After Urbain Grandier had departed, the physicians who had been present at the exorcisms presented themselves before the bailiff, bringing their report with them.  In this report they said that they had recognised convulsive movements of the mother superior’s body, but that one visit was not sufficient to enable them to make a thorough diagnosis, as the movements above mentioned might arise as well from a natural as from supernatural causes; they therefore desired to be afforded opportunity for a thorough examination before being called on to pronounce an opinion.  To this end they required permission to spend several days and nights uninterruptedly in the same room with the patients, and to treat them in the presence of other nuns and some of the magistrates.  Further, they required that all the food and medicine should pass through the doctors’ hands, and that no one, should touch the patients except quite openly, or speak to them except in an audible voice.  Under these conditions they would undertake to find out the true cause of the convulsions and to make a report of the same.

It being now nine o’clock in the morning, the hour when the exorcisms began, the bailiff went over at once to the convent, and found Barre half way through the mass, and the superior in convulsions.  The magistrate entered the church at the moment of the elevation of the Host, and noticed among the kneeling Catholics a young man called Dessentier standing up with his hat on.  He ordered him either to uncover or to go away.  At this the convulsive movements of the superior became more violent, and she cried out that there were Huguenots in the church, which gave the demon great power over her.  Barre asked her how many there were present, and she replied, “Two,” thus proving that the devil was no stronger in arithmetic than in Latin; for besides Dessentier, Councillor Abraham Gauthier, one of his brothers, four of his sisters, Rene Fourneau, a deputy, and an attorney called Angevin, all of the Reformed faith, were present.

As Barre saw that those present were greatly struck, by this numerical inaccuracy, he tried to turn their thoughts in another direction by asking the superior if it were true that she knew no Latin.  On her replying that she did not know a single word, he held the pyx before her and ordered her to swear by the holy sacrament.  She resisted at first, saying loud enough for those around her to hear—­

“My father, you make me take such solemn oaths that I fear God will punish me.”

To this Barre replied—­

“My daughter, you must swear for the glory of God.”

And she took the oath.