in _The Open Court_ for April, 1920.) The devil mocks at this
theological dictum in Pierre Veber's story "L'Homme qui vendit son ame
au Diable" (1918). In Perkins's story "The Devil-Puzzlers" the devil
expresses his satisfaction over his success in this regard.

The story "The Generous Gambler" first appeared in the _Figaro_ of
February, 1864, was reprinted under the title of "Le Diable" in the
_Revue du Dix-Neuvieme Siecle_ of June, 1866, and was finally included
in _Poemes en Prose_. This story has also been translated into English
by Joseph T. Shipley.

THE THREE LOW MASSES

A CHRISTMAS STORY

BY ALPHONSE DAUDET

Daudet and Maupassant furnish the best proof of the assertion made in
the Introduction to this book that even the Naturalists who, as a
rule, disdained the phantastic plots of the Romanticists, whose
imagination was rigorously earth-bound, felt themselves nevertheless
attracted by devil-lore. Although most of Daudet's subjects are chosen
from contemporary French life, this short-story treats a devil-legend
of the seventeenth century. This story as "The Pope's Mule" and "The
Elixir of the Reverend Pere Gaucher" obviously has no other object but
to poke fun at the Catholic Church. It belongs to the literary type
known as the Satirical Supernatural.

This story is characteristic of Daudet's art, containing as it does
all of his delicacy and daintiness of pathos, of raillery, of humour.
It originally appeared in that delightful group of stories _Lettres de
Mon Moulin_ (1869).

The horns and tail of his Satanic majesty peep out as vividly in this
book as the disguised devils in Ingoldsby's _Legend of the North
Countrie_.

Although hating all men, the devil has a special hatred for the
priests, and he delights in bringing them to fall. Satan loathes the
priests, because, as Anatole France says, they teach that "God takes
delight in seeing His creatures languish in penitence and abstain from
His most precious gifts" (_Les Dieux ont soif_, p. 278).

It is evident from this story that the popular belief that the devil
avoids holy edifices is not based on facts. Here the devil not only
enters the church, but even performs the duties of a sacristan at the
foot of the altar. According to mediaeval tradition the devil has his
agents even in the churches. In the administration of hell where the
tasks are carefully parcelled out among the thousands of imps, the
church has been assigned to the fiend with