‘One morning M. _Mompesson_ rising early to go a Journey, heard a great noise below, where the Children lay, and, running down, with a Pistol in his hand, heard this voice, _A Witch, A Witch_, as they had also heard it once before; but, upon his entrance, all was quiet. Having, one night played some little pranks at M. _Mompesson’s_ Bed’s feet, _It_ went into another Bed, in which one of his Daughter’s lay, where _It_ passed from side to side, and lifted her up, as _It_ went under her. At that time there were three kindes of noises in the Bed. They endeavoured to thrust at _It_ with a _Sword_, but _It_ very carefully avoided them, still skipping under the Child, when they were ready to thrust. The night after, _It_ came _panting_ like a Dog out of breath; upon which one took a Bed-Staff to knock, which was taken out of her hand, and thrown away with some violence. Upon this the company came up, and, presently, the room was filled with a _bloomy noysome_ smell, and was very _hot_; though without Fire, and in midst of a very _sharp_ and _severe_ winter. _It_ continued in the Bed, panting and scratching an hour and half, and then went into the next Chamber, where it knock’d a little, and seemed to rattle a chain. Thus it did for two or three nights together. ‘After this, the old Gentlewoman’s Bible was found in the Ashes open, the paper side being downwards. M. _Mompesson_ took it up, and observed that it lay open at the third chapter of S. _Mark_, in which there is mention of the _unclean spirits falling down before our Saviour_; of his _giving power to the 12 to cast out Devils_, and of the _Scribes’_ opinion, that he _cast them out through Beelzebub_. The next night they strewed ashes over the Chamber, to see what _impressions_ _It_ would leave. And in the morning, found in one place the resemblance of a great Claw, in another, of a lesser; some Letters in another, which they could make nothing of; besides many _Circles_ and _Scratches_ in the Ashes; all which, I suppose, were _ludicrous_ devices, by which the _sportful Dæmon_ made _pastime_ with human _Ignorance_ and _Credulity_.