nd "required Bond of him to answer the Sessions;" but he got away to
Scotland, and so escaped for the time. Fifteen women lay in prison,
charged by him, and were executed--all protesting their innocence; and
"one of them, by name Margaret Brown, beseeched God that some remarkable
sign might be seen at the time of their execution, to evidence their
innocency; and as soon as ever she was turned off the Ladder her blood
gushed out upon the people to the admiration of the beholders." Which
touching little history we must relegate to the realms of fable and
delusion, like others just as sad and supernatural. This precious wretch
(was it John Kincaid?) was hung in Scotland, when the magistrates and
people had got tired of him and his cruelty, and at "the gallows he
confessed that he had been the death of two hundred and twenty men and
women in England and Scotland, simply for the sake of the twenty
shillings a head blood-money." Truly it was time for brave Ralph Gardner
to write his bold and scorching "England's Grievance Discovered," when
such monstrous crimes as these might be done without even the colour of a
monstrous law.

In "Sykes's Local Records" mention is made of a curious little entry in
the parish books of Gateshead, near Newcastle: "Paid as M{ris} Watson's
when the Justices call to examine witches, 3{s} 4{d}; for a graue for a
witch, 6{d}; for trying the witches, L1. 5." This was in 1649, in which
year Jean Martin, "the myller's wyfe of Chattim," was executed for a
witch, and the authorities of Berwick sent for the witch-finder to come
and try witches there, promising that no violence should be done him by
the townspeople. In the parish register of Hart, under the date of July
28, 1582, the office of Master Chancellor against Allison Lawe, of Hart,
was brought into requisition. Allison was "a notourious sorcerer and
enchanter," but was pulled up in the midst of her evil career, and
sentenced to a milder punishment than she would have had a century later.
Notorious witch and enchanter as she was, all she had to suffer was open
penance once in the market-place at Durham, with a paper on her head
setting forth her offences, once in Hart church, and once in Norton
church; but what was the award to Janet Bainbridge and Jannet Allinson, of
Stockton, "for asking counsell of witches, and resorting to Allison Lawe
for the cure of the sicke," we are not told. The madness which possessed
all men's minds in the next century h