Judge Archer told the jury he had heard a witch could not repeat that petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation;" and having this opportunity, he would try whether any reliance could be placed in the report. He then asked the prisoner whether she could say the Lord's Prayer. She declared she could, and went over it readily enough, except the part thereof just quoted. Several chances were given her to complete the prayer, but she could not finish it without mistakes. The jury found her guilty of witchcraft, and she was executed a few days afterwards without confessing her sins.
As an example of how the people's minds were filled with superstition, even in their merry moments, we give the following popular English song of the seventeenth century, as sung by Robin Goodfellow to the fairies:
"Round about, little ones, quicke and nimble;
In and out, wheele about, run, hope, and amble;
Joyne your hands louingly; well done, muisition:
Mirth keepeth one in health like a physicion.
Elues, vrchins, goblins all, and little fairyes
That doe filch, blacke, and pinch maydes of the dairyes,
Make a ring in this grasse with your quick measures:
Tom shall play and I'le sing for all your pleasures.
Pinch and Patch, Gill and Grim,
Gae you together;
For you change your shapes
Like to the weather:
Sib and Tib, Licks and Lull,
You all have trickes too:
Little Tom Thumb that pipes,
Shall goe betwixt you;
Tom, tickle up thy pipes
Till they be weary;
I will laugh ho, ho, hoh,
And make me merry.
Make a ring on this grasse
With your quicke measures:
Tom shall play and I will sing
For all your pleasures.
The moone shines faire and bright,
And the owle hollows:
Mortals now take their rests
Upon their pillows:
The bats around likewise,
And the night rauen,
Which doth use for to call
Men to death's hauen.
Now the mice peep abroad,
And the cats take them;
Now doe young wenches sleepe,
Till their dreams wake them.
Make a ring on the grasse
With your quicke measures:
Tom shall play, I will sing,
For all your pleasures."
CHAPTER LXV.
Elizabeth Style's Confession—Signing a Covenant with Blood—Alice Duke, Anne Bishop, and Mary Penny—Somerset Witches—Witch Oil—Power to injure Men and Cattle—Elizabeth Style sentenced to Death—Running backwards round a Church—Compact with Satan—More Mischief—Richard Hathaway's Accusation against Sarah Morduck—Women hunted in the Streets by a Mob—A Judge's Opinion of Witchcraft—Supposed Sufferer from Witchcraft prayed for in the Church, and a Subscription raised for him—Richard Hathaway convicted of falsely accusing a Woman of Witchcraft—Witch and Stolen Plate—Man Bewitched—Charm for Sore Eyes—Young Woman Bewitched—Flames issuing from a Bewitched Person's Mouth—Tormenting a Witch—Jane Wenham's Witchcrafts and Trial—The last Persons who suffered in England for Witchcraft—Long List of Persons who suffered as Witches.
Elizabeth Style, of Stoke Trister, Somersetshire, was accused, in the year 1664, by divers persons of witchcraft. She confessed before Robert Hunt, Esquire, a justice of the peace for the county, that the devil, ten years before that time, had appeared to her as a handsome young man, offered her money, said she would live gay, and have all the pleasures of the world for twelve years, if she would with her blood sign a document, binding herself to obey his laws, and give her soul over to him. She agreed to do as requested; whereupon he pricked the fourth finger of her right hand, and with a few drops of blood that issued from the wound she signed the engagement.
When she desired to do harm, Satan gave her power according to their agreement. About a month before her examination she desired him to torment Elizabeth Hall by thrusting thorns into her flesh—a request he promised to comply with. She declared that, not long before her apprehension, she, Alice Duke, Anne Bishop, and Mary Penny met the devil at night, in a common near Trister Gate. Their meeting terminated with dancing and feasting.