which had been baptized and then put out to nurse. Now, by one of those
odd whims which so often take possession of the public mind, everyone in
Loudun persisted in asserting that the real mother of the infant was not
she who had acknowledged herself as such--that, in short, Marthe
Pelletier had sold her good name to her friend Julie for a sum of money;
and of course it followed as a matter about which there could be no
possible doubt, that Urbain was the father.

Trinquant hearing of the reports about his daughter, took upon himself as
king's attorney to have Marthe Pelletier arrested and imprisoned. Being
questioned about the child, she insisted that she was its mother, and
would take its maintenance upon herself. To have brought a child into
the world under such circumstances was a sin, but not a crime; Trinquant
was therefore obliged to set Marthe at liberty, and the abuse of justice
of which he was guilty served only to spread the scandal farther and to
strengthen the public in the belief it had taken up.

Hitherto, whether through the intervention of the heavenly powers, or by
means of his own cleverness, Urbain Grandier had come out victor in every
struggle in which he had engaged, but each victor had added to the number
of his enemies, and these were now so numerous that any other than he
would have been alarmed, and have tried either to conciliate them or to
take precautions against their malice; but Urbain, wrapped in his pride,
and perhaps conscious of his innocence, paid no attention to the counsels
of his most faithful followers, but went on his way unheeding.

All the opponents whom till now Urbain had encountered had been entirely
unconnected with each other, and had each struggled for his own
individual ends. Urbain's enemies, believing that the cause of his
success was to be found in the want of cooperation among themselves, now