the worthy bailiff, her master, who, like
his neighbours, mistrusted her, considered them no less than miraculous.
In order to discover the truth, he put her to the torture; but she
obstinately refused to confess that she had dealings with the devil. It
was the popular belief that no witch would confess as long as the mark
which Satan had put upon her remained undiscovered upon her body. Somebody
present reminded the torturing bailie of this fact, and on examination,
the devil's mark was found upon the throat of poor Gellie. She was put to
the torture again, and her fortitude giving way under the extremity of her
anguish, she confessed that she was indeed a witch--that she had sold her
soul to the devil, and effected all her cures by his aid. This was
something new in the witch creed, according to which, the devil delighted
more in laying diseases on than in taking them off; but Gellie Duncan
fared no better on that account. The torture was still applied, until she
had named all her accomplices, among whom were one Cunningham, a reputed
wizard, known by the name of Dr. Fian; a grave and matron-like witch,
named Agnes Sampson; Euphemia Macalzean, the daughter of Lord Cliftonhall,
already mentioned, and nearly forty other persons, some of whom were the
wives of respectable individuals in the city of Edinburgh. Every one of
these persons was arrested, and the whole realm of Scotland thrown into
commotion by the extraordinary nature of the disclosures which were
anticipated.

About two years previous to this time, James had suddenly left his
kingdom, and proceeded gallantly to Denmark, to fetch over his bride, the
Princess of Denmark, who had been detained by contrary weather in the
harbour of Upslo. After remaining for some months in Copenhagen, he set
sail with his young bride, and arrived safely in Leith, on the 1st of May
1590, having experienced a most boisterous passage, and been nearly
wrecked. As soon as the arrest of Gellie Duncan and Fian became known in
Scotland, it was reported by every body who pretended to be well-informed,
that these witches and their associates had, by the devil's means, raised
the storms which had endangered the lives of the king and queen. Gellie,
in her torture, had confessed that such was the fact, and the whole
kingdom waited aghast and open-mouthed for the corroboration about to be
furnished by the trial.

Agnes Sampson, the "grave and matron-like" witch implicated by Gellie
Duncan, w