He seems to have had two or three fits afterwards, but they were of a very mild type, and the last we hear of the afflicted Alexander is: ‘After this, they took the said Alexander, and all of them ioyfully accompany him to his brother Thomas Nyndge, his house, where, after his comming thither, hee was not knowne to be perplexed with the like terrible vexations.’
One more example of this branch of the devil’s work in Britain must suffice. We find it in
‘WONDERFUL NEWS FROM BUCKINGHAMSHIRE,
or a perfect Relation how a Young Maid hath been for Twelve Years and upwards possest with the Devil, and continues so to this very day in a Lamentable Condition. London, 1677.
‘This unhappy Maid, whose strange Afflictions this sheet undertakes to give a true and impartial account of, lives at Great Gadsdon in the County of Bucks. She is descended of honest Parents of good repute, and by them carefully educated in the Principles of Christianity; nor was there a young maid of more lovely innocent Beauty, sweet Carriage, or virtuous Disposition; or one that might have expected fairer preferment in Marriage than she: So that as there is no room for the Censures of the uncharitable, so neither, any place for the Surmises of the incredulous, it being impossible she or any of her Relations could imagine any advantage to themselves by counterfeiting or pretending a Possession; which on the Contrary brings them onely trouble, loss, vexation, and inconveniences, and that for a dozen years together. The beginning of her affliction was thus.
‘In the year 1664, there happened to be some difference between this maid’s Father and a certain woman who had an evil name, but whether Causelessly or not, I shall not here determine, nor assert any dubious opinions of any kind; onely relate the principal Circumstances that have occurred, being matter of Fact, to which, as well myself, as scores of other people, were Eye and Ear-witnesses; and so leave every one to judge as they shall see cause, touching the Maid’s being Possest or not, and the evil Instruments that are suspected to have been accessory thereunto, when they have duely weighed the whole Discourse. This is certain, soon after the before mentioned Difference, this maid being then about Sixteen or Seventeen years of age, was taken with strange Fits, and something would rise in her throat like two great bunches, about the bigness of an Egg; and a strange voice was frequently heard within her, speaking Blasphemous words, not fit here to be repeated: And if the Hearers and Bystanders did reply to such voice, by asking any Questions that pleased him, he would answer and discourse with them; and that with a voice as different from hers as any two voices, I verily believe, in the world; she having a cleer, smooth, pleasant voice, and that being very rough, guttural, and coming, as it were from the Abdomen, or hollow of her belly, but yet intelligible: and, though I am not ignorant of a certain sort of Jugglers of old, called in Latine Ventriloqui, yet as no such Art nor designe could be imagined in this innocent creature, so the things he declared (impossible, many times, for her to know) wipes off all suspitions of that kind: So that those about her generally concluded she was really and exactly possessed with the Devil, and took occasion to ask him, How he came there? to which the Evil Spirit or voice answered, Here are two of us, and that they were sent thither by two women. The voice further said, That they were sent first to the Maid’s Father; but when they came, they found him at Prayer, and returned to those two women, and told them, they could have no permission to enter into him; whereupon they sent them to his Daughter, and that such a night, as she sat by the fire, they entred into her. Now, the Family did remember that that very night, she had, as she declared, a sudden pain that seized her, and, ever since, had continued in a bad condition, and, after a little time, the Swellings and Voice happen’d as aforesaid.
‘By which the whole Neighbourhood and Country round about, were so alarmed at the strangeness of it, that multitudes of people went to See her, and returned full of wonder and amazement, at what they had seen and heard: The report whereof coming to my ears, I did not at first believe it, but hearing it still confirmed, did, at last, go to see her myself, resolving to make my observations as warily and curiously as I could. There were, I believe, at that time, Forty or Fifty Spectators present, and in strict observation two or three hours. I was, for my own part, fully satisfied that it was a Possession, it being, as I conceive utterly impossible that those things should be acted by her or any other person living, either by the force of Nature or power of the most afflicting Distemper.
‘Her Father, being of the same opinion, and willing to use all lawful means for his only Child’s recovery, having read that passage of our Saviour’s—That kinde comes not out but by Prayer and Fasting; he resolves to use that means, and to that purpose, desired some Ministers to keep a day with him on that occasion. Having sent for them, the Devil told him, He expected five men to come, but there should only four come. This the Girl could not know of herself; yet so it happened: for one, by an unexpected accident, was prevented from coming. These four desired the assistance of several Godly Ministers and Christians in the Neighbourhood, who accordingly, met, and kept several days in Fasting and Prayer; and, according to the best judgment that could be made, one of the evil Spirits then departed, as was supposed from some accidents I shall relate by and by. I, myself, was present several of these days; First she had two great bunches rose up in her throat, and then a voice followed, uttering abominable Blasphemies; upon which, a godly Minister present, and since deceased, being stirred up with great Zeal and Indignation, going to Prayer, did earnestly beg of God, that he would plague and torment Satan for such of his Blasphemies; upon which the Spirit made a most dreadful crying, and bemoaning his condition, and said, I will do so no more: To which the Minister replied, Satan, that shall not serve thy turn: and, continuing his Prayer to God as before, the Devil again cried and roared most hideously, to the great amazement of all the people present; and, from that time, it was observed that there was but one bunch rose up in her throat, from whence it was conjectured that one of the Spirits was departed. However, one continued his possession still, and, after they had done Prayer, and were about to refresh themselves, he shewed strange tricks before them, tossing her up and down, and when she was going, took away the use of her legs, on a sudden. When she sate in a great Wicker chair, he would cause the Chair to fall down backwards, almost to the ground, and then lift it up again. One of the company bid her read in the Bible; the Devil said aloud, She shall not read: It was answered, She shall read, Satan, for all thee, and read thy Condemnation too. Whereupon, he plaid more tricks by tossing her about, and drawing her face to one side, as if it had been placed to look over her shoulder, and drawn in a very deformed manner; but, at last she read part of the 20 Chapter of the Revelations, though not without much opposition.
‘When she got upon the Horse to go home, it was a great while before she was able to get upon him, and was flung sometimes backwards, other whiles turn’d with her face to the horse’s