‘Yea, a little black Devil, and he held himself fast on the beam by his feet and his tail. In one hand he had a long scroll of parchment and in the other a quill, and there was an inkhorn slung round his neck such as Rutterkin the scribe carries. Anon he listened with one hand behind his ear to the gossips, and anon he dipped his quill into the ink and wrote at great pace every evil word that they said. Blessed Virgin, how he scribbled and scribbled until he had already filled one side of his scroll and the sweat ran in great drops down his brow. Then he turned over to the other side of the scroll and scribbled and scribbled again until he was ready to drop with exhaustion and had filled every corner of the parchment on both sides. Then was he mightily perplexed and annoyed, for the gossips ceased not to commit sin with their tongues, and he had no fair parchment left whereon to record their foul words. So having considered for a little, as it seemed to me, he grasped one end of the roll with his teeth and seized the other end with his claws and pulled so as to stretch the parchment. He tugged and tugged with all his strength, jerking back his head mightily at every tug, and at last giving such a fierce jerk as should have lengthened the scroll by an inch at least, but lo, such was the fury of the jerk that he suddenly lost his balance and fell head over heels from the beam to the floor. At this it was, good Sir John, that I was constrained to burst into laughter. ‘’Tis strange,’ mused the Parson, much astonished at this narration. ‘’Tis indeed strange that thine eyes should have been opened to this while mine were closed. But didst thou observe the Devil narrowly?’ ‘Yea, indeed,’ quoth Simon, ‘I beheld him while thou mightest have said two dozen _Pater Nosters_ and three dozen _Aves_.’ With that he described him from the tips of his horns to the end of his tail, and with such wonderful detail and exactness that Master Parson was able to recognise him as the devil Tutivillius, of whom he had read a description lately in one of his learned books. ‘Truly,’ said he, ‘thou art an Israelite in whom there is no guile, for never else but by beholding this sly Devil wouldst thou be able to describe him so aptly. It is clear to me that the Lord hath endowed thee with the gift of spiritual sight for His own holy purposes; I must ponder the matter more at large.’ Then he blessed Simon and dismissed him with many words of commendation and good comfort.