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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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all surprising , that she should be sympathetically affected , and fall into similar convulsions . Alice Brown did not speedily get over the effects of her fright : her distressing fits returned at short intervals , and disqualified her for every kind of work ;
indeed she was so much reduced by them , that her friends began to despair of her recovery . Inquiring after the state of her health on the 5 th of April , I was astonished and grieved to hear from her brother , that her fits , weakness , and dejection were ascribed to the effect of witchcraft . " She is under an
ill tongue , " said the youth . Ci As sure as you are alive , sir , " continued a man , "who stood by , ** she is bewitched , and so are two other girls that live near her . There is a man in the town I come from in Bedfordshire , who was exactly like Alice Brown—he could do no work ,
lost all his strength , and was wasting away very fast ,-when a person told him "what -was the matter with him , and how foe roightube cirred . He filled a bottle with a particular kind of a fluid , stuffed tile cork both top and bottom with pins , set it carefully in an oven of a moderate heat , and then observed a profound silence . In a few minutes the charm
succeeded ; for he saw a variety of forms flitting before his eyes , and amongst the rest the -perfect resemblance of an old woman who lived in the same parish . This was what he wanted- —he was now satisfied who if was that had injured him , and that her reign would soon be over . The woman , whose
figure he saw , died in a few days , and the map immediately recovered . Thomas Brown tried this charm last night for his daughter , and though a strange noise was distinctly heard twice by his ¦ wife , who was in bed with the poor girl , it did not succeed according to our wishes ; so they haye not at present found out who it is that does all the
mischief . If 1 was shocked at this man ' s absurdity and superstition , I was infinitely more fo to understand , it was the general opinion of the people , that Alice Brown , Fanny Amey , and Mary Fox were certainly bewitched by some person who had purchased a familiar , or an evil spirit of the devil , at the expence of his own soul 5 and that a ' variety *> f
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charms an $ experiments had been trie to discover who it 'was . "" / ' . •* When the , public service of the day was over , I called on Fanny Amey and Alice Brown . It was not in my power to judge from the countenance of the former , that any thing was v ^ rhe matter
with her ; she was perfectly collected , and looked the picture of health . Alice Brown was asleep in bed , and therefore I did not see her . At both houses , I endeavoured to explain to the relations and friends of the young women , that it was an utter impossibility for oae human creature to iniure the health of
another by any invisible and preternatural process , —entreated them to discountenance notions so wild and irrational , and begged them to try other means than senseless charms to recover their children . A fe vv minutes before I went into church
on the following Sunday , Ann Izzarcl , % . poor woman of Great Paxfcon , requests ed leave to speak with me . In tears , 'arrd greatly agitated , she told me her , neighbours pretended they had discovered by means of certain charms that she was a witch , and blamed her for the fits and illness of Alice Brown , Fanny
Amey , and Mary Fox ; she said , they threatened to punish her , abused her children , and frightened her so much that she frequently dropped on the ground in fainting fits ; and concluded with asserting her innocence jn these words : — " I am not a witch , and am willing to prove it by being weighed againct the church bible * . "
After the sermon , I addressed the congregation upon the subject , pointed out the folly of their opinions , the fatal consequences which might result from brooding over them , and tried to
persuade them , that , although they might be weak enough to suppose there was no harm in laying violent panels on a woman , they madly called a witch , yet the laws of their country would view their conduct in a very different light .
But argument , explanation , and remonstrance were in vain ; the mania had taken full possession of them , and was only to be cured , or restrained by the powerful arm of the law . On Thursday the fifth of May , Ann Izzard was at St . Neots market ; and it so happened that her sou , about sixteen
* Ann Izzard is a little woman , about sixty years of age , and by no means ill jooking : she has had eight children ; five arc now living .
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578 Account of an Attack on the person of a Reputed Witch .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1808, page 578, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2398/page/2/
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