No doubt, the
animal, having done that which it was commissioned to perform, did then
and there disappear, in the manner I have named."
"It might have been thus. And the stranger--had you discourse with him,
before parting?"
"We tarried together a short hour. He related much marvellous matter of
the experiences of the people, near the sea. According to the testimony
of the stranger, the Powers of Darkness have been manifested in the
Provinces in a hideous fashion. Numberless of the believers have been
persecuted by the invisibles, and greatly have they endured suffering,
both in soul and body."
"Of all this have I witnessed surprising instances, in my day," said Mark
Heathcote, breaking the awful stillness that succeeded the annunciation of
so heavy a visitation on the peace of the Colony, with his deep-toned and
imposing voice. "Did he, with whom you conferred, enter into the
particulars of the trials?"
"He spoke also of certain other signs that are thought to foretell the
coming of trouble. When I named the weary chase that I had made, and the
sound which came from the air, he said that these would be accounted
trifles in the towns of the Bay where the thunder and its lightnings had
done much evil work, the past season; Satan having especially shown his
spite, by causing them to do injury to the houses of the Lord.
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