210 THE RAT. 



well that snakes are not in the habit of chasing men 

 or women. I was consulted on the important affair; 

 and I remarked, with great gravity, that there was 

 something very strange and awful in it. " If," said 

 I, " Molly has unfortunately been interfering with 

 any other woman's witchcraft; or if she has been 

 writing words with her own blood ; or, above all, if 

 there was a strong smell of brimstone in the lane at 

 the time of the chase, then, and in that case, there 

 is too much reason to fear that the thing which 

 Wilson took for a snake was an imp from the bot- 

 tomless pit, sent up here, no doubt, by the king of 

 sulphur, on some wicked and mischievous errand." 

 Poor old Molly is still alive, but nature is almost 

 done within her ; and she is now rarely seen on the 

 cold side of the threshold. Many a time have I 

 bantered old Molly on this serpentine apparition ; 

 but she would only shake her head and say, she 

 wished she had been at home that evening, instead 

 of going up Blind Lane. 



NOTES ON THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF 

 THE BROWN, OR GREY, RAT. 



SOME few years after the fatal period of 1688, 

 when our aristocracy, in defence of its ill-gotten 

 goods, took upon itself to dispose of hereditary 

 monarchy in a way which, if attempted nowadays, 

 would cause a considerable rise in the price of 



