that he had been fain to
make a precipitate retreat into France, where not finding his account
in his talents, he was now arrived in England, with a view of practising
his art in London; and that, in consequence of a specimen which he
had given to a company below, the choleric gentleman had followed him
up-stairs to his own apartment, and assaulted him in that inhospitable
manner: he therefore earnestly begged that our hero would take him
under his protection; and, if he entertained the least suspicion of his
employing preternatural means in the operations of his art, he would
freely communicate all the secrets in his possession.

The youth dispelled his apprehension by assuring him that he was in no
danger of suffering for his art in England, where, if ever he should be
questioned by the zeal of superstitious individuals, he had nothing to
do but appeal to the justice of the peace, who would immediately acquit
him of the charge, and punish his accusers for their impertinence and
indiscretion.

He then told Gauntlet and the Welshman that the stranger had a good
action against them for an assault, by virtue of an Act of Parliament,
which makes it criminal for any person to accuse another of sorcery and
witchcraft, these idle notions being now justly exploded by all sensible
men. Mr. Jolter, who had by this time joined the company, could not
help signifying his dissent from this opinion of his pupil, which he
endeavoured to invalidate by the authority of Scripture, quotations from
the Fathers, and the confession of many wretches who suffered death for
having carried on correspondence with evil spirits together with
the evidence of "Satan's Invisible World," and Moreton's "History of
Witchcraft."

The soldier corroborated these testimonies by facts that had happened
within the sphere of his own knowledge, and in particular mentioned the
case of an old woman of the parish in which he was born, who used to
transform herself into the shapes of sundry animals, and was at last
killed by small shot in the character of a hare. The Welshman, thus
supported, expressed his surprise at hearing that the legislature had
shown such tenderness for criminals of so dark a hue, and offered to
prove, by undeniable instances, that there was not a mountain in
Wales which had not been, in his memory, the scene of necromancy and
witchcraft. "Wherefore," said he, "I am assuredly more than above
astonished and confounded and concerned that the