rwise than by the power of the devil; and every needle
swallowed by a servant maid cost an old woman her life. Nay, if no more
than one suffered in consequence, the district might think itself
fortunate. The commissioners seldom stopped short at one victim. The
revelations of the rack in most cases implicated half a score.

Of all the records of the witch-trials preserved for the wonder of
succeeding ages, that of Wurzburg, from 1627 to 1629, is the most
frightful. Hauber, who has preserved this list in his "Acta et Scripta
Magica," says, in a note at the end, that it is far from complete, and
that there were a great many other burnings too numerous to specify.
This record, which relates to the city only, and not to the province of
Wurzburg, contains the names of one hundred and fifty-seven persons,
who were burned in two years in twenty-nine burnings, averaging from
five to six at a time. The list comprises three play-actors, four
innkeepers, three common councilmen of Wurzburg, fourteen vicars of the
cathedral, the burgomaster's lady, an apothecary's wife and daughter,
two choristers of the cathedral, Gobel Babelin the prettiest girl in
the town, and the wife, the two little sons, and the daughter of the
councillor Stolzenberg. Rich and poor, young and old, suffered alike.
At the seventh of these recorded burnings, the victims are described as
a wandering boy, twelve years of age, and four strange men and women,
found sleeping in the market-place. Thirty-two of the whole number
appear to have been vagrants, of both sexes, who, failing to give a
satisfactory account of themselves, were accused and found guilty of
witchcraft. The number of children on the list is horrible to think
upon. The thirteenth and fourteenth burnings comprised four persons,
who are stated to have been a little maiden nine years of age, a maiden
still less, her sister, their mother, and their aunt, a pretty young
woman of twenty-four. At the eighteenth burning the victims were two
boys of twelve, and a girl of fifteen; at the nineteenth, the young
heir of the noble house of Rotenhahn, aged nine, and two other boys,
one aged ten, and the other twelve. Among other entries appear the
names of Baunach, the fattest, and Steinacher, the richest burgher in
Wurzburg. What tended to keep up the delusion in this unhappy city,
and indeed all over Europe, was the number of hypochondriac and
diseased persons who came voluntarily forward, and made confession o