ict of guilty, though the
evidence was of the usual absurd and contradictory character, and the
enlightened judge did all in his power to bring them to a right
conclusion. The accused person was one Jane Wenham, better known as the
Witch of Walkerne; and the persons who were alleged to have suffered from
her witchcraft were two young women, named Thorne and Street. A witness,
named Mr. Arthur Chauncy, deposed, that he had seen Ann Thorne in several
of her fits, and that she always recovered upon prayers being said, or if
Jane Wenham came to her. He related, that he had pricked the prisoner
several times in the arms, but could never fetch any blood from her; that
he had seen her vomit pins, when there were none in her clothes or within
her reach; and that he had preserved several of them, which he was ready
to produce. The judge, however, told him that was needless, _as he
supposed they were crooked pins_.

Mr. Francis Bragge, another witness, deposed, that strange "cakes" of
bewitched feathers having been taken from Ann Thorne's pillow, he was
anxious to see them. He went into a room where some of these feathers
were, and took two of the cakes, and compared them together. They were
both of a circular figure, something larger than a crown piece; and he
observed that the small feathers were placed in a nice and curious order,
at equal distances from each other, making so many radii of the circle, in
the centre of which the quill-ends of the feathers met. He counted the
number of these feathers, and found them to be exactly thirty-two in each
cake. He afterwards endeavoured to pull off two or three of them, and
observed that they were all fastened together by a sort of viscous matter,
which would stretch seven or eight times in a thread before it broke.
Having taken off several of these feathers, he removed the viscous matter
with his fingers, and found under it, in the centre, some short hairs,
black and grey, matted together, which he verily believed to be cat's
hair. He also said, that Jane Wenham confessed to him that she had
bewitched the pillow, and had practised witchcraft for sixteen years.

The judge interrupted the witness at this stage, and said, he should very
much like to see an enchanted feather, and seemed to wonder when he was
told that none of these strange cakes had been preserved. His lordship
asked the witness why he did not keep one or two of them, and was informed
that they had all been burnt, in orde