PERSECUTION 53 



their shoulders and say, " 'T is a pity Neighbour 

 Hearne standeth apart from Church ; " or " 'T is 

 passing strange Dame Gurton should be so mali- 

 ciously disposed." By no means ! They saw to it 

 that Hearne either went to church, or stood his trial 

 for heresy ; and they brought the sour old woman 

 to a more amiable frame of mind, or to the witch's 

 stake. Neither did they observe with scholarly 

 composure that the adoption of the cat by the black 

 race of sorcerers was a " curious custom, worthy of 

 research." They said, " Like master,"like servant ; " 

 and tossed poor Pussy into the terrible bonfire 

 which blazed for her on the Eve of Saint John. 



Now and then a student, gentle and profound, as 

 one Balthazar Bekker of fragrant memory, asserted 

 the innocence of the cat, — perhaps he had a kitten 

 of his own, — and declared the dog to be more 

 deeply versed than she in the unholy arts of necro- 

 mancy. But the people knew better than this. 

 The frank integrity of the dog was unmistakable. 

 One wag of his honest tail disarmed suspicion. 

 Blunder he might, and fall perchance from grace ; 

 but the subtle witchery of the cat was far beyond 

 his canine comprehension. 



Moreover the weight of evidence was always 

 against the cat. At the trial of Rebecca Walther, 

 a woman of Neuchatel who was strangled as a 

 sorceress in 1647, it was proven that a neighbour's 



