utioner heard, and reassured her, saying
that they would take nothing off, only putting the shirt over her other
clothes.

He then approached, and the marquise, unable to speak to the doctor with
a man on each side of her, showed him by her looks how deeply she felt
the ignominy of her situation. Then, when the shirt had been put on, for
which operation her hands had to be untied, the man raised the headdress
which she had pulled down, and tied it round her neck, then fastened her
hands together with one rope and put another round her waist, and yet
another round her neck; then, kneeling before her, he took off her shoes
and stockings. Then she stretched out her hands to the doctor.

"Oh, sir," she cried, "in God's name, you see what they have done to me!
Come and comfort me."

The doctor came at once, supporting her head upon his breast, trying
to comfort her; but she, in a tone of bitter lamentation, gazing at the
crowd, who devoured her with all their eyes, cried, "Oh, sir, is not
this a strange, barbarous curiosity?"

"Madame," said he, the tears in his eyes, "do not look at these eager
people from the point of view of their curiosity and barbarity, though
that is real enough, but consider it part of the humiliation sent by God
for the expiation of your crimes. God, who was innocent, was subject
to very different opprobrium, and yet suffered all with joy; for, as
Tertullian observes, He was a victim fattened on the joys of suffering
alone."

As the doctor spoke these words, the executioner placed in the
marquise's hands the lighted torch which she was to carry to Notre-Dame,
there to make the 'amende honorable', and as it was too heavy, weighing
two pounds, the doctor supported it with his right hand, while the
registrar read her sentence aloud a second time. The doctor did all in
his power to prevent her from hearing this by speaking unceasingly of
God. Still she grew frightfully pale at the words, "When this is done,
she shall be conveyed on a tumbril, barefoot, a cord round her neck,
holding in her hands a burning torch two pounds in weight," and the
doctor could feel no doubt that in spite of his efforts she had heard.
It became still worse when she reached the threshold of the vestibule
and saw the great crowd waiting in the court. Then her face worked
convulsively, and crouching down, as though she would bury her feet in
the earth, she addressed the doctor in words both plaintive and wild:
"Is it possibl