rtled by the appearance of a woman running in the direction of the
church. She asked if she could reach it by twelve o'clock. He answered
that he thought she could if she ran fast. His impression was that the
voice, face, and figure were those of the woman the hunter had
surprised in the morning. A little farther on he met two hounds
coursing along at great speed. In a few minutes he met a black man
riding on a black horse. The horseman inquired whether the traveller
had seen a woman, and two dogs pursuing her. On replying in the
affirmative, the horseman asked a second question, whether he thought
the dogs would overtake her before she went the length of the old
church? With a faltering voice he said it was likely they would. The
frightened traveller, more dead than alive, observed that the black
man had eyes like balls of fire, and that his horse breathed smoke and
flame. As swift as his feet could carry him, the pedestrian hastened
homeward, trusting that the terrors of the night were past, yet
fearing and trembling exceedingly. Having to pass the old woman's
house, and seeing a light, he went in, and then learned that she was
dead. He had no doubt that the human-like figure he saw running on
foot towards the church was the spirit of the departed witch, and that
the pursuers were demons. After condoling with the bereaved relations,
he took his departure from an abode cursed with the presence of a
witch's remains. Scarcely had he crossed the threshold before he
observed the black horseman riding swiftly towards the house, with the
woman lying across the saddle-bow, and the two dogs following close
behind. In an instant, man, woman, horse, and dogs sank into the
ground.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Leading Churchmen subjected to the Onslaught of
Demons--Warfare with the Devil in corporeal
shape--Triumph of Churchmen--St. Maurus rebuking a
Troop of Evil Spirits--St. Romualdus' Five Years'
Conflict with Satan--The Faculty of St. Frances--St.
Gregory's Detection of the Devil entering a Man--A
Greedy Monk denied Christian Burial--Monk in
Purgatory--Institution of the Thirty Masses for the
Dead--An Excommunicated Gentleman of Rome hiring Pagan
Witches and Sorcerers--What befell them--St. Benedict
and the Blackbird's Song--A Monk restored to Life--St.
Benedict's Sister ascending to Heaven like a White
Dove--St. Francis' Dominion over Living Creatures