The next day accordingly, at the appointed hour, the bailiff summoned Daniel Roger, Vincent de Faux, Gaspard Joubert, and Matthieu Fanson, all four physicians, to his presence, and acquainting them with his reasons for having called them, asked them to accompany him to the convent to examine, with the most scrupulous impartiality, two nuns whom he would point out, in order to discover if their illness were feigned, or arose from natural or supernatural causes.  Having thus instructed them as to his wishes, they all set out for the convent.

They were shown into the chapel and placed close to the altar, being separated by a grating from the choir, in which the nuns who sang usually sat.  In a few moments the superior was carried in on a small bed, which was laid down before the grating.  Barre then said mass, during which the superior went into violent convulsions.  She threw her arms about, her fingers were clenched, her cheeks enormously inflated, and her eyes turned up so that only the whites could be seen.

The mass finished, Barre approached her to administer the holy communion and to commence the exorcism.  Holding the holy wafer in his hand, he said—­

“Adora Deum tuum, creatorem tuum” (Adore God, thy Creator).

The superior hesitated, as if she found great difficulty in making this act of love, but at length she said—­

“Adoro te” (I adore Thee).

“Quem adoras?” (Whom dost thou adore?)

“Jesus Christus” (Jesus Christ), answered the nun, quite unconscious that the verb adorn governs accusative.

This mistake, which no sixth-form boy would make, gave rise to bursts of laughter in the church; and Daniel Douin, the provost’s assessor, was constrained to say aloud—­

“There’s a devil for you, who does not know much about transitive verbs.”

Barre perceiving the bad impression that the superior’s nominative had made, hastened to ask her—­

“Quis est iste quem adoras?” (Who is it whom thou dost adore?)

His hope was that she would again reply “Jesus Christus,” but he was disappointed.

“Jesu Christe,” was her answer.

Renewed shouts of laughter greeted this infraction of one of the most elementary rules of syntax, and several of those present exclaimed: 

“Oh, your reverence, what very poor Latin!”

Barre pretended not to hear, and next asked what was the name of the demon who had taken possession of her.  The poor superior, who was greatly confused by the unexpected effect of her last two answers, could not speak for a long time; but at length with great trouble she brought out the name Asmodee, without daring to latinise it.  The exorcist then inquired how many devils the superior had in her body, and to this question she replied quite fluently: 

“Sex” (Six).

The bailiff upon this requested Barre to ask the chief devil how many evil spirits he had with him.  But the need for this answer had been foreseen, and the nun unhesitatingly returned—­