Langley Curtis, the bookseller, was prosecuted for publishing this sheet. The indictment charges that the defendant, contriving and intending to disturb the peace and common tranquillity of this kingdom, and to bring the king into the greatest hatred, contempt, and infamy with all his subjects; and to cause, incite, and procure divers differences and false rumours concerning the pretended ghost of Lord William Russell, lately attainted and executed for high treason, did, on the twelfth day of October in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, at the parish of St. Bride aforesaid, unlawfully, seditiously, and maliciously print and publish, and cause to be printed and published, a certain feigned, false, seditious, and scandalous libel of and concerning the pretended ghost aforesaid, intituled _The Night Walker of Bloomsbury_, containing these false, feigned, and scandalous sentences following, viz., _Ralph: D'ye hear the newes. Will. What newes_, &c., &c., to _Caball of bigotted Papists_. And in another part as follows,--_Will_. _In this Meremaid's attire_, &c., &c., _to quickly changed the colour of his ghostly habit_. Upon this indictment Curtis was tried on February 14, 1683/4, found guilty, and on April 21, 1684, sentenced to stand in and upon the Pillory in Bloomsbury Market between the hours of eleven and one o'clock, with a paper on his head denoting his offence in large letters, and at the same time the libel was to be burned by the Common Hangman. He was also sentenced to pay a fine of £500, to be committed to the Marshalsea until payment, and to find security for good behaviour during life. The following is a complete copy of this publication:--[245] THE NIGHT WALKER OF BLOOMSBURY: Being the Result of several late Consultations between a Vintner, Judge Tallow-chandler, a Brace of Fishmongers, and a Printer, &c. In a Dialogue between _Ralph_ and _Will_. _Entred according to Order._ _Ralph._ D'ye hear the News? _Will._ What News? _Ralph._ Why, they say my Lord _Russel_ walks. _Will._ And do you believe it? _Ralph._ Why not? may not Lords walk as well as other people? _Will._ That's not the business--but I perceive you have heard but a piece of the Story--you have not heard how the Ghost came to be rais'd nor how he was laid. _Ralph._ Rais'd and Laid!--why then I warrant you take it to be nothing but a piece of Imposture. _Will._ Nothing more certain,--a meer silly, idle, foppish contrivance of a Cabal of bigotted _Papists_. _Ralph._ I must confess a Bigotted _Papist_ is a very sottish sort of Animal.--But what did this deep design drive at?