ow-prisoner, the Italian poisoner Exili.
When he left the Bastille, he plotted with his willing mistress his revenge
upon her father. She cheerfully undertook to experiment with the poisons
which Sainte-Croix, possibly with the help of a chemist, Christopher
Glaser, prepared, and found subjects ready to hand in the poor who sought
her charity, and the sick whom she visited in the hospitals. Meanwhile
Sainte-Croix, completely ruined financially, enlarged his original idea,
and determined that not only M. Dreux d'Aubray but also the latter's two
sons and other daughter should be poisoned, so that the marquise de
Brinvilliers and himself might come into possession of the large family
fortune. In February 1666, satisfied with the efficiency of Sainte-Croix's
preparations and with the ease with which they could be administered
without detection, the marquise poisoned her father, and in 1670, with the
connivance of their valet La Chaussee, her two brothers. A post-mortem
examination suggested the real cause of death, but no suspicion was
directed to the murderers. Before any attempt could be made on the life of
Mlle Therese d'Aubray, Sainte-Croix suddenly died. As he left no heirs the
police were called in, and discovered among his belongings documents
seriously incriminating the marquise and La Chaussee. The latter was
arrested, tortured into a complete confession, and broken alive on the
wheel (1673), but the marquise escaped, taking refuge first probably in
England, then in Germany, and finally in a convent at Liege, whence she was
decoyed by a police emissary disguised as a priest. A full account of her
life and crimes was found among her papers. Her attempt to commit suicide
was frustrated, and she was taken to Paris, where she was beheaded and her
body burned on the 16th of July 1676.

See G. Roullier, _La Marquise de Brinvilliers_ (Paris, 1883); Toiseleur,
_Trois enigmes historiques_ (Paris, 1882).

BRIONIAN ISLANDS, a group of small islands, in the Adriatic Sea, off the
west coast of Istria, from which they are separated by the narrow Canale di
Fasana. They belong to Austria and are twelve in number. Up to a recent
period they were chiefly noted for their quarries, which have been worked
for centuries and have supplied material not only for the palaces and
bridges of Venice and the whole Adriatic coast, but latterly for Vienna and
Berlin also. As they command the entrance to the naval harbour of Pola, a
strong fortres