It was October 15, 1633, and Alison Dick wasn’t allowed to sleep. She was covered in grime. Freezing wind cut through her like a knife. Several soldiers loomed outside the dank church steeple that had become her cell. They had been paid 14 shillings to keep her awake, though history doesn’t record how. Perhaps they yelled or poked her or threw water on her. Local church court documents say only that Dick “is ordaned to be wakeit heirafter.” Likely she was not allowed to sleep for days, growing increasingly incoherent,…
