d that they heard the knocks
and scratches. The gentlemen entered accordingly, with a determination
to suffer no deception. The little girl, on being asked whether she saw
the ghost, replied, "No; but she felt it on her back like a mouse." She
was then required to put her hands out of bed, and they being held by
some of the ladies, the spirit was summoned in the usual manner to
answer, if it were in the room. The question was several times put with
great solemnity; but the customary knock was not heard in reply in the
walls, neither was there any scratching. The ghost was then asked to
render itself visible, but it did not choose to grant the request. It
was next solicited to give some token of its presence by a sound of any
sort, or by touching the hand or cheek of any lady or gentleman in the
room; but even with this request the ghost would not comply.

There was now a considerable pause, and one of the clergymen went
downstairs to interrogate the father of the girl, who was waiting the
result of the experiment. He positively denied that there was any
deception, and even went so far as to say that he himself, upon one
occasion, had seen and conversed with the awful ghost. This having been
communicated to the company, it was unanimously resolved to give the
ghost another trial; and the clergyman called out in a loud voice to
the supposed spirit that the gentleman to whom it had promised to
appear in the vault, was about to repair to that place, where he
claimed the fulfilment of its promise. At one hour after midnight they
all proceeded to the church, and the gentleman in question, with
another, entered the vault alone, and took up their position alongside
of the coffin of poor Fanny. The ghost was then summoned to appear, but
it appeared not; it was summoned to knock, but it knocked not; it was
summoned to scratch, but it scratched not; and the two retired from the
vault, with the firm belief that the whole business was a deception
practised by Parsons and his daughter. There were others, however, who
did not wish to jump so hastily to a conclusion, and who suggested that
they were, perhaps, trifling with this awful and supernatural being,
which, being offended with them for their presumption, would not
condescend to answer them. Again, after a serious consultation, it was
agreed on all hands that, if the ghost answered anybody at all, it
would answer Mr. Kent, the supposed murderer; and he was accordingly
requested t