The French Revolution had not then intervened to bring it under healthy limits.

The agitation was maintained, and, though the miracles and cases of possession were stopped in the cemetery, it spread.

Again full course was given to myth-making and the retailing of wonders.

It was said that men had allowed themselves to be roasted before slow fires, and had been afterward found uninjured; that some had enormous weights piled upon them, but had supernatural powers of resistance given them; and that, in one case, a voluntary crucifixion had taken place.
This agitation was long, troublesome, and no doubt robbed many temporarily or permanently of such little brains as they possessed.
It was only when the violence had become an old story and the charm of novelty had entirely worn off, and the afflicted found themselves no longer regarded with especial interest, that the epidemic died away.( 401) (401) See Madden, Phantasmata, chap.

xiv; also Sir James Stephen, History of France, lecture xxvi; also Henry Martin, Histoire de France, vol.xv, pp.