cribed very definite penalties for their operations, but in most
instances no action was taken until after a long accumulation of
"suspicious circumstances," and, even if action was taken, the chances,
as we have seen, were by this time distinctly in favor of the accused.

This is not to say, by any means, that the judges and juries of England
had come over to the side of the witch. The period with which we are
dealing was marked by a variety of decision which betrays the perplexity
of judges and juries. It is true, indeed, that out of from eighty to one
hundred cases where accusations are on record less than twenty witches
were hanged. This does not mean that six times out of every seven the
courts were ruling against the fact of witchcraft. In the case of the
six released there was no very large body of evidence against them to be
considered, or perhaps no strong popular current to be stemmed. In
general, it may be said that the courts were still backing up the law of
James I.

To show this, it is only necessary to run over some of the leading
trials of the period. We shall briefly take up four trials conducted
respectively by Justice Archer, Chief Baron Hale, Justice Rainsford, and
Justice Raymond.

Julian Cox, who was but one of the "pestilent brood" of witches ferreted
out in Somerset by the aggressive justice, Robert Hunt, was tried in
1663 at Taunton before Justice Archer.[11] The charges against her
indeed excited such interest all over England, and elicited, upon the
part of disbelievers, so much derision, that it will be worth our while
to go over the principal points of evidence. The chief witness against
her was a huntsman who told a strange tale. He had started a hare and
chased it behind a bush. But when he came to the bush he had found
Julian Cox there, stooped over and quite out of breath. Another witness
had a strange story to tell about her. She had invited him to come up on
her porch and take a pipe of tobacco with her. While he was with her,
smoking, he saw a toad between his legs. On going home he had taken out
a pipe and smoked again and had again seen what looked to be the same
toad between his legs. "He took the Toad out to kill it, and to his
thinking cut it in several pieces, but returning to his Pipe the Toad
still appeared.... At length the Toad cryed, and vanish'd." A third
witness had seen the accused fly in at her window "in her full
proportion." This tissue of evidence was perhaps the a