shed, and the Boy was found by those that came next
into the Room lying on the Floor as if he had been dead." This twopence
had odd properties. When put upon the fire and made hot, the boy fell ill;
when taken out and cooled, he was all right again. The trick was tried in
the presence of many, and was found to answer admirably. Between the 8th
of December and the 17th of February, he practised another variation of
the same air. "Divers persons at sundry times" heard a croaking, as of a
toad, proceed from the boy, and though they held a candle to his face they
could not discern any movement of tongue, teeth, or lips. And this
croaking as of a toad repeated incessantly, "Jane Brooks, Alice Coward,
Jane Brooks, Alice Coward." On the 25th of February he performed his
greatest feat of all; or was reported to have done so--which did quite as
well in those days; for Richard Isles's wife said she saw him raised up
from the ground, mounting gradually higher and higher till he was carried
full thirty yards over the garden wall, when, falling at last at one
Jordan's door, he was there found as if dead. Coming to himself, he
declared that Jane Brooks had taken him by the arm, and carried him up, as
Isles's wife had seen; which fact was told and believed in as a fearful
instance of her malicious and wicked sorcery against the sprightly youth.
At another time, as many as nine people at once saw him hanging from a
beam, his hands placed flat against the wood, and his whole body raised
two or three feet from the ground. He continued to play these
extraordinary tricks from the 15th of November to the 10th of March; when,
being much wasted and worn, it was deemed advisable to save his life if
yet there might be time. Jane Brooks was sent to gaol, condemned, and
hanged at Charde assizes, March 26th, 1658; and Richard Jones, having no
longer any inducement to act the possessed, consented to remain with his
feet on the ground and his head in the air, according to the laws of
nature and Newton, and took no more fits, real or simulated, to extort
compassion or obtain revenge.

THE WITCHES OF THE RESTORATION.

The poor witches were always seeing troublous times. At about the time of
the Lord Protector's death one was hanged in Norwich and several in
Cornwall. In 1659 two suffered at Lancaster, for crimes which I cannot
discover; while in 1660, on the 14th of May, the Restoration had its
victims in the persons of a widow, her two daughters, a