ir truth, cast up his eyes to heaven and said that God was certainly
a great and merciful God, but it was also certain that Satan was very
clever, especially when he was barked by that false human science called
magic. However, as to the reports, though they were not entirely without
foundation, he would not go so far as to say that any of the sisters
were really possessed by devils, that being a question which time alone
could decide.

The effect of such an answer on minds already prepared to listen to the
most impossible things, may easily be guessed. Mignon let the gossip go
its rounds for several months without giving it any fresh food, but at
length, when the time was ripe, he called on the priest of Saint-Jacques
at Chinon, and told him that matters had now come to such a pass in the
Ursuline convent that he felt it impossible to bear up alone under the
responsibility of caring for the salvation of the afflicted nuns, and he
begged him to accompany him to the convent. This priest, whose name was
Pierre Barre, was exactly the man whom Mignon needed in such a crisis.
He was of melancholy temperament, and dreamed dreams and saw visions;
his one ambition was to gain a reputation for asceticism and holiness.
Desiring to surround his visit with the solemnity befitting such
an important event, he set out for Loudun at the head of all his
parishioners, the whole procession going on foot, in order to arouse
interest and curiosity; but this measure was quite needless it took less
than that to set the town agog.

While the faithful filled the churches offering up prayers for the
success of the exorcisms, Mignon and Barre entered upon their task at
the convent, where they remained shut up with the nuns for six hours.
At the end of this time Barre appeared and announced to his parishioners
that they might go back to Chinon without him, for he had made up his
mind to remain for the present at Loudun, in order to aid the venerable
director of the Ursuline convent in the holy work he had undertaken; he
enjoined on them to pray morning and evening, with all possible fervour,
that, in spite of the serious dangers by which it was surrounded, the
good cause might finally triumph. This advice, unaccompanied as it
was by any explanation, redoubled the curiosity of the people, and the
belief gained ground that it was not merely one or two nuns who were
possessed of devils, but the whole sisterhood. It was not very long
before the name