FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   85   86   87   >>  
rous heart must have been a hot hell for those fiends who entered his body to torment it." The following epitaph which was placed over his grave was interpreted, according to the prepossessions of those who read it, either as a testimony to his sanctity or as a proof of his punishment:-- "Here lies Pere Tranquille, of Saint-Remi; a humble Capuchin preacher. The demons no longer able to endure his fearlessly exercised power as an exorcist, and encouraged by sorcerers, tortured him to death, on May 31st, 1638." But a death about which there could be no doubt as to the cause was that of the surgeon Mannouri, the same who had, as the reader may recollect, been the first to torture Grandier. One evening about ten o'clock he was returning from a visit to a patient who lived on the outskirts of the town, accompanied by a colleague and preceded by his surgery attendant carrying a lantern. When they reached the centre of the town in the rue Grand-Pave, which passes between the walls of the castle grounds and the gardens of the Franciscan monastery, Mannouri suddenly stopped, and, staring fixedly at some object which was invisible to his companions, exclaimed with a start-- "Oh! there is Grandier! "Where? where?" cried the others. He pointed in the direction towards which his eyes were turned, and beginning to tremble violently, asked-- "What do you want with me, Grandier? What do you want?" A moment later he added "Yes-yes, I am coming." Immediately it seemed as if the vision vanished from before his eyes, but the effect remained. His brother-surgeon and the servant brought him home, but neither candles nor the light of day could allay his fears; his disordered brain showed him Grandier ever standing at the foot of his bed. A whole week he continued, as was known all over the town, in this condition of abject terror; then the spectre seemed to move from its place and gradually to draw nearer, for he kept on repeating, "He is coming! he is coming!" and at length, towards evening, at about the same hour at which Grandier expired, Surgeon Mannouri drew his last breath. We have still to tell of M. de Laubardemont. All we know is thus related in the letters of M. de Patin:-- "On the 9th inst., at nine o'clock in the evening, a carriage was attacked by robbers; on hearing the noise the townspeople ran to the spot, drawn thither as much by curiosity as by humanity. A few shots were exchanged and the robbers p
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   85   86   87   >>  



Top keywords:

Grandier

 

evening

 

coming

 
Mannouri
 
surgeon
 

robbers

 
brother
 

servant

 

brought

 

remained


effect
 

disordered

 

townspeople

 

candles

 

vanished

 
Immediately
 

humanity

 

curiosity

 

violently

 
tremble

exchanged

 
moment
 

showed

 

thither

 

vision

 

standing

 

nearer

 
repeating
 

related

 

letters


gradually

 

length

 

breath

 

expired

 

Surgeon

 

attacked

 

carriage

 

continued

 

hearing

 

Laubardemont


spectre

 

beginning

 

terror

 

condition

 

abject

 

staring

 
longer
 

endure

 

fearlessly

 

exercised