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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dulcibel, by Henry Peterson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dulcibel
+       A Tale of Old Salem
+
+Author: Henry Peterson
+
+Illustrator: Howard Pyle
+
+Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20569]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DULCIBEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marcia, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: She stood up serene but heroic]
+
+
+DULCIBEL
+
+A Tale of Old Salem
+
+BY
+
+HENRY PETERSON
+
+Author of
+
+"Pemberton, or One Hundred Years Ago"
+
+Illustrations by
+
+HOWARD PYLE
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+The John C. Winston Co.
+
+1907
+
+Copyright 1907
+
+BY
+
+Walter Peterson.
+
+
+
+
+Contents.
+
+
+Chapter.                                                     Page.
+
+      I DULCIBEL BURTON                                          1
+
+     II IN WHICH SOME NECESSARY INFORMATION IS GIVEN            12
+
+    III THE CIRCLE IN THE MINISTER'S HOUSE                      17
+
+     IV SATAN'S ESPECIAL GRUDGE AGAINST OUR PURITAN FATHERS     22
+
+      V LEAH HERRICK'S POSITION AND FEELINGS                    24
+
+     VI A DISORDERLY SCENE IN CHURCH                            27
+
+    VII A CONVERSATION WITH DULCIBEL                            32
+
+   VIII AN EXAMINATION OF REPUTED WITCHES                       47
+
+     IX ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MORE ALLEGED WITCHES              54
+
+      X BRIDGET BISHOP CONDEMNED TO DIE                         59
+
+     XI EXAMINATION OF REBECCA NURSE                            64
+
+    XII BURN ME OR HANG ME, I WILL STAND IN THE TRUTH OF CHRIST 73
+
+   XIII DULCIBEL IN DANGER                                      80
+
+    XIV BAD NEWS                                                91
+
+     XV THE ARREST OF DULCIBEL AND ANTIPAS                      94
+
+    XVI DULCIBEL IN PRISON                                     102
+
+   XVII DULCIBEL BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES                        107
+
+  XVIII WELL, WHAT NOW?                                        123
+
+    XIX ANTIPAS WORKS A MIRACLE                                128
+
+     XX MASTER RAYMOND GOES TO BOSTON                          136
+
+    XXI A NIGHT INTERVIEW                                      139
+
+   XXII THE REVEREND MASTER PARRIS EXORCISES "LITTLE WITCH"    149
+
+  XXIII MASTER RAYMOND ALSO COMPLAINS OF AN "EVIL HAND"        162
+
+   XXIV MASTER RAYMOND'S LITTLE PLAN BLOCKED                   166
+
+    XXV CAPTAIN ALDEN BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES                   172
+
+   XXVI CONSIDERING NEW PLANS                                  180
+
+  XXVII THE DISSIMULATION OF MASTER RAYMOND                    188
+
+ XXVIII THE CRUEL DOINGS OF THE SPECIAL COURT                  192
+
+   XXIX DULCIBEL'S LIFE IN PRISON                              199
+
+    XXX EIGHT LEGAL MURDERS ON WITCH HILL                      205
+
+   XXXI A NEW PLAN OF ESCAPE                                   214
+
+  XXXII WHY THE PLAN FAILED                                    221
+
+ XXXIII MISTRESS ANN PUTNAM'S FAIR WARNING                     230
+
+  XXXIV MASTER RAYMOND GOES AGAIN TO BOSTON                    237
+
+   XXXV CAPTAIN TOLLEY AND THE STORM KING                      244
+
+  XXXVI SIR WILLIAM PHIPS AND LADY MARY                        252
+
+ XXXVII THE FIRST RATTLE OF THE RATTLESNAKE                    262
+
+XXXVIII CONFLICTING CURRENTS IN BOSTON                         269
+
+  XXXIX THE RATTLESNAKE MAKES A SPRING                         273
+
+     XL AN INTERVIEW WITH LADY MARY                            280
+
+    XLI MASTER RAYMOND IS ARRESTED FOR WITCHCRAFT              287
+
+   XLII MASTER RAYMOND ASTONISHES THE MAGISTRATES              293
+
+  XLIII WHY THOMAS PUTNAM WENT TO IPSWICH                      303
+
+   XLIV HOW MASTER JOSEPH CIRCUMVENTED MISTRESS ANN            309
+
+    XLV THE TWO PLOTTERS CONGRATULATE EACH OTHER               330
+
+   XLVI MISTRESS ANN'S OPINION OF THE MATTER                   336
+
+  XLVII MASTER RAYMOND VISITS LADY MARY                        343
+
+ XLVIII CAPTAIN TOLLEY'S PROPOSITIONS                          351
+
+   XLIX MASTER RAYMOND CONFOUNDS MASTER COTTON MATHER          355
+
+      L BRINGING AFFAIRS TO A CRISIS                           366
+
+     LI LADY MARY'S COUP D'ETAT                                371
+
+    LII AN UNWILLING PARSON                                    385
+
+   LIII THE WEDDING TRIP AND WHERE THEN                        394
+
+    LIV SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS                                397
+
+
+
+
+=Illustrations.=
+
+
+                                                            Page.
+
+STOOD UP SERENE BUT HEROIC                          FRONTISPIECE.
+
+"THE LORD KNOWS THAT I HAVEN'T HURT THEM"                      68
+
+MARCHED FROM JAIL FOR THE LAST TIME                           208
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Dulcibel Burton.
+
+
+In the afternoon of a sunny Autumn day, nearly two hundred years ago, a
+young man was walking along one of the newly opened roads which led into
+Salem village, or what is now called Danvers Centre, in the then
+Province of Massachusetts Bay.
+
+The town of Salem, that which is now the widely known city of that name,
+lay between four and five miles to the southeast, on a tongue of land
+formed by two inlets of the sea, called now as then North and South
+Rivers. Next to Plymouth it is the oldest town in New England, having
+been first settled in 1626. Not till three years after were Boston and
+Charlestown commenced by the arrival of eleven ships from England. It is
+a significant fact, as showing the hardships to which the early settlers
+were exposed, that of the fifteen hundred persons composing this Boston
+expedition, two hundred died during the first winter. Salem has also the
+honor of establishing the first New England church organization, in
+1629, with the Reverend Francis Higginson as its pastor.
+
+Salem village was an adjunct of Salem, the town taking in the adjacent
+lands for the purpose of tillage to a distance of six miles from the
+meeting-house. But in the progress of settlement, Salem village also
+became entitled to a church of its own; and it had one regularly
+established at the date of our story, with the Reverend Samuel Parris as
+presiding elder or minister.
+
+There had been many bickerings and disputes before a minister could be
+found acceptable to all in Salem village. And the present minister was
+by no means a universal favorite. The principal point of contention on
+his part was the parsonage and its adjacent two acres of ground. Master
+Parris claimed that the church had voted him a free gift of these; while
+his opponents not only denied that it had been done, but that it
+lawfully could be done. This latter view was undoubtedly correct; for
+the parsonage land was a gift to the church, for the perpetual use of
+its pastor, whosoever he might be. But Master Parris would not listen to
+reason on this subject, and was not inclined to look kindly upon the men
+who steadfastly opposed him.
+
+The inhabitants of Salem village were a goodly as well as godly people,
+but owing to these church differences about their ministers, as well as
+other disputes and lawsuits relative to the bounds of their respective
+properties, there was no little amount of ill feeling among them. Small
+causes in a village are just as effective as larger ones in a nation, in
+producing discord and strife; and the Puritans as a people were
+distinguished by all that determination to insist upon their rights, and
+that scorn of compromising difficulties, which men of earnest and honest
+but narrow natures have manifested in all ages of the world. Selfishness
+and uncharitableness are never so dangerous as when they assume the
+character of a conscientious devotion to the just and the true.
+
+But all this time the young man has been walking almost due north from
+the meeting house in Salem village.
+
+The road was not what would be called a good one in these days, for it
+was not much more than a bridle-path; the riding being generally at that
+time on horseback. But it was not the rather broken and uneven condition
+of the path which caused the frown on the young pedestrian's face, or
+the irritability shown by the sharp slashes of the maple switch in his
+hand upon the aspiring weeds along the roadside.
+
+"If ever mortal man was so bothered," he muttered at last, coming to a
+stop. "Of course she is the best match, the other is below me, and has a
+spice of Satan in her; but then she makes the blood stir in a man. Ha!"
+
+This exclamation came as he lifted his eyes from the ground, and gazed
+up the road before him. There, about half a mile distant, was a young
+woman riding toward him. Then she stopped her horse under a tree, and
+evidently was trying to break off a switch, while her horse pranced
+around in a most excited fashion. The horse at last starts in a rapid
+gallop. The young man sees that in trying to get the switch, she has
+allowed the bridle to get loose and over the horse's head, and can no
+longer control the fiery animal. Down the road towards him she comes in
+a sharp gallop, striving to stop the animal with her voice, evidently
+not the least frightened, but holding on to the pommel of the saddle
+with one hand while she makes desperate grasps at the hanging rein with
+the other.
+
+The young Puritan smiled, he took in the situation with a glance, and
+felt no fear for her but rather amusement. He was on the top of a steep
+hill, and he knew he could easily stop the horse as it came up; even if
+she did not succeed in regaining her bridle, owing to the better chances
+the hill gave her.
+
+"She is plucky, anyhow, if she is rather a tame wench," said he, as the
+girl grasped the bridle rein at last, when about half way up the hill,
+and became again mistress of the blooded creature beneath her.
+
+"Is that the way you generally ride, Dulcibel?" asked the young man
+smiling.
+
+"It all comes from starting without my riding whip," replied the girl.
+"Oh, do stop!" she continued to the horse who now on the level again,
+began sidling and curveting.
+
+"Give me that switch of yours, Jethro. Now, you shall see a miracle."
+
+No sooner was the switch in her hand, than the aspect and behavior of
+the animal changed as if by magic. You might have thought the little
+mare had been raised in the enclosure of a Quaker meeting-house, so
+sober and docile did she seem.
+
+"It is always so," said the girl laughing. "The little witch knows at
+once whether I have a whip with me or not, and acts accordingly. No, I
+will not forgive you," and she gave the horse two or three sharp cuts,
+which it took like a martyr. "Oh, I wish you would misbehave a little
+now; I should like to punish you severely."
+
+They made a very pretty picture, the little jet-black mare, and the
+mistress with her scarlet paragon bodice, even if the latter was
+entirely too pronounced for the taste of the great majority of the
+inhabitants, young and old, of Salem village.
+
+"But how do you happen to be here?" said the girl.
+
+"I called to see you, and found you had gone on a visit to Joseph
+Putnam's. So I thought I would walk up the road and meet you coming
+back."
+
+"What a sweet creature Mistress Putnam is, and both so young for man and
+wife."
+
+"Yes, Jo married early, but he is big enough and strong enough, don't
+you think so?"
+
+"He is a worshiped man indeed. Have you met the stranger yet?"
+
+"That Ellis Raymond? No, but I hear he is something of a popinjay in his
+attire, and swelled up with the conceit that he is better than any of us
+colonists."
+
+"I do not think so," and the girl's cheek colored a deeper red. "He
+seems to be a very modest young man indeed. I liked him very much."
+
+"Oh, well, I have not seen him yet. But they say his father was a son of
+Belial, and fought under the tyrant at Naseby."
+
+"But that is all over and his widowed mother is one of us."
+
+"Hang him, what does it matter!" Then, changing his tone, and looking at
+her a little suspiciously. "Did Leah Herrick say anything to you against
+me the other night at the husking?"
+
+"I do not allow people to talk to me against my friends," replied she
+earnestly.
+
+"She was talking to you a long time I saw."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It must have been an interesting subject."
+
+"It was rather an unpleasant one to me."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"She wanted me to join the 'circle' which they have just started at the
+minister's house. She says that old Tituba has promised to show them how
+the Indians of Barbados conjure and powwow, and that it will be great
+sport for the winter nights."
+
+"What did you say to it?"
+
+"I told her I would have nothing to do with such things; that I had no
+liking for them, and that I thought it was wrong to tamper with such
+matters."
+
+"That was all she said to you?" and the young man seemed to breathe more
+freely.
+
+The girl was sharp-witted--what girl is not so in all affairs of the
+heart?--and it was now her turn. "Leah is very handsome," she said.
+
+"Yes--everybody says so," he replied coolly, as if it were a fact of
+very little importance to him, and a matter which he had thought very
+little about.
+
+Dulcibel, was not one to aim all around the remark; she came at once,
+simply and directly to the point.
+
+"Did you ever pay her any attentions?"
+
+"Oh, no, not to speak of. What made you think of such an absurd thing?"
+
+"'Not to speak of'--what do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, I kept company with her for awhile--before you came to Salem--when
+we were merely boy and girl."
+
+"There never was any troth plighted between you?"
+
+"How foolish you are, Dulcibel! What has started you off on this
+track?"
+
+"Yourself. Answer me plainly. Was there ever any love compact between
+you?"
+
+"Oh, pshaw! what nonsense all this is!"
+
+"If you do not answer me, I shall ask her this very evening."
+
+"Of course there was nothing between us--nothing of any account--only a
+boy and girl affair--calling her my little wife, and that kind of
+nonsense."
+
+"I think that a great deal. Did that continue up to the time I came to
+the village?"
+
+"How seriously you take it all! Remember, I have your promise,
+Dulcibel."
+
+"A promise on a promise is no promise--every girl knows that. If you do
+not answer me fully and truly, Jethro, I shall ask Leah."
+
+"Yes," said the young man desperately "there was a kind of childish
+troth up to that time, but it was, as I said, a mere boy and girl
+affair."
+
+"Boy and girl! You were eighteen, Jethro; and she sixteen nearly as old
+as Joseph Putnam and his wife were when they married."
+
+"I do not care. I will not be bound by it; and Leah knows it."
+
+"You acted unfairly toward me, Jethro. Leah has the prior right. I
+recall my troth. I will not marry you without her consent."
+
+"You will not!" said the young man passionately--for well he knew that
+Leah's consent would never be given.
+
+"No, I will not!"
+
+"Then take your troth back in welcome. In truth, I met you here this day
+to tell you that. I love Leah Herrick's little finger better than your
+whole body with your Jezebel's bodice, and your fine lady's airs. You
+had better go now and marry that conceited popinjay up at Jo Putnam's,
+if you can get him."
+
+With that he pushed off down the hill, and up the road, that he might
+not be forced to accompany her back to the village.
+
+Dulcibel was not prepared for such a burst of wrath, and such an
+uncovering of the heart. Which of us has not been struck with wonder,
+even far more than indignation, at such times? A sudden difference
+occurs, and the man or the woman in whom you have had faith, and whom
+you have believed noble and admirable, suddenly appears what he or she
+really is, a very common and vulgar nature. It makes us sick at heart
+that we could have been so deceived.
+
+Such was the effect upon Dulcibel. What a chasm she had escaped. To
+think she had really agreed to marry such a spirit as that! But
+fortunately it was now all over.
+
+She not only had lost a lover, but a friend. And one day before, this
+also would have had its unpleasant side to her. But now she felt even a
+sensation of relief. Was it because this very day a new vision had
+entered into the charmed circle of her life? If it were so, she did not
+acknowledge the fact to herself; or even wonder in her own mind, why the
+sudden breaking of her troth-plight had not left her in a sadder humor.
+For she put "Little Witch" into a brisk canter, and with a smile upon
+her face rode into the main street of the village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+In Which Some Necessary Information is Given.
+
+
+Dulcibel Burton was an orphan. Her father becoming a little unsound in
+doctrine, and being greatly pleased with the larger liberty of
+conscience offered by William Penn to his colonists in Pennsylvania, had
+leased his house and lands to a farmer by the name of Buckley, and
+departed for Philadelphia. This was some ten years previous to the
+opening of our story. After living happily in Philadelphia for about
+eight years he died suddenly, and his wife decided to return to her old
+home in Salem village, having arranged to board with Goodman Buckley,
+whose lease had not yet expired. But in the course of the following
+winter she also died, leaving this only child, Dulcibel, now a beautiful
+girl of eighteen years. Dulcibel, as was natural, went on living with
+the Buckleys, who had no children of their own, and were very
+good-hearted and affectionate people.
+
+Dulcibel therefore was an heiress, in a not very large way, besides
+having wealthy relatives in England, from some of whom in the course of
+years more or less might reasonably be expected. And as our Puritan
+ancestors were by no means blind to their worldly interests, believing
+that godliness had the promise of this world as well as that which is to
+come--the bereaved maiden became quite an object of interest to the
+young men of the vicinity.
+
+I have called her beautiful, and not without good reason. With the old
+manuscript volume--a family heirloom of some Quaker friends of
+mine--from which I have drawn the facts of this narrative, came also an
+old miniature, the work of a well-known English artist of that period.
+The colors have faded considerably, but the general contour and the
+features are well preserved. The face is oval, with a rather higher and
+fuller forehead than usual; the hair, which was evidently of a rather
+light brown, being parted in the center, and brought down with a little
+variation from the strict Madonna fashion. The eyes are large, and blue.
+The lips rather full. A snood or fillet of blue ribbon confined her
+luxuriant hair. In form she was rather above the usual height of women,
+and slender as became her age; though with a perceptible tendency
+towards greater fullness with increasing years.
+
+There is rather curiously a great resemblance between this miniature,
+and a picture I have in my possession of the first wife of a celebrated
+New England poet. He himself being named for one of the Judges who sat
+in the Special Court appointed for the trial of the alleged witches, it
+would be curious if the beautiful and angelic wife of his youth were
+allied by blood to one of those who had the misfortune to come under the
+ban of witchcraft.
+
+Being both beautiful and an heiress, Dulcibel naturally attracted the
+attention of her near neighbor in the village, Jethro Sands. Jethro was
+quite a handsome young man after a certain style, though, as his life
+proved, narrow minded, vindictive and avaricious. Still he had a high
+reputation as a young man with the elders of the village; for he had
+early seen how advantageous it was to have a good standing in the
+church, and was very orthodox in his faith, and very regular in his
+attendance at all the church services. Besides, he was a staunch
+champion of the Reverend Mr. Parris in all his difficulties with the
+parish, and in return was invariably spoken of by the minister as one of
+the most promising young men in that neighborhood.
+
+Jethro resided with his aunt, the widow Sands. She inherited from her
+husband the whole of his property. His deed for the land narrated that
+the boundary line ran "from an old dry stump, due south, to the
+southwest corner of his hog-pen, then east by southerly to the top of
+the hill near a little pond, then north by west to the highway side, and
+thence along the highway to the old dry stump again aforesaid." There is
+a tradition in the village that by an adroit removal of his hog-pen to
+another location, and the uprooting and transplanting of the old dry
+stump, at a time when nobody seemed to take a very active interest in
+the adjoining land, owing to its title being disputed in successive
+lawsuits, Jethro, who inherited at the death of his aunt, became the
+possessor of a large tract of land that did not originally belong to
+him. But then such stories are apt to crop up after the death of every
+man who has acquired the reputation of being crafty and close in his
+dealings.
+
+We left Jethro, after his interview with Dulcibel, walking on in order
+that he might avoid her further company. After going a short distance he
+turned and saw that she was riding rapidly homeward. Then he began to
+retrace his steps.
+
+"It was bound to come," he muttered. "I have seen she was getting cold
+and thought it was Leah's work, but it seems she was true to her promise
+after all. Well, Leah is poor, and not of so good a family, but she is
+worth a dozen of such as Dulcibel Burton."
+
+Then after some minutes' silent striding, "I hate her though for it, all
+the same. Everybody will know she has thrown me off. But nobody shall
+get ahead of Jethro Sands in the long run. I'll make her sorry for it
+before she dies, the spoiled brat of a Quaker infidel!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Circle in the Minister's House.
+
+
+It would, perhaps be unfair to hold the Reverend Master Parris
+responsible for the wild doings that went on in the parsonage house
+during the winter evenings of 1691-2, in the face of his solemn
+assertion, made several years afterwards, that he was ignorant of them.
+And yet, how could such things have been without the knowledge either of
+himself or his wife? Mistress Parris has come down to us with the
+reputation of a kindly and discreet woman--nothing having been said to
+her discredit, so far as I am aware, even by those who had a bitter
+controversy with her husband. And yet she certainly must have known of
+the doings of the famous "circle," even if she refrained from speaking
+of them to her husband.
+
+At the very bottom of the whole thing, perhaps, were the West Indian
+slaves--"John Indias" and his wife Tituba, whom Master Parris had
+brought with him from Barbados. There were two children in the house, a
+little daughter of nine, named Elizabeth; and Abigail Williams, three
+years older. These very probably, Tituba often had sought to impress, as
+is the manner of negro servants, with tales of witchcraft, the
+"evil-eye" and "evil hand" spirits, powwowing, etc. Ann Putnam, another
+precocious child of twelve, the daughter of a near neighbor, Sergeant
+Putnam, the parish clerk, also was soon drawn into the knowledge of the
+savage mysteries. And, before very long, a regular "circle" of these and
+older girls was formed for the purpose of amusing and startling
+themselves with the investigation and performance of forbidden things.
+
+At the present day this would not be so reprehensible. We are
+comparatively an unbelieving generation; and what are called "spiritual
+circles" are common, though not always unattended with mischievous
+results. But at that time when it was considered a deadly sin to seek
+intercourse with those who claimed to have "a familiar spirit," that
+such practices should be allowed to go on for a whole winter, in the
+house of a Puritan minister, seems unaccountable. But the fact itself is
+undoubted, and the consequences are written in mingled tears and blood
+upon the saddest pages of the history of New England.
+
+Among the members of this "circle" were Mary Walcott, aged seventeen,
+the daughter of Captain Walcott; Elizabeth Hubbard and Mercy Lewis, also
+seventeen; Elizabeth Booth and Susannah Sheldon, aged eighteen; and Mary
+Warren, Sarah Churchhill and Leah Herrick, aged twenty; these latter
+being the oldest of the party. They were all the daughters of
+respectable and even leading men, with the exception of Mercy Lewis,
+Mary Warren, Leah Herrick and Sarah Churchhill, who were living out as
+domestics, but who seem to have visited as friends and equals the other
+girls in the village. In fact, it was not considered at that time
+degrading in country neighborhoods--perhaps it is not so now in many
+places--for the sons and daughters of men of respectability, and even of
+property, to occupy the position of "help" or servant, eating at the
+same table with, and being considered members of the family. In the case
+before us, Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren and Sarah Churchhill seem to have
+been among the most active and influential members of the party. Though
+Abigail Williams, the minister's niece, and Ann Putnam, only eleven and
+twelve years of age respectively, proved themselves capable of an
+immense deal of mischief.
+
+What the proceedings of these young women actually were, neither
+tradition nor any records that I have met with, informs us; but the
+result was even worse than could have been expected. By the close of the
+winter they had managed to get their nervous systems, their
+imaginations, and their minds and hearts, into a most dreadful
+condition. If they had regularly sold themselves to be the servants of
+the Evil One, as was then universally believed to be possible--and which
+may really be possible, for anything I know to the contrary--their
+condition could hardly have been worse than it was. They were liable to
+sudden faintings of an unnatural character, to spasmodic movements and
+jerkings of the head and limbs, to trances, to the seeing of witches and
+devils, to deafness, to dumbness, to alarming outcries, to impudent and
+lying speeches and statements, and to almost everything else that was
+false, irregular and unnatural.
+
+Some of these things were doubtless involuntary but the voluntary and
+involuntary seemed to be so mingled in their behavior, that it was
+difficult sometimes to determine which was one and which the other. The
+moral sense seemed to have become confused, if not utterly lost for the
+time.
+
+They were full of tricks. They stuck concealed pins into their bodies,
+and accused others of doing it--their contortions and trances were to a
+great extent mere shams--they lied without scruple--they bore false
+witness, and what in many, if not most, cases they knew was false
+witness, against not only those to whom they bore ill will but against
+the most virtuous and kindly women of the neighborhood; and if the
+religious delusion had taken another shape, and we see no reason why it
+should not have done so, and put the whole of them on trial as seekers
+after "familiar spirits" and condemned the older girls to death, there
+would at least have been some show of justice in the proceedings; while,
+as it is, there is not a single ray of light to illuminate the judicial
+gloom.
+
+When at last Mr. Parris and Thomas Putnam became aware of the condition
+of their children, they called in the village physician, Dr. Griggs. The
+latter, finding he could do nothing with his medicines, gave it as his
+opinion that they were "under an evil hand"--the polite medical phrase
+of that day, for being bewitched.
+
+That important point being settled, the next followed of course, "Who
+has bewitched them?" The children being asked said, "Tituba."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Satan's Especial Grudge against Our Puritan Fathers.
+
+
+"Tituba!" And who else? Why need there have been anybody else? Why could
+not the whole thing have stopped just there? No doubt Tituba was guilty,
+if any one was. But Tituba escaped, by shrewdly also becoming an
+accuser.
+
+"Who else?" This set the children's imagination roving. Their first
+charges were not so unreasonable. Why, the vagrant Sarah Good, a social
+outcast, wandering about without any settled habitation; and Sarah
+Osburn, a bed-ridden woman, half distracted by family troubles who had
+seen better days. There the truth was out. Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah
+Osburn were the agents of the devil in this foul attempt against the
+peace of the godly inhabitants of Salem village.
+
+For it was a common belief even amongst the wisest and best of our
+Puritan fathers, that the devil had a special spite against the New
+England colonies. They looked at it in this way. He had conquered in
+the fight against the Lord in the old world. He was the supreme and
+undoubted lord of the "heathen salvages" in the new. Now that the
+Puritan forces had commenced an onslaught upon him in the western
+hemisphere, to which he had an immemorial right as it were, could it be
+wondered at that he was incensed beyond all calculation? Was he, after
+having Europe, Asia and Africa, to be driven out of North America by a
+small body of steeple-hatted, psalm-singing, and conceited Puritans? No
+wonder his satanic ire was aroused; and that he was up to all manner of
+devices to harass, disorganize and afflict the camp of his enemies.
+
+I am afraid this seems a little ridiculous to readers nowadays; but to
+the men and women of two hundred years ago it was grim and sober
+earnest, honestly and earnestly believed in.
+
+Who, in the face of such wonderful changes in our religious views, can
+venture to predict what will be the belief of our descendants two
+hundred years hence?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Leah Herrick's Position and Feelings.
+
+
+I have classed Leah Herrick among the domestics; but her position was
+rather above that. She had lived with the Widow Sands, Jethro's aunt,
+since she had been twelve years old, assisting in the housework, and
+receiving her board and clothing in return. Now, at the age of twenty,
+she was worth more than that recompense; but she still remained on the
+old terms, as if she were a daughter instead of a servant.
+
+She remained, asking nothing more, because she had made up her mind to
+be Jethro's wife. She had a passion for Jethro, and she knew that Jethro
+reciprocated it. But his aunt, who was ambitious, wished him to look
+higher; and therefore did not encourage such an alliance. Leah was
+however too valuable and too cheap an assistant to be dispensed with,
+and thus removed from such a dangerous proximity, besides the widow
+really had no objection to her, save on account of her poverty.
+
+Leah said nothing when she saw that Jethro's attentions were directed in
+another direction; but without saying anything directly to Dulcibel,
+she contrived to impress her with the fact that she had trespassed upon
+her rightful domain. For Leah was a cat; and amidst her soft purrings,
+she would occasionally put out her velvety paw, and give a wicked little
+scratch that made the blood come, and so softly and innocently too, that
+the sufferer could hardly take offence at it.
+
+Between these sharp intimations of Leah, and the unpleasant revelations
+of the innate hardness of the young man's character, which resulted from
+the closer intimacy of a betrothal, Dulcibel's affection had been
+gradually cooling for several months. But although the longed-for
+estrangement between the two had at length taken place, Leah did not
+feel quite safe yet; for the Widow Sands was very much put out about it,
+and censured her nephew for his want of wisdom in not holding Dulcibel
+to her engagement. "She has a good house and farm already, and she will
+be certain to receive much more on the death of her bachelor uncle in
+England," said the aunt sharply. "You must strive to undo that foolish
+hour's work. It was only a tiff on her part, and you should have cried
+your eyes out if necessary."
+
+And so Leah, thinking in her own heart that Jethro was a prize for any
+girl, was in constant dread of a renewal of the engagement, and ready to
+go to any length to prevent it.
+
+Although a member of the "circle" that met at the minister's house, Leah
+was not so regular an attendant as the others; for there were no men
+there and she never liked to miss the opportunity of a private
+conversation with Jethro, opportunities which were somewhat limited,
+owing to the continual watchfulness of her mistress. Still she went
+frequently enough to be fully imbued with the spirit of their doings,
+while not becoming such a victim as most of them were to disordered
+nerves, and an impaired and confused mental and moral constitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Disorderly Scene in Church.
+
+
+If anything were needed to add to the excitement which the condition of
+the "afflicted children," as they were generally termed, naturally
+produced in Salem village and the adjoining neighborhood, it was a scene
+in the village church one Sunday morning.
+
+The church was a low, small structure, with rough, unplastered roof and
+walls, and wooden benches instead of pews. The sexes were divided, the
+men sitting on one side and the women on the other, but each person in
+his or her regular and appointed seat.
+
+It was the custom at that time to select a seating committee of
+judicious and careful men, whose very important duty it was to seat the
+congregation. In doing this they proceeded on certain well-defined
+principles.
+
+The front seats were to be filled with the older members of the
+congregation, a due reverence for age, as well as for the fact that
+these were more apt to be weak of sight and infirm of hearing,
+necessitated this. Then came the elders and deacons of the church; then
+the wealthier citizens of the parish; then the younger people and the
+children.
+
+The Puritan fathers had their faults; but they never would have
+tolerated the fashionable custom of these days, whereby the wealthy,
+without regard to their age, occupy the front pews; and the poorer
+members, no matter how aged, or infirm of sight or hearing are often
+forced back where they can neither see the minister nor hear the sermon.
+And one can imagine in what forcible terms they would have denounced
+some city meeting-houses of the present era where the church is regarded
+somewhat in the light of an opera house, and the doors of the pews kept
+locked and closed until those who have purchased the right to reserved
+seats shall have had the first chance to enter.
+
+The Reverend Master Lawson, a visiting elder, was the officiating
+minister on the Sunday to which we have referred. The psalm had been
+sung after the opening prayer and the minister was about to come forward
+to give his sermon, when, before he could rise from his seat, Abigail
+Williams, the niece of the Reverend Master Parris, only twelve years
+old, and one of the "circle" cried out loudly:--"Now stand up and name
+your text!"
+
+When he had read the text, she exclaimed insolently, "It's a long text."
+And then when he was referring to his doctrine, she said:--"I know no
+doctrine you mentioned. If you named any, I have forgotten it."
+
+And then when he had concluded, she cried out, "Look! there sits Goody
+Osburn upon the beam, suckling her yellow-bird betwixt her fingers."
+
+Then Ann Putnam, that other child of twelve, joined in; "There flies the
+yellow-bird to the minister's hat, hanging on the pin in the pulpit."
+
+Of course such disorderly proceedings produced a great excitement in the
+congregation; but the two children do not appear to have been rebuked by
+either of the ministers, or by any of the officers of the church; it
+seeming to have been the general conclusion that they were not
+responsible for what they said, but were constrained by an irresistible
+and diabolical influence. In truth, the children were regarded with awe
+and pity instead of reproof and blame, and therefore naturally felt
+encouraged to further efforts in the same direction.
+
+I have said that this was the general feeling, but that feeling was not
+universal. Several of the members, notably young Joseph Putnam, Francis
+Nurse and Peter Cloyse were very much displeased at the toleration shown
+to such disorderly doings, and began to absent themselves from public
+worship, with the result of incurring the anger of the children, who
+were rapidly assuming the role of destroying angels to the people of
+Salem village and its vicinity.
+
+As fasting and prayer were the usual resources of our Puritan fathers in
+difficulties, these were naturally resorted to at once upon this
+occasion. The families to which the "afflicted children" belonged
+assembled the neighbors--who had also fasted--and, under the guidance of
+the Reverend Master Parris, besought the Lord to deliver them from the
+power of the Evil One. These were exciting occasions, for, whenever
+there was a pause in the proceedings, such of the "afflicted" as were
+present would break out into demoniac howlings, followed by contortions
+and rigid trances, which, in the words of our manuscript, were "enough
+to make the devil himself weep."
+
+These village prayers, however, seeming to be insufficient, Master
+Parris called a meeting of the neighboring ministers; but the prayers of
+these also had no effect. The "children" even surpassed themselves on
+this occasion. The ministers could not doubt the evidence of their own
+reverend eyes and ears, and united in the declaration of their belief
+that Satan had been let loose in this little Massachusetts village, to
+confound and annoy the godly, to a greater extent than they had ever
+before known or heard of. And now that the ministers had spoken, it was
+almost irreligious and atheistical for others to express any doubt. For
+if the ministers could not speak with authority in a case of this kind,
+which seemed to be within their peculiar field and province, what was
+their judgment worth upon any matter?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A Conversation with Dulcibel.
+
+
+As Dulcibel sat in the little room which she had furnished in a pretty
+but simple way for a parlor, some days after the meeting of the
+ministers, her thoughts naturally dwelt upon all these exciting events
+which were occurring around her. It was an April day, and the snow had
+melted earlier than usual, and it seemed as if the spring might be an
+exceptionally forward one. The sun was pleasantly warm, and the wind
+blowing soft and gently from the south; and a canary bird in the rustic
+cage that hung on the wall was singing at intervals a hymn of rejoicing
+at the coming of the spring. The bird was one that had been given her by
+a distinguished sea-captain of Boston town, who had brought it home from
+the West Indies. Dulcibel had tamed and petted it, until she could let
+it out from the cage and allow it to fly around the room; then, at the
+words, "Come Cherry," as she opened the little door of the cage, the
+bird would fly in again, knowing that he would be rewarded for his good
+conduct with a little piece of sweet cake.
+
+Cherry would perch on her finger and sing his prettiest strains on some
+occasions; and at others eat out of her hand. But his prettiest feat was
+to kiss his mistress by putting his little beak to her lips, when she
+would say in a caressing tone, "Kiss me, pretty Cherry."
+
+After playing with the canary for a little while, Dulcibel sighed and
+put him back in his cage, hearing a knock at the front door of the
+cottage. And she had just turned from the cage to take a seat, when the
+door opened and two persons entered.
+
+"I am glad to see you, friends," she said calmly, inviting them to be
+seated.
+
+It was Joseph Putnam, accompanied by his friend and visitor, Ellis
+Raymond, the young man of whom Dulcibel had spoken to Jethro Sands.
+
+Joseph Putnam was one of that somewhat distinguished family from whom
+came the Putnams of Revolutionary fame; Major-General Israel Putnam, the
+wolf-slayer, being one of his younger children. He, the father I mean,
+was a man of fine, athletic frame, not only of body but of mind. He was
+one of the very few in Salem village who despised the whole
+witch-delusion from the beginning. He did not disbelieve in the
+existence of witches--or that the devil was tormenting the "afflicted
+children"--but that faith should be put in their wild stories was quite
+another matter.
+
+Of his companion, Master Ellis Raymond, I find no other certain account
+anywhere than in my Quaker friend's manuscript. From the little that is
+there given of personal description I have only the three phrases "a
+comelie young man," "a very quick-witted person," "a very determined and
+courageous man," out of which to build a physical and spiritual
+description. And so I think it rather safer to leave the portraiture to
+the imagination of my readers.
+
+"Do you expect to remain long in Salem?" asked Dulcibel.
+
+"I do not know yet," was the reply. "I came that I might see what
+prospects the new world holds out to young men."
+
+"I want Master Raymond to purchase the Orchard Farm, and settle down
+among us," said Joseph Putnam. "It can be bought I think."
+
+"I have heard people say the price is a very high one," said Dulcibel.
+
+"It is high but the land is worth the money. In twenty years it will
+seem very low. My father saw the time when a good cow was worth as much
+as a fifty-acre farm, but land is continually rising in value."
+
+"I shall look farther south before deciding," said Raymond. "I am told
+the land is better there; besides there are too many witches here," and
+he smiled.
+
+"We have been up to see my brother Thomas," continued Joseph Putnam. "He
+always has had the reputation of being a sober-headed man, but he is all
+off his balance now."
+
+"What does Mistress Putnam say?" asked Dulcibel.
+
+"Oh, she is at the bottom of all his craziness, she and that elfish
+daughter. Sister Ann is a very intelligent woman in some respects, but
+she is wild upon this question."
+
+"I am told by the neighbors that the child is greatly afflicted."
+
+"She came in the room while we were there," responded Master Raymond. "I
+knew not what to make of it. She flung herself down on the floor, she
+crept under the table, she shrieked, she said Goody Osburn was sticking
+pins in her, and wound up by going into convulsions."
+
+"What can it all mean?--it is terrible," said Dulcibel.
+
+"Well, the Doctor says she is suffering under an 'evil hand,' and the
+ministers have given their solemn opinion that she is bewitched; and
+brother Thomas and Sister Ann, and about all the rest of the family
+agree with them."
+
+"I am afraid it will go hard with those two old women," interposed Ellis
+Raymond.
+
+"They will hang them as sure as they are tried," answered Joseph Putnam.
+"Not that it makes much difference, for neither of them is much to speak
+of; but they have a right to a fair trial nevertheless, and they cannot
+get such a thing just now in Salem village.
+
+"I can hardly believe there are such things as witches," said Dulcibel,
+"and if there are, I do not believe the good Lord would allow them to
+torment innocent children."
+
+"Oh, I don't know that it will do to say there are no witches," replied
+Joseph Putnam gravely. "It seems to me we must give up the Bible if we
+say that. For the Old Testament expressly commands that we must not
+suffer a witch to live; and it would be absurd to give such a command if
+there were no such persons as witches."
+
+"I suppose it must be so," admitted Dulcibel, with a deep sigh.
+
+"And then again in the New Testament we have continual references to
+persons possessed with devils, and others who had familiar spirits, and
+if such persons existed then, why not now?"
+
+"Oh, of course, it is so," again admitted Dulcibel with even a deeper
+sigh than before.
+
+But even in that day, outside of the Puritan and other religious bodies,
+there were unbelievers; and Ellis Raymond had allowed himself to smile
+once or twice, unperceived by the others, during their conversation.
+Thus we read in the life of that eminent jurist, the Honorable Francis
+North, who presided at a trial for witchcraft about ten years before the
+period of which we are writing, that he looked upon the whole thing as a
+vulgar delusion, though he said it was necessary to be very careful to
+conceal such opinions from the juries of the time, or else they would
+set down the judges at once as irreligious persons, and bring in the
+prisoners guilty.
+
+"I am not so certain of it," said Ellis Raymond.
+
+"How! What do you mean, Master Raymond?" exclaimed Joseph Putnam; like
+all his family, he was orthodox to the bone in his opinions.
+
+"My idea is that in the old times they supposed all distracted and
+insane people--especially the violent ones, the maniacs--to be possessed
+with devils."
+
+"Do you think so?" queried Dulcibel in a glad voice, a light seeming to
+break in upon her.
+
+"Well, I take it for granted that there were plenty of insane people in
+the old times as there are now; and yet I see no mention of them as
+such, in either the Old or the New Testament."
+
+"I never thought of that before; it seems to me a very reasonable
+explanation, does it not strike you so, Master Putnam?"
+
+"So reasonable, that it reasons away all our faith in the absolute
+truthfulness of every word of the holy scriptures," replied Joseph
+Putnam sternly. "Do you suppose the Evangelists, when they spoke of
+persons having 'familiar spirits,' and being 'possessed of devils,' did
+not know what they were talking about? I would rather believe that every
+insane person now is possessed with a devil, and that such is the true
+explanation of his or her insanity, than to fly in the face of the holy
+scriptures as you do, Master Raymond."
+
+Dulcibel's countenance fell. "Yes," she responded in reverential tones,
+"the holy Evangelists must know best. If they said so, it must be so."
+
+"You little orthodox darling!" thought young Master Raymond, gazing upon
+her beautiful sad face. But of course he did not express himself to such
+an effect, except by his gaze; and Dulcibel happening to look up and
+catch the admiring expression of two clear brown eyes, turned her own
+instantly down again, while a faint blush mantled her cheeks.
+
+The young Englishman knew that in arousing such heterodox opinions he
+was getting on dangerous ground. For expressing not a greater degree of
+heresy than he had uttered, other men and even women had been turned
+neck and heels out of the Puritan settlements. And as he had no desire
+to leave Salem just at present, he began to "hedge" a little, as betting
+men sometimes say.
+
+"Insane people, maniacs especially, do sometimes act as if they were
+possessed of the devil," he said frankly. "And no doubt their insanity
+is often the result of the sinful indulgence of their wicked
+propensities and passions."
+
+"Yes, that seems to be very reasonable," said Dulcibel. "Every sinful
+act seems to me a yielding to the evil one, and such yielding becoming
+common, he may at least be able to enter into the soul, and take
+absolute possession of it. Oh, it is very fearful!" and she shuddered.
+
+"But I find one opinion almost universal in Salem," continued Raymond,
+"and that is one which I think has no ground to sustain it in the
+scriptures, and is very mischievous. It is that the devil cannot act
+directly upon human beings to afflict and torment them; but that he is
+forced to have recourse to the agency of other human beings, who have
+become his worshipers and agents. Thus in the cases of these children
+and young girls, instead of admitting that the devil and his imps are
+directly afflicting them, they begin to look around for witches and
+wizards as the sources of the trouble."
+
+"Yes," responded Joseph Putnam earnestly, "that false and unscriptural
+doctrine is the source of all the trouble. That little Ann Putnam,
+Abigail Williams and the others are bewitched, may perhaps be true--a
+number of godly ministers say so, and they ought to know. But, if they
+are bewitched, it is the devil and his imps that have done it. If they
+are 'possessed with devils'--and does not that scripture mean that the
+devils directly take possession of them--what is their testimony worth
+against others? It is nearly the testimony of Satan and his imps,
+speaking through them. While they are in that state, their evidence
+should not be allowed credence by any magistrate, any more than the
+devil's should."
+
+It seems very curious to those of the present day who have investigated
+this matter of witch persecutions, that such a sound and orthodox view
+as this of Joseph Putnam's should have had such little weight with the
+judges and ministers and other leading men of the seventeenth century.
+While a few urged it, even as Joseph Putnam did, at the risk of his own
+life, the great majority not only of the common people but of the
+leading classes, regarded it as unsound and irreligious. But the whole
+history of the world proves that the _vox populi_ is very seldom the
+_vox Dei_. The light shines down from the rising sun in the heavens, and
+the mountain tops first receive the rays. The last new truth is always
+first perceived by the small minority of superior minds and souls. How
+indeed could it be otherwise, so long as truth like light always shines
+down from above?
+
+"Have you communicated this view to your brother and sister?" asked
+Dulcibel.
+
+"I have talked with them for a whole evening, but I do think Sister Ann
+is possessed too," replied Joseph Putnam. "She fairly raves sometimes.
+You know how bitterly she feels about that old church quarrel, when a
+small minority of the Parish succeeded in preventing the permanent
+settlement of her sister's husband as minister. She seems to have the
+idea that all that party are emissaries of Satan. I do not wonder her
+little girl should be so nervous and excitable, being the child of such
+a nervous, high-strung woman. But I am going to see them again this
+afternoon; will you go too, Master Raymond?'
+
+"I think not," replied the latter with a smile, "I should do harm, I
+fear, instead of good. I will stay here and talk with Mistress Dulcibel
+a little while longer."
+
+Master Putnam departed, and then the conversation became of a lighter
+character. The young Englishman told Dulcibel of his home in the old
+world, and of his travels in France and Switzerland. And they talked of
+all those little things which young people will--little things, but
+which afford constant peeps into each other's mind and heart. Dulcibel
+thought she had never met such a cultivated young man, although she had
+read of such; and he felt very certain that he never met with such a
+lovely young woman. Not that she was over intelligent--one of those
+precociously "smart" young women that, thanks to the female colleges and
+the "higher culture" are being "developed" in such alarming numbers
+nowadays. If she had been such a being, I fancy Master Raymond would
+have found her less attractive. Ah, well, after a time perhaps, we of
+the present day shall have another craze--that of barbarism--in which
+the "coming woman" shall pride herself mainly upon possessing a strong,
+healthy and vigorous physical organization, developed within the
+feminine lines of beauty, and only a reasonable degree of intelligence
+and "culture." And then I hope we shall see the last of walking female
+encyclopedias, with thin waists, and sickly and enfeebled bodies; fit to
+be the mothers only of a rapidly dwindling race, even if they have the
+wish and power to become mothers at all.
+
+I am not much of a believer in love at first sight, but certainly
+persons may become very much interested in each other after a few hours'
+conversation; and so it was in the case before us. When Ellis Raymond
+took up his hat, and then lingered minute after minute, as if he could
+not bring himself to the point of departure, he simply manifested anew
+to the maiden what his tones and looks had been telling her for an hour,
+that he admired her very greatly.
+
+"Come soon again," Dulcibel said softly, as the young man managed to
+open the door at last, and make his final adieu. "And indeed I shall if
+you will permit me," was his earnest response.
+
+But some fair reader may ask, "What were these two doing during all the
+winter, that they had not seen each other?"
+
+I answer that Dulcibel had withdrawn from the village gatherings since
+the breaking of the engagement with Jethro. At the best, it was an
+acknowledgment that she had been too hasty in a matter that she should
+not have allowed herself to fail in; and she felt humbled under the
+thought. Besides, it seemed to her refined and sensitive nature only
+decorous that she should withdraw for a time into the seclusion of her
+own home under such circumstances.
+
+As for the village gossips, they entirely misinterpreted her conduct.
+Inasmuch as Jethro went around as usual, and put a bold face upon the
+matter, they came to the conclusion that he had thrown her off, and that
+she was moping at home, because she felt the blow so keenly.
+
+Thus it was that while the young Englishman had attended many social
+gatherings during the winter he had never met the one person whom he was
+especially desirous of again meeting.
+
+One little passage of the conversation between the two it may be well
+however to refer to expressly for its bearing upon a very serious
+matter. Raymond had mentioned that he had not seen her recently flying
+around on that little jet black horse, and had asked whether she still
+owned it.
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Dulcibel; "I doubt that I should be able to sell
+Little Witch if I wished to do so."
+
+"Ah, how is that? She seems to be a very fine riding beast."
+
+"She is, very! But you have not heard that I am the only one that has
+ever ridden her or that can ride her."
+
+"Indeed! that is curious."
+
+I have owned her from a little colt. She was never broken to harness;
+and no one, as I said, has ever ridden her but me. So that now if any
+other person, man or woman, attempts to do so, she will not allow it.
+She rears, she plunges, and finally as a last resort, if necessary, lies
+down on the ground and refuses to stir. "Why, that is very flattering
+to you, Dulcibel," said Raymond smiling. "I never knew an animal of
+better taste."
+
+"That may be," replied the maiden blushing; "but you see how it is that
+I shall never be able to sell Little Witch if I desire to do so. She is
+not worth her keep to any one but me."
+
+"Little Witch! Why did you ever give her a name like that?"
+
+"Oh, I was a mere child--and my father, who had been a sea-captain, and
+all over the world, did not believe in witches. He named her "Little
+Witch" because she was so black, and so bent on her own way. But I must
+change her name now that people are talking so about witches. In truth
+my mother never liked it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+An Examination of Reputed Witches.
+
+
+Warrants had been duly issued against Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and the
+Indian woman Tituba, and they were now to be tried for the very serious
+offence of bewitching the "afflicted children."
+
+One way that the witches of that day were supposed to work, was to make
+images out of rags, like dolls, which they named for the persons they
+meant to torment. Then, by sticking pins and needles into the dolls,
+tightening cords around their throats, and similar doings, the witches
+caused the same amount of pain as if they had done it to the living
+objects of their enmity.
+
+In these cases, the officers who executed the warrants of arrest, stated
+"that they had made diligent search for images and such like, but could
+find none."
+
+On the day appointed for the examination of these poor women, the two
+leading magistrates of the neighborhood, John Hathorne and Jonathan
+Corwin, rode up the principal street of the village attended by the
+marshal and constables, in quite an imposing array. The crowd was so
+great that they had to hold the session in the meeting-house The
+magistrates belonged to the highest legislative and judicial body in the
+colony. Hathorne, as the name was then spelt, was the ancestor of the
+gifted author, Nathaniel Hawthorne--the alteration in the spelling of
+the name probably being made to make it conform more nearly to the
+pronunciation. Hathorne was a man of force and ability--though evidently
+also as narrow-minded and unfair as only a bigot can be. All through the
+examination that ensued he took a leading part, and with him, to be
+accused was to be set down at once as guilty. Never, among either
+Christian or heathen people, was there a greater travesty of justice
+than these examinations and trials for witchcraft, conducted by the very
+foremost men of the Massachusetts colony.
+
+The accounts of the examination of these three women in the manuscript
+book I have alluded to, are substantially the same as in the official
+records, which are among those that have been preserved. I will give
+some quotations to show how the examinations were conducted:--
+
+"Sarah Good, what evil spirit are you familiar with?"
+
+She answered sharply, "None!"
+
+"Have you made no contracts with the Devil?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Why then do you hurt these children?"
+
+"I do not hurt them. I would scorn to do it."
+
+"Here the children who were facing her, began to be dreadfully
+tormented; and then when their torments were over for the time, again
+accused her, and also Sarah Osburn.
+
+"Sarah Good, why do you not tell us the truth? Why do you thus torment
+them?"
+
+"I do not torment them."
+
+"Who then does torment them?"
+
+"It may be that Sarah Osburn does, for I do not."
+
+"Her answers," says the official report, "were very quick, sharp and
+malignant."
+
+It must be remembered in reading these reports, that the accused were
+not allowed any counsel, either at the preliminary examinations, or on
+the trials; that the apparent sufferings of the children were very
+great, producing almost a frenzied state of feeling in the crowd who
+looked on; and that they themselves were often as much puzzled as their
+accusers, to account for what was taking place before their eyes.
+
+In the examination of Sarah Osburn, we have similar questions and
+similar answers. In addition, however, three witnesses alleged that she
+had said that very morning, that she was "more like to be bewitched
+herself." Mr. Hathorne asked why she said that. She answered that either
+she saw at one time, or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian,
+all black, which did pinch her in the neck, and pulled her by the back
+part of the head to the door of the house. And there was also a lying
+spirit.
+
+"What lying spirit was this?"
+
+"It was a voice that I thought I heard."
+
+"What did it say to you?"
+
+"That I should go no more to meeting; but I said I would, and did go the
+next Sabbath day."
+
+"Were you ever tempted further?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why did you yield then to the Devil, not to go to meeting for the last
+three years?"
+
+"Alas! I have been sick all that time, and not able to go."
+
+Then Tituba was brought in. Tituba was in the "circle" or an attendant
+and inspirer of the "circle" from the first; and had marvelous things to
+tell. How it was that the "children" turned against her and accused her,
+I do not know; but probably she had practised so much upon them in
+various ways, that she really was guilty of trying to do the things she
+was charged with.
+
+"Tituba, why do you hurt these children?"
+
+"Tituba does not hurt 'em."
+
+"Who does hurt them then?"
+
+"The debbil, for all I knows.'
+
+"Did you ever see the Devil?" Tituba gave a low laugh. "Of course I've
+seen the debbil. The debbil came an' said, 'Serb me, Tituba.' But I
+would not hurt the child'en."
+
+"Who else have you seen?"
+
+"Four women. Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and two other women. Dey all
+hurt de child'en."
+
+"How does the Devil appear to you?"
+
+"Sometimes he is like a dog, and sometimes like a hog. The black dog
+always goes with a yellow bird."
+
+"Has the Devil any other shapes?"
+
+"Yes, he sometimes comes as a red cat, and then a black cat."
+
+"And they all tell you to hurt the children?"
+
+"Yes, but I said I would not."
+
+"Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning?"
+
+"The black man brought me to her, and made me pinch her."
+
+"Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night and hurt his daughter
+Ann?"
+
+"He made me go."
+
+"How did you go?"
+
+"We rode on sticks; we soon got there."
+
+"Has Sarah Good any familiar?"
+
+"Yes, a yeller bird. It sucks her between her fingers. And Sarah Osburn
+has a thing with a head like a woman, and it has two wings."
+
+("Abigail Williams, who lives with her uncle, the Rev. Master Parris,
+here testified that she did see the same creature, and it turned into
+the shape of Goody Osburn.")
+
+"Tituba further said that she had also seen a hairy animal with Goody
+Osburn, that had only two legs, and walked like a man. And that she saw
+Sarah Good, last Saturday, set a wolf upon Elizabeth Hubbard."
+
+("The friends of Elizabeth Hubbard here said that she did complain of
+being torn by a wolf on that day.")
+
+"Tituba being asked further to describe her ride to Thomas Putnam's, for
+the purpose of tormenting his daughter Ann, said that she rode upon a
+stick or pole, and Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn behind her, all taking
+hold of one another. Did not know how it was done, for she saw no trees
+nor path, but was presently there."
+
+These examinations were continued for several days, each of the accused
+being brought at various times before the magistrates, who seem to have
+taken great interest in the absurd stories with which the "afflicted
+children" and Tituba regaled them. Finally, all three of the accused
+were committed to Boston jail, there to await their trial for practising
+witchcraft; being heavily ironed, as, being witches, it was supposed to
+be very difficult to keep them from escaping; and as their ability to
+torment people with their spectres, was considered lessened in
+proportion to the weight and tightness of the chains with which they
+were fettered. It is not to be wondered at, that under these
+inflictions, at the end of two months, the invalid, Sarah Osburn, died.
+Tituba, however, lay in jail until, finally, at the expiration of a year
+and a month, she was sold in payment of her jail fees. One account
+saying that her owner, the Rev. Master Parris, refused to pay her jail
+fees, unless she would still adhere to what she had testified on her
+examination, instead of alleging that he whipped and otherwise abused
+her, to make her confess that she was a witch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged Witches.
+
+
+Ah this was bad enough, but it was but the beginning of trouble. Tituba
+had spoken of two other women, but had given no names. The "afflicted
+children" were still afflicted, and growing worse, instead of better.
+The Rev. Master Noyes of Salem town, the Rev. Master Parris of Salem
+village, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, and his wife,--which last also was
+becoming bewitched, and had many old enmities--and many other
+influential people and church members, were growing more excited, and
+vindictive against the troubles of their peace, with every passing day.
+
+"Who are they that still torment you in this horrible manner?" was the
+question asked of the children and young women, and they had their
+answers ready.
+
+There had been an old quarrel between the Endicotts and the Nurses, a
+family which owned the Bishop Farm, about the eastern boundary of said
+farm. There had been the quarrel about who should be minister, in which
+the Nurses had sided with the determined opponents of Mistress Ann
+Putnam's reverend brother-in-law. The Nurses and other families were
+staunch opposers of Master Parris's claim to ownership of the Parsonage
+and its grounds. And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusations
+should be made against opponents rather than against friends.
+
+Besides, there were those who had very little faith in the children
+themselves, and had taken a kind of stand against them; and these too,
+were in a dangerous position.
+
+"Who torments you now?" The answer was ready: Martha Corey, and Rebecca
+Nurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the charges being made now against
+the members, often the heads, of the most reputable families in Salem
+town and village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Before the coming of
+the winter snows probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prison
+at Salem and Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge. Two-thirds of these were
+women; many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highest
+reputation for behavior and piety. Yet, they were bound with chains, and
+exposed to all the hardships that attended incarceration in small and
+badly constructed prisons.
+
+A special court composed of the leading judges in the province being
+appointed by the Governor for the trial of these accused persons, a mass
+of what would be now styled "utter nonsense" was brought against them.
+No wonder that the official record of this co-called court of justice is
+now nowhere to be found. The partial accounts that have come down to us
+are sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy. Let us
+recur to the charges against some of these persons:
+
+The Rev. Cotton Mather, speaking of the trial of Bridget Bishop, says:
+"There was one strange thing with which the Court was _newly
+entertained_. As this woman was passing by the meeting-house, she gave a
+look towards the house; and immediately a demon, invisibly entering the
+house, tore down a part of it; so that, though there was no person to be
+seen there, yet the people, at the noise, running in, found a board,
+which was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into another
+quarter of the house."
+
+A court of very ignorant men would be "entertained" now with such a
+story, in a very different sense from that in which the Rev. Cotton
+Mather used the word. The Court of 1692, doubtless swallowed the story
+whole, for it was no more absurd than the bulk of the evidence upon
+which they condemned the reputed witches.
+
+One of the charges against the Rev. Master Burroughs, who had himself
+been a minister for a short time in the village, was, that though a
+small, slender man, he was a giant in strength. Several persons
+witnessed that "he had held out a gun of seven foot barrel with one
+hand; and had carried a barrel full of cider from a canoe to the shore."
+Burroughs said that an Indian present at the time did the same, but the
+answer was ready. "That was the black man, or the Devil, who looks like
+an Indian."
+
+Another charge against Master Burroughs was, that he went on a certain
+occasion between two places in a shorter time than was possible, if the
+Devil had not assisted him. Both Increase Mather, the father, and his
+son Cotton, two of the most prominent and influential of the Boston
+ministers, said that the testimony as to Mr. Burroughs' giant strength
+was alone sufficient rightfully to convict him. It is not improbable
+that the real animus of the feeling against Master Burroughs was the
+belief that he was not sound in the faith; for Master Cotton Mather,
+after his execution, declared to the people that he was "no ordained
+minister," and called their attention to the fact that Satan often
+appeared as an angel of light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Bridget Bishop Condemned to Die.
+
+
+Salem, the habitation of peace, had become, by this time a pandemonium.
+The "afflicted children" were making accusations in every direction, and
+Mistress Ann Putnam, and many others, were imitating their example.
+
+To doubt was to be accused; but very few managed to keep their heads
+sufficiently in the whirlwind of excitement, even to be able to doubt.
+With the exception of Joseph Putnam, and his visitor, Ellis Raymond,
+there were very few, if any, open and outspoken doubters, and indignant
+censurers of the whole affair. Dulcibel Burton also, though in a gentler
+and less emphatic way, sided naturally with them, but, although she was
+much less violent in her condemnation, she provoked even more anger from
+the orthodox believers in the delusion.
+
+For Joseph Putnam, as belonging to one of the most influential and
+wealthy families in Salem, seemed to have some right to have an opinion.
+And Master Raymond was visiting at his house, and naturally would be
+influenced by him.
+
+Besides, he was only a stranger at the best; and therefore, not entirely
+responsible to them for his views. But Dulcibel was a woman, and it was
+outrageous that she, at her years, should set up her crude opinions
+against the authority of the ministers and the elders.
+
+Besides, Joseph Putnam was known to be a determined and even rather
+desperate young man when his passions were aroused, as they seldom were
+though, save in some just cause; and he had let it be known that it
+would be worth any person's life to attempt to arrest him. It was almost
+the universal habit of that day, to wear the belt and sword; and Messrs.
+Putnam and Raymond went thus constantly armed. Master Putnam also kept
+two horses constantly saddled in his stable, day and night, to escape
+with if necessary, into the forest, through which they might make their
+way to New York. For the people of that province, who did not admire
+their Puritan neighbors very much, received all such fugitives gladly,
+and gave them full protection.
+
+As for Master Raymond, although he saw that his position was becoming
+dangerous, he determined to remain, notwithstanding the period which he
+had fixed for his departure had long before arrived. His avowed reason
+given to Joseph Putnam, was that he was resolved to see the crazy affair
+through. His avowed reason, which Master Putnam perfectly understood,
+was to prosecute his suit to Dulcibel, and see her safely through the
+dangerous excitement also.
+
+"They have condemned Bridget Bishop to death," said Master Putnam,
+coming into the house one morning from a conversation with a neighbor.
+
+"I supposed they would," replied Master Raymond. "But how nobly she bore
+herself against such a mass of stupid and senseless testimony. Did you
+know her?"
+
+"I have often stopped at her Inn. A fine, free-spoken woman; a little
+bold in her manners, but nothing wrong about her."
+
+"Did you ever hear such nonsense as that about her tearing down a part
+of the meeting-house simply by looking at it? And yet there sat the best
+lawyers in the colony on the bench as her judges, and swallowed it all
+down as if it had been gospel."
+
+"And then those other stories of her appearing in people's bed-rooms,
+and vanishing away suddenly; and of her being responsible for the
+illness and death of her neighbors' children; what could be more
+absurd?"
+
+"And of the finding of puppets, made of rags and hogs' bristles, in the
+walls and crevices of her cellar! Really, it would be utterly
+contemptible if it were not so horrible."
+
+"Yes, she is to be executed on Gallows Hill; and next week! I can
+scarcely believe it, Master Raymond. If I could muster a score or two of
+other stout fellows, I would carry her off from the very foot of the
+gallows."
+
+"Oh, the frenzy has only begun, my friend," replied Raymond. "You know
+whose trial comes on next?"
+
+"How any one can say a word against Mistress Nurse--that lovely and
+venerable woman--passeth my comprehension," said Joseph Putnam's young
+wife, who had been a listener to the conversation, while engaged in some
+household duties.
+
+"My sister-in-law, Ann Putnam, seems to have a spite against that woman.
+I went to see her yesterday, and she almost foams at the mouth while
+talking of her."
+
+"The examination of Mistress Nurse before the magistrate comes off
+to-day. Shall we not attend it?"
+
+"Of course, but be careful of thy language, Friend Raymond. Do not let
+thy indignation run away with thy discretion."
+
+Raymond laughed outright, as did young Mistress Putnam. "This advice
+from you, Master Joseph! who art such a very model of prudence and
+cold-bloodedness! If thou wilt be only half as cautious and discreet as
+I am, we shall give no offence even to the craziest of them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Examination of Rebecca Nurse.
+
+
+When they arrived at the village, the examination was in progress.
+Mistress Rebecca Nurse, the mother of a large family; aged, venerable,
+and bending now a little under the weight of years, was standing as a
+culprit before the magistrates, who doubtless had often met her in the
+social gatherings of the neighborhood.
+
+She was guarded by two constables, she who needed no guarding. Around,
+and as near her as they were allowed to stand, stood her husband and her
+grown-up sons and daughters.
+
+One of the strangest features of the time, as it strikes the reader of
+this day, was the peaceful submission to the lawful authorities
+practised by the husbands and fathers, and grown-up sons and brothers of
+the women accused. Reaching as the list of alleged witches did in a
+short time, to between one hundred and fifty and two hundred
+persons--nearly the whole of them members of the most respectable
+families--it is wonderful that a determined stand in their behalf was
+not the result. One hundred resolute men, resolved to sacrifice their
+lives if need be, would have put a stop to the whole matter. And if
+there had been even twenty men in Salem, like Joseph Putnam, the thing
+no doubt would have been done.
+
+And in the opinion of the present writer, such a course would have been
+far more worthy of praise, than the slavish submission to such outrages
+as were perpetrated under the names of law, justice and religion. The
+sons of these men, eighty years later, showed at Lexington and Concord
+and Bunker Hill, that when Law and Peace become but grotesque masks,
+under which are hidden the faces of legalized injustice and tyranny,
+then the time has come for armed revolt and organized resistance.
+
+But such was the darkness and bigotry of the day in respect to religious
+belief, that the great majority of the people were mentally paralyzed by
+the accepted faith, so that they were not able in many respects to
+distinguish light from darkness. When an estimable man or woman was
+accused of being a witch, for the term was indifferently applied to both
+sexes, even their own married partners, their own children, had a more
+or less strong conviction that it might possibly be so. And this made
+the peculiar horror of it.
+
+In at least fifty cases, the accused confessed that they were witches,
+and sometimes accused others in turn. This was owing generally to the
+influence of their relatives, who implored them to confess; for to
+confess was invariably to be acquitted, or to be let off with simple
+imprisonment.
+
+But to return to poor Rebecca Nurse, haled without warning from her
+prosperous, happy home at the Bishop Farm, carried to jail, loaded with
+chains, and now brought up for the tragic farce of a judicial
+examination. In this case also, the account given in my friend's little
+book is amply confirmed by other records. Mistress Ann Putnam, Abigail
+Williams (the minister's niece), Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott,
+were the accusers.
+
+"Abigail Williams, have you been hurt by this woman?" said magistrate
+Hathorne.
+
+"Yes," replied Abigail. And then Mistress Ann Putnam fell to the floor
+in a fit; crying out between her violent spasms, that it was Rebecca
+Nurse who was then afflicting her.
+
+"What do you say to those charges?" The accused replied: "I can say
+before the eternal Father that I am innocent of any such wicked doings,
+and God will clear my innocence."
+
+Then a man named Henry Kenney rose, and said that Mistress Nurse
+frequently tormented him also; and that even since he had been there
+that day, he had been seized twice with an amazed condition.
+
+"The villain!" muttered Joseph Putnam to those around him, "if I had him
+left to me for a time, I would have him in an amazed condition!"
+
+"You are an unbeliever, and everybody knows it, Master Putnam," said one
+near him. "But we who are of the godly, know that Satan goes about like
+a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
+
+"Quiet there!" said one of the magistrates.
+
+Edward Putnam (another of the brothers) then gave in his evidence,
+saying that he had seen Mistress Ann Putnam, and the other accusers,
+grievously tormented again and again, and declaring that Rebecca Nurse
+was the person who did it.
+
+"These are serious charges, Mistress Nurse," said Squire Hathorne, "are
+they true?"
+
+"I have told you that they are false. Why, I was confined to my sick bed
+at the time it is said they occurred."
+
+"But did you not send your spectre to torment them?"
+
+"How could I? And I would not if I could."
+
+Here Mistress Putnam was taken with another fit. Worse than the other,
+which greatly affected the whole people. Coming to a little, she cried
+out: "Did you not bring the black man with you? Did you not tell me to
+tempt God and die? Did you not eat and drink the red blood to your own
+damnation?"
+
+These words were shrieked out so wildly, that all the people were
+greatly agitated and murmured against such wickedness. But the prisoner
+releasing her hand for a moment cried out, "Oh, Lord, help me!"
+
+"Hold her hands," some cried then, for the afflicted persons seemed to
+be grievously tormented by her. But her hands being again firmly held by
+the guards, they seemed comforted.
+
+Then the worthy magistrate Hathorne said, "Do you not see that when your
+hands are loosed these people are afflicted?"
+
+"The Lord knows," she answered, "that I have not hurt them."
+
+"You would do well if you are guilty to confess it; and give glory to
+God."
+
+"I have nothing to confess. I am as innocent as an unborn child."
+
+"Is it not strange that when you are examined, these persons should be
+afflicted thus?"
+
+"Yes, it is very strange."
+
+[Illustration: "The Lord knows that I haven't hurt them"]
+
+"Do you believe these afflicted persons are bewitched?"
+
+"I surely do think they must be."
+
+Weary of the proceedings and the excitement, the aged lady allowed her
+head to droop on one side. Instantly the heads of the accusers were bent
+the same way.
+
+Abigail Williams cried out, "Set up Mistress Nurse's neck, our necks
+will all be broken." The jailers held up the prisoner's neck; and the
+necks of all the accused were instantly made straight again. This was
+considered a marvelous proof; and produced a wonderful effect upon the
+magistrates and the people. Mistress Ann Putnam went into such great
+bodily agony at this time, charging it all upon the prisoner, that the
+magistrates gave her husband permission to carry her out of the house.
+Only then, when no longer in the sight of the prisoner, could she regain
+her peace.
+
+"Mistress Nurse was then recommitted to the jail in Salem, in order to
+further examination."
+
+"What deviltry is coming next?" said Joseph Putnam to his friend.
+
+Many of those around glared on the speaker, but he was well known to all
+of them as a daring--and when angered even a desperate young man--and
+they allowed him to say with impunity, freely what no one else could
+even have whispered. His son in after years, looked not into the wolf's
+eyes in the dark den with a sterner gaze, than he looked into the
+superstitious and vengeful wolves' eyes around him.
+
+"To think that a godly old woman like Mistress Nurse, should be
+tormented by this Devil's brood of witches, led on by that she-devil
+sister of mine, Ann Putnam."
+
+Many around heard him, but none cared to meet the young man's fierce
+eyes, as they blazed upon those that were nearest.
+
+"Do control yourself, my friend," whispered Master Raymond. "Preserve
+yourself for a time when your indignation may do some good."
+
+Then the constable brought in a little girl of about five years of age,
+Dorcas Good, a daughter of Sarah Good, who had been arrested on the
+complaint of Edward and Jonathan Putnam.
+
+The evidence against this little girl of five was overwhelming. Mistress
+Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott were the accusers--charging
+the innocent and pretty little creature with biting, pinching and
+choking them--the little girl smiling while they were giving their
+testimony. She was not old enough to understand what it was all about,
+and that even her life was in danger from these demoniacs. They
+absolutely pretended to show the marks of her little teeth in their
+arms. Then, after going through the usual convulsions, they shrieked out
+that she was running pins into them; and the pins were found on
+examination sticking into their bodies.
+
+The little girl was, as I have said, at first inclined to laugh at all
+the curious proceedings, and the spasms and contortions of the
+witnesses, but at last, seeing everyone so solemn and looking so
+wickedly at her, she began to cry; until Joseph Putnam went up to her
+and gave her some sweet cake to eat, which he had provided for his own
+luncheon and then, looking into his kind face, she began to smile again.
+
+The Magistrates frowned upon Master Putnam, as he did this, but he paid
+no attention to their frowns. And when the little girl was ordered back
+to jail as a prisoner to await her trial, he bent down and kissed her
+before she was led away by the constable.
+
+This was the end of the proceedings for that day and the crowd began to
+disperse.
+
+"This is a pretty day's work you have made of it, sister-in-law," said
+Joseph Putnam, striding up to his brother's wife. "You say that you are
+tormented by many devils, and I believe it. Now I want to give you, and
+all the Devil's brood around you, fair warning that if you dare to touch
+with your foul lies any one belonging to my house including the stranger
+within my gates, you shall answer it with your lives, in spite of all
+your judges and prisons."
+
+So saying, he glared at his two brothers, who made no reply, and walked
+out of the meeting-house in which this ungodly business had been
+transacted.
+
+"Oh, it is only Joe," said Thomas Putnam; "he always was the spoiled
+child of the family."
+
+His wife said nothing, but soon a hard, bitter smile took the place of
+the angry flush that the young man's words had produced. Dulcibel Burton
+was not one of his household, nor within his gates.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Burn Me, or Hang Me, I Will Stand in the Truth of Christ.
+
+
+After the trial and conviction of Bridget Bishop, the Special Court of
+seven Judges--a majority of whom were leading citizens of Boston, the
+Deputy Governor of the Province, acting as Chief-Justice--decided to
+take further counsel in this wonderful and important matter of the
+fathers of the church. So the Court took a recess, while it consulted
+the ministers of Boston and other places, respecting its duty in the
+case. The response of the ministers, while urging in general terms the
+importance of caution and circumspection, recommended the earnest and
+vigorous carrying on of the war against Satan and his disciples.
+
+Among the new victims, one of the most striking cases was that of George
+Jacobs and his grand-daughter Margaret. The former was a
+venerable-looking man, very tall, with long, thin white hair, who was
+compelled by his infirmities to support himself in walking with two
+staffs. Sarah Churchill, a chief witness, against him, was a servant in
+his family; and probably was feeding in this way some old grudge.
+
+"You accuse me of being a wizard," said the old man on his examination;
+"you might as well charge me with being a buzzard."
+
+They asked the accused to repeat the Lord's prayer. And Master Parris,
+the minister, who acted as a reporter, said "he could not repeat it
+right after many trials."
+
+"Well," said the brave old man finally, after they had badgered him with
+all kinds of nonsensical questions, "Well, burn me, or hang me, I will
+stand in the truth of Christ!"
+
+As his manly bearing was evidently producing an effect, the "afflicted
+girls" came out in full force the next day at the adjourned session.
+When he was brought in, they fell at once into the most grievous fits
+and screechings.
+
+"Who hurts you?" was asked, after they had recovered somewhat.
+
+"This man," said Abigail Williams, going off into another fit.
+
+"This is the man," averred Ann Putnam; "he hurts me, and wants me to
+write in the red book; and promises if I will do so, to make me as well
+as his grand-daughter."
+
+"Yes, this is the man," cried Mercy Lewis, "he almost kills me."
+
+"It is the one who used to come to me. I know him by his two staffs,
+with one of which he used to beat the life out of me," said Mary
+Walcott.
+
+Mercy Lewis for her part walked towards him; but as soon as she got
+near, fell into great fits.
+
+Then Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams "had each of them a pin stuck in
+their hands and they said it was done by this old Jacobs."
+
+The Magistrates took all this wicked acting in sober earnest; and asked
+the prisoner, "what he had to say to it?"
+
+"Only that it is false," he replied. "I know no more of it than the
+child that was born last night."
+
+But the honest old man's denial went of course, for nothing. Neither did
+Sarah Ingersoll's deposition made a short time afterwards; in which she
+testified that "Sarah Churchill came to her after giving her evidence,
+crying and wringing her hands, and saying that she has belied herself
+and others in saying she had set her hand to the Devil's book." She said
+that "they had threatened her that if she did not say it, they would put
+her in the dungeon along with Master Burroughs."
+
+And that, "if she told Master Noyes, the minister, but once that she had
+set her hand to the book, he would believe her; but if she told him the
+truth a hundred times, he would not believe her."
+
+The truth no doubt is that Master Noyes, Master Parris, Cotton Mather,
+and all the other ministers, with one or two exceptions, having
+committed themselves fully to the prosecution of the witches, would
+listen to nothing that tended to prove that the principal witnesses were
+deliberate and malicious liars; and that, so far as the other witnesses
+were concerned, they were grossly superstitious and deluded persons.
+
+No charity that is fairly clear-sighted, can cover over the evidence of
+the "afflicted circle" with the mantle of self-delusion. Self-delusion
+does not conceal pins, stick them into its own body, and charge the
+accused person with doing it, knowing that the accusation may be the
+prisoner's death. This was done repeatedly by Mistress Ann Putnam, and
+her Satanic brood of false accusers.
+
+Sarah Churchill was no worse than the others, judging by her remorse
+after she had helped to murder with her lying tongue her venerable
+master and we have in the deposition of Sarah Ingersoll, undoubted proof
+that she testified falsely.
+
+When Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott all united in charging
+little Dorcas Good--five years old!--with biting, pinching and almost
+choking them; "showing the marks of her little teeth on their arms, and
+the pins sticking in their bodies, where they had averred she was
+piercing them"--can any sane, clear-minded man or woman suppose it was
+an innocent delusion, and not a piece of horribly wicked lying?
+
+When in open court some of the "afflicted" came out of their fits with
+"their wrists bound together, by invisible means," with "a real cord" so
+that "it could hardly be taken off without cutting," was there not only
+deception, but undeniable collusion of two or more in deception?
+
+When an iron spindle was used by an alleged "spectre" to torture a
+"sufferer," the said iron spindle not being discernible by the
+by-standers until it became visible by being snatched by the sufferer
+from the spectre's hand, was there any self-delusion there? Was it not
+merely wicked imposture and cunning knavery?
+
+I defy any person possessing in the least a judicial and accurate mind,
+to investigate the records of this witchcraft delusion without coming to
+the conclusion that the "afflicted girls," who led off in this matter,
+and were the principal witnesses, continually testified to what they
+knew to be utterly false. There is no possible excuse for them on the
+ground of "delusion." However much we may recoil from the sad belief
+that they testified in the large majority of cases to what they knew to
+be entirely false, the facts of the case compel us with an irresistible
+force to such an unhappy conclusion. When we are positively certain that
+a witness, in a case of life or death, has testified falsely against the
+prisoner again and again, is it possible that we can give him or her the
+benefit of even a doubt as to the animus of the testimony? The
+falsehoods I have referred to were cases of palpable, unmistakable and
+deliberate lying. And the only escape from considering it _wilful_
+lying, is to make a supposition not much in accord with the temper of
+the present times, that, having tampered with evil spirits, and invoked
+the Devil continually during the long evenings of the preceding winter,
+the prince of powers of the air had at last come at their call, and
+ordered a legion of his creatures to take possession of the minds and
+bodies that they had so freely offered to him. For certainly there is no
+way of explaining the conduct of the "afflicted circle" of girls and
+women, than by supposing either that they were guilty of the most
+enormous wickedness, or else that they were "possessed with devils."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Dulcibel in Danger.
+
+
+The terrible excitement of these days was enough to drive the more
+excitable portion of the inhabitants of Salem almost crazy. The work of
+the house and of the farm was neglected; a large number of suspected
+persons and their relatives were sunk in the deepest grief, the families
+of some of the imprisoned knew not where to get their daily food; for
+their property was generally taken possession of by the officers of the
+law at the time of the arrest, the accused being considered guilty until
+they were proved to be innocent. Upon conviction of a capital offence
+the property of the condemned was attainted, being confiscated by the
+state; and the constables took possession at once, in order that it
+might not be spirited away.
+
+And no one outside of the circle of the accusers knew whose turn might
+come next. Neither sex, nor age, nor high character, as we have seen,
+was a bar against the malice, or the wantonness of the "afflicted." The
+man or woman who had lived a righteous life for over eighty years, the
+little child who wondered what it all meant, the maiden whose only
+fault might be to have a jealous rival, all were alike in danger.
+
+Especially were those in peril, however, who dared to take the side of
+any of the accused, and express even the faintest disbelief in the
+justice of the legal proceedings, or the honesty of the witnesses. These
+would be surely singled out for punishment. Again and again, had this
+been done until the voices of all but the very boldest were effectually
+silenced. Those arrested now, as a general thing, would confess at once
+to the truthfulness of all the charges brought against them, and even
+invent still more improbable stories of their own, as this mollified the
+accusers, and they often would be let off with a solemn reprimand by the
+magistrates.
+
+Joseph Putnam and his male servants went constantly armed; and two
+horses were kept saddled day and night, in his stable. He never went to
+the village unaccompanied; and made no secret of his determination to
+resist the arrest of himself or, as he had phrased it, "any one within
+his gates," to the last drop of his blood.
+
+Living with the Goodman Buckley who had leased the Burton property, was
+a hired man named Antipas Newton. He was a good worker though now
+getting old, and had in one sense been leased with the place by
+Dulcibel's father.
+
+Antipas's history had been a sad one. Adopted when left an orphan by a
+benevolent farmer who had no children, he managed by diligence and
+strict economy to acquire by the age of thirty, quite a comfortable
+property of his own. Then the old couple that he called Father and
+Mother became converts to Quakerism. Fined and imprisoned, deprived of
+their property, and, after the expiration of their term of imprisonment,
+ordered to leave the colony, they had been "harbored" by the man for
+whom they had done so much in his early years.
+
+Antipas was a person of limited intelligence, but of strong affections
+and wide sympathies. Again and again, he harbored these persecuted ones,
+who despite their whippings and banishment would persist in returning to
+Salem. Finally, Antipas himself was heavily fined, and his property sold
+to pay the fines. His wife had died early, but a young daughter who kept
+his house in order, and who had failed in her attendance at the church
+which was engaged in persecuting her father, was also fined heavily. As
+her father's property was all gone, and she had no money of her own,
+she could not pay the fine, and was put in prison, to be sent to
+Barbados, and sold as a slave, that thus the fine might be collected.
+But the anguish, and the exposure of her prison, were too much for the
+young girl; and she died before means of transportation could be found.
+
+As a result of these persecutions, Antipas became demented. As his
+insanity grew evident, the prosecutions ceased; but he was still in
+danger of starvation, so few would give him employment, both on account
+of his impaired mind, and of the odium which attached to any friend of
+the abhorred Quakers.
+
+Captain Burton, Dulcibel's father, came to the village at this time. He
+had been one of the sea-captains who had indignantly refused to take the
+Southwick children, or any other of the Salem children, to Barbados;
+and he pitied the poor insane man, and gave him employment. Not only did
+he do this, but, as we have said, made it an article of the lease of his
+property, that the Buckleys should also keep Antipas as a farm servant.
+
+Antipas, to the general surprise of the villagers had proved to be an
+excellent servant, notwithstanding his insanity. Only on training days
+and other periods of excitement, did his insanity obtrude itself. At
+all other times he seemed to be a cheerful, simple-hearted, and very
+capable and industrious "hand."
+
+To Dulcibel, as was natural, Antipas always manifested the greatest
+devotion. Her little black mare was always groomed to perfection, he
+never being satisfied until he took a white linen handkerchief that he
+kept for the purpose, and, passing it over the mare's shining coat, saw
+that no stain or loose black hair remained on it.
+
+"You think that Mistress Dulcibel is an angel, do you not?" said one of
+the female servants to him about this time, a little scornfully.
+
+"No, I know what she is," he replied. "Shall I tell you--but if I do,
+you will not believe"--and he looked at the girl a little doubtfully.
+
+"Oh, yes, I will," said the girl.
+
+"Come here then and I will whisper it to you. I heard the minister read
+about her once, she is the woman that is 'clothed with the sun and has
+the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.'"
+
+"That is wicked, Antipas. If Master Parris heard that you said things
+like that, he would have you whipped and put in the stocks."
+
+"Master Parris? you mean Beelzebub! I know Beelzebub when I see him."
+And Antipas gave one of his unnatural, insane laughs, which were getting
+very frequent of late.
+
+For the general excitement was proving too much for Antipas. Fie stopped
+frequently in his work, and muttered to himself; and then laughed
+wildly, or shed tears. He talked about the witches and the Devil and
+evil spirits, and the strange things that he saw at night, in the insane
+fashion that characterized the "afflicted children."
+
+As for Dulcibel in these times, she kept pretty much to herself, going
+out very little. As she could not sympathize with the general gossip of
+the neighborhood, she remained at home, and consequently had very few
+visitors. Joseph Putnam called whenever he came to the village, which,
+as I have stated, was but seldom; and Ellis Raymond came every few days.
+
+Yes, it was a courtship, I suppose; but one of a very grave and serious
+character. The conversation generally turned upon the exciting events
+continually occurring, some new arrest, some new confession, some new
+and outrageously absurd charges.
+
+Master Raymond's hand, if anyone accosted him suddenly, instinctively
+sought the hilt of his rapier. He was better skilled in the use of that
+weapon than was usual, and had no fear that he should be unable to
+escape from the constables, if not taken at a disadvantage. Still, as
+that would compel him to fly into the woods, and as it would separate
+him from Dulcibel, he had been very careful not to express in public his
+abhorrence of all the recent proceedings. I am afraid that he was guilty
+of considerable dissimulation, even paying his court to some of the
+"afflicted" maidens when he had the opportunity, with soft words and
+handsome presents; and trying in this way to enlist a party in his
+behalf, in case he or any of his friends should need supporters.
+
+Joseph Putnam censured him one day for his double dealing, which was a
+thing not only out of Master Joseph's line, but one which his frank and
+outspoken nature rendered it very difficult for him to practise. But
+Raymond with his references to King David's behavior towards Achish,
+King of Gath, and to certain other scripture, especially Paul's being
+"all things to all men that he might save all," was rather too weighty
+for Joseph, whose forte was sensible assertion rather than ingenious
+argument. And so Master Raymond persevered in his course, feeling no
+more compunction in deceiving the Salemites, as he said to himself, than
+he would in deceiving and cheating a pack of savage wolves, who were
+themselves arrayed in sheep's clothing.
+
+Jethro Sands had of late shown a disposition to renew his attentions to
+Dulcibel; but, after two or three visits, in the last of which he had
+given the maiden the desired opportunity, she had plainly intimated to
+him that the old state of affairs between them could never be restored.
+
+"I know the reason too," said Jethro, angrily "it is all owing to that
+English popinjay, who rides about as if we colonists were not fit to
+dust his pretty coat for him."
+
+"He is a gentleman, and a friend of mine," replied Dulcibel warmly.
+
+"Why do you not say a lover of yours, at once?"
+
+"You have no right to talk to me in that manner. I will not endure it."
+
+"You will not--how will you help it?" He was now thoroughly angry, and
+all his native coarseness came to the surface.
+
+"I will show you," said Dulcibel, the Norse blood of her father glowing
+in her face. "Good evening, Sir!" and she left the room.
+
+Jethro had not expected such a quiet, but effective answer. He sat
+twirling his thumbs, for awhile, hoping that she would return. But
+realizing at last that she would not, he took his departure in a
+towering anger. Of course this was the last of his visits. But Dulcibel
+had made a deadly enemy.
+
+It was unfortunate, for the maiden already had many who disliked her
+among the young people of the village. She was a superior person for one
+thing, and "gave herself airs," as some said. To be superior, without
+having wealth or an acknowledged high social position, is always to be
+envied, and often to be hated. Then again, Dulcibel dressed with more
+richness and variety of costume than was usual in the Puritan villages.
+This set many of the women, both young and old, against her. Her scarlet
+bodice, especially, was a favorite theme for animadversion; some even
+going so far as to call her ironically "the scarlet woman." It is
+curious how unpopular a perfectly amiable, sweet-tempered and
+sweet-tongued maiden may often become, especially with her own sex,
+because of their innate feeling that she is not, in spite of all her
+courteous endeavors, really one of them. It is an evil day for the swan
+when she finds herself the only swan among a large flock of geese.
+
+Dulcibel's antecedents also were not as orthodox as they might be. Her
+mother, it was granted, was "pious," and of a "godly" connection; but
+her father, as he had himself once said, "had no religion to speak of."
+He had further replied to the question, asked him when he first came to
+Salem, as to whether he was "a professor of religion," that he was "only
+a sea captain, and had no other profession." And a certain freedom of
+thought characterized Dulcibel, that she could scarcely have derived
+from her pious mother. In fact, it was something like the freedom of the
+winds and of the clouds, blowing where they liked; and had been probably
+caught up by her father in his many voyages over the untrammeled seas.
+
+At first Dulcibel had been rather impressed by the sermons of Master
+Parris and Master Noyes and the other ministers, to the effect that
+Satan was making a deadly assault upon the "saints," in revenge for
+their interference with his hitherto undisputed domination of the new
+world. But the longer she thought about it, the more she was inclined to
+adopt Joseph Putnam's theory, that his sister-in-law and niece and the
+other "afflicted" persons were possessed by devils.
+
+She inclined to this view in preference even to what she knew was Ellis
+Raymond's real conviction, that they were a set of hysterical and
+vicious girls and women who had rendered themselves half-insane by
+tampering for a whole winter with their nervous and spiritual
+organizations; until they could scarcely now distinguish the true from
+the untrue, the real from the unreal, good from evil, or light from
+darkness.
+
+"They have become reprobates and given over to an evil mind," said
+Master Raymond to her one day; clothing his thought as nearly as he
+could in scriptural language, in order to commend it to her.
+
+"Yes, this seems to be a reasonable explanation of their wicked
+conduct," replied Dulcibel. "But I think after all, that it amounts to
+about the same thing as Joseph Putnam says, only that his is the
+stronger and more satisfactory statement."
+
+And thinking of it, Master Raymond had to come to the same conclusion.
+His own view and that of his friends were about the same, only they had
+expressed themselves in different phrases.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Bad News.
+
+
+The blow fell at last, and where they might have expected it. As Joseph
+Putnam said afterwards, "Why did I not bring them out to my house? They
+would not have dared to take them from under my roof, and they could not
+have done it if they had dared."
+
+One of his servants had been sent to the village on an errand; he had
+not performed his errand, but he had hurried back at once with the news.
+Dulcibel Burton had been arrested the previous evening, about nine
+o'clock, on the charge of being a witch. Antipas Newton had also been
+arrested. Both had been taken to prison, and put in irons.
+
+A desperate, determined look came into the faces of the two men as they
+gathered every word the servant had to tell. Young Mistress Putnam burst
+into tears. But the men dashed a tear or two from their eyes, and began
+to collect their thoughts. It was not weeping but stern daring, that
+would be needed before this thing was through.
+
+The prisoners were to be brought up that afternoon for examination. "I
+have my two men, who will follow wherever I lead them," said Master
+Putnam. "That makes four of us. Shall we carry her off from under their
+very eyes?" And his face glowed--the fighting instinct of his race was
+very strong within him.
+
+"It might not succeed, those men are neither cowards nor babies,"
+answered his guest. "Besides, it would lead probably to your banishment
+and the confiscation of your property. No, we must have the wisdom of
+the serpent, as well as the boldness of the lion."
+
+"The result of the examination may be favorable, so young and good and
+beautiful as she is," said Mistress Putnam.
+
+"They lap their tongues in the blood of lambs, and say it is sweet as
+honey," replied her husband, shaking his head. "No, they will show no
+mercy; but we must try to match them."
+
+"Yes, and with as little hazard and cost to you, my noble friend, as
+possible," said Master Raymond. "Let me act, and take all the risk. They
+cannot get hold of my property; and I would just as lief live in New
+York or Philadelphia or England as among this brood of crazy vipers."
+
+"That is wise counsel, Joseph," said his wife.
+
+"Oh, I suppose it is," he answered emphatically. "But I hate wise
+counsel."
+
+"Still, my good friend, you must admit that, as Dulcibel betrothed
+herself to me only two days ago, I am the one to take the greatest risk
+in this matter."
+
+"Indeed!" said Mistress Putnam. "I knew it would be so; and I told
+Joseph it would be, only yesterday."
+
+"I give you joy of such a mistress!" cried Master Putnam, grasping his
+friend's hand. "Yes, I grant now your right of precedence in this
+danger, and I will follow your lead--yes, to the death!"
