The Man in Black | Page 9

In a moment the girl came back her face white. "The grey
is in a fit," she cried, keeping the whole width of the room between her
and the stranger. "It is sweating and staggering."
The landlord, with an oath, ran off to see, and in a minute the
appearance of an excited group in the square under the window showed
that the thing was known. The traveler took no notice of this, however,
nor of the curious and reverential glances which the womenfolk,
huddled about the door of the room, cast at him. He walked up and
down the room with his eyes lowered.
The landlord came back presently, his face black as thunder. "It has got
the staggers," he said resentfully.
"It has got the devil," the stranger answered coldly. "I knew it was in
the house when I entered. If you doubt me, I will prove it."
"Ay?" said the landlord stubbornly.
The man in black went to his saddle-bag, which had been brought up
and laid in a corner, and took out a shallow glass bowl, curiously
embossed with a cross and some mystic symbols. "Go to the church
there," he said, "and fill this with holy water."
The host took it unwillingly, and went on his strange errand. While he
was away the astrologer opened the window, and looked out idly.
When he saw the other returning, he gave the order "Lead out the
horse."

There was a brief delay, but presently two stablemen, with a little posse
of wondering attendants, partly urged and partly led out a handsome
grey horse. The poor animal trembled and hung its head, but with some
difficulty was brought under the window. Now and again a sharp spasm
convulsed its limbs, and scattered the spectators right and left.
Solomon Notredame leaned out of the window. In his left hand he held
the bowl, in his right a small brush. "If this beast is sick with any
earthly sickness," he cried in a deep solemn voice, audible across the
square, "or with such as earthly skill can cure, then let this holy water
do it no harm, but refresh it. But if it be possessed by the devil, and
given up to the powers of darkness and to the enemy of man for ever
and ever to do his will and pleasure, then let these drops burn and
consume it as with fire. Amen! Amen!"
With the last word he sprinkled the horse. The effect was magical. The
animal reared up, as if it had been furiously spurred, and plunged so
violently that the men who held it were dragged this way and that. The
crowd fled every way; but not so quickly but that a hundred eyes had
seen the horse smoke where the water fell on it. Moreover, when they
cautiously approached it, the hair in two or three places was found to be
burned off!
The magician turned gravely from the window. "I wish to eat," he said.
None of the servants, however, would come into the room or serve him,
and the landlord, trembling, set the board with his own hands and
waited on him. Mine host had begun by doubting and suspecting, but,
simple man! his scepticism was not proof against the holy water trial
and his wife's terror. By-an-by, with a sidelong glance at his guest, he
faltered the question: What should he do with the horse?
The man in black looked solemn. "Whoever mounts it will die within
the year," he said.
"I will shoot it," the landlord replied, shuddering.
"The devil will pass into one of the other horses," was the answer.

"Then," said the miserable innkeeper, "perhaps your honor would
accept it?"
"God forbid!" the astrologer answered. And that frightened the other
more than all the rest. "But if you can find at any time," the wizard
continued, "a beggar-boy with black hair and blue eyes, who does not
know his father's name, he may take the horse and break the spell. So I
read the signs."
The landlord cried out that such a person was not to be met with in a
lifetime. But before he had well finished his sentence a shrill voice
called through the keyhole that there was such a boy in the yard at that
moment, offering poultry for sale.
"In God's name, then, give him the horse!" the stranger said. "Bid him
take it to Rouen, and at every running water he comes to say a
paternoster and sprinkle its tail. So he may escape, and you, too. I know
no other way."
The trembling innkeeper said he would do that, and did it. And so,
when the man in black rode into Rouen the next evening, he did not
ride alone. He was attended at a