Terminer,
held at Salem, June 2, 1692, there was testimony brought in that a
man striking once at the place where a bewitched person said the
_shape_ of Mrs. Bishop stood, the bewitched cried out, _that he had
tore her coat_, in the place then particularly specified, and
Bishop's coat was found to be torn in that very place. {279a} Next
day, after Thorel touched the boy, the windows broke, as he had
prophesied. Then followed a curious scene in which Thorel tried, in
presence of the maire, to touch the cure, who retreated to the end
of the room, and struck the shepherd with his cane. Thereupon
Thorel brought his action for libel and assault against the cure.
Forty-two witnesses were heard, it was proved that Thorel had, in
fact, frequently accused himself, and he was non-suited: his
counsel spoke of appealing, but, unluckily, the case was not carried
to a higher court. In a few weeks the boys were sent to their
homes, when (according to the narrative) there were disturbances at
the home of the younger lad. Thus the cure lost his pupils.

A curious piece of traditional folklore came out, but only as
hearsay, in court. M. Cheval, Maire of Cideville, deposed that a M.
Savoye told him that Thorel had once been shepherd to a M. Tricot.
At that time Thorel said to one of two persons in his company:
'Every time I strike my cabin (a shelter on wheels used by
shepherds) you will fall,' and, at each stroke, the victim felt
something seize his throat, and fell! {279b} This anecdote is
curious, because in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research is a long paper by Dr. Gibotteau, on his experiments with a
hospital nurse called Berthe. This woman, according to the doctor,
had the power of making him see hallucinations, of a nature more or
less horrible, from a distance. She had been taught some
traditional feats of rural sorcery, among others that of making a
man stumble, or fall, as he walked. The doctor does not make any
allusion to the Cideville affair, and it seems probable that this
trick is part of the peasant's magical repertoire, or, rather, that
the peasant warlocks boast of being able to perform the trick. But,
if we can accept the physician's evidence, as 'true for him,' at
least, then a person like Berthe really might affect, from a
distance, a boy like Lemonier with a haunting hallucination. To do
this is witchcraft, and for crimes of this kind, or on false charges
of this kind, poor Mrs. Bish