recall, by forcing her to make a will in which she promised "to
die when he died, and to be wherever he was." This was a dreadful
thought for the poor soul. Must she be drawn along with him into the
bottomless pit? Must she go down with him, even into hell? She deemed
herself for ever lost. Become his property, his mere tool, she was
used and misused by him for all kinds of purposes. He made her do the
most shameful things. He employed her as a magical charm to gain over
the rest of the nuns. A holy wafer steeped in Madeline's blood, and
buried in the garden, would be sure to disturb their senses and their
minds.

This was the very year in which Urban Grandier was burnt. Throughout
France, men spoke of nothing but the devils of Loudun. The
Penitentiary of Evreux, who had been one of the actors on that stage,
carried the dreadful tale back with him to Normandy. Madeline fancied
herself bewitched and knocked about by devils; followed about by a
lewd cat with eyes of fire. By degrees, other nuns caught the
disorder, which showed itself in odd supernatural jerks and writhings.
Madeline had besought aid of a Capuchin, afterwards of the Bishop of
Evreux. The prioress was not sorry for a step of which she must have
been aware, for she saw what wealth and fame a like business had
brought to the Convent of Loudun. But for six years the bishop turned
a deaf ear to the prayer, doubtless through fear of Richelieu, who was
then at work on a reform of the cloisters.

Richelieu wanted to bring these scandals to an end. It was not till
his own death, and that of Louis XIII., during the break-up which
followed on the rule of the Queen and Mazarin, that the priests again
betook themselves to working wonders, and waging war with the Devil.
Picart being dead, they were less shy of a matter in which so
dangerous a man might have accused others in his turn. They met the
visions of Madeline, by looking out a visionary for themselves. They
got admission into the convent for a certain Sister Anne of the
Nativity, a girl of sanguine, hysteric temperament, frantic at need
and half-mad, so far at least as to believe in her own lies. A kind of
dogfight was got up between the two. They besmeared each other with
false charges. Anne saw the Devil quite naked, by Madeline's side.
Madeline swore to seeing Anne at the Sabbath, along with the Lady
Superior, the Mother-Assistant, and the Mother of the Novices. Besides
this, there was nothing new; merely