"To rid myself of my husband!" cried the duchess, with a merry laugh. Then turning to the duke, "Ask him whether HE believes that I ever meditated harm toward him."
"No!" exclaimed the duke. "No! She has ever been to me a true and loving wife, and we have lived too happily together for her ever to have harbored ill-will toward me. Of evil deeds, my honored wife is incapable!"
"You hear him, judges; you hear him!" exclaimed Marianna, her face beaming with exultation. "What more have you to ask of me now?"
"Why were you in the habit of visiting La Voisin?"
"Because she was shrewd and entertaining, and because she promised me an interview with spirits."
"Did you not show her a purse of gold, and promised it to her in case these spirits made their appearance?"
"No!" said Marianna, emphatically, "and that for the best of reasons. I never was possessed of any but an empty purse—a melancholy truth, to which my husband here can bear witness. That I may have promised gold to La Voisin is just possible, but that she ever saw any in my possession is impossible."
Marianna glanced at her friends, who returned her look with approving nods and smiles.
"You deny, then," continued the judge, not exactly knowing what to say next, "you deny that you ever made an attempt to poison your husband?"
"I do, and I am sure that La Voisin never originated a calumny so base. But I confess that I was dying to see the spirits. Unhappily, although La Voisin called them, they never came."