"The Fiend next exclaimed that
if the candle were put out he would appear in the shape of Fireballs."
Let it be observed that now, for the first time, we learn that all the
scene occurred in candle-light. The appearance of floating balls of fire
is frequent (if we may believe the current reports) at spiritualistic
seances. But what a strange, ill-digested tale is Mr. Sinclair's! He
lets slip an expression which shows that the investigators were in one
room, the But, while the Fiend was diverting himself in the other room,
the Ben! The Fiend (nobody going Ben) next chaffed a gentleman who wore
a fashionable broad-brimmed hat, "whereupon he presently imagined that he
felt a pair of shears going about his hat," but there was no such matter.
The voice asked for a piece of bread, which the others were eating, and
said the maid gave him a crust in the morning. This she denied, but
admitted that something had "clicked" a piece of bread out of her hand.
The seance ended, the Devil slapping a safe portion of the children's
bodies, with a sound resembling applause. After many months of this
really annoying conduct, poor Campbell laid his case before the
Presbyters, in 1655, thirty years before the date of publication. So a
"solemn humiliation" was actually held all through the bounds of the
synod. But to little purpose did Glenluce sit in sackcloth and ashes.
The good wife's plate was snatched away before her very eyes, and then
thrown back at her.
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