covering himself, "he gave his father the Item," and drew towards
Jane. She was standing behind her two sisters, but the boy singled her
out and put his hand upon her; which the father seeing, he flew on the
poor creature, scratched her face "above her breath," and drew blood.
After this rather rough manner of exorcism, Master Richard Jones cried out
that he was well, and condescended to remain well for seven or eight days.
But at the end of this time, Alice Coward, sister to Jane, happening to
meet him and to say, "How do you do, my Honey?" he fell ill again, and
"cried out" on them without intermission. One Sunday he was in his fits,
his father and cousin Gibson with him as usual, when he suddenly exclaimed
that he "saw Jane Brooks there"--pointing to the wall. Cousin Gibson at
once struck a knife into the spot; whereupon the sprightly youth cried, "O
father, couz Gibson hath cut Jane Brooks's hand, and 'tis Bloody." The
father and Gibson on this went to the constable, "a discreet Person," and
telling him what had happened, took him with them to Jane's house, where
they found her sitting on a stool, with one hand over the other. After a
few questions they drew her hand away, and found that which was underneath
all bloody; which appearance she explained away as well as she could, by
saying that it was scratched with a great pin. This kind of thing going on
for some time, the pitiful plot grew ripe for execution, and on the 8th of
December Jane Brooks and her sister, Alice Coward, were taken to Castle
Cary to be examined by the justices, Mr. Hunt and Mr. Cary. Here Richard
performed all the usual tricks of the bewitched, lying speechless and
motionless while the suspected women were in the room; springing up into
tetanic fits if they laid their hands upon him, or so much as looked
towards him; bringing on himself, by his own will, convulsive fits and
catalepsy, and many of the more violent symptoms of hysteria, and
insisting that the two women came constantly to see him--as
apparitions--"their Hands cold, their Eyes staring, and their Lips and
Cheeks looking pale." "In this manner on a Thursday about Noon, the Boy
being newly laid in his Bed, Jane Brooks and Alice Coward appeared to him,
and told him that what they had begun they could not perform. But if he
would say no more of it, they would give him Money, and so put a Twopence
into his Pocket. After which they took him out of his Bed and laid him on
the ground and vani