rs that the decree of arrest
against Lapierre and summons against Penautier decreed by the criminal
lieutenant shall be carried out. In Parliament, 27th March 1673."
In virtue of this judgment, Penautier, Martin, and Belleguise were
interrogated on the 21st, 22nd, and 24th of April. On the 26th of July,
Penautier was discharged; fuller information was desired concerning
Belleguise, and the arrest of Martin was ordered. On the 24th of March,
Lachaussee had been broken on the wheel. As to Exili, the beginner of
it all, he had disappeared like Mephistopheles after Faust's end,
and nothing was heard of him. Towards the end of the year Martin
was released for want of sufficient evidence. But the Marquise de
Brinvilliers remained at Liege, and although she was shut up in a
convent she had by no means abandoned one, at any rate, of the most
worldly pleasures. She had soon found consolation for the death of
Sainte-Croix, whom, all the same, she had loved so much as to be willing
to kill herself for his sake. But she had adopted a new lover, Theria
by name. About this man it has been impossible to get any information,
except that his name was several times mentioned during the trial.
Thus, all the accusations had, one by one, fallen upon her, and it was
resolved to seek her out in the retreat where she was supposed to be
safe. The mission was difficult and very delicate. Desgrais, one of the
cleverest of the officials, offered to undertake it. He was a handsome
man, thirty-six years old or thereabouts: nothing in his looks betrayed
his connection with the police; he wore any kind of dress with equal
ease and grace, and was familiar with every grade in the social scale,
disguising himself as a wretched tramp or a noble lord. He was just the
right man, so his offer was accepted.

He started accordingly for Liege, escorted by several archers, and,
fortified by a letter from the king addressed to the Sixty of that
town, wherein Louis xiv demanded the guilty woman to be given up for
punishment. After examining the letter, which Desgrais had taken pains
to procure, the council authorised the extradition of the marquise.

This was much, but it was not all. The marquise, as we know, had taken
refuge in a convent, where Desgrais dared not arrest her by force, for
two reasons: first, because she might get information beforehand, and
hide herself in one of the cloister retreats whose secret is known only
to the superior; secondly, because