Nobler names come next upon the records. Katherine Roiss, Lady Fowlis, and
her stepson, Hector Munro, were tried on the 22nd of June, 1590, for
"witchcraft, incantation, sorcery, and poisoning." Two people were in the
lady's way: Margery Campbell the young lady of Balnagown, wife to George
Roiss or Ross of Balnagown, Lady Katherine's brother; and Robert Munro her
stepson, the present baron of Fowlis, and brother to the Hector Munro
above mentioned. If these two persons were dead, then George Ross could
marry the young Lady Fowlis, to the pecuniary advantage of himself and the
family. Hector's quarrel was on his own account, and was with George Munro
of Obisdale, Lady Katherine's eldest son. The charges against the Lady
Katherine were, the unlawful making of two pictures or images of clay,
representing the young lady of Balnagown and Robert Munro, which pictures
two notorious witches, Christian Ross and Marioune M'Alester, _alias_
Loskie Loncart, set up in a chamber and shot at with elf arrows--ancient
spear or arrow-heads, found in Scotland and Ireland, and of great account
in all matters of witchcraft. But the images of clay were not broken by
the arrow-heads, for all that they shot eight times at them, and twelve
times on a subsequent trial, and thus the spell was destroyed for the
moment; but Loskie Loncart had orders to make more, which she did with a
will. After this the lady and her two confederates brewed a stoup or
pailful of poison in the barn at Drumnyne, which was to be sent to Robert
Munro. The pail leaked and the poison ran out, except a very small
quantity which an unfortunate page belonging to the lady tasted, and "lay
continewallie thaireftir poysonit with the liquour." Again, another "pig"
or jar of poison was prepared; this time of double strength--the brewer
thereof that old sinner, Loskie Loncart, who had a hand in every evil pie
made. This was sent to the young laird by the hands of Lady Katherine's
foster-mother; but she broke the "pig" by the way, and, like the page,
tasting the contents, paid the penalty of her curiosity with her life. The
poison was of such a virulent nature that nor cow nor sheep would touch
the grass whereon it fell; and soon the herbage withered away in fearful
memorial of that deed of guilt. She was more successful in her attempts on
the young Lady Balnagown. Her "dittay" sets forth that the poor girl,
tasting of her sister-in-law's infernal potions, contracted an incurable
disease, the pain and anguish she suffered revolting even the wretch who
administered the poison, Catherine Niven, who "scunnerit (revolted) with
it sae meikle, that she said it was the sairest and maist cruel sight that
ever she saw." But she did not die. Youth and life were strong in her, and
conquered even malice and poison--conquered even the fiendish
determination of the lady, "that she would do, by all kind of means,
wherever it might be had, of God in heaven, or the devil in hell, for the
destruction and down-putting of Marjory Campbell." Nothing daunted, the
lady sent far and wide, and now openly, for various poisons; consulting
with "Egyptians" and notorious witches as to what would best "suit the
complexion" of her victims, and whether the ratsbane, which was a
favourite medicine with her, should be administered in eggs, broth, or
cabbage. She paid many sums, too, for clay images, and elf arrows
wherewith to shoot at them, and her wickedness at last grew too patent for
even her exalted rank to overshadow. She was arrested and arraigned, but
the private prosecutor was Hector Munro, who was soon to change his place
of advocate for that of "pannel;" and the jury was composed of the Fowlis
dependents. So she was acquitted; though many of her creatures had
previously been convicted and burnt on the same charges as those now made
against her; notably Cristiane Roiss, who, confessing to the clay image
and the elf arrows, was quietly burnt for the same.
Hector Munro's trial was of a somewhat different character. His stepmother
does not seem to have had much confidence in mere sorcery: she put her
faith in facts rather than in incantations, and preferred drugs to charms:
but Hector was more superstitious and more cowardly too. In 1588, he had
communed with three notorious witches for the recovery of his elder
brother, Robert; and the witches had "pollit the hair of Robert Munro, and
plet the naillis of his fingeris and taes;" but Robert had died in spite
of these charms, and now Hector was the chief man of his family. Parings
of nails, clippings of hair, water wherein enchanted stones had been laid,
black Pater-Nosters, banned plaids and cloths, were all of as much potency
in his mind as the "ratoun poysoun" so dear to the lady; and the method of
his intended murder rested on such means as these. They made a goodly pair
between them, and embodied a fair proportion of the intelligence and
morality of the time. After a small piece of preliminary sorcery,
undertaken with his foster-mother, Cristiane Neill Dayzell, and Mariaoune
M'Ingareach, "one of the most notorious and rank witches of the country,"
it was pronounced that Hector, who was sick, would not recover, unless
the principal man of his blood should suffer for him. This was found to be
none other than George Munro, of Obisdale, Lady Katherine's eldest son,
whose life must be given that Hector's might be redeemed. George, then,
must die; not by poison but by sorcery; and the first step to be taken was
to secure his presence by Hector's bedside. "Sewin poistes" or messengers
did the invalid impatiently send to him; and when he came at last, Hector
said never a word to him, after his surly "Better now that you have come,"
in answer to his half-brother's unsuspecting "How's a' wi' ye?" but sat
for a full hour with his left hand in George's right, working the first
spell in silence, according to the directions of his foster-mother and the
witch. That night, an hour after midnight, the two women went to a "piece
of ground lying between two manors," and there made a grave of Hector's
length, near to the sea-flood. A few nights after this--and it was
January, too--Hector, wrapped in blankets, was carried out of his sick
bed, and laid in this grave; he, his foster-mother, and M'Ingareach all
silent as death, until Cristiane should have gotten speech with their
master, the devil. The sods were then laid over the laird, and the witch
M'Ingareach sat down by him, while Cristiane Dayzell, with a young boy in
her hand, ran the breadth of nine rigs or furrows, coming back to the
grave, to ask the witch "who was her choice." M'Ingareach, prompted of
course by the devil, answered that "Mr. Hector was her choice to live and
his brother George to die for him." This ceremony was repeated thrice, and
then they all returned silently to the house, Mr. Hector carried in his
blankets as before. The strangest thing of all was that Mr. Hector was not
killed by the ceremony.
Hector Munro was now convinced that everything possible had been done, and
that his half-brother must perforce be his sacrifice. In his gratitude he
made M'Ingareach keeper of his sheep, and so uplifted her that the common
people durst not oppose her for their lives. It was the public talk that
he favoured her "gif she had been his own wife;" and once he kept her out
of the way "at his own charges," when she was cited to appear before the
court to answer to the crime of witchcraft. But in spite of the tremendous
evidence against him, Hector got clear off, as his stepmother had done
before him, and we hear no more of the Fowlis follies and the Fowlis
crimes. Nothing but their rank and the fear of the low people saved them.
Slighter crimes than theirs, and on more slender evidence, had been
sufficient cause for condemnation ere now; and Lady Katherine's
poisonings, and Hector Munro's incantations, would have met with the fate
the one at least deserved, save for the power and aid of clanship.