an and jumped around, scratching and spitting and arching her back. So
that metamorphosis is possible. No, one cannot too often repeat it, the
truth is that we know nothing and have no right to deny anything. But to
return to your Rosicrucians. Using purely chemical formulae, they get
along without sacrilege?"

"That is as much as to say that their venefices--supposing they know how
to prepare them well enough to accomplish their purpose, though I doubt
that--are easy to defeat. Yet I don't mean to say that this group, one
member of which is an ordained priest, does not make use of contaminated
Eucharists at need."

"Another nice priest! But since you are so well informed, do you know
how spells are conjured away?"

"Yes and no. I know that when the poisons are sealed by sacrilege, when
the operation is performed by a master, Docre or one of the princes of
magic at Rome, it is not at all easy--nor healthy--to attempt to apply
an antidote. Though I have heard of a certain abbe at Lyons who,
practically alone, is succeeding right now in these difficult cures."

"Dr. Johannes!"

"You know him!"

"No. But Gevingey, who has gone to seek his medical aid, has told me of
him."

"Well, I don't know how he goes about it, but I know that spells which
are not complicated with sacrilege are usually evaded by the law of
return. The blow is sent back to him who struck it. There are, at the
present time, two churches, one in Belgium, the other in France, where,
when one prays before a statue of the Virgin, the spell which has been
cast on one flies off and goes and strikes one's adversary."

"Rats!"

"One of these churches is at Tougres, eighteen kilometres from Liege,
and the name of it is Notre Dame de Retour. The other is the church of
l'Epine, 'the thorn,' a little village near Chalons. This church was
built long ago to conjure away the spells produced with the aid of the
thorns which grew in that country and served to pierce images cut in the
shape of hearts."

"Near Chalons," said Durtal, digging in his memory, "it does seem to me
now that Des Hermies, speaking of bewitchment by the blood of white
mice, pointed out that village as the habitation of certain diabolic
circles."

"Yes, that country in all times has been a hotbed of Satanism."

"You are mighty well up on these matters. Is it Docre who transmitted
this knowledge to you?"

"Yes, I owe him the little I am able to pass on to you. He took a fancy
to me an