as they were termed, to each of which were appointed two officers. One of these was called the Maiden of the Covine, and was usually, like Tam O'Shanter's Nannie, a girl of personal attractions, whom Satan placed beside himself, and treated with a particular attention, which greatly provoked the spite of the old hags, who felt themselves insulted by the preference. When assembled, they dug up graves, and possessed themselves of the carcasses, (of unchristened infants in particular,) whose joints and members they used in their magic unguents and salves. When they desired to secure for their own use the crop of some neighbour, they made a pretence of ploughing it with a yoke of paddocks. These foul creatures drew the plough, which was held by the Devil himself. The plough harness and soams were made of quicken grass, the sock and coulter were made out of a riglen's horn, and the covine attended on the operation, praying the Devil to transfer to them the fruit of the ground so traversed, and leave the proprietors nothing but thistles and briers. The witches' sports, with their elfin archery, I have already noticed, (page 45.) They entered the house of the Earl of Murray himself, and such other mansions as were not fenced against them by vigil and prayer, and feasted on the provisions they found there. As these witches were the countrywomen of the weird sisters in Macbeth, the reader may be desirous to hear some of their spells, and of the poety by which they were accompanied and enforced. They used to hash the flesh of an unchristened child, mixed with that of dogs and sheep, and place it in the house of those whom they devoted to destruction in body or goods, saying, or singing, "We put this intill this hame, We will destroy houses and hald, With the sheep and nolt into the fauld; Of all the rest of the little store!" Metamorphoses were, according to Isobel, very common among them, and the forms of crows, cats, hares, and other animals, were on such occasions assumed. In the hare shape Isobel herself had a bad adventure. She had been sent by the Devil to Auldearne, in that favourite disguise, with some message to her neighbours, but had the misfortune to meet Peter Papley of Kilhill's servants going to labour, having his hounds with them. The hounds sprung on the disguised witch, " And I," says Isobel, run a very long time, and being hard pressed, was forced to take to my own house, the door being open, and there took refuge behind a chest." But the hounds came in, and took the other side of the chest, so that Isobel only escaped by getting into another house and gaining time to say the disenchanting rhyme : "Hare, hare, God send thee care! Such accidents, she said, were not uncommon, and the witches were sometimes bitten by the dogs, of which the marks remained after their restoration to human shape. But none had been killed on such occasions. strict. The ceremonial of the Sabbath meetings was very The foul fiend was very rigid in exacting the most ceremonious attention from his votaries, and the title of Lord when addressed by them. Sometimes, however, the weird sisters, when whispering among themselves, irreverently spoke of their sovereign by the name of Black John; upon such occasions, the fiend rushed on them like a school *This word Covine seems to signify a subdivision, or squad. The tree near the front of an ancient castle was called the Covine tree, probably because the Lord received his company there: "He is Lord of the hunting horn, And King of the Covine tree; He's well loo'd in the western waters, But best of his ain minnie." VOL. I.-6 C master who surprises his pupils in delict, and beat and buffeted them without mercy or discretion, saying, "I ken weel eneugh what ye are saying of me." Then might be seen the various tempers of those whom he commanded. Alexander Elder in Earlseat, often fell under his lord's displeasure for neglect of duty, and being weak and simple, could never defend himself save with tears, cries, and entreaties for mercy; but some of the women, according to Isobel Gowdie's confession, had more of the spirit which animated the old dame of Kellyburn Braes. Margaret Wilson in Auldearne would "defend herself finely," and make her hands save her head, after the old Scottish manner. Bessie Wilson could also speak very crustily with her tongue, and "belled the cat" with the Devil stoutly. The others chiefly took refuge in crying "pity! mercy!" and such like, while Satan kept beating them with wool cards, and other sharp scourges, without attending to their entreaties or complaints. There were attendant devils and imps, who served the witches. They were usually distinguished by their liveries, which were sad-dun, grass-green, seagreen, and yellow. The witches were taught to call these imps by names, some of which might belong to humanity, while others had a diabolical sound. These were Robert the Jakis, Saunders the Red Reaver, Thomas the Feary, Swein, an old Scandinavian Duerg probably; the Roaring Lion, Thief of Hell, Wait-upon-Herself, MacKeeler, Robert the Rule, Hendrie Craig, and Rorie. These names, odd and uncouth enough, are better imagined at least than those which Hopkins contrived for the imps which he discovered-such as Pywacket, Peck-in-theCrown, Sack-and-Sugar, News, Vinegar-Tom, and Grizell Greedigut, the broad vulgarity of which epithets shows what a flat imagination he brought to support his impudent