In Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker" the title character makes a Faustian bargain with the devil. After meeting "old scratch" in a swamp he yearns for the riches which the incarnation of the devil can provide for him. He agrees to the devil's terms, which include cheating his neighbors by engaging in usury (loaning money with high interest rates). Toward the end of his life, however, he begins to have regrets about the deal. Just as he has cheated his friends and neighbors in Boston he seeks to cheat the devil by going to church:
He thought with regret on the bargain he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to cheat him out of his conditions. He became, therefore, all of a sudden, a violent churchgoer.
Despite his regular attendance at church, Tom continues to exact high interest on the loans he makes. The narrator reports that the more Tom sinned the louder and more vociferous his prayers became:
He prayed loudly and strenuously, as if heaven were to be taken by force of lungs. Indeed, one might always tell when he had sinned most during the week, by the clamor of his Sunday devotion.
Just as he had become hard hearted in his lending of money, Tom becomes equally tyrannical in his religion, harping on the sins of others and calling for the persecution of non-conformists such as Quakers and Anabaptists. In the end, all his "violent" religious devotion goes for naught, as he is swept away one day by a "black man" on a "black horse." He is last seen going into the devil's swamp and never seen again.
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