Al. Well, I’ll be sure to take Care to do your Message.  What shall I say to the rest?

Mu. I’ll tell you in your Ear.

Al. Well, ’tis a Matter that won’t cost very much; it shall certainly be done out of Hand.

The EXORCISM or APPARITION.

The ARGUMENT.

This Colloquy detects the Artifices of Impostors, who impose upon the credulous and simple, framing Stories of Apparitions of Daemons and Ghosts, and divine Voices. Polus is the Author of a Rumour, that an Apparition of a certain Soul was heard in his Grounds, howling after a lamentable Manner:  At another Place he pretends to see a Dragon in the Air, in the middle of the Day, and persuades other Persons that they saw it too; and he prevails upon Faunus, a Parish-Priest of a neighbouring Town, to make Trial of the Truth of the Matters, who consents to do it, and prepares Exorcisms. Polus gets upon a black Horse, throws Fire about, and with divers Tricks deceives credulous Faunus, and other Men of none of the deepest Penetration.

THOMAS and ANSELM.

Tho. What good News have you had, that you laugh to yourself thus, as if you had found a Treasure?

Ans. Nay, you are not far from the Matter.

Tho. But won’t you impart it to your Companion, what good Thing soever it is?

Ans. Yes, I will, for I have been wishing a good While, for somebody to communicate my Merriment to.

Tho. Come on then, let’s have it.

Ans. I was just now told the pleasantest Story, which you’d swear was a Sham, if I did not know the Place, the Persons, and whole Matter, as well as you know me.

Tho. I’m with Child to hear it.

Ans. Do you know Polus, Faunus’s Son-in-Law?

Tho. Perfectly well.

Ans. He’s both the Contriver and Actor of this Play.

Tho. I am apt enough to believe that; for he can Act any Part to the Life.

Ans. He can so:  I suppose too, you know that he has a Farm not far from London.

Tho. Phoo, very well; he and I have drank together many a Time there.

Ans. Then you know there is a Way between two straight Rows of Trees.

Tho. Upon the left Hand, about two Flight Shot from the House?

Ans. You have it.  On one Side of the Way there is a dry Ditch, overgrown with Thorns and Brambles; and then there’s a Way that leads into an open Field from a little Bridge.

Tho. I remember it.

Ans. There went a Report for a long Time among the Country-People, of a Spirit that walk’d near that Bridge, and of hideous Howlings that were every now and then heard there:  They concluded it was the Soul of somebody that was miserably tormented.