r, who was then upon her bed,
turned toward the wall to weep, and said in an undertone to Father Barre,
'I can not go on with this, father.' I repeated her words aloud, and
infuriated all the exorcists; they cried out that I ought to know that
there are demons more ignorant than peasants, and said that as to their
power and physical strength, it could not be doubted, since the spirits
named Gresil des Trones, Aman des Puissance, and Asmodeus, had promised
to carry off the calotte of Monsieur de Laubardemont. They were preparing
for this, when the physician Duncan, a learned and upright man, but
somewhat of a scoffer, took it into his head to pull a cord he discovered
fastened to a column like a bell-rope, and which hung down just close to
the referendary's head; whereupon they called him a Huguenot, and I am
satisfied that if Marechal de Breze were not his protector, it would have
gone ill with him. The Comte du Lude then came forward with his customary
'sang-froid', and begged the exorcists to perform before him. Father
Lactantius, the Capuchin with the dark visage and hard look, proceeded
with Sister Agnes and Sister Claire; he raised both his hands, looking at
them as a serpent would look at two dogs, and cried in a terrible voice,
'Quis to misit, Diabole?' and the two sisters answered, as with one
voice, 'Urbanus.' He was about to continue, when Monsieur du Lude, taking
out of his pocket, with an air of veneration, a small gold box, said that
he had in it a relic left by his ancestors, and that though not doubting
the fact of the possession, he wished to test it. Father Lactantius
seized the box with delight, and hardly had he touched the foreheads of
the two sisters with it when they made great leaps and twisted about
their hands and feet. Lactantius shouted forth his exorcisms; Barre threw
himself upon his knees with all the old women; and Mignon and the judges
applauded. The impassible Laubardemont made the sign of the cross,
without being struck dead for it! When Monsieur du Lude took back his box
the nuns became still. 'I think,' said Lactantius, insolently, 'that--you
will not question your relics now.' 'No more than I do the possession,'
answered Monsieur du Lude, opening his box and showing that it was empty.
'Monsieur, you mock us,' said Lactantius. I was indignant at these
mummeries, and said to him, 'Yes, Monsieur, as you mock God and men.' And
this, my dear friend, is the reason why you see me in my seven-l