but finding nothing preferable to her, he offered
her his hand, swearing fidelity for life and
death.

We will not describe the bride, with all her
charms, except to say that the venerable
chronicler, who has recorded the story for our
delight and instruction, declares that, wicked as
was the devil, the devil's wife was tenfold worse;
and he adds that the outward deformity of the
witch was charming when contrasted with the
vileness of her inner nature.

On the wedding-day, immediately after the
ceremony, she began to torment her husband,
scolding and quarrelling without rhyme or
reason, which he could not stop for even a
minute. This was the devil's introduction to
domestic felicity; and he soon found that his
late infernal residence itself was paradise, when
compared with earth and such a witch of a
woman for a wedded wife.

He could not bear it long. Full of shame
and sorrow, he cursed the whole race of
womankind, and his own choice above every
other. He wandered away into the deepest
woods and the wildest wildernesses, blessing
the fortune that had given sufficient strength to
his weary legs to carry him so far off from his
beautiful bride.

And so he strayed in melancholy mood into a
thicket, where he saw a little meagre man
busied in digging up and gathering together
various roots and herbs. The man looked upon
him with a friendly but gloomy and embarrassed
countenance, and the devil soon discovered that
he had no picture of human happiness before
him; but he tenderly inquired into the man's
history and employment. The poor botanist
answered with sighs that he was indeed an
unfortunate creature whom a bad wife had brought to
misery; having squandered his belongings, and
so plagued his existence that he felt it a relief
to occupy himself by collecting simples in the
desert in order to escape from that female
house-devil.

The story produced on the devil's mind a
fellow feeling of sympathy, and he narrated to
the little man the experience of his own mortal
felicity. They were soon bound together in
the strongest bonds of friendship; they
discussed their mutual grievances, and determined
to work together for their common relief, and
to help one another in partnership. The little
man collected a great supply of roots and herbs,
and the devil, whose hatred against the whole
race of mortal man had been greatly sharpened
by his more intimate acquaintance with the
better half, used every art of witchery and
deceit to induce people to trade with his
associate. He possessed first one and then another,
and did not come out of them until the little man
had come to cure them with his mysterious
medicines; and such was the success of these
devices that they collected heaps of money, and
so long had their traffic been carried on that
the woods and wastes failed to present them with
a sufficient supply of simples for the demand.
Meanwhile with the accumulation of wealth the
passion of avarice entered into the soul of the
meagre little man, and he determined for the
future to disregard the agreement he had made
with the devil. He deceived his comrade as
often as he could, and, instead of giving half
their earnings, he often handed to him less than
a third. The devil's sharpsightedness soon
discovered the roguery, and he only waited a
favourable opportunity for taking becoming
revenge.

He entered into a peasant girl, and maddened
her with such a fearful frenzy that half the
affrighted villagers fled. The meagre man came
with his healing herbs; but though the girl
was exorcised by every charm and by every
influence that had hitherto in every case
succeeded, the devil that possessed her declared
that he would never quit her, hurled scorn and
defiance at the exorciser, and loudly shouted
out that he despised his power. This sudden
and unexpected obstinacy of the devil placed
the little man in the greatest perplexity; but in
his wild despair he dreamt of a plan by which
he could not only drive the devil out of the
maiden, but out of the universal world.

The people had abandoned all hope of the
recovery of the maiden, when the little man
came forward and said to the devil, "Thou
couldst not cure the girl, I will call thy wife
to help thee!"

Hardly were the words uttered when the
devil began to tremble, and his agitation made
all the bones of the maiden crack. She fell in
convulsions to the ground, but her misery soon
came to an end. The devil thought it better
to hurry back to his own proper regions than
to wait the coming of his wife. He disappeared
in smoke, but left a disagreeable smell behind
him.

FREAKS IN FLANDERS

It is astonishing how race, and language, and
manners survive the changes of territorial
distribution. Their roots in the soil are perennial;
not to be grubbed up by politicians and
diplomatists, nor torn out by war and conquest, nor
swept away even by the current of time. Man
is a remora, or sucking-fish, who holds to the
spot to which he has attached himself with an
adhesiveness which is transmitted from generation
to generation.

Look at Flanders. What changes of masters
and dynasties it has witnessed; what partitions
and parcellings it has undergone! Not long
ago, a natty little monument was erected at
Zuytpeene (Department of the North), to
commemorate the battle of Cassel, by which that
tract of country was annexed to France. The
Flemish pompiers, or firemen, in gold uniform,
took part in the proceedings—perhaps, because
they could not help it—as if it were an honour
to them that their forefathers should have been
swept into the greedy monarch's net. But for
the result of that hard-fought struggle French
Flanders might now form part of Belgium,