r the
pins, and said it was the work of the dumb girl; but on its being shown
that her son Hugh had once robbed Sir George's orchard--which was what
Dumby meant by "broke his fruit yeard"--and that Sir George, when told
that he was no longer in Pollokland, but had gone to Darnlie, had said, "I
hope my fingers may be long enough to reach him in Darnlie"--these
circumstances were held quite sufficient evidence that the Stewart family
would do the laird all the mischief they could. The prosecution wanted no
stronger proof, and the affair went on.

Jennet was obstinate, and would confess nothing; upon which they searched
her and found the devil's mark. After this, Sir George got better for a
short space, but soon the pains returned, and then the dumb girl said that
John Stewart, Jennet's eldest son, had made another clay image, four days
since, and that it was now in his house beneath the bolster among the bed
straw. So she and the servants went there again, and sure enough they
found it; but as it was only lately made, it was soft and broke in their
hands. John said simply he did not know who had put it there; but he and
his young sister Annabel were apprehended: and the next day Annabel
confessed.

She said, that on the 4th of January last past, while the clay picture was
being formed, a black gentleman had come into her mother's house,
accompanied by Bessie Weir, Marjorie Craig, Margaret Jackson, and her own
brother John. When confronted with John she wavered, but John was no
nearer release for that. He was searched, and many marks were found on
him; and when found the spell of silence was broken, and he confessed his
paction with the devil as openly as his sister, giving up as their
accomplices the same women as those she had named. Of these, Margaret
Jackson, aged fourscore or so, was the only one to confess; but as she
had many witch marks she could not hope for mercy, so might as well make a
clean breast of it at once. On the 17th of January a portion of clay was
found under Jennet Mathie's bolster, in her prison at Paisley. This time
it was a woman's portrait, for Sir George had recovered by now, and the
witches were against the whole family equally. On the 27th Annabel made a
fuller deposition. She said that last harvest the devil, as a black man,
had come to her mother's house, and required her, the deponent, to give
herself to him; promising that she should want for nothing good if she
did. She, being enticed by