that three-fourths of them were unjust and unfounded. He says,
in the work already quoted, that the persons who were in general accused
of this crime were poor ignorant men and women who did not understand the
nature of the accusation, and who mistook their own superstitious fears
for witchcraft. One poor wretch, a weaver, confessed that he was a
warlock, and, being asked why, he replied, because "he had seen the devil
dancing, like a fly, about the candle!" A simple woman, who, because she
was called a witch, believed that she was, asked the judge upon the bench
whether a person might be a witch and not know it? Sir George adds, that
all the supposed criminals were subjected to severe torture in prison from
their gaolers, who thought they did God good service by vexing and
tormenting them; "and I know," says this humane and enlightened
magistrate, "that this usage was the ground of all their confession; and
albeit, the poor miscreants cannot prove this usage, the actors in it
being the only witnesses; yet the judge should be jealous of it, as that
which did at first elicit the confession, and for fear of which they dare
not retract it." Another author,[31] also a firm believer in witchcraft,
gives a still more lamentable instance of a woman who preferred execution
as a witch to live on under the imputation. This woman, who knew that
three others were to be strangled and burned on an early day, sent for the
minister of the parish, and confessed that she had sold her soul to Satan.
"Whereupon being called before the judges, she was condemned to die with
the rest. Being carried forth to the place of execution, she remained
silent during the first, second, and third prayer, and then, perceiving
that there remained no more but to rise and go to the stake, she lifted up
her body, and, with a loud voice, cried out, 'Now all you that see me this
day, know that I am now to die as a witch, by my own confession; and I
free all men, especially the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my
blood. I take it wholly upon myself. My blood be upon my own head. And, as
I must make answer to the God of heaven presently, I declare I am as free
of witchcraft as any child. But, being delated by a malicious woman, and
put in prison under the name of a witch, disowned by my husband and
friends, and seeing no ground of hope of ever coming out again, I made up
that confession to destroy my own life, being weary of it, and choosing
rather to di