A year after this Bessie Bathgate, spouse to Alexander Rae, fell into
trouble and the hands of the police. George Sprot, wobster, had some cloth
of Bessie's, which he kept too long for her thinking. She went and took it
violently away, and nipped his child in the thigh till it skirled, "and of
which nip it never convalesced, but dwamed thereof and died by hir
sorcerie." Also, said Sprot's wife, giving her child an egg that came out
of Bessie's house there struck out a lump as big as a goose egg upon the
child, which continued on her till her death, which was occasioned by
nothing else than this "enchanted egg." Furthermore she threatened Sprot
that "he should never get his Sunday's meat to the fore by his work;" and
he forthwith fell into extreme poverty, by which her words came true. To
William Donaldson she said--he outrunning her as she chased him to beat
him for calling her a witch--"Weill, sir, the devill be in your feit," and
he fell lame and impotent straightways, and so continued ever since. Other
things of the same kind did she, bewitching Margaret Horne's cow that it
died, "and that night it died there was women seen dancing on the rigging
of the byre;" also she was seen by "two young men at 12 howers at even
(when all persons are in their beds) standing barelegged and in hir sark
valicot, at the back of hir yard, conferring with the devill, who was in
gray cloaths;" which, with other offences of the same nature, were, we
should have thought, heavy enough to have lost a world. But Elizabeth
Bathgate, spouse to Alexander Rae, was acquitted; though how the verdict
came about no one can possibly understand.
It was not that any fit of mercy or humanity had come over the people.
More than twenty poor wretches suffered about this time, Sir George Home
of Manderston, being one of the chief of the prosecutors: for Sir George
and his wife did not live very lovingly together, and she was given to
witches and warlocks--or they said she was--to see if she could not get
rid of him by enchantments and sorceries: so Sir George had a pleasant
mixture of spite and self-defence in his onslaught, and the whole
country-side was in a stir. About this time too, John Balfour, of
Corhouse, took on himself the office of witch-finder and pricker by
thrusting "preens" into the marks; but he was not accepted quite blindly,
and measures were taken for examining his pretensions to this special
branch of knowledge. In general the pricker was the master of the
situation, and brought all the rest to his feet.