[Sidenote: Propositiõ 3.]
instruments doe cause such diseases, which neyther the one, nor the
other can remoue againe. And this is not any vaporous imagination, but
a most vndoubted trueth. For now this poore man continueth still in a
lamentable estate, griefe, and paines encreasing, without hope of helpe,
except God in the abundance of his tender mercies vouchsafe to grant
comfort and deliuerance.


¶ _Her Wicked practise against Elizabeth Hancocke_

The second person distressed, by this witch, was _Elizabeth Hancocke_,
then widdow, now wife of _Iames Scot_: the maner, occasion, and
proceeding of whose dealing against her was thus. She comming out of the
towne from the shoppe of one _Simon Browne_ a Silkeman, vnto whom she
had carried home some worke, which was by him put out vnto her; _Henry
Smith_, as shee passed by his doore, tooke her by the hand, and
smilingly said, that his ducke (meaning his wife, this woman of whome we
now speake) told him that shee had stolne her henne; which wordes she
then passed ouer, as onely spoken in merriment, and denying the same: in
the meane time, as they were interchanging these words, shee came
herselfe, and directly charged her with the henne, and wished that the
bones thereof might sticke in her throat, when she should eate the same:
which speech also she made no great reckoning of, supposing them to be
but words of course, and might bee vttered in jeast. Neuerthelesse,
afterward better considering of the same, conceiued much griefe, to bee
counted one of so euill quality and disposition, and espying that hen
for which she was accused, to sit vpon the hatch of her shoppe doore,
went to her, and mooued with the indignity of that slaunder, and vniust
imputation, told her in some passion and angry manner, that it was a