There lived in the last century at La Ville-ès-Pies, in that part of the parish of St. Michel-du-Valle known as “Le Clos,” an old lady, whose maiden name it is not necessary to recall any more than that of the really worthy man who had the misfortune to be joined with her in the bonds of wedlock. Suffice it to say that both belonged to respectable families. It was notorious, however, to all the neighbourhood that she was addicted to the execrable practice of witchcraft; indeed she made no mystery of it, for she was proud of the fear she inspired, and clever enough to turn it to her own advantage; knowing well that the time was past when the suspicion alone of being an adept in the black art was sufficient to condemn a person to the stake. The place whither she was said to be in the habit of resorting to meet her infernal master, and to dance and revel at night with others, who, like herself, had entered into a league with the Prince of Darkness, was that group of rocks and islets near Herm, known by the name of “Les Houmets d’Amont.”[183] On these occasions she was in the habit of attiring herself in her very best array, and a pair of silver slippers formed a principal part of her adornment. How she came, in her nocturnal flight, to drop one of them, is not known, but it was picked up on one of these rocks by a fisherman, recognised as her property, and honestly returned to her. Perhaps the finder did not like to run the risk of appropriating the precious metal to his own use. It is said that, not content with serving Satan herself, she laid a spell on her children as soon as they were presented to her after their birth, and so consecrated them for ever to the service of her infernal master. The husband, a good pious man, by some means discovered this, and, when his wife was on the point of being delivered of her last child, a son, he begged the midwife in attendance to be careful, as soon as the child made its appearance, and before the unnatural mother could set eyes on it, to sign it with the holy sign of the cross. This precaution saved the infant. The unholy mother’s spell had no power over him, and, as he grew up, he was enabled, by God’s grace, and by the pious teaching of his father, to withstand all the temptations which were laid in his way by his brothers and sisters, who depicted to him in glowing terms the amusements they indulged in, when, in the form of hares, they frolicked on moonlight nights around the mill which stands on the hill around the Ville-ès-Pies.[184] [182] A MS. note by Mr. Métivier explains this name by saying that this was an old residence of Friars, robed in black and white, and hence known as “Les Frères Pies,”--the Magpie Friars. [183] “_Houmet_, from the Swedish _holm_, is a peninsula, or a grazing ground down near the water.”--_Métivier’s Dictionary._ [184] From Mr. Thomas Hocart Henry. THE SICK PRINCESS AND THE WIZARDS.