Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/607

Rh move with great violence; she felt herself attracted to it, but, so soon as she touched it, it retreated before her, or was even upset. The following morning similar phenomena were observed; and before long public opinion was very decided in affirming that Angélique Cottin was possessed of a devil, and that she should be brought before the parish priest. But the curé was a man of too much common-sense to heed their request for an exorcism, and resolved to see the facts for himself. The girl was brought to the curé's house, and there the phenomena were repeated, though not with the same intensity as before: the table retreated, but was not overturned, while the chair on which Angélique was seated moved in a contrary direction, rocking the while, and giving Angélique great difficulty in keeping her seat. These effects were so remarkable as to attract a great deal of attention; and so many came to see the demonstrations that the girl's relations, who were in straitened circumstances, thought to make a lucrative business of her singular faculty by exhibitions from time to time. Various professional men testified to her performances, of which the following letter from Dr. Beaumont-Chardon, of Mortagne, gives the usual account: