At this point, the executioner — the man in the red cloak — speaks; he reveals her origins and tells how she seduced his brother, a convent priest, to a life of crime. When the crime was discovered, he (as official executioner) had to brand his own brother. Milady escaped, he says, by seducing the jailer's son. She also helped the priest to escape. The executioner managed to track her down and brand her. He himself had to serve his missing brother's remaining prison term. Later, after Milady abandoned the priest for Athos (Count de La Fere), the priest surrendered, then hanged himself.
Athos asks each of the men for a verdict. Each one of them asks for the death penalty. Milady is carried to the edge of a river where she is tied hand and foot, and once again her crimes are recounted as she begs for her life. The executioner takes her across the river, and in the boat she frees her feet and tries to escape, but she cannot get up. The executioner cuts off her head, wraps her body and head in his cloak and dumps them in the river, crying out loudly, "God's justice be done."
