“‘Have you the power to forgive a false oath?’ replied Mrs. Bossey to her brother, the priest.
“‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘I have that power; for Christ has said to all his priests, “What you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”’
“Mrs. Bossey then said: ‘If you promise that you will forgive that false oath, and if you give me the one hundred and sixty acres of land you promised, I will do what you want.’
“The Rev’d Mr. LeBelle then said: ‘All right!’ I could not hear any more of that conversation, for in that instant Miss Eugenia Bossey, who had kept still and silent with us, made some noise and shut the door.
“Affiant further states: That some time later I went to confess to Rev. Mr. LeBelle, and I told him that I had lost confidence in him, He asked me why? I answered: ‘I lost my confidence in you since I heard your conversation with your sister, when you tried to persuade her to perjure herself in order to destroy Father Chiniquy.’
“Affiant further says: “That in the month of October, A. D. 1856, the Rev’d Mr. Chiniquy had to defend himself, before the civil and criminal court of Urbana, Illinois, in an action brought against him by Peter Spink; some one wrote from Urbana to a paper of Chicago, that Father Chiniquy was probably to be condemned. The paper which published that letter was much read by the Roman Catholics, who were glad to hear that that priest was to be punished. Among those who read that paper was Narcisse Terrien. He had lately been married to Miss Sara Chaussey, who told him that Father Chiniquy was innocent; that she was present with me when Rev’d LeBelle prepared the plot with his sister, Mrs. Bossey, and had promised her a large piece of land if she would swear falsely against Father Chiniquy. Mr. Narcisse Terrien wanted to go with his wife to the help of Father Chiniquy, but she was unwell and could not go. He came to ask me if I remembered well the conversation of Rev’d Mr. LeBelle, and if I would consent to go to Urbana to expose the whole plot before the court, and I consented.
“We started that same evening for Urbana, where we arrived late at night. I immediately met Mr. Abraham Lincoln, one of the lawyers of Father Chiniquy, and told him all that I knew about the plot.
“That very same night the Rev’d Mr. LeBelle, having seen my name on the hotel register, came to me much excited and troubled, and said, ‘Philomene, what are you here for?’
“I answered him, ‘I cannot exactly tell you that; but you will probably know it tomorrow at the court-house!’
“‘Oh, wretched girl!’ he exclaimed, ‘you have come to destroy me.’