once and again.  So I went on to demand, as the books advise; and the phantom made answer, willingly.  Questioned wherefore not at rest?  Unquiet, because of a certain sin.  Asked what, and by whom?  Revealed it; but it is sub sigillo, and therefore nefas dictu; more anon.  Inquired, what sign she could give that she was a true spirit and not a false fiend?  Stated, before next Yule-tide a fearful pestilence would lay waste the land and myriads of souls would be loosened from their flesh, until, as she piteously said, ‘our valleys will be full.’  Asked again, why she so terrified the lad?  Replied:  ’It is the law; we must seek a youth or a maiden of clean life, and under age, to receive messages and admonitions.’  We conversed with many more words, but it is not lawful for me to set them down.  Pen and ink would degrade and defile the thoughts she uttered, and which my mind received that day.  I broke the ring, and she passed, but to return once more next day.  At even-song, a long discourse with that ancient transgressor, Mr B. Great horror and remorse; entire atonement and penance; whatsoever I enjoin; full acknowledgment before pardon.

“January 13, 1665.—­At sunrise I was again in the field.  She came in at once, and, as it seemed, with freedom.  Inquired if she knew my thoughts, and what I was going to relate?  Answered, ’Nay, we only know what we perceive and hear; we cannot see the heart.’  Then I rehearsed the penitent words of the man she had come up to denounce, and the satisfaction he would perform.  Then said she, ‘Peace in our midst.’  I went through the proper forms of dismissal, and fulfilled all as it was set down and written in my memoranda; and then, with certain fixed rites, I did dismiss that troubled ghost, until she peacefully withdrew, gliding towards the west.  Neither did she ever afterward appear, but was allayed until she shall come in her second flesh to the valley of Armageddon on the last day.”

These quaint and curious details from the “diurnal” of a simple-hearted clergyman of the seventeenth century appear to betoken his personal persuasion of the truth of what he saw and said, although the statements are strongly tinged with what some may term the superstition, and others the excessive belief, of those times.  It is a singular fact, however, that the canon which authorises exorcism under episcopal licence is still a part of the ecclesiastical law of the Anglican Church, although it might have a singular effect on the nerves of certain of our bishops if their clergy were to resort to them for the faculty which Parson Rudall obtained.  The general facts stated in his diary are to this day matters of belief in that neighbourhood; and it has been always accounted a strong proof of the veracity of the Parson and the Ghost, that the plague, fatal to so many thousands, did break out in London at the close of that very year.  We may well excuse a triumphant entry, on a subsequent page