t night, and stepped backward
round the church three times. In their first round they met a man in
black clothes, who returned with them. In the second round they met a
big black toad, which leapt into deponent's apron. As they went round
the third time they met a rat, that vanished into air. Like many more
witches entering into a compact with Satan, she could have her wishes
and revenge. If she cursed any person or thing with "a pox," evil
happened the object of her hatred.

Witches were found in every part of Somerset in the seventeenth
century. Hundreds of them were brought to trial; but as their reported
doings, confessions, and punishments were in all essential particulars
the same as those of Elizabeth Style and Alice Duke, they are
unimportant here.

Richard Hathaway appeared before Lord Chief Justice Holt at the
Guildford assizes in 1701, to support a charge of witchcraft against
Sarah Morduck. Hathaway frequently vomited pins in great numbers,
pieces of tin, nails, and small stones. He foamed at the mouth, and
barked like a dog; sometimes he felt a burning sensation, and not
unfrequently lay as if dead. Being convinced that Sarah Morduck caused
his troubles, he scratched her "above the breath," to draw blood from
her. Subsequent to this operation he recovered, and remained well for
six weeks. All his afflictions returned, and the suspected witch was
scratched a second time. To escape her tormentors at Southwark, she
went to London; but, her fame preceding or following her, she was
hunted in the streets by an infuriated mob. Hathaway pursued the
unhappy woman to the great metropolis, and took her before Sir Thomas
Lane, a judge who regarded witchcraft in a different light to that
which the Lord Chief Justice did. Sir Thomas ordered her to be
stripped, to ascertain whether she had any witch-marks; and Hathaway,
still suffering, scratched her for the third time. Sarah Morduck was
committed to prison as a dangerous witch. Her supposed victim,
Hathaway, became an object of prayer in the churches, and
subscriptions were raised to defray his charges at the assizes. In
July Sarah Morduck was brought, as already stated, before Lord Chief
Justice Holt, but escaped with her life, for no other reason than that
the judge did not believe in witchcraft. Hathaway's conduct being
inquired into, he was brought to trial, when it was ascertained that
his sayings about being bewitched were false. He was therefore
sentenced, by t