Burton Agnes, in the county of York, was troubled; for Faith Corbet, the
young daughter of Henry Corbet, was taken violently ill, and Alice Huson
and Doll Bilby had bewitched her. Good Mrs. Corbet--beyond her age in
generous unbelief--refused to entertain her daughter's suspicions; indeed
she had chidden her some years ago for calling old Alice a witch, for she
had a liking to the poor widow, and kept her about the house, looking
after her young turkeys, &c., and was kind and liberal to her, and sought
to make her wasting life pass as easily as might be. But Miss Faith hated
the old woman, and cried out against her as a witch; and when she lost her
gloves, swore that Alice had taken them to play cantrips with, and that
she should never be well again. Then she began to fall into fits, when she
would be so terribly tormented that it took two or three to hold her; and
she would screech and cry out vehemently, and bite and scratch anything
she could lay hold of, all the while exclaiming, "Ah, Alice, old witch,
have I gotten thee!" And sometimes she would lie down, all drawn together
in a round, and be speechless and half swooning for days together; and
then she would be wildly merry, and as full of antics as a monkey.
Physicians were consulted, but none came near to her disorder; and though
her father carried her about hither and thither, for change of air,
nothing would cure her, she said, so long as Alice Huson and Doll Bilby
remained at liberty. Still the father and mother held out, until, one day,
before a whole concourse of people come to look at her in her fits, she
cried out, "Oh Faithless and incredulous People! shall I never be believed
till it be past Time? For I am as near Death as possibly may be, and when
they have got my Life you will repent when it is past Time." On hearing
this the father went to the minister of Burton Agnes, Mr. Wellfet, and he,
Sir Fr. Boynton--a justice of the peace--and Mr. Corbet himself at last
dragged the old woman Huson into Faith's chamber. At which Miss Faith gave
a great screech, but presently called for toast and beer; then for
cordials; and having taken a somewhat large quantity of both, she got up,
dressed herself, and came down stairs. This, too, after she had been so
weak that she could not turn herself in bed: which proved that Mother
Huson had some extraordinary influence over the girl--an influence more
potent than holy said the bystanders. This happy state did not continue.
Faith said she should never be well while the two women were at liberty;
and so it proved; for when they were at last arrested, and held in strict
security and durance, the young lady pronounced herself healed, and gave
no one any more trouble. Then Alice Huson was got to make confession to
Mr. Wellfet, the minister, and thus sealed her own doom, and saved the
prosecution the pain of conviction.
She said that for three years she had had intercourse with the devil, who,
one day as she was on the moor, appeared to her in the form of a black man
riding on horseback. He told her she should never want if she would follow
his ways and give herself up to him: which Alice promised to do. Then he
sealed the bargain by giving her five shillings; at another time he gave
her seven; and often--indeed six or seven times--repeating his gifts to
the like munificent extent. He was like a black man with cloven feet,
riding on a black horse, and Alice fell down and worshipped him, as she
had covenanted. And she had hurt Faith Corbet by her evil spirit, for she
did, in her apprehension, ride her; and when Mr. Wellfet examined her once
before, the devil stood by, and gave her answers; and she was under the
Corbets' window as a cat when Mrs. Corbet said she was--for even her
kindly faith was shaken at last; and Doll Bilby had a hand in all this
evil too; for Doll wanted to kill Faith outright, but old Alice
interposed, thinking they had done enough harm already. She confessed to
killing Dick Warmers "by my wicked heart and wicked eyes;" and to having
lent Lancelot Harrison eight shillings of the ten which the devil had
given her at Baxter's door, a fortnight ago, "about twilight or daygate;"
and she had a bigge, or witch mark, where the devil sucked from
supper-time till after cockcrowing, twitching at her heart as if it was
drawn with pincers the while; and she meant to practise witchcraft four
years ago, when she begged old clothes of Mrs. Corbet, and the children
refused her; and the devil told her not to tell of Doll Bilby. And to all
this raving Timothy Wellfet, minister of Burton Agnes, set his name, and
so hanged Alice Huson and Doll Bilby at the next York assizes: after which
Miss Faith Corbet was for ever rid of her fits and fancies.