appearance. His complexion was pale as that of a corpse, his eyes dead
and glassy, and the muscles of his face seemed as if they were paralyzed
and could not move. His right hand was thrust in his bosom, and! over
his left arm he bore some dark garment of a very funereal cast, almost
reminding one of a mortcloth.

"There is one," said he, in a hollow and sepulchral voice, "that could
do it." Father Magauran, who was present, looked at him with surprise;
as indeed did every one who had got an opportunity of seeing him.

"I know there is," he replied, "a sartin individual who could do it;
ay, in troth, and maybe if he fell into the flames, too, he'd only
find himself in his own element; and if it went to that could dance a
hornpipe in the middle of it."

This repartee of the priest's elicited loud laughter from the
by-standers, who, on turning round to see how the other bore it, found
that he had disappeared. This occasioned considerable amazement, not
unmixed with a still more extraordinary feeling. Nobody there knew him,
nor had ever even seen him before; and in a short time the impression
began to gain ground that he must have been no other than the conjurer
who was said to have arrived in the town that day. In the meantime,
while this point was under discussion, a clear, loud, but very mellow
voice was heard about twenty yards above them, saying, "Stand aside, and
make way--leave me room for a run."

The curiosity of the people was at once excited by what they had only
a few minutes before pronounced to be a feat that was impossible to be
accomplished. They accordingly opened a lane for the daring individual,
who, they imagined, was about to submit himself to a scorching