ad it not been for a lucky chance of the wars.
The king's forces were approaching and the court hastened to adjourn its
sessions.[38]

But this danger was soon over, and within three weeks' time the court
seems to have resumed its duties.[39] Of this second session we know
nothing at all, save that probably forty or fifty more witches were
condemned, and doubtless executed.[40] What became of the others we can
only guess. Perhaps some were released, some left in gaol indefinitely.

These things were not done in a corner. Yet so great was the distraction
in England that, if we can trust negative evidence, they excited not a
great deal of notice. Such comments as there were, however, were
indicative of a division of opinion. During the interval between the two
sessions, the _Moderate Intelligencer_, a parliamentary organ that had
sprung up in the time of the Civil War, came out in an editorial on the
affair. "But whence is it that Devils should choose to be conversant
with silly Women that know not their right hands from their left, is the
great wonder.... They will meddle with none but poore old Women: as
appears by what we received this day from Bury.... Divers are condemned
and some executed and more like to be. Life is precious and there is
need of great inquisition before it is taken away."[41]

This was the sole newspaper reference of which we know, as well as the
only absolutely contemporary mention of these trials. What other
expressions of opinion there were came later. James Howell, a popular
essayist of his time, mentioned the trials in his correspondence as new
proof of the reality of witchcraft.[42] The pious Bishop Hall saw in
them the "prevalency of Satan in these times."[43] Thomas Ady, who in
1656 issued his _Candle in the Dark_, mentioned the "Berry Assizes"[44]
and remarked that some credulous people had published a book about it.
He thought criticism deserved for taking the evidence of the gaoler,
whose profit lay in having the greatest possible number executed.[45]

We have already described Hopkins as a man of action. Nothing is better
evidence of it than the way in which he hurried back and forth over the
eastern counties. During the last part of May he had probably been
occupied with collecting the evidence against the accused at Bury. Long
before they were tried he was busy elsewhere. We can trace his movements
in outline only, but we know enough of them to appreciate his tremendous
energy. Som