This story deals of a period when Christianity had become widespread throughout the then civilized world, and the prevailing conception of God was that of an austere and awful nemesis, a deity enraged against humanity. The element of mercy seemed to be entirely left out of God’s dealings with mankind. The most trivial offense met an eternity of torture in hell, the violation of an oath was eternal damnation, and only the most ascetic means could in any event secure salvation. To retire from the world into monasteries or solitudes was thought to be the most successful atonement possible. It is history how the shadow of this awful fear hung over the world like a pall for centuries, and how in the middle ages man became fairly mad with fright. In relation to this story, I have made the attempt to preserve the style of the unfortunate scholar who intrusted it to me, preserving its simplicity, which is that as a minstrel of old going about singing of the deeds of men. I have carefully omitted, in the interest of the reader, the learned disquisitions of poor Voudran on psychic phenomena as related to the history of Maugis, which would attract those only who are studying the subject, and which, doubtless, involved on the part of the unfortunate scholar a vast amount of labor. Perhaps the result of his labors is best summed up in his own words in the concluding sentences of his manuscript now before me: “This concludes the story of Maugis which I have laboriously gleaned from ancient documents found in his house; I trust I have proved from the study of the ancient Sanskrit writings among these papers that the manifestations of Maugis were due to nothing more or less than a knowledge of psychic phenomena that would be remarkable even in this enlightened age, and the fear and consternation their exercise must have produced in the age of superstition of the time of Charlemagne can hardly be conceived. “The secret of the whole matter I have unearthed. It seems that the Duke d’Aymon, the father of Maugis, did heroic service in the holy wars. He happened one time to make a prisoner of a very venerable man who was held in captivity by the Saracens. The Duke d’Aymon, attracted by his profound learning and great gentleness of demeanor, treated him with the utmost consideration. His new-found friend was none other than a renowned Hindu, a man who was not only a pundit and Mahatma, but was also a Bodhisatva. “This noted scholar was named Sahadeva Vyasa Pandu, who afterward returned to France with the Duke d’Aymon and remained with him until his death. It was under his tuition that Maugis, the eldest son of the Duke d’Aymon, became accomplished in occult things and learned to develop and control psychic forces; who became the possessor of the wonderful powers of telepathy and hypnosis, and it was due to this occult knowledge that Maugis was enabled to accomplish the marvelous things which in that age must have appeared truly awful.”