La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle AgesMichelet, Jules
History
La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages
Michelet, Jules
Demonomania -- History -- To 1500; Satanism -- History -- To 1500; Superstition -- History -- To 1500; Witchcraft -- History -- To 1500
It was just what Girard would have wanted. His plots had fallen into a
sad tangle, and Cadière was in the way. Her letter enchanted him: far
from being annoyed with her, he enjoined her to keep dissevered. At
the same time, he hinted at the need he had for caution. He had
received a letter, he said, warning him sharply of her faults.
However, as he would set off on the 6th July for Marseilles, he would
see her on the road.
She awaited him, but no Girard came. Her agitation was very great. It
brought on a sharp fit of her old bodily distemper. She spoke of it to
her dear Sister Raimbaud, who would not leave her, who slept with her,
against the rules. This was on the night of the 6th July, when the
heat in that close oven of Ollioules was most oppressive and
condensed. At four or five o’clock, seeing her writhe in sharp
suffering, the other “thought she had the colic, and went to fetch
some fire from the kitchen.” While she was gone, Cadière tried by one
last effort to bring Girard to her side forthwith. Whether with her
nails she had re-opened the wounds in her head, or whether she had
stuck upon it the sharp iron crown, she somehow made herself all
bloody. The pain transfigured her, until her eyes sparkled again.
This lasted not less than two hours. The nuns flocked to see her in
this state, and gazed admiringly. They would even have brought their
Observantines thither, had Cadière not prevented them.
The abbess would have taken good care to tell Girard nothing, lest he
should see her in a plight so touching, so very pitiful. But good
Madame Lescot comforted the girl by sending the news to the father. He
came, but like a true juggler, instead of going up to her room at
once, had himself an ecstatic fit in the chapel, staying there a whole
hour on his knees, prostrate before the Holy Sacrament. Going at
length upstairs, he found Cadière surrounded by all the nuns. They
tell him how for a moment she looked as if she was at mass, how she
seemed to open her lips to receive the Host. “Who should know that
better than myself?” said the knave. “An angel had told me. I repeated
the mass, and gave her the sacrament from Toulon.” They were so upset
by the miracle, that one of them was two days ill. Girard then
addressed Cadière with unseemly gaiety: “So, so, little glutton! would
you rob me of half my share?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account