Spottiswoode also tells a fantastic story in connection with this Agnes Sampson, Dr John Fian, Geillie Duncan, and others, meeting the devil at North Berwick kirk, of black candles round about the pulpit, of the devil calling the roll and preaching a sermon, and of the rifling of three graves for magical cookery. Of Francis, Earl of Bothwell, who was accused of being associated with Dr Fian in his magical conspiracy against the king, and who was also imprisoned for having conspired the king's death by sorcery, we have this note attached to a curious discourse, from Mr Robert Bruce's Sermons, preached at Edinburgh, November 9th, 1589--"At the which time the Earle Bothwell made his publicke repentance in the church." It will not be forgotten that, in "Tam o' Shanter," Burns depicts a witches' meeting in Alloway Kirk:-- "A winnock-bunker in the east, There sat auld Nick, in shape o' beast; A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large, To gie them music was his charge: He screw'd the pipes and gart them skirl, Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.-- Coffins stood round like open presses, That show'd the dead in their last dresses; And by some devilish cantraip sleight Each in its cauld hand held a light." As typical of the evidence afforded by parochial inquisitions, and on which death sentences were based, the following may be taken:-- "Isabel Roby.--She is indicted to have bidden her gudeman, when he went to St. Fergus to buy cattle, that if he bought any before his home-coming, he should go three times 'woodersonis' about them, and then take three 'ruggis' off a dry hillock, and fetch home to her. Also, that dwelling at Ardmair, there came in a poor man craving alms, to whom she offered milk, but he refused it, because, as he then presently said, she had three folks' milk and her own in the pan; and when Elspet Mackay, then present, wondered at it, he said, 'Marvel not, for she has thy farrow kye's milk also in her pan.' Also, she is commonly seen in the form of a hare, passing through the town, for as soon as the hare vanishes out of sight, she appears." "Margaret Rianch, in Green Cottis, was seen in the dawn of the day by James Stevens embracing every nook of John Donaldson's house three times, who continually thereafter was diseased, and at last died. She said to John Ritchie, when he took a tack (a piece of ground) in the Green Cottis, that his gear from that day forth should continually decay, and so it came to pass. Also, she cast a number of stones in a tub, amongst water, which thereafter was seen dancing. When she clips her sheep, she turns the bowl of the shears three times in her mouth. Also, James Stevens saw her meeting John Donaldson's 'hoggs' (sheep a year old) in the burn of the Green Cottis, and casting the water out between her feet backward, in the sheep's face, and so they all died."