[Massacres Of The South (1551-1815) III by Alexandre Dumas Pere]@TWC D-Link bookMassacres Of The South (1551-1815) III CHAPTER IX 13/20
The physicians having completed their examination, gave the following certificate:-- "We have found no wound in the patient's side, no rent in her vestments, and our search revealed no sharp instrument hidden in the folds of her dress." These preliminaries having been got through, Pere Lactance questioned her in French for nearly two hours, her answers being in the same language.
Then he passed from questions to adjurations: on this, Duncan came forward, and said a promise had been given that the superior's hands should be tied behind her back, in order that there might be no room for suspicion of fraud, and that the moment had now arrived to keep that promise.
Pere Lactance admitted the justice of the demand, but said as there were many present who had never seen the superior in convulsions such as afflicted the possessed, it would be only fair that she should be exorcised for their satisfaction before binding her. Accordingly he began to repeat the form of exorcism, and the superior was immediately attacked by frightful convulsions, which in a few minutes produced complete exhaustion, so that she fell on her face to the ground, and turning on her left arm and side, remained motionless some instants, after which she uttered a low cry, followed by a groan. The physicians approached her, and Duncan seeing her take away her hand from her left side, seized her arm, and found that the tips of her fingers were stained with blood.
They then examined her clothing and body, and found her dress, bodice, and chemise cut through in three places, the cuts being less than an inch long.
There were also three scratches beneath the left breast, so slight as to be scarcely more than skin deep, the middle one being a barleycorn in length; still, from all three a sufficient quantity of blood had oozed to stain the chemise above them. This time the fraud was so glaring that even de Laubardemont exhibited some signs of confusion because of the number and quality of the spectators.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|