+
+"I hold you to that," said Master Raymond. "Remember you are pledged to
+follow my lead. Now, whatever I do, do not wonder, much less express any
+wonder. For this is war, and I have a right to meet craft with craft,
+and guile with guile. Depend upon it, I will save her, or perish with
+her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The Arrest of Dulcibel and Antipas.
+
+
+The arrest of Dulcibel had been entirely unexpected to herself and the
+Buckleys. Dulcibel indeed had wondered, when walking through the village
+in the morning, that several persons she knew had seemed to avoid
+meeting her. But she was too full of happiness in her recent betrothal
+to take umbrage or alarm at such an unimportant circumstance. A few
+months now, and Salem, she hoped, would see her no more forever. She
+knew, for Master Raymond had told her, that there were plenty of places
+in the world where life was reasonably gay and sunny and hopeful; not
+like this dull valley of the shadow of death in which she was now
+living. Raymond's plan was to get married; sell her property, which
+might take a few months, more or less; and then sail for England, to
+introduce his charming wife to a large circle of relatives.
+
+Dulcibel had been reading a book that Raymond had brought to her--a
+volume of Shakespeare's plays--a prohibited book among the Puritan
+fathers, and which would have been made the text for one of Master
+Parris's most denunciatory sermons if he had known that it was in the
+village. Having finished "Macbeth" she laid the book down upon the table
+and began playing with her canary, holding it to her cheek, putting its
+bill to her lips, and otherwise fondling it. While she was thus engaged,
+she began to have the uncomfortable feeling which sensitive persons
+often have when some one is watching them; and turning involuntarily to
+the window which looked out on a garden at the side of the house, she
+saw in the dim light that dark faces, with curious eyes, seemed nearly
+to fill up the lower half of the casement. In great surprise, and with a
+sudden tremor, she rose quickly from the seat; and, as she did so, the
+weird faces and glistening eyes disappeared, and two constables,
+attended by a crowd of the villagers, entered the room. One of these
+walked at once to her side, and seizing her by the arm said, "I arrest
+you, Dulcibel Burton, by the authority of Magistrate Hathorne. Come
+along with me."
+
+"What does all this mean, friend Herrick?" said Goodman Buckley, coming
+into the room.
+
+"It means," said the constable, "that this young woman is no better than
+the other witches, who have been joining hand with Satan against the
+peace and dignity of this province." Then, turning to Dame Buckley, "Get
+her a shawl and bonnet, goodwife; if you do not wish her to go out
+unprotected in the night's cold."
+
+"A witch--what nonsense!" said Dame Buckley.
+
+"Nonsense, is it?" said the other constable. "What is this?" taking up
+the book from the table. "A book of plays! profane and wicked stage
+plays, in Salem village! You had better hold your peace, goodwife; or
+you may go to prison yourself for harboring such licentious devices of
+Satan in your house."
+
+Goodwife Buckley started and grew pale. A book of wicked stage-plays
+under her roof! She could make no reply, but went off without speaking
+to pack up a bundle of the accused maiden's clothing.
+
+"See here!" continued the constable, opening the book, "All about
+witches, as I thought! He-cat and three other witches!
+
+   'Round about the cauldron go:
+   In the poisoned entrails throw.'
+
+It is horrible!"
+
+"Put the accursed book in the fire, Master Taunton," said Herrick.
+
+There was a small fire burning on the hearth, for the evening was a
+little cool, and the other constable threw the book amidst the live
+coals; but was surprised to see that it did not flame up rapidly.
+
+"That is witchcraft, if there ever was witchcraft!" said Jethro Sands,
+who was at the front of the crowd. "See, it will not burn. The Devil
+looks out for his own."
+
+"Yes, we shall have to stay here all night, if we wait for that book to
+burn up," said Master Herrick. "Now if it had been a Bible, or a
+Psalm-book, it would have been consumed by this time."
+
+"My father told me," said one of the crowd, "that they were once six
+weeks trying to burn up some witch's book in Holland, and then had to
+tear each leaf separately before they could burn it."
+
+"Where is the yellow bird--her familiar--that she was sending on some
+witch's errand when we were watching at the window?" said another of the
+crowd.
+
+"Oh, it's not likely you will find the yellow bird," replied Herrick.
+"It is halfway down to hell by this time."
+
+"No, there it is!" cried Jethro Sands, pointing to a ledge over the
+door, where the canary-bird had flown in its fright.
+
+"Kill it! kill the familiar! Kill the devil's imp!" came in various
+voices, the angry tones being not without an inflection of fear.
+
+Several pulled out their rapiers. Jethro was the quickest. He made a
+desperate lunge at the little creature, and impaled it on the point of
+his weapon.
+
+Dulcibel shook off the hold of the constable and sprang forward. "Oh, my
+pretty Cherry," she cried, taking the dead bird from the point of the
+rapier. "You wretch! to harm an innocent little creature like that!" and
+she smoothed the feathers of the bird and kissed its little head.
+
+"Take it from her! kill the witch!" cried some rude women in the outer
+circles of the crowd.
+
+"Yes, mistress, this is more than good Christian people can be expected
+to endure," said constable Herrick, sternly, snatching the bird from her
+and tossing it into the fire. "Let us see if the imp will burn any
+quicker than the book."
+
+"Ah, she forgot to charm it," said the other constable, as the little
+feathers blazed up in a blue flame.
+
+"Yes, but note the color," said Jethro. "No Christian bird ever blazed
+in that color."
+
+"Neither they ever did!" echoed another, and they looked into each
+other's faces and shook their heads solemnly.
+
+At this moment Antipas Newton was led to the door of the room, in the
+custody of another officer. The old man seemed to be taking the whole
+proceeding very quietly and patiently, as the Quakers always did. But
+the moment he saw Dulcibel weeping, with Herrick's grasp upon her arm,
+his whole demeanor changed.
+
+"What devil's mischief is this?" cried the demented man; and springing
+like an enraged lion upon Master Herrick, he dashed him against the
+opposite wall, tore his constable's staff from his hands and laying the
+staff around him wildly and ferociously cleared the room of everybody
+save Dulcibel and himself in less time than I have taken to tell it.
+
+Jethro stepped forward with his drawn rapier to cover the retreat of the
+constables; but shouting, "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" the
+deranged man, with the stout oaken staff, dashed the rapier from
+Jethro's hand, and administered to him a sounding whack over the head,
+which made the blood come. Then he picked up the rapier and throwing the
+staff behind him, laughed wildly as he saw the crowd, constable and
+all, tumbling out of the door of the next room into the front garden of
+the house as if Satan himself in very deed, were after them.
+
+"I will teach them how they abuse my pretty little Dulcibel," said the
+now thoroughly demented man, laughing grimly. "Come on, ye imps of
+Satan, and I will toast you at the end of my fork," he cried,
+flourishing Jethro's rapier, whose red point, crimson with the blood of
+the canary-bird, seemed to act upon the mind of the old man as a spark
+of fire upon tow.
+
+"Antipas," said Dulcibel, coming forward and gazing sadly into the eyes
+of her faithful follower, "is it not written, 'Put up thy sword; for he
+that takes the sword shall perish by the sword'? Give me the weapon!"
+
+The old man gazed into her face, at first wonderingly; then, with the
+instinct of old reverence and obedience, he handed the rapier to her,
+crossed his muscular arms over his broad breast, bowed his grisly head,
+and stood submissively before her.
+
+"You can return now safely," Dulcibel called out to the constables. They
+came in, at first a little warily. "He is insane; but the spell is over
+now for the present. But treat him tenderly, I pray you. When he is in
+one of these fits, he has the strength of ten men."
+
+The constables could not help being impressed favorably by the maiden's
+conduct; and they treated her with a certain respect and tenderness
+which they had not previously shown, until they had delivered her, and
+the afterwards entirely humble and peaceful Antipas, to the keeper of
+Salem prison.
+
+But the crowd said to one another as they sought their houses: "What a
+powerful witch she must be, to calm down that maniac with one word."
+While others replied, "But he is possessed with a devil; and she does it
+because her power is of the devil."
+
+They did not remember that this was the very course of reasoning used on
+a somewhat similar occasion against the Savior himself in Galilee!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Dulcibel in Prison.
+
+
+In the previous cases of alleged witchcraft to which I have alluded, the
+details given in my manuscript volume were fully corroborated, even
+almost to the minutest particulars, by official records now in
+existence. But in what I have related, and am about to relate, relative
+to Dulcibel Burton, I shall have to rely entirely upon the manuscript
+volume. Still, as there is nothing there averred more unreasonable and
+absurd than what is found in the existing official records, I see no
+reason to doubt the entire truthfulness of the story. In fact, it would
+be difficult to imagine grosser and more ridiculous accusations than
+were made by Mistress Ann Putnam against that venerable and truly devout
+and Christian matron, Rebecca Nurse.
+
+When Dulcibel and Antipas, in the custody of four constables, reached
+the Salem jail, it was about eleven o'clock at night. The jailor,
+evidently had expected them; for he threw open the door at once. He was
+a stout, strong-built man, with not a bad countenance for a jailer; but
+seemed thoroughly imbued with the prevailing superstition, judging by
+the harsh manner in which he received the prisoners.
+
+"I've got two strong holes for these imps of Satan; bring 'em along!"
+
+The jail was built of logs, and divided inside into a number of small
+rooms or cells. In each of these cells was a narrow bedstead and a stone
+jug and slop bucket. Antipas was hustled into one cell, and, after being
+chained, the door was bolted upon him. Then Dulcibel was taken into
+another, though rather larger cell, and the jailor said, "Now she will
+not trouble other people for a while, my masters."
+
+"Are you not going to put irons on her, Master Foster?" said Herrick.
+
+"Of course I am. But I must get heavier chains than those to hold such a
+powerful witch as she is. Trust her to me, Master Herrick. She'll be too
+heavy to fly about on her broomsticks by the time I have done with her."
+
+Then they all went out and Dulcibel heard the heavy bolt shoot into its
+socket, and the voices dying away as the men went down the stairs.
+
+She groped her way to the bed in the darkness, sat down upon it and
+burst into tears. It was like a change from Paradise into the infernal
+regions. A few hours before and she had been musing in an ecstasy of joy
+over her betrothal, and dreaming bright dreams of the future, such
+perhaps as only a maiden can dream in the rapture of her first love. Now
+she was sitting in a prison cell, accused of a deadly crime, and her
+life and good reputation in the most imminent danger. One thing alone
+buoyed her up--the knowledge that her lover was fully aware of her
+innocence; and that he and Joseph Putnam would do all that they could do
+in her behalf. But then the sad thought came, that to aid her in any way
+might be only to bring upon themselves a similar accusation. And then,
+with a noble woman's spirit of self-sacrifice, she thought: "No, let
+them not be brought into danger. Better, far better, that I should
+suffer alone, than drag down my friends with me."
+
+Here she heard the noise of the bolt being withdrawn, and saw the dim
+light of the jailer's candle.
+
+As the jailer entered he threw down some heavy irons in the corner of
+the room. Then, he closed the door behind him, and came up to the
+unhappy girl. He laid his hand upon her shoulder and said:
+
+"You little witch!"
+
+Something in the tone seemed to strike upon the maiden's ear as if it
+were not unfamiliar to her; and she looked up hastily.
+
+"Do you not remember me, little Dulcy? Why I rocked you on my foot in
+the old Captain's house in Boston many a day."
+
+"Is it not uncle Robie?" said the girl. She had not seen him since she
+was four years old.
+
+The jailer smiled. "Of course it is," he replied, "just uncle Robie. The
+old captain never went to sea that Robie Foster did not go as first
+mate. And a blessed day it was when I came to be first mate of this
+jail-ship; though I never thought to see the old captain's bonnie bird
+among my boarders."
+
+"And do you think I really am a witch, uncle Robie?"
+
+"Of course ye are. A witch of the worst kind," replied Robie, with a
+chuckle. "Now, when I come in here tomorrow morning nae doobt I will
+find all your chains off. It is just sae with pretty much all the
+others. I cannot keep them chained, try my best and prettiest."
+
+"And Antipas?"
+
+"Oh, he will just be like all the rest of them, doobtless. He is a
+powerful witch, and half a Quaker, besides."
+
+"But do you really believe in witches, uncle Robie?"
+
+"What do these deuced Barebones Puritans know about witches, or the
+devil, or anything else? There is only one true church, Mistress
+Dulcibel. I have sa mooch respect for the clergy as any man; but I don't
+take my sailing orders from a set of sourfaced old pirates."
+
+Then, leaving her a candle and telling her to keep up a stout heart, the
+jailer left the cell; and Dulcibel heard the heavy bolt again drawn upon
+her, with a much lighter heart, than before. Examining the bundle of
+clothes that Goodwife Buckley had made up, she found that nothing
+essential to her comfort had been forgotten, and she soon was sleeping
+as peacefully in her prison cell as if she were in her own pretty little
+chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Dulcibel before the Magistrates.
+
+
+The next afternoon the meeting-house at Salem village was crowded to its
+utmost capacity; for Dulcibel Burton and Antipas Newton were to be
+brought before the worshipful magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan
+Corwin. These worthies were not only magistrates, but persons of great
+note and influence, being members of the highest legislative and
+judicial body in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
+
+Among the audience were Joseph Putnam and Ellis Raymond; the former
+looking stern and indignant, the latter wearing an apparently cheerful
+countenance, genial to all that he knew, and they were many; and
+especially courteous and agreeable to Mistress Ann Putnam, and the
+"afflicted" maidens. It was evident that Master Raymond was determined
+to preserve for himself the freedom of the village, if complimentary and
+pleasant speeches would effect it. It would not do to be arrested or
+banished, now that Dulcibel was in prison.
+
+When the constable, Joseph Herrick, brought in Dulcibel, he stated that
+having made "diligent search for images and such like," they had found a
+"yellow bird," of the kind that witches were known to affect; a wicked
+book of stage-plays, which seemed to be about witches, especially one
+called "he-cat"; and a couple of rag dolls with pins stuck into them.
+
+"Have you brought them?" said Squire Hathorne.
+
+"We killed the yellow bird and threw it and the wicked book into the
+fire."
+
+"You should not have done that; you should have produced them here."
+
+"We can get the book yet; for it was lying only partly burned near the
+back-log. It would not burn, all we could do to it."
+
+"Of course not. Witches' books never burn," said Squire Hathorne.
+
+"Here are the images," said a constable, producing two little
+rag-babies, that Dulcibel was making for a neighbor's children.
+
+The crowd looked breathlessly on as "these diabolical instruments of
+torture" were placed upon the table before the magistrates.
+
+"Dulcibel Burton, stand up and look upon your accusers," said Squire
+Hathorne.
+
+Dulcibel had sunk upon a bench while the above conversation was going
+on--she felt overpowered by the curious and malignant eyes turned upon
+her from all parts of the room. Now she rose and faced the audience,
+glancing around to see one loved face. At last her eyes met his; he was
+standing erect, even proudly; his arms crossed over his breast, his face
+composed and firm, his dark eyes glowing and determined. He dared not
+utter a word, but he spoke to her from the inmost depths of his soul:
+"Be firm, be courageous, be resolute!"
+
+This was what Raymond meant to say; and this is what Dulcibel, with her
+sensitive and impassioned nature, understood him to mean. And from that
+moment a marked change came over her whole appearance. The shrinking,
+timid girl of a moment before stood up serene but heroic, fearless and
+undaunted; prepared to assert the truth, and to defy all the malice of
+her enemies, if need be, to the martyr's death.
+
+And she had need of all her courage. For, before three minutes had
+passed--Squire Hathorne pausing to look over the deposition on which
+the arrest had been made--Mistress Ann Putnam shrieked out, "Turn her
+head away, she is tormenting us! See, her yellow-bird is whispering to
+her!" And with that, she and her little daughter Ann, and Abigail
+Williams and Sarah Churchill and Leah Herrick and several others, flung
+themselves down on the floor in apparent convulsions.
+
+"Oh, a snake is stinging me!" cried Leah Herrick.
+
+"Her black horse is trampling on my breast!" groaned Sarah Churchill.
+
+"Make her look away; turn her head!" cried several in the crowd. And one
+of the constables caught Dulcibel by the arm, and turned her around
+roughly.
+
+"This is horrible!" cried Thomas Putnam--"and so young and fair-looking,
+too!"
+
+"Ah, they are the worst ones, Master Putnam," said his sympathetic
+friend, the Rev. Master Parris.
+
+"She looks young and pretty, but she may really be a hundred years old,"
+said deacon Snuffles.
+
+Quiet at last being restored, Magistrate Hathorne said:
+
+"Dulcibel Burton, why do you torment Mistress Putnam and these others in
+this grievous fashion?"
+
+"I do not torment them," replied Dulcibel calmly, but a little
+scornfully.
+
+"Who does torment them, then?"
+
+"How should I know--perhaps Satan."
+
+"What makes you suppose that Satan torments them?"
+
+"Because they tell lies."
+
+"Do you know that Satan cannot torment these people except through the
+agency of other human beings?"
+
+"No, I do not."
+
+"Well, he cannot--our wisest ministers are united upon that. Is it not
+so, Master Parris?"
+
+"That is God's solemn truth," was the reply.
+
+"Who is it that torments you, Mistress Putnam?" continued Squire
+Hathorne, addressing Mistress Ann Putnam, who had sent so many already
+to prison and on the way to death.
+
+Mistress Putnam was angered beyond measure at Dulcibel's intimation that
+she and her party were instigated and tormented directly by the devil.
+And yet she could not, if she would, bear falser witness than she
+already had done against Rebecca Nurse and other women of equally good
+family and reputation. But at this appeal of the Magistrate, she flung
+her arms into the air, and spoke with the vehemence and excitement of a
+half-crazy woman.
+
+"It is she, Dulcibel Burton. She was a witch from her very birth. Her
+father sold her to Satan before she was born, that he might prosper in
+houses and lands. She has the witch's mark--a snake--on her breast, just
+over her heart. I know it, because goodwife Bartley, the midwife, told
+me so three years ago last March. Midwife Bartley is dead; but have a
+jury of women examine her, and you will see that it is true."
+
+At this, as all thought it, horrible charge, a cold thrill ran through
+the crowd. They all had heard of witch-marks, but never of one like
+this--the very serpent, perhaps, which had deluded Eve. Joseph Putnam
+smiled disdainfully. "A set of stupid, superstitious fools!" he muttered
+through his teeth. "Half the De Bellevilles had that mark."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: "Most part of this noble lineage carried upon their body
+for a natural birth-mark, from their mother's womb, a snake."--_North_.]
+
+"I will have that looked into," said Squire Hathorne. "In what shape
+does the spectre come, Mistress Putnam?"
+
+"In the shape of a yellow-bird. She whispers to it who it is that she
+wants tormented, and it comes and pecks at my eyes."
+
+Here she screamed out wildly, and began as if defending her eyes from an
+invisible assailant.
+
+"It is coming to me now," cried Leah Herrick, striking out fiercely.
+"Oh, do drive it away!" shrieked Sarah Churchill, "it will put out our
+eyes."
+
+There was a scene of great excitement, several men drawing their swords
+and pushing and slashing at the places where they supposed the spectral
+bird might be.
+
+Leah Herrick said the spectre that hurt her came oftenest in the shape
+of a small black horse, like that which Dulcibel Burton was known to
+keep and ride. Everybody supposed, she said, that the horse was itself a
+witch, for it was perfectly black, with not a white hair on it, and
+nobody could ride it but its mistress.
+
+Here Sarah Churchill said she had seen Dulcibel Burton riding about
+twelve o'clock one night, on her black horse, to a witches' meeting.
+
+Ann Putnam, the child, said she had seen the same thing. One curious
+thing about it was that Dulcibel had neither a saddle nor a bridle to
+ride with. She thought this was very strange; but her mother told her
+that witches always rode in that manner.
+
+Here the two ministers of Salem, Rev. Master Parris and Rev. Master
+Noyes, said that this was undeniably true, that it was a curious fact
+that witches never used saddles nor bridles. Master Noyes explaining
+further that there was no necessity for such articles, as the familiar
+was instantly cognizant of every slightest wish or command of the witch
+to whom he was subject, and going thus through the air, there being no
+rocks or gullies or other rough places, there was no necessity of a
+saddle. Both the magistrates and the people seemed to be very much
+instructed by the remarks of these two godly ministers.
+
+That "pious and excellent young man," Jethro Sands, here came forward
+and testified as follows: He had been at one time on very intimate terms
+with the accused; but her conduct on one occasion was so very singular
+that he declined thereafter to keep company with her. Hearing one day
+that she had gone to Master Joseph Putnam's, he had walked up the road
+to meet her on her return to the village. He looked up after walking
+about a mile, and saw her coming towards him on a furious gallop. There
+seemed to have been a quarrel of some kind between her and her familiar,
+for it would not stop all she could do to it. As she came up to him she
+snatched a rod that he had cut in the woods, out of his hand, and that
+moment the familiar stopped and became as submissive as a pet dog. He
+could not understand what it meant, until it suddenly occurred to him
+that the rod was a branch of witch-hazel!
+
+Here the audience drew a long breath, the whole thing was satisfactorily
+explained. Every one knew the magical power of witch-hazel.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: This and many other passages, as the reader will notice,
+are quoted verbatim from the manuscript volume.]
+
+Jethro further testified that Mistress Dulcibel freely admitted to him
+that her horse was a witch; never speaking of the mare in fact but as a
+"little witch." As might be expected, the horse was a most vicious
+animal, worth nothing to anybody save one who was a witch himself. He
+thought it ought to be stoned, or otherwise killed, at once.
+
+The Rev. Master Noyes suggested that if it were handed over to his
+reverend brother Parris, he might be able, by a course of religious
+exercises, to cast out the evil spirit and render the animal
+serviceable. The apostles and disciples, it would be remembered, often
+succeeded in casting out evil spirits; though sometimes, we are told,
+they lamentably failed.
+
+The magistrates here consulted a few minutes, and Squire Hathorne then
+ordered that the black mare should be handed over to the Rev. Master
+Parris for his use, and that he might endeavor to exorcise the evil
+spirit that possessed it.
+
+Dulcibel had regarded with calm and serious eyes the concourse around
+her while this wild evidence was being given. Notwithstanding the peril
+of her position, she could not avoid smiling occasionally at the
+absurdity of the charges made against her; while at other times her brow
+and cheeks glowed with indignation at the maliciousness of her accusers.
+Then she thought, how could I ever have injured these neighbors so
+seriously that they have been led to conspire together to take my life?
+Oh, if I had never come to Salem, to a place so overflowing with malice,
+evil-speaking and all uncharitableness! Where there was so much
+sanctimonious talk about religion, and such an utter absence of it in
+those that prated the most of its possession. Down among the despised
+Quakers of Pennsylvania there was not one-half as much talking about
+religion but three times as much of that kindly charity which is its
+essential life.
+
+"Dulcibel Burton," said Squire Hathorne, "you have heard what these
+evidence against you; what answer can you make to them?"
+
+Blood will assert itself. The daughter of the old sea-captain, himself
+of Norse descent on the mother's side, felt her father's spirit glowing
+in her full veins.
+
+"The charges that have been made are too absurd and ridiculous for
+serious denial. The 'yellow bird' is my canary bird, Cherry, given me by
+Captain Alden when we lived in Boston. He brought it home with him from
+the West Indies. Ask him whether it is a familiar. My black horse
+misbehaved on that afternoon Jethro Sands tells of, as I told him at the
+time; simply because I had no whip. When he gave me his switch, the
+vixenish animal came at once into subjection to save herself a good
+whipping. It was not a hazel switch, his statement is false, and he
+knows it, it was a maple one."
+
+"And you mean to say, I suppose," shrieked out Mistress Ann Putnam,
+"that you have no witch-mark either; that you do not carry the devil's
+brand of a snake over your heart?"
+
+"I have some such mark, but it is a birth-mark, and not a witch-mark. It
+is a simple curving line of red," and the girl blushed crimson at being
+compelled to such a reference to a personal peculiarity. But she
+faltered not in her speech, though her tones were more indignant than
+before. "It is not a peculiarity of mine, but of my mother's family.
+Some say that a distant ancestor was once frightened by a large snake
+coming into her chamber; and her child was born with this mark upon her
+breast. That is all of it. There is no necessity of any examination, for
+I admit the charge."
+
+"Yes," screamed Mistress Putnam again, "your ancestress too was a noted
+witch. It runs in the family. Go away with you!" she cried striking
+apparently at something with her clenched hand. "It is her old great
+grandmother! See, there she is! Off! Off! She is trying to choke me!"
+endeavoring seemingly to unclasp invisible hands from her throat.
+
+The other "afflicted" ones joined in the tumult. With one it was the
+"yellow bird" pecking at her eyes, with another the black horse rearing
+up and striking her with its hoofs. Leah Herrick cried that Dulcibel's
+"spectre" was choking her.
+
+"Hold her hands still!" ordered Squire Hathorne, and a constable sprang
+to each side of the accused maiden and held her arms and hands in a
+grasp of iron.
+
+Joseph Putnam made an exclamation that almost sounded like an oath, and
+made a step forward; but a firm hand was laid upon his shoulder. "Be
+patient!" whispered Ellis Raymond, though his own mouth was twitching
+considerably. "We are the anvil now; wait till our turn comes to be
+sledgehammer!"
+
+Such a din and babel as the "afflicted" kept up! By the curious power of
+sympathy it affected the crowd almost to madness. If Dulcibel looked at
+them, they cried she was tormenting them. If she looked upward in
+resignation to Heaven, they also stared upwards with fixed, stiff necks.
+If she leaned her head one side they did the same, until it seemed as if
+their necks would be broken; and the jailers forced up Dulcibel's neck
+with their coarse, dirty hands.
+
+Dulcibel had not attended any of the other examinations, but similar
+demonstrations on the part of the "afflicted" had been described to her.
+It was very different, however, to hear of such things and to experience
+them in her own person. And if she had been at all a nervous and less
+healthy young woman, she might have been overcome by them, and even led
+to admit, as so many others had admitted under similar influences, that
+she really was a witch, and compelled by her master, the devil, could
+not help tormenting these poor victims.
+
+"Why do you not cease this?" at last cried Squire Hathorne, sternly and
+wrathfully.
+
+"Cease what?" she replied indignantly.
+
+"Tormenting these poor, suffering children and women!"
+
+"You see I am not tormenting them. Bid these men unloose my hands, they
+are hurting me."
+
+"They say your spectre and your familiar are tormenting them."
+
+"They are bearing false witness against me."
+
+"Who does hurt them then?"
+
+"Their master, the devil, I suppose and his imps."
+
+"Why should he hurt them?"
+
+"Because they are liars, and bear false witness; being hungry for
+innocent blood."
+
+The spirit of the free-thinking, free-spoken old sea-captain--nurtured
+by the free winds and the free waves for forty years--was fully alive
+now in his daughter. A righteous, holy indignation at the abominable
+farce that was going on with all its gross lying and injustice had taken
+possession of her, and she cared no longer for the opinions of any one
+around her, and thought not even of her lover looking on, but only of
+truth and justice. "Yes, they are possessed with devils--being children
+of their father, the devil!" she continued scornfully. "And they shall
+have their reward. As for you, Ann Putnam, in seven years from this day
+I summon you to meet those you have slain with your wicked, lying
+tongue, at the bar of Almighty God! It shall be a long dying for you!"
+Then, seeing Thomas Putnam by his wife's side, "And you, Thomas Putnam,
+you puppet in a bad woman's hands, chief aider and abettor of her wicked
+ways, you shall die two weeks before her, to make ready for her coming!
+And you," turning to the constables on each side of her, "for your cruel
+treatment of innocent women, shall die by this time next year!"
+
+The constables loosened their grasp of her hands and shrank back in
+dismay. The "afflicted" suddenly hushed their cries and regained their
+composure, as they saw the accused maiden's eyes, lit up with the
+wildness of inspiration, glancing around their circle with lightning
+flashes that might strike at any moment.
+
+Even Squire Hathorne's wine-crimsoned face paled, lest she would turn
+around and denounce him too. Even if she were a witch, witches it was
+known sometimes spoke truly. And when she slowly turned and looked upon
+him, the haughty judge was ready to sink to the floor.
+
+"As for you, John Hathorne, for your part in these wicked doings," here
+she paused as if waiting to hear a supernatural voice, while the crowded
+meeting-house was quiet as a tomb--"No! you are only grossly deluded;
+you shall not die. But a curse shall be upon you and your descendants
+for a hundred years. They shall not prosper. Then a Hathorne shall arise
+who shall repudiate you and all your wicked works, and the curse shall
+pass away!"
+
+Squire Hathorne regained his courage the instant she said he should not
+die, little he cared for misfortunes that might come upon his
+descendants.
+
+"Off with the witch to prison--we have heard enough!" he cried hoarsely.
+"Tell the jailer to load her well with irons, hands and feet; and give
+her nothing to eat but bread and water of repentance. She is committed
+for trial before the special court, in her turn, and at the worshipful
+judges' convenience."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Well, What Now?
+
+
+The crowd drew long breaths as they emerged from the meeting-house. This
+was the first time that the accused had fully turned upon the accusers.
+It was a pity that it had not been done before; because such was the
+superstition of the day, that to have your death predicted by one who
+was considered a witch was no laughing matter. The blood ran cold even
+in Mistress Ann Putnam's veins, as she thought of Dulcibel's prediction;
+and the rest of the "afflicted" inwardly congratulated themselves that
+they had escaped her malediction, and resolved that they would not be
+present at her trial as witnesses against her, if they could possibly
+avoid it. But then that might not be so easy.
+
+Even the crowd of beholders were a little more careful in the utterance
+of their opinions about Dulcibel than they had been relative to the
+other accused persons. Not that they had much doubt as to the maiden's
+being a born witch--the serpent-mark seemed to most of them a conclusive
+proof of that--but what if one of those "spectres," the "yellow bird"
+or the uncontrollable "black mare" should be near and listening to what
+they were even then saying?
+
+"What do I think about it?" said one of the crowd to his companion. "Why
+I think that if he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon, he
+who abuses a witch should be certain her yellow bird is not listening
+above his left shoulder," and he gave a quick glance in the direction
+alluded to, while half of those near him, as they heard his warning
+words, did the same. And there was not much talking against Dulcibel
+after this, among that portion of the villagers.
+
+Ellis Raymond had heard this speech as he walked silently out of the
+meeting-house with Joseph Putnam, and a grim smile flitted over his
+face. He felt prouder than ever of his beautiful betrothed. He was not a
+man who admired amazons or other masculine women, such, as in these
+days, we call "strong-minded;" he liked a woman to keep in her woman's
+sphere, such as the Creator had marked out for her by making her a
+woman; but circumstances may rightly overrule social conventions, and
+demand action suitable to the emergency. Standing at bay, among a pack
+of howling wolves, the heroic is a womanly as well as manly quality;
+and the gun and the knife as feminine implements, as the needle and the
+scissors. Dulcibel had never reasoned about such things; she was a
+maiden who naturally shrank from masculine self-assertion and publicity;
+but, called to confront a great peril, she was true to the noble
+instincts of her family and her race, and could meet falsehood with
+indignant denial and contempt. How she had been led to utter those
+predictions she never fully understood--not at the time nor afterwards.
+She seemed to herself to be a mere reed through which some indignant
+angel was speaking.
+
+"Well," said Joseph Putnam, as they got clear of the crowd, "brother
+Thomas and sister Ann have wakened up the tiger at last. They will be
+"afflicted" now in dead earnest. Did you see how sister Ann, with all
+her assurance, grew pale and almost fainted? It serves her right; she
+deserves it; and Thomas too, for being such a dupe and fool."
+
+"Do you think it will come true?" said Master Raymond.
+
+"Of course it will; the prediction will fulfill itself. Thomas is
+superstitious beyond all reasonableness; and good Mistress Ann, my
+pious sister-in-law, is almost as bad as he is, notwithstanding her
+lies and trickery. Do you know what I saw that Leah Herrick doing?"
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"In her pretended spasms, when bending nearly double, she was taking a
+lot of pins out of the upper edge of her stomacher with her mouth,
+preparatory of course, to making the accusation that it was Dulcibel's
+doings."
+
+"But she did not?"
+
+"No, it was just before the time that Dulcibel scared them so with the
+predictions; and Leah was so frightened, lest she also should be
+predicted against, that she quietly spit all the pins into her hand
+again."
+
+"Ah, that was the game played by a girl about ten years ago at
+Taunton-Dean, in England. Judge North told my father about it. One of
+the magistrates saw her do it."
+
+"Well, now, what shall we do? They will convict her just as surely as
+they try her."
+
+"Undoubtedly!"
+
+"Shall we attack and break open the jail some dark night, sword in hand?
+I can raise a party of young men, friends of the imprisoned, to do it;
+they only want a leader."
+
+"And all of you go off into perpetual banishment and have all your
+property confiscated?"
+
+"I do not care. I am ready to do it."
+
+"If you choose to encounter such a risk for others, I have no objection.
+I believe myself that if the friends and relatives of the accused
+persons would take up arms in defense of them, and demand their release,
+it would be the very manliest and most sensible thing they could do. But
+the consciences of the people here make cowards of them. They are all in
+bondage to a blind and conceited set of ministers, and to a narrow and
+bigoted creed."
+
+"Then what do you plan?"
+
+"Dulcibel's escape. You know that I managed to see her for a few minutes
+early this morning. She has a friend within the prison. Wait till we get
+on our horses, and I will explain it all to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Antipas Works a Miracle.
+
+
+The next morning Antipas Newton was brought before the Magistrates for
+examination. Antipas seemed so quiet and peaceful in his demeanor, that
+Squire Hathorne could hardly credit the story told by the constables of
+his violent behavior on the night of the arrest.
+
+"I thought you were a Quaker," said he to the prisoner.
+
+"No, only half Quaker; the other half gospeller," replied the old man
+meekly.
+
+Mistress Ann was not present; her husband brought report that she was
+sick in bed. Probably she did not care to come, the game being too
+insignificant. Perhaps she had not quite recovered from the stunning
+effect of Dulcibel's prediction. Though it was not likely that a doom
+that was to be seven years in coming, would, after the first impression
+was past, be felt very keenly. There was time for so much to happen
+during seven years.
+
+But the Rev. Master Parris's little niece, Abigail Williams, was
+present, and several other older members of the "circle," prepared to
+witness against the old man to any extent that seemed to be necessary.
+
+After these had made their customary charges, and had gone through some
+of their usual paroxysms, Joseph Putnam, accompanied by Goodman Buckley,
+came forward.
+
+"This is all folly," said Joseph Putnam stoutly. "We all know Antipas
+Newton; and that he has been deranged in his intellects, and of unsound
+mind for the last twenty years. He is generally peaceful and quiet;
+though in times of excitement like the present, liable to be driven into
+outbreaks of violent madness. Here is his employer, Goodman Buckley, who
+of course knows him best, and who will testify to all this even more
+conclusively than I can."
+
+Then Goodman Buckley took the oath with uplifted hand, and gave similar
+evidence. No one had even doubted for twenty years past, that Antipas
+was simple-minded. He often said and did strange things; but only when
+everybody around him was greatly excited, was he at all liable to
+violent outbreaks of passion.
+
+Squire Hathorne seemed half-convinced; but the Reverend Master Parris
+rose from the bench where he had been sitting, and said he would like
+to be heard for a few moments. Permission being accorded: "What is
+insanity?" said he. "What is the scriptural view of it? Is it anything
+but a judgment of the Lord for sin, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar; or
+a possession by a devil, or devils, as in the Case of the Gadarene who
+made his dwelling among the tombs as told in the fifth chapter of Mark
+and the eighth of Luke? That these were real devils is evident--for when
+permission was given them to enter into the herd of swine, they entered
+into them, and the swine ran down a steep place into the sea and were
+drowned. And as there were about two thousand swine, there must have
+been at least two thousand devils in that one so-called insane man;
+which no doubt accounted for his excessive violence. After the devils
+had left him, we are told that his countrymen came and saw him sitting
+at the feet of Jesus, no longer naked, but clothed and in his right
+mind. Therefore it follows as a logical deduction, that his not being
+before in his right mind was because he was possessed with devils."
+
+The magistrates and people evidently were greatly impressed with what
+Master Parris had said. And, as he sat down, Master Noyes, who was
+sitting beside his reverend brother, rose and said that he considered
+the argument they had just heard unanswerable. It could only be refuted
+by doubting the infallibility of the Scripture itself. And he would
+further add, as to the case before them, that this so-called insanity of
+the prisoner had not manifested itself until he had been repeatedly
+guilty of harboring two of that heretical and abominable sect called
+Quakers and had incurred imprisonment and heavy fines for so doing; to
+pay which fines his property had been rightfully sold. This punishment,
+and the death of his daughter by the decree of a just God, apparently
+not being sufficient to persuade him of the error of his ways, no doubt
+he had been given over to the devil, that he might become a sign and a
+warning to evil-doers. But, instead of repenting of his evil ways, he
+seems to have entered the service of Captain Burton, who was always
+known to be very loose in his religious views and observances; and who
+it now seems was himself a witch, or, as he might be rather more
+correctly termed, a wizard, and the father of the dangerous girl who was
+properly committed for trial yesterday. Going thus downward from bad to
+worse, this Antipas had at last become a witch himself; roaming around
+tormenting godly and unoffending people to please his mistress and her
+Satanic master. In conclusion he said that he fully agreed with his
+reverend brother, that what some of the world's people, who thought
+themselves wise above that which was written, called insanity, was
+simply, as taught in the holy scriptures, a possession by the devil.
+
+Magistrate Hathorne nodded to Magistrate Corwin, and Magistrate Corwin
+nodded in turn decidedly to his learned brother. They evidently
+considered that the ministers had settled that point.
+
+"Well, then," said Joseph Putnam, a little roughly to the ministers,
+"why do you not do as the Savior did, cast out the devils, that Antipas
+may sit down here in his right mind? We do not read that any of these
+afflicted people in Judea were cast into prison. In all cases they were
+pitied, not punished."
+
+"This is an unseemly interruption, Master Putnam," said Squire Hathorne
+sternly. "We all know that the early disciples were given the power to
+cast out devils and that they exercised the power continually, but that
+in later times the power has been withdrawn. If it were not so, our
+faithful elders would cast out the spectres that are continually
+tormenting these poor afflicted persons."
+
+While this discussion had been going on, Antipas had been listening to
+all that was said with the greatest attention. Once only had he
+manifested any emotion; that was when the reference had been made to the
+death of his daughter, who had died from her exposure to the severity of
+the winter season in Salem jail. At this time he put his hand to his
+eyes and wiped away a few tears. Before and after this, the expression
+of his face was rather as of one who was pleased and amused at the idea
+of being the center of attraction to such a large and goodly company. At
+the conclusion of Squire Hathorne's last remark, a new idea seemed to
+enter the old man's confused brain. He looked steadily at the line of
+the "afflicted" before him, who were now beginning a new display of
+paroxysms and contortions, and putting his right hand into one of his
+pockets, he drew forth a coil of stout leather strap. Grasping one end
+of it, he shouted, "I can heal them! I know what will cure them!" and
+springing from between the two constables that guarded him, began
+belaboring the "afflicted" with his strap over their backs and shoulders
+in a very energetic fashion.
+
+Dividing his energies between keeping off the constable and "healing the
+afflicted," and aided rather than hindered by Joseph Putnam's
+intentionally ill-directed efforts to restrain him, the insane man
+managed to administer in a short time no small amount of very exemplary
+punishment. And, as Masters Putnam and Raymond agreed in talking over
+the scene afterwards, he certainly did seem to effect an instantaneous
+cure of the "afflicted," for they came to their sober senses at the
+first cut of the leather strap, and rushed pell-mell down the passage as
+rapidly as they could regardless of the other tormenting "spectres."
+
+"This is outrageous!" said Squire Hathorne hotly to the constables as
+Antipas was at last overpowered by a host of assailants, and stood now
+firmly secured and panting between the two officers. "How dared you
+bring him here without being handcuffed?"
+
+"We had no idea of his breaking out anew, he seemed as meek as a lamb,"
+said constable Herrick.
+
+"Why, we thought he was a Quaker!" added his assistant.
+
+"I am a Quaker!" said Antipas, looking a little dangerous again.
+
+"You are not."
+
+"Thou liest!" said the insane man. "This is one of my off days."
+
+Joseph Putnam laughed outright; and a few others, who were not
+church-members, laughed with him.
+
+"Silence!" thundered Squire Hathorne. "Is this a time for idle levity?"
+and he glared around the room.
+
+"We have heard enough," continued the Squire, after a few words with his
+colleague. "This is a dangerous man. Take him off again to prison; and
+see that his chains are strong enough to keep him out of mischief."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Master Raymond Goes to Boston.
+
+
+Whatever the immediate effect of Dulcibel's prediction had been,
+Mistress Ann Putnam was now about again, as full of wicked plans, and as
+dangerous as ever. She knew, for everybody knew, that Master Ellis
+Raymond had gone to Boston. In a village like Salem at that time, such
+fact could hardly be concealed.
+
+"What had he gone for?
+
+"To see a friend," Joseph Putnam had said.
+
+"What friend?" queried Mistress Ann. That seemed important for her to
+know.
+
+She had accused Dulcibel in the first place as a means of hurting Joseph
+Putnam. But now since the trial, she hated her for herself. It was not
+so much on account of the prediction, as on account of Dulcibel's
+terrific arraignment of her. The accusation that her husband was her
+dupe and tool was, on account of its palpable truth, that which gave her
+perhaps the greatest offence. The charge being once made, others might
+see its truth also. Thus all the anger of her cunning, revengeful nature
+was directed against Dulcibel.
+
+And just at this time she heard from a friend in Boston, who sent her a
+budget of news, that Master Raymond had taken dinner with Captain Alden.
+"Ah," she thought, "I see it now." The name was a clue to her. Captain
+Alden was an old friend of Captain Burton. He it was, so Dulcibel had
+said, from whom she had the gift of the "yellow bird."
+
+She knew Captain Alden by reputation. Like the other seamen of the time
+he was superstitious in some directions, but not at all in others. He
+would not for the world leave port on a Friday--or kill a mother Carey's
+chicken--or whistle at sea; but as to seeing witches in pretty young
+girls, or sweet old ladies, that was entirely outside of the average
+seaman's thoughts. Toward all women in fact, young or old, pretty or
+ugly, every sailor's heart at that day, as in this, warmed
+involuntarily.
+
+She also knew that the seamen as a class were rather inclined to what
+the godly called license in their religious opinions. Had not the
+sea-captains in Boston Harbor, some years before, unanimously refused to
+carry the young Quakeress, Cassandra Southwick, and her brother, to the
+West Indies and sell them there for slaves, to pay the fines incurred by
+their refusal to attend church regularly? Had not one answered for the
+rest, as paraphrased by a gifted descendant of the Quakers?--
+
+   "Pile my ship with bars of silver--pack with coins of Spanish gold,
+   From keelpiece up to deck-plank the roomage of her hold,
+   By the living God who made me! I would sooner in your bay
+   Sink ship and crew and cargo, than bear this child away!"
+
+And so Master Raymond, who it was rumored had been a great admirer of
+Dulcibel Burton, was on a visit to Boston, to see her father's old
+friend, Captain John Alden! Mistress Putnam thought she could put two
+and two together, if any woman could. She would check-mate that game--and
+with one of her boldest strokes, too--that should strike fear into the
+soul of even Joseph Putnam himself, and teach him that no one was too
+high to be above the reach of her indignation.
+
+The woman was so fierce in this matter, that I sometimes have
+questioned, could she ever have loved and been scorned by Joseph Putnam?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A Night Interview.
+
+
+A few days passed and Master Raymond was back again; with a pleasant
+word and smile for all he met, as he rode through the village. Mistress
+Ann Putnam herself met him on the street and he pulled up his horse at
+the side-path as she stopped, and greeted her.
+
+"So you have been to Boston?" she said.
+
+"Yes, I thought I would take a little turn and hear what was going on up
+there."
+
+"Who did you see--any of our people?"
+
+"Oh, yes--the Nortons and the Mathers and the Higginsons and the
+Sewalls--I don't know all.
+
+"Good day; remember me to my kind brother Joseph and his wife," said
+she, and Raymond rode on.
+
+"What did that crafty creature wish to find out by stopping me?" he
+thought to himself.
+
+"He did not mention Captain Alden. Yes, he went to consult him," thought
+Mistress Putnam.
+
+Master Joseph Putnam was so anxious to meet his friend, that he was
+standing at the turning in the lane that led up to his house.
+
+"Well, what did the Captain say?"
+
+"He was astounded. Then he gave utterance to some emphatic expressions
+about hell-fire and damnation which he had probably heard in church."
+
+"I know no more appropriate occasion to use them," commented young
+Master Joseph drily. "If it were not for certain portions of the psalms
+and the prophets, I could hardly get through the time comfortably
+nowadays."
+
+"If we can get her safely to Boston, he will see that a fast vessel is
+ready to take us to New York; and he will further see that his own
+vessel--the Colony's rather, which he commands--never catches us."
+
+"That looks well. I managed to see Dulcibel for a few minutes to-day,
+and"--
+
+"How is she?" inquired Raymond eagerly. "Does she suffer much?"
+
+"Not very much I think. No more than is necessary to save appearances.
+She told me that the jailer was devoted to her. He will meet you
+to-night after dark on the hill, to arrange matters."
+
+"Say that we get from the prison by midnight. Then it will take at least
+three hours riding to reach Boston--though we shall not enter the
+town."
+
+"Three hours! Yes, four," commented his friend; "or even five if the
+night be dark and stormy; and such a night has manifest advantages.
+Still, as I suppose you must wait for a northwest wind, that is pretty
+sure to be a clear one."
+
+"Yes, the main thing is to get out into the open sea. Captain Alden
+plans to procure a Danish vessel, whose skipper once out of sight of
+land, will oppose any recapture by force."
+
+"I suppose however you will sail for New York?"
+
+"Yes, that is the nearest port and we shall be perfectly safe there.
+Still Jamestown would do. The Delaware is nearer than the James, but I
+am afraid the Quakers would not be able to protect us, as they are too
+good to oppose force by force."
+
+"Too good! too cranky!" said Master Putnam. "A pretty world the rascals
+would make of it, if the honest men were too good to fight. It seems to
+me there is something absolutely wicked in their non-resistant notions."
+
+"Yes, it is no worse to kill a two-legged tiger or wolf than a
+four-legged one; one has just as good a right to live as the other."
+
+"A better, I think," replied Master Putnam. "The tiger or wolf is
+following out his proper nature; the human tiger or wolf is violating
+his."
+
+"You know I rather like the Quakers," rejoined Master Raymond. "I like
+their general idea of considering the vital spirit of the Scripture more
+than the mere outward letter. But in this case, it seems to me, they are
+in bondage to the mere letter 'thou shalt not kill;' not seeing that to
+kill, in many cases, is really to save, not only life, but all that
+makes life valuable."
+
+That evening just about dusk, the two young men mounted their horses,
+and rode down one of the roads that led to Salem town, leaving Salem
+village on the right--thinking best not to pass through the village.
+Within a mile or so of the town, Master Putnam said, "here is the place"
+and led the way into a bridle path that ran into the woods. In about
+five minutes he halted again, gave a low whistle, and a voice said, a
+short distance from them, "Who are you, strangers?"
+
+"Friends in need," replied Master Putnam.
+
+"Then ye are friends indeed," said the voice; and Robert Foster, the
+jailer, stepped from behind the trunk of a tree into the path.
+
+"Well, Robie, how's the little girl?" said Master Joseph.
+
+"Bonnie as could be expected," was the answer.
+
+"She sends word to you, sir," addressing Master Raymond, "that you had
+better not come to see her. She knows well all you could say--just as
+well as if she heard it, the brave, bonnie lassie!"
+
+"I know it," replied Master Raymond. "Tell her I think of her every
+moment--and that things look bright."
+
+"Let us get out of this glooming, and where we can see a rod around us,"
+suggested the jailer. "I like to see at least as far as my elbow, when I
+am talking confidentially."
+
+"I will go--you stay here with the horses," said Raymond to Master
+Putnam. "I do not want you mixed up with this thing any more than is
+absolutely necessary."
+
+"Oh, I do not care for the risk--I like it," replied his friend.
+
+"Stay, nevertheless," insisted Master Raymond. And getting down from his
+horse, and handing the bridle rein to Master Putnam, he followed the
+jailer out into an open space, where the rocks coming to the surface,
+had prevented the growth of the forest. Here it was a little lighter
+than it had been in the wood-path; but, the clouds having gathered over
+the sky since they started, it was not possible to see very far around
+them.
+
+"Hold up there!" cried Robie, catching Raymond by the arm--"why, man,
+do you mean to walk straight over the cliff?"
+
+"I did not know any chasm was there," said Raymond. "I never saw this
+place before. Master Putnam said it was a spot where we should not be
+likely to be molested. And it does look desolate enough." He leaned back
+against one of two upright planks which seemed to have been placed there
+for some purpose, and looked at a little pile of dirt and stones not far
+from his feet.
+
+"No," said the jailer. "I opine we shall not be disturbed here. I do not
+believe there is more than three persons in Salem that would be willing
+to come to this hill at this time of day,--and they are here already."
+And the jailer smiled audibly.
+
+"Why, how is that?"
+
+"Because they are all so damnably sooperstitious!" replied Robie, with
+an air of vast superiority.
+
+"Ah! is this place then said to be haunted?"
+
+"Yes,--poor Goodwife Bishop's speerit is said to haunt it. But as she
+never did anybody any harm while she was living, I see not why she
+should harm any one now that she is dead."
+
+"And so brave Bridget was executed near this place? Where was the foul
+murder done?"
+
+"You are leaning against the gallows," said Robie quietly. "And that
+pile of stones at your feet is over her grave."
+
+Raymond was a brave man, physically and morally, and not at all
+superstitious; but he recoiled involuntarily from the plank against
+which he had been leaning, and no longer allowed his right foot to rest
+upon the top stones of the little heap that marked the grave.
+
+"Oh, I thought you knew it," said the jailer calmly. "I say, let them
+fear goodwife Bishop's ghost who did her wrong. As for me, I favored her
+all I dared; and her last word to me was a blessing. But now for your
+honor's business, I have not long to stay."
+
+"I have planned all but the getting out of jail. Can it be easily done?"
+
+"As easy as walking out of a room."
+
+"Will you not be suspected?"
+
+"Not at all, I think--they are so mightily sooperstitious. I shall lock
+everything tight after her; and make up a good story about my wakening
+up in the middle of the night, just in time to see her flying out of the
+top o' the house, on her black mare, and thrashing the animal with a
+broom-handle. The bigger the lie the quicker they will believe it."
+
+"If they should suspect you, let Master Putnam know, and he will get you
+off, if wit and money together can do it."
+
+"Oh, I believe that," said the jailer. "Master Putnam is well known in
+all these parts, as a man that never deserts a friend; and I'll warrant
+you are one of the same grit."
+
+"My hand on it, Robie!" and he shook the jailer's hand warmly. "I shall
+never forget this service."
+
+"I am a rough, ignorant man," replied Robie quietly; "but I know gentle
+blood when I see it."
+
+"What time of night will suit you best?"
+
+"Just about twelve o'clock at night. That is the time all the ghosts and
+goblins and weetches choose; and when all honest people are in their
+beds, and in their first and soundest sleep."
+
+"We shall not be able to give you much warning, for we must wait a
+favorable wind and tide."
+
+"So you let me know by nightfall, it will do."
+
+"And now for the last point--what do I pay you? I know we are asking you
+to run a great risk. The men that whip gentlewomen, at the cart's tail,
+and put little children into jail, and sell them as slaves, will not
+spare you, if they find out what you have done. Thank God, I am rich
+enough to pay you well for taking such a fearful risk and shall be only
+too glad to reward your unselfish deed."
+
+"Not a shilling!" replied Robie proudly. "I am not doing this thing for
+pay. It is for the old Captain's little girl, that I have held in these
+arms many a day--and for the old Captain himself. While these bloody
+landsmen," continued the old sailor, "plague and persecute each other,
+Master Raymond, what is that to us, we men of the sea, who have a creed
+and a belief of our own, and who never even think of hurting a woman or
+a child? But as for these landsmen, sticking at home all the time, how
+can they be expected to know anything--compared to men that have doubled
+both Capes, and seen people living all sorts of ways, and believing all
+sorts of things? No, no," and Robie laughed disdainfully, "let these
+land-lubbers attend to their own affairs; but let them keep their hands
+off us seamen and our families."
+
+"So be it then, Robie; I honor your feelings! But nevertheless I shall
+not forget you. And one of these days, if we get off safely, you shall
+hear from me again about this matter."
+
+And then, their plans settled, Robie trudged down to the town; while the
+young men rode back the way they had come, to Master Putnam's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+The Reverend Master Parris Exorcises "Little Witch."
+
+
+It will be remembered that Squire Hathorne had directed that Dulcibel's
+little horse should be handed over to the Reverend Master Parris, in
+order that it might be brought into due subjection.
+
+This had pleased Master Parris very much. In the first place he was of a
+decidedly acquisitive turn--as had been shown in his scheming to obtain
+a gift of the minister's house and orchard--and moreover, if he was able
+to cast out the devil that evidently possessed this horse, and make it a
+sober and docile riding animal, it would not only be the gain of a very
+pretty beast, but would prove that something of the power of casting out
+devils, which had been given to the disciples of old, had come down unto
+him. In such a case, his fame probably would equal, if not surpass, that
+of the great Boston ministers, Increase and Cotton Mather.
+
+Goodman Buckley had brought down the little mare, the next morning after
+the examination. The mare would lead very well, if the person leading
+her was on horseback--very badly, if he were not, except under peculiar
+circumstances. She was safely housed in the minister's stable, and gazed
+at with mingled fear and admiration by the family and their immediate
+neighbors. Master Parris liked horses, had some knowledge of the right
+way to handle them, and showed more wisdom in his treatment of this
+rather perverse animal of Dulcibel's than he had ever manifested in his
+church difficulties.
+
+He began by what he called a course of conciliation--to placate the
+devil, as it were. How he could bring his conscience to allow of this, I
+am not able to understand. But then the mare, if the devil were once
+cast out, would be, on account of her rare beauty, a very valuable
+animal. And so the minister, twice a day, made a point of going into the
+little passage, at the head of the stall, speaking kindly to the animal,
+and giving her a small lump of maple sugar.
+
+Like most of her sex, Susannah--as Master Parris had renamed her,
+knowing the great importance of a good name--was very fond of sugar; and
+her first apparent aversion to the minister seemed gradually to change
+into a kind of tacit respect and toleration, under the influence of his
+daily medications. Finally, the wary animal would allow him to pat her
+neck without striking at him with one of her front feet, or trying to
+bite him; and even to stroke her glossy flanks without lunging at him
+with her hind heels, in an exceedingly dangerous fashion.
+
+But spiritual means also were not neglected. The meeting-house was very
+near, and the mare was brought over regularly when there were religious
+services, and fastened in the near vicinity of the other more sober and
+orthodox horses, that she might learn how to behave and perhaps the evil
+spirit be thus induced to abandon one so constantly exposed to the
+doubtless unpleasant sounds (to it) of psalm and prayer and sermon.
+
+A horse is an imitative animal, and very susceptible to
+impressions,--both of a material and a mental character--and I must
+confess that these proceedings of the minister's were very well adapted
+to the object he had in view.
+
+The minister also had gone farther--but of this no one at the time knew
+but himself. He had gone into the stable on a certain evening, when his
+servant John Indian was off on an errand; and had pronounced a prayer
+over the possessed animal winding up with an exorcism which ought to
+have been sufficient to banish any reasonable devil, not only from the
+mare, but from the neighborhood. As he concluded, what seemed to be a
+huge creature, with outstretched wings, had buffeted him over the ears,
+and then disappeared through the open window of the stable. The creature
+was in the form of a big bat; but then it was well known that this was
+one of the forms which evil spirits were most fond of assuming.
+
+The minister therefore had strong reasons for supposing that the good
+work was now accomplished; and that he should find the mare hereafter a
+Susannah not only in name but in nature--a black lily, as it were. But
+of course this could not be certainly told, unless some one should
+attempt to ride her; and he suggested it one day to John Indian. But
+John Indian--unknown to anybody but himself--had already tried the
+experiment; and after a fierce contest, was satisfied with his share of
+the glory. His answer was:--
+
+"No, no, master--debbil hab no 'spect for Indian man. Master he good
+man! gospel man! debbil 'fraid of him--him too much for debbil!"
+
+This seemed very reasonable for a poor, untutored Indian. Mistress
+Parris, too, said that she was certain he could succeed if any one
+could. The evil spirits would be careful how they conducted themselves
+towards such a highly respected and godly minister as her revered
+husband. Several of her acquaintances, pious and orthodox goodwives of
+the village, said the same thing. Master Parris thought he was a very
+good horseman besides; and began to take the same view. There was the
+horse, and he was the man!
+
+So one afternoon John Indian saddled and bridled the mare, and brought
+her up to the horse-block. Susannah had allowed herself to be saddled
+without the slightest manifestation of ill-humor; probably the idea of
+stretching her limbs a little, was decidedly pleasant in view of the
+small amount of exercise she had taken lately.
+
+But the wisest plan was not thought of. The minister's niece, Abigail
+Williams--one of the "afflicted"--had looked upon the black mare with
+longing eyes; and if she had made the experiment, it probably would have
+been successful. But they did not surmise that it might be the man's
+saddle and mode of riding, to which the animal was entirely
+unaccustomed, that were at the bottom of the difficulty. And, besides,
+Master Parris wanted the mare for his own riding, not for the women
+folks of his household.
+
+Detained by various matters, it was not until quite late in the
+afternoon, that the minister found time to try the experiment of riding
+the now unbewitched animal. It was getting too near night to ride very
+far, but he could at least try a short ride of a mile or so; which
+perhaps would be better for the first attempt than a longer one. So he
+came out to the horse-block, attended by his wife and Abigail Williams,
+and a couple of parishioners who had been holding a consultation with
+him, but had stopped a moment to see him ride off upon the animal of
+which so many marvelous stories had been told.
+
+"Yes," said the minister, as he came out to the horse-block, in answer
+to a remark made by one of his visitors, "I think I have been able with
+the Lord's help, to redeem this animal and make her a useful member of
+society. You will observe that she now manifests none of that
+viciousness for which formerly she was so noted."
+
+The mare did stand as composedly and peacefully as the most dignified
+minister could desire.
+
+"You will remember that she has never been ridden by any one, man or
+woman, save her witch mistress Dulcibel--Jezebel, I think would be a
+more fitting name for her, considering her wicked doings."
+
+Here Master Parris took the bridle rein from John Indian and threw his
+right leg over the animal. As the foot and leg came down on that side,
+and the stirrup gave her a smart crack, the mare's ears, which had been
+pricked up, went backwards and she began to prance around, John Indian
+still holding her by the mouth.
+
+"Let her go, John," said the minister; "she does not like to be held,"
+and he tightened the rein.
+
+John, by his master's orders, had put on a curbbit; in place of the
+easy snaffle to which the mare had always been accustomed. And now as
+the minister tightened the rein, and the chain of the curb began to
+press upon and pain the mouth of the sensitive creature, she began to
+back and rear in a most excited fashion.
+
+"Loose de rein!" cried John Indian.
+
+The minister did so. But the animal now was fully alarmed; and no
+loosening or tightening would avail much. She was her old self again--as
+bewitched as ever. She reared, she plunged, she kicked, she sidled, and
+went through all the motions, which, on previous occasions, she had
+always found eventually successful in ridding her back of its undesired
+burden.
+
+"Oh, do get off of the wild beast," cried Mistress Parris, in great
+alarm.
+
+"She is still bewitched," cried Abigail Williams. "I see a spectre now,
+tormenting her with a pitchfork."
+
+"Oh, Samuel, you will be killed!--do get off that crazy beast!" again
+cried weeping Mistress Parris.
+
+"'Get off!' yes!" thought the minister; "but how am I going to do it,
+with the beast plunging and tearing in this fashion?" The animal
+evidently wanted him off, and he was very anxious to get off; but she
+would not hold still long enough for him to dismount peaceably.
+
+"Hold her while I dismount!" he cried to John Indian. But when John
+Indian came near to take hold of the rein by her mouth, the mare snapped
+at him viciously with her teeth; and then wheeled around and flung out
+her heels at his head, in the most embarrassing manner.
+
+Finally, as with a new idea, the mare started down the lane at a quick
+gallop, turned to the left, where a rivulet had been damned up into a
+little pond not more than two feet deep, and plunged into the water,
+splashing it up around her like a many jetted fountain.
+
+By this time, the minister, being only human, naturally was very angry;
+and commenced lashing her sides with his riding whip to get her into the
+lane again. This made the fiery little creature perfectly desperate, and
+she reared up and backwards, until she came down plump into the water;
+so that, if the saddle girth had not broken, and the saddle come off,
+and the minister with it, she might have tumbled upon him and perhaps
+seriously hurt him. But, as it was, no great damage was done; and the
+bridle also breaking, the mare spit the bit out of her mouth, and went
+down the lane in a run to the road, and thence on into the now
+fast-gathering night, no one could see whither.
+
+Mistress Parris, John Indian and the rest were by this time at the side
+of the pond, and ready to receive the chapfallen minister as he emerged
+with the saddle and the broken bridle from the water.
+
+"You are a sight, Samuel Parris!" said his wife, in that pleasant tone
+with which many wives are apt to receive their liege lords upon such
+unpleasant occasions. "Do get into the house at once. You will catch
+your death of cold, I know. And such a mess your clothes will be! But I
+only wonder you are not killed--trying to ride a mad witch's horse like
+that is."
+
+The minister made no reply. The situation transcended words. And did not
+allow even of sympathy, as his visitors evidently thought--not at least
+until he got on some clean and dry clothes. So they simply shook their
+heads, and took their course homewards. While the bedraggled and
+dripping Master Parris made his way to the house wiping the water and
+mud from his face with his wife's handkerchief, and stopping to shake
+himself well, before he entered the door, lest, as his wife said, "he
+should spoil everything in his chamber."
+
+Abigail Williams, when she went to see Mistress Ann Putnam that night,
+had a marvelous tale to tell; which in the course of the next day, went
+like wildfire through the village, growing still more and more marvelous
+as it went.
+
+Abigail had seen, as I have already said, the spectre of a witch goading
+the furious animal with a pitchfork. When the horse tore down the lane,
+it came to the little brook and of course could not cross it--for a
+witch cannot cross running water. Therefore, in its new access of fury,
+it sprang into the pond--and threw off the minister. Abigail further
+declared that then, dashing down the lane it came to the gate which shut
+it off from the road, and took the gate in a flying leap. But the animal
+never came down again. It was getting quite dark then, but she could
+still plainly see that a witch was upon its back, belaboring it with a
+broomstick. And she knew very well who that witch was. It was the
+"spectre" of Dulcibel Burton--for it had a scarlet bodice on, just such
+as Dulcibel nearly always wore. They two--the mare and its rider--went
+off sailing up into the sky, and disappeared behind a black cloud. And
+Abigail was almost certain that just as they reached the cloud, there
+was a low rumbling like thunder.
+
+It was noticeable that every time Abigail told this story, she
+remembered something that she had not before thought of; until in the
+course of a week or two, there were very few stories in the "Arabian
+Nights" that could surpass it in marvelousness.
+
+As the mare had not returned to her old stable at Goodman Buckley's, and
+could not be heard of in any other direction, Abigail's story began to
+commend itself even to the older and cooler heads of the village. For if
+the elfish creature had not vanished in the black cloud, to the sound
+of thunder, where was she?
+
+Joseph Putnam, and his household however held a different view of the
+subject, but they wisely kept their own counsel; though they had many a
+sly joke among themselves at the credulity of their neighbors. They knew
+that a little while after dark, a strange noise had been heard at the
+barn, and that one of the hired men going out, had found Dulcibel's
+horse, without saddle or bridle, pawing at the door of the stable for
+admission. As this was a place the animal had been in the habit of
+coming to, and where she was always well treated and even petted, it was
+very natural that she should fly here from her persecutors, as she
+doubtless considered them.
+
+Upon being told of it, and not knowing what had occurred Master Joseph
+thought it most prudent not to put the animal into his stable, but
+ordered the man to get half-a-peck of oats, and some hay, and take the
+mare to a small cow-pen, in the woods in an out of the way place, where
+she might be for years, and no one outside his own people be any the
+wiser for it. The mare seemed quite docile, and was easily led, being in
+company with the oats, of which a handful occasionally was given to
+her; and so, being watered at a stream near by and fed daily, she was
+no doubt far more comfortable than she would have been in the black
+cloud that Abigail Williams was perfectly ready to swear she had seen
+her enter and where though there might be plenty of water, oats
+doubtless were not often meet with.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Master Raymond Also Complains of an "Evil Hand."
+
+
+Master Raymond had everything now prepared upon his part, and was
+awaiting a message from Captain Alden, to the effect that he had made a
+positive engagement with the Danish captain.
+
+He had caught a serious cold on his return from Boston and, turning the
+matter over in his mind--for it is a wise thing to try to get some good
+result out of even apparently evil occurrences--he had called in the
+village doctor.
+
+But the good Doctor's medicine did not seem to work as it ought to--for
+one reason, Master Raymond regularly emptied the doses out of the
+window; thinking as he told Master Joseph, to put them where they would
+do the most good. And when the Doctor came, and found that neither
+purging nor vomiting had been produced, these with bleeding and sweating
+being the great panaceas of that day--as perhaps of this--he was
+naturally astonished. In a case where neither castor oil, senna and
+manna, nor large doses of Glauber's salts would work, a medical man was
+certainly justified in thinking that something must be wrong.
+
+Master Raymond suggested whether "an evil hand" might not be upon him.
+This was the common explanation at that time in Salem and its
+neighborhood. The doctors and the druggists nowadays miss a great deal
+in not having such an excuse made ready to their hands--it would account
+alike for adulterated drugs and ill-judged remedies.
+
+Master Raymond had the reputation of being rich, and the Doctor had been
+mortified by the bad behavior of his medicines--for if a patient be not
+cured, if he is at least vigorously handled, there seems to be something
+that can with propriety be heavily charged for. But if a doctor does
+nothing--neither cures, nor anything else--with what face can he bring
+in a weighty bill?
+
+And so good Doctor Griggs readily acquiesced in his patient's
+supposition that "an evil hand," was at work, and even suggested that he
+should bring Abigail Williams or some other "afflicted" girl with him
+the next time he came, to see with her sharpened eyes who it was that
+was bewitching him.
+
+But Master Raymond declined the offer--at least for the present. If the
+thing continued, and grew worse, he might be able himself to see who it
+was. Why should he not be as able to do it as Abigail Williams, or any
+other of the "afflicted" circle? Of course the doctor was not able to
+answer why; there seemed to be no good reason why one set of "afflicted"
+people should have a monopoly of the accusing business.
+
+Of course this came very quickly from the Doctor to Mistress Ann
+Putnam--for he was a regular attendant of that lady, whose nervous
+system indeed was in a fearful state by this time. And she puzzled a
+good deal over it. Did Master Raymond intend to accuse anyone? Who was
+it? Or was it merely a hint thrown out, that it was a game that two
+parties could play at?
+
+But then she smiled--she had the two ministers, and through them all the
+other ministers of the colony--the magistrates and judges--and the
+advantages of the original position. Imitators always failed. Still she
+rather liked the young man's craft and boldness--Joseph Putnam would
+never have thought of such a thing. But still let him beware how he
+attempted to thwart her plans. He would soon find that she was the
+stronger.
+
+Joseph Putnam then began to answer inquiries as to the health of his
+guest,--that he was not much better, and thought somewhat of going up to
+Boston for further medical advice--as the medicines given him so far did
+not seem to work as well as they should do.
+
+"Could he bear the ride?"
+
+"Oh, very well indeed--his illness had not so far affected his strength
+much."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Master Raymond's Little Plan Blocked.
+
+
+"Our game is blocked!" said Joseph Putnam to Master Raymond as he rode
+up one afternoon soon after, and dismounted at the garden gate, where
+his guest was awaiting him, impatient to hear if anything had yet come
+from Captain Alden.
+
+"What do you mean?" said his guest.
+
+"Mean? Why, that yon she-wolf is too much for us. Captain Alden is
+arrested!"
+
+"What! Captain John Alden!"
+
+"Yes, Captain John Alden!"
+
+"On what charge?"
+
+Master Joseph smiled grimly, "For witchcraft!"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Yes, devilish nonsense! but true as gospel, nevertheless."
+
+"And he submits to it?"
+
+"With all around him crazy, he cannot help it. Besides, as an officer of
+the government, he must submit to the laws."
+
+"On whose complaint?"
+
+"Oh, the she-wolf's of course--that delectable smooth-spoken wife of my
+brother Thomas. How any man can love a catty creature like that, beats
+me out."
+
+"I suppose she found out that I went frequently to see the Captain, when
+in Boston?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Who could have informed her?"
+
+"Her master, the devil, I suppose."
+
+"Where is the Captain to be examined?"
+
+"Oh, here in Salem, where his accusers are. It comes off tomorrow. They
+lose no time you see."
+
+"Well, I would not have believed it possible. Whom will they attack
+next?"
+
+"The Governor, I suppose," replied Master Joseph satirically.
+
+"Or you?"
+
+"If she does, I'll run my sword through her--not as being a woman, but
+as a foul fiend. I told her so. Let her dare to touch me, or any one
+under this roof!"
+
+"What did she say when you threatened her?"
+
+"She put on an injured expression; and said she could never believe
+anything wrong of her dear husband's family, if all the 'spectres' in
+the world told her so."
+
+"Well, I hope you are safe, but as for me--"
+
+"Oh, you are, too. You are within my gates. To touch you, is to touch
+me. She fully realizes that. Besides brother Thomas is her abject tool
+in most things; but some things even he would not allow."
+
+Yes, Captain John Alden, son of that John Alden who was told by the
+pretty Puritan maiden, "Speak for yourself John," when he went pleading
+the love-suit of his friend Captain Miles Standish; John Alden, captain
+of the only vessel of war belonging to the colony, a man of large
+property, and occupying a place in the very front rank of Boston
+society, had been arrested for witchcraft! What a state of insanity the
+religious delusion had reached, can be seen by this high-handed
+proceeding.
+
+Here again we come on to ground in which the details given in the old
+manuscript book, are fully confirmed, in every essential particular by
+existing public records. Mr. Upham, whose admirable account of "Salem
+Witchcraft" has been of great aid to me in the preparation of this
+volume, is evidently puzzled to account for Captain Alden's arrest. He
+is not able to see how the gallant Captain could have excited the ire of
+the "afflicted circle." He seems to have been entirely ignorant of this
+case of Dulcibel Burton--hers doubtless being one of the many cases in
+which the official records were purposely destroyed. If he had known of
+this case, he would have seen the connection between it and Captain
+Alden. It also might have explained the continual allusions to the
+"yellow bird" in so many of the trials--based possibly on Dulcibel's
+canary, which had been given to her by the Captain, and whose habit of
+kissing her lips with its little bill had appeared so mysterious and
+diabolical to the superstitious inhabitants of Salem village.
+
+Master Raymond's health, as is not to be wondered at, had improved
+sufficiently by the next day, to allow of his accompanying Joseph Putnam
+to the village, to attend Captain Alden's examination. The meeting-house
+was even more crowded than usual, such was the absorbing interest taken
+in the case, owing to the Captain's high standing in the province.
+
+The veteran Captain's own brief account of this matter, which has come
+down to us, does not go into many details, and is valuable mainly as
+showing that he regarded it very much in the same light that it is
+regarded now--owing probably to the fact that while a church member in
+good standing, he doubtless was a good deal better seaman than church
+member. For he says he was "sent for by the Magistrates of Salem, upon
+the accusation of a company of poor distracted or possessed creatures or
+witches." And he speaks further of them as "wenches who played their
+juggling tricks, falling down, crying out, and staring in people's
+faces."
+
+The worthy Captain's account is however, as I have said, very brief--and
+has the tone of one who had been a participant, however unwillingly, in
+a grossly shameful affair, alike disgraceful to the colony and to
+everybody concerned in it. For some additional details, I am indebted to
+the manuscript volume.
+
+Captain Alden had not been arrested in Boston. He says himself in his
+statement, that "he was sent to Salem by Mr. Stoughton"--the Deputy
+Governor, and Chief-Justice of the Special Court that had condemned and
+executed Bridget Bishop, and which was now about to meet again.
+
+Before the meeting of the magistrates, Master Raymond had managed to
+have a few words with him in private, and found that no arrangements
+with any skipper had yet been made. The first negotiations had fallen
+through, and there was no other foreign vessel at that time in port
+whose master possessed what Captain Alden considered the requisite
+trustworthiness and daring. For he wanted a skipper that would show
+fight if he was pursued and overtaken; not that any actual fighting
+would probably be necessary, for a simple show of resistance would
+doubtless be all that was needed.
+
+"When I get back to Boston, I think I shall be able to arrange matters
+in the course of a week or two."
+
+"What--in Boston jail?" queried Master Raymond.
+
+"You do not suppose the magistrates will commit me on such a trumped-up
+nonsensical charge as this?" said the stout old captain indignantly.
+
+"Indeed I do," was the reply.
+
+"Why, there is not a particle of truth in it. I never saw these girls. I
+never even heard of their being in existence."
+
+"Oh, that makes no difference."
+
+"The devil it doesn't!" said the old man, hotly. My readers must
+remember that he was a seaman.
+
+Here the sheriff came up and told the Captain he was wanted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Captain Alden before the Magistrates.
+
+
+There was an additional magistrate sitting on this occasion, Master
+Bartholomew Gedney--making three in all.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam, the she-wolf, as her young brother-in-law had
+called her, was not present among the accusers--leaving the part of the
+"afflicted" to be played by the other and younger members of the circle.
+
+There was another Captain present, also a stranger, a Captain Hill; and
+he being also a tall man, perplexed some of the girls at first. One even
+pointed at him, until she was better informed in a whisper by a man who
+was holding her up. And then she cried out that it was "Alden! Alden!"
+who was afflicting her.
+
+At length one of the magistrates ordering Captain Alden to stand upon a
+chair, there was no further trouble upon that point; and the usual
+demonstrations began. As the accused naturally looked upon the
+"afflicted" girls, they went off into spasms, shrieks and convulsions.
+This was nearly always the first proceeding, as it created a profound
+sympathy for them, and was almost sufficient of itself to condemn the
+accused.
+
+"The tall man is pinching me!"
+
+"Oh, he is choking me!"
+
+"He is choking me! do hold his hands!"
+
+"He stabs me with his sword--oh, take it away from him!"
+
+Such were the exclamations that came from the writhing and convulsed
+girls.
+
+"Turn away his head! and hold his hands!" cried Squire Hathorne. "Take
+away his sword!" said Squire Gedney while the old Captain grew red and
+wrathful at the babel around him, and at the indignities to which he was
+subject.
+
+"Captain Alden, why do you torment these poor girls who never injured
+you?"
+
+"Torment them!--you see I am not touching them. I do not even know them;
+I never saw them before in my life," growled the indignant old seaman.
+
+"See! there is the little yellow bird kissing his lips!" cried Abigail
+Williams. "Now it is whispering into his ear. It is bringing him a
+message from the other witch Dulcibel Burton. See! see! there it goes
+back again to her--through the window!"
+
+So well was this done, that probably half of the people present would
+have been willing to swear the next day, that they actually saw the
+yellow bird as she described it.
+
+"Ask him if he did not give her the yellow bird," said Leah Herrick.
+"But probably he will lie about it."
+
+"Did you not give the witch, Dulcibel Burton, a yellow bird, which is
+one of her familiars?" said Squire Hathorne sternly.
+
+"I gave her a canary bird that I brought from the West Indies, if that
+is what you mean," replied the Captain. "But what harm was there in
+that?"
+
+"I knew it! The yellow bird told me so, when it came to peck out my
+eyes," cried Mercy Lewis. "Oh! there it is again!" and she struck wildly
+into the air before her face. "Drive it away! Do drive it away, some
+one!"
+
+Here a young man pulled out his rapier, and began thrusting at the
+invisible bird in a furious manner.
+
+"Now it comes to me!" cried Sarah Churchill. And then the other girls
+also cried out, and began striking into the air before their faces, till
+there was anew a perfect babel of cries, shrieks and sympathizing
+voices.
+
+Master Raymond, amid all his indignation at such barefaced and wicked
+and yet successful imposture, could hardly avoid smiling at the
+expression of the old seaman's face as he stood on the chair, and
+fronted all this tempest of absurd and villainous accusation. At first
+there had been a deep crimson glow of the hottest wrath upon the old
+man's cheeks and brow; but now he seemed to have been shocked into a
+kind of stupor, so unexpected and weighty were the charges against him,
+and made with such vindictive fierceness; and yet so utterly absurd,
+while at the same time, so impossible of being refuted.
+
+"He bought the yellow bird from Tituba's mother--her spectre told me
+so!" cried Abigail Williams.
+
+"What do you say to that, Master Alden?" said Squire Gedney. "That is a
+serious charge."
+
+"I never saw any Tituba or her mother," exclaimed the Captain, again
+growing indignant.
+
+"Who then did you buy the witch's familiar of?" asked Squire Hathorne.
+
+"I do not know--some old negro wench!"
+
+Here the magistrates looked at each other sagely, and nodded their
+wooden heads. It was a fatal admission. "You had better confess all,
+and give glory to God!" said Squire Gedney solemnly.
+
+"I trust I shall always be ready to give glory to God," answered the old
+man stoutly; "but I do not see that it would glorify Him to confess to a
+pack of lies. You have known me for many years, Master Gedney, but did
+you ever know me to speak an untruth, or seek to injure any innocent
+persons, much less women and children?"
+
+Squire Gedney said that he had known the accused many years, and had
+even been at sea with him, and had always supposed him to be an honest
+man; but now he saw good cause to alter that judgment.
+
+"Turn and look now again upon those afflicted persons," concluded Squire
+Gedney.
+
+As the accused turned and again looked upon them, all of the "afflicted"
+fell down on the floor as if he had struck them a heavy blow--moaning
+and crying out against him.
+
+"I judge you by your works; and believe you now to be a wicked man and a
+witch," said Squire Gedney in a very severe tone.
+
+Captain Alden turned then and looked directly at the magistrate for
+several moments. "Why does not my look knock you down too?" he said
+indignantly. "If it hurts them so much, would it not hurt you a little?"
+
+"He wills it not to hurt you," cried Leah Herrick. "He is looking at
+you, but his spectre has its back towards you."
+
+There was quite a roar of applause through the crowded house at such an
+exposure of the old Captain's trickery. He was very cunning to be sure;
+but the "afflicted" girls could see through his knavery.
+
+"Make him touch the poor girls," said the Reverend Master Noyes. For it
+was the accepted theory that by doing this, the witch, in spite of
+himself, reabsorbed into his own body the devilish energy that had gone
+out of him, and the afflicted were healed. This was repeatedly done
+through the progress of these examinations and the after trials; and was
+always found to be successful, both as a cure of the sufferers, and an
+undeniable proof that the person accused was really a witch.
+
+In this case the "afflicted" girls were brought up to Captain Alden, one
+after the other and upon his being made to touch them with his hand,
+they invariably drew a deep breath of relief, and said they felt
+entirely well again.
+
+"You see Captain Alden," said Squire Gedney solemnly, "none of the
+tests fail in your case. If there were only one proof, we might doubt;
+but as the Scripture says, by the mouths of two or three witnesses shall
+the truth be established. If you were innocent a just God would not
+allow you to be overcome in this manner."
+
+"I know that there is a just God, and I know that I am entirely
+innocent" replied the noble old seaman in a firm voice. "But it is not
+for an uninspired man like me, to attempt to reconcile the mysteries of
+His providence. Far better men than I am, even prophets and apostles,
+have been brought before magistrates and judges, and their good names
+lied away, and they condemned to the prison and the scaffold and the
+cross. Why then, should I expect to fare better than they did? All I can
+do, like Job of old, is to maintain my integrity--even though Satan and
+all his imps be let loose for a time against me."
+
+Here the Reverend Master Noyes rose excitedly, and said that the
+decisions of heathen courts and judges were one thing; and the decisions
+of godly magistrates, who were all members of the church of the true
+God, and therefore inspired by his spirit, was a very different thing.
+He said it was simply but another proof of the guilt of the accused,
+that he should compare himself with the apostles and the martyrs; and
+these worshipful Christian magistrates with heathen magistrates and
+judges. Hearing him talk in this ribald way, he could no longer doubt
+the accusation brought against him; for there was no surer proof of a
+man or woman having dealings with Satan, than to defame and calumniate
+God's chosen people.
+
+As Mr. Noyes took his seat, the magistrates said they had heard
+sufficient, and ordered the committal of the accused to Boston prison to
+await trial.
+
+"I will give bail for Captain Alden's appearance, to the whole amount of
+my estate," said Joseph Putnam coming forward. "A man of his age, who
+has served the colony in so many important positions, should be treated
+with some leniency."
+
+"We are very sorry for the Captain," answered Squire Gedney, "but as
+this is a capital offence, no bail can be taken."
+
+"Thank you, Master Putnam, but I want no bail," said the old seaman
+proudly. "If the colony of Massachusetts Bay, which my father helped to
+build up, and for which I have labored so long and faithfully, chooses
+to requite my services in this ungrateful fashion, let it be so. The
+shame is on Massachusetts not on me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Considering New Plans.
+
+
+"Well, what now?" said Master Joseph Putnam to his guest, as they rode
+homeward. "You might give up the sea-route and try a push through the
+wilderness to the Hudson River."
+
+"Rather dangerous that."
+
+"Yes, unless you could secure the services of some heathen savages to
+pilot you through."
+
+"Could we trust them?"
+
+"Twenty years ago, according to my father's old stories, we could; but
+they are very bitter now--they do not keep much faith with white men.
+
+"Perhaps the white men have not kept much faith with them."
+
+"Of course not. You know they are the heathen; and we have a Bible
+communion to exterminate them, and drive them out of our promised land."
+
+"Do you believe that?"
+
+"Well, not exactly," and Master Joseph laughed. "Besides, I think the
+Quaker plan both cheaper in the end and a great deal safer. Not that I
+believe they have any more right to the land than we have."
+
+"Penn and the Quakers think differently."
+
+"I know they do--but they are a set of crazy enthusiasts."
+
+"What is your view? That of your ministers? The earth is the Lord's. He
+has given it to His saints. We are the saints."
+
+Master Joseph laughed again. "Well, something like that. The earth is
+the Lord's. He has intended it for the use of His children. We are His
+children quite as much as the savages. Therefore we have as much right
+to it as they have."
+
+"Only they happen to be in possession," replied Master Raymond, drily.
+
+"Are they in possession? So far as they are actually in possession, I
+admit their right. But do you seriously mean that a few hundred or
+thousand of wild heathen, have a right to prior occupancy to the whole
+North American continent? It seems to me absurd?"
+
+"A relative of mine has ten square miles in Scotland that he never
+occupies, in your sense of the word any more than your red-men do; and
+yet he is held to have a valid right to it, against the hundreds of
+peasants who would like to enter in and take possession."
+
+"Oh, plenty of things are done wrong in the old world," replied Master
+Putnam; "that is why we Puritans are over here. But still the fact
+remains that the earth is the Lord's and that He intended it for His
+children's use; and no merely legal or personal right can be above that.
+If ever the time comes that your relative's land is really needed by the
+people at large, why then some way will have to be contrived to get hold
+of it for them."
+
+"The Putnam family have a good many broad acres too," said Master
+Raymond, with a smile, looking around him.
+
+"Oh, you cannot scare me," replied his friend, also smiling. "What is
+sauce for the Campbell goose is sauce for the Putnam gander. If the time
+ever comes when the public good requires that the broad lands of the
+Putnams--if there be any Putnams at that time--have to be appropriated
+to meet the wants of their fellow men, then the broad Putnam lands will
+have to go like the rest, I imagine. We have taken them from the
+Indians, just as the Normans took them from the Saxons--and as the
+Saxons took them from the Danes and the ancient inhabitants--by the
+strong hand. But the sword can give no right--save as the claim of the
+public good is behind it. Show me that the public good requires it, and
+I am willing that the title-deeds for my own share of the broad Putnam
+lands shall be burnt up tomorrow."
+
+"I believe you, my dear friend," said Master Raymond, gazing with
+admiration upon the manly, glowing face of this nature's nobleman. "And
+I am inclined to think that your whole view of the matter is correct.
+But, coming back to our first point, do you know of any savage that we
+could trust to guide us safely to the settlements on the Hudson?"
+
+"If old king Philip, whose head has been savagely exposed to all
+weathers on the gibbet at Plymouth for the last sixteen years, were
+alive, something perhaps might be done. His safeguard would have carried
+you through."
+
+"Is there not another chief, called Nucas?"
+
+"Oh, old Nucas, of the Mohegans. He was a character! But he died ten
+years ago. Lassacus, too, was killed. There are a couple of Pequod
+settlements down near New Haven I believe; but they are too far off."
+
+"And then you could not tell me where to put my hand on some dozen or so
+of the Indians, whom I might engage as a convoy."
+
+"Not now. A roving party may pass in the woods at any time. But they
+would not be very reliable. If they could make more by selling your
+scalps than by keeping them safely on your heads, they would be pretty
+sure to sell them."
+
+"Then I see nothing to do, but to go again to Boston, and arrange
+another scheme on the old plan."
+
+"You ought not to travel long in Dulcibel's company without being
+married," said Master Putnam bluntly.
+
+"Very true--but we can not well be married without giving our names to
+the minister; and to do that, would be to deliver ourselves up to the
+authorities."
+
+"Mistress Putnam and myself might accompany you to New York--we should
+not mind a little trip."
+
+"And thus make yourselves parties to Dulcibel's escape? No, no, my good
+friend--that would be to put you both in prison in her place."
+
+"It is not likely there would be any other woman on board the
+vessel--that is of any reputation. You must try to get some one to go
+with you."
+
+"And incur the certainty of punishment when she returns?"
+
+"Perhaps you could find some one who would like to settle permanently in
+New York. I should like to go myself if I could, and get out of this
+den of wild beasts."
+
+"Yes, I may be able to do that--though I shall not dare to try that
+until the last day almost--for the women always have some man to
+consult, and thus our secret plan would get blown about, to our great
+peril."
+
+"I have a scheme!" cried Master Joseph in exultation. "It is the very
+thing," and he burst out laughing. "Kidnap Cotton Mather, or one of the
+other Boston ministers, and take him with you."
+
+"That would be a bold stroke," replied Master Raymond, also laughing
+heartily. "But, like belling the cat, it is easier said than done.
+Ministers are apt to be cautious and wary. They are timid folk."
+
+"Not when a wedding is to be solemnized, and a purse of gold-pieces is
+shaken before them," returned Master Putnam. "Have everything ready to
+sail. Then decoy the minister on board, to marry a wealthy foreign
+gentleman, a friend of the skipper's--and do not let him go again. Pay
+him enough and the skipper will think it a first rate joke."
+
+"But he might be so angry that he would refuse to marry us after all our
+trouble."
+
+"Oh, do not you believe that--if you make the fee large enough. Treat
+him kindly, represent to him the absolute necessity of the case, say
+that you never would have thought of such a thing if it could in any way
+have been avoided, and I'll warrant he will do the job before you reach
+New York."
+
+"I wish I felt as certain as you do."
+
+"Well, suppose he will not be mollified. What then? Your end is
+attained. He has acted as chaperon, and involuntary master of propriety
+whether he would or not. A minister is just as good as a matron to
+chaperon the maiden. Of course he will have his action for damages
+against you, and you will be willing to pay him fairly, but if he brings
+you before a jury of New Yorkers, and you simply relate the facts, and
+the necessity of the case, little will he get of damages beyond a
+plentiful supply of jokes and laughter. You know there is very little
+love lost between the people of the two colonies; and that the Manhattan
+people have no more respect for all the witchcraft business, than you
+and I have."
+
+Master Raymond made no reply. He did not want to kidnap a minister, if
+it could be in any way avoided. With Master Putnam, however, that
+seemed to be one of the most desirable features of the proposed plan,
+only he was tenfold more sorry now than ever, that such weighty
+prudential reasons prevented his taking any active share in the
+enterprise. To kidnap a minister--especially if it could be the Reverend
+Cotton Mather--seemed to him something which was worth almost the
+risking of his liberty and property in which to take a hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The Dissimulation of Master Raymond.
+
+
+About this time the gossips of Salem village began to remark upon the
+attentions that were being paid by the wealthy young Englishman, Master
+Ellis Raymond, to various members of the "afflicted circle." He petted
+those bright and terribly precocious children of twelve, Ann Putnam and
+Abigail Williams; he almost courted the older girls, Mary Walcot, Mercy
+Lewis and Leah Herrick and had a kindly word for Mary Warren, Sarah
+Churchill and others, whenever he saw them. As for Mistress Ann Putnam,
+the mother, he always had been very respectful to her. While in Boston
+he had purchased quite an assortment of those little articles which the
+Puritan elders usually denominated "gew-gaws" and "vain adornments" and
+it was observed that Abigail Williams especially had been given a number
+of these, while the other girls had one or more of them, which they were
+very careful in not displaying except at those times when no grave elder
+or deacon was present to be shocked by them.
