The Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth (best classic books .TXT) 📕

INTRODUCTION. The Last Abbot of Whalley Chapter I. The Beacon on Pendle Hill. Chapter II. The Eruption. Chapter III. Whalley Abbey. Chapter IV. The Malediction. Chapter V. The Midnight Mass. Chapter VI. Teter et Fortis Carcer. Chapter VII. The Abbey Mill. Chapter VIII. The Executioner. Chapter IX. Wiswall Hall. Chapter X. The Holehouses.

BOOK THE FIRST. Alizon Device Chapter I. The May Queen. Chapter II. The Black Cat and the White Dove. Chapter III. The Asshetons. Chapter IV. Alice Nutter. Chapter V. Mother Chattox. Chapter VI. The Ordeal by Swimming. Chapter VII. The Ruined Conventual Church. Chapter VIII. The Revelation. Chapter IX. The Two Portraits in the Banqueting-Hall. Chapter X. The Nocturnal Meeting.

BOOK THE SECOND. Pendle Forest Chapter I. Flint. Chapter II. Read Hall. Chapter III. The Boggart's Glen. Chapter IV. The Reeve of the Forest. Chapter V. Bess's o' th' Booth. Chapter VI. The Temptation. Chapter VII. The Perambulation of the Boundaries. Chapter VIII. Rough Lee. Chapter IX. How Rough Lee was defended by Nicholas. Chapter X. Roger Nowell and his Double. Chapter XI. Mother Demdike. Chapter XII. The Mysteries of Malkin Tower. Chapter XIII. The Two Familiars. Chapter XIV. How Rough Lee was again Besieged. Chapter XV. The Phantom Monk. Chapter XVI. One O'Clock! Chapter XVII. How the Beacon Fire was Extinguished.

BOOK THE THIRD. Hoghton Tower Chapter I. Downham Manor-House. Chapter II. The Penitent's Retreat. Chapter III. Middleton Hall. Chapter IV. The Gorge of Cliviger. Chapter V. The End of Malkin Tower. Chapter VI. Hoghton Tower. Chapter VII. The Royal Declaration concerning Lawful
Sports on the Sunday. Chapter VIII. How King James Hunted the Hart and the
Wild-Boar in Houghton Park. Chapter IX. The Banquet. Chapter X. Evening Entertainments. Chapter XI. Fatality. Chapter XII. The Last Hour. Chapter XIII. The Masque of Death. Chapter XIV. "One Grave." Chapter XV. Lancaster Castle.

ILLUSTRATIONS. Nicholas Assheton and the Three Doll Wangos
Leaving Hoghton Hall. Alvetham and John Paslew. The May Queen. Nan Redferne and Mother Chattox. Mother Chattox, Alizon, and Dorothy. Alizon Alarmed at the Appearance of Mrs. Nutter. The Incantation. Potts after Being Thrown from his Horse. Richard Overhears the Mother Chattox and the Sexton. The Ride through the Murky Air. The Phantom Monk. Alizon Defies Jennet.

INTRODUCTION. The Last Abbot of Whalley. CHAPTER I.—THE BEACON ON PENDLE HILL.

There were eight watchers by the beacon on Pendle Hill in Lancashire. Two were stationed on either side of the north-eastern extremity of the mountain. One looked over the castled heights of Clithero; the woody eminences of Bowland; the bleak ridges of Thornley; the broad moors of Bleasdale; the Trough of Bolland, and Wolf Crag; and even brought within his ken the black fells overhanging Lancaster. The other tracked the stream called Pendle Water, almost from its source amid the neighbouring hills, and followed its windings through the leafless forest, until it united its waters to those of the Calder, and swept on in swifter and clearer current, to wash the base of Whalley Abbey. But the watcher's survey did not stop here. Noting the sharp spire of Burnley Church, relieved against the rounded masses of timber constituting Townley Park; as well as the entrance of the gloomy mountain gorge, known as the Grange of Cliviger; his far-reaching gaze passed over Todmorden, and settled upon the distant summits of Blackstone Edge.

Dreary was the prospect on all sides. Black moor, bleak fell, straggling forest, intersected with sullen streams as black as ink, with here and there a small tarn, or moss-pool, with waters of the same hue—these constituted the chief features of the scene. The whole district was barren and thinly-populated. Of towns, only Clithero, Colne, and Burnley—the latter little more than a village—were in view. In the valleys there were a few hamlets and scattered cottages, and on the uplands an occasional "booth," as the hut of the herdsman was termed; but of more important mansions there were only six, as Merley, Twistleton, Alcancoats, Saxfeld, Ightenhill, and Gawthorpe. The "vaccaries" for the cattle, of which the herdsmen had the care, and the "lawnds," or parks within the forest, appertaining to some of the halls before mentioned, offered the only evidences of cultivation. All else was heathy waste, morass, and wood.

Still, in the eye of the sportsman—and the Lancashire gentlemen of the sixteenth century were keen lovers of sport—the country had a strong interest. Pendle forest abounded with game. Grouse, plover, and bittern were found upon its moors; woodcock and snipe on its marshes; mallard, teal, and widgeon upon its pools. In its chases ranged herds of deer, protected by the terrible forest-laws, then in full force: and the hardier huntsman might follow the wolf to his lair in the mountains; might spear the boar in the oaken glades, or the otter on the river's brink; might unearth the badger or the fox, or smite the fierce cat-a-mountain with a quarrel from his bow. A nobler victim sometimes, also, awaited him in the shape of a wild mountain bull, a denizen of the forest, and a remnant of the herds that had once browsed upon the hills, but which had almost all been captured, and removed to stock the park of the Abbot of Whalley. The streams and pools were full of fish: the stately heron frequented the meres; and on the craggy heights built the kite, the falcon, and the kingly eagle.

There were eight watchers by the beacon. Two stood apart from the others, looking to the right and the left of the hill. Both were armed with swords and arquebuses, and wore steel caps and coats of buff. Their sleeves were embroidered with the five wounds of Christ, encircling the name of Jesus—the badge of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Between them, on the verge of the mountain, was planted a great banner, displaying a silver cross, the chalice, and the Host, together with an ecclesiastical figure, but wearing a helmet instead of a mitre, and holding a sword in place of a crosier, with the unoccupied hand pointing to the two towers of a monastic structure, as if to intimate that he was armed for its defence. This figure, as the device beneath it showed, represented John Paslew, Abbot of Whalley, or, as he styled himself in his military capacity, Earl of Poverty.

There were eight watchers by the beacon. Two have been described. Of the other six, two were stout herdsmen carrying crooks, and holding a couple of mules, and a richly-caparisoned war-horse by the bridle. Near them stood a broad-shouldered, athletic young man, with the fresh complexion, curling brown hair, light eyes, and open Saxon countenance, best seen in his