soul.[257] Very soon after, she was transported to different
places by this spectre, and sometimes even was carried out of sight,
and from the midst of those who watched over her.

Then, they had no longer any doubt that it was the devil, which they
had a great deal of trouble to make her believe. The Bishop of Laon
gave his power (of attorney) for conjuring the spirit, and commanded
them to see that the proces-verbaux were exactly drawn up by the
notaries nominated for that purpose. The exorcisms lasted more than
three months, and only serve to prove more and more the fact of the
possession. The poor sufferer was torn from the hands of nine or ten
men, who could hardly retain their hold of her; and on the last day of
the exorcisms sixteen could not succeed in so doing. She had been
lying on the ground, when she stood upright and stiff as a statue,
without those who held her being able to prevent it. She spoke divers
languages, revealed the most secret things, announced others at the
moment they were being done, although at a great distance; she
discovered to many the secret of their conscience, uttered at once
three different voices, or tones, and spoke with her tongue hanging
half a foot out of her mouth. After some exorcisms had been made at
Vervins, they took her to Laon, where the bishop undertook her. He had
a scaffolding erected for this purpose in the cathedral. Such immense
numbers of people went there, that they saw in the church ten or
twelve thousand persons at a time; some even came from foreign
countries. Consequently, France could not be less curious; so the
princes and great people, and those who could not come there
themselves, sent persons who might inform them of what passed. The
Pope's nuncios, the parliamentary deputies, and those of the
university were present.

The devil, forced by the exorcisms, rendered such testimony to the
truth of the Catholic religion, and, above all, to the reality of the
holy eucharist, and at the same time to the falsity of Calvinism, that
the irritated Calvinists no longer kept within bounds. From the time
the exorcisms were made at Vervins, they wanted to kill the possessed,
with the priest who exorcised her, in a journey they made her take to
Notre Dame de Liesse. At Laon, it was still worse; as they were the
strongest in numbers there, a revolt was more than once apprehended.
They so intimidated the bishop and the magistrates, that they took
down the scaffold, and d