My Miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 2)

stice among the people which had survived the corruptions of the time, was aroused to assert itself on behalf of the maid-of-all-wor

establish the truth or the falsehood of it, before the trial. Another circumstance, of which also no explanation was attempted, filled the public mind with natural suspicion. This was the disappearance of the eldest son of Monsieur and Madame Duparc. On the day of his grandfather's sudden death, he had been sent, as may be remembered, to bring his father back from the country; and, from that time forth,

mmits this crime having nothing to gain by it; and she is so inconceivably reckless of detection that she scatters poison about the bed on which she lies down, leaves poison sticking to crumbs in her pockets, puts those pockets on when her mistress tells her to do so, and hands them over without a moment's hesitation to the first person who asks permission to search them. What mortal evidence could substantiate such a wild charge as this? How does the evidence actually presented substantiate it? No shadow of proof that she had purchased arsenic is offered, to begin with. The evidence against her is evidence which attempt

presence of arsenic in the house. And, even if this difficulty were overcome, and if it were alleged that arsenic purchased for killing vermin, had been carelessly placed in one of the saltcellars on the dresser, Madame Duparc could not deny that her own hands had salted the hasty-pudding on the Monday, and that her servant had been too ill through exhaustion to cook the dinner on the Tuesday. Even supposing t

st her could be found in her past history. If her enemies were to succeed, it was necessary to rely on pure invention. Having hesitated bef

arie, on a charge of theft as well as of poisoning. She was now not only accused of the murder of Monsieur de Beaulieu, but of robbing her former mistress, Madame Dumesnil (a relation, be it remembered, of Monsieur Revel's), in the

formed that the so-called evidence in support of the accusation of theft was got up by Procurator Revel, by Commissary Bertot, and by Madame Dup

heft, firmly. Her answers, it is needless to say, availed her nothing. No legal help was assigned to her; no such institution as a jury was in existence in France. Procurator Revel collected the evidence, Procurator Revel tried the case, Procurator Revel delivered the sentence. Need the reader be told that Marie's irr

It was written, printed, and placarded in Caen; a

ing the trial specially instituted against Marie-Fran?oise-Victoire-Salmon, accused of poisoning; the said documents consisting of an offici

risoner shall be dec

ur Huet-Duparc, in whose house the prisoner had lived in the capacity of servant from the first day of the said month of August; and of having put ar

ed, at noon, at the table of Monsieur and Madame Duparc, her employers, in consequence of which all those per

on which she was resting; the said arsenic having been recognised as being of the same nature and precisely similar to that which the guests discovered to have been put into their soup, as also to th

of cherries which she served to Madame de Beaulieu, on the same Tuesday morning, an

rent robberies at the house of Monsieur Dumesnil, where she lived in the capacity of serv

n, in the house of Monsieur Huet-Duparc, the different articles enu

the beginning of the said month of August, from th

will tie in front of her and behind her back, a placard, on which shall be written in large characters, these words:-Poisoner and Domestic Thief. And there, being on her knees, she shall declare that she has wickedly committed the said robberies and poisonings, for which she repents and asks pardon of God and Justice. This done, she shall be led by the said executioner to the square of the market

accomplices, and notably of those who either sold to her or gave to her the arsenic found in her possession. Order hereby given for the printing and

ned)

eenth, this frightful sent

her. She had the privilege of appealing against her sentence before the parliament of Rouen. And she appealed accordingly; being transfe

parliament delivered its judgment,

nt, her screams of terror were so shrill and piercing, that all the persons connected with the management of the prison hurried together to her cell. Among the number were three priests, who were accustomed to visit the prisoners and to administer spiritual consolation to them. These three men mercifully set themselves to soothe the mental agony from which the poor creature was suffering. When they had partially quieted her, they soon found her willing and anxious to answer th

again, to await the execution of her sentence in the prison of Caen. The day was at last fixed f