Perhaps if the clergyman-cure were faithfully tried upon the next
fortune-hunting count with a large real estate in whiskers and an
imaginary one in Barataria, he also might vanish, leaving a strong smell
of barber's-shop, and taking with him a body that will come to the
gallows in due time. It were worth trying. Luther tells of a demon who
served as _famulus_ in a monastery, fetching beer for the monks, and
always insisting on honest measure for his money. There is one case on
record where the Devil appealed to the courts for protection in his
rights. A monk, going to visit his mistress, fell dead as he was passing
a bridge. The good and bad angel came to litigation about his soul. The
case was referred by agreement to Eichard, Duke of Normandy, who decided
that the monk's body should be carried back to the bridge, and his soul
restored to it by the claimants. If he persevered in keeping his
assignation, the Devil was to have him, if not, then the Angel. The monk,
thus put upon his guard, turns back and saves his soul, such as it
was.[113] Perhaps the most impudent thing the Devil ever did was to open
a school of magic in Toledo. The ceremony of graduation in this
institution was peculiar. The senior class had all to run through a
narrow cavern, and the venerable president was entitled to the hindmost,
if he could catch him.
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