'ing me on ship-board, he bestowed wine and strong-waters on me, and, ' at his return, gave me eight stivers, and recommended me to the care ' of the master of the ship, who landed me safe at Dover, from whence I made shift to get to London, where being furnished with necessaries, 'I came into the country. Thus, honoured Sir, I have given you a true account of my great sufferings, and happy deliverance, by the mercy and goodness of God, my most gracious Father in Jesus Christ, my Saviour and Redeemer; to whose name be ascribed all honour, praise, and glory. I conclude, and rest SIR, Your Worship's, In all dutiful respect, WILLIAM HARRISON. T has not been any forgetfulness in me, you have no sooner heard from me; but my unhappy distemper seizing on my right hand, soon after my coming down into the country, so that till now I have been wholly deprived the use of it. I have herewith sent you a short ( narrative of that no less strange, than unhappy business, which some years since happened in my neighbourhood; the truth of every particular whereof I am able to attest, and I think it may very well be ' reckoned amongst the most remarkable occurrences of this age: you may dispose of it as you please, and, in whatever else I can serve you, you may freely command me, as, Sir, Burton, Aug. 23, 1676. Your most affectionate kinsman, Many question the truth of this account Mr. Harrison gives of himself, and his transportation, believing he was never out of England: but there is no question of Perry's telling a formal false story to hang himself, his mother, and his brother: and since this, of which we are assured, is no less incredible than that of which we doubt; it may induce us to suspend hard thoughts of Mr. Harrison, till time, the great discoverer of truth, shall bring to light this dark and mysterious business. That Mr. Harrison was absent from his habitation, employment, and relations, near two years, is certain; and, if not carried away (as he affirms) no probable reason can be given for his absence; he living plentifully and happily in the service of that honourable family, to which he had been then related above fifty years, with the reputation of a just and faithful servant; and, having all his days been a man of sober life and conversation, cannot now reasonably be thought in his old age, so far, to have misbehaved himself, as in such a manner voluntarily to have forsaken his wife, his children, and his stewardship, and to leave behind him, as he then did, a considerable sum of his lady's money in his house; we cannot, therefore, in reason or charity, but believe that Mr. Harrison was forcibly carried away; but by whom, or by whose procurement, is the question. Those, who he affirms did it, he withal affirms never before to have seen; and that he saw not his servant Perry, nor his mother, nor his brother, the evening he was carried away; that he was spirited, as some are said to have been, is no ways probable, in respect he was an old and infirm man, and taken from the most inland part of the nation; and, if sold, as himself apprehends he was, for seven pounds, would not recompense the trouble and charge of his conveyance to the sea-side. Some, therefore, have had hard thoughts of his eldest son, not know. ing whom else to suspect; and believe the hopes of the stewardship, which he afterwards, by the Lord Campden's favour, enjoyed, might induce him to contrive his father's removal; and this they are the more confirmed in, from his misbehaviour in it; but, on the other side, it is hard to think the son should be knowing of his father's transportation; and consequently, of these unhappy persons' innocency, as to the murder of him, and yet prosecute them to the death, as he did; and, when condemned, should be the occasion of their being conveyed above twenty miles, to suffer near Campden, and to procure John Perry to be there hanged in chains, where he might daily see him; and himself to stand at the foot of the ladder, when they were all executed, as likewise he did. These considerations, as they make it improbable the son should be privy to his father's transportation, so they render the whole matter the more dark and mysterious, which we must therefore leave unto him who alone knoweth all things, in his due time to reveal and bring to light. A TRUE RELATION, FROM GERMANY, OF A PROTESTANT SHEPHERD'S KILLING A COUNTERFEIT DEVIL, That would have perverted him to Popery, July the Twentyninth, N. S. 1676. Being a contrivance of two monks, that dressed themselves, one in the likeness of an angel, the other of a devil; and so, in the night, came to this poor shepherd, to affright and seduce him. With