are practiced by these miserable people, who are of both 

 sexes and of all ages ; though old women are the most fre- 

 quently obsessed. In undertaking to carry out faithfully the 

 commands of your Majesty to exterminate this evil, your 

 servant has been hampered by a mischievous book written 

 by the Utraquist pastor Johann Stelcar Zeleyawsky (Kniha 

 Duchovni, Praha, 1588); in this work the impious author 

 denies that human beings have power to raise storms of 

 lightning, thunder and hail, to enchant herds of cattle and 

 flocks of sheep, or to bewitch their enemies, urging, forsooth, 

 that those accused of such diabolic deeds should be treated 

 mercifully and not rigorously as the laws of the kingdom 

 require. Happily these abominable notions have not pene- 

 trated very deeply the minds of the ruling classes, and the 

 book is being now suppressed. 



Your servant has had the honor to investigate several 

 cases of witchcraft and to bring the guilty principals to trial; 

 thanks to the noble invention of the rack, the sacred truth 

 has been ascertained generally without resort to other per- 

 missible tortures, and in every instance justice has been meted 

 out to the devils in human shape. 



Your Majesty's loyal subject, the well-born Johann 

 Beschin, who resides on his estate near Swinna, had in his 

 service a pretty maid named Marianne ; she fell deeply in love 

 with her handsome young master, and as he showed com- 

 plete indifference, she undertook to win his love by magical 

 arts. She secured a few hairs from his head, burned some of 

 them and threw the ashes into his wine jug, and she put the 

 rest in her bed, conjuring them also with infernal formulas. 

 These facts came out in the preliminary trial, and she was 

 then examined on the rack, as is customary with witches; 

 confessing her infernal power she was sentenced to the death 

 prescribed by law. 



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