"Is it black?"--"Yes."

[The watch was in a black shagreen case.]

"At what time this morning will you take your departure?"

The answer to this question was four knocks, very distinctly heard by
every person present; and accordingly, at four o'clock precisely, the
ghost took its departure to the Wheatsheaf public-house, close by,
where it frightened mine host and his lady almost out of their wits by
knocking in the ceiling right above their bed.

The rumour of these occurrences very soon spread over London, and every
day Cock Lane was rendered impassable by the crowds of people who
assembled around the house of the parish clerk, in expectation of
either seeing the ghost or of hearing the mysterious knocks. It was at
last found necessary, so clamorous were they for admission within the
haunted precincts, to admit those only who would pay a certain fee, an
arrangement which was very convenient to the needy and money-loving Mr.
Parsons. Indeed, things had taken a turn greatly to his satisfaction;
he not only had his revenge, but he made a profit out of it. The ghost,
in consequence, played its antics every night, to the great amusement
of many hundreds of people and the great perplexity of a still greater
number.

Unhappily, however, for the parish clerk, the ghost was induced to make
some promises which were the means of utterly destroying its
reputation. It promised, in answer to the questions of the Reverend Mr.
Aldritch of Clerkenwell, that it would not only follow the little Miss
Parsons wherever she went, but would also attend him, or any other
gentleman, into the vault under St. John's Church, where the body of
the murdered woman was deposited, and would there give notice of its
presence by a distinct knock upon the coffin. As a preliminary, the
girl was conveyed to the house of Mr. Aldritch near the church, where a
large party of ladies and gentlemen, eminent for their acquirements,
their rank, or their wealth, had assembled. About ten o'clock on the
night of the 1st of February, the girl having been brought from Cock
Lane in a coach, was put to bed by several ladies in the house of Mr.
Aldritch; a strict examination having been previously made that nothing
was hidden in the bedclothes. While the gentlemen, in an adjoining
chamber, were deliberating whether they should proceed in a body to the
vault, they were summoned into the bedroom by the ladies, who affirmed,
in great alarm, that the ghost was come, an