CHAPTER 50 - The Confession of Euphame Hay

SHE WAS IN the Blinkbonny Woods in the green of summer. At the end of a long avenue of trees, he appeared, a distant apparition, walking slowly towards her. They greeted each other. He lowered his head to kiss her softly on the cheek. The memory was blissful.

She was inside Janet’s cottage, carrying flowers she had picked in the woods, yellow primroses. Janet was busy preparing something at the table. Suddenly it was dark. There was a knock on the door. She answered it. She was overjoyed to see her mother. They embraced and shed many tears. She looked so well in her green velvet dress, full of life, as she had before her troubles.

A tall man entered the cottage behind her. She did not realise who it was at first for his face was hidden by the brim of his hat. Then she saw her father’s face, smiling down at her. He took her in his arms, lifting her up as he did when she was a child. She felt overjoyed to be in his arms, protected. Happiness rushed through her.

She was awake. She could not remember where she was. Memories of the Tolbooth and her torture returned. She let out a sigh. She knew that she was going to die. She could not hold out much longer.

She felt refreshed. She must have been asleep. But for how long? She wondered if they had forgotten to wake her. She had no way of knowing in the windowless dungeon. It could have been hours. She felt a little stronger. She inhaled the reek of abused humanity. It had a sharper smell than she remembered. She had recovered some strength. A slight taste of hope returned. Perhaps the appeal of her kin had been successful.

But realisation fell like a stone on her chest, terror replacing hope, as she remembered why she had been left to rest. She saw in her mind’s eye the journey she would make: the long walk to the stake where she would meet the hands of death. She saw a vision of her body in flames, the exaltation of her accusers, the pitiful end to her life. She was innocent, but God was to punish her like this. The declaration that she had made came back to her.

I confess that I am a witch. I have sold myself body and soul unto Satan. My mother took me to the Blinkbonny Woods where we met other witches. I put a hand on the crown of my head and the other on the sole of my foot. I gave everything between unto him. I was told to kiss his manhood like a stallion’s. I took his seed within my mouth. He told me I was beholden unto him. He lay with me in the position of a beast. He was cold within me like running water. With my mother I planned the murder of my aunt, Lady Girnington. We prepared a wax painting which we roasted with brandy over a fire. At meetings in the Blinkbonny Woods were also present Janet Cornfoot, Elizabeth Murdoch, John Murdoch and my sister Rosina Hay.