THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES
Mont-Louis, in the diocese of Tours? That you are the
most zealous disciple of the ecstatic Eugéne Vintras? And
that your name is Charvoz?”
It was a veritable thunderbolt; at each of these three
phrases the old priest jumped in his chair. When he heard
his name, he turned pale, and rose as if a spring had been
released.
“You are then really a magician
?” he cried; ‘“‘ Charvoz is
certainly my name, but it is not that which I bear; I call
myself La Paraz.”
“T know it; La Paraz is the name of your mother.
You have left a sufficiently enviable position, that of a country
vicar, and your charming vicarage, in order to share the
troubled existence of a sectary.”
“ Say ofa great prophet !”
“Sir, I believe perfectly in your good faith. But you
will permit me to examine a little the mission and the
character of your prophet.”
“Yes, sir; examination, full light, the microscope of
science, that is all we ask. Come to London, sir, and
you will see! The miracles are permanently established
there.”
“Would you be so kind, sir, as to give me, first of all,
some exact and conscientious details with regard to the
miracles?”
“Oh, as many as you like!”
And immediately the old priest began to recount things
which the whole world would have found impossible, but
which did not even turn an eye-lash of the Professor of
Transcendental Magic.
L 145