s themselves began to repent; and on the day following
the impious scene above described, just as Pere Lactanee began to
exorcise Sister Claire in the castle chapel, she rose, and turning
towards the congregation, while tears ran down her cheeks, said in a
voice that could be heard by all present, that she was going to speak the
truth at last in the sight of Heaven. Thereupon she confessed that all
that she had said during the last fortnight against Grandier was
calumnious and false, and that all her actions had been done at the
instigation of the Franciscan Pere Lactance, the director, Mignon, and
the Carmelite brothers. Pere Lactance, not in the least taken aback,
declared that her confession was a fresh wile of the devil to save her
master Grandier. She then made an urgent appeal to the bishop and to M.
de Laubardemont, asking to be sequestered and placed in charge of other
priests than those who had destroyed her soul, by making her bear false
witness against an innocent man; but they only laughed at the pranks the
devil was playing, and ordered her to be at once taken back to the house
in which she was then living. When she heard this order, she darted out
of the choir, trying to escape through the church door, imploring those
present to come to her assistance and save her from everlasting
damnation. But such terrible fruit had the proclamation borne that noon
dared respond, so she was recaptured and taken back to the house in which
she was sequestered, never to leave it again.

CHAPTER X

The next day a still more extraordinary scene took place. While M. de
Laubardemont was questioning one of the nuns, the superior came down into
the court, barefooted; in her chemise, and a cord round her neck; and
there she remained for two hours, in the midst of a fearful storm, not
shrinking before lightning, thunder, or rain, but waiting till M. de
Laubardemont and the other exorcists should come out. At length the door
opened and the royal commissioner appeared, whereupon Sister Jeanne des
Anges, throwing herself at his feet, declared she had not sufficient
strength to play the horrible part they had made her learn any longer,
and that before God and man she declared Urbain Grandier innocent, saying
that all the hatred which she and her companions had felt against him
arose from the baffled desires which his comeliness awoke--desires which
the seclusion of conventional life made still more ardent. M. de
Laubarde