[60] Of course the allusion here, as shown in the next following sentence, is to French law in particular. As for the marriage of cousins, there is much to say on both sides of the question.—Trans.
[61] The ingenious M. Génin has very recently collected the most curious information on this point.
[62] Boguet, Lancre, and other authors, are agreed on this question.
[63] See the end of the Witch of Berkeley, as told by William of Malmesbury.
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
THE WITCH IN HER DECLINE—SATAN MULTIPLIED AND MADE COMMON.
The Devil’s delicate fondling, the lesser Witch, begotten of the Black Mass after the greater one’s disappearance, came and bloomed in all her malignant cat-like grace. This woman is quite the reverse of the other: refined and sidelong in manner, sly and purring demurely, quick also at setting up her back. There is nothing of the Titan about her, to be sure. Far from that, she is naturally base; lewd from her cradle and full of evil daintinesses. Her whole life is the expression of those unclean thoughts which sometimes in a dream by night may assail him who would shrink with horror from any such by day.
She who is born with such a secret in her blood, with such instinctive mastery of evil, she who has looked so far and so low down, will have no religion, no respect for anything or person in the world; none even for Satan, since he is a spirit still, while she has a particular relish for all things material.