Tho. Who was it that raised this Report?

Ans. Who but Polus, that made this the Prologue to his Comedy.

Tho. What did he mean by inventing such a Flam?

Ans. I know nothing; but that it is the Humour of the Man, he takes Delight to make himself Sport, by playing upon the Simplicity of People, by such Fictions as these.  I’ll tell you what he did lately of the same Kind.  We were a good many of us riding to Richmond, and some of the Company were such that you would say were Men of Judgment.  It was a wonderful clear Day, and not so much as a Cloud to be seen there. Polus looking wistfully up into the Air, signed his Face and Breast with the Sign of the Cross, and having compos’d his Countenance to an Air of Amazement, says to himself, O immortal God, what do I see!  They that rode next to him asking him what it was that he saw, he fell again to signing himself with a greater Cross.  May the most merciful God, says he, deliver me from this Prodigy.  They having urg’d him, desiring to know what was the Matter, he fixing his Eyes up to Heaven, and pointing with his Finger to a certain Quarter of it, don’t you see, says he, that monstrous Dragon arm’d with fiery Horns, and its Tail turn’d up in a Circle?  And they denying they saw it, he bid them look earnestly, every now and then pointing to the Place:  At last one of them, that he might not seem to be bad-sighted, affirmed that he saw it.  And in Imitation of him, first one, and then another, for they were asham’d that they could not see what was so plain to be seen:  And in short, in three Days Time, the Rumour of this portentous Apparition had spread all over England.  And it is wonderful to think how popular Fame had amplified the Story, and some pretended seriously to expound to what this Portent did predict, and he that was the Contriver of the Fiction, took a mighty Pleasure in the Folly of these People.

Tho. I know the Humour of the Man well enough.  But to the Story of the Apparition.

Ans. In the mean Time, one Faunus a Priest (of those which in Latin they call Regulars, but that is not enough, unless they add the same in Greek too, who was Parson of a neighbouring Parish, this Man thought himself wiser than is common, especially in holy Matters) came very opportunely to pay a Visit to Polus.

Tho. I understand the Matter:  There is one found out to be an Actor in this Play.

Ans. At Supper a Discourse was raised of the Report of this Apparition, and when Polus perceiv’d that Faunus had not only heard of the Report, but believ’d it, he began to intreat the Man, that as he was a holy and a learned Person, he would afford some Relief to a poor Soul that was in such dreadful Torment:  And, says he, if you are in any Doubt as to the Truth of it, examine into the Matter, and do but walk near that Bridge about ten a-Clock, and you shall hear miserable Cries; take who you will for a Companion along with you, and so you will hear both more safely and better.