lord possessed the faculty of second sight.

At night Captain Douglas accompanied the sergeant, and lay down beside
him, leaving his sword and firearms near them. At midnight the captain
was wakened by a noise, and, on looking up, observed a large black cat
flying through the window. Presently the captain fired his pistol at
the creature, and shot away one of its ears. Next morning the
commissioned officer stepped into the kitchen to see what was going on
there, when in came the landlady, and swooned away in a pool of blood.
On removing her head-dress, he discovered a pistol-shot wound on one
side of her face, and observed that one of her ears was gone. The
officer swore he would bring her before the magistrates to have her
tried as a witch. She and her husband entreated him to refrain from
giving information to the authorities, and he, like a generous man,
promised to keep silence, on the condition that they would abandon
their wicked ways.

Isobel Gowdie, one of the Auldearne witches, was baptised by the
devil, with whom she had many "Sabbath meetings." She and other
witches appropriated Farmer Breadley's corn to themselves, and left
him nothing but weeds. To secure the grain, they at one time
disinterred an unbaptised infant, which, together with parings of
their nails, ears of corn, and colewort leaves, they chopped and mixed
together. At another time, to accomplish a similar object, a plough,
having a colter and sock of rams' horns, was prepared, and a yoke of
toads, instead of oxen, with dog-grass traces, made to draw it twice
round the farmer's fields. The agricultural implement was held by the
devil, and John Young, a warlock, goaded the team, while a band of
witches followed, beseeching the ploughman to do his work effectually.

An attempt was made by the gang of witches to which Isobel Gowdie
belonged, to shoot Harie Forbes, the minister of Auldearne, with elf
arrows, shaped by the devil, and sharpened by his imps.
Notwithstanding all this, the arrows missed the mark. Charms and
incantations were next resorted to with the view of depriving the
parish of a good useful parson, who had been instrumental, both in and
out of the pulpit, in making Satan tremble. The flesh and gall of a
toad, a hare's liver, barley grains, nail parings, mashed in water,
were put into a bag. Bessie Hay, a celebrated witch, being intimate
with Mr. Forbes, went into his room to slay him with the compound, but
the good man was proof a