aubardemont's cap, and would do so before the expiration of a quarter
of an hour.

We must here remark that this time the exorcisms took place in the
evening, instead of in the morning as hitherto; and it was now
growing dark, and darkness is favourable to illusions. Several of the
unbelieving ones present, therefore, began to call attention to the fact
that the quarter of an hour's delay would necessitate the employment
of artificial light during the next scene. They also noticed that M. de
Laubardemont had seated himself apart and immediately beneath one of the
arches in the vaulted roof, through which a hole had been drilled for
the passage of the bell-rope. They therefore slipped out of the church,
and up into the belfry, where they hid. In a few moments a man appeared
who began to work at something. They sprang on him and seized his
wrists, and found in one of his hands a thin line of horsehair, to one
end of which a hook was attached. The holder being frightened, dropped
the line and fled, and although M. de Laubardemont, the exorcists, and
the spectators waited, expecting every moment that the cap would rise
into the air, it remained quite firm on the owner's head, to the no
small confusion of Pere Lactance, who, all unwitting of the fiasco,
continued to adjure Beherit to keep his word--of course without the
least effect.

Altogether, this performance of May 4th, went anything but smoothly.
Till now no trick had succeeded; never before had the demons been such
bunglers. But the exorcists were sure that the last trick would go off
without a hitch. This was, that a nun, held by six men chosen for their
strength, would succeed in extricating herself from their grasp, despite
their utmost efforts. Two Carmelites and two Capuchins went through the
audience and selected six giants from among the porters and messengers
of the town.

This time the devil answered expectations by showing that if he was not
clever he was strong, for although the six men tried to hold her
down upon her mattress, the superior was seized with such terrible
convulsions that she escaped from their hands, throwing down one
of those who tried to detain her. This experiment, thrice renewed,
succeeded thrice, and belief seemed about to return to the assembly,
when a physician of Saumur named Duncan, suspecting trickery, entered
the choir, and, ordering the six men to retire, said he was going to try
and hold the superior down unaided, and if she