asy
posture. If she refused to sit in this manner, she was bound with strong
cords. Hopkins then placed persons to watch her for four-and-twenty hours,
during which time she was to be kept without meat or drink. It was
supposed that one of her imps would come during that interval and suck her
blood. As the imp might come in the shape of a wasp, a moth, a fly, or
other insect, a hole was made in the door or window to let it enter. The
watchers were ordered to keep a sharp look out, and endeavour to kill any
insect that appeared in the room. If any fly escaped, and they could not
kill it, the woman was guilty; the fly was her imp, and she was sentenced
to be burned, and twenty shillings went into the pockets of Master
Hopkins. In this manner he made one old woman confess, because four flies
had appeared in the room, that she was attended by four imps, named
"Ilemazar," "Pye-wackett," "Peck-in-the-crown," and "Grizel-Greedigut."

[Illustration: MATTHEW HOPKINS.[32]]

[32] This illustration, representing Matthew Hopkins examining two
witches, who are confessing to him the names of their imps
and familiars, is copied from Caulfield's _Memoirs of
Remarkable Persons_, 1794, where it is taken from an
extremely rare print.

It is consoling to think that this impostor perished in his own snare. Mr.
Gaul's exposure and his own rapacity weakened his influence among the
magistrates; and the populace, who began to find that not even the most
virtuous and innocent were secure from his persecution, looked upon him
with undisguised aversion. He was beset by a mob at a village in Suffolk,
and accused of being himself a wizard. An old reproach was brought against
him, that he had, by means of sorcery, cheated the devil out of a certain
memorandum-book, in which he, Satan, had entered the names of all the
witches in England. "Thus," said the populace, "you find out witches, not
by God's aid, but by the devil's." In vain he denied his guilt. The
populace longed to put him to his own test. He was speedily stripped, and
his thumbs and toes tied together. He was then placed in a blanket, and
cast into a pond. Some say that he floated, and that he was taken out,
tried, and executed upon no other proof of his guilt. Others assert that
he was drowned. This much is positive, that there was an end of him. As no
judicial entry of his trial and execution is to be found in any register,
it appears most probabl