uidance at least of
the exorcisers, for putting a stop to their arbitrary doings; and,
better still, he sent his surgeon, who examined the girls, and found
them to be neither bewitched, nor mad, nor even sick. What were they
then? Knaves, to be sure.[97]

[97] Not of necessity knaves, Mr. Michelet; at least not
wilfully so; but silly hysteric patients, of the
spirit-rapping, revivalist order, victims of nervous
derangement, or undue nervous sensibility.--TRANS.

So through the century keeps on this noble duel between the Physician
and the Devil, this battle of light and knowledge with the dark shades
of falsehood. We saw its beginning in Agrippa and Wyer. Doctor Duncan
carried it bravely on at Loudun, and fearlessly impressed on others
the belief that this affair was nothing but a farce.

For all his alleged resistance, the Demon was frightened, held his
tongue, quite lost his voice. But people's passions had been too
fiercely roused for the matter to end there. The tide flowed again so
strongly in favour of Grandier, that the assailed became in their turn
assailants. An apothecary of kin to the accusers was sued by a rich
young lady of the town for speaking of her as the vicar's mistress. He
was condemned to apologise for his slander.

The prioress was a lost woman. It would have been easy to prove, what
one witness afterwards saw, that the marks upon her were made with
paint renewed daily. But she was kinswoman to one of the King's
judges, Laubardemont, and he saved her. He was simply charged to
overthrow the strong places of Loudun. He got himself commissioned to
try Grandier. The Cardinal was given to understand that the accused
was vicar and friend of the _Loudun shoemaker_,[98] was one of the
numerous agents of Mary of Medici, had made himself his parishioner's
secretary, and written a disgraceful pamphlet in her name.

[98] A woman named Hammon, of low birth, who entered the
service, and rose high in the good graces of Mary of Medici.
See Dumas' _Celebrated Crimes_.--TRANS.

Richelieu, for his part, would have liked to show a high-minded scorn
of the whole business, if he could have done so with safety to
himself. The Capuchins and Father Joseph had an eye to that also.
Richelieu would have given them a fine handle against him with the
King, had he displayed a want of zeal. One Quillet, after much grave
reflection, went to see the Minister and give him warning. But the
other, a