nt goes, took the sticks and threw
them into the fire. Presto! Jane Wenham came into the room, pretending
an errand. It was afterwards found out that the errand was fictitious.

All this raised a stir. The tale was absolutely original, it was no less
remarkable. A maid with a broken knee had run a half-mile and back in
seven minutes, very good time considering the circumstances. On the next
day the maid, despite the knee and the fits she had meantime contracted,
was sent out on an errand. She met Jane Wenham and that woman quite
properly berated her for the stories she had set going, whereupon the
maid's fits were worse than ever. Then, while several people carefully
watched her, she repeated her former long distance run, leaping over a
five-bar gate "as nimbly as a greyhound."

Jane Wenham was now imprisoned by the justice of the peace, who
collected with all speed the evidence against her. In this he was aided
by the Reverend Francis Bragge, rector of Walkerne, and the Reverend
Mr. Strutt, vicar of Audley. The wretched woman asked the justice to
let her submit to the ordeal of water,[28] but he refused, pronouncing
it illegal and unjustifiable. Meantime, the Rev. Mr. Strutt used the
test of the Lord's Prayer,[29] a test that had been discarded for half a
century. She failed to say the prayer aright, and alleged in excuse that
"she was much disturbed in her head," as well she might be. But other
evidence came in against her rapidly. She had been caught stealing
turnips, and had quite submissively begged pardon, saying that she had
no victuals that day and no money to buy any.[30] On the very next day
the man who gave this evidence had lost one of his sheep and found
another "taken strangely, skipping and standing upon its head."[31]
There were other equally silly scraps of testimony. We need not go into
them. The two officious clergymen busied themselves with her until one
of them was able to wring some sort of a confession from her. It was a
narrative in which she tried to account for the strange conduct of Anne
Thorne and made a failure of it.[32] A few days later, in the presence
of three clergymen and a justice of the peace, she was urged to repeat
her confession but was "full of Equivocations and Evasions," and when
pressed told her examiners that they "lay in wait for her Life."

Bragge and Strutt had shown a great deal of energy in collecting
evidence. Yet, when the case came to trial, the woman was accused onl