vestments."

"It was a body taken from the charnel, and placed there by the demon,"
replied the monk. "Of my long wanderings in other lands and beneath
brighter skies I need not tell you; but neither absence nor lapse of
years cooled my desire of vengeance, and when the appointed time drew
nigh I returned to my own country, and came hither in a lowly garb,
under the name of Nicholas Demdike."

"Ha!" exclaimed the abbot.

"I went to Pendle Hill, as directed," pursued the monk, "and saw the
Dark Shape there as I beheld it on the dormitory roof. All things were
then told me, and I learnt how the late rebellion should rise, and how
it should be crushed. I learnt also how my vengeance should be
satisfied."

Paslew groaned aloud. A brief pause ensued, and deep emotion marked the
accents of the wizard as he proceeded.

"When I came back, all this part of Lancashire resounded with praises of
the beauty of Bess Blackburn, a rustic lass who dwelt in Barrowford. She
was called the Flower of Pendle, and inflamed all the youths with love,
and all the maidens with jealousy. But she favoured none except Cuthbert
Ashbead, forester to the Abbot of Whalley. Her mother would fain have
given her to the forester in marriage, but Bess would not be disposed of
so easily. I saw her, and became at once enamoured. I thought my heart
was seared; but it was not so. The savage beauty of Bess pleased me more
than the most refined charms could have done, and her fierce character
harmonised with my own. How I won her matters not, but she cast off all
thoughts of Ashbead, and clung to me. My wild life suited her; and she
roamed the wastes with me, scaled the hills in my company, and shrank
not from the weird meetings I attended. Ill repute quickly attended her,
and she became branded as a witch. Her aged mother closed her doors upon
her, and those who would have gone miles to meet her, now avoided her.
Bess heeded this little. She was of a nature to repay the world's
contumely with like scorn, but when her child was born the case became
different. She wished to save it. Then it was," pursued Demdike,
vehemently, and regarding the abbot with flashing eyes--"then it was
that I was again mortally injured by you. Then your ruthless decree to
the clergy went forth. My child was denied baptism, and became subject
to the fiend."

"Alas! alas!" exclaimed Paslew.

"And as if this were not injury enough," thundered Demdike, "you have
called down a withe