Free The Girl Green as Elderflower by Randolph Stow Page A

shelter. But when God did not instantly answer, she prayed instead: “If God will not hear my prayers,
let the Devil succour me.
”’
    ‘Oh-ah,’ said Mrs Burrows calmly. ‘Well, a girl in such a fix wouldn’t be all that choosey.’
    ‘Immediately there appeared to her a youth with bare feet, girded up for the road, and he said to her: “Follow me.” That prepossessing youth, Mrs Burrows, was the Devil.’
    ‘You make him sound quite nice,’ observed Mrs Burrows.
    ‘In the fields they found a sheepfold, and the Devil went ahead of the girl and made a fire and prepared her a couch of fresh straw; and when the girl had come in and warmed herself, she said: “I’m tormented by hunger and thirst.” The Devil said: “Wait a little, and I will bring you food and drink.” But while he was away, three wayfarers who had been surprised by the firelight came into the sheepfold, and asked the gravid woman who had made the fire. She replied: “The Devil.” When they asked her where he was, she answered: “I was hungry and thirsty, and he went to find me food and drink.”
    ‘At this the three travellers exclaimed: “Have faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the glorious Virgin Mary His mother, and they will deliver you out of the hands of the enemy.” And they then went away to a village which was nearby, and told what they had heard and seen to the clerk and people.
    ‘In the meantime the Devil returned, and comforted the woman with bread and water, and when her body was arched in labour, the Devil, acting as midwife, received her son, and warmed him at the fire.
    ‘But the priest of the village I have mentioned, armed with the catholic faith and the Cross and the holy water, came with the clerk and many of the people to the sheepfold, and found the woman just delivered of a boy-child, which the Devil was holding in his arms. At once the priest sprinkled the holy water, in the name of the Holy Trinity and each of its Persons. And from this the Devil, being unable to endure it, fled,
carrying the boy with him
, and was seen by them no more. And the woman, coming to her senses, said: “Now I know the truth, because the Lord has snatched me out of the hand of the enemy.”’
    ‘Well, you need say no more,’ said Mrs Burrows, with a grim mouth. ‘I shall answer the question you come here to ask. Yes, I did have Malkin baptized, though it went against the grain, knowing that “baseborn”, or worse, might be written in the register. Do that contribute to ease your curiosity?’
    ‘It does, very considerably,’ replied the priest. ‘But if you’ll bear with me just a little longer, I’d like to tell you of another case, reported by someone well known to us, Gervase of Tilbury.
    ‘This case took place in Catalonia, in the diocese of Gerona, at a village called La Junquera. In that region there is a high and difficult mountain, its summit containing a lake whose bottom cannot be seen through the almost black water. This is said to be the gate to a dwelling-place of demons, and if a stone is dropped into the water there is immediately a storm, as if the demons were enraged. On one part of the peak there is perpetual snow and ice, for the sun never reaches there. At the foot of the mountain is a river, whose sands contain gold, which the local people call
palleol.
    ‘Lately, reports Gervase, an agricultural worker called Pedro Cabina, who was attending to domestic matters in his house, was driven to distraction by the continual and implacable howling of his little daughter, and exclaimed: “May the demons fly off with her!” This ejaculation was heard, and immediately a crowd of invisible demons made off with the child.’
    Mrs Burrows’ face was stricken. Her eyes, avoiding the priest, tried to find comfort in her carefully tended hyacinth, while her fingers played with a fold of her dress.
    ‘Seven years from that time,’ continued the priest, ‘a neighbour of Pedro Cabina’s met, near the sinister