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
risked writing a letter as though she were sure, for by doing so she was
not prejudicing her own case; for either Penautier was an accomplice of
Sainte-Croix or he was not. If he was, he would suppose the marquise
knew enough to accuse him, and would accordingly do his best to save her;
if he was not, the letter was a letter wasted, and that was all.

"The water was again given; she turned and twisted much, but said that on
this subject she had said all she possibly could; if she said anything
else, it would be untrue."

The ordinary question was at an end. The marquise had now taken half the
quantity of water she had thought enough to drown her. The exe