"Good father," said Gerard, "how you have their names by heart. Our northern priests have no such exquisite knowledge of the hellish squadrons."
"Ay, young man, here we know all their names, and eke their ways, the reptiles. This Nebul is a bitter hard one to hunt out."
He then told the company in the most affable way several of his experiences; concluding with his feat of yesterday, when he drove a great hulking fiend out of a woman by her mouth, leaving behind him certain nails, and pins, and a tuft of his own hair, and cried out in a voice of anguish, ''Tis not thou that conquers me. See that stone on the window sill. Know that the angel Gabriel coming down to earth once lighted on that stone: 'tis that has done my business.'"
The friar moaned. "And you believed him?"
"Certes! who, but an infidel had discredited a revelation so precise?"
"What, believe the father of lies? That is pushing credulity beyond the age."
"Oh, a liar does not always lie."
"Ay doth he whenever he tells an improbable story to begin, and shows you a holy relic; arms you against the satanic host. Fiends (if any) be not so simple. Shouldst have answered him out of antiquity—
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
Some blackguard chopped his wife's head off on that stone, young man; you take my word for it." And the friar hurried Gerard away.