y condemned by a papal bull.

His remains having been buried in the cemetery of St. Medard, the
Jansenists flocked to say their prayers at his grave, and soon miracles
began to be wrought there. Ere long they were multiplied. The sick being
brought and laid upon the tombstone, many were cured. Wonderful stories
were attested by eye-witnesses. The myth-making tendency--the passion
for developing, enlarging, and spreading tales of wonder--came into full
play and was given free course.

Many thoughtful men satisfied themselves of the truth of these
representations. One of the foremost English scholars came over,
examined into them, and declared that there could be no doubt as to the
reality of the cures.

This state of things continued for about four years, when, in 1731, more
violent effects showed themselves. Sundry persons approaching the tomb
were thrown into convulsions, hysterics, and catalepsy; these diseases
spread, became epidemic, and soon multitudes were similarly afflicted.
Both religious parties made the most of these cases. In vain did such
great authorities in medical science as Hecquet and Lorry attribute the
whole to natural causes: the theologians on both sides declared them
supernatural--the Jansenists attributing them to God, the Jesuits to
Satan.

Of late years such cases have been treated in France with much
shrewdness. When, about the middle of the present century, the Arab
priests in Algiers tried to arouse fanaticism against the French
Christians by performing miracles, the French Government, instead of
persecuting the priests, sent Robert-Houdin, the most renowned juggler
of his time, to the scene of action, and for every Arab miracle Houdin
performed two: did an Arab marabout turn a rod into a serpent, Houdin
turned his rod into two serpents; and afterward showed the people how he
did it.

So, too, at the last International Exposition, the French Government,
observing the evil effects produced by the mania for table turning and
tipping, took occasion, when a great number of French schoolmasters and
teachers were visiting the exposition, to have public lectures given in
which all the business of dark closets, hand-tying, materialization of
spirits, presenting the faces of the departed, and ghostly portraiture
was fully performed by professional mountebanks, and afterward as fully
explained.

So in this case. The Government simply ordered the gate of the cemetery
to be locked, and when the