Notably was arrested about this time, Alie Nisbet, midwife; and three
others. Alie was accused of witchcraft; and of a softer, but as heinous a
crime as witchcraft. This she confessed to; but the breaking of the
seventh commandment in Christian Scotland, in the year 1632, was a far
more dangerous thing than we can imagine possible in our laxer day; and
Alie was on the horns of a dilemma, either of which could land her in
ruin, death, and perdition. She was accused, among other things, of
having taken her labour pains from off a certain woman, using "charmes and
horrible words, amongs which thir ware some, _the bones to the fire and
the soull to the devill_;" but this Alie denied, strenuously, though she
admitted that she might have bathed the woman's legs in warm water, which
she had bewitched for good, by putting her fingers into it and running
thrice round the bed, widershins; but the spoken charm as given she would
have none of. The labour pains, however, left the woman, and were foully
and unnaturally cast upon another who had no concern therewith, so that
she died in four-and-twenty hours from that time, and Alie was the
murderess by all the laws of sorcery. She was accused, also, of having
poured some enchanted water on a threshold over which a servant girl,
against whom she had a spite, must pass, and the servant girl died
therefrom. Alie was wirriet and burnt and troubled the world no more.