she said that she has shown it to Saint Croix so that he could show it to her creditors, and this could be used as guarantee for the future expenses and collateral against the trials which people have set up against her. For that reason, he has given her a receipt which she, however, has lost in the meantime.
In prison, she affected a mental calmness which was totally foreign to her heart. She knew her crimes, and she also realized that her judges know all about them too. Unceasingly, the image of death which she expected, surrounded her, and in the moment when she seemed to play with an apparent calm a party of piquet, her unique thought was about committing suicide. She chose for this goal a means which she hoped, would curtail the attention of her guards most easily. She has fabricated a sharp tool with a very long tube and intended to use it without any outside help. She sought, so far, to introduce it in her body and pierce her own organs, resolved to remove herself, through the torments of such death, from the humiliation which the hands of Justice has prepared for her. People discovered, however, her plan and she would be prevented from achieving it.
The most important among the proofs existing against her, was her written confession in which information about the most secret details of her life would be kept. There is almost not any crime which she is not recognizing in those writings. Immediately in the introduction, she declared herself to be a murderer, and recognized that she has put fire in a house and has acquainted herself with excesses of all sorts, has indulged herself into all the disorders of voluptuousness and drunkenness without any restraint. “Lady Brinvillier told us in her confession,” wrote Lady Sévigné in her 269th letter and in fact, it is really true what she wrote about it, if otherwise what has been said about the case, was not always true, “that she ceased to be a virgin already in her seventh year, and has behaved all along in equal manner. She has poisoned her father, her brothers and once her children, and has even taken poison herself to find out an antidote against it. Medea herself would not have gone so far.
She has recognized among other confessions, her handwriting, a move which is not so intelligent; however, she affirmed that she has written these notes while experiencing the most violent fever, that they only constitute a series of senseless, clumsy discourse which people could not even read without laughing.” In the following letters, she added still: “People speak, now, of nothing else but Brinvillier. About what she said, what she did, how she behaved. Her parricide, she has presumably written in her confession in order not to forget it to her confessor. People must in fact confess that her littlest scruples about fearing to forget something, are laudable.”
The criminal found, in the meantime, a skillful defender in Mister Nivelle, a man who was equally famous for his intelligence and honesty as for his fundamental, scholarly knowledge and who deployed all the forces of his spirit to save his client. The following are the main defence which he presented for her:
“The Marquess was very wrong,” said he immediately in the preamble of his apology, “to allow such a reprehensible love to take root in her heart, and it is even more reproachable as she has chosen the most despicable of all human beings as the object of her tenderness. But she did not know him. He knew to deceive people and hid the most condemnable heart under the mask of a rigorous honesty.
“He alone was the author of the horrible destiny which the Marquess' family encountered; and this vicious person whom she loved so tenderly, whom she made into a confidant of her sufferings, in whose company she sought trust and relief, deeply wounded by the sudden and sad loss of her most loved and trusted persons; this villain was horrible enough, for while he dried her tears with one hand, he did broke her heart, one more time, with the other.
“He has sworn the downfall of her family, and he kept his oath. Deeply vexed by Lord Aubray's attitude who has taken him away from the arms of Love, to allow him to languish in a terrible prison, he has long nurtured a bitter revenge in his heart. Greed, finally, pushed him to take his resolution, to execute the revenge which he has already for long prepared. He would take hold of a great fortune, while he would, actually, only satisfy his hatred. Two motives which were strong enough to make such a dark soul capable of anything. It is true that the fortune did not fall into his hands; however, the Marquess whom he dominated totally, was a heiress and whatever was in her hands, he could dispose of, unlimitedly. She wanted this terrible event which gave her a fortune, fortune which she had to buy with such a great loss, and not knowing from what terrible hand she would receive this unfortunate present, she accused Nature itself, for having to share all this fortune which she would have rather bought with her own life, if it were only allowed her.
“In the letters which people have found in the infamous small coffer, there was not the least trace of the share which she has had in the gruesome acts committed by Saint Croix. However, is there really something to discover, since Saint Croix has already so carefully arranged everything for her? The highest trust of a tender love seems to have inspired these letters, they bore the mark of the frankest truthfulness, her whole heart is unravelled in there, and hence, people do not even find the littlest thing to suspect about her participation in these terrible murders.
“Such an exercised villain as Saint Croix was, did know well enough that the security of a criminal depends upon his discretion, and that any confidant is always to be considered as an opening through which secrets can be easily divulged. Such a human being trusted only his most indispensable henchmen, and to that end, did not choose persons from whom it is to be feared that they would be frightened by the voice of Nature just by executing the first move, hence missing their blow with a trembling, uncertain hand, or be tortured by remorse after completing their action, and hence could betray themselves.
“Saint Croix made his choice better. He needed more than a help to execute his plan, and this other person was LaChaussée. The outcome has shown that he was right in entrusting himself to him so confidently.
“Should the Marquess' personal details be linked to these considerations; then, people must, far from raising towards her the least suspicion, rather more recognize that it is the most villainous and condemnable calumny to accuse her of this crime. The Marquess is from an excellent family. No shameful act, not even once a reproach has indeed stained the blood which flew in her veins. She inherited honour and honesty from her forefathers and from all the persons who carry the name of Aubray, and the seeds of these virtues which were put in her heart already through birth, has been developed and cared for by the most careful education.
Nature and chance have also not provided their preferences in vain in her. It is true, the Marquess' reputation has not remained totally unstained. But the steps which concluded about a disadvantageous judgement for her, were only the consequences of a passionate love which, born from blindness, would be maintained by her own husband's disorders. Her remaining behaviour, however, and her known mentality are so against the crimes of which she is now accused, that when they happened, no one raised the slightest suspicion against her, and put at her disposition, without any hinder, the fortune which she should have acquired through such gruesome acts.
It is unfortunate that this regrettable victim of calumny sees it necessary for her defence to uncover even weaknesses which she otherwise would have covered with the veil of shame. But to save herself from such a shameful punishment, she is forced to justify herself in her errors. The undeniable faithfulness which the Marquess observed toward the despicable person who was her deceiver and through whom her virtue capsized, can, in fact, find its place only in a soft heart. And should such heart be capable of deciding to murder father and brothers? A heart which deplores sufferings in others, which feels the pains of others as its own? But calumny makes an exception with the Marquess in order to bring her on the scaffold. Would the most tender sentiments be united with horror with her, something which is even unnatural in wild animals.
In truth, it is undeniable that Love, until now, has led people to take steps which are incompatible with the natural state of a heart supposed to be dominated by it. However, if we consider that examples of this kind are extremely rare; then, only two causes of such unnatural appearances can also be given: jealousy and close surveillance. To evict a rival, should not hence the Marquess well have poisoned her father and her brothers? Yet, there has never been an instance where she has, indeed, made a similar assault on a young lady. In none of her letters did we find the least trace of jealousy; neither verbally, nor