found its way to those hot-beds of gossip, the public bake-houses, and from thence over all the town.”[188] [188] From Miss Martineau, to whom the story was related by Mrs. Jonathan Bichard, of L’Ancresse, and also from Rachel Du Port. EDITOR’S NOTE. TWO WITCHES AND TWO CATS. In the Vale parish, very many years ago, lived a father and daughter, Nico and Denise Roberts. Denise was an extremely pretty girl, and Pierre Henry, the richest man in the parish, wanted to marry her. There were two old maiden ladies who were neighbours of the Roberts’, and were excessively jealous of all the attention and admiration Denise received. They both considered that they were still young and fascinating, and one was considered to have designs on old Roberts, and the other on Pierre Henry himself. They both had the reputation of being witches by all the neighbours, principally because they were never seen without two black cats, and they even used to go so far as to take these two cats with them, when, in the evenings, as was their frequent custom, they would take their knitting and go and sit for hours in the Roberts’ kitchen. Denise used to implore her father not to encourage “_ces daeux vieilles sorilles_,”[189] knowing well that they were trying to poison his mind against Pierre Henry, but he paid no attention to his daughter, as they amused him by telling him all the gossip and scandal of the place, and he used to sit and let them whisper to him on one side of the hearth, while Pierre and Denise sat on the other; but all the time the two latter were talking, they were annoyed by the cats brought in by old Margot and Olympe Le Moine, and this went on evening after evening. If Pierre tried to move his chair nearer to hers, one of the cats would climb up and manage to thrust its claws in his leg. If he bent forward to whisper to her, the other cat would jump on her shoulder, and prevent Denise from attending to what he was saying. After some time he grew convinced that all this could not be accidental, so, one evening, just as the largest of the two cats had perched itself on Denise’s shoulder at the most inopportune moment, he whispered in its ear “_Margot, tu quérrâs_” (“Margot, you will tumble down.”) At that moment, Margot Le Moine, who was sitting at the other end of the room, fell off her chair in a dead faint, and the cat gave a yell and darted up the chimney. This finally convinced old Roberts as to the true character of his friends, and he swore that never again should these two “_quéraudes_” darken his doors, and, soon after, Denise Roberts and Pierre Henry were married.[190] [189] Métivier translates _sorille_ as a term of reproach, derived probably from the Bas-Breton _sorelh_, wizard, _sorelhés_, witch. [190] From Mrs. Charles Marquand, who had heard it from Denise Roberts’ first cousin. THE TRANSFORMED WIZARD. It is one of the greatest characteristics of wizards and witches that they have the power of assuming any form they please.