u to such shame."

So saying, he drove a dagger that he was holding ten or twelve times
into the belly of a man whom, alive, he would not have dared to assail.

When the murder had been accomplished, and the two servants of the dead
man had fled to carry the tidings to the unhappy father, St. Aignan
bethought himself that the matter could not be kept secret. But he
reflected that the testimony of the dead man's servants would not be
believed, and that no one in his house had seen the deed done, except
the murderers, and an old woman-servant, and a girl fifteen years of
age. He secretly tried to seize the old woman, but, finding means to
escape out of his hands, she sought sanctuary with the Jacobins,(8) and
was afterwards the most trustworthy witness of the murder. The young
maid remained for a few days in St. Aignan's house, but he found means
to have her led astray by one of the murderers, and had her conveyed to
a brothel in Paris so that her testimony might not be received.(9)

8 It was still customary to take sanctuary in churches,
monasteries, and convents at this date, although but little
respect was shown for the refugees, whose hiding-places were
often surrounded so that they might be kept without food and
forced to surrender. After being considerably restricted by
an edict issued in 1515, the right of sanctuary was
abolished by Francis I. in 1539.--B. J. and D.

9 Prostitutes were debarred from giving evidence in French
courts of law at this period.--D.

To conceal the murder, he caused the corpse of the hapless dead man to
be burnt, and the bones which were not consumed by the fire he caused to
be placed in some mortar in a part of his house where he was building.
Then he sent in all haste to the Court to sue for pardon, setting
forth that he had several times forbidden his house to a person whom he
suspected of plotting his wife's dishonour, and who, notwithstanding
his prohibition, had come by night to see her in a suspicious fashion;
whereupon, finding him in the act of entering her room, his anger had
got the better of his reason and he had killed him.

But before he was able to despatch his letter to the Chancellor's, the
Duke and Duchess had been apprised by the unhappy father of the matter,
and they sent a message to the Chancellor to prevent the granting of the
pardon. Finding he could not obtain it, the wretched man fled to England
with his wife an