fictions. The Devil, who commanded the fair sisterhood, being fond of mimicking the forms of the Christian church, used to rebaptize the witches with their blood, and in his own great name. The proud stomached Margaret Wilson, who scorned to take a blow unrepaid, even from Satan himself, was called Pickle-nearest-the-Wind; her compeer, Bessie Wilson, was Throw-the-Cornyard; Elspet Nishe's was Bessie Bald; Bessie Hay's nickname was, Able-andStout, and Jane Mairten, the Maiden of the Covine, was called Ower-the-Dike-with-it. Isobel took upon herself, and imputed to her sisters, as already mentioned, the death of sundry persons shot with elf-arrows, because they had omitted to bless themselves as the acrial flight of the hags swept pass them. She had herself the temerity to shoot at the Laird of Park as he was riding through a ford, but missed rim, through the influence of the running stream perhaps, for which she thanks God in her confession; and adds, that at the time, she received a great cuff from Bessie Hay for her awkwardness. They devoted the male children of this gentleman (of the well-known family of Gordon of Park, I presume) to wasting illness, by the following lines, placing at the same time in the fire figures composed of clay mixed with paste, to represent the object: "We put this water among this meal, For long dwiningt and ill heal; We put it into the fire. To burn them up stook and stour.§ Such was the singular confession of Isobel Gowdie, made voluntarily, it would seem, and without compulsion of any kind, judicially authenticated by the subscription of the notary, clergymen, and gentlemen present; adhered to after their separate diets, as they are called, of. examination, and containing no variety or contradiction in its details. Whatever might be her state of mind in other respects, she seems to have been perfectly conscious of the perilous consequence of her disclosures to her own per"I do not deserve," says she, "to be seated son. here at ease and unharmed, but rather to be stretched | knew she would starve, for no person thereafter on an iron rack: nor can my crimes be atoned for were I to be drawn asunder by wild horses." It only remains to suppose, that this wretched creature was under the dominion of some peculiar species of lunacy, to which a full perusal of her confession might perhaps guide a medical person of judgment and experience. Her case is interesting, as throwing upon the rites and ceremonies of the Scottish witches a light which we seek in vain elsewhere. Other unfortunate persons were betrayed to their own reproof by other means than the derangement of mind, which seems to have operated on Isobel Gowdie. Some, as we have seen, endeavoured to escape from the charge of witchcraft, by admitting an intercourse with the fairy people; an excuse which was never admitted as relevant. Others were subjected to cruel tortures, by which our ancestors thought the guilty might be brought to confession, but which far more frequently compelled the innocent to bear evidence against themselves. On this subject the celebrated Sir George Mackenzie," that noble wit of Scotland," as he is termed by Dryden, has some most judicious reflections, which we shall endeavour to abstract, as the result of the experience of one, who, in his capacity of Lord Advocate, had often occasion to conduct witch-trials, and who, not doubting the existence of the crime, was of opinion, that, on account of its very horror, it required the clearest and most strict probation. would either give her meat or lodging, and that all men would beat her and hound dogs at her, and that therefore she desired to be out of the world; whereupon she wept most bitterly, and upon her knees called God to witness to what she said. Another told me, that she was afraid the devil would challenge a right to her, after she was said to be his servant, and would haunt her, as the minister said, when he was desiring her to confess, and therefore she desired to die. And really ministers are ofttimes indiscreet in their zeal to have poor creatures to confess in this; and I recommend to judges, that the wisest ministers should be sent to them, and those who are sent should be cautious in this parti cular."* As a corollary to this affecting story, I may quote the case of a woman in Lauder jail, who lay there with other females on a charge of witchcraft. Her companions in prison were adjudged to die, and she too had, by a confession as full as theirs, given herself up as guilty. She, therefore, sent for the minis ter of the town, and entreated to be put to death with the others who had been appointed to suffer upon the next Monday. The clergyman, however, as well as others, had adopted a strong persuasion that this confession was made up in the pride of her heart, for the destruction of her own life, and had no foundation in truth. We give the result of the minister's words: "Therefore much pains was taken on her, by ministers and others, on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning, that she might resile from that confes sion, which was suspected to be but a temptation of the Devil, to destroy both her soul and body; yea, it was charged home upon her by the ministers, that there was just ground of jealousy that her confes sion was not sincere, and she was charged before the Lord to declare the truth, and not to take her what she had said, and cried always to be put