My father went to see fair play between the
witch and the clergy; for the witch had been born on his estate. And
while the witch was confessing that the Enemy appeared, and made his
addresses to her as a handsome black man,--which, if you could have seen
poor old blear-eyed Janet, reflected little honour on Apollyon's
taste,--and while the auditors listened with astonished ears, and the
clerk recorded with a trembling hand, she, all of a sudden, changed the
low mumbling tone with which she spoke into a shrill yell, and exclaimed,
"Look to yourselves! look to yourselves! I see the Evil One sitting in
the midst of ye." The surprise was general, and terror and flight its
immediate consequences. Happy were those who were next the door; and many
were the disasters that befell hats, bands, cuffs, and wigs, before they
could get out of the church, where they left the obstinate prelatist to
settle matters with the witch and her admirer at his own peril or
pleasure.'
'Risu solvuntur tabulae,' said the Baron; 'when they recovered their
panic trepidation they were too much ashamed to bring any wakening of the
process against Janet Gellatley.
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