pray you to let it pass; for the more you meddle in
it, the more discredit it will be for you: And I pray God, and you, and
all the World to forgive me."

Even this was not enough. Will was bribed over by the promise of a good
place in a gentleman's house if he would be properly demoniac again; and
consenting thereto, played again his old tricks; but the Lord Chief
Justice, Sir Edmund Anderson, not believing a word of it all, encouraged
him kindly to tell the truth, and not be afraid; so Will started up and
was perfectly well, and for the greater satisfaction of the gentlefolks
showed them how he worked.

And to prove how small was the value of evidence in those days, one
Richard Mee--who was held to have deposed "That he had seen William Somers
turn his Face directly backward, not moving his Body, and that his Eyes
were as great as Beasts' Eyes, and that his Tongue would be thrust out of
his Head to the bigness of a Calve's Tongue" when re-examined explained
himself thus:--"My Meaning was that he turned his Face a good Way towards
his Shoulder, and that his Eyes were something gogling; and by reason that
it was Candle-light when I saw his Tongue thrust out, and by reason of my
Conceit of the Strangeness of Somers's Troubles, it seemed somewhat bigger
than, if Somers had been well, I should have thought it to have been."
Again, a black dog which Will had cried out on as the devil, and which, by
reason of his words had actually been taken for the devil with eyes
glaring like fire, come back to repossess him, turned out to be nothing
but a spurrier's dog crouching in the background of the darkening chamber.
So, when carefully sifted, would the evidence of all such-like marvels
prove to be merest chaff scattered on the ground; and yet, a century
after, Mr. Richard Boulton is found repeating the story of Will Somers'
possession as if it had never been disproved; and there are some even now
living who would cite it as a case of proved spiritualism. Mr. Darrel was
degraded from the ministry, and committed to close prison: rather harsh
measures simply because he had more faith and a little less discretion
than his neighbours.

GIFFARD'S ANECDOTES.[109]

George Giffard, "minister of God's word in Maldon," put forth a little
book in 1603, containing a number of witch stories and anecdotes, without
names, dates, or places, yet written in a manner and style evidently
proving their reliability, and all seeming to have come wit