The Wildfire Club - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive

OR THE LAST TENANT. 93
" Shelter and rest till the morning," she faintly replied.
" Why, dame," said the trembling host, "are you not
mistress· of a fine hou,se up yonder, and --"
" And I have been turned out half an hour ago, to wander
abroad and seek shelter where I could. If you be a
Christian man, let me in till morning."
"I daren't do it, I_daren't do it, woman," replied the
man, doubly terrified at the tale he heard, the sight of his
awful visitor, and her appeal in the name of Christianity.
" I am a good Christian; and so, in the name of God
and all the saints and angels, witch, woman, or devil, I
bid ye begone !" .
Worked up to frenzy by his own exorcism, he banged
the door violently in the face. of the poor wanderer, and
retreated to his warm, cosy fireside to pray for protection
against the wiles of witchcraft, Satan and all his imps.
How many more doors were shut by the hands of coward
superstition against the unhappy Hannah that night,
we will not, for the honor of human nature, relate. A
stranger descending from a stage-coach, at a cross-road
which turned off from the highway, in the first cold gray
peep 'of coming day, found the sorrowful and lonely old
woman seated under a hedge, sleeping soundly from sheer
weariness, cold, and heart-sickness. Gently rousing her
from her unnatural slumber, the man stripped off a thick,
warm cloak, and enveloped her in it; then, gazing at her
with anxious scrutiny, and availing himself of her stupor
and' confusion to examine her features and appearance as
well as the uncertain light would permit, he threw his
arm8 tenderly around her, and, with every endearing word
of affection, old Hannah f