(_From Howell's Letters, 1647_.)
We need not cross the sea for examples of this kind, we have too many (God
wot) at home: King James a great while was loth to believe there were
witches; but that which happened to my Lord Francis of Rutland's children,
convinced him, who were bewitched by an old woman that was servant at
Belvoir Castle, but being displeased, she contracted with the devil, who
conversed with her in form of a cat, whom she called Rutterkin, to make
away those children, out of mere malignity, and thirst of revenge.
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