the salutation which good Catholics perform to the Pope's toe, the women going before, and then the men. According to the report of Calderwood, the historian of the Scottish church, one of the men, whose nickname was Graymeill, endea voured to avoid this degradation by staying behind the door; but Satan marked him in his retreat, and it behoved him also to kiss at last.' The assembly then broke up.

Among fifty distinct instances of necromancy, which are displayed against Simpson in her indictment, perhaps the reader may tolerate one for a specimen. Being sent for to Edmonstone, to decide by her supernatural skill whether the lady of the house should recover from an illness or not -for women of her order appear in that age to have been as regularly called to the bedsides of the sick as physicians-she told the attendants that she could give them the required information that evening after supper, appointing them to meet her in the garden. She then passed to the garden, and, as was her custom in such cases, uttered a metrical prayer, which, according to her own confession, she had learned from her father, and which enabled her to determine whether the patient would be cured or not, as, if she said it with one breath, the result was to be life, but, if otherwise, death. This prayer was as follows:—

I trow [trust] in Almighty God, that wrought
Baith heaven and earth, and all of nought;
In his dear son, Christ Jesu,

In that comely lord I trow,

Was gotten by the Haly Ghaist

Born of the Virgin Mary,

Stapped to heaven, that all weil than,

And sits at his father's richt hand.

He bade us come and their to dome
Baith quik and deid to him convene.
I trow also in the Haly Ghaist;
In baly kirk my hope is maist,
That haly ship where hallowers wins
To ask forgiveness of their sins,
And syne to rise in flesh and bane,
The lip that never mair has gane.
Thou says, Lord, loved may he be
That formed and made mankind of me.
Thou coft [bought] me on the haly cross,
Thou lent me body, saul, and voce,
And ordanit me to heavenly bliss;
Wherefore I thank ye, lord, of this.
That all your hallowers loved be,
To pray to them that pray to me.
And keep me fra that fellon fae,
And from the sin that saul would slay.
Thou, lord, for thy bitter passion in,
To keep me from sin and warldly shame,
And endless damnation.

will be gane, *

Grant me the joy never

Sweet Christ Jesus. Amen.'

Having stopped in the course of this long prayer, she despaired of the lady's life. However, she called upon the devil, by the name of Elpha, to

* Her prayer, or conjuration for the healing of sickness, was as follows:

All kynds of ill that ever may be,
In Christ's name I conjure ye.
I conjure ye, baith mair and less,
By all the vertues of the messe,
And rycht sa with the naillis sa,
That nailed Jesus and not ma,
And rycht sa by the samen blude,
That reekit ower the ruthful rude,
Furth of the flesh and of the bane,
And in the eard and in the stane,

I conjure ye in God's name.

Records of Justiciary.

come to speak to her. He presently appeared climbing over the garden-wall, in the shape of a large dog; and he came so near her, that, getting afraid, she charged him, by the law that he lived on, to keep at a certain distance. She then asked if the lady would live; to which he only answered, that "her days were gane. He, in his turn, asked where the young gentlewomen, daughters to Lady Edmonstone, were at present. She answered, that she expected soon to see them in the garden. "Ane of them," said he, "will be in perill; I wish to have her. On her answering, that it should not be so with her consent, he "departit frae her," says the indictment, "yowling;" and from that time till after supper, he remained in the draw-well. After supper, the young ladies walked out into the garden, to learn the result of Mrs Simpson's inquiries; on which the devil came out of the well, and, seizing the skirts of one of them, (probably a married one, as she is called Lady Torsonce), drew her violently towards the pit from which he had emerged; and it is added that, if Simpson and the other ladies had Hot exerted themselves to hold her back, he would have succeeded in his wishes. Finding himself disappointed of his prey, he passit away thairefter, with ane yowle. The object of his ravenous passions fainted, and was carried home; she lay in a phrenzy for three or four days, and continued sick and cripple for as many months. And it was remarked that, whenever the wise wife of Keith was with her, she was well; but, on her going away, all the dangerous symptoms returned. In the mean time, it is to be supposed, the old lady died.

That King James should sit in his court at Holyroodhouse, and listen with interest and belief to such confessions as these, seems at the present day, it must be allowed, as strange a thing as well could be. It is only, however, an illustration of the age he lived in, of its absurd opinions and practices, not of his mind in particular. He may of course be equally justified for the severe measures which he took with the wizards, all of whom, it must be remembered, were more or less guilty of the real crimes of abusing the credulity of the people, and of at least making the attempt to do injury to their fellow creatures. A great number of those miserable wretches were put to death during the course of the year; almost all of them testifying to the justice of their sentence, by confessing their guilt at the very stake; while the people expressed scarcely a murmur at their

fate.

In consequence of the confessions of Mrs Simp son, the Earl of Bothwell voluntarily entered into confinement in Edinburgh Castle, desiring to be tried for his supposed offence, the whole of which he denied. It was his first belief that the wizards, on account of their infamous character, would not be admitted as evidence against him; and he therefore anticipated a triumphant acquittal, which should not only restore him to society and the

In the Dæmonology, he says, to spare the life, and not to strike when God bids strike, and so severely punish in so odious a fault and treason against God, is not only unlawfull, but doubtlesse no lesse a sin in that magistrate, nor it was in Saules sparing of Agag; and so comparable to the sin of witcheraft itself, as Samuel alleged at that time.'

King's favour, but also, perhaps, give him a preponderance against the obnoxious power of the Chancellor. It being soon determined, however, that the evidence of such persons might be admitted, on the same principle as that by which women, children, and persons of bad fame, were taken, by the law of the land, to prove treason, Bothwell thought proper to break his prison, and seek safety in flight. James then caused doom of forfeiture to be pronounced against him, for his concern in the conspiracy of the Catholics two years before, it being thought improper to outlaw him for the new crimes laid to his charge. Proclamation was at the same time made, by sound of drum, forbidding the subjects to afford him any countenance, food, or shelter, and commanding all to assist the magistrates in endeavouring to apprehend him.

Bothwell entertained a conviction that he was beloved by James, and he therefore threw the whole blame of this severity upon the Chancellor. With the audacity inspired by this sentiment, and justified by the imbecility of the executive, he came to Leith three days after the proclamation, and, deliberately taking his supper in the house of a friend, set both the laws and their administrators at defiance. The common bell of Edinburgh was rung for the convocation of the citizens, that they might go and seize the traitor who thus insulted his country. But, instead of any attempt being made to annoy him, he was permitted to act upon the offensive against them. With a train of sixteen horse, he rode up to the lower gate of the city, within which, at the distance of a few yards, the house of Chancellor Maitland was situated.