THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 187 



Catholic priest, was fishing for jack quietly 

 enough, but two ill-looking fellows, who were 

 Protestants, and knew him, came by and 

 insulted him, quarrelled with him, and threw 

 him into the river, tumbled him about and 

 clucked him in and out like a sheep in a 

 sheep-wash, and that three gentlemen who were 

 angling in a punt, who were dissenters, only 

 sat laughing at them, and said, " Give it him ! 

 drown him do for him ! " But all on a sud- 

 den the Virgin Mary, all dressed in black, rose 

 up out of the river and, frowning, shook her fist 

 at them ; and then a supernatural being, in the 

 form of a large bull- dog, flew on to them, and 

 would have killed them all, only in compas- 

 sion to them she called him off. But the last 

 version of the story, and that which got most 

 wind, was spread abroad by the opposite party, 

 namely, that three strange-looking fellows, 

 who were all Roman Catholics, were all fish- 

 ing together, and that his Satanic Majesty, 

 who was as black as a coal, just popped up 

 his head out of the water to ask them how 

 they got on. But as there were other anglers 

 near, who were Protestants, the followers of 

 Romanism did not wish it to be seen that 

 they were quite so intimate with his Majesty, 



