s doubtless nothing more or
less than what M. La Perruque, Priest of Gallardon, had a hundred
times repeated from the pulpit on Sunday.

Martin replied:

"Since you know so much about it, why don't you perform your errand
yourself? Why do you appeal to a poor man like me who knows not how to
express himself?"

Then the unknown replied to Martin:

"It is not I who will go, but you; do as I command you."

As soon as he had uttered these words, his feet rose from the ground,
his body bent, and with this double movement he vanished.

From this time onwards, Martin was haunted by the mysterious being.
One day, having gone down into his cellar, he found him there. On
another occasion, during vespers, he saw him in church, near the holy
water stoup, in a devout attitude. When the service was over, the
unknown accompanied Martin on his way home and again commanded him to
go and see the King. The farmer told his relatives who were with him,
but neither of them had seen or heard anything.

Tormented by these apparitions, Martin communicated them to his
priest, M. La Perruque. He, being certain of the good faith of his
parishioner and deeming that the case ought to be submitted to the
diocesan authority, sent the visionary to the Bishop of Versailles.
The Bishop was then M. Louis Charrier de la Roche, a priest who in the
days of the Revolution had taken the oath to the Republic. He resolved
to subject Martin to a thorough examination; and from the first he
told him to ask the unknown what was his name, and who it was who sent
him.

But when the messenger in the light-coloured frock-coat appeared
again, he declared that his name must remain unknown.

"I come," he added, "from him who has sent me, and he who has sent me
is above me."

He may have wished to conceal his name; but at least he did not
conceal his views; the vexation he displayed on the escape of La
Valette[2766] proved that in politics he was an ultra Royalist of the
most violent type.

[Footnote 2766: Antoine Marie Chamans, Comte de La Valette
(1769-1830), was a French general during the first empire. Having been
arrested in 1815 and condemned to death, he was saved by his
wife.--W.S.]

Meanwhile the Comte de Breteuil, Prefect of Eure-et-Loir, had been
told of the visionary at the same time as the Bishop. He also
questioned Martin. He expected to find him a nervous, agitated person;
but when he found him tranquil, speaking simply, but with logical
seq