DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0335
DESCRIPTION OF THE DEATH-WATCH.
309
servant, saying, “ Sir, I am the millerupon which the
Provost commanded his servants to seize him, “ and hang
him upon the next tree.” The poor fellow hearing this,
cried out, <e I am not the miller, but the miller’s ser-
vant.” “ Nay, friend,” says the Provost, “ I will take
thee at thy word. If thou art the miller, thou art a busy
knave and a rebel, and deserves! to be hanged. If thou
art not the miller, thou art a false lying knave, and canst
not do thy master better service than to hang for him
and so, without more ado, he was executed.
A curious Description and Explanation of the Death
Watch, so commonly listened to with such dread.
Among the many natural causes that operate on weak
minds, nothing is more common than what is generally
called a death watch; and is vulgarly believed wherever it
is heard, that some of the family must die in a short time
after, which is a ridiculous fancy, crept into vulgar heads,
and employed to terrify and affright people, as a monitor
of approaching death; and, therefore, to prevent such
causeless fears, I shall take this opportunity to undeceive
the world, by showing what it is, and that no such thing is
intended by it. It has obtained the name of a death watch,
by making a little clinking noise, like a watch ; which
giving some disturbance to a gentleman in his chamber,
who was not to be affrighted with vulgar errors, it tempted
him to a diligent search after the true cause of this noise,
which be pleased to take in his own w'ords. “ I have
been,” says he, <c some time since accompanied with this
little noise. One evening above the rest I sat down by a
table from whence the noise proceeded, and laid my
watch upon the same, and perceived, to my admiration,
that the sound made by this invisible automaton was
louder than that of the artificial machine. Its vibrations
would
309
servant, saying, “ Sir, I am the millerupon which the
Provost commanded his servants to seize him, “ and hang
him upon the next tree.” The poor fellow hearing this,
cried out, <e I am not the miller, but the miller’s ser-
vant.” “ Nay, friend,” says the Provost, “ I will take
thee at thy word. If thou art the miller, thou art a busy
knave and a rebel, and deserves! to be hanged. If thou
art not the miller, thou art a false lying knave, and canst
not do thy master better service than to hang for him
and so, without more ado, he was executed.
A curious Description and Explanation of the Death
Watch, so commonly listened to with such dread.
Among the many natural causes that operate on weak
minds, nothing is more common than what is generally
called a death watch; and is vulgarly believed wherever it
is heard, that some of the family must die in a short time
after, which is a ridiculous fancy, crept into vulgar heads,
and employed to terrify and affright people, as a monitor
of approaching death; and, therefore, to prevent such
causeless fears, I shall take this opportunity to undeceive
the world, by showing what it is, and that no such thing is
intended by it. It has obtained the name of a death watch,
by making a little clinking noise, like a watch ; which
giving some disturbance to a gentleman in his chamber,
who was not to be affrighted with vulgar errors, it tempted
him to a diligent search after the true cause of this noise,
which be pleased to take in his own w'ords. “ I have
been,” says he, <c some time since accompanied with this
little noise. One evening above the rest I sat down by a
table from whence the noise proceeded, and laid my
watch upon the same, and perceived, to my admiration,
that the sound made by this invisible automaton was
louder than that of the artificial machine. Its vibrations
would