answered Mademoiselle Lamerlière, "because
it serves the interests of religion; besides,
am I not as beautiful as a Virgin?"

"Beautiful, I grant you! But why did
you play the part of the holy Virgin?"

"The welfare of religion required it. You
have seen my means of success, and can you
expect me to do otherwise than succeed?
Let me continue my mission in your house,—
the locality is favourable. I will soon draw
crowds, and you will be happy through
me."

This proposal not having been accepted,
Mademoiselle Lamerlière left the hotel, and
after wandering about for a few more
months, finally took up her residence at
Cras, a little village near Tullins, in a hut
containing but one room. Upon the outside
of the hut, the following sign is painted, in
large letters,—"To the little Bethlehem."
Inside the hut there are two beds, and the
walls are covered with inscriptions and
devices. Underground there is a cellar which
has been transformed into a stable, representing
the birthplace at Bethlehem, with the
child and mother in the manger, and the ass
and bullock all complete. Mademoiselle
Lamerlière's hut is, indeed, a sort of temple,
in which she assembles her neighbours and
the peasants from the surrounding villages,
to preach to them about La Salette. But
she is not satisfied with people coming to
her; upon Sundays, market days, and fair
days, she goes to the different villages, in the
public places and the public inns, where she
gossips, drinks, and preaches La Salette.
She mounts upon a table in order to be
better seen, and her faithful companion,
Mariette Bertin, sings Hymns in honour of
La Salette; often until a late hour at night;
and this has lasted for many years. Every
Sunday she is to be seen, either at Polienas,
at Morette, or at Tullins, always ready to
drink in the public-houses, provided people
will listen to her sermons and hymns upon
La Salette.

And this is not all: nearly all the
acquaintance of Mademoiselle Lamerlière have
seen her bandbox and her costume, which
she venerates almost as much as her manger;
and none of them doubt that she is the
heroine of La Salette. Moreover, she has
been often questioned upon the subject, and
if she has never thought it prudent to
confess, at any rate she has never denied it,
merely replying when hard pressed, "Believe
in La Salette, because it is good for religion."

Such is the accusation brought by
Monsieur l'Abbé Deleon, against Mademoiselle
Lamerlière, in the second volume of The
Valley of Falsehood. No notice, however,
was taken of the work, either by that lady or
by the clergy of Dauphiny.

In the month of September, eighteen
hundred and fifty-four, two new works upon
La Salette made their appearance in one
volume. The first was entitled La Salette
before the Pope, or Rationalism and Heresy
flowing from the event of La Salette, by
Monsieur l'Abbé Deleon. In this book
Monsieur Deleon examined the miracle from
an ecclesiastical point of view, showing that
it had not been sufficiently proved, to be
received according to the rigid doctrines of
the Church: and he continued to point out
Mademoiselle Lamerlière as the heroine of
the apparition.

The second work was entitled, A Memoire
addressed to the Pope by several members of
the diocesan clergy. A Monsieur l'Abbé
Cartellier, one of the curés of Grenoble, wrote
the Memoire, and then fifty-four priests of
the diocese signed their names and gave
their adhesion to it; upon the condition,
however, that none of their names should
be published. Moreover, the Memoire was
taken to the Archbishop of Lyons, the known
enemy of the miracle, and obtained his
private sanction prior to its publication.

A few days after the appearance of this
book, Monsieur Deleon was summoned before
a secret ecclesiastical tribunal, presided over
by the Bishop of Grenoble; and, after a trial
which lasted two days, was found guilty of
insubordination towards his superiors, and
was therefore interdicted from all priestly
functions. The venerable Abbé Cartellier
was also informed that he would meet the
same fate if he did not separate himself
from Monsieur Deleon, and make a complete
retractation of everything contained in his
Memoire.

Upon the thirtieth of September the Bishop
of Grenoble issued a charge to his clergy,
condemning the two works, and threatening
with severe punishment any person in holy
orders, who either read, kept, lent, or
circulated in any way whatever any of Monsieur
Deleon's books against La Salette, and with
excommunication any member of the laity
guilty of the same offence.

Twenty-two months afterwards, Mademoiselle
Lamerlière brought an action against
the Abbés Deleon and Cartellier, and
Monsieur Rendon, their publisher, for eight
hundred pounds damages, for defamation. Of
course, while the trial was preparing, the
Parisian press busied itself with discussing
the different aspects of the case; and among
the writers against La Salette none wrote in
so gay, so witty, or so amusing a strain as
Monsieur Pellitan in the Siècle. That
gentleman, following the authority of Monsieur
Deleon, presented Mademoiselle Lamerlière
before the world as the heroine of La
Salette, acting upon the inspiration of the
clergy of her diocese. This allegation
aroused her anger to such a pitch that she
wrote to the Bishop of Grenoble, threatening
to sue in the ecclesiastical courts for
permission to bring an action against him
personally, if he did not promise that she should
receive complete satisfaction for the insults