Another fact will now be stated, to show what ideas of the Devil’s influence prevailed in England and Scotland, in the days of Elizabeth. James the First, of England, who, succeeding Elizabeth, was born in 1566, was the only direct heir to the Crown of Scotland, and had a prospect of succeeding Elizabeth in England, which he did on the death of the Queen. James had witnessed a great number of prosecutions for witchcraft, in Scotland, in the reign of Mary; and he, as might be expected, most firmly believed that the Devil was very active in the country of his birth; so that, when he came to the Crown of England, his mind was di-rected to put a stop to the prevailing crime of witchcraft and to break up the Devil’s Sabbath, he believing that numbers of his English subjects were visitors to those unholy meetings. A circumstance will now be mentioned which will fully prove what views the people of England and Scotland had of the activity of the Devil in drawing persons into his service and kingdom; for it is impossible to evade the truth, that the existence and opposition of the Devil against the progress of the Gospel, was strengthened by what had been recorded of the Devil in the New Testament.

James the First, of England, is here cited to show what was then the prevailing opinion of the existence of witchcraft in that kingdom. And although it is painful to reflect on the sufferings of thousands, it may, by its recital, assist those who are still somewhat in darkness, to discover how the human race have been deluded. James the First had fixed his mind on a daughter of the King of Denmark. A splendid embassy was sent from England to conclude the treaty of marriage, and to bring home James’s royal consort; but the ships met with violent storms, and instead of arriving at the capital of Scotland, the news came that the ship in which the Princess had taken passage, was driven back on the coast of Norway; nothing uncommon m these seas at that, season of the year. The King, being disappointed, sailed to the place where the shattered ships lay, and the marriage was consummated; and the King and Queen remained at Copenhagen, and did not arrive at Edinburgh until the first of May, 1590. The storm was, after their return, considered to be the result of some supernatural interference.

The King, after his return, suspecting that witchcraft had something to do in raising the storm which drove his intended wife on the coast of Norway, set to work to make discoveries; and two of his female servants were suspected of causing the storm before alluded to. Their names were Geillis Duncan and Agnes Sampson. Both of them were put to the torture to extort confession. These poor young women, broken down and exhausted by so dreadful an operation, became willing to answer such questions as this royal blockhead had prepared to put to them. Agnes Sampson told the King, that she, in company with two hundred other witches, had sailed in sieves from Leith to North Berwick Church; how they had there encountered the Devil in person; how they had feasted with him, and what obscenities had been; practised. She related, that in this voyage they had drowned a cat, having first baptized it; and that immediately a dreadful storm arose, and in this very storm the King’s ship had been separated from the rest of the fleet. Inconsequence of this confession, Agnes Sampson was condemned to the flames. The system of torture resorted to under cir-circumstances of suspicion, compelled poor suffering creatures to answer any questions put to them to satisfy their cruel tormentors and in many cases, after all, they were put to death. King James the First published his Dialogues on Demonology in three books. But many years after he renounced his belief in the real existence of Witchcraft altogether; and in the latter part of his reign, declared that all he had done was the effect of delusion.

These were dreadful times for humanity. Thousands and tens of thousands of victims suffered every kind of torture that savage, ingenuity could devise; and what made it the more to be deplored, the ignorant creatures who inflicted the torments were honest in their abhorrence of those unfortunate persons, who suffered for what was, in those dark ages, considered the worst of crimes. In what horror, then, were persons held who could be so wicked as to have dealings with the devil? The case of James is here recorded, to show the reader that the belief in witchcraft was not confined to the ignorant: and unlettered portion of society; but that England, and Scotland, and, it may be said, every Christian nation with its government, and the army also, were all laboring under this delusion. And the truth of its existence was then, and is now, supported by the New Testament, and fully confirmed by the Devil’s temptation of Jesus, the Christian’s Son of God; for the desire manifested by the Devil to entice Jesus to enter into his service, did, in those dark ages, strengthen persons in the conclusion that the Devil, although he failed to seduce the Redeemer, would continue to enlist, if possible, great numbers into his service. The firm belief of his attempts on the Son of God would dispose persons to credit the fact that people of abandoned characters would hire themselves to the Devil. In the days of Oliver Cromwell, a story is recorded by Echard, the historian, as shockingly illustrative of the credulity of the age in which he lived. It takes its date from the morning of the third of September, 1651, when Cromwell gained the battle of Worcester against Charles the Second. It is on the authority of Colonel Lindsey, who was senior captain in Cromwell’s own regiment. The story recorded is, “That on the morning of the battle, Cromwell took with him Colonel Lindsey to the side of a wood, not far from the army, and bade him alight and follow him into the wood, and to take particular notice of what he saw and heard. And having secured their horses, and walked some little way into the wood, Lindsey began to turn pale, and to be seized with horror from some unknown cause. Cromwell asked him how he felt himself? He answered, that he was in such a trembling that he never felt the like in all the conflicts and battles he had ever been engaged in. ‘How, now,’ said Cromwell, ‘what! troubled with the vapors? Come forward, man.’ They had not gone far, before Lindsey stood still, and said it was impossible for him to go one step further. Upon which, Cromwell called him a faint hearted fool, and bade him stand there and observe, or witness. And then the General, advancing to some distance from him, met a grave elderly man with a roll of parchment in his hand, who delivered it to Cromwell, and he eagerly perused it Lindsey, a little recovered from his fear, heard several loud words between them, particularly Cromwell said, ‘this is but for seven years, I was to have it for one and twenty.’ The grave elderly man told him positively, it could not be for more than seven. Cromwell cried with great fierceness, ‘It shall, however, be for fourteen years.’ Cromwell then took his parchment, and returning to Lindsey, ‘Now, Lindsey,’ said he, ‘the battle is our own, I long to be engaged.’ It did then commence. After the first charge, Lindsey deserted his post and rode away with all speed to a friend’s in the county of Suffolk, and never returned. Cromwell offered a great reward for him, dead or alive. Cromwell died on that day seven years, September 3, 1658.”

