appeared in Jean Chassanion's Histoires mémorables des grans & merveilleux iugements et punitions de Dieu (1586), translated as The Theatre of God's Judgements by Reverend Thomas Beard in 1597. In the source, the magician is considered to have made himself invulnerable by black magic, but a trick by sleight of hand and prepared equipment is clearly being described, despite this misunderstanding. In Beard's version: "It is not long since there was in Lorraine, a certaine man called Coulen, that was overmuch giuen to this cursed Art, amongst whose tricks this was one to be wondred at: that he would suffer Harquebouses or a pistoll to be shot at him, and catch their bullets in his hand without receiving any hurt". God's punishment for this use of the cursed art of black magic follows: "but vpon a certaine time one of his seruants being angry with him, hot him such a knock with a pistoll (notwithstanding all his great cunning) that he killed him therewith". (The Theatre of God's Judgements (1597), p. 120: "hot him" is an obsolete spelling for the past tense of "hit him".) Throughout the 18th century, variations of the bullet catch were developed by a number of street performers. In his 1785 book Natural Magic or Physical Amusements Revealed, Philip Astley wrote that he himself had invented the trick in 1762. However, two books published in 1761 mentioned the bullet catch as described by Reverend Beard: The Conjuror Unmasked by Thomas Denton, and La Magie blanche dévoilée by Henri Decremps (the former an English translation of the French text). In fact, Astley's publication plagiarized much of its material from Descremps, including a similar cover illustration, but altered the material to depict conjurers in a more positive light. Between 1813 and 1818 a troupe known as the 'Indian Jugglers', advertised as being from Seringapatam, included the trick in their shows given in London and Dublin. In 1817 The Times carried a report of a fatal accident in Dublin, allegedly caused when a pistol 'actually loaded with powder and ball was, by mistake, substituted for that prepared in the usual way.' In a later newspaper item however the chief of the troupe, Mr Ramusamee, denied this story, stating that no-one had ever been killed. Around 1840, Scottish magician John Henry Anderson began demonstrating the gun trick in theatres throughout Britain. Anderson, or "The Great Wizard of the North" as