The King has caused a bill be wrote, And he has set it on the Tron,— "He that will bring Lord Durie back, Traquair has written a privie letter, And he has seal'd it wi' his seal, "Ye may let the auld brock1 out o' the poke; The land's my ain, and a's gane weel.”— O Will has mounted his bonny black, Scotland, 11th September, 1678, by Catherine Liddell, a poor woman, against the Baron-bailie of Preston Grange, and David Cowan (a professed pricker), for having imprisoned, and most cruelly tortured her. They answered, 1st, She was searched by her own consent, et volenti non fit injuria; 2d, The pricker had learned his trade from Kincaid, a famed pricker; 3d, He never acted, but when called upon by magistrates or clergymen, so what he did was auctore prætore; 4th, His trade was lawful; 5th, Perkins, Delrio, and all divines and lawyers, who treat of witchcraft, assert the existence of the marks, or stigmata sagarum; and, 6thly, Were it otherwise, Error communis facit jus.-Answered, 1st, Denies consent; 2d, Nobody can validly consent to their own torture; for Nemo est dominus membrorum suorum; 3d, The pricker was a common cheat. The last arguments prevailed; and it was found, that inferior "judges might not use any torture, by pricking, or by withholding them from sleep ;" the council reserving all that to themselves, the justices, and those acting by commission from them. But Lord Durie, a Judge of the Court of Session, could have no share in such inflictions. 1 Brock--Badger. And once again, on his sturdy back, He brought him to the council stairs, And there full loudly shouted he, "Gie me my guerdon, my sovereign liege, ye back your auld Durie!" And take APPENDIX. NOTE A. He thought the warlocks o' the rosy cross.-P. 14, v. 2. : "As for the rencounter betwixt Mr. Williamson, schoolmaster at Cowper, (who has wrote a grammar,) and the Rosicrucians, I never trusted it, till I heard it from his own son, who is present minister of Kirkaldy. He tells, that a stranger came to Cowper and called for him after they had drank a little, and the reckoning came to be paid, he whistled for spirits; one, in the shape of a boy, came, and gave him gold in abundance no servant was seen riding with him to the town, nor enter with him into the inn. He caused his spirits, against next day, bring him noble Greek wine from the Pope's cellar, and tell the freshest news then at Rome; then trysted Mr. Williamson at London, who met the same man in a coach, near to London Bridge, and who called on him by his name; he marvelled to see any know him there; at last he found it was his Rosicrucian. He pointed to a tavern, and desired Mr. Williamson to do him the favour to dine with him at that house; whither he came at twelve o'clock, and found him and many others of good fashion there, and a most splendid and magnificent table, furnished with all the varieties of delicate meats, where they are all served by spirits. At dinner, they debated upon the excellency of being attended by spirits; and, after dinner, they proposed to him to assume him into their society, and make him participant of their happy life; but among the other conditions and qualifications requisite, this was one, that they demanded his abstracting his spirit from all materiality, and renouncing his baptismal engagements. Being amazed at this proposal, he falls a-praying; whereat they all disappear, and leave him alone. Then he began to forethink what would become of him, if he were left to pay that vast reckoning; not having as much on him as would defray it. He calls the boy, and asks, what was become of these gentlemen, and what was to pay? He answered, there was nothing to pay, for they had done it, and were gone about their affairs in the city.”— FOUNTAINHALL'S Decisions, vol. i. p. 15. With great deference to the learned reporter, this story has all the appearance of a joke upon the poor schoolmaster, calculated at once to operate upon his credulity, and upon his fears of being left in pawn for the reckoning. NOTE B. Or that the gipsies' glamour'd gang, &c.-P. 14, v. 2. BESIDES the prophetic powers ascribed to the gipsies in most European countries, the Scottish peasants believe them possessed of the power of throwing upon bystanders a spell, to fascinate their eyes, and cause them to see the thing that is not. Thus in the old ballad of Johnie Faa, the elopement of the Countess of Cassillis, with a gipsy leader, is imputed to fascination : "As sune as they saw her weel-far'd face, Saxo Grammaticus mentions a particular sect of mathematicians, as he is pleased to call them, who, “per summam ludificandorum oculorum peritiam, proprios alienosque vultus, variis rerum imaginibus, adumbrare callebant; illicibusque formis veros obscurare conspectus." Merlin, the son of Ambrose, was particularly skilled in this art, and displays it often in the old metrical romance of Arthour and Merlin : "Tho' thai com the Kinges neighe A gret while y you plight," &c. : The jongleurs were also great professors of this mystery, which has in some degree descended, with their name, on the modern jugglers. But durst Breslaw, the Sieur Boaz, or Katterfelto himself, have encountered, in a magical sleight, the tragetoures of Father Chaucer, who "within a hall large Have made come in a water and a barge, |