"I cry thee mercy, Master Haworth; but for what good deed am I to suffer? I have brought luck to thine house hitherto, and what mischief yon ghost hath wrought is none o' my doing. If thou wilt, I can rid thee of his presence, and that speedily, even if 'twere Beelzebub himself."
"But will thy conjurations bring back my sister?" said the wondering, yet half-credulous squire.
"That is more than I can tell. But, to prove that I am not in league with thine enemy, I will cast him out."
"Hath Alice been strangled, or in anywise hurt, by this wicked spirit?"
"Nay," said the beggar solemnly, "I guess not; but I heard him pass by, and the chains did rattle fearfully through mine ears, until I heard them at her bed-chamber. He may have spirited her away to fairy-land for aught I know; and yet she lives!"
"Save us, merciful Disposer of our lot!" said Nicholas, much moved to sorrow at this strange recital, yet in somewise comforted by the assurance it contained. "We are none of us safe from his visitations, now they are extended hitherto. I dreamt not of danger beforetime, though I have heard sounds, and seen unaccountable things; yet I imagined that in the old chamber only he had power to work mischief; and, even there, I did disbelieve much of thy story, as it respected his freaks and the nature and manner of his visits. The rumblings that I fancied at times in the dead of night were in the end disregarded and almost forgotten."
"I too have heard the like, but I knew it was the spirit, and"——
"Beware, old man; for I do verily suspect thee as an abettor of these unlawful practices."
"And so the reward for my testimony is like to end in a lying accusation and a prison!"
"Canst thou win her back by driving from me this evil spirit?"