Woodstock | Page 3

down,
Which into fewell-wood was cut, And some into a wood-pile put, But it was hurled all about And thrown down.
In sundry formes it doth appeare; Now like a grasping claw to teare; Now like a dog; anon a beare It tumbles;
And all the windows battered are, No man the quarter enter dare; All men (except the glasier) Doe grumble.
Once in the likenesse of woman, Of stature much above the common, 'Twas seene, but spak a word to no man, And vanish'd.
'Tis thought the ghost of some good wife Whose husband was depriv'd of life, Her children cheated, land in strife She banist.
No man can tell the cause of these So wondrous dreadful outrages; Yet if upon your sinne you please To discant,
You'le find our actions out-doe hell's; O wring your hands and cease the bells, Repentance must, or nothing else Appease can't.

No. II.
THE JUST DEVIL OF WOODSTOCK;
OR,
A TRUE NARRATIVE OF THE SEVERAL APPARITIONS, THE FRIGHTS AND PUNISHMENTS, INFLICTED UPON THE RUMPISH COMMISSIONERS SENT THITHER TO SURVEY THE MANNORS AND HOUSES BELONGING TO HIS MAJESTIE.
[London, printed in the year 1660. 4to.]
The names of the persons in the ensuing Narrative mentioned, with others:--
CAPTAIN COCKAINE. CAPTAIN HART. CAPTAIN CROOK. CAPTAIN CARELESSE. CAPTAIN ROE. Mr. CROOK, the Lawyer. Mr. BROWNE, the Surveyor. Their three Servants. Their Ordinary-keeper, and others. The Gatekeeper, with the Wife and Servants.
Besides many more, who each night heard the noise; as Sir Gerrard Fleetwood and his lady, with his family, Mr. Hyans, with his family, and several others, who lodged in the outer courts; and during the three last nights, the inhabitants of Woodstock town, and other neighbor villages.
And there were many more, both divines and others, who came out of the country, and from Oxford, to see the glass and stones, and other stuffe, the devil had brought, wherewith to beat out the Commissioners; the marks upon some walls remain, and many, this to testifie.
THE PREFACE TO THE ENSUING NARRATIVE.
Since it hath pleased the Almighty God, out of his infinite mercy, so to make us happy, by restoring of our native King to us, and us unto our native liberty through him, that now the good may say, _magna temporum felicitas ubi sentire quoe velis, et dicere licet quoe sentias_, we cannot but esteem ourselves engaged in the highest of degrees, to render unto him the highest thanks we can express. Although, surpris'd with joy, we become as lost in the performance; when gladness and admiration strikes us silent, as we look back upon the precipiece of our late condition, and those miraculous deliverances beyond expression. Freed from the slavery, and those desperate perils, we dayly lived in fear of, during the tyrannical times of that detestable usurper, Oliver Cromwell; he who had raked up such judges, as would wrest the most innocent language into high treason, when he had the cruel conscience to take away our lives, upon no other ground of justice or reason, (the stones of London streets would rise to witness it, if all the citizens were silent.) And with these judges had such councillors, as could advise him unto worse, which will less want of witness. For should the many auditors be silent, the press, (as God would have it,) hath given it us in print, where one of them (and his conscience-keeper, too,) speaks out. What shall we do with these men? saith he; _Aeger intemperans crudelem facit medicum, et immedicabile vulmis ense recidendum_. Who these men are that should be brought to such Scicilian vespers, the former page sets forth--those which conceit Utopias, and have their day-dreams of the return of I know not what golden age, with the old line. What usage, when such a privy councillor had power, could he expect, who then had published this narrative? This much so plainly shows the devil himself dislikt their doings, (so much more bad were they than he would have them be,) severer sure than was the devil to their Commissioners at Woodstock; for he warned them, with dreadful noises, to drive them from their work. This councillor, without more ado, would have all who retained conceits of allegiance to their soveraign, to be absolutely cut off by the usurper's sword. A sad sentence for a loyal party, to a lawful King. But Heaven is always just; the party is repriv'd, and do acknowledge the hand of God in it, as is rightly apply'd, and as justly sensible of their deliverance in that the foundation which the councillor saith was already so well laid, is now turned up, and what he calls day-dreams are come to passe. That old line which (as with him) there seemed, aliquid divini, to the contrary is now restored. And that rock which, as he saith, the prelates and all their adherents, nay, and their master and