louder one, which startled him, but still he read on. In a moment the
door opened, and in came a fine large devil who angrily asked, "What do
you call me for?" The frightened youth answered very much like those
naughty boys who say "I didn't do nothing!" But it will not do to fool
with devils. The angry demon caught him by the throat and strangled him.
Shortly, when Agrippa returned, lo and behold, a strong squad of evil
spirits were kicking up their heels and playing tag all over the house,
and crowding his study particularly full. Like a schoolmaster among
mischievous boys, the great enchanter sent all the little fellows home,
catechised the big one, and finding the situation unpleasant, made him
reanimate the corpse of the student and walk it about town all the
afternoon. The malignant demon however, was free at sunset, and let the
corpse drop dead in the middle of the market place. The people
recognized it, found the claw-marks and traces of strangling, suspected
the fact, and Agrippa had to abscond very suddenly.

Another student of Agrippa's came very near an equally bad end. The
magician was in the habit of enchanting a broomstick into a servant to
do his housework, and when it was done, turning it back to a broomstick
again and putting it behind the door. This young student had overheard
the charm which made the servant, and one day in his master's absence,
wanting a pail of water he said over the incantation and told the
servant "Bring some water." The evil spirit promptly obeyed; flew to the
river, brought a pailful and emptied it, instantly brought a second,
instantly a third; and the student, startled, cried out, "that's
enough!" But this was not the "return charm," and the ill tempered
demon, rejoicing in doing mischief within the letter of his obligation,
now flew backward and forward like lightning, so that he even began to
flood the room about the rash student's feet. Desperate, he seized an
axe and hewed this diabolical serving-man in two. _Two_ serving-men
jumped up, with two water-pails, grinning in devilish glee, and both
went to work harder than ever. The poor student gave himself up for
lost, when luckily the master came home, dismissed the over-officious
water carrier with a word, and saved the student's life.

How thoroughly false all these absurd fictions are, and yet how
ingeniously based on some fact, appears by the case of Agrippa's black
dog. Wierus, a writer of good authority, and a persona