more serious impostures in which they were soon to be exercised. "The man who is to figure in this little history was the son of a notaire royal at Sablé, and born at Rouéres, a town at some little distance from Loudun. It was said that he learned magic of his father and uncle; but the inhabitants of the place have borne the best testimony to their good conduct and demeanour. Urban Grandier studied under the Jesuits at Bourdeaux, who, on account of his great talents, considered him with no common regard. As they were convinced that he would do credit to their order, they bestowed upon him the benefice of St. Peter at Loudun, of which they were the patrons, and procured for him a prebend in the church of Sainte Croix. "Such considerable preferment excited the envy of his ecclesiastical brethren. He was a young man too of a most prepossessing figure, and something great and elevated was manifested in all his actions and deportment. In his person there was an attention to the Graces, that was some reproach to him among his Order, but which enhanced the general prejudice in his favour. He was every way accomplished to make a figure in the world; and possess. ed, in an uncommon degree, the talent of expressing himself with ease and force in conversation. The same superiority attended him in the pulpit ; and on whatever subject he was engaged, he left nothing to be wished by the correctest judges. "The rusticity of the monks could not bear to contemplate the credit which such accomplishments attracted; their jealousy grew the more malignant from the restraint imposed on it by the elevation of his character; till at length it was carried beyond all bounds of moderation by the deserved contempt with which the efforts of their malice were regarded. The friends of Grandier found infinite charms in his conversation and manners; but to his enemies his carriage was full of loftiness and disdain. All his designs and undertakings were marked with peculiar firmness and intrepidity: and in matters of interest he was not easily wronged or overborne. But he repelled every attack with such vigour and resentment, that his enemies were rendered irreconcilable. "But innocent as was Grandier of the crime of magic, he was undoubtedly chargeable on the score of gallantry, in which he discovered but little selfgovernment and moderation—a part of his history that will account for many of those implacable enmities which he drew upon himself: and we may conclude, that the least furious of his persecutors were not among his defeated rivals, and the relations of the victims to his seductive qualities. Amidst the many amours with which he was embarrassed, there was but one mistress of his heart, and report gave this title to Magdeleine de Brou, with whom he was thought to have contracted a marriage of conscience, and to have written, for the greater repose of her mind, his famous treatise against the celibacy of the elergy. But as his heart was great and honourable, he was never known, by the slightest breath of intimation, to sport with the character of any female whose charms had yielded to his allurements. "Notwithstanding the predominancy which this passion had gained in his mind, it had not been able to subdue or weaken the sentiments of piety and principles of faith with which he was inspired; and we shall see in the end that these qualities acquired their due ascendancy, and supported him under more serious impostures in which they were soon to be exercised. "The man who is to figure in this little history was the son of a notaire royal at Sablé, and born at Rouéres, a town at some little distance from Loudun. It was said that he learned magic of his father and uncle; but the inhabitants of the place have borne the best testimony to their good conduct and demeanour. Urban Grandier studied under the Jesuits at Bourdeaux, who, on account of his great talents, considered him with no common regard. As they were convinced that he would do credit to their order, they bestowed upon him the benefice of St. Peter at Loudun, of which they were the patrons, and procured for him a prebend in the church of Sainte Croix. "Such considerable preferment excited the envy of his ecclesiastical brethren. He was a young man too of a most prepossessing figure, and something great and elevated was manifested in all his actions and deportment. In his person there was an attention to the Graces, that was some reproach to him among his Order, but which enhanced the general prejudice in his favour. He was every way accomplished to make a figure in the world; and possess. ed, in an uncommon degree, the talent of expressing himself with ease and force in conversation. The same superiority attended him in the pulpit ; and on whatever subject he was engaged, he left nothing to be wished by the correctest judges. "The rusticity of the monks could not bear to contemplate the credit which such accomplishments attracted; their jealousy grew the more malignant from the restraint imposed on it by the elevation of his character; till at length it was carried beyond all bounds of moderation by the deserved contempt with which the efforts of their malice were regarded. The friends of Grandier found infinite charms in his conversation and manners; but to his enemies his carriage was full of loftiness and disdain. All his designs and undertakings were marked with peculiar firmness and intrepidity: and in matters of interest he was not easily wronged or overborne. But he repelled every attack with such vigour and resentment, that his enemies were rendered irreconcilable. "But innocent as was Grandier of the crime of magic, he was undoubtedly chargeable on the score of gallantry, in which he discovered but little selfgovernment and moderation—a part of his history that will account for many of those implacable enmities which he drew upon himself: and we may conclude, that the least furious of his persecutors were not among his defeated rivals, and the relations of the victims to his seductive qualities. Amidst the many amours with which he was embarrassed, there was but one mistress of his heart, and report gave this title to Magdeleine de Brou, with whom he was thought to have contracted a marriage of conscience, and to have written, for the greater repose of her mind, his famous treatise against the celibacy of the clergy. But as his heart was great and honourable, he was never known, by the slightest breath of intimation, to sport with the character of any female whose charms had yielded to his allurements. Notwithstanding the predominancy which this passion had gained in his mind, it had not been able to subdue or weaken the sentiments of piety and principles of faith with which he was inspired; and we shall see in the end that these qualities acquired their due ascendancy, and supported him under great trials-greater than humanity is constructed to bear, without the extraordinary succours and resources of a never-failing religion. "Some legal victories, which his superior eloquence and address obtained in various ecclesiastical suits, excited the keenest resentment in the breasts of those he had defeated, which was moreover exasperated to an uncommon pitch by the disdainful triumphs with which these victories were accompanied. Mounier and Mignon were the principal among this number. To these we may add the numerous relations of Barot, president des Elus, the uncle of Mignon, whom Grandier had treated with a mortifying contempt in a difference which had taken place between them, and whose great riches and connections gathered round him an immense crowd of sharers in his resentment. But the most determined of all his enemies was Trinquant, the king's procureur, whose daughter's affections had been won by Grandier, and to whom it was on good grounds supposed that her virtue had been likewise surrendered. "The exposure of the young lady was prevented by an act of friendship that deserves to be recorded. Marthe Pelletier, by whom the unfortunate girl was tenderly beloved, disguised from the world the fruits of the amour, and took upon herself the whole reproach, by declaring the child to be her own, and bestowing upon it the care of a tender mother. "The enemies of Grandier, attracted by a sympathy of hate, drew every day closer together; till at length a desperate combination was formed for his utter destruction. Accusation upon accusation was preferred against him, on the score of his imputed profligacies and impieties; but not a single woman could be found to appear against him, and the evi |