ble verses as these the favourites of the people:--

"Man shickt ein Henkersknecht
Zu ihr in Gefangniss n'unter,
Den man hat kleidet recht,
Mir einer Barnhaute,
Als wenns der Teufel war;
Als ihm die Drut anschaute
Meints ihr Buhl kam daher.

"Sie sprach zu ihm behende,
Wie lasst du mich so lang
In der Obrigkeit Hande?
Hilf mir aus ihren Zwang,
Wie du mir hast verheissen,
Ich bin ja eben dein,
Thu mich aus der Angst entreissen
O liebster Buhle mein?

[They sent a hangman's assistant down to her in her prison; they
clothed him properly in a bear's skin, as if he were the devil. Him,
when the witch saw, she thought he was her familiar. She said to him
quickly, "Why hast thou left me so long in the magistrate's hands?
Help me out of their power, as thou hast promised, and I will be thine
alone. Help me from this anguish, O thou dearest devil (or lover),
mine?"]

This rare poet adds, that in making such an appeal to the hangman, the
witch never imagined the roast that was to be made of her, and puts in,
by way of parenthesis, "was not that fine fun!" "Was das war fur ein
Spiel!" As feathers thrown into the air show how the wind blows, so
this trumpery ballad serves to show the current of popular feeling at
the time of its composition.

All readers of history are familiar with the celebrated trial of the
Marechale d'Ancre, who was executed in Paris in the year 1617.
Although witchcraft was one of the accusations brought against her, the
real crime for which she suffered was her ascendency over the mind of
Mary of Medicis, and the consequent influence she exercised indirectly
over the unworthy King, Louis XIII. Her coachman gave evidence that she
had sacrificed a cock at midnight, in one of the churches, and others
swore they had seen her go secretly into the house of a noted witch,
named Isabella. When asked by what means she had acquired so
extraordinary an influence over the mind of the Queen Mother, she
replied boldly, that she exercised no other power over her, than that
which a strong mind can always exercise over the weak. She died with
great firmness.

In two years afterwards scenes far more horrible than any that had yet
taken place in France were enacted at Labourt, at the foot of the
Pyrenees. The Parliament of Bourdeaux, scandalised at the number of
witches who were said to infest Labourt and its neighbourhood, deputed
one of its own members, the noted P