manner. This is the story told about him:--"One day, returning from
Languedoc, where he had been engaged in the cultivation of silkworms, on
reaching the bottom of the hill of St. Jean he found a man lying on the
ground trembling in every limb. Moved by pity, he stopped and asked what
ailed him. The man replied, 'Throw yourself on your knees, my son, and
trouble not yourself about me, but learn how to attain salvation and save
your brethren. This can only be done by the communion of the Holy Ghost,
who is in me, and whom by the grace of God I can bestow on you. Approach
and receive this gift in a kiss.' At these words the unknown kissed the
young man on the mouth, pressed his hand and disappeared, leaving the
other trembling in his turn; for the spirit of God was in him, and being
inspired he spread the word abroad."

A third fanatic, a prophetess, raved about the parishes of St. Andeol de
Clerguemont and St. Frazal de Vantalon, but she addressed herself
principally to recent converts, to whom she preached concerning the
Eucharist that in swallowing the consecrated wafer they had swallowed a
poison as venomous as the head of the basilisk, that they had bent the
knee to Baal, and that no penitence on their part could be great enough
to save them. These doctrines inspired such profound terror that the
Rev. Father Louvreloeil himself tells us that Satan by his efforts
succeeded in nearly emptying the churches, and that at the following
Easter celebrations there were only half as many communicants as the
preceding year.

Such a state of licence, which threatened to spread farther and farther,
awoke the religious solicitude of Messire Francois Langlade de Duchayla,
Prior of Laval, Inspector of Missions of Gevaudan, and Arch-priest of the
Cevennes. He therefore resolved to leave his residence at Mende and to
visit the parishes in which heresy had taken the strongest hold, in order