An Examen of Witches/Chapter 51
Chapter LI.
The Causes and Reasons of the Sentence
Condemning Clauda Gaillard.
The condemnation of Clauda Gaillard was founded on the same reasons as that of Le Baillu.
1. It was popularly rumoured that she was a witch.
2. She was never seen to shed a single tear, however much she tried to weep.
3. In her answers she commonly used execrable imprecations.
4. Like le Baillu, she convicted herself before she was accused. For when she was asked, among other things, whether Humbert Guichon was married, she replied that he was, and that his wife was named Marie Perrier; and she immediately added of her own accord that she had never harmed that woman; and all the time that was the woman whom she had made sick by breathing on her face.
5. She was convicted on being brought face to face with Christofle of Aranthon; for when she and another were brought into the room where the Officers were, Christofle recognised her and firmly declared that she had seen her, together with other women whom she named, at the Sabbat near the village of Coirieres.
Also there were many discrepancies in her answers.
Finally, she was charged with several acts of witchcraft, and with having caused Marie Perrier and Clauda Perrier to fall sick by breathing upon their faces; also with having caused the death of six goats belonging to Pierre Perrier, and with having made one of Jean Perrier’s mares sick, and with having afterwards cured it; and also with having changed herself into a wolf. It is true that in the case of most of these charges there was only one witness against her; but as they were all agreed in accusing her of witchcraft, and were all either kindred or connexions of hers, their evidence was considered as sufficient.