Medici, who replaced him with Cosmo Ruggiero. The men
of science, who were superior to their times, were therefore seldom
appreciated; they simply inspired an ignorant fear of occult sciences
and their results.

Without being precisely one of the famous mathematicians, the man whom
the count had brought enjoyed in Normandy the equivocal reputation
which attached to a physician who was known to do mysterious works.
He belonged to the class of sorcerers who are still called in parts of
France "bonesetters." This name belonged to certain untutored geniuses
who, without apparent study, but by means of hereditary knowledge and
the effect of long practice, the observations of which accumulated in
the family, were bonesetters; that is, they mended broken limbs and
cured both men and beasts of certain maladies, possessing secrets said
to be marvellous for the treatment of serious cases. But not only had
Maitre Antoine Beauvouloir (the name of the present bonesetter) a father
and grandfather who were famous practitioners, from whom he inherited
important traditions, he was also learned in medicine, and was given to
the study of natural science. The country people saw his study full of
books and other strange things which gave to his successes a coloring
of magic. Without passing strictly for a sorcerer, Antoine Beauvouloir
impressed the populace through a circumference of a hundred miles with
respect akin to terror, and (what was far more really dangerous for
himself) he held in his power many secrets of life and death which
concerned the noble families of that region. Like his father and
grandfather before him, he was celebrated for his skill in confinements
and miscarriages. In those days of unbridled disorder, crimes were so
frequent and passions so violent that the higher nobility often found
itself compelled to initiate Maitre Antoine Beauvouloir into secrets
both shameful and terrible. His discretion, so essential to his safety,
was absolute; consequently his clients paid him well, and his hereditary
practice greatly increased. Always on the road, sometimes roused in the
dead of night, as on this occasion by the count, sometimes obliged to
spend several days with certain great ladies, he had never married; in
fact, his reputation had hindered certain young women from accepting
him. Incapable of finding consolation in the practice of his profession,
which gave him such power over feminine weakness, the poor bonesetter
felt