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had the better_of him; that People began to think her ill used; that he was only jealous of her, and that he had made this Story to blast her Character, and to justify his own Jealousies; then as to the whispering Story, every Body said it looked like a Forgery indeed, and no Body believed a Word of it, for it seemed improbable, so that the Husband began to talk less of the Matter than before, and was sensible that she was too hard for him.
But the more he began to give out, the more furiously she followed her Blow; for she not only told her Tale, as above, but she employed two or three Emissaries to hand it about among the Ladies at the Tea Table, and among the Gossips; and the Man, in a word, got such an ill Name, that he was the Contempt of all his Neighbours.
Nor did she End here; but she added her former Design to the latter: And, first, she separated from him at home, or, as 'tis usually express'd, they parted Beds; in short, she told him, that it was reported there were Magicians and Fellows that dealt with the Devil, who, they said, by the help of Evil Spirits, could cause People to dream what and when they pleased, and to talk in their Sheep, and that she understood her Husband had been conversing with some of those cunning Men, as they call'd them, in order to make the Experiment upon her, by whispering Things in her Ear while she was asleep, and so making her Dream so and so, and then report, that she talked of those Things in her sleep, in order to expose her.
That therefore she would lie by her self, for she would not lie in Bed with one that would bring the Devil into the Room, to ex-pose
