Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
said shee wold come this day, but shee ought her noe service, and said
shee had bin there before and left receiptes there, but the child did not
take them. And she said further that there was two children that her Lady
Jennins had by this husband, that were bewitched and dead, for there was
controversie betweene two howses, and that as long as they dwelt there,
they cold not prosper, and that there shold be noe blessing in that howse
by this man." When asked what was this "difference," she answered,
"Between the house of God and the house of the world:" but when told that
this was no answer, and that she must explain herself more clearly, she
said that "she meant the apothecary Higgins and my Lady Jennings." "And
shee further confessed that above a moneth agoe she went to Mrs. Saxey in
Gunpouder Alley, who was forespoken herself, and that had a boke that cold
helpe all those that were forespoken, and that shee wold come and shewe
her the booke and help her under God. And further said to this examinate,
that none but a seminary priest cold cure her." So here again we have the
constantly recurring element of sectarianism, without which, indeed, we
should be at a loss how to understand much that meets us. "Countess" was
committed to Newgate, and the bewitched child cried out more and more
against her, making new revelations with each fit, when the pitiful farce
was brought to a close by the minister's wife, Mrs. Goodcole, who, when
confronted with Countess, denied point blank the more important parts of
her evidence. And then all this evil--this much ado about nothing--was
found to have arisen from a private quarrel; and when Dr. Napier was sent
for, he unbewitched the possessed child with some very simple remedies,
and the great balloon burst and fell to the ground in hopeless collapse.
THE TWO VOICES.[127]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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