speedily experienced her resentment.  When she was in the fulness of her power, a rival sprang up in the person of Anne Whittle, since known by the name of Chattox, which she obtained in marriage, and this woman disputed Bess Demdike’s supremacy.  Each strove to injure the adherents of her rival—­and terrible was the mischief they wrought.  In the end, however, Mother Demdike got the upper hand.  Years have flown over the old hag’s head, and her guilty career has been hitherto attended with impunity.  Plans have been formed to bring her to justice, but they have ever failed.  And so in the case of old Chattox.  Her career has been as baneful and as successful as that of Mother Demdike.”

“But their course is wellnigh run,” said Potts, “and the time is come for the extirpation of the old serpents.”

“Ah! who is that at the window?” cried Sudall; “but that you are sitting near me, I should declare you were looking in at us.”

“It must be Master Potts’s brother, the reeve of the forest,” observed Nicholas, with a laugh.

“Heed him not,” cried the attorney, angrily, “but let us have the promised legend of Malkin Tower.”

“Willingly!” replied the chirurgeon.  “But before I begin I must recruit myself with a can of ale.”

The flagon being set before him, Sudall commenced his story: 

    The Legend of Malkin Tower.

“On the brow of a high hill forming part of the range of Pendle, and commanding an extensive view over the forest, and the wild and mountainous region around it, stands a stern solitary tower.  Old as the Anglo-Saxons, and built as a stronghold by Wulstan, a Northumbrian thane, in the time of Edmund or Edred, it is circular in form and very lofty, and serves as a landmark to the country round.  Placed high up in the building the door was formerly reached by a steep flight of stone steps, but these were removed some fifty or sixty years ago by Mother Demdike, and a ladder capable of being raised or let down at pleasure substituted for them, affording the only apparent means of entrance.  The tower is otherwise inaccessible, the walls being of immense thickness, with no window lower than five-and-twenty feet from the ground, though it is thought there must be a secret outlet; for the old witch, when she wants to come forth, does not wait for the ladder to be let down.  But this may be otherwise explained.  Internally there are three floors, the lowest being placed on a level with the door, and this is the apartment chiefly occupied by the hag.  In the centre of this room is a trapdoor opening upon a deep vault, which forms the basement story of the structure, and which was once used as a dungeon, but is now tenanted, it is said, by a fiend, who can be summoned by the witch on stamping her foot.  Round the room runs a gallery contrived in the thickness of the walls, while the upper chambers are gained by a secret staircase, and closed by movable stones,