Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/309

 his senses, and now appeared sword in hand. We had our torches lighted, and examined the place with the greatest care; but there was no trace to be found of a door or window, or, in short, of any opening whatever. It is a strong stone wall of a court, adjoining to a house in which people are living, to whom not the slightest suspicion is attached. Even this very day, by sunlight, I have examined the whole premises with the most scrupulous care, and, doubtless, it must be the very devil himself who mocks at us in this manner."

Desgrais's narrative was soon made known all over Paris. People's heads were full of the sorceries, incantations, compacts with the devil, &c, attributed to la Voisin, la Vigoreux, and other renowned disciples of le Sage, and the mob are always ready to carry to an extreme their belief in the marvellous,—that which Desgrais had said in a fit of passion was now circulated through the town as the mere truth. Every one alleged that the devil himself was protecting in this world those wicked mortals who had sold him their souls, and as might be expected, Desgrais's story received many embellishments. A kind of popular romance was rapidly got up on this foundation, with a frontispiece representing the police-officer staring at a hideous figure of the devil, who was in the act of sinking before his astonished eyes into the earth. This book alone was enough to terrify the people, and even to take all courage from the watchmen, who now in the night season wandered through the streets terrified and desponding, hung with amulets and drenched with holy water.

Argenson soon perceived that the Chambre Ardente would completely lose its character, and applied to the king, recommending the establishment of a new court of justice, destined exclusively for the discovery and punishment of these midnight assassinations. But the king, conscious that he had already given too much power to the Chambre Ardente, and in horror at the numberless executions which were forced on by the blood-thirsty la Regnie, entirely rejected this proposal. It was requisite, therefore, to form some other plan, by which 26*