e friar began, subsequently, to imagine he observed a certain
coldness or indifference on the part of his companion in guilt, and,
attributing that change to a feeling of the woman's self-disgust and
reproach, he had recourse to the most diabolical means of searing her
conscience, and making her still more the associate of his depravity:
indeed, it is not possible even to read without horror of the abominable
artifices to which this monster of iniquity had recourse, although these
were all minutely detailed in the written charges brought against him at
his trial, and were deposed to by the woman herself, she being fully
corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses secreted in a part of
the house from whence his revolting conduct was both seen and heard. One
step in the path of immorality and crime too often leads on to another.
The friar at length imagined that the woman's indifference arose from
some latent spark of affection which she still bore to her husband, and
he resolved on sacrificing the life of the unfortunate man whose
connubial rights seemed to stand in his way. Full of impatience for the
consummation of the diabolical project when once he had determined on its
execution, and having given to his victim a strong soporific, which threw
him into a heavy sleep, he proceeds to urge on the faithless wife to the
act of stabbing her unconscious husband. This tragedy she performed with
one of the unhappy man's own instruments of trade, under the guidance of
the friar, who first ascertained and indicated to her, by the pulsations
of the doomed man's heart, the exact spot into which she was to give the
instrument its fatal plunge.

The extreme docility of the woman in the hands of the friar, as disclosed
in the evidence, can only be explained by the absolute control which he
held over her conscience and her will; and, doubtless, even that control
arrived at such a pitch, that, at last, the yoke became insupportable, if
we may judge from the declarations which she made during the trial, for
she appeared to take credit to herself for the revelations which she then
made of all the disgusting particulars connected with the crimes of that
detestable culprit.

Immediately after the perpetration of the crime, the civil power seized
the persons of both the guilty parties, and began to prosecute judicial
inquiries, with the greatest secrecy, under the clandestine supervision
of the bishop. The proceedings were prolonge