t of the
local parliament, with the better known councillor, Pierre de
l'Ancre, who has left a record ('Tableau de l'Inconstance des
Mauvais Anges et Demons, ou il est amplement traite des Sorciers
et Demons: Paris'), was placed at the head of the commission. How
the district of Labourt was so infested with the tribe, that of
thirty thousand inhabitants hardly a family existed but was
infected with sorcery, is explained by the barren, sterile,
mountainous aspect of the neighbourhood of that part of the
Pyrenees: the men were engaged in the business of fishermen, and
the women left alone were exposed to the tempter. The priests too
were as ignorant and wicked as the people; their relations with
the lonely wives and daughters being more intimate than proper.
Young and handsome women, some mere girls, form the greater
proportion of the accused. As many as forty a day appeared at the
bar of the commissioners, and at least two hundred were hanged or
burned.

Evidence of the appearance of the devil was various and
contradictory. Some at the _Domdaniel_, the place of assemblage,
had a vision of a hideous wild he-goat upon a large gilded
throne; others of a man twisted and disfigured by Tartarean
torture; of a gentleman in black with a sword, booted and
spurred; to others he seemed as some shapeless indistinct object,
as that of the trunk of a tree, or some huge rock or stone. They
proceeded to their meetings riding on spits, pitchforks,
broom-sticks: being entertained on their arrival in the approved
style, and indulging in the usual licence. Deputies from witchdom
attended from all parts, even from Scotland. When reproached by
some of his slaves for failing to come to the rescue in the
torture-chamber or at the stake, their lord replied by causing
illusory fires to be lit, bidding the doubters walk through the
harmless flames, promising not more inconvenience in the bonfires
of their persecutors. Lycanthropic criminals were also brought up
who had prowled about and devastated the sheepfolds. Espaignol
and De l'Ancre were provided with two professional Matthew
Hopkinses: one a surgeon for examining the 'marks' (generally
here discovered in the left eye, like a frog's foot) in the men
and older women; the other a girl of seventeen, for the younger
of her sex. Many of the priests were executed; several made their
escape from the country. Besides the work before mentioned, De
l'Ancre published a treatise under the title of 'L