uch 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 driven to at the bottom with a considerable noise, and then fly
open immediately, about two inches and no more. He stood still a minute
and watched,