ntangled
himself with a disturbed, suffering air. The spirits were upon us,
though why they should stifle their interpreter I could not quite see.
The sceptics smiled sardonically. I suspected the lady in nankeen
colour next me, and the dwarf and people immediately round both
mediums. A female voice tremulously suggested that singing might
'improve the conditions;' on which Mr. C. struck up 'Power of Love
Enchanting' in maudlin spiritualistic words. Things looked dull. All
at once we were hailed by one of the most tremendous gruff bass voices
that ever hailed a man-of-war. John King, the favourite spirit of Mr.
A., had appeared with a grumbling announcement of his presence. 'Who
is this John King?' inquired the Liverpool man, who, if he was a
confederate, acted peculiarly well. 'He lived about three hundred
years ago,' said some one in the dark. 'Then he must have fought with
the Armada,' suggested the Liverpool representative. Mr. A. leaped at
the suggestion, and replied, 'It is supposed he did.' On John King
again growling that there he was and what did they want, a sceptic
opposite me exclaimed in the true dramatic manner, 'Rest, rest,
perturbed spirit,' which so enraged John King (whom the lady in buff
next me whispered 'had been a notorious pirate') that he bellowed in
his ear, 'You seem very fond of Shakspere.' A few minutes after there
were sounds of violent blows, and several sceptics were struck on the
head by John King's speaking-trumpet; a sofa cushion was flung at me,
and something else was thrown at the gentleman from Liverpool. A
sceptic who had said that any ventriloquist could imitate a deep
voice, got rapped violently on the head, and John King bellowed at the
same time, 'Is that ventriloquism?' A man near me said he thought he
felt a cold breeze passing over his hands, and a cold finger touch
his. One thing I could not help observing: this was, that the missiles
hurled at sceptics came in a slanting line from where Mr. A. sat. I
also noticed that a singular creaking of the medium's chair usually
preceded any utterances of John King. The lady in nankeen now began,
in a wheedling, coaxing voice, to beg 'Kate' to appear. Kate is Mr.
A.'s second 'familiar,' and he described her to us as a short person
with dark ringlets, and wearing a blue robe fastened by a
girdle--facts which seemed to deeply interest the lady in nankeen.
Presently a little whiffling voice announced Kate, who, however, only
said somethin