the minister prayed for her at the time the witches were about to
carry their diabolical intentions into operation.

The lamentable case of the afflicted family being represented to his
Majesty's Privy Council, a commission was, worthily and piously it is
said, appointed to inquire into the case. By warrant of this
commission, certain suspected persons were apprehended. Alexander
Anderson, represented as an ignorant irreligious fellow; Elizabeth
Anderson, his daughter; and Jean Fulton, grandmother of the said
Elizabeth Anderson, were secured. Elizabeth Anderson, on being
severely interrogated, declared she had frequently seen the devil, in
the likeness of a little black man, in the company of her grandmother.
She also confessed that she herself had been at several meetings with
the devil and witches; and she declared her father and a Highlandman
in the neighbourhood, along with others, were active agents in
tormenting Christina Shaw.

A quorum of the commissioners met at Bargarran; and the persons
accused by Elizabeth Anderson to have been at the meetings with the
devil, and to have been active instruments of Christina Shaw's
trouble--viz. Alexander Anderson, Agnes Naismith, Margaret Fulton,
James Lindsay, John Lindsay, and Catherine Campbell--were (except John
Lindsay, not then in custody) confronted with the afflicted damsel
before Lord Blantyre and other commissioners, together with ministers
of the gospel and non-clerical gentlemen of note, and charged by her
as her tormentors; and they (the persons in custody) having severally
touched her, she was at each of their touches seized with grievous
fits.

About this time Thomas Lindsay, a boy twelve years of age, was
apprehended on presumption of complicity in witchcraft, he having
said, before credible witnesses, that the devil was his father, and
that if he pleased he could fly like a crow. Sometimes, he said, he
could cause a plough to stand, and the horses break the yoke, on his
pronouncing a few strange words and turning himself withershinns.
Though at first he denied his guilt, yet he afterwards confessed he
had a compact with the devil, and that he had been at several meetings
with Satan and witches. His brother James, he said, was also present.
James Lindsay was therefore apprehended, and identified by Christina
Shaw as one of her tormentors. He too confessed to be guilty of
Satanic acts.

Next day Margaret Lang, and her daughter Martha Semple, being accuse