by whose labours they were acquired." Whatever he determined should
be done, whether pleasing or displeasing to his master or mistress
(for, as we have said before, he knew all their secrets), he
completed in his usual expeditious manner, without their consent.
He never went to church, or uttered one Catholic word. He did not
sleep in the house, but was ready at his office in the morning.

He was at length observed by some of the family to hold his nightly
converse near a mill and a pool of water; upon which discovery he
was summoned the next morning before the master of the house and his
lady, and, receiving his discharge, delivered up the keys, which he
had held for upwards of forty days. Being earnestly interrogated,
at his departure, who he was? he answered, "That he was begotten
upon the wife of a rustic in that parish, by a demon, in the shape
of her husband," naming the man, and his father-in-law, then dead,
and his mother, still alive; the truth of which the woman, upon
examination, openly avowed. A similar circumstance happened in our
time in Denmark. A certain unknown priest paid court to the
archbishop, and, from his obsequious behaviour and discreet conduct,
his general knowledge of letters and quick memory, soon contracted a
great familiarity with him. Conversing one day with the archbishop
about ancient histories and unknown events, on which topic he most
frequently heard him with pleasure, it happened that when the
subject of their discourse was the incarnation of our Lord, he said,
amongst other things, "Before Christ assumed human nature, the
demons had great power over mankind, which, at his coming, was much
diminished; insomuch that they were dispersed on every side, and
fled from his presence. Some precipitated themselves into the sea,
others into the hollow parts of trees, or the clefts of rocks; and I
myself leaped into a well;" on which he blushed for shame, and took