destroy me; when the noise you made on
opening the door increased my agony of mind; and, before I was
sufficiently sensible, I screamed out _Murder!_ as you must have
heard.' This explanation having taken place, the poor woman retired, and
was for several days after extremely ill; and I was not a little pleased
myself at finding what I at first supposed a supernatural encounter thus
terminate, without having recourse to a divine exorcist."

THE

SOMERSETSHIRE DEMONIAC.

On the 13th of June 1788, George Lukins, of Yatton, in Somersetshire,
was exorcised in the Temple Church at Bristol, and delivered from the
possession of seven devils by the efforts of seven clergymen.

Lukins was first attacked by a kind of epileptic fit, when he was going
about acting Christmas plays, or mummeries: this he ascribed to a blow
given by an invisible hand. He was afterwards seized by fits; during
which he declared with a roaring voice that he was the devil, and sung
different songs in a variety of keys. The fits always began and ended
with a strong agitation of the right hand; he frequently uttered
dreadful execrations during the fits: and the whole duration of this
disorder was eighteen years.

At length, _viz._ in June 1788, he declared, that he was possessed by
seven devils, and could only be freed by the prayers, _in faith_, of
seven clergymen. Accordingly, the requisite number was summoned, and the
patient sung, swore, laughed, barked, and treated the company with a
ludicrous parody on the _Te Deum_. These astonishing symptoms resisted
both hymns and prayers, till a _small, faint voice_ admonished the
ministers to adjure. The spirits, after some murmuring, yielded to the
adjuration; and the happy patient returned thanks for his wonderful
cure. It is remarkable, that, during this solemn mockery, the fiend
swore, by his infernal den, that he would not quit his patient; an oath,
I believe, no where to be found but in the Pilgrim's Progress, from
whence Lukins probably got it.

Very soon after, the first relation of this story was published, a
person well acquainted with Lukins, took the trouble of undeceiving the
public, with regard to his pretended disorder, in a plain, sensible,
narrative of his conduct. He asserts, that Lukins's first seizure was
nothing else than a fit of drunkenness; that he always foretold his
fits, and remained sensible during their continuance. That he frequently
saw Lukins in his fits; in every o