+
+I will acknowledge that there was some dissimulation in this conduct of
+Master Raymond's, and Joseph Putnam by no means approved of it.
+
+"How you can go smiling around that den of big and little she-wolves,
+patting the head of one, and playing with the paw of another, I cannot
+understand, friend Raymond. I would not do it to save my life."
+
+"Nor I," answered Master Raymond gravely. "But I would do it to save
+your life, friend Joseph, or that of your sweet young wife there--or
+that of the baby which she holds upon her knee."
+
+"Or that of Mistress Dulcibel Burton!" added sweet Mistress Putnam
+kindly.
+
+"Yes, or that of Dulcibel Burton."
+
+"You know, my dear friends, the plan I have in view may fail. If that
+should fail, I am laying the foundation of another--so that if Dulcibel
+should be brought to trial, the witnesses that are relied upon may fail
+to testify so wantonly against her. Even little Abigail Williams has the
+assurance and ingenuity to save her, if she will."
+
+"Yes, that precocious child is a very imp of Satan," said Joseph Putnam.
+"What a terrible woman she will make."
+
+"Oh, no, she may sink down into a very tame and commonplace woman, after
+this tremendous excitement is over," rejoined his friend. "I think at
+times I see symptoms of it now. The strain is too great for her childish
+brain."
+
+"Well, I suppose your dissimulation is allowable if it is to save the
+life of your betrothed," said Master Putnam, "but I would not do it if I
+could and I could not if I would."
+
+"Do you remember Junius Brutus playing idiot--and King David playing
+imbecile?"
+
+"Oh, I know you have plenty of authority for your dissimulation."
+
+"It seems to me," joined in young Mistress Putnam, "that the difference
+between you is simply this. Joseph could not conscientiously do it; and
+you can."
+
+"Yes, that is about the gist of it," said her young husband. "And now
+that I have relieved my conscience by protesting against your course, I
+am satisfied you should go on in your own way just the same."
+
+"And yet you feel no conscientious scruples against abducting the
+minister," rejoined Raymond laughing; "a thing which I am rather loath
+to do."
+
+"I see," replied Joseph, also laughing. "I scruple at taking mustard,
+and you at cayenne pepper. It is a matter of mental organization
+probably."
+
+"Yes--and if a few or many doses of mustard will prevent my being
+arrested as a witch, which would put it entirely out of my power to aid
+Dulcibel in her affliction--and perhaps turn some of the "afflicted"
+girls over to her side, in case she has to stand a trial for her life--I
+shall certainly swallow them with as much grace as if they were so many
+spoonfuls of honey. There is a time to be over-scrupulous, friend
+Joseph, but not when my beloved one is in the cage of the tigers. Yes, I
+shall not hesitate to meet craft with craft."
+
+And Mistress Putnam, sweet, good woman as she was, nodded her head,
+woman-like, approvingly, carried away perhaps by the young man's
+earnestness, and by the strength of his love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+The Cruel Doings of the Special Court.
+
+
+Meanwhile the Special Court of seven Judges--a majority of whom were
+from Boston, with the Deputy Governor of the Colony, William Stoughten,
+as Chief-Justice--was by no means indolent. Of the proceedings of this
+court, which embodied apparently the best legal intellect of the colony,
+no official record is in existence. Its shameful pages, smeared all over
+with bigotry and blood, no doubt were purposely destroyed. So far as we
+are acquainted with the evidence given before it, it was substantially
+the same as had been given at the previous examinations before the
+committing magistrates.
+
+That nothing was too extravagant and absurd to be received as evidence
+by this learned court, is proven by the statement of the Reverend Cotton
+Mather, already alluded to, relative to a demon entering the
+meeting-house and tearing down a part of it, in obedience to a look from
+Mistress Bridget Bishop--of which diabolical outrage the Court was duly
+informed. Besides, there could have been no other kind of evidence
+forthcoming, that would apply to the crime of which all the accused
+were charged, Witchcraft. Many of the prisoners indeed were accused of
+murdering children and others, whose illness had been beyond the
+physician's power to cure; but the murders were all committed, it was
+alleged, by the use of "spectres," "familiars," "puppets," and other
+supernatural means. Against such accusations it was impossible for men
+and women of the highest character and reputation to make any effectual
+defence, before a court and jury given over so completely to religious
+fanaticism and superstitious fancies. To be accused was therefore to be
+condemned.
+
+Yes, this Special Court, having had all its misgivings, if it ever
+really had any, quieted by the answer of the council of ministers, was
+doing quick and fearful work.
+
+Meeting again in the latter part of June, it speedily tried, convicted
+and sentenced to death five persons:--Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes,
+Elizabeth How, Susanna Martin and Rebecca Nurse.
+
+Then, adjourning till August 5th, it tried and convicted George
+Burroughs, John Procter, Elizabeth Procter, George Jacobs, John Willard
+and Martha Carrier.
+
+Then meeting on September 9th, it tried and condemned Martha Corey, Mary
+Easty, Alice Parker and Ann Pudcator; and on September 17th, Margaret
+Scott, Wilmot Reed, Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker.
+
+It will be noticed that of the above nineteen persons, only five were
+men. As the greater number of the accusers were also of the female sex,
+it was natural, I suppose, that this should be so. And thus we find that
+the word witch is applied indifferently in the old records, to men and
+women; the masculine term wizard being seldom used.
+
+That the learned Judges were fully as superstitious as the people at
+large, is conclusively proved by certain facts that have come down to
+us. In the case of that lovely and venerable matron, Rebecca Nurse, the
+jury at first brought in the verdict "Not guilty."
+
+But immediately all the accusers in the Court, and all the "afflicted"
+out of it, made a hideous outcry. Two of the Judges said they were not
+satisfied. The Chief-Justice intimated that there was one admission of
+the prisoner that the jury had not properly considered. These things
+induced the jurors to go out again, and come back with a verdict of
+"Guilty."
+
+One of the charges against Rebecca Nurse, testified to by Edward Putnam,
+was that, after the said Rebecca Nurse had been committed to jail, and
+was thus several miles distant in the town of Salem, "she, the said
+Nurse, struck Mistress Ann Putnam with her spectral chain, leaving a
+mark, being a kind of round ring, and three streaks across the ring. She
+had six blows with a chain in the space of half-an-hour; and she had one
+remarkable one, with six streaks across her arm. Ann Putnam, Jr., also
+was bitten by the spectre of the said Rebecca Nurse about two o'clock of
+the day. I, Edward Putnam, saw the marks, both of bite and chains."
+
+It was a great hardship in all these trials, that the prisoners were not
+allowed any counsel; while on the other hand, the members of the Court
+seemed to take it for granted from the first, that they were guilty. The
+only favor allowed them was the right of objecting to a certain extent
+to those jurors whose fairness they mistrusted.
+
+One of the accused, a reputable and aged farmer named Giles Corey,
+refused to plead. His wife, Martha Corey, was among the convicted. At
+her examination, some time previous, he had allowed himself to testify
+in certain respects against her; involved as he was for a time in the
+prevailing delusion. But he was a man of strong mind and character; and
+though not entirely able to throw off the chains which superstition had
+woven around him, he repented very sorely the part he had taken against
+his wife. This was enough to procure his own accusation. The "afflicted
+girls" brought their usual complaints that his spectre tormented them.
+They fell down and shrieked so wildly at his examination, that Squire
+Hathorne asked him with great indignation, "Is it not enough that you
+should afflict these girls at other times without doing it now in our
+presence?"
+
+The honest and sturdy man was visibly affected. He knew he was not
+consciously doing anything; but what could it all mean? If he turned his
+head, the girls said he was hurting them and turned their heads the same
+way. The Court ordered his hands tied--and then the girls said they were
+easier. But he drew in his cheeks, after a habit he had, and the cheeks
+of the girls were sucked in also, giving them great pain. The old man
+was fairly dumfounded. When however one of the girls testified that
+Goodman Corey had told her that he saw the devil in the shape of a black
+hog in the cow-house, and was very much frightened by it, the spirited
+old man said that he never was frightened by man or devil in his life.
+
+But he had a fair property, and two sons-in-law to whom he wished to
+leave it. He knew well that if he were tried he would be convicted, and
+that would carry with it the confiscation of his property. So, as other
+noble-hearted men had done in that and the previous age, he refused when
+brought before the Special Court, to plead either "guilty" or "not
+guilty." In these later times the presiding Judge would simply order a
+plea of "not guilty" to be entered, and the trial would proceed. But
+then it was otherwise--the accused himself must plead, or the trial
+could not go on. Therefore he must be made to plead--by placing heavy
+weights upon his breast, and adding to them until the accused either
+agreed to plead, or died under the torture. In which last case, the
+prisoner lost his life as contumacious; but gained his point of
+preserving his estate, and title of nobility if he had any, to his
+family.
+
+So, manly old Giles Corey, remorseful for the fate he had helped to
+bring upon his wife, and determined that his children should inherit the
+property he had acquired, maintained a determined silence when brought
+before the Special Court. Being warned, again and again, he simply
+smiled. He could bear all that they in their cruel mockery of justice
+could inflict upon him.
+
+Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond rode down to Salem that day--to the
+orchard where the brave old man was led out of jail to meet his doom.
+They saw him, tied hand and foot, and heavy flat stones and iron weights
+laid one by one upon him.
+
+"More! More!" pleaded the old man at last. "I shall never yield. But, if
+ye be men, make the time short!"
+
+"I cannot stand this," said Master Raymond.
+
+"We are powerless to help him--let us go."
+
+"To torture an old man of eighty years in this way! What a sight for
+this new world!" exclaimed Master Putnam, as they turned their horses'
+heads and rode off.
+
+His executioners took Giles Corey at his word. They knew the old man
+would never yield. So they mercifully heaped the heavy weights upon him
+until they had crushed out his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Dulcibel's Life in Prison.
+
+
+Dulcibel's life in prison was of course a very monotonous one. She did
+not suffer however as did many other women of equally gentle nature. In
+the jails of Ipswich, Boston and Cambridge, there were keepers who
+conformed in most cases strictly to the law. In many instances delicate
+and weakly women, often of advanced years, were chained, hands and feet,
+with heavy irons, night and day.
+
+But Robert Foster and his son, who assisted him as under-keeper, while
+indulging before the marshal and the constables in the utmost violence
+and severity of language, and who were supposed to be strict enforcers
+of all the instructions received from the magistrates, were as we have
+seen, at heart, very liberal and kind-hearted men. And the only fear the
+prisoners had, was that they would throw up their positions some day in
+disgust. Uncle Robie often declared to Dulcibel that he would, when she
+was once fairly out of the clutches of her enemies.
+
+Every now and then instructions would come to jailer Foster from one of
+the magistrates--generally Squire Hathorne--to put heavier irons on some
+one of the prisoners, whose spectre was still tormenting the "afflicted
+girls." It being generally held that the more heavily you chained a
+witch, the less able she was to afflict her victims. And at these times
+Master Foster would get out his heaviest irons, parade them before the
+eyes of the constables, declare in a fierce tone what he was about to
+do, get the constable off on one pretext or another--and do nothing.
+
+It was thought best and wisest for neither Master Joseph Putnam nor
+Master Raymond to seek many interviews with Dulcibel; the means of
+intercourse between the two lovers being restricted to little notes,
+which goodwife Buckley, who frequently visited the maiden, transmitted
+from one to the other through the agency of either her husband or of
+Joseph Putnam. This kept them both in heart; and Dulcibel being
+sustained by the frequent assurances of her lover's devotion, and by the
+hope of escape, kept the roses of her cheeks in marvelous bloom during
+her close confinement.
+
+One of the constables, who managed to get sight of her one day through
+the half-opened door of her cell, expressed surprise to the jailer that
+she should still look so blooming, considering the weight of the heavy
+chains to which she was continually subjected.
+
+"And why should not the young witch look so?" replied the jailer. "Is
+not her spectre riding around on that devil's mare half the night, and
+having a good time of it?"
+
+The constable assented to this view of the case; and his suspicions, if
+he had any, were quieted. In fact even Squire Hathorne himself probably
+would have been perfectly satisfied with an explanation of so undeniable
+a character.
+
+Of course it was not considered prudent by Uncle Robie, that the
+furniture or general appearance of Dulcibel's cell should be changed in
+the least for the better. Not even a bunch of flowers that Goodwife
+Buckley once brought to Dulcibel, could be allowed to remain there.
+While in a corner of the cell, lay the heavy chains which, if the
+marshal or one of the magistrates, should insist upon seeing the
+prisoner, could be slipped on her wrists and ankles in a few minutes.
+Fortunately, however, for Dulcibel, the interest of all these was now
+centered upon the trials that were in progress, the contumacious
+obstinacy of Giles Corey, the host of new accusations at Ipswich and
+other neighboring places, and the preparations for the execution of
+those already condemned to death.
+
+If they had a passing thought of the young witch Dulcibel Burton, it was
+that her time would come rapidly around in its turn, when speedy justice
+no doubt would be done to her.
+
+As to Antipas, her faithful servitor, he had relapsed again into his old
+staidness and sobriety in the comparative quietude of the prison. Only
+on the day of Giles Corey's execution had the prevailing excitement
+attending that event, and which naturally affected the constables and
+jailers, made him raging. To pass the constable's inspection, as well as
+for his own safety, the jailer had chained him; but his voice could be
+heard ringing through the closed door of his cell at intervals from
+morning till evening.
+
+The burden of his thoughts seemed to be a blending of denunciation and
+exultation. The predictions of the four Quakers executed many years
+before on Boston common, and those of men and women who had been whipped
+at the cart's tail through the towns of the colony, evidently seemed to
+him in progress of fulfillment:--
+
+"They have torn the righteous to pieces; now the judgment is upon them,
+and they are tearing each other! Woe to the bloody towns of Boston and
+Salem and Ipswich! Satan is let loose by the Lord upon them! They have
+slain the saints, they have supped full of innocent blood; now the blood
+of their own sons, their own daughters, is filling the cup of God's
+vengeance! They have tortured the innocent women, the innocent
+children--and banished them and sold them to the Philistines as slaves.
+But the Lord will avenge His own elect! They are given up to believe a
+lie! The persecutors are persecuting each other! They are pressing each
+other to death beneath heavy stones! They are hanging each other on the
+gallows of Haman! Where they hung the innocent, they are hanging
+themselves! Oh, God! avenge now the blood of thy Saints! As they have
+done, let it be done unto them! Whip and kill! Whip and kill! Ha! ha!
+ha!"--and with a blood-curdling laugh that rang through the narrow
+passages of the prison, the insane old man would fall down for a time on
+his bed exhausted.
+
+That was an awful day, both outside and inside the prison--for all the
+prisoners knew what a savage death old Giles Corey was meeting. It
+seemed to Dulcibel afterwards, that if she had not been sustained by the
+power of love, and a hopeful looking forward to other scenes, she must
+have herself gone crazy during that and the other evil days that were
+upon them. To some of the prisoners, the most fragile and sensitive
+ones, even the hour of their execution seemed to come as a relief.
+Anything, to get outside of those close dark cells--and to make an end
+of it!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+Eight Legal Murders on Witch Hill.
+
+
+A mile or so outside of the town of Salem, the ground rises into a rocky
+ledge, from the top of which, to the south and the east and the west, a
+vast expanse of land and sea is visible. You overlook the town; the two
+rivers, or branches of the sea, between which the town lies; the thickly
+wooded country, as it was then, to the south and west; and the wide,
+open sea to the eastward.
+
+Such a magnificent prospect of widespread land and water is seldom seen
+away from the mountain regions; and, as one stands on the naked brow of
+the hill, on a clear summer day, as the sunset begins to dye the west,
+and gazes on the scene before and around him, he feels that the heavens
+are not so very far distant, and as if he could almost touch with these
+mortal hands the radiance and the glory.
+
+The natural sublimity of this spot seems to have struck the Puritan
+fathers of Salem, and looking around on its capabilities, they appear to
+have come to the conclusion that of all places it was the one expressly
+designed by the loving Father of mankind for--a gallows!
+
+"Yes, the very spot for a gallows!" said the first settlers. "The very
+spot!" echoed their descendants. "See, the wild "Heathen Salvages" can
+behold it from far and near; the free spoken, law-abiding sailors can
+descry it, far out at sea; and both know by this sign that they are
+approaching a land of Christian civilization and of godly law!"
+
+I think if I were puzzled for an emblem to denote the harsher and more
+uncharitable side of the Puritan character, I should pick out this
+gallows on Witch Hill near Salem, as being a most befitting one.
+
+This was the spot where, as we have already related, approaching it from
+the north, Master Raymond had his interview with jailer Foster. But that
+was night, and it was so dark that Master Raymond had no idea of its
+commanding so fine a view of both land and water. He had been in Boston
+during the execution of poor Bridget Bishop; and though he had often
+seen the gallows from below, and wondered at the grim taste which had
+reared it in such a conspicuous spot, he had never felt the least
+desire, but rather a natural aversion, to approach the place where such
+an unrighteous deed had been enacted.
+
+But now the carpenters had been again at work and supplanted the old
+scaffolding by another and larger one. Now the uprights had been added
+too--and on the beam which they supported there was room for at least
+ten persons. This seemed to be enough space to Marshall Herrick and
+Squire Hathorne; though at the rate the arrests and convictions were
+going on, it might be that one-half of the people in the two Salems and
+in Ipswich, would be hung in the course of a year or so by the other
+half.
+
+But for this special hanging, only eight ropes and nooses were prepared.
+The workmen had been employed the preceding afternoon; and now in the
+fresh morning light, everything was ready; and eight of those who had
+been condemned were to be executed.
+
+The town, and village, and country around turned out, as was natural, in
+a mass, to see the terrible sight. And yet the crowd was comparatively a
+small one, the colony then being so thinly settled. But this, to Master
+Raymond's eyes, gave a new horror to the scene. If there had been a
+crowd like that when London brought together its thousands at Tyburn, it
+would have seemed less appalling. But here were a few people--not
+alienated from each other by ancestral differences in creed or politics,
+and who had never seen each other's faces before--but members of the
+same little band which had fled together from their old home, holding
+the same political views, the same religious faith; who had sat on the
+same benches at church, eaten at the same table of the Lord's supper,
+near neighbors on their farms, or in the town and village streets; now
+hunting each other down like wolves, and hanging each other up in cold
+blood! This it was that set apart the Salem persecution from all other
+persecutions of those old days against witches and heretics; and which
+has given it a painful pre-eminence in horror. It was neighbor hanging
+neighbor; and brother and sister persecuting to death with the foulest
+lies and juggling tricks their spiritual brothers and sisters. And the
+plea of "delusion" will not excuse it, except to those who have not
+investigated its studied cruelty and malice. Sheer, unadulterated
+wickedness had its full share in the persecution; and that wickedness
+can only be partly extenuated by the plea of possible insanity or of
+demoniacal possession.
+
+[Illustration: Marched from jail for the last time]
+
+The route to the gallows hill was a rough and difficult one; but the
+condemned were marched from the jail for the last time, one by one, and
+compelled to walk attended by a small guard and a rude and jeering
+company. There was Rebecca Nurse, infirm but venerable and lovely, the
+beloved mother of a large family; there was the Reverend George
+Burroughs, a small dark man, whose great physical strength was enough,
+as the Reverend Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College,
+said, to prove he was a witch; but who did not believe in infant
+baptism, and probably was not up to the orthodox standard of the day in
+other respects, though in conduct a very correct and exemplary man;
+there was old John Procter, with his two staffs, and long thin white
+hair; there was John Willard, a good, innocent young man, lied to death
+by Susanna Sheldon, aged eighteen; there was unhappy Martha Carrier four
+of whose children, one a girl of eight, had been frightened into
+testifying before the Special Court against her; saying that their
+mother had taken them to a witch meeting, and that the Devil had
+promised her that she should be queen of hell; there was gentle, patient
+and saintlike Elizabeth How, with "Father, forgive them!" on her mild
+lips; and two others of whom we now know little, save that they were
+most falsely and wickedly accused.
+
+There also were the circle of the "afflicted," gazing with hard dry eyes
+on the murder they had done and with jeers and scoffs on their thin and
+cruel lips.
+
+There, too, were the reverend ministers, Master Parris of Salem village,
+and Master Noyes of Salem town, and Master Cotton Mather, who had come
+down from Boston in his black clothes, like a buzzard that scents death
+and blood a long way off, to lend his spiritual countenance to the
+terrible occasion.
+
+Master Noyes, however, the most of the time, seemed rather quiet and
+subdued. He was thinking perhaps of Sarah Good's fierce prediction, when
+he urged her, as she came up to the gallows to confess, saying to her
+that, "she was a witch, and she knew it!" Outraged beyond all endurance
+at this last insult at such a moment, Sarah Good cried out: "It is a
+lie! I am no more a witch than you are. God will yet give you blood to
+drink for this day's cruel work!" Which prediction it is said in Salem,
+came true--Master Noyes dying of an internal hemorrhage bleeding
+profusely at the mouth.
+
+It was not a scene that men of sound and kindly hearts would wish to
+witness; and yet Joseph Putnam and Ellis Raymond felt drawn to it by an
+irresistible sense of duty. Hard, indeed, it was for Master Raymond; for
+the necessity of the case compelled him to suppress all show of sympathy
+with the sufferer, in order that he might more effectually carry out his
+plans for Dulcibel's escape from the similar penalty that menaced her.
+And he, therefore, could not even ride around like Master Putnam, with a
+frowning face, uttering occasional emphatic expressions of his
+indignation and horror, that the crowd would probably not have endured
+from any one else.
+
+There were some incidents that were especially noticeable. Samuel
+Wardwell had "confessed" in his fear, but subsequently taken back his
+false confession, and met his death. While he was speaking at the foot
+of the gallows declaring his innocence, the tobacco smoke from the pipe
+of the executioner, blew into his face and interrupted him.
+
+Then one of the accusing girls laughed out, and said that "the Devil did
+hinder him," but Joseph Putnam cried, "If the Devil does hinder him,
+then it is good proof that he is not one of his." At which some few of
+the crowd applauded; while others said that Master Putnam himself was no
+better than he ought to be.
+
+The Reverend Master Burroughs, when upon the ladder, addressing the
+crowd, asserted earnestly his entire innocence. Such was the effect of
+his words that Master Raymond even hoped that an effort would be made to
+rescue him. But one of the "afflicted girls" cried out, "See! there
+stands the black man in the air at his side."
+
+Then another said, "The black man is telling him what to say."
+
+But Master Burroughs answered: "Then I will repeat the Lord's prayer.
+Would the Devil tell me to say that?"
+
+But when he had ended, Master Cotton Mather, who was riding around on
+his horse, said to the people that "the Devil often transformed himself
+into an angel of light; and that Master Burroughs was not a rightly
+ordained minister;" and the executioner at a sign from the official, cut
+the matter short by turning off the condemned man.
+
+Rebecca Nurse and the other women, with the exception of their last
+short prayers, said nothing--submitting quietly and composedly to their
+legal murder. And before the close of one short hour eight lifeless
+bodies hung dangling beneath the summer sun.
+
+Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond, and a few others upon whom the solemn
+words of the condemned had made an evident impression, turned away from
+the sad sight, and wiped their tearful eyes. But Master Parris and
+Master Noyes, and Master Cotton Mather seemed rather exultant than
+otherwise; though Master Noyes did say; "What a sad thing it is to see
+eight firebrands of hell hanging there!" But, as Master Cotton Mather
+more consistently answered: "Why should godly ministers be sad to see
+the firebrands of hell in the burning."
+
+Then, as the hours went on, the bodies were cut down, and stuck into
+short and shallow graves, dug out with difficulty between the rocks--in
+some instances, the ground not covering them entirely. There some
+remained without further attention; but, in the case of others, whose
+relatives were still true to them, there came loving hands by night, and
+bore the remains away to find a secret sepulcher, where none could
+molest them.
+
+But the gallows remained on the Hill, where it could be seen from a
+great distance; causing a thrill of wonder in the bosom of the wandering
+savage, as of the wandering sailor, gazing at its skeleton outline
+against the sunset sky from far out at sea--waiting for ten more
+victims!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A New Plan of Escape.
+
+
+About this time a new plan of escape was suggested to Master Raymond;
+coming to him in a note from Dulcibel.
+
+Master Philip English, one of the wealthiest inhabitants of Salem town,
+and his wife Mary, had been arrested--the latter a short time previous
+to her husband. He was a merchant managing a large business, owning
+fourteen houses in the town, a wharf, and twenty-one vessels. He had one
+of the best dwellings in Salem--situated at its eastern end, and having
+a fine outlook over the adjacent seas. He had probably offended some one
+in his business transactions; or, supposing that he was safely
+entrenched in his wealth and high social position, he might have
+expressed some decided opinions, relative to Mistress Ann Putnam and the
+"afflicted children."
+
+As for his wife, she was a lady of exalted character who had been an
+only child and had inherited a large property from her father. The
+deputy-marshall, Manning, came to arrest her in the night time, during
+her husband's absence. She had retired to her bed; but he was admitted
+to her chamber, where he read the warrant for her apprehension. He
+allowed her till morning, however, placing guards around the house that
+she might not escape. Knowing that such an accusation generally meant
+conviction and death, "she arose calmly in the morning, attended the
+family prayers, spoke to a near relative of the best plan for the
+education of her children, kissed them with great composure, amid their
+agony of cries and tears, and then told the officer that she was ready
+to die."
+
+On her examination the usual scene ensued, and the usual falsehoods were
+told. Perhaps the "afflicted girls" were a little more bitter than they
+would have been, had she not laughed outright at a portion of their
+testimony. She was a very nice person in her habits, and it was
+testified against her, that being out one day in the streets of Salem
+walking around on visits to her friends during a whole morning,
+notwithstanding the streets were exceedingly sloppy and muddy, it could
+not be perceived that her shoes and white stockings were soiled in the
+least. As we have said, at this singular proof of her being a witch, the
+intelligent lady had laughed outright. And this of course brought out
+the additional statement, that she had been carried along on the back of
+an invisible "familiar"--a spectral blue boar--the whole way. Of
+course this was sufficient, and she was committed for trial.
+
+And now wealthy Master Philip English and his wife were both in prison;
+and he daily concocting plans by which he might find himself on the deck
+of the fastest sailer of all those twenty-one vessels of his.
+
+Uncle Robie had thought this might be also a good opportunity for
+Dulcibel. And it struck Master Raymond the same way; while Master
+English had no objection, especially as it was mainly for Dulcibel that
+the jailer would open the prison doors. And this was better than the
+violence he had at first contemplated; for, as his vessels gradually
+began to accumulate in port, owing to the interruption to his business
+caused by his arrest, he had only to give the word, and a party of his
+sailors would have broken open the prison some dark night, and released
+him from captivity.
+
+The "Albatross," Master English's fastest sailer at length came into
+port; and the arrangements were speedily made. The first north-westerly
+wind, whether the night were clear or stormy--though of course with such
+a wind it would probably be clear--the attempt was to be made,
+immediately after midnight. Uncle Robie was to unlock the jail-doors,
+let them out, lock the doors again behind them, and have a plentiful
+supply of witch stories to account for the escape. And Master Raymond
+had some hopes also, that Abigail Williams would come to the jailer's
+support in anything that seemed to compromise him in the least; for he
+had promised to send her a beautiful gift from England, when he returned
+home again. And with such a sharpener to the vision, the precocious
+child would be able to see even more wonderful things than any she had
+already testified to.
+
+The favorable wind came at length, and with it an exceedingly propitious
+night; there being a moon just large enough to enable them to see their
+way, with not enough light to disclose anything sharply. Master Raymond
+had planned all along to take Dulcibel's horse also with them; and if he
+could ride the animal, it would obviate the necessity of taking another
+horse also, and being plagued what to do with it when they arrived at
+the prison. For he was very desirous that Master Putnam should not be
+in the least involved in the matter.
+
+Master Raymond therefore had been practising up in the woods for about a
+week, at what the minister had failed so deplorably in, the riding of
+the little black mare. At first he could absolutely do nothing with her;
+she would not be ridden by any male biped. But finally he adopted a
+suggestion of quick-witted Mistress Putnam. He put on a side saddle and
+a skirt, and rode the animal woman fashion--and all without the least
+difficulty. The little mare seeming to say by her behavior, "Ah, now,
+that is sensible. Why did you not do it before?"
+
+So, late on the evening appointed for the attempted escape, after taking
+an affectionate leave of his host and hostess, and putting a few
+necessary articles of apparel into a portmanteau strapped behind the
+saddle, Master Raymond started for Salem town.
+
+Leaving the village to the right, he made good time to the town, meeting
+no one at that late hour. He had covered the mare with a large
+horse-blanket, so that she should not easily be recognized by any one
+who might happen to meet them. There was a night watchman in Salem town;
+but a party of sailors had undertaken to get him off the principal
+street at the appointed hour, by the offer of refreshments at one of
+their haunts; and by this time he was too full of Jamaica spirits to
+walk very steadily or see very clearly.
+
+Arrived at the prison, Master Raymond found the Captain and mate of the
+"Albatross" impatiently awaiting him. It was not full time yet, but they
+concluded to give the signal, three hoots of an owl; which the mate gave
+with great force and precision. Still all seemed dark and quiet as
+before.
+
+Then they waited, walking up and down to keep the blood in their veins
+in motion, as the nights were a little cool.
+
+"It is full time now," said the Captain, "give the signal again, Brady."
+
+Brady gave it--if anything with greater force and precision than before.
+
+But not a sign from within.
+
+Had the jailer's courage given away at the last moment? Or could he have
+betrayed them? They paced up and down for an hour longer. It was evident
+that, for some reason or other, the plan had miscarried.
+
+"Well, there is no use awaiting here," exclaimed the Captain of the
+"Albatross" with an oath; "I am going back to the ship."
+
+Master Raymond acquiesced. There was no use in waiting longer. And so he
+re-donned his petticoat--much to the amusement of the seamen and started
+back to Master Putnam's arriving there in the darkest hours of the
+night, just before the breaking of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Why the Plan Failed.
+
+
+The reason of the failure of the plan of escape may be gathered from a
+little conversation that took place between Squire Hathorne and Thomas
+Putnam the morning of the day fixed upon by Master Philip English.
+
+Thomas Putnam had called to see the magistrate at the suggestion of that
+not very admirable but certainly very sharp-witted wife of his. I do not
+suppose that Thomas Putnam was at all a bad man, but it is a lamentable
+sight to see, as we so often do, a good kind honest-hearted man made a
+mere tool of by some keen-witted and unscrupulous woman; in whose
+goodness he believes, in a kind of small-minded and yet not altogether
+ignoble spirit of devotion, mainly because she is a woman. Being a
+woman, she cannot be, as he foolishly supposes, the shallow-hearted,
+mischievous being that she really is.
+
+"Do you know, Squire, how Master English's sailors are talking around
+the wharves?"
+
+"No! What are the rascals saying?"
+
+"Well, Mistress Putnam has been told by a friend of hers in the town,
+that he heard a half-drunken sailor, belonging to one of Master
+English's vessels, say that they meant to tear down the jail some night,
+hang the jailers, and carry off their Master and Mistress."
+
+"Ah," said the Squire, "this must be looked into."
+
+"Another of the sailors is reported to have said, that if the
+magistrates attempted to hang Mistress English they would hang Squire
+Hathorne, and Squire Gedney, if they could catch him, by the side of
+her."
+
+"The impudent varlets!" exclaimed Squire Hathorne, his wine-red face
+growing redder. "Master English shall sweat for this. How many of his
+sailors are in port now?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose there are fifty of them; and all reckless, unprincipled
+men. To my certain knowledge, there is not a member of church among
+them."
+
+"The godless knaves!" cried the magistrate. "I should like to set the
+whole lot of them in the stocks, and then whip them out of the town at
+the cart's tail."
+
+"Yes, that is what they deserve, but then we cannot forget that they are
+necessary to the interests of the town--unless Salem is to give up all
+her shipping business--and these sailors are so clannish that if you
+strike one of them, you strike all. No, it seems to me, Squire, we had
+better take no public notice of their vaporing; but simply adopt means
+to counteract any plans they may be laying."
+
+"Well, what would you suggest, Master Putnam? Has Mistress Putnam any
+ideas upon the subject? I have always found her a very sensible woman."
+
+"Yes, my wife is a very remarkable woman if I do say it," replied Master
+Putnam. "Her plan is to send Master English and his wife off at once to
+Boston--that will save us all further trouble with them and their
+sailors."
+
+"A capital idea! It shall be carried out this very day," said the
+magistrate.
+
+"And she also suggests that the young witch woman, Dulcibel Burton,
+should be sent with them. That friend of my brother Joseph, is still
+staying around here; and Mistress Putnam does not exactly comprehend his
+motives for so long a visit."
+
+"Ah, indeed--what motive has he?" And Squire Hathorne rubbed his broad
+forehead.
+
+"There was some talk at one time of his keeping company with Mistress
+Burton."
+
+"What, the witch! that is too bad. For he seems like a rather pleasant
+young gentleman; and I hear he is the heir of a large estate in the old
+country."
+
+"Of course there may be nothing in it--but Mistress Putnam also heard
+from one of her female cronies the other day, that jailer Foster was at
+one time a mate on board Captain Burton's vessel."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"And you know how very handsome that Mistress Dulcibel is; and, being
+besides a witch of great power, it seems to Mistress Putnam that it is
+exposing jailer Foster to very great temptation."
+
+"Mistress Putnam is quite correct," said Squire Hathorne. "Mistress
+Dulcibel had better be transferred to Boston also. There the worshipful
+Master Haughton has the power and the will to see that all these imps of
+Satan are kept safely."
+
+"As the seamen may be lying around and make a disturbance if the removal
+comes to their knowledge, Mistress Putnam suggested that it had better
+not be done until evening. It would be a night ride; but then, as
+Mistress Putnam said, witches rather preferred to make their journeys in
+the night time--so that it would be a positive kindness to the
+prisoners."
+
+"Very true! very well thought of!" replied Squire Hathorne, with a grim
+smile. "And no doubt they will be very thankful that we furnish them
+with horses instead of broomsticks. Though as for Mistress Dulcibel, I
+suppose she would prefer her familiar, the black mare, to any other
+animal."
+
+"That was very marvelous. Abigail Williams says that she is certain that
+the mare, after jumping the gate, never came down to earth again, but
+flew straight on up into the thundercloud."
+
+"And it thundered when the black beast entered the cloud, did it not?"
+said the magistrate in a sobered tone. He evidently saw nothing
+unreasonable in the story.
+
+"Yes--it thundered--but not the common kind of thunder--it was enough to
+make your flesh creep. The minister says he is only too thankful that
+the Satanic beast did throw him off. He might have been carried off to
+hell with her."
+
+"Yes, it was a very foolish thing to get on the back of a witch's
+familiar," said the magistrate. "It was tempting Providence. And Master
+Parris has cause for thankfulness that only such a mild reproof as a
+slight wetting, was allowed to be inflicted upon him. These are perilous
+times, Master Putnam. Satan is truly going about like a roaring lion,
+seeking what he may devour. Against this chosen seed,--this little
+remnant of God's people left upon the whole earth--no wonder that he is
+tearing and raging."
+
+"Ah me, my Christian friend, it is too true! And no wonder that he is so
+bold, and full of joyful subtlety. For is he not prevailing, in spite of
+all our efforts? You know there are at least four hundred members of
+what rightly calls itself the Church of England--for certainly it is not
+the church of Christ--in Boston alone! When the royal Governor made the
+town authorities give up the South Church--even our own Church, built
+with our own money--to their so-called Rector to hold their idolatrous
+services in, we might have known that Satan was at our doors!"
+
+"Oh, that such horrible things should happen in the godly town of
+Boston!" responded Squire Hathorne. "But when the King interfered
+between Justice and the Quakers, and forbade the righteous discipline
+we were exercising upon them, of course a door was opened for all other
+latitudinarianism and false doctrine. Why, I am told that there are now
+quite a number of Quakers in Boston; and that they even had the
+assurance to apply to the magistrates the other day, for permission to
+erect a meeting-house!"
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Master Putnam. "They ought to have been whipped
+out of their presence."
+
+"Yes," continued the worthy Magistrate irefully; "but when the King
+ordered that the right of voting for our rulers should no longer be
+restricted to church-members; but that every man of fair estate and good
+moral character, as he phrases it, should be allowed to vote, even if he
+is not a member at all, he aimed a blow at the very Magistracy itself."
+
+"Yes, that is worse than heresy! And how can a man possess a good moral
+character, without being a member of the true church?"
+
+"Of course--that is self-evident. But it shows how the righteous seed is
+being over-flooded with iniquity, even in its last chosen house; how our
+Canaan is being given up to the Philistines. And therefore it is,
+doubtless, that Satan, in the pride of his success, is introducing his
+emissaries into the very house of the Lord itself; and promising great
+rewards to them who will bow down and sign their names in his red book,
+and worship him. Ah! we have fallen on evil times, Master Putnam."
+
+And so the two worthy Puritans condoled with each other, until, Master
+Putnam, bethinking himself that he had some worldly business to attend
+to, Squire Hathorne proceeded to give the necessary directions for the
+removal of the three prisoners from Salem to Boston jail.
+
+This was accomplished that very night, as Mistress Putnam had suggested;
+Deputy Marshall Herrick and a constable guarding the party. Dulcibel
+occupied a pillion behind jailer Foster; Master English and his wife
+rode together; while Master Herrick and the constable each had a horse
+to himself.
+
+The original plan was for Dulcibel to ride behind Master Herrick; but
+upon jailer Foster representing that there might be some danger of a
+rescue, and offering to join the party, it was arranged that he should
+have special charge of Mistress Dulcibel, whom he represented to Herrick
+as being in his opinion a most marvelous witch.
+
+Uncle Robie's true reason for going, however, was that the jailer in
+Boston was an old friend of his, and he wished to speak a secret word to
+him that might insure Dulcibel kinder treatment than was usually given
+in Boston jail to any alleged transgressor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam's Fair Warning.
+
+
+In the course of the next day the removal of the three prisoners became
+known to everybody. Master Raymond wondered when he heard it, whether it
+was a check-mate to the plan of escape, with which the magistrates, in
+some way had become acquainted; or whether it was a mere chance
+coincidence. Finally he satisfied himself that it was the latter--though
+no doubt suggested by the rather loose threats of Master English's many
+sailors.
+
+When jailer Foster returned, he found means to inform Master Raymond
+that it had been entirely impossible--so suddenly was the whole thing
+sprung upon him--to let anyone in their secret know of what was going
+on. He had not even taken the assistant jailer, his own son, into his
+confidence, because he did not wish to expose him to needless danger.
+His son was not required to afford any help, and therefore it would be
+unwise to incur any risk of punishment. Besides, while Uncle Robie had
+made up his mind to do some tall lying of his own for the sake of saving
+innocent lives, he saw no reason why his son, should be placed under a
+similar necessity. Lying seemed to be absolutely needful in the case;
+but it was well to do as little of it as possible.
+
+From his conversation with Master Herrick, Uncle Robie concluded that
+nothing had been divulged; and that the magistrates had acted only on
+the supposition that trouble of some kind might result from the sailors.
+And, looked at from that point of view, it was quite sufficient to
+account for the removal of two of the prisoners. As to why Dulcibel also
+should be sent to Boston, he could get no satisfactory explanation. It
+seemed in fact to be a matter of mere caprice, so far as uncle Robie
+could find out.
+
+They had pushed on through the night to Boston--about a four hours' slow
+ride--and delivered the three prisoners safely to the keeper of Boston
+jail. Uncle Robie adding the assurance to Goodwife Buckley--who acted as
+Master Raymond's confidential agent in the matter--that he had spoken a
+word to his old crony who believed no more in witches than he did, which
+would insure to her as kind treatment as possible. And Robie further
+said that he had been assured by the Boston jailer, that Mistress Phips,
+the wife of the Governor, had no sympathy whatever with the witchcraft
+prosecutions, but a great deal of sympathy for the victims of it.
+
+The game was therefore played out at Salem, now that Dulcibel had been
+transferred to Boston; and Master Raymond began to make arrangements at
+once to leave the place. In some respects the change of scene was for
+the worse; for he had no hold upon the Boston jailer, and had no friend
+there like Joseph Putnam, prepared to go to any length on his behalf.
+But, on the other hand, in Boston they seemed outside of the circle of
+Mistress Ann Putnam's powerful and malign influence. This of itself was
+no small gain; and, thinking over the whole matter, Master Raymond came
+to the conclusion that perhaps the chances of escape would be even
+greater in Boston than in Salem.
+
+So, in the course of the ensuing week, Master Raymond took an
+affectionate leave of his kind young host and hostess, and departed for
+Boston town, avowedly on his way back to his English home. This last was
+of course brought out prominently in all his leave-takings--he was,
+after a short stay in Boston, to embark for England. "What shall I send
+you from England?" was among his last questions to the various members
+of the "afflicted circle." And one said laughingly one thing, and one
+another; the young man taking it gravely, and making a note in his
+little notebook of each request. If things should come to the worst, he
+was putting himself in a good position to influence the character of the
+testimony. A hundred pounds in this way would be money well employed.
+
+Even to Mistress Ann Putnam he did not hesitate to put the same
+question, after a friendly leave-taking. Mistress Putnam rather liked
+the young Englishman; it was mainly against Dulcibel as the friend of
+her brother-in-law that she had warred; and if Master Raymond had not
+also been the warm friend and guest of Joseph Putnam, she might have
+relented in her persecution of Dulcibel for his sake. But her desire to
+pain and punish Master Joseph,--who had said so many things against her
+in the Putnam family--overpowered all such sentimental considerations.
+Besides, what Dulcibel had said of her when before the magistrates, had
+greatly incensed her.
+
+"What shall you send me from England? And are you really going back
+there?" And she fixed her cold green eyes upon the young man's face.
+
+"Oh, yes, I am going back again, like the bad penny," replied Master
+Raymond smiling.
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Oh, I cannot say exactly. Perhaps the Boston gentlemen may be so
+fascinating that they will detain me longer than I have planned."
+
+"Is it because the Salem gentlewomen are so fascinating that you have
+remained here? We feel quite complimented in the village by the length
+of your visit."
+
+"Yes, I have found the Salem gentlewomen among the most charming of
+their sex. But you have not told me what I shall send you from London
+when I return?"
+
+"Oh, I leave that entirely with you, and to your own good taste. Perhaps
+by the time you get back to London, you will not wish to send me
+anything."
+
+"I cannot imagine such a case. But I shall endeavor, as you leave it all
+to me, to find something pretty and appropriate; something suited to the
+most gifted person, among men and women, that I have found in the New
+World."
+
+Mistress Putnam's face colored with evident pleasure--even she was not
+averse to a compliment of this kind; knowing, as she did, that she had
+a wonderful intellectual capacity for planning and scheming. In fact if
+she had possessed as large a heart as brain, she would have been a very
+noble and even wonderful woman. Master Raymond thought he had told no
+falsehood in calling her the "most gifted"--he considered her so in
+certain directions.
+
+And so they parted--the last words of Mistress Putnam being, the young
+man thought, very significant ones.
+
+"I would not," she said in a light, but still impressive manner, "if I
+were you, stay a very long time in Boston. There is, I think, something
+dangerous to the health of strangers in the air of that town, of late.
+It would be a very great pity for you to catch one of our deadly fevers,
+and never be able to return to your home and friends. Take my advice
+now--it is honest and well meant--and do not linger long in the
+dangerous air of Boston."
+
+Thanking her for her solicitude as to his health, Master Raymond shook
+her thin hand and departed. But all the ride back to Joseph Putnam's, he
+was thinking over those last words.
+
+What was their real meaning? What could they mean but this? "You are
+going to Boston to try to save Dulcibel Burton. I do not want to hurt
+you; but I may be compelled to do it. Leave Boston as soon as you can,
+and spare me the necessity that may arise of denouncing you also. Joseph
+Putnam, whom I hate, but whose person and household I am for family
+reasons compelled to respect, when you are in Boston is no longer your
+protector. I can just as easily, and even far more easily, reach you
+than I could reach Captain Alden. Beware how you interfere with my
+plans. Even while I pity you, I shall not spare you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Master Raymond Goes Again to Boston.
+
+
+Master Raymond had agreed to keep his friend Joseph Putnam informed by
+letter of his movements--for there had been a postal system established
+a number of years before through the Massachusetts colony--but of course
+he had to be very careful as to what he put upon paper; the Puritan
+official mind not being over-scrupulous as to the means it took of
+attaining its ends.
+
+He had brought excellent letters to persons of the highest character in
+Boston, and had received invitations from many of them to make his home
+in their houses--for the Boston people of all classes, and especially
+the wealthy, obeyed the Scriptural injunction, and were "given to
+hospitality;" which I believe is true to the present day. But Master
+Raymond, considering the errand he was on, thought it wisest to take up
+his abode at an Inn--lest he might involve his entertainers in the peril
+attending his unlawful but righteous designs. So he took a cheery room
+at the Red Lion, in the northern part of the town, which was quite a
+reputable house, and convenient for many purposes not the least being
+its proximity to the harbor, which made it a favorite resort for the
+better class of sea-captains.
+
+Calling around upon the families to which he had presented letters on
+his first visit, immediately after his arrival in the colony, he
+speedily established very pleasant social relations with a good many
+very different circles. And he soon was able to sum up the condition of
+affairs in the town as follows:
+
+First, there was by far the most numerous and the ruling sect, the
+Puritans. The previous Governor, shut out by King James, Sir Edmund
+Andros, had been an Episcopalian; but the present one sent out on the
+accession of William and Mary, Sir William Phips, was himself a Puritan,
+sitting under the weekly teachings of the Reverend Master Cotton Mather
+at the North church.
+
+Then there was an Episcopal circle, composed of about four hundred
+people in all, meeting at King's Chapel, built about three years before,
+with the Reverend Master Robert Ratcliffe as Rector.
+
+Besides these, there was a small number of Quakers, now dwelling in
+peace, so far as personal manifestations were concerned, being protected
+by the King's mandate. These had even grown so bold of late, as to be
+seeking permission to erect a meeting-house; which almost moved the
+Puritan divines to prophesy famine, earthquakes and pestilence as the
+results of such an ungodly toleration of heresy.
+
+Then there were a number of Baptists, who also now dwelt in peace, under
+the King's protection.
+
+Adding to the foregoing the people without any religion to speak of, who
+principally belonged to or were connected with the seafaring class, and
+Master Raymond found that he had a pretty clear idea of the inhabitants
+of Boston.
+
+In relation to the Witchcraft prosecutions, the young Englishman
+ascertained that the above classes seemed to favor the prosecutions just
+in proportion to the extent of their Puritan orthodoxy. The great
+majority of the Puritans believed devoutly in witches, and in the duty
+of obeying the command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." And
+generally in proportion to a Puritan church-member's orthodoxy, was the
+extent of his belief in witchcraft, and the fierceness of his
+exterminating zeal.
+
+The Episcopalians and the Baptists were either very lukewarm, or else
+in decided opposition to the prosecutions looking upon them as simply
+additional proofs of Puritan narrowness, intolerance and bigotry.
+
+The Quakers held to the latter opinion even more firmly than the liberal
+Episcopalians and Baptists: adding to it the belief that it was a
+judgment allowed to come upon the Puritans, to punish them for their
+cruelty to God's chosen messengers.
+
+As for the seafaring class, they looked upon the whole affair as a piece
+of madness, which could only overtake people whose contracted notions
+were a result of perpetually living in one place, and that on the land.
+And since the arrest of a man so well thought of, and of their own class
+as Captain Alden, the vocabulary allowed by the law in Boston was
+entirely too limited to embrace adequately a seaman's emphatic sense of
+the iniquitous proceedings. As one of them forcibly expressed himself to
+Master Raymond:--"He would be _condemned_, if he wouldn't like to see
+the _condemned_ town of Boston, and all its _condemned_ preachers,
+buried like Port Royal, ten _condemned_ fathoms deep, under the
+_condemned_ soil upon which it was built!" He used another emphatic word
+of course, in the place of the word _condemned_; but that doubtless was
+because at that time they had not our "revised version" of the New
+Testament.
+
+The sea-captain who expressed himself in this emphatic way to Master
+Raymond, was the captain in whose vessel he had come over from England,
+and who had made another voyage back and forth since that time. The
+young man was strolling around the wharves, gazing at the vessels when
+he had been accosted by the aforesaid captain. At that particular moment
+however, he had come to a stand, earnestly regarding, as he had several
+times before, a vessel that was lying anchored out in the stream.
+
+After passing some additional words with the captain upon various
+matters, and especially upon the witches, a subject that every
+conversation at that time was apt to be very full of, he turned towards
+the water and said:--
+
+"That seems to be a good craft out there."
+
+It was a vessel of two masts, slender and raking, and with a long, low
+hull--something of the model which a good many years later, went by the
+name of the Baltimore clipper.
+
+"Yes, she is a beauty!" replied the captain.
+
+"She looks as if she might be a good sailer."
+
+"Good! I reckon she is. The Storm King can show her heels to any vessel
+that goes out of this port--or out of London either, for that matter."
+
+"What is she engaged in?"
+
+Here the captain gave a low whistle, and followed it up with a wink.
+
+"Buccaneers occasionally, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, Captain Tolley is not so very _condemned_ particular what he
+does--so that of course it is entirely lawful," and the captain winked
+again. "He owns his vessel, you see--carries her in his pocket--and has
+no _condemned_ lot of land-lubber owners on shore who cannot get away if
+there is any trouble, from the _condemned_ magistrates and constables."
+
+"That is an advantage sometimes," said the young man. He was thinking of
+his own case probably.
+
+"Of course it is. Law is a very good thing--in its place. But if I buy a
+bag of coffee in the East Indies or in South America, why should I have
+to pay a lot of money on it, before I am allowed to sell it to the
+people that like coffee in some other country? _Condemn_ it! There's no
+justice in it."
+
+Master Raymond was in no mood just then to argue great moral questions.
+So he answered by asking:--
+
+"Captain Tolley does not make too many inquiries then when a good offer
+is made him?"
+
+"Do not misunderstand me, young man," replied the captain gravely. "My
+friend, Captain Tolley, would be the last man to commit piracy, or
+anything of that kind. But just look at the case. Here Captain Tolley
+is, off at sea, attending to his proper business. Well, he comes into
+some _condemned_ port, just to get a little water perhaps, and some
+fresh provisions; and hears that while he has been away, these
+_condemned_ land-lubbers have been making some new rules and
+regulations, without even asking any of us seafaring men anything about
+it. Then, if we do not obey their foolish rules, they nab us when we
+come into port again, and fine us--perhaps put us in the bilboes. Now,
+as a fair man, do you call that justice?"
+
+Master Raymond laughed good-humoredly. "I see it has its unfair side,"
+said he. "By the way, I should like to look over that vessel of his.
+Could you give me a line of introduction to him?"
+
+"Of course I can--nothing pleases Tolley more than to have people admire
+his vessel--even though a landsman's admiration, you know, really cannot
+seem of much account to a sailor. But I cannot write here; let us
+adjourn to the Lion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+Captain Tolley and the Storm King.
+
+
+The next day furnished with a brief note of introduction, Master
+Raymond, with the aid of a skiff, put himself on the deck of the Storm
+King. Captain Tolley received him with due courtesy, wondering who the
+stranger was. The Captain was a well-built, athletic, though not very
+large man, with a face naturally dark in hue, and bronzed by exposure to
+the southern sun. As Master Raymond ascertained afterwards, he was the
+son of an English father and a Spanish mother; and he could speak
+English, French and Spanish with equal facility. While he considered
+himself an Englishman of birth, his nationality sat very loosely upon
+him; and, if need be, he was just as willing to run up the French or
+Spanish colors on the Storm King, as the red cross of St. George.
+
+After reading the note of introduction, Captain Tolley gave a keen look
+at his visitor. "Yes, the Storm King is a bird and a beauty," said he
+proudly. "Look at her! See what great wings she has! And what a hull, to
+cut the seas! She was built after my own plans. Give me plenty of
+sea-room, and a fair start, and I will laugh at all the gun frigates of
+the royal navy."
+
+"She looks to be all you say," said his visitor admiringly--but rather
+surprised that not an oath had yet fallen from the lips of the Captain.
+He had not learned that Captain Tolley, to use his own language, "never
+washed his ammunition in port or in mild weather." When aroused by a
+severe storm or other peril, the Captain was transformed into a
+different man. Then, in the war of the elements, or of man's angry
+passions, he also lightened and thundered, and swore big guns.
+
+"Let us go down into the cabin," said the Captain. Reaching there, he
+filled a couple of glasses with wine and putting the decanter on the
+table, invited his visitor to be seated. Then, closing the door, he said
+with a smile, "nothing that is said inside this cabin ever is told
+anywhere else."
+
+There was that in the speech, bearing and looks of Captain Tolley which
+inspired Master Raymond with great confidence in him. "I feel that I may
+trust you, Captain," he said earnestly.
+
+"I have done business for a great many gentlemen, and no one ever found
+me untrue to him," replied Captain Tolley, proudly. "Some things I will
+not do for anybody, or for any price; but that ends it. I never betray
+confidence."
+
+"Do you believe in witches, Captain?"
+
+"Indeed I do."
+
+"Well I suppose that settles it," replied the young man in a
+disappointed tone, rising to his feet.
+
+"I know a little witch down in Jamaica, that has been tormenting me
+almost to death for the last three years. But I tell you she is a
+beauty--as pretty as, as--the Storm King! She doesn't carry quite as
+many petticoats though," added the Captain laughing.
+
+"Oh! That is the kind of witch you mean!" and Master Raymond sat down
+again.
+
+"It is the only kind that I ever came across--and they are bad enough
+for me," responded the Captain drily.
+
+"I know a little witch of that kind," said Master Raymond, humoring the
+Captain's fancy; "but she is now in Boston prison, and in danger of her
+life."
+
+"Ah! I think I have heard something of her--very beautiful, is she not?
+I caught a glimpse of her when I went up to see Captain Alden, who the
+bigoted fools have got in limbo there. I could not help laughing at
+Alden--the idea of calling him a witch. Alden is a religious man, you
+know!"
+
+"But it may cost him his life!"
+
+"That is what I went to see him about. I offered to come up with a party
+some night, break open the jail, and carry him off to New York in the
+Storm King."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Oh, you know the better people are not in the jail, but in the jailer's
+house--having given their promise to Keeper Arnold that they will not
+try to escape, if thus kindly treated. And besides, if he runs off, they
+will confiscate his property; of which Alden foolishly has a good deal
+in houses and lands. So he thinks it the best policy to hold on to his
+anchor, and see if the storm will not blow itself out."
+
+"And so you have no conscientious scruples against breaking the law, by
+carrying off any of these imprisoned persons?"
+
+"Conscientious scruples and the Puritan laws be d----!" exclaimed the
+Captain; thinking perhaps that this was an occasion when he might with
+propriety break his rule as to swearing while in port.
+
+"Your language expresses my sentiments exactly!" responded the young
+Englishman, who had never uttered an oath in his life. "Captain, I am
+betrothed to that young lady you saw when you went to see Captain Alden.
+If she is ever brought to trial, those Salem hell-hounds will swear away
+her life. I mean to rescue her--or die with her. I am able and willing
+to pay you any reasonable price for your aid and assistance, Will you
+help me?"
+
+The Captain sprang to his feet. "Will I help you? The great God dash the
+Storm King to pieces on her next voyage if I fail you! See here," taking
+a letter out of a drawer, "it is a profitable offer just made me. But it
+is a mere matter of merchandise; and this is a matter of a woman's life!
+You shall pay me what you can afford to, and what you think right; but,
+money or no money, I and the Storm King, and her brave crew, who will
+follow wherever I lead, are at your service!"
+
+As Captain Tolley uttered these words, in an impassioned, though low
+voice, and with a glowing face and sparkling blue eyes, Master Raymond
+thought he had never seen a handsomer man. He grasped the Captain's
+extended hand, and shook it warmly. "I shall never forget this noble
+offer," he exclaimed. And he never did forget it; for from that moment
+the two were life-long friends.
+
+"What is your plan?" said the Captain.
+
+"A peaceable escape if possible. If not, what you propose to Captain
+Alden."
+
+"I should like the last the best," said the Captain.
+
+"Why, it would expose you to penalties--and keep your vessel hereafter
+out of Boston harbor."
+
+"You see that I have an old grudge of my own," replied the Captain.
+"These Puritan rascals once arrested me for bringing some Quakers from
+Barbados--good, honest, innocent people, a little touched here, you
+know,"--and the Captain tapped his broad, brown brow with his finger.
+"They caught me on shore, fined me, and would have put me in the stocks;
+but my mate got word of it, we were lying out in the storm, trained two
+big guns to bear upon the town, and gave them just fifteen minutes to
+send me on board again. That was twenty years ago, and I have not been
+here since."
+
+"They sent you on board, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, the Saints are not fools," replied the Captain, laughing. "As for
+being shut out of Boston harbor hereafter, I do not fear that much. The
+reign of the Saints is nearly over. Do you not see that the Quakers are
+back, and the Baptists, and the prayer-book men, as they call the
+Episcopalians!--and they do not touch them, though they would whip the
+whole of them out of the Province, at the cart's tail, if they dared.
+But there are Kings in Israel again!" and the Captain laughed heartily.
+"And the Kings are always better shepherds to the flock than the
+Priests."
+
+"You may have to lie here idle for a while; but I will bear the expense
+of it," said Master Raymond. "Have the proper papers drawn up, and I
+will sign them."
+
+"No, there shall be no papers between you and me," rejoined the Captain
+stoutly. "I hate these lawyers' pledges. I never deal with a man, if I
+can help it, who needs a signed and sealed paper to keep him to his
+word. I know what you are, and you ought to be able to see by this time
+what I am. The Storm King shall lie here three months, if need be--and
+you shall pay me monthly my reasonable charges. But I will make out no
+bill, and you shall have no receipt, to cause any trouble to anybody,
+hereafter."
+
+"That will suit me," replied Master Raymond, "I shall be in the
+bar-room of the Red Lion every morning at ten. You must be there too.
+But we will only nod to each other, unless I have something to tell you.
+Then I will slip a note into your hand, making an appointment for an
+interview. I fear there may be spies upon my movements."
+
+Captain Tolley assenting to these arrangements, Master Raymond and he
+again shook hands, and the latter was put ashore in one of the Storm
+King's boats. It was a little curious that as the young man reached the
+wharf, ascending a few wooden steps from the boat, whom should he see at
+a little distance, walking briskly into the town, but one who he thought
+was Master Thomas Putnam. He could not see the man's face, for his back
+was toward him; but he felt certain that it was the loving and obedient
+husband of Mistress Ann Putnam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Sir William Phips and Lady Mary.
+
+
+When Mistress Dulcibel Burton, in company with Master Philip English and
+his wife, arrived at Boston jail, and were delivered into the care of
+Keeper Arnold, they received far better treatment than they had
+expected.
+
+The prison itself, situated in a portion of Boston which is now
+considered the centre of fashion and elegance, was one of those cruel
+Bridewells, which were a befitting illustration of what some suppose to
+have been the superior manners and customs of the "good old times." It
+was built of stone, its walls being three feet thick. Its windows were
+barred with iron to prevent escape; but being without glazed sashes, the
+wind and rain and snow and cold of winter found ready access to the
+cells within. The doors were covered with the large heads of iron
+spikes--the cells being formed by partitions of heavy plank. And the
+passage ways of the prison were described by one who had been confined
+in this Boston Bridewell, as being "like the dark valley of the shadow
+of death."
+
+But the jailers seem to have been more humane than the builders of the
+prison; and those awaiting trial, especially, were frequently allowed
+rooms in the Keeper's house--probably always paying well, however, for
+the privilege.
+
+Thus, as Captain Tolley had said, Captain Alden was confined in Keeper
+Arnold's house; and, when the party in which the readers of this story
+are especially interested, arrived late at night from Salem, they were
+taken to comparatively comfortable apartments. The jailer knew that
+Master Philip English was a very wealthy man; and, as for Dulcibel,
+Uncle Robie did not forget to say to his old crony Arnold, among other
+favorable things, that she not only had warm friends, among the best
+people of Salem, but that in her own right, she possessed a very pretty
+little fortune, and was fully able to pay a good price for any favors
+extended to her.
+
+The magistrates in Salem had refused to take bail for Captain Alden; but
+Master English was soon able to make an arrangement, by which he and his
+wife were allowed the freedom of the town in the daytime; it being
+understood that they should return regularly, and pass the night in the
+jail--or, speaking strictly, in the Keeper's house.
+
+For things in Boston were different from what they were at Salem. In
+Salem the Puritan spirit reigned supreme in magistrates and in
+ministers. But in Boston, there was, as we have said, a strong
+anti-Puritan influence. The officials sent over from England were
+generally Episcopalians--the officers of the English men-of-war
+frequently in port, also were generally Episcopalians. And though the
+present Governor, Sir William Phips, was a member of the North Church,
+the Reverend Cotton Mather taking the place of his father, the Reverend
+Increase Mather--and though the Governor was greatly under the influence
+of that dogmatic and superstitious divine--his wife, Lady Mary, was
+utterly opposed to the whole witchcraft delusion and persecution.
+
+Sir William himself had quite a romantic career. Starting in life as one
+of the later offspring of a father and mother who had twenty-six
+children, and had come as poor emigrants to Maine, he was a simple and
+ignorant caretaker of sheep until eighteen years of age. Then he became
+a ship carpenter; and at the age of twenty-two went to Boston, working
+at his trade in the day time, and learning how to read and write at
+night. In Boston he had the good fortune to capture the heart of a fair
+widow by the name of Mistress Hull, who was a daughter of Captain
+Robert Spencer. With her hand he received a fair estate; which was the
+beginning of a large fortune. For, it enabled him to set up a ship-yard
+of his own; and by ventures to recover lost treasure, sunk in
+shipwrecked Spanish galleons, under the patronage of the Duke of
+Albemarle, he took back to England at one time the large amount of
+£300,000 in gold, silver and precious stones, of which his share was
+£16,000--and in addition a gold cup, valued at £1,000 presented to his
+wife Mary. And such was the able conduct and the strict integrity he had
+shown in the face of many difficulties and temptations, that King James
+knighted him, making him Sir William.
+
+Now, through his own deserts, and the influence of the Reverend Increase
+Mather, agent in England of the colony, he was Governor-in-Chief of the
+Province of Massachusetts Bay, and Captain General (for military
+purposes) of all New England. And he was living in that "fair brick
+house in Green lane," which, years before, he had promised his wife that
+he would some day build for her to live in.
+
+Lady Mary was a very sweet, nice woman; but she had a will of her own,
+and never could be persuaded that Sir William's rise in the world was
+not owing entirely to her having taken pity on him, and married below
+her station. And really there was considerable truth in this view of the
+matter, which she was not inclined to have him forget; and Sir William,
+being a manly and generous, though at times rather choleric gentleman,
+generally admitted the truth of her assertion that "she had made him,"
+rather than have any controversy with her about it. One of the first
+acts of Sir William on arriving to fill his position as Governor, was to
+order chains put upon all the alleged witches in the prisons. In this
+order might be very plainly traced the hand of his pastor, the Reverend
+Cotton Mather. Lady Mary was outraged by such a command. One of her
+first visits had been to the jail, to see Captain Alden, whom she knew
+well. Keeper Arnold had shown her the order. "Put on the irons," said
+Lady Mary. The jailer did so. "Now that you have obeyed Sir William,
+take them off again." The jailer smiled, but hesitated. "Do as I command
+you, and I will be accountable to Sir William." Very gladly did Keeper
+Arnold obey--he had no faith in such accusations, brought against some
+of the best behaved people he ever had in his charge.
+
+"Now, do the same to all the other prisoners!" commanded the spirited
+lady.
+
+"I may as well be hung for a cow as a calf," said the jailer
+laughing--and he went gravely with one pair of fetters all through the
+cells, complying literally with the new Governor's orders.
+
+Of course this soon got to the ears of the Rev. Cotton Mather, who went
+in high indignation to the Governor. But the latter seemed to be very
+much amused, and could not be brought to manifest any great amount of
+indignation. "You know that Lady Mary has a will of her own," said he to
+his pastor. "If you choose to go and talk to her, I will take you to her
+boudoir; but I am not anxious to get into hot water for the sake of a
+few witches." The minister thought of it a moment; but then concluded
+wisely not to go. For, as Lady Mary said to her husband afterwards, "I
+wish that you had brought him to me. I would have told him just what I
+think of him, and his superstitious, hard-hearted doings. For me, I
+never mean to enter North Church more. I shall go hereafter to South
+Church; Masters Willard and Moody have some Christian charity left in
+them."
+
+"I think you are too hard on Master Cotton Mather, my dear," replied
+Sir William mildly.
+
+"Too hard, am I? What would you say if those girl imps at Salem should
+accuse me next! Your own loving wife,--to the world."
+
+"Oh, my dear wife, that is too monstrous even to think of!"
+
+"No more monstrous than their accusation of Mistress English of Salem,
+and her husband. You know them--what do you think of that?"
+
+"Certainly, that is very singular and impossible; but Master Mather
+says--"
+
+"Master Mather ought to be hung himself," said the indignant lady; "for
+he has helped to murder better people than he is, a great deal."
+
+
+"My dear, I must remonstrate--"
+
+"And there is Captain Alden--he is a witch, too, it seems!" And Lady
+Mary laughed scornfully. "Why not you too? You are no better a man than
+Captain Alden."
+
+"Oh, the Captain shall not be hurt."
+
+"It will not be through any mercy of his judges then. But, answer my
+question: what will you do, if they dare to accuse me? Answer me that!"
+
+"You certainly are not serious, Lady Mary?"
+
+"I am perfectly serious. I have heard already a whisper from Salem that
+they are thinking of it. They even have wished me warned against the
+consequences of my high-handed proceedings. Now if they cry out against
+me, what will you do?"
+
+We have said that Sir William was naturally choleric--though he always
+put a strong constraint upon himself when talking with his wife, whom he
+really loved; but now he started to his feet.
+
+"If they dare to breathe a whisper against you, my wife, Lady Mary, I
+will blow the whole concern to perdition! Confound it, Madam, there are
+limits to everything!"
+
+She went up to him and put her arm around his neck and kissed him. "I
+thought that before they touched me, they would have to chain the lion
+that lies at my door," she said proudly and affectionately; for,
+notwithstanding these little tiffs, she really was fond of her husband,
+and proud of his romantic career.
+
+But--coming back to our sheep--Dulcibel not having the same amount of
+wealth and influence behind her as Master English had, was very well
+contented at being allowed a room in Keeper Arnold's house; and was on
+the whole getting along very comfortably. Master Raymond had seen her
+soon after his arrival, but it was in company with the jailer; the
+principal result being that he had secretly passed her a letter, and had
+assured himself that she was not in a suffering condition.
+
+But things of late were looking brighter, for Master Raymond had made
+the acquaintance of Lady Mary through a friend to whom he had letters
+from England, and Lady Mary had begun to take an interest in Dulcibel,
+whom she had seen on one of her visits to Mistress English.
+
+Through Lady Mary, in some way, Dulcibel hoped to escape from the
+prison; trusting that, if once at large, Master Raymond would be able to
+provide for her safety. But there was one great difficulty. She, with
+the others, had given her word to the Keeper not to escape, as the price
+of her present exemption from confinement in an exposed, unhealthy cell.
+How this promise was to be managed, neither of them had been able to
+think of. Keeper Arnold might be approached; but Dulcibel feared not--at
+least under present circumstances. If brought to trial and convicted
+then to save her life, Dulcibel thought he might be persuaded to aid
+her. As to breaking her word to the Keeper, that never entered the mind
+of the truthful maiden, or of her lover. Death even was more endurable
+than the thought of dishonor--if they had thought of the matter at all.
+But as I have said, they never even thought of a such thing. And
+therefore how to manage the affair was a very perplexing question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+The First Rattle of the Rattlesnake.
+
+
+One day about this time Master Raymond was sitting in the porch of the
+Red Lion, thinking over a sight he had just seen;--a man had passed by
+wearing on the back of his drab coat a capital I two inches long, cut
+out of black cloth, and sewed upon it. On inquiry he found the man had
+married his deceased wife's sister; and both he and the woman had been
+first whipped, and then condemned to wear this letter for the rest of
+their lives, according to the law of the colony.[3]
+
+[Footnote 3: See Drake's History of Boston]
+
+Master Raymond was puzzling over the matter not being able to make out
+that any real offence had been committed, when who should walk up to the
+porch but Master Joseph Putnam. After a hearty hand-shaking between the
+two, they retired to Master Raymond's apartments.
+
+"Well, how are things getting along at Salem?"
+
+"Oh, about as usual!"
+
+"Any more accusations?"
+
+"Plenty of them, people are beginning to find out that the best way to
+protect themselves is to sham being 'afflicted,' and accuse somebody
+else."
+
+"I saw that a good while ago."
+
+"And when a girl or a woman is accused, her relatives and her friends
+gather around her, and implore her to confess, to save her life. For
+they have found that not one person who has been accused of being a
+witch, and has admitted the fact, has been convicted.
+
+"And yet it would seem that a confession of witchcraft ought to be a
+better proof of it, than the mere assertion of possible enemies,"
+responded Master Raymond.
+
+"Of course--if there was any show of reason or fairness in the
+prosecutions, from first to last; but as it is all sheer malice and
+wickedness, on the part of the accusers, from the beginning to the end,
+it would be vain to expect any reasonableness or fairness from them."
+
+"We must admit, however, that there is some delusion in it. It would be
+too uncharitable to believe otherwise," said Master Raymond
+thoughtfully.
+
+"There may have been at the very first--on the part of the children,"
+replied Master Putnam. "They might have supposed that Tituba and
+friendless Sarah Good tormented them--but since then, there has not
+been more than one part of delusion to twenty parts of wickedness. Why,
+can any sane man suppose that she-wolf sister-in-law of mine does not
+know she is lying, when she brings such horrible charges against the
+best men and women in Salem?"
+
+"No, I give up Mistress Ann, she is possessed by a lying devil,"
+admitted Master Raymond.
+
+"It is well she does not hear that speech," said Joseph Putnam.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, up to this time, you seem to have managed to soften her heart
+a little."
+
+"I have tried to. I have thought myself justified in playing a part--as
+King David once did you know."
+
+"It is that which brings me here. I met her at the house of a friend
+whom I called to see on some business a day or two ago."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"She said to me, in that soft purring voice of hers, 'Brother Joseph, I
+hear that your good friend Master Raymond is still in Boston.' I
+answered that I believed he was. 'When he took leave of me,' she
+continued, 'I advised him not to stay long in that town--as it was
+often a bad climate for strangers. I am sorry he does not take wise
+counsel.' Then she passed on, and out of the house. Have you any idea
+what she meant?"
+
+Master Raymond studied a moment over it in silence. Then he said:--"It
+is the first warning of the rattlesnake, I suppose. How many do they
+usually give before they spring?"
+
+"Three, the saying goes. But I guess this rattlesnake cannot be trusted
+to give more than one."
+
+"I was convinced I saw your brother Thomas as I came ashore from the
+Storm King the other day."
+
+"Ah, that explains it then. She understands it all then. She understands
+it all now just as well as if you had told her."
+
+"But why should she pursue so fiendishly an innocent girl like Dulcibel,
+who is not conscious of ever having offended her?"
+
+"Why do tigers slay, and scorpions sting? Because it is their nature, I
+suppose," replied Master Putnam philosophically. "Because, Mistress
+Dulcibel openly ridiculed and denounced her and the whole witchcraft
+business. And you will note that there has not been a single instance
+of this being done, that the circle of accusers have not seemed
+maddened to frenzy."
+
+"Yes,--there has been one case--your own."
+
+"That is true--because I am Thomas Putnam's brother. And, dupe and tool
+as he is of that she-wolf, and though there is no great amount of love
+lost between us--still I am his brother! And that protects me. Besides
+they know that it is as much any two men's lives are worth to attempt to
+arrest me."
+
+"And then you think there is no special enmity against Dulcibel?"
+
+"I have not said so. Jethro Sands hates her because she refused him;
+Leah Herrick wants her driven away, because she herself wants to marry
+Jethro, and fears Jethro might after all, succeed in getting Dulcibel;
+and Sister Ann hates her, because--"
+
+"Well, because what?"
+
+"Oh, it seems too egotistical to say it--because she knows she is one of
+my dear friends."
+
+"She must dislike you very much then?"
+
+"She does."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh, there is no good reason. At the first, she was inclined to like
+me--but I always knew she was a cold-blooded snake and she-wolf, and I
+would have nothing to do with her. Then when brother Thomas began to
+sink his manhood and become the mere dupe and tool of a scheming woman,
+I remonstrated with him. I think, friend Raymond, that I am as
+chivalrous as any man ought to be. I admire a woman in her true place as
+much as any man--and would fight and die for her. But for these men that
+forget their manhood, these Marc Antonies who yield up their sound
+reason and their manly strength to the wiles and tears and charms of
+selfish and ambitious Cleopatras, I have nothing but contempt. There are
+plenty of them around in all ages of the world, and they generally glory
+in their shame. Of course brother Thomas did not enjoy very much my mean
+opinion of his conduct--and as for sister Ann, she has never forgiven
+me, and never will."
+
+"And so you think she hates Dulcibel, mainly because you love her?"
+
+"That is about the shape of it," said Master Putnam drily. "That
+Dulcibel feels for me the affection of a sister, only intensifies my
+sister-in-law's aversion to her. But then, you see, that merely on the
+general principle of denouncing all who set themselves in opposition to
+the so-called afflicted circle, Dulcibel would be accused of
+witchcraft."
+
+"Well, for my part, I think the whole affair can only be accounted for
+as being a piece of what we men of the world, who do not belong to any
+church, call devilishness," said Master Raymond hotly.
+
+"You see," responded Master Putnam, "that you men of the world have to
+come to the same conclusion that we church members do. You impute it to
+'devilishness' and we to being 'possessed by the devil.' It is about the
+same thing. And now give me an idea of your latest plans. Perhaps I can
+forward them in some way, either here or at Salem."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Conflicting Currents in Boston.
+
+
+All this time the under-current of opposition to these criminal
+proceedings against the alleged witches, was growing stronger, at
+Boston. The Reverend Samuel Willard and Joshua Moody both ministers of
+undoubted orthodoxy from the Puritan stand-point, did not scruple to
+visit the accused in the keeping of jailer Arnold, and sympathize openly
+with them. Captain Alden and Master Philip English and his wife
+especially, were persons of too great wealth and reputation not to have
+many sympathizing friends.
+
+On the other hand, the great majority of the Puritans, under the lead of
+the Reverend Cotton Mather, and the two Salem ministers, Parris and
+Noyes were determined that the prosecution should go on, until the
+witches, those children of the Evil One, were thoroughly cast out; even
+if half of their congregations should have to be hung by the other half.
+
+At a recent trial in Salem, one of the "afflicted" had even gone so far
+as to cry out against the Rev. Master Willard. But the Court, it seemed,
+was not quite ready for that; for the girl was sent out of court, being
+told that she must have mistaken the person. When this was reported to
+Master Willard, it by no means tended to lessen his growing belief that
+the prosecutions were inspired by evil spirits.
+
+Of course in this condition of things, the position of the Governor, Sir
+William Phips, became a matter of the first importance. As he owed his
+office mainly to the influence of the Rev. Increase Mather, and sat
+under the weekly ministrations of his learned son, Cotton Mather, the
+witch prosecutors had a very great hold upon him. With a good natural
+intellect, Sir William had received a very scanty education; and was
+therefore much impressed by the prodigious attainments of such men as
+the two Mathers. To differ with them on a theological matter seemed to
+him rather presumptuous. If they did not know what was sound in
+theology, and right in practise; why was there any use in having
+ministers at all, or who could be expected to be certain of anything?
+
+Then if Sir William turned to the law, he was met by an almost unanimous
+array of lawyers and judges who endorsed the witchcraft prosecution.
+Chief-Justice Stoughton, honest and learned Judge Sewall--and nearly
+all the rest of the judiciary--were sure of the truth in this matter.
+Not one magistrate could be found in the whole province, to decide as a
+sensible English judge is reported by tradition to have done, in the
+case of an old woman who at last acknowledged in the feebleness of her
+confused intellect that she was a witch, and in the habit of riding
+about on a broomstick: "Well, as I know of no law that forbids old women
+riding about on broomsticks, if they fancy that mode of conveyance, you
+are discharged." But there was not one magistrate at that time, wise or
+learned enough to make such a sensible decision in the whole of New
+England.
+
+Thus with the almost unanimous bar, and the great preponderance of the
+clergy, advising him to pursue a certain course, Sir William undoubtedly
+would have followed it, had he not been a man whose sympathies naturally
+were with sea-captains, military officers, and other men-of-the-world;
+and, moreover, if he had not a wife, herself the daughter of a
+sea-captain, who was an utter disbeliever in her accused friends being
+witches, and who had moreover a very strong will of her own.
+
+Of course if the Governor should come to Lady Mary's opinion, the
+prosecution might as well be abandoned--for, with a stroke of his pen,
+he could remit the sentences of all the convicted persons. Left to
+himself and Lady Mary, he doubtless would have done this; but he wished
+to continue in his office, and to be a successful Governor; and he knew
+that to array himself against the prosecution and punishment of the
+alleged witches was to displease the great majority of the people of the
+province; including, as I have shown, the most influential persons. In
+fact, it was simply to retire from his government in disgrace.
+
+All this the Reverend Cotton Mather represented to Sir William, with
+much else of a less worldly, but no doubt still more effective
+character, based upon various passages of the old Testament rather than
+upon anything corresponding to them in the New.
+
+And so the prosecutions and convictions went on; but the further
+executions waited upon the Governor's decision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Rattlesnake Makes a Spring.
+
+
+It was a Thursday afternoon, and the "afflicted circle" was having one
+of its informal meetings at the house of Mistress Ann Putnam. At these
+meetings the latest developments were talked over; and all the scandal
+of the neighborhood, and even of Boston and other towns, gathered and
+discussed. Thus in the examination of Captain Alden in addition to the
+material charges of witchcraft against him, which I have noted, were
+entirely irrelevant slanders of the grossest kind against his moral
+character which the "afflicted girls" must have gathered from very low
+and vulgar sources.
+
+The only man present on this occasion was Jethro Sands; and the girls,
+especially Leah Herrick, could not but wonder who now was to be "cried
+out against," that Jethro was brought into their counsels.
+
+It is a curious natural instinct which leads every faculty--even the
+basest--to crave more food in proportion to the extent in which it has
+been already gratified. In the first place, the "afflicted" girls no
+doubt had their little spites, revenges, and jealousies to indulge, but
+afterwards they seemed to "cry out" against those of whom they hardly
+knew anything, either to oblige another of the party, or to punish for
+an expressed disbelief in their sincerity, or even out of the mere
+wantonness of power to do evil.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam opened the serious business of the afternoon, after
+an hour or so had been spent in gossip and tale-bearing, by an account
+of some recent troubles of hers.
+
+"A few nights ago," said she, "I awakened in the middle of the night
+with choking and strangling. I knew at once that a new 'evil hand' was
+upon me; for the torment was different from any I had ever experienced.
+I thought the hand that grasped me around the throat would have killed
+me--and there was a heavy weight upon my breast, so that I could hardly
+breathe. I clutched at the thing that pressed upon my breast, and it
+felt hard and bony like a horse's hoof--and it was a horse. By the faint
+moonlight I saw it was the wild black 'familiar' that belongs to the
+snake-marked witch, Dulcibel Burton. But the hand that grasped my throat
+was the strong hand of a man. I caught a sight of his face. I knew it
+well. But I pity him so much that I hesitate to reveal it. I feel as if
+I would almost rather suffer myself, than accuse so fine a young man as
+he seemed to be of such wicked conduct."
+
+"But it appears to me that it is your duty to expose him, Mistress
+Putnam," said Jethro Sands. "I know the young man whose spectre you saw,
+for he and that black witch of a mare seem to be making their nightly
+rounds together. They 'afflicted' me the other night the same way. I
+flung them off; and I asked him what he meant by acting in that way? And
+he said he was a lover of the witch Dulcibel; who was one of the queens
+of Hell--I might know that by the snake-mark on her bosom. And she had
+told him that he must afflict all those who had testified against her;
+and she would lend him her 'familiar,' the black mare, to help him do
+it."
+
+By this time, even the dullest of the girls of course saw very plainly
+who was being aimed at; but Mistress Putnam added, "upon learning that
+Master Jethro had also been afflicted by this person, I had very little
+doubt that I should find the guilty young man had been doing the same to
+all of you; for we have seen heretofore that when these witches attack
+one of us, they attack all, hating all for the same reason, that we
+expose and denounce them. I may add that I have also heard that the
+young man in question is now in Boston doing all he can in aid of the
+snake-witch Dulcibel Burton; and representing all of us to Lady Mary
+Phips and other influential persons, as being untruthful and malicious
+accusers of innocent people." Here she turned to one who had always been
+her right-hand as it were, and said:--"I suppose you have been tormented
+in the same way, dear Abigail?"
+
+Ann Putnam, her daughter, however, that precocious and unmanageable girl
+of twelve, here broke in: "I think my mother is entirely mistaken. I was
+treated just the same way about a week ago; but it was not the spectre
+of Master Raymond at all--it was the spectre of another man whom I never
+saw before. It was not at all like Master Raymond; and I, for one, will
+not join in crying out against him."
+
+In those old times, parents were treated with a much greater show, at
+least, of respect and veneration than they are at present; and therefore
+Mistress Putnam was greatly shocked at her daughter's language; but her
+daughter was well known to all present as an exceptional child, being
+very forward and self-willed, and therefore her mother simply said, "I
+had not expected such unkind behavior from you, Ann."
+
+"Master Raymond has been very kind to all of us, you know--has given us
+pretty things, and has promised to send us all presents when he gets
+back from England; and I have heard you and father both say, that the
+Putnams always stand up for their friends."
+
+This reference to the promised presents from England, evidently told all
+around the circle. They had nothing to gain by "crying out" against
+Master Raymond, they had something to gain by not doing it; besides, he
+was a very handsome young man, who had tried to make himself agreeable
+to almost all of them as he had opportunity. And though Dulcibel's
+beauty went for nothing in their eyes, a young man's good looks and
+gallant bearing were something entirely different.
+
+And so Abigail Williams, and Mary Walcot, and Mercy Lewis, and Leah
+Herrick, and Sarah Churchill, and Elizabeth Hubbard all had the same
+tale to tell with suitable variations, as young Ann Putnam had. They
+were certain that the face of the "spectre" was not the face of Master
+Raymond; but of some person they had never before seen. Mercy Lewis and
+Sarah Churchill, in fact, were inclined to think it was the face of
+Satan himself; and they all wondered very much that Mistress Putnam
+could have mistaken such an old and ugly face, for that of the comely
+young Englishman.
+
+As for Leah Herrick, she did not care in her secret heart if Master
+Raymond were in love with Dulcibel--so that he would only take her out
+of the country, where there was no danger of Jethro's seeing her any
+more. All her belief that Dulcibel was a witch was based upon jealousy,
+and now that it was utterly improbable that Jethro would ever turn his
+thoughts in that direction again, she had no hard feeling towards her;
+while, as she also had reason to expect a handsome present from England,
+she did not share in the least Jethro's bitterness against the young
+Englishman.
+
+But although Mistress Putnam was thus utterly foiled in her effort to
+enlist the "afflicted circle" in her support, she was not the woman to
+give up her settled purpose on that account. She knew well that she was
+a host in herself, so far as the magistrates were concerned. And, having
+Jethro Sands to join her, it made up the two witnesses that were
+absolutely necessary by the law of Massachusetts as of Moses. The
+"afflicted circle" might not aid her, but it was not likely that they
+would openly revolt, and take part against her in public; and so she
+went the very next morning in company with that obedient tool, her
+husband and Jethro Sands, to the office of Squire Hathorne, and got him
+to issue a warrant for the arrest of Master Ellis Raymond, on the usual
+charge of practicing witchcraft.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+An Interview with Lady Mary.
+
+
+Master Raymond, having obtained an introduction to the Governor's wife,
+Lady Mary, lost no time in endeavoring to "cultivate the amenities of
+life," so far as that very influential person was concerned. He had paid
+the most deferential court to her on several occasions where he had been
+able to meet her socially; and had impressed the Governor's lady very
+favorably, as being an unusually handsome, well-bred and highly
+cultivated young man. A comely and high-spirited lady of forty, she was
+better pleased to be the recipient of the courteous and deferential
+attentions of a young Englishman of good connections like Master
+Raymond, than even to listen to the wise and weighty counsel of so
+learned a man as Master Cotton Mather.
+
+Only in the last minutes of their last meeting however, when handing her
+ladyship to her carriage, did Master Raymond feel at liberty to ask her
+if he could have a short private interview with her the next morning.
+She looked a little surprised, and then said, "Of course, Master
+Raymond."
+
+"At what hour will it suit your ladyship?"
+
+"At twelve, precisely, I have an engagement at one;" and the carriage
+drove off.
+
+A minute or two before twelve, Master Raymond was at the Governor's
+house in Green lane; and was duly admitted, as one expected, and shown
+into her ladyship's boudoir.
+
+"Now, come right to the point, Master Raymond; and tell me what I can do
+for you," said her ladyship smiling. "If I can help you, I will; if I
+cannot, or must not, I shall say so at once--and you must continue to be
+just as good a friend to me as ever."
+
+"I promise that to your ladyship," replied the young man earnestly. He
+really liked and admired Lady Mary very much.
+
+"Is it love, or money?--young men always want one of these."
+
+"Your ladyship is as quick-witted in this as in everything else."
+
+"Well, which is it?"
+
+"Love."
+
+"Ah--who?"
+
+"Mistress Dulcibel Burton."
+
+"What!--not the girl with the snake-mark?"
+
+Raymond bowed his head very low in answer.
+
+Lady Mary laughed. "She is a witch then, it seems; for she has bewitched
+you."
+
+"We were betrothed to each other only a few days before that absurd and
+lying charge was made against her."
+
+"And her horse--her black mare--that upset the Reverend Master Parris
+into the duck pond; and then went up into the clouds; and, as Master
+Cotton Mather solemnly assured me, has never been seen or heard of
+since--what of it--where is it, really?"
+
+"In an out-of-the-way place, up in Master Joseph Putnam's woods,"
+replied the young man smiling.
+
+"And you are certain of it?"
+
+"As certain as riding the mare for about ten miles will warrant."
+
+"Master Mather assured me that no man--except perhaps Satan or one of
+his imps--could ride her."
+
+"Then I must be Satan or one of his imps, I suppose."
+
+"How did you manage it?"
+
+"I put a side-saddle on the beast; and a woman's skirt on myself."
+
+The lady laughed outright. "Oh, that is too good! It reminds me of what
+Sir William often says, 'Anything can be done, if you know how to do
+it!' I must tell it to him he will enjoy it so much. And it will be a
+good thing to plague Master Mather with."
+
+"Please do not tell anyone just now," protested the young man earnestly.
+"It may bring my good friend, Joseph Putnam, into trouble. And it would
+only make them all angrier than they are with Dulcibel."
+
+"Dulcibel--that is a strange name. It is Italian--is it not."
+
+"I judge so. It is a family name. I suppose there is Italian blood in
+the family. At least Mistress Dulcibel looks it."
+
+"She does. She is very beautiful--of a kind of strange, fascinating
+beauty. I do not wonder she bewitched you. Was that serpent mark too
+from Italy?"
+
+"I think it very likely."
+
+"Perhaps she is descended from Cleopatra--and that is the mark left by
+the serpent on the famous queen's breast."
+
+"I think it exceedingly probable," said Master Raymond. My readers will
+have observed before this, that he was an exceedingly polite and
+politic young man.
+
+"Well, and so you want me to get Mistress Dulcibel, this witch
+descendant of that famous old witch, Cleopatra, out of prison?"
+
+"I hoped that, from the well-known kindness of heart of your ladyship,
+you would be able to do something for us."
+
+"You see the difficulty is simply here. I know that all these charges of
+witchcraft against such good, nice people as Captain Alden, Master and
+Mistress English, your betrothed Dulcibel, and a hundred others, are
+mere bigotry and superstition at the best, and sheer spite and
+maliciousness at the worst--but what can I do? Sir William owes his
+position to the Reverend Increase Mather--and, besides, not being a
+greatly learned man himself, is more impressed than he ought to be by
+the learning of the ministers and the lawyers. I tell him that a learned
+fool is the greatest fool alive; but still he is much puzzled. If he
+does not conform to the wishes of the ministers and the judges, who are
+able to lead the great majority of the people in any direction they
+choose, he will lose his position as Governor. Now, while this is not so
+much in itself, it will be a bar to his future advancement--for
+preferment does not often seek the men who fail, even when they fail
+from having superior wisdom and nobleness to the multitude."
+
+It was evident that Sir William and Lady Mary had talked over this
+witchcraft matter, and its bearing upon his position, a good many times.
+And Master Raymond saw very clearly the difficulties of the case.
+
+"And still, if the robe of the Governor can only continue to be worn by
+dyeing it with innocent blood, I think that a man of the natural
+greatness and nobility of Sir William, would not hesitate as to his
+decision."
