_The Alleged Possession of the Ursuline Nuns, and the Trial and Execution of Urbain Grandier_, TOLD BY AN EYE-WITNESS. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH, AND Edited by EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S., F.S.A. (Scot.) VOL. III. PRIVATELY PRINTED. EDINBURGH. 1888. _This Edition is limited to 275 small-paper and 75 large-paper copies._ [Illustration] The Devils of Loudun. _PART III._ ON Friday the 23rd of June, 1634, about three o'clock in the afternoon, the Bishop of Poitiers and M. de Laubardemont being present, Grandier was brought from his prison to the Church of Ste. Croix in his parish, to be present at the exorcisms. All the possessed were there likewise. And as the accused and his partisans declared that the possessions were mere impostures, he was ordered to be himself the exorcist, and the stole was presented to him. He could not refuse, and therefore, taking the stole and the ritual, he received the pastoral benediction, and after the _Veni Creator_ had been sung, commenced the exorcism in the usual form. But where he should haughtily have given commands to the demon, instead of saying _Impero_, I command, he said, _Cogor vos_, that is, I am constrained by you. The Bishop sharply reprimanded him, and as he had said that some of the possessed understood Latin, he was allowed to interrogate in Greek. At the same time, the demon cried out by the mouth of Sister Clara: "Eh! speak Greek, or any language you like; I will answer." At these words, he became confused, and could not say anything more. To behave thus, or to acknowledge the truth of the accusation, is one and the same thing, but other circumstances strengthened this certainty. Any man whose own writing testifies against him is lost. Now this is what Grandier experienced. The devils, in several instances, confessed four pacts he had entered into.