was dispatched to all parts of the world;
medals commemorative of the apparition, also
said to possess healing virtues, were struck
and widely distributed; and finally on the
twenty-fifth of May, eighteen hundred and
fifty-two, the bishops of Valance and Grenoble
laid the foundation-stone of the church, which
is now seen rising majestically upon the site
of the apparition.

The Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons, seeing
the mania spreading thus rapidly, tried to
check its course by issuing, on the sixth of
August, a charge to his clergy, forbidding
them from encouraging the worship of La
Salette until it had received the sanction of
the Pope. He also warned them not to be
taken in by miracles, prophecies, pictures, or
prayers, which were only a source of guilty
gain to covetous people. About the same
time the Bishop of Gap denounced the affair
as a guilty intrigue and an unworthy
speculation, and also severely interdicted the
worship of La Salette in his diocese until its
approval by our holy father the Pope.

These obstacles were, however, soon
removed by a rescript from his holiness, dated
the twenty-fourth of August, granting certain
privileges to the grand altar of the Sanctuary
of La Salette, and by a bull conferring special
indulgences upon all the members of the
brotherhood of La Salette.

Toward the end of the year eighteen
hundred and fifty-two, however, the worship of
our Lady of La Salette received a severe blow
from an unexpected quarter. A priest of the
diocese of Grenoble, named Deleon, curé of
Villeurbanne, published, under the name of
Donnadieu, in a pamphlet entitled La Salette
Fallavaux (fallax vallis), or the Valley of
Falsehood, a violent attack upon the devotion
of La Salette. Throwing doubts upon the
testimony and veracity of the children, and
by analysing the language which they put
into the mouth of the Virgin Mary, as well as
the costume they described, Monsieur Deleon
argued that the miracle of La Salette had
been invented for the purpose of imposing
upon the credulity of the faithful, and robbing
them of their money. He denounced the
affair as a Californian speculation got up by
the clergy and Bishop of Grenoble for their
own profit, and helped by Monsieur
Rousselot to pay his debts.

Immediately after the appearance of this
publication, the Bishop of Grenoble wrote to
the Universe and all the other religious
newspapers, condemning that infamous pamphlet,
full of false statements, calumnious suppositions,
and gross abuse, containing as many
lies as words. In January, eighteen hundred
and fifty-three, Monsieur Rousselot published
an answer to the attack of Monsieur l'Abbé
Deleon, in a book called a New Sanctuary
to Mary; adding many cases of marvellous
cures to those already known.

But, in the month of April following,
Monsieur Deleon re-entered the lists, armed with
new and more formidable weapons. Taking as
his starting point the explanation of the
apparition by divine intervention, as given
by the Bishop of Grenoble, he sought to prove
in a second volume of the Valley of Falsehood
that the affair was a purely human invention.
Bringing into notice the lady traveller who
journeyed from Marcellin to Grenoble with
a bandbox in eighteen hundred and forty-six,
Monsieur Deleon alleged upon the authority
of the conductor of the diligence, that it was a
Mademoiselle Constance Saint Ferreol de
Lamerlière, who, carrying her costume with
her in a bandbox, and arriving unseen upon
the mountain of La Salette, had played the
part of the Holy Virgin to the stupid and
ignorant shepherds.

Monsieur Deleon says:

"When the miracle of La Salette had taken
some hold of the popular belief, the
conductor of the diligence suddenly recollected
the strange  language held by the lady
traveller who was going to the mountains, and
aiming at immortality. And he soon came
to the conclusion that this lady was the
heroine of La Salette. He said nothing,
however, for some time, until one day
happening to go upon business to the house of a
respectable and intelligent inhabitant of the
village of Tullins, named Mazet, the
conductor found him and his wife examining some
of the medals struck in honour of the apparition.
Monsieur Mazet showed the medals to
Fortin, the conductor, who, after taking them
in his hand and turning them over, smiled
and shrugged his shoulders, saying: 'La
Salette is a trick of  Mademoiselle Lamerlière's.'
Monsieur and Madame Mazet
knowing Mademoiselle Lamerlière, and not
being able to believe what Fortin had alleged,
replied: 'You would certainly not dare to
say such a thing if Mademoiselle Lamerlière
were here.'  'You are mistaken,' he answered,
'for if she were  here I would repeat to her
what I have said to you, and she would not
deny it.'"

Chance would have it, that Mademoiselle
Lamerlière came to pay a visit to Monsieur
and Madame Mazet while the conductor was
still talking to them about the miracle.

"You see," he whispered, "that I am not
afraid—I do not go away, and I will tell her
what I said."

Madame Mazet, without allowing him
time to speak, repeated to Mademoiselle
Lamerlière exactly what Fortin had said
respecting her; and Mademoiselle Lamerlière
merely replied:

"What the conductor says must not be
believed, because it would injure religion."

Three or four days after this conversation,
Fortin meeting Mademoiselle Lamerlière in
the street, accosted her, saying: "We are
alone to-day; all reserve upon your side is
useless—tell me what induced you to go to
La Salette, and play the part of the Holy
Virgin?" Mademoiselle Lamerlière caught