Experiments of this kind were reassuring; so Lachaussee had orders to carry out his instructions.  One day the civil lieutenant rang his bell, and Lachaussee, who served the councillor, as we said before, came up for orders.  He found the lieutenant at work with his secretary, Couste what he wanted was a glass of wine and water.  In a moment Lachaussee brought it in.  The lieutenant put the glass to his lips, but at the first sip pushed it away, crying, “What have you brought, you wretch?  I believe you want to poison me.”  Then handing the glass to his secretary, he added, “Look at it, Couste:  what is this stuff?” The secretary put a few drops into a coffee-spoon, lifting it to his nose and then to his mouth:  the drink had the smell and taste of vitriol.  Meanwhile Lachaussee went up to the secretary and told him he knew what it must be:  one of the councillor’s valets had taken a dose of medicine that morning, and without noticing he must have brought the very glass his companion had used.  Saying this, he took the glass from the 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