Answer. "Oh! their clothes, of course! They all wore long black gowns, even the woman. M. Hamard asked me if they wore smocks or ecclesiastical habits, gaberdines. I said the sleeves were flat, and the gowns were long, straight, all one piece, as it were. I saw no collars, no hands, only those black gaberdines... and then, the light of their lanterns dazzled me, and there were all those looking-glasses in the room, Marthe's room... and it all went so rapidly... I also received a blow on my head. It came from the side where the woman stood, but I could not tell if it was the woman that struck the blow.... I also heard a voice say: 'Finish her off!' They spoke.... One man said: 'No, leave the girl (la petite) alone. It was the woman who wanted to kill me.'"
Question. "Which of the men was it who spared you?"
Answer. "I don't know. My head was covered at the time. The man had a foreign accent. He had spoken before.... It was the man who had said: 'Tell us where your parents' money is.'"
In reply to a Question. "I felt them seize both my hands. They fastened them above and behind my head to the bars of the bed.... They bound my hands, separately, that is, my arms apart.... I felt a rope round my neck and there was a cloth on my head. They also bound my feet. I did not feel them bind me round the body; it was later on that I heard I had been bound round the body."
Question. "Did the ropes with which your hands were tied hurt you?"
Answer.. "My hands were not tightly bound. They did not hurt me mch."
Question. "Did the rope round the neck hurt?"
Answer. "No... I don't know. I was terrified. I thought that I had been blinded, that I was dead, that it was all over...."
Question. "Did the ropes round your feet hurt you?"
Answer. "Yes, very much. But I did not feel it at the time. It was only when I came back to my senses several times, and that was terrible."