tiuall day
according to their former order, with great cheare, merry company, and
much conference. In the end, in this great assemblie it was decreed
that M. Covell, [he was the gaoler of Lancaster Castle,] by reason of
his Office, shall be slaine before the next Assises, the Castle at
Lancaster to be blown up," &c., &c. This witches' convention, so
historically famous, we unquestionably owe to the "painful justice"
whose scent after witches and plots entitled him to a promotion which
he did not obtain. An overt act so alarming and so indisputable, at
once threw the country, far and near, into the greatest
ferment--_furiis surrexit Etruria justis_--while it supplied an
admirable _locus in quo_ for tracing those whose retiring habits had
prevented their propensities to witchcraft from being generally known
to their intimate friends and connexions. The witness by whose
evidence this legend was principally supported, was Jennet Device, a
child about nine years old, and grand-daughter of old Demdike. A more
dangerous tool in the hands of an unscrupulous evidence-compeller,
being at once intelligent, cunning and pliant, than the child proved
herself, it would not have been easy to have discovered. A foundation
being now laid capable of embracing any body of confederates, the
indefatigable justice proceeded in his inquiries, and in the end,
Elizabeth Device the daughter of old Demdike, James Device her son,
Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, John Bulcock, Jane Bulcock, with some
others, were committed for trial at Lancaster. The very curious report
of that trial is contained in the work now republished, which was
compiled under the superintendence of the judges who presided, by
Master Thomas Potts, clerk in court, and present at the trial. His
report, notwithstanding its prolixity and its many repetitions, it has
been thought advisable to publish entire, and the reprint which
follows is as near a fac-simile as possible of the original tract.

[Footnote 35: Baines confounds Malking-Tower with Hoar-stones, a place
rendered famous by the second case of pretended witchcraft in 1633,
but at some distance from the first-named spot, the residence of
Mother Demdike, which lies in the township of Barrowford. The witch's
mansion--

"Where that same wicked wight
Her dwelling had--
Dark, doleful, dreary, like a greedy grave
That still for carrion carcases doth crave,
On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owle,