moreover the court has exempted and exempts
from this trial the aforesaid Martin Guerre and Bertrande de Rolls, also
the said Pierre Guerre, uncle of the aforesaid Martin, and has remitted
and remits the aforesaid Arnauld du Thill to the aforesaid judge of
Rieux, in order that the present sentence may be executed according to
its form and tenor. Pronounced judicially this 12th day of September
1560."

This sentence substituted the gallows for the decapitation decreed by
the first judge, inasmuch as the latter punishment was reserved for
criminals of noble birth, while hanging was inflicted on meaner persons.

When once his fate was decided, Arnauld du Thill lost all his audacity.
Sent back to Artigues, he was interrogated in prison by the judge of
Rieux, and confessed his imposture at great length. He said the idea
first occurred to him when, having returned from the camp in Picardy,
he was addressed as Martin Guerre by several intimate friends of
the latter. He then inquired as to the sort of life, the habits and
relations of, this man, and having contrived to be near him, had watched
him closely during the battle. He saw him fall, carried him away, and
then, as the reader has already seen, excited his delirium to the utmost
in order to obtain possession of his secrets. Having thus explained his
successful imposture by natural causes, which excluded any idea of magic
or sorcery, he protested his penitence, implored the mercy of God, and
prepared himself for execution as became a Christian.

The next day, while the populace, collecting from the whole
neighbourhood, had assembled before the parish church of Artigues in
order to behold the penance of the criminal, who, barefoot, attired in a
shirt, and holding a lighted torch in his hand, knelt at the entrance of
the church, another scene, no less painful, took place in the house of
Martin Guerre. Exhausted by her suffering, which had caused a premature
confinement, Bertrande lay on her couch of pain, and besought pardon
from him whom she had innocently wronged, entreating him also to pray
for her soul. Martin Guerre, sitting at her bedside, extended his hand
and blessed her. She took his hand and held it to her lips; she could no
longer speak. All at once a loud noise was heard outside: the guilty man
had just been executed in front of the house. When finally attached to
the gallows, he uttered a terrible cry, which was answered by another
from inside the house. The sa