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Chap. XLII.
THE ALE MOSE.
189
though much against their inclination, they enter into
a compact with his satanic majesty; sign and seal that
he is to receive as his own property the first bride who
’enters the church by the east porch, and leave them
quiet; but the holy men are sharper than Old Nick, for
they build a western porch, which he never thought of;
and up to this very day no bride has ever come in by
the eastern gate, nor would she for her bridegroom’s
weight in gold.
THE ALE MOSE.
As you travel for miles along the Ale Mose, and
nothing but heath, heath meets the eye, you would
imagine that this tract of land has been for ever
uncultivated ; but such is not the case; for among the wild
mose, now alone inhabited by the gipsy and the lapwing,
may be discovered, from time to time, ruins of cottages
and remains of furnaces, where once the blacksmith
plied his trade—swords and weapons are laid open by
the turf-cutter: it is easy to perceive that civilization
has here once been, and long since passed away. It is
now five hundred years ago since, in a swamp adjoining
a small village on the mose, there dwelt a dragon—a
very harmless dragon, provided always he was left
undisturbed. The people, however, suffered greatly from
rats, and one day there appeared a wizard who offered
for nothing to rid them of the plague, provided there
were no dragons in the neighbourhood. Now the people
were so anxious to get rid of the nuisance, they lied,
and assured him there was nothing of the kind ever
heard of thereabouts ; so the wizard, confiding in their
word, sat himself down, and, having first cut a circle in
the heath, and kindled a fire in the midst, began to read
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