The country people saw his study full of books and other strange things which gave to his successes a coloring of magic.

Without passing strictly for a sorcerer, Antoine Beauvouloir impressed the populace through a circumference of a hundred miles with respect akin to terror, and (what was far more really dangerous for himself) he held in his power many secrets of life and death which concerned the noble families of that region.

Like his father and grandfather before him, he was celebrated for his skill in confinements and miscarriages.

In those days of unbridled disorder, crimes were so frequent and passions so violent that the higher nobility often found itself compelled to initiate Maitre Antoine Beauvouloir into secrets both shameful and terrible.

His discretion, so essential to his safety, was absolute; consequently his clients paid him well, and his hereditary practice greatly increased.