urd tales they had been told; and Lady Cromwell, a
gossip of Mrs. Throgmorton, made herself very active in the business,
and determined to bring the witch to the ordeal. The sapient Sir Samuel
joined in the scheme; and the children thus encouraged gave loose reins
to their imaginations, which seem to have been of the liveliest. They
soon invented a whole host of evil spirits, and names for them besides,
which, they said, were sent by Mother Samuel to torment them
continually. Seven spirits especially, they said, were raised from hell
by this wicked woman to throw them into fits; and as the children were
actually subject to fits, their mother and her commeres gave the more
credit to the story. The names of these spirits were, "First Smack,"
"Second Smack," "Third Smack," "Blue," "Catch," "Hardname," and "Pluck."

Throgmorton, the father, was so pestered by these idle fancies, and yet
so well inclined to believe them, that he marched valiantly forth to
the hut where Mother Samuel resided with her husband and daughter, and
dragged her forcibly into his own grounds. Lady Cromwell, Mrs.
Throgmorton, and the girls were in waiting, armed with long pins to
prick the witch, and see if they could draw blood from her. Lady
Cromwell, who seems to have been the most violent of the party, tore
the old woman's cap off her head, and plucking out a handful of her
grey hair, gave it to Mrs. Throgmorton to burn, as a charm which would
preserve them all from her future machinations. It was no wonder that
the poor creature, subjected to this rough usage, should give vent to
an involuntary curse upon her tormentors. She did so, and her curse was
never forgotten. Her hair, however, was supposed to be a grand
specific, and she was allowed to depart, half dead with terror and ill
usage. For more than a year, the families of Cromwell and Throgmorton
continued to persecute her, and to assert that her imps afflicted them
with pains and fits, turned the milk sour in their pans, and prevented
their cows and ewes from bearing. In the midst of these fooleries, Lady
Cromwell was taken ill and died. It was then remembered that her death
had taken place exactly a year and a quarter since she was cursed by
Mother Samuel, and that on several occasions she had dreamed of the
witch and a black cat, the latter being of course the arch-enemy of
mankind himself.

Sir Samuel Cromwell now conceived himself bound to take more energetic
measures against the sorcer