ccompany me to the
infernal regions!"

"Assuredly, rather than be accessory to the burning of Plato and
Aristotle, and give place to the darkness against which I have been
contending all my life."

"Gerbert," replied the demon, "this is arrant trifling. Know you not
that no good man can enter my dominions? that, were such a thing
possible, my empire would become intolerable to me, and I should be
compelled to abdicate?"

"I do know it," said Gerbert, "and hence I have been able to receive
your visit with composure."

"Gerbert," said the devil, with tears in his eyes, "I put it to
you--is this fair, is this honest? I undertake to promote your
interests in the world; I fulfil my promise abundantly. You obtain
through my instrumentality a position to which you could never
otherwise have aspired. Often have I had a hand in the election of a
Pope, but never before have I contributed to confer the tiara on one
eminent for virtue and learning. You profit by my assistance to the
full, and now take advantage of an adventitious circumstance to
deprive me of my reasonable guerdon. It is my constant experience that
the good people are much more slippery than the sinners, and drive
much harder bargains."

"Lucifer," answered Gerbert, "I have always sought to treat you as a
gentleman, hoping that you would approve yourself such in return. I
will not inquire whether it was entirely in harmony with this
character to seek to intimidate me into compliance with your demand by
threatening me with a penalty which you well knew could not be
enforced. I will overlook this little irregularity, and concede even
more than you have requested. You have asked to be a Cardinal. I will
make you Pope--"

"Ha!" exclaimed Lucifer, and an internal glow suffused his sooty hide,
as the light of a fading ember is revived by breathing upon it.

"For twelve hours," continued Gerbert. "At the expiration of that time
we will consider the matter further; and if, as I anticipate, you are
more anxious to divest yourself of the Papal dignity than you were to
assume it, I promise to bestow upon you any boon you may ask within my
power to grant, and not plainly inconsistent with religion or morals."

"Done!" cried the demon. Gerbert uttered some cabalistic words, and in
a moment the apartment held two Pope Silvesters, entirely
indistinguishable save by their attire, and the fact that one limped
slightly with the left foot.

"You will find the Pontifical