“What, is he so powerful, then?” cried Cinq-Mars.

“More so than is supposed—­more so than could be believed.  I know that the possessed Abbess is his niece, and that he is provided with an order in council directing him to judge, without being deterred by any appeals lodged in Parliament, the Cardinal having prohibited the latter from taking cognizance of the matter of Urbain Grandier.”

“And what are his offences?” asked the young man, already deeply interested.

“Those of a strong mind and of a great genius, an inflexible will which has irritated power against him, and a profound passion which has driven his heart and him to commit the only mortal sin with which I believe he can be reproached; and it was only by violating the sanctity of his private papers, which they tore from Jeanne d’Estievre, his mother, an old woman of eighty, that they discovered his love for the beautiful Madeleine de Brou.  This girl had refused to marry, and wished to take the veil.  May that veil have concealed from her the spectacle of this day!  The eloquence of Grandier and his angelic beauty drove the women half mad; they came miles and miles to hear him.  I have seen them swoon during his sermons; they declared him an angel, and touched his garment and kissed his hands when he descended from the pulpit.  It is certain that, unless it be his beauty, nothing could equal the sublimity of his discourses, ever full of inspiration.  The pure honey of the gospel combined on his lips with the flashing flame of the prophecies; and one recognized in the sound of his voice a heart overflowing with holy pity for the evils to which mankind are subject, and filled with tears, ready to flow for us.”

The good priest paused, for his own voice and eyes were filled with tears; his round and naturally Joyous face was more touching than a graver one under the same circumstances, for it seemed as if it bade defiance to sadness.  Cinq-Mars, even more moved, pressed his hand without speaking, fearful of interrupting him.  The Abbe took out a red handkerchief, wiped his eyes, and continued: 

“This is the second attack upon Urbain by his combined enemies.  He had already been accused of bewitching the nuns; but, examined by holy prelates, by enlightened magistrates, and learned physicians, he was immediately acquitted, and the judges indignantly imposed silence upon these devils in human form.  The good and pious Archbishop of Bordeaux, who had himself chosen the examiners of these pretended exorcists, drove the prophets away and shut up their hell.  But, humiliated by the publicity of the result, annoyed at seeing Grandier kindly received by our good King when he threw himself at his feet at Paris, they saw that if he triumphed they were lost, and would be universally regarded as impostors.  Already the convent of the Ursulines was looked upon only as a theatre for disgraceful comedies, and the nuns themselves as shameless actresses.  More than a hundred persons, furious against the Cure, had compromised themselves in the hope of destroying him.  Their plot, instead of being abandoned, has gained strength by its first check; and here are the means that have been set to work by his implacable enemies.