eir innocence to the last; the old woman confessed. A fact
which makes this affair more remarkable is, that with the forty
pounds escheated to him, as lord of the manor, out of the
property of the convicts, Sir Samuel Cromwell founded an annual
sermon or lecture upon the sin of witchcraft, to be preached at
their town every Lady-day, by a Doctor or Bachelor of Divinity of
Queen's College, Cambridge; the sum of forty pounds being
entrusted to the Mayor and Aldermen of Huntingdon, for a
rent-charge of forty shillings yearly to be paid to the select
preacher. This lecture, says Dr. Francis Hutchison, is continued
to this day--1718.

Four years previously to this important trial, Jane Throgmorton,
a girl ten years of age, was first suddenly attacked with strange
convulsive fits, which continued daily, and even several times in
the day, without intermission. One day, soon after the first
seizure, Mother Samuel coming into the Throgmortons' house,
seated herself as customary in a chimney-corner near the child,
who was just recovering from one of her fits. The girl no sooner
noticed her than she began to cry out, pointing to the old woman,
'Did you ever see one more like a witch than she is? Take off her
black-thumbed cap, for I cannot abide to look at her.' The
illness becoming worse, they sent to Cambridge to consult Dr.
Barrow, an experienced physician in that town; but he could
discover no natural disease. A month later, the other children
were similarly seized, and persuaded of Mother Samuel's guilt.
The parents' increasing suspicions, entertained by the doctors,
were confirmed when the servants were also attacked. About the
middle of March, 1590, Lady Cromwell arrived on a visit to the
Throgmortons; and being much affected at the sufferings of the
patients, sent for the suspected person, whom she charged with
being the malicious cause. Finding all entreaty of no avail in
extorting an admission of guilt, Lady Cromwell suddenly and
unexpectedly cut off a lock of the witch's hair (a powerful
counter-charm), at the same time secretly placing it in Mrs.
Throgmorton's hands, desiring her to burn it. Indignant, the
accused addressed the lady, 'Madam, why do you use me thus? I
never did you any harm _as yet_'--words afterwards recollected.
'That night,' says the narrative, 'my lady Cromwell was suddenly
troubled in her sleep by a cat which Mother S. had sent her,
which offered to pluck the skin and flesh off her bones and arm