ner) comic contrastedness in which it is presented, calculated to
cause in us the strange sensation, compounded of terror and irony,
which fetters our attention in a manner the reverse of unpleasant. But
the case is quite different as to the terrible witch stories. In them
actual life is brought on to the stage with all its reality of horror.
When I read about Barbara Roloffin's execution, I felt as though I saw
the funeral pyre smoking in the market-place. All the horror of the
terrible witchcraft-trials rose to my memory. A pair of sparkling red
eyes, and an attenuated weazened body, were enough to cause a poor old
creature to be assumed to be a witch, guilty of every description of
wicked and unholy arts and practices; to have legal process instituted
against her, and to be led to the scaffold. The application of the
rack, or other form of torture, confirmed the accusations against her,
and decided the case."

"Still," said Theodore, "it is very remarkable that so many of those
supposititious witches of their own accord confessed their pact, and
other relations, with the Evil One, without any coercion whatever. Two
or three years ago it happened that a number of legal documents fell
into my hands relating to trials for witchcraft; and I could scarce
believe my eyes when I read in them confessions of things which made my
flesh creep. They told of ointments, the use of which turned human
beings into various animals; they spoke of riding on broomsticks, and,
in fact, of all the devilish practices which we read of in old legends.
Bat, first and foremost, and invariably, those supposititious witches
always openly and shamelessly avowed, and boasted--usually of their own
accord--as to their unchaste relations with the unclean and diabolical
'gallant' (as their term for him was). Now, how could such things be
possible?"

"Because," Lothair said, "belief in a diabolical compact actually
brought such a compact about."

"How do you mean? What do you say?" the two others cried together.

"Understand me properly, that is all I ask," said Lothair, "It is
matter of certainty that, in the times when nobody doubted of the
direct and immediate influence of the Devil, or that he constantly
appeared visibly, those miserable creatures, who were hunted down and
put so mercilessly to fire and sword, actually and firmly believed in
all that they were accused of; and that many, in the wickedness of
their hearts, tried their utmost, by m