intessence of all perfection."

This savage joy was mainly caused by her having quite conquered
Madeline at last. One word had done more for her than a hundred
sermons: "Thou shalt be burnt." Thenceforth in her distraction the
young girl said whatever the other pleased, and upheld her statements
in the meanest way. Humbling herself before them all, she besought
forgiveness of her mother, of her superior Romillion, of the
bystanders, of Louisa. According to the latter, the frightened girl
took her aside, and begged her to be merciful, not to chasten her too
much.

The other woman, tender as a rock and merciful as a hidden reef, felt
that Madeline was now hers, to do whatever she might choose. She
caught her, folded her round, and bedazed her out of what little
spirit she had left. It was a second enchantment; but all unlike that
by Gauffridi, a _possession_ by means of terror. The poor downtrodden
wretch, moving under rod and scourge, was pushed onward in a path of
exquisite suffering which led her to accuse and murder the man she
loved still.

Had Madeline stood out, Gauffridi would have escaped, for every one
was against Louisa. Michaelis himself at Aix, eclipsed by her as a
preacher, treated by her with so much coolness, would have stopped the
whole business rather than leave the honour of it in her hands.

Marseilles supported Gauffridi, being fearful of seeing the
Inquisition of Avignon pushed into her neighbourhood, and one of her
own children carried off from her threshold. The Bishop and Chapter
were specially eager to defend their priest, maintaining that the
whole affair sprang from nothing but a rivalry between confessors,
nothing but the hatred commonly shown by monks towards secular
priests.

The Doctrinaries would have quashed the matter. They were sore
troubled by the noise it made. Some of them in their annoyance were
ready to give up everything and forsake their house.

The ladies were very wroth, especially Madame Libertat, the lady of
the Royalist leader who had given Marseilles up to the King.

The Capuchins whom Louisa had so haughtily commanded to seize on
Gauffridi, were, like all other of the Franciscan orders, enemies of
the Dominicans. They were jealous of the prominence gained for these
latter by their demoniac friend. Their wandering life, moreover, by
throwing them into continual contact with the women, brought them a
good deal of moral business. They had no wish to see too close a