He was very troublesome directly the case began, interrupting every minute, and saying that by the law of the land all witches had a right to be burned at the stake, and a lot of nonsense, and the magistrate had to speak quite cross to make him be quiet.
Old Dame Trueman was in court, and they say she looked most malignant—in fact, as much like a witch as it was possible to look without being one—and she told the magistrate how she had been assaulted. The magistrate asked Mr. Gwillam what he had to say, and he told the most extraordinary story you ever heard in your life.
He declared that “the old witch” had put a spell upon him so that he could not sleep. He had seen her plotting with his servant at his gate, and that night he couldn’t sleep, nor the next night either, and that he never should have slept again, only he was determined to find out what the spell was; and so he got up in the middle of the night and went out into his garden, and there, under a clod of earth, he discovered a toad, that was walking round and round. He said the toad had been charmed and put there by the witch, and as long as it kept walking round and round he could not go to sleep, so he had killed the toad, and the proof that it was a spell, was this—that directly he had killed it he went back to bed again and fell asleep, and he had not had another bad night since.
The magistrate looked over his gold spectacles very hard at Mr. Gwillam, and he said, “My dear sir, I’m very sorry for you; but we can’t accept your explanation. No toad could have anything to do with your sleeping, and there is no such thing as a witch.”
“What!” exclaimed Mr. Gwillam, “no such thing as a witch! Why, this woman is one! I have dozens of witnesses here to prove that she has put them under her spells. I demand that she shall be punished as the law directs, and burnt alive, or drowned in the horse-pond!”
The magistrate, of course, had heard the rumours about Dame Trueman, because they had been the common talk in the village for years, so he thought it was a good opportunity to give the people a lecture, and he made a long speech, saying how wicked it was to suppose that anybody had supernatural powers; that witches were only believed in when people were ignorant and degraded and knew no better, and he was ashamed to think that in such a thriving place as our village there were still people so foolish as to entertain such beliefs. As to the story about the toad, it was too absurd. It was trifling with the Court to make such an excuse for a wanton attack upon a feeble old woman.
“It is no excuse!” exclaimed Mr. Gwillam indignantly. “She is a bad old woman, and she put that toad in my garden to charm me. She charmed me, and I got no rest day nor night for her till I found this walking toad under the mould. She dug a hole, and she put it there to have a spell on me. She went round and round this walking toad after she had buried it, and I shouldn’t have slept till now if I hadn’t found it and killed it.”
The magistrate called the doctor up and whispered with him for a little, and then he said that no doubt Mr. Gwillam, who was a very respectable person, was the victim of a delusion, and had allowed himself to be carried away by his feelings. He must mark his sense of the impropriety of the proceedings by fining him ten pounds—five pounds for each assault—or a month’s imprisonment.
“I won’t pay!” shouted Mr. Gwillam, brandishing his umbrella. “I’ll go to prison!”
He was quieted down a little and taken into another room, and the crowd was got away while a consultation was held. The old gentleman’s wife saw the magistrate, and asked to be allowed to pay the ten pounds without her husband knowing it, and this was done, and presently he was released believing that the magistrate had altered his mind.