Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/208

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199

"And treasures!" cried Dubois.

"Water," said the surgeon, "is sufficiently precious; I have never attempted anything else."

"You know, perhaps," continued the gossip; "It is not yet ten years ago, since Jacob Aymar, from, Dauphiné, discovered by means of his divining-rod, a murder that had been committed long before. The story created the greatest sensation in Paris and at Lyons at the time. I was then in Paris with my brother, the universally celebrated great doctor, and saw myself the simple peasant, who could perform such miraculous deeds. My brother, who is a very speculating philosopher, repaired hither at this extraordinary discovery, and employed all sorts of remarkable essays, so-called experiments in the presence of persons of distinction, and they succeeded admirably. But the rod must be out from a hazel branch at midnight, at the full moon, and without uttering a word at the time."

"That is superstition," said Godfred,