urch,
but with the sole design of saving his worldly goods, threatened with
confiscation because of his irreligious and damnable errors. Evidence
having been furnished by different persons of our company to prove that
the conversion of Rennepont was not sincere, and in reality covered a
sacrilegious lure, the possessions of the said gentleman, now considered
a relapsed heretic, were confiscated by our gracious sovereign, his
Majesty King Louis XIV, and the said Rennepont was condemned to the
galleys for life.[12] He escaped his doom by a voluntary death; in
consequence of which abominable crime, his body was dragged upon a
hurdle, and flung to the dogs on the highway.

"'From these preliminaries, we come to the great secret, which is of such
importance to the future interests of our Society.

"'His Majesty Louis XIV., in his paternal and Catholic goodness towards
the Church in general, and our Order in particular, had granted to us the
profit of this confiscation, in acknowledgment of our services in
discovering the infamous and sacrilegious relapse of the said Rennepont.

"'But we have just learned, for certain, that a house situated in Paris,
No. 3, Rue Saint-Francois, and a sum of fifty thousand gold crowns, have
escaped this confiscation, and have consequently been stolen from our
Society.

"'The house was conveyed, before the confiscation, by means of a feigned
purchase, to a friend of Rennepont's a good Catholic, unfortunately, as
against him we cannot take any severe measures. Thanks to the culpable,
but secure connivance of his friend, the house has been walled up, and is
only to be opened in a century and a half, according to the last will of
Rennepont. As for the fifty thousand gold crowns, they have been placed
in hands which, unfortunately, are hitherto unknown to us, in order to be
invested and put out to use for one hundred and fifty years, at the
expiration of which time they are to be divided between the then existing
descendants of the said Rennepont; and it is calculated that this sum,
increased by so many accumulations, will by then have become enormous,
and will amount to at least forty or fifty millions of livres tournois.
From motives which are not known, but which are duly stated in a
testamentary document, the said Rennepont has concealed from his family,
whom the edicts against the Protestants have driven out of France, the
investment of these fifty thousand crowns; and has only desired his