The news of this witchcraft coming to the king’s ear, his Majesty was pleased to appoint commissioners, some of the clergy, and some of the laity, to make a journey to the town aforesaid, and to examine the whole business; and accordingly the examination was ordered to be on the 13th of August; and the commissioners met on the 12th instant, in the said village, at the parson’s house, to whom both the minister and several people of fashion, complained with tears in their eyes, of the miserable condition they were in; and therefore begged of them to think of some way, whereby they might be delivered from that calamity. They gave the commissioners very strange instances of the devil’s tyranny among them; how by the help of witches, he had drawn some hundreds of children to him, and made them subject to his power; how he hath been seen to go in a visible shape through the country, and appeared daily to the people; how he had wrought upon the poorer sort, by presenting them with meat and drink, and this way allured them to himself, with other circumstances to be mentioned hereafter. The inhabitants of the village added, with great lamentations, That though their children had told all, and themselves had sought God very earnestly by prayer, yet they were carried away by him. And therefore begged of the lords commissioners to root out this hellish crew, that they might regain their former rest and quietness; and the rather because the children, which used to be carried away in the country or district of Elsdale, since some witches had been burnt there, remained unmolested.—That day, _i. e._ the 13th of August, being the last humiliation day instituted by authority for the removing of this judgment, the commissioners went to church, where there appeared a considerable assembly both of young and old. The children could read most of them, and sing psalms, and so could the women, though not with any great zeal and fervour. There were preached two sermons that day, in which the miserable case of those people that suffered themselves to be deluded by the devil, was laid open; and these sermons were at last concluded with very fervent prayers.—The public worship being over, all the people of the town were called together in the parson’s house, near three thousand of them. Silence being commanded, the king’s commission was read publicly in the hearing of them all, and they were charged, under very great penalties, to conceal nothing of what they knew, and to say nothing but truth; those especially who were guilty, that the children might be delivered from the clutches of the devil. They all promised obedience; the guilty feignedly, but the guiltless weeping and crying bitterly.