well myself, and I
answered 'Nay.' Then he demanded of Wright whether he had showed me
anything or nay, and he answered he durst not, for because his Grace gave
so strait commandment unto the contrary. And so then was I directed to
the said Wright unto the next day, that he should show me the intention
of the Duke's Grace."

Wright seems then to have suggested to Stapleton that he should pretend
power to rid the Duke of the troublesome spirit; and being strongly
tempted by hopes of reward, he consented, "and feigned to him," when he
sent for him again, that he had forged an image of wax of his similitude,
and sanctified it--but whether it did any good for his sickness he could
not tell.

"Whereupon the said Duke desired me that I should go about to know
whether the Lord Cardinal's Grace had a spirit, and I showed him that I
could not skill thereof. And the Duke then said if I would take pains
therein, he would appoint me to a cunning man, Dr. Wilson. And so the
said Dr. Wilson was sent for, and they examined me, and the Duke's Grace
commanded me to write all these things, and so I did. Whereupon,
considering the great folly which hath rested in me, I humbly beseech
your Grace to be a good and gracious lord unto me, and to take me to your
mercy."

The case of Sir Edward Neville, quoted from the same authority, commences
by a statement of the treasonable words laid to his charge, which were,
"The King is a beast, and worse than a beast; and I trust knaves shall be
put down, and lords reign one day, and that the world will amend one
day." He was found guilty, hanged, drawn and quartered.

He is suspected to have been connected with Stapleton the monk, who has
already appeared as a necromancer. At all events, his confession shows
again how much Wolsey was supposed to be conversant with magic; and
indeed the 'ring' by which the Cardinal was thought to have won the fatal
favour of the king, was noticed in the accusations against him when he
fell.

In seeking for treasure, Sir Edward fully acknowledges being led to it by
"foolish fellows of the country."

In his account of his own dealings with spirits and magic, there is much
curious mixture of half-doubting marvel and self deceit, probably not
unconnected with influences baffling the human intellect, so apparent in
the kindred delusions of Mesmerism, that strange development of the age
of civilization, in no respect differing from the superstitions usually
con