In a little lane leading from the town of Clitheroe there once lived a
noted 'cunning man,' to whom all sorts of applications were made, not
only by the residents, but also by people from distant places, for the
fame of the wizard had spread over the whole country side. If a theft
was committed, at once the services of 'Owd Jeremy' were enlisted,
and, as a result, some one entirely innocent was, if not accused, at
least suspected; while maidens and young men, anxious to pry into
futurity, and behold the faces of their unknown admirers, paid him
trifling fees to enable them to gratify their curiosity. In short,
Jeremy professed to be an able student of the Black Art, on familiar
speaking terms with Satan, and duly qualified to foretell men's
destinies by the aid of the stars.
The cottage in which the old man resided was of a mean order, and its
outward appearance was by no means likely to impress visitors with an
idea that great pecuniary advantages had followed that personal
acquaintance with the Evil One of which the wizard boasted. If,
however, the outside was mean and shabby, the inside of the dwelling
was of a nature better calculated to inspire inquirers with feelings
of awe, hung round, as the one chamber was, with faded and moth-eaten
black cloth, upon which grotesque astrological designs and the figure
of a huge dragon were worked in flaming red. The window being hidden
by the dingy tapestry, the only light in the room came from a
starved-looking candle, which was fixed in the foot of the skeleton of
a child, attached to a string from the ceiling, and dangling just over
the table, where a ponderous volume lay open before a large crystal
globe and two skulls.
In an old-fashioned chair, above which hung suspended a dirty and
dilapidated crocodile, the wizard sat, and gave audience to the stray
visitors whose desire to peer into futurity overmastered the fear with
which the lonely cottage was regarded. A quaint-looking old man was
Jeremy, with his hungry-looking eyes and long white beard; and, as
with bony fingers he turned over the leaves of the large book, there
was much in his appearance likely to give the superstitious and
ignorant customers overwhelming ideas of his wondrous wisdom. The
'make up' was creditable to Jeremy, for though he succeeded in
deceiving others with his assumption of supernatural knowledge, he
himself did not believe in those powers whose aid he so frequently
professed to invoke on behalf of his clients.
One day, when the ragged cloth had fallen behind a victim who was
departing from the wizard's sanctum with a few vague and mysterious
hints in exchange for solid coin, the old man, after laughing
sarcastically, pulled aside the dingy curtains and stepped to the
casement, through which the glorious sunlight was streaming. The scene
upon which the wizard looked was a very beautiful one; and the old man
leaned his head upon his hands and gazed intently upon the landscape.
''Tis a bonnie world,' said he,--''tis a bonnie world, and there are
few views in it to compare with this one for beauty. My soul is drawn
toward old Pendle, yon, with a love passing that of woman, heartless
and passionless though the huge mass be. Heartless!' said he, after a
pause,--'heartless! when every minute there is a fresh expression upon
its beautiful front? Ay, even so, for it looms yonder calm and
unconcerned when we are ushered into the world, and when we are
ushered out of it, and laid to moulder away under the mountain's
shadow; and it will rear its bold bluffs to heaven and smile in the
sunlight or frown in the gloom after we who now love to gaze upon it
are blind to the solemn loveliness of its impassable face. Poor
perishable fools are we, with less power than the breeze which ruffles
yon purple heather!'
With a heavy sigh Jeremy turned away from the window, and as the
curtain fell behind him, and he stood again in the wretchedly-lighted
room, he saw that he was not alone. The chair in which the trembling
hinds generally were asked to seat themselves held a strange-looking
visitor of dark and forbidding aspect.
'Jeremiah,' said this personage, 'devildom first and poetising
afterwards.'
There was an unpleasant tone of banter in this speech, which did not
seem in keeping with the character of one who fain would pry into
futurity; and as the wizard took his usual position beneath the
crocodile, he looked somewhat less oracular than was his wont when in
front of a shivering and terrified inquirer.
'What wantest thou with me?' said he, with an ill-assumed appearance
of unconcern.