es. The good folk say with alarm, "What
is to become of her?" With a frightful burst of laughter, she goes
off, vanishing swift as an arrow. They would like much to know what
becomes of the poor woman, but that they never will.[63]

[63] See the end of the Witch of Berkeley, as told by William
of Malmesbury.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

THE WITCH IN HER DECLINE--SATAN MULTIPLIED AND MADE COMMON.

The Devil's delicate fondling, the lesser Witch, begotten of the Black
Mass after the greater one's disappearance, came and bloomed in all
her malignant cat-like grace. This woman is quite the reverse of the
other: refined and sidelong in manner, sly and purring demurely, quick
also at setting up her back. There is nothing of the Titan about her,
to be sure. Far from that, she is naturally base; lewd from her cradle
and full of evil daintinesses. Her whole life is the expression of
those unclean thoughts which sometimes in a dream by night may assail
him who would shrink with horror from any such by day.

She who is born with such a secret in her blood, with such instinctive
mastery of evil, she who has looked so far and so low down, will have
no religion, no respect for anything or person in the world; none even
for Satan, since he is a spirit still, while she has a particular
relish for all things material.

In her childhood she spoiled everything. Tall and pretty she startled
all by her slovenly habits. With her Witchcraft becomes a mysterious
cooking up of some mysterious chemistry. From an early date she
delights to handle repulsive things, to-day a drug, to-morrow an
intrigue. Among diseases and love-affairs she is in her element. She
will make a clever go-between, a bold and skilful empiric. War will be
made against her as a fancied murderer, as a woman who deals in
poisons. And yet she has small taste for such things, is far from
murderous in her desires. Devoid of goodness, she yet loves life,
loves to work cures, to prolong others' lives. She is dangerous in two
ways: on the one hand by selling receipts for barrenness, and even for
abortion; while on the other, her headlong libertine fancy leads her
to compass a woman's fall with her cursed potions, to triumph in the
wicked deeds of love.

Different, indeed, is this one from the other! She is a manufacturer:
the other was the ungodly one, the demon, the great rebellion, the
wife, we might almost say, the mother of Satan; for out of her and he