ine that they soon
became jolly. Gellie Duncan then played the old tune upon her trump, and
the devil himself led off the dance with Euphemia Macalzean. Thus they
kept up the sport till the cock crew.

Agnes Sampson, the wise woman of Keith, as she was called, added some
other particulars in her confession. She stated, that on a previous
occasion, she had raised an awful tempest in the sea by throwing a cat
into it, with four joints of men tied to its feet. She said also, that on
their grand attempt to drown King James, they did not meet with the devil
after cruising about, but that he had accompanied them from the first, and
that she had seen him dimly in the distance, rolling himself before them
over the great waves, in shape and size not unlike a huge haystack. They
met with a foreign ship richly laden with wines and other good things,
which they boarded, and sunk after they had drunk all the wine and made
themselves quite merry.

[Illustration: JAMES THE DEMONOLOGIST.]

Some of these disclosures were too much even for the abundant faith of
King James, and he more than once exclaimed, that the witches were like
their master, "extreme lyars." But they confessed many other things of a
less preposterous nature, and of which they were no doubt really guilty.
Agnes Sampson said she was to have taken the king's life by anointing his
linen with a strong poison. Gellie Duncan used to threaten her neighbours
by saying she would send the devil after them; and many persons of weaker
minds than usual were frightened into fits by her, and rendered subject to
them for the remainder of their lives. Dr. Fian also made no scruple in
aiding and abetting murder, and would rid any person of an enemy by means
of poison, who could pay him his fee for it. Euphemia Macalzean also was
far from being pure. There is no doubt that she meditated the king's
death, and used such means to compass it as the superstition of the age
directed. She was a devoted partisan of Bothwell, who was accused by many
of the witches as having consulted them on the period of the king's death.
They were all found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged and burned. Barbara
Napier, though found guilty upon other counts, was acquitted upon the
charge of having been present at the great witch meeting in Berwick kirk.
The king was highly displeased, and threatened to have the jury indicted
for a wilful error upon an assize. They accordingly reconsidered their
verdict, and t