away with the rest. Whereupon, on Monday morning, being called before the judges, and confessing before them what she had said, she was found guilty, and condemned to die with the rest that same day. Being carried forth to the place of execution, she remained silent during the first, second, and third prayer, and then perceiving that there remained no more, but to rise and go to the stake, she lifted up her body, and with a loud voice cried out, 'Now, all you that se me this day, know that I am now to die as a witch by my own confession, and I free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my blood. I take it wholly upon myself-my blood be upon my own head; and as I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, I declare I am as free of witchcraft as any child; but being delated by a malicious woman, and put in prison under the name of a witch, disowned by my husband and friends, and seeing no ground of hope of my coming out of prison, or ever coming in credit again, through the temptation of the devil I made up that confession, on purpose to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing rather to die than live;'—and so died. Which lamentable story, as it did then astonish all the spectators, none of which could restrain themselves from tears; so it may be to all a demonstra tion of Satan's subtlety, whose design is still to destroy all, partly by tempting many to presumption, and some others to despair. These things to be of truth, are attested by an eye and ear-witness who is yet alive, a faithful minister of the gospel." It is strange the inference does not seem to have been deduced, that as one woman, out of very despair, renounced her own life, the same might have been the case in many other instances, wherein the confes sions of the accused constituted the principal, if not sole, evidence of the guilt. He first insists on the great improbability of the Fiend, without riches to bestow, and avowedly subjected to a higher power, being able to enlist such numbers of recruits, and the little advantage which he himself would gain by doing so. But, 2dly, says Mackenzie, "the persons ordinarily accused of this crime, are poor ignorant men, or else women, who understand not the nature of what they are accused of; and many mistake their own fears and apprehen-blood upon her own head. Yet she stiffly adhered to sions for witchcraft, of which I shall give two instances. One, of a poor weaver, who, after he had confessed witchcraft, being asked how he saw the devil, made answer, 'Like flies dancing about the candle.' Another, of a woman, who asked seriously when she was accused, if a woman might be a witch and not know it? And it is dangerous that persons, of all others the most simple, should be tried for a crime of all others the most mysterious. 3dly, These poor creatures, when they are defamed, become so confounded with fear, and the close prison in which they are kept, and so starved for want of meat and drink, either of which wants is enough to disarm the strongest reason, that hardly wiser and more serious people than they would escape distraction; and when men are confounded with fear and apprehension, they will imagine things the most ridiculous and absurd,"-of which instances are given. 4thly, "Most of these poor creatures are tortured by their keepers, who, being persuaded they do God good service, think it their duty to vex and torment poor prisoners delivered up to them, as rebels to heaven and enemies to men; and I know," (continues Sir George,) ex certissima scientia, that most of all that ever were taken were tormented in this manner, and this usage was the ground of all their confession; and albeit the poor miscreants cannot prove this usage, the actors being the only witnesses, yet the judge should be jealous of it, as that which did at first elicit the confession, and for fear of which they dare not retract it." 5thly, This learned author gives us an instance, how these unfortunate creatures might be reduced to confession, by the very infamy which the accusation cast upon them, and which was sure to follow, condemning them for life to a state of necessity, misery, and suspicion, such as any person of reputation would willingly exchange for a short death, however painful. "I went when I was a Justice-deput to examine some women who had confessed judicially, and one of them, who was a silly creature, told me under secresie, that she had not confessed because she was guilty, but being a poor creature who wrought for her meat, and being defamed for a witch, shel One celebrated inode of detecting witches, and torturing them at the same time to draw forth confession, was, by running pins into their body, on pretence of discovering the devil's stigna, or mark, *Mackenzie's Criminal Law, p. 45. + Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Discovered, p. 43. which was said to be inflicted by him upon all his Neither must it be forgotten, that the proof led in vassals, and to be insensible to pain. This species support of the prosecution was of a kind very unuof search, the practice of the infamous Hopkins, was sual in jurisprudence. The lawyers admitted as in Scotland reduced to a trade; and the young witch- evidence what they called damnum minatum, et finder was allowed to torture the accused party, as malum secutum-some mischief, that is to say, folif in exercise of a lawful calling, although Sir George