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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: anything; and it was clear that the prosecution was not satisfied
with its case, and would have liked to find more definite proof
of Lanrivain's complicity than the statement of the herb-
gatherer, who swore to having seen him climbing the wall of the
park on the night of the murder. One way of patching out
incomplete proofs in those days was to put some sort of pressure,
moral or physical, on the accused person. It is not clear what
pressure was put on Anne de Cornault; but on the third day, when
she was brought into court, she "appeared weak and wandering,"
and after being encouraged to collect herself and speak the
truth, on her honour and the wounds of her Blessed Redeemer, she
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