The famous _witch-finder_, Pierre de Lancre, has recorded his successes in this particular.
"The King," says he, "being informed that his country of Labourt was greatly infested with sorcerers, gave commission to a president and a counsellor of the court of parliament of Bordeaux, to seek out the crime of sorcery in the said country, about the year 1609.
"This commission was entrusted to the Sieur Despagnet and I: we dedicated four months to the search, during which happened an infinity of _unknown things, strange, and out of all belief_, of which books written on the subject have never spoken: such for instance, as _that the devil came and held his meetings at the gates of Bordeaux, and in the quarter of the Palais Gallien_, which _fact_ was declared at his execution by Isaac Dugueyran, a notable sorcerer, _who was put to death_ in 1609.

It appears to me that it will be extremely useful, nay necessary, to France and the whole of Christendom, to have this account in writing for many reasons.
"All this must convince the most obstinate, stupid, blind, and _ignorant_, that there is no longer a doubt that sorcery exists, and that the devil can transport sorcerers really and corporally to his sabbath: and that there is no longer any excuse for disputing on the subject, for all nations are agreed concerning the truth, aided by _ocular_ demonstration, permitted to an impartial judge and good Christian.

_Too much mildness is shown in France towards sorcerers:_ all good judges should in future resolve to punish with death all such as have been convicted of attending the devil's assemblies, even if no harm has immediately resulted therefrom: for to such an extent has witchcraft spread that it has passed the frontier and reached the city of Bayonne, which is cruelly afflicted in consequence.

Satan having made great advances and spread his sabbaths over an infinity of places in our deserts and Landes of Bordeaux."[11] [Footnote 11: This part of the world seemed always to be looked upon as the head quarters of sorcery; for in the Chronicles of Bordeaux we find, in the year 1435, the following notice:--"Les environs de Bordeaux sont _fort travaillez_ par les sorciers et empoisonneurs, dont aucuns furent executes a mort et brule tous vifs."] In consequence of the representations of this righteous judge, _eight hundred victims_ were condemned to the flames for this pretended crime: and this, incredible as it may appear, by command of Le Bon Henri and his Protestant minister, Sully! At the very period, too, permission was refused to the unfortunate Moors, then driven by bigotry from Spain, to establish themselves in the Landes, where their industry and perseverance would soon have converted the barren waste into a fertile and smiling country, instead of remaining for centuries an unwholesome marsh.
Neglected and uncultivated as this extended country has long been--only _now_, in fact, assuming an aspect of improvement--it is not surprising that superstition has lingered longer amongst its uneducated people than with their more fortunate neighbours.

Within ten years new roads have been made, new buildings erected, and a rail-road is projected across the Landes from Bordeaux to Bayonne: it may, therefore, be now expected that the last vestige of idle belief in witches and demons will shortly disappear; but, in the meantime, much of such weakness is lingering still.