In 1672, when William III of Orange became Grand Pensionary and commander of the army and navy, a mob stormed the prison in The Hague where the De Witt brothers were held. They were torn to pieces, and their mutilated bodies were hung from the gallows.
The chances of such a thing happening in a crowd were very rare, but it was nothing unusual at a crime scene. Jack the Ripper dismembered five women in the streets, and many people at the time wanted to "help" catch him.
Hunting was one of humanity's instincts. After all, humans were not herbivores. Some people truly took pleasure in killing; some enjoyed hunting foxes, while others targeted their own kind.
Serial killers were often very skilled at hiding themselves, sometimes appearing nothing like murderers at all. Switzerland's "last witch" fell in love with the master of the household where she worked. When she wanted to make their relationship public, the man, for the sake of his reputation and status, plotted a "judicial murder" of her with the Church.
Many "witches" were marginalized people rejected by society. Others were landladies or moneylenders. The old woman who had spoken with Georgiana at the gathering was the widow of a financier, Madam Borski. She had joined the Industrial Credit Bank.
Many people hated Bella too, but she was powerful enough. Whoever dared provoke her, she dealt with them using the Cruciatus Curse or Avada Kedavra.
Bella was a "real" witch. Witches like her had already been "tamed."
Before Joseph II, Maria Teresa had also carried out reforms in Belgium. Yet she had been extremely cautious, leaving law enforcement in the Austrian Netherlands untouched while improving the prisons. Prisoners could sleep in individual cells rather than communal cages, and they were required to do a certain amount