to the torture previous to his execution, and
upon the rack he named as accomplices
Madame de Savonnières and Jacques Le Brun.

Le Brun was already dead. Imprisonment
and torture had destroyed him, and three
weeks before this fresh accusation he had
been buried solemnly before the altar in the
church of St. Bartholomew, having been
followed to his grave by an immense concourse
of people. His wife Magdeleine had been
taken from prison, and was conducted home
with her two daughters, in solemn procession,
by the same persons who had been present
at her husband's funeral.

The murderer's breath did not long taint the
old man's fame. In presence of actual death,
Berry sent for M. le Nain, formally retracted
his charges against others, and in a conference
which lasted for an hour, confessed his crime.

His story was, that on the Wednesday
before the murder, he had come to Paris on the
business of robbing Madame Mazel, and took
a lodging at the Golden Chariot. That on
the Friday, at dusk, he entered the lady's
house, seeing the door then open, and meeting
no one, ascended to the loft, by way of
the private staircase. He remained in the
loft, hidden behind some hay, and feeding
upon bread and apples that he took with him.
At eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, knowing
that Madame was then at mass, he
descended to her bed-chamber, of which the
door was open. The maids must have just
then only finished cleaning it, because when
he went in the dust was flying. Attempting
to creep under the bed, he found there was
not space for him to pass under with his coat
on. He, therefore, remounted to the loft, and
there deposited his two outer garments, then,
descending in his shirt, he re-entered the
room, and achieved his purpose. After dinner,
Madame came to her chamber, which she
left again to go to vespers. Berry who had found
his hat uncomfortable, then came out, and made
a cap for himself, with a table napkin that he
found behind the mirror. Afterwards he
knotted up the bell pulls, and warmed himself
at the fire, until he heard the wheels of
Madame's carriage. Then he crept back to
his hiding, from which he emerged at
midnight to make his demand of money. Madame,
of course, screamed and felt for the bell-pulls.
Berry warned her that she could not ring,
and that if she cried out he would kill her. If
she had not cried out, he said, she would not
have been killed. He stabbed her at hazard,
till she ceased to struggle with him, after
which he stabbed on till he knew that she was
dead. Until then, all had been dark, and it
was not until after the murder that he struck
a light. He took the key of the plate-chest,
and sought in the plate-chest for the key of
the strong box. He took from that box, six
thousand livres in gold, which he emptied out
of a purse, but left the purse, and then
proceeded to restore everything to its former
state. He went out by way of the antechamber,
closing the door with a key that lay
on a chair, lest by forcible shutting he might
awaken some one of the servants. Then he
remounted to the loft, washed his hands there,
took off and concealed his shirt, put on his
other clothes, and descended. The coach-
house door was open, and he went out by it.
Had it been closed he should have made use
of his rope ladder, and have escaped by one
of the windows. On getting out into the
street, he observed the brightness of the moon,
and the extreme coldness of the night. Before
he had gone far he heard a clock strike one.

In this way it happened that the prophecy
of Madame de Savonnières was fulfilled to
the letter ; and that the man named by the
Abbé Poulard was, after all, the cause of its
fulfilment. May not the priest who slept in
the room above that of his mistress, have
been wakened by her cries, and was it not
possible that the cowardly parasite shivered
in his bed, while the deed was done that he
dared not prevent ? May he not have heard
afterwards the footsteps of the murderer, and
timidly peeping through some chink, have
seen Berry ascending the great staircase,
torch in hand, wearing the shirt still wet
with blood ? Too much a coward to confess
his cowardice, may he not have connected
this sight with the story of the open coach-
house door, and believing that he understood
the plot, have told a story that might serve
in some mean and imperfect sense, the ends
of truth ?

Upon this, and other mysteries connected
with the history, it is now scarcely worth
while to dwell. Berry bore with stubborn
impassiveness the dreadful punishment of
breaking on the wheel. The law made all the
reparation in its power to the family of
Jacques Le Brun, and there was paid to it also
a handsome legacy, bequeathed by the will of
Madame Mazel to her faithful steward. Best
end of all to such a story, the events here
narrated made at the time so strong an impression
on the public mind in France, that Le Brun's
case is to be ranked as one of those by which
society has been assisted in its progress. For
it helped much to prepare the way for a good
time, which came when rack and screw
ceased to be part of the machinery of justice.
And of all methods by which "man doth
ransack man," or ever hath attempted to
ransack him, their method is, I think, not the
most cruel, but assuredly the one least likely
to gain the end proposed.

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