Visibly he was jubilant.

He was at table with friends, in his tower, safe from the cold.

"But, empty your glasses.

You are not drinking," he said, holding up the cider pot.
"Let's see, Des Hermies, you were claiming yesterday that Satanism has pursued an uninterrupted course since the Middle Ages," said Durtal, wishing to get back to the subject which haunted him.
"Yes, and the documents are irrefutable.

I'll put you into a position to prove them whenever you wish.
"At the end of the fifteenth century, that is to say at the time of Gilles de Rais--to go no further back--Satanism had assumed the proportions that you know.