very earnestly upon him; whereupon he askt Vining if he had any thing to say unto him: He answered, That Style had Bewitched his Wife, and told the manner how, as is in his Deposition related. The Woman Style upon this, seemed appaled and concerned, and the Justice saying to her, You have been an old Sinner, &c. You deserve little Mercy: She replied, I have askt God mercy for it. Mr. Hunt askt her, Why then she would continue in such ill Courses? She said, The Devil tempted her; and then began to make some Confession of his actings with her: Upon this, the Justice sent her to the Constable's House at Bayford, which is in the Parish of Stoke Trister, (the Constable was one Mr. Gapper) and the next Morning went thither himself, accompanied with two Persons of Quality, Mr. Bull, and Mr. Court, now Justices of the Peace in this County.
Now before I proceed farther in the Story, I shall take notice, that here are Three credible Witnesses Swearing to the same particulars, in that the Child Elizabeth Hill, was sometimes in strange Fits, in which her strength was encreased beyond the proportion of Nature, and the force of divers Men: That then she pointed to the Parts of her Body, where they saw Red-spots arising, and black specks in the midst of them, that she complained that she was prickt with Thorns, and two of them saw Thorns in the place of which she complained. Some of which Thorns, one Swears that he and others saw hooked out, and that the Girl her self pulled out others: That in her Fits he declared Style appears to her (as Jane Brooks did to Richard Jones, in the former Relation) and tells her when she shall have another Fit, which happens accordingly: That she describes the Cloaths the Woman hath on, exactly as they find. But notwithstanding, all this shall be Melancholy and Fancy; or Leger-de-main, or natural Distemper, or any thing but Witchcraft; or the Fact shall be denied, and the 3 Witnesses perjur'd, though this confidence against the Oaths of sober Men, tend to the overthrow of all Testimony and History, and the rendering all Law useless. I shall therefore proceed to farther Proof, and such as will abundantly strengthen this. It is the Confession of Style her self.
I left Mr. Hunt, and the other two Gentlemen at the Constable's House, where Style was, upon business of farther Examination, where she enlarged upon the Confession she had before begun to make, and declared the whole matter at that and two other times after, in the particulars that follow.
