deal or test for the
discovery of the innocence or guilt of suspected murderers, the reader
cannot better be referred than to the very learned and elaborate essay
in Pitcairne's _Criminal Trials_, vol. iii. p. 182-189. Amongst the
authors there quoted, Webster is omitted, who, (see _Displaying of
supposed Witchcraft_, p. 304,) discusses the point at considerable
length, and with an earnest and implicit faith singularly at variance
with his enlightened scepticism in other matters. But there were
regions of superstition in which even this Sampson of logic became
imbecile and powerless. The rationale of the bleeding of a murdered
corpse at the touch of the murderer is given by Sir Kenelm Digby with
his usual force and spirit:

To this cause, peradventure, may be reduced the strange
effect which is frequently seen in England, when, _at the
approach of the Murderer, the slain body suddenly bleedeth
afresh_. For certainly the Souls of them that are
treacherously murdered by surprise, use to leaue their
bodies with extreme unwillingness, and with vehement
indignation against them that force them to so unprovided
and abhorred a passage! That Soul, then, to wreak its evil
talent against the hated Murderer, and to draw a just and
desired revenge upon his head, would do all it can to
manifest the author of the fact! To _speak_ it cannot--for
in itself it wanteth the organs of voice; and those it is
parted from are now grown too heavy, and are too benummed,
for to give motion unto: Yet some change it desireth to
make in the body, which it hath so vehement inclination to;
and therefore is the aptest for it to work upon. It must
then endeavour to cause a motion in the subtilest and most
fluid parts (and consequently the most moveable ones) of it.
This can be nothing but THE BLOOD, which then being
violently moved, _must needs gush out at those places where
it findeth issue_!

In the two following Scotch cases of witchcraft, this test was
resorted to. The first was that of

MARIOUN PEEBLES,[79] _alias_ Pardone, spouse to SWENE, in
Hildiswick, who was, on March 22, 1644, sentenced to be
strangled at a stake, and burnt to ashes, at _the Hill of
Berrie_, for WITCHCRAFT and MURDER. Marion and her husband
having 'ane deadlie and venefical malice in her heart'
against Edward Halero in Overure, and bein