w whether a woman who
receives visits from the incubi necessarily has a cold body? In other
words, is a cold body a presumable symptom of incubacy, as of old the
inability to shed tears served the Inquisition as proof positive to
convict witches?"

"Yes, I can answer you. Formerly women smitten with incubacy had frigid
flesh even in the month of August. The books of the specialists bear
witness. But now the majority of the creatures who voluntarily or
involuntarily summon or receive the amorous larvae have, on the contrary,
a skin that is burning and dry to the touch. This transformation is not
yet general, but tends to become so. I remember very well that Dr.
Johannes, he of whom Gevingey told you, was often obliged, at the moment
when he attempted to deliver the patient, to bring the body back to
normal temperature with lotions of dilute hydriodate of potassium."

"Ah!" said Durtal, who was thinking of Mme. Chantelouve.

"You don't know what has become of Dr. Johannes?" asked Carhaix.

"He is living very much in retirement at Lyons. He continues, I believe,
to cure venefices, and he preaches the blessed coming of the Paraclete."

"For heaven's sake, who is this doctor?" asked Durtal.

"He is a very intelligent and learned priest. He was superior of a
community, and he directed, here in Paris, the only review which ever
was really mystical. He was a theologian much consulted, a recognized
master of divine jurisprudence; then he had distressing quarrels with
the papal Curia at Rome and with the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris. His
exorcisms and his battles against the incubi, especially in the female
convents, ruined him.

"Ah, I remember the last time I saw him, as if it were yesterday. I met
him in the rue Grenelle coming out of the Archbishop's house, the day he
quitted the Church, after a scene which he told me all about. Again I
can see that priest walking with me along the deserted boulevard des
Invalides. He was pale, and his defeated but impressive voice trembled.
He had been summoned and commanded to explain his actions in the case of
an epileptic woman whom he claimed to have cured with the aid of a
relic, the seamless robe of Christ preserved at Argenteuil. The
Cardinal, assisted by two grand vicars, listened to him, standing.

"When he had likewise furnished the information which they demanded
about his cures of witch spells, Cardinal Guibert said, 'You had best go
to La Trappe.'

"And I remember word