+
+"But a new Governor in his place might do worse."
+
+"Yes, he might easily do that."
+
+"When it comes to taking more lives by his order, then he will decide
+upon his course. So far he is temporizing," said the lady.
+
+"And Dulcibel?"
+
+"She is not suffering," was the reply. "Oh, if I only could say the same
+of the poor old women, and poor young women, now lying in those cold and
+loathsome cells--innocent of any crime whatever either against God or
+against man--I should not feel it all here so heavily," and Lady Mary
+pressed her hand against her heart. "But we are not responsible for it!
+I have taken off every chain--and do all I dare; while Sir William shuts
+his eyes to my unlawful doings."
+
+"Will you aid her to escape, should her life be in danger? You told me
+to speak out frankly and to the point."
+
+The lady hesitated only for a moment. "I will do all I can--even to
+putting my own life in peril. When something _must_ be done, come to me
+again. And now judge me and Sir William kindly; knowing that we are not
+despots, but compelled to rule somewhat in accordance with the desires
+of those whom we have been sent here to govern."
+
+Lady Mary extended her hand; the young man took it, as he might have
+taken the hand of his sovereign Queen, and pressed it with his lips.
+Then he bowed himself out of the boudoir.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+Master Raymond is Arrested for Witchcraft.
+
+
+As Master Raymond walked up the street toward the Red Lion, he felt in
+better spirits. He had secured the aid, if things should come to the
+worst of a very influential friend--and one who, woman-like, would be apt
+to go even farther than her word, as noble spirits in such cases are apt
+to do. Therefore he was comparatively light-hearted.
+
+Suddenly he felt a strong grasp upon his shoulder; and turning, he saw a
+couple of men beside him. One he knew well as deputy-marshall Herrick,
+of Salem.
+
+"You are wanted at Salem, Master Raymond," said Marshall Herrick
+gravely, producing a paper.
+
+Raymond felt a sinking of heart as he glanced over it--it was the
+warrant for his arrest, issued by Squire Hathorne.
+
+"At whose complaint?" he asked, controlling his emotions, and speaking
+quite calmly and pleasantly.
+
+"At the complaint of Mistress Ann Putnam and Master Jethro Sands,"
+replied the officer.
+
+"Of witchcraft? That is very curious. For as Dr. Griggs knows, just
+before I left Salem Farms, I was suffering from 'an evil hand' myself."
+
+"Indeed!" said the officer.
+
+"When am I to go?"
+
+"Immediately. We have provided a horse for you."
+
+"I should like to get my valise, and some clothes from the Red Lion."
+
+The officer hesitated.
+
+Master Raymond smiled pleasantly. "You must be hungry about this time of
+day, and they have some of the best wine at the Lion I ever tasted. You
+shall drink a bottle or two with me. You know that a man travels all the
+better for a good dinner and a bottle of good wine."
+
+The officers hesitated no longer. "You are a sensible man, Master
+Raymond, whether you are a witch or not," said the deputy marshall.
+
+"I think if the wine were better and plentier around Salem, there would
+be fewer witches," rejoined Master Raymond; which the other officer
+considered a very witty remark, judging by the way he laughed at it.
+
+The result of this strategic movement of Master Raymond's, was that he
+had a couple of very pleasant and good-humored officials to attend him
+all the way to Salem jail, where they arrived in the course of the
+evening. Proving that thus by the aid of a little metaphorical oil and
+sugar, even official machinery could be made to work a good deal
+smoother than it otherwise would. While the officers themselves
+expressed their utter disbelief to the people they met, of the truth of
+the charges that had been brought against Master Raymond; who in truth
+was himself "an afflicted person," and had been suffering some time from
+an "evil hand," as the wise Dr. Griggs had declared.
+
+The Salem keeper, Uncle Robie, true to his accustomed plan of action,
+received Master Raymond very gruffly; but after he had got rid of the
+other professionals, he had a good long talk, and made his cell quite
+comfortable for him. He also took him in to visit Antipas, who was
+delighted to see him, and also to hear that Mistress Dulcibel, was quite
+comfortably lodged with Keeper Arnold.
+
+Then the young man threw himself upon his bed, and slept soundly till
+morning. He did not need much study to decide upon his plans, as he had
+contemplated such a possibility as that, ever since the arrest of
+Dulcibel, and had fully made up his mind in what manner he would meet
+it. If, however, he had known the results of the conference of the
+"afflicted circle" two days previous, he would have felt more encouraged
+as to the probable success of the defence he meditated. The constable
+that had aided the deputy-marshall in making the arrest, had agreed
+however to send word to Joseph Putnam of what had occurred; and
+comforted by the thought of having at least one staunch friend to stand
+by him, Master Raymond had slept soundly even on a prison pallet.
+
+The next morning, as early as the rules of the jail would admit, Joseph
+Putnam came to see him. "I had intended to come and see you in Boston
+to-day," said Master Joseph, "but the she-wolf was too quick for me."
+
+"Why, had you heard anything?"
+
+"Yes, and I hardly understand it. Abigail Williams called to see
+Goodwife Buckley yesterday, and told her in confidence that it was
+probable you would be cried out against by Sister Ann and Jethro Sands;
+and to warn me of it."
+
+"Abigail Williams!"
+
+"Yes; and she also dropped a hint that none of the other 'afflicted
+girls' had anything to do with it--for they looked upon you as a very
+nice young man, and a friend."
+
+"Well, that is good news indeed," said Master Raymond brightening up.
+
+"And I called upon Doctor Griggs on my way here, and he says he is
+confident there was an 'evil hand' upon you when you were suffering at
+my house; and he will be on hand at the examination to give his
+testimony, if it is needed, to that effect."
+
+"But that terrible sister-in-law of yours! If she could only be kept
+away from the examination for half-an-hour; and give me time to impress
+the magistrates and the people a little."
+
+"It might be done perhaps," said Joseph Putnam musing.
+
+"Do not be too conscientious about the means, my dear friend," continued
+Master Raymond. "Do not stand so straight that you lean backward.
+Remember that this is war and a just war against false witnesses, the
+shedders of innocent blood, and wicked or deceived rulers. If I am
+imprisoned, what is to become of Dulcibel? Think of her--do not think of
+me."
+
+Joseph Putnam was greatly agitated. "I will do all I can for both of
+you. But my soul recoils from anything like deceit, as from wickedness
+itself. But I will think over it, and see if I cannot devise some way to
+keep Sister Ann away, for a time or altogether."
+
+"Give me at least fifteen minutes to work on the Magistrates, and to
+enlist the sympathies of the people in my behalf. For me, so far as my
+conscience is concerned, I should not hesitate to shoot that Jezebel.
+For the murder of the twenty innocent men and women who have now been
+put to death, she is mainly responsible. And to kill her who surely
+deserves to die, might save the lives of fifty others."
+
+Joseph Putnam shook his head. "I cannot see the matter in that light,
+Friend Raymond."
+
+"Oh," replied Raymond, "of course I do not mean you should kill Mistress
+Ann. I only put it as giving my idea of how far _my_ conscience would
+allow me to go in the matter. Draw her off in some way though--keep her
+out of the room for awhile--give me a little time to work in."
+
+"I will do all I can; you may be sure of that," responded Master Putnam
+emphatically.
+
+Here further confidential conversation was prevented by the entrance of
+the marshall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+Master Raymond Astonishes the Magistrates.
+
+
+The examination was to commence at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
+to be held in the Court House in the town, as being more convenient to
+Squire Hathorne than the meeting-house in the village.
+
+As Master Thomas Putnam's house and farm were several miles beyond the
+village, it made quite a long ride for them to attend the examination.
+He had arranged with his wife, however, to start immediately after their
+usual twelve o'clock dinner, taking her behind him on a pillion, as was
+customary at that day--his daughter Ann being already in town, where she
+was paying a visit to a friend. He had received however a message about
+ten o'clock, requesting his immediate presence at Ipswich, on a matter
+of the most urgent importance; and though he was greatly puzzled by it,
+he concluded to go at once to Ipswich and go from there direct to Salem
+town, without coming home again, as it would be very much out of his
+road to do so.
+
+According to this new arrangement, Mistress Ann would take the other
+horse, and a lady's saddle, and ride to town by herself. They had still
+a third horse, but that was already in town with her daughter.
+
+The Court House was but a short distance from the prison; and, as it was
+a good Puritan fashion to be punctual to the minute, at three o'clock
+precisely Squires Hathorne and Corwin were in their arm-chairs, and
+Master Raymond standing on the raised platform in front of them. As the
+latter looked carefully around the room, he saw that neither Thomas
+Putnam nor his mischievous wife, nor his own best friend Joseph Putnam,
+was present. Squire Hathorne also observed that Mistress Ann Putnam was
+not present; but, as she was usually very punctual, he concluded that
+she would be there in a few minutes, and after some whispered words with
+his colleague, resolved to proceed with the examination.
+
+Turning to the young Englishman, he said in his usual stern
+tones:--"Ellis Raymond, you are brought before authority, upon high
+suspicion of sundry acts of witchcraft. Now tell us the truth of this
+matter."
+
+But no answer came from the accused. Then, when all eyes were intently
+regarding him, he gave a wild shriek, and fell outstretched upon the
+platform.
+
+"Let me to him!" said Dr. Griggs, elbowing his way through the crowd. "I
+said a month ago that an 'evil hand' was upon him; and now I am certain
+of it."
+
+Master Raymond had not been an attentive observer of the recent trials
+for nothing; and he now gave the audience an exhibition which would
+compare favorably with the best, even with Mistress Ann Putnam's and
+Abigail William's. His face became shockingly contorted, and he writhed
+and twisted and turned convulsively. He tore imaginary spectral hands
+from around his neck. He pushed imaginary weights from off his breast.
+He cried, "Take them away! Pray, take them away!" until the whole
+company were very much affected; and even the magistrates were greatly
+astounded.
+
+Dr. Griggs loosened his collar and unbuttoned his doublet, and had water
+brought to sprinkle his face keeping up a running fire of words at the
+same time, to the effect that he knew, and had said, as least a month
+before, that Master Raymond had an "evil hand" upon him.
+
+"Who is it hurts you?" at length asked credulous Squire Hathorne.
+
+"See, there is the yellow bird!" cried the young man, staring into
+vacancy. "He is coming to peck my eyes out! Kill it! kill it!" dashing
+his hands out from his face violently. "Has no one a sword--pray do try
+to kill it!"
+
+Here an impetuous young villager, standing by, drew his rapier, and
+stabbed violently in the direction of the supposed spectral bird.
+
+"Oh! Oh! You almost killed it! See, there are some of its feathers!" And
+three yellow feathers were seen floating in the air; being small chicken
+feathers with which he had been provided that very morning by Uncle
+Robie, the jailer; and which the adroit Master Raymond rightly thought
+would have a prodigious effect.
+
+And the result was fully equal to his expectations. From that moment, it
+was evident that he had all the beholders with him; and Squire Hathorne,
+disposed as he had been to condemn him almost without a hearing, was
+completely staggered. He had the feathers from the "yellow bird"
+carefully placed upon his desk, with the purpose of transmitting them at
+once to Master Cotton Mather who, with these palpable proofs of the
+reality of the spectral appearance would be able utterly to demolish
+all the skeptical unbelievers.
+
+Finding that such an effect had been produced, Master Raymond allowed
+himself to regain his composure somewhat.
+
+"Mistress Ann Putnam, who is one of the two complainants, unaccountably
+is not here," said Squire Hathorne. "Master Jethro Sands, what have you
+to say against this young man? You are the other complainant."
+
+"Probably my mother has come to the conclusion that she was mistaken, as
+I told her; and therefore she has remained at home," said Ann Putnam,
+the daughter; who was delighted with the feather exhibition, and was
+secretly wondering how it was done.
+
+"Well, what have you to say,--Jethro Sands?"
+
+The audience looked around at Jethro with scornful faces, evidently
+considering him an imposter. What did he know about witches--compared to
+this rich young man from over the seas?
+
+"Tell him you find you were mistaken also," whispered Leah Herrick.
+
+"After seeing what we have seen, I withdraw my charges, Squire. I think
+that Mistress Putnam and myself must have been visited by the spectre
+of somebody else, and not by Master Raymond."
+
+"I hope that next time you will wait until you are quite certain,"
+replied Squire Hathorne gruffly. "Do you know that Master Raymond can
+have his action against you for very heavy damages, for slander and
+defamation?"
+
+"I certainly am very sorry, and humbly beg Master Raymond's pardon,"
+said Jethro, very much alarmed. He had never thought that the affair
+might take this turn--as indeed it did in many cases, some six months
+afterward; and which was a very effective damper upon the spirits of the
+prosecutors.
+
+Then the magistrates could do nothing less than discharge the prisoner;
+and Master Raymond stepped down from the platform a free man, to be
+surrounded by quite a circle of sympathizing friends. But his first
+thanks were due to Dr. Griggs for his professional services.
+
+"Doctor, those things you did for me when in the convulsions, relieved
+me greatly," and he took out his purse. "Yes, Doctor, I insist upon it.
+Skill like yours is always worth its recompense. We must not muzzle the
+ox, you know, that treads out the corn." And he put a gold piece into
+Dr. Grigg's palm--which was not often favored with anything but silver
+in Salem.
+
+Dr. Griggs was glad that he had been able to render him a little
+service; and said that, if there had been the least necessity for it, he
+would have gone on the platform, and testified as to the complete
+absurdity of the charge that that excellent woman, Mistress Ann Putnam,
+evidently in mistake, had brought against him.
+
+Then the "afflicted circle" had to be spoken to, who this afternoon did
+not appear to be in the least afflicted, but in the very best of
+spirits. They now felt more admiration for him than ever; and greeted
+him with great cordiality as he came to where they were standing. "When
+are you going back to England?" was a frequent question; and he assured
+them he now hoped to go before many weeks; and then, smiling, added that
+they would be certain to hear from him.
+
+As the crowd thinned out a little, Abigail Williams called him aside;
+"and did you really see the yellow bird, Master Raymond?" said she
+archly.
+
+"The yellow bird!" replied he dreamily. "Ah! you know that when we that
+are 'afflicted' go into trances, we are not conscious of all that we
+see."
+
+"For it seemed to me," continued the girl in a low tone, "that those
+feathers looked very much like chicken feathers." Then she laughed
+cunningly, and peered into his face.
+
+"Indeed!" replied the young man gravely; "well, a chicken's bill,
+pecking at your eyes, is not a thing to be made light of. I knew of a
+girl, one of whose eyes was put entirely out by her pet canary."
+
+And as he moved at once toward the rest of the group, the quick-witted
+and precocious child was compelled to follow.
+
+The magistrates had left the Court House, with the majority of the
+people, including Jethro Sands, when who should come in, walking
+hastily, and his face flushed with hard riding, but Thomas Putnam.
+
+"Am I too late? What was done?" he said quickly to Leah Herrick, who was
+standing near the door.
+
+"Oh, the charge broke down, and Master Raymond was discharged."
+
+"Ah! Where is my wife?"
+
+"She did not come. It was said by your daughter, that she probably
+found she was mistaken in the person, and stayed for that reason."
+
+"I do not believe it--she would have told me. What did Jethro Sands do?"
+
+"Oh, he withdrew the charges, so far as he was concerned. There was a
+great deal more danger that Master Raymond would prove him to be a
+witch, than he Master Raymond."
+
+"I see--it is a case of conspiracy!" exclaimed Master Putnam hotly. "Had
+you any hand in this, Master Raymond?" turning to the young Englishman,
+who had drawn near, on his way to the door.
+
+"Ah, Master Putnam, glad to see you. You did get here early enough
+however to witness my triumphant vindication. Here is learned Dr.
+Griggs, and young Mistress Williams, and your own gifted daughter, and
+handsome Mistress Herrick, and half-a-dozen others of my old friends who
+were ready to testify in my behalf, if any testimony had been needed.
+Make my compliments to Mistress Putnam; and give her my best thanks for
+her noble course, in confessing by her absence that she was mistaken,
+and that she had accused the wrong person."
+
+The cool assurance with which this was uttered, quite confused Thomas
+Putnam. Could his wife have stayed away purposely? Perhaps so, for she
+was accustomed to rapid changes of her plans. But why then had he been
+lured off on a wild-goose chase all the way to Ipswich?
+
+While he was standing there musing, his daughter came up. "I think,
+father, you and mother, next time, had better take my advice," said that
+incorrigible and unmanageable young lady; just about as opposite a
+character to the usual child of that period as could well be imagined.
+But these witchcraft trials, in which she figured so prominently had
+utterly demoralized her in this as in certain other respects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+Why Thomas Putnam Went to Ipswich.
+
+
+What young Master Joseph Putnam undertook to do, he was apt to do pretty
+thoroughly. When he had once made up his mind to keep both his brother's
+wife and his brother himself, away from the examination, he had rapidly
+thought over various plans, and adopted two which he felt pretty certain
+would not fail. They all involved a little deceit, or at least double
+dealing--and he hated both those things with a righteous hatred--but it
+was to prevent a great injustice, and perhaps to save life.
+
+As he rode rapidly homeward, turning over various plans, in his mind, he
+had passed through the village, when he saw some one approaching on what
+seemed to be the skeleton of an old horse. He at once recognized the
+rider as an odd character, a carpenter, whom he at one time had occasion
+to employ in doing some work on a small property he owned in Ipswich.
+Reining up his horse, Master Putnam stopped to have a chat with the
+man--whose oddity mainly consisted in his taciturnity, which was broken
+only by brief and pithy sentences.
+
+"A fine day Ezekiel--how are things in Ipswich?"
+
+"Grunty!"
+
+"Ah! I am sorry to hear it. Why, what is the matter?"
+
+"Broomsticks, chiefly."
+
+"You mean the witches. That is a bad business. But how shall we mend
+it?"
+
+The old carpenter was too shrewd to commit himself. He glanced at Master
+Putnam, and then turning his head aside, and giving a little laugh,
+said, "Burn all the broomsticks."
+
+"A good idea," replied Master Putnam, also laughing. "Oh, by the way,
+Ezekiel, I wonder if you could do a little errand for me?" and the young
+man took out his purse and began opening it. "You are not in a great
+hurry, are you?"
+
+"Hurry, is for fools!"
+
+"You know where my brother Thomas lives? Up this road?" They were just
+where two roads joined, one leading by his own house, and the other past
+his brother's.
+
+"I wish I knew the road to heaven as well."
+
+"You know how to keep silent, and how to talk also, Ezekiel--especially
+when you are well paid for it?"
+
+The old man laughed. "A little bullet sometimes makes a big hole," he
+said.
+
+"I want you to go to my brother Thomas, and say simply these
+words:--Ipswich Crown and Anchor. Very important indeed. At once. Wait
+till he comes."
+
+"All right." And he held out his hand, into which Master Joseph put as
+much silver as the old man could make in a whole week's work.
+
+"You are not to remember who sent you, or anything else than those
+words. Perhaps you have been drinking rather too much cider, you know.
+Do you understand?"
+
+The old man's face assumed at once a very dull and vacant expression,
+and he said in that impressive manner which rather too many glasses is
+apt to give, "Ipswich. Crown and Anchor. Very important indeed. At once.
+Wait till he comes."
+
+"That will do very well, Ezekiel. But not a word more, mind!"
+
+"Tight as a rat-trap," replied the old man--and he turned his skeleton's
+head, and went up the road towards Thomas Putnam's.
+
+Joseph felt certain that this would take his brother to Ipswich. Both of
+them were greatly interested in a lawsuit with certain of the Ipswich
+people, regarding the northern boundary of the Putnam farms. Thomas was
+managing the matter for the family; and was continually on the look-out
+for fresh evidence to support the Putnam claim. In fact, bright Master
+Raymond had once said that, between the Salem witches and the
+Ips-witches, Master Thomas seemed to have no peace of his life. But this
+was before the witch persecutions had assumed such a tragical aspect.
+
+When Ezekiel had found Thomas Putnam and delivered his brief message,
+without dismounting from his skeleton steed, Master Putnam asked at once
+who sent the message.
+
+"Ipswich. Crown and Anchor. Very important indeed! At once. Wait till he
+comes," repeated the old man, with a face of the most impassive
+solemnity, and emphasizing every sentence with his long fore-finger.
+
+And that was all Master Thomas could get out of him. That much came just
+as often as he wished it; but no more--not a word.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam had come out to the gate by that time. "He has been
+drinking too much cider," she said.
+
+This gave a suggestion to Ezekiel.
+
+"Yes, too much cider. Rum--steady me!"
+
+Mistress Putnam thought that it might produce an effect of that kind,
+and, going back into the house, soon reappeared with a rather stiff
+drink of West India rum; which the old man tossed off with no
+perceptible difficulty.
+
+He smiled as he handed back the tin cup which had held it. "Yes--steady
+now!" he said.
+
+"Who gave you the message?" again asked Master Putnam.
+
+Ezekiel looked solemn and thoughtful. "Who gave 'im the message,"
+replied Ezekiel slowly.
+
+"Yes--who sent you to me?"
+
+"Who sent yer--to--me?" again repeated Ezekiel. "Ipswich. Crown and
+Anchor. At once. Wait till he comes." Then the old man's countenance
+cleared up, as if everything now must be perfectly satisfactory.
+
+"Oh there is no use in trying to get any more out of him--he is too much
+fuddled," said Mistress Putnam impatiently.
+
+"More rum--steady me!" mumbled Ezekiel.
+
+"No, not a drop more," said Thomas Putnam peremptorily. "You have had
+too much already."
+
+The old man frowned--and turning the skeleton steed after considerable
+effort, he gave his parting shot--"Crown and anchor--wait till he
+comes!" and rode off in a spasmodic trot down the lane.
+
+"I shall have to go to Ipswich, and see about this, it may supply the
+missing link in our chain of evidence!"
+
+"But how about this afternoon?" queried his wife.
+
+"Oh, I can get to Salem by three o'clock, by fast riding. I will leave
+the roan horse for you."
+
+"Saddle the grey mare, Jehosaphat."
+
+And thus it was that his brother Joseph, looking out of his sitting-room
+window, about an hour after his arrival at home, saw Master Thomas
+Putnam, on his well-known grey mare, riding along the road past his
+house on the most direct route to Ipswich.
+
+"He is out of the way, for one--if he waits an hour or two for any
+person to meet him on important business at the Crown and Anchor,"
+thought the young man. "It is important indeed though that he should go,
+and keep himself out of mischief; and from helping to take any more
+innocent lives. And when he comes to his senses--in the next world, if
+not in this--he will thank me for deceiving him. Now let me see whether
+I can do as good a turn for that delectable wife of his."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+How Master Joseph Circumvented Mistress Ann.
+
+
+About an hour afterwards, Master Joseph saw one of his farm-hands coming
+over the fields from the direction of his brother's house, which was
+about two miles almost directly to the west of his own house. Going out
+to meet him, he said--
+
+"Well, Simon Peter, I see that you got the rake."
+
+"Yes, Master Joseph; but they wish me to return it as soon as we can."
+
+"That is right. Finish your job in the garden this afternoon, and take
+it back early tomorrow morning. You can go to work now."
+
+The man walked off toward the garden.
+
+"Wait a moment!" his master cried. The man stopped. "Anything new at
+brother Thomas's? Are they all at home?"
+
+"No, indeed! Master Thomas has gone off to Ipswich--and little Ann is at
+Salem town."
+
+"I could not borrow a horse, then, of them, you think?"
+
+"No, indeed, sir. There is only one left in the stable; and Mistress
+Putnam means to use that to go to the trial this afternoon."
+
+"Oh, well, I do not care much;" and his master walked off to the house,
+while Simon Peter went to his work.
+
+Then, after a somewhat earlier dinner than usual, Master Joseph ordered
+his young horse, Sweetbriar, saddled; and after kissing his wife "in a
+scandalous manner"--that is, out of doors, where some one might have
+seen him do it--he mounted, and cantered off down the lane.
+
+The young man loved a good horse and he claimed that Sweetbriar, with a
+year or two more of age and hardening, would be the fastest horse in the
+Province. As to temper, the horse was well named; for he could be as
+sweet, when properly handled, as a rose; and as sharp and briary as any
+rose-stalk under contrary conditions. A nervous, sensitive, high-mettled
+animal; Mistress Putnam, though a good rider, said it was too much work
+to manage him. While her husband always responded that Sweetbriar could
+be ridden by any one, for he was as gentle as a lamb.
+
+Just as Mistress Ann Putnam had got through her dinner, she saw her
+brother-in-law Joseph riding up the lane. The brothers, as has been
+seen, differed very widely relative to the Witchcraft prosecutions; but
+still they visited one another, as they were held together by various
+family ties, and especially by the old lawsuit against certain of the
+Ipswich men, to which I have alluded.
+
+Therefore Mistress Putnam opened the door and went out to the garden
+gate, where by this time the young man had dismounted, and fastened his
+horse.
+
+"Is brother Thomas at home, Sister Ann?"
+
+"No--he had a call to Ipswich this morning."
+
+"Ah--the lawsuit business."
+
+"I suppose so. But the messenger was so overcome with liquor, that he
+could not even remember who sent him."
+
+"Why, how could Thomas know where to go then?"
+
+"Oh, the man managed to say that his employee would be waiting for
+Thomas at the "Crown and Anchor," where he usually stops you know."
+
+"Well, I am glad that Thomas went. I stopped to see if Jehosaphat could
+do a little errand for me--I might have sent one of my own men, but I
+forget matters sometimes."
+
+"You will find him at the barn," replied Mistress
+
+Putnam, a little anxious to cut short the conversation, as she wished to
+get ready for her ride to Salem.
+
+Going to the barn, Master Joseph soon found Jehosaphat. "How do, Fatty!"
+this was the not very dignified diminutive into which Jehosaphat had
+dwindled in common use. "How are you getting along?"
+
+"Fair to middlin, sir. Not as well though as on the old place, Master
+Joseph."
+
+"I do not want to interfere with my brother, remember; but if at any
+time he should not want you any more, remember the old place is still
+open for you. It was your own fault, you know, that you went."
+
+"I did not know when I was well off, Master Joseph. I was a fool, that
+was all."
+
+"I thought so," replied Master Joseph pithily. "But no matter about that
+now--can you do an errand for me?"
+
+"Of course I can--the mistress willing."
+
+"Well, I said I wished to send you on an errand, and she told me where
+to find you."
+
+"That is all right then."
+
+"Go to Goodman Buckley's, in Salem village, and ask him for a bundle I
+left--bring it to my house, you know, you can take the roan horse
+there. And, by the way, Fatty, if you want to stop an hour or two to see
+the widow Jones's pretty daughter, I guess no great harm will be done."
+
+Jehosaphat giggled--but then his face clouded. "But Mistress Putnam
+wants to take the roan herself this afternoon. The trial comes off, you
+know."
+
+"Oh, it is not a trial--it is only an examination. And it is all
+fiddlesticks, anyhow. My sister-in-law is ruining her health by all this
+witch business. But if she insists upon going, I will lend her one of my
+horses. Therefore that need not keep you."
+
+So Jehosaphat, in high glee at having an afternoon's holiday, with the
+roan horse, threw on the saddle and mounted.
+
+As he rode at a rapid canter down the lane, Mistress Ann heard the
+noise, but supposed it was Master Joseph riding off again,--and did not
+even trouble herself to look out of the window, especially as she was
+just then changing her gown.
+
+Not long after, coming into the family room, who should she see there,
+sitting demurely, reading one of the Reverend Cotton Mather's most
+popular sermons, but the same Master Joseph Putnam whom she had thought
+she was well rid of.
+
+"I thought you had gone. I surely heard you riding down the lane," she
+said in a surprised tone.
+
+"Oh, no, I wanted to speak with you about something."
+
+"Who was it then?--I surely heard some one."
+
+"Perhaps it was one of those spectral horses, with a spectral rider. As
+Master Mather says: These are very wonderful and appalling times!" And
+the young man laughed a little scornfully.
+
+"Brother Joseph, I do not care to talk with you upon this question. I
+greatly regret, as do your brothers and your uncles, that you have gone
+over to the infidels and the scoffers."
+
+"And I regret that they are making such fools of themselves," replied
+Joseph hotly.
+
+"I have no time to discuss this question, brother Joseph," said Mistress
+Ann with dignity. "I am going to Salem town this afternoon, very much in
+the cross, to give my testimony against a young friend of yours. Would
+that I could have been spared this trial!" and his sister-in-law looked
+up to the ceiling sanctimoniously. As Joseph told his young wife that
+night, her hypocrisy hardened his heart against her; so that he could
+have kept her at home by sheer force, if it were necessary, and at all
+expedient--in fact he would have preferred that rough but sincere way.
+
+"If you testify to anything that throws doubt upon Master Raymond's
+perfect innocency and goodness, you will testify to a lie," replied
+Master Joseph severely.
+
+"As I said, I have no time for argument. Will you be good enough to tell
+Jehosaphat to saddle the roan for me."
+
+"You know that I had your permission to send Fatty off on an errand--and
+he is not back yet."
+
+Mistress Putnam started and bit her lip. She had made a mistake. "I
+suppose he will be back before long."
+
+"I doubt it. I sent him to the village."
+
+"Well, I suppose I can put on the saddle myself. Your conscience
+probably would not allow you to do it--even if common courtesy towards a
+woman, and that woman your sister, demanded it."
+
+"Without deciding the latter point, I should think it almost impossible
+for me to put a saddle on the roan just now."
+
+"Why? I do not understand you."
+
+"Because he is doubtless miles away by this time."
+
+"Jehosaphat did not take the horse!"
+
+"It is precisely what he did do."
+
+"He knew I wanted the roan to ride to Salem town this afternoon."
+
+"He told me you did; but I said that I thought you would have too much
+sense to go. Still, if you would go, that I would lend you one of my
+horses."
+
+"Well, where is your horse?"
+
+"There, at the door. You can take off my saddle, and put on your
+side-saddle, and, if you are in a hurry, Sweetbriar can do the distance
+in half the time that the roan could."
+
+Mistress Putnam could have cried with anger and vexation. Like many
+people of strong and resolute will, she was a good deal of a coward on
+horseback; and she knew that Sweetbriar was what the farmers called "a
+young and very skittish animal." Still her determined spirit rose
+against thus being outdone; besides, she knew well that in a case like
+this, where none of the "afflicted circle," not even her own daughter,
+would aid her, the whole thing might fall through if she were not
+present. So she said, "Well, I will saddle your horse myself."
+
+Here Master Joseph relented--because he now felt certain of his game. "I
+have conscientious scruples against lifting even my little finger to
+aid you in this unholy business," he said more placidly, "but under the
+circumstances, I will saddle Sweetbriar for you."
+
+So saying, he took off his saddle from the horse, and substituted the
+side-saddle which he brought from the barn. Then he led Sweetbriar to
+the horse-block, and his sister-in-law mounted.
+
+She glanced at his spurs. "You ride him with spurs, I see. Hand me my
+riding-whip," she said, pointing to where she had laid it, when she
+first came out.
+
+"I would not strike him, if I were you. He is not used to the whip--it
+might make him troublesome."
+
+Mistress Putnam made no reply; but gathered up the reins, and the horse
+started down the lane.
+
+A singular smile came across the young man's features. He went back and
+closed the door of the house, and then started in a rapid walk across
+the field towards his own home. Neither of them thought it mattered that
+the house was left for a time unprotected. Mistress Putnam knew that a
+couple of farm-hands were at work in a distant field, who would be back
+at sundown; and there were so few strollers at that time, that no
+farmer thought of bolting up his doors and windows when he went to
+meeting, or to see a neighbor.
+
+The way home across the fields was a good deal nearer than to go by the
+road, as the latter made quite an angle. And, as the young man strode
+swiftly, on he could see in many places his sister-in-law, riding
+deliberately along, and approaching the forks of the road, where anyone
+going to his own house, would turn and ride away from, instead of toward
+Salem.
+
+"When she gets to the forks of the road, look out for squalls," said
+Master Joseph to himself. For many had been his own fights with
+Sweetbriar, when the horse wanted to go towards his stable, after a long
+ride, and his young master wanted him to go in the opposite direction.
+Sweetbriar had already gone about twenty miles that day--and, besides,
+had been given only the merest mouthful for dinner, with the object of
+preparing him for this special occasion.
+
+The next swell in the ground afforded the young man an excellent view.
+Sweetbriar had arrived at the turn which led to his stable; where rest
+and oats awaited him; and it evidently seemed to Him the height of
+injustice and unreason to be asked to go all the way back to Salem
+again. Mistress Ann, however, knew nothing of these previous
+experiences of the animal, but imputed his insubordinate behavior
+entirely to self-will and obstinacy. And thus, as the great globe moves
+around the sun in a perpetual circle, as the result of the two
+conflicting forces of gravitation and fly-off-it-iveness, so Sweetbriar
+circled around and around, like a cat chasing his tail, as the result of
+the conflicting wills of himself and his rider.
+
+Master Joseph watched the progress of the whole affair with decided
+pleasure. "No woman but a witch could get Sweetbriar past that turn," he
+said to himself, laughing outright, "And no man, who had not a pair of
+spurs on."
+
+At last, getting out of all patience, Mistress Putnam raised her whip
+and brought it down sharply on her horse's shoulder. This decided the
+struggle; for, unused to such punishment, the fiery animal reared, and
+then turning, sprang up the road that led to his stable at a wild
+gallop.
+
+His rider as I have said, was not a very good horse-woman, and she now
+took hold of the horn of the saddle with her right hand, to enable her
+to keep her seat; and tried to moderate the gait of the horse with the
+reins and the voice, abandoning all further resistance to his will as
+useless.
+
+Setting off at a run, Master Joseph was able to reach home just about
+the same time as his sister-in-law did.
+
+"Ah! I am glad you changed your mind, Sister Ann, about going to Salem.
+It is a great deal more sensible to come and spend the afternoon with
+Elizabeth."
+
+"Very glad to see you, Sister Ann," said Mistress Joseph, coming out to
+the horse-block, at which Sweetbriar, from force of habit, had stopped.
+
+Mistress Ann looked offended, and replied coldly, "I had no intention of
+coming here this afternoon, Sister Elizabeth; but this vile brute, which
+Joseph lent me, after sending away my own horse, would neither obey the
+reins nor the whip."
+
+"You rascal!" said Master Joseph severely, addressing the horse. "You do
+not deserve to have a lady ride you."
+
+"Can you not lend me another horse--say the one Elizabeth always rides?"
+
+"All the other horses are out at work," replied Master Joseph; "and
+before I could get one of them in, and at all groomed up, ready for the
+saddle, I am afraid it would be too late for your purpose."
+
+"So I must be compelled to do as you wish, and stay away from the
+examination?" said Mistress Ann bitterly.
+
+"Oh, if you choose, I will put a pillion on Sweetbriar, and see how that
+works?" replied Master Joseph with a meek and patient expression of
+countenance, as of one upbraided without cause. "To be sure, Sweetbriar
+has never been asked to carry double; but he might as well learn now as
+ever."
+
+"That seems to be the only thing that can be done now," and the
+expression of Mistress Ann's face resembled that of a martyr who was
+about to be tied to the stake; for riding on a pillion brought the lady
+always into the closest proximity with the gentleman, and she was now
+cherishing towards Master Joseph a temper that could hardly be called
+sisterly.
+
+There was necessarily a great waste of time in getting the pillion on
+Sweetbriar. He never had carried double, and he evidently felt insulted
+by being asked to do it. Master Joseph glanced at the sun, and knew it
+must be now full two o'clock. Only by fast riding, would it be possible
+to get to Salem court-house by three; and the roads, as they then were,
+did not admit of fast riding except in a few places.
+
+It was no easy thing for Mistress Ann to get on Sweetbriar, for the
+horse backed and sidled off from the horse-block whenever she attempted
+it--all his sweetness seemed gone by this time, and the briars alone
+remained. At least fifteen minutes more were lost in this way. But at
+last the difficult feat was accomplished.
+
+"Hold on to me tightly," said the young man, "or you will be thrown
+off--" for the irritated animal began to curvet around in all
+directions, manifesting a strong determination to go back to his stable,
+instead of forward towards Salem.
+
+"I think we had better try the other road, and not pass the forks where
+you had so much trouble with him," said Master Joseph, as the horse went
+more quietly, going up the first hill.
+
+"As you think best," said his sister-in-law, in a sharp tone, "If I had
+a horse like this I would shoot him!"
+
+"Oh, Sweetbriar is good enough usually. I never saw him so violent and
+troublesome as he is to-day. And I think I know the reason of it."
+
+"What is the reason?"
+
+"I fear he has an 'evil hand' upon him," said Master Joseph with great
+solemnity.
+
+"Nonsense," replied Mistress Ann sharply.
+
+"He has got the wicked One in him; that is the matter with him."
+
+"That is about the same thing," said Master Joseph.
+
+Now they were at the top of the hill, and the horse broke into tantrums
+again; requiring all of Master Joseph's skill to prevent his toppling
+himself and his two riders over one of the many boulders that obstructed
+the road.
+
+"If you do not hold on to me more tightly, Sister Ann, you will be
+thrown off," said Master Joseph, putting back his right hand to steady
+her. And Mistress Ann was compelled to lock her arms around him, or take
+the chance of serious injury from being dashed to the rough highway. The
+young man would have liked to relieve his feelings by a hearty burst of
+laughter, as he felt her arms embracing him so warmly, but of course he
+dared not.
+
+They soon came near the main road, running due north and south, and
+which it was necessary to take, as it led directly down to Salem.
+Sweetbriar knew that road well--and that he never stopped when once
+turned to the south on it, short of a six mile ride. He remembered his
+recent victorious struggle at the Forks, and now resolved upon another
+battle. All of Master Putnam's efforts--or what seemed so--could not get
+him headed southward on that road. In truth, burdened as he was, the
+young man really could not do it, without incurring too much risk to the
+lady behind him. Those who have ever had such a battle with a wilful,
+mettlesome horse, know that it often requires the utmost patience and
+determination on the part of his rider, to come out victorious. The best
+plan--the writer speaks from some experience--is to pull the animal
+round in a circle until his brain becomes confused, and then start him
+off in the right direction.
+
+But Sweetbriar evidently had a better brain than usual, for when the
+whirl came to an end, it always found his pointing like the magnetic
+needle to the north. It had been Master Joseph's plan to pretend a good
+deal of earnestness in the struggle which he was certain would come in
+this place; but he was pleased to find that there was no need of any
+pretence in the matter. The horse, under the circumstances, the young
+man having a lady's safety to consult, was the master. Repeated trials
+only proved it. Whenever the fierce, final tug of war came, Mistress
+Ann's safety had to be consulted, and the horse had his own way. So, as
+the result Sweetbriar started off in a sharp canter up, instead of down,
+the road.
+
+"Take me home then," said his sister-in-law--"if you will not take me to
+Salem."
+
+"If I _will_ not," repeated Master Joseph. "I give you my honest word,
+Sister Ann, that I could not make this horse go down the road, with us
+two on his back, if I stayed here all the afternoon trying. I should
+think you must have seen that."
+
+"No matter. Take me home."
+
+"Besides, we could not get to Salem before four o'clock now, if
+Sweetbriar went his best and prettiest."
+
+"I give it up. Let us turn and go home."
+
+"If we turn and go back the way we came, I do not think I shall be able
+to get this self-willed animal past my own gate."
+
+"Well, what do you mean to do?" said the lady bitterly. "Ride on up to
+Topsfield?"
+
+Master Joseph laughed. "No--there is a road strikes off towards your
+house a short distance above here, and I think I can get you home by it,
+without any further trouble."
+
+"Very well--get me home as soon as you can. I do not feel like any
+further riding, or much more talking."
+
+"Of course it is very aggravating," replied Master Putnam soothingly,
+"but then you know as Master Parris says, that all these earthly
+disappointments are our most valuable experiences--teaching us not to
+set our hopes upon worldly things, but upon those of a more enduring and
+satisfying character."
+
+His sister-in-law's face, that he could not see, she being behind him,
+wore a look as she listened to this, which could be hardly called
+evangelical.
+
+"You wished very much I know to go this afternoon to Salem," continued
+Master Joseph, in the same sermonizing tone; "but doubtless your wish
+has been overruled for good. I think, as a member of church, you should
+be willing to acquiesce patiently in the singular turn that affairs have
+taken, and console yourself with the thought that you have been
+innocently riding these peaceful roads instead of being in Salem, doing
+perchance an infinite deal of mischief."
+
+"No doubt what you are saying seems to you very wise and edifying,
+Joseph Putnam, but I have a bad headache, and do not care to converse
+any further."
+
+"But you must admit that your projected visit has been frustrated in a
+very singular, if not remarkable manner?" Master Joseph knew that he
+had her now at an advantage; she was compelled to listen to everything
+he chose to say. His saddle was even better in that respect than the
+minister's pulpit--you might leave a church, but she could not leave the
+horse.
+
+"I do not see anything very miraculous, brother Joseph, in a young man
+like you having a self-willed and unprincipled horse. In truth, the
+wonder would be if you had a decent and well-governed animal," replied
+his sister-in-law wrathfully.
+
+The young man smiled at the retort, but she could not see the gleam of
+sunshine as it passed rapidly over his face; lingering a moment in the
+soft depths of his sweet blue eyes. There was no smile however in his
+voice, but the previous solemnity, as he continued:--
+
+"And yet if Balaam's ass could see the angel of the Lord, with his
+drawn-sword, standing in the way, and barring his further progress in
+wrongdoing, why might not this horse--who is much more intelligent than
+an ass--have seen a similar vision?"
+
+The young man had begun this speech somewhat in sport; but as he ended
+it, the assumed tone of solemnity had passed into one of real
+earnestness. For, as he asked himself, "Why should it not be? This woman
+with him was bound on a wicked errand. Why should not the angel or the
+Lord stand in her way also--and the horse see him, even if his riders
+did not?"
+
+Mistress Putnam made no answer. Perhaps now that the young man was
+really in earnest, what he said made some impression upon her, but, more
+probably it did not.
+
+He, too, relapsed into silence. It seemed to him a good place to stop
+his preaching, and let his sister-in-law think over what he had said.
+
+"Thank Heaven we are here at last!" said the baffled woman, as they rode
+up to the horse-block at her own door. Sweetbriar stood very quiet, and
+she stepped on the block, Master Joseph keeping his seat.
+
+"Will you dismount and stay to supper, brother Joseph?" said Mistress
+Ann, in a soft purring tone. Master Joseph fairly started with his
+surprise, and looked steadily into her dark, inscrutable eyes--eyes like
+Jael's as she gazed upon sleeping Sisera.
+
+"No, I thank you--I expect a friend to supper. I hope brother Thomas
+heard some good news at Ipswich. Come and see us when you feel like
+it." And he rode off.
+
+As he told his wife afterwards, he would not have taken supper with his
+sister Ann that evening as he valued his life.
+
+And yet perhaps it was all imagination--and he did not see that thing
+lurking in the depths of his sister-in-law's cold, unfathomable eyes
+that he thought he did. And yet her testimony against Rebecca Nurse,
+reads to us, even at this late day, with all the charity that we are
+disposed to exercise towards things so long past, as cold-blooded,
+deliberate murder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+The Two Plotters Congratulate Each Other.
+
+
+When Master Joseph arrived home, he told his wife of what a perverse
+course things had taken, amid his own and her frequent laughter. And
+then he could do nothing else than walk up and down impatiently,
+glancing at frequent intervals towards the road, to see if anybody were
+coming.
+
+In the course of an hour or so, nobody appearing and Sweetbriar being
+sweetened up again by a good feed, he ordered the horse brought out.
+Then he was persuaded by his wife to recall the order, and wait
+patiently till sundown.
+
+"What impatient creatures you men are!" said Mistress Elizabeth with
+feminine superiority. "Doubtless he will be along. Give him sufficient
+time. Now, do not worry, husband mine, but take things patiently."
+
+So Master Joseph was induced to control his restlessness and just as
+soon as he could have been reasonably expected, Master Raymond was seen
+riding up the lane at a light canter.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Master Joseph, running to meet him. "And is it all
+over?"
+
+"We have smitten Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer even till thou come to
+Minnith!" answered Master Raymond, laughing. "It was you that kept the
+she-wolf away, I know. How did you do it?"
+
+"Come in and I will tell you all about it. And I want to hear how all
+went off in Salem."
+
+After a couple of hours' conversation, broken frequently by
+irresponsible bursts of laughter, the young men were mutually
+enlightened; and complimented each other upon the success with which
+they had worked out their respective schemes--while young Mistress
+Elizabeth complimented them both, thinking honestly in her innocent
+heart that two such wonderful young men certainly had never before
+existed.
+
+"How I should like to have seen you astonishing old Squire Hathorne,"
+said Master Joseph.
+
+"I am afraid you would have spoiled all by laughing," said his young
+wife. "You know you never can control your merriment, Joseph."
+
+"I cannot? You should have seen me preaching to sister Ann this
+afternoon. I kept my face all the time as sober as a judge's. You know
+she had to take it all quietly--she could not even run away from it."
+
+"I would have given one of your five-pound Massachusetts notes to see
+it," said Master Raymond. "And five pounds more to see your brother
+Thomas stamping up and down the bar-room of the 'Crown and Anchor,'
+waiting for that Ipswich man to meet him."
+
+"I was very careful all through not to tell a direct falsehood," said
+Master Joseph; "it is bad enough to deceive people, without being guilty
+of downright lying."
+
+"Oh, of course," replied Master Raymond. "I do not know that I told a
+downright lie either, all day; although I must admit that I acted a
+pretty big one. But you must deal with fools according to their
+folly--you know we have Scripture for that."
+
+"I do not think I would have done it merely to save myself," said Master
+Joseph, evidently a little conscience-smitten. "But to save you, my
+friend, that seems to be different."
+
+"And Dulcibel," added Master Raymond. "If I were imprisoned what would
+become of her?"
+
+"Yes, I am glad I did it," responded his friend, regaining his
+confidence. "I have really hurt neither brother Thomas nor Sister Ann;
+on the contrary, I have prevented them from doing a great wrong. I am
+willing to answer for this day's work at the Last Day--and I feel
+certain that then at least, both of them will thank me for it."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said Mistress Elizabeth who herself brought up
+in the rigid Puritan school, had felt the same misgivings as her
+husband, but whose scruples were also removed by this last
+consideration.
+
+As for Master Raymond, he, being more a man of the world, had felt no
+scruples at playing such a deceitful part. I am afraid, that to save
+Dulcibel, he would not have scrupled at open and downright lying. Not
+that he had not all the sensitiveness of an honorable man as to his
+word; but because he looked upon the whole affair as a piece of
+malicious wickedness, in defiance of all just law, and which every
+true-hearted man was bound to oppose and defeat by all means allowable
+in open or secret warfare.
+
+"I suppose you go back to Boston to morrow?" said his host, as they were
+about to separate for the night.
+
+"Yes, immediately after breakfast. This affair is a warning to me, to
+push my plans to a consummation as soon as possible. I think I know what
+their next move will be--a shrewd man once said, just think what is the
+wisest thing for your enemies to do, and provide against that."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Remove the Governor."
+
+"Why, I understood he was a mere puppet in the hands of the two
+Mathers."
+
+"He would be perhaps; but there is a Lady Phips."
+
+"Ah!' the gray mare is the better horse,' is she, as it is over at
+brother Thomas's?"
+
+"Yes, I think so. Now mark my prediction, friend Joseph; the first blow
+will be struck at Lady Mary. If Sir William resists, as I feel certain
+that he will--for he is, if not well educated, a thoroughly manly
+man--then he will be ousted from his position. You will note that it has
+been the game all through to strike at any one, man or woman, who came
+between these vampires and their prey. I know of only one exception."
+
+"Ah, who is that?"
+
+"Yourself."
+
+Master Joseph smiled grimly. "They value their own lives very highly,
+friend Raymond; and know that to arrest me would be no child's play.
+Besides, Sweetbriar is never long unsaddled; and he is the fastest horse
+in Salem."
+
+"Yes, and to add to all that, you are a Putnam; and your wife is closely
+connected with Squire Hathorne."
+
+"There may be something in that," said his friend.
+
+"Yes, even Mistress Ann has her limits, which her husband--submissive in
+so many things--will not allow her to pass. But we are both a little
+tired, after such an eventful day. Good night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+Mistress Ann's Opinion of the Matter.
+
+
+While the foregoing conversation was taking place, one of a very
+different kind was passing between Mistress Ann and her worthy husband.
+He had gathered up all the particulars he could of the examination and
+had brought them home to his wife for her instruction.
+
+After listening to all that he had to tell, with at least outward
+calmness, she said bitterly: "The whole thing was a trick, you see, to
+keep you and me away from Salem."
+
+"Do you think so? Do you think then, that no man really wanted to see me
+at Ipswich?"
+
+"It is as plain as the nose on your face," replied his wife. "You were
+to be decoyed off to Ipswich, my horse sent out of the way, and then
+Joseph's madcap horse offered to me, they knowing well that the
+worthless creature would not behave himself with any woman on his back."
+
+"Oh, pshaw, Ann; you do not mean that my simple-hearted brother, Joseph
+Putnam, ever planned and carried out a subtle scheme of that kind?" said
+honest Thomas, with an older brother's undervaluation of the
+capabilities of a mere boy like Joseph.
+
+"I do not say that Joseph thought it all out, for very probably he did
+not; doubtless that Master Raymond put him up to it--for he seems
+cunning and unprincipled enough for anything, judging, by what you have
+told me of his ridiculous doings."
+
+"You may call them ridiculous, Ann; but they impressed everybody very
+much indeed. Dr. Griggs, told me that he had no doubt whatever that an
+'evil hand' was on him."
+
+"Dr. Griggs is an old simpleton," said his wife crossly.
+
+"And even Squire Hathorne says that he never saw a stronger case of
+spectral persecution. Why, when one of the young men thrust the point of
+his rapier at the yellow bird, some of its feathers were cut off and
+came fluttering to the ground. Squire Hathorne says he never saw
+anything more wonderful."
+
+"Nonsense--it is all trickery!"
+
+"Trickery? Why, my dear wife, the Squire has the feathers!--and he means
+to send them at once to Master Cotton Mather by a special messenger, to
+confute all the scoffers and unbelievers in Boston and Plymouth!"
+
+A scornful reply was at the end of his wife's tongue but, on second
+thought, she did not allow it to get any farther. Suppose that she did
+convince her husband and Squire Hathorne that they had been grossly
+deceived and imposed upon--and that Master Raymond's apparent
+afflictions and spectral appearance were the result of skilful juggling,
+what then? Would their enlightenment stop there? How about the pins that
+the girls had concealed around their necks, and taken up with their
+mouths? How about Mary Walcot secretly biting herself, and then
+screaming out that good Rebecca Nurse had bitten her? How about the
+little prints on the arms of the "afflicted girls," which they allowed
+were made by the teeth of little Dorcas Good, that child not five years
+old; and which Mistress Ann knew were made by the girls themselves? How
+about the bites and streaks and bruises which she herself had shown as
+the visible proof that the spectre of good Rebecca Nurse, then lying in
+jail, was biting her and beating her with her chains? For Edward Putnam
+had sworn: "I saw the marks both of bite and chains."
+
+Perhaps it was safer to let Master Raymond's juggling go unexposed,
+considering that she herself and the "afflicted girls" had done so very
+much of it.
+
+Therefore she said, "I have no faith in Master Raymond nevertheless; no
+more than Moses had in King Pharaoh's sorcerers, when they did the very
+same miracles before the king that he had done. I believe him now to be
+a cunning and a very bad young man, and I think if I had been on the
+spot, instead of his being at this very moment as I have very little
+doubt, over at brother's, where they are congratulating each other on
+the success of their unprincipled plans, Master Raymond would now be
+lying in Salem jail."
+
+"Probably you are correct, my dear," responded her husband meekly; "and
+I think it not unlikely that Master Raymond may have thought the same,
+and planned to keep you away--but it was evident to me, that if the
+'afflicted girls' had taken one side or the other in the matter, it
+would not have been yours. Why, even our own daughter Ann, was laughing
+and joking with him when I entered the court room."
+
+"Yes," said his wife disdainfully--"that is girl-nature, all over the
+earth! Just put a handsome young man before them, who has seen the
+world, and is full of his smiles and flatteries and cajolements, and
+the wisest of women can do nothing with them. But the cold years bring
+them out of that!" she added bitterly. "They find what they call love,
+is a folly and a snare."
+
+Her husband looked out of the window into the dark night, and made no
+reply to this outburst. He had always loved his wife, and he thought,
+when he married her, that she loved him--although he was an excellent
+match, so far as property and family were concerned. Still she would
+occasionally talk in this way; and he hoped and trusted that it did not
+mean much.
+
+"I think myself," he said at length, "that it is quite as much the
+pretty gifts he has made them, and has promised to send them from
+England, as his handsome face and pleasant manners."
+
+"Oh, of course, it all goes together. They are a set of mere giggling
+girls; and that is all you can make of them. And our daughter Ann is as
+bad as any of the lot. I wish she did not take so much after your
+family, Thomas."
+
+This roused her husband a little. "I am sure, Ann, that our family are
+much stronger and healthier than your own are. And as to Ann's being
+like the other girls, I wish she was. She is about the only delicate and
+nervous one among them."
+
+"Well, Thomas, if you have got at last upon that matter of the
+superiority of the Putnams to everybody else in the Province, I think I
+shall go to bed," retorted his wife. "That is the only thing that you
+are thoroughly unreasonable about. But I do not think you ever had a
+single minister, or any learned scholar, in your family, or ever owned a
+whole island, in the Merrimack river as my family, the Harmons, always
+have done, since the country was first settled--and probably always
+shall, for the next five hundred years."
+
+To this Thomas Putnam had no answer. He knew well that he had no
+minister and no island in his family--and those two things, in his
+wife's estimation, were things that no family of any reputation should
+be without. He had not brought on the discussion, although his wife had
+accused him of so doing, and had only asserted what he thought the truth
+in stating that the Putnams were the stronger and sturdier race.
+
+"I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Thomas, in reminding you of these
+things," continued his wife, finding he was not intending to reply; "I
+will admit that your family is a very reputable and worthy one, even if
+it is not especially gifted with intellect like the Harmons, else you
+may be sure that I should not have married into it. But I have a
+headache, and do not wish to continue this discussion any longer, as it
+is unpleasant to me, and besides in very bad taste."
+
+And so, taking the hint, Master Putnam, like a dutiful husband, who
+really loved his somewhat peevish and fretful wife, acknowledged by his
+silence in the future that the Harmons were much superior to any family
+that could not boast of possessing a minister and an island; the latter
+for five hundred years!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+Master Raymond Visits Lady Mary.
+
+
+When Master Raymond returned to Boston, he found that an important event
+had taken place in his absence. Captain Alden and Master Philip English
+and his wife, had all escaped from prison, and were nowhere to be found.
+How Captain Alden had managed things with the jailer the young man was
+not able to ascertain--probably however, by a liberal use of money. As
+for Master English and his wife, they were, as I have already said, at
+liberty in the day time, under heavy bonds; and had nothing to do but
+walk off sometime between sunrise and sundown. As Master English's ship,
+"The Porcupine," had been lying for a week or two in Boston harbor, and
+left with a brisk northwest wind early in the morning of the day when
+they were reported missing, it was not difficult for anyone to surmise
+as to their mode of escape. As to Captain Alden, he might or might not
+have gone with them.
+
+As was natural, there was a good deal of righteous indignation expressed
+by all in authority. The jailer was reprimanded for his carelessness in
+the case of Captain Alden, and warned that if another prisoner escaped,
+he would forfeit his, of late, very profitable position. And the large
+properties of both gentlemen were attached and held as being subject to
+confiscation.
+
+But while the magistrates and officials usually were in earnest in these
+proceedings, it was generally believed that the Governor, influenced by
+Lady Mary, had secretly favored the escaping parties. The two ministers
+of South Church--Masters Willard and Moody--were also known to have
+frequently visited the Captain and Master English in their confinement,
+and to have expressed themselves very freely in public, relative to the
+absurdity of the charges which had been made against them. Master Moody
+had even gone so far as to preach a sermon on the text, 'When they
+persecute you in this city, flee ye into another,' which was supposed by
+many to have a direct bearing on the case of the accused. And it is
+certain that soon afterwards, the Reverend Master Moody found it
+expedient to resign his position in South Church and go back to his old
+home in Portsmouth.
+
+Anxious to learn the true inwardness of all this matter, Master Raymond
+called a few days after his return to see Lady Mary. Upon sending in
+his name, a maid immediately appeared, and he was taken as before to the
+boudoir where he found her ladyship eagerly awaiting him.
+
+"And so you are safely out of the lion's den, Master Raymond," said she,
+laughing. "I heard you had passed through securely."
+
+The young man smiled. "Yes, thanks to Providence, and to a good friend
+of mine in Salem."
+
+"Tell me all about it," said the lady. "I have had the magisterial
+account already, and now wish to have yours."
+
+"Will your ladyship pardon me if I ask a question first? I am so anxious
+to hear about Mistress Dulcibel. Have you seen her lately--and is she
+well?"
+
+"As well and as blooming as ever. The keeper and his wife treat her very
+kindly--and I think would continue to do so--even if the supply of
+British gold pieces were to fail. By the way, she might be on the high
+seas now--or rather in New York--if she had so chosen."
+
+"I wish she had. Why did she not go with them?"
+
+"Because your arrest complicated things so. She would not go and leave
+you in the hands of the Philistines."
+
+"Oh, that was foolish."
+
+"I think so, too; but I do not think that you are exactly the person to
+say so," responded the lady, a little offended at what seemed a want of
+appreciation of the sacrifice that Dulcibel had made on his account.
+
+But Master Raymond appeared not to notice the rebuke. He simply added:
+"If I could have been there to counsel her, I would have convinced her
+that I was in no serious danger--for, even if imprisoned, I do not think
+there is a jail in the Province that could hold me."
+
+"Well, there was a difficulty with the Keeper also--for she had given
+her word, you know, not to escape, when she was taken into his house."
+
+"But Captain Alden had also given his word. How did he manage it?"
+
+"I do not know," replied the lady. "But, to a hint dropped by Dulcibel,
+the jailer shook his head resolutely, and said that no money would tempt
+him."
+
+"The difficulty in her case then remains the same as ever," said the
+young man thoughtfully, and a little gloomily. "She might go into the
+prison. But that would be to give warning that she had planned to
+escape. Besides, it is such a vile place, that I hate the idea of her
+passing a single night in one of its sickening cells."
+
+"Perhaps I can wring a pardon out of Sir William," said the lady musing.
+
+"Oh, Lady Mary, if you only could, we should both forever worship you!"
+
+The lady smiled at the young man's impassioned language and manner--he
+looked as if he would throw himself at her feet.
+
+"I should be too glad to do it. But Sir William just now is more rigid
+than ever. He had a call yesterday from his pastor, Master Cotton
+Mather, and a long talk from him about the witches. Master Mather, it
+seems, has had further evidence and of the most convincing character, of
+the reality of these spectral appearances."
+
+"Indeed!" said Master Raymond showing great interest for he had an idea
+of what was coming.
+
+"Yes, in a recent examination at Salem before Squire Hathorne, a young
+man struck with his sword at a spectral yellow bird which was tormenting
+an afflicted person; and several small yellow feathers were cut off by
+the thrust, and floated down to the floor. Squire Hathorne writes to
+Master Mather that he would not have believed it, if he had not seen it;
+but, as it was, he would be willing to take his oath before any Court in
+Christendom, that this wonderful thing really occurred."
+
+Master Raymond could not help laughing.
+
+"I see you have no more faith in the story than I have," continued Lady
+Mary. "But it had a great effect upon Sir William, coming from a man of
+such wonderful learning and wisdom as Master Cotton Mather. Especially
+as he said that he had seen the yellow feathers himself; which had since
+been sent to him by Squire Hathorne, and which had a singular smell of
+sulphur about them."
+
+The young man broke into a heartier laugh than before. Then he said
+scornfully, "It seems to me that no amount of learning, however great,
+can make a sensible man out of a fool."
+
+"Why, you know something about this then? Did it happen while you were
+in Salem?"
+
+"I know everything about it," said Master Raymond, "I am the very man
+that worked the miracle." And he proceeded to give Lady Mary a detailed
+account of the whole affair, substantially as it is known to the reader.
+
+"By the way, as to the feathers smelling of sulphur," concluded the
+young man, "I think that it is very probable, inasmuch as I observed the
+jailer's wife that very morning giving the younger chickens powdered
+brimstone to cure them of the pip."
+
+"I think you are a marvelously clever young man," was the lady's first
+remark as he concluded his account.
+
+"Thank your ladyship!" replied Master Raymond smiling. "I hope I shall
+always act so as to deserve such a good opinion."
+
+"I would have given my gold cup--which the Duke of Albemarle gave me--to
+have been there; especially when the yellow bird's feathers came
+floating down to Squire Hathorne's reverential amazement," said Lady
+Mary, laughing heartily. "You must come up here tomorrow morning at
+noon. Master Mather is to bring his feathers to show the Governor, and
+to astound the Governor's skeptical wife. You are not afraid to come,
+are you?"
+
+"I shall enjoy it very much--that is, if the Governor will promise that
+I shall not suffer for my disclosures. I am free now, and I do not wish
+to be arrested again."
+
+"Oh, I will see to that. The Governor will be so curious to hear your
+story, that he will promise all that you desire as to your safety.
+Besides, he will not be sorry to take down Master Mather a little; these
+Puritan ministers presume on their vocation too much. They all think
+they are perfectly capable of governing not only Provinces, but
+Kingdoms; while the whole history of the world proves their utter
+incapacity to govern even a village wisely."
+
+"That is true as the gospel, Lady Mary. But one thing I have always
+noticed. That while every minister thinks this, he would himself far
+rather be governed even by one of the world's people, than by a minister
+of any other belief than his own. So you see they really do think the
+same as we do about it; only they do not always know it."
+
+"You are a bright young man," Lady Mary replied pleasantly, "and I think
+almost good enough to wear such a sweet rose next your heart as Mistress
+Dulcibel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+Captain Tolley's Propositions.
+
+
+That evening as Master Raymond was standing in the bar-room of the Red
+Lion, Captain Tolley came in, and after tossing off a stout glass of rum
+and water, went out again, giving the young Englishman a nod and the
+agreed-upon-signal, a smoothing of his black beard with the left hand.
+After the lapse of a few minutes, Master Raymond followed, going towards
+the wharves, which in the evening were almost deserted. Arrived at the
+end of one of the wharves, he found the Captain of the Storm King.
+
+"So you got out of the clutches of those Salem rascals safely?" said the
+Captain. "I was afraid I should have to go all the way to Salem for
+you."
+
+"You would not have deserted me then, Captain?"
+
+"That is not the kind of a marlinespike I am," replied the Captain
+quaintly. "I'd have got you out of Salem jail, unless it is a good deal
+stronger than the Boston one."
+
+"Thank you, Captain, but I am glad there was no need of your trying."
+
+"You heard of course that Captain Alden was off, and Master and Mistress
+English?"
+
+"Yes--and very glad I was too."
+
+"Why did not your sweetheart go with the Englishes?"
+
+"There were several reasons--one, a rather foolish one, she would not
+leave me in prison."
+
+"She would not?"
+
+"No."
+
+"D---- me! Why that girl is fit to be a sailor's wife! When we get her
+off safely I intend to have her as the figure-head of the Storm King."
+
+"I am afraid that would be a very unhealthy position--she might catch a
+bad cold," replied Master Raymond.
+
+"Oh, of course I mean in wood, painted white with red cheeks," said
+Captain Tolley. "It brings good luck to have a fine woman for a
+figure-head--pleases old Nep, you know."
+
+"But we must get her off first," rejoined Master Raymond. "Now to keep
+out of that hateful jail, she has given her word to Keeper Arnold not to
+escape. You know she cannot break her word."
+
+"Of course not," replied the Captain; "a lady is like a sailor, she
+cannot go back on her promise."
+
+"And there is where the trouble comes in."
+
+"Buy Keeper Arnold over."
+
+"I am afraid I cannot--not for a good while at least. They are all down
+upon him for Captain Alden's escape. They might give him a terrible
+whipping if another prisoner got off."
+
+The Captain shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, I saw them whip some Quakers
+once. It was not a good honest lash, but something the hangman had got
+up on purpose, and which cut to the very bone. I have seen men and women
+killed, down on the Spanish main, but I never saw a sight like that!
+Good, harmless men and women too! A little touched here, you know," and
+the Captain tapped his forehead lightly with his fore-finger.
+
+"Yes--I should not like to hear that Master Arnold had been tortured
+like that on our account."
+
+"Suppose we carry her off some night by force, she having no hand in the
+arrangements? She can even refuse to go, you know, if she pleases--we
+will handle her as gently as a little bird, and you can come up and
+rescue her, if you choose, and knock down two or three of us. How would
+that do? Half-a-dozen of the Storm King's men could easily do that.
+Choose a night with a brisk nor'wester, and we would be past the
+castle's guns before the sleepy land-lubbers had their eyes open."
+
+Master Raymond shook his head dubiously. "I do not like it--and yet I
+suppose it must do, if nothing better can be found. Of course if we
+carry her off bodily, against her will, it would neither be a breaking
+of her pledge nor expose Keeper Arnold to any danger of after
+punishment, though he might perhaps get pretty seriously hurt in
+resisting us, and she would not like that much."
+
+"I suppose then we must wait a while longer," said the Captain. "I am
+ready any time you say the word--only be careful that a good west or a
+nor'west wind is blowing. When once out on the high seas, we can take
+care of ourselves."
+
+"Many French privateers out there?"
+
+"Thick as blackberries. But they are of no account. Those we cannot
+fight, we can easily run away from. There is no craft on these seas,
+that can overhaul the Storm King!"
+
+With a hearty shake of the hand the two parted, the Captain for the
+vessel of which he was so proud; Master Raymond for his room in the Red
+Lion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+Master Raymond Confounds Master Cotton Mather.
+
+
+The next day, a little before noon, Master Raymond knocked at the door
+of the Governor's Mansion, and was at once conducted to Lady Mary's
+boudoir. "The Reverend Master Mather is already with the Governor," said
+her ladyship, "and I expect to receive a summons to join them every
+moment." And in fact the words were hardly out of her mouth, when Sir
+William's private secretary, Master Josslyn, appeared, with a request
+for her ladyship's presence.
+
+"Come with me," said she to Master Raymond; "but do not say
+anything--much less smile or laugh--until I call upon you for your
+testimony."
+
+As they entered, the courteous Governor handed his lady to a seat on the
+sofa; and Master Mather made a dignified obeisance.
+
+"I have brought along a young friend of mine, who was with me, and would
+also like to hear of all these wonderful things," said her ladyship; and
+Master Raymond bowed very deferentially to both the high dignities, they
+returning the bow, while Sir William politely requested him to be
+seated.
+
+"I was just on the point of showing to Sir William the most remarkable
+curiosities of even this very remarkable era--and he suggested that you
+also doubtless would like to see them," said the minister; at this time
+a man of about thirty years of age. He was a rather comely and
+intelligent looking man, and Master Raymond wondered that one who
+appeared so intellectual, should be the victim of such absurd
+hallucinations.
+
+Lady Mary bent her head approvingly, in answer to the minister. "I
+should like very much to see them," she replied courteously; and Master
+Mather continued:--
+
+"In the work I have been preparing on the "Wonders of the Invisible
+World," several of the sheets of which I have already shown to Sir
+William, I have collected many curious and wonderful instances. Thus in
+the case of the eldest daughter of Master John Goodwin, whom I took to
+my own house, in order that I might more thoroughly investigate the
+spiritual and physical phenomena of witchcraft, I found that while the
+devils that tormented her were familiar with Latin, Greek and Hebrew,
+they seemed to have very little knowledge of the various Indian
+dialects."
+
+"That certainly is very curious," replied Sir William, "inasmuch as
+those heathen are undeniably the children of the devil, as all our
+wisest and most godly ministers agree."
+
+"Yes," continued the minister, "it is true; and that makes me
+conjecture, that these devils were in fact only playing a part; to
+deceive me into thinking that the red heathen around us were not really
+the children of Satan, as they undoubtedly are."
+
+"I think that the most reasonable view," responded the Governor.
+
+"As to the reality of this new assault by Satan upon this little seed of
+God's people in the new world," continued Master Mather, fervently, "I
+have now no doubt whatever. Proof has been multiplied upon proof, and
+the man, or woman, who does not by this time believe, is simply one of
+those deplorable doubters, like Thomas, who never can be convinced. For
+my part, I consider Witchcraft the most nefandous high treason against
+the Majesty on High! And a principal design of my book is to manifest
+its hideous enormity, and to promote a pious thankfulness to God that
+Justice so far is being inflexibly executed among us."
+
+Lady Mary's face flushed a little, for she saw the drift of the
+minister's censure. It was well known in all the inner circles, that she
+had neither faith in the reality of witchcraft, nor the least sympathy
+with the numerous prosecutions, and the inflexible justice which the
+minister lauded. The Governor knew his wife's temper, and hastened to
+say:--
+
+"Still we must admit, Master Mather, that some persons, with tender
+conscience, require more convincing proofs than do others. And therefore
+I was anxious that Lady Mary should see these feathers you spoke of, cut
+from the wings of one of those yellow birds which appear to be used so
+frequently as familiars by the Salem witches."
+
+"Oh, yes, I had forgotten them for the moment." And putting his hand
+into his breast pocket, Master Mather produced a small box, which he
+opened carefully and called their attention to a couple of small yellow
+feathers placed on a piece of black cloth within. "I would not take a
+hundred pounds for these spectral feathers," said the minister
+exultingly. "They are the only positive proof of the kind, now existing
+in the whole world. With these little feathers I shall dash out the
+brains of a host of unbelievers--especially of that silly Calef, or
+Caitiff, who is all the time going around among the merchants, wagging
+his vile tongue against me."
+
+Sir William and Lady Mary had been looking upon the feathers very
+curiously. At last Lady Mary gave a low, incredulous laugh. Her husband
+looked at her inquiringly.
+
+"They are nothing but common chicken feathers which could be picked up
+in any barn yard," she said scornfully.
+
+"Your ladyship is very much mistaken, you never saw chicken feathers
+like those," said the minister, his face now also flushing.
+
+"Who was the yellow bird afflicting, when these feathers were cut?" the
+lady asked.
+
+"A young man was on his examination for witchcraft, Squire Hathorne
+writes me; but he was found to be himself a victim, and was
+released--which proves, by the way, how careful the worshipful
+magistrates are in Salem, lest any who are innocent should be implicated
+with the guilty. The young man began to cry out that an 'evil hand' was
+on him, and that a yellow bird was trying to peck out his eyes.
+Whereupon one of the by-standers pulled out his rapier, and smote at the
+spectral bird--when these feathers were cut off; becoming visible of
+course as soon as they were detached from the bird and its evil
+influence. It is one of the most wonderful things that I ever heard of,"
+and Master Mather gazed on the feathers with admiring and almost
+reverential eyes.
+
+"Sir William," said his lady, "you have, I hope, a little common sense
+left, if these Massachusetts ministers and magistrates have all gone
+crazy on this subject. You know what a chicken is, if they do not. Are
+not those simply chicken feathers?"
+
+"Why, my dear," replied the Governor, wriggling in his great arm-chair,
+"I grant that they certainly do look like chicken feathers; but then you
+know, the yellow bird the witches use, may have feathers like unto a
+chicken's."
+
+"Nonsense!" replied Lady Mary. "None are so blind as those that will not
+see. I suppose that if I were to bring that afflicted young man here,
+and he were to acknowledge that the whole thing was a trick, got up by
+him to save his life, you would not believe him?"
+
+"Indeed I should," replied Sir William.
+
+"Yes, Lady Mary, find the young man, and question him yourself," said
+Master Mather. "None are so certain as those that have never informed
+themselves. I have made inquiry into these marvelous things; I even
+took that afflicted girl, as I have told you, into my own house, in
+order to inform myself of the truth. When you have investigated the
+matter to one-tenth the extent that I have, you will be prepared to give
+a reasonable opinion as to its truth or falsehood. Until then, some
+modesty of statement would become a lady who sets up her crude opinion
+against all the ministers and the magistracy of the land."
+
+This was a tone which the leading ministers of that day among the
+Puritans, did not hesitate to take, even where high dignitaries were
+concerned and Master Mather had the highest ideas of the privilege of
+his order.
+
+"Then I suppose, Master Mather, that if the afflicted young man himself
+should testify that these feathers were simply chicken feathers, that he
+had artfully thrown up into the air, you would not acknowledge that he
+had deceived you?"
+
+"If such an impossible thing could happen, though I know that it could
+not, of course I should be compelled to admit that Squire Hathorne and a
+hundred others, who all saw this marvelous thing plainly, in open day,
+were deceived by the trick of an unprincipled mountebank and juggler."
+
+"I shall hold both you and Sir William to your word," replied Lady Mary
+emphatically. Then, turning to the young Englishman, who had remained
+entirely silent so far, paying evident attention to all that was spoken,
+but giving no sign of approval or disapproval, she said, "Master
+Raymond, what do you think of this matter?"
+
+Master Raymond rose from his chair and stepped a pace or two forward.
+Then he said, "If I answer your ladyship's question freely, it might be
+to my own hurt. Having had my head once in the lion's mouth, I am not
+anxious to put it there again."
+
+The lady looked significantly at Sir William.
+
+"Speak out truly, and fear nothing, young man," said the Governor.
+"Nothing that you say here shall ever work you injury while I am
+Governor of the Province."
+
+"What do you wish to know, Lady Mary?"
+
+"You, I believe, were the afflicted young man, to whom Master Mather has
+referred?"
+
+Master Raymond bowed.
+
+"Was there any reality in those pretended afflictions?"
+
+"Only a bad cold to begin with," said the young man smiling.
+
+"How about the yellow bird?"
+
+"It was all a sham. I dealt with credulous and dangerous fools according
+to their folly."
+
+"How about those feathers?"
+
+"They are feathers I got from the wings of one of the Salem jailor's
+chickens."
+
+Sir William laughed,
+
+"How about the smell of sulphur which Squire Hathorne and Master Mather
+have detected in the feathers?"
+
+"I think it very probable; as I observed Goodwife Foster that morning
+giving her chickens powdered brimstone for the pip."
+
+Here the Governor laughed loudly and long until Master Mather said
+indignantly, "I am sorry, Sir William, that you can treat so lightly
+this infamous confession of falsehood and villainy. This impudent young
+man deserves to be set for three days in the pillory, and then whipped
+at the cart's tail out of town."
+
+"Of course it is a very shameful piece of business," replied the Governor,
+regaining his gravity. "But you know that as the confession has been
+made only on the promise of perfect immunity, I cannot, as a man of my
+word, suffer the least harm to come to the young person for making it."
+
+"Oh, of course not," said the minister, taking up his hat, and
+preparing to leave the room; "but it is scandalous! scandalous! All
+respect for the Magistracy and authority seems to be fading out of the
+popular mind. I consider you a dangerous man, a very dangerous young
+man!" This last of course to Master Raymond.
+
+"And I consider you tenfold more dangerous with your clerical influence,
+and credulity, and superstition!" replied the young Englishman hotly.
+Being of good family, he was not inclined to take such insults mildly.
+"How dare you, with your hands all red with the blood of twenty innocent
+men and women, talk to me about being dangerous!"
+
+"Peace!" said Sir William with dignity. "My audience chamber is no place
+to quarrel in.
+
+"I beg your Excellency's pardon!" said Master Raymond, humbly.
+
+"One moment, before you go," said Lady Mary, stepping in front of the
+minister. "I suppose you will be as good as your word, Master Mather and
+admit that with all your wisdom you were entirely mistaken?"
+
+"I acknowledge that Squire Hathorne and myself have been grossly
+deceived by an unprincipled adventurer--but that proves nothing.
+Because Jannes and Jambres imitated with their sorceries the miracles
+of Moses, did it prove that Moses was an impostor? There was one Judas
+among the twelve apostles, but does that invalidate the credibility of
+the eleven others, who were not liars and cheats? It is the great and
+overwhelming burden of the testimony which decides in this as in all
+other disputed matters--not mere isolated cases. Good afternoon, madam.
+I will see you soon again, Sir William, when we can have a quiet talk to
+ourselves."
+
+"Stay!" cried Lady Mary, as the offended minister was stalking out of
+the room. "You have forgotten something," and she pointed to the little
+box, containing the chicken's feathers which had been left lying upon
+the table.
+
+The minister gave a gesture expressive of mingled contempt and
+indignation--but did not come back for it. It was evident that he valued
+the feathers now at considerably less than one hundred pounds.
+
+"Young man," said the Governor, smiling, "you are a very bright and
+keen-witted person, but I would advise you not to linger in this
+province any longer than is absolutely necessary. Master Mather is much
+stronger here than I am."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+Bringing Affairs to a Crisis.
+
+
+The next morning a note came to Master Raymond from Joseph Putnam,
+brought by one of the farm-hands.
+
+It was important. Abigail Williams had called upon Goodwife Buckley, and
+told her in confidence that it was in contemplation, as she had learned
+from Ann Putnam, to bring Dulcibel Burton back to Salem jail again. The
+escape of Captain Alden and the Englishes from the Bridewell in Boston,
+had caused a doubt in Salem as to its security. Besides, Lady Phips had
+taken ground so openly against the witch prosecutions, that there was no
+knowing to how great an extent she might not go to aid any prisoner in
+whom she took an interest.
+
+Abigail Williams further said that Mistress Ann Putnam had become very
+bitter both against her brother-in-law Joseph and his friend Master
+Raymond. She was busy combatting the idea that the latter really ever
+had been afflicted--and was endeavoring to rouse Squire Hathorne's
+indignation against him as being a deceiver.
+
+As the young man read this last, he wondered what effect would be
+produced upon the credulous magistrate, when he received word from
+Master Mather as to what had occurred in the Governor's presence. Would
+he be so angry as to take very arbitrary measures; or so ashamed as to
+let it all pass, rather than expose the extent to which he had been
+duped? He feared the former--knowing in which way Mistress Ann Putnam's
+great influence with him would be directed.
+
+Master Joseph advised immediate action--if peaceable means would not
+serve, then the use of violent ones. If Captain Tolley could not find
+among his sailors those who would undertake the job, he, Master Joseph,
+would come down any night with three stout men, overpower the keepers,
+and carry off Mistress Dulcibel, with the requisite amount of violence
+to keep her promise unbroken.
+
+Master Raymond wrote a note in return. He was much obliged for the
+information. It was evident that the time had come for action; and that
+it was dangerous to delay much longer. Of course peaceable means were to
+be preferred; and it was possible he might be able either to bribe the
+keeper, or to get a release from the Governor; but, if force had to be
+resorted to, Captain Tolley could command his whole crew for such a
+service, as they were the kind of men who would like nothing better. In
+fact, they would not hesitate to open fire upon the town, if he ordered
+it--and even run up the flag of a French privateer.
+
+After dispatching this business, Master Raymond went out on the porch of
+the Red Lion, and began an examination of the clouds and the
+weather-cocks. It had been raining slightly for a day or two, with the
+wind from the southeast; but though the vanes still pointed to the
+southeast, and the light lower clouds were moving from the same point
+of the compass, he caught glimpses through the scud of higher clouds
+that were moving in an entirely opposite direction.
+
+"How do you make it out?" said a well-known voice. He had heard some one
+approaching, but had supposed it to be a stranger.
+
+"I am not much of a sailor; but I should say it would clear up, with a
+brisk wind from the west or the northwest by afternoon."
+
+"Aye!" said Captain Tolley, for it was he; "and a stiff nor'wester by
+night. If it isn't I'll give my head for a foot-ball. Were I bound out
+of the harbor, I would not whistle for a better wind than we shall have
+before six hours are over."
+
+Master Raymond glanced around; no one was near them. "Are you certain of
+that, Captain? Would it do to bet upon?
+
+"You may bet all you are worth, and your sweetheart into the bargain,"
+replied the Captain laughing, with a significant look out of his eyes.
+
+"When are you going, Captain?"
+
+"Oh, to-night, perhaps--if I can get all my live stock on board.
+
+"To-night then let it be," said the young man in a whisper; "by fair
+means, or by foul. I may succeed by fair means; have a boat waiting at
+the wharf for me. It will be light enough to get out of the harbor?"
+
+"There is a gibbous moon--plenty. Once past the castle, and we are safe.
+We can easily break open the keeper's house--and quiet him with a pistol
+at his head."
+
+"You must not harm him--he has been a good friend to her."
+
+"Of course--only scare him a little. Besides, he is not a good friend,
+if he makes a noise."
+
+"Well, I will see you by ten o'clock--with her or without her--Yes, I
+will bet you a gold piece, Captain, that the wind gets around to the
+west by four o'clock." This last was in Master Raymond's usual
+tones--the previous conversation having been in whispers.
+
+"You will be safe enough in that, Master Raymond," said the landlord of
+the Red Lion, whose steps the young Englishman had heard approaching.
+
+"Do you think so? I do not want to take the young man's money, he is
+only a landsman you know, Mate; but I will bet you a piece of eight that
+the wind will not get around till a half hour after that time. And we
+will take it all out in drinks at your bar, at our leisure."
+
+"Done!" said the landlord. "And now let us go in, and take a drink all
+around in advance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+Lady Mary's Coup D'Etat.
+
+
+Master Raymond's next proceeding was to call on Lady Phips. Sending in
+his name, with a request to see her ladyship on very important business,
+he was ushered as usual into her boudoir.
+
+"I must be doing something, Lady Mary," he said, after a few words
+relative to the evident change of weather; "I have news from Salem that
+the Magistrates are about to send Mistress Dulcibel back to Salem jail."
+
+"That is sad," she answered.
+
+"And, besides, there is no knowing what new proceedings they may be
+concocting against me. I must take Sir William's advice, and get out of
+this hornet's nest as soon as possible."
+
+"Well what can I do for you?"
+
+"Get an order from Sir William releasing Dulcibel from prison."
+
+"Oh, that I could! God knows how gladly I would do it."
+
+"You can at least try," said Master Raymond desperately.
+
+The lady hesitated a moment. "Yes, as you say, I can at least try. But
+you know how impossible it is to carry on the government of this
+Province without the support of the ministers and the magistrates. Sir
+William is naturally anxious to succeed; for, if he fails here, it will
+block his road to further preferment."
+
+"And he will allow the shedding of innocent blood to go on, in order to
+promote his own selfish ambition?" said the young man indignantly.
+
+"You are unjust to the Governor. He will do all he can to moderate this
+fanaticism; and, if it comes to the worst, he will order a general
+jail-delivery, and meet the consequences. But he hopes much from time,
+and from such developments as those of your chicken feathers"--and the
+lady smiled at the thought of the minister's discomfiture.
+
+"Some things can wait, but I cannot wait," insisted Master Raymond. "You
+must acknowledge that."
+
+"Sir William starts this afternoon on a visit to Plymouth, to remain for
+a day or so; but I will have a talk with him, and see what I can do,"
+replied the lady. "Call here again at six o'clock this evening."
+
+"Such beauty and spirit as yours must be irresistible in the cause of
+virtue and innocence," said the young man, rising to depart.
+
+"No flattery, Master Raymond; I will do all I can without that;" but
+Lady Mary being still a very comely woman, as she certainly was a very
+spirited one, was not much displeased at the compliment, coming from
+such a handsome young man as Master Raymond. Eulogy that the hearer
+hopes embodies but the simple truth, is always pleasant alike to men and
+women. It is falsehood, and not truth, that constitutes the essence of
+Flattery.
+
+The day dragged on very drearily and slowly to Master Raymond. The
+waiting for the hour of action is so irksome, that even the approach of
+danger is a relief. But patience will at last weary out the slowest
+hours; and punctually at six o'clock, the young man stood again at the
+door of the Governor's mansion.
+
+Lady Mary evidently was expecting him--for he was shown in at once. She
+looked up wearily as he entered. "I can do nothing to-day," she said.
+
+"What ground did the Governor take?"
+
+"That sound policy forbade him to move in the matter at present. The
+persecuting party were very indignant at the escape of Captain Alden
+and the Englishes; and now for him to grant a pardon to another of the
+accused, would be to irritate them to madness."
+
+Master Raymond acknowledged to himself the soundness of the Governor's
+policy; but he only said: "Then it seems that Dulcibel must go back to
+Salem prison; and I run a good chance of going to prison also, as a
+self-confessed deceiver and impostor."
+
+"If she were released, could you both get away from Boston--at once?"
+
+Master Raymond's voice sank to a whisper. "I have all my plans arranged.
+By the third hour after midnight, we shall be where we can snap our
+fingers at the magistrates of Boston."
+
+"I have been thinking of a plan. It may work--or may not. But it is
+worth trying."
+
+The young man's face lightened.
+
+"You know that England is ruled by William and Mary, why should not the
+Province of Massachusetts also be?"
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Upon leaving Sir William, I was somewhat indignant that he would not
+grant my request. And to pacify me, he said he was sorry that I had not
+the same share in the government here, that Queen Mary had at home--and
+then I could do more as I pleased."
+
+Still Master Raymond's face showed that he was puzzled to catch her
+meaning.
+
+She laughed and rose from her chair; the old, resolute expression upon
+her spirited face, and, opening the door into the next room, which was
+the Governor's private office, she said:
+
+"Come here a moment, Master Josslyn."
+
+The private Secretary entered.
+
+"Prepare me," she said to the Secretary, "the proper paper, to be signed
+by the Governor, ordering Keeper Arnold to release at once Mistress
+Dulcibel Burton from confinement in the Boston Bridewell."
+
+"But the Governor, you know, is absent, Lady Mary," said the Secretary,
+"and his signature will be necessary."
+
+"Oh, I will see to that," replied the lady a little haughtily.
+
+Master Raymond sat quietly--waiting for what was to come next. He could
+not conceive how Lady Mary intended to manage it. As for the lady, she
+tapped the table with her shapely fingers impatiently.
+
+In a few minutes Master Josslyn reappeared with the paper. "All it now
+wants is the signature of the Governor," said he.
+
+The lady took up a pen from the table by which she was sitting, and
+filled it with ink; then with a firm hand she signed the paper, "William
+Phips, Governor, by Lady Mary Phips."
+
+"But, your ladyship, the keeper will not acknowledge the validity of
+that signature, or obey it," said Master Josslyn in some alarm.
+
+"He will not? We shall see!" responded her ladyship rising. "Order my
+carriage, Master Josslyn."
+
+In fifteen minutes, Lady Mary, accompanied by Master Raymond, was at
+Keeper Arnold's house.
+
+"I bring you good news, Master Arnold," said Lady Mary, "I know you will
+rejoice, such a tender-hearted man as you are at the release of Mistress
+Dulcibel Burton. Here is the official document." She flourished it at
+him, but still kept it in her hand.
+
+Dulcibel was soon informed of the good news; and came flying out to meet
+her benefactor and her lover.
+
+"Put on a shawl and your veil at once; and make a bundle of your
+belongings," said Lady Mary, kissing her. "Master Raymond is in a great
+hurry to carry you off--at which I confess that I do not wonder."
+Dulcibel tripped off--the sooner she was out of that close place the
+better.
+
+"Well, what is it, Master Arnold?" said Lady Mary to the keeper, who
+acted as if he wished to say something.
+
+"It is only a form, my lady; but you have not shown me the Governor's
+warrant yet?"
+
+"Why, yes I have," said Lady Mary, fluttering it at him as before.
+
+But Keeper Arnold was fully aware of the responsibility of his position;
+and putting out his hand, he steadied the fluttering paper sufficiently
+to glance over its contents. When he came to the signature, his face
+paled. "Pardon me, my lady; but this is not the Governor's writing."
+
+"Of course it is not--why, you silly loon, how could it be when he has
+gone to Plymouth? But you will perceive that it is in Master Josslyn's
+writing--and the Governor ought to have signed it before he started."
+
+"This is hardly in regular form, my lady."
+
+"It is not? Do you not see the Governor's name; and there below it is
+my name, as proof of the Governor's. Do you mean to impeach my
+attestation of Sir William's signature? There is my name, Lady Mary
+Phips: and I will take the responsibility of this paper being a legal
+one. If anybody finds fault with you, send him to me; and I will say you
+did it, in the Governor's absence from town, at my peremptory order."
+The lady's face glowed, and her eyes flashed, with her excitement and
+determination.
+
+"It would be as much as my position is worth to disobey it and me!"
+rejoined Lady Mary. "I will have you out of this place in three days'
+time, if you cast disrespect upon my written name."
+
+"There can be no great haste in this matter. Bring the release tomorrow,
+and I will consult authority in the meanwhile," said the keeper
+pleadingly.
+
+"Authority? The Governor's name is authority! I am authority! Who dare
+you set up beside us? You forget your proper respect and duty, Master
+Arnold."
+
+The keeper was overborne at last. "You will uphold me, if I do this
+thing, Lady Mary?" said he imploringly.
+
+"You know me, Master Arnold--and that I never desert my friends! I
+shall accept the full responsibility of this deed before Sir William and
+the magistrates. And they cannot order any punishment which he cannot
+pardon."
+
+By this time it had grown quite dark. "Shall I take you anywhere in my
+carriage?" said Lady Mary, as Dulcibel reappeared with a bundle.
