spent alone with her she told him all
the details of this horrible occurrence. On the morrow M. Catalan was to
see her again; but on the morrow the marquise was, in truth, much worse.
He assured himself of this by his own eyes, and as he knew almost all
that he wished to know, did not insist further, for fear of fatiguing
her.

Indeed, from that day forward, such atrocious sufferings laid hold upon
the marquise, that notwithstanding the firmness which she had always
shown, and which she tried to maintain to the end, she could not prevent
herself from uttering screams mingled with prayers. In this manner she
spent the whole day of the 4th and part of the 5th. At last, on that day,
which was a Sunday, towards four o'clock in the afternoon, she expired.

The body was immediately opened, and the physicians attested that the
marquise had died solely from the power of the poison, none of the seven
sword cuts which she had received being, mortal. They found the stomach
and bowels burned and the brain blackened. However, in spite of that
infernal draught, which, says the official report, "would have killed a
lioness in a few hours," the marquise struggled for nineteen days, so
much, adds an account from which we have borrowed some of these details,
so much did nature lovingly defend the beautiful body that she had taken
so much trouble to make.

M. Catalan, the very moment he was informed of the marquise's death,
having with him twelve guards belonging to the governor, ten archers, and
a poqueton,--despatched them to the marquis's castle with orders to seize
his person, that of the priest, and those of all the servants except the
groom who had assisted the marquise in her flight. The officer in
command of this little squad found the marquis walking up and down,
melancholy and greatly disturbed, in the large hall of the castle, and
when he signified to him the order of which he was the bearer, the
marquis, without making any resistance, and as though prepared for what
was happening to him, replied that he was ready to obey, and that
moreover he had always intended to go before the Parliament to accuse the
murderers of his wife. He was asked for the key of his cabinet, which he
gave up, and the order was given to conduct him, with the other persons
accused, to the prisons of Montpellier. As soon as the marquis came into
that town, the report of his arrival spread with incredible rapidity from
street to street. Then, as