228 ROGER OF WE.VDOVER. [A.D. I20G. father and mother for having begot it, to eternal torment, and, amidst great grinning, cast it into the deep and fiery furnace, which was at the feet of the devil who was weighing. Of the weighing of good and evil in this way, mention is often made in the writings of the holy fathers. Of a certain spirit which the devil had changed into the form of a horse. On the sabbath day near the hour of evening, whilst St. Donininus and St. Julian were in the aforesaid church, there came from the northern part a certain devil riding with headlong speed a black horse, and urging him through the many turnings of the place amidst much noise and laughter; and many of the evil spirits went forth to meet it, dancing about and grinning at one another over the prey which was brought to them. St. Domninus then commanded the devil, who was riding, to come directly to him and tell him whose spirit it was that he had brought ; but the devil dissembling for a long time, for the great delight which he experienced over the wretched spirit, the saint immediately snatched up a wdiip and severely lashed the devil, on which he followed the saint to the northern wall, where stood the scale of the spirits. The saint then asked the devil whose spirit it was that he was tormenting so by riding ; to which the latter replied that " it was one of the nobles of the kingdom of England, who had died on the preceding night without confession and without partaking of the body of the Lord ; and, amongst the other faults which he had committed, his principal crime was his cruelty towards his own men, many of whom he bad brought to extreme want, which be bad chiefly done at the instigation of his wife, who always incited him to deeds of cruelty. I have transformed him into a horse, since we are allowed to turn the spirits of the condemned into whatever form we please ; and I should have already descended with hiin into hell, and should be consigning hiin to eternal punishment, if it were not that Sunday night is at hand, when it is our duty to desist from our theatrical sports, and to inflict more severe tortures on wretched spirits." After he had spoken these words, he directed his look on the man, and said to the saint, " Who is that rustic standing with you ?" To which the saint answered, " Do you not know him ?" The demon then said, " I have seen him at the church of Tidstudc in Essex,