down the
dining-room. On the seventh, they penetrated into the bedroom in company
with several logs of wood, and usurped the soft pillows intended for the
commissioners. On the eighth and ninth nights, there was a cessation of
hostilities; but on the tenth, the bricks in the chimneys became
locomotive, and rattled and danced about the floors, and round the heads
of the commissioners, all the night long. On the eleventh, the demon ran
away with their breeches; and on the twelfth filled their beds so full of
pewter platters that they could not get into them. On the thirteenth
night, the glass became unaccountably seized with a fit of cracking, and
fell into shivers in all parts of the house. On the fourteenth, there was
a noise as if forty pieces of artillery had been fired off, and a shower
of pebble-stones, which so alarmed the commissioners that, "struck with
great horror, they cried out to one another for help."

They first of all tried the efficacy of prayers to drive away the evil
spirits; but these proving unavailing, they began seriously to reflect
whether it would not be much better to leave the place altogether to the
devils that inhabited it. They ultimately resolved, however, to try it a
little longer; and having craved forgiveness of all their sins, betook
themselves to bed. That night they slept in tolerable comfort, but it was
merely a trick of their tormentor to lull them into false security. When,
on the succeeding night, they heard no noises, they began to flatter
themselves that the devil was driven out, and prepared accordingly to take
up their quarters for the whole winter in the palace. These symptoms on
their part became the signal for renewed uproar among the fiends. On the
1st of November, they heard something walking with a slow and solemn pace
up and down the withdrawing-room, and immediately afterwards a shower of
stones, bricks, mortar, and broken glass pelted about their ears. On the
2d the steps were again heard in the withdrawing-room, sounding to their
fancy very much like the treading of an enormous bear, which continued for
about a quarter of an hour. This noise having ceased, a large warming-pan
was thrown violently upon the table, followed by a number of stones and
the jawbone of a horse. Some of the boldest walked valiantly into the
withdrawing-room, armed with swords and pistols; but could discover
nothing. They were afraid that night to go to sleep, and sat up, making
fires in every