s of the Chambre, La Reynie, an
ugly little old man, very seriously asked her whether she had really
seen the devil; to which the lady replied, looking him full in the
face, "Oh yes! I see him now. He is in the form of a little ugly old
man, exceedingly illnatured, and is dressed in the robes of a
counsellor of State." M. la Reynie prudently refrained from asking any
more questions of a lady with so sharp and ready a tongue. The Duchess
was imprisoned for several months in the Bastile; and nothing being
proved against her, she was released at the intercession of her
powerful friends. The severe punishment of criminals of this note might
have helped to abate the fever of imitation among the vulgar;--their
comparative impunity had a contrary tendency. The escape of Penautier,
and the wealthy Cardinal de Bonzy his employer, had the most pernicious
effect. For two years longer the crime continued to rage, and was not
finally suppressed till the stake had blazed, or the noose dangled, for
upwards of a hundred individuals.

HAUNTED HOUSES.

Here's a knocking indeed! * * * * knock! knock! knock
* * * * * * Who's there, i' the name o' Beelzebub?
* * * Who's there, i' the devil's name? Knock! knock!
knock!--Never at quiet?

Macbeth.

Who has not either seen or heard of some house, shut up and
uninhabitable, fallen into decay, and looking dusty and dreary, from
which, at midnight, strange sounds have been heard to issue--aerial
knockings--the rattling of chains, and the groaning of perturbed
spirits?--a house that people have thought it unsafe to pass after
dark, and which has remained for years without a tenant, and which no
tenant would occupy, even were he paid to do so? There are hundreds of
such houses in England at the present day; hundreds in France, Germany,
and almost every country of Europe, which are marked with the mark of
fear--places for the timid to avoid, and the pious to bless themselves
at, and ask protection from, as they pass--the abodes of ghosts and
evil spirits. There are many such houses in London; and if any vain
boaster of the march of intellect would but take the trouble to find
them out and count them, he would be convinced that intellect must yet
make some enormous strides before such old superstitions can be
eradicated.

The idea that such houses exist is a remnant of the witch creed, which
merits separate notice from its comparative harmlessness, and from its
being not so m