ter;" and she showed him a glassful. Gilliatt
acknowledged it.

"The water is thick," he said; "that is true."

The good woman, who dreaded him in her heart, said, "Make it sweet again
for me."

Gilliatt asked her some questions: whether she had a stable? whether the
stable had a drain? whether the gutter of the drain did not pass near
the well? The good woman replied "Yes." Gilliatt went into the stable;
worked at the drain; turned the gutter in another direction; and the
water became pure again. People in the country round might think what
they pleased. A well does not become foul one moment and sweet the next
without good cause; the bottom of the affair was involved in obscurity;
and, in short, it was difficult to escape the conclusion that Gilliatt
himself had bewitched the water.

On one occasion, when he went to Jersey, it was remarked that he had
taken a lodging in the street called the Rue des Alleurs. Now the word
_alleurs_ signifies spirits from the other world.

In villages it is the custom to gather together all these little hints
and indications of a man's career; and when they are gathered together,
the total constitutes his reputation among the inhabitants.

It happened that Gilliatt was once caught with blood issuing from his
nose. The circumstances appeared grave. The master of a barque who had
sailed almost entirely round the world, affirmed that among the
Tongusians all sorcerers were subject to bleeding at the nose. In fact,
when you see a man in those parts bleeding at the nose, you know at once
what is in the wind. Moderate reasoners, however, remarked that the
characteristics of sorcerers among the Tongusians may possibly not apply
in the same degree to the sorcerers of Guernsey.

In the environs of one of the St. Michels, he had been seen to stop in a
close belonging to the Huriaux, skirting the highway from the Videclins.
He whistled in the field, and a moment afterwards a crow alighted there;
a moment later, a magpie. The fact was attested by a worthy man who has
since been appointed to the office of Douzenier of the Douzaine, as
those are called who are authorised to make a new survey and register of
the fief of the king.

At Hamel, in the Vingtaine of L'Epine, there lived some old women who
were positive of having heard one morning a number of swallows
distinctly calling "Gilliatt."

Add to all this that he was of a malicious temper.

One day, a poor man was beating an ass. The as