a warning about messing with the occult from the beyond.

My master was delighted by the success of these operations, and I urged him on to attempt something similar against a young priest whom he hated. This man had denounced him as being in league with the Devil, which was largely true, and therefore angered my master the more.

“We plagued him, but though we caused him much annoyance by disturbing his sleep and so forth, we failed to hurt him much. Then I inspired one of the prettiest village maids to fall desperately in love with him. She followed him about for weeks, and finally threw herself on her knees in the church, while pretending to confess, and begged for his love. This refused, I turned her love to anger, and she spread all sorts of ugly rumors concerning him.

“Then we attacked him again more fiercely. We scoffed at his religion and told him it was false, or else the good God would not allow us to come to him. We told him he was about to be disgraced, and we urged him to escape the consequences of his evil life by suicide.

“(The poor devil had had a remarkably innocent life, as a matter of fact, and was not quite such a fool as not to know it.)

“We persecuted him like this for weeks until, at length one night he cried, ‘I believe you are sent by that wretched old man whom I denounced as in league with the Devil. I’ll go and tell him what I think of him now.’

“At once we urged him to do so, for, once there, it would be strange if our master could not finish him off. Seizing a crucifix, he stepped out into the darkness, and we followed him, jeering and threatening him.

“It was a wild night, a fit setting to the tragedy. The wind howled and the rain beat in his face. Overhead the lightning flashed and the thunder roared.

“I shrieked in his ear, ‘Hark to the voice of God denouncing you! You hypocrite, look at His lightning threatening to blast you! See how the whole face of heaven is black against you! Accursed of God and man, soon will you come to us in Hell.’

“At length he reached the door of my master’s house and knocked. It was opened, and he found himself in a dark passage. No one spoke, and he stumbled forward seeking a door. The first one he reached was locked, and so was the second; for some of us had gone forward to warn the magician. But a door at the end was not fastened.

“He opened this, and, entering, found the magician waiting for him in a dimly lighted study. The priest denounced him fiercely, but the magician answered not a word, but gazed fixedly at him till his denunciation died slowly away, and he stood there silent, a dishevelled figure, with a hunted look upon his face.

"At length my master spoke: ‘You fool, what made you come here? Your doom is sealed.’

“He began to chant an invocation, and as he did so we gathered round and recommenced our work of persecuting the poor wretch.

“Again the master spoke: ‘To-morrow you will be denounced before the whole of your congregation. I have two women here who will bear witness that you seduced them and were in the habit of visiting them here. I caught you tonight, and it is because I have suspected you for some time and done my best to frustrate your evil designs that you have denounced me as in league with the Evil One.’

“ ‘It is false,’ he shrieked, ‘and you know it. I will deny it and tell the whole world of the evil spirits who obey your commands.’

“ ‘And who will believe you? If they don’t consider the story a lie, they will declare it is due to drink or madness. No, my fine fellow, you’re done for; and it will be a nasty blow for religion too.’

“While he was speaking he threw a heavy weight at the priest, which felled him to the ground.

“ ‘Don’t kill him yet!’ I urged. ‘Wait till he has been thoroughly discredited.’

“ ‘Not I,' he replied. ‘I only intend to obtain some evidence of his guilt—a few trinkets which the two women can produce as evidence. A lock or two of his hair, to begin with, this handkerchief, and this seal from his watch chain.’

“ ‘Can’t we get him to commit some sin?' I urged.

taken from GONE WEST
[link to www.angelfire.com]

My master jumped at the idea, but, almost at the same moment, we were overwhelmed with a flood of light. It seemed to burn and scorch me, and its whiteness was so intense that no words of mine can describe it. This light came from a gigantic spirit of commanding and awful presence, his guardian angel. He spoke, and his words rang out like a trumpet:

“No man may be tempted beyond that which he is able to resist. Ye have been permitted to tempt and persecute this man that he might come forth from the temptation strengthened by it; but your work is finished. The cup of your iniquities is filled to the brim. Go down to the depth of Hell; and go thither also, thou spirit from Hell; return to a place even lower than that from which thou camest.’

“As he spoke the fire seemed to burn me through and through, and the magician fell dead. His spirit rapidly separated from its body, and then the astral body, exposed to that terrible light, shivered and shattered and fell away. The naked spirit fell with an agonised shriek, and vanished from my sight. At the same instant I felt myself whirling through space down into utter darkness.

“But when I realised I was in Hell, I was not back in my old kingdom or in the City of Hate. I had sunk still lower, and had almost reached the bottom division of Hell. But of what befell me there I will tell you at another time.”