see the town.

I read on all the night, nor did I cease until I had finished the
manuscript which Roger Trewinion had placed in my hands.

It is not now my purpose to tell you my impressions concerning it. The
fact that the story therein told follows this chapter bears witness to
the interest I found in it. Whether it will prove equally interesting
to the reader is not for me to say.

I have now told how I came by these confessions of Roger Trewinion, so
I need write little more concerning them.

Let it be understood, however, that my only share in the story is that
of editor and reviser. Much of it had to be re-written and much of the
dialect transposed into ordinary English. Still, the history stands
practically as I found it, and, wherever I have re-written or revised,
I have endeavoured to retain the spirit in which Roger Trewinion
originally wrote.

Of the belief and deeds of the writer, I may have a few words to say by
and bye; but my only duty at present is to lay before you the history
he wrote at a time when strange deeds were done in this western county,
and when its people were influenced and bound by strange and sometimes
cruel superstitions.

THE END OF PROLOGUE.

CHAPTER I

THE PROPHETIC WARNING

"_And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field;
and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau;
but Rebekah loved Jacob._"

What I, Roger Trewinion, am about to write is true. I tell what I have
seen, and heard, and have been.

I was born in the year of our Lord, 1750. I am now sixty years of age.

My family is an ancient one; not that I boast of it, for families
reckon as little when the terrible realities of life press heavily upon
us. Still, in mentioning the fact that my family is ancient and
honourable, I do not do so without a purpose. Events will show that it
matters not much what name we bear if the man within us be not strong
to resist temptation.

Our family included, besides myself, one son and two daughters. The
son, my brother, was called Wilfred, my two sisters, Katherine and
Elizabeth. I am the elder son, and am called Roger after my father.
Wilfred was born two years after me. Katherine and Elizabeth were
respectively four and six years younger than myself.

People always said I was a true son of my father. From my childhood I
was big, strong, and daring. I must add, too, that I was passionate
and revengeful.