THE   SPIRITUAL   EXEECISES.  323

produced  before  the  court  all  the  letters  which  he  had  for-
merly written  to  CadiSre  but  they  were  not  the  identical  ones,
being  specially  fabricated  and  antedated,  and  accordingly
breathing  nothing  but  solicitude  for  the  well-being  of  his
confessant.  Witnesses  came  forward  who  accused  the  Prior  of
the  Carmelites  and  the  Dominican  Father  Cadifere  of  having
formed  a  conspiracy  against  Father  Girard,  and  of  having
pledged  themselves  to  ruin  him,  as  well  as  the  Order  of
•Jesus,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  by  the  trumped-up  false-
hoods of  Catherine  OadiSre.  The  nuns  of  Ollioules  were  so
worked  upon  that  they  retracted  all  that  they  had  laid  at
the  door  of  Father  Girard,  and,  on  the  contrary,  made  out
Oadiere  to  be  a  person  unworthy  and  abandoned,  who  had  tried
to  seduce  the  worthy  Father.  Cadifere  herself  was  particularly
tortured  and  tormented,  both  physically  and  morally,  in  a  most,
barbarous  way,  and  threatened  with  eternal  ruin  and  deprivation
of  all  spiritual  consolation  if  she  did  not  at  once  sign  a  declara-
tion that  the  accusation  which  she  had  made  against  Father
■Girard  was  a  falsehood  and  a  calumny.  She  was,  indeed,  formally
•exorcised  before  a  number  of  ecclesiastical  and  other  witnesses,
and  so  depressed  by  maltreatment  and  attempts  at  casting  out
of  the  devil,  that  she  fell  into  a  faint  of  several  hours  duration
She  was,  lastly,  subjected  for  three  days,  viz.  the  26th,  26th,
and  27th  of  February  1731,  to  an  uninterrupted  course  of
interrogation  from  morning  till  night,  and  it  was  hoped  thus
to  confuse  her  by  putting  cross  and  crooked  questions,  while
by  the  exceptionable  means  of  suggestion  she  might  be
brought  to  contradict  herself  or  be  shown  to  be  mentally
incapable.  On  the  first  day  she  remained  stedfast  to  her
former  declarations,  and  distinctly  recapitulated,  in  clear  un-
doubtful words,  all  the  shameful  proceedings  that  had  taken
place  between  herself  and  Father  Girard.  She  did  so  as  well
•on  the  second  day,  without  losing  her  presence  of  mind.
