_The Divell_ sitton on an blak kist. Ve wer al on owr kneyis, and owr hair about our eyes, looking on _the Divell_ stedfastlie, and our handis lifted up to him, saying the vordes ower. And by this the bairnis died.’ CHAPTER XXII. Early Witchcraft in Scotland--Lady Glamys--Bessie Dunlop--Lady Foulis--Numerous Cases. Witchcraft in Scotland began early, for we hear of some dozen or more people being burnt at Edinburgh in 1479, for attempting to bewitch the King, James III., to death, by means of a waxen image. In the proclamation of 1510, for regulating the proceedings at circuit courts the judges are instructed to ask the question, ‘Gif thair be ony Wichecraift or Soffary wsit in y{e} realme?’ but it was not until the passing of the Act of 1563 that the regular persecution of these deluded people began. The first recorded case of witchcraft that I can find in Pitcairn’s ‘Criminal Trials in Scotland,’ is that of Lady Glamys, where we read: ‘31 Jan. 1532. _Jonet, Lady Glammys_ found _John Drummond_ of _Innerpeffery_ as surety for her appearance at the next Justice-aire of _Forfar_, to underly the law for art and part of the Intoxication of _John, Lord Glammys_, her husband.’ That considerable sympathy was felt with her is shown by the number of gentlemen who preferred being fined to giving evidence in her case. But this can scarcely be called a case of witchcraft. She was certainly accused of trying to poison her husband by means of charmed drinks, but the chief accusation brought against her at her trial in 1537, by the malice of her husband’s brother, was attempting to poison the King, a charge which she disposed of easily in her defence. Said she: ‘I am here accus’d for purposing to kill _the King_; and, to make my pretended crime appear more frightful, it is given out that the way was to be by poison. With what strange impudence can any accuse me of such wickedness who never saw any poison, nor know I anything about the preparation of it? Let them tell where I bought it, or who procur’d it for me? Or, though I had it, how could I use it, since I never come near _the King’s_ person, his table, nor Palace? It is well known, that, since my last marriage with this unfortunate gentleman, I have liv’d in the country, at a great distance from the Court. What opportunity could I have to poison _the King_?’ But it was of no avail, she was to die, and this is her sentence: ‘For the quhilkis tressonable crimes, the said Jonet, Lady of Glammys hes foirfallit to oure souerane lord, hir life, hir landis, gudis movable and unmovable: And that scho sall be had to Castell hill of Edinburghe, and their BRYNT in ane fyre to the deid, as ane Traytour. And that I gif for Dome.’