hampton had been watched at night in
order to keep their imps from coming in. This night-watching was a
process that had never, so far as our records go, been used since the
Hopkins alarm, of which it had been the characteristic feature. Were
there no other resemblance between the Northampton cases and those at
Chelmsford, this similarity would alone lead us to suspect the
credibility of the Northampton pamphlet. Unfortunately the indiscreet
writer of the Northampton narrative lets other phrases belonging to 1645
creep into his account.

When the Northampton women were watched, a "little white thing about the
bigness of a Cat" had appeared. But a "white thing about the bignesse of
a Cat" had appeared to the watchers at Chelmsford in 1645. This is not
all. The Northampton witches are said to have killed their victims by
roasting and pricking images, a charge which had once been common, but
which, so far as the writer can recall, had not been used since the
Somerset cases of 1663. It was a charge very commonly used against the
Chelmsford witches whom Matthew Hopkins prosecuted. Moreover the
Northampton witches boasted that "their Master would not suffer them to
be executed." No Chelmsford witch had made that boast; but Mr. Lowes,
who was executed at Bury St. Edmunds (the Bury trial was closely
connected with that at Chelmsford, so closely that the writer who had
read of one would probably have read of the other), had declared that he
had a charm to keep him from the gallows.

It will be seen that these are close resemblances both in characteristic
features and in wording. But the most perfect resemblance is in a
confession. The two Northampton women describing their imps--creatures,
by the way, that had figured largely in the Hopkins trials--said that
"if the Imps were not constantly imploy'd to do Mischief, they [the
witches] had not their healths; but when they were imploy'd they were
very Heathful and Well." This was almost exactly what Anne Leech had
confessed at Chelmsford. Her words were: "And that when This Examinant
did not send and employ them abroad to do mischief, she had not her
health, but when they were imploy'd, she was healthfull and well."

We cannot point out the same similarity between the Huntingdonshire
witchcrafts of 1716 and the Chelmsford cases. The narrative of the
Huntingdon case is, however, somewhat remarkable. Mr. Hicks was taking
his nine-year-old daughter to Ipswich one day, when she, seei