‘Listen,’ he cried, stretching out his hand above his head in the direction of the Parson,--‘Listen, and learn how I fell into damnation. What a learned man should do with a wife I cannot tell, but fool that I was, I married, and that was the beginning of sin.’ ‘Pardon,’ cried the Priest, ‘but marriage is a Sacrament and should be well esteemed of all men.’ ‘By thy leave,’ continued the Doctor, ‘I married one Mistress Beatbush. She had some small jointure; I was her third husband, but at first she did not seem to be so vile. However, when her portion was spent, my gorge rose at her, for know, good gentlemen, her face was withered and puckered like a Christmas apple, her voice like the barking of dogs or croaking of frogs, and her foul tongue dropped adders and vipers. Then did I call to mind the admonitions of the Holy Apostle Paul, and beat her often, yea, I even threw her once into the fire, and twice into our pond.’ ‘Certes,’ cried the Parson, ‘if thou didst this in measure and for faults duly committed, there thou didst but rightly, as I could prove to thee out of Gratian, did but time and circumstance serve.’ ‘I beat her strictly according to the canon,’ said the Doctor. ‘She was one huge fault, an offence both to God and man, and in those days I was a right dutiful son of the Church.’ ‘And shall be yet, an I can help it,’ interrupted Sir John. ‘Prithee, do not interrupt, good Sir John,’ quoth the Bailiff, ‘I am right anxious to hear this story.’ ‘I will cut it short,’ said the Doctor. ‘One morning as I meditated in my study according to my wont, I heard this wife of mine yelping and barking in a quarrel with a neighbour, whereupon, consumed with sudden wrath, I cried out, ‘The Devil fly away with thee, thou ill-conditioned bitch,’ and, running to my books, straightway cast a spell into the air, so that the Devil immediately leapt into my room through the window.’ ‘Wrath, wrath, the beginning of sin,’ exclaimed Sir John. ‘He hath horns and hoofs and a great tail, hath he not?’ asked the Bailiff. ‘Nay,’ replied the Doctor. ‘He was like an ugly black dog with a white patch on his forehead.’ ‘Ay, ay, thou’rt right,’ cried the Parson. ‘I have seen him many a time, lurking about our God’s acre, but he slinketh away fast enough when he catcheth sight of me, I warrant you.’ ‘Lo,’ resumed the Doctor. ‘This Devil bargained to fly away with my wife, as I had desired, and also to serve me faithfully for twenty years, would I but surrender my soul to him. Unhappy wretch that I am, I took the offer.’ ‘Oh, miserable man,’ cried Sir John. ‘That man, born of woman, should be such a fool to wager his immortal soul against twenty short years of pleasure and the evanishment of his wife.’ ‘Thou didst not know my wife,’ said the Doctor indignantly. ‘Methinks the terms were not unduly unreasonable,’ quoth the Bailiff. ‘But, please God, Master Doctor, thou didst sign no paper?’