therefore with the old man, but the
affair turned out still more strangely. As we entered the house, the
thin, bony man was just in the act of prophecying, speaking in a pure
dialect about the deliverance of France, of liberty, of faith, of better
times, encouraging them to fight. I tried to pray, and to exorcise, but
the father seized his great shepherd's stick, brandished it over him,
so that he would have killed him, had I not stopped his arm. We then
listened for a short time, and what ensued? suddenly something gurgled
in the old man's throat, he groaned, turned up his eyes, fell against
the wall and then on the ground, and after a few mighty heavings of the
breast, he too began; he sang psalms, exhorted to repentance,
prophecied the fall of Babel; nothing could equal it: as the old one
sang, the young one twittered; I thought I was bewitched, my priestly
vestments fell from my hands, I could only listen to those two
possessed ones, who were howling out pure piety, and texts from the
Bible, and as I gazed at the astounding wonder with agitation and fear,
I felt a shock through all my limbs, and sir, as true as heaven is
above us, a desire arose within me to be seized with similar fits, and
to take a part in this unhappy affair. I rushed out into the open,
blessed air of heaven. I thought on all dignitaries, of my bishop, of
the great church and organ of Montpellier, of the letter which I
possessed from the murdered Abbot of Chably, of our illustrious Marshal
of Montrevel, of his dress-uniform, and of such things,--and God be
praised, the trembling left my body, and I am now a reasonable man and
a christian priest again. Ever since that time, I look upon the whole
affair with terror. Be it witchcraft, that they are possessed with
devils, bodily and infectious diseases, or the unknown, new fanaticism
of the learned doctors, I have at least discovered that mankind is
easily entrapped, and that the Spaniard is right with his proverb: 'No
man can say of this water I will not drink.' The two shepherd knaves
have now also run into the wilds after Cavalier, and have become great
heroes of the faith."

The old Counsellor had gone out frequently during these details to give
orders to the domestics, who had in the mean while laid the table and
prepared the evening repast. "My unknown friends," said the old
gentleman affably, "with whose company chance and the bad weather have
so unexpectedly honoured me, and who are to me,--