"'Thou art mine,' he cried, in accents graven for ever on my memory;
'but I am a generous master, and will give thee a long term of freedom.
Thou shalt be avenged upon thine enemy--deeply avenged.'

"'Grant this, and I am thine,' I replied, a spirit of infernal vengeance
possessing me. And I knelt before the fiend.

"'But thou must tarry for awhile,' he answered, 'for thine enemy's time
will be long in coming; but it _will_ come. I cannot work him immediate
harm; but I will lead him to a height from which he will assuredly fall
headlong. Thou must depart from this place; for it is perilous to thee,
and if thou stayest here, ill will befall thee. I will send a rat to thy
dungeon, which shall daily devour the provisions, so that the monks
shall not know thou hast fled. In thirty and one years shall the abbot's
doom be accomplished. Two years before that time thou mayst return. Then
come alone to Pendle Hill on a Friday night, and beat the water of the
moss pool on the summit, and I will appear to thee and tell thee more.
Nine and twenty years, remember!'

"With these words the shadowy figure melted away, and I found myself
standing alone on the mossy roof of the dormitory. The cold stars were
shining down upon me, and I heard the howl of the watch-dogs near the
gate. The fair abbey slept in beauty around me, and I gnashed my teeth
with rage to think that you had made me an outcast from it, and robbed
me of a dignity which might have been mine. I was wroth also that my
vengeance should be so long delayed. But I could not remain where I was,
so I clambered down the buttress, and fled away."

"Can this be?" cried the abbot, who had listened in rapt wonderment to