hat such houses exist is a remnant of the witch creed, which
merits separate notice from its comparative harmlessness, and from its
being not so much a madness as a folly of the people. Unlike other notions
that sprang from the belief in witchcraft, and which we have already dwelt
upon at sufficient length, it has sent no wretches to the stake or the
gibbet, and but a few to the pillory only.

Many houses have been condemned as haunted, and avoided by the weak and
credulous, from circumstances the most trifling in themselves, and which
only wanted a vigorous mind to clear up, at once, and dissipate all alarm.
A house in Aix-la-Chapelle, a large desolate-looking building, remained
uninhabited for five years, on account of the mysterious knockings that
there were heard within it at all hours of the day and night. Nobody could
account for the noises; and the fear became at last so excessive, that the
persons who inhabited the houses on either side relinquished their
tenancy, and went to reside in other quarters of the town, where there was
less chance of interruption from evil spirits. From being so long without
an inhabitant, the house at last grew so ruinous, so dingy, and so
miserable in its outward appearance, and so like the place that ghosts
might be supposed to haunt, that few persons cared to go past it after
sunset. The knocking that was heard in one of the upper rooms was not very
loud, but it was very regular. The gossips of the neighbourhood asserted
that they often heard groans from the cellars, and saw lights moved about
from one window to another immediately after the midnight bell had tolled.
Spectres in white habiliments were reported to have gibed and chattered
from the windows; but all these stories could bear no investigation. The
knocking, however, was a fact which no one could dispute, and several
ineffectual attempts were made by the proprietor to discover the cause.
The rooms were sprinkled with holy water; the evil spirits were commanded
in due form, by a priest, to depart thence to the Red Sea; but the
knockings still continued, in spite of all that could be done in that way.
Accident at last discovered the cause, and restored tranquillity to the
neighbourhood. The proprietor, who suffered not only in his mind but in
his pocket, had sold the building at a ruinously small price, to get rid
of all future annoyance. The new proprietor was standing in a room on the
first floor when he heard the door dri