ep.

The impatiently expected day dawned at last, and at eight o'clock in the
morning the bailiff, the king's attorney, the civil lieutenant, the
criminal lieutenant, and the provost's lieutenant, with their respective
clerks, were already at the convent. They found the outer gate open, but
the inner door shut. In a few moments Mignon came to them and brought
them into a waiting-room. There he told them that the nuns were
preparing for communion, and that he would be very much obliged to them
if they would withdraw and wait in a house across the street, just
opposite the convent, and that he would send them word when they could
come back. The magistrates, having first informed Mignon of Urbain's
petition, retired as requested.

An hour passed, and as Mignon did not summon them, in spite of his
promise, they all went together to the convent chapel, where they were
told the exorcisms were already over. The nuns had quitted the choir,
and Mignon and Barre came to the grating and told them that they had just
completed the rite, and that, thanks to their conjurations, the two
afflicted ones were now quite free from evil spirits. They went on to
say that they had been working together at the exorcism from seven
o'clock in the morning, and that great wonders, of which they had drawn
up an account, had come to pass; but they had considered it would not be
proper to allow any one else to be present during the ceremony besides
the exorcists and the possessed. The bailiff pointed out that their
manner of proceedings was not only illegal, but that it laid them under
suspicion of fraud and collusion, in the eyes of the impartial:
Moreover, as the superior had accused Grandier publicly, she was bound to
renew and prove her accusation also publicly, and not in secret;
furthermore, it was a great piece of insolence on the part of the
exorcists to invite people of their standing and character to come to the
convent, and having kept them waiting an hour, to tell them that they
considered them unworthy to be admitted to the ceremony which they. had
been requested to attend; and he wound up by saying that he would draw up
a report, as he had already done on each of the preceding days, setting
forth the extraordinary discrepancy between their promises and their
performance. Mignon replied that he and Barre had had only one thing in
view, viz. the expulsion of the, demons, and that in that they had
succeeded, and that their success