living one who pleases her better than ever he could do, poor man!" The
sexton's arguments were conclusive, and it was agreed at last, that the
skull should be carried to Monsieur Nicolais, the celebrated surgeon,
who had unavailingly attempted by bleeding, to recover the late marquess
from the apoplexy which carried him off.

A large and brilliant party had assembled at the chateau de Vermont,
the residence of the gay and opulent Comte de Villeroi and his lady, to
celebrate the christening of their first born, when in the midst of a
splendid banquet, an alarm was given that the house was surrounded by
police and gens d'armes, who required in the king's name a surrender
of the persons of the Comte and Comtesse de Villeroi, they standing
attainted of foul and treasonable murder! The confusion and dismay which
seized all parties upon this terrible catastrophe, it is impossible
to describe; but it suffices to state, that the Comte de Villeroi was
impeached for, and fully committed for trial on the charge of having
feloniously aided and abetted Victorine de Villeroi, (late Montespan,)
in wilfully and maliciously causing the death of her late liege husband,
Herbert de Montespan, by thrusting a long pin, or bodkin of gold into
his right ear, well knowing that the same entering into his brain, would
cause his instantaneous dissolution. Master Nicolais, it appeared,
in sawing open the skull of the deceased with anatomical science and
precision, had found a pin or Golden Bodkin like that described in the
indictment, and like what were at this period much used by ladies in
fastening up their hair, bearing the initials, V.M. which he perceived
had been violently thrust through the orifice of the ear, into the brain
of the unfortunate victim. This inference as to the fiendish murderer
was inevitable, and just; and the horror-struck practitioner scrupled
not to incite the relations of the late marquess to summon witnesses,
and lay a criminal information against Victorine de Villeroi as