery. Indeed, his state grew worse and
worse; he felt an unconquerable aversion for every kind of food, and the
vomiting was incessant. The last three days of his life he complained
that a fire was burning in his breast, and the flames that burne