THE DARK AGES 37 



a greater hath not been seen." Nor was this all. 

 It was against King Jamie — pious enemy of 

 witchcraft — that these hags worked their will. 

 "Againe it is confessed that the said christened 

 cat was the cause that the Kinges Majestie's shippe, 

 at his coming forthe of Denmarke, had a contrairie 

 winde to the reste of the shippes then being in his 

 companie ; which thing was most straunge and true, 

 as the Kinges Majestie acknowledgeth. For when 

 the rest of the shippes had a fair and good winde, 

 then was the winde contrairie, and altogether 

 against his Majestie." 



Evidence of a most disastrous character was 

 brought against the cat in countless other trials. 

 The famous Scotch witch, Isobel Gowdie, " convict 

 and brynt " — so saith the record — in 1662, con- 

 fessed that it was a common habit of the sister- 

 hood to change themselves into cats, and in that 

 guise to prowl at night over the country-side, steal- 

 ing into all the farmhouses that were not fenced 

 against them by prayer and charms. She herself 

 had a foolish preference for the form of a hare ; 

 and, as a consequence, had been twice hunted by 

 hounds, narrowly escaping death. Joan Peterson 

 was hanged at Wapping, ten years earlier, for visit- 

 ing and plaguing her neighbours under the sem- 

 blance of a black cat ; and a sister witch met the 

 same fate at Lynn, for sending an impish pussy to 



