midnight
First came the wehrwolf adventures , the tales of the unhappy men whom the demon forced to enter into the bodies of dogs , the great white dogs of the mountains . If you fire a gun at the dog and a single shot should strike him , the man will be delivered ; but if the shot should fall on the dog 's shadow , the man will immediately die . Then came the endless procession of sorcerers and sorceresses . In one of these tales Bernadette evinced a passionate interest ; it was the story of a clerk of the tribunal of Lourdes who , wishing to see the devil , was conducted by a witch into an untilled field at midnight on Good Friday . The devil arrived clad in magnificent scarlet garments , and at once proposed to the clerk that he should buy his soul , an offer which the clerk pretended to accept . It so happened that the devil was carrying under his arm a register in which different persons of the town , who had already sold themselves , had signed their names . However , the clerk , who was a cunning fellow , pulled out of his pocket a pretended bottle of ink , which in reality contained holy water , and with this he sprinkled the devil , who raised frightful shrieks , whilst the clerk took to flight , carrying the register off with him .