uaintance of the Marquis de Brinvilliers, maitre-de-camp
of the Normandy regiment.

Their age was much the same, and so was their manner of life: their
virtues and their vices were similar, and thus it happened that a mere
acquaintance grew into a friendship, and on his return from the field
the marquis introduced Sainte-Croix to his wife, and he became
an intimate of the house. The usual results followed. Madame de
Brinvilliers was then scarcely eight-and-twenty: she had married the
marquis in 1651-that is, nine years before. He enjoyed an income of
30,000 livres, to which she added her dowry of 200,000 livres, exclusive
of her expectations in the future. Her name was Marie-Madeleine; she had
a sister and two brothers: her father, M. de Dreux d'Aubray; was civil
lieutenant at the Chatelet de Paris. At the age of twenty-eight the
marquise was at the height of her beauty: her figure was small but
perfectly proportioned; her rounded face was charmingly pretty; her
features, so regular that no emotion seemed to alter their beauty,
suggested the lines of a statue miraculously endowed with life: it was
easy enough to mistake for the repose of a happy conscience the cold,
cruel calm which served as a mask to cover remorse.

Sainte-Croix and the marquise loved at first sight, and she was soon
his mistress. The marquis, perhaps endowed with the conjugal philosophy
which alone pleased the taste of the period, perhaps too much occupied
with his own pleasure to see what was going on before his eyes,
offered no jealous obstacle to the intimacy, and continued his foolish
extravagances long after they had impaired his fortunes: his affairs
became so entangled that the marquise, who cared for him no longer, and
desired a fuller liberty for the indulgence of her new passion, demanded
and obtained a separation. She then left her husband's house, and
henceforth abandoning all discretion, appeared everywhere in public with
Sainte-Croix. This behaviour, authorised as it was by the example of the
highest nobility, made no impression upon the Marquis of Brinvilliers,
who merrily pursued the road to ruin, without worrying about his wife's
behaviour. Not so M. de Dreux d'Aubray: he had the scrupulosity of
a legal dignitary. He was scandalised at his daughter's conduct, and
feared a stain upon his own fair name: he procured a warrant for the
arrest of Sainte-Croix wheresoever the bearer might chance to encounter
him. We have seen how it was pu