times escaped from her cloister prison;
but the mother-in-law, watchful and implacable,
soon had her taken back again.

There was a rumour, and its truth was
ascertained, that in the month of March, 1685, at
the same time that Berry robbed the Dame
Mazel of a sum of fifteen hundred francs,
Madame de Savonnières was concealed in Paris.
Towards the close of August she again broke
loose, and again remained hidden for a certain
time in a house in the Faubourg Saint-Germain.
She said to one of her friends, "This will not
last long. In three months I shall have no
need to hide myself, but shall return publicly
to my husband's house."

No conclusion or inference was drawn from
these curious coincidences. Such was the
state of society then, that Lebrun's advocate
dared not insist on their significance. Neither
the lieutenant-criminel nor the judges of the
Châtelet hesitated to sacrifice Lebrun's innocent
head to the influential people who were
interested in concealing the real source of the crime.
Lebrun was only a poor unprotected wretch,
who could be found guilty without any great
distortion of facts. All they had to do was to
keep silence respecting certain double-edged
circumstances. Thus, Madame de Savonnières
was shut up in a convent at Bourges; Berry
was a Bourges man; yet no one asked where
Madame de Savonnières was, nor what incautious
expressions she had let fall. Witnesses
declared that the bloody shirt and cravat belonged
to Berry; notwithstanding which, Berry was
not even named by the prosecution. Nor was
the Abbé Poulard examined.

And yet there were other reasons besides his
suspicious relations with the deceased, which
ought to have caused his examination. It was
not of very important purport that he should
be named in Madame Mazel's will, not for any
special legacy, but for the continuation of the
same advantages which he had enjoyed during
her lifetime. M. de Savonnières the elder was
bound to board and lodge the excommunicated
monk. But the ex-Dominican had a sister, a
widow, Madame Chapelain by name. This
person, penniless like her brother, and with an
attractive countenance, was publicly sought by
M. de Savonnières de Lignères, Madame
Mazel's second son. In spite of her poverty, she
hoped to get the young treasurer to marry her.
By clever coquetry and artful resistance she
managed to shut his eyes to the ill-assortment
of their union. The Dame Mazel, absolute in
her will, opposed the marriage; the Abbé
Poulard ardently desired it. Only six months
before the crime, Madame Chapelain, all the while
persisting in her rigour, had accepted from her
suitor costly presents, such as a complete dress,
comprising even the shoes, made of gold and
silver brocade. Here was an interest in
Madame Mazel's death quite as powerful as poor
Lebrun's.

The Abbè Poulard had lately obtained the
master-key which Lebrun had been made to
give up. During his last meal with the murdered
lady he repeatedly mentioned that he was
going to sleep out that night. He had well
known, at Madame Mazel's, the lackey Berry,
afterwards discharged for theft. Still he was
not interrogated.

Another thing told much against him. Ever
since the commission of the deed, he
industriously spread strange and inconsistent reports
respecting Lebrun. Sometimes, he accused him
of being the sole agent in the murder, mixing
up calumnious insinuations on the memory of
his benefactress: sometimes, he charged him
with complicity with Berry, whom the prosecution
persisted in leaving in the shade. " The
Dame Mazel," the ex-monk stated, " had a
child in her youth by a grand seigneur, who left
a considerable sum to bring it up. This
child was no other than Berry, afterwards
lackey to his own mother. Lebrun, aware of
his mistress's errors, had revealed to Berry the
secret of his birth, in the hope of making him
his son-in-law. When driven from the maternal
residence, Lebrun had tried to reinstate him,
introducing him by night into his mother's
bedroom. Berry had tried to soften her, in
vain. Yielding to her violent temper, she had
seized him by the throat; on which he drew his
knife in self-defence, and killed her without
premeditation."

This absurd romance, combined with
Poulard's interest in Madame Mazel's death,
awakened the suspicions of the defence; but
the prosecution would listen to nothing. The
master-key was poor Lebrun's ruin. Of
eleven judges, three voted for further
inquiry, three for the preparatory " question" or
torture, six for a sentence to death.

The sentence actually pronounced on the I8th
of January, 1690, declared Lebrun " attained
and convicted of having taken part, in the
murder of the Dame Mazel; in reparation of which
he is condemned to make honourable amends, to
be broken alive and to die on the wheel, after
the previous application of the ordinary and the
extraordinary question to obtain the revelation
of his accomplices; all his goods confiscated to
the king, or to whom appertains the right, first
mulcting them with the sum of five hundred
francs of fine, in case the confiscation is not to
the king's profit; eight hundred francs of civil
reparation and damages to the Messieurs de
Savonnières; one hundred francs to pray God for
the soul of the Dame Mazel; the said Lebrun
declared unworthy of the dispositions and
legacies made in his favour in the will of the said
Dame Mazel, and condemned to all the costs;
suspension of further inquiry against Madeleine
Tisserel, wife of Lebrun, until after the execution."

Lebrun appealed against this sentence before
the Tournelle. On the 22nd of February, the
affair was brought on for consideration. Twenty-
two judges voted; two only for the confirmation
of the sentence, four for further investigation,
the remaining sixteen for the ordinary and
extraordinary question. On the 23rd, M. le
Nain, reporter, proceeded to the application of