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resulted in the tragic deaths of her siblings, the autopsies finding nothing suspicious.
    Despite her increased wealth, Marie still needed every franc she could lay her hands on, for she was being blackmailed not only by her confederate La Chausee, but also by her lover, St-Croix, who had several incriminating letters that she had written to him in the past. Despite his attitude towards her, she still longed to marry him, but in order to do so she had to dispose of her husband the Baron. St-Croix, however, perhaps wisely, had no intention of joining her in holy matrimony, and as fast as she administered poison to her husband, he, St-Croix, administered the antidote! But when, in 1672, Gaudin de St-Croix died – of genuine natural causes – his widow, whom he had deserted decades earlier, found the damning letters among his effects and handed them over to the authorities. For Marie and La Chausee, the game was up.
    Her accomplice was apprehended, and, after being tortured, was executed by being broken on the wheel, limb after limb being shattered. Marie sought refuge in England but when the French started extradition proceedings she returned to the Continent and entered a convent in Liège, which at that time was in neutral territory. However, in March 1676 a French detective, Desgrez, disguised himself as a trendy young abbé‚ and obtained an introduction to her in the convent. Always susceptible to flattery, she succumbed to his flirtatious approaches and did not demur when later he suggested a stroll by the river, nor did she pay much attention to a coach which had stopped nearby – until she was suddenly seized and dragged inside: she had been caught at last.
    In police custody she attempted to commit suicide, once by swallowing a pin, another time by smashing a tumbler and trying to swallow the fragments. Put on trial, so overwhelming was the evidence produced against her that she was found guilty. Her sentence was read out to her; ‘Marie Madelaine d’Aubray, wife of the Marquis de Brinvilliers, is declared duly accused and convicted of having poisoned Maître Dreux d’Aubray, her father; Antoine d’Aubray, master of requests and civil lieutenant of the county of Paris; and Monsieur d’Aubray, councillor of the court, these being her two brothers; and also attempting the life of the late Thérèse d’Aubray, her sister. In reparation she is condemned to make the amende honorable before the principal door of the cathedral church in Paris, where she will be taken in a tumbril, with naked feet, a rope around her neck and holding in her hands a lighted torch weighing two pounds. There, being on her knees, she will declare that wickedly, and from motives of vengeance, and in order to possess their property, she has poisoned her father and her two brothers and attempted the life of her sister. From thence she will be conducted to the Place de Grève, to have her head cut off upon the scaffold. Her body will then be burnt and the ashes thrown to the wind. Before execution she will be applied to the Question Ordinary and Extraordinary [tortured], in order to compel her to reveal the names of her accomplices.’
    It was reported that she was then taken to the torture chamber and for seven hours put to the Question. Having been tied hand and foot to a wooden frame, a trestle about two and a half feet high was placed under the small of her back so that her body was strained into an arch. A leather funnel with a metal ring at its narrow end was strapped to her mouth (the water torture) and the Question began. Four jars of water, each containing two pints, were poured into the funnel at intervals and between each the clerk interrogated her. When she had first entered the room she had smiled at the array of jars. ‘Do you wish to drown me?’ she had asked. ‘I am too small to swallow all that.’ But by now her face was mottled and her hands and feet bruised where the ropes had constricted them. She refused to say