ast to fall asleep by letting the past be past, he continued with more
zeal than ever his proceedings against Duthibaut, and succeeded in
obtaining a decree from the Parliament of La Tournelle, by which
Duthibaut was summoned before it, and obliged to listen bareheaded to a
reprimand, to offer apologies, and to pay damages and costs.

Having thus got the better of one enemy, Urbain turned on the others, and
showed himself more indefatigable in the pursuit of justice than they had
been in the pursuit of vengeance. The decision of the archbishop had
given him a right to a sum of money for compensation, and interest
thereon, as well as to the restitution of the revenues of his livings,
and there being some demur made, he announced publicly that he intended
to exact this reparation to the uttermost farthing, and set about
collecting all the evidence which was necessary for the success of a new
lawsuit for libel and forgery which he intended to begin. It was in vain
that his friends assured him that the vindication of his innocence had
been complete and brilliant, it was in vain that they tried to convince
him of the danger of driving the vanquished to despair, Urbain replied
that he was ready to endure all the persecutions which his enemies might
succeed in inflicting on him, but as long as he felt that he had right
upon his side he was incapable of drawing back.

Grandier's adversaries soon became conscious of the storm which was
gathering above their heads, and feeling that the struggle between
themselves and this man would be one of life or death, Mignon, Barot,
Meunier, Duthibaut, and Menuau met Trinquant at the village of Pindadane,
in a house belonging to the latter, in order to consult about the dangers
which threatened them. Mignon had, however, already begun to weave the
threads of a new intrigue, which he explained in full to the others; they
lent a favourable ear, and his plan was adopted. We shall see it unfold
itself by degrees, for it is the basis of our narrative.

We have already said that Mignon was the director of the convent of
Ursulines at Loudun: Now the Ursuline order was quite modern, for the
historic controversies to which the slightest mention of the martyrdom of
St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins gave rise, had long hindered
the foundation of an order in the saint's honour. However, in 1560 Madame
Angele de Bresse established such an order in Italy, with the same rules
as the Augustin