FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64  
65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   >>   >|  
istance, and enjoyed the droll scene of the bucks' flight. THE CRIPPLEGATE GHOST. The following story, well authenticated in the neighbourhood of Cripplegate, will convince the reader, that vicious intentions are sometimes productive of much good to the parties they intended to injure. A gentlewoman in that parish, having lain for some days in a trance, was at length laid out and buried for dead, with a gold ring on her finger. The sexton knowing thereof, he and his wife, with a lanthorn and candle, went privately the next night, and dug up the coffin, opened it, untied the winding sheet, and was going to cut off her finger for the sake of the valuable ring buried with her, they not being otherwise able to remove it; when, suddenly, the lady raised herself up (being just then supposed miraculously to come out of her trance). The sexton and his wife ran away in a horrible fright, leaving their lanthorn behind them; which the lady took up, and made haste home to her house. When knocking hard at the door, the maid-servant asked who was there? "'Tis I, your mistress," replied the lady; "and do, for God's sake, let me in immediately, as I am very cold." The maid, being much surprised and terrified at this reply, neglected to open the door, ran away to her master, and acquainted him with the circumstance; who would scarcely believe her tale, till he went himself to the door, and heard his wife relate the dreadful particulars. He immediately let her in, put her into a warm bed; and, by being well looked after, she soon perfectly recovered, and lived to have three children afterwards. This extraordinary resuscitation is conjectured, by the faculty, to have been occasioned by the sudden circulation of the blood on the villain's attempting to cut off the finger. A monument, with a curious inscription of this affair, is still to be seen in Cripplegate church. THE VENTRILOQUIST. The following anecdotes are related by the Abbe de la Chapelle, of the French Academy. This gentleman, having heard many surprising circumstances related concerning one Monsieur St. Gille, a grocer, at St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, whose astonishing powers as a ventriloquist had given occasion to many singular and diverting scenes, formed the resolution to see him. Struck by the many marvellous anecdotes related concerning him, the Abbe judged it necessary first to ascertain the truth by the testimony of his own s
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64  
65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

related

 

finger

 
buried
 

anecdotes

 

lanthorn

 
sexton
 

Cripplegate

 

immediately

 

trance

 
faculty

circulation

 
sudden
 

occasioned

 

conjectured

 

resuscitation

 
scarcely
 

recovered

 

particulars

 

relate

 

perfectly


dreadful
 

villain

 
children
 

looked

 

extraordinary

 

Academy

 

occasion

 
singular
 

diverting

 

scenes


ventriloquist
 
astonishing
 

powers

 
formed
 

resolution

 

ascertain

 

testimony

 

Struck

 
marvellous
 
judged

church

 

VENTRILOQUIST

 

monument

 

curious

 
inscription
 

affair

 

Chapelle

 

French

 
grocer
 

Germain