I'm extreamly Mistaken or I hear some Body Walking about the Room—Who is't that's so un­civil to disturb me at such an un­seasonable Hour?

Start not my L— I'm e'ne your Old Friend and Fellow Traveller, returnd from the Dead, much more willingly than we all did from Graves-End, when that ill-natured Tar of a Captain, wou'd by no means be so generous, to run away with us, and be Hanged for Company.

You must give me leave, good Mr. Ghost, to be a little cautious how I believe you. We live in very bad times, and if we can't trust the Inhabi­tants of this World, 'tis not very likely we shou'd find more honesty among those of the other. How finely were I cheated, if 'tis the Ghost of Essex, which ap­peares to me (for there's no Fea­tures in Shades, and I can't tell how to distinguish ye.) To be short, Show me your Credentials, and I'll believe you. Let me see the tother half of the Broken Six Pence and you shall know all my Heart the next moment.

Upon the Word of a Ghost, I gave it to Charon for my pas­sage—by the sume token that he Grumbled Cursedly, and I'd much ado to perswade the Rascal to take it instead of his Half-Penny —But I'll give ye as good a Token. Your Lordship was this day at the Council, and I'll tell you in your Ear, (least any of the Warders shou'd be listning) what past there, and how you mannag'd your self in so ticklish a juncture.

That any one may do, that has but a good Corres­pondence, without being either a Conjurer or a Devil. But I've one great Objection, against your being my Old Frievd—If you are He, were not He and I Sen­tenced at the same time to be Hang'd, Drawn and Quartered— the 19th. of January, and was not Sentence. Executed on you the 28th. after? Now were you really my Old Friend the Major, we shou'd have you drop in like the Devil in D [...] Dobson▪ here [Page 2]a Leg, and there an Arm; first your Head, then your Bowels, and then your other [...] when as I see you'r as sound as a Roach, and bating a little Black Ring about the Neck, no sign of Hanging, Drawing, and Quartering; all over your whole Body,

Just as wisely might I question, whether you were the Witty Scotch Vicount, I was formerly acquainted with, because you have your Flesh and Blood still about you, whereas he was Condenmed to the same Death, I already suffered. The truth is the Government has been more Merciful to us both, then we could have expected, or did de­serve. It let me scape with no more then a fair Hanging, and your L—p with not so much— if it been't your own fault, and you han't a mind to Hang your self.

But to detain you in suspence no longer, I'll give you one Se­cret, and Infallible Token, that I am I, and that I have no de­sign to Impose upon you—you know as well as I, that I was by, when you writ your Me­moirs, See Account as before and that I per­swaded you to trust 'em, rather to your Memory then suffer a possibility of their ever rising up in Judgment against you. Besides I'm so far from being upon the Trappan with you, that I desire no acknowledg­ment from your L—p of what has past, either when you and I were acquainted, or since my [...] kindness, and upon account of old [...] to infor [...] in some [...] may [...] ve [...] [...]uch con­cern you, and where in my Judg­men is more alter'd, then you'd easily imagine, since I came into these Black Territories, where your Lordship is with as much im­patience expected every moment, as our Masters great Enemy was at the Hague.

Nay, now you'd make me suspect you more then ever — had you not gi­ven me such a Token as I can't answer. I'st possible that you who have been a Martyr for the Cause, and slid of the Stage with so much Decorum and Bravery, shou'd alter your Principles in 'tother World, when you dy'd for 'em here? I thought you had been all firm enough in that; whatever I may be in this, and that no change of place or condition, nei­ther Heaven or Hell cou'd ever have made you started an inch from what you formerly professed.

My L—d, I come from a Countrey where Com­pliments are quite out of Fashi­on; where we see things as they are in their own Natures, stripe from all those odd Disgnises, which Prejudice, Interest, or Humour, here dresses 'em in and where you'd be certainly of my mind, the very next moment after you come thi­ther, and which in a few more will make you forget most of the Politicks, which you have hitherto been learning all your life long.

Torment me then no longer, but by our Old Friendship, if you are him whose▪ Name you take, inform me what Sentiments you had of those things we have so oft discours'd, as soon as you Arrived in the other World.

