It was said in the objection that Lachaussee had spent seven years in the service of Sainte-Croix, so he could not have considered the time he had passed with the d’Aubrays as an interruption to this service.  The bag containing the thousand pistoles and the three bonds for a hundred livres had been found in the place indicated; thus Lachaussee had a thorough knowledge of this closet:  if he knew the closet, he would know about the box; if he knew about the box, he could not be an innocent man.  This was enough to induce Madame Mangot de Villarceaux, the lieutenant’s widow, to lodge an accusation against him, and in consequence a writ was issued against Lachaussee, and he was arrested.

When this happened, poison was found upon him.  The trial came on before the Chatelet.  Lachaussee denied his guilt obstinately.  The judges thinking they had no sufficient proof, ordered the preparatory question to be applied.  Mme. Mangot appealed from a judgment which would probably save the culprit if he had the strength to resist the torture and own to nothing;

[Note:  There were two kinds of question, one before and one after the sentence was passed.  In the first, an accused person would endure frightful torture in the hope of saving his life, and so would often confess nothing.  In the second, there was no hope, and therefore it was not worth while to suffer additional pains.]

so, in virtue of this appeal, a judgment, on March 4th, 1673, declared that Jean Amelin Lachaussee was convicted of having poisoned the lieutenant and the councillor; for which he was to be broken alive on the wheel, having been first subjected to the question both ordinary and extraordinary, with a view to the discovery of his accomplices.  At the same time Madame de Brinvilliers was condemned in default of appearance to have her head cut off.

Lachaussee suffered the torture of the boot.  This was having each leg fastened between two planks and drawn together in an iron ring, after which wedges were driven in between the middle planks; the ordinary question was with four wedges, the extraordinary with eight.  At the third wedge Lachaussee said he was ready to speak; so the question was stopped, and he was carried into the choir of the chapel stretched on a mattress, where, in a weak voice—­for he could hardly speak—­he begged for half an hour to recover himself.  We give a verbatim extract from the report of the question and the execution of the death-sentence: 

“Lachaussee, released from the question and laid on the mattress, the official reporter retired.  Half an hour later Lachaussee begged that he might return, and said that he was guilty; that Sainte-Croix told him that Madame de Brinvilliers had given him the poison to administer to her brothers; that he had done it in water and soup, had put the reddish water in the lieutenant’s glass in Paris, and the clear water in the pie at Villequoy; that Sainte-Croix