hard knocking near the same corner whence they had at first heard some
sighs; things went so far that the printers received slaps, and their
hats were thrown on the ground. They had recourse to the Capuchins,
who came with the books proper for exorcising the spirit. The exorcism
completed they returned home, and the noise ceased for three days.

At the end of that time the noise recommenced more violently than
before; the spirit threw the characters for printing, whether letters
or figures, against the windows. They sent out of the city for a
famous exorcist, who exorcised the spirit for a week. One day the
spirit boxed the ears of a lad; and again the letters, &c., were
thrown against the window-panes. The foreign exorcist, not having been
able to effect anything by his exorcisms, returned to his own home.

The spirit went on as usual, giving slaps in the face to one, and
throwing stones and other things at another, so that the compositors
were obliged to leave that corner of the printing-office and place
themselves in the middle of the room, but they were not the quieter
for that.

They then sent for other exorcists, one of whom had a particle of the
true cross, which he placed upon the table. The spirit did not,
however, cease disturbing as usual the workmen belonging to the
printing-office; and the Capuchin brother who accompanied the exorcist
received such buffets that they were both obliged to withdraw to their
convent. Then came others, who, having mixed a quantity of sand and
ashes in a bucket of water, blessed the water, and sprinkled with it
every part of the printing-office. They also scattered the sand and
ashes all over the room upon the paved floor; and being provided with
swords, the whole party began to strike at random right and left in
every part of the room, to see if they could hit the ghost, and to
observe if he left any foot-marks upon the sand or ashes which covered
the floor. They perceived at last that he had perched himself on the
top of the stove or furnace, and they remarked on the angles of it
marks of his feet and hands impressed on the sand and ashes they had
blessed.

They succeeded in ousting him from there, and they very soon perceived
that he had slid under the table, and left marks of his hands and feet
on the pavement. The dust raised by all this movement in the office
caused them to disperse, and they discontinued the pursuit. But the
principal exorcist having taken out a screw