hysterical or demoniacal
disease was as furious as ever in Germany in the middle of the
eighteenth century; and was attended with as tremendous effects
at Wuerzburg as at Louviers.

[127] To the diabolic visions of the other they opposed
those of 'a certain Anne of the Nativity, a girl of sanguine
hysterical temperament, frantic at need, and half mad--so
far at least as to believe in her own lies. A kind of
dog-fight was got up between the two. They besmeared each
other with false charges. Anne saw the devil quite naked by
Madeleine's side. Madeleine swore to seeing Anne at the
Sabbath with the Lady Superior, the Mother Assistant, and
the Mother of the novices.... Madeleine was condemned,
without a hearing, to be disgraced, to have her body
examined for the marks of the devil. They tore off her veil
and gown, and made her the wretched sport of a vile
curiosity that would have pierced till she bled again in
order to win the right of sending her to the stake. Leaving
to no one else the care of a scrutiny which was in itself a
torture, these virgins, acting as matrons, ascertained if
she were with child or no; shaved all her body, and dug
their needles into her quivering flesh to find out the
insensible spots.'--_La Sorciere._

[128] The horrified reader may see the fuller details of this
case in Michelet's _La Sorciere_, who takes occasion to state
that, than 'The History of Madeleine Bavent, a nun of
Louviers, with her examination, &c., 1652, Rouen,' he knows
of 'no book more important, more dreadful, or worthier of
being reprinted. It is the most powerful narrative of its
class. _Piety Afflicted_, by the Capuchin Esprit de Bosrager,
is a work immortal in the annals of tomfoolery. The two
excellent pamphlets by the doughty surgeon Yvelin, the
_Inquiry_ and the _Apology_, are in the Library of Ste.
Genevieve.'--_La Sorciere_, the Witch of the Middle Ages,
chap. viii. Whatever exaggeration there may possibly be in
any of the details of these and similar histories, there is
not any reasonable doubt of their general truth. It is much
to be wished, indeed, that writers should, in these cases,
always confine themselves to the simple facts, which need not
any imaginary or fictitious additions.

In Germany during the seventeenth century witches felt the fury
of both Catholic and Protestant zeal; but in the previous age
prosecutions are directed agai