successive attempts and failures of the spirit are pointed out as every tide casts up, or receding, uncovers, the ever-shifting sands of Berwick bar. Another Scottish story, borrowed perhaps from the relations between Michael Scot and Frederick II., and possibly suggested by the philosopher’s journey in 1230, speaks of a high commission he once held from the King of Scotland.[315] Some Frenchmen, it is said, had commenced pirates, and had plundered Scottish ships. The King chose Michael as his ambassador, sending him to Paris to demand justice and redress. The magician, however, made none of the ordinary preparations for so considerable a journey, but opened his _Book of Might_ and read a spell therein; whereupon his familiar appeared in the form of a black horse, just as Folengo describes him. In this shape the demon carried his rider through the air with incredible speed. When the channel lay beneath them, he asked Michael what words the old wives in Scotland muttered ere they went to sleep. A less adroit wizard would have simply repeated the _Paternoster_, and thus furnished the excuse sought by the demon, who would then have hurled his rider into the sea. Michael, however, contented himself by sternly replying; ‘What is that to thee? Mount Diabolus, and fly;’ and, the demon being thus outwitted and compelled, they presently arrived in Paris. Finding the French King unwilling to hear his representations, Scot asked him to delay giving a final refusal till he should have heard the horse stamp three times. At the first hoof-stroke, all the bells in Paris rang. At the second, three towers in the palace fell; and the horse had raised his foot to stamp once more, when the King cried, ‘Hold,’ and yielded him to do as his cousin of Scotland desired. A more trivial and domestic tale is that which relates how Michael met and overcame the Witch of Falsehope.[316] He was then residing at Oakwood Tower, and, hearing much talk of this woman’s craft, he set forth one day to prove her. The witch was cunning, and denied that she had any skill in the black art, but, when Scot absently laid his staff of power upon the table, she caught it to her and used it upon him with such effect that he became a hare; in which shape he was hotly coursed by his own hounds. Taking refuge in a drain, he had just time to reverse the spell and resume his own form before the hunt reached his hiding-place. Thus Michael returned to Oakwood with a high impression of his neighbour’s skill and malice, and fully resolved to have his revenge at the first opportunity. This occurred next harvest, when, under pretext of sport, he sent his servant to the witch’s house to beg some bread for the hounds. Met with the refusal that was expected, the man acted upon his master’s instructions by privately fixing to the door a scroll containing, amid magical characters, the following rhyme: ‘Maister Michael Scot’s man Socht breid and gat nane.’