210 
THE RAT. 
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 w oman'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 im.p from the 
bottomless 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 with 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 hemp, there arrived 
