alone, might not procure a quicker and safer Ease to the Afflicted, than has∣ty Prosecution of any suppos'd Criminal, and accordingly that unexcep∣tionable course was all that was ever followed; yea, which I look't on as a token for good, the Afflicted Family was as averse as any of us all to entertain thoughts of any other course.
Sect 4. The Young Woman was assaulted by Eight cruel spectres, whereof she imagin'd that she knew three or four, but the rest came still with their Faces cover'd, so that she could never have a distinguishing view of the co••ntenance of those whom she thought she knew; she was very careful of my reitterated charges to forbear blazing the Names, left any good Person should come to suffer any blast of Reputation thro' the cun∣ning Malice of the great Accuser; nevertheless having since privately na∣med them to my self, I will venture to say this of them, that they are a sort of Wretches who for these many years have gone under as Violent Pre∣sumptions of Witchcraft, as perhaps any creatures yet living upon Earth; altho' I am farr from thinking that the Visions of this Young Woman were Evidence enough to prove them so. These cursed Spectres now brought unto her a Book about a Cubet long, a Book Red and thick, but not very broad, and they demanded of her that she would set her Hand to that Book, or touch it at least with her Hand, as a Sign of her becoming a Servant of the Devil, upon her peremptory refusal to do what they ask∣ed, they did not after renew the profers of the Book unto her, but instead thereof, they fell to Tormenting of her in a manner too Hellish to be sufficiently described, in those Torments confining her to her Bed, for just Six weeks together.
Sect. 5. Sometimes, but not always together with the Spectres, there look't in upon the Young Woman (according to her account) a short and a Black Man, whom they call'd their Master, a Wight exactly of the same Dimensions and Complexion and voice, with the Divel that has exhibited himself unto other infested People, not only in other parts of this Country but also in other Countrys, even of the European VVorld, as the relation of the Enchantments there inform us, they all profest them∣selves Vassals of this Devil, and obedience unto him they address them∣selves unto various ways of Torturing her: accordingly she was cruelly pinch't with Invisible Hands very often in a Day, and the black and blew marks of the pinches became immediately visible unto standers by. Besides this, when her attendants had left her without so much as one pin about her, that so they might prevent some fear'd inconveniencies; yet she would ever now and then be miserably hurt with Pins which were found stuck into her Neck, Back and Arms, however, the Wounds made by the Pins would in a few minutes ordinarily be cured; she would also be strange∣ly distorted in her Joynts, and thrown into such exorbitant Convulsions as