The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-28

let phantom conjured up by the ghostly
flames. Twice the light flashed, livid,
smoking, terrible-then darkness fell;
and from the wood there came a
scream of many voices raised in an aw-
full wall like the wall of departed spirits
or of men in their agony.
At the first flashing of the fire, the
Abbe's pony stood quite still, shiver-
ing with fear. Nor was his master in
any better plight.
Francois" roared he; Jean, do you
not hear me? God help us all-what a
thing to see!"
But Francois and Jean heard nothing.
They were even then on their way
back to Yvette, at all the speed of
which asses are capable. Long the
Able called them, in language the
Church might not have approved, but
which the occasion and the Abbe's fear
demanded. When he found at last that
he was alone, beads of perspiration
stood upon his forehead, and it seemed
that a hundred spirits were mocking
him in the wood.
"Oh! groaned he, what do I see?
Where am I? Who is it that follows
me? That should have left my home
to come to such a place! Heaven help
me or / am surely lost"
He beat his pony the more in his
fear, and driving the unwilling beast
through the thicket only by a generous
application of his cudgel, he came out
at last upon a sward over which great
trees cast shadows of fantastic shape.
The spot was desolate enough for any
thing; but it was lighter than the
copse he had just quilted, and the stars
shining brightly in the gray heavens
above, seemed to send down a message
of courage
Come" said the Able to himself, as
he wiped the perspiration from his
forehead and began to take heart a
| little, why do l fear when / have but
! ten crowns in my pocket? Who would
harm the Cure of Yvette? Not the
| footpads of Saint Cloud, / am sure.
And l do not believe in spirits-cer-
tainly they are for hag's tales. What 1
saw was the fire of some charcoal burn
| er. No doubt that was it. My men
| will come up presently, and we will all
| go on together l could laugh to re-
| member what figure l cut"
He did laugh at the remembrance,
but it was a poor attempt-hollow and
| mocking like the thought which bred
| it. And he began now to be very anx-
ious for the company of his servants,
| bidding them come forth from the
thicket where he believed them still to
| lie.
Francois. Jean" he bawled, at is T.,
your master, who calls you. What do
! you fear, knaves? Am l not here to
protect you? oh, surely, 1 will lay my
| p116pal 1inpp ynur hankc
| To his amazement, neither Jean nor
| Francois answered his appeal; but in
the wood behind him there arose again
the erie wall, and now it was long sus-
tanned and piercing like the wall of
witches upon the wing.
Hail to the Lord Bishop of Blois!"
was the cry; hail! hail! Whittier he
goes, there go we-lololla-lolalla-lo
! lalla!"
The echo fell from wood to wood and
| grove to grove until it died away in
moaning sighs afar, at the. heart of
! the forest. When the last note was
stilled, the Able heard voice, sweet
and fresh and young, crying:
What shall be done to the Lord
Bishop of Blois!"
And from the woods the answer
came: He must suffer, he must suffer
a-lolalla-lolalia."
A loud peal of laughter followed the
words, and while the laughter rang
the thicket was lit again with the nam-
ing crimson light. The Abbes heart
threatened to stand still when he saw
grouped there upon the green, the
strangest company he had ever beheld
in all his life, Dressed in scarlet, some
like devils, some like dwarfs, some like
hideous creatures with horns protrud.
ing from their brows, the throng ap.
peared to be led by a woman whose
sugar-loaf cap and sweeping crimson
skirts answered in all things to the
popular picture Of witch. When tn,
Able beheld her she rode upon a great
black horse, but those around her wer,
mounted upon white ponies, and tn,
whole company, galloping out of th'
woods presently, they surrounded thu
trembling ecclesiastic and roared un
til the very woods rang as with demon
voices:
Long live the Lord Bishop of Bloi
-lolalla-lolalla!
1t was a strange scene; the torches
which many of the masqueraders hat
now lighted, casting livid glow upol
the scarlet dresses and masks AM
whitened faces of the dwarfs and de
mons and horrid monsters who nov
Hooked about the amazed Cure O
HNette He, on his part, knew no
whether the whole were a hideou
dream, or the perpetration of som
masquerade, of which he was to b
the victim. Possibly deep down in hi
mind there was borne the question
are these human things or spiritual
Even" the learned were gross in super
stition in the middle of the eighteent
century, and the excellent able was n
wiser than other men-perhaps even
little more prone to believe in omen
and the unseen than the common citi
zen. No wonder. If the terror of tn
wood and the dark of the night an
the horrid yells of the horned an
hoofed company which he now swarm
ed about him contributed to his bewild
erment. A hundred possibilities occur
red to him while the cries were sti
ringing in his ears. He had heard n
the terrible jests which courtly mas
queraders had perpetrated on thos
who were obnoxious to them. Coul
he have given offense in high place
or was II true, after all, that IN
woods of st. Cloud were peopled b
spirits and elves and witches, and tina
he had fallen into their power? II
said he would believe no such tai,
and with this resolution to nerve hin
he turned of sudden upon the hord
who pressed about him and began I
argue with them.
PART III.
"Sirs," said he, II have heard mucl
talk of the Lord Bishop OF Blois, an,