Witchcraft -- England; Witchcraft -- Great Britain; Witchcraft -- Scotland
that he "saw Jane Brooks there"--pointing to the wall. Cousin Gibson at
once struck a knife into the spot; whereupon the sprightly youth cried, "O
father, couz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks's hand, and 'tis Bloody." The
father and Gibson on this went to the constable, "a discreet Person," and
telling him what had happened, took him with them to Jane's house, where
they found her sitting on a stool, with one hand over the other. After a
few questions they drew her hand away, and found that which was underneath
all bloody; which appearance she explained away as well as she could, by
saying that it was scratched with a great pin. This kind of thing going on
for some time, the pitiful plot grew ripe for execution, and on the 8th of
December Jane Brooks and her sister, Alice Coward, were taken to Castle
Cary to be examined by the justices, Mr. Hunt and Mr. Cary. Here Richard
performed all the usual tricks of the bewitched, lying speechless and
motionless while the suspected women were in the room; springing up into
tetanic fits if they laid their hands upon him, or so much as looked
towards him; bringing on himself, by his own will, convulsive fits and
catalepsy, and many of the more violent symptoms of hysteria, and
insisting that the two women came constantly to see him--as
apparitions--"their Hands cold, their Eyes staring, and their Lips and
Cheeks looking pale." "In this manner on a Thursday about Noon, the Boy
being newly laid in his Bed, Jane Brooks and Alice Coward appeared to him,
and told him that what they had begun they could not perform. But if he
would say no more of it, they would give him Money, and so put a Twopence
into his Pocket. After which they took him out of his Bed and laid him on
the ground and vanished, and the Boy was found by those that came next
into the Room lying on the Floor as if he had been dead." This twopence
had odd properties. When put upon the fire and made hot, the boy fell ill;
when taken out and cooled, he was all right again. The trick was tried in
the presence of many, and was found to answer admirably. Between the 8th
of December and the 17th of February, he practised another variation of
the same air. "Divers persons at sundry times" heard a croaking, as of a
toad, proceed from the boy, and though they held a candle to his face they
could not discern any movement of tongue, teeth, or lips. And this
croaking as of a toad repeated incessantly, "Jane Brooks, Alice Coward,
Jane Brooks, Alice Coward." On the 25th of February he performed his
greatest feat of all; or was reported to have done so--which did quite as
well in those days; for Richard Isles's wife said she saw him raised up
from the ground, mounting gradually higher and higher till he was carried
full thirty yards over the garden wall, when, falling at last at one
Jordan's door, he was there found as if dead. Coming to himself, he
declared that Jane Brooks had taken him by the arm, and carried him up, as
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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