Duthibaut, and succeeded
in obtaining a decree from the Parliament of La Tournelle, by which
Duthibaut was summoned before it, and obliged to listen bareheaded to a
reprimand, to offer apologies, and to pay damages and costs.

Having thus got the better of one enemy, Urbain turned on the others,
and showed himself more indefatigable in the pursuit of justice
than they had been in the pursuit of vengeance. The decision of the
archbishop had given him a right to a sum of money for compensation, and
interest thereon, as well as to the restitution of the revenues of his
livings, and there being some demur made, he announced publicly that
he intended to exact this reparation to the uttermost farthing, and set
about collecting all the evidence which was necessary for the success of
a new lawsuit for libel and forgery which he intended to begin. It
was in vain that his friends assured him that the vindication of his
innocence had been complete and brilliant, it was in vain that they
tried to convince him of the danger of driving the vanquished to
despair, Urbain replied that he was ready to endure all the persecutions
which his enemies might succeed in inflicting on him, but as long as he
felt that he had right upon his side he was incapable of drawing back.

Grandier's adversaries soon became conscious of the storm which was
gathering above their heads, and feeling that the struggle between
themselves and this man would be one of life or death, Mignon,
Barot, Meunier, Duthibaut, and Menuau met Trinquant at the village of
Pindadane, in a house belonging to the latter, in order to consult about
the dangers which threatened them. Mignon had, however, already begun to
weave the threads of a new intrigue, which he explained in full to the
others; they lent a favourable ear, and his plan was adopted. We shall
see it unfold itself by degrees, for it is the basis of our narrative.

We have already said that Mignon was the director of the convent of
Ursulines at Loudun: Now the Ursuline order was quite modern, for the
historic controversies to which the slightest mention of the martyrdom
of St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins gave rise, had long
hindered the foundation of an order in the saint's honour. However, in
1560 Madame Angele de Bresse established such an order in Italy, with
the same rules as the Augustinian order. This gained the approbation
of Pope Gregory XIII in 1572. In 1614, Madeleine Lhuillier, with the
appro