he same judge that had liberated Sarah Morduck, to
imprisonment for a year, and to stand in the pillory three times as a
cheat and liar.

Sending a witch to catch a witch or thief occasionally had its
beneficial results. On the communion service having been stolen from a
church, a wise man instructed the church-wardens how to discover the
thief. They did as directed, and, true enough, the thief hastened to
give himself up to justice; and, what proved better, he restored the
stolen plate. One man having a child sorely afflicted with boils,
consulted a wizard. By direction of the cunning man, a portion of the
child's hair was cut off and thrown into the fire. This had the effect
of compelling a witch to hasten to the house and confess that she had
in reality brought trouble on the child. The father scratched the
witch "above the breath," and the sufferer recovered.

Jane Stretton, a young woman twenty years of age, was bewitched in
1669, and consequently suffered much by flax, hair, thread, and pins
gathering in her throat. Still more strange, red-hot flames issued
from her mouth. A wise man's wife was suspected of bringing about the
calamity. Various means were resorted to with the view of establishing
her guilt. Sympathising neighbours were consulted, and one of them
suggested a method that proved effectual. Foam was collected from
Jane's mouth and chin, and thrown into the fire, as a charm to injure
her tormentor. We are assured the expedient succeeded admirably. While
the foam hissed in the flames, the witch, compelled by the operation,
came into the house to confess that she alone had caused the young
woman's distemper.

One of the last persons generally supposed to have been condemned to
death in England for witchcraft was Jane Wenham, residing in Walkerne,
a village in Hertford. For years her neighbours suspected her to be a
witch. In 1712 she was tried before one of the legal tribunals, and
condemned on evidence of a singular nature. It appears that she went
to Matthew Gibson, a servant to John Chapman, and asked for a
pennyworth of straw. He refused to give her any, and she went away
muttering threats against him. Soon thereafter Gibson became like an
insane man, and ran three miles along the highway, asking every one he
met for a pennyworth of straw. Then he gathered all the straws he
could find by the roadside and put them into his shirt, which he used
as a sack. Gibson's master met Jane, and called her a wi