"Speak! How do you mean—speak as
a man does, do you mean?"

"Yes; speak in words and consecutive
sentences, with perfect coherence and
articulation; but there is a peculiarity. It is
not like the tone of a human voice. It is
not by my ears it reaches me—it comes
like a singing through my head.

"This faculty, the power of speaking to
me, will be my undoing. It won't let me
pray, it interrupts me with dreadful
blasphemies. I dare not go on, I could not.
Oh! doctor, can the skill, and thought, and
prayers of man avail me nothing!"

"You must promise me, my dear sir,
not to trouble yourself with unnecessarily
exciting thoughts; confine yourself
strictly to the narrative of facts;
and recollect, above all, that even if the
thing that infests you be as you seem to
suppose, a reality with an actual
independent life and will, yet it can have no
power to hurt you, unless it be given from
above: its access to your senses depends
mainly upon your physical condition—this
is, under God, your comfort and reliance:
we are all alike environed. It is only that
in your case, the 'paries,' the veil of the
flesh, the screen, is a little out of repair,
and sights and sounds are transmitted. We
must enter on a new course, sir—be
encouraged. I'll give to-night to the careful
consideration of the whole case."

"You are very good, sir; you think it
worth trying, you don't give me quite up;
but, sir, you don't know, it is gaining such
an influence over me: it orders me about, it
is such a tyrant, and I'm growing so helpless.
May God deliver me!"

"It orders you about—of course you
mean by speech?"

"Yes, yes; it is always urging me to
crimes, to injure others, or myself. You
see, doctor, the situation is urgent, it is
indeed. When I was in Shropshire, a few
weeks ago" (Mr. Jennings was speaking
rapidly and trembling now, holding my
arm with one hand, and looking in my
face), "I went out one day with a party of
friends for a walk: my persecutor, I tell
you, was with me at the time. I lagged
behind the rest: the country near the Dee,
you know, is beautiful. Our path happened
to lie near a coal mine, and at the verge of
the wood is a perpendicular shaft, they say,
a hundred and fifty feet deep. My niece
had remained behind with me—she knows,
of course, nothing of the nature of my
sufferings. She knew, however, that I had
been ill, and was low, and she remained to
prevent my being quite alone. As we
loitered slowly on together the brute that
accompanied me was urging me to throw
myself down the shaft. I tell you now—
oh, sir, think of it!—the one consideration
that saved me from that hideous death
was the fear lest the shock of witnessing
the occurrence should be too much for the
poor girl. I asked her to go on and take
her walk with her friends, saying that I
could go no further. She made excuses,
and the more I urged her the firmer she
became. She looked doubtful and frightened.
I suppose there was something in my looks
or manner that alarmed her; but she would
not go, and that literally saved me. You
had no idea, sir, that a living man could
be made so abject a slave of Satan," he
said, with a ghastly groan and a shudder.

There was a pause here, and I said, "You
were preserved nevertheless. It was the
act of God. You are in his hands and in
the power of no other being: be therefore
confident for the future."

CHAPTER X. HOME.

I MADE him have candles lighted, and
saw the room looking cheery and inhabited
before I left him. I told him that he
must regard his illness strictly as one
dependent on physical, though subtle
physical, causes. I told him that he had
evidence of God's care and love in the
deliverance which he had just described, and
that I had perceived with pain that he
seemed to regard its peculiar features as
indicating that he had been delivered over
to spiritual reprobation. Than such a
conclusion nothing could be, I insisted,
less warranted; and not only so, but
more contrary to facts, as disclosed in
his mysterious deliverance from that
murderous influence during his Shropshire
excursion. First, his niece had been
retained by his side without his intending to
keep her near him; and, secondly, there
had been infused into his mind an
irresistible repugnance to execute the
dreadful suggestion in her presence.

As I reasoned this point with him, Mr.
Jennings wept. He seemed comforted.
One promise I exacted, which was that
should the monkey at any time return, I
should be sent for immediately; and,
repeating my assurance that I would give
neither time nor thought to any other
subject until I had thoroughly investigated
his case, and that to-morrow he
should hear the result, I took my leave.

Before getting into the carriage I told