6o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to ask how and when the demon had entered her, she answered, not in the tongue 

 of the barbarians, which alone the girl knew, but in the Roman tongue. And 

 when the priest was astonished and asked how she came to know Latin, when her 

 parents, who stood by, were wholly ignorant of it, "Thou hast never seen my 

 parents," was the reply. To this the priest, " Whence art thon, then, if these are 

 not thy parents? " And the demon, by the mouth of the girl, "I am a follower 

 and disciple of Satan, and for a long time I was gatekeeper (janitor) in hell ; but, 

 for some years, along with eleven companions, I have ravaged the kingdom of the 

 Franks." (Cap. v, 49.) 



He then goes on to tell how they blasted the crops and scattered 

 pestilence among beasts and men, because of the prevalent wicked- 

 ness of the people.* 



The enumeration of all these iniquities, in oratorical style, takes 

 up a whole octavo page ; and at the end it is stated, " All these 

 things the demon spoke in Latin by the mouth of the girl." 



And when the priest imperatively ordered him to come out, "I shall go," said 

 he, " not in obedience to you, but on account of the power of the saints, who do 

 not allow me to remain any longer." And, having said this, he threw the girl 

 down on the floor and there compelled her to lie prostrate for a time, as though 

 she slumbered. After a little while, however, he going away, the girl, by the 

 power of Christ and the merits of the blessed martyrs, as it were awakening from 

 sleep, rose up. quite well, to the astonishment of all present ; nor after the demon 

 had gone out was she able to speak Latin : so that it was plain enough that it was 

 not she who had spoken in that tongue, but the demon by her mouth. (Cap. 

 v, 51.) 



If the " Historia Translationis " contained nothing more than has 

 been, at present, laid before the reader, disbelief in the miracles of 

 which it gives so precise and full a record might well be regarded 

 as hyper-skepticism. It might fairly be said : " Here you have a 

 man, whose high character, acute intelligence, and large instruc- 

 tion are certified by eminent contemporaries ; a man who stood 

 high in the confidence of one of the greatest rulers of any age, and 

 whose other works prove him to be an accurate and judicious nar- 

 rator of ordinary events. This man tells you, in . language which 

 bears the stamp of sincerity, of things which happened within his 

 own knowledge, or within that of persons in whose veracity he 

 has entire confidence, while he appeals to his sovereign and the 

 court as witnesses of others ; what possible ground can there be 

 for disbelieving him ? " 



Well, it is hard upon Eginhard to say so, but it is exactly the 

 honesty and sincerity of the man which are his undoing as a wit- 

 ness to the miraculous. He himself makes it quite obvious that 

 when his profound piety comes on the stage, his good sense and 

 even his perception of right and wrong make their exit. Let us 



* In the middle ages one of the most favorite accusations against witches was that they 

 committed just these enormities. 



