7o8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



This climax of absurdity ought to have served to expose the 

 trickery and trumpery of the whole affair, but it produced the very 

 opposite effect. Dr. Germanus refers to " Bitru's sign-manual as 

 highly interesting," and characterizes " the documentary evidence 

 as thoroughly convincing " ; those who refuse to recognize the truth 

 in the face of such positive proof he accuses of imitating the ostrich 

 and willfully shutting their eyes to the light. "'•■ 



The salvation of Diana Vaughan is described as due to her in- 

 tense admiration for Joan of Arc, a feeling which was ardently 

 fostered by the priests with whom she chanced to come in contact. 

 One day, as she was attended by Asmodeus, Astaroth, Beelzebub, 

 and Moloch, incarnate in " the counterfeit presentment " of fine 

 gentlemen, she obeyed a sudden and irresistible impulse to invoke 

 the Maid of Orleans, when these devils were immediately stripped 

 of their disguise, and stood before her in their true character as 

 imps of hell, with hoofs and horns, and emitted an intolerable 

 stench. Xo sooner did they perceive that they were unmasked 

 than they vanished with a fearful howl. This miracle made a deep 

 impression upon her, and led to her conversion. She took refuge 

 in a Parisian cloister, and, after severe penance and proper instruc- 

 tion, was received into the bosom of the Catholic Church. Dur- 

 ing this period of penitential seclusion she wrote her Memoirs, 

 which produced an immense sensation in clerical circles, and were 

 pronounced by a high ecclesiastical dignitary to be " worth more 

 than their weight in gold." 



It must be confessed that in weaving this tissue of fabrications 

 Taxil showed consummate skill as a romancer and a profound knowl- 

 edge of the possibilities of human credulity. He- made a happy hit 

 in calling the heroine of his Stygian story Diana, since in the 

 annals of witchcraft the pagan goddess of the chase is wont to fre- 

 quent the nocturnal assemblies of demons, and in mediceval theol- 

 ogy the phrase " congressus Sahathi cum Diana " was a common ex- 

 pression for intercourse with Satan. Another masterly stroke was 

 to represent her deliverance from the snares of evil spirits and the 

 hallucinations of Luciferianism as a miracle of grace wrought 

 through the mediation of Joan of Arc, thus furnishing an argu- 

 ment in favor of the canonization of the Maid of Orleans, which 

 the cleverest advocatus diaholi would be unable to answer. At 

 this time Taxil prepared also a Catholic prayer book entitled 



* A photographic reproduction of this document is given in Diana Vaughan's biography 

 of the Italian statct^man Crispi, which contains numerous ilhistrations and portraits of 

 Crispi, Mazzini, Leniini, Garibaldi, Giordano Bruno, and other " Palladists," or ]\Iasonic 

 worshipers of Satan. The oiiglnal Frencli title of the book is " Le SS* .-. Crispi. Un 

 Palladiste Homme d'l-^tat domasquc. Biogr.ipliic document6e du Ileros depuis sa Naissance 

 .jus(iu' h. sa dcu.xiemo Mort. Par Miss Diana VaiiL'lian." 



