]

[69] The historian of England justly reflects on this case
that the nature of the crime, so opposite to all common
sense, seems always to exempt the accusers from using the
rules of common sense in their evidence.

[70] This unfortunate woman was celebrated for her beauty
and, with one important exception, for her virtues; and, if
her vanity could not resist the fascination of a royal lover,
her power had been often, it is said, exerted in the cause of
humanity. Notwithstanding the neglect and ill-treatment
experienced from the ingratitude of former fawning courtiers
and people, she reached an advanced age, for she was living
in the time of Sir Thomas More, who relates that 'when the
Protector had awhile laid unto her, for the manner sake, that
she went about to bewitch him, and that she was of counsel
with the lord chamberlain to destroy him; in conclusion, when
no colour could fasten upon this matter, then he laid
heinously to her charge the thing that herself could not
deny, that all the world wist was true, and that natheless
every man laughed at to hear it then so suddenly so highly
taken--that she was naught of her body.'--_Reign of Richard
III._, quoted by Bishop Percy in _Reliques of Old English
Romance Poetry_. The deformed prince fiercely attributes his
proverbial misfortune to hostile witchcraft. He addresses his
trembling council:

'Look how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm
Is, like a blasted sapling, wither'd up:
And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.'

_Richard III._ act iii. sc. 4.

More tremendous than any of the cases above narrated is that of
Arras, where numbers of all classes suffered. So transparent were
the secret but real motives of the chief agitators, that even the
unbounded credulity of the public could penetrate the thin
disguise. The affair commenced with the accusation of a woman of
Douai, called Demiselle (une femme de folle vie). Put to the
torture repeatedly, this wretched woman was forced to confess she
had frequented a meeting of sorcerers where several persons were
seen and recognised; amongst others Jehan Levite, a painter at
Arras. The chronicler of the fifteenth century relates the
diabolical catastrophe thus: 'A terrible and melancholy
transaction took place this y