'
'Did you observe his hair hanging down his back like a bunch of
carrots?' asked the exciseman. 'Such a diabolical glance in his eye!'
said the schoolmaster. 'Such a voice!' added the landlord: 'it is like
the sound of a cracked clarionet.' 'His feet are not cloven,' observed
the landlady. 'No matter,' exclaimed the landlord, 'the devil, when he
chooses, can have as good legs as his neighbours.' 'Better than some of
them,' quoth the lady, looking peevishly at the lower limbs of her
husband. Meanwhile the incessant treading continued unabated, although
two long hours had passed since its commencement. There was not the
slightest cessation to the sound, while out of doors the storm raged
with violence, and in the midst of it the hideous neighing and stamping
of the black horse were heard with pre-eminent loudness. At this time
the fire of the kitchen began to burn low; the sparkling blaze was gone,
and in its stead nothing but a dead red lustre emanated from the grate.
One candle had just expired, having burned down to the socket; of the
one which remained, the unsnuffed wick was nearly three inches in
length, black and crooked at the point, and standing like a ruined tower
amid an envelopement of sickly yellow flame; while around the fire's
equally decaying lustre sat the frightened _coterie_, narrowing their
circle as its brilliancy faded away, and eyeing each other like
apparitions amidst the increasing gloom.
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