Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

Witchcraft. 281
several persons of both sexes as sharers of her guilt.
Of the men accused by her the most conspicuous was
Dr. John Cunningham, schoolmaster of Prestonpans.
Among the females were Mrs. Barbara Napier, wife of
Archibald Douglas, brother to the laird of Carschoggill,
and Mrs. Euphan McCalzane, daughter and heiress of
the late Lord Cliftonhall, a senator of the College of
Justice, and wife of Patrick Moscrop, advocate. But
the most expert and culpable of the entire group was,
according to the girl's confession, one Agnes Simpson,
midwife at Keith, near Haddington, — a woman who had
hitherto been respected for her honesty, and intelligence.
The whole of the accused were immediately seized and
imprisoned at Edinburgh.
James had now returned from the Continent, and
being informed that Geillis Duncane had spoken of a
conspiracy against his life by means of satanic arts, and
being, as he asserted, well skilled in demon ology, he
resolved personally to examine the accused. Agnes
Simpson, being the oldest of the prisoners, was brought
before him at Holyrood. She protested her innocence,
and maintained that she had nothing to divulge con-
cerning arts which she had not practised, and of which
she was ignorant. The king commanded that she should
be examined for the Devil's mark, and that her head
" be thrawn with a rope, according to the custom of the
countrie." The executioner performed his work, and,
after enduring excruciating agony, the prisoner expressed
her willingness to make a confession. Again she was
conducted into the royal presence. She declared that
she belonged to a company of two hundred witches who
sailed in sieves and riddles along the coast to meet the
Devil in the kirk of North Berwick. The Devil had en-