The provost of the town, standing in his own fore-stair, or gallery, having heard his own name cited, cried out, “That he declined that judicatory, and appealed to the mercy of God.” This was the army which the king led into England, and were defeat at Flodden, on the fatal day, Tuesday the 9th of September 1513, where the King, with near about five thousand of the noblest and worthiest families of the kingdom, did fall.
V.—A miraculous Cure of a Dutch Woman, accompanied with an Apparition.
The narrative taken by a Dutch merchant from her own mouth, begins thus:—A miraculous cure upon Jesch Claes, a woman about fifty years of age, for these many years well known to myself and the neighbours. This woman for fourteen years had been lame of both her legs, one of them being dead and without feeling, so that she could not go, but creep upon the ground, or was carried in people’s arms as a child, but now through the power of God Almighty she hath walked again, which came to pass after this manner, as I have written it from her own mouth.
In the year 1676, about the 13th or 14th of this month of October, in the night, between one and two o’clock, Jesch Claes being in bed with her husband, who was a boatman, she was three times pulled by the arm, with which she awaked, and cried out, O Lord! what may this be? Hereupon she heard an answer in plain words, “Be not afraid, I am come in the name of God, to tell you, that your malady, which hath been for many years upon you, shall depart, and it shall be given you from God Almighty to walk again. But keep this to yourself till further answer.” Whereupon she cried aloud, O Lord! that I had a light that I might know what this is. Then had she this answer, “There needs no light. Light shall be given you from God.” Then came a light over all the room; and she saw a beautiful youth about ten years of age, with curled yellow hair, in white raiment to the feet, who went from the bed-head to the chimney with a light, which a little after evanished. Hereupon did something gush from her hip, or diffuse itself through her leg as a water, to her great toe, where she found life rising up; and feeling it with her hand, she cries out, “Lord give me now again my feeling, which I have not had for so many years.” And she continued crying and praying to the Lord according to her weak measure. Yet she continued that day being Wednesday, and the next day Thursday, as before, till evening at six o’clock; at which time she sat at the fire, dressing the food. Then there came, as a rushing noise in both her ears, with which it was said to her, “Stand, your walking is given you again.” Then did she immediately stand up, that had for so many years crept, and went to the door: her husband meeting her, was exceedingly afraid, and drew back. In the mean while she cried out, “My dear husband, I can walk again.” The man, thinking it was a spirit, drew back, saying, “You are not my wife;” but his wife taking hold of him, said, “My dear husband, I am the self-same that hath been married these thirty years to you. The Almighty God hath made me to walk again.” But her husband being amazed, drew back to the side of the room, till at last she claspt her arms about his neck; and yet he doubted, and said to his daughter, “Is this your mother?” She answered, “Yes, father, this is my mother indeed, I have seen her walk also, before you came in.” This person dwells upon Prince’s Island in Amsterdam. This relation is attested by many famous witnesses.
VI.—Strange pranks played by the Devil at Woodstock in England, anno 1649.
The commissioners, October 13, 1649, with their servants, being come to the manor-house, they took up their lodging in the king’s own rooms, the bed-chamber, and withdrawing room: the former whereof they also made their kitchen; the council-hall their brew-house; the chamber of presence, their place of sitting to dispatch business; and a wood-house of the dining-room, where they laid the wood of that ancient standard in the High Park, known of all by the name of the King’s Oak, which (that nothing might remain that had the name of King affixed to it) they digged up by the roots. October 14th and 15th, they had little disturbance; but on the 16th there came, as they thought, somewhat into the bed-chamber, where two of the commissioners and their servants lay, in the shape of a dog, which going under their beds, did, as it were, gnaw their bed cords; but on the morrow finding them whole, and a quarter of beef, which lay on the ground untouched, they began to entertain other thoughts.
October 17. Something, to their thinking, removed all the wood of the King’s Oak, out of the dining-room to the presence-chamber, and hurled the chairs and stools up and down that room: From whence it came into the two chambers where the commissioners and their servants lay, and hoisted up the feet of their beds so much higher than their heads, that they thought they should have been turned over and over, and then let them fall down with such force, that their bodies rebounded from the bed a good distance, and then shook the bedsteads so violently, that themselves confest their bodies were sore with it.
October 18. Something came into the bed-chamber, and walked up and down, and fetching the warming-pan out of the withdrawing-room, made so much noise, that they thought five bells could not have made more. And October 19th, Trenchers were thrown up and down the dining-room, and at them who lodged there; one of them being wakened, put forth his head to see what was the matter, but had trenchers thrown at it.