lowing close upon a threat, or wish of revenge, Mackenzie stigmatizes it as a horrid imposture. I uttered by the supposed witch, which, though it observe in the Collections of Mr. Pitcairn, that, at might be attributed to the most natural course of the trial of Janet Peaston of Dalkeith, the magis- events, was supposed necessarily to be in consetrates and ministers of that market town caused quence of the menaces of the accused. John Kincaid of Tranent, the common pricker, to exercise his craft upon her, "who found two marks of what he called the devil's making, and which appeared indeed to be so, for she could not feel the pin when it was put into either of the said marks, nor did they (the marks) bleed when they were taken out again; and when she was asked where she thought the pins were put in, she pointed to a part of her body distant from the real place. They were pins of three inches in length." Sometimes this vague species of evidence was still more loosely adduced, and allegations of danger threatened, and mischief ensuing, were admitted, though the menaces had not come from the accused party herself. On the 10th June, 1661, as John Stewart, one of a party of stout burghers of Dalkeith, appointed to guard an old woman, called Christian Wilson, from that town to Niddrie, was cleaning his gun, he was slyly questioned by Janet Cocke, another confessing witch, who probably saw Besides the fact, that the persons of old people his courage was not entirely constant, What would especially sometimes contain spots void of sensi- you think if the Devil raise a whirlwind, and take bility, there is also room to believe that the profess- her from you on the road to-morrow?" Sure enough, ed prickers used a pin, the point, or lower part of on their journey to Niddrie, the party were actually which was, on being pressed down, sheathed in the assailed by a sudden gust of wind (not a very unupper, which was hollow for the purpose, and that common event in that climate) which scarce perwhich appeared to enter the body did not pierce it mitted the valiant guard to keep their feet, while at all. But, were it worth while to dwell on a sub- the miserable prisoner was blown into a pool of ject so ridiculous, we might recollect that in so ter- water, and with difficulty raised again. There is rible an agony of shame that is likely to convulse a some ground to hope that this extraordinary evihuman being under such a trial, and such personal dence was not admitted upon the trial. insults, the blood is apt to return to the heart, and a slight wound, as with a pin, may be inflicted, without being followed by blood. In the latter end of the seventeenth century, this childish, indecent, and brutal practice, began to be called by its right name. Fountainhall has recorded, that in 1678, the Privy Council received the complaint of a poor woman, who had been abused by a country magistrate, and one of those impostors called prickers. They expressed high displeasure against the presumption of the parties complained against, and treated the pricker as a common cheat.* From this and other instances, it appears that the predominance of the superstition of witchcraft, and the proneness to persecute those accused of such practices in Scotland, were increased by the too great readiness of subordinate judges to interfere in matters which were, in fact, beyond their jurisdiction. The Supreme Court of Justiciary was that in which the cause properly and exclusively ought to have been tried. But, in practice, each inferior judge in the country, the pettiest bailie in the most trifling burgh, the smallest and most ignorant baron of a rude territory, took it on him to arrest, imprison, and examine, in which examinations, as we have already seen, the accused suffered the grossest injustice. The copies of these examinations, made up of extorted confessions, or the evidence of inhabile witnesses, were all that were transmitted to the Privy Council, who were to direct the future mode of procedure. Thus no creature was secure against the malice or folly of some defamatory accusation, if there was a timid or superstitious judge, though of the meanest denomination, to be found within the district. But, secondly, it was the course of the Privy Council to appoint commissions of the gentlemen of the country, and particularly of the clergymen, though not likely from their education to be freed from general prejudice, and peculiarly liable to be effected by the clamour of the neighbourhood against the delinquent. Now, as it is well known that such a commission could not be granted in a case of murder in the county where the crime was charged, there seems no good reason why the trial of witches, so liable to excite the passions, should not have been uniformly tried by a court whose rank and condition secured them from the suspicion of partiality. But our ancestors arranged it otherwise, and it was the consequence that such commissioners very seldom, by acquitting the persons brought before them, lost an opportunity of destroying a witch. * Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 15. There is a story told of an old wizard, whose real name was Alexander Hunter, though he was more generally known by the nickname of Hatteraick, which it had pleased the devil to confer upon him. This man had for some time adopted the credit of being a conjurer, and curing the diseases of man and beast, by