MANS Amazement:
it being a true Relation of one Thomas Cox, a Hackney-Coach-man, to whom the Devil appeared on fri-
day night, it being the 31st. of October, first in the likeness of a Gentleman, seeming to have a role of Paper or
Parchment in his hand, afterwards in the likeness of a great Bear with glaring eyes, which so affrighted him,
that it deprived him of all his Sences. To the Tune of Digby's Farewel.
|
GOod People attend now, and I will declare,
|
A wonder as strange as you ever did hear;
|
It hath been apparent to many ones view,
|
For though it is strange, yet 'tis certainly true;
|
The last of October, on Friday at night,
|
A strange apparition a Coachman did fright,
|
In such a strange manner the like was ne'r known,
|
As here by these lines shall plainly be shown.
|
That night near White-Hall he had took up a fair,
|
And then unto Water-Lane he did repair,
|
And when he had set his fare down in the Lane,
|
He drove to the end to return back again;
|
And as he was driveing then easily on
|
The Devil appear'd in the shape of a man,
|
And leaning against a great post he did stand;
|
With likeness of Parchment rol'd up in his hand.
|
He call'd to the Coach-man as it did appear,
|
The Coach-man Supposing he had been a Fare;
|
He stopped his horses and came down therefore,
|
And stept to his Coach and then open'd the door,
|
He bid him to drive him to Brides Low Church yard,
|
The Coachman observ'd him with reverent regard;
|
For little he thought of that infernal sin,
|
And therefore to drive him he then did begin.
|
The horses possest with a Habit of fear,
|
They snorted and startled as it did appear,
|
The Coachman his hat it fell of to the ground,
|
The night being dark it could not be found.
|
This gentleman told him though he did not see it
|
His hat it lay under his horses fore-feet;
|
There finding his hat and the words to be true,
|
He then was amazed to think how he knew.
|
But when he got into his Coachbox again,
|
His horses they startled and could not refrain,
|
Thus snorting and flouncing being frighted withal,
|
At length he came near to St. Brides church-yard-wall
|
The coach-man came down from his box in a fright,
|
And said he would drive him no further that night:
|
The Devil he held out his hand and did say,
|
Here's mony enough I will bountiful pay.
|
Then as he did proffer to feel for his hand,
|
Yet there was no substance he could understand
|
Nor there was no mony the coach-man could see,
|
The Devils a lyar and so he will be,
|
Still he in the shape of a man did remain,
|
Till he from the coach had desended again;
|
The Coach-man he turning about to his fare,
|
He then did appear in the form of a Bear.
|
Which did both his heart and his sences surprize,
|
It staring upon him with great flaming eyes
|
And also did seem to make at him amain
|
But he with his whip lashed at it again,
|
And then he did seem to give back and retire,
|
And vanisht away in great flashes of fire,
|
O this was a sad and deplorable case,
|
The flashes did seem for to fly in his face.
|
He then stepped into his Coach-box straightway,
|
The horses run homeward without there delay,
|
The coach-man was speechless like one almost dead
|
But they took him down and convey'd him to bed
|
Where five or six days he did speechless remain,
|
But then at the length it returned again.
|
Now from his own mouth he hath made it appear,
|
And briefly declared the things mention'd here.
|
He has lost both the sence and the use of his Limbs,
|
Which is a great cut and a grief to his friends,
|
To see how he lyes in a languishing state,
|
Alas this affliction and sorrow is great:
|
To see how he lyeth and still doth remain,
|
'Tis fear'd that he ne'r will recover again,
|
He says if the Lord will his Limbs now restore,
|
He never will follow the calling no more.
|
There's many hath seen him from both far and near;
|
From whose just Relation the truth did appear,
|
Now in Baldwins Gardens therein Cradle Court,
|
This man still is living as hundreds report,
|
And those that will take but the pains for to go
|
A further Account of the truth you may know,
|
Yea from his own mouth he will freely unfold,
|
The sum and the substance of what I have told.
|
|
FINIS
|
|
|
|