The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest

vious night at Whitewell, in Bowland Forest; and the abbot, before setting out on his final journey, was permitted to spend an hour in prayer in a little chapel on an adjoini

the end of a glade, couched a herd of deer, which started off at sight of the intruders, and made him envy their freedom and fleetness as he followed them in thought to their solitudes. At the foot of a steep rock ran the Hodder, making the pleasant music of other days

n, collecting all his energies, he prepared for the shock he was about to endure. But nerved as he was, his firmness was sorely tried when he beheld the stately pile,

cundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam

d children pouring forth loud lamentations, prostrating themselves at his feet, and deploring his doom. The abbot's fortitude had a severe t

, much fearing that the flock I have so long and so zealously tended will fall into the hands of other and less heedful pastors, or, s

against him," cried the sheriff, riding up, and speaking in a loud voi

ech, but they were instan

id the abbot; "and the blessed Virgin kee

ee," cried the sheriff, striking

and his eye flashed fire, but he con

h wise, John Braddyll, when

rejoined the sheriff. "I owe thee little for the service. If for na

ing and sorrowing bystanders;-but so deeply was the abbot engrossed by the one dread idea that possessed him, that he saw them not, and scarce heard their woful lamentations. All at once the cavalcade stopped, and the sheriff rode on to the gate, in the opening of which some ceremony was ob

mounted, and pointing to the gigantic gallows, looming above the abbey walls; "wilt them

by a being, whose power to accomplish his promise he did not doubt. The

N

st," cried Bess, fiercely; "and I wil

s hand in denunciation. The action and the look were so appalling, that t

eremites, who dwelt in solitudes, in mountains, and in caverns; by the holy saints and martyrs, who suffered torture and death for

nd flinging herself at Paslew's feet, "curse me, if thou wilt

ead anathema, and it cannot be recalled. Look at the dripping garments of thy child. In

rst time the ensanguined condition of th

th a prophetic spirit. "Thy child's life shall be long-beyond th

y him; or I shall

k. A greater power than his o

world shall flee from and crush. A thing accursed, and shunned by her fellows, shall thy daughter be-evil reputed and evil doing. No hand to help h

n turning, partly round, dropped heavily on th

ed her!" he cri

it be so," rejoined Paslew. "Fuge miserrim

the cavalcade being put in motion, the abbot a

ak chair, formerly occupied by the Abbots of Whalley on the occasions of conferences or elections. The earl was surrounded by his officers, and the chamber was filled with armed men. The abbot slowly advanced towards the earl. His deportment w

by the sheriff, and their sentences were then read aloud by a clerk. After this the e

the king in his mercy, having regard not so much to the heinous nature of your offences towards his sovereign majesty as to the sacred offices you once held, and of which you have been shamefully deprived, is graciously pleased to remit that part of your sentence, whereby ye are condemn

g, Henry the Eighth, and free him f

, to say to his majesty that we died penitent of many and grave offences, amongst the which is chiefly that of having taken up arms unlawfully against him, but that we did so solel

h his hands crossed upon his breast, close behin

one. What I have done I would do again, were the past to return-nay, I would do more-I would find a way to rea

ners, "and especially you, John Paslew, who have shown some compunction for your crimes, and to prove to you that the king is not the ruthless tyrant he hat

eflected fo

the Earl of Derby, seeing that t

it is that our poor distraught brother, William Haydocke,

bending his brows, "though he ill deserves suc

ed, the abbo

Paslew; "but since his petition is granted, I would, on my own part, entreat that mass be said for us in the

r the dead shall be said in the church at midnight, and all the brethren who choose to come thither shall be permitted to assist at it. They will attend, I

gs on you, my lor

office you once held, and by the saints in whom you trust, that th

replied the ab

ar it," added F

s. Notice of the celebration of mass at midnight shall be

use, where all acts of discipline had been performed by the monks, and where the knotted lash, the spiked girdle, and the hair shi