appeal to the presidial court of Poitiers. The public prosecutor of
Poitiers began a fresh investigation, which being conducted with
impartiality was not encouraging to Grandier's accusers. There had been
many conflicting statements made by the witnesses, and these were now
repeated: other witnesses had declared quite openly that they had been
bribed; others again stated that their depositions had been tampered
with; and amongst these latter was a certain priest named Mechin, and
also that Ishmael Boulieau whom Barot had been in such a hurry to select
as candidate for the reversion of Grandier's preferments. Boulieau's
deposition has been lost, but we can lay Mechin's before the reader, for
the original has been preserved, just as it issued from his pen:

"I, Gervais Mechin, curate-in-charge of the Church of Saint-Pierre in the
Market Place at Loudun, certify by these presents, signed by my hand, to
relieve my conscience as to a certain report which is being spread
abroad, that I had said in support of an accusation brought by Gilles
Robert, archpriest, against Urbain Grandier, priest-in-charge of
Saint-Pierre, that I had found the said Grandier lying with women and
girls in the church of Saint Pierre, the doors being closed.

"ITEM, that on several different occasions, at unsuitable hours both day
and night, I had seen women and girls disturb the said Grandier by going
into his bedroom, and that some of the said women remained with him from
one o'clock in the after noon till three o'clock the next morning, their
maids bringing them their suppers and going away again at once.

"ITEM, that I had seen the said Grandier in the church, the doors being
open, but that as soon as some women entered he closed them.

"As I earnestly desire that such reports should cease, I declare by these