unawares, and pressed by an interrogator
whom she could not deceive, answered: ''You,
Fortin, may be allowed not to believe in it,
but pray let others believe in it, because it is
so good for religion."

Mademoiselle Lamerlière is descended
from a good family, and her brother-in-law,
the Marquis de Suzy, greatly distinguished
himself in Africa. From her youth until about
the year eighteen hundred and forty-six,
Mademoiselle Lamerlière was a nun. Soon
after she ceased to belong to any religious
institution, her sister and brother-in-law tried
to have her deprived of the management of
her affairs upon the pretext of insanity.
Ever since that time she has lived a wandering
life, travelling from place to place, but
always carrying with her a bandbox.
Immediately after the announcement of the
miracle of La Salette, Mademoiselle Lamerlière
became one of its most ardent and zealous
supporters; all her energy, all her intelligence,
her whole efforts were concentrated upon the
propagation of the new belief.

When the revolution of February, eighteen
hundred and forty-eight, had inflamed all
the youthful imaginations of the towns, it
was for a moment feared that morality and
religion might suffer in consequence.
Mademoiselle Lamerlière, therefore, took up her
abode in a modest apartment in Grenoble,
which soon became the daily rendezvous of
the most democratic of the workmen, soldiers,
and students. Then standing before an
image of the Madonna and child, she
preached. And, pretending to be more liberal
than any of her auditors, she surprised them
all, by the boldness of her ideas, and the
temerity of her language. Indeed, Mademoiselle
Lamerlière carried her revolutionary
excitement so far as to attend and speak at
the democratic clubs, where she always
provoked the laughter and applause of her
audience. Moreover, when disputing in the
clubs against an eccentric abbé, named Didon,
her popularity rose to such a pitch, that the
multitude carried her in triumph through
the streets; and, finally, Mademoiselle
Lamerlière became a candidate for a seat in
the National Assembly.

Not having been elected, however, she left
Grenoble about the end of April, eighteen
hundred and forty-eight; and in a few days
it was announced that a beautiful white lady
had appeared at a lonely spot near the
village of Sodières to a little boy and girl,
telling them that she was the Lady of Salette,
and that people did very wrong in not
believing what she said.

Two months after this, the Lady of Salette
again appeared to two young girls near
Sodières, still dressed in the same costume,
holding the same language, and giving the
same warnings to her people. These apparitions
having been repeated several times,
created a considerable sensation in the
surrounding country, inducing some thousands
of people, including many priests, to hasten to
the spot, and stay all night, watching for a
re-appearance of the apparition; but the
Lady of Salette did not venture to show
herself.

Meanwhile, Mademoiselle Lamerlière, in
the course of her wanderings, often stopped
at an hotel outside the town of Grenoble,
kept by an honest couple named Carrat.
Mademoiselle Lamerlière was generally
accompanied by a governess, whom she had
fascinated, and who had given up a good
situation to follow her. She had, moreover,
four dogs; and all this family lived together in
one room on tenpence a day. Mademoiselle
Lamerlière, finding her bed too soft, asked and
obtained permission to sleep upon the bare
ground in the stable, where a stone served
her as a pillow; and she lay, with her
precious bandbox and crucifix by her side.
She remained in her room all day, going out
only at twilight, and returning late in the
evening to her bed in the stable.

This strange existence having inspired
distrust in the mind of the hostess, she went
up one day to her lodger's room and
remonstrated with her, kindly and gently, upon her
way of living.

"You do not know," answered Mademoiselle
Lamerlière, "who I am. I will inform you."

She then opened her bandbox, and took
out of it a purple dress, tastefully trimmed
with different ornaments, and put it on.
Without allowing her visitor time to admire
it, she took out a pink dress and put it on
with a somewhat mystic air. Madame Carrat
then thought that her lodger was an actress,
and told her so mildly.

"You are very simple, my dear hostess,"
replied Mademoiselle Lamerlière, "wait a
moment." And immediately taking off her
pink costume, she replaced it by a white
dress, a yellow apron, yellow stockings, white
satin shoes, a scarf, a veil; a wreath of roses,
a gold chain and cross, a coral chaplet, a
hammer, and a pair of pincers, the exact
costume, in short, of the Lady of Salette.
Madame Carrat was still more surprised by
the studied attitude of her lodger, who in an
inspired tone, told her of the evils which
overran France, caused by the impiety of the
people, and of the mission she had received
from God to prevent their continuance.
Grieved indeed, was Madame Carrat, at
what she saw and heard, for she thought
herself a good Christian, and had in her
kitchen a picture of the apparition representing
the Lady of Salette in the very same
costume she beheld before her. Moreover,
she had read what had been written about
the event, and recognised in the mouth of
Mademoiselle Lamerlière, the language
attributed to the Virgin.

"You have done a bad action," she said to
her; "it was you who went to La Salette."

"The action is very praiseworthy,"