st in 1613, when
nineteen prisoners were brought before Sir James Altham and Sir
Edward Bromley, Barons of Exchequer. Elizabeth Southern, known as
'Mother Demdike' in the poet laureate's drama, is the leader of
the criminals. In 1634 the proceedings were renewed wholly on the
evidence of a boy who, it was afterwards ascertained, had been
instructed in his part against an old woman named Mother
Dickenson. The evidence was of the feeblest sort; nor are its
monotonous details worth repetition. Out of some forty persons
implicated on both occasions, fortunately the greater number
escaped. 'Lancashire Witches,' a term so hateful in its origin,
has been long transferred to celebrate the superior _charms_ (of
another kind) of the ladies of Lancashire; and the witches'
spells are those of natural youth and beauty.

The social position of Sir Thomas Overbury has made his fate
notorious. An infamous plot had been invented by the Earl of
Rochester (Robert Kerr) and the Countess of Essex to destroy a
troublesome obstacle to their contemplated marriage. The practice
of 'hellish charms' is only incidental; an episode in the dark
mystery. Overbury was too well acquainted with royal secrets
(whose disgusting and unnatural kind has been probably correctly
conjectured), too important for the keeping of even a private
secretary. His ruin was determined by the revenge of the noble
lovers and sealed by the fear of the king. At the end of six
months he had been gradually destroyed by secret poison in his
prison in the Tower (to which for an alleged offence he had been
committed) by the agency of Dr. Forman, a famous 'pharmaceutic,'
under the auspices of the Earl of Rochester. This Dr. Forman
had been previously employed by Lady Essex, a notorious
_dame d'honneur_ at James's Court, to bewitch the Earl to an
irresistible love for her, an enchantment which required,
apparently, no superhuman inducement. A Mrs. Turner, the
countess's agent, was associated with this skilful conjuror. They
were instructed also to bewitch Lord Essex, lately returned from
abroad, in the opposite way--to divert his love from his
wife.[136]

[136] The husband was impracticable; he could not be
_disenchanted_. Conjurations and charms failing, 'the
countess was instructed to bring against the Earl of Essex a
charge of conjugal incapacity: A commission of reverend
prelates of the church was appointed to sit in judgment,
over whom the king presided in pe