It was fair-time at Geneva, and consequently a great crowd of Genevans and strangers soon gathered round the theatre: the Bishop of Maurienne arrived; lords and ladies of high descent took their seats; but they waited in vain for the duke, who did not appear. ‘We shall not go, neither the duchess nor myself,’ he said, ‘because the performers are huguenots.’ Charles, knowing his men well, feared some snake in the grass. The huguenot who had composed the piece represented the state of the world under the image of a _disease_, and the Reformation as the _remedy_ by which God desired to cure it; the subject and title of his drama was _Le Monde Malade_, the Sick World, and everything was to appear--priests, masses, the Bible and its followers. The principal character, _Le Monde_ (the World), had heard certain monks, terrified at the books which had lately come from France, announce that the last days were at hand, and that the World would soon perish. It was to be burnt by fire and drowned by water.... This was too much for him; he trembled, his health declined, and he pined away. The people about him grew uneasy, and one of them exclaimed: The World grows weaker every day; What he will come to, who can say? He had however some friends, and each of them brought him a new remedy; but all was useless--the World grew worse and worse. He decided then to resort to the sovereign universal remedy, by which even the dead are saved, namely, masses. The Romish worship, assailed by the reformers, was now on its trial in the streets of Geneva. THE WORLD. Come, Sir Priest, pull out your wares-- Your masses, let me see them all. PRIEST, _delighted to see the World apply to him_. May God give you joy! but how You like them I should wish to know. THE WORLD. I like them just as others do. PRIEST. Short? THE WORLD. Yes, short. PRIEST, _showing him some masses_. Then here’s the thing for you. THE WORLD, _rejecting them with alarm_. Than these no sermon can be longer. PRIEST, _showing others_. Here are others. THE WORLD, _refusing them_. No! no! no! PRIEST, _finding that the World wants neither long nor short masses_. What you want you do not know. Then _Le Conseiller_ (the Counsellor), a wise and enlightened man, recommends a new remedy, one both harmless and effectual, which is beginning to make a great noise. What is it, say? asks the World; the Counsellor answers: A thing which no man dares gainsay ... THE BIBLE. The World does not know what this new medicine means: another character strives in vain to inspire him with confidence: Believe me, Mr. World, there’s not a fool But knows it.