Part 2 (2/2)

_Jean de Garis_, son of _William_, deposed that about two or three years ago, having lent some money on pledge to _Collas Becquet_, he asked him for the money, or else for a verification of his security; when the said _Becquet_ replied that he would let him know what his security was; the said _de Garis_ having then returned home, found his daughter sick and afflicted; they found witches' spells and other conjurations several times in their child's pillow; but the mother of the said _Becquet_ having come to the said _de Garis's_ house, he gave her a drink of water and half-a-loaf of bread, as he had been advised to do; since which time they had found nothing more in the child's pillow; however to avoid all risk of the said witches' spells they had always since then let their child sleep upon straw; he fully believed that this evil had come upon them by their means.

_Mr. Thomas de Lisle_ deposed that _Thomas Brouart_, who resided in his house, having called the son of _Collas Becquet_ a wizard, it happened that there was one day found in the said _Thomas's_ bed a great number of maggots, which the said _Sieur de Lisle_ saw, and compared to an ant-hill, so lively and thick were they, and they could hardly clear the said child of them, although they put it in different places; afterwards the said child gathered lice in such a manner that although its s.h.i.+rts and clothes were changed every day they could not free it; the said _Thomas Brouart_ also had a brand new vest, which was so covered with lice that it was impossible to see the cloth, and he was compelled to have it thrown among the cabbages; upon which he went and threatened _Ma.s.si's_ wife that he would beat her if she did not abstain from thus treating his child; and on returning he found the said vest among the cabbages clear of lice, which had also since then quitted the said _Brouart_.

_Jacques le Mesurier_ deposed that about two or three years ago he met _Collas Becquet_ and _Perot Ma.s.si_, who had some fish and who moreover owed him money; he wished to take some of their fish at a reduced price, but they would not agree to it, and they quarrelled; whereupon one of the two, either _Becquet_ or _Ma.s.si_, threatened him that he would repent of it; and at the end of two or three days, he was seized with a sickness in which he first burnt like fire and then was benumbed with cold so that nothing would warm him, and this without any cessation; he suffered in this way for nearly a month. _Collas Becquet_ heard that witness charged him with being the cause of his sickness, and he threatened that he would kill witness; but very soon afterwards the said witness was cured; and he affirms and believes that the said _Becquet_ and _Ma.s.sy_, or one of them, was the cause of his attack.

NOTE ON THE GUERNSEY RECORDS.

The Records at the Guernsey _Greffe_, from which the foregoing confessions and depositions have been transcribed, and whence the following list of accusations is compiled, are of a very voluminous character. In fact there is enough matter in them, connected with Witchcraft alone, to fill at least a couple of thick octavo volumes.

There is, however, so much sameness in the different cases, and such a common tradition running through the whole, that the present excerpts give a very fair idea of the features which characterise the ma.s.s.

While some of these Records are tolerably complete, the greater part of them unfortunately are fragmentary and imperfect. The books in which they were originally written seem to have been formed of a few sheets of paper st.i.tched together. Then at some later period a number of these separate sections--in a more or less tattered condition--were gathered into volumes and bound together in vellum. It is evident, however, that very little care was exercised in their arrangement in chronological order. The consequence is that one portion of a trial sometimes occurs in one part of a volume, and the rest in another part; sometimes the depositions alone seem to have been preserved; sometimes the confessions; while in many cases the sentences p.r.o.nounced are all that can now be discovered. Nevertheless these old Records enshrine much that is interesting, and very well deserve a more exhaustive a.n.a.lysis than they have ever yet received. There are also in the margins of these volumes, scores of pen-and-ink sketches of a most primitive description, depicting the carrying out of the various rigours of the law. Rough and uncouth as these ill.u.s.trations are, they nevertheless possess a good deal of graphic significance, and I hope to reproduce some of them in facsimile, in a future publication. They represent, for instance, culprits hanging on the gallows--sometimes two or three in a row--with a fire kindled underneath; others attached to stakes in the midst of the flames; others, again, racing away under the lash of the executioner, &c., &c., and thus form a most realistic comment on the judicial severities recorded in the text.

WITCHCRAFT TRIALS IN GUERNSEY,

From 1563 to 1634, a period of 71 years.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.--1558-1603.

HELIER GOSSELIN, Bailiff, 1550-1563.

_November 19th, 1563._

Gracyene Gousset, Catherine Prays, Collette Salmon, wife of Collas Dupont,

Condemned to death and the Royal pardon refused.

_December 17th, 1563._

Francoise Regnouff, Martin Tulouff,

Condemned to death and the Royal pardon refused.

_December 22nd, 1563._

Collette Gascoing.

This woman was found guilty, and the Royal pardon being refused, she was whipped, had one of her ears cut off, and was banished from the island.

THOMAS COMPTON, Bailiff, 1563-1572.

_July 30th, 1570._

Jeannette Du Mareesc,

<script>