an account of what passed between them; how the shepherd killed him that acted the devil, and buried him; and the trouble he has been like to come into since for the same. They compass sea and land to make one Proselyte, &c. Licensed, August the seventh, 1676. Roger L'Estrange. London: printed for D. M. 1676. Quarto, containing eight pages. THE LUTHERAN SHEPHERD KILLING THE DEVIL, &c. THAT HAT there have been feigned miracles set on foot, and pious frauds not only tolerated, but justified by divers religious pretenders, can be unknown to, or doubted of by none, but such as are utterly unac. quainted with history. What this sheet is to set forth, comes attested from good hands, and has already been published in print in Holland, August 7, N. S. 1676. Yet shall we not oblige the faith of any to receive it farther than it appears upon enquiry to be confirmed, and not unsuitable to other plots and intrigues contrived not unfrequently to amuse and seduce the ignorant. The account is dated from Ummendorf, July 29. N. S. 1676, and is thus. In the bishoprick of Halberstadt, near Iseburgh, there lives a poor shepherd bred up in the protestant religion, but of that kind, which, from Martin Luther, are called Lutherans, differing in many points from the Romish church, and holding consubstantiation, &c. Not far from the plains, where he kept his sheep, was situated a monastery, or convent of monks, who had frequently laboured with all the arguments they could use, to withdraw this shepherd from his profession, and bring him over to the Romish religion. Certainly there needs no mighty learning. or extraordinary parts, to contemn such a motion, and triumph over a cause, so continually baffled whenever it dares venture a trial in the presence of scripture or reason. How our shepherd was furnished with logick, I cannot say, but it appears he wanted not a settled resolution, which remained proof against all their attempts. Wherefore, finding neither persuasions nor flatteries would prevail, they proceeded to threaten ings, telling him that if he persisted in heresy after so many ghostly admonitions, he should immediately be plagued with the devil, who should carry him away quick into hell. But he, not regarding such their ridiculous menaces, persevered still in his religion. Wherefore, per ceiving themselves unable to vanquish him by open force, they applied themselves to stratagem. For carrying on of which, two monks dressed up themselves in strange and wonderful shapes; the one very gay and beautiful, with a brave pair of wings, and other accoutrements, fit to represent him as a good angel; the other in a horrid and frightful habit, personating the devil. And being thus prepared, they came one night to the shepherd, as he was sleeping in the fields in his karr, a small hut going upon wheels, commonly used by men of his profession. The counterfeit angel first approached him, and with fair words and insinuations, tempted him to embrace the Romish religion. But the good shepherd (possibly remembering that text,-"If an angel from heaven. should teach you any other doctrine, than what you have received, let him be accursed,") would in no wise hearken unto him, so as to turn to popery. Whereupon the seeming angel told him, if he would not obey his message, he must forthwith deliver him over to the devil; and find. ing his threatenings make no impression, did retreat a little; and then presently came up his confederate, representing the devil's own proper person, with a dreadful noise and muttering; which put the shepherd into no small perplexity, for now he knew not what to think of it. just as the mock devil made an offer to seize on him, the shepherd's dog, not being afraid, when he saw his master in danger, fell upon the feigned fiend; which the shepherd perceiving, and that the devil could not keep off the dog, he began to take courage, and leaped out of his car, with his crook in his hand, and therewith knocked down the sup. But posed devil dead upon the place; which his confederate angel seeing went away; and as soon as day-light appeared, the shepherd perceived that the devil, he had slain, was only one of the monks of the neighbouring cloister; however thought it his safest way to bury him in his devil's dress as he was, that no more words might be made of it. But the monks, next day, came to him, to demand their brother, who at first would acknowledge nothing of it; whereupon they complained to the magistrate, where being examined, he declared, that as for the monk, he could give no account of him; but true it is that the other night he did indeed kill the devil, and buried him in such a place, relating