t followed we have the sworn evidence in court of
the cure's pupils, in January and February, 1851. According to
Lemonier, on Nov. 26, while studying, he heard light blows of a
hammer, these recurred daily, about 5. p.m. When M. Tinel, his
tutor, said plus fort, the noises were louder. To condense evidence
which becomes tedious by its eternal uniformity, popular airs were
beaten on demand; the noise grew unbearable, tables moved untouched,
a breviary, a knife, a spit, a shoe flew wildly about. Lemonier was
buffeted by a black hand, attached to nobody. 'A kind of human
phantasm, clad in a blouse, haunted me for fifteen days wherever I
went; none but myself could see it.' He was dragged by the leg by a
mysterious force. On a certain day, when Thorel found a pretext for
visiting the house, M. Tinel made him beg Lemonier's pardon, clearly
on the ground that the swain had bewitched the boy. 'As soon as I
saw him I recognised the phantasm which had haunted me for a
fortnight, and I said to M. Tinel: "There is the man who follows
me".' Thorel knelt to the boy, asked his pardon, and pulled
violently at his clothes. As defendant, perhaps, the cure could not
be asked to corroborate these statements. The evidence of the other
boy, Bunel, was that, on Nov. 26, he heard first a rush of wind,
then tappings on the wall. He corroborated Lemonier's testimony to
the musical airs knocked out, the volatile furniture, and the
recognition in Thorel of the phantom. 'In the evening,' said Bunel,
'Lemonier en eut une crise de nerfs dans laquelle il avait perdu
connaissance.'

Leaving the boys' sworn evidence, and returning to the narrative
with its gossip, we learn that Thorel boasted of his success, and
said that, if he could but touch one of the lads again, the
furniture would dance, and the windows would be broken. Meanwhile,
we are told, nails were driven into points in the floor where
Lemonier saw the spectral figure standing. One nail became red hot,
and the wood round it smoked: Lemonier said that this nail had hit
'the man in the blouse' on the cheek. Now, when Thorel was made to
ask the boy's pardon, and was recognised by him as the phantom,
after the experiment with the nail, Thorel bore on his cheek the
mark of the wound!

This is in accordance with good precedents in witchcraft. A witch-
hare is wounded, the witch, in her natural form, has the same wound.
At the trial of Bridget Bishop, in the court of Oyer and