Page:Saducismus Triumphatus.djvu/16

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Dr. H. Mores Letter

out of the Writer himself, though it be something, Chap. 16. Page 298 about the Year of Lord 1632 (as near as I can remember, having lost my Notes and the Copy of the Letters to Serjeant Hutton, but am sure that I do most perfectly remember the Substance of the Story). Near unto Chester in the Street, there lived one Walker a Yeoman of good Estate, and a Widower, who had a young Woman to his Kinswoman that kept his House, who was by the Neighbours suspected to be with Child, and was towards the dark of the Evening one Night sent avvay with one Mark Sharp, who was a Collier, or one that digged Coals under ground, and one that had been born in Blakeburn Hundred in Lancashire; and so she was not heard of a long time, and no noise or little was made about it. In the Winter time after, one James Graham, or Grime, for so in that Country they call them) being a Miller, and living about 2 Miles from the place where Walker lived, was one Night alone very late in the Mill grinding Corn, and about 12 or 1 a Clock at Night, he came down the Stairs from having been putting Corn in the Hopper, the Mill doors being shut, there stood a Woman upon the midst of the Floor with her Hair about her Head hanging down and all Bloody, with five large Wounds on her Head. He being much affrighted and amaz'd, began to bless himself, and at last asked her who she was, and what she wanted? To which she said, I am the Spirit of such a Woman who lived with Walker, and being got with Child by him, he promised to send me to a private place, where I should be well lookt to till I was brought in Bed and well again, and then I should come again and keep his House. And accordingly, said the Apparition, I was one Night late sent away with one Mark Sharp, who upon a Moor, naming a place that the Miller knew, flew at me with a Pick, such as Men dig Coals withal, and gave me these five Wounds, and after threw my Body into a Coal-pit hard by, and hid the Pick under a Bank; and his Shoes and Stockings being bloody, he endeavoured to wash them but seeing the Blood would not forth, he hid them there. And the Apparition further told the Miller, that he must be the Man to reveal it, or else that she must still appear and haunt him. The Miller returned home very sad and heavy, but spoke not one Word of what he had seen, but eschewed as much as he could to stay in the Mill within Night without Company, thinking thereby to escape the seeing again of that frightful Apparition. But notwithstanding, one Night when it began to be dark, the Apparition met him again, and seemed very fierce and cruel, and threatened him, that if he did not reveal the Murder she would continually persue and haunt him; yet for all this, he still con-