d himself from this preference on various pretences,
Peregrine readily undertook the post, expressing great confidence of the
conjurer's incapacity to give him the least cause of apprehension.

This point being settled, they detached one of their number to Crabtree,
in order to bespeak and adjust the hour and terms of the operation,
which he insisted upon performing at his own apartment, where everything
was prepared for the occasion. At the appointed time, they went thither
in a body, to the number of seven, in full expectation of detecting the
impostor; and were received with such gloomy formality, as seemed to
have an effect upon the countenances of some among them; though they
were encouraged by the vivacity of Pickle, who affected a double share
of petulance, for the more effectual accomplishment of his purpose.

Cadwallader made no reply to the interrogations they uttered, in the
levity of their insolence, at the first entrance, but ordered Hadgi to
conduct them through the next room, that they might see there was no
previous apparatus to affright their deputy with objects foreign to his
undertaking. They found nothing but a couple of wax tapers burning on a
table that stood with a chair by it in the middle of the apartment,
and returned to the audience-chamber, leaving Peregrine by himself,
to encounter the phantom of that person whom they should, without his
knowledge, desire the magician to conjure up to his view.

All the doors being shut and the company seated, a profound silence
ensued, together with a face of dreadful expectation, encouraged by
the blue flame of the candles, which were tipped with sulphur for that
purpose, and heightened by the dismal sound of a large bell, which Hadgi
tolled in the ante-chamber. Cadwallader having thus practised upon their
ignorance and fear, desired them to name the person to be produced.
After some whispers among themselves, one of them took the pen, and,
writing the name of Commodore Trunnion upon a slip of paper, put it into
the hands of the magician, who rose from his seat, and, opening the
door of his closet, displayed to their view a skull, with thigh bones
crossed, upon a table covered with black cloth.

This melancholy spectacle made a remarkable impression upon the
imaginations of the company, already prepossessed by the previous
ceremony; and they began to survey one another with looks of
consternation, while Cadwallader, shutting himself in the closet,
that