Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 2.djvu/119

 disappointed, being forced to serve as a common soldier: Being however a good penman, well skilled in casting accounts, and leading a sober and regular life, I soon rose so high in the good opinion of my superiors, that I was appointed serjeant after nine months service. I certainly should have been promoted higher if I had continued to be zealous in the service, sober and attentive to my superiors, but my patience was exhausted, and I relapsed again into my former dissipations."

"A dissolute life requires money, and the desire of getting it plunges him who has once been led astray from the path of virtue, soon into his former errors. I had once more recouserecourse [sic] to my juggling tricks, pretending to possess a supernatural skill, in detecting thefts, in tossing up the cup, and in telling people's fortunes; I conjured up spirits, dispelled the power of witchcraft, and raised up the dead: in short, I did every thing in my power to drain the purses of the weak and credulous."