d
nights uninterruptedly in the same room with the patients, and to treat
them in the presence of other nuns and some of the magistrates. Further,
they required that all the food and medicine should pass through the
doctors' hands, and that no one, should touch the patients except quite
openly, or speak to them except in an audible voice. Under these
conditions they would undertake to find out the true cause of the
convulsions and to make a report of the same.

It being now nine o'clock in the morning, the hour when the exorcisms
began, the bailiff went over at once to the convent, and found Barre half
way through the mass, and the superior in convulsions. The magistrate
entered the church at the moment of the elevation of the Host, and
noticed among the kneeling Catholics a young man called Dessentier
standing up with his hat on. He ordered him either to uncover or to go
away. At this the convulsive movements of the superior became more
violent, and she cried out that there were Huguenots in the church, which
gave the demon great power over her. Barre asked her how many there were
present, and she replied, "Two," thus proving that the devil was no
stronger in arithmetic than in Latin; for besides Dessentier, Councillor
Abraham Gauthier, one of his brothers, four of his sisters, Rene
Fourneau, a deputy, and an attorney called Angevin, all of the Reformed
faith, were present.

As Barre saw that those present were greatly struck, by this numerical
inaccuracy, he tried to turn their thoughts in another direction by
asking the superior if it were true that she knew no Latin. On her
replying that she did not know a single word, he held the pyx before her
and ordered her to swear by the holy sacrament. She resisted at first,
saying loud enough for those around her to hear--

"My father, you make me take such solemn oaths that I fear God will
punish me."

To this Barre replied--

"My daughter, you must swear for the glory of God."

And she took the oath.

Just then one of the bystanders remarked that the mother superior was in
the habit of interpreting the Catechism to her scholars. This she
denied, but acknowledged that she used to translate the Paternoster and
the Creed for them. As the superior felt herself becoming somewhat
confused at this long series of embarrassing questions, she decided on
going into convulsions again, but with only moderate success, for the
bailiff insisted that the exorcists should a