this construction of his actions, that he intended to deprive the sovereign both of crown and life. If many do conspire to execute treason against the prince in one manner, and some of them do execute it in another manner, is the act of all of them who conspire, by reason of the general malice of the intent.” Afterwards he entered into a dialogue with the witnesses and with the prisoners respecting the occurrences he had witnessed at Essex House. For example: L. C. J.-"Sir Christopher, I should like to know why you stood at the great chamber door, with muskets charged and matches in your hands, which I well discerned through the key-hole?" He repeatedly put similar questions, and gave his own version of the different vicissitudes of the day till he was liberated. He then summed up to the jury, commenting on his own evidence, and, after the verdict of guilty, he pronounced upon them the revolting sentence in high treason, and they were executed accordingly. It was in 1603 James I. was king, Edward Coke was Attorney General and Sir Walter Raleigh was brought before a commission to be tried for high treason. While Coke was opening his case with a narrative that he knew he could not prove, Sir Walter interrupted him: "You tell me news I never heard of." Attorney General Coke: Oh, sir, not I. I will prove you the notoriest traitor that ever held up his hand at the bar of any court. Sir Walter-Your words cannot condemn me; my innocency is my defense. Prove one of these things wherewith you have charged me and I will confess the whole indictment, and that I am the notoriest traitor that ever lived and worthy to be crucified with a thousand thousand torments. Atty. Gen.-Nay, I will prove all; thou art a monster; thou hast an English face but a Spanish heart. Raleigh. Let me answer for myself? Atty. Gen.-Thou shalt not. Raleigh-It concerneth my life. Again Raleigh interrupted him in a statement: "You tell me news Mr. Attorney. Atty. Gen.-Oh, Sir, I am the more large because I know with whom I have to deal; for we have to deal to-day with a man of wit. I will teach you before I have done. Raleigh. I will wash my hands of the indictment and die a true man to the king. Atty. Gen.-You are the absolutest traitor that ever was. Raleigh. Your phrases will not prove it. Atty. Gen. (In a tone of assumed calmness and tenderness) -You, my masters of the jury, respect not the wickedness and hatred of the man; respect his cause; if he be guilty, I know you will have care of it, for the preservation of the king, the continuance of the Gospel authorized and the good of us all. Raleigh. I do not hear yet that thou hast offered one word of proof against me. If my Lord Cobham be a traitor what is that to me? Atty. Gen.-All that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I know thee, thou traitor. The deposition being read, which did not by any means make out the prisoner's complicity in the plot, Sir Walter said: "You try me by the Spanish Inquisition if you proceed only by circumstances without two witnesses." Atty. Gen. This is a treasonable speech. Raleigh. I appeal to God and the King in this point, whether Cobham's accusation is sufficient to condemn me. Atty. Gen.-The King's safety and your clearance cannɔt agree. I protest before God I never knew a clearer treason. Go to. I will lay thee upon thy back for the confidentest traitor that ever came at bar. At last all present were so much shocked that the Earl Salisbury himself one of the commissioners, rebuked the Attorney General, saying: "Be not so impatient, good Mr. Attorney; give him leave to speak. Atty. Gen.-If I may not be patiently heard, you will en courage traitors and discourage us. I am the King's sworn servant and must speak. After much ado he went on and made a long repetition of the evidence and thus again addressed Sir Walter: "Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived. sufficient to express thy viprous treasons. I want words Of course there was a verdict of guilty; but public feeling was so outraged that the sentence could not then be carried into execution. He languished many years in prison and after his unfortunate expedition the atrocity was perpetrated of ordering him to be hanged, drawn and quartered on this illegad judgment. The time was 1665; Charles II. was King and Matthew Hale was Chief Justice. CAMPBELL'S LIVES OF CHIEF JUSTICES, VOL. II, PAGE 224. Here is a sketch of the last capital conviction in England for the crime of bewitching. Indictments were preferred jointly against Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, two wrinkled old women, for laying spells upon several children, and in particular William Durent, Elizabeth Pacy, and Deborah Pacy. The trial began with proof that witnesess, who were to have given material evidence, as soon as they came into the presence of the clerk of assize, were seized with dumbness, or were only able to utter inarticulate sounds. A strong corroboration of the guilt of the prisoners was stated to be, that these witnesses remained