Chapter 34

Phenomena in the sky, and what I learned from them

When I went up to my house, I saw Baptiste Prieur coming back to his apartment. 

After the usual hellos, he asked where I had come from. I told him I’d met with his brother, and with Mr. Frontin, Madame Metra, and his cousin, Lomini, and that we’d spoken at length about my affairs. 

“Your brother promised to make me well,” I said.

“He can, if he wants. And that would be better for you than waiting for Imbert of Saint-Louis, and Cazin of Quinze-Vingts. But I’ll talk to him about this.” And we both went home. 

As soon as I was in my apartment, I heard another strange noise in my room. Perhaps it was one of the people I’d just left, who, unsatisfied and bored, wanted to have more fun at my expense. I did not respond, and said to myself, “we’ll have a good laugh when I mention this to Prieur. 

Walking along the Pont-Neuf bridge in the evening,[1] I saw people gathered together, looking toward the east-southeast. There was a very black cloud there, and they huddled together, everyone throwing around their unsatisfying theories. “Don’t you see this is the work of magicians?” I said. Some who heard me looked at me with surprise, but I didn’t want to elaborate. I stayed a few moments longer to get a better understanding of the true causes of the cloud than my fellows. As I watched, I saw lights chasing each other around the cloud, resembling the fires created on stage to imitate a storm or a burning building, or other fiery disasters, to add a calculated horror to the audience’s experience. 

From there, I went to the royal palace, reflecting on the strange cloud. I knew that there were signs, only known to magicians, that showed perhaps a victory against an enemy, marking the moment in the sky for their colleagues. As I toured the shops and galleries and made my way home, this idea grew clearer in my mind, and I thought I’d share these ideas with Prieur, who was the cleverest of goblins. If I could read these signs, they would almost certainly increase my knowledge of their strange workings.

Prieur and I met as usual, and he asked me what happened to me that day. I told him that, though he’d failed to keep his word to me, it had been a very nice day, but with the usual sensations that I was prone to at various intervals. I told him about the black cloud, strangely detached from the rest of the clouds, seen over the cathedral and the Saint-Michael Bridge. I described it in all its peculiarity.

He seemed shocked. “Who could have taught you so much?”

“God alone,” I said. “He gives to those who serve him well, the wisdom he refuses to those who study the sciences without knowing him first. You know, I pity them. They throw away the wisdom that is most crucial to our existence. Without divine wisdom, they are prey to the power of the infernal spirit. Only God can protect us from the attacks of our worst enemies, and give us peaceful nights and tranquil days.  

“This is what I would want to tell those people who believe they know some little something because they’ve studied the writings of the centuries. There is nothing above the belief that one must have in God. Our faith in the Almighty and in the church frees our minds from the temptations that the infernal spirits can lay on us. Our faith lets us believe in miracles.”

Prieur’s surprise was only growing. “Of all those we’ve visited invisibly, you are the first who knows so much about all these things. I’m shocked.” 

“You shouldn’t be, my friend. The grace I have won was given to me through four appearances that God made to me when I was in Avignon, and heaven guided me when I would have ended my life to escape my torments. I’d hoped to see God all the sooner, but I would have separated myself from him forever. Heaven has had a place for me in its heart ever since, and my suffering makes me more worthy of the love and kindness of God the creator. And if God does not want me to live and serve as an example to man through my misfortunes, and I have been purified by them to be worthy, that, also, is a goal a Christian should aspire to. 

“I hope you’ve let my arguments convince you. The supernatural forces that are given to men to torment each other only have power over those who do not have enough hope in God, who sooner or later calls them to task for their pride.”

He seemed lost. “Let go of your surprise, Etienne. Sobriety and modesty and prayer and tribulation all help us attain the grace to be among the elect. My nightly prayers, and my pilgrimages to church, but also the cold and rain and foul weather that inconveniences me, all of these have value to a just and good God, who asks us only to strive to serve him. 

“If you want to be surprised, be astonished at the graces given to me by God, to resist so many evils, and the knowledge I’ve gained from all the efforts your magicians have tried against me. I’ve learned so much about the infernal army. They’ve shown themselves to me by the light of the very fires they kindled.”

“My goodness,” he said. “You are extraordinary.”

But even so, he said that I needed rest, and wished me a good night, and asked him to remember me in my prayers. Of course I would, but I also reminded him to remember our appointment with Father Cazin tomorrow. He nodded, and we parted ways.