+
+"It is not necessary," replied Master Raymond joyfully, "I will not
+compromise you any further. God forever bless your ladyship! There is
+not another woman in New England with the spirit and courage to do what
+you have done this day--and the reader of our history a hundred years to
+come, as he reads this page, shall cry fervently, God bless the fearless
+and generous soul of Lady Mary!"
+
+"Let me know when you are safe," she whispered to the young man, as he
+stood by her carriage. "Master and Mistress English are now the guests
+of Governor Fletcher of New York--changing a Boston prison for a
+Governor's mansion. You will be perfectly secure in that Province--or in
+Pennsylvania, or Maryland or Virginia." And the carriage drove off.
+
+It was in that early hour of the evening, when the streets in town and
+city, are more deserted than they are for some hours afterwards;
+everyone being indoors, and not come out for visiting or amusement. And
+so the young man and his companion walked towards the north-eastern part
+of the town, meeting only one or two persons, who took no special notice
+of them.
+
+"You do not ask where we are going, Dulcibel?" at last said Master
+Raymond.
+
+She could not see the sweet smile on his face; but she could feel it in
+his voice.
+
+"Anywhere, with you!" the maiden replied in a low tone.
+
+"We are going to be married."
+
+He felt the pressure of her hand upon his arm in response.
+
+"That is, if we can find a minister to perform the ceremony."
+
+"That will be difficult, I should think."
+
+"Yes, difficult, but not impossible. After getting you out of prison, as
+Lady Mary did, I should not like to call anything impossible."
+
+"Lady Mary is an angel!"
+
+"Yes, one of the kind with wings," replied her companion laughing. "She
+has kindly loaned us her wings though--and we are flying away on them."
+
+Before long they were at one of the wharves; then on a small boat--then
+on the deck of the "Storm King."
+
+"I am better than my word, Captain Tolley."
+
+"Aye! indeed you are. And this is the birdie! Fair Mistress, the "Storm
+King" and his brood are ready to die to shield you from harm."
+
+Dulcibel looked wonder out of her clear blue eyes. What did it all mean?
+She smiled at the Captain's devoted speech. "I do not want any one to
+die for me, Captain. I would rather have you sing me a good sea-song,
+such as my father, who was also a sea-captain, used to delight me with
+at home."
+
+"Oh, we can do that too," answered the Captain gaily. "I hope we shall
+have a jolly time of it, before we reach our destination. Now, come down
+into the cabin and see the preparations I have made for you; a sailor's
+daughter must have the best of sailor's cheer."
+
+"One word, Captain," said Master Raymond, as the Captain came up on deck
+again, leaving Dulcibel to the privacy of her state-room. "It does not
+seem fitting that a young unmarried woman should be alone on a vessel
+like this, with no matron to bear her company."
+
+"Sir!" said the Captain, "I would have you know that the maiden is as
+safe from aught that could offend her modesty on the decks of the "Storm
+King," as if she were in her father's house."
+
+"Of course she is. I know that well--and mean not the least offense. And
+she, innocent as she is, has no other thought. But this is a slanderous
+world, Captain, and we men who know the world, must think for her."
+
+"Oh, I admit that," said Captain Tolley, somewhat mollified, "we cannot
+expect of mere land's people, who put an innocent girl like that into
+prison for no offense, the gentle behavior towards women that comes
+naturally from a seaman; but what do you propose?"
+
+"To send for one of the Boston ministers, and marry her before we leave
+port."
+
+"Why, of course," replied the Captain. "It is the very thing. Whom shall
+we send for? The North Church is nearest--how would Master Cotton Mather
+do?"
+
+The young man stood thoughtfully silent for a moment or two. The
+ministers of South Church and of King's chapel were more heterodox in
+all this witchcraft business; but for that very reason he did not wish
+to compromise them in any way. Besides, he owed a grudge to Master
+Mather, for his general course in sustaining the persecution, and his
+recent language in particular towards himself. So his lips gradually
+settled into a stern determination, and he replied "Master Mather is the
+very man."
+
+"It may require a little ingenuity to get him aboard at this time of the
+evening," said the Captain. "But I reckon my first mate, Simmons, can do
+it, if any one can."
+
+"Here, Simmons," to the first mate, who was standing near, "you look
+like a pillar of the church, go ashore and bring off Master Cotton
+Mather with you. A wealthy young Englishman is dying--and he cannot pass
+away from Boston in peace without his ministerial services."
+
+"Dying?" ejaculated Master Raymond.
+
+"Yes, dying! dying to get married--and you cannot pass out of Boston
+harbor in peace, without his ministerial services."
+
+"Would it not do as well to ask him to come and marry us?"
+
+"I doubt it," replied the Captain. "Master Mather is honest in his
+faith, even if he is bigoted and superstitious--and death cannot be put
+off like marriage till tomorrow. But take your own course,
+Simmons--only bring him."
+
+"Shall I use force, sir, if he will not come peaceably?" asked the mate
+coolly.
+
+"Not if it will make a disturbance," said his commander. "We do not want
+to run the gauntlet of the castle's guns as we go out of the harbor. The
+wind is hardly lively enough for that."
+
+"I will go down and tell Dulcibel," said Master Raymond. "It is rather
+sudden, but she is a maiden of great good sense, and will see clearly
+the necessity of the case. And as she is an orphan, she has no father or
+mother whose consent she might consider necessary. But Mate"--going to
+the side of the vessel, which the boat was just leaving, "not a word as
+to my name or that of the maiden. That would spoil all."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir! Trust me to bring him!" and the boat started for the
+shore, under the vigorous strokes of two oarsmen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+An Unwilling Parson.
+
+
+Not quite an hour had elapsed, when the sound of oars was again heard;
+and Captain Tolley, peering through the dark, saw that another form was
+seated opposite the mate in the stern-sheets of the boat.
+
+"I thought that Simmons would bring him," said Captain Tolley to the
+second mate; "such a smooth tongue as he has. It is a pity he wasn't a
+minister himself--his genius is half wasted here."
+
+"Glad to see you on board the Storm King, Master Mather," was the
+greeting of the Captain, as the minister was helped up to the deck by
+the mates.
+
+"The Storm King! Why I was told that it was an English frigate, just
+come into port," said the minister in a surprised voice.
+
+"The messenger must have made a mistake," replied the Captain coolly.
+"You know that landsmen always do get things mixed.
+
+"Well, as I am here, no matter. Show me the dying man."
+
+"Walk down into the cabin," said the Captain politely.
+
+Entering the cabin which was well lighted, Master Raymond stepped
+forward, "I am happy to see you, Master Mather. You remember me, do you
+not?"
+
+"Master Raymond, I believe," returned the minister coldly. "Where is the
+dying man who requires my spiritual ministrations?"
+
+"Dying!" laughed the Captain. "How strangely that fellow got things
+mixed. I said dying to get married--did I not, Master Raymond?"
+
+"Of course you did--that is, after you had explained yourself."
+
+Master Mather's face looked blank, he did not know what to make of it.
+
+"In truth, Master Mather," said the young Englishman, "I was under the
+necessity of getting married this evening; and, thinking over the
+worshipful ministers of Boston town, I singled you out as the one I
+should prefer to officiate on the happy occasion."
+
+"I decline to have anything to do with it," said Master Mather
+indignantly, turning on his heel, and going to the door of the cabin.
+But here a muscular sailor, with a boarding pike, promptly forbade his
+passage by putting the pike across the door way.
+
+"What do you mean by barring my way in this manner?" said the minister
+in great wrath to the captain. "Have you no reverence for the law?"
+
+"Not a particle for Boston law," replied Captain Tolley. "The only law
+recognized on board the Storm King is the command of its Captain. You
+have been brought here to marry these two young friends of mine; and you
+will not leave the vessel before you do it--if I have to take you with
+us all the way to China."
+
+Master Mather pondered the matter for a moment. "This is too informal,
+there are certain preliminaries that are necessary in such cases."
+
+"Advisable--but I am told not absolutely necessary," replied Master
+Raymond.
+
+"Wait then for an hour or two; and we shall be on the high seas--and out
+of any jurisdiction," added Captain Tolley.
+
+"Who is this maiden? Who gives her away?" asked the minister.
+
+"This maiden is Mistress Dulcibel Burton," said Master Raymond, taking
+her by the hand.
+
+"She is an orphan; but I give her away," added the Captain.
+
+"Dulcibel Burton! the serpent witch!" exclaimed Master Mather. "What is
+that convict doing here? Has she broken jail?"
+
+"Master Mather," said the Captain in an excited tone, "if you utter
+another word of insult against this innocent and beautiful maiden, I
+will have you flung overboard to the sharks! So take care of what you
+say!" and the indignant seaman shook his finger in the minister's face
+warningly.
+
+"Master Mather," added Raymond, more coolly, "Mistress Burton has not
+broken jail. She was duly released from custody by Keeper Arnold on the
+presentation of an official paper by Lady Mary Phips. Therefore your
+conscience need not be uneasy on that score."
+
+"Why are you here then--why making this haste? It is evident that there
+is something wrong about it."
+
+"Boston has not treated either of us so well that we are very desirous
+of remaining," replied Master Raymond. "And as we are going together, it
+is only decorous that we should get married. If you however refuse to
+marry us, we shall be compelled to take you with us--for the mere
+presence of such a respected minister will be sufficient to shield the
+maiden's name from all reckless calumniators."
+
+The second mate came to the door of the cabin. "Captain, there is a fine
+breeze blowing, it is a pity not to use it."
+
+"Make all ready, sir," replied the Captain. Then turning to the
+minister, "There is no particular hurry, Master Mather. You can take the
+night to think over it. To-morrow morning probably, if you come to your
+senses, we may be able to send you ashore somewhere, between here and
+the capes of the Delaware."
+
+"This is outrageous!" said Master Mather. "I will hold both of you
+accountable for it."
+
+"It is a bad time to threaten, when your head is in the lion's mouth,
+Master Mather," returned Captain Tolley fiercely. "No one knows but my
+own men that you ever came on board the 'Storm King.' How do you know
+that I am not Captain Kidd himself?"
+
+The minister's face grew pale. It was no disparagement to his manhood.
+Even Master Raymond's face grew very serious--for did even he know that
+this Captain Tolley might not be the renowned freebooter, of whose many
+acts of daring and violence the wide seas rang?
+
+"I would counsel you for your own good to do at once what you will have
+to do ultimately," said Master Raymond gravely. "I owe you no thanks for
+anything; but"--and the young man laughed as he turned to Dulcibel--"I
+never could trap even a fox without pitying the animal."
+
+Dulcibel went up to the minister, and put her hand upon his arm:--"Do I
+look so much like a witch?" she said in a playful tone.
+
+"We are told that Satan can enrobe himself like an angel of light,"
+replied Master Mather severely. "I judge you by what I have heard of
+your cruel deeds."
+
+"As you judged the cruel yellow bird that turned out to be only a
+harmless little chicken," said Master Raymond sarcastically. "Enough of
+this folly. Will you marry us now--or not? If you will, you shall be put
+ashore unharmed. If you will not, you shall go along with us. Make up
+your mind at once, for we shall soon be out of Boston harbor."
+
+Master Mather had a strong will--and an equally strong won't--but the
+Philistines were, for this time, too much for him. That reference to
+Captain Kidd had frightened him badly. "Stand up--and I will marry you.
+Unscrupulous as you both are, it is better that you should be married
+by legal rites, than allowed to go your own way to destruction."
+
+And then--the important ceremony being duly gone through--he pronounced
+Master Ellis Raymond and Mistress Dulcibel Burton man and wife. The
+Captain being allowed by Master Raymond to take the first kiss, as
+acting in the place of the bride's father.
+
+"No, not a penny!" said the minister, closing his hand against the
+golden pieces that the groom held out to him. "All I ask is, that you
+comply with your promise--and put me on shore again as soon as
+possible."
+
+"Better take a drink of wine first," said the Captain, filling up a
+glass and handing it to him.
+
+"I will neither break bread nor drink wine on this"--he was going to say
+_accursed_ ship; but the fierce eyes of the possible freebooter were
+upon him, and he said, "on this unhappy vessel."
+
+Captain Tolley laughed heartily. "Oh well, good wine never goes begging.
+The anchor is not up yet, and we will put you off just where you came
+on. Come along!"
+
+Without a word of leave-taking to the two whom he had joined together,
+Master Mather followed the Captain. In fact though, Master Raymond and
+Dulcibel scarcely noted his going, for they were now seated on a small
+sofa, the arm of the young husband around the shapely waist of his
+newly-made wife, and the minister dismissed from their minds as
+completely as the wine-glass out of which they had just drank. He had
+answered their purpose and in the deep bliss of their new relation, they
+thought no more about him.
+
+As Master Mather turned to descend to the boat again--not wasting any
+formal words of leave-taking upon the Captain either--the latter grasped
+him by the arm.
+
+"Wait one moment," said Captain Tolley. "You will speak of what has
+occurred here this evening Master Mather, or not, at your pleasure. But
+be careful of what you say--for there is no power on this coast, strong
+enough to protect you against my vengeance!" And with a scowl upon his
+face, that would not have done injustice to the dreaded Captain Kidd
+himself, he added in a hoarse, fierce tone the one impressive word
+"Beware!"
+
+The minister made no reply. It was a day of fierce men and wild
+deeds--especially on the high seas. Prudence in some positions is far
+better than valor.
+
+"Now, my hearties! let us get out of this harbor as soon as possible!"
+cried the Captain. "I might have held him till we were opposite the
+castle, and put him ashore there; but it is safer as it is. We have a
+regular clearance, and he cannot do anything legally under an hour or
+two at least--while in half-an-hour we shall be outside. With a stiff
+breeze like this, once on the open seas, I fear neither man nor devil!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+The Wedding Trip and Where Then.
+
+
+Whether Master Mather did make any serious effort to prevent the "Storm
+King" from leaving the harbor, I am unable to say; but as I find no
+reference to this affair either in his biography or his numerous works,
+I am inclined to think that like a wise man, he held his peace as to
+what had occurred, and resolved never to go on board another vessel
+after nightfall.
+
+Certainly no cannon ball cut the waves as the "Storm King" sailed
+swiftly past the castle, and no signal was displayed signifying that she
+must come at once to anchor.
+
+And the little trip to New York was as pleasant in all respects as a
+young couple on a bridal tour could desire--even if the mere relief from
+the anxieties and threatened dangers of the previous long months had not
+been of itself a cause of happiness.
+
+Arrived at New York, Master Philip English and his wife received them
+with open arms. Master Raymond had brought letters from England to
+Governor Fletcher and others, and soon made warm friends among the very
+best people. There was no sympathy whatever in New York at that time
+with the witchcraft persecutions in Massachusetts; and all fugitives
+were received, as in the case of the Englishes, with great sympathy and
+kindness.
+
+Much to my regret, at this point, the old manuscript book to which I
+have been so largely indebted, suddenly closes its record of the
+fortunes of Master and Mistress Raymond. Whether they went to England,
+and took up their residence there among Master Raymond's friends, or
+found a home in this new world, I am therefore not able with absolute
+certainty to say. From what I have been able, however, to gather from
+other quarters, I have come to the conclusion that they were so much
+pleased with their reception in New York, that Master Raymond purchased
+an estate on the east side of the Hudson River, where he and the
+charming Dulcibel lived and loved to a good old age, leaving three sons
+and three daughters. If this couple really were our hero and heroine,
+then the Raymonds became connected, through the three daughters, with
+the Smiths, the Joneses and the Browns. In one way, perhaps, the
+question might be set at rest, were it not too delicate a one for
+successful handling. There is little doubt that among the descendants of
+Mistress Dulcibel, on the female side, the birth-mark of the serpent,
+more or less distinct, will be found occasionally occurring, even now,
+at the lapse of almost two centuries. Therefore, if among the secret
+traditions of any of the families I have mentioned, there be one
+relative to this curious birth-mark, doubtless that would be sufficient
+proof that in their veins runs the rich blood of the charming Dulcibel
+Raymond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+Some Concluding Remarks.
+
+
+Perhaps before I conclude I should state that the keeper of the Boston
+Bridewell, Master Arnold, was summarily dismissed for accepting the
+validity of the Governor's signature. But he did not take it very
+grievously to heart for Master Raymond, Captain Alden and others whom he
+had obliged saw him largely recompensed. Captain Alden, by the way, had
+fled for concealment to his relatives in Duxbury. Being asked when he
+appeared there, "Where he came from?" the old captain said "he was
+fleeing from the devil--who was still after him." However his relatives
+managed to keep him safely, until all danger was passed, both from the
+devil and from his imps.
+
+As for Lady Mary, the indignation of "the faithful" was hot against
+her--and finally against Sir William, who could not be made to see in it
+anything but a very good joke. "You know that Lady Mary will have her
+own way," he said to Master Mather.
+
+"Wives should be kept in due gospel subjection!" returned the minister.
+
+"Oh, yes, rejoined the Governor smiling; but I wish you had a wife like
+Lady Mary, and would try it on her! I think we should hear something
+breaking."
+
+But when Mistress Ann Putnam and others began "to cry out" against Lady
+Mary as a witch, the Governor waxed angry in his turn.
+
+"It is time to put a stop to all this," he said indignantly. "They will
+denounce me as a witch next." So he issued a general pardon and jail
+delivery--alike to the ten persons who were then under sentence of
+death, to those who had escaped from prison, and to the one hundred and
+fifty lying in different jails, and the two hundred others who had been
+denounced for prosecution.
+
+It was a fair blow, delivered at the very front and forehead of the
+cruel persecution and it did its good work, though it lost Sir William
+his position--sending him back to England to answer the charges of his
+enemies, and to die there soon afterwards in his forty-fifth year.
+
+When Chief-Justice Stoughton, engaged in fresh trials against the
+reputed witches, read the Governor's proclamation of Pardon, he was so
+indignant that he left his seat on the bench, and could not be prevailed
+upon to return to it.
+
+Neither could he, to the day of his death, be brought to see that he had
+done anything else than what was right in the whole matter.
+
+Not so the jury--which, several years after, confessed its great
+mistake, and publicly asked forgiveness. Nor Judge Sewall, who rose
+openly in church, and confessed his fault, and afterward kept one of the
+days of execution, with every returning year, sacred to repentance and
+prayer--seeing no person from sunrise to nightfall, mourning in the
+privacy of his own room the sin he had committed.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam and her husband both died within the seven years, as
+Dulcibel in her moment of spiritual exaltation had predicted. Her
+daughter Ann lived to make a public confession, asking pardon of those
+whom she had (she said unintentionally) injured, and died at the age of
+thirty-five--her grave being one that nobody wanted their loved ones to
+lie next to.
+
+As for the majority of the "afflicted circle," they fell as the years
+went on into various evil ways--one authority describing them as
+"abandoned to open and shameless vice."
+
+Master Philip English, after the issue of the Governor's pardon,
+returned to Salem. Seventeen years afterwards, he was still trying to
+recover his property from the officials of the Province. Of £1500
+seized, he never recovered more than £300; while his wife died in two
+years, at the age of forty-two, in consequence of the treatment to which
+she had been subjected.
+
+Master Joseph Putnam and his fair Elizabeth lived on in peace at the old
+place; taking into his service the Quaker Antipas upon his release from
+prison. The latter was always quiet and peaceful, save when any allusion
+was made to the witches. But he had easy service and good treatment; and
+was a great favorite with the children, especially with that image of
+his father, who afterwards became distinguished as the Major General
+Putnam of Revolutionary fame.
+
+As for the presents that had been promised to the "afflicted circle,"
+they came to them duly, and from London too. And they were rich gifts
+also; but such a collection of odd and grotesque articles, certainly are
+not often got together. Master Raymond had commissioned an eccentric
+friend of his in London to purchase them, and send them on; acquainting
+him with the peculiar circumstances. There were yellow birds, and red
+dragons, and other fantastic animals, birds and beasts. But they came
+from London and the "circle" found them just suited to their peculiar
+tastes; and they always maintained, even in defiance of Mistress Ann,
+that Master Raymond was a lovely gentleman and an "afflicted" person
+himself. It will thus be seen that these Salem maidens were in their day
+truly esthetic--having that sympathetic fondness for unlovely and
+repulsive things, which is the unerring indication of a daughter of
+Lilith.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, in conclusion, some one may ask, "Did the Province of
+Massachusetts ever make any suitable atonement for the great wrongs her
+Courts of Injustice had committed?" I answer Never! Massachusetts has
+never made any, adequate atonement--no, not to this day!
+
+The General Assembly, eighteen years afterwards, did indeed pass an act
+reversing the convictions and attainders in all but six of the cases;
+and ordering the distribution of the paltry sum of £578 among the heirs
+of twenty-four persons, as a kind of compensation to the families of
+those who had suffered; but this was all--nothing, or next to nothing!
+
+Perhaps the day will some time come, when the cry of innocent blood from
+the rocky platform of Witch Hill, shall swell into sufficient volume to
+be heard across the chasm of two centuries. Then, on some high pedestal,
+where the world can see it, Massachusetts shall proclaim in enduring
+marble her penitence and ask a late forgiveness of the twenty innocent
+men and women whom she so terribly wronged. And as all around, and even
+the mariner far out at sea, shall behold the gleaming shaft, standing
+where stood the rude gallows of two centuries ago, they shall say with
+softening eyes and glowing cheeks: "It is never too late to right a
+great wrong; and Massachusetts now makes all the expiation that is
+possible to those whom her deluded forefathers dishonored and persecuted
+and slew!"
+
+
+
+
+_By the Author of Dulcibel_
+
+PEMBERTON;
+
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+
+ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dulcibel, by Henry
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dulcibel, by Henry Peterson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dulcibel
+       A Tale of Old Salem
+
+Author: Henry Peterson
+
+Illustrator: Howard Pyle
+
+Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20569]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DULCIBEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marcia, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/cover01.jpg"><img src=
+"images/cover01_th.jpg" alt="Dulcibel" title="Dulcibel" /></a></div>
+<h1>DULCIBEL</h1>
+<h2>A Tale of Old Salem</h2>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h3>HENRY PETERSON</h3>
+<h4>Author of</h4>
+<h4>"Pemberton, or One Hundred Years Ago"</h4>
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<h4>Illustrations by</h4>
+<h3>HOWARD PYLE</h3>
+<h5>PHILADELPHIA</h5>
+<h4>The John C. Winston Co.</h4>
+<h6>Copyright 1907</h6>
+<h6>BY</h6>
+<h6>Walter Peterson.</h6>
+<a name="col01" id="col01"></a>
+<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/col01.jpg"><img src=
+"images/col01_th.jpg" alt="She stood up serene but heroic" title="She stood up serene but heroic" /></a></div>
+<div class="figcenter"><span class="caption">She stood up serene but heroic</span></div>
+
+<h2>Contents.</h2>
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href=
+"#Illustrations"><b>Illustrations</b></a><br />
+<span><span style="margin-left: 3em;"><a href=
+"#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.--<span class="smcap">Dulcibel
+Burton</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER
+II.--<span class="smcap"><span class="smcap">In Which Some
+Necessary Information is Given</span></span></b></a><br /></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER
+III.--<span class="smcap">The Circle in the Minister's
+House</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER
+IV.--<span class="smcap">Satan's Especial Grudge Against Our
+Puritan Fathers</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER
+V.--<span class="smcap">Leah Herrick's Position and
+Feelings</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER
+VI.--<span class="smcap">A Disorderly Scene in
+Church</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER
+VII.--<span class="smcap">A Conversation with
+Dulcibel</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER
+VIII.--<span class="smcap">An Examination of Reputed
+Witches</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER
+IX.--<span class="smcap">One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged
+Witches</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER
+X.--<span class="smcap">Bridget Bishop Condemned to
+Die</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER
+XI.--<span class="smcap">Examination of Rebecca
+Nurse</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER
+XII.--<span class="smcap">Burn Me or Hang Me, I Will Stand in the
+Truth of Christ</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XIII.--<span class="smcap">Dulcibel in
+Danger</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER
+XIV.--<span class="smcap">Bad News</span></b></a><br /></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER
+XV.--<span class="smcap">The Arrest of Dulcibel and
+Antipas</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER
+XVI.--<span class="smcap">Dulcibel in
+Prison</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER
+XVII.--<span class="smcap">Dulcibel before the
+Magistrates</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XVIII.--<span class="smcap">Well, What
+Now?</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER
+XIX.--<span class="smcap">Antipas Works a
+Miracle</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER
+XX.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond Goes to
+Boston</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER
+XXI.--<span class="smcap">A Night
+Interview</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXII.--<span class="smcap">The Reverend Master Parris Exorcises
+"Little Witch"</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXIII.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond Also Complains of an
+"Evil Hand"</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER
+XXIV.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond's Little Plan
+Blocked</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER
+XXV.--<span class="smcap">Captain Alden before the
+Magistrates</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER
+XXVI.--<span class="smcap">Considering New
+Plans</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXVII.--<span class="smcap">The Dissimulation of Master
+Raymond</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXVIII.--<span class="smcap">The Cruel Doings of the Special
+Court</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER
+XXIX.--<span class="smcap">Dulcibel's Life in
+Prison</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER
+XXX.--<span class="smcap">Eight Legal Murders on Witch
+Hill</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXI.--<span class="smcap">A New Plan of
+Escape</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXII.--<span class="smcap">Why the Plan
+Failed</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXII.--<span class="smcap">Mistress Ann Putnam's Fair
+Warning</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXIV.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond Goes again to
+Boston</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXV.--<span class="smcap">Captain Tolley and the Storm
+King</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXVI.--<span class="smcap">Sir William Phips and Lady
+Mary</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXVII.--<span class="smcap">The First Rattle of the
+Rattlesnake</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXVIII.--<span class="smcap">Conflicting Currents in
+Boston</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX"><b>CHAPTER
+XXXIX.--<span class="smcap">The Rattlesnake Makes a
+Spring</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XL"><b>CHAPTER
+XL.--<span class="smcap">An Interview with Lady
+Mary</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI"><b>CHAPTER
+XLI.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond is Arrested for
+Witchcraft</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII"><b>CHAPTER
+XLII.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond Astonishes the
+Magistrates</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XLIII.--<span class="smcap">Why Thomas Putnam Went to
+Ipswich</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV"><b>CHAPTER
+XLIV.--<span class="smcap">How Master Joseph Circumvented Mistress
+Ann</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV"><b>CHAPTER
+XLV.--<span class="smcap">The Two Plotters Congratulate Each
+Other</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI"><b>CHAPTER
+XLVI.--<span class="smcap">Mistress Ann's Opinion of the
+Matter</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII"><b>CHAPTER
+XLVII.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond Visits Lady
+Mary</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII"><b>CHAPTER
+XLVIII.--<span class="smcap">Captain Tolley's
+Propositions</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX"><b>CHAPTER
+XLIX.--<span class="smcap">Master Raymond Confounds Master Cotton
+Mather</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_L"><b>CHAPTER
+L.--<span class="smcap">Bringing Affairs to a
+Crisis</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_LI"><b>CHAPTER
+LI.--<span class="smcap">Lady Mary's Coup
+D'Etat</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_LII"><b>CHAPTER
+LII.--<span class="smcap">An Unwilling
+Parson</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIII"><b>CHAPTER
+LIII.--<span class="smcap">The Wedding Trip and Where
+Then</span></b></a><br /></span> <span style=
+"margin-left: 3em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_LIV"><b>CHAPTER
+LIV.--<span class="smcap">Some Concluding
+Remarks</span></b></a><br /></span><br /></span></span>
+<center><a href="#By_the_Author_of_Dulcibel"><b>Additional
+Reading</b></a><br /></center>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Illustrations" id=
+"Illustrations"></a><b>Illustrations</b></h2>
+<center><a href="#col01">Stood up Serene But Heroic</a><br />
+<a href="#col02">"The Lord Knows That I Haven't Hurt
+Them"</a><br />
+<a href="#col03">Marched from Jail for The Last
+Time</a><br /></center>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg
+1]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id=
+"CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<h4>Dulcibel Burton.</h4>
+<p>In the afternoon of a sunny Autumn day,
+nearly two hundred years ago, a young man was walking along one of
+the newly opened roads which led into Salem village, or what is now
+called Danvers Centre, in the then Province of Massachusetts
+Bay.</p>
+<p>The town of Salem, that which is now the
+widely known city of that name, lay between four and five miles to
+the southeast, on a tongue of land formed by two inlets of the sea,
+called now as then North and South Rivers. Next to Plymouth it is
+the oldest town in New England, having been first settled in 1626.
+Not till three years after were Boston and Charlestown commenced by
+the arrival of eleven ships from England. It is a significant fact,
+as showing the hardships to which the early settlers were exposed,
+that of the fifteen hundred persons composing this Boston
+expedition, two hundred died during the first winter. Salem has
+also the honor of establishing the first New England church
+organization, in 1629, with the Reverend Francis Higginson as its
+pastor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg
+2]</a></span></p>
+<p>Salem village was an adjunct of Salem, the
+town taking in the adjacent lands for the purpose of tillage to a
+distance of six miles from the meeting-house. But in the progress
+of settlement, Salem village also became entitled to a church of
+its own; and it had one regularly established at the date of our
+story, with the Reverend Samuel Parris as presiding elder or
+minister.</p>
+<p>There had been many bickerings and disputes
+before a minister could be found acceptable to all in Salem
+village. And the present minister was by no means a universal
+favorite. The principal point of contention on his part was the
+parsonage and its adjacent two acres of ground. Master Parris
+claimed that the church had voted him a free gift of these; while
+his opponents not only denied that it had been done, but that it
+lawfully could be done. This latter view was undoubtedly correct;
+for the parsonage land was a gift to the church, for the perpetual
+use of its pastor, whosoever he might be. But Master Parris would
+not listen to reason on this subject, and was not inclined to look
+kindly upon the men who steadfastly opposed him.</p>
+<p>The inhabitants of Salem village were a
+goodly as well as godly people, but owing to these
+church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg
+3]</a></span> differences about their ministers, as well as other
+disputes and lawsuits relative to the bounds of their respective
+properties, there was no little amount of ill feeling among them.
+Small causes in a village are just as effective as larger ones in a
+nation, in producing discord and strife; and the Puritans as a
+people were distinguished by all that determination to insist upon
+their rights, and that scorn of compromising difficulties, which
+men of earnest and honest but narrow natures have manifested in all
+ages of the world. Selfishness and uncharitableness are never so
+dangerous as when they assume the character of a conscientious
+devotion to the just and the true.</p>
+<p>But all this time the young man has been
+walking almost due north from the meeting house in Salem
+village.</p>
+<p>The road was not what would be called a good
+one in these days, for it was not much more than a bridle-path; the
+riding being generally at that time on horseback. But it was not
+the rather broken and uneven condition of the path which caused the
+frown on the young pedestrian's face, or the irritability shown by
+the sharp slashes of the maple switch in his hand upon the aspiring
+weeds along the roadside.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id=
+"Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+<p>"If ever mortal man was so bothered," he
+muttered at last, coming to a stop. "Of course she is the best
+match, the other is below me, and has a spice of Satan in her; but
+then she makes the blood stir in a man. Ha!"</p>
+<p>This exclamation came as he lifted his eyes
+from the ground, and gazed up the road before him. There, about
+half a mile distant, was a young woman riding toward him. Then she
+stopped her horse under a tree, and evidently was trying to break
+off a switch, while her horse pranced around in a most excited
+fashion. The horse at last starts in a rapid gallop. The young man
+sees that in trying to get the switch, she has allowed the bridle
+to get loose and over the horse's head, and can no longer control
+the fiery animal. Down the road towards him she comes in a sharp
+gallop, striving to stop the animal with her voice, evidently not
+the least frightened, but holding on to the pommel of the saddle
+with one hand while she makes desperate grasps at the hanging rein
+with the other.</p>
+<p>The young Puritan smiled, he took in the
+situation with a glance, and felt no fear for her but rather
+amusement. He was on the top of a steep hill, and he knew he could
+easily stop the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id=
+"Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> horse as it came up; even if she did not
+succeed in regaining her bridle, owing to the better chances the
+hill gave her.</p>
+<p>"She is plucky, anyhow, if she is rather a
+tame wench," said he, as the girl grasped the bridle rein at last,
+when about half way up the hill, and became again mistress of the
+blooded creature beneath her.</p>
+<p>"Is that the way you generally ride,
+Dulcibel?" asked the young man smiling.</p>
+<p>"It all comes from starting without my riding
+whip," replied the girl. "Oh, do stop!" she continued to the horse
+who now on the level again, began sidling and curveting.</p>
+<p>"Give me that switch of yours, Jethro. Now,
+you shall see a miracle."</p>
+<p>No sooner was the switch in her hand, than
+the aspect and behavior of the animal changed as if by magic. You
+might have thought the little mare had been raised in the enclosure
+of a Quaker meeting-house, so sober and docile did she
+seem.</p>
+<p>"It is always so," said the girl laughing.
+"The little witch knows at once whether I have a whip with me or
+not, and acts accordingly. No, I will not forgive you," and she
+gave the horse two or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id=
+"Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> three sharp cuts, which it took like a
+martyr. "Oh, I wish you would misbehave a little now; I should like
+to punish you severely."</p>
+<p>They made a very pretty picture, the little
+jet-black mare, and the mistress with her scarlet paragon bodice,
+even if the latter was entirely too pronounced for the taste of the
+great majority of the inhabitants, young and old, of Salem
+village.</p>
+<p>"But how do you happen to be here?" said the
+girl.</p>
+<p>"I called to see you, and found you had gone
+on a visit to Joseph Putnam's. So I thought I would walk up the
+road and meet you coming back."</p>
+<p>"What a sweet creature Mistress Putnam is,
+and both so young for man and wife."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Jo married early, but he is big enough
+and strong enough, don't you think so?"</p>
+<p>"He is a worshiped man indeed. Have you met
+the stranger yet?"</p>
+<p>"That Ellis Raymond? No, but I hear he is
+something of a popinjay in his attire, and swelled up with the
+conceit that he is better than any of us colonists."</p>
+<p>"I do not think so," and the girl's cheek
+colored a deeper red. "He seems to be a very<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> modest
+young man indeed. I liked him very much."</p>
+<p>"Oh, well, I have not seen him yet. But they
+say his father was a son of Belial, and fought under the tyrant at
+Naseby."</p>
+<p>"But that is all over and his widowed mother
+is one of us."</p>
+<p>"Hang him, what does it matter!" Then,
+changing his tone, and looking at her a little suspiciously. "Did
+Leah Herrick say anything to you against me the other night at the
+husking?"</p>
+<p>"I do not allow people to talk to me against
+my friends," replied she earnestly.</p>
+<p>"She was talking to you a long time I
+saw."</p>
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+<p>"It must have been an interesting
+subject."</p>
+<p>"It was rather an unpleasant one to
+me."</p>
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+<p>"She wanted me to join the 'circle' which
+they have just started at the minister's house. She says that old
+Tituba has promised to show them how the Indians of Barbados
+conjure and powwow, and that it will be great sport for the winter
+nights."</p>
+<p>"What did you say to it?"</p>
+<p>"I told her I would have nothing to do
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg
+8]</a></span> such things; that I had no liking for them, and that
+I thought it was wrong to tamper with such matters."</p>
+<p>"That was all she said to you?" and the young
+man seemed to breathe more freely.</p>
+<p>The girl was sharp-witted&mdash;what girl is
+not so in all affairs of the heart?&mdash;and it was now her turn.
+"Leah is very handsome," she said.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;everybody says so," he replied
+coolly, as if it were a fact of very little importance to him, and
+a matter which he had thought very little about.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel, was not one to aim all around the
+remark; she came at once, simply and directly to the
+point.</p>
+<p>"Did you ever pay her any
+attentions?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, no, not to speak of. What made you think
+of such an absurd thing?"</p>
+<p>"'Not to speak of'&mdash;what do you
+mean?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I kept company with her for
+awhile&mdash;before you came to Salem&mdash;when we were merely boy
+and girl."</p>
+<p>"There never was any troth plighted between
+you?"</p>
+<p>"How foolish you are, Dulcibel! What has
+started you off on this track?"<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Yourself. Answer me plainly. Was there ever
+any love compact between you?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, pshaw! what nonsense all this
+is!"</p>
+<p>"If you do not answer me, I shall ask her
+this very evening."</p>
+<p>"Of course there was nothing between
+us&mdash;nothing of any account&mdash;only a boy and girl
+affair&mdash;calling her my little wife, and that kind of
+nonsense."</p>
+<p>"I think that a great deal. Did that continue
+up to the time I came to the village?"</p>
+<p>"How seriously you take it all! Remember, I
+have your promise, Dulcibel."</p>
+<p>"A promise on a promise is no
+promise&mdash;every girl knows that. If you do not answer me fully
+and truly, Jethro, I shall ask Leah."</p>
+<p>"Yes," said the young man desperately "there
+was a kind of childish troth up to that time, but it was, as I
+said, a mere boy and girl affair."</p>
+<p>"Boy and girl! You were eighteen, Jethro; and
+she sixteen nearly as old as Joseph Putnam and his wife were when
+they married."</p>
+<p>"I do not care. I will not be bound by it;
+and Leah knows it."</p>
+<p>"You acted unfairly toward me, Jethro.
+Leah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg
+10]</a></span> has the prior right. I recall my troth. I will not
+marry you without her consent."</p>
+<p>"You will not!" said the young man
+passionately&mdash;for well he knew that Leah's consent would never
+be given.</p>
+<p>"No, I will not!"</p>
+<p>"Then take your troth back in welcome. In
+truth, I met you here this day to tell you that. I love Leah
+Herrick's little finger better than your whole body with your
+Jezebel's bodice, and your fine lady's airs. You had better go now
+and marry that conceited popinjay up at Jo Putnam's, if you can get
+him."</p>
+<p>With that he pushed off down the hill, and up
+the road, that he might not be forced to accompany her back to the
+village.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel was not prepared for such a burst of
+wrath, and such an uncovering of the heart. Which of us has not
+been struck with wonder, even far more than indignation, at such
+times? A sudden difference occurs, and the man or the woman in whom
+you have had faith, and whom you have believed noble and admirable,
+suddenly appears what he or she really is, a very common and vulgar
+nature. It makes us sick at heart that we could have been so
+deceived.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg
+11]</a></span></p>
+<p>Such was the effect upon Dulcibel. What a
+chasm she had escaped. To think she had really agreed to marry such
+a spirit as that! But fortunately it was now all over.</p>
+<p>She not only had lost a lover, but a friend.
+And one day before, this also would have had its unpleasant side to
+her. But now she felt even a sensation of relief. Was it because
+this very day a new vision had entered into the charmed circle of
+her life? If it were so, she did not acknowledge the fact to
+herself; or even wonder in her own mind, why the sudden breaking of
+her troth-plight had not left her in a sadder humor. For she put
+"Little Witch" into a brisk canter, and with a smile upon her face
+rode into the main street of the village.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id=
+"Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+<h4>In Which Some Necessary Information is
+Given.</h4>
+<p>Dulcibel Burton was an orphan. Her father
+becoming a little unsound in doctrine, and being greatly pleased
+with the larger liberty of conscience offered by William Penn to
+his colonists in Pennsylvania, had leased his house and lands to a
+farmer by the name of Buckley, and departed for Philadelphia. This
+was some ten years previous to the opening of our story. After
+living happily in Philadelphia for about eight years he died
+suddenly, and his wife decided to return to her old home in Salem
+village, having arranged to board with Goodman Buckley, whose lease
+had not yet expired. But in the course of the following winter she
+also died, leaving this only child, Dulcibel, now a beautiful girl
+of eighteen years. Dulcibel, as was natural, went on living with
+the Buckleys, who had no children of their own, and were very
+good-hearted and affectionate people.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel therefore was an heiress, in a not
+very large way, besides having wealthy relatives in<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+England, from some of whom in the course of years more or less
+might reasonably be expected. And as our Puritan ancestors were by
+no means blind to their worldly interests, believing that godliness
+had the promise of this world as well as that which is to
+come&mdash;the bereaved maiden became quite an object of interest
+to the young men of the vicinity.</p>
+<p>I have called her beautiful, and not without
+good reason. With the old manuscript volume&mdash;a family heirloom
+of some Quaker friends of mine&mdash;from which I have drawn the
+facts of this narrative, came also an old miniature, the work of a
+well-known English artist of that period. The colors have faded
+considerably, but the general contour and the features are well
+preserved. The face is oval, with a rather higher and fuller
+forehead than usual; the hair, which was evidently of a rather
+light brown, being parted in the center, and brought down with a
+little variation from the strict Madonna fashion. The eyes are
+large, and blue. The lips rather full. A snood or fillet of blue
+ribbon confined her luxuriant hair. In form she was rather above
+the usual height of women, and slender as became her age; though
+with a perceptible tendency towards greater fullness with
+increasing years.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id=
+"Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+<p>There is rather curiously a great resemblance
+between this miniature, and a picture I have in my possession of
+the first wife of a celebrated New England poet. He himself being
+named for one of the Judges who sat in the Special Court appointed
+for the trial of the alleged witches, it would be curious if the
+beautiful and angelic wife of his youth were allied by blood to one
+of those who had the misfortune to come under the ban of
+witchcraft.</p>
+<p>Being both beautiful and an heiress, Dulcibel
+naturally attracted the attention of her near neighbor in the
+village, Jethro Sands. Jethro was quite a handsome young man after
+a certain style, though, as his life proved, narrow minded,
+vindictive and avaricious. Still he had a high reputation as a
+young man with the elders of the village; for he had early seen how
+advantageous it was to have a good standing in the church, and was
+very orthodox in his faith, and very regular in his attendance at
+all the church services. Besides, he was a staunch champion of the
+Reverend Mr. Parris in all his difficulties with the parish, and in
+return was invariably spoken of by the minister as one of the most
+promising young men in that neighborhood.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg
+15]</a></span></p>
+<p>Jethro resided with his aunt, the widow
+Sands. She inherited from her husband the whole of his property.
+His deed for the land narrated that the boundary line ran "from an
+old dry stump, due south, to the southwest corner of his hog-pen,
+then east by southerly to the top of the hill near a little pond,
+then north by west to the highway side, and thence along the
+highway to the old dry stump again aforesaid." There is a tradition
+in the village that by an adroit removal of his hog-pen to another
+location, and the uprooting and transplanting of the old dry stump,
+at a time when nobody seemed to take a very active interest in the
+adjoining land, owing to its title being disputed in successive
+lawsuits, Jethro, who inherited at the death of his aunt, became
+the possessor of a large tract of land that did not originally
+belong to him. But then such stories are apt to crop up after the
+death of every man who has acquired the reputation of being crafty
+and close in his dealings.</p>
+<p>We left Jethro, after his interview with
+Dulcibel, walking on in order that he might avoid her further
+company. After going a short distance he turned and saw that she
+was riding rapidly homeward. Then he began to retrace his
+steps.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg
+16]</a></span></p>
+<p>"It was bound to come," he muttered. "I have
+seen she was getting cold and thought it was Leah's work, but it
+seems she was true to her promise after all. Well, Leah is poor,
+and not of so good a family, but she is worth a dozen of such as
+Dulcibel Burton."</p>
+<p>Then after some minutes' silent striding, "I
+hate her though for it, all the same. Everybody will know she has
+thrown me off. But nobody shall get ahead of Jethro Sands in the
+long run. I'll make her sorry for it before she dies, the spoiled
+brat of a Quaker infidel!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id=
+"CHAPTER_III"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id=
+"Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+<h4>The Circle in the Minister's
+House.</h4>
+<p>It would, perhaps be unfair to hold the
+Reverend Master Parris responsible for the wild doings that went on
+in the parsonage house during the winter evenings of 1691-2, in the
+face of his solemn assertion, made several years afterwards, that
+he was ignorant of them. And yet, how could such things have been
+without the knowledge either of himself or his wife? Mistress
+Parris has come down to us with the reputation of a kindly and
+discreet woman&mdash;nothing having been said to her discredit, so
+far as I am aware, even by those who had a bitter controversy with
+her husband. And yet she certainly must have known of the doings of
+the famous "circle," even if she refrained from speaking of them to
+her husband.</p>
+<p>At the very bottom of the whole thing,
+perhaps, were the West Indian slaves&mdash;"John Indias" and his
+wife Tituba, whom Master Parris had brought with him from Barbados.
+There were two children in the house, a little daughter of nine,
+named Elizabeth; and Abigail Williams,<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> three
+years older. These very probably, Tituba often had sought to
+impress, as is the manner of negro servants, with tales of
+witchcraft, the "evil-eye" and "evil hand" spirits, powwowing, etc.
+Ann Putnam, another precocious child of twelve, the daughter of a
+near neighbor, Sergeant Putnam, the parish clerk, also was soon
+drawn into the knowledge of the savage mysteries. And, before very
+long, a regular "circle" of these and older girls was formed for
+the purpose of amusing and startling themselves with the
+investigation and performance of forbidden things.</p>
+<p>At the present day this would not be so
+reprehensible. We are comparatively an unbelieving generation; and
+what are called "spiritual circles" are common, though not always
+unattended with mischievous results. But at that time when it was
+considered a deadly sin to seek intercourse with those who claimed
+to have "a familiar spirit," that such practices should be allowed
+to go on for a whole winter, in the house of a Puritan minister,
+seems unaccountable. But the fact itself is undoubted, and the
+consequences are written in mingled tears and blood upon the
+saddest pages of the history of New England.</p>
+<p>Among the members of this "circle" were Mary
+Walcott, aged seventeen, the daughter of Captain Walcott; Elizabeth
+Hubbard and Mercy Lewis, also seventeen; Elizabeth Booth and
+Susannah Sheldon, aged eighteen; and Mary</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id=
+"Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+Warren, Sarah Churchhill and Leah Herrick, aged
+twenty; these latter being the oldest of the party. They were all
+the daughters of respectable and even leading men, with the
+exception of Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren, Leah Herrick and Sarah
+Churchhill, who were living out as domestics, but who seem to have
+visited as friends and equals the other girls in the village. In
+fact, it was not considered at that time degrading in country
+neighborhoods&mdash;perhaps it is not so now in many
+places&mdash;for the sons and daughters of men of respectability,
+and even of property, to occupy the position of "help" or servant,
+eating at the same table with, and being considered members of the
+family. In the case before us, Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren and Sarah
+Churchhill seem to have been among the most active and influential
+members of the party. Though Abigail Williams, the minister's
+niece, and Ann Putnam, only eleven and twelve years of age
+respectively, proved themselves capable of an immense deal of
+mischief.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg
+20]</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<p>What the proceedings of these young women
+actually were, neither tradition nor any records that I have met
+with, informs us; but the result was even worse than could have
+been expected. By the close of the winter they had managed to get
+their nervous systems, their imaginations, and their minds and
+hearts, into a most dreadful condition. If they had regularly sold
+themselves to be the servants of the Evil One, as was then
+universally believed to be possible&mdash;and which may really be
+possible, for anything I know to the contrary&mdash;their condition
+could hardly have been worse than it was. They were liable to
+sudden faintings of an unnatural character, to spasmodic movements
+and jerkings of the head and limbs, to trances, to the seeing of
+witches and devils, to deafness, to dumbness, to alarming outcries,
+to impudent and lying speeches and statements, and to almost
+everything else that was false, irregular and unnatural.</p>
+<p>Some of these things were doubtless
+involuntary but the voluntary and involuntary seemed to be so
+mingled in their behavior, that it was difficult sometimes to
+determine which was one and which the other. The moral sense seemed
+to have become confused, if not utterly lost for the
+time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg
+21]</a></span></p>
+<p>They were full of tricks. They stuck
+concealed pins into their bodies, and accused others of doing
+it&mdash;their contortions and trances were to a great extent mere
+shams&mdash;they lied without scruple&mdash;they bore false
+witness, and what in many, if not most, cases they knew was false
+witness, against not only those to whom they bore ill will but
+against the most virtuous and kindly women of the neighborhood; and
+if the religious delusion had taken another shape, and we see no
+reason why it should not have done so, and put the whole of them on
+trial as seekers after "familiar spirits" and condemned the older
+girls to death, there would at least have been some show of justice
+in the proceedings; while, as it is, there is not a single ray of
+light to illuminate the judicial gloom.</p>
+<p>When at last Mr. Parris and Thomas Putnam
+became aware of the condition of their children, they called in the
+village physician, Dr. Griggs. The latter, finding he could do
+nothing with his medicines, gave it as his opinion that they were
+"under an evil hand"&mdash;the polite medical phrase of that day,
+for being bewitched.</p>
+<p>That important point being settled, the next
+followed of course, "Who has bewitched them?" The children being
+asked said, "Tituba."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id=
+"Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+<h4>Satan's Especial Grudge against Our Puritan
+Fathers.</h4>
+<p>"Tituba!" And who else? Why need there have
+been anybody else? Why could not the whole thing have stopped just
+there? No doubt Tituba was guilty, if any one was. But Tituba
+escaped, by shrewdly also becoming an accuser.</p>
+<p>"Who else?" This set the children's
+imagination roving. Their first charges were not so unreasonable.
+Why, the vagrant Sarah Good, a social outcast, wandering about
+without any settled habitation; and Sarah Osburn, a bed-ridden
+woman, half distracted by family troubles who had seen better days.
+There the truth was out. Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn were
+the agents of the devil in this foul attempt against the peace of
+the godly inhabitants of Salem village.</p>
+<p>For it was a common belief even amongst the
+wisest and best of our Puritan fathers, that the devil had a
+special spite against the New England colonies. They looked at it
+in this way. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id=
+"Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> conquered in the fight against the
+Lord in the old world. He was the supreme and undoubted lord of the
+"heathen salvages" in the new. Now that the Puritan forces had
+commenced an onslaught upon him in the western hemisphere, to which
+he had an immemorial right as it were, could it be wondered at that
+he was incensed beyond all calculation? Was he, after having
+Europe, Asia and Africa, to be driven out of North America by a
+small body of steeple-hatted, psalm-singing, and conceited
+Puritans? No wonder his satanic ire was aroused; and that he was up
+to all manner of devices to harass, disorganize and afflict the
+camp of his enemies.</p>
+<p>I am afraid this seems a little ridiculous to
+readers nowadays; but to the men and women of two hundred years ago
+it was grim and sober earnest, honestly and earnestly believed
+in.</p>
+<p>Who, in the face of such wonderful changes in
+our religious views, can venture to predict what will be the belief
+of our descendants two hundred years hence?</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id=
+"Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+<h4>Leah Herrick's Position and
+Feelings.</h4>
+<p>I have classed Leah Herrick among the
+domestics; but her position was rather above that. She had lived
+with the Widow Sands, Jethro's aunt, since she had been twelve
+years old, assisting in the housework, and receiving her board and
+clothing in return. Now, at the age of twenty, she was worth more
+than that recompense; but she still remained on the old terms, as
+if she were a daughter instead of a servant.</p>
+<p>She remained, asking nothing more, because
+she had made up her mind to be Jethro's wife. She had a passion for
+Jethro, and she knew that Jethro reciprocated it. But his aunt, who
+was ambitious, wished him to look higher; and therefore did not
+encourage such an alliance. Leah was however too valuable and too
+cheap an assistant to be dispensed with, and thus removed from such
+a dangerous proximity, besides the widow really had no objection to
+her, save on account of her poverty.</p>
+<p>Leah said nothing when she saw that Jethro's
+attentions were directed in another direction; but<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> without
+saying anything directly to Dulcibel, she contrived to impress her
+with the fact that she had trespassed upon her rightful domain. For
+Leah was a cat; and amidst her soft purrings, she would
+occasionally put out her velvety paw, and give a wicked little
+scratch that made the blood come, and so softly and innocently too,
+that the sufferer could hardly take offence at it.</p>
+<p>Between these sharp intimations of Leah, and
+the unpleasant revelations of the innate hardness of the young
+man's character, which resulted from the closer intimacy of a
+betrothal, Dulcibel's affection had been gradually cooling for
+several months. But although the longed-for estrangement between
+the two had at length taken place, Leah did not feel quite safe
+yet; for the Widow Sands was very much put out about it, and
+censured her nephew for his want of wisdom in not holding Dulcibel
+to her engagement. "She has a good house and farm already, and she
+will be certain to receive much more on the death of her bachelor
+uncle in England," said the aunt sharply. "You must strive to undo
+that foolish hour's work. It was only a tiff on her part, and you
+should have cried your eyes out if necessary."</p>
+<p>And so Leah, thinking in her own heart
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg
+26]</a></span> Jethro was a prize for any girl, was in constant
+dread of a renewal of the engagement, and ready to go to any length
+to prevent it.</p>
+<p>Although a member of the "circle" that met at
+the minister's house, Leah was not so regular an attendant as the
+others; for there were no men there and she never liked to miss the
+opportunity of a private conversation with Jethro, opportunities
+which were somewhat limited, owing to the continual watchfulness of
+her mistress. Still she went frequently enough to be fully imbued
+with the spirit of their doings, while not becoming such a victim
+as most of them were to disordered nerves, and an impaired and
+confused mental and moral constitution.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id=
+"Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+<h4>A Disorderly Scene in Church.</h4>
+<p>If anything were needed to add to the
+excitement which the condition of the "afflicted children," as they
+were generally termed, naturally produced in Salem village and the
+adjoining neighborhood, it was a scene in the village church one
+Sunday morning.</p>
+<p>The church was a low, small structure, with
+rough, unplastered roof and walls, and wooden benches instead of
+pews. The sexes were divided, the men sitting on one side and the
+women on the other, but each person in his or her regular and
+appointed seat.</p>
+<p>It was the custom at that time to select a
+seating committee of judicious and careful men, whose very
+important duty it was to seat the congregation. In doing this they
+proceeded on certain well-defined principles.</p>
+<p>The front seats were to be filled with the
+older members of the congregation, a due reverence for age, as well
+as for the fact that these were more apt to be weak of sight and
+infirm of hearing, necessitated this. Then came the elders
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg
+28]</a></span> deacons of the church; then the wealthier citizens
+of the parish; then the younger people and the children.</p>
+<p>The Puritan fathers had their faults; but
+they never would have tolerated the fashionable custom of these
+days, whereby the wealthy, without regard to their age, occupy the
+front pews; and the poorer members, no matter how aged, or infirm
+of sight or hearing are often forced back where they can neither
+see the minister nor hear the sermon. And one can imagine in what
+forcible terms they would have denounced some city meeting-houses
+of the present era where the church is regarded somewhat in the
+light of an opera house, and the doors of the pews kept locked and
+closed until those who have purchased the right to reserved seats
+shall have had the first chance to enter.</p>
+<p>The Reverend Master Lawson, a visiting elder,
+was the officiating minister on the Sunday to which we have
+referred. The psalm had been sung after the opening prayer and the
+minister was about to come forward to give his sermon, when, before
+he could rise from his seat, Abigail Williams, the niece of the
+Reverend Master Parris, only twelve years old, and one of the
+"circle" cried out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id=
+"Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> loudly:&mdash;"Now stand up and name
+your text!"</p>
+<p>When he had read the text, she exclaimed
+insolently, "It's a long text." And then when he was referring to
+his doctrine, she said:&mdash;"I know no doctrine you mentioned. If
+you named any, I have forgotten it."</p>
+<p>And then when he had concluded, she cried
+out, "Look! there sits Goody Osburn upon the beam, suckling her
+yellow-bird betwixt her fingers."</p>
+<p>Then Ann Putnam, that other child of twelve,
+joined in; "There flies the yellow-bird to the minister's hat,
+hanging on the pin in the pulpit."</p>
+<p>Of course such disorderly proceedings
+produced a great excitement in the congregation; but the two
+children do not appear to have been rebuked by either of the
+ministers, or by any of the officers of the church; it seeming to
+have been the general conclusion that they were not responsible for
+what they said, but were constrained by an irresistible and
+diabolical influence. In truth, the children were regarded with awe
+and pity instead of reproof and blame, and therefore naturally felt
+encouraged to further efforts in the same direction.</p>
+<p>I have said that this was the general
+feeling, but that feeling was not universal. Several of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg
+30]</a></span> members, notably young Joseph Putnam, Francis Nurse
+and Peter Cloyse were very much displeased at the toleration shown
+to such disorderly doings, and began to absent themselves from
+public worship, with the result of incurring the anger of the
+children, who were rapidly assuming the role of destroying angels
+to the people of Salem village and its vicinity.</p>
+<p>As fasting and prayer were the usual
+resources of our Puritan fathers in difficulties, these were
+naturally resorted to at once upon this occasion. The families to
+which the "afflicted children" belonged assembled the
+neighbors&mdash;who had also fasted&mdash;and, under the guidance
+of the Reverend Master Parris, besought the Lord to deliver them
+from the power of the Evil One. These were exciting occasions, for,
+whenever there was a pause in the proceedings, such of the
+"afflicted" as were present would break out into demoniac howlings,
+followed by contortions and rigid trances, which, in the words of
+our manuscript, were "enough to make the devil himself
+weep."</p>
+<p>These village prayers, however, seeming to be
+insufficient, Master Parris called a meeting of the neighboring
+ministers; but the prayers of these also had no effect. The
+"children" even surpassed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31"
+id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> themselves on this occasion. The
+ministers could not doubt the evidence of their own reverend eyes
+and ears, and united in the declaration of their belief that Satan
+had been let loose in this little Massachusetts village, to
+confound and annoy the godly, to a greater extent than they had
+ever before known or heard of. And now that the ministers had
+spoken, it was almost irreligious and atheistical for others to
+express any doubt. For if the ministers could not speak with
+authority in a case of this kind, which seemed to be within their
+peculiar field and province, what was their judgment worth upon any
+matter?</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id=
+"CHAPTER_VII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id=
+"Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+<h4>A Conversation with Dulcibel.</h4>
+<p>As Dulcibel sat in the little room which she
+had furnished in a pretty but simple way for a parlor, some days
+after the meeting of the ministers, her thoughts naturally dwelt
+upon all these exciting events which were occurring around her. It
+was an April day, and the snow had melted earlier than usual, and
+it seemed as if the spring might be an exceptionally forward one.
+The sun was pleasantly warm, and the wind blowing soft and gently
+from the south; and a canary bird in the rustic cage that hung on
+the wall was singing at intervals a hymn of rejoicing at the coming
+of the spring. The bird was one that had been given her by a
+distinguished sea-captain of Boston town, who had brought it home
+from the West Indies. Dulcibel had tamed and petted it, until she
+could let it out from the cage and allow it to fly around the room;
+then, at the words, "Come Cherry," as she opened the little door of
+the cage, the bird would fly in again, knowing that he would be
+rewarded for his good conduct with a little piece of sweet
+cake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg
+33]</a></span></p>
+<p>Cherry would perch on her finger and sing his
+prettiest strains on some occasions; and at others eat out of her
+hand. But his prettiest feat was to kiss his mistress by putting
+his little beak to her lips, when she would say in a caressing
+tone, "Kiss me, pretty Cherry."</p>
+<p>After playing with the canary for a little
+while, Dulcibel sighed and put him back in his cage, hearing a
+knock at the front door of the cottage. And she had just turned
+from the cage to take a seat, when the door opened and two persons
+entered.</p>
+<p>"I am glad to see you, friends," she said
+calmly, inviting them to be seated.</p>
+<p>It was Joseph Putnam, accompanied by his
+friend and visitor, Ellis Raymond, the young man of whom Dulcibel
+had spoken to Jethro Sands.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam was one of that somewhat
+distinguished family from whom came the Putnams of Revolutionary
+fame; Major-General Israel Putnam, the wolf-slayer, being one of
+his younger children. He, the father I mean, was a man of fine,
+athletic frame, not only of body but of mind. He was one of the
+very few in Salem village who despised the whole witch-<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>delusion
+from the beginning. He did not disbelieve in the existence of
+witches&mdash;or that the devil was tormenting the "afflicted
+children"&mdash;but that faith should be put in their wild stories
+was quite another matter.</p>
+<p>Of his companion, Master Ellis Raymond, I
+find no other certain account anywhere than in my Quaker friend's
+manuscript. From the little that is there given of personal
+description I have only the three phrases "a comelie young man," "a
+very quick-witted person," "a very determined and courageous man,"
+out of which to build a physical and spiritual description. And so
+I think it rather safer to leave the portraiture to the imagination
+of my readers.</p>
+<p>"Do you expect to remain long in Salem?"
+asked Dulcibel.</p>
+<p>"I do not know yet," was the reply. "I came
+that I might see what prospects the new world holds out to young
+men."</p>
+<p>"I want Master Raymond to purchase the
+Orchard Farm, and settle down among us," said Joseph Putnam. "It
+can be bought I think."</p>
+<p>"I have heard people say the price is a very
+high one," said Dulcibel.</p>
+<p>"It is high but the land is worth the money.
+In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg
+35]</a></span> twenty years it will seem very low. My father saw
+the time when a good cow was worth as much as a fifty-acre farm,
+but land is continually rising in value."</p>
+<p>"I shall look farther south before deciding,"
+said Raymond. "I am told the land is better there; besides there
+are too many witches here," and he smiled.</p>
+<p>"We have been up to see my brother Thomas,"
+continued Joseph Putnam. "He always has had the reputation of being
+a sober-headed man, but he is all off his balance now."</p>
+<p>"What does Mistress Putnam say?" asked
+Dulcibel.</p>
+<p>"Oh, she is at the bottom of all his
+craziness, she and that elfish daughter. Sister Ann is a very
+intelligent woman in some respects, but she is wild upon this
+question."</p>
+<p>"I am told by the neighbors that the child is
+greatly afflicted."</p>
+<p>"She came in the room while we were there,"
+responded Master Raymond. "I knew not what to make of it. She flung
+herself down on the floor, she crept under the table, she shrieked,
+she said Goody Osburn was sticking pins in her, and wound up by
+going into convulsions."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id=
+"Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+<p>"What can it all mean?&mdash;it is terrible,"
+said Dulcibel.</p>
+<p>"Well, the Doctor says she is suffering under
+an 'evil hand,' and the ministers have given their solemn opinion
+that she is bewitched; and brother Thomas and Sister Ann, and about
+all the rest of the family agree with them."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid it will go hard with those two
+old women," interposed Ellis Raymond.</p>
+<p>"They will hang them as sure as they are
+tried," answered Joseph Putnam. "Not that it makes much difference,
+for neither of them is much to speak of; but they have a right to a
+fair trial nevertheless, and they cannot get such a thing just now
+in Salem village.</p>
+<p>"I can hardly believe there are such things
+as witches," said Dulcibel, "and if there are, I do not believe the
+good Lord would allow them to torment innocent
+children."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I don't know that it will do to say
+there are no witches," replied Joseph Putnam gravely. "It seems to
+me we must give up the Bible if we say that. For the Old Testament
+expressly commands that we must not suffer a witch to live; and it
+would be absurd to give such a command if there were no such
+persons as witches."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id=
+"Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I suppose it must be so," admitted Dulcibel,
+with a deep sigh.</p>
+<p>"And then again in the New Testament we have
+continual references to persons possessed with devils, and others
+who had familiar spirits, and if such persons existed then, why not
+now?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, of course, it is so," again admitted
+Dulcibel with even a deeper sigh than before.</p>
+<p>But even in that day, outside of the Puritan
+and other religious bodies, there were unbelievers; and Ellis
+Raymond had allowed himself to smile once or twice, unperceived by
+the others, during their conversation. Thus we read in the life of
+that eminent jurist, the Honorable Francis North, who presided at a
+trial for witchcraft about ten years before the period of which we
+are writing, that he looked upon the whole thing as a vulgar
+delusion, though he said it was necessary to be very careful to
+conceal such opinions from the juries of the time, or else they
+would set down the judges at once as irreligious persons, and bring
+in the prisoners guilty.</p>
+<p>"I am not so certain of it," said Ellis
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"How! What do you mean, Master Raymond?"
+exclaimed Joseph Putnam; like all his family, he was orthodox to
+the bone in his opinions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38"
+id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<p>"My idea is that in the old times they
+supposed all distracted and insane people&mdash;especially the
+violent ones, the maniacs&mdash;to be possessed with
+devils."</p>
+<p>"Do you think so?" queried Dulcibel in a glad
+voice, a light seeming to break in upon her.</p>
+<p>"Well, I take it for granted that there were
+plenty of insane people in the old times as there are now; and yet
+I see no mention of them as such, in either the Old or the New
+Testament."</p>
+<p>"I never thought of that before; it seems to
+me a very reasonable explanation, does it not strike you so, Master
+Putnam?"</p>
+<p>"So reasonable, that it reasons away all our
+faith in the absolute truthfulness of every word of the holy
+scriptures," replied Joseph Putnam sternly. "Do you suppose the
+Evangelists, when they spoke of persons having 'familiar spirits,'
+and being 'possessed of devils,' did not know what they were
+talking about? I would rather believe that every insane person now
+is possessed with a devil, and that such is the true explanation of
+his or her insanity, than to fly in the face of the holy scriptures
+as you do, Master Raymond."</p>
+<p>Dulcibel's countenance fell. "Yes," she
+re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg
+39]</a></span>sponded in reverential tones, "the holy Evangelists
+must know best. If they said so, it must be so."</p>
+<p>"You little orthodox darling!" thought young
+Master Raymond, gazing upon her beautiful sad face. But of course
+he did not express himself to such an effect, except by his gaze;
+and Dulcibel happening to look up and catch the admiring expression
+of two clear brown eyes, turned her own instantly down again, while
+a faint blush mantled her cheeks.</p>
+<p>The young Englishman knew that in arousing
+such heterodox opinions he was getting on dangerous ground. For
+expressing not a greater degree of heresy than he had uttered,
+other men and even women had been turned neck and heels out of the
+Puritan settlements. And as he had no desire to leave Salem just at
+present, he began to "hedge" a little, as betting men sometimes
+say.</p>
+<p>"Insane people, maniacs especially, do
+sometimes act as if they were possessed of the devil," he said
+frankly. "And no doubt their insanity is often the result of the
+sinful indulgence of their wicked propensities and
+passions."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that seems to be very reasonable," said
+Dulcibel. "Every sinful act seems to me a yielding to the evil one,
+and such yielding becom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id=
+"Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>ing common, he may at least be able to
+enter into the soul, and take absolute possession of it. Oh, it is
+very fearful!" and she shuddered.</p>
+<p>"But I find one opinion almost universal in
+Salem," continued Raymond, "and that is one which I think has no
+ground to sustain it in the scriptures, and is very mischievous. It
+is that the devil cannot act directly upon human beings to afflict
+and torment them; but that he is forced to have recourse to the
+agency of other human beings, who have become his worshipers and
+agents. Thus in the cases of these children and young girls,
+instead of admitting that the devil and his imps are directly
+afflicting them, they begin to look around for witches and wizards
+as the sources of the trouble."</p>
+<p>"Yes," responded Joseph Putnam earnestly,
+"that false and unscriptural doctrine is the source of all the
+trouble. That little Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams and the others
+are bewitched, may perhaps be true&mdash;a number of godly
+ministers say so, and they ought to know. But, if they are
+bewitched, it is the devil and his imps that have done it. If they
+are 'possessed with devils'&mdash;and does not that scripture mean
+that the devils directly take possession of them&mdash;what is
+their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg
+41]</a></span> testimony worth against others? It is nearly the
+testimony of Satan and his imps, speaking through them. While they
+are in that state, their evidence should not be allowed credence by
+any magistrate, any more than the devil's should."</p>
+<p>It seems very curious to those of the present
+day who have investigated this matter of witch persecutions, that
+such a sound and orthodox view as this of Joseph Putnam's should
+have had such little weight with the judges and ministers and other
+leading men of the seventeenth century. While a few urged it, even
+as Joseph Putnam did, at the risk of his own life, the great
+majority not only of the common people but of the leading classes,
+regarded it as unsound and irreligious. But the whole history of
+the world proves that the <i>vox populi</i> is very seldom the
+<i>vox Dei</i>. The light shines down from the rising sun in the
+heavens, and the mountain tops first receive the rays. The last new
+truth is always first perceived by the small minority of superior
+minds and souls. How indeed could it be otherwise, so long as truth
+like light always shines down from above?</p>
+<p>"Have you communicated this view to your
+brother and sister?" asked Dulcibel.</p>
+<p>"I have talked with them for a whole
+evening,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg
+42]</a></span> but I do think Sister Ann is possessed too," replied
+Joseph Putnam. "She fairly raves sometimes. You know how bitterly
+she feels about that old church quarrel, when a small minority of
+the Parish succeeded in preventing the permanent settlement of her
+sister's husband as minister. She seems to have the idea that all
+that party are emissaries of Satan. I do not wonder her little girl
+should be so nervous and excitable, being the child of such a
+nervous, high-strung woman. But I am going to see them again this
+afternoon; will you go too, Master Raymond?'</p>
+<p>"I think not," replied the latter with a
+smile, "I should do harm, I fear, instead of good. I will stay here
+and talk with Mistress Dulcibel a little while longer."</p>
+<p>Master Putnam departed, and then the
+conversation became of a lighter character. The young Englishman
+told Dulcibel of his home in the old world, and of his travels in
+France and Switzerland. And they talked of all those little things
+which young people will&mdash;little things, but which afford
+constant peeps into each other's mind and heart. Dulcibel thought
+she had never met such a cultivated young man, although she had
+read of such; and he felt very certain that<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> he
+never met with such a lovely young woman. Not that she was over
+intelligent&mdash;one of those precociously "smart" young women
+that, thanks to the female colleges and the "higher culture" are
+being "developed" in such alarming numbers nowadays. If she had
+been such a being, I fancy Master Raymond would have found her less
+attractive. Ah, well, after a time perhaps, we of the present day
+shall have another craze&mdash;that of barbarism&mdash;in which the
+"coming woman" shall pride herself mainly upon possessing a strong,
+healthy and vigorous physical organization, developed within the
+feminine lines of beauty, and only a reasonable degree of
+intelligence and "culture." And then I hope we shall see the last
+of walking female encyclopedias, with thin waists, and sickly and
+enfeebled bodies; fit to be the mothers only of a rapidly dwindling
+race, even if they have the wish and power to become mothers at
+all.</p>
+<p>I am not much of a believer in love at first
+sight, but certainly persons may become very much interested in
+each other after a few hours' conversation; and so it was in the
+case before us. When Ellis Raymond took up his hat, and then
+lingered minute after minute, as if he could not bring himself to
+the point of departure, he simply<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> manifested anew to the
+maiden what his tones and looks had been telling her for an hour,
+that he admired her very greatly.</p>
+<p>"Come soon again," Dulcibel said softly, as
+the young man managed to open the door at last, and make his final
+adieu. "And indeed I shall if you will permit me," was his earnest
+response.</p>
+<p>But some fair reader may ask, "What were
+these two doing during all the winter, that they had not seen each
+other?"</p>
+<p>I answer that Dulcibel had withdrawn from the
+village gatherings since the breaking of the engagement with
+Jethro. At the best, it was an acknowledgment that she had been too
+hasty in a matter that she should not have allowed herself to fail
+in; and she felt humbled under the thought. Besides, it seemed to
+her refined and sensitive nature only decorous that she should
+withdraw for a time into the seclusion of her own home under such
+circumstances.</p>
+<p>As for the village gossips, they entirely
+misinterpreted her conduct. Inasmuch as Jethro went around as
+usual, and put a bold face upon the matter, they came to the
+conclusion that he had thrown her off, and that she was moping at
+home, because she felt the blow so keenly.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg
+45]</a></span></p>
+<p>Thus it was that while the young Englishman
+had attended many social gatherings during the winter he had never
+met the one person whom he was especially desirous of again
+meeting.</p>
+<p>One little passage of the conversation
+between the two it may be well however to refer to expressly for
+its bearing upon a very serious matter. Raymond had mentioned that
+he had not seen her recently flying around on that little jet black
+horse, and had asked whether she still owned it.</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes," replied Dulcibel; "I doubt that I
+should be able to sell Little Witch if I wished to do
+so."</p>
+<p>"Ah, how is that? She seems to be a very fine
+riding beast."</p>
+<p>"She is, very! But you have not heard that I
+am the only one that has ever ridden her or that can ride
+her."</p>
+<p>"Indeed! that is curious."</p>
+<p>I have owned her from a little colt. She was
+never broken to harness; and no one, as I said, has ever ridden her
+but me. So that now if any other person, man or woman, attempts to
+do so, she will not allow it. She rears, she plunges, and finally
+as a last resort, if necessary, lies down on the ground and refuses
+to stir.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg
+46]</a></span> "Why, that is very flattering to you, Dulcibel,"
+said Raymond smiling. "I never knew an animal of better
+taste."</p>
+<p>"That may be," replied the maiden blushing;
+"but you see how it is that I shall never be able to sell Little
+Witch if I desire to do so. She is not worth her keep to any one
+but me."</p>
+<p>"Little Witch! Why did you ever give her a
+name like that?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I was a mere child&mdash;and my father,
+who had been a sea-captain, and all over the world, did not believe
+in witches. He named her "Little Witch" because she was so black,
+and so bent on her own way. But I must change her name now that
+people are talking so about witches. In truth my mother never liked
+it."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id=
+"Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+<h4>An Examination of Reputed
+Witches.</h4>
+<p>Warrants had been duly issued against Sarah
+Good, Sarah Osburn, and the Indian woman Tituba, and they were now
+to be tried for the very serious offence of bewitching the
+"afflicted children."</p>
+<p>One way that the witches of that day were
+supposed to work, was to make images out of rags, like dolls, which
+they named for the persons they meant to torment. Then, by sticking
+pins and needles into the dolls, tightening cords around their
+throats, and similar doings, the witches caused the same amount of
+pain as if they had done it to the living objects of their
+enmity.</p>
+<p>In these cases, the officers who executed the
+warrants of arrest, stated "that they had made diligent search for
+images and such like, but could find none."</p>
+<p>On the day appointed for the examination of
+these poor women, the two leading magistrates of the neighborhood,
+John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, rode up the principal street of
+the village attended by the marshal and constables, in
+quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg
+48]</a></span> an imposing array. The crowd was so great that they
+had to hold the session in the meeting-house The magistrates
+belonged to the highest legislative and judicial body in the
+colony. Hathorne, as the name was then spelt, was the ancestor of
+the gifted author, Nathaniel Hawthorne&mdash;the alteration in the
+spelling of the name probably being made to make it conform more
+nearly to the pronunciation. Hathorne was a man of force and
+ability&mdash;though evidently also as narrow-minded and unfair as
+only a bigot can be. All through the examination that ensued he
+took a leading part, and with him, to be accused was to be set down
+at once as guilty. Never, among either Christian or heathen people,
+was there a greater travesty of justice than these examinations and
+trials for witchcraft, conducted by the very foremost men of the
+Massachusetts colony.</p>
+<p>The accounts of the examination of these
+three women in the manuscript book I have alluded to, are
+substantially the same as in the official records, which are among
+those that have been preserved. I will give some quotations to show
+how the examinations were conducted:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Sarah Good, what evil spirit are you
+familiar with?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id=
+"Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+<p>She answered sharply, "None!"</p>
+<p>"Have you made no contracts with the
+Devil?"</p>
+<p>"No!"</p>
+<p>"Why then do you hurt these
+children?"</p>
+<p>"I do not hurt them. I would scorn to do
+it."</p>
+<p>"Here the children who were facing her, began
+to be dreadfully tormented; and then when their torments were over
+for the time, again accused her, and also Sarah Osburn.</p>
+<p>"Sarah Good, why do you not tell us the
+truth? Why do you thus torment them?"</p>
+<p>"I do not torment them."</p>
+<p>"Who then does torment them?"</p>
+<p>"It may be that Sarah Osburn does, for I do
+not."</p>
+<p>"Her answers," says the official report,
+"were very quick, sharp and malignant."</p>
+<p>It must be remembered in reading these
+reports, that the accused were not allowed any counsel, either at
+the preliminary examinations, or on the trials; that the apparent
+sufferings of the children were very great, producing almost a
+frenzied state of feeling in the crowd who looked on; and that they
+themselves were often as much puzzled as their accusers, to account
+for what was taking place before their eyes.</p>
+<p>In the examination of Sarah Osburn, we
+have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg
+50]</a></span> similar questions and similar answers. In addition,
+however, three witnesses alleged that she had said that very
+morning, that she was "more like to be bewitched herself." Mr.
+Hathorne asked why she said that. She answered that either she saw
+at one time, or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian, all
+black, which did pinch her in the neck, and pulled her by the back
+part of the head to the door of the house. And there was also a
+lying spirit.</p>
+<p>"What lying spirit was this?"</p>
+<p>"It was a voice that I thought I
+heard."</p>
+<p>"What did it say to you?"</p>
+<p>"That I should go no more to meeting; but I
+said I would, and did go the next Sabbath day."</p>
+<p>"Were you ever tempted further?"</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"Why did you yield then to the Devil, not to
+go to meeting for the last three years?"</p>
+<p>"Alas! I have been sick all that time, and
+not able to go."</p>
+<p>Then Tituba was brought in. Tituba was in the
+"circle" or an attendant and inspirer of the "circle" from the
+first; and had marvelous things to tell. How it was that the
+"children" turned against her and accused her, I do not know; but
+probably she had practised so much upon them<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> in
+various ways, that she really was guilty of trying to do the things
+she was charged with.</p>
+<p>"Tituba, why do you hurt these
+children?"</p>
+<p>"Tituba does not hurt 'em."</p>
+<p>"Who does hurt them then?"</p>
+<p>"The debbil, for all I knows.'</p>
+<p>"Did you ever see the Devil?" Tituba gave a
+low laugh. "Of course I've seen the debbil. The debbil came an'
+said, 'Serb me, Tituba.' But I would not hurt the
+child'en."</p>
+<p>"Who else have you seen?"</p>
+<p>"Four women. Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and
+two other women. Dey all hurt de child'en."</p>
+<p>"How does the Devil appear to
+you?"</p>
+<p>"Sometimes he is like a dog, and sometimes
+like a hog. The black dog always goes with a yellow
+bird."</p>
+<p>"Has the Devil any other shapes?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, he sometimes comes as a red cat, and
+then a black cat."</p>
+<p>"And they all tell you to hurt the
+children?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, but I said I would not."</p>
+<p>"Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this
+morning?"</p>
+<p>"The black man brought me to her, and made me
+pinch her."</p>
+<p>"Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night
+and hurt his daughter Ann?"</p>
+<p>"He made me go."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg
+52]</a></span></p>
+<p>"How did you go?"</p>
+<p>"We rode on sticks; we soon got
+there."</p>
+<p>"Has Sarah Good any familiar?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, a yeller bird. It sucks her between her
+fingers. And Sarah Osburn has a thing with a head like a woman, and
+it has two wings."</p>
+<p>("Abigail Williams, who lives with her uncle,
+the Rev. Master Parris, here testified that she did see the same
+creature, and it turned into the shape of Goody
+Osburn.")</p>
+<p>"Tituba further said that she had also seen a
+hairy animal with Goody Osburn, that had only two legs, and walked
+like a man. And that she saw Sarah Good, last Saturday, set a wolf
+upon Elizabeth Hubbard."</p>
+<p>("The friends of Elizabeth Hubbard here said
+that she did complain of being torn by a wolf on that
+day.")</p>
+<p>"Tituba being asked further to describe her
+ride to Thomas Putnam's, for the purpose of tormenting his daughter
+Ann, said that she rode upon a stick or pole, and Sarah Good and
+Sarah Osburn behind her, all taking hold of one another. Did not
+know how it was done, for she saw no trees nor path, but was
+presently there."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id=
+"Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> These examinations were continued for
+several days, each of the accused being brought at various times
+before the magistrates, who seem to have taken great interest in
+the absurd stories with which the "afflicted children" and Tituba
+regaled them. Finally, all three of the accused were committed to
+Boston jail, there to await their trial for practising witchcraft;
+being heavily ironed, as, being witches, it was supposed to be very
+difficult to keep them from escaping; and as their ability to
+torment people with their spectres, was considered lessened in
+proportion to the weight and tightness of the chains with which
+they were fettered. It is not to be wondered at, that under these
+inflictions, at the end of two months, the invalid, Sarah Osburn,
+died. Tituba, however, lay in jail until, finally, at the
+expiration of a year and a month, she was sold in payment of her
+jail fees. One account saying that her owner, the Rev. Master
+Parris, refused to pay her jail fees, unless she would still adhere
+to what she had testified on her examination, instead of alleging
+that he whipped and otherwise abused her, to make her confess that
+she was a witch.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id=
+"Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+<h4>One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged
+Witches.</h4>
+<p>Ah this was bad enough, but it was but the
+beginning of trouble. Tituba had spoken of two other women, but had
+given no names. The "afflicted children" were still afflicted, and
+growing worse, instead of better. The Rev. Master Noyes of Salem
+town, the Rev. Master Parris of Salem village, Sergeant Thomas
+Putnam, and his wife,&mdash;which last also was becoming bewitched,
+and had many old enmities&mdash;and many other influential people
+and church members, were growing more excited, and vindictive
+against the troubles of their peace, with every passing
+day.</p>
+<p>"Who are they that still torment you in this
+horrible manner?" was the question asked of the children and young
+women, and they had their answers ready.</p>
+<p>There had been an old quarrel between the
+Endicotts and the Nurses, a family which owned the Bishop Farm,
+about the eastern boundary of said farm. There had been the quarrel
+about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg
+55]</a></span> who should be minister, in which the Nurses had
+sided with the determined opponents of Mistress Ann Putnam's
+reverend brother-in-law. The Nurses and other families were staunch
+opposers of Master Parris's claim to ownership of the Parsonage and
+its grounds. And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusations
+should be made against opponents rather than against
+friends.</p>
+<p>Besides, there were those who had very little
+faith in the children themselves, and had taken a kind of stand
+against them; and these too, were in a dangerous
+position.</p>
+<p>"Who torments you now?" The answer was ready:
+Martha Corey, and Rebecca Nurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the
+charges being made now against the members, often the heads, of the
+most reputable families in Salem town and village and the
+surrounding neighborhoods. Before the coming of the winter snows
+probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prison at Salem and
+Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge. Two-thirds of these were women;
+many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highest
+reputation for behavior and piety. Yet, they were bound with
+chains, and exposed to all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56"
+id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> the hardships that attended
+incarceration in small and badly constructed prisons.</p>
+<p>A special court composed of the leading
+judges in the province being appointed by the Governor for the
+trial of these accused persons, a mass of what would be now styled
+"utter nonsense" was brought against them. No wonder that the
+official record of this co-called court of justice is now nowhere
+to be found. The partial accounts that have come down to us are
+sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy. Let us
+recur to the charges against some of these persons:</p>
+<p>The Rev. Cotton Mather, speaking of the trial
+of Bridget Bishop, says: "There was one strange thing with which
+the Court was <i>newly entertained</i>. As this woman was passing
+by the meeting-house, she gave a look towards the house; and
+immediately a demon, invisibly entering the house, tore down a part
+of it; so that, though there was no person to be seen there, yet
+the people, at the noise, running in, found a board, which was
+strongly fastened with several nails, transported into another
+quarter of the house."</p>
+<p>A court of very ignorant men would be
+"entertained" now with such a story, in a very different sense from
+that in which the Rev. Cotton Mather<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> used the word. The Court
+of 1692, doubtless swallowed the story whole, for it was no more
+absurd than the bulk of the evidence upon which they condemned the
+reputed witches.</p>
+<p>One of the charges against the Rev. Master
+Burroughs, who had himself been a minister for a short time in the
+village, was, that though a small, slender man, he was a giant in
+strength. Several persons witnessed that "he had held out a gun of
+seven foot barrel with one hand; and had carried a barrel full of
+cider from a canoe to the shore." Burroughs said that an Indian
+present at the time did the same, but the answer was ready. "That
+was the black man, or the Devil, who looks like an
+Indian."</p>
+<p>Another charge against Master Burroughs was,
+that he went on a certain occasion between two places in a shorter
+time than was possible, if the Devil had not assisted him. Both
+Increase Mather, the father, and his son Cotton, two of the most
+prominent and influential of the Boston ministers, said that the
+testimony as to Mr. Burroughs' giant strength was alone sufficient
+rightfully to convict him. It is not improbable that the real
+animus of the feeling against Master Burroughs was the belief that
+he was not sound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id=
+"Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> in the faith; for Master Cotton
+Mather, after his execution, declared to the people that he was "no
+ordained minister," and called their attention to the fact that
+Satan often appeared as an angel of light.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id=
+"Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+<h4>Bridget Bishop Condemned to Die.</h4>
+<p>Salem, the habitation of peace, had become,
+by this time a pandemonium. The "afflicted children" were making
+accusations in every direction, and Mistress Ann Putnam, and many
+others, were imitating their example.</p>
+<p>To doubt was to be accused; but very few
+managed to keep their heads sufficiently in the whirlwind of
+excitement, even to be able to doubt. With the exception of Joseph
+Putnam, and his visitor, Ellis Raymond, there were very few, if
+any, open and outspoken doubters, and indignant censurers of the
+whole affair. Dulcibel Burton also, though in a gentler and less
+emphatic way, sided naturally with them, but, although she was much
+less violent in her condemnation, she provoked even more anger from
+the orthodox believers in the delusion.</p>
+<p>For Joseph Putnam, as belonging to one of the
+most influential and wealthy families in Salem, seemed to have some
+right to have an opinion. And Master Raymond was visiting at his
+house, and naturally would be influenced by him.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg
+60]</a></span></p>
+<p>Besides, he was only a stranger at the best;
+and therefore, not entirely responsible to them for his views. But
+Dulcibel was a woman, and it was outrageous that she, at her years,
+should set up her crude opinions against the authority of the
+ministers and the elders.</p>
+<p>Besides, Joseph Putnam was known to be a
+determined and even rather desperate young man when his passions
+were aroused, as they seldom were though, save in some just cause;
+and he had let it be known that it would be worth any person's life
+to attempt to arrest him. It was almost the universal habit of that
+day, to wear the belt and sword; and Messrs. Putnam and Raymond
+went thus constantly armed. Master Putnam also kept two horses
+constantly saddled in his stable, day and night, to escape with if
+necessary, into the forest, through which they might make their way
+to New York. For the people of that province, who did not admire
+their Puritan neighbors very much, received all such fugitives
+gladly, and gave them full protection.</p>
+<p>As for Master Raymond, although he saw that
+his position was becoming dangerous, he determined to remain,
+notwithstanding the period which he had fixed for his departure had
+long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg
+61]</a></span> before arrived. His avowed reason given to Joseph
+Putnam, was that he was resolved to see the crazy affair through.
+His avowed reason, which Master Putnam perfectly understood, was to
+prosecute his suit to Dulcibel, and see her safely through the
+dangerous excitement also.</p>
+<p>"They have condemned Bridget Bishop to
+death," said Master Putnam, coming into the house one morning from
+a conversation with a neighbor.</p>
+<p>"I supposed they would," replied Master
+Raymond. "But how nobly she bore herself against such a mass of
+stupid and senseless testimony. Did you know her?"</p>
+<p>"I have often stopped at her Inn. A fine,
+free-spoken woman; a little bold in her manners, but nothing wrong
+about her."</p>
+<p>"Did you ever hear such nonsense as that
+about her tearing down a part of the meeting-house simply by
+looking at it? And yet there sat the best lawyers in the colony on
+the bench as her judges, and swallowed it all down as if it had
+been gospel."</p>
+<p>"And then those other stories of her
+appearing in people's bed-rooms, and vanishing away suddenly; and
+of her being responsible for the illness<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> and
+death of her neighbors' children; what could be more
+absurd?"</p>
+<p>"And of the finding of puppets, made of rags
+and hogs' bristles, in the walls and crevices of her cellar!
+Really, it would be utterly contemptible if it were not so
+horrible."</p>
+<p>"Yes, she is to be executed on Gallows Hill;
+and next week! I can scarcely believe it, Master Raymond. If I
+could muster a score or two of other stout fellows, I would carry
+her off from the very foot of the gallows."</p>
+<p>"Oh, the frenzy has only begun, my friend,"
+replied Raymond. "You know whose trial comes on next?"</p>
+<p>"How any one can say a word against Mistress
+Nurse&mdash;that lovely and venerable woman&mdash;passeth my
+comprehension," said Joseph Putnam's young wife, who had been a
+listener to the conversation, while engaged in some household
+duties.</p>
+<p>"My sister-in-law, Ann Putnam, seems to have
+a spite against that woman. I went to see her yesterday, and she
+almost foams at the mouth while talking of her."</p>
+<p>"The examination of Mistress Nurse before the
+magistrate comes off to-day. Shall we not attend it?"<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg
+63]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Of course, but be careful of thy language,
+Friend Raymond. Do not let thy indignation run away with thy
+discretion."</p>
+<p>Raymond laughed outright, as did young
+Mistress Putnam. "This advice from you, Master Joseph! who art such
+a very model of prudence and cold-bloodedness! If thou wilt be only
+half as cautious and discreet as I am, we shall give no offence
+even to the craziest of them."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id=
+"Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+<h4>Examination of Rebecca Nurse.</h4>
+<p>When they arrived at the village, the
+examination was in progress. Mistress Rebecca Nurse, the mother of
+a large family; aged, venerable, and bending now a little under the
+weight of years, was standing as a culprit before the magistrates,
+who doubtless had often met her in the social gatherings of the
+neighborhood.</p>
+<p>She was guarded by two constables, she who
+needed no guarding. Around, and as near her as they were allowed to
+stand, stood her husband and her grown-up sons and
+daughters.</p>
+<p>One of the strangest features of the time, as
+it strikes the reader of this day, was the peaceful submission to
+the lawful authorities practised by the husbands and fathers, and
+grown-up sons and brothers of the women accused. Reaching as the
+list of alleged witches did in a short time, to between one hundred
+and fifty and two hundred persons&mdash;nearly the whole of them
+members of the most respectable families&mdash;it is wonderful that
+a determined stand in their behalf was not the result. One hundred
+resolute men, resolved to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65"
+id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> sacrifice their lives if need be,
+would have put a stop to the whole matter. And if there had been
+even twenty men in Salem, like Joseph Putnam, the thing no doubt
+would have been done.</p>
+<p>And in the opinion of the present writer,
+such a course would have been far more worthy of praise, than the
+slavish submission to such outrages as were perpetrated under the
+names of law, justice and religion. The sons of these men, eighty
+years later, showed at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, that
+when Law and Peace become but grotesque masks, under which are
+hidden the faces of legalized injustice and tyranny, then the time
+has come for armed revolt and organized resistance.</p>
+<p>But such was the darkness and bigotry of the
+day in respect to religious belief, that the great majority of the
+people were mentally paralyzed by the accepted faith, so that they
+were not able in many respects to distinguish light from darkness.