It is of no consequence whether this story is true or not It fully proves that at that time it was believed, that men sold themselves to the Devil.

[CHAPTER VI.]

TWO more remarkable cases will, in this chapter, be made known to the reader, to show that for hundreds of years the Devil, or rather the belief in his existence, was a source of terror to all Christians, and must have operated on almost every transaction in which society were engaged. In almost every town and village, to be surrounded with wicked beings who had entered into a contract with Satan to be empower-ed to perform deeds of darkness which no prudence could guard against, must have had an influence on the peace and safety of almost every family. But now, that the delusion has nearly passed away, and mankind are no longer subject to such terror, we may be happy to think that our lives are exempted from the evils which afflicted our forefathers. And nothing but an open avowal of our unbelief in all systems which in any way sanction the existence of a Being who has made a large portion of the human family crazy, can prevent a recurrence of past ignorance with all its baneful consequences.

Joan of Arc, called the Maid of Orleans, an unfortunate creature, demands our pity. Her tragical history ought to impel every humane person to do all in his power to prevent mortals from again witnessing scenes of so dreadful a nature.

Henry the Fifth, of England, won the decisive battle of Agincourt in the year 1415, and some time after concluded a treaty with the reigning King of France, by which he was recognized, in case of that King’s death, as heir to the throne. Henry the Fifth died in the year 1422, and Charles the Sixth, of France, in less than two months after. Henry the Sixth was only nine months old, at the time of his father’s death; but such was the deplorable state of France, that he was the same year proclaimed King in Paris, and for some years seemed to have every prospect of a fortunate reign. John, Duke of Bedford, the King’s uncle, was declared Regent of France. The son of Charles the Sixth was reduced to the last extremity. Orleans was the last strong town in the heart of the kingdom which held out in his favor; and that place seemed on the point of surrendering to the conqueror.

“In this fearful crisis, appeared Joan of Arc, and, in the most incredible manner, turned the whole tide of affairs. She was a servant in a poor inn at Demremi, and was accustomed to perform the coarsest offices, and, in particular, to ride the horses to a neighboring stream of water. Of course, the situation of France and her hereditary King formed the universal subject of conversation, and Joan became deeply impressed with the lamentable state of her country, and the misfortunes of her King. By dint of perpetual meditation, and feeling in her breast the promptings of energy and enter-prize, she conceived the idea that she was destined by Heaven to be the deliverer of France. Agreeably to the state of intellectual knowledge at that period, she persuaded herself that she saw visions and held communications with the saints. She then had conversations with St. Margaret and St. Catherine of Fierbois. They told her that she was commissioned by God to raise the siege of Orleans. She then presented herself to Baudricourt, Governor of the neighboring town of Vaucouleurs, telling him her commission, and requiring him to send her to the King at Chinon. Baudricourt, at first, made light of her application; but her importunity, and the ardor she expressed, at length excited him. He put on her man’s attire, gave her arms, and sent her, under an escort of two gentlemen and their attendants, to Chinon. Here she immediately addressed the King in person, who had purposely hid himself behind his courtiers, that she might not know him. She then delivered her message, and offered, in the name of the Most High, to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct King Charles to Rheims to be anointed.