was then discovered that a stranger was amongst them; a tall dark man, whose looks were so terrible and demoniacal that no one dared lay hands upon him.  ‘I am come,’ he said, with fearful significance, to Isole.  ‘And I am ready,’ she answered boldly.  ’I will go with you were it to the bottomless pit,’ cried Blackburn catching hold of her.  ’It is thither I am going,’ she answered with a scream of laughter.  ‘I shall be glad of a companion.’

“When the paroxysm of laughter was over, she fell down on the floor.  Her lover would have raised her, when what was his horror to find that he held in his arms an old woman, with frightfully disfigured features, and evidently in the agonies of death.  She fixed one look upon him and expired.

“Terrified by the occurrence the guests hurried away, and when they returned next day, they found Blackburn stretched on the floor, and quite dead.  They cast his body, together with that of the wretched Isole, into the vault beneath the room where they were lying, and then, taking possession of his treasure, removed to some other retreat.

“Thenceforth, Malkin Tower became haunted.  Though wholly deserted, lights were constantly seen shining from it at night, and sounds of wild revelry, succeeded by shrieks and groans, issued from it.  The figure of Isole was often seen to come forth, and flit across the wastes in the direction of Whalley Abbey.  On stormy nights a huge black cat, with flaming eyes, was frequently descried on the summit of the structure, whence it obtained its name of Grimalkin, or Malkin Tower.  The ill-omened pile ultimately came into the possession of the Nutter family, but it was never tenanted, until assigned, as I have already mentioned, to Mother Demdike.”

* * * * *

The chirurgeon’s marvellous story was listened to with great attention by his auditors.  Most of them were familiar with different versions of it; but to Master Potts it was altogether new, and he made rapid notes of it, questioning the narrator as to one or two points which appeared to him to require explanation.  Nicholas, as may be supposed, was particularly interested in that part of the legend which referred to Isole de Heton.  He now for the first time heard of her unhallowed intercourse with the freebooter Blackburn, of her compact on Whalley Nab with the fiend, of her mysterious connection with Malkin Tower, and of her being the ancestress of Mother Demdike.  The consideration of all these points, coupled with a vivid recollection of his own strange adventure with the impious votaress at the Abbey on the previous night, plunged him into a deep train of thought, and he began seriously to consider whether he might not have committed some heinous sin, and, indeed, jeopardised his soul’s welfare by dancing with her.  “What if I should share the same fate as the robber Blackburn,” he ruminated, “and be dragged to perdition by her?  It