o the flames, saying, "I'll tak nae stick
hame wi' me to nay hous that has touched a witch." When all was over and
the sacrifice was complete, Bargarran's daughter declared herself
satisfied and cured; no more "bumbees" came to pinch her--no more charms
of balls of hair or waxen eggs were laid beneath her bed--no more
apparitions thronged to vex her, nor had she fits or tossings, foamings
or strange swellings as of old; the devil left off tempting her with
promises of a fine gentleman for a husband; the witches no longer allured
her by phantom aprons filled with phantom almonds; the Lord "helped the
poor daft child," as Mrs. M. had prayed, though she was scarce worth the
helping, and the world was oppressed with her lies no more. But the blood
of the murdered innocent lay red on the ground, and cried aloud to heaven
for vengeance against the murderers. The case of Bargarran's daughter has
been always accepted as one of the most puzzling on record; but when may
not mankind be puzzled if they have but sufficient credulity? Subtract
from this account the possible and the certain--the possible frauds and
the certain lies--and what is left? A diseased girl, hysterical and
epileptic, full of hallucinations and pretended fancies, with a certain
quickness of hand which the tremendous gullibility of her auditory
rendered yet more facile--unscrupulous, mendacious; the only thing
surprising in the whole matter was that there was not one man of
sufficient coolness of judgment, or quickness of perception, to see
through the imposture and set his grip on it ere it passed. Dickie and
Mitchell, who a few years back visited the house where all this took
place, found a slit or hole in the wooden partition between her bedroom
and the room next it; a slit, evidently made purposely, and not a natural
defect in the wood, and so placed that when the bed was made up (the bed
of richly-carved oak yet stands or stood there) it could not be seen by
any one in the room. This little fact seems to speak volumes, and to help
materially towards establishing the questions of fraud and connivance. The
remote sequel is the only consoling feature in the case. From being the
most notorious impostor and the most cruel, false, and deadly persecutor
of her time, Bargarran's daughter, as Mrs. Miller, became one of the best
and most famous spinners of fine and delicate thread. She caused certain
machinery to be brought from Holland, and wrought at her spinning whe