When all the females had alighted, his ears were suddenly alarmed with a thousand yells the most hideous that could be conceived, to the sound of which they all danced in a circle. The captain was placed in the centre; beholding all the wild vagaries with wonder and horror. When the music had ceased and the dancing closed, suddenly he found himself by a phalanx of infernal furies, whose forks were all aimed at his breast. The horror of this scene suddenly awaked the captain, who was glad to find himself safe and in a sound skin at his mother’s house, where he lay that night. The next morning the serjeant, like the knight of the sorrowful countenance, waited on the captain for fresh orders, again declaring that he had seen the apparition which had threatened his life. The captain heard him with less impatience and inattention than he had the preceding day, saying, I myself have had a restless night and a terrible dream, but these things, I tell you again, are beneath the notice of a soldier. However, continued the captain, I am resolved to sift this matter till I discover the ground of your complaint. I have a notion that you, like myself, have been making too free with the bottle. The serjeant replied, most solemnly declaring that he was most perfectly in his senses when he saw a frightful spectre standing at the side of his bed, and which changing its appearance, retired in the shape of a great black cat, jumping from the window over the church steeple. Now to let your honour into a secret, continued the soldier, I was informed this morning, that the landlady is neither more nor less than a witch, and her goodman is second-sighted, and can tell, awake him from his sleep when you please, the precise hour of the night, and the exact minute. To cut short our story, the captain at night accompanied the serjeant, well provided with fire arms, and a sword, to the chamber alluded to. Having placed the arms upon the table, he lay down by the soldier’s side in a bed without curtains, but enclosed with a frame of wainscoting with sliding doors. At midnight, they heard three knocks on one of the pannels, when the captain arose, ran to the door, which he found fast locked, and having a candle, searched every corner of the room without making any discovery. He lay down a second time, and about an hour after again heard the knocking three distinct times as before. Attempting to get up, the whole wainscoting tumbled down upon the bed, the violent noise of which alarmed the serjeant, who cried out, the witch! the witch is within! It was a considerable time before they could extricate themselves from the boarding, but so sooner was the captain disentangled than he saw a prodigious large sable cat flying to the window, at which he fired a pistol, and shot off one of its ears.