The Witch and the Priest

By: Hilda Lewis

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Synopsis: If you visit the ancient parish church of Bottesford, in Leicestershire, England, you will find inscribed there a record of the events related in this engrossing tale of long ago. The story concerns Joan Flower, "a notorious witch of exotic appearance," who in life cast off God and in death denied the Devil, closing the gates of both Heaven and Hell to herself. Hilda Lewis tells how Joan, whose evil became notorious, enmeshed her daughters in her unearthly schemes, finally using them in her campaign of revenge against the Earl and Countess of Rutland, whom she was determined to harm by occult means, and whose two young sons she finally destroyed. (The Earl's tomb is the only one in England carrying an allegation that the heirs to an estate were killed by witchcraft.) As this dark story unfolds against a bright background of life in castle and village, Mrs. Lewis recreates a time when "midnight" hags set the ministers of hell to work.