Nothing farther passed for some time; we were now drawing near the hills:  at last I said, ’You must have met with a great many strange adventures since you took up this course of life?’

‘Many,’ said Peter, ’it has been my lot to meet with; but none more strange than one which occurred to me only a few weeks ago.  You were asking me, not long since, whether I believed in devils?  Ay, truly, young man; and I believe that the abyss and the yet deeper unknown do not contain them all; some walk about upon the green earth.  So it happened, some weeks ago, that I was exercising my ministry about forty miles from here.  I was alone, Winifred being slightly indisposed, staying for a few days at the house of an acquaintance; I had finished afternoon’s worship—­the people had dispersed, and I was sitting solitary by my cart under some green trees in a quiet retired place; suddenly a voice said to me, “Good-evening, Pastor”; I looked up, and before me stood a man, at least the appearance of a man, dressed in a black suit of rather a singular fashion.  He was about my own age, or somewhat older.  As I looked upon him, it appeared to me that I had seen him twice before whilst preaching.  I replied to his salutation, and perceiving that he looked somewhat fatigued, I took out a stool from the cart, and asked him to sit down.  We began to discourse; I at first supposed that he might be one of ourselves, some wandering minister; but I was soon undeceived.  Neither his language nor his ideas were those of any one of our body.  He spoke on all kinds of matters with much fluency; till at last he mentioned my preaching, complimenting me on my powers.  I replied, as well I might, that I could claim no merit of my own, and that if I spoke with any effect, it was only by the grace of God.  As I uttered these last words, a horrible kind of sneer came over his countenance, which made me shudder, for there was something diabolical in it.  I said little more, but listened attentively to his discourse.  At last he said that I was engaged in a paltry cause, quite unworthy of one of my powers.  “How can that be,” said I, “even if I possessed all the powers in the world, seeing that I am engaged in the cause of our Lord Jesus?”

’The same kind of sneer again came on his countenance, but he almost instantly observed, that if I chose to forsake this same miserable cause, from which nothing but contempt and privation was to be expected, he would enlist me into another, from which I might expect both profit and renown.  An idea now came into my head, and I told him firmly that if he wished me to forsake my present profession and become a member of the Church of England, I must absolutely decline; that I had no ill-will against that church, but I thought I could do most good in my present position, which I would not forsake to be Archbishop of Canterbury.  Thereupon he burst into a strange laughter, and went away, repeating to himself, “Church of England!