spells and charms. One summer's day, on a green hill-side, the devil appeared to him in the shape of a grave "Mediciner," addressing him thus, roundly," Sandie, you have too long followed my trade without acknowledging me for a master. You must now enlist with me and become my servant, and I will teach you your trade better." Hatteraick consented to the proposal, and we shall let the Rev. Mr. George Sinclair tell the rest of the tale. "After this, he grew very famous through the country for his charming and curing of diseases in men and beasts, and turned a vagrant fellow like a jockie, gaining meal, and flesh, and money by his charms, such was the ignorance of many at that time. Whatever house he came to, none durst refuse Hatteraick an alms, rather for his ill than his good. One day he came to the yait (gate) of Samuelston, when some friends after dinner were going to horse. A young gentleman, brother to the lady, seeing him, switched him about the ears, saying, You warlock carle, what have you to do here?' Whereupon the fellow goes away grumbling, and was overheard to say, 'You shall dear buy this, ere it be long.' This was damnum minatum. The young gentleman conveyed his friends a far way off, and came home that way again, where he supped. After supper, taking his horse and crossing Tyne water to go home, he rides through a shady piece of a haugh, commonly called Allers, and the evening being somewhat dark, he met with some persons there that begat a dreadful consternation in him, which for the most part he would never reveal. This was malum secutum. When he came home, the servants observed terror and fear in his countenance. The next day he became distracted, and was bound for several days. His sister, the Lady Samuelston, hearing of it, was heard say, 'Surely that knave Hatteraick is the cause of his trouble; call for him in all haste.' When he had come to her, Sandie,' says she, 'what is this you have done to my brother William ?'-' I told him,' says he, 'I should make him repent of his striking me at the yait, lately.' She, giving the rogue fair words, and promising him his pocketful of meal, with beef and cheese, persuaded the fellow to cure him again. He undertook the business; but I must first,' says + Or Scottish wandering beggar. 60 LETTERS ON he, 'have one of his sarks,' (shirts,) which was soon gotten. What pranks he played with it cannot be known; but within a short while the gentleman recovered his health. When Hatteraick came to receive his wages, he told the lady, 'Your brother William shall quickly go off the country, but shall never return.' She, knowing the fellow's prophecies to hold true, caused the brother to make a disposition to her of all his patrimony, to the defrauding of his younger brother, George. After that this warlock had abused the country for a long time, he was at last apprehended at Dunbar, and brought into Edinburgh, and burnt upon the Castlehill."* Now, if Hatteraick was really put to death on such evidence, it is worth while to consider what A hot-tempered swaggering was its real amount. young gentleman horsewhips a beggar of ill fame for loitering about the gate of his sister's house. The beggar grumbles, as any man would. The young man, riding in the night, and probably in liquor, through a dark shady place, is frightened by he would not, and probably could not, tell what, and has a fever-fit. His sister employs the wizard to take off the spell according to his profession; and here is damnum minatum, et malum secutum, and all legal cause for burning a man to ashes! The vagrant Hatteraick probably knew something of the wild young man which might soon oblige him to leave the country; and the selfish Lady Samuelston, learning the probability of his departure, committed a fraud which ought to have rendered her evidence inadmissible. Besides these particular disadvantages, to which the parties accused of this crime in Scotland were necessarily exposed, both in relation to the judicature by which they were tried, and the evidence upon which they were convicted, their situation was rendered intolerable by the detestation in which they were held by all ranks. The gentry hated them, because the diseases and death of their relations and children were often imputed to them; the grossly superstitious vulgar abhorred them with still more perfect dread and loathing. And among those natural feelings, others of a less pardonable description found means to shelter themselves. In one case, we are informed by Mackenzie, a poor girl was to die for witchcraft, of whom the real crime was, that she had attracted too great a share, in the lady's opinion, of the attention of the laird. rival of a skilful farrier was accounted a special Bessie Grahame had been committed, it would seem, under suspicions of no great weight, since the minister, after various conferences, found her defence so successful, that he actually pitied her hard usage, and wished for her delivery from prison, especially as he doubted whether a civil court would send her to an assize, or whether an assize would be disposed to convict her. While the minister was in this doubt, a fellow named Begg was employed as a skilful pricker; by whose authority it is not said, he thrust a great brass pin up to the head in a wart on the woman's back, which he affirmed to be the Devil's mark. A commission was granted for trial; but still the chief gentlemen in the