minister's wife, Alexander Bailie, of Dunraget, and
his broad-lipped hat, and the rest. But the
Devil cried out, in a kind of agony, "Let not
the minister go! I shall burn the house if he
goes!" Weaver Campbell, desperately frightened,
besought the minister to stay; to which he
at last consented, not willing to see them come
to mischief. As he turned back into the house,
the Devil gave a great gaff of laughing, saying,
"Now, sir, you have done my bidding!" which
was unhandsome of Tom.

"Not thine; but, in obedience to God, have
I returned to bear this man company whom thou
dost afflict," says the minister, nowise
discomposed.

Then the minister discharged all from speaking
to the Demon, saying that when it spoke
they must only kneel and pray to God. This
did not suit the Devil at all. He roared
mightily, and cried, "What! will ye not speak
to me? I shall strike the bairns and do all
manner of mischief!" No answer was
returned: and then the little children were
slapped and beaten on their bare persons—
where little children are used to be beaten.
After a while this ended too, and then he
called out to the goodwife, "Grissel, put out
the candle!"

"Shall I do it?" says she to the minister's
wife.

"No; for then shall you obey the Devil,"
answered that discreet person.

Upon this the Demon shouted with a louder
voice, "Put out the candle!" The candle
went on burning. For the third time, "Put
out the candle, I say!" Grissel, not caring
to continue the uproar, put it out. "And
now," says he, "I'll trouble you no more this
night."

Once again, the ministers and gentlemen met
for prayer and exorcism, when it is to be
presumed that Tom was not with them, for
everything was quiet; but soon after, the stirs
began again, and Tom and the rest were sore
molested. Gilbert Campbell made an appeal to
the Synod of Presbyters; a committee of which
appointed a special day of humiliation in
February, 1656, for the freeing of the weaver's
house from this affliction; in consequence
whereof, from April to August the Devil was
perfectly quiet, and the family lived together in
peace. But, after this time, the mischief broke
out afresh. Perhaps Tom had come home from
college, or his father had renewed his talk of
binding him to his own trade; whatever the
cause, the effect was certain—the Devil had
come back to Glenluce.

One day, as the goodwife was standing by
the fire, making the porridge for the children,
the Demon came and snatched the plate on
which was the oatmeal, out of her hand, and
spilt all the meal.

"Let me have the tin-plate again," said
Grissel Wyllie very humbly; and it came flying
back to her. "It is like if she had sought the
meal too, she might have got it, such is his
civility when he is entreated," says the
commentator.

Things after this, went very ill. The children
were daily thrashed with heavy staves, and every
one in the family underwent much personal
damage; until, as a climax, on the eighteenth
of September, the Demon said he would burn the
house down, and did in very truth set it on fire.
But it was put out again, before much mischief
was done.

After a time—probably by Tom's going away,
or getting afraid of being found out—the Devil
was quieted and laid for ever. "This weaver
must have been a very odd man that endured
so long these marvellous disturbances," says
Mr. George Sinclair, from whose Satan's
Invisible World Discovered, printed in 1685, I
have taken, often verbatim, this strange and
most veracious history. It is a singular instance
of how much people will believe without
examination, and of how far a little boldness,
manual dexterity, and unscrupulosity, will
impose even on fairly discerning and well-educated
men. It is to be remembered, however, that
the indiscreet expression of a doubt then, would
have subjected the most respectable gentleman
in the place—Alexander Bailie, of Dunraget,
himself—to the charge of Sadduceeism and
atheism; and, if persisted in, might have lighted
a fire in Glenluce which only blood would have
quenched. For, if the laws were severe against
witches and witchcraft, they were no milder
towards those who doubted inopportunely; the
Black Art was damnable, but unbelief in it
was more damnable. Accordingly, Tom played
off his demoniacal pranks with very little fear
of detection; for who amongst that godly company
would have dared to say, "This is no fiend,
but a human being; no possession, but simply a
boy's froward trick?" The minister himself
dared not have said so; and Tom knew full
well the illimitable extent of superstition by
which he was supported. The Devil of Glenluce
was neither more nor less than a fast
young lad from college, with a horror of
his father's trade, and a quantity of time and
energy unemployed on his hands, which he
thought he could not do better than use for his
own amusement.

Has the race of such young evil spirits quite
died out?

Now ready, at all the Libraries, in Three Volumes
post 8vo,
THE WOMAN IN WHITE.
By WILKIE COLLINS.
SAMPSON LOW, SON, and Co., 47, Ludgate-hill.

The right of Translating Articles from ALL THE YEAR ROUND is reserved by the Authors.