the course of her life and connection with the Captain, performed
and gloried in a number of wicked coquetries, idlenesses, vanities,
lies, fits of anger, slanders, foul abuses, and what not--she was
fairly bound over to this dark angel whom we have alluded to; and he
dealt with her, and aided her, as one of his own children.

I do not mean to say that, in this strait, he appeared to her in the
likeness of a gentleman in black, and made her sign her name in
blood to a document conveying over to him her soul, in exchange for
certain conditions to be performed by him. Such diabolical bargains
have always appeared to me unworthy of the astute personage who is
supposed to be one of the parties to them; and who would scarcely be
fool enough to pay dearly for that which he can have in a few years
for nothing. It is not, then, to be supposed that a demon of
darkness appeared to Mrs. Cat, and led her into a flaming chariot
harnessed by dragons, and careering through air at the rate of a
thousand leagues a minute. No such thing; the vehicle that was sent
to aid her was one of a much more vulgar description.

The "Liverpool carryvan," then, which in the year 1706 used to
perform the journey between London and that place in ten days, left
Birmingham about an hour after Mrs. Catherine had quitted that town;
and as she sat weeping on a hillside, and plunged in bitter
meditation, the lumbering, jingling vehicle overtook her. The
coachman was marching by the side of his horses, and encouraging
them to maintain their pace of two miles an hour; the passengers had
some of them left the vehicle, in order to walk up the hill; and the
carriage had arrived at the top of it, and, meditating a brisk trot
down the declivity, waited there until the lagging passengers should
arrive: when Jehu, casting a good-natured glance upon Mrs.