He heard those around him disputing in whispers and one of them insisting that he should be led along a certain carpet.

After that they took his right hand, placed it on something, and told him to hold a pair of compasses to his left breast with the other hand and to repeat after someone who read aloud an oath of fidelity to the laws of the Order.

The candles were then extinguished and some spirit lighted, as Pierre knew by the smell, and he was told that he would now see the lesser light.

The bandage was taken off his eyes and, by the faint light of the burning spirit, Pierre, as in a dream, saw several men standing before him, wearing aprons like the Rhetor's and holding swords in their hands pointed at his breast.