Page:Account of some imaginary apparitions (NLS104186561).pdf/15

( 15 ) alarmed every night between twelve and one o'clock. The chamber doors were thrown open, the bed cloaths pulled off the beds, and the kitchen furniture thrown with violence about the kitchen, to the great terror of the family, inſomuch, that the ſervants gave their maſter and miſtreſs warning to leave their places, and ſome of them actually quitted their ſervice. This dreadful affair had laſted about ſix weeks, when a young gentleman who was there on a viſit, being in bed one night, at the uſual hour he heard his chamber door thrown open and a very odd noiſe about his room. He was at firſt frightened, but the noiſe continuing a long time, he became calm and lay ſtill, revolving what he had beſt do. When on a ſudden he heard the ſpirit creep under his bed, which was immediately lifted up, &c. This convinced him that there was ſome ſubstance in the ſpirit; on which he leaped out of bed and ſecured the door, and with his oaken ſtaff belaboured the ghoſt under the bed as hard as he could until he heard a female voice imploring for mercy. On that, he opened his chamber door, and called aloud for a light. The family all got up as faſt as poſſible, and came to his room. He then informed them that he had got the ſpirit under the bed; on hearing which, moſt of them were terribly frightened: and would have run off faſter than they came, but he aſſured them, they had nothing to fear: then out he dragged the half murdered ſpirit