standing, no suspicious circumstances could be elicited against him, as good care was taken not to allude to the mirror, except that he was in the habits of gambling, and that his means were too narrow to support him in that propensity. As, however, he had confessed at first that he was wont to play with the money which he had won, he was not helped out of his difficulty, and it was finally discovered (by a second application of the torture,) that he was a native of Gascony, the children of which country are notorious pickpockets, and therefore it was concluded that he was no better than his countrymen.

"To make a long story short, the unhappy Mastick was tortured the third time, and finally sentenced to be hanged.

"At the gallows, he assured his father confessor that he had had neither hand nor part in the robbery, and entreated him to see justice done to his memory as a martyr. His wicked enemy, Valdrea, saw him hanged, and rejoiced that she was avenged of his contempt by his death.

"But his innocence was speedily revenged upon her own head. Not many days afterwards a robber was apprehended, who confessed that he had helped to commit the above robbery, and that his associates had gone over to England,

after having first given him his share. Mastick, he said, was entirely free from all knowledge of it, and he shortly afterwards died with this confession on his lips. After this, Lamberta began to babble about the art of Ginnetta, or rather of her tricks of sorcery with the mirror, and Valdrea, along with the old witch, and Lamberta, were placed in prison, where they made a full confession. The two former were hanged and burned; but, as Lamberta, in her simplicity, had only obeyed the commands of her Princess, she was released.

"From the foregoing example," concludes our author," we learn how that the Devil either assumes the similitude of persons, or else displays innocent people in the magic mirror, by which he is accustomed to work great sorrow and calamity. Therefore all good Christians ought to have a rooted horror of the magical arts described above, through which they lose their understandings and peril their own souls."

CHAPTER VIII.

OF SORTILEGIOUS NIGHTS.

Such, oh, gentle reader, do we give you as the interpretation of Von Losel Uachten, for we have no thoroughly English word to come up to it, though the practice is familiar to many. We need only refer you to the poets Burns and Scott for divers examples thereof; to wit, such as a damsel going on a certain night in the year to dip one sleeve of her "sark," (we use the Scotch name for modesty's sake) in a neighbouring barn, or brook, in the expectation that after she has hung it before the fire to dry and retired to bed, but not to sleep, the apparition of her lover will appear at midnight and turn it -such is the running three times at the same period round the barley mow, expecting her

lover to catch her in his arms at the conclusion of the third turn; and such is the going out also at that witching hour with the tune of 'Hemp seed, I sow thee;" &c., &c.

Now these are, doubtless, all delusions of Satan; but, before we proceed to the matter in hand, there are two points in Satan's character which have hitherto been overlooked, but which we must nevertheless let the world know. The first is that he has a decided aversion to drapery, if not to linen-drapers and haberdashers themselves. In the "good old times," of which we are treating, and even long before, as testified by old Dan Homer's description of the three goddesses upon Mount Ida, he delighted in "primitive simplicity." We shall therefore not describe how the witches and love-lorn damsels of the times we are treating of, were wont to meet him; but say, in the language of Lord Byron's Italian lady acquaintance to an English lady, who was too inquisitive as to the particular duty of a cavalier servente, “ Madam, I entreat you to suppose it."

Whether the advancing delicacy of later ages compelled Satan to shift his ground a little, or whether he relaxed in his dislike to the trade, from being delighted at the gallant way in which the renowned John Gilpin rode from London to

meet him at Ware in the guise of his "good friend, the Calendar," is a matter of doubt; but this much is certain, that the Scotch lassies, who consulted him in Burns's time, were allowed the benefit of one garment at least. The other point to which we allude is, that the Devil is essentially "a man of the world," and knows how to play his cards properly. As he cannot induce the young ladies of the present day to consult him in the airy attire of the last century, he has accorded them the permission to do so in the semi-nude dress of the ball-room, or opera, which leaves little room for the imagination, and answers his purpose equally as well.

Passing over a rather long diatribe of the worthy author against the sinfulness of thus enquiring into futurity, whereby love-sick damsels imperil their souls, we proceed to state that the nights usually devoted to this species of divination are, 1st, St. Andrew's night; 2nd, St. Thomas's night; 3rd, Christmas night; 4th, New Year's night; and lastly, the night of the Three Kings, or Epiphany night, besides several others, on which these devilish juggleries are brought into play, to the great displeasure of God and the holy angels, and to the supreme gratification of the Devil. Amongst these juggleries may be mentioned the practice of