there, before a short, grave-looking, elderly gentleman, dressed in dark-brown clothes, came up, and began to examine the prints, and occasionally casting a glance at him, very soon entered into conversation with him; and, praising the view of St. Paul's which was exhibited at the window, told him many anecdotes of Sir Christopher Wren the architect, and asked him at the same time if he had ever ascended to the top of the dome. He replied in the negative. The stranger then inquired if he had dined, and proposed that they should go to an eatinghouse in the neighbourhood, and said that after dinner he would accompany him up St. Paul's: it was a glorious afternoon for a view, and he was so familiar with the place that he could point out every object worthy of attention.' The kindness of the old gentleman's manner induced him to comply with the invitation; and they went to a tavern in some dark alley, the name of which he did not know. They dined, and very soon left the table, and ascended to the ball just below the cross, which they entered alone. They had not been there many minutes, when, while he was gazing on the extensive prospect, and delighted with the splendid scene below him, the grave gentleman pulled out from an inside coat-pocket something like a compass, having round the edges some curious figures; then, having muttered some unintelligible words, he placed it in the centre of the ball. He felt a great trembling and a sort of horror come over him, which was increased by his companion asking him if he should like to see any friend at a distance, and to know what he was at that moment doing, for if so, the latter could show him any such person. It

A DEVIL AT THE TOP OF SAINT PAUL'S. 287

happened that his father had been for a long time in bad health, and for some weeks past he had not visited him. A sudden thought came into his mind, so powerful that it overcame his terror, that he should like to see his father. He had no sooner expressed the wish than the exact person of his father was immediately presented to his sight on the mirror, reclining in his arm-chair, and taking his afternoon sleep. Not having fully believed in the power of the stranger to make good his offer, he became overwhelmed with terror at the clearness and truth of the vision presented to him; and he entreated his mysterious companion that they might immediately descend, as he felt himself very ill. The request was complied with; and on parting under the portico of the northern entrance, the stranger said to him, 'Remember, you are the slave of the man of the mirror!' He returned in the evening to his home, he does not know exactly at what hour; felt himself unquiet, depressed, gloomy, apprehensive, and haunted with thoughts of the stranger. For the last three months he has been conscious of the power of the latter over him. Dr. Arnould adds, "I inquired in what way his power was exercised. He cast on me a look of suspicion mingled with confidence; took my arm, and, after leading me through two or three rooms, and then into the garden, exclaimed, 'It is of no use; there is no concealment from him, for all places are alike open to him; he sees us and he hears us now.' I asked him where this being was who saw and heard us. He replied, in a voice of deep agitation, Have I not told you that he lives in the ball below the cross on the top of St. Paul's, and that he only comes down to take a

walk in the churchyard, and get his dinner at the house in the dark alley? Since that fatal interview with the necromancer,' he continued, for such I believe him to be, he is continually dragging me before him on his mirror, and he not only sees me every moment of the day, but he reads all my thoughts, and I have a dreadful consciousness that no action of my life is free from his inspection, and no place can afford me security from his power.' On my replying that the darkness of the night would afford him protection from these machinations, he said, 'I know what you mean, but you are quite mistaken. I have only told you of the mirror; but in some part of the building which we passed in coming away, he showed me what he called a great bell, and I heard sounds which came from it, and which went to it,sounds of laughter, and of anger, and of pain; there was a dreadful confusion of sounds, and as I listened with wonder and affright, he said, 'This is my organ of hearing; this great bell is in communication with all other bells within the circle of hieroglyphics, by which every word spoken by those under my control is made audible to me.' Seeing me look surprised at him, he said,

I have not yet told you all; for he practises his spells by hieroglyphics on walls and houses, and wields his power, like a detestable tyrant as he is, over the minds of those whom he has enchanted, and who are the objects of his constant spite, within the circle of the hieroglyphics.' I asked him what these hieroglyphics were, and how he perceived them? He replied, signs and symbols which you in your ignorance of their true meaning have taken for letters and words, and read, as you have thought,

'Day and Martin, and Warren's blacking.' Oh! that is all nonsense! they are only the mysterious characters which he traces, to mark the boundary of his dominion, and by which he prevents all escape from his tremendous power. How have I toiled and laboured to get beyond the limits of his influence! Once I walked for three days and three nights, till I fell down under a wall, exhausted by fatigue, and dropped asleep; but, on awakening, I saw the dreadful signs before my eyes, and I felt myself as completely under his infernal spells at the end, as at the beginning of my journey.'

"It is probable that this gentleman had actually ascended to the top of St. Paul's, and that impressions there received, being afterwards renewed in his mind when in a state of vivid excitement, in a dream of ecstatic reverie, became so blended with the creations of fancy, as to form one mysterious vision, in which the true and the imaginary were afterwards inseparable. Such, at least, is the best explanation of the phenomena that occurs to us."

LVI. THE DUKE DE LAVAL

WAS renowned for making bulls; so that, as ordinarily happens in such cases, all that the wits of Paris could devise were fathered upon him. Thus he is reported to have said, that he had received an anonymous letter signed by all the officers of his regiment; and to have observed very quietly, that he had placed sofas in the four corners of his octagon sitting-room. One of his sayings is shrewd enough, and smacks rather of the cold

VOL. I.

U

ness of a confirmed egotist, than the giddy kindness of a bull-maker. He was rich, but always refused to lend money, because," said he, "the best thing that can happen is to get my money back."

LVII. BISHOPS AND THEIR BARONIES IN FEE.

Of this the

IN the year 1070, in the fourth year of the reign of William the Conqueror, or, as others think, in 1086, in his 20th year, the feudal tenures were fully established; and from that time the bishops, who had hitherto sat in any great councils of the nation by the right of prelacy or ecclesiastical dignity, being obliged to hold their lands as baronies, began to sit as barons, preceding the temporal barons by the sanctity of their function. fullest testimony is given in the Constitutions of Clarendon, passed in the 10th Hen. II. A.D. 1163, by which it is enacted that archbishops, bishops, and all others who hold of the King in capite shall be considered as possessing baronies, and be obliged to be present at trials in the King's court: "Archiepiscopi, episcopi, et universæ personæ regni qui de Rege tenent in capite, habeant possessiones suas de Rege sicut baroniam, et inde respondeant justiciariis et ministris Regis; et sicut cæteri barones debent interesse judiciis curiae Regis cum baronibus, quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem." (See Spelm. Glossar. &c. p. 80.) And soon after, in the year 1165, when Archbishop Becket was condemned in parliament to the forfeiture of all his goods and chattels, a controversy arising between the bishops and temporal barons concerning the office of passing sen