re the adventure came to him. Two of
them, both women, had been tried and convicted as witches, and had been
burned alive at the stake. Moreover, it had not been difficult to prove
that the very inn where Vezin stayed was built about 1700 upon the spot
where the funeral pyres stood and the executions took place. The town
was a sort of headquarters for all the sorcerers and witches of the
entire region, and after conviction they were burnt there literally by
scores.

"It seems strange," continued the doctor, "that Vezin should have
remained ignorant of all this; but, on the other hand, it was not the
kind of history that successive generations would have been anxious to
keep alive, or to repeat to their children. Therefore I am inclined to
think he still knows nothing about it.

"The whole adventure seems to have been a very vivid revival of the
memories of an earlier life, caused by coming directly into contact with
the living forces still intense enough to hang about the place, and, by
a most singular chance, too, with the very souls who had taken part with
him in the events of that particular life. For the mother and daughter
who impressed him so strangely must have been leading actors, with
himself, in the scenes and practices of witchcraft which at that period
dominated the imaginations of the whole country.

"One has only to read the histories of the times to know that these
witches claimed the power of transforming themselves into various
animals, both for the purposes of disguise and also to convey themselves
swiftly to the scenes of their imaginary orgies. Lycanthropy, or the
power to change themselves into wolves, was everywhere believed in, and
the ability to transform themselves into cats by rubbing their bodies
with a special salve or ointment provided by Satan himself, found equal
credence. The witchcraft trials abound in evidences of such universal
beliefs."

Dr. Silence quoted chapter and verse from many writers on the subject,
and showed how every detail of Vezin's adventure had a basis in the
practices of those dark days.

"But that the entire affair took place subjectively in the man's own
consciousness, I have no doubt," he went on, in reply to my questions;
"for my secretary who has been to the town to investigate, discovered
his signature in the visitors' book, and proved by it that he had
arrived on September 8th, and left suddenly without paying his bill. He
left two days later, and they sti