e that, after what is now happening, M. de Brinvilliers
can endure to go on living?"

"Madame," said the doctor, "when our Lord was about to leave His
disciples, He did not ask God to remove them from this earth, but to
preserve them from all sin. 'My Father,' He said, 'I ask not that You
take them from the world, but keep them safe from evil.' If, madame,
you pray for M. de Brinvilliers, let it be only that he may be kept in
grace, if he has it, and may attain to it if he has it not."

But the words were useless: at that moment the humiliation was too great
and too public; her face contracted, her eyebrows knit, flames darted
from her eyes, her mouth was all twisted. Her whole appearance was
horrible; the devil was once more in possession. During this paroxysm,
which lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, Lebrun, who stood near, got
such a vivid impression of her face that the following night he could
not sleep, and with the sight of it ever before his eyes made the fine
drawing which--is now in the Louvre, giving to the figure the head of a
tiger, in order to show that the principal features were the same, and
the whole resemblance very striking.

The delay in progress was caused by the immense crowd blocking the
court, only pushed aside by archers on horseback, who separated the
people. The marquise now went out, and the doctor, lest the sight of
the people should completely distract her, put a crucifix in her hand,
bidding her fix her gaze upon it. This advice she followed till they
gained the gate into the street where the tumbril was waiting; then she
lifted her eyes to see the shameful object. It was one of the smallest
of carts, still splashed with mud and marked by the stones it had
carried, with no seat, only a little straw at the bottom. It was drawn
by a wretched horse, well matching the disgraceful conveyance.

The executioner bade her get in first, which she did very rapidly, as if
to escape observation. There she crouched like a wild beast, in the left
corner, on the straw, riding backwards. The doctor sat beside her on the
right. Then the executioner got in, shutting the door behind him, and
sat opposite her, stretching his legs between the doctor's. His man,
whose business it was to guide the horse, sat on the front, back to back
with the doctor and the marquise, his feet stuck out on the shafts.
Thus it is easy to understand how Madame de Sevigne, who was on the Pont
Notre-Dame, could see nothing but t