[Elfsea] OT--burning witches in England----Dangerous

[The Hermit]

I came across this and just had to share...............; )  hope ya'll
enjoy it


The English, by and large, being a crass and indolent race, were not as
keen on burning women as other countries in Europe. In Germany the
bonfires were built and burned with regular Teutonic thoroughness. Even
the pious Scots, locked throughout history in a long-drawn-out battle
with their arch-enemies the Scots, managed a few burnings to while away
the long winter evenings. But the English never seemed to have the heart
for it.
One reason for this may have to do with the manner of Agnes Nutters
death, which more or less marked the end of the serious witch-burning
craze in England.  A howling mob, reduced to utter fury by her habit of
going around being intelligent and curing people, arrived at her house
one April evening to find her sitting with her coat on, waiting for
them.  "Ye're tardie, " she said to them. "I should have beene aflame
ten minutes since."
Then she got up and hobbled slowly thru the suddenly silent crowd, out
of the cottage, and to the bonfire that had been hastily thrown together
on the village green. Legend says that she climbed awkwardly onto the
pyre and thrust her arms around the stake behind her.
"Tye yt well," she said to the astonished witchfinder. And then as the
villagers sidled toward the pyre, she raised her head in the firelight
and said, "Gather ye ryte close, goode people. Come close untyl the fire
near scorch ye, for I charge ye that alle must see how thee last true
wytch in England dies. For wytch I am, for soe I am judged yette I knoe
not what my true Cryme may be. And therefore let myne deathe be a
messauge to the worlde. Gather ye ryte close, I saye, and marke well the
fate of alle who meddle with suche as theye do notte understand."
She said no more. She let them gag her, and stood imperiously as the
torches were put to the dry wood.
The crowd grew nearer, one or two of its members a little uncertain as
to whether they'd done the right thing, now they came to think about it.

Thirty seconds later an explosion took out the village green, scythed
the valley clean of every living thing, and was seen as far away as
Halifax.
There was much subsequent debate as to whether this had been sent by God
or Satan, but a note later found in Agnes' cottage indicated that any
devine or devilish intervention had been materially helped by the
contents of Agnes's petticoats, wherein she had with some foresight
concealed eighty pounds of gunpowder and forty pounds of nails and bits
of wire.
The man who put the torch to Agnes Nutter was a Witchfinder Major. They
found his hat in a tree two miles away.