A successor filled his office.
[1: In the seventeenth century belief in witchcraft was almost at its
height over the whole of Europe, and in Scotland the hunt after witches
and warlocks was peculiarly vindictive. To obtain confession, the most
incredible tortures--as cruel as anything practised by Red Indians on
their prisoners--were inflicted on accused persons, men and women, and
escape was seldom possible for these poor creatures. Nor were such
beliefs and practices confined to the benighted times of the seventeenth
century. Even as late as 1722, in Sutherlandshire, a woman was burned
for witchcraft. Her crime was that she had transformed her own daughter
into a pony, and had ridden her throughout an entire night. Conclusive
proof of the charge was found in the fact that the poor woman's daughter
was lame afterwards both in hands and feet.
Nothing was too absurd, no charge too wicked or too childish, to obtain
universal belief in those times.]
Meantime, bound to the saddle in front of his captor, by little-known
hill paths the judge had been borne swiftly through the night. The long,
melancholy wail of a whaup, the eerie hoot of an owl, at times smote
dully on his ear; but to all his entreaties and his questions no human
voice made answer; in stony silence his abductor rode steadily on.
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