t of the
cross on the village church, suddenly refused to go farther; and he was
denounced thoroughly in the clerical newspapers for declining to accept
such evidence.

At Tissot's visit in 1863 the possession had generally ceased, and the
cases left were few and quiet. But his visits stirred a new controversy,
and its echoes were long and loud in the pulpits and clerical journals.
Believers insisted that Satan had been removed by the intercession
of the Blessed Virgin; unbelievers hinted that the main cause of
the deliverance was the reluctance of the possessed to be shut up in
asylums.

Under these circumstances the Bishop of Annecy announced that he would
visit Morzine to administer Confirmation, and word appears to have
spread that he would give a more orthodox completion to the work already
done, by exorcising the devils who remained. Immediately several new
cases of possession appeared; young girls who had been cured were
again affected; the embers thus kindled were fanned into a flame by a
"mission" which sundry priests held in the parish to arouse the people
to their religious duties--a mission in Roman Catholic countries being
akin to a "revival" among some Protestant sects. Multitudes of young
women, excited by the preaching and appeals of the clergy, were again
thrown into the old disease, and at the coming of the good bishop it
culminated.

The account is given in the words of an eye-witness:

"At the solemn entrance of the bishop into the church, the possessed
persons threw themselves on the ground before him, or endeavoured to
throw themselves upon him, screaming frightfully, cursing, blaspheming,
so that the people at large were struck with horror. The possessed
followed the bishop, hooted him, and threatened him, up to the middle
of the church. Order was only established by the intervention of the
soldiers. During the confirmation the diseased redoubled their howls and
infernal vociferations, and tried to spit in the face of the bishop and
to tear off his pastoral raiment. At the moment when the prelate gave
his benediction a still more outrageous scene took place. The violence
of the diseased was carried to fury, and from all parts of the church
arose yells and fearful howling; so frightful was the din that tears
fell from the eyes of many of the spectators, and many strangers were
thrown into consternation."

Among the very large number of these diseased persons there were only
two men; of the r