and wizards were in the height of fashion. Any poor woman who had
outlived or had become a burden to her natural protectors, and
whose temper was soured by infirmities, especially if her language
was vulgar and her appearance repulsive, ran the risk of being
defamed as a witch. If in her neighbourhood a murrain seized the
cattle, or a disease entered a family which baffled the little
knowledge of the country practitioners--such as epilepsy, St. Vitus'
dance, or St. Anthony's fire--it was ascribed to witchcraft, and
vengeance was wreaked upon any reputed witch. In many parts of
England she was tried by a kind of Lynch law, in a very summary
manner. Her hands and feet being bound together, she was thrown
into deep water; if she sank, and was drowned, she was declared
innocent; if she swam, it was a proof of guilt, and a little form
of law condemned her to the stake or halter. In Scotland, they were
treated with greater barbarity; they were awfully tortured--thumb-screws,
the boots to crush their knees, pricking them with needles or awls
night and day, to prevent a moment's rest, were persevered in--until
a confession was extorted, to be followed by a frightful death. The
ignorance that prevailed may account for the faith of the vulgar
in witchcraft; but that learned divines, and even the enlightened
Judge Hale, should fall into the delusion, is most surprising.
The charge against Bunyan was, that he had circulated some paper
libeling a most respectable widow, a Quakeress, as a witch. This
paper cannot now be discovered; but the story is so perfectly
ridiculous as to render it quite improbable that Bunyan had any
knowledge of it. The account is contained in a rare pamphlet of
four leaves, preserved in the very curious library of the Society
of Friends at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate. It is entitled, 'A
lying wonder discovered, and the strange and terrible news from
Cambridge proved false; which false news is published in a libel,