prayed.

Remembering the story of Michael Hamilton, which I have already told, and
other noble and virtuous miracles of Madame St. Catherine of Fierbois, I
commanded me to her, that, by God's grace, she would be pleased to
release me from bonds and prison. And I promised that, if she would so
favour me, I would go on pilgrimage to her chapel of Fierbois. I looked
that my chains should now fall from my limbs, but, finding no such
matter, and being very weary (for all the last night I had slept none), I
fell on slumber and forgot my sorrow.

Belike I had not lain long in that blessed land where trouble seldom
comes when I was wakened, as it were, by a tugging at my clothes. I sat
up, but the room was dark, save for a faint light in the casement, high
overhead, and I thought I had dreamed. Howbeit, as I lay down again,
heavy at heart, my clothes were again twitched, and now I remembered what
I had heard, but never believed, concerning "lutins" or "brownies," as we
call them, which, being spirits invisible, and reckoned to have no part
in our salvation, are wont in certain houses to sport with men. Curious
rather than affrighted, I sat up once more, and looked around, when I saw
two bright spots of light in the dark. Then deeming that, for some
reason unknown to me, the prison door had been opened while I slept, and
a cat let in, I stretched out my hands towards the lights, thence came a
sharp, faint cry, and something soft and furry leaped on to my breast,
stroking me with little hands.

It was Elliot's jackanapes, very meagre, as I could feel, and all his
ribs standing out, but he made much of me, fondling me after his manner;
and indeed, for my lady's sake, I kissed him, wondering much how he came
there. Then he put something into my hands, almost as if he had been a
Christian, for it was a wise beast and a kind. Even then there shone
into my memory the thought of how my lady had prayed for her little
friend when he was stolen (which I had thought strange, and scarcely
warranted by our Faith), and with that, hope wakened within me. My eyes
being now more accustomed to the darkness, I saw that the thing which the
jackanapes gave me was a little wallet, for he had been taught to fetch
and carry, and never was such a marvel at climbing. But as I was
caressing him, I found a string about his neck, to which there seemed to
be no end. Now, at length, I comprehended what was toward, and pulling
gently at the strin