uence and precision, he was very astonished.

Like M. l'Abbe La Perruque he deemed the matter sufficiently important
to bring before the higher authorities. Accordingly he sent Martin,
under the escort of a lieutenant of _gendarmerie_, to the Ministre de
la Police Generale.

Having reached Paris on March 8, Martin lodged with the _gendarme_ at
the Hotel de Calais, in the Rue Montmartre. They occupied a
double-bedded room. One morning, when Martin was in bed, he beheld an
apparition and told Lieutenant Andre, who could see nothing, although
it was broad daylight. Indeed, Martin's visitations became so
frequent that they ceased to cause him either surprise or concern. It
was only to the abrupt disappearance of the unknown that he could
never grow accustomed. The voice continued to give the same command.
One day it told him that if it were not obeyed France would not know
peace until 1840.

In 1816 the Ministre de la Police Generale was the Comte Decazes who
was afterwards created a duke. He was in the King's confidence. But he
knew that the extreme Royalists were hatching plots against his royal
master. Decazes wished to see the good man from Gallardon, suspecting
doubtless, that he was but a tool in the hands of the Extremists.
Martin was brought to the Minister, who questioned him and at once
perceived that the poor creature was in no way dangerous. He spoke to
him as he would to a madman, endeavouring to regard the subject of his
mania as if it were real, and so he said:

"Don't be agitated; the man who has been troubling you is arrested;
you will have nothing more to fear from him."

But these words did not produce the desired effect. Three or four
hours after this interview, Martin again beheld the unknown, who,
after speaking to him in his usual manner, said: "When you were told
that I had been arrested, you were told a lie; he who said so has no
power over me."

On Sunday, March 10, the unknown returned; and on that day he
disclosed the matter concerning which the Bishop of Versailles had
inquired, and which he had said at first he would never reveal.

"I am," he declared, "the Archangel Raphael, an angel of great renown
in the presence of God, and I have received power to afflict France
with all manner of suffering."

Three days later, Martin was shut up in Charenton on the certificate
of Doctor Pinel, who stated him to be suffering from intermittent
mania with alienation of mind.

He was treated in th