After I had wondered at it a while, without speaking to her, considering what she had foretold so confidently before noon, I concluded in my mind, that it was a draught between the devil and her, to feign repentance in such an odd way, that we might be deceived; being made to think that she was not a witch, else she would confess it, seeing God had given her repentance.—Whereupon, seriously considering the matter, I posed her of guiltiness; she confessed all the particulars of the process, which did not certainly conclude her to be a witch; but the rest of the particulars she denied, as also the crime of witchcraft itself. However, she said, “She knew she would die, and desired not to live; and she thought we would be free before God of her blood, because that, however she was free, yet there were so many things deponed against her, that though it was hard for us to think otherwise of her than we did, yet she knew well enough her own innocence.” Thus I have written all those particulars, as I found them in the authentic record, written by the minister’s own hand. She was soon after executed, and died without any acknowledgment of witchcraft. XVI.—_Anent the Apparition of Sir George Villiers._ Some few days before the Duke of Buckingham went to Portsmouth, where he was stabbed by Felton, the ghost of his father Sir George Villiers appeared to one Parker, a religious and sober man, who had been a servant to the said Sir George, but now to the Duke his son. He appeared to him, I say, in his morning chamber-gown, and charged him to tell his son, that he should decline that employment and design he was going upon, or else he would certainly be murdered. Parker promised to the apparition to do it. The Duke making preparation for his expedition, the apparition came again to Parker, taxing him very severely for his breach of promise, and required him not to delay the acquainting his son of the danger he was in. Then Parker the next day tells the Duke, “That his father’s ghost had twice appeared to him, and had commanded him, without any farther delay, to give him that warning.” The Duke slighted it, and told him, “That he was an old doting fool.” That night the apparition came to Parker a third time saying, “Parker thou hast done well in warning my son of his danger, but though he will not believe thee, go to him once more, however, and tell him from me by such a token, (naming a private token) which nobody knows but only he and I, that if he will not decline this voyage, such a knife as this is, (pulling a long knife out from under his gown) will be his death.” This message Parker also delivered the next day to the Duke, who, when he heard the private token, believed he had it from his father’s ghost. Yet, said he, that his honour was now at stake, and he could not go come back from what he had undertaken, come life come death. This message Parker, after the Duke’s murder, communicated to his fellow-servant Henry Celey, who