man who walked beside her to allow her to
lean on his shoulder. He looking round and seeing that they had reached
a lonely spot, replied, 'We need hardly go any farther,' and made us sit
dawn on a plot of grass which was to be the scene of our martyrdom. My
poor mistress began to plead with the barbarians in the most touching
manner, and so sweetly that she would have softened the heart of a demon.
She offered them her purse, her gold waistband, and a fine diamond which
she drew from her finger; but nothing could move these tigers, and one of
them said, 'I am going to kill all the Catholics at once, and shall be
gin with you.' 'What will you gain by my death?' asked my mistress.
'Spare my life.'--'No; shut up!' replied he. 'You shall die by my
hand. Say your prayers.' My good mistress threw herself at once on her
knees and prayed aloud that God would show mercy to her and to her
murderers, and while she was thus praying she received a pistol-shot in
her left breast, and fell; a second assassin cut her across the face with
his sword, and a third dropped a large stone on her head, while the
fourth killed the nurse with a shot from his pistol. Whether it was that
they had no more loaded firearms, or that they wished to save their
ammunition, they were satisfied with only giving me several bayonet
wounds. I pretended to be dead: they thought it was really the case, and
went away. Some time after, seeing that everything had become quiet, and
hearing no sound, I dragged myself, dying as I was, to where my dear
mistress lay, and called her. As it happened, she was not quite dead,
and she said in a faint voice, 'Stay with me, Suzon, till I die.' She
added, after a short pause, for she was hardly able to speak, 'I die for
my religion, and I hope that God will have pity on me. Tell my husband
that I confide our little one to his care.' Having said this, she turned
her thoughts from the world, praying to God in broken and tender words,
and drew her last breath as the night fell."

In obedience to Cavalier's orders, the four criminals were taken and
brought before him. He was then with his troops near Saint-Maurice de
Casevielle; he called a council of war, and having had the prisoners
tried for their atrocious deed, he summed up the evidence in as clear a
manner as any lawyer could have done, and called upon the judges to
pronounce sentence. All the judges agreed that the prisoners should be
put to death, but just