Thus urged, the monk went on:-- "'One shall sit at a solemn feast, Half warrior, half priest, The greatest there shall be the least.'" "The last verse," observed the monk, "has been added to the ditty by Nicholas Demdike.

I heard him sing it the other day at the abbey gate." "What, Nicholas Demdike of Worston ?" cried the abbot; "he whose wife is a witch ?" "The same," replied Eastgate.
"Hoo be so ceawnted, sure eno," remarked the forester, who had been listening attentively to their discourse, and who now stepped forward; "boh dunna yo think it.

Beleemy, lort abbut, Bess Demdike's too yunk an too protty for a witch." "Thou art bewitched by her thyself, Cuthbert," said the abbot, angrily.
"I shall impose a penance upon thee, to free thee from the evil influence.

Thou must recite twenty paternosters daily, fasting, for one month; and afterwards perform a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady of Gilsland.

Bess Demdike is an approved and notorious witch, and hath been seen by credible witnesses attending a devil's sabbath on this very hill--Heaven shield us! It is therefore that I have placed her and her husband under the ban of the Church; pronounced sentence of excommunication against them; and commanded all my clergy to refuse baptism to their infant daughter, newly born." "Wea's me! ey knoas 't reet weel, lort abbut," replied Ashbead, "and Bess taks t' sentence sore ta 'ert!" "Then let her amend her ways, or heavier punishment will befall her," cried Paslew, severely.