on summer assizes
in the year 1663, before Judge Archer, for witchcraft practised upon a
young maid. The evidence against her was divided into two heads:
first, to prove her habit and repute a witch; secondly, to prove her
guilty of the witchcraft mentioned in the indictment.

The first witness, a huntsman, swore that, while out with a pack of
hounds to hunt a hare, not far from Julian Cox's house, he started
one. The dogs chased the creature very close, so that it was fain to
take shelter in a bush. He ran to protect the hare from being torn;
and great was his surprise to find that, in place of a quadruped,
there lay Julian Cox, panting for want of breath.

A farmer said she had caused his cattle to run mad. Some of the
animals killed themselves by striking their heads against trees; and
that nearly every one of his herd died, either through their own
violence, or by a disease evidently brought on by witchcraft. To
discover the witch, he cut off the bewitched animals' ears and burned
them, an infallible process for bringing the offender to light. While
those animal organs were consuming in the fire, Julian Cox came raging
into the house, asserting she was being abused without cause. He once
saw her flying through a window of her house in her own proper
likeness.

In her declaration before a justice of the peace, Cox admitted that
the devil often tempted her to be a witch. One evening there came
riding on broom-sticks three persons--a witch, a wizard who had been
hanged years before, and a black man. The last-mentioned tempted her
to give him her soul; but, though he offered great rewards, she did
not yield--no, not for a moment.

Judge Archer told the jury he had heard a witch could not repeat that
petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation;" and
having this opportunity, he would try whether any reliance could be
placed in the report. He then asked the prisoner whether she could say
the Lord's Prayer. She declared she could, and went over it readily
enough, except the part thereof just quoted. Several chances were
given her to complete the prayer, but she could not finish it without
mistakes. The jury found her guilty of witchcraft, and she was
executed a few days afterwards without confessing her sins.

As an example of how the people's minds were filled with superstition,
even in their merry moments, we give the following popular English
song of the seventeenth century, as sung by Robin Goodfel