county refused to act, and the clergyman's own doubts were far from being removed. This put the worthy man upon a solemn prayer to God," that if he would find out a way for giving the minister full clearness of her guilt, he would acknowledge it as a singular favour Having thus given some reasons why the prose- and mercy." This, according to his idea, was accutions for witchcraft in Scotland were so nume-complished in the following manner, which he rerous and fatal, we return to the general history of the trials recorded from the reign of James V. to the union of the kingdoms. Through the reign of Queen Mary these trials for sorcery became numerous, and the crime was subjected to heavier punishment by the 73d act of her 9th Parliament. But when James VI. approached to years of discretion, the extreme anxiety which he displayed to penetrate more deeply into mysteries which others had regarded as a very millstone of obscurity, drew still larger attention to the subject. The sovereign had exhausted his talents of investigation on the subject of witchcraft, and credit was given to all who acted in defence of the opinions of the reigning prince. This natural tendency to comply with the opinions of the sovereign, was much augmented by the disposition of the Kirk to the same sentiments. We have already said that these venerable persons entertained, with good faith, the general erroneous belief respecting witchcraft,-regarding it indeed as a crime which affected their own order more nearly than others in the state, since, especially called to the service of heaven, they were peculiarly bound to The works which oppose the incursions of Satan. remain behind them show, among better things, an unhesitating belief in what were called by them special providences;" and this was equalled, at least, by their credulity as to the actual interference of evil spirits in the affairs of this world. They applied these principles of belief to the meanest causes. A horse falling fame was a snare of the Devil, to keep the good clergyman from preaching; the ar* Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Discovered, p. 98. garded as an answer to his prayer. One evening Although the ministers, whose opinions were but too strongly, on this head, in correspondence with the prevailing superstitions of the people, nourished, in the early system of church government, a considerable desire to secure their own immunities and privileges as a national church, which failed not at + Satan's Invisible World, by Mr. George Sinclair. The author was Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow and afterward minister of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire. last to be brought into contact with the king's pre- the sick woman's husband startling at the proposal, rogative; yet, in the earlier part of his reign, James, and being indifferent perhaps about the issue, would when freed from the influence of such a favourite as not bestow the necessary expenses, whereupon the the profligate Stuart, Earl of Arran, was, in his per-Wise Wife refused to raise the Devil, and the patient sonal qualities, rather acceptable to the clergy of his died. This woman was principally engaged in an kingdom and period. At his departing from Scot- extensive conspiracy to destroy the fleet of the queen land, on his romantic expedition to bring home a by raising a tempest; and to take the king's life by consort from Denmark, he very politically recom- anointing his linen with poisonous materials, and mended to the clergy to contribute all that lay in by constructing figures of clay, to be wasted and their power to assist the civil magistrates, and pre- tormented after the usual fashion of necromancy. serve the public peace of the kingdom. The king, Among her associates was an unhappy lady of after his return, acknowledged, with many thanks, much higher degree. This was Dame Euphane the care which the clergy had bestowed in this par- Mac-Calzean, the widow of a Senator of the Colticular. Nor were they slack in assuming the merit lege of Justice, and a person infinitely above the to themselves, for they often reminded him, in their rank of the obscure witches with whom she was future discords, that his kingdom had never been so joined in her crime. Mr. Pitcairn supposes, that quiet as during his voyage to Denmark, when the this connexion may have risen from her devotion to clergy were, in a great measure, intrusted with the the Catholic faith, and her friendship for the Earl charge of the public government. of Bothwell. During the halcyon period of union between kirk The third person in this singular league of sorand king, their hearty agreement on the subject of cerers was Doctor John Fian, otherwise Cunningwitchcraft failed not to heat the fires against the hame, who was schoolmaster at Tranent, and enpersons suspected of such iniquity. The clergy con- joyed much hazardous reputation as a warlock. sidered that the Roman Catholics, their principal This man was made the hero of the whole tale of enemies, were equally devoted to the Devil, the necromancy, in an account of it published at Lonmass, and the witches, which, in their opinion, were don, and entitled, "News from Scotland," which mutually associated together, and natural allies in has been lately reprinted by the Roxburghe Club. the great cause of mischief. On the other hand, the It is remarkable that the Scottish witchcrafts