Lancashire Witches — Book 3 Ch. 15 - Lancaster Castle

"Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster!"

Within one of its turrets called John of Gaunt's Chair, and at eventide, stands a lady under the care of a jailer.

It is the last sunset she will ever see--the last time she will look upon the beauties of earth; for she is a prisoner, condemned to die an ignominious and terrible death, and her execution will take place on the morrow.

Leaving her alone within the turret, the jailer locks the door and stands outside it.

The lady casts a long, lingering look around.

All nature seems so beautiful--so attractive.

The sunset upon the broad watery sands of Morecambe Bay is exquisite in varied tints.

The fells of Furness look black and bold, and the windings of the Lune are clearly traced out.

But she casts a wistful glance towards the mountainous ridges of Lancashire, and fancies she can detect amongst the heights the rounded summit of Pendle Hill.

Then her gaze settles upon the grey old town beneath her, and, as her glance wanders over it, certain terrible objects arrest it.

In the area before the Castle she sees a ring of tall stakes.

She knows well their purpose, and counts them.

They are thirteen in number.

Thirteen wretched beings are to be burned on the morrow.

Not far from the stakes are an enormous pile of fagots.

All is prepared.

Fascinated by the sight, she remains gazing at the place of execution for some time, and when she turns, she beholds a tall dark man standing beside her.

At first she thinks it is the jailer, and is about to tell the man she is ready to descend to her cell, when she recognises him, and recoils in terror.

"Thou here--again!"

she cried.

"I can save thee from the stake, if thou wilt, Alice Nutter," he said.

"Hence!"

she exclaimed.

"Thou temptest me in vain.

Hence!"

And with a howl of rage the demon disappeared.

Conveyed back to her cell, situated within the dread Dungeon Tower, Alice Nutter passed the whole of that night in prayer.

Towards four o'clock, wearied out, she dropped into a slumber; and when the clergyman, from whom she had received spiritual consolation, came to her cell, he found her still sleeping, but with a sweet smile upon her lips--the first he had ever beheld there.

Unwilling to disturb her, he knelt down and prayed by her side.

At length the jailer came, and the executioner's aids.

The divine then laid his hand upon her shoulder, and she instantly arose.

"I am ready," she said, cheerfully.

"You have had a happy dream, daughter," he observed.

"A blessed dream, reverend sir," she replied.

"I thought I saw my children, Richard and Alizon, in a fair garden--oh!

how angelic they looked--and they told me I should be with them soon."

"And I doubt not the vision will be realised," replied the clergyman.

"Your redemption is fully worked out, and your salvation, I trust, secured.

And now you must prepare for your last trial."

"I am fully prepared," she replied; "but will you not go to the others?"

"Alas!

my dear daughter," he replied, "they all, excepting Nance Redferne, refuse my services, and will perish in their iniquities."

"Then go to her, sir, I entreat of you," she said; "she may yet be saved.

But what of Jennet?

Is she, too, to die?"

"No," replied the divine; "being evidence against her relatives, her life is spared."

"Heaven grant she do no more mischief!"

exclaimed Alice Nutter.

She then submitted herself to the executioner's assistants, and was led forth.

On issuing into the open air a change came over her, and such an exceeding faintness that she had to be supported.

She was led towards the stake in this state; but she grew fainter and fainter, and at last fell back in the arms of the men that supported her.

Still they carried her on.

When the executioner put out his hand to receive her from his aids, she was found to be quite dead.

Nevertheless, he tied her to the stake, and her body was consumed.

Hundreds of spectators beheld those terrible fires, and exulted in the torments of the miserable sufferers.

Their shrieks and blasphemies were terrific, and the place resembled a hell upon earth.

Jennet escaped, to the dismay of Master Potts, who feared she would wreak her threatened vengeance upon him.

And, indeed, he did suffer from aches and cramps, which he attributed to her; but which were more reasonably supposed to be owing to rheum caught in the marshes of Pendle Forest.

He had, however, the pleasure of assisting at her execution, when some years afterwards retributive justice overtook her.

Jennet was the last of the Lancashire Witches.

Ever since then witchcraft has taken a new form with the ladies of the county--though their fascination and spells are as potent as ever.

Few can now escape them,--few desire to do so.

But to all who are afraid of a bright eye and a blooming cheek, and who desire to adhere to a bachelor's condition--to such I should say, "BEWARE OF THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES!"

THE END.

M'CORQUODALE AND CO.

, PRINTERS, LONDON--WORKS, NEWTON.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: A similar eruption occurred at Pendle Hill in August, 1669, and has been described by Mr. Charles Townley, in a letter cited by Dr. Whitaker in his excellent "History of Whalley."

Other and more formidable eruptions had taken place previously, occasioning much damage to the country.

The cause of the phenomenon is thus explained by Mr. Townley: "The colour of the water, its coming down to the place where it breaks forth between the rock and the earth, with that other particular of its bringing nothing along but stones and earth, are evident signs that it hath not its origin from the very bowels of the mountain; but that it is only rain water coloured first in the moss-pits, of which the top of the hill, being a great and considerable plain, is full, shrunk down into some receptacle fit to contain it, until at last by its weight, or some other cause, it finds a passage to the sides of the hill, and then away between the rock and swarth, until it break the latter and violently rush out."

] [Footnote 2: Locus Benedictus de Whalley.

] [Footnote 3: This speech is in substance the monarch's actual Declaration concerning Lawful Sports, promulgated in 1618, in a little Tractate, generally known as the "Book of Sports;" by which he would have conferred a great boon on the lower orders, if his kindly purpose had not been misapprehended by some, and ultimately defeated by bigots and fanatics.

King James deserves to be remembered with gratitude, if only for this manifestation of sympathy with the enjoyments of the people.

He had himself discovered that the restrictions imposed upon them had "setup filthy tipplings and drunkenness, and bred a number of idle and discontented speeches in the alehouses."

] [Footnote 4: "There is a laughable tradition," says Nichols, "still generally current in Lancashire, that our knight-making monarch knighted at the banquet in Hoghton Tower a loin of beef; the part ever since called the sir-loin."

And it is added by the same authority, "If the King did not give the sir-loin its name, he might, notwithstanding, have indulged in a pun on the already coined word, the etymology of which was then, as now, as little regarded as the thing signified is well approved."

--_Nichols's Progresses of James I. _, vol. iii.

] [Footnote 5: These speeches, given by _Nichols_ as derived from the family records of Sir Henry Philip Hoghton, Bart.

, were actually delivered at a masque represented on occasion of King James's visit to Hoghton Tower.

] [Footnote 6: Published by the Chetham Society, and admirably edited, with notes, exhibiting an extraordinary amount of research and information, by the Rev. F.

R.

Raines, M. A.

, F.

S.

A.

, of Milnrow Parsonage, near Rochdale.

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