Let him leave us!"

The priest was much perplexed. He knew the skill of these lonely women;
secretly he had faith in their power of witchcraft, though attributing
it to the direct agency of Satan. He thought it not impossible that
there was truth in the boast; and his heart was wrung with the mother's
grief. On the other hand, the public defeat was a sore trial; but it was
clear to him that for the present at least the analogy of Elijah's
struggle was imperfect: he must wait, and meanwhile bear his
discomfiture with meekness. He prepared to retire. The victor was not,
however, even now satisfied. "Take with you," she said, "yon idol that
defaces the sacred oak!"

The good fathers, following their usual practice of associating emblems
of heathen with those of Christian worship, in the hope of gradually
diverting the reverence to the latter without giving to the former a
ruder shock than could be endured, had suspended a small cross on the
oak, hoping eventually to carve the tree itself into a sacred emblem; it
was to this that the woman was pointing with a sneer.

But this time she had made a blunder. Father Austin turned to the
crucifix and his strength and fire returned. Taking it from the tree,
reverently kissing it and holding it aloft, he said solemnly--"Let my
brothers and sisters come with me! We will pray apart, where no profane
words can reach us. Perchance our prayers may be granted!" Not a few of
the hearers followed him; sufficient indeed to make an imposing
procession: the triumph of the Evil One was at least dimmed.

But his adversary did not appear to notice their departure. She gave a
sharp glance in the direction of the oak, and the now discrowned girl
was quickly at her side. Receiving some rapid instructions, the latter
disappeared into the wood, and shortly returned with some herbs, which
she passed to her companion; she then resumed her position by the stone.
The old woman placed some leaves, which she selected, on the wound: the
bleeding at once ceased; squeezing juice from the herbs, she applied an
ointment made from it; then, opening a phial attached to her waist-belt,
she poured some drops of liquid into the girl's mouth, gently parting
her lips. This done, she stood erect and began an incantation, or rather
a supplication, in an unknown tongue. As she proceeded her form became
rigid, her eye gleamed, her arms, the hands clenched, were raised above
her head. The sun flashed on the circlet, gl