were pedantic sovereign having exercised his learning and not thought sufficiently horrible by the editor of this ingenuity in the Demonologia, considered the exe- fact, without adding to them the story of a filter cution of every witch who was burned, as a neces-being applied to a cow's hair instead of that of the sary conclusion of his own royal syllogisms. The juries were also afraid of the consequences of acquittal to themselves, being liable to suffer under an assize of error, should they be thought to have been unjustly merciful; and as the witches tried were personally as insignificant as the charge itself was odious, there was no restraint whatever upon those in whose hands their fate lay, and there seldom wanted some such confession as we have often mentioned, or such evidence as that collected by the minister who overheard the dialogue between the witch and her master, to salve their consciences, and reconcile them to bring in a verdict of Guilty. The execution of witches became, for these reasons, very common in Scotland, where the king seemed in some measure to have made himself a party in the cause, and the clergy esteemed themselves such from the very nature of their profession. But the general spite of Satan and his adherents was supposed to be especially directed against James, on account of his match with Anne of Denmark-the union of a Protestant princess with a Protestant prince, the King of Scotland, and heir of England, being, it could not be doubted, an event which struck the whole kingdom of darkness with alarm. James was self-gratified by the unusual spirit which he had displayed on his voyage in quest of his bride, and well disposed to fancy that he had performed it in positive opposition, not only to the indirect policy of Elizabeth, but to the malevolent purpose of hell itself. His fleet had been tempesttossed, and he very naturally believed that the Prince of the power of the air had been personally active on the occasion. The principal person implicated in these heretical and treasonable undertakings, was one Agnes Simpson, or Sampson, called the Wise Wife of Keith, and described by Archbishop Spottiswood, not as one of the base or ignorant class of ordinary witches, but a grave matron, composed and deliberate in her answers, which were all to some purpose. This grave dame, from the terms of her endictment, seems to have been a kind of white witch, affecting to cure diseases by words and charms, a dangerous profession considering the times in which she lived. Neither did she always keep the right and sheltered side of the law in such delicate operations. One article of her endictment proves this, and at the same time establishes, that the Wise Woman of Keith knew how to turn her profession to account for, being consulted in the illness of Isobel Hamilton, she gave her opinion, that nothing could amend her unless the Devil was raised; and young woman for whom it was designed, and telling how the animal came lowing after the sorcerer to his school-room door, like a second Pasiphae, the original of which charm occurs in the story of Apuleius.* Besides these persons, there was one Barbara Napier, alias Douglas, a person of some rank; Geillis Duncan, a very active witch, and about thirty other poor creatures of the lowest condition,-among the rest, and doorkeeper to the conclave, a silly old ploughman, called as his nickname Graymeal, who was cuffed by the Devil for saying simply, "God bless the king!" When the monarch of Scotland sprung this strong covey of his favourite game, they afforded the Privy Council and him sport for the greatest part of the remaining winter. He attended on the examinations himself, and by one means or other, they were indifferently well dressed to his palate. Agnes Sampson, the grave matron before mentioned, after being an hour tortured by the twisting of a cord around her head, according to the custom of the Bucaniers, confessed that she had consulted with one Richard Grahame concerning the probable length of the king's life, and the means of shortening it. But Satan, to whom they at length resorted for advice, told them in French respecting King James, Il est un homme de Dieu. The poor woman also acknowledged that she had held a meeting with those of her sisterhood, who had charmed a cat by certain spells, having four joints of men knit to its feet, which they threw into the sea to excite a tempest. Another frolic they had, when, like the weird sisters in Macbeth, they embarked in sieves with much mirth and jollity, the Fiend rolling himself before them upon the waves, dimly seen, and resembling a huge haystack in size and appearance. They went on board of a foreign ship richly laden with wines, where, invisible to the crew, they feasted till the sport grew tiresome, and then Satan sunk the vessel and all on board. Fian, or Cunninghame, was also visited by the sharpest tortures, ordinary and extraordinary. The nails were torn from his fingers with smith's pincers; pins were driven into the places which the nails usually defended; his knees were crushed in the boots, his finger-bones were splintered in the pilniewinks. At length his constancy, hitherto sustained, as the bystanders supposed, by the help of the Devil, was fairly overcome, and he gave an account of a great witch-meeting at North Berwick, where they paced round the church withershinns, * Lucit Apuleti, Metamorphoses, lib. iii. |