Margaret Bryson[51] quarrelled with her husband about the selling of a
cow; she went to the house-door, "and there did imprecate that God or the
devil might take her from her husband;" which naturally ended in the
devil's appearing and forcing her into the covenant with him that had its
final expression at the stake.
Margaret Hutchison was a witch, too. She laid on Henry Balfour the pains
of a child-bed woman, and caused such a universal swelling of his body
that he died thereof; and she threatened John Boost for calling her a
witch, and threw a piece of raw flesh against his house, which the very
dogs and cats would not eat; and she sent a plague of cats to John Bell's
house, and tormented him and his wife by appearing at their hearth-side at
night, combing her hair: so Margaret Hutchison was no better than she
should be, and the world was well rid of her.
Isabel Ramsey for her part was convicted of taking sixpence from the
devil, and entering into a long chat with him upon sundry local matters;
and, indeed, she herself confessed that he gave her a dollar, which turned
into a sklaitt stane: for nothing that the devil did for these witches
ever turned to good, so that one is more surprised at their stupidity than
offended by their guilt.
Jennet Cock[52] had an ill name, past all forbearance or overlooking. She
was never easy unless she was after some evil, and the world must
positively be quit of her. She bewitched William Scott's bonny bay horse,
worth pounds and pounds of money, and made him mad; and she told a brute
who beat her that he should live to be hanged, which not very unlikely
prediction was fulfilled; and she kept company with the devil on terms
that no honest woman should endure; and she and Jean Dickson, another
witch, cured a neighbour's child by cutting off a dog's head, with which
they played some devilish cantrip that healed the bairn; and she it was
who made that speech concerning Christiane Wilson and the gaff of wind; so
Jennet Cock was adjudged dangerous to be at large, and was put into
prison, there to await her trial. And she was tried, but, strange to say,
acquitted of the charges brought against her; she was not let loose
though, but kept still in durance till a fresh case could be completed
against her. Jennet Cock was rather notorious for her evil eye and power
of overlooking, and in her dittay is thus charged:--"There being an
outcast betwixt yow and Jeane Forrest, because schoe had called yow a
witch, yow came to the said Jeane, her landlord's house, where she was
with some nyghboures, desyreing to make aggriement betwixt yow. Ye
malitiouslie and bitterlie girneing and gnashing your teeth, and beating
your hands upon your knies, said, 'O them that called me a witch! O them
that called me a witch!' And at that tyme, the said Jeane Forrest, her
chylde being in good health, on the morne the chylde, by your sorceries
and witchcraft dyed; and the mother, at the chylde's departour, called out
with a loud voyce upone her nighbours, saying, 'Alace! that ever I had
adoe with that witch Janet Cock, for shoe has been at my bed syd all this
night standing, and I could not get red of her: and behold the fruit of
it--my chylde is dead!'" This deposition was made September 10, 1661, and
surely Jennet Cock never escaped the consequences of such a cantrip as
this!
Marion Grinlaw[53] and Jean Howison, "the survivors of ten women and a man
who had been imprisoned at Musselburgh," petitioned the Council for their
release. "Some of the rest died of cold and hunger. They themselves had
lain in durance _forty weeks_, and were now in a state of extreme misery,
_although nothing could be brought against them_. Margaret Carvie and
Barbara Horniman, of Falkland, had in like manner been imprisoned at the
instance of the magistrates and parish minister, had lain six weeks in
jail, subjected to a great deal of torture by one who takes upon him the
trial of witches by pricking; and so great was their sufferings that life
was become a burden to them, notwithstanding that they declared their
innocence, and nothing to the contrary had been shown. The Council ordered
all these women to be liberated:" which was a marvellous outstep of
humanity, and one for which its previous acts could hardly have prepared
us. The next year it seems to have had a small side-blow of rationality.
It had become sensible of the vile inhumanity of John Kincaid, and threw
the wretch into prison, then issued a proclamation repudiating the seizure
of suspected persons, which had been made illegally, unauthorizedly, and
out of only envy and covetousness. Nevertheless, it took care to issue
twelve fresh commissions for trying witches, immediately after; being
chiefly anxious to keep all the business in its own hands, and shut the
door against any outside free lances. John Kincaid lay for nine weeks in
jail, then was liberated only on condition that he would prick no more
without warrant. He sent up a whining petition, setting forth that he was
an old man, and if confined longer might be brought to mortal sickness; so
to avert this terrible catastrophe, the old sinner had his liberty given
to him again: he ought to have had instead the doom of the murderer for
blood-money!