“There are certain essences mentioned in the Old Testament prefiguring the Virgin.  Some of them are interpreted in other senses, as spikenard, cassia, and cinnamon.  The first represents strength of soul; the second, sound doctrine; and the third, the sweet savour of virtue.  Then there is the essence of cedar, which in the thirteenth century symbolized the Doctors of the Church; and there are three specifically liturgical perfumes:  incense, balm, and myrrh; besides the odour of sanctity, which in the case of some saints could be analyzed; and the demoniacal stench, from a mere animal smell to the horrible nastiness of rotten eggs and sulphur.

“We must now inquire whether the personal fragrance of the Elect is in harmony with the qualities or acts of which each was, on earth, the example or the doer; and it would seem to have been so, when we remark that Saint Thomas Aquinas, who composed the admirable sequence on the Holy Sacrament, exhaled a perfume of incense, and that Saint Catherine of Ricci, who was a model of humility, smelt of violets, the emblem of that virtue, but—­”

The Abbe Plomb now came in, and being informed by Durtal of the subject under discussion, he said,—­

“But you have omitted from your diabolical flavours the most conspicuous.”

“How is that, Monsieur l’Abbe?”

“Certainly, for you have taken no account of the false fragrance which Satan can diffuse.  In fact, his baleful effluvia are of two kinds:  one characterized by the stench of sulphurous waters and drains; the other by a false odour of sanctity, delicious gusts of sweetness and temptation.  This is how the Evil One tried to seduce Dominico de Gusman; he bathed him in delicious vapours, hoping thus to inspire him with notions of vain-glory; thus, too, did he to Jourdain of Saxony, who exhaled a sweet odour when saying Mass.  God showed him that this phenomenon was of infernal origin, and it then ceased.

“And I recollect a singular anecdote told by Quercetanus concerning a mistress of Charlemagne’s who died.  The king, who worshipped her, could not bear to have her body interred, though it was decomposing, exhaling, however, a perfume of violets and roses.  The body was examined, and in its mouth a ring was found, which was removed.  The demoniacal enchantment forthwith ceased, the body became foul, and Charlemagne allowed it to be buried.

“We may add to this diabolical odour of seduction another, which is, on the contrary, fetid, and is used to annoy the believer, to hinder him in prayer, to estrange him from his fellows, and drive him, if possible, to despair; still, this smell with which the devil infects a being may be included in the category of the smells of temptation—­not, indeed, to pride, but to weakness and fear.

“Meanwhile, I have something else for you,” said the Abbe, addressing Durtal.  “Here are the titles I have collected for you of some works on the symbolical animals of the Middle Ages.  You have read ’De Bestiis et aliis rebus,’ by Hugh of Saint Victor?”