but it is fairly evident that having once tasted blood, having won a fearful respect and well lined his pockets, he determined to ply his new trade for all that it was worth in every direction. It must be acknowledged that everything was ready to his hand. In March, 1644, as he himself tells us, he made his first discovery. There seems no reason to dispute the fact that he did by chance light upon a company of witches, and although the confessions were embroidered with many extravagant and impossible details the charges of sorcery brought against these women were probably correct in the main. It is stated that the members of the local witch society assembled on a Friday night, and although it is true that in different countries and at different times the day of the week considerably varies, there is none the less a preponderance of evidence which points to Friday as being most generally favoured. De Lancre says that in the Basses-Pyrénées the assemblies took place “on three particular nights, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”[1] The famous and learned Henry Boguet in his Discours des Sorciers, Lyons, 1603, c. xix, Du iour du Sabbat, writes as follows: “I’ay estimé autrefois que le Sabbat se tenoit seulement la nuict du ieudy, d’autāt que tons les Sorciers que i’ay veu, l’ont ainsi r’apporté; mais depuis que i’ay leu que quelques vns de la mesme secte ont confessé, qu’ils s’assembloyēt, les vns la nuict d’entre le lundy & le mardy, les autres la nuict d’entre le Vendredy & le Samedy, les autres la nuict qui precedoit le Ieudy, ou le Dimenche, de là i’ay conclu qu’il n’y auoit point de iour
- ↑ “Les Sorciers le vont adorer trois nuicts durant, celle du Lundy, du Mercredy, & du Vendredy.” Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges. Paris, 1612, p. 62.
