“Madame,” replied the doctor, “if you are condemned to death, you must die without that sacrament, and I should be deceiving you if I let you hope for it.  We have heard of the death of the constable of Saint-Paul without his obtaining this grace, in spite of all his entreaties.  He was executed in sight of the towers of Notre-Dame.  He offered his own prayer, as you may offer yours, if you suffer the same fate.  But that is all:  God, in His goodness, allows it to suffice.”

“But,” replied the marquise, “I believe M. de Cinq-Mars and M. de Thou communicated before their death.”

“I think not, madame,” said the doctor; “for it is not so said in the pages of Montresor or any other book that describes their execution.”

“But M. de Montmorency?” said she.

“But M. de Marillac?” replied the doctor.

In truth, if the favour had been granted to the first, it had been refused to the second, and the marquise was specially struck thereby, for M. de Marillac was of her own family, and she was very proud of the connection.  No doubt she was unaware that M. de Rohan had received the sacrament at the midnight mass said for the salvation of his soul by Father Bourdaloue, for she said nothing about it, and hearing the doctor’s answer, only sighed.

“Besides,” he continued, “in recalling examples of the kind, madame, you must not build upon them, please:  they are extraordinary cases, not the rule.  You must expect no privilege; in your case the ordinary laws will be carried out, and your fate will not differ from the fate of other condemned persons.  How would it have been had you lived and died before the reign of Charles vi?  Up to the reign of this prince, the guilty died without confession, and it was only by this king’s orders that there was a relaxation of this severity.  Besides, communion is not absolutely necessary to salvation, and one may communicate spiritually in reading the word, which is like the body; in uniting oneself with the Church, which is the mystical substance of Christ; and in suffering for Him and with Him, this last communion of agony that is your portion, madame, and is the most perfect communion of all.  If you heartily detest your crime and love God with all your soul, if you have faith and charity, your death is a martyrdom and a new baptism.”

“Alas, my God,” replied the marquise, “after what you tell me, now that I know the executioner’s hand was necessary to my salvation, what should I have become had I died at Liege?  Where should I have been now?  And even if I had not been taken, and had lived another twenty years away from France, what would my death have been, since it needed the scaffold for my purification?  Now I see all my wrong-doings, and the worst of all is the last—­I mean my effrontery before the judges.  But all is not yet lost, God be thanked; and as I have one last examination to go through, I desire to make a complete confession about my whole