‘Every now and then an _Invisible Horse_ would be brought unto her by those whom she only called _them_, and, _Her Company_: upon the Approach of Which, her eyes would be still closed up; for, (said she) _They say I am a_ Tell-Tale, _and, therefore, they will not let me see them_. Upon this would she give a Spring as one mounting an _Horse_, and Settling her self in a _Riding Posture_, she would, in her Chair be agitated as one sometimes _Amble-ing_ sometimes _Trotting_, and sometimes _Galloping_ very furiously.’ This state of things would not do, so divers ministers and devout friends fell to a-praying, but all to no purpose, her invisible adversaries on one occasion dragging her to an oven which was heating, and another time choking her, till she was black in the face, with an invisible rope and noose; she even began to torment good Mr. Mather. ‘When I had begun to study my Sermon, her _Tormentors_ again seized upon her; and all _Fryday_ and _Saturday_ did _they_ manage her with a special Design, as was plain, to disturb me in what I was about. In the worst of her extravagancies, formerly, she was more dutiful to myself than I had reason to Expect, but, _now_, her _whole_ carriage to me, was with a Sauciness that I had not been us’d to be treated with. She would knock at my Study _Door_, affirming _That some below would be glad to see me_; when there was none that ask’t for me. She would call to me with multiplyed Impertinences, and throw small things at me, wherewith she could not give me any hurt. Shee’d Hector me at a strange rate for the _work_ I was at, and threaten me with _I know not what_ mischief for it.’ By dint of energetic prayer she began to amend, but she had one more very bad breakout. ‘Moreover, Both she at my house, and her Sister _at home_, at the time which they call _Christmas_, were by the _Dæmons_, made very _drunk_, though they had no _strong_ Drink (as we are fully sure) to make them so. When she began to feel herself thus _drunk_, she complain’d, _O, they say they will have me to keep Christmas with them! They will disgrace me when they can do nothing else!_ And, immediately the Ridiculous Behaviour of one _drunk_, were with a wonderful exactness represented in her Speaking, and Reeling, and Spewing, and anon Sleeping, till she was well again.’ The next example Cotton Mather gives us is that of ‘_Mr. Philip Smith_, aged about Fifty years, a Son of eminently vertuous Parents, a _Deacon_ of the Church at _Hadley_, a _Member_ of our General Court, an _Associate_ in their County Court, a _Select-man_ for the affairs of the Town, a _Lieutenant_ in the Troop; and, which crowns all, a man for _Devotion_ and _Gravity_, and all that was _Honest_, exceeding exemplary. _Such_ a man, in the Winter of the year 1684 was murdered with an hideous _Witchcraft_, which filled all those parts with a just astonishment.