+When an estimable man or woman was accused of being a witch, for
+the term was indifferently applied to both sexes, even their own
+married partners, their own children, had a more or less strong
+conviction that it might possibly be so. And this made the peculiar
+horror of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id=
+"Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+<p>In at least fifty cases, the accused
+confessed that they were witches, and sometimes accused others in
+turn. This was owing generally to the influence of their relatives,
+who implored them to confess; for to confess was invariably to be
+acquitted, or to be let off with simple imprisonment.</p>
+<p>But to return to poor Rebecca Nurse, haled
+without warning from her prosperous, happy home at the Bishop Farm,
+carried to jail, loaded with chains, and now brought up for the
+tragic farce of a judicial examination. In this case also, the
+account given in my friend's little book is amply confirmed by
+other records. Mistress Ann Putnam, Abigail Williams (the
+minister's niece), Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott, were the
+accusers.</p>
+<p>"Abigail Williams, have you been hurt by this
+woman?" said magistrate Hathorne.</p>
+<p>"Yes," replied Abigail. And then Mistress Ann
+Putnam fell to the floor in a fit; crying out between her violent
+spasms, that it was Rebecca Nurse who was then afflicting
+her.</p>
+<p>"What do you say to those charges?" The
+accused replied: "I can say before the eternal Father that I am
+innocent of any such wicked doings, and God will clear my
+innocence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg
+67]</a></span></p>
+<p>Then a man named Henry Kenney rose, and said
+that Mistress Nurse frequently tormented him also; and that even
+since he had been there that day, he had been seized twice with an
+amazed condition.</p>
+<p>"The villain!" muttered Joseph Putnam to
+those around him, "if I had him left to me for a time, I would have
+him in an amazed condition!"</p>
+<p>"You are an unbeliever, and everybody knows
+it, Master Putnam," said one near him. "But we who are of the
+godly, know that Satan goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom
+he may devour."</p>
+<p>"Quiet there!" said one of the
+magistrates.</p>
+<p>Edward Putnam (another of the brothers) then
+gave in his evidence, saying that he had seen Mistress Ann Putnam,
+and the other accusers, grievously tormented again and again, and
+declaring that Rebecca Nurse was the person who did it.</p>
+<p>"These are serious charges, Mistress Nurse,"
+said Squire Hathorne, "are they true?"</p>
+<p>"I have told you that they are false. Why, I
+was confined to my sick bed at the time it is said they
+occurred."</p>
+<p>"But did you not send your spectre to torment
+them?"</p>
+<p>"How could I? And I would not if I
+could."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg
+68]</a></span></p>
+<p>Here Mistress Putnam was taken with another
+fit. Worse than the other, which greatly affected the whole people.
+Coming to a little, she cried out: "Did you not bring the black man
+with you? Did you not tell me to tempt God and die? Did you not eat
+and drink the red blood to your own damnation?"</p>
+<p>These words were shrieked out so wildly, that
+all the people were greatly agitated and murmured against such
+wickedness. But the prisoner releasing her hand for a moment cried
+out, "Oh, Lord, help me!"</p>
+<p>"Hold her hands," some cried then, for the
+afflicted persons seemed to be grievously tormented by her. But her
+hands being again firmly held by the guards, they seemed
+comforted.</p>
+<p>Then the worthy magistrate Hathorne said, "Do
+you not see that when your hands are loosed these people are
+afflicted?"</p>
+<p>"The Lord knows," she answered, "that I have
+not hurt them."</p>
+<p>"You would do well if you are guilty to
+confess it; and give glory to God."</p>
+<p>"I have nothing to confess. I am as innocent
+as an unborn child."</p>
+<p>"Is it not strange that when you are
+examined, these persons should be afflicted thus?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, it is very strange."</p>
+<a name="col02" id="col02"></a>
+<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/col02.jpg"><img src="images/col02_th.jpg" alt="The Lord knows that I haven't hurt them" title="The Lord knows that I haven't hurt them" /></a></div>
+<div class="figcenter"><span class="caption"><small>"The Lord knows
+that I haven't hurt them"</small></span></div>
+<p>"Do you believe these afflicted persons are
+bewitched?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg
+69]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I surely do think they must be."</p>
+<p>Weary of the proceedings and the excitement,
+the aged lady allowed her head to droop on one side. Instantly the
+heads of the accusers were bent the same way.</p>
+<p>Abigail Williams cried out, "Set up Mistress
+Nurse's neck, our necks will all be broken." The jailers held up
+the prisoner's neck; and the necks of all the accused were
+instantly made straight again. This was considered a marvelous
+proof; and produced a wonderful effect upon the magistrates and the
+people. Mistress Ann Putnam went into such great bodily agony at
+this time, charging it all upon the prisoner, that the magistrates
+gave her husband permission to carry her out of the house. Only
+then, when no longer in the sight of the prisoner, could she regain
+her peace.</p>
+<p>"Mistress Nurse was then recommitted to the
+jail in Salem, in order to further examination."</p>
+<p>"What deviltry is coming next?" said Joseph
+Putnam to his friend.</p>
+<p>Many of those around glared on the speaker,
+but he was well known to all of them as a daring&mdash;and when
+angered even a desperate young man<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>&mdash;and they allowed
+him to say with impunity, freely what no one else could even have
+whispered. His son in after years, looked not into the wolf's eyes
+in the dark den with a sterner gaze, than he looked into the
+superstitious and vengeful wolves' eyes around him.</p>
+<p>"To think that a godly old woman like
+Mistress Nurse, should be tormented by this Devil's brood of
+witches, led on by that she-devil sister of mine, Ann
+Putnam."</p>
+<p>Many around heard him, but none cared to meet
+the young man's fierce eyes, as they blazed upon those that were
+nearest.</p>
+<p>"Do control yourself, my friend," whispered
+Master Raymond. "Preserve yourself for a time when your indignation
+may do some good."</p>
+<p>Then the constable brought in a little girl
+of about five years of age, Dorcas Good, a daughter of Sarah Good,
+who had been arrested on the complaint of Edward and Jonathan
+Putnam.</p>
+<p>The evidence against this little girl of five
+was overwhelming. Mistress Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary
+Walcott were the accusers&mdash;charging the innocent and pretty
+little creature with biting, pinching and choking them&mdash;the
+little girl smiling while they were giving their<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+testimony. She was not old enough to understand what it was all
+about, and that even her life was in danger from these demoniacs.
+They absolutely pretended to show the marks of her little teeth in
+their arms. Then, after going through the usual convulsions, they
+shrieked out that she was running pins into them; and the pins were
+found on examination sticking into their bodies.</p>
+<p>The little girl was, as I have said, at first
+inclined to laugh at all the curious proceedings, and the spasms
+and contortions of the witnesses, but at last, seeing everyone so
+solemn and looking so wickedly at her, she began to cry; until
+Joseph Putnam went up to her and gave her some sweet cake to eat,
+which he had provided for his own luncheon and then, looking into
+his kind face, she began to smile again.</p>
+<p>The Magistrates frowned upon Master Putnam,
+as he did this, but he paid no attention to their frowns. And when
+the little girl was ordered back to jail as a prisoner to await her
+trial, he bent down and kissed her before she was led away by the
+constable.</p>
+<p>This was the end of the proceedings for that
+day and the crowd began to disperse.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+<p>"This is a pretty day's work you have made of
+it, sister-in-law," said Joseph Putnam, striding up to his
+brother's wife. "You say that you are tormented by many devils, and
+I believe it. Now I want to give you, and all the Devil's brood
+around you, fair warning that if you dare to touch with your foul
+lies any one belonging to my house including the stranger within my
+gates, you shall answer it with your lives, in spite of all your
+judges and prisons."</p>
+<p>So saying, he glared at his two brothers, who
+made no reply, and walked out of the meeting-house in which this
+ungodly business had been transacted.</p>
+<p>"Oh, it is only Joe," said Thomas Putnam; "he
+always was the spoiled child of the family."</p>
+<p>His wife said nothing, but soon a hard,
+bitter smile took the place of the angry flush that the young man's
+words had produced. Dulcibel Burton was not one of his household,
+nor within his gates.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id=
+"Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+<h4>Burn Me, or Hang Me, I Will Stand in the
+Truth of Christ.</h4>
+<p>After the trial and conviction of Bridget
+Bishop, the Special Court of seven Judges&mdash;a majority of whom
+were leading citizens of Boston, the Deputy Governor of the
+Province, acting as Chief-Justice&mdash;decided to take further
+counsel in this wonderful and important matter of the fathers of
+the church. So the Court took a recess, while it consulted the
+ministers of Boston and other places, respecting its duty in the
+case. The response of the ministers, while urging in general terms
+the importance of caution and circumspection, recommended the
+earnest and vigorous carrying on of the war against Satan and his
+disciples.</p>
+<p>Among the new victims, one of the most
+striking cases was that of George Jacobs and his grand-daughter
+Margaret. The former was a venerable-looking man, very tall, with
+long, thin white hair, who was compelled by his infirmities to
+support himself in walking with two staffs. Sarah Churchill, a
+chief witness, against him, was a servant<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> in his
+family; and probably was feeding in this way some old
+grudge.</p>
+<p>"You accuse me of being a wizard," said the
+old man on his examination; "you might as well charge me with being
+a buzzard."</p>
+<p>They asked the accused to repeat the Lord's
+prayer. And Master Parris, the minister, who acted as a reporter,
+said "he could not repeat it right after many trials."</p>
+<p>"Well," said the brave old man finally, after
+they had badgered him with all kinds of nonsensical questions,
+"Well, burn me, or hang me, I will stand in the truth of
+Christ!"</p>
+<p>As his manly bearing was evidently producing
+an effect, the "afflicted girls" came out in full force the next
+day at the adjourned session. When he was brought in, they fell at
+once into the most grievous fits and screechings.</p>
+<p>"Who hurts you?" was asked, after they had
+recovered somewhat.</p>
+<p>"This man," said Abigail Williams, going off
+into another fit.</p>
+<p>"This is the man," averred Ann Putnam; "he
+hurts me, and wants me to write in the red book; and promises if I
+will do so, to make me as well as his grand-daughter."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg
+75]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Yes, this is the man," cried Mercy Lewis,
+"he almost kills me."</p>
+<p>"It is the one who used to come to me. I know
+him by his two staffs, with one of which he used to beat the life
+out of me," said Mary Walcott.</p>
+<p>Mercy Lewis for her part walked towards him;
+but as soon as she got near, fell into great fits.</p>
+<p>Then Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams "had
+each of them a pin stuck in their hands and they said it was done
+by this old Jacobs."</p>
+<p>The Magistrates took all this wicked acting
+in sober earnest; and asked the prisoner, "what he had to say to
+it?"</p>
+<p>"Only that it is false," he replied. "I know
+no more of it than the child that was born last night."</p>
+<p>But the honest old man's denial went of
+course, for nothing. Neither did Sarah Ingersoll's deposition made
+a short time afterwards; in which she testified that "Sarah
+Churchill came to her after giving her evidence, crying and
+wringing her hands, and saying that she has belied herself and
+others in saying she had set her hand to the Devil's book." She
+said that "they had threatened her that if she did not say it, they
+would put her in the dungeon along with Master
+Burroughs."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg
+76]</a></span></p>
+<p>And that, "if she told Master Noyes, the
+minister, but once that she had set her hand to the book, he would
+believe her; but if she told him the truth a hundred times, he
+would not believe her."</p>
+<p>The truth no doubt is that Master Noyes,
+Master Parris, Cotton Mather, and all the other ministers, with one
+or two exceptions, having committed themselves fully to the
+prosecution of the witches, would listen to nothing that tended to
+prove that the principal witnesses were deliberate and malicious
+liars; and that, so far as the other witnesses were concerned, they
+were grossly superstitious and deluded persons.</p>
+<p>No charity that is fairly clear-sighted, can
+cover over the evidence of the "afflicted circle" with the mantle
+of self-delusion. Self-delusion does not conceal pins, stick them
+into its own body, and charge the accused person with doing it,
+knowing that the accusation may be the prisoner's death. This was
+done repeatedly by Mistress Ann Putnam, and her Satanic brood of
+false accusers.</p>
+<p>Sarah Churchill was no worse than the others,
+judging by her remorse after she had helped to murder with her
+lying tongue her venerable master and we have in the deposition of
+Sarah Ingersoll, undoubted proof that she testified
+falsely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg
+77]</a></span></p>
+<p>When Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott
+all united in charging little Dorcas Good&mdash;five years
+old!&mdash;with biting, pinching and almost choking them; "showing
+the marks of her little teeth on their arms, and the pins sticking
+in their bodies, where they had averred she was piercing
+them"&mdash;can any sane, clear-minded man or woman suppose it was
+an innocent delusion, and not a piece of horribly wicked
+lying?</p>
+<p>When in open court some of the "afflicted"
+came out of their fits with "their wrists bound together, by
+invisible means," with "a real cord" so that "it could hardly be
+taken off without cutting," was there not only deception, but
+undeniable collusion of two or more in deception?</p>
+<p>When an iron spindle was used by an alleged
+"spectre" to torture a "sufferer," the said iron spindle not being
+discernible by the by-standers until it became visible by being
+snatched by the sufferer from the spectre's hand, was there any
+self-delusion there? Was it not merely wicked imposture and cunning
+knavery?</p>
+<p>I defy any person possessing in the least a
+judicial and accurate mind, to investigate the records of this
+witchcraft delusion without coming to the conclusion that the
+"afflicted girls," who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id=
+"Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> led off in this matter, and were the
+principal witnesses, continually testified to what they knew to be
+utterly false. There is no possible excuse for them on the ground
+of "delusion." However much we may recoil from the sad belief that
+they testified in the large majority of cases to what they knew to
+be entirely false, the facts of the case compel us with an
+irresistible force to such an unhappy conclusion. When we are
+positively certain that a witness, in a case of life or death, has
+testified falsely against the prisoner again and again, is it
+possible that we can give him or her the benefit of even a doubt as
+to the animus of the testimony? The falsehoods I have referred to
+were cases of palpable, unmistakable and deliberate lying. And the
+only escape from considering it <i>wilful</i> lying, is to make a
+supposition not much in accord with the temper of the present
+times, that, having tampered with evil spirits, and invoked the
+Devil continually during the long evenings of the preceding winter,
+the prince of powers of the air had at last come at their call, and
+ordered a legion of his creatures to take possession of the minds
+and bodies that they had so freely offered to him. For certainly
+there is no way of explaining the conduct of the
+"afflicted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg
+79]</a></span> circle" of girls and women, than by supposing either
+that they were guilty of the most enormous wickedness, or else that
+they were "possessed with devils."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id=
+"Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+<h4>Dulcibel in Danger.</h4>
+<p>The terrible excitement of these days was
+enough to drive the more excitable portion of the inhabitants of
+Salem almost crazy. The work of the house and of the farm was
+neglected; a large number of suspected persons and their relatives
+were sunk in the deepest grief, the families of some of the
+imprisoned knew not where to get their daily food; for their
+property was generally taken possession of by the officers of the
+law at the time of the arrest, the accused being considered guilty
+until they were proved to be innocent. Upon conviction of a capital
+offence the property of the condemned was attainted, being
+confiscated by the state; and the constables took possession at
+once, in order that it might not be spirited away.</p>
+<p>And no one outside of the circle of the
+accusers knew whose turn might come next. Neither sex, nor age, nor
+high character, as we have seen, was a bar against the malice, or
+the wantonness of the "afflicted." The man or woman who had lived a
+righteous life for over eighty years, the little child who wondered
+what it all meant, the maiden whose<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> only fault might be to
+have a jealous rival, all were alike in danger.</p>
+<p>Especially were those in peril, however, who
+dared to take the side of any of the accused, and express even the
+faintest disbelief in the justice of the legal proceedings, or the
+honesty of the witnesses. These would be surely singled out for
+punishment. Again and again, had this been done until the voices of
+all but the very boldest were effectually silenced. Those arrested
+now, as a general thing, would confess at once to the truthfulness
+of all the charges brought against them, and even invent still more
+improbable stories of their own, as this mollified the accusers,
+and they often would be let off with a solemn reprimand by the
+magistrates.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam and his male servants went
+constantly armed; and two horses were kept saddled day and night,
+in his stable. He never went to the village unaccompanied; and made
+no secret of his determination to resist the arrest of himself or,
+as he had phrased it, "any one within his gates," to the last drop
+of his blood.</p>
+<p>Living with the Goodman Buckley who had
+leased the Burton property, was a hired man named Antipas Newton.
+He was a good worker<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id=
+"Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> though now getting old, and had in one
+sense been leased with the place by Dulcibel's father.</p>
+<p>Antipas's history had been a sad one. Adopted
+when left an orphan by a benevolent farmer who had no children, he
+managed by diligence and strict economy to acquire by the age of
+thirty, quite a comfortable property of his own. Then the old
+couple that he called Father and Mother became converts to
+Quakerism. Fined and imprisoned, deprived of their property, and,
+after the expiration of their term of imprisonment, ordered to
+leave the colony, they had been "harbored" by the man for whom they
+had done so much in his early years.</p>
+<p>Antipas was a person of limited intelligence,
+but of strong affections and wide sympathies. Again and again, he
+harbored these persecuted ones, who despite their whippings and
+banishment would persist in returning to Salem. Finally, Antipas
+himself was heavily fined, and his property sold to pay the fines.
+His wife had died early, but a young daughter who kept his house in
+order, and who had failed in her attendance at the church which was
+engaged in persecuting her father, was also fined heavily. As her
+father's property was all gone, and she had no money of<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> her
+own, she could not pay the fine, and was put in prison, to be sent
+to Barbados, and sold as a slave, that thus the fine might be
+collected. But the anguish, and the exposure of her prison, were
+too much for the young girl; and she died before means of
+transportation could be found.</p>
+<p>As a result of these persecutions, Antipas
+became demented. As his insanity grew evident, the prosecutions
+ceased; but he was still in danger of starvation, so few would give
+him employment, both on account of his impaired mind, and of the
+odium which attached to any friend of the abhorred
+Quakers.</p>
+<p>Captain Burton, Dulcibel's father, came to
+the village at this time. He had been one of the sea-captains who
+had indignantly refused to take the Southwick children, or any
+other of the Salem children, to Barbados; and he pitied the poor
+insane man, and gave him employment. Not only did he do this, but,
+as we have said, made it an article of the lease of his property,
+that the Buckleys should also keep Antipas as a farm
+servant.</p>
+<p>Antipas, to the general surprise of the
+villagers had proved to be an excellent servant, notwithstanding
+his insanity. Only on training days and<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> other
+periods of excitement, did his insanity obtrude itself. At all
+other times he seemed to be a cheerful, simple-hearted, and very
+capable and industrious "hand."</p>
+<p>To Dulcibel, as was natural, Antipas always
+manifested the greatest devotion. Her little black mare was always
+groomed to perfection, he never being satisfied until he took a
+white linen handkerchief that he kept for the purpose, and, passing
+it over the mare's shining coat, saw that no stain or loose black
+hair remained on it.</p>
+<p>"You think that Mistress Dulcibel is an
+angel, do you not?" said one of the female servants to him about
+this time, a little scornfully.</p>
+<p>"No, I know what she is," he replied. "Shall
+I tell you&mdash;but if I do, you will not believe"&mdash;and he
+looked at the girl a little doubtfully.</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, I will," said the girl.</p>
+<p>"Come here then and I will whisper it to you.
+I heard the minister read about her once, she is the woman that is
+'clothed with the sun and has the moon under her feet, and upon her
+head a crown of twelve stars.'"</p>
+<p>"That is wicked, Antipas. If Master Parris
+heard that you said things like that, he would have you whipped and
+put in the stocks."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id=
+"Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Master Parris? you mean Beelzebub! I know
+Beelzebub when I see him." And Antipas gave one of his unnatural,
+insane laughs, which were getting very frequent of late.</p>
+<p>For the general excitement was proving too
+much for Antipas. Fie stopped frequently in his work, and muttered
+to himself; and then laughed wildly, or shed tears. He talked about
+the witches and the Devil and evil spirits, and the strange things
+that he saw at night, in the insane fashion that characterized the
+"afflicted children."</p>
+<p>As for Dulcibel in these times, she kept
+pretty much to herself, going out very little. As she could not
+sympathize with the general gossip of the neighborhood, she
+remained at home, and consequently had very few visitors. Joseph
+Putnam called whenever he came to the village, which, as I have
+stated, was but seldom; and Ellis Raymond came every few
+days.</p>
+<p>Yes, it was a courtship, I suppose; but one
+of a very grave and serious character. The conversation generally
+turned upon the exciting events continually occurring, some new
+arrest, some new confession, some new and outrageously absurd
+charges.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond's hand, if anyone
+accosted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg
+86]</a></span> him suddenly, instinctively sought the hilt of his
+rapier. He was better skilled in the use of that weapon than was
+usual, and had no fear that he should be unable to escape from the
+constables, if not taken at a disadvantage. Still, as that would
+compel him to fly into the woods, and as it would separate him from
+Dulcibel, he had been very careful not to express in public his
+abhorrence of all the recent proceedings. I am afraid that he was
+guilty of considerable dissimulation, even paying his court to some
+of the "afflicted" maidens when he had the opportunity, with soft
+words and handsome presents; and trying in this way to enlist a
+party in his behalf, in case he or any of his friends should need
+supporters.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam censured him one day for his
+double dealing, which was a thing not only out of Master Joseph's
+line, but one which his frank and outspoken nature rendered it very
+difficult for him to practise. But Raymond with his references to
+King David's behavior towards Achish, King of Gath, and to certain
+other scripture, especially Paul's being "all things to all men
+that he might save all," was rather too weighty for Joseph, whose
+forte was sensible assertion rather than ingenious argument. And so
+Master Ray<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg
+87]</a></span>mond persevered in his course, feeling no more
+compunction in deceiving the Salemites, as he said to himself, than
+he would in deceiving and cheating a pack of savage wolves, who
+were themselves arrayed in sheep's clothing.</p>
+<p>Jethro Sands had of late shown a disposition
+to renew his attentions to Dulcibel; but, after two or three
+visits, in the last of which he had given the maiden the desired
+opportunity, she had plainly intimated to him that the old state of
+affairs between them could never be restored.</p>
+<p>"I know the reason too," said Jethro, angrily
+"it is all owing to that English popinjay, who rides about as if we
+colonists were not fit to dust his pretty coat for him."</p>
+<p>"He is a gentleman, and a friend of mine,"
+replied Dulcibel warmly.</p>
+<p>"Why do you not say a lover of yours, at
+once?"</p>
+<p>"You have no right to talk to me in that
+manner. I will not endure it."</p>
+<p>"You will not&mdash;how will you help it?" He
+was now thoroughly angry, and all his native coarseness came to the
+surface.</p>
+<p>"I will show you," said Dulcibel, the Norse
+blood of her father glowing in her face. "Good evening, Sir!" and
+she left the room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id=
+"Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+<p>Jethro had not expected such a quiet, but
+effective answer. He sat twirling his thumbs, for awhile, hoping
+that she would return. But realizing at last that she would not, he
+took his departure in a towering anger. Of course this was the last
+of his visits. But Dulcibel had made a deadly enemy.</p>
+<p>It was unfortunate, for the maiden already
+had many who disliked her among the young people of the village.
+She was a superior person for one thing, and "gave herself airs,"
+as some said. To be superior, without having wealth or an
+acknowledged high social position, is always to be envied, and
+often to be hated. Then again, Dulcibel dressed with more richness
+and variety of costume than was usual in the Puritan villages. This
+set many of the women, both young and old, against her. Her scarlet
+bodice, especially, was a favorite theme for animadversion; some
+even going so far as to call her ironically "the scarlet woman." It
+is curious how unpopular a perfectly amiable, sweet-tempered and
+sweet-tongued maiden may often become, especially with her own sex,
+because of their innate feeling that she is not, in spite of all
+her courteous endeavors, really one of them. It is an evil day for
+the swan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg
+89]</a></span> when she finds herself the only swan among a large
+flock of geese.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel's antecedents also were not as
+orthodox as they might be. Her mother, it was granted, was "pious,"
+and of a "godly" connection; but her father, as he had himself once
+said, "had no religion to speak of." He had further replied to the
+question, asked him when he first came to Salem, as to whether he
+was "a professor of religion," that he was "only a sea captain, and
+had no other profession." And a certain freedom of thought
+characterized Dulcibel, that she could scarcely have derived from
+her pious mother. In fact, it was something like the freedom of the
+winds and of the clouds, blowing where they liked; and had been
+probably caught up by her father in his many voyages over the
+untrammeled seas.</p>
+<p>At first Dulcibel had been rather impressed
+by the sermons of Master Parris and Master Noyes and the other
+ministers, to the effect that Satan was making a deadly assault
+upon the "saints," in revenge for their interference with his
+hitherto undisputed domination of the new world. But the longer she
+thought about it, the more she was inclined to adopt Joseph
+Putnam's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg
+90]</a></span> theory, that his sister-in-law and niece and the
+other "afflicted" persons were possessed by devils.</p>
+<p>She inclined to this view in preference even
+to what she knew was Ellis Raymond's real conviction, that they
+were a set of hysterical and vicious girls and women who had
+rendered themselves half-insane by tampering for a whole winter
+with their nervous and spiritual organizations; until they could
+scarcely now distinguish the true from the untrue, the real from
+the unreal, good from evil, or light from darkness.</p>
+<p>"They have become reprobates and given over
+to an evil mind," said Master Raymond to her one day; clothing his
+thought as nearly as he could in scriptural language, in order to
+commend it to her.</p>
+<p>"Yes, this seems to be a reasonable
+explanation of their wicked conduct," replied Dulcibel. "But I
+think after all, that it amounts to about the same thing as Joseph
+Putnam says, only that his is the stronger and more satisfactory
+statement."</p>
+<p>And thinking of it, Master Raymond had to
+come to the same conclusion. His own view and that of his friends
+were about the same, only they had expressed themselves in
+different phrases.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id=
+"Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+<h4>Bad News.</h4>
+<p>The blow fell at last, and where they might
+have expected it. As Joseph Putnam said afterwards, "Why did I not
+bring them out to my house? They would not have dared to take them
+from under my roof, and they could not have done it if they had
+dared."</p>
+<p>One of his servants had been sent to the
+village on an errand; he had not performed his errand, but he had
+hurried back at once with the news. Dulcibel Burton had been
+arrested the previous evening, about nine o'clock, on the charge of
+being a witch. Antipas Newton had also been arrested. Both had been
+taken to prison, and put in irons.</p>
+<p>A desperate, determined look came into the
+faces of the two men as they gathered every word the servant had to
+tell. Young Mistress Putnam burst into tears. But the men dashed a
+tear or two from their eyes, and began to collect their thoughts.
+It was not weeping but stern daring, that would be needed before
+this thing was through.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id=
+"Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+<p>The prisoners were to be brought up that
+afternoon for examination. "I have my two men, who will follow
+wherever I lead them," said Master Putnam. "That makes four of us.
+Shall we carry her off from under their very eyes?" And his face
+glowed&mdash;the fighting instinct of his race was very strong
+within him.</p>
+<p>"It might not succeed, those men are neither
+cowards nor babies," answered his guest. "Besides, it would lead
+probably to your banishment and the confiscation of your property.
+No, we must have the wisdom of the serpent, as well as the boldness
+of the lion."</p>
+<p>"The result of the examination may be
+favorable, so young and good and beautiful as she is," said
+Mistress Putnam.</p>
+<p>"They lap their tongues in the blood of
+lambs, and say it is sweet as honey," replied her husband, shaking
+his head. "No, they will show no mercy; but we must try to match
+them."</p>
+<p>"Yes, and with as little hazard and cost to
+you, my noble friend, as possible," said Master Raymond. "Let me
+act, and take all the risk. They cannot get hold of my property;
+and I would just as lief live in New York or Philadelphia or
+England as among this brood of crazy vipers."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg
+93]</a></span></p>
+<p>"That is wise counsel, Joseph," said his
+wife.</p>
+<p>"Oh, I suppose it is," he answered
+emphatically. "But I hate wise counsel."</p>
+<p>"Still, my good friend, you must admit that,
+as Dulcibel betrothed herself to me only two days ago, I am the one
+to take the greatest risk in this matter."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said Mistress Putnam. "I knew it
+would be so; and I told Joseph it would be, only
+yesterday."</p>
+<p>"I give you joy of such a mistress!" cried
+Master Putnam, grasping his friend's hand. "Yes, I grant now your
+right of precedence in this danger, and I will follow your
+lead&mdash;yes, to the death!"</p>
+<p>"I hold you to that," said Master Raymond.
+"Remember you are pledged to follow my lead. Now, whatever I do, do
+not wonder, much less express any wonder. For this is war, and I
+have a right to meet craft with craft, and guile with guile. Depend
+upon it, I will save her, or perish with her."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id=
+"Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+<h4>The Arrest of Dulcibel and
+Antipas.</h4>
+<p>The arrest of Dulcibel had been entirely
+unexpected to herself and the Buckleys. Dulcibel indeed had
+wondered, when walking through the village in the morning, that
+several persons she knew had seemed to avoid meeting her. But she
+was too full of happiness in her recent betrothal to take umbrage
+or alarm at such an unimportant circumstance. A few months now, and
+Salem, she hoped, would see her no more forever. She knew, for
+Master Raymond had told her, that there were plenty of places in
+the world where life was reasonably gay and sunny and hopeful; not
+like this dull valley of the shadow of death in which she was now
+living. Raymond's plan was to get married; sell her property, which
+might take a few months, more or less; and then sail for England,
+to introduce his charming wife to a large circle of
+relatives.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel had been reading a book that Raymond
+had brought to her&mdash;a volume of Shakespeare's plays&mdash;a
+prohibited book among the Puritan fathers, and which would have
+been made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id=
+"Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> text for one of Master Parris's most
+denunciatory sermons if he had known that it was in the village.
+Having finished "Macbeth" she laid the book down upon the table and
+began playing with her canary, holding it to her cheek, putting its
+bill to her lips, and otherwise fondling it. While she was thus
+engaged, she began to have the uncomfortable feeling which
+sensitive persons often have when some one is watching them; and
+turning involuntarily to the window which looked out on a garden at
+the side of the house, she saw in the dim light that dark faces,
+with curious eyes, seemed nearly to fill up the lower half of the
+casement. In great surprise, and with a sudden tremor, she rose
+quickly from the seat; and, as she did so, the weird faces and
+glistening eyes disappeared, and two constables, attended by a
+crowd of the villagers, entered the room. One of these walked at
+once to her side, and seizing her by the arm said, "I arrest you,
+Dulcibel Burton, by the authority of Magistrate Hathorne. Come
+along with me."</p>
+<p>"What does all this mean, friend Herrick?"
+said Goodman Buckley, coming into the room.</p>
+<p>"It means," said the constable, "that this
+young woman is no better than the other witches,<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> who
+have been joining hand with Satan against the peace and dignity of
+this province." Then, turning to Dame Buckley, "Get her a shawl and
+bonnet, goodwife; if you do not wish her to go out unprotected in
+the night's cold."</p>
+<p>"A witch&mdash;what nonsense!" said Dame
+Buckley.</p>
+<p>"Nonsense, is it?" said the other constable.
+"What is this?" taking up the book from the table. "A book of
+plays! profane and wicked stage plays, in Salem village! You had
+better hold your peace, goodwife; or you may go to prison yourself
+for harboring such licentious devices of Satan in your
+house."</p>
+<p>Goodwife Buckley started and grew pale. A
+book of wicked stage-plays under her roof! She could make no reply,
+but went off without speaking to pack up a bundle of the accused
+maiden's clothing.</p>
+<p>"See here!" continued the constable, opening
+the book, "All about witches, as I thought! He-cat and three other
+witches!</p>
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">'Round about
+the cauldron go:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">In the poisoned entrails
+throw.'</span><br />
+<p>It is horrible!"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id=
+"Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>"Put the accursed book in the fire,
+Master Taunton," said Herrick.</p>
+<p>There was a small fire burning on the hearth,
+for the evening was a little cool, and the other constable threw
+the book amidst the live coals; but was surprised to see that it
+did not flame up rapidly.</p>
+<p>"That is witchcraft, if there ever was
+witchcraft!" said Jethro Sands, who was at the front of the crowd.
+"See, it will not burn. The Devil looks out for his
+own."</p>
+<p>"Yes, we shall have to stay here all night,
+if we wait for that book to burn up," said Master Herrick. "Now if
+it had been a Bible, or a Psalm-book, it would have been consumed
+by this time."</p>
+<p>"My father told me," said one of the crowd,
+"that they were once six weeks trying to burn up some witch's book
+in Holland, and then had to tear each leaf separately before they
+could burn it."</p>
+<p>"Where is the yellow bird&mdash;her
+familiar&mdash;that she was sending on some witch's errand when we
+were watching at the window?" said another of the crowd.</p>
+<p>"Oh, it's not likely you will find the yellow
+bird," replied Herrick. "It is halfway down to hell by this
+time."</p>
+<p>"No, there it is!" cried Jethro Sands,
+pointing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg
+98]</a></span> to a ledge over the door, where the canary-bird had
+flown in its fright.</p>
+<p>"Kill it! kill the familiar! Kill the devil's
+imp!" came in various voices, the angry tones being not without an
+inflection of fear.</p>
+<p>Several pulled out their rapiers. Jethro was
+the quickest. He made a desperate lunge at the little creature, and
+impaled it on the point of his weapon.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel shook off the hold of the constable
+and sprang forward. "Oh, my pretty Cherry," she cried, taking the
+dead bird from the point of the rapier. "You wretch! to harm an
+innocent little creature like that!" and she smoothed the feathers
+of the bird and kissed its little head.</p>
+<p>"Take it from her! kill the witch!" cried
+some rude women in the outer circles of the crowd.</p>
+<p>"Yes, mistress, this is more than good
+Christian people can be expected to endure," said constable
+Herrick, sternly, snatching the bird from her and tossing it into
+the fire. "Let us see if the imp will burn any quicker than the
+book."</p>
+<p>"Ah, she forgot to charm it," said the other
+constable, as the little feathers blazed up in a blue
+flame.</p>
+<p>"Yes, but note the color," said Jethro. "No
+Christian bird ever blazed in that color."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg
+99]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Neither they ever did!" echoed another, and
+they looked into each other's faces and shook their heads
+solemnly.</p>
+<p>At this moment Antipas Newton was led to the
+door of the room, in the custody of another officer. The old man
+seemed to be taking the whole proceeding very quietly and
+patiently, as the Quakers always did. But the moment he saw
+Dulcibel weeping, with Herrick's grasp upon her arm, his whole
+demeanor changed.</p>
+<p>"What devil's mischief is this?" cried the
+demented man; and springing like an enraged lion upon Master
+Herrick, he dashed him against the opposite wall, tore his
+constable's staff from his hands and laying the staff around him
+wildly and ferociously cleared the room of everybody save Dulcibel
+and himself in less time than I have taken to tell it.</p>
+<p>Jethro stepped forward with his drawn rapier
+to cover the retreat of the constables; but shouting, "the sword of
+the Lord and of Gideon!" the deranged man, with the stout oaken
+staff, dashed the rapier from Jethro's hand, and administered to
+him a sounding whack over the head, which made the blood come. Then
+he picked up the rapier and throwing the staff behind him,
+laughed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg
+100]</a></span> wildly as he saw the crowd, constable and all,
+tumbling out of the door of the next room into the front garden of
+the house as if Satan himself in very deed, were after
+them.</p>
+<p>"I will teach them how they abuse my pretty
+little Dulcibel," said the now thoroughly demented man, laughing
+grimly. "Come on, ye imps of Satan, and I will toast you at the end
+of my fork," he cried, flourishing Jethro's rapier, whose red
+point, crimson with the blood of the canary-bird, seemed to act
+upon the mind of the old man as a spark of fire upon
+tow.</p>
+<p>"Antipas," said Dulcibel, coming forward and
+gazing sadly into the eyes of her faithful follower, "is it not
+written, 'Put up thy sword; for he that takes the sword shall
+perish by the sword'? Give me the weapon!"</p>
+<p>The old man gazed into her face, at first
+wonderingly; then, with the instinct of old reverence and
+obedience, he handed the rapier to her, crossed his muscular arms
+over his broad breast, bowed his grisly head, and stood
+submissively before her.</p>
+<p>"You can return now safely," Dulcibel called
+out to the constables. They came in, at first a little warily. "He
+is insane; but the spell is over<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> now for the present.
+But treat him tenderly, I pray you. When he is in one of these
+fits, he has the strength of ten men."</p>
+<p>The constables could not help being impressed
+favorably by the maiden's conduct; and they treated her with a
+certain respect and tenderness which they had not previously shown,
+until they had delivered her, and the afterwards entirely humble
+and peaceful Antipas, to the keeper of Salem prison.</p>
+<p>But the crowd said to one another as they
+sought their houses: "What a powerful witch she must be, to calm
+down that maniac with one word." While others replied, "But he is
+possessed with a devil; and she does it because her power is of the
+devil."</p>
+<p>They did not remember that this was the very
+course of reasoning used on a somewhat similar occasion against the
+Savior himself in Galilee!</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id=
+"Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+<h4>Dulcibel in Prison.</h4>
+<p>In the previous cases of alleged witchcraft
+to which I have alluded, the details given in my manuscript volume
+were fully corroborated, even almost to the minutest particulars,
+by official records now in existence. But in what I have related,
+and am about to relate, relative to Dulcibel Burton, I shall have
+to rely entirely upon the manuscript volume. Still, as there is
+nothing there averred more unreasonable and absurd than what is
+found in the existing official records, I see no reason to doubt
+the entire truthfulness of the story. In fact, it would be
+difficult to imagine grosser and more ridiculous accusations than
+were made by Mistress Ann Putnam against that venerable and truly
+devout and Christian matron, Rebecca Nurse.</p>
+<p>When Dulcibel and Antipas, in the custody of
+four constables, reached the Salem jail, it was about eleven
+o'clock at night. The jailor, evidently had expected them; for he
+threw open the door at once. He was a stout, strong-built man, with
+not a bad countenance for a jailer;<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> but seemed thoroughly
+imbued with the prevailing superstition, judging by the harsh
+manner in which he received the prisoners.</p>
+<p>"I've got two strong holes for these imps of
+Satan; bring 'em along!"</p>
+<p>The jail was built of logs, and divided
+inside into a number of small rooms or cells. In each of these
+cells was a narrow bedstead and a stone jug and slop bucket.
+Antipas was hustled into one cell, and, after being chained, the
+door was bolted upon him. Then Dulcibel was taken into another,
+though rather larger cell, and the jailor said, "Now she will not
+trouble other people for a while, my masters."</p>
+<p>"Are you not going to put irons on her,
+Master Foster?" said Herrick.</p>
+<p>"Of course I am. But I must get heavier
+chains than those to hold such a powerful witch as she is. Trust
+her to me, Master Herrick. She'll be too heavy to fly about on her
+broomsticks by the time I have done with her."</p>
+<p>Then they all went out and Dulcibel heard the
+heavy bolt shoot into its socket, and the voices dying away as the
+men went down the stairs.</p>
+<p>She groped her way to the bed in the
+darkness, sat down upon it and burst into tears. It was<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> like
+a change from Paradise into the infernal regions. A few hours
+before and she had been musing in an ecstasy of joy over her
+betrothal, and dreaming bright dreams of the future, such perhaps
+as only a maiden can dream in the rapture of her first love. Now
+she was sitting in a prison cell, accused of a deadly crime, and
+her life and good reputation in the most imminent danger. One thing
+alone buoyed her up&mdash;the knowledge that her lover was fully
+aware of her innocence; and that he and Joseph Putnam would do all
+that they could do in her behalf. But then the sad thought came,
+that to aid her in any way might be only to bring upon themselves a
+similar accusation. And then, with a noble woman's spirit of
+self-sacrifice, she thought: "No, let them not be brought into
+danger. Better, far better, that I should suffer alone, than drag
+down my friends with me."</p>
+<p>Here she heard the noise of the bolt being
+withdrawn, and saw the dim light of the jailer's candle.</p>
+<p>As the jailer entered he threw down some
+heavy irons in the corner of the room. Then, he closed the door
+behind him, and came up to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105"
+id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> the unhappy girl. He laid his
+hand upon her shoulder and said:</p>
+<p>"You little witch!"</p>
+<p>Something in the tone seemed to strike upon
+the maiden's ear as if it were not unfamiliar to her; and she
+looked up hastily.</p>
+<p>"Do you not remember me, little Dulcy? Why I
+rocked you on my foot in the old Captain's house in Boston many a
+day."</p>
+<p>"Is it not uncle Robie?" said the girl. She
+had not seen him since she was four years old.</p>
+<p>The jailer smiled. "Of course it is," he
+replied, "just uncle Robie. The old captain never went to sea that
+Robie Foster did not go as first mate. And a blessed day it was
+when I came to be first mate of this jail-ship; though I never
+thought to see the old captain's bonnie bird among my
+boarders."</p>
+<p>"And do you think I really am a witch, uncle
+Robie?"</p>
+<p>"Of course ye are. A witch of the worst
+kind," replied Robie, with a chuckle. "Now, when I come in here
+tomorrow morning nae doobt I will find all your chains off. It is
+just sae with pretty much all the others. I cannot keep them
+chained, try my best and prettiest."<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p>
+<p>"And Antipas?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, he will just be like all the rest of
+them, doobtless. He is a powerful witch, and half a Quaker,
+besides."</p>
+<p>"But do you really believe in witches, uncle
+Robie?"</p>
+<p>"What do these deuced Barebones Puritans know
+about witches, or the devil, or anything else? There is only one
+true church, Mistress Dulcibel. I have sa mooch respect for the
+clergy as any man; but I don't take my sailing orders from a set of
+sourfaced old pirates."</p>
+<p>Then, leaving her a candle and telling her to
+keep up a stout heart, the jailer left the cell; and Dulcibel heard
+the heavy bolt again drawn upon her, with a much lighter heart,
+than before. Examining the bundle of clothes that Goodwife Buckley
+had made up, she found that nothing essential to her comfort had
+been forgotten, and she soon was sleeping as peacefully in her
+prison cell as if she were in her own pretty little
+chamber.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id=
+"Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+<h4>Dulcibel before the Magistrates.</h4>
+<p>The next afternoon the meeting-house at Salem
+village was crowded to its utmost capacity; for Dulcibel Burton and
+Antipas Newton were to be brought before the worshipful
+magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. These worthies were
+not only magistrates, but persons of great note and influence,
+being members of the highest legislative and judicial body in the
+Province of Massachusetts Bay.</p>
+<p>Among the audience were Joseph Putnam and
+Ellis Raymond; the former looking stern and indignant, the latter
+wearing an apparently cheerful countenance, genial to all that he
+knew, and they were many; and especially courteous and agreeable to
+Mistress Ann Putnam, and the "afflicted" maidens. It was evident
+that Master Raymond was determined to preserve for himself the
+freedom of the village, if complimentary and pleasant speeches
+would effect it. It would not do to be arrested or banished, now
+that Dulcibel was in prison.</p>
+<p>When the constable, Joseph Herrick,
+brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg
+108]</a></span> in Dulcibel, he stated that having made "diligent
+search for images and such like," they had found a "yellow bird,"
+of the kind that witches were known to affect; a wicked book of
+stage-plays, which seemed to be about witches, especially one
+called "he-cat"; and a couple of rag dolls with pins stuck into
+them.</p>
+<p>"Have you brought them?" said Squire
+Hathorne.</p>
+<p>"We killed the yellow bird and threw it and
+the wicked book into the fire."</p>
+<p>"You should not have done that; you should
+have produced them here."</p>
+<p>"We can get the book yet; for it was lying
+only partly burned near the back-log. It would not burn, all we
+could do to it."</p>
+<p>"Of course not. Witches' books never burn,"
+said Squire Hathorne.</p>
+<p>"Here are the images," said a constable,
+producing two little rag-babies, that Dulcibel was making for a
+neighbor's children.</p>
+<p>The crowd looked breathlessly on as "these
+diabolical instruments of torture" were placed upon the table
+before the magistrates.</p>
+<p>"Dulcibel Burton, stand up and look upon your
+accusers," said Squire Hathorne.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+<p>Dulcibel had sunk upon a bench while the
+above conversation was going on&mdash;she felt overpowered by the
+curious and malignant eyes turned upon her from all parts of the
+room. Now she rose and faced the audience, glancing around to see
+one loved face. At last her eyes met his; he was standing erect,
+even proudly; his arms crossed over his breast, his face composed
+and firm, his dark eyes glowing and determined. He dared not utter
+a word, but he spoke to her from the inmost depths of his soul: "Be
+firm, be courageous, be resolute!"</p>
+<p>This was what Raymond meant to say; and this
+is what Dulcibel, with her sensitive and impassioned nature,
+understood him to mean. And from that moment a marked change came
+over her whole appearance. The shrinking, timid girl of a moment
+before stood up serene but heroic, fearless and undaunted; prepared
+to assert the truth, and to defy all the malice of her enemies, if
+need be, to the martyr's death.</p>
+<p>And she had need of all her courage. For,
+before three minutes had passed&mdash;Squire Hathorne pausing to
+look over the deposition on which the arrest had been
+made&mdash;Mistress Ann Putnam shrieked out, "Turn her head away,
+she is tor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id=
+"Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>menting us! See, her yellow-bird is
+whispering to her!" And with that, she and her little daughter Ann,
+and Abigail Williams and Sarah Churchill and Leah Herrick and
+several others, flung themselves down on the floor in apparent
+convulsions.</p>
+<p>"Oh, a snake is stinging me!" cried Leah
+Herrick.</p>
+<p>"Her black horse is trampling on my breast!"
+groaned Sarah Churchill.</p>
+<p>"Make her look away; turn her head!" cried
+several in the crowd. And one of the constables caught Dulcibel by
+the arm, and turned her around roughly.</p>
+<p>"This is horrible!" cried Thomas
+Putnam&mdash;"and so young and fair-looking, too!"</p>
+<p>"Ah, they are the worst ones, Master Putnam,"
+said his sympathetic friend, the Rev. Master Parris.</p>
+<p>"She looks young and pretty, but she may
+really be a hundred years old," said deacon Snuffles.</p>
+<p>Quiet at last being restored, Magistrate
+Hathorne said:</p>
+<p>"Dulcibel Burton, why do you torment Mistress
+Putnam and these others in this grievous fashion?"</p>
+<p>"I do not torment them," replied Dulcibel
+calmly, but a little scornfully.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Who does torment them, then?"</p>
+<p>"How should I know&mdash;perhaps
+Satan."</p>
+<p>"What makes you suppose that Satan torments
+them?"</p>
+<p>"Because they tell lies."</p>
+<p>"Do you know that Satan cannot torment these
+people except through the agency of other human beings?"</p>
+<p>"No, I do not."</p>
+<p>"Well, he cannot&mdash;our wisest ministers
+are united upon that. Is it not so, Master Parris?"</p>
+<p>"That is God's solemn truth," was the
+reply.</p>
+<p>"Who is it that torments you, Mistress
+Putnam?" continued Squire Hathorne, addressing Mistress Ann Putnam,
+who had sent so many already to prison and on the way to
+death.</p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam was angered beyond measure at
+Dulcibel's intimation that she and her party were instigated and
+tormented directly by the devil. And yet she could not, if she
+would, bear falser witness than she already had done against
+Rebecca Nurse and other women of equally good family and
+reputation. But at this appeal of the Magistrate, she flung her
+arms into the air, and spoke with the vehemence and excitement of a
+half-crazy woman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id=
+"Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+<p>"It is she, Dulcibel Burton. She was a witch
+from her very birth. Her father sold her to Satan before she was
+born, that he might prosper in houses and lands. She has the
+witch's mark&mdash;a snake&mdash;on her breast, just over her
+heart. I know it, because goodwife Bartley, the midwife, told me so
+three years ago last March. Midwife Bartley is dead; but have a
+jury of women examine her, and you will see that it is
+true."</p>
+<p>At this, as all thought it, horrible charge,
+a cold thrill ran through the crowd. They all had heard of
+witch-marks, but never of one like this&mdash;the very serpent,
+perhaps, which had deluded Eve. Joseph Putnam smiled disdainfully.
+"A set of stupid, superstitious fools!" he muttered through his
+teeth. "Half the De Bellevilles had that mark."<a name=
+"FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class=
+"fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+<p>"I will have that looked into," said Squire
+Hathorne. "In what shape does the spectre come, Mistress
+Putnam?"</p>
+<p>"In the shape of a yellow-bird. She whispers
+to it who it is that she wants tormented, and it comes and pecks at
+my eyes."</p>
+<p>Here she screamed out wildly, and began as if
+defending her eyes from an invisible assailant.</p>
+<p>"It is coming to me now," cried Leah Herrick,
+striking out fiercely.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id=
+"Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+"Oh, do drive it away!" shrieked Sarah
+Churchill, "it will put out our eyes."<br />
+<br />
+<p>There was a scene of great excitement,
+several men drawing their swords and pushing and slashing at the
+places where they supposed the spectral bird might be.</p>
+<p>Leah Herrick said the spectre that hurt her
+came oftenest in the shape of a small black horse, like that which
+Dulcibel Burton was known to keep and ride. Everybody supposed, she
+said, that the horse was itself a witch, for it was perfectly
+black, with not a white hair on it, and nobody could ride it but
+its mistress.</p>
+<p>Here Sarah Churchill said she had seen
+Dulcibel Burton riding about twelve o'clock one night, on her black
+horse, to a witches' meeting.</p>
+<p>Ann Putnam, the child, said she had seen the
+same thing. One curious thing about it was that Dulcibel had
+neither a saddle nor a bridle to ride with. She thought this was
+very strange; but her mother told her that witches always rode in
+that manner.</p>
+<p>Here the two ministers of Salem, Rev. Master
+Parris and Rev. Master Noyes, said that this was<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+undeniably true, that it was a curious fact that witches never used
+saddles nor bridles. Master Noyes explaining further that there was
+no necessity for such articles, as the familiar was instantly
+cognizant of every slightest wish or command of the witch to whom
+he was subject, and going thus through the air, there being no
+rocks or gullies or other rough places, there was no necessity of a
+saddle. Both the magistrates and the people seemed to be very much
+instructed by the remarks of these two godly ministers.</p>
+<p>That "pious and excellent young man," Jethro
+Sands, here came forward and testified as follows: He had been at
+one time on very intimate terms with the accused; but her conduct
+on one occasion was so very singular that he declined thereafter to
+keep company with her. Hearing one day that she had gone to Master
+Joseph Putnam's, he had walked up the road to meet her on her
+return to the village. He looked up after walking about a mile, and
+saw her coming towards him on a furious gallop. There seemed to
+have been a quarrel of some kind between her and her familiar, for
+it would not stop all she could do to it. As she came up to him she
+snatched a rod that he had cut in the woods, out of his hand, and
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg
+115]</a></span> moment the familiar stopped and became as
+submissive as a pet dog. He could not understand what it meant,
+until it suddenly occurred to him that the rod was a branch of
+witch-hazel!</p>
+<p>Here the audience drew a long breath, the
+whole thing was satisfactorily explained. Every one knew the
+magical power of witch-hazel.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id=
+"FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class=
+"fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+<p>Jethro further testified that Mistress
+Dulcibel freely admitted to him that her horse was a witch; never
+speaking of the mare in fact but as a "little witch." As might be
+expected, the horse was a most vicious animal, worth nothing to
+anybody save one who was a witch himself. He thought it ought to be
+stoned, or otherwise killed, at once.</p>
+<p>The Rev. Master Noyes suggested that if it
+were handed over to his reverend brother Parris, he might be able,
+by a course of religious exercises, to cast out the evil spirit and
+render the animal serviceable. The apostles and disciples, it would
+be remembered, often succeeded in casting out evil spirits; though
+sometimes, we are told, they lamentably failed.</p>
+<p>The magistrates here consulted a few minutes,
+and Squire Hathorne then ordered that the black <span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>mare
+should be handed over to the Rev. Master Parris for his use, and
+that he might endeavor to exorcise the evil spirit that possessed
+it.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel had regarded with calm and serious
+eyes the concourse around her while this wild evidence was being
+given. Notwithstanding the peril of her position, she could not
+avoid smiling occasionally at the absurdity of the charges made
+against her; while at other times her brow and cheeks glowed with
+indignation at the maliciousness of her accusers. Then she thought,
+how could I ever have injured these neighbors so seriously that
+they have been led to conspire together to take my life? Oh, if I
+had never come to Salem, to a place so overflowing with malice,
+evil-speaking and all uncharitableness! Where there was so much
+sanctimonious talk about religion, and such an utter absence of it
+in those that prated the most of its possession. Down among the
+despised Quakers of Pennsylvania there was not one-half as much
+talking about religion but three times as much of that kindly
+charity which is its essential life.</p>
+<p>"Dulcibel Burton," said Squire Hathorne, "you
+have heard what these evidence against you; what answer can you
+make to them?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id=
+"Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+<p>Blood will assert itself. The daughter of the
+old sea-captain, himself of Norse descent on the mother's side,
+felt her father's spirit glowing in her full veins.</p>
+<p>"The charges that have been made are too
+absurd and ridiculous for serious denial. The 'yellow bird' is my
+canary bird, Cherry, given me by Captain Alden when we lived in
+Boston. He brought it home with him from the West Indies. Ask him
+whether it is a familiar. My black horse misbehaved on that
+afternoon Jethro Sands tells of, as I told him at the time; simply
+because I had no whip. When he gave me his switch, the vixenish
+animal came at once into subjection to save herself a good
+whipping. It was not a hazel switch, his statement is false, and he
+knows it, it was a maple one."</p>
+<p>"And you mean to say, I suppose," shrieked
+out Mistress Ann Putnam, "that you have no witch-mark either; that
+you do not carry the devil's brand of a snake over your
+heart?"</p>
+<p>"I have some such mark, but it is a
+birth-mark, and not a witch-mark. It is a simple curving line of
+red," and the girl blushed crimson at being compelled to such a
+reference to a personal peculiarity. But she faltered not in her
+speech, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id=
+"Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> her tones were more indignant than
+before. "It is not a peculiarity of mine, but of my mother's
+family. Some say that a distant ancestor was once frightened by a
+large snake coming into her chamber; and her child was born with
+this mark upon her breast. That is all of it. There is no necessity
+of any examination, for I admit the charge."</p>
+<p>"Yes," screamed Mistress Putnam again, "your
+ancestress too was a noted witch. It runs in the family. Go away
+with you!" she cried striking apparently at something with her
+clenched hand. "It is her old great grandmother! See, there she is!
+Off! Off! She is trying to choke me!" endeavoring seemingly to
+unclasp invisible hands from her throat.</p>
+<p>The other "afflicted" ones joined in the
+tumult. With one it was the "yellow bird" pecking at her eyes, with
+another the black horse rearing up and striking her with its hoofs.
+Leah Herrick cried that Dulcibel's "spectre" was choking
+her.</p>
+<p>"Hold her hands still!" ordered Squire
+Hathorne, and a constable sprang to each side of the accused maiden
+and held her arms and hands in a grasp of iron.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam made an exclamation
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg
+119]</a></span> almost sounded like an oath, and made a step
+forward; but a firm hand was laid upon his shoulder. "Be patient!"
+whispered Ellis Raymond, though his own mouth was twitching
+considerably. "We are the anvil now; wait till our turn comes to be
+sledgehammer!"</p>
+<p>Such a din and babel as the "afflicted" kept
+up! By the curious power of sympathy it affected the crowd almost
+to madness. If Dulcibel looked at them, they cried she was
+tormenting them. If she looked upward in resignation to Heaven,
+they also stared upwards with fixed, stiff necks. If she leaned her
+head one side they did the same, until it seemed as if their necks
+would be broken; and the jailers forced up Dulcibel's neck with
+their coarse, dirty hands.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel had not attended any of the other
+examinations, but similar demonstrations on the part of the
+"afflicted" had been described to her. It was very different,
+however, to hear of such things and to experience them in her own
+person. And if she had been at all a nervous and less healthy young
+woman, she might have been overcome by them, and even led to admit,
+as so many others had admitted under similar influences, that she
+really was a witch, and compelled by her mas<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>ter,
+the devil, could not help tormenting these poor victims.</p>
+<p>"Why do you not cease this?" at last cried
+Squire Hathorne, sternly and wrathfully.</p>
+<p>"Cease what?" she replied
+indignantly.</p>
+<p>"Tormenting these poor, suffering children
+and women!"</p>
+<p>"You see I am not tormenting them. Bid these
+men unloose my hands, they are hurting me."</p>
+<p>"They say your spectre and your familiar are
+tormenting them."</p>
+<p>"They are bearing false witness against
+me."</p>
+<p>"Who does hurt them then?"</p>
+<p>"Their master, the devil, I suppose and his
+imps."</p>
+<p>"Why should he hurt them?"</p>
+<p>"Because they are liars, and bear false
+witness; being hungry for innocent blood."</p>
+<p>The spirit of the free-thinking, free-spoken
+old sea-captain&mdash;nurtured by the free winds and the free waves
+for forty years&mdash;was fully alive now in his daughter. A
+righteous, holy indignation at the abominable farce that was going
+on with all its gross lying and injustice had taken possession of
+her, and she cared no longer for the opinions of any one around
+her, and thought not even of her<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> lover looking on, but
+only of truth and justice. "Yes, they are possessed with
+devils&mdash;being children of their father, the devil!" she
+continued scornfully. "And they shall have their reward. As for
+you, Ann Putnam, in seven years from this day I summon you to meet
+those you have slain with your wicked, lying tongue, at the bar of
+Almighty God! It shall be a long dying for you!" Then, seeing
+Thomas Putnam by his wife's side, "And you, Thomas Putnam, you
+puppet in a bad woman's hands, chief aider and abettor of her
+wicked ways, you shall die two weeks before her, to make ready for
+her coming! And you," turning to the constables on each side of
+her, "for your cruel treatment of innocent women, shall die by this
+time next year!"</p>
+<p>The constables loosened their grasp of her
+hands and shrank back in dismay. The "afflicted" suddenly hushed
+their cries and regained their composure, as they saw the accused
+maiden's eyes, lit up with the wildness of inspiration, glancing
+around their circle with lightning flashes that might strike at any
+moment.</p>
+<p>Even Squire Hathorne's wine-crimsoned face
+paled, lest she would turn around and denounce him too. Even if she
+were a witch, witches it was<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> known sometimes spoke
+truly. And when she slowly turned and looked upon him, the haughty
+judge was ready to sink to the floor.</p>
+<p>"As for you, John Hathorne, for your part in
+these wicked doings," here she paused as if waiting to hear a
+supernatural voice, while the crowded meeting-house was quiet as a
+tomb&mdash;"No! you are only grossly deluded; you shall not die.
+But a curse shall be upon you and your descendants for a hundred
+years. They shall not prosper. Then a Hathorne shall arise who
+shall repudiate you and all your wicked works, and the curse shall
+pass away!"</p>
+<p>Squire Hathorne regained his courage the
+instant she said he should not die, little he cared for misfortunes
+that might come upon his descendants.</p>
+<p>"Off with the witch to prison&mdash;we have
+heard enough!" he cried hoarsely. "Tell the jailer to load her well
+with irons, hands and feet; and give her nothing to eat but bread
+and water of repentance. She is committed for trial before the
+special court, in her turn, and at the worshipful judges'
+convenience."</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id=
+"Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class=
+"label">[1]</span></a> "Most part of this noble lineage carried
+upon their body for a natural birth-mark, from their mother's womb,
+a snake."&mdash;<i>North</i>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id=
+"Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class=
+"label">[2]</span></a> This and many other passages, as the reader
+will notice, are quoted verbatim from the manuscript
+volume.</p>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id=
+"Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+<h4>Well, What Now?</h4>
+<p>The crowd drew long breaths as they emerged
+from the meeting-house. This was the first time that the accused
+had fully turned upon the accusers. It was a pity that it had not
+been done before; because such was the superstition of the day,
+that to have your death predicted by one who was considered a witch
+was no laughing matter. The blood ran cold even in Mistress Ann
+Putnam's veins, as she thought of Dulcibel's prediction; and the
+rest of the "afflicted" inwardly congratulated themselves that they
+had escaped her malediction, and resolved that they would not be
+present at her trial as witnesses against her, if they could
+possibly avoid it. But then that might not be so easy.</p>
+<p>Even the crowd of beholders were a little
+more careful in the utterance of their opinions about Dulcibel than
+they had been relative to the other accused persons. Not that they
+had much doubt as to the maiden's being a born witch&mdash;the
+serpent-mark seemed to most of them a conclusive proof of
+that&mdash;but what if one of those "spectres,"<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> the
+"yellow bird" or the uncontrollable "black mare" should be near and
+listening to what they were even then saying?</p>
+<p>"What do I think about it?" said one of the
+crowd to his companion. "Why I think that if he who sups with the
+devil should have a long spoon, he who abuses a witch should be
+certain her yellow bird is not listening above his left shoulder,"
+and he gave a quick glance in the direction alluded to, while half
+of those near him, as they heard his warning words, did the same.
+And there was not much talking against Dulcibel after this, among
+that portion of the villagers.</p>
+<p>Ellis Raymond had heard this speech as he
+walked silently out of the meeting-house with Joseph Putnam, and a
+grim smile flitted over his face. He felt prouder than ever of his
+beautiful betrothed. He was not a man who admired amazons or other
+masculine women, such, as in these days, we call "strong-minded;"
+he liked a woman to keep in her woman's sphere, such as the Creator
+had marked out for her by making her a woman; but circumstances may
+rightly overrule social conventions, and demand action suitable to
+the emergency. Standing at bay, among a pack of howling wolves, the
+heroic is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id=
+"Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> womanly as well as manly quality;
+and the gun and the knife as feminine implements, as the needle and
+the scissors. Dulcibel had never reasoned about such things; she
+was a maiden who naturally shrank from masculine self-assertion and
+publicity; but, called to confront a great peril, she was true to
+the noble instincts of her family and her race, and could meet
+falsehood with indignant denial and contempt. How she had been led
+to utter those predictions she never fully understood&mdash;not at
+the time nor afterwards. She seemed to herself to be a mere reed
+through which some indignant angel was speaking.</p>
+<p>"Well," said Joseph Putnam, as they got clear
+of the crowd, "brother Thomas and sister Ann have wakened up the
+tiger at last. They will be "afflicted" now in dead earnest. Did
+you see how sister Ann, with all her assurance, grew pale and
+almost fainted? It serves her right; she deserves it; and Thomas
+too, for being such a dupe and fool."</p>
+<p>"Do you think it will come true?" said Master
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"Of course it will; the prediction will
+fulfill itself. Thomas is superstitious beyond all reasonableness;
+and good Mistress Ann, my pious<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> sister-in-law, is
+almost as bad as he is, notwithstanding her lies and trickery. Do
+you know what I saw that Leah Herrick doing?"</p>
+<p>"What was it?"</p>
+<p>"In her pretended spasms, when bending nearly
+double, she was taking a lot of pins out of the upper edge of her
+stomacher with her mouth, preparatory of course, to making the
+accusation that it was Dulcibel's doings."</p>
+<p>"But she did not?"</p>
+<p>"No, it was just before the time that
+Dulcibel scared them so with the predictions; and Leah was so
+frightened, lest she also should be predicted against, that she
+quietly spit all the pins into her hand again."</p>
+<p>"Ah, that was the game played by a girl about
+ten years ago at Taunton-Dean, in England. Judge North told my
+father about it. One of the magistrates saw her do it."</p>
+<p>"Well, now, what shall we do? They will
+convict her just as surely as they try her."</p>
+<p>"Undoubtedly!"</p>
+<p>"Shall we attack and break open the jail some
+dark night, sword in hand? I can raise a party of young men,
+friends of the imprisoned, to do it; they only want a
+leader."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg
+127]</a></span></p>
+<p>"And all of you go off into perpetual
+banishment and have all your property confiscated?"</p>
+<p>"I do not care. I am ready to do
+it."</p>
+<p>"If you choose to encounter such a risk for
+others, I have no objection. I believe myself that if the friends
+and relatives of the accused persons would take up arms in defense
+of them, and demand their release, it would be the very manliest
+and most sensible thing they could do. But the consciences of the
+people here make cowards of them. They are all in bondage to a
+blind and conceited set of ministers, and to a narrow and bigoted
+creed."</p>
+<p>"Then what do you plan?"</p>
+<p>"Dulcibel's escape. You know that I managed
+to see her for a few minutes early this morning. She has a friend
+within the prison. Wait till we get on our horses, and I will
+explain it all to you."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id=
+"CHAPTER_XIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id=
+"Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+<h4>Antipas Works a Miracle.</h4>
+<p>The next morning Antipas Newton was brought
+before the Magistrates for examination. Antipas seemed so quiet and
+peaceful in his demeanor, that Squire Hathorne could hardly credit
+the story told by the constables of his violent behavior on the
+night of the arrest.</p>
+<p>"I thought you were a Quaker," said he to the
+prisoner.</p>
+<p>"No, only half Quaker; the other half
+gospeller," replied the old man meekly.</p>
+<p>Mistress Ann was not present; her husband
+brought report that she was sick in bed. Probably she did not care
+to come, the game being too insignificant. Perhaps she had not
+quite recovered from the stunning effect of Dulcibel's prediction.
+Though it was not likely that a doom that was to be seven years in
+coming, would, after the first impression was past, be felt very
+keenly. There was time for so much to happen during seven
+years.</p>
+<p>But the Rev. Master Parris's little niece,
+Abigail Williams, was present, and several other<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+older members of the "circle," prepared to witness against the old
+man to any extent that seemed to be necessary.</p>
+<p>After these had made their customary charges,
+and had gone through some of their usual paroxysms, Joseph Putnam,
+accompanied by Goodman Buckley, came forward.</p>
+<p>"This is all folly," said Joseph Putnam
+stoutly. "We all know Antipas Newton; and that he has been deranged
+in his intellects, and of unsound mind for the last twenty years.
+He is generally peaceful and quiet; though in times of excitement
+like the present, liable to be driven into outbreaks of violent
+madness. Here is his employer, Goodman Buckley, who of course knows
+him best, and who will testify to all this even more conclusively
+than I can."</p>
+<p>Then Goodman Buckley took the oath with
+uplifted hand, and gave similar evidence. No one had even doubted
+for twenty years past, that Antipas was simple-minded. He often
+said and did strange things; but only when everybody around him was
+greatly excited, was he at all liable to violent outbreaks of
+passion.</p>
+<p>Squire Hathorne seemed half-convinced; but
+the Reverend Master Parris rose from the bench<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+where he had been sitting, and said he would like to be heard for a
+few moments. Permission being accorded: "What is insanity?" said
+he. "What is the scriptural view of it? Is it anything but a
+judgment of the Lord for sin, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar; or
+a possession by a devil, or devils, as in the Case of the Gadarene
+who made his dwelling among the tombs as told in the fifth chapter
+of Mark and the eighth of Luke? That these were real devils is
+evident&mdash;for when permission was given them to enter into the
+herd of swine, they entered into them, and the swine ran down a
+steep place into the sea and were drowned. And as there were about
+two thousand swine, there must have been at least two thousand
+devils in that one so-called insane man; which no doubt accounted
+for his excessive violence. After the devils had left him, we are
+told that his countrymen came and saw him sitting at the feet of
+Jesus, no longer naked, but clothed and in his right mind.
+Therefore it follows as a logical deduction, that his not being
+before in his right mind was because he was possessed with
+devils."</p>
+<p>The magistrates and people evidently were
+greatly impressed with what Master Parris had said. And, as he sat
+down, Master Noyes, who was sit<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>ting beside his
+reverend brother, rose and said that he considered the argument
+they had just heard unanswerable. It could only be refuted by
+doubting the infallibility of the Scripture itself. And he would
+further add, as to the case before them, that this so-called
+insanity of the prisoner had not manifested itself until he had
+been repeatedly guilty of harboring two of that heretical and
+abominable sect called Quakers and had incurred imprisonment and
+heavy fines for so doing; to pay which fines his property had been
+rightfully sold. This punishment, and the death of his daughter by
+the decree of a just God, apparently not being sufficient to
+persuade him of the error of his ways, no doubt he had been given
+over to the devil, that he might become a sign and a warning to
+evil-doers. But, instead of repenting of his evil ways, he seems to
+have entered the service of Captain Burton, who was always known to
+be very loose in his religious views and observances; and who it
+now seems was himself a witch, or, as he might be rather more
+correctly termed, a wizard, and the father of the dangerous girl
+who was properly committed for trial yesterday. Going thus downward
+from bad to worse, this Antipas had at last become a witch himself;
+roaming around tormenting godly<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> and unoffending people
+to please his mistress and her Satanic master. In conclusion he
+said that he fully agreed with his reverend brother, that what some
+of the world's people, who thought themselves wise above that which
+was written, called insanity, was simply, as taught in the holy
+scriptures, a possession by the devil.</p>
+<p>Magistrate Hathorne nodded to Magistrate
+Corwin, and Magistrate Corwin nodded in turn decidedly to his
+learned brother. They evidently considered that the ministers had
+settled that point.</p>
+<p>"Well, then," said Joseph Putnam, a little
+roughly to the ministers, "why do you not do as the Savior did,
+cast out the devils, that Antipas may sit down here in his right
+mind? We do not read that any of these afflicted people in Judea
+were cast into prison. In all cases they were pitied, not
+punished."</p>
+<p>"This is an unseemly interruption, Master
+Putnam," said Squire Hathorne sternly. "We all know that the early
+disciples were given the power to cast out devils and that they
+exercised the power continually, but that in later times the power
+has been withdrawn. If it were not so, our faithful elders would
+cast out the spectres that are continually tormenting these poor
+afflicted persons."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id=
+"Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+<p>While this discussion had been going on,
+Antipas had been listening to all that was said with the greatest
+attention. Once only had he manifested any emotion; that was when
+the reference had been made to the death of his daughter, who had
+died from her exposure to the severity of the winter season in
+Salem jail. At this time he put his hand to his eyes and wiped away
+a few tears. Before and after this, the expression of his face was
+rather as of one who was pleased and amused at the idea of being
+the center of attraction to such a large and goodly company. At the
+conclusion of Squire Hathorne's last remark, a new idea seemed to
+enter the old man's confused brain. He looked steadily at the line
+of the "afflicted" before him, who were now beginning a new display
+of paroxysms and contortions, and putting his right hand into one
+of his pockets, he drew forth a coil of stout leather strap.
+Grasping one end of it, he shouted, "I can heal them! I know what
+will cure them!" and springing from between the two constables that
+guarded him, began belaboring the "afflicted" with his strap over
+their backs and shoulders in a very energetic fashion.</p>
+<p>Dividing his energies between keeping off the
+constable and "healing the afflicted," and aided<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+rather than hindered by Joseph Putnam's intentionally ill-directed
+efforts to restrain him, the insane man managed to administer in a
+short time no small amount of very exemplary punishment. And, as
+Masters Putnam and Raymond agreed in talking over the scene
+afterwards, he certainly did seem to effect an instantaneous cure
+of the "afflicted," for they came to their sober senses at the
+first cut of the leather strap, and rushed pell-mell down the
+passage as rapidly as they could regardless of the other tormenting
+"spectres."</p>
+<p>"This is outrageous!" said Squire Hathorne
+hotly to the constables as Antipas was at last overpowered by a
+host of assailants, and stood now firmly secured and panting
+between the two officers. "How dared you bring him here without
+being handcuffed?"</p>
+<p>"We had no idea of his breaking out anew, he
+seemed as meek as a lamb," said constable Herrick.</p>
+<p>"Why, we thought he was a Quaker!" added his
+assistant.</p>
+<p>"I am a Quaker!" said Antipas, looking a
+little dangerous again.</p>
+<p>"You are not."</p>
+<p>"Thou liest!" said the insane man. "This is
+one of my off days."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id=
+"Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam laughed outright; and a few
+others, who were not church-members, laughed with him.</p>
+<p>"Silence!" thundered Squire Hathorne. "Is
+this a time for idle levity?" and he glared around the
+room.</p>
+<p>"We have heard enough," continued the Squire,
+after a few words with his colleague. "This is a dangerous man.
+Take him off again to prison; and see that his chains are strong
+enough to keep him out of mischief."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id=
+"Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond Goes to Boston.</h4>
+<p>Whatever the immediate effect of Dulcibel's
+prediction had been, Mistress Ann Putnam was now about again, as
+full of wicked plans, and as dangerous as ever. She knew, for
+everybody knew, that Master Ellis Raymond had gone to Boston. In a
+village like Salem at that time, such fact could hardly be
+concealed.</p>
+<p>"What had he gone for?</p>
+<p>"To see a friend," Joseph Putnam had
+said.</p>
+<p>"What friend?" queried Mistress Ann. That
+seemed important for her to know.</p>
+<p>She had accused Dulcibel in the first place
+as a means of hurting Joseph Putnam. But now since the trial, she
+hated her for herself. It was not so much on account of the
+prediction, as on account of Dulcibel's terrific arraignment of
+her. The accusation that her husband was her dupe and tool was, on
+account of its palpable truth, that which gave her perhaps the
+greatest offence. The charge being once made, others might see its
+truth also. Thus all the anger of her cunning, revengeful nature
+was directed against Dulcibel.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+<p>And just at this time she heard from a friend
+in Boston, who sent her a budget of news, that Master Raymond had
+taken dinner with Captain Alden. "Ah," she thought, "I see it now."
+The name was a clue to her. Captain Alden was an old friend of
+Captain Burton. He it was, so Dulcibel had said, from whom she had
+the gift of the "yellow bird."</p>
+<p>She knew Captain Alden by reputation. Like
+the other seamen of the time he was superstitious in some
+directions, but not at all in others. He would not for the world
+leave port on a Friday&mdash;or kill a mother Carey's
+chicken&mdash;or whistle at sea; but as to seeing witches in pretty
+young girls, or sweet old ladies, that was entirely outside of the
+average seaman's thoughts. Toward all women in fact, young or old,
+pretty or ugly, every sailor's heart at that day, as in this,
+warmed involuntarily.</p>
+<p>She also knew that the seamen as a class were
+rather inclined to what the godly called license in their religious
+opinions. Had not the sea-captains in Boston Harbor, some years
+before, unanimously refused to carry the young Quakeress, Cassandra
+Southwick, and her brother, to the West Indies and sell them there
+for slaves, to pay the fines incurred by their refusal to attend
+church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg
+138]</a></span> regularly? Had not one answered for the rest, as
+paraphrased by a gifted descendant of the
+Quakers?&mdash;</p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"Pile my ship
+with bars of silver&mdash;pack with coins of Spanish
+gold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">From keelpiece up to deck-plank
+the roomage of her hold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">By the living God who made me! I
+would sooner in your bay</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Sink ship and crew and cargo,
+than bear this child away!"</span><br />
+<p>And so Master Raymond, who it was rumored had
+been a great admirer of Dulcibel Burton, was on a visit to Boston,
+to see her father's old friend, Captain John Alden! Mistress Putnam
+thought she could put two and two together, if any woman could. She
+would check-mate that game&mdash;and with one of her boldest
+strokes, too&mdash;that should strike fear into the soul of even
+Joseph Putnam himself, and teach him that no one was too high to be
+above the reach of her indignation.</p>
+<p>The woman was so fierce in this matter, that
+I sometimes have questioned, could she ever have loved and been
+scorned by Joseph Putnam?</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id=
+"Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+<h4>A Night Interview.</h4>
+<p>A few days passed and Master Raymond was back
+again; with a pleasant word and smile for all he met, as he rode
+through the village. Mistress Ann Putnam herself met him on the
+street and he pulled up his horse at the side-path as she stopped,
+and greeted her.</p>
+<p>"So you have been to Boston?" she
+said.</p>
+<p>"Yes, I thought I would take a little turn
+and hear what was going on up there."</p>
+<p>"Who did you see&mdash;any of our
+people?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes&mdash;the Nortons and the Mathers
+and the Higginsons and the Sewalls&mdash;I don't know
+all.</p>
+<p>"Good day; remember me to my kind brother
+Joseph and his wife," said she, and Raymond rode on.</p>
+<p>"What did that crafty creature wish to find
+out by stopping me?" he thought to himself.</p>
+<p>"He did not mention Captain Alden. Yes, he
+went to consult him," thought Mistress Putnam.</p>
+<p>Master Joseph Putnam was so anxious to meet
+his friend, that he was standing at the turning in the lane that
+led up to his house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id=
+"Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Well, what did the Captain say?"</p>
+<p>"He was astounded. Then he gave utterance to
+some emphatic expressions about hell-fire and damnation which he
+had probably heard in church."</p>
+<p>"I know no more appropriate occasion to use
+them," commented young Master Joseph drily. "If it were not for
+certain portions of the psalms and the prophets, I could hardly get
+through the time comfortably nowadays."</p>
+<p>"If we can get her safely to Boston, he will
+see that a fast vessel is ready to take us to New York; and he will
+further see that his own vessel&mdash;the Colony's rather, which he
+commands&mdash;never catches us."</p>
+<p>"That looks well. I managed to see Dulcibel
+for a few minutes to-day, and"&mdash;</p>
+<p>"How is she?" inquired Raymond eagerly. "Does
+she suffer much?"</p>
+<p>"Not very much I think. No more than is
+necessary to save appearances. She told me that the jailer was
+devoted to her. He will meet you to-night after dark on the hill,
+to arrange matters."</p>
+<p>"Say that we get from the prison by midnight.
+Then it will take at least three hours riding to reach
+Boston&mdash;though we shall not enter the town."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg
+141]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Three hours! Yes, four," commented his
+friend; "or even five if the night be dark and stormy; and such a
+night has manifest advantages. Still, as I suppose you must wait
+for a northwest wind, that is pretty sure to be a clear
+one."</p>
+<p>"Yes, the main thing is to get out into the
+open sea. Captain Alden plans to procure a Danish vessel, whose
+skipper once out of sight of land, will oppose any recapture by
+force."</p>
+<p>"I suppose however you will sail for New
+York?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, that is the nearest port and we shall
+be perfectly safe there. Still Jamestown would do. The Delaware is
+nearer than the James, but I am afraid the Quakers would not be
+able to protect us, as they are too good to oppose force by
+force."</p>
+<p>"Too good! too cranky!" said Master Putnam.
+"A pretty world the rascals would make of it, if the honest men
+were too good to fight. It seems to me there is something
+absolutely wicked in their non-resistant notions."</p>
+<p>"Yes, it is no worse to kill a two-legged
+tiger or wolf than a four-legged one; one has just as good a right
+to live as the other."</p>
+<p>"A better, I think," replied Master Putnam.
+"The tiger or wolf is following out his proper nature; the human
+tiger or wolf is violating his."<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+<p>"You know I rather like the Quakers,"
+rejoined Master Raymond. "I like their general idea of considering
+the vital spirit of the Scripture more than the mere outward
+letter. But in this case, it seems to me, they are in bondage to
+the mere letter 'thou shalt not kill;' not seeing that to kill, in
+many cases, is really to save, not only life, but all that makes
+life valuable."</p>
+<p>That evening just about dusk, the two young
+men mounted their horses, and rode down one of the roads that led
+to Salem town, leaving Salem village on the right&mdash;thinking
+best not to pass through the village. Within a mile or so of the
+town, Master Putnam said, "here is the place" and led the way into
+a bridle path that ran into the woods. In about five minutes he
+halted again, gave a low whistle, and a voice said, a short
+distance from them, "Who are you, strangers?"</p>
+<p>"Friends in need," replied Master
+Putnam.</p>
+<p>"Then ye are friends indeed," said the voice;
+and Robert Foster, the jailer, stepped from behind the trunk of a
+tree into the path.</p>
+<p>"Well, Robie, how's the little girl?" said
+Master Joseph.</p>
+<p>"Bonnie as could be expected," was the
+answer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg
+143]</a></span></p>
+<p>"She sends word to you, sir," addressing
+Master Raymond, "that you had better not come to see her. She knows
+well all you could say&mdash;just as well as if she heard it, the
+brave, bonnie lassie!"</p>
+<p>"I know it," replied Master Raymond. "Tell
+her I think of her every moment&mdash;and that things look
+bright."</p>
+<p>"Let us get out of this glooming, and where
+we can see a rod around us," suggested the jailer. "I like to see
+at least as far as my elbow, when I am talking
+confidentially."</p>
+<p>"I will go&mdash;you stay here with the
+horses," said Raymond to Master Putnam. "I do not want you mixed up
+with this thing any more than is absolutely necessary."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I do not care for the risk&mdash;I like
+it," replied his friend.</p>
+<p>"Stay, nevertheless," insisted Master
+Raymond. And getting down from his horse, and handing the bridle
+rein to Master Putnam, he followed the jailer out into an open
+space, where the rocks coming to the surface, had prevented the
+growth of the forest. Here it was a little lighter than it had been
+in the wood-path; but, the clouds having gathered over the sky
+since they started, it was not possible to see very far around
+them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg
+144]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Hold up there!" cried Robie, catching
+Raymond by the arm&mdash;"why, man, do you mean to walk straight
+over the cliff?"</p>
+<p>"I did not know any chasm was there," said
+Raymond. "I never saw this place before. Master Putnam said it was
+a spot where we should not be likely to be molested. And it does
+look desolate enough." He leaned back against one of two upright
+planks which seemed to have been placed there for some purpose, and
+looked at a little pile of dirt and stones not far from his
+feet.</p>
+<p>"No," said the jailer. "I opine we shall not
+be disturbed here. I do not believe there is more than three
+persons in Salem that would be willing to come to this hill at this
+time of day,&mdash;and they are here already." And the jailer
+smiled audibly.</p>
+<p>"Why, how is that?"</p>
+<p>"Because they are all so damnably
+sooperstitious!" replied Robie, with an air of vast
+superiority.</p>
+<p>"Ah! is this place then said to be
+haunted?"</p>
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;poor Goodwife Bishop's speerit is
+said to haunt it. But as she never did anybody any harm while she
+was living, I see not why she should harm any one now that she is
+dead."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg
+145]</a></span></p>
+<p>"And so brave Bridget was executed near this
+place? Where was the foul murder done?"</p>
+<p>"You are leaning against the gallows," said
+Robie quietly. "And that pile of stones at your feet is over her
+grave."</p>
+<p>Raymond was a brave man, physically and
+morally, and not at all superstitious; but he recoiled
+involuntarily from the plank against which he had been leaning, and
+no longer allowed his right foot to rest upon the top stones of the
+little heap that marked the grave.</p>
+<p>"Oh, I thought you knew it," said the jailer
+calmly. "I say, let them fear goodwife Bishop's ghost who did her
+wrong. As for me, I favored her all I dared; and her last word to
+me was a blessing. But now for your honor's business, I have not
+long to stay."</p>
+<p>"I have planned all but the getting out of
+jail. Can it be easily done?"</p>
+<p>"As easy as walking out of a
+room."</p>
+<p>"Will you not be suspected?"</p>
+<p>"Not at all, I think&mdash;they are so
+mightily sooperstitious. I shall lock everything tight after her;
+and make up a good story about my wakening up in the middle of the
+night, just in time to see her flying out of the top o' the house,
+on her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg
+146]</a></span> black mare, and thrashing the animal with a
+broom-handle. The bigger the lie the quicker they will believe
+it."</p>
+<p>"If they should suspect you, let Master
+Putnam know, and he will get you off, if wit and money together can
+do it."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I believe that," said the jailer.
+"Master Putnam is well known in all these parts, as a man that
+never deserts a friend; and I'll warrant you are one of the same
+grit."</p>
+<p>"My hand on it, Robie!" and he shook the
+jailer's hand warmly. "I shall never forget this
+service."</p>
+<p>"I am a rough, ignorant man," replied Robie
+quietly; "but I know gentle blood when I see it."</p>
+<p>"What time of night will suit you
+best?"</p>
+<p>"Just about twelve o'clock at night. That is
+the time all the ghosts and goblins and weetches choose; and when
+all honest people are in their beds, and in their first and
+soundest sleep."</p>
+<p>"We shall not be able to give you much
+warning, for we must wait a favorable wind and tide."</p>
+<p>"So you let me know by nightfall, it will
+do."</p>
+<p>"And now for the last point&mdash;what do I
+pay you? I know we are asking you to run a great risk. The men that
+whip gentlewomen, at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147"
+id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> cart's tail, and put little
+children into jail, and sell them as slaves, will not spare you, if
+they find out what you have done. Thank God, I am rich enough to
+pay you well for taking such a fearful risk and shall be only too
+glad to reward your unselfish deed."</p>
+<p>"Not a shilling!" replied Robie proudly. "I
+am not doing this thing for pay. It is for the old Captain's little
+girl, that I have held in these arms many a day&mdash;and for the
+old Captain himself. While these bloody landsmen," continued the
+old sailor, "plague and persecute each other, Master Raymond, what
+is that to us, we men of the sea, who have a creed and a belief of
+our own, and who never even think of hurting a woman or a child?
+But as for these landsmen, sticking at home all the time, how can
+they be expected to know anything&mdash;compared to men that have
+doubled both Capes, and seen people living all sorts of ways, and
+believing all sorts of things? No, no," and Robie laughed
+disdainfully, "let these land-lubbers attend to their own affairs;
+but let them keep their hands off us seamen and our
+families."</p>
+<p>"So be it then, Robie; I honor your feelings!
+But nevertheless I shall not forget you. And one<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> of
+these days, if we get off safely, you shall hear from me again
+about this matter."</p>
+<p>And then, their plans settled, Robie trudged
+down to the town; while the young men rode back the way they had
+come, to Master Putnam's.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id=
+"Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+<h4>The Reverend Master Parris Exorcises "Little
+Witch."</h4>
+<p>It will be remembered that Squire Hathorne
+had directed that Dulcibel's little horse should be handed over to
+the Reverend Master Parris, in order that it might be brought into
+due subjection.</p>
+<p>This had pleased Master Parris very much. In
+the first place he was of a decidedly acquisitive turn&mdash;as had
+been shown in his scheming to obtain a gift of the minister's house
+and orchard&mdash;and moreover, if he was able to cast out the
+devil that evidently possessed this horse, and make it a sober and
+docile riding animal, it would not only be the gain of a very
+pretty beast, but would prove that something of the power of
+casting out devils, which had been given to the disciples of old,
+had come down unto him. In such a case, his fame probably would
+equal, if not surpass, that of the great Boston ministers, Increase
+and Cotton Mather.</p>
+<p>Goodman Buckley had brought down the little
+mare, the next morning after the examination. The mare would lead
+very well, if the person lead<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>ing her was on
+horseback&mdash;very badly, if he were not, except under peculiar
+circumstances. She was safely housed in the minister's stable, and
+gazed at with mingled fear and admiration by the family and their
+immediate neighbors. Master Parris liked horses, had some knowledge
+of the right way to handle them, and showed more wisdom in his
+treatment of this rather perverse animal of Dulcibel's than he had
+ever manifested in his church difficulties.</p>
+<p>He began by what he called a course of
+conciliation&mdash;to placate the devil, as it were. How he could
+bring his conscience to allow of this, I am not able to understand.
+But then the mare, if the devil were once cast out, would be, on
+account of her rare beauty, a very valuable animal. And so the
+minister, twice a day, made a point of going into the little
+passage, at the head of the stall, speaking kindly to the animal,
+and giving her a small lump of maple sugar.</p>
+<p>Like most of her sex, Susannah&mdash;as
+Master Parris had renamed her, knowing the great importance of a
+good name&mdash;was very fond of sugar; and her first apparent
+aversion to the minister seemed gradually to change into a kind of
+tacit respect and toleration, under the influence<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> of
+his daily medications. Finally, the wary animal would allow him to
+pat her neck without striking at him with one of her front feet, or
+trying to bite him; and even to stroke her glossy flanks without
+lunging at him with her hind heels, in an exceedingly dangerous
+fashion.</p>
+<p>But spiritual means also were not neglected.
