two daughters had been employed as charwomen in Belvoir Castle, the home
of the Rutlands. One of the daughters, indeed, had been put in charge of
"the poultrey abroad and the washhouse within dores." But this daughter
seems not to have given satisfaction to the countess in her work, some
other causes of disagreement arose which involved Mother Flower, and
both Mother Flower and her daughter were sent away from the castle. This
was the beginning of the trouble. Mother Flower "cursed them all that
were the cause of this discontentment." Naturally little heed was paid
to her grumblings. Such things were common enough and it did not even
occur to any one, when the eldest son of the earl sickened and died,
that the event was in any way connected with the malice of the Flowers.
It was not until about five years later, when the younger son Francis
fell sick of an illness to prove fatal, that suspicion seems to have
lighted upon the three women.[18] The circumstances that led to their
discharge were then recalled and along with them a mass of idle gossip
and scandal against the women. It was remembered that Mother Joan was
"a monstrous malicious woman, full of oathes, curses, and imprecations
irreligious." Some of her neighbors "dared to affirme that she dealt
with familiar spirits, and terrified them all with curses and threatning
of revenge." At length, in February of 1618/19, on the return of the
earl from attending His Majesty "both at Newmarket before Christmas and
at Christmas at Whitehall," the women were fetched before justices of
the peace, who bound them over to the assizes at Lincoln. Mother Flower
died on the way to Lincoln, but the two daughters were tried there
before Sir Edward Bromley, who had been judge at the Lancashire trials,
and before Sir Henry Hobart. The women made a detailed confession of
weird crimes. There were tales of gloves belonging to the two young sons
of the earl, gloves that had been found in uncanny places and had been
put in hot water and rubbed upon Rutterkin the cat--or spirit. There
were worse stories that will not bear repetition. Needless to say,
Margaret and Philippa Flower were convicted and hanged.[19]

The Rutland cases have been used to illustrate how the witch accusation
might arise out of a grudge or quarrel. There were three or four other
cases that illustrate this origin of the charge. The first is that of
Johanna Harrison--she has been mentioned in the previous chapter--who
h