One day, however, when the king was present, a courtier made some remark about “the Evil One;” his Majesty’s august brow grew pale, and Offero could have sworn he saw his stem lips quiver. Pained and surprised, he humbly asked the king why he was troubled.
“I am afraid of the Devil,” said that monarch, “although I fear no mortal man. He is the King of Hades, and more powerful even than I.”
“Then I must leave you, O king!” cried Offero with haste, “since I have vowed to serve none other than the most powerful monarch in existence.” And sorrowfully he turned away.
“Where is the Devil?” he asked the first man he met.
“He is everywhere,” returned the traveller, looking round uneasily; and this was the usual answer that Offero received to his inquiry. Wherever he went men looked uneasy at the Devil’s name, but would not say where Offero was most likely to meet with him.
He found him at last among a group of idle men and maidens on the village green, and hailed him as his master. The Devil was glad to have so strong a follower, and amused himself by showing the astonished giant his power over rich and poor. There seemed to be no limit to his might; he swayed the nobles in their velvet robes, and the peasants in their tattered garments.
“He is indeed master of the world,” sighed Offero, and though he liked not the Devil’s ways, he stifled his distaste that he might keep his word.
One day his master led him through the outskirts of the town into the open country.
“We are going to visit a hermit,” he said with a burst of laughter. “He has left the town to be quit of me, but he will find me in his cave!”
Before Offero could ask him what he meant to do with the good hermit, they came to a turn where four roads met. A rough wind swayed the branches of the trees, and a peal of thunder echoed among the lofty hills. It was neither wind nor thunder, however, that made the Devil tremble, but the sight of a wooden cross which some pious folk had erected here. With gaunt arms pointing east and west it stood immovable; the rain beat down on it mercilessly, as if to cleanse it from the roadside dust; and turning his head away that he might not see it, the Devil hastened past. Not until it was far behind them had Offero an opportunity of asking why he had trembled.