+The meeting-house was very near, and the mare was brought over
+regularly when there were religious services, and fastened in the
+near vicinity of the other more sober and orthodox horses, that she
+might learn how to behave and perhaps the evil spirit be thus
+induced to abandon one so constantly exposed to the doubtless
+unpleasant sounds (to it) of psalm and prayer and
+sermon.</p>
+<p>A horse is an imitative animal, and very
+susceptible to impressions,&mdash;both of a material and a mental
+character&mdash;and I must confess that these proceedings of the
+minister's were very well adapted to the object he had in
+view.</p>
+<p>The minister also had gone farther&mdash;but
+of this no one at the time knew but himself. He had gone into the
+stable on a certain evening, when his servant John Indian was off
+on an errand; and had pronounced a prayer over the possessed animal
+winding up with an exorcism which ought to have<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> been
+sufficient to banish any reasonable devil, not only from the mare,
+but from the neighborhood. As he concluded, what seemed to be a
+huge creature, with outstretched wings, had buffeted him over the
+ears, and then disappeared through the open window of the stable.
+The creature was in the form of a big bat; but then it was well
+known that this was one of the forms which evil spirits were most
+fond of assuming.</p>
+<p>The minister therefore had strong reasons for
+supposing that the good work was now accomplished; and that he
+should find the mare hereafter a Susannah not only in name but in
+nature&mdash;a black lily, as it were. But of course this could not
+be certainly told, unless some one should attempt to ride her; and
+he suggested it one day to John Indian. But John
+Indian&mdash;unknown to anybody but himself&mdash;had already tried
+the experiment; and after a fierce contest, was satisfied with his
+share of the glory. His answer was:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"No, no, master&mdash;debbil hab no 'spect
+for Indian man. Master he good man! gospel man! debbil 'fraid of
+him&mdash;him too much for debbil!"</p>
+<p>This seemed very reasonable for a poor,
+untutored Indian. Mistress Parris, too, said that she<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> was
+certain he could succeed if any one could. The evil spirits would
+be careful how they conducted themselves towards such a highly
+respected and godly minister as her revered husband. Several of her
+acquaintances, pious and orthodox goodwives of the village, said
+the same thing. Master Parris thought he was a very good horseman
+besides; and began to take the same view. There was the horse, and
+he was the man!</p>
+<p>So one afternoon John Indian saddled and
+bridled the mare, and brought her up to the horse-block. Susannah
+had allowed herself to be saddled without the slightest
+manifestation of ill-humor; probably the idea of stretching her
+limbs a little, was decidedly pleasant in view of the small amount
+of exercise she had taken lately.</p>
+<p>But the wisest plan was not thought of. The
+minister's niece, Abigail Williams&mdash;one of the
+"afflicted"&mdash;had looked upon the black mare with longing eyes;
+and if she had made the experiment, it probably would have been
+successful. But they did not surmise that it might be the man's
+saddle and mode of riding, to which the animal was entirely
+unaccustomed, that were at the bottom of the difficulty. And,
+besides, Master Parris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id=
+"Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> wanted the mare for his own riding,
+not for the women folks of his household.</p>
+<p>Detained by various matters, it was not until
+quite late in the afternoon, that the minister found time to try
+the experiment of riding the now unbewitched animal. It was getting
+too near night to ride very far, but he could at least try a short
+ride of a mile or so; which perhaps would be better for the first
+attempt than a longer one. So he came out to the horse-block,
+attended by his wife and Abigail Williams, and a couple of
+parishioners who had been holding a consultation with him, but had
+stopped a moment to see him ride off upon the animal of which so
+many marvelous stories had been told.</p>
+<p>"Yes," said the minister, as he came out to
+the horse-block, in answer to a remark made by one of his visitors,
+"I think I have been able with the Lord's help, to redeem this
+animal and make her a useful member of society. You will observe
+that she now manifests none of that viciousness for which formerly
+she was so noted."</p>
+<p>The mare did stand as composedly and
+peacefully as the most dignified minister could desire.</p>
+<p>"You will remember that she has never been
+ridden by any one, man or woman, save her witch<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+mistress Dulcibel&mdash;Jezebel, I think would be a more fitting
+name for her, considering her wicked doings."</p>
+<p>Here Master Parris took the bridle rein from
+John Indian and threw his right leg over the animal. As the foot
+and leg came down on that side, and the stirrup gave her a smart
+crack, the mare's ears, which had been pricked up, went backwards
+and she began to prance around, John Indian still holding her by
+the mouth.</p>
+<p>"Let her go, John," said the minister; "she
+does not like to be held," and he tightened the rein.</p>
+<p>John, by his master's orders, had put on a
+curbbit; in place of the easy snaffle to which the mare had always
+been accustomed. And now as the minister tightened the rein, and
+the chain of the curb began to press upon and pain the mouth of the
+sensitive creature, she began to back and rear in a most excited
+fashion.</p>
+<p>"Loose de rein!" cried John
+Indian.</p>
+<p>The minister did so. But the animal now was
+fully alarmed; and no loosening or tightening would avail much. She
+was her old self again&mdash;as bewitched as ever. She reared, she
+plunged, she kicked, she sidled, and went through all the motions,
+which, on previous occasions, she had<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> always found
+eventually successful in ridding her back of its undesired
+burden.</p>
+<p>"Oh, do get off of the wild beast," cried
+Mistress Parris, in great alarm.</p>
+<p>"She is still bewitched," cried Abigail
+Williams. "I see a spectre now, tormenting her with a
+pitchfork."</p>
+<p>"Oh, Samuel, you will be killed!&mdash;do get
+off that crazy beast!" again cried weeping Mistress
+Parris.</p>
+<p>"'Get off!' yes!" thought the minister; "but
+how am I going to do it, with the beast plunging and tearing in
+this fashion?" The animal evidently wanted him off, and he was very
+anxious to get off; but she would not hold still long enough for
+him to dismount peaceably.</p>
+<p>"Hold her while I dismount!" he cried to John
+Indian. But when John Indian came near to take hold of the rein by
+her mouth, the mare snapped at him viciously with her teeth; and
+then wheeled around and flung out her heels at his head, in the
+most embarrassing manner.</p>
+<p>Finally, as with a new idea, the mare started
+down the lane at a quick gallop, turned to the left, where a
+rivulet had been damned up into a little pond not more than two
+feet deep, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id=
+"Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> plunged into the water, splashing it
+up around her like a many jetted fountain.</p>
+<p>By this time, the minister, being only human,
+naturally was very angry; and commenced lashing her sides with his
+riding whip to get her into the lane again. This made the fiery
+little creature perfectly desperate, and she reared up and
+backwards, until she came down plump into the water; so that, if
+the saddle girth had not broken, and the saddle come off, and the
+minister with it, she might have tumbled upon him and perhaps
+seriously hurt him. But, as it was, no great damage was done; and
+the bridle also breaking, the mare spit the bit out of her mouth,
+and went down the lane in a run to the road, and thence on into the
+now fast-gathering night, no one could see whither.</p>
+<p>Mistress Parris, John Indian and the rest
+were by this time at the side of the pond, and ready to receive the
+chapfallen minister as he emerged with the saddle and the broken
+bridle from the water.</p>
+<p>"You are a sight, Samuel Parris!" said his
+wife, in that pleasant tone with which many wives are apt to
+receive their liege lords upon such unpleasant occasions. "Do get
+into the house at once. You will catch your death of cold, I
+know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg
+158]</a></span> And such a mess your clothes will be! But I only
+wonder you are not killed&mdash;trying to ride a mad witch's horse
+like that is."</p>
+<p>The minister made no reply. The situation
+transcended words. And did not allow even of sympathy, as his
+visitors evidently thought&mdash;not at least until he got on some
+clean and dry clothes. So they simply shook their heads, and took
+their course homewards. While the bedraggled and dripping Master
+Parris made his way to the house wiping the water and mud from his
+face with his wife's handkerchief, and stopping to shake himself
+well, before he entered the door, lest, as his wife said, "he
+should spoil everything in his chamber."</p>
+<p>Abigail Williams, when she went to see
+Mistress Ann Putnam that night, had a marvelous tale to tell; which
+in the course of the next day, went like wildfire through the
+village, growing still more and more marvelous as it
+went.</p>
+<p>Abigail had seen, as I have already said, the
+spectre of a witch goading the furious animal with a pitchfork.
+When the horse tore down the lane, it came to the little brook and
+of course could not cross it&mdash;for a witch cannot cross running
+water. Therefore, in its new access of fury, it sprang
+into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg
+159]</a></span> the pond&mdash;and threw off the minister. Abigail
+further declared that then, dashing down the lane it came to the
+gate which shut it off from the road, and took the gate in a flying
+leap. But the animal never came down again. It was getting quite
+dark then, but she could still plainly see that a witch was upon
+its back, belaboring it with a broomstick. And she knew very well
+who that witch was. It was the "spectre" of Dulcibel
+Burton&mdash;for it had a scarlet bodice on, just such as Dulcibel
+nearly always wore. They two&mdash;the mare and its
+rider&mdash;went off sailing up into the sky, and disappeared
+behind a black cloud. And Abigail was almost certain that just as
+they reached the cloud, there was a low rumbling like
+thunder.</p>
+<p>It was noticeable that every time Abigail
+told this story, she remembered something that she had not before
+thought of; until in the course of a week or two, there were very
+few stories in the "Arabian Nights" that could surpass it in
+marvelousness.</p>
+<p>As the mare had not returned to her old
+stable at Goodman Buckley's, and could not be heard of in any other
+direction, Abigail's story began to commend itself even to the
+older and cooler heads of the village. For if the elfish creature
+had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg
+160]</a></span> vanished in the black cloud, to the sound of
+thunder, where was she?</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam, and his household however held
+a different view of the subject, but they wisely kept their own
+counsel; though they had many a sly joke among themselves at the
+credulity of their neighbors. They knew that a little while after
+dark, a strange noise had been heard at the barn, and that one of
+the hired men going out, had found Dulcibel's horse, without saddle
+or bridle, pawing at the door of the stable for admission. As this
+was a place the animal had been in the habit of coming to, and
+where she was always well treated and even petted, it was very
+natural that she should fly here from her persecutors, as she
+doubtless considered them.</p>
+<p>Upon being told of it, and not knowing what
+had occurred Master Joseph thought it most prudent not to put the
+animal into his stable, but ordered the man to get half-a-peck of
+oats, and some hay, and take the mare to a small cow-pen, in the
+woods in an out of the way place, where she might be for years, and
+no one outside his own people be any the wiser for it. The mare
+seemed quite docile, and was easily led, being in company with the
+oats, of which a handful occasionally was given to her;<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> and
+so, being watered at a stream near by and fed daily, she was no
+doubt far more comfortable than she would have been in the black
+cloud that Abigail Williams was perfectly ready to swear she had
+seen her enter and where though there might be plenty of water,
+oats doubtless were not often meet with.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id=
+"Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond Also Complains of an "Evil
+Hand."</h4>
+<p>Master Raymond had everything now prepared
+upon his part, and was awaiting a message from Captain Alden, to
+the effect that he had made a positive engagement with the Danish
+captain.</p>
+<p>He had caught a serious cold on his return
+from Boston and, turning the matter over in his mind&mdash;for it
+is a wise thing to try to get some good result out of even
+apparently evil occurrences&mdash;he had called in the village
+doctor.</p>
+<p>But the good Doctor's medicine did not seem
+to work as it ought to&mdash;for one reason, Master Raymond
+regularly emptied the doses out of the window; thinking as he told
+Master Joseph, to put them where they would do the most good. And
+when the Doctor came, and found that neither purging nor vomiting
+had been produced, these with bleeding and sweating being the great
+panaceas of that day&mdash;as perhaps of this&mdash;he was
+naturally astonished. In a case where neither castor oil, senna and
+manna, nor large doses of Glauber's salts would work, a medical man
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg
+163]</a></span> certainly justified in thinking that something must
+be wrong.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond suggested whether "an evil
+hand" might not be upon him. This was the common explanation at
+that time in Salem and its neighborhood. The doctors and the
+druggists nowadays miss a great deal in not having such an excuse
+made ready to their hands&mdash;it would account alike for
+adulterated drugs and ill-judged remedies.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond had the reputation of being
+rich, and the Doctor had been mortified by the bad behavior of his
+medicines&mdash;for if a patient be not cured, if he is at least
+vigorously handled, there seems to be something that can with
+propriety be heavily charged for. But if a doctor does
+nothing&mdash;neither cures, nor anything else&mdash;with what face
+can he bring in a weighty bill?</p>
+<p>And so good Doctor Griggs readily acquiesced
+in his patient's supposition that "an evil hand," was at work, and
+even suggested that he should bring Abigail Williams or some other
+"afflicted" girl with him the next time he came, to see with her
+sharpened eyes who it was that was bewitching him.</p>
+<p>But Master Raymond declined the
+offer&mdash;at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id=
+"Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> least for the present. If the thing
+continued, and grew worse, he might be able himself to see who it
+was. Why should he not be as able to do it as Abigail Williams, or
+any other of the "afflicted" circle? Of course the doctor was not
+able to answer why; there seemed to be no good reason why one set
+of "afflicted" people should have a monopoly of the accusing
+business.</p>
+<p>Of course this came very quickly from the
+Doctor to Mistress Ann Putnam&mdash;for he was a regular attendant
+of that lady, whose nervous system indeed was in a fearful state by
+this time. And she puzzled a good deal over it. Did Master Raymond
+intend to accuse anyone? Who was it? Or was it merely a hint thrown
+out, that it was a game that two parties could play at?</p>
+<p>But then she smiled&mdash;she had the two
+ministers, and through them all the other ministers of the
+colony&mdash;the magistrates and judges&mdash;and the advantages of
+the original position. Imitators always failed. Still she rather
+liked the young man's craft and boldness&mdash;Joseph Putnam would
+never have thought of such a thing. But still let him beware how he
+attempted to thwart her plans. He would soon find that she was the
+stronger.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam then began to answer
+inquiries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg
+165]</a></span> as to the health of his guest,&mdash;that he was
+not much better, and thought somewhat of going up to Boston for
+further medical advice&mdash;as the medicines given him so far did
+not seem to work as well as they should do.</p>
+<p>"Could he bear the ride?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, very well indeed&mdash;his illness had
+not so far affected his strength much."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id=
+"Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond's Little Plan
+Blocked.</h4>
+<p>"Our game is blocked!" said Joseph Putnam to
+Master Raymond as he rode up one afternoon soon after, and
+dismounted at the garden gate, where his guest was awaiting him,
+impatient to hear if anything had yet come from Captain
+Alden.</p>
+<p>"What do you mean?" said his
+guest.</p>
+<p>"Mean? Why, that yon she-wolf is too much for
+us. Captain Alden is arrested!"</p>
+<p>"What! Captain John Alden!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, Captain John Alden!"</p>
+<p>"On what charge?"</p>
+<p>Master Joseph smiled grimly, "For
+witchcraft!"</p>
+<p>"Nonsense!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, devilish nonsense! but true as gospel,
+nevertheless."</p>
+<p>"And he submits to it?"</p>
+<p>"With all around him crazy, he cannot help
+it. Besides, as an officer of the government, he must submit to the
+laws."</p>
+<p>"On whose complaint?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, the she-wolf's of course&mdash;that
+delectable smooth-spoken wife of my brother Thomas. How<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> any
+man can love a catty creature like that, beats me out."</p>
+<p>"I suppose she found out that I went
+frequently to see the Captain, when in Boston?"</p>
+<p>"I suppose so."</p>
+<p>"Who could have informed her?"</p>
+<p>"Her master, the devil, I
+suppose."</p>
+<p>"Where is the Captain to be
+examined?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, here in Salem, where his accusers are.
+It comes off tomorrow. They lose no time you see."</p>
+<p>"Well, I would not have believed it possible.
+Whom will they attack next?"</p>
+<p>"The Governor, I suppose," replied Master
+Joseph satirically.</p>
+<p>"Or you?"</p>
+<p>"If she does, I'll run my sword through
+her&mdash;not as being a woman, but as a foul fiend. I told her so.
+Let her dare to touch me, or any one under this roof!"</p>
+<p>"What did she say when you threatened
+her?"</p>
+<p>"She put on an injured expression; and said
+she could never believe anything wrong of her dear husband's
+family, if all the 'spectres' in the world told her so."</p>
+<p>"Well, I hope you are safe, but as for
+me&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id=
+"Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, you are, too. You are within my gates.
+To touch you, is to touch me. She fully realizes that. Besides
+brother Thomas is her abject tool in most things; but some things
+even he would not allow."</p>
+<p>Yes, Captain John Alden, son of that John
+Alden who was told by the pretty Puritan maiden, "Speak for
+yourself John," when he went pleading the love-suit of his friend
+Captain Miles Standish; John Alden, captain of the only vessel of
+war belonging to the colony, a man of large property, and occupying
+a place in the very front rank of Boston society, had been arrested
+for witchcraft! What a state of insanity the religious delusion had
+reached, can be seen by this high-handed proceeding.</p>
+<p>Here again we come on to ground in which the
+details given in the old manuscript book, are fully confirmed, in
+every essential particular by existing public records. Mr. Upham,
+whose admirable account of "Salem Witchcraft" has been of great aid
+to me in the preparation of this volume, is evidently puzzled to
+account for Captain Alden's arrest. He is not able to see how the
+gallant Captain could have excited the ire of the "afflicted
+circle." He seems to have been entirely ignorant<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> of
+this case of Dulcibel Burton&mdash;hers doubtless being one of the
+many cases in which the official records were purposely destroyed.
+If he had known of this case, he would have seen the connection
+between it and Captain Alden. It also might have explained the
+continual allusions to the "yellow bird" in so many of the
+trials&mdash;based possibly on Dulcibel's canary, which had been
+given to her by the Captain, and whose habit of kissing her lips
+with its little bill had appeared so mysterious and diabolical to
+the superstitious inhabitants of Salem village.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond's health, as is not to be
+wondered at, had improved sufficiently by the next day, to allow of
+his accompanying Joseph Putnam to the village, to attend Captain
+Alden's examination. The meeting-house was even more crowded than
+usual, such was the absorbing interest taken in the case, owing to
+the Captain's high standing in the province.</p>
+<p>The veteran Captain's own brief account of
+this matter, which has come down to us, does not go into many
+details, and is valuable mainly as showing that he regarded it very
+much in the same light that it is regarded now&mdash;owing probably
+to the fact that while a church member in good<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+standing, he doubtless was a good deal better seaman than church
+member. For he says he was "sent for by the Magistrates of Salem,
+upon the accusation of a company of poor distracted or possessed
+creatures or witches." And he speaks further of them as "wenches
+who played their juggling tricks, falling down, crying out, and
+staring in people's faces."</p>
+<p>The worthy Captain's account is however, as I
+have said, very brief&mdash;and has the tone of one who had been a
+participant, however unwillingly, in a grossly shameful affair,
+alike disgraceful to the colony and to everybody concerned in it.
+For some additional details, I am indebted to the manuscript
+volume.</p>
+<p>Captain Alden had not been arrested in
+Boston. He says himself in his statement, that "he was sent to
+Salem by Mr. Stoughton"&mdash;the Deputy Governor, and
+Chief-Justice of the Special Court that had condemned and executed
+Bridget Bishop, and which was now about to meet again.</p>
+<p>Before the meeting of the magistrates, Master
+Raymond had managed to have a few words with him in private, and
+found that no arrangements with any skipper had yet been made. The
+first negotiations had fallen through, and there was no<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+other foreign vessel at that time in port whose master possessed
+what Captain Alden considered the requisite trustworthiness and
+daring. For he wanted a skipper that would show fight if he was
+pursued and overtaken; not that any actual fighting would probably
+be necessary, for a simple show of resistance would doubtless be
+all that was needed.</p>
+<p>"When I get back to Boston, I think I shall
+be able to arrange matters in the course of a week or
+two."</p>
+<p>"What&mdash;in Boston jail?" queried Master
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"You do not suppose the magistrates will
+commit me on such a trumped-up nonsensical charge as this?" said
+the stout old captain indignantly.</p>
+<p>"Indeed I do," was the reply.</p>
+<p>"Why, there is not a particle of truth in it.
+I never saw these girls. I never even heard of their being in
+existence."</p>
+<p>"Oh, that makes no difference."</p>
+<p>"The devil it doesn't!" said the old man,
+hotly. My readers must remember that he was a seaman.</p>
+<p>Here the sheriff came up and told the Captain
+he was wanted.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id=
+"Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+<h4>Captain Alden before the
+Magistrates.</h4>
+<p>There was an additional magistrate sitting on
+this occasion, Master Bartholomew Gedney&mdash;making three in
+all.</p>
+<p>Mistress Ann Putnam, the she-wolf, as her
+young brother-in-law had called her, was not present among the
+accusers&mdash;leaving the part of the "afflicted" to be played by
+the other and younger members of the circle.</p>
+<p>There was another Captain present, also a
+stranger, a Captain Hill; and he being also a tall man, perplexed
+some of the girls at first. One even pointed at him, until she was
+better informed in a whisper by a man who was holding her up. And
+then she cried out that it was "Alden! Alden!" who was afflicting
+her.</p>
+<p>At length one of the magistrates ordering
+Captain Alden to stand upon a chair, there was no further trouble
+upon that point; and the usual demonstrations began. As the accused
+naturally looked upon the "afflicted" girls, they went off into
+spasms, shrieks and convulsions. This was nearly always the first
+proceeding, as it created<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173"
+id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> a profound sympathy for them, and
+was almost sufficient of itself to condemn the accused.</p>
+<p>"The tall man is pinching me!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, he is choking me!"</p>
+<p>"He is choking me! do hold his
+hands!"</p>
+<p>"He stabs me with his sword&mdash;oh, take it
+away from him!"</p>
+<p>Such were the exclamations that came from the
+writhing and convulsed girls.</p>
+<p>"Turn away his head! and hold his hands!"
+cried Squire Hathorne. "Take away his sword!" said Squire Gedney
+while the old Captain grew red and wrathful at the babel around
+him, and at the indignities to which he was subject.</p>
+<p>"Captain Alden, why do you torment these poor
+girls who never injured you?"</p>
+<p>"Torment them!&mdash;you see I am not
+touching them. I do not even know them; I never saw them before in
+my life," growled the indignant old seaman.</p>
+<p>"See! there is the little yellow bird kissing
+his lips!" cried Abigail Williams. "Now it is whispering into his
+ear. It is bringing him a message from the other witch Dulcibel
+Burton. See! see! there it goes back again to her&mdash;through the
+window!"</p>
+<p>So well was this done, that probably half of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg
+174]</a></span> people present would have been willing to swear the
+next day, that they actually saw the yellow bird as she described
+it.</p>
+<p>"Ask him if he did not give her the yellow
+bird," said Leah Herrick. "But probably he will lie about
+it."</p>
+<p>"Did you not give the witch, Dulcibel Burton,
+a yellow bird, which is one of her familiars?" said Squire Hathorne
+sternly.</p>
+<p>"I gave her a canary bird that I brought from
+the West Indies, if that is what you mean," replied the Captain.
+"But what harm was there in that?"</p>
+<p>"I knew it! The yellow bird told me so, when
+it came to peck out my eyes," cried Mercy Lewis. "Oh! there it is
+again!" and she struck wildly into the air before her face. "Drive
+it away! Do drive it away, some one!"</p>
+<p>Here a young man pulled out his rapier, and
+began thrusting at the invisible bird in a furious
+manner.</p>
+<p>"Now it comes to me!" cried Sarah Churchill.
+And then the other girls also cried out, and began striking into
+the air before their faces, till there was anew a perfect babel of
+cries, shrieks and sympathizing voices.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg
+175]</a></span></p>
+<p>Master Raymond, amid all his indignation at
+such barefaced and wicked and yet successful imposture, could
+hardly avoid smiling at the expression of the old seaman's face as
+he stood on the chair, and fronted all this tempest of absurd and
+villainous accusation. At first there had been a deep crimson glow
+of the hottest wrath upon the old man's cheeks and brow; but now he
+seemed to have been shocked into a kind of stupor, so unexpected
+and weighty were the charges against him, and made with such
+vindictive fierceness; and yet so utterly absurd, while at the same
+time, so impossible of being refuted.</p>
+<p>"He bought the yellow bird from Tituba's
+mother&mdash;her spectre told me so!" cried Abigail
+Williams.</p>
+<p>"What do you say to that, Master Alden?" said
+Squire Gedney. "That is a serious charge."</p>
+<p>"I never saw any Tituba or her mother,"
+exclaimed the Captain, again growing indignant.</p>
+<p>"Who then did you buy the witch's familiar
+of?" asked Squire Hathorne.</p>
+<p>"I do not know&mdash;some old negro
+wench!"</p>
+<p>Here the magistrates looked at each other
+sagely, and nodded their wooden heads. It was a fatal admission.
+"You had better confess all,<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> and give glory to
+God!" said Squire Gedney solemnly.</p>
+<p>"I trust I shall always be ready to give
+glory to God," answered the old man stoutly; "but I do not see that
+it would glorify Him to confess to a pack of lies. You have known
+me for many years, Master Gedney, but did you ever know me to speak
+an untruth, or seek to injure any innocent persons, much less women
+and children?"</p>
+<p>Squire Gedney said that he had known the
+accused many years, and had even been at sea with him, and had
+always supposed him to be an honest man; but now he saw good cause
+to alter that judgment.</p>
+<p>"Turn and look now again upon those afflicted
+persons," concluded Squire Gedney.</p>
+<p>As the accused turned and again looked upon
+them, all of the "afflicted" fell down on the floor as if he had
+struck them a heavy blow&mdash;moaning and crying out against
+him.</p>
+<p>"I judge you by your works; and believe you
+now to be a wicked man and a witch," said Squire Gedney in a very
+severe tone.</p>
+<p>Captain Alden turned then and looked directly
+at the magistrate for several moments. "Why does not my look knock
+you down too?" he said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id=
+"Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> indignantly. "If it hurts them so
+much, would it not hurt you a little?"</p>
+<p>"He wills it not to hurt you," cried Leah
+Herrick. "He is looking at you, but his spectre has its back
+towards you."</p>
+<p>There was quite a roar of applause through
+the crowded house at such an exposure of the old Captain's
+trickery. He was very cunning to be sure; but the "afflicted" girls
+could see through his knavery.</p>
+<p>"Make him touch the poor girls," said the
+Reverend Master Noyes. For it was the accepted theory that by doing
+this, the witch, in spite of himself, reabsorbed into his own body
+the devilish energy that had gone out of him, and the afflicted
+were healed. This was repeatedly done through the progress of these
+examinations and the after trials; and was always found to be
+successful, both as a cure of the sufferers, and an undeniable
+proof that the person accused was really a witch.</p>
+<p>In this case the "afflicted" girls were
+brought up to Captain Alden, one after the other and upon his being
+made to touch them with his hand, they invariably drew a deep
+breath of relief, and said they felt entirely well
+again.</p>
+<p>"You see Captain Alden," said Squire
+Gedney<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg
+178]</a></span> solemnly, "none of the tests fail in your case. If
+there were only one proof, we might doubt; but as the Scripture
+says, by the mouths of two or three witnesses shall the truth be
+established. If you were innocent a just God would not allow you to
+be overcome in this manner."</p>
+<p>"I know that there is a just God, and I know
+that I am entirely innocent" replied the noble old seaman in a firm
+voice. "But it is not for an uninspired man like me, to attempt to
+reconcile the mysteries of His providence. Far better men than I
+am, even prophets and apostles, have been brought before
+magistrates and judges, and their good names lied away, and they
+condemned to the prison and the scaffold and the cross. Why then,
+should I expect to fare better than they did? All I can do, like
+Job of old, is to maintain my integrity&mdash;even though Satan and
+all his imps be let loose for a time against me."</p>
+<p>Here the Reverend Master Noyes rose
+excitedly, and said that the decisions of heathen courts and judges
+were one thing; and the decisions of godly magistrates, who were
+all members of the church of the true God, and therefore inspired
+by his spirit, was a very different thing. He said it was simply
+but another proof of the guilt of the<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> accused, that he
+should compare himself with the apostles and the martyrs; and these
+worshipful Christian magistrates with heathen magistrates and
+judges. Hearing him talk in this ribald way, he could no longer
+doubt the accusation brought against him; for there was no surer
+proof of a man or woman having dealings with Satan, than to defame
+and calumniate God's chosen people.</p>
+<p>As Mr. Noyes took his seat, the magistrates
+said they had heard sufficient, and ordered the committal of the
+accused to Boston prison to await trial.</p>
+<p>"I will give bail for Captain Alden's
+appearance, to the whole amount of my estate," said Joseph Putnam
+coming forward. "A man of his age, who has served the colony in so
+many important positions, should be treated with some
+leniency."</p>
+<p>"We are very sorry for the Captain," answered
+Squire Gedney, "but as this is a capital offence, no bail can be
+taken."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Master Putnam, but I want no
+bail," said the old seaman proudly. "If the colony of Massachusetts
+Bay, which my father helped to build up, and for which I have
+labored so long and faithfully, chooses to requite my services in
+this ungrateful fashion, let it be so. The shame is on
+Massachusetts not on me!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id=
+"Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+<h4>Considering New Plans.</h4>
+<p>"Well, what now?" said Master Joseph Putnam
+to his guest, as they rode homeward. "You might give up the
+sea-route and try a push through the wilderness to the Hudson
+River."</p>
+<p>"Rather dangerous that."</p>
+<p>"Yes, unless you could secure the services of
+some heathen savages to pilot you through."</p>
+<p>"Could we trust them?"</p>
+<p>"Twenty years ago, according to my father's
+old stories, we could; but they are very bitter now&mdash;they do
+not keep much faith with white men.</p>
+<p>"Perhaps the white men have not kept much
+faith with them."</p>
+<p>"Of course not. You know they are the
+heathen; and we have a Bible communion to exterminate them, and
+drive them out of our promised land."</p>
+<p>"Do you believe that?"</p>
+<p>"Well, not exactly," and Master Joseph
+laughed. "Besides, I think the Quaker plan both cheaper in the end
+and a great deal safer. Not that I believe they have any more right
+to the land than we have."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181"
+id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Penn and the Quakers think
+differently."</p>
+<p>"I know they do&mdash;but they are a set of
+crazy enthusiasts."</p>
+<p>"What is your view? That of your ministers?
+The earth is the Lord's. He has given it to His saints. We are the
+saints."</p>
+<p>Master Joseph laughed again. "Well, something
+like that. The earth is the Lord's. He has intended it for the use
+of His children. We are His children quite as much as the savages.
+Therefore we have as much right to it as they have."</p>
+<p>"Only they happen to be in possession,"
+replied Master Raymond, drily.</p>
+<p>"Are they in possession? So far as they are
+actually in possession, I admit their right. But do you seriously
+mean that a few hundred or thousand of wild heathen, have a right
+to prior occupancy to the whole North American continent? It seems
+to me absurd?"</p>
+<p>"A relative of mine has ten square miles in
+Scotland that he never occupies, in your sense of the word any more
+than your red-men do; and yet he is held to have a valid right to
+it, against the hundreds of peasants who would like to enter in and
+take possession."</p>
+<p>"Oh, plenty of things are done wrong in the
+old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg
+182]</a></span> world," replied Master Putnam; "that is why we
+Puritans are over here. But still the fact remains that the earth
+is the Lord's and that He intended it for His children's use; and
+no merely legal or personal right can be above that. If ever the
+time comes that your relative's land is really needed by the people
+at large, why then some way will have to be contrived to get hold
+of it for them."</p>
+<p>"The Putnam family have a good many broad
+acres too," said Master Raymond, with a smile, looking around
+him.</p>
+<p>"Oh, you cannot scare me," replied his
+friend, also smiling. "What is sauce for the Campbell goose is
+sauce for the Putnam gander. If the time ever comes when the public
+good requires that the broad lands of the Putnams&mdash;if there be
+any Putnams at that time&mdash;have to be appropriated to meet the
+wants of their fellow men, then the broad Putnam lands will have to
+go like the rest, I imagine. We have taken them from the Indians,
+just as the Normans took them from the Saxons&mdash;and as the
+Saxons took them from the Danes and the ancient
+inhabitants&mdash;by the strong hand. But the sword can give no
+right&mdash;save as the claim of the public good is behind it. Show
+me that the public good requires it, and I am will<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>ing
+that the title-deeds for my own share of the broad Putnam lands
+shall be burnt up tomorrow."</p>
+<p>"I believe you, my dear friend," said Master
+Raymond, gazing with admiration upon the manly, glowing face of
+this nature's nobleman. "And I am inclined to think that your whole
+view of the matter is correct. But, coming back to our first point,
+do you know of any savage that we could trust to guide us safely to
+the settlements on the Hudson?"</p>
+<p>"If old king Philip, whose head has been
+savagely exposed to all weathers on the gibbet at Plymouth for the
+last sixteen years, were alive, something perhaps might be done.
+His safeguard would have carried you through."</p>
+<p>"Is there not another chief, called
+Nucas?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, old Nucas, of the Mohegans. He was a
+character! But he died ten years ago. Lassacus, too, was killed.
+There are a couple of Pequod settlements down near New Haven I
+believe; but they are too far off."</p>
+<p>"And then you could not tell me where to put
+my hand on some dozen or so of the Indians, whom I might engage as
+a convoy."</p>
+<p>"Not now. A roving party may pass in the
+woods at any time. But they would not be very<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+reliable. If they could make more by selling your scalps than by
+keeping them safely on your heads, they would be pretty sure to
+sell them."</p>
+<p>"Then I see nothing to do, but to go again to
+Boston, and arrange another scheme on the old plan."</p>
+<p>"You ought not to travel long in Dulcibel's
+company without being married," said Master Putnam
+bluntly.</p>
+<p>"Very true&mdash;but we can not well be
+married without giving our names to the minister; and to do that,
+would be to deliver ourselves up to the authorities."</p>
+<p>"Mistress Putnam and myself might accompany
+you to New York&mdash;we should not mind a little trip."</p>
+<p>"And thus make yourselves parties to
+Dulcibel's escape? No, no, my good friend&mdash;that would be to
+put you both in prison in her place."</p>
+<p>"It is not likely there would be any other
+woman on board the vessel&mdash;that is of any reputation. You must
+try to get some one to go with you."</p>
+<p>"And incur the certainty of punishment when
+she returns?"</p>
+<p>"Perhaps you could find some one who would
+like to settle permanently in New York. I should<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> like
+to go myself if I could, and get out of this den of wild
+beasts."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I may be able to do that&mdash;though I
+shall not dare to try that until the last day almost&mdash;for the
+women always have some man to consult, and thus our secret plan
+would get blown about, to our great peril."</p>
+<p>"I have a scheme!" cried Master Joseph in
+exultation. "It is the very thing," and he burst out laughing.
+"Kidnap Cotton Mather, or one of the other Boston ministers, and
+take him with you."</p>
+<p>"That would be a bold stroke," replied Master
+Raymond, also laughing heartily. "But, like belling the cat, it is
+easier said than done. Ministers are apt to be cautious and wary.
+They are timid folk."</p>
+<p>"Not when a wedding is to be solemnized, and
+a purse of gold-pieces is shaken before them," returned Master
+Putnam. "Have everything ready to sail. Then decoy the minister on
+board, to marry a wealthy foreign gentleman, a friend of the
+skipper's&mdash;and do not let him go again. Pay him enough and the
+skipper will think it a first rate joke."</p>
+<p>"But he might be so angry that he would
+refuse to marry us after all our trouble."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg
+186]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, do not you believe that&mdash;if you
+make the fee large enough. Treat him kindly, represent to him the
+absolute necessity of the case, say that you never would have
+thought of such a thing if it could in any way have been avoided,
+and I'll warrant he will do the job before you reach New
+York."</p>
+<p>"I wish I felt as certain as you
+do."</p>
+<p>"Well, suppose he will not be mollified. What
+then? Your end is attained. He has acted as chaperon, and
+involuntary master of propriety whether he would or not. A minister
+is just as good as a matron to chaperon the maiden. Of course he
+will have his action for damages against you, and you will be
+willing to pay him fairly, but if he brings you before a jury of
+New Yorkers, and you simply relate the facts, and the necessity of
+the case, little will he get of damages beyond a plentiful supply
+of jokes and laughter. You know there is very little love lost
+between the people of the two colonies; and that the Manhattan
+people have no more respect for all the witchcraft business, than
+you and I have."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond made no reply. He did not want
+to kidnap a minister, if it could be in any way avoided. With
+Master Putnam, however, that<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> seemed to be one of
+the most desirable features of the proposed plan, only he was
+tenfold more sorry now than ever, that such weighty prudential
+reasons prevented his taking any active share in the enterprise. To
+kidnap a minister&mdash;especially if it could be the Reverend
+Cotton Mather&mdash;seemed to him something which was worth almost
+the risking of his liberty and property in which to take a
+hand.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id=
+"Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+<h4>The Dissimulation of Master
+Raymond.</h4>
+<p>About this time the gossips of Salem village
+began to remark upon the attentions that were being paid by the
+wealthy young Englishman, Master Ellis Raymond, to various members
+of the "afflicted circle." He petted those bright and terribly
+precocious children of twelve, Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams; he
+almost courted the older girls, Mary Walcot, Mercy Lewis and Leah
+Herrick and had a kindly word for Mary Warren, Sarah Churchill and
+others, whenever he saw them. As for Mistress Ann Putnam, the
+mother, he always had been very respectful to her. While in Boston
+he had purchased quite an assortment of those little articles which
+the Puritan elders usually denominated "gew-gaws" and "vain
+adornments" and it was observed that Abigail Williams especially
+had been given a number of these, while the other girls had one or
+more of them, which they were very careful in not displaying except
+at those times when no grave elder or deacon was present to be
+shocked by them.</p>
+<p>I will acknowledge that there was some
+dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg
+189]</a></span>simulation in this conduct of Master Raymond's, and
+Joseph Putnam by no means approved of it.</p>
+<p>"How you can go smiling around that den of
+big and little she-wolves, patting the head of one, and playing
+with the paw of another, I cannot understand, friend Raymond. I
+would not do it to save my life."</p>
+<p>"Nor I," answered Master Raymond gravely.
+"But I would do it to save your life, friend Joseph, or that of
+your sweet young wife there&mdash;or that of the baby which she
+holds upon her knee."</p>
+<p>"Or that of Mistress Dulcibel Burton!" added
+sweet Mistress Putnam kindly.</p>
+<p>"Yes, or that of Dulcibel Burton."</p>
+<p>"You know, my dear friends, the plan I have
+in view may fail. If that should fail, I am laying the foundation
+of another&mdash;so that if Dulcibel should be brought to trial,
+the witnesses that are relied upon may fail to testify so wantonly
+against her. Even little Abigail Williams has the assurance and
+ingenuity to save her, if she will."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that precocious child is a very imp of
+Satan," said Joseph Putnam. "What a terrible woman she will
+make."</p>
+<p>"Oh, no, she may sink down into a very tame
+and commonplace woman, after this tremendous<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+excitement is over," rejoined his friend. "I think at times I see
+symptoms of it now. The strain is too great for her childish
+brain."</p>
+<p>"Well, I suppose your dissimulation is
+allowable if it is to save the life of your betrothed," said Master
+Putnam, "but I would not do it if I could and I could not if I
+would."</p>
+<p>"Do you remember Junius Brutus playing
+idiot&mdash;and King David playing imbecile?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I know you have plenty of authority for
+your dissimulation."</p>
+<p>"It seems to me," joined in young Mistress
+Putnam, "that the difference between you is simply this. Joseph
+could not conscientiously do it; and you can."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that is about the gist of it," said her
+young husband. "And now that I have relieved my conscience by
+protesting against your course, I am satisfied you should go on in
+your own way just the same."</p>
+<p>"And yet you feel no conscientious scruples
+against abducting the minister," rejoined Raymond laughing; "a
+thing which I am rather loath to do."</p>
+<p>"I see," replied Joseph, also laughing. "I
+scruple at taking mustard, and you at cayenne<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+pepper. It is a matter of mental organization probably."</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and if a few or many doses of
+mustard will prevent my being arrested as a witch, which would put
+it entirely out of my power to aid Dulcibel in her
+affliction&mdash;and perhaps turn some of the "afflicted" girls
+over to her side, in case she has to stand a trial for her
+life&mdash;I shall certainly swallow them with as much grace as if
+they were so many spoonfuls of honey. There is a time to be
+over-scrupulous, friend Joseph, but not when my beloved one is in
+the cage of the tigers. Yes, I shall not hesitate to meet craft
+with craft."</p>
+<p>And Mistress Putnam, sweet, good woman as she
+was, nodded her head, woman-like, approvingly, carried away perhaps
+by the young man's earnestness, and by the strength of his
+love.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id=
+"Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
+<h4>The Cruel Doings of the Special
+Court.</h4>
+<p>Meanwhile the Special Court of seven
+Judges&mdash;a majority of whom were from Boston, with the Deputy
+Governor of the Colony, William Stoughten, as
+Chief-Justice&mdash;was by no means indolent. Of the proceedings of
+this court, which embodied apparently the best legal intellect of
+the colony, no official record is in existence. Its shameful pages,
+smeared all over with bigotry and blood, no doubt were purposely
+destroyed. So far as we are acquainted with the evidence given
+before it, it was substantially the same as had been given at the
+previous examinations before the committing magistrates.</p>
+<p>That nothing was too extravagant and absurd
+to be received as evidence by this learned court, is proven by the
+statement of the Reverend Cotton Mather, already alluded to,
+relative to a demon entering the meeting-house and tearing down a
+part of it, in obedience to a look from Mistress Bridget
+Bishop&mdash;of which diabolical outrage the Court was duly
+informed. Besides, there could have been no other kind of evidence
+forthcoming,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id=
+"Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> that would apply to the crime of
+which all the accused were charged, Witchcraft. Many of the
+prisoners indeed were accused of murdering children and others,
+whose illness had been beyond the physician's power to cure; but
+the murders were all committed, it was alleged, by the use of
+"spectres," "familiars," "puppets," and other supernatural means.
+Against such accusations it was impossible for men and women of the
+highest character and reputation to make any effectual defence,
+before a court and jury given over so completely to religious
+fanaticism and superstitious fancies. To be accused was therefore
+to be condemned.</p>
+<p>Yes, this Special Court, having had all its
+misgivings, if it ever really had any, quieted by the answer of the
+council of ministers, was doing quick and fearful work.</p>
+<p>Meeting again in the latter part of June, it
+speedily tried, convicted and sentenced to death five
+persons:&mdash;Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth How, Susanna
+Martin and Rebecca Nurse.</p>
+<p>Then, adjourning till August 5th, it tried
+and convicted George Burroughs, John Procter, Elizabeth Procter,
+George Jacobs, John Willard and Martha Carrier.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg
+194]</a></span></p>
+<p>Then meeting on September 9th, it tried and
+condemned Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker and Ann Pudcator;
+and on September 17th, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Reed, Samuel Wardwell
+and Mary Parker.</p>
+<p>It will be noticed that of the above nineteen
+persons, only five were men. As the greater number of the accusers
+were also of the female sex, it was natural, I suppose, that this
+should be so. And thus we find that the word witch is applied
+indifferently in the old records, to men and women; the masculine
+term wizard being seldom used.</p>
+<p>That the learned Judges were fully as
+superstitious as the people at large, is conclusively proved by
+certain facts that have come down to us. In the case of that lovely
+and venerable matron, Rebecca Nurse, the jury at first brought in
+the verdict "Not guilty."</p>
+<p>But immediately all the accusers in the
+Court, and all the "afflicted" out of it, made a hideous outcry.
+Two of the Judges said they were not satisfied. The Chief-Justice
+intimated that there was one admission of the prisoner that the
+jury had not properly considered. These things induced the jurors
+to go out again, and come back with a verdict of
+"Guilty."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg
+195]</a></span></p>
+<p>One of the charges against Rebecca Nurse,
+testified to by Edward Putnam, was that, after the said Rebecca
+Nurse had been committed to jail, and was thus several miles
+distant in the town of Salem, "she, the said Nurse, struck Mistress
+Ann Putnam with her spectral chain, leaving a mark, being a kind of
+round ring, and three streaks across the ring. She had six blows
+with a chain in the space of half-an-hour; and she had one
+remarkable one, with six streaks across her arm. Ann Putnam, Jr.,
+also was bitten by the spectre of the said Rebecca Nurse about two
+o'clock of the day. I, Edward Putnam, saw the marks, both of bite
+and chains."</p>
+<p>It was a great hardship in all these trials,
+that the prisoners were not allowed any counsel; while on the other
+hand, the members of the Court seemed to take it for granted from
+the first, that they were guilty. The only favor allowed them was
+the right of objecting to a certain extent to those jurors whose
+fairness they mistrusted.</p>
+<p>One of the accused, a reputable and aged
+farmer named Giles Corey, refused to plead. His wife, Martha Corey,
+was among the convicted. At her examination, some time previous, he
+had allowed himself to testify in certain respects against
+her;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg
+196]</a></span> involved as he was for a time in the prevailing
+delusion. But he was a man of strong mind and character; and though
+not entirely able to throw off the chains which superstition had
+woven around him, he repented very sorely the part he had taken
+against his wife. This was enough to procure his own accusation.
+The "afflicted girls" brought their usual complaints that his
+spectre tormented them. They fell down and shrieked so wildly at
+his examination, that Squire Hathorne asked him with great
+indignation, "Is it not enough that you should afflict these girls
+at other times without doing it now in our presence?"</p>
+<p>The honest and sturdy man was visibly
+affected. He knew he was not consciously doing anything; but what
+could it all mean? If he turned his head, the girls said he was
+hurting them and turned their heads the same way. The Court ordered
+his hands tied&mdash;and then the girls said they were easier. But
+he drew in his cheeks, after a habit he had, and the cheeks of the
+girls were sucked in also, giving them great pain. The old man was
+fairly dumfounded. When however one of the girls testified that
+Goodman Corey had told her that he saw the devil in the shape of a
+black hog in the cow-house, and was very much frightened
+by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg
+197]</a></span> it, the spirited old man said that he never was
+frightened by man or devil in his life.</p>
+<p>But he had a fair property, and two
+sons-in-law to whom he wished to leave it. He knew well that if he
+were tried he would be convicted, and that would carry with it the
+confiscation of his property. So, as other noble-hearted men had
+done in that and the previous age, he refused when brought before
+the Special Court, to plead either "guilty" or "not guilty." In
+these later times the presiding Judge would simply order a plea of
+"not guilty" to be entered, and the trial would proceed. But then
+it was otherwise&mdash;the accused himself must plead, or the trial
+could not go on. Therefore he must be made to plead&mdash;by
+placing heavy weights upon his breast, and adding to them until the
+accused either agreed to plead, or died under the torture. In which
+last case, the prisoner lost his life as contumacious; but gained
+his point of preserving his estate, and title of nobility if he had
+any, to his family.</p>
+<p>So, manly old Giles Corey, remorseful for the
+fate he had helped to bring upon his wife, and determined that his
+children should inherit the property he had acquired, maintained a
+determined silence when brought before the Special<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
+Court. Being warned, again and again, he simply smiled. He could
+bear all that they in their cruel mockery of justice could inflict
+upon him.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond rode down to
+Salem that day&mdash;to the orchard where the brave old man was led
+out of jail to meet his doom. They saw him, tied hand and foot, and
+heavy flat stones and iron weights laid one by one upon
+him.</p>
+<p>"More! More!" pleaded the old man at last. "I
+shall never yield. But, if ye be men, make the time
+short!"</p>
+<p>"I cannot stand this," said Master
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"We are powerless to help him&mdash;let us
+go."</p>
+<p>"To torture an old man of eighty years in
+this way! What a sight for this new world!" exclaimed Master
+Putnam, as they turned their horses' heads and rode off.</p>
+<p>His executioners took Giles Corey at his
+word. They knew the old man would never yield. So they mercifully
+heaped the heavy weights upon him until they had crushed out his
+life.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id=
+"Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+<h4>Dulcibel's Life in Prison.</h4>
+<p>Dulcibel's life in prison was of course a
+very monotonous one. She did not suffer however as did many other
+women of equally gentle nature. In the jails of Ipswich, Boston and
+Cambridge, there were keepers who conformed in most cases strictly
+to the law. In many instances delicate and weakly women, often of
+advanced years, were chained, hands and feet, with heavy irons,
+night and day.</p>
+<p>But Robert Foster and his son, who assisted
+him as under-keeper, while indulging before the marshal and the
+constables in the utmost violence and severity of language, and who
+were supposed to be strict enforcers of all the instructions
+received from the magistrates, were as we have seen, at heart, very
+liberal and kind-hearted men. And the only fear the prisoners had,
+was that they would throw up their positions some day in disgust.
+Uncle Robie often declared to Dulcibel that he would, when she was
+once fairly out of the clutches of her enemies.</p>
+<p>Every now and then instructions would come
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg
+200]</a></span> jailer Foster from one of the
+magistrates&mdash;generally Squire Hathorne&mdash;to put heavier
+irons on some one of the prisoners, whose spectre was still
+tormenting the "afflicted girls." It being generally held that the
+more heavily you chained a witch, the less able she was to afflict
+her victims. And at these times Master Foster would get out his
+heaviest irons, parade them before the eyes of the constables,
+declare in a fierce tone what he was about to do, get the constable
+off on one pretext or another&mdash;and do nothing.</p>
+<p>It was thought best and wisest for neither
+Master Joseph Putnam nor Master Raymond to seek many interviews
+with Dulcibel; the means of intercourse between the two lovers
+being restricted to little notes, which goodwife Buckley, who
+frequently visited the maiden, transmitted from one to the other
+through the agency of either her husband or of Joseph Putnam. This
+kept them both in heart; and Dulcibel being sustained by the
+frequent assurances of her lover's devotion, and by the hope of
+escape, kept the roses of her cheeks in marvelous bloom during her
+close confinement.</p>
+<p>One of the constables, who managed to get
+sight of her one day through the half-opened door of her cell,
+expressed surprise to the jailer that she should<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>
+still look so blooming, considering the weight of the heavy chains
+to which she was continually subjected.</p>
+<p>"And why should not the young witch look so?"
+replied the jailer. "Is not her spectre riding around on that
+devil's mare half the night, and having a good time of
+it?"</p>
+<p>The constable assented to this view of the
+case; and his suspicions, if he had any, were quieted. In fact even
+Squire Hathorne himself probably would have been perfectly
+satisfied with an explanation of so undeniable a
+character.</p>
+<p>Of course it was not considered prudent by
+Uncle Robie, that the furniture or general appearance of Dulcibel's
+cell should be changed in the least for the better. Not even a
+bunch of flowers that Goodwife Buckley once brought to Dulcibel,
+could be allowed to remain there. While in a corner of the cell,
+lay the heavy chains which, if the marshal or one of the
+magistrates, should insist upon seeing the prisoner, could be
+slipped on her wrists and ankles in a few minutes. Fortunately,
+however, for Dulcibel, the interest of all these was now centered
+upon the trials that were in progress, the contumacious obstinacy
+of Giles Corey, the host of new accusations at Ipswich and other
+neighbor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg
+202]</a></span>ing places, and the preparations for the execution
+of those already condemned to death.</p>
+<p>If they had a passing thought of the young
+witch Dulcibel Burton, it was that her time would come rapidly
+around in its turn, when speedy justice no doubt would be done to
+her.</p>
+<p>As to Antipas, her faithful servitor, he had
+relapsed again into his old staidness and sobriety in the
+comparative quietude of the prison. Only on the day of Giles
+Corey's execution had the prevailing excitement attending that
+event, and which naturally affected the constables and jailers,
+made him raging. To pass the constable's inspection, as well as for
+his own safety, the jailer had chained him; but his voice could be
+heard ringing through the closed door of his cell at intervals from
+morning till evening.</p>
+<p>The burden of his thoughts seemed to be a
+blending of denunciation and exultation. The predictions of the
+four Quakers executed many years before on Boston common, and those
+of men and women who had been whipped at the cart's tail through
+the towns of the colony, evidently seemed to him in progress of
+fulfillment:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"They have torn the righteous to pieces; now
+the judgment is upon them, and they are tearing<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> each
+other! Woe to the bloody towns of Boston and Salem and Ipswich!
+Satan is let loose by the Lord upon them! They have slain the
+saints, they have supped full of innocent blood; now the blood of
+their own sons, their own daughters, is filling the cup of God's
+vengeance! They have tortured the innocent women, the innocent
+children&mdash;and banished them and sold them to the Philistines
+as slaves. But the Lord will avenge His own elect! They are given
+up to believe a lie! The persecutors are persecuting each other!
+They are pressing each other to death beneath heavy stones! They
+are hanging each other on the gallows of Haman! Where they hung the
+innocent, they are hanging themselves! Oh, God! avenge now the
+blood of thy Saints! As they have done, let it be done unto them!
+Whip and kill! Whip and kill! Ha! ha! ha!"&mdash;and with a
+blood-curdling laugh that rang through the narrow passages of the
+prison, the insane old man would fall down for a time on his bed
+exhausted.</p>
+<p>That was an awful day, both outside and
+inside the prison&mdash;for all the prisoners knew what a savage
+death old Giles Corey was meeting. It seemed to Dulcibel
+afterwards, that if she had not been sustained by the power of
+love, and a hopeful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id=
+"Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> looking forward to other scenes, she
+must have herself gone crazy during that and the other evil days
+that were upon them. To some of the prisoners, the most fragile and
+sensitive ones, even the hour of their execution seemed to come as
+a relief. Anything, to get outside of those close dark
+cells&mdash;and to make an end of it!</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id=
+"Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+<h4>Eight Legal Murders on Witch
+Hill.</h4>
+<p>A mile or so outside of the town of Salem,
+the ground rises into a rocky ledge, from the top of which, to the
+south and the east and the west, a vast expanse of land and sea is
+visible. You overlook the town; the two rivers, or branches of the
+sea, between which the town lies; the thickly wooded country, as it
+was then, to the south and west; and the wide, open sea to the
+eastward.</p>
+<p>Such a magnificent prospect of widespread
+land and water is seldom seen away from the mountain regions; and,
+as one stands on the naked brow of the hill, on a clear summer day,
+as the sunset begins to dye the west, and gazes on the scene before
+and around him, he feels that the heavens are not so very far
+distant, and as if he could almost touch with these mortal hands
+the radiance and the glory.</p>
+<p>The natural sublimity of this spot seems to
+have struck the Puritan fathers of Salem, and looking around on its
+capabilities, they appear to have come to the conclusion that of
+all places it was the one expressly designed by the loving Father
+of mankind for&mdash;a gallows!<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Yes, the very spot for a gallows!" said the
+first settlers. "The very spot!" echoed their descendants. "See,
+the wild "Heathen Salvages" can behold it from far and near; the
+free spoken, law-abiding sailors can descry it, far out at sea; and
+both know by this sign that they are approaching a land of
+Christian civilization and of godly law!"</p>
+<p>I think if I were puzzled for an emblem to
+denote the harsher and more uncharitable side of the Puritan
+character, I should pick out this gallows on Witch Hill near Salem,
+as being a most befitting one.</p>
+<p>This was the spot where, as we have already
+related, approaching it from the north, Master Raymond had his
+interview with jailer Foster. But that was night, and it was so
+dark that Master Raymond had no idea of its commanding so fine a
+view of both land and water. He had been in Boston during the
+execution of poor Bridget Bishop; and though he had often seen the
+gallows from below, and wondered at the grim taste which had reared
+it in such a conspicuous spot, he had never felt the least desire,
+but rather a natural aversion, to approach the place where such an
+unrighteous deed had been enacted.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
+<p>But now the carpenters had been again at work
+and supplanted the old scaffolding by another and larger one. Now
+the uprights had been added too&mdash;and on the beam which they
+supported there was room for at least ten persons. This seemed to
+be enough space to Marshall Herrick and Squire Hathorne; though at
+the rate the arrests and convictions were going on, it might be
+that one-half of the people in the two Salems and in Ipswich, would
+be hung in the course of a year or so by the other half.</p>
+<p>But for this special hanging, only eight
+ropes and nooses were prepared. The workmen had been employed the
+preceding afternoon; and now in the fresh morning light, everything
+was ready; and eight of those who had been condemned were to be
+executed.</p>
+<p>The town, and village, and country around
+turned out, as was natural, in a mass, to see the terrible sight.
+And yet the crowd was comparatively a small one, the colony then
+being so thinly settled. But this, to Master Raymond's eyes, gave a
+new horror to the scene. If there had been a crowd like that when
+London brought together its thousands at Tyburn, it would have
+seemed less appalling. But here were a few
+people&mdash;not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id=
+"Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> alienated from each other by
+ancestral differences in creed or politics, and who had never seen
+each other's faces before&mdash;but members of the same little band
+which had fled together from their old home, holding the same
+political views, the same religious faith; who had sat on the same
+benches at church, eaten at the same table of the Lord's supper,
+near neighbors on their farms, or in the town and village streets;
+now hunting each other down like wolves, and hanging each other up
+in cold blood! This it was that set apart the Salem persecution
+from all other persecutions of those old days against witches and
+heretics; and which has given it a painful pre-eminence in horror.
+It was neighbor hanging neighbor; and brother and sister
+persecuting to death with the foulest lies and juggling tricks
+their spiritual brothers and sisters. And the plea of "delusion"
+will not excuse it, except to those who have not investigated its
+studied cruelty and malice. Sheer, unadulterated wickedness had its
+full share in the persecution; and that wickedness can only be
+partly extenuated by the plea of possible insanity or of demoniacal
+possession.</p>
+<a name="col03" id="col03"></a>
+<div class="figcenter"><a href="images/col03.jpg"><img src="images/col03_th.jpg"
+alt="Marched from jail for the last time" title="Marched from jail for the last time" /></a></div>
+<div class="figcenter"><span class=
+"caption"><small>Marched from jail for the last
+time</small></span></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id=
+"Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>The route to the gallows hill was a
+rough and difficult one; but the condemned were marched from the
+jail for the last time, one by one, and compelled to walk attended
+by a small guard and a rude and jeering company. There was Rebecca
+Nurse, infirm but venerable and lovely, the beloved mother of a
+large family; there was the Reverend George Burroughs, a small dark
+man, whose great physical strength was enough, as the Reverend
+Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College, said, to prove
+he was a witch; but who did not believe in infant baptism, and
+probably was not up to the orthodox standard of the day in other
+respects, though in conduct a very correct and exemplary man; there
+was old John Procter, with his two staffs, and long thin white
+hair; there was John Willard, a good, innocent young man, lied to
+death by Susanna Sheldon, aged eighteen; there was unhappy Martha
+Carrier four of whose children, one a girl of eight, had been
+frightened into testifying before the Special Court against her;
+saying that their mother had taken them to a witch meeting, and
+that the Devil had promised her that she should be queen of hell;
+there was gentle, patient and saintlike Elizabeth How, with
+"Father, forgive them!" on her mild lips; and two others of whom we
+now know little, save that they were most falsely and wickedly
+accused.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg
+210]</a></span></p>
+<p>There also were the circle of the
+"afflicted," gazing with hard dry eyes on the murder they had done
+and with jeers and scoffs on their thin and cruel lips.</p>
+<p>There, too, were the reverend ministers,
+Master Parris of Salem village, and Master Noyes of Salem town, and
+Master Cotton Mather, who had come down from Boston in his black
+clothes, like a buzzard that scents death and blood a long way off,
+to lend his spiritual countenance to the terrible
+occasion.</p>
+<p>Master Noyes, however, the most of the time,
+seemed rather quiet and subdued. He was thinking perhaps of Sarah
+Good's fierce prediction, when he urged her, as she came up to the
+gallows to confess, saying to her that, "she was a witch, and she
+knew it!" Outraged beyond all endurance at this last insult at such
+a moment, Sarah Good cried out: "It is a lie! I am no more a witch
+than you are. God will yet give you blood to drink for this day's
+cruel work!" Which prediction it is said in Salem, came
+true&mdash;Master Noyes dying of an internal hemorrhage bleeding
+profusely at the mouth.</p>
+<p>It was not a scene that men of sound and
+kindly hearts would wish to witness; and yet Joseph Putnam and
+Ellis Raymond felt drawn to it by an<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> irresistible sense of
+duty. Hard, indeed, it was for Master Raymond; for the necessity of
+the case compelled him to suppress all show of sympathy with the
+sufferer, in order that he might more effectually carry out his
+plans for Dulcibel's escape from the similar penalty that menaced
+her. And he, therefore, could not even ride around like Master
+Putnam, with a frowning face, uttering occasional emphatic
+expressions of his indignation and horror, that the crowd would
+probably not have endured from any one else.</p>
+<p>There were some incidents that were
+especially noticeable. Samuel Wardwell had "confessed" in his fear,
+but subsequently taken back his false confession, and met his
+death. While he was speaking at the foot of the gallows declaring
+his innocence, the tobacco smoke from the pipe of the executioner,
+blew into his face and interrupted him.</p>
+<p>Then one of the accusing girls laughed out,
+and said that "the Devil did hinder him," but Joseph Putnam cried,
+"If the Devil does hinder him, then it is good proof that he is not
+one of his." At which some few of the crowd applauded; while others
+said that Master Putnam himself was no better than he ought to
+be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg
+212]</a></span></p>
+<p>The Reverend Master Burroughs, when upon the
+ladder, addressing the crowd, asserted earnestly his entire
+innocence. Such was the effect of his words that Master Raymond
+even hoped that an effort would be made to rescue him. But one of
+the "afflicted girls" cried out, "See! there stands the black man
+in the air at his side."</p>
+<p>Then another said, "The black man is telling
+him what to say."</p>
+<p>But Master Burroughs answered: "Then I will
+repeat the Lord's prayer. Would the Devil tell me to say
+that?"</p>
+<p>But when he had ended, Master Cotton Mather,
+who was riding around on his horse, said to the people that "the
+Devil often transformed himself into an angel of light; and that
+Master Burroughs was not a rightly ordained minister;" and the
+executioner at a sign from the official, cut the matter short by
+turning off the condemned man.</p>
+<p>Rebecca Nurse and the other women, with the
+exception of their last short prayers, said
+nothing&mdash;submitting quietly and composedly to their legal
+murder. And before the close of one short hour eight lifeless
+bodies hung dangling beneath the summer sun.</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond, and
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg
+213]</a></span> few others upon whom the solemn words of the
+condemned had made an evident impression, turned away from the sad
+sight, and wiped their tearful eyes. But Master Parris and Master
+Noyes, and Master Cotton Mather seemed rather exultant than
+otherwise; though Master Noyes did say; "What a sad thing it is to
+see eight firebrands of hell hanging there!" But, as Master Cotton
+Mather more consistently answered: "Why should godly ministers be
+sad to see the firebrands of hell in the burning."</p>
+<p>Then, as the hours went on, the bodies were
+cut down, and stuck into short and shallow graves, dug out with
+difficulty between the rocks&mdash;in some instances, the ground
+not covering them entirely. There some remained without further
+attention; but, in the case of others, whose relatives were still
+true to them, there came loving hands by night, and bore the
+remains away to find a secret sepulcher, where none could molest
+them.</p>
+<p>But the gallows remained on the Hill, where
+it could be seen from a great distance; causing a thrill of wonder
+in the bosom of the wandering savage, as of the wandering sailor,
+gazing at its skeleton outline against the sunset sky from far out
+at sea&mdash;waiting for ten more victims!</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id=
+"Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>
+<h4>A New Plan of Escape.</h4>
+<p>About this time a new plan of escape was
+suggested to Master Raymond; coming to him in a note from
+Dulcibel.</p>
+<p>Master Philip English, one of the wealthiest
+inhabitants of Salem town, and his wife Mary, had been
+arrested&mdash;the latter a short time previous to her husband. He
+was a merchant managing a large business, owning fourteen houses in
+the town, a wharf, and twenty-one vessels. He had one of the best
+dwellings in Salem&mdash;situated at its eastern end, and having a
+fine outlook over the adjacent seas. He had probably offended some
+one in his business transactions; or, supposing that he was safely
+entrenched in his wealth and high social position, he might have
+expressed some decided opinions, relative to Mistress Ann Putnam
+and the "afflicted children."</p>
+<p>As for his wife, she was a lady of exalted
+character who had been an only child and had inherited a large
+property from her father. The deputy-marshall, Manning, came to
+arrest her in the night time, during her husband's absence. She
+had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg
+215]</a></span> retired to her bed; but he was admitted to her
+chamber, where he read the warrant for her apprehension. He allowed
+her till morning, however, placing guards around the house that she
+might not escape. Knowing that such an accusation generally meant
+conviction and death, "she arose calmly in the morning, attended
+the family prayers, spoke to a near relative of the best plan for
+the education of her children, kissed them with great composure,
+amid their agony of cries and tears, and then told the officer that
+she was ready to die."</p>
+<p>On her examination the usual scene ensued,
+and the usual falsehoods were told. Perhaps the "afflicted girls"
+were a little more bitter than they would have been, had she not
+laughed outright at a portion of their testimony. She was a very
+nice person in her habits, and it was testified against her, that
+being out one day in the streets of Salem walking around on visits
+to her friends during a whole morning, notwithstanding the streets
+were exceedingly sloppy and muddy, it could not be perceived that
+her shoes and white stockings were soiled in the least. As we have
+said, at this singular proof of her being a witch, the intelligent
+lady had laughed outright. And this of course brought<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> out
+the additional statement, that she had been carried along on the
+back of an invisible "familiar"&mdash;a spectral blue boar&mdash;the
+whole way. Of course this was sufficient, and she was committed
+for trial.</p>
+<p>And now wealthy Master Philip English and his
+wife were both in prison; and he daily concocting plans by which he
+might find himself on the deck of the fastest sailer of all those
+twenty-one vessels of his.</p>
+<p>Uncle Robie had thought this might be also a
+good opportunity for Dulcibel. And it struck Master Raymond the
+same way; while Master English had no objection, especially as it
+was mainly for Dulcibel that the jailer would open the prison
+doors. And this was better than the violence he had at first
+contemplated; for, as his vessels gradually began to accumulate in
+port, owing to the interruption to his business caused by his
+arrest, he had only to give the word, and a party of his sailors
+would have broken open the prison some dark night, and released him
+from captivity.</p>
+<p>The "Albatross," Master English's fastest
+sailer at length came into port; and the arrangements were speedily
+made. The first north-westerly<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> wind, whether the
+night were clear or stormy&mdash;though of course with such a wind
+it would probably be clear&mdash;the attempt was to be made,
+immediately after midnight. Uncle Robie was to unlock the
+jail-doors, let them out, lock the doors again behind them, and
+have a plentiful supply of witch stories to account for the escape.
+And Master Raymond had some hopes also, that Abigail Williams would
+come to the jailer's support in anything that seemed to compromise
+him in the least; for he had promised to send her a beautiful gift
+from England, when he returned home again. And with such a
+sharpener to the vision, the precocious child would be able to see
+even more wonderful things than any she had already testified
+to.</p>
+<p>The favorable wind came at length, and with
+it an exceedingly propitious night; there being a moon just large
+enough to enable them to see their way, with not enough light to
+disclose anything sharply. Master Raymond had planned all along to
+take Dulcibel's horse also with them; and if he could ride the
+animal, it would obviate the necessity of taking another horse
+also, and being plagued what to do with it when they arrived at the
+prison. For he was very desirous that Master<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
+Putnam should not be in the least involved in the
+matter.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond therefore had been practising
+up in the woods for about a week, at what the minister had failed
+so deplorably in, the riding of the little black mare. At first he
+could absolutely do nothing with her; she would not be ridden by
+any male biped. But finally he adopted a suggestion of quick-witted
+Mistress Putnam. He put on a side saddle and a skirt, and rode the
+animal woman fashion&mdash;and all without the least difficulty.
+The little mare seeming to say by her behavior, "Ah, now, that is
+sensible. Why did you not do it before?"</p>
+<p>So, late on the evening appointed for the
+attempted escape, after taking an affectionate leave of his host
+and hostess, and putting a few necessary articles of apparel into a
+portmanteau strapped behind the saddle, Master Raymond started for
+Salem town.</p>
+<p>Leaving the village to the right, he made
+good time to the town, meeting no one at that late hour. He had
+covered the mare with a large horse-blanket, so that she should not
+easily be recognized by any one who might happen to meet them.
+There was a night watchman in Salem town; but a party<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> of
+sailors had undertaken to get him off the principal street at the
+appointed hour, by the offer of refreshments at one of their
+haunts; and by this time he was too full of Jamaica spirits to walk
+very steadily or see very clearly.</p>
+<p>Arrived at the prison, Master Raymond found
+the Captain and mate of the "Albatross" impatiently awaiting him.
+It was not full time yet, but they concluded to give the signal,
+three hoots of an owl; which the mate gave with great force and
+precision. Still all seemed dark and quiet as before.</p>
+<p>Then they waited, walking up and down to keep
+the blood in their veins in motion, as the nights were a little
+cool.</p>
+<p>"It is full time now," said the Captain,
+"give the signal again, Brady."</p>
+<p>Brady gave it&mdash;if anything with greater
+force and precision than before.</p>
+<p>But not a sign from within.</p>
+<p>Had the jailer's courage given away at the
+last moment? Or could he have betrayed them? They paced up and down
+for an hour longer. It was evident that, for some reason or other,
+the plan had miscarried.</p>
+<p>"Well, there is no use awaiting here,"
+exclaimed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg
+220]</a></span> the Captain of the "Albatross" with an oath; "I am
+going back to the ship."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond acquiesced. There was no use
+in waiting longer. And so he re-donned his petticoat&mdash;much to
+the amusement of the seamen and started back to Master Putnam's
+arriving there in the darkest hours of the night, just before the
+breaking of the day.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id=
+"Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+<h4>Why the Plan Failed.</h4>
+<p>The reason of the failure of the plan of
+escape may be gathered from a little conversation that took place
+between Squire Hathorne and Thomas Putnam the morning of the day
+fixed upon by Master Philip English.</p>
+<p>Thomas Putnam had called to see the
+magistrate at the suggestion of that not very admirable but
+certainly very sharp-witted wife of his. I do not suppose that
+Thomas Putnam was at all a bad man, but it is a lamentable sight to
+see, as we so often do, a good kind honest-hearted man made a mere
+tool of by some keen-witted and unscrupulous woman; in whose
+goodness he believes, in a kind of small-minded and yet not
+altogether ignoble spirit of devotion, mainly because she is a
+woman. Being a woman, she cannot be, as he foolishly supposes, the
+shallow-hearted, mischievous being that she really is.</p>
+<p>"Do you know, Squire, how Master English's
+sailors are talking around the wharves?"</p>
+<p>"No! What are the rascals saying?"</p>
+<p>"Well, Mistress Putnam has been told by
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg
+222]</a></span> friend of hers in the town, that he heard a
+half-drunken sailor, belonging to one of Master English's vessels,
+say that they meant to tear down the jail some night, hang the
+jailers, and carry off their Master and Mistress."</p>
+<p>"Ah," said the Squire, "this must be looked
+into."</p>
+<p>"Another of the sailors is reported to have
+said, that if the magistrates attempted to hang Mistress English
+they would hang Squire Hathorne, and Squire Gedney, if they could
+catch him, by the side of her."</p>
+<p>"The impudent varlets!" exclaimed Squire
+Hathorne, his wine-red face growing redder. "Master English shall
+sweat for this. How many of his sailors are in port
+now?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I suppose there are fifty of them; and
+all reckless, unprincipled men. To my certain knowledge, there is
+not a member of church among them."</p>
+<p>"The godless knaves!" cried the magistrate.
+"I should like to set the whole lot of them in the stocks, and then
+whip them out of the town at the cart's tail."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that is what they deserve, but then we
+cannot forget that they are necessary to the inter<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>ests
+of the town&mdash;unless Salem is to give up all her shipping
+business&mdash;and these sailors are so clannish that if you strike
+one of them, you strike all. No, it seems to me, Squire, we had
+better take no public notice of their vaporing; but simply adopt
+means to counteract any plans they may be laying."</p>
+<p>"Well, what would you suggest, Master Putnam?
+Has Mistress Putnam any ideas upon the subject? I have always found
+her a very sensible woman."</p>
+<p>"Yes, my wife is a very remarkable woman if I
+do say it," replied Master Putnam. "Her plan is to send Master
+English and his wife off at once to Boston&mdash;that will save us
+all further trouble with them and their sailors."</p>
+<p>"A capital idea! It shall be carried out this
+very day," said the magistrate.</p>
+<p>"And she also suggests that the young witch
+woman, Dulcibel Burton, should be sent with them. That friend of my
+brother Joseph, is still staying around here; and Mistress Putnam
+does not exactly comprehend his motives for so long a
+visit."</p>
+<p>"Ah, indeed&mdash;what motive has he?" And
+Squire Hathorne rubbed his broad forehead.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg
+224]</a></span></p>
+<p>"There was some talk at one time of his
+keeping company with Mistress Burton."</p>
+<p>"What, the witch! that is too bad. For he
+seems like a rather pleasant young gentleman; and I hear he is the
+heir of a large estate in the old country."</p>
+<p>"Of course there may be nothing in
+it&mdash;but Mistress Putnam also heard from one of her female
+cronies the other day, that jailer Foster was at one time a mate on
+board Captain Burton's vessel."</p>
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+<p>"And you know how very handsome that Mistress
+Dulcibel is; and, being besides a witch of great power, it seems to
+Mistress Putnam that it is exposing jailer Foster to very great
+temptation."</p>
+<p>"Mistress Putnam is quite correct," said
+Squire Hathorne. "Mistress Dulcibel had better be transferred to
+Boston also. There the worshipful Master Haughton has the power and
+the will to see that all these imps of Satan are kept
+safely."</p>
+<p>"As the seamen may be lying around and make a
+disturbance if the removal comes to their knowledge, Mistress
+Putnam suggested that it had better<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> not be done until
+evening. It would be a night ride; but then, as Mistress Putnam
+said, witches rather preferred to make their journeys in the night
+time&mdash;so that it would be a positive kindness to the
+prisoners."</p>
+<p>"Very true! very well thought of!" replied
+Squire Hathorne, with a grim smile. "And no doubt they will be very
+thankful that we furnish them with horses instead of broomsticks.
+Though as for Mistress Dulcibel, I suppose she would prefer her
+familiar, the black mare, to any other animal."</p>
+<p>"That was very marvelous. Abigail Williams
+says that she is certain that the mare, after jumping the gate,
+never came down to earth again, but flew straight on up into the
+thundercloud."</p>
+<p>"And it thundered when the black beast
+entered the cloud, did it not?" said the magistrate in a sobered
+tone. He evidently saw nothing unreasonable in the
+story.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;it thundered&mdash;but not the
+common kind of thunder&mdash;it was enough to make your flesh
+creep. The minister says he is only too thankful that the Satanic
+beast did throw him off. He might have been carried off to hell
+with her."</p>
+<p>"Yes, it was a very foolish thing to get on
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg
+226]</a></span> back of a witch's familiar," said the magistrate.
+"It was tempting Providence. And Master Parris has cause for
+thankfulness that only such a mild reproof as a slight wetting, was
+allowed to be inflicted upon him. These are perilous times, Master
+Putnam. Satan is truly going about like a roaring lion, seeking
+what he may devour. Against this chosen seed,&mdash;this little
+remnant of God's people left upon the whole earth&mdash;no wonder
+that he is tearing and raging."</p>
+<p>"Ah me, my Christian friend, it is too true!
+And no wonder that he is so bold, and full of joyful subtlety. For
+is he not prevailing, in spite of all our efforts? You know there
+are at least four hundred members of what rightly calls itself the
+Church of England&mdash;for certainly it is not the church of
+Christ&mdash;in Boston alone! When the royal Governor made the town
+authorities give up the South Church&mdash;even our own Church,
+built with our own money&mdash;to their so-called Rector to hold
+their idolatrous services in, we might have known that Satan was at
+our doors!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, that such horrible things should happen
+in the godly town of Boston!" responded Squire Hathorne. "But when
+the King interfered between Justice and the Quakers, and
+forbade<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg
+227]</a></span> the righteous discipline we were exercising upon
+them, of course a door was opened for all other latitudinarianism
+and false doctrine. Why, I am told that there are now quite a
+number of Quakers in Boston; and that they even had the assurance
+to apply to the magistrates the other day, for permission to erect
+a meeting-house!"</p>
+<p>"Impossible!" exclaimed Master Putnam. "They
+ought to have been whipped out of their presence."</p>
+<p>"Yes," continued the worthy Magistrate
+irefully; "but when the King ordered that the right of voting for
+our rulers should no longer be restricted to church-members; but
+that every man of fair estate and good moral character, as he
+phrases it, should be allowed to vote, even if he is not a member
+at all, he aimed a blow at the very Magistracy itself."</p>
+<p>"Yes, that is worse than heresy! And how can
+a man possess a good moral character, without being a member of the
+true church?"</p>
+<p>"Of course&mdash;that is self-evident. But it
+shows how the righteous seed is being over-flooded with iniquity,
+even in its last chosen house; how our Canaan is being given up to
+the Philistines. And therefore it is, doubtless, that Satan, in the
+pride<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg
+228]</a></span> of his success, is introducing his emissaries into
+the very house of the Lord itself; and promising great rewards to
+them who will bow down and sign their names in his red book, and
+worship him. Ah! we have fallen on evil times, Master
+Putnam."</p>
+<p>And so the two worthy Puritans condoled with
+each other, until, Master Putnam, bethinking himself that he had
+some worldly business to attend to, Squire Hathorne proceeded to
+give the necessary directions for the removal of the three
+prisoners from Salem to Boston jail.</p>
+<p>This was accomplished that very night, as
+Mistress Putnam had suggested; Deputy Marshall Herrick and a
+constable guarding the party. Dulcibel occupied a pillion behind
+jailer Foster; Master English and his wife rode together; while
+Master Herrick and the constable each had a horse to
+himself.</p>
+<p>The original plan was for Dulcibel to ride
+behind Master Herrick; but upon jailer Foster representing that
+there might be some danger of a rescue, and offering to join the
+party, it was arranged that he should have special charge of
+Mistress Dulcibel, whom he represented to Herrick as being in his
+opinion a most marvelous witch.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+<p>Uncle Robie's true reason for going, however,
+was that the jailer in Boston was an old friend of his, and he
+wished to speak a secret word to him that might insure Dulcibel
+kinder treatment than was usually given in Boston jail to any
+alleged transgressor.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id=
+"Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
+<h4>Mistress Ann Putnam's Fair
+Warning.</h4>
+<p>In the course of the next day the removal of
+the three prisoners became known to everybody. Master Raymond
+wondered when he heard it, whether it was a check-mate to the plan
+of escape, with which the magistrates, in some way had become
+acquainted; or whether it was a mere chance coincidence. Finally he
+satisfied himself that it was the latter&mdash;though no doubt
+suggested by the rather loose threats of Master English's many
+sailors.</p>
+<p>When jailer Foster returned, he found means
+to inform Master Raymond that it had been entirely
+impossible&mdash;so suddenly was the whole thing sprung upon
+him&mdash;to let anyone in their secret know of what was going on.
+He had not even taken the assistant jailer, his own son, into his
+confidence, because he did not wish to expose him to needless
+danger. His son was not required to afford any help, and therefore
+it would be unwise to incur any risk of punishment. Besides, while
+Uncle Robie had made up his mind to do some tall lying of his own
+for the sake of saving innocent<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> lives, he saw no
+reason why his son, should be placed under a similar necessity.
+Lying seemed to be absolutely needful in the case; but it was well
+to do as little of it as possible.</p>
+<p>From his conversation with Master Herrick,
+Uncle Robie concluded that nothing had been divulged; and that the
+magistrates had acted only on the supposition that trouble of some
+kind might result from the sailors. And, looked at from that point
+of view, it was quite sufficient to account for the removal of two
+of the prisoners. As to why Dulcibel also should be sent to Boston,
+he could get no satisfactory explanation. It seemed in fact to be a
+matter of mere caprice, so far as uncle Robie could find
+out.</p>
+<p>They had pushed on through the night to
+Boston&mdash;about a four hours' slow ride&mdash;and delivered the
+three prisoners safely to the keeper of Boston jail. Uncle Robie
+adding the assurance to Goodwife Buckley&mdash;who acted as Master
+Raymond's confidential agent in the matter&mdash;that he had spoken
+a word to his old crony who believed no more in witches than he
+did, which would insure to her as kind treatment as possible. And
+Robie further said that he had been assured by the Boston jailer,
+that Mistress Phips, the wife of the Gov<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg
+232]</a></span>ernor, had no sympathy whatever with the witchcraft
+prosecutions, but a great deal of sympathy for the victims of
+it.</p>
+<p>The game was therefore played out at Salem,
+now that Dulcibel had been transferred to Boston; and Master
+Raymond began to make arrangements at once to leave the place. In
+some respects the change of scene was for the worse; for he had no
+hold upon the Boston jailer, and had no friend there like Joseph
+Putnam, prepared to go to any length on his behalf. But, on the
+other hand, in Boston they seemed outside of the circle of Mistress
+Ann Putnam's powerful and malign influence. This of itself was no
+small gain; and, thinking over the whole matter, Master Raymond
+came to the conclusion that perhaps the chances of escape would be
+even greater in Boston than in Salem.</p>
+<p>So, in the course of the ensuing week, Master
+Raymond took an affectionate leave of his kind young host and
+hostess, and departed for Boston town, avowedly on his way back to
+his English home. This last was of course brought out prominently
+in all his leave-takings&mdash;he was, after a short stay in
+Boston, to embark for England. "What shall I send you from
+England?" was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id=
+"Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> among his last questions to the
+various members of the "afflicted circle." And one said laughingly
+one thing, and one another; the young man taking it gravely, and
+making a note in his little notebook of each request. If things
+should come to the worst, he was putting himself in a good position
+to influence the character of the testimony. A hundred pounds in
+this way would be money well employed.</p>
+<p>Even to Mistress Ann Putnam he did not
+hesitate to put the same question, after a friendly leave-taking.
+Mistress Putnam rather liked the young Englishman; it was mainly
+against Dulcibel as the friend of her brother-in-law that she had
+warred; and if Master Raymond had not also been the warm friend and
+guest of Joseph Putnam, she might have relented in her persecution
+of Dulcibel for his sake. But her desire to pain and punish Master
+Joseph,&mdash;who had said so many things against her in the Putnam
+family&mdash;overpowered all such sentimental considerations.
+Besides, what Dulcibel had said of her when before the magistrates,
+had greatly incensed her.</p>
+<p>"What shall you send me from England? And are
+you really going back there?" And she fixed her cold green eyes
+upon the young man's face.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234"
+id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, I am going back again, like the bad
+penny," replied Master Raymond smiling.</p>
+<p>"How soon?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I cannot say exactly. Perhaps the Boston
+gentlemen may be so fascinating that they will detain me longer
+than I have planned."</p>
+<p>"Is it because the Salem gentlewomen are so
+fascinating that you have remained here? We feel quite complimented
+in the village by the length of your visit."</p>
+<p>"Yes, I have found the Salem gentlewomen
+among the most charming of their sex. But you have not told me what
+I shall send you from London when I return?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, I leave that entirely with you, and to
+your own good taste. Perhaps by the time you get back to London,
+you will not wish to send me anything."</p>
+<p>"I cannot imagine such a case. But I shall
+endeavor, as you leave it all to me, to find something pretty and
+appropriate; something suited to the most gifted person, among men
+and women, that I have found in the New World."</p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam's face colored with evident
+pleasure&mdash;even she was not averse to a compliment of this
+kind; knowing, as she did, that she had a<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+wonderful intellectual capacity for planning and scheming. In fact
+if she had possessed as large a heart as brain, she would have been
+a very noble and even wonderful woman. Master Raymond thought he
+had told no falsehood in calling her the "most gifted"&mdash;he
+considered her so in certain directions.</p>
+<p>And so they parted&mdash;the last words of
+Mistress Putnam being, the young man thought, very significant
+ones.</p>
+<p>"I would not," she said in a light, but still
+impressive manner, "if I were you, stay a very long time in Boston.
+There is, I think, something dangerous to the health of strangers
+in the air of that town, of late. It would be a very great pity for
+you to catch one of our deadly fevers, and never be able to return
+to your home and friends. Take my advice now&mdash;it is honest and
+well meant&mdash;and do not linger long in the dangerous air of
+Boston."</p>
+<p>Thanking her for her solicitude as to his
+health, Master Raymond shook her thin hand and departed. But all
+the ride back to Joseph Putnam's, he was thinking over those last
+words.</p>
+<p>What was their real meaning? What could they
+mean but this? "You are going to Boston to try to save Dulcibel
+Burton. I do not want to hurt<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> you; but I may be
+compelled to do it. Leave Boston as soon as you can, and spare me
+the necessity that may arise of denouncing you also. Joseph Putnam,
+whom I hate, but whose person and household I am for family reasons
+compelled to respect, when you are in Boston is no longer your
+protector. I can just as easily, and even far more easily, reach
+you than I could reach Captain Alden. Beware how you interfere with
+my plans. Even while I pity you, I shall not spare you!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id=
+"Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond Goes Again to
+Boston.</h4>
+<p>Master Raymond had agreed to keep his friend
+Joseph Putnam informed by letter of his movements&mdash;for there
+had been a postal system established a number of years before
+through the Massachusetts colony&mdash;but of course he had to be
+very careful as to what he put upon paper; the Puritan official
+mind not being over-scrupulous as to the means it took of attaining
+its ends.</p>
+<p>He had brought excellent letters to persons
+of the highest character in Boston, and had received invitations
+from many of them to make his home in their houses&mdash;for the
+Boston people of all classes, and especially the wealthy, obeyed
+the Scriptural injunction, and were "given to hospitality;" which I
+believe is true to the present day. But Master Raymond, considering
+the errand he was on, thought it wisest to take up his abode at an
+Inn&mdash;lest he might involve his entertainers in the peril
+attending his unlawful but righteous designs. So he took a cheery
+room at the Red Lion, in the northern part of the town, which was
+quite a reputable house, and convenient for many
+purposes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg
+238]</a></span> not the least being its proximity to the harbor,
+which made it a favorite resort for the better class of
+sea-captains.</p>
+<p>Calling around upon the families to which he
+had presented letters on his first visit, immediately after his
+arrival in the colony, he speedily established very pleasant social
+relations with a good many very different circles. And he soon was
+able to sum up the condition of affairs in the town as
+follows:</p>
+<p>First, there was by far the most numerous and
+the ruling sect, the Puritans. The previous Governor, shut out by
+King James, Sir Edmund Andros, had been an Episcopalian; but the
+present one sent out on the accession of William and Mary, Sir
+William Phips, was himself a Puritan, sitting under the weekly
+teachings of the Reverend Master Cotton Mather at the North
+church.</p>
+<p>Then there was an Episcopal circle, composed
+of about four hundred people in all, meeting at King's Chapel,
+built about three years before, with the Reverend Master Robert
+Ratcliffe as Rector.</p>
+<p>Besides these, there was a small number of
+Quakers, now dwelling in peace, so far as personal manifestations
+were concerned, being protected by the King's mandate. These had
+even grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id=
+"Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> so bold of late, as to be seeking
+permission to erect a meeting-house; which almost moved the Puritan
+divines to prophesy famine, earthquakes and pestilence as the
+results of such an ungodly toleration of heresy.</p>
+<p>Then there were a number of Baptists, who
+also now dwelt in peace, under the King's protection.</p>
+<p>Adding to the foregoing the people without
+any religion to speak of, who principally belonged to or were
+connected with the seafaring class, and Master Raymond found that
+he had a pretty clear idea of the inhabitants of Boston.</p>
+<p>In relation to the Witchcraft prosecutions,
+the young Englishman ascertained that the above classes seemed to
+favor the prosecutions just in proportion to the extent of their
+Puritan orthodoxy. The great majority of the Puritans believed
+devoutly in witches, and in the duty of obeying the command, "Thou
+shalt not suffer a witch to live." And generally in proportion to a
+Puritan church-member's orthodoxy, was the extent of his belief in
+witchcraft, and the fierceness of his exterminating
+zeal.</p>
+<p>The Episcopalians and the Baptists were
+either very lukewarm, or else in decided opposition to the
+prosecutions looking upon them as simply addi<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg
+240]</a></span>tional proofs of Puritan narrowness, intolerance and
+bigotry.</p>
+<p>The Quakers held to the latter opinion even
+more firmly than the liberal Episcopalians and Baptists: adding to
+it the belief that it was a judgment allowed to come upon the
+Puritans, to punish them for their cruelty to God's chosen
+messengers.</p>
+<p>As for the seafaring class, they looked upon
+the whole affair as a piece of madness, which could only overtake
+people whose contracted notions were a result of perpetually living
+in one place, and that on the land. And since the arrest of a man
+so well thought of, and of their own class as Captain Alden, the
+vocabulary allowed by the law in Boston was entirely too limited to
+embrace adequately a seaman's emphatic sense of the iniquitous
+proceedings. As one of them forcibly expressed himself to Master
+Raymond:&mdash;"He would be <i>condemned</i>, if he wouldn't like
+to see the <i>condemned</i> town of Boston, and all its
+<i>condemned</i> preachers, buried like Port Royal, ten
+<i>condemned</i> fathoms deep, under the <i>condemned</i> soil upon
+which it was built!" He used another emphatic word of course, in
+the place of the word <i>condemned</i>; but that doubtless was
+because at that time they had<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> not our "revised
+version" of the New Testament.</p>
+<p>The sea-captain who expressed himself in this
+emphatic way to Master Raymond, was the captain in whose vessel he
+had come over from England, and who had made another voyage back
+and forth since that time. The young man was strolling around the
+wharves, gazing at the vessels when he had been accosted by the
+aforesaid captain. At that particular moment however, he had come
+to a stand, earnestly regarding, as he had several times before, a
+vessel that was lying anchored out in the stream.</p>
+<p>After passing some additional words with the
+captain upon various matters, and especially upon the witches, a
+subject that every conversation at that time was apt to be very
+full of, he turned towards the water and said:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"That seems to be a good craft out
+there."</p>
+<p>It was a vessel of two masts, slender and
+raking, and with a long, low hull&mdash;something of the model
+which a good many years later, went by the name of the Baltimore
+clipper.</p>
+<p>"Yes, she is a beauty!" replied the
+captain.</p>
+<p>"She looks as if she might be a good
+sailer."</p>
+<p>"Good! I reckon she is. The Storm King
+can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg
+242]</a></span> show her heels to any vessel that goes out of this
+port&mdash;or out of London either, for that matter."</p>
+<p>"What is she engaged in?"</p>
+<p>Here the captain gave a low whistle, and
+followed it up with a wink.</p>
+<p>"Buccaneers occasionally, I
+suppose?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, Captain Tolley is not so very
+<i>condemned</i> particular what he does&mdash;so that of course it
+is entirely lawful," and the captain winked again. "He owns his
+vessel, you see&mdash;carries her in his pocket&mdash;and has no
+<i>condemned</i> lot of land-lubber owners on shore who cannot get
+away if there is any trouble, from the <i>condemned</i> magistrates
+and constables."</p>
+<p>"That is an advantage sometimes," said the
+young man. He was thinking of his own case probably.</p>
+<p>"Of course it is. Law is a very good
+thing&mdash;in its place. But if I buy a bag of coffee in the East
+Indies or in South America, why should I have to pay a lot of money
+on it, before I am allowed to sell it to the people that like
+coffee in some other country? <i>Condemn</i> it! There's no justice
+in it."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond was in no mood just then to
+argue great moral questions. So he answered by asking:<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg
+243]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Captain Tolley does not make too many
+inquiries then when a good offer is made him?"</p>
+<p>"Do not misunderstand me, young man," replied
+the captain gravely. "My friend, Captain Tolley, would be the last
+man to commit piracy, or anything of that kind. But just look at
+the case. Here Captain Tolley is, off at sea, attending to his
+proper business. Well, he comes into some <i>condemned</i> port,
+just to get a little water perhaps, and some fresh provisions; and
+hears that while he has been away, these <i>condemned</i>
+land-lubbers have been making some new rules and regulations,
+without even asking any of us seafaring men anything about it.