You have heard, I suppose, how unconcernedly I went off from this, and that I dyed a Traytor against my Country, perhaps with as much Resolution as Russel and the rest of 'em, Died Martyrs for it.

I have, and of the kindness of your Ghostly. Fathers — How Zealous the little Spark of I— was to clap you upon the Shoulder in the last Conflict, and what a deal of Maudlin grief their was at parting with so good a Friend, when they'd have made such excellent Company to have gon with you: I have heard too of your Speech deliver'd to the Sheriff, which our Party Swear is as Infallible as any Chap­the in the Bible, and is kept from the Laity for the same Reason that the Papists keep the Scriptures from 'em.

I confess, wou'd good store of my Quondam Friends, take the same way, and never speak Treason but when at the Gallows; the Government might find it worth the while, to Print their Speeches, as fast as they or the Club cou'd make 'em.—But otherwise, I my self can see no Reason why any Man should Print a Libel against himself. The Friends of the Government, cannot sure be so weak, as to desire the gratification of a Foolish Curiosity, at the Expence of a real damage to what they respect and honour, nor can its E [...]emies with modesty expect to have their Fancies tickled with a mess of Treason, Cum Privilegio. Though all Truths wou'd bear the light, all Lies won't, and where there are more Fools then Wise; as undoubt­edly may be found all the World over, 'tis no hurt to keep Edg'd Tools from 'em, lest they should make use of 'em to cut their own Fingers, or an honester and wiser Mans throat.

Why, you argue as if you were all perfect Williamites in 'tother World, and design'd to make us so in this. I expected far different discourse from the Ghost of Major Ashton.

I was just telling you what Converted me. The very FIRST STEP that I made into the Infernal Regions, before my body was well covered in St. Faiths, (whither I expect shortly to have any Tomb stone worn as deep with the knees of those good Catholicks, who come to adore my Heretical Dust, as St. Patricks Well, or the Mar­bles before the Shrine of Thomas a Becket:) But who shou'd I see there but the Protomartyr of the Cause, poor Cross, who was Hang'd 'tother day, (and show'd us what we must all come to) for nothing, but a little Voyage that he made aboard the French Fleet, when they lay upon our Coast last Summer. He had about him the whole Rabble of Devils at his first Arrival, and looks exactly like a Pick-Pocket, when fallen into the clutches of their mortal Mob. However, they were civiler to him then those wou'd have been above Ground, and gave him Law for his Life, hurrying him away before Judg Aedeus, who was then trying Causes at Pluto's Court, where appeared at least a thousand Witneses, against him summoned by his own Conscience, and two or three false Loons of Devils, who first tempted him to sin, and afterwards discovered him, all these gave their Affidavits, that he endeavoured to betray his Country, and Corresponded with its inveterate, and declared Enemies—and upon the clear proof of the whole, he was immediately Sentenced to be cast into the same Copper, where Judas, Herostratin, Guy Faux, Tarperia, and all the odious Traytors to their Coun­try, or Friends are to be tortured, till a Ja [...]bite loves the Protestant Religion, and hates the King of France and his own good Godfather —your L—p may easily guess how much this Allarm'd me — I immediately fell a trembling, and 'twas well I was nothing but Spirit, for had I been still chained to a Body, something not ve­ry pleasant about me had certainly betray'd me.

If this Fool of a Rogu [...] has such hard treatment, what thought I, am I to expect, if once the truth is known to these grim Justices? On the whole, I e'ne thought it the wisest way to step to the Bar of my own accord, where falling on my knees, I e'ne fairly confessed the whole Fact before any one accused me [...] that I with several other false Traytors had Conspired to overturn and destroy my own Country and Government, and that this poor wretch just then Condemned, had a much less share in the Villany, then I my self had.

Was this the way to obtain any Mitigation, or wou'd it not rather make you fare worse than he that went before you?

There was no other Remedy — I knew 'twas but broyling for't at last. But besides I found out an Expedient which got me at least a Reprieve, whatever may become of a Pardon, I Humbly proposed to the Judges, who lookt much more angry upon me, then those at the Old Eaily that I'd return agen to Life, and perswade those Persons who were concer­ned with me in the same Villanies, to abandon their Cursed designs, and discover all they knew ou [...]t, giv­ing my Parole of Honour to come back agen as soon as I had accomplished my Errand.

