seen, requested to be dismissed, and retired to Fontainebleau, where he
died, still in terror, two years later."

"My friends," said Carhaix, consulting his watch, "it is a quarter to
eight. I must be going up into the tower to sound the angelus. Don't
wait for me. Have your coffee. I shall rejoin you in ten minutes."

He put on his Greenland costume, lighted a lantern, and opened the door.
A stream of glacial air poured in. White molecules whirled in the
blackness.

"The wind is driving the snow in through the loopholes along the stair,"
said the woman. "I am always afraid that Louis will take cold in his
chest this kind of weather. Oh, well, Monsieur des Hermies, here is the
coffee. I appoint you to the task of serving it. At this hour of day my
poor old limbs won't hold me up any longer. I must go lie down."

"The fact is," sighed Des Hermies, when they had wished her good night,
"the fact is that mama Carhaix is rapidly getting old. I have vainly
tried to brace her up with tonics. They do no good. She has worn herself
out. She has climbed too many stairs in her life, poor woman!"

"All the same, it's very curious, what you have told me," said Durtal.
"To sum up, the most important thing about Satanism is the black mass."

"That and the witchcraft and incubacy and succubacy which I will tell
you about; or rather, I will get another more expert than I in these
matters to tell you about them. Sacrilegious mass, spells, and
succubacy. There you have the real quintessence of Satanism."