e all night for two nights together, as he told
his story, and the day watchman had been there one day, and was now
come to relieve him; all this while no noise had been heard in the
house, no light had been seen, they called for nothing, sent him on no
errands, which used to be the chief business of the watchman, neither
had they given him any disturbance, as he said from Monday afternoon,
when he heard a great crying and screaming in the house, which as he
supposed was occasioned by some of the family dying just at that
time. It seems the night before, the dead-cart, as it was called, had
been stopt there, and a servant-maid had been brought down to the door
dead, and the buriers or bearers, as they were called, put her into
the cart, wrapt only in a green rug, and carried her away.

The watchman had knocked at the door, it seems, when he heard that
noise and crying as above, and nobody answered a great while; but at
last one looked out and said with an angry quick tone, and yet a kind
of crying voice, or a voice of one that was crying, "What d'ye want,
that you make such a knocking?" He answered, "I am the watchman; how
do you do? What is the matter?" The person answered, "What is that to
you? Stop the dead-cart," This, it seems, was about one o'clock; soon
after, as the fellow said, he stopt the dead-cart, and then knocked
again, but nobody answered; he continued knocking, and the bellman
called out several times, "Bring out your dead"; but nobody answered,
till the man that drove the cart, being called to other houses, would
stay no longer, and drove away.

The watchman knew not what to make of all this, so he let them alone
till the morning man, or day watchman, as they called him, came to
relieve him. Giving him an account of the particulars, they knocked at
the door a great while, but nobody answered, and they observed that
the window or casement at which the person looked out who had answered
before, continued open, being up two pair of stairs.

Upon this the two men, to satisfy their curiosity, got a long ladder,
and one of them went up to the window and looked into the room, where
he saw a woman lying dead upon the floor in a dismal manner, having no
clothes on but her shift; but tho he called aloud, and putting in his
long staff, knocked hard on the floor, yet nobody stirred or answered;
neither could he hear any noise in the house.

He came down upon this and acquainted his fellow, who went up also,
and