THE WITCH. CHARACTERS. Old Servant in the Family of Sir Francis Fairford. Stranger. SERVANT. ONE summer night Sir Francis, as it chanced, Was pacing to and fro in the avenue That westward fronts our house, Among those aged oaks, said to have been planted Three hundred years ago By a neighb'ring prior of the Fairford name. gate, And begged an alms. Some say he shoved her rudely from the gate For she was one who practised the black arts, And served the devil, being since burnt for witchcraft, She looked at him as one that meant to blast him, And with a frightful noise, ("Twas partly like a woman's voice, (Sir Francis told the words) A mischief, mischief, mischief, And a nine-times-killing curse, By day and by night, to the caitif wight, Who shakes the poor like snakes from his door, And shuts up the womb of his purse. And still she cried A mischief, And a nine-fold-withering curse: For that shall come to thee that will undo thee, Both all that thou fearest and worse. So saying, she departed, Leaving Sir Francis like a man, beneath Whose feet a scaffolding was suddenly falling; So he described it. STRANGER. A terrible curse! What followed? SERVANT. Nothing immediate, but some two months after And sure I think He bore his death-wound like a little child; |