This wrought so much on the Sooty-Faced Gentlemen that I obtain'd leave, and accordingly the first Persons I address my self to is your L—p, both upon account of the past intimacy which has been be­tween us, and because it may conduce [Page 4]very much to the Mitigation of my Tor­ments, if I can take off so [...] able a Person as your L—p f [...]m that cause which I am like to Suffer so much for in tother World, as well as this.

You tell me wonders— but 'tis still a greater to me how Hell comes to be so angry with our design, or why, as our Predecessors in the Gunpowder Plot used to say, Satan discovered what we were about, or is since so mightily con­cerned at it; since had the Grand Lewis powr'd his Army in, as we had proposed, those below had undoubtedly receiv'd whole Legions of Souls every day croud­ing down to e'm, from every part of the Conquered Nation.

Notwithslansling all this they fear the exam­ples and tho they love Treason very well, I find they hate the Traytor as much as any of our mortal Politi­cian [...]. For shou'd those who live under so happy a Government as the English at present enjoy (say they among themselves) once Rebel against it and bring in the French, to torment enslave and destroy them if once they accomplish their design, all Europe it un­doubtedly their own and in that as good as all the world when once the [...]rand [...], is Ʋniversal M [...]arch of the upper World ten to one but hee'll h [...]ve such a Freak come into his Head as Alexander, the Great had and have a Months mind for a Touch at the other World when he has conquer'd all his own and among these ours lies most open to his attempts both because, he's now very old and Sinfull and not likely to stay long above before he gives us a visit and makes his last Campaign amongst us and because his Luidores have already made him such a party here by the help of his many Agents, which are come [...] it her before him that Lucifer, himself would hardly be safe in his Throne, but be daily in danger of Abdication and being the last conqust to the French Arms and Policies.

What course then wou'd you advise me to take in order tomy own happiness and yours — You know several Gentlemen of my acquaintance and yours, will not be flack to tell me I must certainly have School Butter in 'tother World, if I tell Tales our of School in this; and o' 'tother side, dare pawn their own Souls for mine, that if I hold right to the Scaffold, my Soul shall be in Paradice, as soon as my Head leaps off from my Shoulders.

'Tis at your Liberty to believe them or me, as your L—p thinks fit. But to be free, the Question lies thus,—whether you can expect Heaven for endea­vouring to Ruin Earth, and whether 'tis so Meritori­ous a ti [...]ing, as some pretend, whatever they think, to [...] Native [...] bar [...] [...] or [...].

[...] L—p [...] a Passion for [...] [...] in the [...] di [...]ged my [...] like a Ghost of Honour—In the [...] I'll about the rest of my E [...]bissie, and see [...] I shall meet with among the remainder of my [...] Friends.

If common Interests and Dangers have any Power, I conjure you by them to stay a Minute longer, and resolve me 2 or 3 very material Questions.

We don't forget every thing as soon as our Moths are cold, and therefore if I'm not forbidden by the Laws of the dark Kingdom, I'll give you all the satisfaction I'm able.

My first Query is— which will be out first, this Year, the French Fleet, or the English?

In that my L- your Memoires have fail'd you. The dilligence of the Govern­ment, and readiness of the Seamen, the en­couragement of the Proclamation; Reform­ing Officers, and Kicking Old Grizzel out of doors, have brought matters into so good a posture, that the Fleet is now in better Or­der then 'twas last Year by May, and where­as your Judgment was; 'twou'd not be out be­fore Ju [...], you'll certainly see a great part on't ready before the end of this Month.

How did Mr. Reading and Mrs. Reading receive the News of our disappoint­ment—our Factors being broken, our being nonsuited in our Law business, and the Lord of the Mannors, sitting faster, and being more lov'd and fear'd th [...]n ever,—you know my meaning—for you are no stranger to this Language.

Mr. Reading was almost in as bad, a condition as his Grandfather used to be, [...] poor Mrs. Reading was in ten times more fright and pain, then at her last Lying In.

One word more and I've done— shall I save my Life, or must I follow [...]n.

— Ask your L—y that—th [...] you your self know whether you can, or will do any thing to deserve it. But my time is past— I must to the rest—Adue.