he became speechless; and they,
supposing it to be the devil's mark which
kept him silent, searched for that mark, that
by its discovery the spell might be broken.
So they found it, as was said before, under
his tongue, with two charmed pins stuck up
to their heads therein. And when they
were withdrawn, that is, after some further
torture, he confessed anything his
tormentors pleased. The next day he
recanted his confession. He was then somewhat
restored to himself, and had mastered
the weakness of his agony. Of course it
was declared that the devil had visited him
during the night, and had marked him
afresh. They searched, but found nothing;
so, in revenge, they put him to the torture
again. But, he remained constant to the last;
bearing his grievous tortures with most
heroic patience and fortitude; and dying as a
brave man knows always how to die. Finding
that nothing more could be made of him,
he was strangled and burnt "in the Castle
Hill of Edinbrough, on a Saturdaie, in the
ende of Januarie last past, 1591."

Fian was the first victim of the grand battue
opened to the royal witch-hunter. Others
were to follow, the manner of whose finding
was singular enough. Baillie David Seaton
had a half-crazed servant-girl, one Geillis
Duncan, whose conduct had excited the
righteous suspicion of her master. To make
sure he tortured her: first by the "pillie-winks"
or thumbscrews, then by wrenching,
binding, or thrawing her head with
a rope. But, not confessing under all this
agony, she was searched, and the mark
was found on her throat. Whereon she
immediately confessed, accusing amongst
others, the defunct John Fian or Cuningham,
Agnes Sampson, "the eldest witch of
them all" at Haddington, Agnes Tompson
of Edinburgh, and Euphemia Macalzean,
daughter of Lord Cliftounhall, one of the
Senators of the College of Justice. Agnes
Sampson's trial came first. She was a grave
matron-like educated woman, commonly
called the "grace wyff," or "wise wife of
Keith;" and, to her was assigned the doubtful
honour of being carried to Holyrood,
there to be examined before the king himself.
At first she quietly and firmly denied all
that she was charged with. But—after
having been fastened to the witches' bridle,
kept without sleep, her head shaved and
thrawn with a rope, searched and pricked
—she too confessed whatever blasphemous
nonsense her accusers chose to charge her
with, to the wondrous edification of the kingly
witch-finder. She said that she and two
hundred more witches went to sea on All
Halloween in riddles or sieves, making merry
and drinking by the way; that they landed
at North Berwick church, where, taking
hands they danced a round, saying:

  "Commer goe ye before! commer goe ye,
   Gif ye will not goe before; commer let rne."

She said also that Geillis Duncan, the
informer, went before them, playing on the
Jew's harp; which so delighted Gracious
Majesty to hear that he sent on the instant for
Geillis Duncan to play the same tune before
him; which she did: to his "great pleasure
and amazement." Furthermore, Agnes Simpson
confessed, that, on asking Satan why he
hated King James, and wished so greatly
to destroy him, the foul fiend answered
"because he is the greatest enemy I have,"
adding though, that he was "un homme de
Dieu," and that he, Satan, was powerless
against him. A pretty piece of flattery! but,
it availed the poor wise wife, little. Her
indictment was very heavy: fifty-three counts
in all; for the most part curing disease by
incantations and charms, and foretelling
events, especially disease or death. As she
went on, weakened in body and fevered in
mind by torture, she owned to more
monstrous things. Item, to having a familiar,
the devil in shape of a dog by name Elva,
whom she called to her by saying, "Holà,
master!" and conjured away by "the Law
be lived on." This dog she caused to appear
to the Lady of Edmistoun's daughters, when
she called him out of the well, where he lay
growling, to tell them if the old lady would
live or die. Then she said she caused a ship,
"The Grace of God," to perish. For helping
her in this nefarious deed she gave twenty
shillings to Grey Meill, "ane auld sely pure
plowman," who usually kept the door at the
witches' conventions, and who had attended
on her in this shipwreck adventure. Then she
was one of the foremost and most active in
the celebrated storm-raising for the destruction,
or at least the damage of the king on
his return from Denmark; giving some
curious particulars in addition to what we
have already read in Fian's indictment: as,
that she and her sister witches baptised the
cat which raised the storm, by putting it
with various ceremonies, thrice through the
"chimney crook," and fastening four bones
of dead men to its four feet. Which processes
it made infallible as a storm-raiser, and
shipwrecker general. She was also at all the
famous North Berwick meetings; where
Dr. Fian was secretary and lock-opener;
where they were baptised of the fiend and
received formally into his congregation;
where he preached to them as a great
black man; and where they rifled graves
and meted out the dead among them. For
all which crimes Agnes Sampson the grave
matron-like, well-educated grace-wife of
Keith, was tied to a stake on Castle Hill,
and burnt.

Euphemia Macalzean was even higher
game. She was the daughter of Lord Ciiftonhall,
and wife of Patrick Moscrop, a man of
wealth and standing. She was a firm, heroic,
passionate woman, whom no tortures could
weaken into confession, no threats terrify
into submission. She fought her way inch