e frivolity of a true Capuchin, he
poked fun at those who could not swallow the miracles wholesale.

"They had every reason to feel vexed," he said, "at the small courtesy or
civility shown by the demons to persons of their merit and station; but
if they had examined their consciences, perhaps they would have found the
real reason of their discontent, and, turning their anger against
themselves, would have done penance for having come to the exorcisms led
by a depraved moral sense and a prying spirit."

Nothing remarkable happened from the 20th May till the 13th June, a day
which became noteworthy by reason of the superior's vomiting a quill a
finger long. It was doubtless this last miracle which brought the Bishop
of Poitiers to Loudun, "not," as he said to those who came to pay their
respects to him, "to examine into the genuineness of the possession, but
to force those to believe who still doubted, and to discover the classes
which Urbain had founded to teach the black art to pupils of both sexes."

Thereupon the opinion began to prevail among the people that it would be
prudent to believe in the possession, since the king, the cardinal-duke,
and the bishop believed in it, and that continued doubt would lay them
open to the charges of disloyalty to their king and their Church, and of
complicity in the crimes of Grandier, and thus draw down upon them the
ruthless punishment of Laubardemont.

"The reason we feel so certain that our work is pleasing to God is that
it is also pleasing to the king," wrote Pere Lactance.

The arrival of the bishop was followed by a new exorcism; and of this an
eye-witness, who was a good Catholic and a firm believer in possession,
has left us a written description, more interesting than any we could
give. We shall present it to our readers, word for word, as it stands:--

"On Friday, 23rd June 1634, on the Eve of Saint John, about 3 p.m., the
Lord Bishop of Poitiers and M. de Laubardemont being present in the
church of Sainte-Croix of Loudun, to continue the exorcisms of the
Ursuline nuns, by order of M, de Laubardemont, commissioner, Urbain
Grandier, priest-in-charge, accused and denounced as a magician by the
said possessed nuns, was brought from his prison to the said church.

"There were produced by the said commissioner to the said Urbain Grandier
four pacts mentioned several times by the said possessed nuns at the
preceding exorcisms, which the devils who possessed the nuns de