1830.] The Fiend of the Ferry. 383 



our suspicions, or to ask to be put back on shore. The ferry-man 

 looked grim ; we felt that we were gazing, for the first time, on old 

 Charon that we were crossing the Stygian stream ! We contemplated 

 our fellow-voyagers with feelings of commiseration. Instead of human 

 beings, we beheld only a congregation of ghosts. We saw one spirit 

 pulling up the shadow of a shirt-collar, that had the appearance of 

 being wet ; and another was holding the apparition of an umbrella over 

 its head. I pitied one lady who seemed to take great pride in an im- 

 mense vapour that hung over her, in the shape of a bonnet ; and who 

 was enraptured with a rainbow that encircled her waist, which she mis- 

 took for a riband. I observed a beau casting an admiring eye down 

 his aerial leg, and criticising the cut of a pair of transparent trowsers ; 

 while an attorney's clerk, standing near him, was buttoning up a black 

 cloud, which he was fondly imagining to be a coat. We felt for them 

 all it was afflicting to see them fancying themselves within a mile of 

 Hampton-Court, when, in fact, they were only crossing an imitation of 

 the Thames. The ferryman continued to toil, and the boat approached 

 the centre. How we envied the ghost of a duck that glided past ! 

 How we longed for cork-jackets ! We ventured a glance at the mighty 

 Mystery the great Agitator. He was pretending to take something 

 that seemed to be snuff out of the spectre of a box. He even affected 

 to sneeze the sound was answered by another peal of thunder. This 

 we took for the signal we awaited our fate, firm and collected. The 

 boat, however, to our intense surprise and relief, passed the middle 

 current in safety the waves rolled harmlessly by the vessel made a 

 zig-zag movement through them, and, in a few minutes more, actually 

 touched the shore on the opposite side. At the same moment the rain 

 ceased the clouds cleared off a stream of sunshine burst on the river 

 and the glories of nature were once more visible through the dark- 

 ness and dismay that had enveloped her. 



I need not say how agreeable our astonishment was. We determined, 

 however, to fix an eye on our superhuman fellow-passenger. We saw 

 him, as the boat landed, take out the phantom of a penny-piece, which 

 he placed in the boatman's hand, who seemed quite contented with the 

 illusion. He turned, and saw that we were watching him ; he smiled, 

 as if in mockery of the terror that was still visible in our aspects ; he 

 then nodded to us with much fiendish familiarity and demoniac polite- 

 ness, and in the next moment sprang upon the shore. After lingering 

 a minute or two, we followed his example. We beheld him glide along 

 a winding path, extending from the bank, till his garments melted 

 almost into mist. We followed. He turned off into a lane, and was 

 hidden from view. We still rushed resolutely forward. When we 

 reached the lane, hardly expecting to obtain a glimpse of the object of 

 our search, we paused to peep down it; and there, seated on a stile at 

 two yards' distance, we descried the dreaded demon, with the image of 

 a clasp-knife uplifted in one hand, and in the other (never shall we 

 forget the feelings with which we surveyed that scene) the semblance 

 of a huge piece of bacon upon an acre of bread ! This was a termina- 

 tion to our adventure so perfectly unanticipated, that we stood, for a 

 second or two, petrified ; but I must admit, at the same time, that we 

 felt disappointed. We could not have suspected him of such plough- 

 man predilections. We should have rather expected to find him 

 banqueting upon a seraph, cut into sandwiches or picking the bones of 

 a cherub. 



