“‘If more proof is wanting,’ resumed the parson, after a pause, ’only look to his dress.  What Christian would think of travelling about the country in red?  It is a type of the hell-fire from which he is sprung.’  ’Did you observe his hair hanging down his back like a bunch of carrots?’ asked the exciseman.  ‘Such a diabolical glance in his eye!’ said the schoolmaster.  ‘Such a voice!’ added the landlord:  ’it is like the sound of a cracked clarionet.’  ‘His feet are not cloven,’ observed the landlady.  ‘No matter,’ exclaimed the landlord, ’the devil, when he chooses, can have as good legs as his neighbours.’  ’Better than some of them,’ quoth the lady, looking peevishly at the lower limbs of her husband.  Meanwhile the incessant treading continued unabated, although two long hours had passed since its commencement.  There was not the slightest cessation to the sound, while out of doors the storm raged with violence, and in the midst of it the hideous neighing and stamping of the black horse were heard with pre-eminent loudness.  At this time the fire of the kitchen began to burn low; the sparkling blaze was gone, and in its stead nothing but a dead red lustre emanated from the grate.  One candle had just expired, having burned down to the socket; of the one which remained, the unsnuffed wick was nearly three inches in length, black and crooked at the point, and standing like a ruined tower amid an envelopement of sickly yellow flame; while around the fire’s equally decaying lustre sat the frightened coterie, narrowing their circle as its brilliancy faded away, and eyeing each other like apparitions amidst the increasing gloom.

“At this time the clock of the steeple struck the hour of midnight, and the tread of the stranger suddenly ceased.  There was a pause for some minutes—­afterwards a rustling—­then a noise as of something drawn along the floor of his room.  In a moment thereafter his door opened; then it shut with violence, and heavy footsteps were heard trampling down the stair.  The inmates of the kitchen shook with alarm as the tread came nearer.  They expected every moment to behold the Red Man enter, and stand before them in his native character.  The landlady fainted outright:  the exciseman followed her example:  the landlord gasped in an agony of terror:  and the schoolmaster uttered a pious ejaculation for the behoof of his soul.  Dr. Poundtext was the only one who preserved any degree of composure.  He managed, in a trembling voice, to call out ’Avaunt, Satan!  I exorcise thee from hence to the bottom of the Red Sea!’ ‘I am going, as fast as I can,’ said the stranger, as he passed the kitchen-door on his way to the open air.  His voice aroused the whole conclave from their stupor.  They started up, and by a simultaneous effort rushed to the window.  There they beheld the tall figure of a man, enveloped in a black cloak, walking across the yard on his way to the stable.  He had on a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat, top-boots, with