walled-up door. Gasps, scampering, yellings, then
a cessation; and again a repetition of the same
unearthly noises, with increased vehemence.
Sometimes they would seem to die away gradually in
the extreme distance, and then again come rushing
close to the door, as if a whole legion of the
enemy were keeping their jubiliee there. The
approach from the body of the church to the crypt
is by an open passage down a wide flight of steps,
immediately in front of the high altar, and is
arranged so that the walled-up door, and indeed
nearly the whole of the subterranean apartment, is
visible from the top of the steps. The greater part
of the congregation retired somewhat precipitately
to the doors on first hearing the mysterious
noises. Some, however, of the more venturesome
(for the most part women from the Trastevere)
might be seen leaning over the balusters, while
the officiating priest and his attendant descended
to perform the special service appointed for the
occasion. At first the ceremony seemed to
take effect, inasmuch as the noises certainly
became less loud as it proceeded, and there is no
knowing how far the enemy might have been
pacified, had not an essential part of the service
consisted of the rather violent ringing of an
unfortunate bell, the sound of which had the
immediate effect of increasing the demoniac uproar
to such a degree, that the remaining portion of
the service was got through as fast as might be,
and priests, acolytes, bells and all, sought refuge
with rather undignified speed in the sacristy;
the greater part of the congregation locating
themselves in places near the church doors,
convenient for a start when the occasion might
arise to resort to one.

In the course of the morning the tidings
reached the ears of the sceptical padre of the
Roman College, who, whatever doubts he might
still entertain, thought, like a practical man, that
in going to hear for himself he might as well
take with him a crowbar, pickaxe, and two
assistants. Arrived at the scene of the
disturbance, he found that not a moment's doubt
could exist as to the noises. The scramblings, the
scamperings, and the yellings, were loud enough
in all conscience. The sacristan from the body
of the church above suggested another exorcism,
but the padre preferred the crowbar and
the pickaxe, and finding that the workmen he
had brought with him had disappeared, he took
off his cloak, tucked up his sleeves, and went to
work manfully himself, making the vault re-
echo with his blows. This operation, while it
had the effect of abating the mysterious noises
behind, still further thinned the audience above
as by far the greater part of those that had
remained peering over the balusters improved
their position by retreating to the doors. I say
"to the doors," but the expression is not
perhaps strictly accurate, as after a few moments'
subsidence of the disturbance the assembly
might be seen creeping cautiously, and by slow
degrees, into the body of the church, till some
sudden scream, or even a quick motion on the
part of those on the top of the steps, would send
them in an instant into the street.

The padre continued his blows with unabated
energy, and in a few minutes the persons who
still remained watching vociferated to the others
that the very head and claws of the Evil One
were actually to be seen protruding through an
aperture in the door, and in one moment more
these persons scampered away to the others,
exclaiming that a whole troop of the enemy had
dashed through the opening, tore the padre to
pieces, and were at that moment in full career
into the church. Immediately the entire
assembly took to flight along the narrow streets
of the adjacent suburra, uttering frantic shouts
of "Un miracolo!" "Un miracolo!" "II diavolo
e gli suoi angeli!" and (according to Antonio's
account) in full speed behind them, yelling and
screaming, came tearing an entire swarm of the
legionaries of Satan.

As the chase continued, the flying people
became fewer and fewer by taking refuge in
their several habitations, and in eight or ten
minutes the "legionaries of Satan" had it
all to themselves, continuing their career
(according to the same unquestionable authority)
till they arrived at the place where the English
kept their hounds, and, with a tremendous yell,
leaping over the gate, disappeared into the
kennels.

Antonio's story leaving some physiological
questions still unsolved in my dark Protestant
mind, I inquired in a quarter likely to be
informed of the matter by the padre himself.

I learnt that on the morning in question a
party of English left the city by the Lateran
gate on a hunting excursion in the Campagna.
A fox was found about eight miles distant,
but, after a sharp run of three miles, fox,
dogs, and all disappeared down one of the
numerous holes leading to the Catacombs. The
occurrence not being an unusual one, the hunt
waited for some time expecting them to reappear
up some other aperture; but, after remaining the
greater part of the day, they returned to the
ity, to lind that the dogs (seven, at least, out of
the thirteen that had disappeared) had found
iheir way through the dark and unknown
passages, guided solely by their instinct, to the
door in the crypt, where they were liberated, as
we have seen, by the sceptical ecclesiastic.

THE WITHERED DAISY.

MY native hills, long unvisited, surround me,
though I have not seen them yet, for the sun
was gone down before the coach reached the
entrance of the valley. But I feel them about
me, no longer a mere dream, a flitting vision of
memory, but a reality of God's universe, whose
iteep and narrow paths my own feet will tread
to-morrow, and upon whose live repose my own
eyes will rest in unmeasured content. Twice I
have been out to peer into the thick night, until
ny aching eyeballs detected painfully the stern,
dark profiles, without light or perspective, which
cross the clouded horizon in single lines of
unchanging, threatening, utter blackness. No
faint gleam along the whole boundary; no trace