the Holy Ghost that has ever been known? His testimony in the criminal
trial of Gilles does not furnish us any very detailed information on his
own score. He was born in the diocese of Lucca, at Pistoia, and had been
ordained a priest by the Bishop of Arezzo. Some time after his entrance
into the priesthood, he had become the pupil of a thaumaturge of
Florence, Jean de Fontenelle, and had signed a pact with a demon named
Barron. From that moment onward, this insinuating and persuasive,
learned and charming abbé, must have given himself over to the most
abominable of sacrileges and the most murderous practices of black
magic.

At any rate Gilles came completely under the influence of this man. The
extinguished furnaces were relighted, and that Stone of the Sages, which
Prelati had seen, flexible, frail, red and smelling of calcinated marine
salt, they sought together furiously, invoking Hell.

Their incantations were all in vain. Gilles, disconsolate, redoubled
them, but they finally produced a dreadful result and Prelati narrowly
escaped with his life.

One afternoon Eustache Blanchet, in a gallery of the château, perceives
the Marshal weeping bitterly. Plaints of supplication are heard through
the door of a chamber in which Prelati has been evoking the Devil.

"The Demon is in there beating my poor Francis. I implore you, go in!"
cries Gilles, but Blanchet, frightened, refuses. Then Gilles makes up
his mind, in spite of his fear. He is advancing to force the door, when
it opens and Prelati staggers out and falls, bleeding, into his arms.
Prelati is able, with the support of his friends, to gain the chamber of
the Marshal, where he is put to bed, but he has sustained so merciless a