where he met two horsemen; seeing which, his tormentors left off following him.  He further said, that on a certain day he saw a neighbour’s wife, of the name of Loynd, sitting upon a cross piece of wood within the chimney of his father’s dwelling-house.  He called to her, saying, “Come down, thou Loynd wife,” and immediately she went up out of sight.  Likewise upon the evening of All-Saints before-named, his father sent him to seal up the kine, when, coming through a certain field, he met a boy who began to quarrel with him, and they fought until his face and ears were bloody.  Looking down, he saw the boy had cloven feet, and away he ran.  It was now nearly dark; but he descried at a distance a light like a lantern.  Thinking this was carried by some of his friends, he made all haste towards it, and saw a woman standing on a bridge, whom he knew to be Loynd’s wife; turning from her he again met with the boy, who gave him a heavy blow on the back, after which he escaped.  On being asked the names of the women he saw at the feast, he mentioned seventeen persons, all of whom were committed to Lancaster for trial.  They were found guilty, and sentenced to be executed.  The judge, however, respited them, and reported the case to the king in council.

The celebrated John Webster, author of The Discovery of Pretended Witchcraft, afterwards took this young witch-finder in hand.  He says:—­

“This said boy was brought into the church at Kildwick (in Craven), a large parish church, where I, being curate there, was preaching in the afternoon, and was set upon a stall to look about him, which moved some little disturbance in the congregation for a while.  After prayers, I, inquiring what the matter was, the people told me it was the boy that discovered witches; upon which I went to the house where he was to stay all night, where I found him, and two very unlikely persons that did conduct him, and manage the business.

“I desired to have some discourse with the boy in private; but that they utterly refused.  Then, in the presence of a great many people, I took the boy near me, and said, ’Good boy, tell me truly and in earnest, didst thou see and hear such strange things of the meeting of witches as is reported by many that thou didst relate?’—­But the two men, not giving the boy leave to answer, did pluck him from me, and said he had been examined by two able justices of the peace, and they did never ask him such a question.  To whom I replied, the persons accused had the more wrong.  As the laws of England, and the opinions of mankind then stood, a mad dog in the midst of a congregation would not have been more dangerous than this wicked and mischievous boy, who, looking around him, could, according to his own caprice, put any one or more of the people in peril of tortures or of death.”