[Footnote 78:  There is a grave relation, in Delrio, of a witch being shot flying, by a Spanish centinel, at the bridge of Nieulet, near Calais, after that place was taken by the Spaniards.  The soldier saw a black cloud advancing rapidly, from which voices issued:  when it came near, he fired into it; immediately a witch dropped.  This is undoubted proof of the meetings!—­Disq.  Mag., p. 708.]

G 3 b 2. “Christopher Iackes, of Thorny-holme, and his wife.”] This would appear to be Christopher Hargreaves, called here Christopher Jackes, for o’ or of Jack, according to the Lancashire mode of forming patronymics.

G 4 a. “The first was, for the naming of the Spirit, which Alizon Deuice, now Prisoner at Lancaster, had:  But did not name him, because shee was not there.”] Gaule says, speaking of the ceremonies at the witches’ solemn meetings:  “If the witch be outwardly Christian, baptism must be renounced, and the party must be rebaptized in the Devil’s name, and a new name is also imposed by him; and here must be godfathers too, for the Devil takes them not to be so adult as to promise and vow for themselves.” (Cases of Conscience touching Witches, page 59. 1646, 12mo.) But Gaule does not mention any naming or baptism of spirits and familiars on such occasions.

G 4 b. “Romleyes Moore.”] Romilly’s or Rumbles Moor, a wild and mountainous range in Craven, not unaptly selected for a meeting on a special emergency of a conclave of witches.

H 2 a 1. “Was so insensible, weake, and vnable in all thinges, as he could neither speake, heare, or stand, but was holden vp.”] Pitiable, truly, was the situation of this unhappy wretch.  Brought out from the restraint of a long imprisonment, before and during which he had, as we may conjecture, been subjected to every inhumanity, in a state more dead than alive, into a court which must have looked like one living mass, with every eye lit up with horror, and curses, not loud but deep, muttered with harmonious concord from the mouths of every spectator.

H 2 a 2. “Anne Towneley, wife of Henrie Townely, of the Carre.”] Would this be Anne, the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Catterall, of Catterall and Little Mitton, Esq., who married Henry Townley, the son of Lawrence Townley? (See Whitaker’s Whalley, p. 396.) The Townleys of Barnside and Carr were a branch of the Townleys, of Townley.  Barnside, or Barnsete, is an ancient mansion in the township of Colne, which, Whitaker observes, was abandoned by the family, for the warmer situation of Carr, about the middle of the last century.

H 2 a 3. “Master Nowel humbly prayed Master Towneley might be called.”] It is to be regretted we have no copy of the viva voce examination of Mr. Townley, the husband of the lady whose life was said to have been taken away by witchcraft.  The examinations given in this tract are altogether those of persons in a humble rank of life.  The contrast between their evidence and that of an individual occupying the position of the descendant of one of the oldest families in the neighbourhood, with considerable landed possessions, might have been amusing and instructive.