s
simple enough. One of the bewitched said that in a certain part of the
garden they would find a charm. They dug for it, and it was found.
Unluckily, Yvelin's friend, the sceptical magistrate, never budged
from the side of the leading actress, Sister Anne. At the very edge of
a hole they had just opened he grasped her hand, and on opening it,
found the charm, a bit of black thread, which she was about to throw
into the ground.

The exorcisers, the penitentiary, priests, and Capuchins, about the
spot, were overwhelmed with confusion. The dauntless Yvelin, on his
own authority, began a scrutiny, and saw to the uttermost depth of the
affair.

Among the fifty-two nuns, said he, there were six _possessed_, but
deserving of chastisement. Seventeen more were victims under a spell,
a pack of girls upset by the disease of the cloisters. He describes
it with great precision: the girls are regular but hysterical, blown
out with certain inward storms, lunatics mainly, and disordered in
mind. A nervous contagion has ruined them; and the first thing to do
is to keep them apart.

He then, with the liveliness of Voltaire, examines the tokens by which
the priests were wont to recognize the supernatural character of the
bewitched. They foretel, he allows, but only what never happens. They
translate, indeed, but without understanding; as when, for instance,
they render "_ex parte virginis_," by "the departure of the Virgin."
They know Greek before the people of Louviers, but cannot speak it
before the doctors of Paris. They cut capers, take leaps of the
easiest kind, climb up the trunk of a tree which a child three years
old might climb. In short, the only thing they do that is really
dreadful and unnatural, is to use dirtier language than men would ever
do.

* * * * *

In tearing off the mask from these people, the surgeon rendered a
great service to humanity. For the matter was being pushed further;
other victims were about to be made. Besides the charms were found
some papers, ascribed to David or Picart, in which this and that
person were called witches, and marked out for death. Each one
shuddered lest his name should be found there. Little by little the
fear of the priesthood made its way among the people.

The rotten age of Mazarin, the first days of the weak Anne of Austria,
were already come. Order and government were no more. "But one phrase
was left in the language: _The Queen is so good