the occasion and whole story as you have heard. He was much threatened, it may be conceived, with punishment for this fact; but probably the innocency of the man, the likelihood of the thing, and the strange habit the monk's body was found in, might very much contribute to the clearing of him; but still he is much discoursed of for this thing. That these and the like stratagems are no new devices amongst these people, I shall add a notable story affirmed by a credible author, I mean Lavaterus in his book De Spectris, cap. 8. p. 35. and was discovered at Orleans, Anno 1534. The pretor, that is the chief judge of Orleans, his wife dying, requested of her husband, she might be buried in the church belonging to the Franciscan friars; which was done, and the Franciscans presented by the pretor with six pistoles; a bribe far beneath their avarice, but they resolved to have a better gratuity from a fall of wood of the pretor's; which he denying them, it so heated the Franciscans, that they, in revenge, plotted to noise it abroad, that his lady was damned eternally. To carry on this villainy undiscerned, they suborn a young man to act her part so notoriously, that by hideous noises at time of publick devotions, he should cause a disturbance, and be a prologue to the tragedy. A doctor of that order and an exorcist, whose plot this was, so designed the scene, that no answer was to be made by the young man if any question were asked of him, but only by signs, which the exorcist only understood, who pre-appointed them, and so could report to the auditory. When this young fellow had amused the people with dismal and un-understood notes, the exorcist boldly asked him, whether he were a spirit or not? If a spirit, whose spirit; relating the names of all such as had lately been buried there. And when he named the pretor's wife, the young man gave signs, that he was the spirit of that lady. Then the exorcist demanded, if she were damned or no, and for what offence? Whether for covetousness, or lust, or pride, or what of practi cal charity; or for the upstart heresy of Lutheranism? And what he meant by those clamours and unquietness? Whether the body, there buried, should be digged up and carried elsewhere or not? To all which he by signs answered affirmatively; which the exorcist and his brethren, the Franciscans, prayed the congregation there present, to take notice of: yet upon the pretor's complaint to the French king, and parliament of Paris, and commission issued forth to report the truth hereof, the wickedness of this contrivance came to light, and the parties actors in it were severely sentenced, according to their deserts. The same author, cap. 7. p. 27. relates a story of the Dominicans, as vile as this, acted at Berne, in Switzerland; that upon a controversy between them and the Franciscans, one affirming, and the other as stoutly denying, they, to evidence the truth of their opinion by miracle, procured their sub-prior, a magician, to raise a spirit, which asserted their doctrine, threatening purgatory, nay hell itself to all that opposed it; and not only so, but likewise destruction and overthrow of the city, unless they cast out the Franciscans thence as hereticks unfit to live. Much more of the like trumpery there was discovered, to the shame of the contrivers. We might mention the boy of Bilson, the famous cheat in Staffordshire, much of kin to this, discovered by the grave bishop of Durham, and all to make way for the Popish doctrine of miracles. But let this suffice for the present for a caution to the credulous. -Si vult populus decipi, decipiatur. A TRUE NARRATIVE OF THE GREAT SOLEMNITY OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF MUSTAPHA, PRINCE OF TURKY, Eldest son of Mahomet, present Emperor of the Turks. TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE OF HIS DAUGHTER TO HIS GREAT FAVOURITE MUSSAIP, AT ADRIANOPLE, As it was sent in a letter to a person of honour. By Mr. Coke, Secretary of the Turky Company; being in company with his Excellency the Lord Ambassador Sir John Finch. Licensed, January 10, 1675-6. Roger L'Estrange. London: printed by J. C. for William Crook, at the Green Dragon without TempleBar. 1676. Folio, containing eight pages. SIR, THESE HESE last five months I have spent in Adrianople; it is pleasantly situated on the rising and top of an easy hill, which to the south and west gives the prospect of a large plain, where the eye is not lost, but bounded with the mountains of Hamus; on the north and east are small hills. It is watered with three rivers (the chiefest Hebrus) which, often uniting and separating their streams, make many islands, capable |