ブランヴィリエ公爵夫人from "My Confession." This confession was a proof that the guilty feel great need of discovering their crimes either to mankind or to a merciful God. Sainte-Croix, we know, had made a confession that was burnt, and here was the marquise equally imprudent. The confession contained seven articles, and began thus, "I confess to God, and to you, my father," and was a complete avowal, of all the crimes she had committed. In the first article she accused herself of incendiarism ; In the second, of having ceased to be a virgin at seven years of age; In the third of having poisoned her father; In the fourth, of having poisoned her two brothers; In the fifth, that she had tried to poison her sister, a Carmelite nun. The two other articles were concerned with the description of strange and unnatural sins. In this woman there was something of Locusta and something of Messalina as well: antiquity could go no further. ワンダ・リューメリン |