e
fourteenth century she proclaimed, that any woman who dared to heal
others _without having duly studied_, was a witch and should therefore
die.

But how was she to study in public? Fancy what a scene of mingled fun
and horror would have occurred, if the poor savage had risked an
entrance into the schools! What games and merry-makings there would
have been! On Midsummer Day they used to chain cats together and burn
them in the fire. But to tie up a Witch in that hell of caterwaulers,
a Witch yelling and roasting, what fun it would have been for that
precious crew of monklings and cowlbearers!

In due time we shall see the decline of Satan. Sad to tell, we shall
find him pacified, turned into _a good old fellow_. He will be robbed
and plundered, until of the two masks he wore at the Sabbath, the
dirtiest is taken by Tartuffe. His spirit is still everywhere, but of
his bodily self, in losing the Witch he lost all. The wizards were
only wearisome.

Now that we have hurled him so far downwards, are we fully aware of
what has happened? Was he not an important actor, an essential item in
the great religious machine just now slightly out of gear? All
organisms that work properly are twofold, twosided. Life can otherwise
not go on at all. It is a kind of balance between two forces,
opposite, symmetrical, but unequal; the lower answering to the other
as its counterpoise. The higher chafes at it, seeks to put it down. So
doing, it is all wrong.

When Colbert, in 1672, got rid of Satan, with very little ceremony, by
forbidding the judges to entertain pleas of witchcraft, the sturdy
Parliament of Normandy with its sound Norman logic pointed out the
dangerous drift of such a decision. The Devil is nothing less than a
dogma holding on to all the rest. If you meddle with the Eternally
Conquered, are you not meddling with the Conqueror likewise? To doubt
the acts of the former, leads to doubting the acts of the second, the
miracles he wrought for the very purpose of withstanding the Devil.
The pillars of heaven are grounded in the Abyss. He who thoughtlessly
removes that base infernal, may chance to split up Paradise itself.

Colbert could not listen, having other business to mind. But the Devil
perhaps gave heed and was comforted. Amidst such minor means of
earning a livelihood as spirit-rapping or table-turning, he grows
resigned, and believes at least that he will not die alone.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

THE DEA