Evil One

In the village church of Hautvillers, last week, French peasants knelt devoutly. In their thoughts and prayers was the name of a man dead these 200 years and more. They paid tribute to the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon.

What had Dom Perignon done, visitors wondered, to deserve such gratitude? Villagers explained. Dom Perignon had been the abbey's cellar keeper. It was he who discovered that bottles could be stoppered with cork. And, far more important, he had invented the bubbling wine known as champagne. For a long time, of course, people thought he had been helped by the Evil One. But every Frenchman knows now that champagne may be drunk by the most devout. Ah, yes, Dom Perignon was a very great man indeed.