w at midnight," "Honour and fame,"
and other words which told the struggle going on within his soul. When
he reached his lodgings, he met the only servant he had going out
wrapped in her cloak.

"And where are you going so late?" said her surprised master.

"To a mass for a soul in purgatory," was the reply.

"Oh, horror! horror! no mass will avail me. To everlasting torments
shall I be doomed;" and, hurrying to his room, he cast himself down with
tears of remorse, irresolution, and despair. In this state his old
housekeeper discovered him on her return from her holy errand, and, her
soul being full of charity and kindly religion, she begged to know what
had caused such grief; and spoke of patience in suffering, and pardon by
repentance. Her words fell upon the disordered ear of the architect with
a heavenly comfort; and he told her what had passed.

"Mercy me!" was her exclamation. "Tempted by the fiend himself!--so
strongly, too!" and, so saying, she left the chamber without another
word, and hurried off to her confessor.

Now the confessor of Dame Elfrida was the friend of the abbot, and the
abbot was the constant counsellor of the archbishop, and so soon as the
housekeeper spoke of the wonderful plan, he told her he would soon see
her master, and went at once to his superior. This dignitary immediately
pictured to himself the host of pilgrims that would seek a cathedral
built with skill from such wonderful sketches, and (hoping himself one
day to be archbishop) he hurried off to the bewildered architect.

He found him still in bed, and listened with surprise to the glowing
account of the demon's plan.

"And would it be equal to all this?"

"It would."

"Could you build it?"

"I could."

"Would not pilgrims come to worship in such a cathedral?"

"By thousands."

"Listen, my son! Go at midnight to the appointed spot; take this relic
with you;" and, so saying, the abbot gave him a bone of one of the
Eleven Thousand Virgins. "Agree to the terms for the design you have so
long desired, and when you have got it, and the Evil One presents the
parchment for your signature, show this sacred bone."

After long pondering, the priest's advice was taken; and, in the gloom
of night, the architect hurried tremblingly to the place of meeting.
True to his time, the fiend was there, and, with a smile, complimented
the architect on his punctuality. Drawing from his doublet two
parchments, he opened one, on which was