ant to lock the door behind him and to put the key back
where he had found it, and to shut the window of the sexton's cottage
carefully. Lastly, he made arrangements as to what they were to do, in
case anything unforeseen should occur, whereupon the sergeant and the
constable left the churchyard, and lay down in a ditch at some distance
from the gate, but opposite to it.

Almost as soon as the clock struck half past eleven, they heard steps
near the chapel, whereupon the police director and the young
Latitudinarian went to the window in order to watch the beginning of
the exorcism, and as the chapel was in total darkness, they thought
that they should be able to see without being seen; but matters turned
out differently from what they expected.

Suddenly, the key turned in the lock. They barely had time to conceal
themselves behind the altar, before two men came in, one of whom was
carrying a dark lantern. One was the young man's father, an elderly man
of the middle class, who seemed very unhappy and depressed, the other
the Jesuit father X----, a tall, lean, big-boned man, with a thin,
bilious face, in which two large gray eyes shone restlessly under
bushy, black eyebrows. He lit the tapers, which were standing on the
altar, and began to say a "Requiem Mass"; while the old man kneeled on
the altar steps and served him.

When it was over, the Jesuit took the book of the Gospels and the
holy-water sprinkler, and went slowly out of the chapel, the old man
following him with the holy-water basin in one hand, and a taper in the
other. Then the police director left his hiding place, and stooping
down, so as not to be seen, crept to the chapel window, where he
cowered down carefully; the young man followed his example. They were
now looking straight at his mother's grave.

The Jesuit, followed by the superstitious old man, walked three times
round the grave; then he remained standing before it, and by the light
of the taper read a few passages from the Gospel. Then he dipped the
holy-water sprinkler three times into the holy-water basin, and
sprinkled the grave three times. Then both returned to the chapel,
kneeled down outside it with their faces toward the grave, and began to
pray aloud, until at last the Jesuit sprang up, in a species of wild
ecstasy, and cried out three times in a shrill voice:

"Exsurge! Exsurge! Exsurge!"[1]

Scarcely had the last words of the exorcism died away, when thick, blue
smoke rose out o