clerk
then went up to the Sieur Picard's bedroom, but came back saying that
what the marquise demanded was for the time being an impossibility, for
the commissary was asleep. She saw that it was idle to insist, and went
away, saying that she should send a man the next morning to fetch the
box. In the morning the man came, offering fifty Louis to the commissary
on behalf of the marquise, if he would give her the box. But he replied
that the box was in the sealed room, that it would have to be opened, and
that if the objects claimed by the marquise were really hers, they would
be safely handed over to her. This reply struck the marquise like a
thunderbolt. There was no time to be lost: hastily she removed from the
rue Neuve-Saint-Paul, where her town house was, to Picpus, her country
place. Thence she posted the same evening to Liege, arriving the next
morning, and retired to a convent.

The seals had been set on the 31st of July 1672, and they were taken off
on the 8th of August following. Just as they set to work a lawyer
charged with full powers of acting for the marquise, appeared and put in
the following statement: "Alexandre Delamarre, lawyer acting for the
Marquise de Brinvilliers, has come forward, and declares that if in the
box claimed by his client there is found a promise signed by her for the
sum of 30,000 livres, it is a paper taken from her by fraud, against
which, in case of her signature being verified, she intends to lodge an
appeal for nullification." This formality over, they proceeded to open
Sainte-Croix's closet: the key was handed to the commissary Picard by a
Carmelite called Friar Victorin. The commissary opened the door, and
entered with the parties interested, the officers, and the widow, and
they began by setting aside the loose papers, with a view to taking them
in order, one at a time. While they were thus busy, a small roll fell
down, on which these two words were written: "My Confession." All
present, having no reason to suppose Sainte-Croix a bad man, decided that
this paper ought not to be read. The deputy for the attorney general on
being consulted was of this opinion, and the confession of Sainte-Croix
was burnt. This act of conscience performed, they proceeded to make an
inventory. One of the first objects that attracted the attention of the
officers was the box claimed by Madame de Brinvilliers. Her insistence
had provoked curiosity, so they began with it. Everybody wen