sickness could not prevent him considering very inquisitively the
landlady's cantrips, and particularly the influence of the sauce upon the
crowing of the cock. Nor could he dissipate some inward desires he felt
to follow her example. At the same time, he suspected that Satan had a
hand in the pie, yet he thought he would like very much to be at the
bottom of the concern; and thus his reason and his curiosity clashed
against each other for the space of several hours. At length passion, as
is too often the case, became the conqueror. Michael, too, dipped his
finger in the sauce, and applied it to the tip of his tongue, and
immediately the cock perched on the _spardan_ announced the circumstance
in a mournful clarion. Instantly his mind received a new light to which
he was formerly a stranger, and the astonished dupe of a landlady now
found it her interest to admit her sagacious lodger into a knowledge of
the remainder of her secrets.

Endowed with the knowledge of "good and evil," and all the "second
sights" that can be acquired, Michael left his lodgings in the morning,
with the philosopher's stone in his pocket. By daily perfecting his
supernatural attainments, by new series of discoveries, he became more
than a match for Satan himself. Having seduced some thousands of Satan's
best workmen into his employment, he trained them up so successfully to
the architective business, and inspired them with such industrious
habits, that he was more than sufficient for all the architectural work
of the empire. To establish this assertion, we need only refer to some
remains of his workmanship still existing north of the Grampians, some of
them, stupendous bridges built by him in one short night, with no other
visible agents than two or three workmen.

On one occasion work was getting scarce, as might have been naturally
expected, and his workmen, as they were wont, flocked to his doors,