Page "Marie-Joseph Angélique" Paragraph 14

The sentence was automatically appealed to the Superior Council by the prosecutor, as was required by the Ordinance on criminal procedure of 1670.

Angélique was thus sent off to Quebec City where, a week later, the appeals court confirmed their belief in Angélique ’ s guilt while reducing somewhat the savagery of the trial court ’ s sentence, so that Angélique was no longer to have her hand cut off or be burnt alive, but rather to be hanged and once dead, her body burned and the ashes scattered.

The Council also dispensed with the requirement to have her carried through the town on a rubbish cart wearing a sign declaring her an arsonist.

However, the sentence still required her to be tortured to identify her accomplices, the Councillors apparently believing, as did the Montreal court, that Angélique had not acted alone, especially as Thibault had disappeared a couple of days after the fire and never been found.

This type of torture was called the question préalable ( torture prior to execution ) and aimed at making the convicted criminal confess or denounce any possible accomplices or both.