prepared for her, and turned to the registrar--for she would not address
the executioner--saying, with a smile, "No doubt all this water is to
drown me in? I hope you don't suppose that a person of my size could
swallow it all." The executioner said not a word, but began taking off
her cloak and all her other garments, until she was completely naked. He
then led her up to the wall and made her sit on the rack of the ordinary
question, two feet from the ground. There she was again asked to give
the names of her accomplices, the composition of the poison and its
antidote; but she made the same reply as to the doctor, only adding,
"If you do not believe me, you have my body in your hands, and you can
torture me."

The registrar signed to the executioner to do his duty. He first
fastened the feet of the marquise to two rings close together fixed to
a board; then making her lie down, he fastened her wrists to two other
rings in the wall, distant about three feet from each other. The head
was at the same height as the feet, and the body, held up on a trestle,
described a half-curve, as though lying over a wheel. To increase the
stretch of the limbs, the man gave two turns to a crank, which pushed
the feet, at first about twelve inches from the rings, to a distance
of six inches. And here we may leave our narrative to reproduce the
official report.

"On the small trestle, while she was being stretched, she said several
times, 'My God! you are killing me! And I only spoke the truth.'

"The water was given: she turned and twisted, saying, 'You are killing
me!'

"The water was again given.

"Admonished to name her accomplices, she said there was only one man,
who had asked her for poison to get rid of his wife, but he was dead.

"The water was given; she moved a little, but would not say anything.

"Admonished to say why, if she had no accomplice, she had written from
the Conciergerie to Penautier, begging him to do all he could for her,
and to remember that his interests in this matter were the same as her
own, she said that she never knew Penautier had had any understanding
with Sainte-Croix about the poisons, and it would be a lie to say
otherwise; but when a paper was found in Sainte-Croix's box that
concerned Penautier, she remembered how often she had seen him at the
house, and thought it possible that the friendship might have included
some business about the poisons; that, being in doubt on the point, she
risk