ould be accessory to all the
blasphemies, apostasies, murders, tortures, and
seductions whereof these enemies of heaven and earth
shall thereafter be guilty, when they have got out. So
that the question seems simply to come to this,
Whether, upon your oath _de fideli_, you can swear
that the panels, notwithstanding of all that is proven
against them, are not guilty of witchcraft; in the
determination whereof, we pray God may direct you in
the right course."

The jury, after being enclosed nearly six hours, found the libel
proven.

It only remains to be stated that the accused suffered the extreme
penalty of the law, not for crimes committed, but on account of the
superstition and ferocity of the period.

CHAPTER LIX.

Victims of Superstition--History of Lady Glammis--Her
Trial for causing the Death of her Husband and
attempting to poison the King--Found Guilty, and
Burned--Lady Fowlis an intended Victim--Hector Munro
tried for Sorcery--Making an Image of the young Lady
of Balnagowan--Elf Arrows--Consulting Egyptians--Trial
and Acquittal of Lady Fowlis--Her Accomplices not so
Fortunate--Hector Munro's connection with
Witches--Charge against Sir John Colquhoun and Thomas
Carlips for consulting with Necromancers--Love
Philters and Enchanted Tokens--Eloping with a
Sister-in-law--Bewitching Sir George Maxwell--A Dumb
Girl detecting Witches--Witch-marks discovered before
the Sheriff of Renfrewshire--Strange
Confessions--Commission appointed by the Privy Council
to try Witches--Witches ordered to be Burned--Alison
Pearson's Intercourse with Fairies--Another Witch
Story.

After witchcraft became unpopular, persons of youth, beauty, and rank,
as well as people of old age, poverty, and deformity, often fell
victims to superstition. The history of Lady Glammis is a painful one,
exhibiting the gross darkness and ferocity of her time. Being
beautiful, and in good position, her hand was sought by noblemen whose
name and fame did, in some respects, honour to their country. As Lady
Glammis could have only one husband at a time, she was compelled to
reject proposals made to her by members of first-class families--a
necessity that was not looked at in its proper light; for her
refusals, both when she was a maid and widow, to enter into
matrimonial alliance wi