Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 2.djvu/96

 mortification of others, who pretended to have suffered many a malicious trick by his sorcery; for if he had not been absent at that time, his ill wishers would certainly have forged a pretext to deliver him up to the civil power, as a suspicious person, because he never went to church, although he was supposed to be a roman catholic.

Some days after the above mentioned prisoners had been set at liberty, he returned to A, on a holiday after sun set. The children playing in the streets no sooner espied him, than they ran towards him, hailing their hoary benefactor, with loud shouts, searching his pockets for sweetmeats, and teazing the poor old man so unmercifully, that he at last grew angry, and threatened to chastise the troublesome crowd with his staff; however, their demands grew still more clamorous, and some of them began to prick him with pins, which at length obliged him to put his threats in execution.