But ev’ry five minutes this horrible strain
Rush’d in fearful recurrence o’er Mat’s tortur’d brain.
From the House about twelve to his house he repairs;
To creak seem’d the doors, and to crack seem’d the stairs;
He put out the candle, his clothes off he threw,
When St. Giles’s struck one, and the door open flew.
Then the Hag in a red cloak of Parliament Street,
The Hag in a red cloak whom Mat chanc’d to meet,
The Hag in a red cloak, who to him once said,
Pray give me a sixpence to buy me some bread.