sleep, whether early or late. After a month's disturbance without, it came into the room where the drum lay, four or five nights in seven, within half an hour after they were in bed, continuing almost two. The sign of it, just before it came, was a hurling in the air over the house; and at its going off, the beating of a drum, like that at the breaking up of a guard. It continued in this room for the space of two months, which time Mr. Mompesson himself lay there to observe it."

Mrs. Mompesson's confinement now taking place, the distressing noises politely refrained from manifesting themselves; but "after this civil cessation," as Glanvil phrases it, of about three weeks, the disturbances returned in a ruder manner than before, and followed and vexed the youngest children, beating their bedsteads with that violence that all present expected that they would fall to pieces. In laying hands on them one could feel no blows, but might perceive them to shake exceedingly. For an hour together it would beat" the "Tattoo," and "several other points of war, as well as any drummer. After this they would hear a scratching under the children's bed, as if by something that had iron talons. It would lift the children up in their beds, follow them from one room to another, and for a while haunted none particularly but them."

"On the 5th of November," says Glanvil, "it made a mighty noise; and a servant observing two boards in the children's room seeming to move, he bid it give him one of them. Upon which the board came (nothing

moving it that he saw) within a yard of him. The man added, 'Nay, let me have it in my hand'; upon which the spirit, devil, or drummer pushed it towards him so close that he might touch it. This," continues Glanvil, "was in the day-time, and seen by a whole roomful of people. That morning it left a sulphureous smell behind it which was very offensive.

"At night the minister, one Mr. Cragg, and several of the neighbours came to the house on a visit. Mr. Cragg went to prayers with them, kneeling at the children's bedside, where it then became very troublesome and loud. During prayer-time the spirit withdrew into the cock-loft, but returned as soon as prayers were done; and then, in sight of the company, the chairs walked about the room of themselves, the children's shoes were hurled over their heads, and every loose thing moved above the chamber. At the same time a bed-staff was thrown against the minister, which hit him on the leg, but so favourably that a lock of wool could not have fallen more softly."

As Mr. Mompesson found his youngest children were suffering so much from these persecutions, he had them removed, and lodged them at the house of a neighbour. His eldest daughter, who was about ten years of age, was taken into her father's own room, where there had not been any disturbance for a month or so. "As soon as she was in bed," continues the narration, "the disturbance began there again, continuing three weeks, drumming and making other noises; and it was observed that it would answer exactly, in drumming, anything

that was beaten or called for," just in the same way as with the modern spirit-rappings, it has been suggested.

Among the many things noted or reported of this house-haunting was, "that when the noise was loudest, and came with the most sudden and surprising violence, no dog about the house would move, though the knocking was oft so boisterous and rude that it hath been heard at a considerable distance in the fields, and awakened the neighbours in the village," none of whom lived very near Mr. Mompesson's bewitched abode.

On one occasion when the village blacksmith, a fellow who feared neither man nor devil, slept with John, the footman, so that he might hear the supernatural noises and be cured of his incredulity, "there came a noise in the room as if one had been shoeing a horse, and somewhat came, as it were, with a pair of pincers," snipping away at the sceptical blacksmith the chief part of the night. Next day the invisible being came panting like a dog out of breath, and a woman who was present taking up a staff to knock at it, the weapon was caught suddenly out of her hand and thrown away; and company coming up, the room was presently filled with a bloomy noisome smell, and was very hot, though without fire, in a very sharp and severe winter. It continued in the bed, panting and scratching for an hour and a half, and then went into the next room, when it knocked a little, and seemed to rattle a chain."

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For two whole years, with some occasional intermissions, these disturbances continued, creating such intense excitement, not only in the vicinity of Tedworth,

but all over the country, that at last the King sent a Commission to specially investigate the circumstances, and to draw up and furnish him with a report of the whole affair. Whatever, however, may have been the cause, during the visit of the Royal Commission the disturbances ceased, and no manifestations took place. "As to the quiet of the house when the courtiers were there," says Glanvil, "the intermission may have been accidental, or, perhaps, the demon was not willing to give so public a testimony of those transactions which might possibly convince those whom he had rather should continue in unbelief of his existence."

However, no sooner were the Royal Commissioners gone than the mysterious annoyance recommenced, and was manifested in many unpleasant fashions; sometimes it purred like a cat, or beat the children's legs black and blue; once it put a long spike into Mr. Mompesson's bed, and a knife into his mother's; filled the porringers with ashes, hid a Bible in the grate, and turned the money in people's pockets black. On one occasion a servant of Mr. Mompesson's averred that he had not only heard but seen this pertinacious demon, which came and stood at the foot of his bed. "The exact shape and proportion of it he could not discover; but he saw a great body, with two red and glaring eyes, which, for some time, were fixed steadily on him, and at length disappeared."

In the meanwhile, Mr. Mompesson believed, and several of his friends appear to have had a similar opinion, that all the noises and troubles were occasioned

by the imprisoned drummer who was still in jail at Gloucester. In confirmation, as it were, of this idea, the following evidence is given :

"During the time of the knocking," says Glanvil, "when many were present, a gentleman of the company said, 'Satan, if the drummer set thee to work, give three knocks, and no more,' which it did very distinctly, and stopt. Then the gentleman knockt to see if it would answer him as it was wont; but it did not. For farther trial, he bid it, for confirmation, if it were the drummer, to give five knocks and no more that night, which it did, and let the house quiet all the night after. This was done in the presence of Sir Thomas Chamberlain, of Oxford, and divers others."

In the meantime, the drummer being visited one day in jail by a person from the neighbourhood of Tedworth, he asked what was the news in Wiltshire, and, so it is alleged, whether people did not talk a great deal about a drumming in a gentleman's house there? The visitor replied that he had heard of nothing; to which the drummer responded: "I have done it; I have thus plagued him; and he shall never be quiet until he hath made me satisfaction for taking away my drum."

Mr. Mompesson had the drummer taken up again, and this time for felony, for the supposed witchcraft about his house. The grand jury found a true bill against the man, but he was acquitted, his connection with the disturbances not being proved.

What subsequently became of the drummer is rather uncertain, but that he was eventually tried and convicted