sion null and of no effect."

A similar cause was tried before the Parliament of Bordeaux, in the
year 1595, relative to a house in that city which was sorely troubled
by evil spirits. The Parliament appointed certain ecclesiastics to
examine and report to them, and on their report in the affirmative that
the house was haunted, the lease was annulled, and the tenant absolved
from all payment of rent and taxes. [Garinet. Histoire de la Magie en
France, page 156.]

One of the best stories of a haunted house is that of the royal palace
of Woodstock, in the year 1649, when the commissioners sent from London
by the Long Parliament to take possession of it, and efface all the
emblems of royalty about it, were fairly driven out by their fear of
the devil and the annoyances they suffered from a roguish cavalier, who
played the imp to admiration. The commissioners, dreading at that time
no devil, arrived at Woodstock on the 13th of October, 1649. They took
up their lodgings in the late King's apartments-turned the beautiful
bedrooms and withdrawing-rooms into kitchens and sculleries--the
council-hall into a brew-house, and made the dining-room a place to
keep firewood in. They pulled down all the insignia of royal state, and
treated with the utmost indignity everything that recalled to their
memory the name or the majesty of Charles Stuart. One Giles Sharp
accompanied them in the capacity of clerk, and seconded their efforts,
apparently with the greatest zeal. He aided them to uproot a noble old
tree, merely because it was called the King's Oak, and tossed the
fragments into the dining-room to make cheerful fires for the
commissioners. During the first two days, they heard some strange
noises about the house, but they paid no great attention to them. On
the third, however, they began to suspect they had got into bad
company; for they heard, as they thought, a supernatural dog under
their bed, which gnawed their bedclothes. On the next day, the chairs
and tables began to dance, apparently of their own accord. On the fifth
day, something came into the bedchamber and walked up and down, and
fetching the warming-pan out of the withdrawing-room, made so much
noise with it that they thought five church-bells were ringing in their
ears. On the sixth day, the plates and dishes were thrown up and down
the dining-room. On the seventh, they penetrated into the bedroom in
company with several logs of wood, and usurped the soft pillows
i