a lively effect upon the countess; but she controlled herself and let
the subject drop. Her agitation, however, did not escape the notice
of the marchioness, who the next day had horses put to her coach and
retired to her estate of Lavoine. This clumsy proceeding strengthened
suspicion.

The first determination of the countess was to arrest Louise Goillard;
but she saw that in so serious a matter every step must be taken with
precaution. She consulted the count and the countess dowager. They
quietly summoned the midwife, to question her without any preliminaries.
She prevaricated and contradicted herself over and over again; moreover,
her state of terror alone sufficed to convict her of a crime. They
handed her over to the law, and the Count de Saint-Geran filed an
information before the vice-seneschal of Moulins.

The midwife underwent a first interrogatory. She confessed the truth of
the accouchement, but she added that the countess had given birth to a
still-born daughter, which she had buried under a stone near the step of
the barn in the back yard. The judge, accompanied by a physician and
a surgeon, repaired to the place, where he found neither stone,
nor foetus, nor any indications of an interment. They searched
unsuccessfully in other places.

When the dowager countess heard this statement, she demanded that this
horrible woman should be put on her trial. The civil lieutenant, in the
absence of the criminal lieutenant, commenced the proceedings.

In a second interrogation, Louise Goillard positively declared that the
countess had never been confined;