The Curse Upon Mitre Square — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

46 THE CURSE UPON MITRE SQUARE. appear on Sunday, and vice versd. But he was wrong ; there were solid foundations for a belief, though many might mistake the day, and in after years the host himself believed the story, and held that the fatal spot was indeed accursed by God and man. “Jack gone! Then I suppose he has seen the monk,’ a brother worker said to Grale. The latter nodded, and added, ‘‘ Jack lost his wife a week arter he saw the cursed Papist.”’ ‘“ But I’ve seen ‘im, and nothing’s come to me,” remarked several of the stablemen, and Grale, who was the oldest and most learned in the ghost’s ways, turned and said— “You may ’a seed ‘1m, so ’ave 1; but that is not the point. The man who, with a wieked purpose or to yeer at the monk, stands upon that spot between the hours of twelve and one and sees the ghost, will surely come to harm.’ The old fellow was impres- sive; the terms of the curse were not stated in his own words, but were a formula well known to many of the inhabitants of the Ward of Aldgate. Certainly it was no joking matter, given the con- ditions which Grale mentioned. A curse did alight on the unlucky person who approached the spot with a criminal or jeering intention. The curse did not necessarily end in death, another misfortune might happen to the offender; but many and foul were the crimes which this very spot had witnessed from the year 1530 to the date in which this second narrative 1s cast. Eomichbooks co m