He then sent for a reverend old friar of the name of Rubely, who was well versed in all the minutiæ of diablery and exorcism, whose skill had often been beneficial to the king in the trying and intricate parts of his duty that related to these matters, and with him he conferred on this important subject. Father Rubely desired the king to defer the further examination of these people for a very little while; and, in the mean time, he brought in a basin of holy water, consecrated seven times, and set apart for sacred uses, after which the examination went on, and a curious one it was. The old witch lady deposed, “That as she was lying pondering on her bed, and wide awake, about the dawn of the morning, she heard a curious and uncommon noise somewhere about the house: That, rising, she went out silently to discover what it could be, and to her utter astonishment, beheld the king’s two hounds, Mooly and Scratch, spring from her daughter’s casement, and in a short space a beautiful roe-deer followed them and bounded away to the Eildons: That she hasted to her daughter’s apartment, and found that her darling was gone.” The stories of the other two were exactly similar to one another, only that the one blamed one hound, and the other the other. It was as follows: “I was lying awake in the morning very early, with my son in my arms, when one of the king’s hounds came into my house. I saw it, and wist not how it had got there. A short time after I heard it making a strange scraping and noise in the other end of the house, on which I arose to turn it out; but on going to the place from whence the sound seemed to come, I found nothing. I searched all the house, and called the hound by her name, but still could find nothing; and at last I lighted a candle and sought all the house over again, without being able to discover any traces of her. I went back to return to my bed, wondering greatly what had become of the animal; but having opened the door before to let her make her escape, I conceived that she had stolen off without my having perceived it. At that very instant, however, I beheld her coming softly out of the bed where I had left my child, and in a moment she was out at the door and away. I ran to the bed with the light in my hand, but my dear child was gone, and no part, not even a palm of his hand, remaining!”
Ques. “Was there any blood in the bed, or any symptoms of the child having been devoured?”
A. “No; I could discover none.”
Q. “Did the hound appear to have any thing carrying in her mouth, or otherwise, when she escaped from the house?”
A. “No; I did not notice that she had any thing.”
Q. “Was there any thing else in the house at the time; any other appearance that you could not account for?”
A. “Yes; there was something like a leveret followed her out at the door, but I paid no regard to it.”
Q. “Was the child baptized in a Christian church?” (No answer.)
Q. “Were you yourself ever baptized in a Christian church?” (No answer.)
Q. “Why do you not answer to these things?”