d any 'comedy' of
the sort from the bottom of his heart; so that I was convinced that
he--even from a desire to make converts to the true faith--would never
for one moment have lent himself to anything in the shape of deception.
Consequently, if there was any deception in the case, it must rest with
the lady, whose acting was more than a match for the scientific
doctor's powers of observation. I did not dare to ask myself what
object she could have in subjecting herself to such a process of
self-torture--for self-torture such a feigned condition of exaltation
must certainly be. There have been, as we know, devil-possessed
Ursulines--nuns who mewed like cats, horrible creatures who dislocated
their own limbs; to say nothing of the woman in the hospital at
Wuerzburg who, regardless of the frightful torture she endured, bored
pieces of glass and needles into her lancet wounds, merely to astonish
her doctor at the strangeness of the substances to be found within her.
We know that there have, at all times, been hosts of women who have
risked health and life, honour, fair fame, and freedom, solely that the
world might look upon them as extraordinary beings, and talk of the
marvels connected with them. But to return to the lady in question. I
ventured, though with much diffidence, to formulate my doubts to the
doctor. But he replied, with a smile, that doubts like these were
nothing but the last feeble struggles of the vanquished intelligence.
The lady, he said, had several times declared that my proximity
affected her favourably, so that he had every reason to desire me to
continue my visits, which, he was certain, would convince me in the
end. In fact, after going to see her several times, I did begin to be
more convinced, and my belief almost became absolute when, once that
the mesmerizer had placed me _en rapport_ with her in one of her higher
conditions, she mentioned, in an incomprehensible manner, certain
circumstances in my previous life, and spoke, particularly, of an
affection of the nervous system into which I fell at a time when I had
lost a beloved sister. It displeased me much, however, that the number
of spectators kept increasing, and that the mesmerizer tried to convert
the lady into a prophetess and sibyl, making her give oracular
utterances about the health and circumstances of strangers with win mi
he placed her _en rapport_.

"One day I found, among the spectators, an old doctor, a celebrated
man, who was