in the same cataleptic state till the verdict was pronounced, and were thereupon instantly cured. The bewitching of William Durent rested on the testimony of Dorothy, his mother, who said: "About seven years ago, having a special occasion to go from home, I desired Amy Duny, my neighbor, to look to my boy Billy, then sucking, during my absence, promising her a penny for her pains; I desired her not to suckle my child; I very well knew that she was an old woman and could not naturally give suck, but, for some years before, she had gone under the reputation of a witch; nevertheless, she did give suck to the child, and that very night he fell into strange fits of swounding and was held in a terrible manner, insomuch that I was terribly frightened therewith, and so continued for divers weeks. I then went to a certain person named Dr. Jacob, who lived at Yarmouth, and had the reputation in the country to help children who were bewitched. He advised me to put the child by the fire in a blanket, and if I found anything in the blanket with the child, to throw it into the fire. I did so that same night, and there fell out of the blanket a great toad, which ran up and down upon the hearth. I seized the great toad with a pair of tongs, and thrust it into the fire. Thereupon it made a great and horrible noise; and after a space, there was a flashing in the fire like gunpowder, making a noise, like the discharge of a pistol; and after the flashing and noise, the substance of the toad was gone without being consumed in the fire. The next day there came a young woman, a kinswoman of the said Amy, and told me that her aunt was in a most deplorable condition, having her face, legs and thighs all scorched, and that she was sitting alone in the house in her smock without any fire; and please you, my Lord, after the burning of the said toad, my child recovered and was well again, and is now still living." With respect to the two girls named Pacy,-Deborah was so cruelly bewitched that she could not be brought to the assize; but Elizabeth appeared in court, and, although deprived of speech, and with her eyes shut, she played many antics, particularly when, "by the direction of the Judge," Amy Duny touched her. Then the father of the girls proved, that he having refused Amy Duny and Rose Cullender some herrings which they asked for, they were very angry, and soon after the girls were taken in a very strange way and spat up large quantities of pins and two penny nails (which were produced in court), and declared that Amy Duny and Rose Cullender visited them in the shape of a bee and of a mouse, and tormented them from time to time for many weeks. It was further proved that the two prisoners being taken up under a Justice's warrant as witches, and their persons being examined, Rose Cullender was discovered to have a secret teat, 18 g ba which she said was the effect of a strain from carrying water, but which a witness swore had been lately sucked. Mr. Sergeant Kelynge, who was either joined in the commission as one of the judges, or acted as amicus curiae, "declared himself much unsatisfied with this evidence, and thought it not sufficient to convict the prisoners; for, admitting that the children were in truth bewitched, yet," said he, "it can never be applied to the prisoners upon the imagination only of the parties afflicted; for if that might be allowed, no person whatsoever can be in safety, for, perhaps, they might fancy another person who might altogether be innocent in such matters." To strengthen the case Dr. Brown, of Norwich, supposed to have deep skill in demonology, was called as an expert, and after giving it as his clear opinion that the children were bewitched, added that "in Denmark there had lately been a great discovery of witches, who used the very same way of afflicting persons by conveying pins into them, with needles and nails; and he thought that the Devil, in such cases, did work upon the bodies of men and women by a natural inundation." An experiment was made by Sergeant Kelynge and several other gentlemen as to the effect of the witch's touch. Elizabeth. Pacy, being conducted to a remote part of the hall, was blindfolded, and in her fit was told that Amy Duny was approaching, when another person touched her hand-which produced the same effect as the touch of the witch did in court. "Whereupon the gentlemen returned, openly protesting that they did believe the whole transaction of this business was a mere imposture. This put the Court and all persons into a stand." However, the prosecutors tried to bolster up the case by proof that Rose Cullender, once on a time, being angry because a cart had wrenched the window of her cottage, must, in anger, have bewitched this cart, because it was repeatedly overturned that day, while other carts went smoothly along the road,-and that Amy Duny had been heard to say, "the Devil would not let her rest until she were revenged of one Annie Sandwell, who, about seven or eight years ago, having bought a certain number of geese, |