way homewards,
with a quickened pace, without expectation of seeing him in a
considerable while; and yet when they were got near home, to their
Astonishment, they found him on foot with them, having a Basket of
Straw-berries. _G. B._ immediately then fell to Chiding his Wife, on the
account of what she had been speaking to her Brother, of him, on the
Road: which when they wondred at, he said, _He knew their thoughts._
_Ruck_ being startled at that, made some Reply, intimating, that the
Devil himself did not know so far; but _G. B._ answered, _My God makes
known your Thoughts unto me._ The Prisoner now at the Bar had nothing to
answer, unto what was thus witnessed against him, that was worth
considering. Only he said, _Ruck, and his Wife left a Man with him, when
they left him._ Which _Ruck_ now affirm'd to be false; and when the
Court asked _G. B._ _What the Man's Name was?_ his Countenance was much
altered; nor could he say, who 'twas. But the Court began to think, that
he then step'd aside, only that by the assistance of the _Black Man_, he
might put on his _Invisibility_, and in that _Fascinating Mist_,
gratifie his own Jealous Humour, to hear what they said of him. Which
trick of rendring themselves _Invisible_, our Witches do in their
Confessions pretend, that they sometimes are Masters of; and it is the
more credible, because there is Demonstration, that they often render
many other things utterly _Invisible_.

VIII. _Faltring, faulty, unconstant, and contrary Answers upon judicial
and deliberate Examination_, are counted some unlucky Symptoms of Guilt,
in all Crimes, especially in Witchcrafts. Now there never was a Prisoner
more eminent for them, than _G. B._ both at his Examination and on his
Trial. His _Tergiversations_, _Contradictions_, and _Falshoods_, were
very sensible: he had little to say, but that he had heard some things
that he could not prove, Reflecting upon the Reputation of some of the
Witnesses. Only he gave in a Paper to the Jury; wherein, altho' he had
many times before, granted, not only that there are _Witches_, but
also, that the present Sufferings of the Country are the effects of
_horrible Witchcrafts_, yet he now goes to evince it, _That there
neither are, nor ever were Witches, that having made a Compact with the
Devil, can send a Devil to Torment other people at a distance._ This
Paper was Transcribed out of _Ady_; which the Court presently knew, as
soon as they heard it. But he said, h