To him it was productive of evil, for he became sick unto death with the fright; since that time, I avoid the tree and so does every one who knows it. It must have been bewitched some time or other." "Heaven only knows, what may be the meaning of all this," began the priest, "we live at least in times when events occur, which formerly would have been deemed impossible. Now there is something incomprehensible in these prophecying children. It was said, some years ago, that here, and there, in the Cevennes, in Dauphiné, and in the neighbouring Beauvarais that such things were practised, and people travelled to hear and see them. At present whole villages are full of them, they are to be seen in the market-places, in the public houses and like the diseases, incidental to childhood formerly, it seems that all children must undergo the gift of prophecy. Government has thus sharply reprimanded them, by making the parents responsible, thrown those into prison and sending the fathers to the galleys, for it was conjectured that from these alone proceeded the delusion. A peasant, one of my parishoners, came to me, saying 'for God's sake sir, help me! my little girl, six years old, began yesterday to prophecy, I am a dead man if the thing becomes known; my wife and I are certainly of the true faith as you can testify, but now they will arrest us as rebels, as they have done to so many others.' "Only use the whip," said I, "let the girl hunger and she will soon forget to prophecy. 'All that has been tried, reverend sir,' groaned the old man, 'and more than my conscience will justify; the child is ill from my ill-treatment, for as soon as she begins to prophecy, or to sing psalms, which she has never heard from me, I have chastised her severely; I have not given her a morsel of bread for three days, yet she does not give up, but goes on still worse. Come, I pray, to my house and see yourself; if she is possessed by a devil, you can conjure, is it any thing else, you can exhort.' I had never seen such prophecying creatures, I went therefore out of curiosity with the old man. As we entered the house, the child was sitting at a spinning wheel, she was pale and thin, and seemed half silly, she complained of hunger and pain. I can see nothing in the child, said I, 'oh, if she was always reasonable like that,' exclaimed the peasant. Presently the worm was seized with a sobbing in the throat: 'there we have the gift,' said the old man, 'the disorder is breaking out now--exorcise, reverend sir!' as the little creature was thus struggling, her body dilated, she fell on the ground, her bosom throbbed and heaved, and suddenly we heard as it were quite a strange tone, which did not belong to the child. 'I tell thee, my child, if thy parents repent and follow the spirit, all will be right and good, and thou shalt partake of liberty and of my word.' I was terrified, especially as the devil spoke as pure French as the child of persons of rank; I sprinkled her with holy