small fire of red-hot coal, she was like to endure an eternity of
agony.

Certainly all were moved when the prayer was spoken, the
harvest-offering made, upon this devoted creature who gave herself up
so humbly. Some wheat was offered to the _Spirit of the Earth_, who
made wheat to grow. A flight of birds, most likely from the woman's
bosom, bore to the _God of Freedom_ the sighs and prayers of the
serfs. What did they ask? Only that we, their distant descendants,
might become free.[58]

[58] This grateful offering of wheat and birds is peculiar to
France. In Lorraine, and no doubt in Germany, black beasts
were offered, as the black cat, the black goat, or the black
bull.

What was the sacrament she divided among them? Not the ridiculous
pledge we find later in the reign of Henry IV., but most likely that
_confarreatio_ which we saw in the case of the philtres, the hallowed
pledge of love, a cake baked on her own body, on the victim who,
perhaps, to-morrow would herself be passing through the fire. It was
her life, her death, they ate there. One sniffs already the scorching
flesh.

Last of all they set upon her two offerings, seemingly of flesh; two
images, one of _the latest dead_, the other of the newest-born in the
district. These shared in the special virtue assigned to her who acted
as altar and Host in one, and on these the assembly made a show of
receiving the communion. Their Host would thus be threefold, and
always human. Under a shadowy likeness of the Devil the people
worshipped none other than its own self.

The true sacrifice was now over and done. The woman's work was ended,
when she gave herself up to be eaten by the multitude. Rising from her
former posture, she would not withdraw from the spot until she had
proudly stated, and, as it were, confirmed the lawfulness of her
proceedings by an appeal to the thunderbolt, by an insolent defiance
of the discrowned God.

In mockery of the _Agnus Dei_, and the breaking of the Christian Host,
she brought a toad dressed up, and pulled it to pieces. Then rolling
her eyes about in a frightful way she raised them to heaven, and
beheading the toad, uttered these strange words: "Ah, _Philip_,[59] if
I had you here, you should be served in the same manner!"

[59] Lancre, 136. Why "Philip," I cannot say. By Satan Jesus
is always called John or _Janicot_ (Jack). Was she speaking
of Philip of Valois, who brought on the wasting hundred