rned a verdict
of guilty upon all the indictments, being thirteen in number. The next
morning the children came with their father to the lodgings of Sir
Matthew Hale, very well, and quite restored to their usual health. Mr.
Pacey, being asked at what time their health began to improve, replied,
that they were quite well in half an hour after the conviction of the
prisoners.

Many attempts were made to induce the unfortunate women to confess
their guilt; but in vain, and they were both hanged.

Eleven trials were instituted before Chief-Justice Holt for witchcraft
between the years 1694 and 1701. The evidence was of the usual
character; but Holt appealed so successfully in each case to the common
sense of the jury, that they were every one acquitted. A general
feeling seemed to pervade the country that blood enough had been shed
upon these absurd charges. Now and then, the flame of persecution burnt
up in a remote district; but these instances were no longer looked upon
as mere matters of course. They appear, on the contrary, to have
excited much attention; a sure proof, if no other were to be obtained,
that they were becoming unfrequent.

A case of witchcraft was tried in 1711, before Lord Chief Justice
Powell; in which, however, the jury persisted in a verdict of guilty,
though the evidence was of the usual absurd and contradictory
character, and the enlightened judge did all in his power to bring them
to a right conclusion. The accused person was one Jane Wenham, better
known as the Witch of Walkerne; and the persons who were alleged to
have suffered from her witchcraft were two young women, named Thorne
and Street. A witness, named Mr. Arthur Chauncy, deposed, that he had
seen Ann Thorne in several of her fits, and that she always recovered
upon prayers being said, or if Jane Wenham came to her. He related,
that he had pricked the prisoner several times in the arms, but could
never fetch any blood from her; that he had seen her vomit pins, when
there were none in her clothes or within her reach; and that he had
preserved several of them, which he was ready to produce. The judge,
however, told him that was needless, as he supposed they were crooked
pins.

Mr. Francis Bragge, another witness, deposed, that strange "cakes" of
bewitched feathers having been taken from Ann Thorne's pillow, he was
anxious to see them. He went into a room where some of these feathers
were, and took two of the cakes, and compared them