.' The Dean answered: 'As you have tasted one you
may taste the other also; I know well what a bad guest you are, I and
you must have a better understanding before we separate.' 'What
_Pfaff_, do you wish to drive me away? I will sooner tear you to
atoms.' The Dean replied: 'You desperate villain! I think you hanker
after me, the smallest of little popish priests, therefore you shall,
before all the world, be permitted to enter into me as your pride
impels you; I will open my mouth wide enough, and make no sign of the
cross before it.' Then the evil one answered: 'Yes, enter, enter I
would, if I could only catch and bite your tongue and your fingers.'
'That I fully believe,' said the Dean, 'if it were in your power to
destroy me and every Christian man in his mother's womb, I hold it
certain you would spare no pains to do so; and listen to me, Satan, I
hold this head fast till you tell me what is in this little reliquary.'
'Then,' he answered, 'it is a holy thing.' 'What holy thing?' inquired
the Dean. 'That of Jerusalem,' said the evil one. The Dean replied:
'What of Jerusalem? make short of it, and be not so ceremonious.' To
which Satan exclaimed: 'Oh, leave me in peace; you know that I cannot
name it.' 'Then,' said the Dean, 'these are rotten, lame excuses; you
can very well name it if you will, therefore I conjure you, by the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you publicly declare what it is.'
'Oh,' said he, 'it is indeed a piece of the holy cross, and a bit of
the pillar at which He was scourged.' The Dean replied: 'Do you then
believe that Christ died for us?' To which he said: 'Why should I not
believe it? I was not far off.' Upon that the Dean took down the
reliquary, and laid the above-mentioned Agnus Dei upon her head without
her perceiving it. She complained, wept, and cried out, even more than
before. On perceiving this strange agitation, the Dean wished again to
hear what it was that so discomposed her. Then the bad spirit called
out: 'Ho! ho! you shall make me tell you that again.' Then there was
much talk on both sides, till at last the evil spirit was constrained
by the hand of God to say, 'It is truly an Agnus Dei.' The Dean then
asked: 'Where was it consecrated?' To which the evil one said: 'If the
whole world stood by, they should not compel me to name the city.' The
Dean said: 'Indeed there is no place in all the world where you and
yours do meet with so much damage and opposition, therefore make not