‘Ay, but I did,’ groaned the Doctor. ‘I signed a monstrous long roll of parchment, and the Devil took it away in his pocket, when he left.’ ‘Saving thy reverence, Master Doctor, ’tis there thou played foolishly,’ said the Bailiff. ‘I or any man would do business with the Devil on the large terms thou mentionest, for I hold it no sin to spoil the Egyptians, but to sign a paper, to bind thyself to the Devil with a contract, that is horrid impiety indeed, that is rank heresy and witchcraft. But hold, belike the Devil hath not kept his part of the agreement. Hath he indeed served thy pleasure these twenty years as ’twas set down in the deed; otherwise, the one party not fulfilling his obligation, the other party cannot in equity be held liable, and _ipso facto_ the aforesaid deed becometh null and void and of no account?’ ‘I cannot grumble; the Devil hath given me twenty good years of pleasure,’ said the Doctor. ‘I am lost, lost, lost.’ Sir John lifted his eyes to Heaven and moaned piteously. The Bailiff coughed under his hand. ‘I have heard,’ he said, ‘that the Devil is kind to his own. What manner of pleasure was it he solaced thee with? We know full well what Christ can do for us, it behoveth us to know what the Devil can.’ ‘Speak, good Doctor,’ said Sir John, ‘and let us hear what the Bailiff desireth, and I will enshrine thy narrative in the little treatise I purpose to endite _de Daemoniis_, for the enlightenment and warning of all Christian men.’ ‘Did he give thee gold?’ asked the Bailiff. ‘He did,’ said the Doctor. ‘What didst thou do with it?’ ‘I spent it.’ ‘Eh, I suppose thou wouldst.’ ‘Did he give thee power and glory over all the kingdoms of the earth?’ asked the Parson. ‘He did.’ ‘How didst thou use it?’ ‘I tweaked the Pope’s nose when he sat in Council with his Cardinals and tripped the Emperor up on his belly, when he would have kissed His Holiness’ toe.’ ‘There thou didst rightly,’ said the Parson. ‘For I am a true son of Holy Church and Peter is Peter, but this Pope is a fool and a rascal, and I care not who hears me say it.’ ‘Did the Devil give thee wenches?’ asked the Bailiff. ‘Many and many a one,’ said the Doctor with a sigh. ‘I am fain, yet right sad to think of them again; they were good wenches all, and I heartily loved them, but nothing lasts long in this world. He carried me on a rich Turkey carpet to the peerless palace of Ghengis Khan, which is built all of precious stones and embowered in fair gardens and orchards. Ah, many hundred happy days and nights have I spent there, and the Khan’s lovely wife and her beautiful maidens conceived a great affection for me. Even now one of my sons is a mighty emperor in the East.’ ‘This Devil seemeth a very honest gentleman,’ said the Bailiff.