Urbain Grandier | Page 4

the direction of the abbey
of Saint-Jouin-les-Marmes. This excitement was caused by the
expected arrival of a personage who had been much in people's mouths
latterly in Loudun, and about whom there was such difference of
opinion that discussion on the subject between those who were on his
side and those who were against him was carried on with true
provincial acrimony. It was easy to see, by the varied expressions on
the faces of those who turned the doorsteps into improvised debating
clubs, how varied were the feelings with which the man would be
welcomed who had himself formally announced to friends and enemies
alike the exact date of his return.
About nine o'clock a kind of sympathetic vibration ran through the
crowd, and with the rapidity of a flash of lightning the words, "There
he is! there he is!" passed from group to group. At this cry some
withdrew into their houses and shut their doors and darkened their
windows, as if it were a day of public mourning, while others opened
them wide, as if to let joy enter. In a few moments the uproar and
confusion evoked by the news was succeeded by the deep silence of
breathless curiosity.
Then, through the silence, a figure advanced, carrying a branch of
laurel in one hand as a token of triumph. It was that of a young man of
from thirty-two to thirty-four years of age, with a graceful and well-knit
frame, an aristocratic air and faultlessly beautiful features of a
somewhat haughty expression. Although he had walked three leagues
to reach the town, the ecclesiastical garb which he wore was not only
elegant but of dainty freshness. His eyes turned to heaven, and singing
in a sweet voice praise to the Lord, he passed through the streets
leading to the church in the market-place with a slow and solemn gait,
without vouchsafing a look, a word, or a gesture to anyone. The entire
crowd, falling into step, marched behind him as he advanced, singing
like him, the singers being the prettiest girls in Loudun, for we have
forgotten to say that the crowd consisted almost entirely of women.
Meanwhile the object of all this commotion arrived at length at the

porch of the church of Saint-Pierre. Ascending the steps, he knelt at the
top and prayed in a low voice, then rising he touched the church doors
with his laurel branch, and they opened wide as if by magic, revealing
the choir decorated and illuminated as if for one of the four great feasts
of the year, and with all its scholars, choir boys, singers, beadles, and
vergers in their places. Glancing around, he for whom they were
waiting came up the nave, passed through the choir, knelt for a second
time at the foot of the altar, upon which he laid the branch of laurel,
then putting on a robe as white as snow and passing the stole around his
neck, he began the celebration of the mass before a congregation
composed of all those who had followed him. At the end of the mass a
Te Deum was sung.
He who had just rendered thanks to God for his own victory with all the
solemn ceremonial usually reserved for the triumphs of kings was the
priest Urbain Grandier. Two days before, he had been acquitted, in
virtue of a decision pronounced by M. d'Escoubleau de Sourdis,
Archbishop of Bordeaux, of an accusation brought against him of
which he had been declared guilty by a magistrate, and in punishment
of which he had been condemned to fast on bread and water every
Friday for three months, and forbidden to exercise his priestly functions
in the diocese of Poitiers for five years and in the town of Loudun for
ever.
These are the circumstances under which the sentence had been passed
and the judgment reversed.
Urbain Grandier was born at Rovere, a village near Sable, a little town
of Bas-Maine. Having studied the sciences with his father Pierre and
his uncle Claude Grandier, who were learned astrologers and
alchemists, he entered, at the age of twelve, the Jesuit college at
Bordeaux, having already received the ordinary education of a young
man. The professors soon found that besides his considerable
attainments he had great natural gifts for languages and oratory; they
therefore made of him a thorough classical scholar, and in order to
develop his oratorical talent encouraged him to practise preaching.
They soon grew very fond of a pupil who was likely to bring them so

much credit, and as soon as he was old enough to take holy orders they
gave him the cure of souls in the parish of Saint- Pierre in Loudun,
which was in the gift of the college. When he had been some months