d Father Athanasii go through all the
village with holy water, and chase the Devil through the streets with
his brush; and my late grandfather's aunt long complained, that, as
soon as it was dark, some one came knocking at her door, and
scratching at the wall.

Well! All appears to be quiet now, in the place where our village
stands; but it was not so very long ago--my father was still
alive--that I remember how a good man could not pass the ruined
tavern, which a dishonest race had long managed for their own
interest. From the smoke-blackened chimneys, smoke poured out in a
pillar, and rising high in the air, as if to take an observation,
rolled off like a cap, scattering burning coals over the steppe; and
Satan (the son of a dog should not be mentioned) sobbed so pitifully
in his lair, that the startled ravens rose in flocks from the
neighbouring oak-wood, and flew through the air with wild cries.

THE DEVIL'S WAGER

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

It was the hour of the night when there be none stirring save
church-yard ghosts--when all doors are closed except the gates of
graves, and all eyes shut but the eyes of wicked men.

When there is no sound on the earth except the ticking of the
grasshopper, or the croaking of obscene frogs in the pool.

And no light except that of the blinking stars, and the wicked and
devilish wills-o'-the-wisp, as they gambol among the marshes, and lead
good men astray.

When there is nothing moving in heaven except the owl, as he flappeth
along lazily; or the magician, as he rideth on his infernal
broomstick, whistling through the air like the arrows of a Yorkshire
archer.

It was at this hour (namely, at twelve o'clock of the night,) that two
beings went winging through the black clouds, and holding converse
with each other.

Now the first was Mercurius, the messenger, not of gods (as the
heathens feigned), but of demons; and the second, with whom he held
company, was the soul of Sir Roger de Rollo, the brave knight. Sir
Roger was Count of Chauchigny, in Champagne; Seigneur of Santerre,
Villacerf and autre lieux. But the great die as well as the humble;
and nothing remained of brave Roger now, but his coffin and his
deathless soul.

And Mercurius, in order to keep fast the soul, his companion, had
bound him round the neck with his tail; which, when the soul was
stubborn, he would draw so tight as to strangle him wellnigh, sticking
into him the barbed point thereof