e mysel fro' this accussed hound?"

"Alas! no, my son," replied Paslew, "and I fear no weapon will prevail
against it, for I recognise in the animal the hound of the wizard,
Demdike."

"Ey thowt t' dule wur in it," rejoined Hal; "boh leave me to fight it
owt, and do you gain t' bonk, an mey t' best o' your way to t' Wiswall.
Ey'n join ye os soon os ey con scrush this varment's heaod agen a stoan.
Ha!" he added, joyfully, "Ey'n found t' thwittle. Go--go. Ey'n soon be
efter ye."

Feeling he should sink if he remained where he was, and wholly unable to
offer any effectual assistance to his companion, the abbot turned to the
left, where a large oak overhung the stream, and he was climbing the
bank, aided by the roots of the tree, when a man suddenly came from
behind it, seized his hand, and dragged him up forcibly. At the same
moment his captor placed a bugle to his lips, and winding a few notes,
he was instantly answered by shouts, and soon afterwards half a dozen
armed men ran up, bearing torches. Not a word passed between the
fugitive and his captor; but when the men came up, and the torchlight
fell upon the features of the latter, the abbot's worst fears were
realised. It was Demdike.

"False to your king!--false to your oath!--false to all men!" cried the
wizard. "You seek to escape in vain!"

"I merit all your reproaches," replied the abbot; "but it may he some
satisfaction, to you to learn, that I have endured far greater suffering
than if I had patiently awaited my doom."

"I am glad of it," rejoined Demdike, with a savage laugh; "but you have
destroyed others beside yourself. Where is the fellow in the water?
What, ho, Uriel!"

But as no sound reached him, he snatched a torch from one of the
arquebussiers and held it to the river's brink. But he could see neither
hound nor man.

"Strange!" he cried. "He cannot have escaped. Uriel is more than a match
for any man. Secure the prisoner while I examine the stream."

With this, he ran along the bank with great quickness, holding his torch
far over the water, so as to reveal any thing floating within it, but
nothing met his view until he came within a short distance of the mill,
when he beheld a black object struggling in the current, and soon found
that it was his dog making feeble efforts to gain the bank.

"Ah recreant! thou hast let him go," cried Demdike, furiously.

Seeing his master the animal redoubled its efforts, crept ashore, and
fell at his feet