+Then, if we do not obey their foolish rules, they nab us when we
+come into port again, and fine us&mdash;perhaps put us in the
+bilboes. Now, as a fair man, do you call that justice?"</p>
+<p>Master Raymond laughed good-humoredly. "I see
+it has its unfair side," said he. "By the way, I should like to
+look over that vessel of his. Could you give me a line of
+introduction to him?"</p>
+<p>"Of course I can&mdash;nothing pleases Tolley
+more than to have people admire his vessel&mdash;even though a
+landsman's admiration, you know, really cannot seem of much account
+to a sailor. But I cannot write here; let us adjourn to the
+Lion."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id=
+"Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
+<h4>Captain Tolley and the Storm
+King.</h4>
+<p>The next day furnished with a brief note of
+introduction, Master Raymond, with the aid of a skiff, put himself
+on the deck of the Storm King. Captain Tolley received him with due
+courtesy, wondering who the stranger was. The Captain was a
+well-built, athletic, though not very large man, with a face
+naturally dark in hue, and bronzed by exposure to the southern sun.
+As Master Raymond ascertained afterwards, he was the son of an
+English father and a Spanish mother; and he could speak English,
+French and Spanish with equal facility. While he considered himself
+an Englishman of birth, his nationality sat very loosely upon him;
+and, if need be, he was just as willing to run up the French or
+Spanish colors on the Storm King, as the red cross of St.
+George.</p>
+<p>After reading the note of introduction,
+Captain Tolley gave a keen look at his visitor. "Yes, the Storm
+King is a bird and a beauty," said he proudly. "Look at her! See
+what great wings she has! And what a hull, to cut the seas! She was
+built after my own plans. Give me plenty<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> of
+sea-room, and a fair start, and I will laugh at all the gun
+frigates of the royal navy."</p>
+<p>"She looks to be all you say," said his
+visitor admiringly&mdash;but rather surprised that not an oath had
+yet fallen from the lips of the Captain. He had not learned that
+Captain Tolley, to use his own language, "never washed his
+ammunition in port or in mild weather." When aroused by a severe
+storm or other peril, the Captain was transformed into a different
+man. Then, in the war of the elements, or of man's angry passions,
+he also lightened and thundered, and swore big guns.</p>
+<p>"Let us go down into the cabin," said the
+Captain. Reaching there, he filled a couple of glasses with wine
+and putting the decanter on the table, invited his visitor to be
+seated. Then, closing the door, he said with a smile, "nothing that
+is said inside this cabin ever is told anywhere else."</p>
+<p>There was that in the speech, bearing and
+looks of Captain Tolley which inspired Master Raymond with great
+confidence in him. "I feel that I may trust you, Captain," he said
+earnestly.</p>
+<p>"I have done business for a great many
+gentlemen, and no one ever found me untrue to him," replied Captain
+Tolley, proudly. "Some things<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> I will not do for
+anybody, or for any price; but that ends it. I never betray
+confidence."</p>
+<p>"Do you believe in witches,
+Captain?"</p>
+<p>"Indeed I do."</p>
+<p>"Well I suppose that settles it," replied the
+young man in a disappointed tone, rising to his feet.</p>
+<p>"I know a little witch down in Jamaica, that
+has been tormenting me almost to death for the last three years.
+But I tell you she is a beauty&mdash;as pretty as, as&mdash;the
+Storm King! She doesn't carry quite as many petticoats though,"
+added the Captain laughing.</p>
+<p>"Oh! That is the kind of witch you mean!" and
+Master Raymond sat down again.</p>
+<p>"It is the only kind that I ever came
+across&mdash;and they are bad enough for me," responded the Captain
+drily.</p>
+<p>"I know a little witch of that kind," said
+Master Raymond, humoring the Captain's fancy; "but she is now in
+Boston prison, and in danger of her life."</p>
+<p>"Ah! I think I have heard something of
+her&mdash;very beautiful, is she not? I caught a glimpse of her
+when I went up to see Captain Alden, who the bigoted fools have got
+in limbo there. I could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247"
+id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> help laughing at Alden&mdash;the
+idea of calling him a witch. Alden is a religious man, you
+know!"</p>
+<p>"But it may cost him his life!"</p>
+<p>"That is what I went to see him about. I
+offered to come up with a party some night, break open the jail,
+and carry him off to New York in the Storm King."</p>
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, you know the better people are not in
+the jail, but in the jailer's house&mdash;having given their
+promise to Keeper Arnold that they will not try to escape, if thus
+kindly treated. And besides, if he runs off, they will confiscate
+his property; of which Alden foolishly has a good deal in houses
+and lands. So he thinks it the best policy to hold on to his
+anchor, and see if the storm will not blow itself out."</p>
+<p>"And so you have no conscientious scruples
+against breaking the law, by carrying off any of these imprisoned
+persons?"</p>
+<p>"Conscientious scruples and the Puritan laws
+be d&mdash;&mdash;!" exclaimed the Captain; thinking perhaps that
+this was an occasion when he might with propriety break his rule as
+to swearing while in port.</p>
+<p>"Your language expresses my sentiments
+ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg
+248]</a></span>actly!" responded the young Englishman, who had
+never uttered an oath in his life. "Captain, I am betrothed to that
+young lady you saw when you went to see Captain Alden. If she is
+ever brought to trial, those Salem hell-hounds will swear away her
+life. I mean to rescue her&mdash;or die with her. I am able and
+willing to pay you any reasonable price for your aid and
+assistance, Will you help me?"</p>
+<p>The Captain sprang to his feet. "Will I help
+you? The great God dash the Storm King to pieces on her next voyage
+if I fail you! See here," taking a letter out of a drawer, "it is a
+profitable offer just made me. But it is a mere matter of
+merchandise; and this is a matter of a woman's life! You shall pay
+me what you can afford to, and what you think right; but, money or
+no money, I and the Storm King, and her brave crew, who will follow
+wherever I lead, are at your service!"</p>
+<p>As Captain Tolley uttered these words, in an
+impassioned, though low voice, and with a glowing face and
+sparkling blue eyes, Master Raymond thought he had never seen a
+handsomer man. He grasped the Captain's extended hand, and shook it
+warmly. "I shall never forget this noble<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+offer," he exclaimed. And he never did forget it; for from that
+moment the two were life-long friends.</p>
+<p>"What is your plan?" said the
+Captain.</p>
+<p>"A peaceable escape if possible. If not, what
+you propose to Captain Alden."</p>
+<p>"I should like the last the best," said the
+Captain.</p>
+<p>"Why, it would expose you to
+penalties&mdash;and keep your vessel hereafter out of Boston
+harbor."</p>
+<p>"You see that I have an old grudge of my
+own," replied the Captain. "These Puritan rascals once arrested me
+for bringing some Quakers from Barbados&mdash;good, honest,
+innocent people, a little touched here, you know,"&mdash;and the
+Captain tapped his broad, brown brow with his finger. "They caught
+me on shore, fined me, and would have put me in the stocks; but my
+mate got word of it, we were lying out in the storm, trained two
+big guns to bear upon the town, and gave them just fifteen minutes
+to send me on board again. That was twenty years ago, and I have
+not been here since."</p>
+<p>"They sent you on board, I
+suppose?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, the Saints are not fools," replied the
+Captain, laughing. "As for being shut out of Boston<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+harbor hereafter, I do not fear that much. The reign of the Saints
+is nearly over. Do you not see that the Quakers are back, and the
+Baptists, and the prayer-book men, as they call the
+Episcopalians!&mdash;and they do not touch them, though they would
+whip the whole of them out of the Province, at the cart's tail, if
+they dared. But there are Kings in Israel again!" and the Captain
+laughed heartily. "And the Kings are always better shepherds to the
+flock than the Priests."</p>
+<p>"You may have to lie here idle for a while;
+but I will bear the expense of it," said Master Raymond. "Have the
+proper papers drawn up, and I will sign them."</p>
+<p>"No, there shall be no papers between you and
+me," rejoined the Captain stoutly. "I hate these lawyers' pledges.
+I never deal with a man, if I can help it, who needs a signed and
+sealed paper to keep him to his word. I know what you are, and you
+ought to be able to see by this time what I am. The Storm King
+shall lie here three months, if need be&mdash;and you shall pay me
+monthly my reasonable charges. But I will make out no bill, and you
+shall have no receipt, to cause any trouble to anybody,
+hereafter."</p>
+<p>"That will suit me," replied Master
+Raymond,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg
+251]</a></span> "I shall be in the bar-room of the Red Lion every
+morning at ten. You must be there too. But we will only nod to each
+other, unless I have something to tell you. Then I will slip a note
+into your hand, making an appointment for an interview. I fear
+there may be spies upon my movements."</p>
+<p>Captain Tolley assenting to these
+arrangements, Master Raymond and he again shook hands, and the
+latter was put ashore in one of the Storm King's boats. It was a
+little curious that as the young man reached the wharf, ascending a
+few wooden steps from the boat, whom should he see at a little
+distance, walking briskly into the town, but one who he thought was
+Master Thomas Putnam. He could not see the man's face, for his back
+was toward him; but he felt certain that it was the loving and
+obedient husband of Mistress Ann Putnam.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id=
+"Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+<h4>Sir William Phips and Lady Mary.</h4>
+<p>When Mistress Dulcibel Burton, in company
+with Master Philip English and his wife, arrived at Boston jail,
+and were delivered into the care of Keeper Arnold, they received
+far better treatment than they had expected.</p>
+<p>The prison itself, situated in a portion of
+Boston which is now considered the centre of fashion and elegance,
+was one of those cruel Bridewells, which were a befitting
+illustration of what some suppose to have been the superior manners
+and customs of the "good old times." It was built of stone, its
+walls being three feet thick. Its windows were barred with iron to
+prevent escape; but being without glazed sashes, the wind and rain
+and snow and cold of winter found ready access to the cells within.
+The doors were covered with the large heads of iron
+spikes&mdash;the cells being formed by partitions of heavy plank.
+And the passage ways of the prison were described by one who had
+been confined in this Boston Bridewell, as being "like the dark
+valley of the shadow of death."</p>
+<p>But the jailers seem to have been more
+humane<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg
+253]</a></span> than the builders of the prison; and those awaiting
+trial, especially, were frequently allowed rooms in the Keeper's
+house&mdash;probably always paying well, however, for the
+privilege.</p>
+<p>Thus, as Captain Tolley had said, Captain
+Alden was confined in Keeper Arnold's house; and, when the party in
+which the readers of this story are especially interested, arrived
+late at night from Salem, they were taken to comparatively
+comfortable apartments. The jailer knew that Master Philip English
+was a very wealthy man; and, as for Dulcibel, Uncle Robie did not
+forget to say to his old crony Arnold, among other favorable
+things, that she not only had warm friends, among the best people
+of Salem, but that in her own right, she possessed a very pretty
+little fortune, and was fully able to pay a good price for any
+favors extended to her.</p>
+<p>The magistrates in Salem had refused to take
+bail for Captain Alden; but Master English was soon able to make an
+arrangement, by which he and his wife were allowed the freedom of
+the town in the daytime; it being understood that they should
+return regularly, and pass the night in the jail&mdash;or, speaking
+strictly, in the Keeper's house.</p>
+<p>For things in Boston were different from
+what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg
+254]</a></span> they were at Salem. In Salem the Puritan spirit
+reigned supreme in magistrates and in ministers. But in Boston,
+there was, as we have said, a strong anti-Puritan influence. The
+officials sent over from England were generally
+Episcopalians&mdash;the officers of the English men-of-war
+frequently in port, also were generally Episcopalians. And though
+the present Governor, Sir William Phips, was a member of the North
+Church, the Reverend Cotton Mather taking the place of his father,
+the Reverend Increase Mather&mdash;and though the Governor was
+greatly under the influence of that dogmatic and superstitious
+divine&mdash;his wife, Lady Mary, was utterly opposed to the whole
+witchcraft delusion and persecution.</p>
+<p>Sir William himself had quite a romantic
+career. Starting in life as one of the later offspring of a father
+and mother who had twenty-six children, and had come as poor
+emigrants to Maine, he was a simple and ignorant caretaker of sheep
+until eighteen years of age. Then he became a ship carpenter; and
+at the age of twenty-two went to Boston, working at his trade in
+the day time, and learning how to read and write at night. In
+Boston he had the good fortune to capture the heart of a fair widow
+by the name of Mistress Hull,<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> who was a daughter of
+Captain Robert Spencer. With her hand he received a fair estate;
+which was the beginning of a large fortune. For, it enabled him to
+set up a ship-yard of his own; and by ventures to recover lost
+treasure, sunk in shipwrecked Spanish galleons, under the patronage
+of the Duke of Albemarle, he took back to England at one time the
+large amount of &pound;300,000 in gold, silver and precious stones,
+of which his share was &pound;16,000&mdash;and in addition a gold
+cup, valued at &pound;1,000 presented to his wife Mary. And such
+was the able conduct and the strict integrity he had shown in the
+face of many difficulties and temptations, that King James knighted
+him, making him Sir William.</p>
+<p>Now, through his own deserts, and the
+influence of the Reverend Increase Mather, agent in England of the
+colony, he was Governor-in-Chief of the Province of Massachusetts
+Bay, and Captain General (for military purposes) of all New
+England. And he was living in that "fair brick house in Green
+lane," which, years before, he had promised his wife that he would
+some day build for her to live in.</p>
+<p>Lady Mary was a very sweet, nice woman; but
+she had a will of her own, and never could be<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+persuaded that Sir William's rise in the world was not owing
+entirely to her having taken pity on him, and married below her
+station. And really there was considerable truth in this view of
+the matter, which she was not inclined to have him forget; and Sir
+William, being a manly and generous, though at times rather
+choleric gentleman, generally admitted the truth of her assertion
+that "she had made him," rather than have any controversy with her
+about it. One of the first acts of Sir William on arriving to fill
+his position as Governor, was to order chains put upon all the
+alleged witches in the prisons. In this order might be very plainly
+traced the hand of his pastor, the Reverend Cotton Mather. Lady
+Mary was outraged by such a command. One of her first visits had
+been to the jail, to see Captain Alden, whom she knew well. Keeper
+Arnold had shown her the order. "Put on the irons," said Lady Mary.
+The jailer did so. "Now that you have obeyed Sir William, take them
+off again." The jailer smiled, but hesitated. "Do as I command you,
+and I will be accountable to Sir William." Very gladly did Keeper
+Arnold obey&mdash;he had no faith in such accusations, brought
+against some of the best behaved people he ever had in his
+charge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg
+257]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Now, do the same to all the other
+prisoners!" commanded the spirited lady.</p>
+<p>"I may as well be hung for a cow as a calf,"
+said the jailer laughing&mdash;and he went gravely with one pair of
+fetters all through the cells, complying literally with the new
+Governor's orders.</p>
+<p>Of course this soon got to the ears of the
+Rev. Cotton Mather, who went in high indignation to the Governor.
+But the latter seemed to be very much amused, and could not be
+brought to manifest any great amount of indignation. "You know that
+Lady Mary has a will of her own," said he to his pastor. "If you
+choose to go and talk to her, I will take you to her boudoir; but I
+am not anxious to get into hot water for the sake of a few
+witches." The minister thought of it a moment; but then concluded
+wisely not to go. For, as Lady Mary said to her husband afterwards,
+"I wish that you had brought him to me. I would have told him just
+what I think of him, and his superstitious, hard-hearted doings.
+For me, I never mean to enter North Church more. I shall go
+hereafter to South Church; Masters Willard and Moody have some
+Christian charity left in them."</p>
+<p>"I think you are too hard on Master
+Cot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg
+258]</a></span>ton Mather, my dear," replied Sir William
+mildly.</p>
+<p>"Too hard, am I? What would you say if those
+girl imps at Salem should accuse me next! Your own loving
+wife,&mdash;to the world."</p>
+<p>"Oh, my dear wife, that is too monstrous even
+to think of!"</p>
+<p>"No more monstrous than their accusation of
+Mistress English of Salem, and her husband. You know
+them&mdash;what do you think of that?"</p>
+<p>"Certainly, that is very singular and
+impossible; but Master Mather says&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Master Mather ought to be hung himself,"
+said the indignant lady; "for he has helped to murder better people
+than he is, a great deal."</p>
+<p>"My dear, I must
+remonstrate&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"And there is Captain Alden&mdash;he is a
+witch, too, it seems!" And Lady Mary laughed scornfully. "Why not
+you too? You are no better a man than Captain Alden."</p>
+<p>"Oh, the Captain shall not be
+hurt."</p>
+<p>"It will not be through any mercy of his
+judges then. But, answer my question: what will you do, if they
+dare to accuse me? Answer me that!"</p>
+<p>"You certainly are not serious, Lady
+Mary?"</p>
+<p>"I am perfectly serious. I have heard
+already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg
+259]</a></span> a whisper from Salem that they are thinking of it.
+They even have wished me warned against the consequences of my
+high-handed proceedings. Now if they cry out against me, what will
+you do?"</p>
+<p>We have said that Sir William was naturally
+choleric&mdash;though he always put a strong constraint upon
+himself when talking with his wife, whom he really loved; but now
+he started to his feet.</p>
+<p>"If they dare to breathe a whisper against
+you, my wife, Lady Mary, I will blow the whole concern to
+perdition! Confound it, Madam, there are limits to
+everything!"</p>
+<p>She went up to him and put her arm around his
+neck and kissed him. "I thought that before they touched me, they
+would have to chain the lion that lies at my door," she said
+proudly and affectionately; for, notwithstanding these little
+tiffs, she really was fond of her husband, and proud of his
+romantic career.</p>
+<p>But&mdash;coming back to our
+sheep&mdash;Dulcibel not having the same amount of wealth and
+influence behind her as Master English had, was very well contented
+at being allowed a room in Keeper Arnold's house; and was on the
+whole getting along very comfortably. Master Raymond had
+seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg
+260]</a></span> her soon after his arrival, but it was in company
+with the jailer; the principal result being that he had secretly
+passed her a letter, and had assured himself that she was not in a
+suffering condition.</p>
+<p>But things of late were looking brighter, for
+Master Raymond had made the acquaintance of Lady Mary through a
+friend to whom he had letters from England, and Lady Mary had begun
+to take an interest in Dulcibel, whom she had seen on one of her
+visits to Mistress English.</p>
+<p>Through Lady Mary, in some way, Dulcibel
+hoped to escape from the prison; trusting that, if once at large,
+Master Raymond would be able to provide for her safety. But there
+was one great difficulty. She, with the others, had given her word
+to the Keeper not to escape, as the price of her present exemption
+from confinement in an exposed, unhealthy cell. How this promise
+was to be managed, neither of them had been able to think of.
+Keeper Arnold might be approached; but Dulcibel feared not&mdash;at
+least under present circumstances. If brought to trial and
+convicted then to save her life, Dulcibel thought he might be
+persuaded to aid her. As to breaking her word to the Keeper, that
+never entered the mind of the truthful maiden, or of her lover.
+Death even was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id=
+"Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> more endurable than the thought of
+dishonor&mdash;if they had thought of the matter at all. But as I
+have said, they never even thought of a such thing. And therefore
+how to manage the affair was a very perplexing question.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id=
+"Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+<h4>The First Rattle of the
+Rattlesnake.</h4>
+<p>One day about this time Master Raymond was
+sitting in the porch of the Red Lion, thinking over a sight he had
+just seen;&mdash;a man had passed by wearing on the back of his
+drab coat a capital I two inches long, cut out of black cloth, and
+sewed upon it. On inquiry he found the man had married his deceased
+wife's sister; and both he and the woman had been first whipped,
+and then condemned to wear this letter for the rest of their lives,
+according to the law of the colony.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id=
+"FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class=
+"fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+<p>Master Raymond was puzzling over the matter
+not being able to make out that any real offence had been
+committed, when who should walk up to the porch but Master Joseph
+Putnam. After a hearty hand-shaking between the two, they retired
+to Master Raymond's apartments.</p>
+<p>"Well, how are things getting along at
+Salem?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, about as usual!"</p>
+<p>"Any more accusations?"</p>
+<p>"Plenty of them, people are beginning to find
+out that the best way to protect themselves is <span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>to
+sham being 'afflicted,' and accuse somebody else."</p>
+<p>"I saw that a good while ago."</p>
+<p>"And when a girl or a woman is accused, her
+relatives and her friends gather around her, and implore her to
+confess, to save her life. For they have found that not one person
+who has been accused of being a witch, and has admitted the fact,
+has been convicted.</p>
+<p>"And yet it would seem that a confession of
+witchcraft ought to be a better proof of it, than the mere
+assertion of possible enemies," responded Master
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"Of course&mdash;if there was any show of
+reason or fairness in the prosecutions, from first to last; but as
+it is all sheer malice and wickedness, on the part of the accusers,
+from the beginning to the end, it would be vain to expect any
+reasonableness or fairness from them."</p>
+<p>"We must admit, however, that there is some
+delusion in it. It would be too uncharitable to believe otherwise,"
+said Master Raymond thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>"There may have been at the very
+first&mdash;on the part of the children," replied Master Putnam.
+"They might have supposed that Tituba and friend<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>less
+Sarah Good tormented them&mdash;but since then, there has not been
+more than one part of delusion to twenty parts of wickedness. Why,
+can any sane man suppose that she-wolf sister-in-law of mine does
+not know she is lying, when she brings such horrible charges
+against the best men and women in Salem?"</p>
+<p>"No, I give up Mistress Ann, she is possessed
+by a lying devil," admitted Master Raymond.</p>
+<p>"It is well she does not hear that speech,"
+said Joseph Putnam.</p>
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+<p>"Because, up to this time, you seem to have
+managed to soften her heart a little."</p>
+<p>"I have tried to. I have thought myself
+justified in playing a part&mdash;as King David once did you
+know."</p>
+<p>"It is that which brings me here. I met her
+at the house of a friend whom I called to see on some business a
+day or two ago."</p>
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+<p>"She said to me, in that soft purring voice
+of hers, 'Brother Joseph, I hear that your good friend Master
+Raymond is still in Boston.' I answered that I believed he was.
+'When he took leave of me,' she continued, 'I advised
+him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg
+265]</a></span> not to stay long in that town&mdash;as it was often
+a bad climate for strangers. I am sorry he does not take wise
+counsel.' Then she passed on, and out of the house. Have you any
+idea what she meant?"</p>
+<p>Master Raymond studied a moment over it in
+silence. Then he said:&mdash;"It is the first warning of the
+rattlesnake, I suppose. How many do they usually give before they
+spring?"</p>
+<p>"Three, the saying goes. But I guess this
+rattlesnake cannot be trusted to give more than one."</p>
+<p>"I was convinced I saw your brother Thomas as
+I came ashore from the Storm King the other day."</p>
+<p>"Ah, that explains it then. She understands
+it all then. She understands it all now just as well as if you had
+told her."</p>
+<p>"But why should she pursue so fiendishly an
+innocent girl like Dulcibel, who is not conscious of ever having
+offended her?"</p>
+<p>"Why do tigers slay, and scorpions sting?
+Because it is their nature, I suppose," replied Master Putnam
+philosophically. "Because, Mistress Dulcibel openly ridiculed and
+denounced her and the whole witchcraft business. And you will note
+that there has not been a single instance of<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> this
+being done, that the circle of accusers have not seemed maddened to
+frenzy."</p>
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;there has been one
+case&mdash;your own."</p>
+<p>"That is true&mdash;because I am Thomas
+Putnam's brother. And, dupe and tool as he is of that she-wolf, and
+though there is no great amount of love lost between us&mdash;still
+I am his brother! And that protects me. Besides they know that it
+is as much any two men's lives are worth to attempt to arrest
+me."</p>
+<p>"And then you think there is no special
+enmity against Dulcibel?"</p>
+<p>"I have not said so. Jethro Sands hates her
+because she refused him; Leah Herrick wants her driven away,
+because she herself wants to marry Jethro, and fears Jethro might
+after all, succeed in getting Dulcibel; and Sister Ann hates her,
+because&mdash;"</p>
+<p>"Well, because what?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, it seems too egotistical to say
+it&mdash;because she knows she is one of my dear
+friends."</p>
+<p>"She must dislike you very much
+then?"</p>
+<p>"She does."</p>
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, there is no good reason. At the first,
+she was inclined to like me&mdash;but I always knew she<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> was
+a cold-blooded snake and she-wolf, and I would have nothing to do
+with her. Then when brother Thomas began to sink his manhood and
+become the mere dupe and tool of a scheming woman, I remonstrated
+with him. I think, friend Raymond, that I am as chivalrous as any
+man ought to be. I admire a woman in her true place as much as any
+man&mdash;and would fight and die for her. But for these men that
+forget their manhood, these Marc Antonies who yield up their sound
+reason and their manly strength to the wiles and tears and charms
+of selfish and ambitious Cleopatras, I have nothing but contempt.
+There are plenty of them around in all ages of the world, and they
+generally glory in their shame. Of course brother Thomas did not
+enjoy very much my mean opinion of his conduct&mdash;and as for
+sister Ann, she has never forgiven me, and never will."</p>
+<p>"And so you think she hates Dulcibel, mainly
+because you love her?"</p>
+<p>"That is about the shape of it," said Master
+Putnam drily. "That Dulcibel feels for me the affection of a
+sister, only intensifies my sister-in-law's aversion to her. But
+then, you see, that merely on the general principle of denouncing
+all who set themselves in opposition to the so-called<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+afflicted circle, Dulcibel would be accused of
+witchcraft."</p>
+<p>"Well, for my part, I think the whole affair
+can only be accounted for as being a piece of what we men of the
+world, who do not belong to any church, call devilishness," said
+Master Raymond hotly.</p>
+<p>"You see," responded Master Putnam, "that you
+men of the world have to come to the same conclusion that we church
+members do. You impute it to 'devilishness' and we to being
+'possessed by the devil.' It is about the same thing. And now give
+me an idea of your latest plans. Perhaps I can forward them in some
+way, either here or at Salem."</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id=
+"Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class=
+"label">[3]</span></a> See Drake's History of Boston</p>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id=
+"Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>
+<h4>Conflicting Currents in Boston.</h4>
+<p>All this time the under-current of opposition
+to these criminal proceedings against the alleged witches, was
+growing stronger, at Boston. The Reverend Samuel Willard and Joshua
+Moody both ministers of undoubted orthodoxy from the Puritan
+stand-point, did not scruple to visit the accused in the keeping of
+jailer Arnold, and sympathize openly with them. Captain Alden and
+Master Philip English and his wife especially, were persons of too
+great wealth and reputation not to have many sympathizing
+friends.</p>
+<p>On the other hand, the great majority of the
+Puritans, under the lead of the Reverend Cotton Mather, and the two
+Salem ministers, Parris and Noyes were determined that the
+prosecution should go on, until the witches, those children of the
+Evil One, were thoroughly cast out; even if half of their
+congregations should have to be hung by the other half.</p>
+<p>At a recent trial in Salem, one of the
+"afflicted" had even gone so far as to cry out against the Rev.
+Master Willard. But the Court, it seemed, was<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> not
+quite ready for that; for the girl was sent out of court, being
+told that she must have mistaken the person. When this was reported
+to Master Willard, it by no means tended to lessen his growing
+belief that the prosecutions were inspired by evil
+spirits.</p>
+<p>Of course in this condition of things, the
+position of the Governor, Sir William Phips, became a matter of the
+first importance. As he owed his office mainly to the influence of
+the Rev. Increase Mather, and sat under the weekly ministrations of
+his learned son, Cotton Mather, the witch prosecutors had a very
+great hold upon him. With a good natural intellect, Sir William had
+received a very scanty education; and was therefore much impressed
+by the prodigious attainments of such men as the two Mathers. To
+differ with them on a theological matter seemed to him rather
+presumptuous. If they did not know what was sound in theology, and
+right in practise; why was there any use in having ministers at
+all, or who could be expected to be certain of anything?</p>
+<p>Then if Sir William turned to the law, he was
+met by an almost unanimous array of lawyers and judges who endorsed
+the witchcraft prosecution. Chief-Justice Stoughton, honest and
+learned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg
+271]</a></span> Judge Sewall&mdash;and nearly all the rest of the
+judiciary&mdash;were sure of the truth in this matter. Not one
+magistrate could be found in the whole province, to decide as a
+sensible English judge is reported by tradition to have done, in
+the case of an old woman who at last acknowledged in the feebleness
+of her confused intellect that she was a witch, and in the habit of
+riding about on a broomstick: "Well, as I know of no law that
+forbids old women riding about on broomsticks, if they fancy that
+mode of conveyance, you are discharged." But there was not one
+magistrate at that time, wise or learned enough to make such a
+sensible decision in the whole of New England.</p>
+<p>Thus with the almost unanimous bar, and the
+great preponderance of the clergy, advising him to pursue a certain
+course, Sir William undoubtedly would have followed it, had he not
+been a man whose sympathies naturally were with sea-captains,
+military officers, and other men-of-the-world; and, moreover, if he
+had not a wife, herself the daughter of a sea-captain, who was an
+utter disbeliever in her accused friends being witches, and who had
+moreover a very strong will of her own.</p>
+<p>Of course if the Governor should come to Lady
+Mary's opinion, the prosecution might as well be<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+abandoned&mdash;for, with a stroke of his pen, he could remit the
+sentences of all the convicted persons. Left to himself and Lady
+Mary, he doubtless would have done this; but he wished to continue
+in his office, and to be a successful Governor; and he knew that to
+array himself against the prosecution and punishment of the alleged
+witches was to displease the great majority of the people of the
+province; including, as I have shown, the most influential persons.
+In fact, it was simply to retire from his government in
+disgrace.</p>
+<p>All this the Reverend Cotton Mather
+represented to Sir William, with much else of a less worldly, but
+no doubt still more effective character, based upon various
+passages of the old Testament rather than upon anything
+corresponding to them in the New.</p>
+<p>And so the prosecutions and convictions went
+on; but the further executions waited upon the Governor's
+decision.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id=
+"CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id=
+"Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
+<h4>The Rattlesnake Makes a Spring.</h4>
+It was a Thursday afternoon, and the "afflicted
+circle" was having one of its informal meetings at the house of
+Mistress Ann Putnam. At these meetings the latest developments were
+talked over; and all the scandal of the neighborhood, and even of
+Boston and other towns, gathered and discussed. Thus in the
+examination of Captain Alden in addition to the material charges of
+witchcraft against him, which I have noted, were entirely
+irrelevant slanders of the grossest kind against his moral
+character which the "afflicted girls" must have gathered from very
+low and vulgar sources.<br />
+<br />
+<p>The only man present on this occasion was
+Jethro Sands; and the girls, especially Leah Herrick, could not but
+wonder who now was to be "cried out against," that Jethro was
+brought into their counsels.</p>
+<p>It is a curious natural instinct which leads
+every faculty&mdash;even the basest&mdash;to crave more food in
+proportion to the extent in which it has been already gratified. In
+the first place, the "afflicted" girls no doubt had their little
+spites, revenges, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id=
+"Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> jealousies to indulge, but
+afterwards they seemed to "cry out" against those of whom they
+hardly knew anything, either to oblige another of the party, or to
+punish for an expressed disbelief in their sincerity, or even out
+of the mere wantonness of power to do evil.</p>
+<p>Mistress Ann Putnam opened the serious
+business of the afternoon, after an hour or so had been spent in
+gossip and tale-bearing, by an account of some recent troubles of
+hers.</p>
+<p>"A few nights ago," said she, "I awakened in
+the middle of the night with choking and strangling. I knew at once
+that a new 'evil hand' was upon me; for the torment was different
+from any I had ever experienced. I thought the hand that grasped me
+around the throat would have killed me&mdash;and there was a heavy
+weight upon my breast, so that I could hardly breathe. I clutched
+at the thing that pressed upon my breast, and it felt hard and bony
+like a horse's hoof&mdash;and it was a horse. By the faint
+moonlight I saw it was the wild black 'familiar' that belongs to
+the snake-marked witch, Dulcibel Burton. But the hand that grasped
+my throat was the strong hand of a man. I caught a sight of his
+face. I knew it well. But I pity him so much that I hesitate
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg
+275]</a></span> reveal it. I feel as if I would almost rather
+suffer myself, than accuse so fine a young man as he seemed to be
+of such wicked conduct."</p>
+<p>"But it appears to me that it is your duty to
+expose him, Mistress Putnam," said Jethro Sands. "I know the young
+man whose spectre you saw, for he and that black witch of a mare
+seem to be making their nightly rounds together. They 'afflicted'
+me the other night the same way. I flung them off; and I asked him
+what he meant by acting in that way? And he said he was a lover of
+the witch Dulcibel; who was one of the queens of Hell&mdash;I might
+know that by the snake-mark on her bosom. And she had told him that
+he must afflict all those who had testified against her; and she
+would lend him her 'familiar,' the black mare, to help him do
+it."</p>
+<p>By this time, even the dullest of the girls
+of course saw very plainly who was being aimed at; but Mistress
+Putnam added, "upon learning that Master Jethro had also been
+afflicted by this person, I had very little doubt that I should
+find the guilty young man had been doing the same to all of you;
+for we have seen heretofore that when these witches attack one of
+us, they attack all, hating all for the same reason, that we expose
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg
+276]</a></span> denounce them. I may add that I have also heard
+that the young man in question is now in Boston doing all he can in
+aid of the snake-witch Dulcibel Burton; and representing all of us
+to Lady Mary Phips and other influential persons, as being
+untruthful and malicious accusers of innocent people." Here she
+turned to one who had always been her right-hand as it were, and
+said:&mdash;"I suppose you have been tormented in the same way,
+dear Abigail?"</p>
+<p>Ann Putnam, her daughter, however, that
+precocious and unmanageable girl of twelve, here broke in: "I think
+my mother is entirely mistaken. I was treated just the same way
+about a week ago; but it was not the spectre of Master Raymond at
+all&mdash;it was the spectre of another man whom I never saw
+before. It was not at all like Master Raymond; and I, for one, will
+not join in crying out against him."</p>
+<p>In those old times, parents were treated with
+a much greater show, at least, of respect and veneration than they
+are at present; and therefore Mistress Putnam was greatly shocked
+at her daughter's language; but her daughter was well known to all
+present as an exceptional child, being very forward and
+self-willed, and therefore her mother simply<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+said, "I had not expected such unkind behavior from you,
+Ann."</p>
+<p>"Master Raymond has been very kind to all of
+us, you know&mdash;has given us pretty things, and has promised to
+send us all presents when he gets back from England; and I have
+heard you and father both say, that the Putnams always stand up for
+their friends."</p>
+<p>This reference to the promised presents from
+England, evidently told all around the circle. They had nothing to
+gain by "crying out" against Master Raymond, they had something to
+gain by not doing it; besides, he was a very handsome young man,
+who had tried to make himself agreeable to almost all of them as he
+had opportunity. And though Dulcibel's beauty went for nothing in
+their eyes, a young man's good looks and gallant bearing were
+something entirely different.</p>
+<p>And so Abigail Williams, and Mary Walcot, and
+Mercy Lewis, and Leah Herrick, and Sarah Churchill, and Elizabeth
+Hubbard all had the same tale to tell with suitable variations, as
+young Ann Putnam had. They were certain that the face of the
+"spectre" was not the face of Master Raymond; but of some person
+they had never before seen. Mercy Lewis and Sarah
+Churchill,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id=
+"Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> in fact, were inclined to think it
+was the face of Satan himself; and they all wondered very much that
+Mistress Putnam could have mistaken such an old and ugly face, for
+that of the comely young Englishman.</p>
+<p>As for Leah Herrick, she did not care in her
+secret heart if Master Raymond were in love with Dulcibel&mdash;so
+that he would only take her out of the country, where there was no
+danger of Jethro's seeing her any more. All her belief that
+Dulcibel was a witch was based upon jealousy, and now that it was
+utterly improbable that Jethro would ever turn his thoughts in that
+direction again, she had no hard feeling towards her; while, as she
+also had reason to expect a handsome present from England, she did
+not share in the least Jethro's bitterness against the young
+Englishman.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id=
+"Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>But although Mistress Putnam was thus
+utterly foiled in her effort to enlist the "afflicted circle" in
+her support, she was not the woman to give up her settled purpose
+on that account. She knew well that she was a host in herself, so
+far as the magistrates were concerned. And, having Jethro Sands to
+join her, it made up the two witnesses that were absolutely
+necessary by the law of Massachusetts as of Moses. The "afflicted
+circle" might not aid her, but it was not likely that they would
+openly revolt, and take part against her in public; and so she went
+the very next morning in company with that obedient tool, her
+husband and Jethro Sands, to the office of Squire Hathorne, and got
+him to issue a warrant for the arrest of Master Ellis Raymond, on
+the usual charge of practicing witchcraft.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id=
+"Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
+<h4>An Interview with Lady Mary.</h4>
+<p>Master Raymond, having obtained an
+introduction to the Governor's wife, Lady Mary, lost no time in
+endeavoring to "cultivate the amenities of life," so far as that
+very influential person was concerned. He had paid the most
+deferential court to her on several occasions where he had been
+able to meet her socially; and had impressed the Governor's lady
+very favorably, as being an unusually handsome, well-bred and
+highly cultivated young man. A comely and high-spirited lady of
+forty, she was better pleased to be the recipient of the courteous
+and deferential attentions of a young Englishman of good
+connections like Master Raymond, than even to listen to the wise
+and weighty counsel of so learned a man as Master Cotton
+Mather.</p>
+<p>Only in the last minutes of their last
+meeting however, when handing her ladyship to her carriage, did
+Master Raymond feel at liberty to ask her if he could have a short
+private interview with her the next morning. She looked a little
+surprised, and then said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281"
+id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> "Of course, Master
+Raymond."</p>
+<p>"At what hour will it suit your
+ladyship?"</p>
+<p>"At twelve, precisely, I have an engagement
+at one;" and the carriage drove off.</p>
+<p>A minute or two before twelve, Master Raymond
+was at the Governor's house in Green lane; and was duly admitted,
+as one expected, and shown into her ladyship's boudoir.</p>
+<p>"Now, come right to the point, Master
+Raymond; and tell me what I can do for you," said her ladyship
+smiling. "If I can help you, I will; if I cannot, or must not, I
+shall say so at once&mdash;and you must continue to be just as good
+a friend to me as ever."</p>
+<p>"I promise that to your ladyship," replied
+the young man earnestly. He really liked and admired Lady Mary very
+much.</p>
+<p>"Is it love, or money?&mdash;young men always
+want one of these."</p>
+<p>"Your ladyship is as quick-witted in this as
+in everything else."</p>
+<p>"Well, which is it?"</p>
+<p>"Love."</p>
+<p>"Ah&mdash;who?"</p>
+<p>"Mistress Dulcibel Burton."</p>
+<p>"What!&mdash;not the girl with the
+snake-mark?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id=
+"Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+<p>Raymond bowed his head very low in
+answer.</p>
+<p>Lady Mary laughed. "She is a witch then, it
+seems; for she has bewitched you."</p>
+<p>"We were betrothed to each other only a few
+days before that absurd and lying charge was made against
+her."</p>
+<p>"And her horse&mdash;her black
+mare&mdash;that upset the Reverend Master Parris into the duck
+pond; and then went up into the clouds; and, as Master Cotton
+Mather solemnly assured me, has never been seen or heard of
+since&mdash;what of it&mdash;where is it, really?"</p>
+<p>"In an out-of-the-way place, up in Master
+Joseph Putnam's woods," replied the young man smiling.</p>
+<p>"And you are certain of it?"</p>
+<p>"As certain as riding the mare for about ten
+miles will warrant."</p>
+<p>"Master Mather assured me that no
+man&mdash;except perhaps Satan or one of his imps&mdash;could ride
+her."</p>
+<p>"Then I must be Satan or one of his imps, I
+suppose."</p>
+<p>"How did you manage it?"</p>
+<p>"I put a side-saddle on the beast; and a
+woman's skirt on myself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283"
+id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
+<p>The lady laughed outright. "Oh, that is too
+good! It reminds me of what Sir William often says, 'Anything can
+be done, if you know how to do it!' I must tell it to him he will
+enjoy it so much. And it will be a good thing to plague Master
+Mather with."</p>
+<p>"Please do not tell anyone just now,"
+protested the young man earnestly. "It may bring my good friend,
+Joseph Putnam, into trouble. And it would only make them all
+angrier than they are with Dulcibel."</p>
+<p>"Dulcibel&mdash;that is a strange name. It is
+Italian&mdash;is it not."</p>
+<p>"I judge so. It is a family name. I suppose
+there is Italian blood in the family. At least Mistress Dulcibel
+looks it."</p>
+<p>"She does. She is very beautiful&mdash;of a
+kind of strange, fascinating beauty. I do not wonder she bewitched
+you. Was that serpent mark too from Italy?"</p>
+<p>"I think it very likely."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps she is descended from
+Cleopatra&mdash;and that is the mark left by the serpent on the
+famous queen's breast."</p>
+<p>"I think it exceedingly probable," said
+Master Raymond. My readers will have observed before<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+this, that he was an exceedingly polite and politic young
+man.</p>
+<p>"Well, and so you want me to get Mistress
+Dulcibel, this witch descendant of that famous old witch,
+Cleopatra, out of prison?"</p>
+<p>"I hoped that, from the well-known kindness
+of heart of your ladyship, you would be able to do something for
+us."</p>
+<p>"You see the difficulty is simply here. I
+know that all these charges of witchcraft against such good, nice
+people as Captain Alden, Master and Mistress English, your
+betrothed Dulcibel, and a hundred others, are mere bigotry and
+superstition at the best, and sheer spite and maliciousness at the
+worst&mdash;but what can I do? Sir William owes his position to the
+Reverend Increase Mather&mdash;and, besides, not being a greatly
+learned man himself, is more impressed than he ought to be by the
+learning of the ministers and the lawyers. I tell him that a
+learned fool is the greatest fool alive; but still he is much
+puzzled. If he does not conform to the wishes of the ministers and
+the judges, who are able to lead the great majority of the people
+in any direction they choose, he will lose his position as
+Governor. Now, while this is not so much in itself, it will be a
+bar to his future<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id=
+"Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> advancement&mdash;for preferment
+does not often seek the men who fail, even when they fail from
+having superior wisdom and nobleness to the multitude."</p>
+<p>It was evident that Sir William and Lady Mary
+had talked over this witchcraft matter, and its bearing upon his
+position, a good many times. And Master Raymond saw very clearly
+the difficulties of the case.</p>
+<p>"And still, if the robe of the Governor can
+only continue to be worn by dyeing it with innocent blood, I think
+that a man of the natural greatness and nobility of Sir William,
+would not hesitate as to his decision."</p>
+<p>"But a new Governor in his place might do
+worse."</p>
+<p>"Yes, he might easily do that."</p>
+<p>"When it comes to taking more lives by his
+order, then he will decide upon his course. So far he is
+temporizing," said the lady.</p>
+<p>"And Dulcibel?"</p>
+<p>"She is not suffering," was the reply. "Oh,
+if I only could say the same of the poor old women, and poor young
+women, now lying in those cold and loathsome cells&mdash;innocent
+of any crime whatever either against God or against man&mdash;I
+should not feel it all here so heavily," and Lady<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> Mary
+pressed her hand against her heart. "But we are not responsible for
+it! I have taken off every chain&mdash;and do all I dare; while Sir
+William shuts his eyes to my unlawful doings."</p>
+<p>"Will you aid her to escape, should her life
+be in danger? You told me to speak out frankly and to the
+point."</p>
+<p>The lady hesitated only for a moment. "I will
+do all I can&mdash;even to putting my own life in peril. When
+something <i>must</i> be done, come to me again. And now judge me
+and Sir William kindly; knowing that we are not despots, but
+compelled to rule somewhat in accordance with the desires of those
+whom we have been sent here to govern."</p>
+<p>Lady Mary extended her hand; the young man
+took it, as he might have taken the hand of his sovereign Queen,
+and pressed it with his lips. Then he bowed himself out of the
+boudoir.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id=
+"Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond is Arrested for
+Witchcraft.</h4>
+<p>As Master Raymond walked up the street toward
+the Red Lion, he felt in better spirits. He had secured the aid, if
+things should come to the worst of a very influential
+friend&mdash;and one who, woman-like, would be apt to go even
+farther than her word, as noble spirits in such cases are apt to
+do. Therefore he was comparatively light-hearted.</p>
+<p>Suddenly he felt a strong grasp upon his
+shoulder; and turning, he saw a couple of men beside him. One he
+knew well as deputy-marshall Herrick, of Salem.</p>
+<p>"You are wanted at Salem, Master Raymond,"
+said Marshall Herrick gravely, producing a paper.</p>
+<p>Raymond felt a sinking of heart as he glanced
+over it&mdash;it was the warrant for his arrest, issued by Squire
+Hathorne.</p>
+<p>"At whose complaint?" he asked, controlling
+his emotions, and speaking quite calmly and pleasantly.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg
+288]</a></span></p>
+<p>"At the complaint of Mistress Ann Putnam and
+Master Jethro Sands," replied the officer.</p>
+<p>"Of witchcraft? That is very curious. For as
+Dr. Griggs knows, just before I left Salem Farms, I was suffering
+from 'an evil hand' myself."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said the officer.</p>
+<p>"When am I to go?"</p>
+<p>"Immediately. We have provided a horse for
+you."</p>
+<p>"I should like to get my valise, and some
+clothes from the Red Lion."</p>
+<p>The officer hesitated.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond smiled pleasantly. "You must
+be hungry about this time of day, and they have some of the best
+wine at the Lion I ever tasted. You shall drink a bottle or two
+with me. You know that a man travels all the better for a good
+dinner and a bottle of good wine."</p>
+<p>The officers hesitated no longer. "You are a
+sensible man, Master Raymond, whether you are a witch or not," said
+the deputy marshall.</p>
+<p>"I think if the wine were better and plentier
+around Salem, there would be fewer witches," rejoined Master
+Raymond; which the other officer considered a very witty remark,
+judging by the way he laughed at it.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+<p>The result of this strategic movement of
+Master Raymond's, was that he had a couple of very pleasant and
+good-humored officials to attend him all the way to Salem jail,
+where they arrived in the course of the evening. Proving that thus
+by the aid of a little metaphorical oil and sugar, even official
+machinery could be made to work a good deal smoother than it
+otherwise would. While the officers themselves expressed their
+utter disbelief to the people they met, of the truth of the charges
+that had been brought against Master Raymond; who in truth was
+himself "an afflicted person," and had been suffering some time
+from an "evil hand," as the wise Dr. Griggs had
+declared.</p>
+<p>The Salem keeper, Uncle Robie, true to his
+accustomed plan of action, received Master Raymond very gruffly;
+but after he had got rid of the other professionals, he had a good
+long talk, and made his cell quite comfortable for him. He also
+took him in to visit Antipas, who was delighted to see him, and
+also to hear that Mistress Dulcibel, was quite comfortably lodged
+with Keeper Arnold.</p>
+<p>Then the young man threw himself upon his
+bed, and slept soundly till morning. He did not need much study to
+decide upon his plans, as he<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> had contemplated such
+a possibility as that, ever since the arrest of Dulcibel, and had
+fully made up his mind in what manner he would meet it. If,
+however, he had known the results of the conference of the
+"afflicted circle" two days previous, he would have felt more
+encouraged as to the probable success of the defence he meditated.
+The constable that had aided the deputy-marshall in making the
+arrest, had agreed however to send word to Joseph Putnam of what
+had occurred; and comforted by the thought of having at least one
+staunch friend to stand by him, Master Raymond had slept soundly
+even on a prison pallet.</p>
+<p>The next morning, as early as the rules of
+the jail would admit, Joseph Putnam came to see him. "I had
+intended to come and see you in Boston to-day," said Master Joseph,
+"but the she-wolf was too quick for me."</p>
+<p>"Why, had you heard anything?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, and I hardly understand it. Abigail
+Williams called to see Goodwife Buckley yesterday, and told her in
+confidence that it was probable you would be cried out against by
+Sister Ann and Jethro Sands; and to warn me of it."</p>
+<p>"Abigail Williams!"</p>
+<p>"Yes; and she also dropped a hint that none
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg
+291]</a></span> the other 'afflicted girls' had anything to do with
+it&mdash;for they looked upon you as a very nice young man, and a
+friend."</p>
+<p>"Well, that is good news indeed," said Master
+Raymond brightening up.</p>
+<p>"And I called upon Doctor Griggs on my way
+here, and he says he is confident there was an 'evil hand' upon you
+when you were suffering at my house; and he will be on hand at the
+examination to give his testimony, if it is needed, to that
+effect."</p>
+<p>"But that terrible sister-in-law of yours! If
+she could only be kept away from the examination for half-an-hour;
+and give me time to impress the magistrates and the people a
+little."</p>
+<p>"It might be done perhaps," said Joseph
+Putnam musing.</p>
+<p>"Do not be too conscientious about the means,
+my dear friend," continued Master Raymond. "Do not stand so
+straight that you lean backward. Remember that this is war and a
+just war against false witnesses, the shedders of innocent blood,
+and wicked or deceived rulers. If I am imprisoned, what is to
+become of Dulcibel? Think of her&mdash;do not think of
+me."</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam was greatly agitated. "I
+will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg
+292]</a></span> do all I can for both of you. But my soul recoils
+from anything like deceit, as from wickedness itself. But I will
+think over it, and see if I cannot devise some way to keep Sister
+Ann away, for a time or altogether."</p>
+<p>"Give me at least fifteen minutes to work on
+the Magistrates, and to enlist the sympathies of the people in my
+behalf. For me, so far as my conscience is concerned, I should not
+hesitate to shoot that Jezebel. For the murder of the twenty
+innocent men and women who have now been put to death, she is
+mainly responsible. And to kill her who surely deserves to die,
+might save the lives of fifty others."</p>
+<p>Joseph Putnam shook his head. "I cannot see
+the matter in that light, Friend Raymond."</p>
+<p>"Oh," replied Raymond, "of course I do not
+mean you should kill Mistress Ann. I only put it as giving my idea
+of how far <i>my</i> conscience would allow me to go in the matter.
+Draw her off in some way though&mdash;keep her out of the room for
+awhile&mdash;give me a little time to work in."</p>
+<p>"I will do all I can; you may be sure of
+that," responded Master Putnam emphatically.</p>
+<p>Here further confidential conversation was
+prevented by the entrance of the marshall.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id=
+"Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond Astonishes the
+Magistrates.</h4>
+<p>The examination was to commence at three
+o'clock in the afternoon, and to be held in the Court House in the
+town, as being more convenient to Squire Hathorne than the
+meeting-house in the village.</p>
+<p>As Master Thomas Putnam's house and farm were
+several miles beyond the village, it made quite a long ride for
+them to attend the examination. He had arranged with his wife,
+however, to start immediately after their usual twelve o'clock
+dinner, taking her behind him on a pillion, as was customary at
+that day&mdash;his daughter Ann being already in town, where she
+was paying a visit to a friend. He had received however a message
+about ten o'clock, requesting his immediate presence at Ipswich, on
+a matter of the most urgent importance; and though he was greatly
+puzzled by it, he concluded to go at once to Ipswich and go from
+there direct to Salem town, without coming home again, as it would
+be very much out of his road to do so.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg
+294]</a></span></p>
+<p>According to this new arrangement, Mistress
+Ann would take the other horse, and a lady's saddle, and ride to
+town by herself. They had still a third horse, but that was already
+in town with her daughter.</p>
+<p>The Court House was but a short distance from
+the prison; and, as it was a good Puritan fashion to be punctual to
+the minute, at three o'clock precisely Squires Hathorne and Corwin
+were in their arm-chairs, and Master Raymond standing on the raised
+platform in front of them. As the latter looked carefully around
+the room, he saw that neither Thomas Putnam nor his mischievous
+wife, nor his own best friend Joseph Putnam, was present. Squire
+Hathorne also observed that Mistress Ann Putnam was not present;
+but, as she was usually very punctual, he concluded that she would
+be there in a few minutes, and after some whispered words with his
+colleague, resolved to proceed with the examination.</p>
+<p>Turning to the young Englishman, he said in
+his usual stern tones:&mdash;"Ellis Raymond, you are brought before
+authority, upon high suspicion of sundry acts of witchcraft. Now
+tell us the truth of this matter."</p>
+<p>But no answer came from the accused.
+Then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg
+295]</a></span> when all eyes were intently regarding him, he gave
+a wild shriek, and fell outstretched upon the platform.</p>
+<p>"Let me to him!" said Dr. Griggs, elbowing
+his way through the crowd. "I said a month ago that an 'evil hand'
+was upon him; and now I am certain of it."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond had not been an attentive
+observer of the recent trials for nothing; and he now gave the
+audience an exhibition which would compare favorably with the best,
+even with Mistress Ann Putnam's and Abigail William's. His face
+became shockingly contorted, and he writhed and twisted and turned
+convulsively. He tore imaginary spectral hands from around his
+neck. He pushed imaginary weights from off his breast. He cried,
+"Take them away! Pray, take them away!" until the whole company
+were very much affected; and even the magistrates were greatly
+astounded.</p>
+<p>Dr. Griggs loosened his collar and unbuttoned
+his doublet, and had water brought to sprinkle his face keeping up
+a running fire of words at the same time, to the effect that he
+knew, and had said, as least a month before, that Master Raymond
+had an "evil hand" upon him.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Who is it hurts you?" at length asked
+credulous Squire Hathorne.</p>
+<p>"See, there is the yellow bird!" cried the
+young man, staring into vacancy. "He is coming to peck my eyes out!
+Kill it! kill it!" dashing his hands out from his face violently.
+"Has no one a sword&mdash;pray do try to kill it!"</p>
+<p>Here an impetuous young villager, standing
+by, drew his rapier, and stabbed violently in the direction of the
+supposed spectral bird.</p>
+<p>"Oh! Oh! You almost killed it! See, there are
+some of its feathers!" And three yellow feathers were seen floating
+in the air; being small chicken feathers with which he had been
+provided that very morning by Uncle Robie, the jailer; and which
+the adroit Master Raymond rightly thought would have a prodigious
+effect.</p>
+<p>And the result was fully equal to his
+expectations. From that moment, it was evident that he had all the
+beholders with him; and Squire Hathorne, disposed as he had been to
+condemn him almost without a hearing, was completely staggered. He
+had the feathers from the "yellow bird" carefully placed upon his
+desk, with the purpose of transmitting them at once to Master
+Cotton Mather who, with these palpable proofs of the reality of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg
+297]</a></span> spectral appearance would be able utterly to
+demolish all the skeptical unbelievers.</p>
+<p>Finding that such an effect had been
+produced, Master Raymond allowed himself to regain his composure
+somewhat.</p>
+<p>"Mistress Ann Putnam, who is one of the two
+complainants, unaccountably is not here," said Squire Hathorne.
+"Master Jethro Sands, what have you to say against this young man?
+You are the other complainant."</p>
+<p>"Probably my mother has come to the
+conclusion that she was mistaken, as I told her; and therefore she
+has remained at home," said Ann Putnam, the daughter; who was
+delighted with the feather exhibition, and was secretly wondering
+how it was done.</p>
+<p>"Well, what have you to say,&mdash;Jethro
+Sands?"</p>
+<p>The audience looked around at Jethro with
+scornful faces, evidently considering him an imposter. What did he
+know about witches&mdash;compared to this rich young man from over
+the seas?</p>
+<p>"Tell him you find you were mistaken also,"
+whispered Leah Herrick.</p>
+<p>"After seeing what we have seen, I withdraw
+my charges, Squire. I think that Mistress Put<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>nam
+and myself must have been visited by the spectre of somebody else,
+and not by Master Raymond."</p>
+<p>"I hope that next time you will wait until
+you are quite certain," replied Squire Hathorne gruffly. "Do you
+know that Master Raymond can have his action against you for very
+heavy damages, for slander and defamation?"</p>
+<p>"I certainly am very sorry, and humbly beg
+Master Raymond's pardon," said Jethro, very much alarmed. He had
+never thought that the affair might take this turn&mdash;as indeed
+it did in many cases, some six months afterward; and which was a
+very effective damper upon the spirits of the
+prosecutors.</p>
+<p>Then the magistrates could do nothing less
+than discharge the prisoner; and Master Raymond stepped down from
+the platform a free man, to be surrounded by quite a circle of
+sympathizing friends. But his first thanks were due to Dr. Griggs
+for his professional services.</p>
+<p>"Doctor, those things you did for me when in
+the convulsions, relieved me greatly," and he took out his purse.
+"Yes, Doctor, I insist upon it. Skill like yours is always worth
+its recompense. We must not muzzle the ox, you know,<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> that
+treads out the corn." And he put a gold piece into Dr. Grigg's
+palm&mdash;which was not often favored with anything but silver in
+Salem.</p>
+<p>Dr. Griggs was glad that he had been able to
+render him a little service; and said that, if there had been the
+least necessity for it, he would have gone on the platform, and
+testified as to the complete absurdity of the charge that that
+excellent woman, Mistress Ann Putnam, evidently in mistake, had
+brought against him.</p>
+<p>Then the "afflicted circle" had to be spoken
+to, who this afternoon did not appear to be in the least afflicted,
+but in the very best of spirits. They now felt more admiration for
+him than ever; and greeted him with great cordiality as he came to
+where they were standing. "When are you going back to England?" was
+a frequent question; and he assured them he now hoped to go before
+many weeks; and then, smiling, added that they would be certain to
+hear from him.</p>
+<p>As the crowd thinned out a little, Abigail
+Williams called him aside; "and did you really see the yellow bird,
+Master Raymond?" said she archly.</p>
+<p>"The yellow bird!" replied he dreamily. "Ah!
+you know that when we that are 'afflicted'<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> go
+into trances, we are not conscious of all that we see."</p>
+<p>"For it seemed to me," continued the girl in
+a low tone, "that those feathers looked very much like chicken
+feathers." Then she laughed cunningly, and peered into his
+face.</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" replied the young man gravely;
+"well, a chicken's bill, pecking at your eyes, is not a thing to be
+made light of. I knew of a girl, one of whose eyes was put entirely
+out by her pet canary."</p>
+<p>And as he moved at once toward the rest of
+the group, the quick-witted and precocious child was compelled to
+follow.</p>
+<p>The magistrates had left the Court House,
+with the majority of the people, including Jethro Sands, when who
+should come in, walking hastily, and his face flushed with hard
+riding, but Thomas Putnam.</p>
+<p>"Am I too late? What was done?" he said
+quickly to Leah Herrick, who was standing near the door.</p>
+<p>"Oh, the charge broke down, and Master
+Raymond was discharged."</p>
+<p>"Ah! Where is my wife?"</p>
+<p>"She did not come. It was said by your
+daugh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg
+301]</a></span>ter, that she probably found she was mistaken in the
+person, and stayed for that reason."</p>
+<p>"I do not believe it&mdash;she would have
+told me. What did Jethro Sands do?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, he withdrew the charges, so far as he
+was concerned. There was a great deal more danger that Master
+Raymond would prove him to be a witch, than he Master
+Raymond."</p>
+<p>"I see&mdash;it is a case of conspiracy!"
+exclaimed Master Putnam hotly. "Had you any hand in this, Master
+Raymond?" turning to the young Englishman, who had drawn near, on
+his way to the door.</p>
+<p>"Ah, Master Putnam, glad to see you. You did
+get here early enough however to witness my triumphant vindication.
+Here is learned Dr. Griggs, and young Mistress Williams, and your
+own gifted daughter, and handsome Mistress Herrick, and
+half-a-dozen others of my old friends who were ready to testify in
+my behalf, if any testimony had been needed. Make my compliments to
+Mistress Putnam; and give her my best thanks for her noble course,
+in confessing by her absence that she was mistaken, and that she
+had accused the wrong person."</p>
+<p>The cool assurance with which this was
+uttered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg
+302]</a></span> quite confused Thomas Putnam. Could his wife have
+stayed away purposely? Perhaps so, for she was accustomed to rapid
+changes of her plans. But why then had he been lured off on a
+wild-goose chase all the way to Ipswich?</p>
+<p>While he was standing there musing, his
+daughter came up. "I think, father, you and mother, next time, had
+better take my advice," said that incorrigible and unmanageable
+young lady; just about as opposite a character to the usual child
+of that period as could well be imagined. But these witchcraft
+trials, in which she figured so prominently had utterly demoralized
+her in this as in certain other respects.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id=
+"Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
+<h4>Why Thomas Putnam Went to
+Ipswich.</h4>
+<p>What young Master Joseph Putnam undertook to
+do, he was apt to do pretty thoroughly. When he had once made up
+his mind to keep both his brother's wife and his brother himself,
+away from the examination, he had rapidly thought over various
+plans, and adopted two which he felt pretty certain would not fail.
+They all involved a little deceit, or at least double
+dealing&mdash;and he hated both those things with a righteous
+hatred&mdash;but it was to prevent a great injustice, and perhaps
+to save life.</p>
+<p>As he rode rapidly homeward, turning over
+various plans, in his mind, he had passed through the village, when
+he saw some one approaching on what seemed to be the skeleton of an
+old horse. He at once recognized the rider as an odd character, a
+carpenter, whom he at one time had occasion to employ in doing some
+work on a small property he owned in Ipswich. Reining up his horse,
+Master Putnam stopped to have a chat with the man&mdash;whose
+oddity mainly consisted in his taciturnity, which was broken only
+by brief and pithy sentences.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
+<p>"A fine day Ezekiel&mdash;how are things in
+Ipswich?"</p>
+<p>"Grunty!"</p>
+<p>"Ah! I am sorry to hear it. Why, what is the
+matter?"</p>
+<p>"Broomsticks, chiefly."</p>
+<p>"You mean the witches. That is a bad
+business. But how shall we mend it?"</p>
+<p>The old carpenter was too shrewd to commit
+himself. He glanced at Master Putnam, and then turning his head
+aside, and giving a little laugh, said, "Burn all the
+broomsticks."</p>
+<p>"A good idea," replied Master Putnam, also
+laughing. "Oh, by the way, Ezekiel, I wonder if you could do a
+little errand for me?" and the young man took out his purse and
+began opening it. "You are not in a great hurry, are
+you?"</p>
+<p>"Hurry, is for fools!"</p>
+<p>"You know where my brother Thomas lives? Up
+this road?" They were just where two roads joined, one leading by
+his own house, and the other past his brother's.</p>
+<p>"I wish I knew the road to heaven as
+well."</p>
+<p>"You know how to keep silent, and how to talk
+also, Ezekiel&mdash;especially when you are well paid for
+it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg
+305]</a></span></p>
+<p>The old man laughed. "A little bullet
+sometimes makes a big hole," he said.</p>
+<p>"I want you to go to my brother Thomas, and
+say simply these words:&mdash;Ipswich Crown and Anchor. Very
+important indeed. At once. Wait till he comes."</p>
+<p>"All right." And he held out his hand, into
+which Master Joseph put as much silver as the old man could make in
+a whole week's work.</p>
+<p>"You are not to remember who sent you, or
+anything else than those words. Perhaps you have been drinking
+rather too much cider, you know. Do you understand?"</p>
+<p>The old man's face assumed at once a very
+dull and vacant expression, and he said in that impressive manner
+which rather too many glasses is apt to give, "Ipswich. Crown and
+Anchor. Very important indeed. At once. Wait till he
+comes."</p>
+<p>"That will do very well, Ezekiel. But not a
+word more, mind!"</p>
+<p>"Tight as a rat-trap," replied the old
+man&mdash;and he turned his skeleton's head, and went up the road
+towards Thomas Putnam's.</p>
+<p>Joseph felt certain that this would take his
+brother to Ipswich. Both of them were greatly interested in a
+lawsuit with certain of the Ipswich<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> people, regarding the
+northern boundary of the Putnam farms. Thomas was managing the
+matter for the family; and was continually on the look-out for
+fresh evidence to support the Putnam claim. In fact, bright Master
+Raymond had once said that, between the Salem witches and the
+Ips-witches, Master Thomas seemed to have no peace of his life. But
+this was before the witch persecutions had assumed such a tragical
+aspect.</p>
+<p>When Ezekiel had found Thomas Putnam and
+delivered his brief message, without dismounting from his skeleton
+steed, Master Putnam asked at once who sent the message.</p>
+<p>"Ipswich. Crown and Anchor. Very important
+indeed! At once. Wait till he comes," repeated the old man, with a
+face of the most impassive solemnity, and emphasizing every
+sentence with his long fore-finger.</p>
+<p>And that was all Master Thomas could get out
+of him. That much came just as often as he wished it; but no
+more&mdash;not a word.</p>
+<p>Mistress Ann Putnam had come out to the gate
+by that time. "He has been drinking too much cider," she
+said.</p>
+<p>This gave a suggestion to Ezekiel.</p>
+<p>"Yes, too much cider. Rum&mdash;steady
+me!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg
+307]</a></span></p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam thought that it might produce
+an effect of that kind, and, going back into the house, soon
+reappeared with a rather stiff drink of West India rum; which the
+old man tossed off with no perceptible difficulty.</p>
+<p>He smiled as he handed back the tin cup which
+had held it. "Yes&mdash;steady now!" he said.</p>
+<p>"Who gave you the message?" again asked
+Master Putnam.</p>
+<p>Ezekiel looked solemn and thoughtful. "Who
+gave 'im the message," replied Ezekiel slowly.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;who sent you to me?"</p>
+<p>"Who sent yer&mdash;to&mdash;me?" again
+repeated Ezekiel. "Ipswich. Crown and Anchor. At once. Wait till he
+comes." Then the old man's countenance cleared up, as if everything
+now must be perfectly satisfactory.</p>
+<p>"Oh there is no use in trying to get any more
+out of him&mdash;he is too much fuddled," said Mistress Putnam
+impatiently.</p>
+<p>"More rum&mdash;steady me!" mumbled
+Ezekiel.</p>
+<p>"No, not a drop more," said Thomas Putnam
+peremptorily. "You have had too much already."</p>
+<p>The old man frowned&mdash;and turning the
+skeleton steed after considerable effort, he gave his
+parting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg
+308]</a></span> shot&mdash;"Crown and anchor&mdash;wait till he
+comes!" and rode off in a spasmodic trot down the lane.</p>
+<p>"I shall have to go to Ipswich, and see about
+this, it may supply the missing link in our chain of
+evidence!"</p>
+<p>"But how about this afternoon?" queried his
+wife.</p>
+<p>"Oh, I can get to Salem by three o'clock, by
+fast riding. I will leave the roan horse for you."</p>
+<p>"Saddle the grey mare,
+Jehosaphat."</p>
+<p>And thus it was that his brother Joseph,
+looking out of his sitting-room window, about an hour after his
+arrival at home, saw Master Thomas Putnam, on his well-known grey
+mare, riding along the road past his house on the most direct route
+to Ipswich.</p>
+<p>"He is out of the way, for one&mdash;if he
+waits an hour or two for any person to meet him on important
+business at the Crown and Anchor," thought the young man. "It is
+important indeed though that he should go, and keep himself out of
+mischief; and from helping to take any more innocent lives. And
+when he comes to his senses&mdash;in the next world, if not in
+this&mdash;he will thank me for deceiving him. Now let me see
+whether I can do as good a turn for that delectable wife of
+his."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id=
+"Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>
+<h4>How Master Joseph Circumvented Mistress
+Ann.</h4>
+<p>About an hour afterwards, Master Joseph saw
+one of his farm-hands coming over the fields from the direction of
+his brother's house, which was about two miles almost directly to
+the west of his own house. Going out to meet him, he
+said&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Well, Simon Peter, I see that you got the
+rake."</p>
+<p>"Yes, Master Joseph; but they wish me to
+return it as soon as we can."</p>
+<p>"That is right. Finish your job in the garden
+this afternoon, and take it back early tomorrow morning. You can go
+to work now."</p>
+<p>The man walked off toward the
+garden.</p>
+<p>"Wait a moment!" his master cried. The man
+stopped. "Anything new at brother Thomas's? Are they all at
+home?"</p>
+<p>"No, indeed! Master Thomas has gone off to
+Ipswich&mdash;and little Ann is at Salem town."</p>
+<p>"I could not borrow a horse, then, of them,
+you think?"</p>
+<p>"No, indeed, sir. There is only one left in
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg
+310]</a></span> stable; and Mistress Putnam means to use that to go
+to the trial this afternoon."</p>
+<p>"Oh, well, I do not care much;" and his
+master walked off to the house, while Simon Peter went to his
+work.</p>
+<p>Then, after a somewhat earlier dinner than
+usual, Master Joseph ordered his young horse, Sweetbriar, saddled;
+and after kissing his wife "in a scandalous manner"&mdash;that is,
+out of doors, where some one might have seen him do it&mdash;he
+mounted, and cantered off down the lane.</p>
+<p>The young man loved a good horse and he
+claimed that Sweetbriar, with a year or two more of age and
+hardening, would be the fastest horse in the Province. As to
+temper, the horse was well named; for he could be as sweet, when
+properly handled, as a rose; and as sharp and briary as any
+rose-stalk under contrary conditions. A nervous, sensitive,
+high-mettled animal; Mistress Putnam, though a good rider, said it
+was too much work to manage him. While her husband always responded
+that Sweetbriar could be ridden by any one, for he was as gentle as
+a lamb.</p>
+<p>Just as Mistress Ann Putnam had got through
+her dinner, she saw her brother-in-law Joseph riding up the lane.
+The brothers, as has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311"
+id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> seen, differed very widely
+relative to the Witchcraft prosecutions; but still they visited one
+another, as they were held together by various family ties, and
+especially by the old lawsuit against certain of the Ipswich men,
+to which I have alluded.</p>
+<p>Therefore Mistress Putnam opened the door and
+went out to the garden gate, where by this time the young man had
+dismounted, and fastened his horse.</p>
+<p>"Is brother Thomas at home, Sister
+Ann?"</p>
+<p>"No&mdash;he had a call to Ipswich this
+morning."</p>
+<p>"Ah&mdash;the lawsuit business."</p>
+<p>"I suppose so. But the messenger was so
+overcome with liquor, that he could not even remember who sent
+him."</p>
+<p>"Why, how could Thomas know where to go
+then?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, the man managed to say that his employee
+would be waiting for Thomas at the "Crown and Anchor," where he
+usually stops you know."</p>
+<p>"Well, I am glad that Thomas went. I stopped
+to see if Jehosaphat could do a little errand for me&mdash;I might
+have sent one of my own men, but I forget matters
+sometimes."</p>
+<p>"You will find him at the barn," replied
+Mistress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg
+312]</a></span></p>
+<p>Putnam, a little anxious to cut short the
+conversation, as she wished to get ready for her ride to
+Salem.</p>
+<p>Going to the barn, Master Joseph soon found
+Jehosaphat. "How do, Fatty!" this was the not very dignified
+diminutive into which Jehosaphat had dwindled in common use. "How
+are you getting along?"</p>
+<p>"Fair to middlin, sir. Not as well though as
+on the old place, Master Joseph."</p>
+<p>"I do not want to interfere with my brother,
+remember; but if at any time he should not want you any more,
+remember the old place is still open for you. It was your own
+fault, you know, that you went."</p>
+<p>"I did not know when I was well off, Master
+Joseph. I was a fool, that was all."</p>
+<p>"I thought so," replied Master Joseph
+pithily. "But no matter about that now&mdash;can you do an errand
+for me?"</p>
+<p>"Of course I can&mdash;the mistress
+willing."</p>
+<p>"Well, I said I wished to send you on an
+errand, and she told me where to find you."</p>
+<p>"That is all right then."</p>
+<p>"Go to Goodman Buckley's, in Salem village,
+and ask him for a bundle I left&mdash;bring it to my<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>
+house, you know, you can take the roan horse there. And, by the
+way, Fatty, if you want to stop an hour or two to see the widow
+Jones's pretty daughter, I guess no great harm will be
+done."</p>
+<p>Jehosaphat giggled&mdash;but then his face
+clouded. "But Mistress Putnam wants to take the roan herself this
+afternoon. The trial comes off, you know."</p>
+<p>"Oh, it is not a trial&mdash;it is only an
+examination. And it is all fiddlesticks, anyhow. My sister-in-law
+is ruining her health by all this witch business. But if she
+insists upon going, I will lend her one of my horses. Therefore
+that need not keep you."</p>
+<p>So Jehosaphat, in high glee at having an
+afternoon's holiday, with the roan horse, threw on the saddle and
+mounted.</p>
+<p>As he rode at a rapid canter down the lane,
+Mistress Ann heard the noise, but supposed it was Master Joseph
+riding off again,&mdash;and did not even trouble herself to look
+out of the window, especially as she was just then changing her
+gown.</p>
+<p>Not long after, coming into the family room,
+who should she see there, sitting demurely, reading one of the
+Reverend Cotton Mather's most popular sermons, but the same Master
+Joseph Putnam whom she had thought she was well rid of.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg
+314]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I thought you had gone. I surely heard you
+riding down the lane," she said in a surprised tone.</p>
+<p>"Oh, no, I wanted to speak with you about
+something."</p>
+<p>"Who was it then?&mdash;I surely heard some
+one."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps it was one of those spectral horses,
+with a spectral rider. As Master Mather says: These are very
+wonderful and appalling times!" And the young man laughed a little
+scornfully.</p>
+<p>"Brother Joseph, I do not care to talk with
+you upon this question. I greatly regret, as do your brothers and
+your uncles, that you have gone over to the infidels and the
+scoffers."</p>
+<p>"And I regret that they are making such fools
+of themselves," replied Joseph hotly.</p>
+<p>"I have no time to discuss this question,
+brother Joseph," said Mistress Ann with dignity. "I am going to
+Salem town this afternoon, very much in the cross, to give my
+testimony against a young friend of yours. Would that I could have
+been spared this trial!" and his sister-in-law looked up to the
+ceiling sanctimoniously. As Joseph told his young wife that night,
+her hypocrisy hardened his heart against her; so that he could have
+kept her at home by sheer force, if it were necessary,<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> and
+at all expedient&mdash;in fact he would have preferred that rough
+but sincere way.</p>
+<p>"If you testify to anything that throws doubt
+upon Master Raymond's perfect innocency and goodness, you will
+testify to a lie," replied Master Joseph severely.</p>
+<p>"As I said, I have no time for argument. Will
+you be good enough to tell Jehosaphat to saddle the roan for
+me."</p>
+<p>"You know that I had your permission to send
+Fatty off on an errand&mdash;and he is not back yet."</p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam started and bit her lip. She
+had made a mistake. "I suppose he will be back before
+long."</p>
+<p>"I doubt it. I sent him to the
+village."</p>
+<p>"Well, I suppose I can put on the saddle
+myself. Your conscience probably would not allow you to do
+it&mdash;even if common courtesy towards a woman, and that woman
+your sister, demanded it."</p>
+<p>"Without deciding the latter point, I should
+think it almost impossible for me to put a saddle on the roan just
+now."</p>
+<p>"Why? I do not understand you."</p>
+<p>"Because he is doubtless miles away by this
+time."</p>
+<p>"Jehosaphat did not take the
+horse!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg
+316]</a></span></p>
+<p>"It is precisely what he did do."</p>
+<p>"He knew I wanted the roan to ride to Salem
+town this afternoon."</p>
+<p>"He told me you did; but I said that I
+thought you would have too much sense to go. Still, if you would
+go, that I would lend you one of my horses."</p>
+<p>"Well, where is your horse?"</p>
+<p>"There, at the door. You can take off my
+saddle, and put on your side-saddle, and, if you are in a hurry,
+Sweetbriar can do the distance in half the time that the roan
+could."</p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam could have cried with anger
+and vexation. Like many people of strong and resolute will, she was
+a good deal of a coward on horseback; and she knew that Sweetbriar
+was what the farmers called "a young and very skittish animal."
+Still her determined spirit rose against thus being outdone;
+besides, she knew well that in a case like this, where none of the
+"afflicted circle," not even her own daughter, would aid her, the
+whole thing might fall through if she were not present. So she
+said, "Well, I will saddle your horse myself."</p>
+<p>Here Master Joseph relented&mdash;because he
+now felt certain of his game. "I have conscientious<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
+scruples against lifting even my little finger to aid you in this
+unholy business," he said more placidly, "but under the
+circumstances, I will saddle Sweetbriar for you."</p>
+<p>So saying, he took off his saddle from the
+horse, and substituted the side-saddle which he brought from the
+barn. Then he led Sweetbriar to the horse-block, and his
+sister-in-law mounted.</p>
+<p>She glanced at his spurs. "You ride him with
+spurs, I see. Hand me my riding-whip," she said, pointing to where
+she had laid it, when she first came out.</p>
+<p>"I would not strike him, if I were you. He is
+not used to the whip&mdash;it might make him
+troublesome."</p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam made no reply; but gathered
+up the reins, and the horse started down the lane.</p>
+<p>A singular smile came across the young man's
+features. He went back and closed the door of the house, and then
+started in a rapid walk across the field towards his own home.
+Neither of them thought it mattered that the house was left for a
+time unprotected. Mistress Putnam knew that a couple of farm-hands
+were at work in a distant field, who would be back at sundown; and
+there were so few strollers at that time, that no
+farmer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg
+318]</a></span> thought of bolting up his doors and windows when he
+went to meeting, or to see a neighbor.</p>
+<p>The way home across the fields was a good
+deal nearer than to go by the road, as the latter made quite an
+angle. And, as the young man strode swiftly, on he could see in
+many places his sister-in-law, riding deliberately along, and
+approaching the forks of the road, where anyone going to his own
+house, would turn and ride away from, instead of toward
+Salem.</p>
+<p>"When she gets to the forks of the road, look
+out for squalls," said Master Joseph to himself. For many had been
+his own fights with Sweetbriar, when the horse wanted to go towards
+his stable, after a long ride, and his young master wanted him to
+go in the opposite direction. Sweetbriar had already gone about
+twenty miles that day&mdash;and, besides, had been given only the
+merest mouthful for dinner, with the object of preparing him for
+this special occasion.</p>
+<p>The next swell in the ground afforded the
+young man an excellent view. Sweetbriar had arrived at the turn
+which led to his stable; where rest and oats awaited him; and it
+evidently seemed to Him the height of injustice and unreason to be
+asked to go all the way back to Salem again. Mistress<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> Ann,
+however, knew nothing of these previous experiences of the animal,
+but imputed his insubordinate behavior entirely to self-will and
+obstinacy. And thus, as the great globe moves around the sun in a
+perpetual circle, as the result of the two conflicting forces of
+gravitation and fly-off-it-iveness, so Sweetbriar circled around
+and around, like a cat chasing his tail, as the result of the
+conflicting wills of himself and his rider.</p>
+<p>Master Joseph watched the progress of the
+whole affair with decided pleasure. "No woman but a witch could get
+Sweetbriar past that turn," he said to himself, laughing outright,
+"And no man, who had not a pair of spurs on."</p>
+<p>At last, getting out of all patience,
+Mistress Putnam raised her whip and brought it down sharply on her
+horse's shoulder. This decided the struggle; for, unused to such
+punishment, the fiery animal reared, and then turning, sprang up
+the road that led to his stable at a wild gallop.</p>
+<p>His rider as I have said, was not a very good
+horse-woman, and she now took hold of the horn of the saddle with
+her right hand, to enable her to keep her seat; and tried to
+moderate the gait of the horse with the reins and the voice,
+abandoning all further resistance to his will as
+useless.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg
+320]</a></span></p>
+<p>Setting off at a run, Master Joseph was able
+to reach home just about the same time as his sister-in-law
+did.</p>
+<p>"Ah! I am glad you changed your mind, Sister
+Ann, about going to Salem. It is a great deal more sensible to come
+and spend the afternoon with Elizabeth."</p>
+<p>"Very glad to see you, Sister Ann," said
+Mistress Joseph, coming out to the horse-block, at which
+Sweetbriar, from force of habit, had stopped.</p>
+<p>Mistress Ann looked offended, and replied
+coldly, "I had no intention of coming here this afternoon, Sister
+Elizabeth; but this vile brute, which Joseph lent me, after sending
+away my own horse, would neither obey the reins nor the
+whip."</p>
+<p>"You rascal!" said Master Joseph severely,
+addressing the horse. "You do not deserve to have a lady ride
+you."</p>
+<p>"Can you not lend me another horse&mdash;say
+the one Elizabeth always rides?"</p>
+<p>"All the other horses are out at work,"
+replied Master Joseph; "and before I could get one of them in, and
+at all groomed up, ready for the saddle, I am afraid it would be
+too late for your purpose."</p>
+<p>"So I must be compelled to do as you wish,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg
+321]</a></span> stay away from the examination?" said Mistress Ann
+bitterly.</p>
+<p>"Oh, if you choose, I will put a pillion on
+Sweetbriar, and see how that works?" replied Master Joseph with a
+meek and patient expression of countenance, as of one upbraided
+without cause. "To be sure, Sweetbriar has never been asked to
+carry double; but he might as well learn now as ever."</p>
+<p>"That seems to be the only thing that can be
+done now," and the expression of Mistress Ann's face resembled that
+of a martyr who was about to be tied to the stake; for riding on a
+pillion brought the lady always into the closest proximity with the
+gentleman, and she was now cherishing towards Master Joseph a
+temper that could hardly be called sisterly.</p>
+<p>There was necessarily a great waste of time
+in getting the pillion on Sweetbriar. He never had carried double,
+and he evidently felt insulted by being asked to do it. Master
+Joseph glanced at the sun, and knew it must be now full two
+o'clock. Only by fast riding, would it be possible to get to Salem
+court-house by three; and the roads, as they then were, did not
+admit of fast riding except in a few places.<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg
+322]</a></span></p>
+<p>It was no easy thing for Mistress Ann to get
+on Sweetbriar, for the horse backed and sidled off from the
+horse-block whenever she attempted it&mdash;all his sweetness
+seemed gone by this time, and the briars alone remained. At least
+fifteen minutes more were lost in this way. But at last the
+difficult feat was accomplished.</p>
+<p>"Hold on to me tightly," said the young man,
+"or you will be thrown off&mdash;" for the irritated animal began
+to curvet around in all directions, manifesting a strong
+determination to go back to his stable, instead of forward towards
+Salem.</p>
+<p>"I think we had better try the other road,
+and not pass the forks where you had so much trouble with him,"
+said Master Joseph, as the horse went more quietly, going up the
+first hill.</p>
+<p>"As you think best," said his sister-in-law,
+in a sharp tone, "If I had a horse like this I would shoot
+him!"</p>
+<p>"Oh, Sweetbriar is good enough usually. I
+never saw him so violent and troublesome as he is to-day. And I
+think I know the reason of it."</p>
+<p>"What is the reason?"</p>
+<p>"I fear he has an 'evil hand' upon him," said
+Master Joseph with great solemnity.</p>
+<p>"Nonsense," replied Mistress Ann
+sharply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg
+323]</a></span></p>
+<p>"He has got the wicked One in him; that is
+the matter with him."</p>
+<p>"That is about the same thing," said Master
+Joseph.</p>
+<p>Now they were at the top of the hill, and the
+horse broke into tantrums again; requiring all of Master Joseph's
+skill to prevent his toppling himself and his two riders over one
+of the many boulders that obstructed the road.</p>
+<p>"If you do not hold on to me more tightly,
+Sister Ann, you will be thrown off," said Master Joseph, putting
+back his right hand to steady her. And Mistress Ann was compelled
+to lock her arms around him, or take the chance of serious injury
+from being dashed to the rough highway. The young man would have
+liked to relieve his feelings by a hearty burst of laughter, as he
+felt her arms embracing him so warmly, but of course he dared
+not.</p>
+<p>They soon came near the main road, running
+due north and south, and which it was necessary to take, as it led
+directly down to Salem. Sweetbriar knew that road well&mdash;and
+that he never stopped when once turned to the south on it, short of
+a six mile ride. He remembered his recent victorious struggle at
+the Forks, and now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id=
+"Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> resolved upon another battle. All of
+Master Putnam's efforts&mdash;or what seemed so&mdash;could not get
+him headed southward on that road. In truth, burdened as he was,
+the young man really could not do it, without incurring too much
+risk to the lady behind him. Those who have ever had such a battle
+with a wilful, mettlesome horse, know that it often requires the
+utmost patience and determination on the part of his rider, to come
+out victorious. The best plan&mdash;the writer speaks from some
+experience&mdash;is to pull the animal round in a circle until his
+brain becomes confused, and then start him off in the right
+direction.</p>
+<p>But Sweetbriar evidently had a better brain
+than usual, for when the whirl came to an end, it always found his
+pointing like the magnetic needle to the north. It had been Master
+Joseph's plan to pretend a good deal of earnestness in the struggle
+which he was certain would come in this place; but he was pleased
+to find that there was no need of any pretence in the matter. The
+horse, under the circumstances, the young man having a lady's
+safety to consult, was the master. Repeated trials only proved it.
+Whenever the fierce, final tug of war came, Mistress Ann's safety
+had to be consulted, and the horse had his own way. So,<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> as
+the result Sweetbriar started off in a sharp canter up, instead of
+down, the road.</p>
+<p>"Take me home then," said his
+sister-in-law&mdash;"if you will not take me to Salem."</p>
+<p>"If I <i>will</i> not," repeated Master
+Joseph. "I give you my honest word, Sister Ann, that I could not
+make this horse go down the road, with us two on his back, if I
+stayed here all the afternoon trying. I should think you must have
+seen that."</p>
+<p>"No matter. Take me home."</p>
+<p>"Besides, we could not get to Salem before
+four o'clock now, if Sweetbriar went his best and
+prettiest."</p>
+<p>"I give it up. Let us turn and go
+home."</p>
+<p>"If we turn and go back the way we came, I do
+not think I shall be able to get this self-willed animal past my
+own gate."</p>
+<p>"Well, what do you mean to do?" said the lady
+bitterly. "Ride on up to Topsfield?"</p>
+<p>Master Joseph laughed. "No&mdash;there is a
+road strikes off towards your house a short distance above here,
+and I think I can get you home by it, without any further
+trouble."</p>
+<p>"Very well&mdash;get me home as soon as you
+can. I do not feel like any further riding, or much more
+talking."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg
+326]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Of course it is very aggravating," replied
+Master Putnam soothingly, "but then you know as Master Parris says,
+that all these earthly disappointments are our most valuable
+experiences&mdash;teaching us not to set our hopes upon worldly
+things, but upon those of a more enduring and satisfying
+character."</p>
+<p>His sister-in-law's face, that he could not
+see, she being behind him, wore a look as she listened to this,
+which could be hardly called evangelical.</p>
+<p>"You wished very much I know to go this
+afternoon to Salem," continued Master Joseph, in the same
+sermonizing tone; "but doubtless your wish has been overruled for
+good. I think, as a member of church, you should be willing to
+acquiesce patiently in the singular turn that affairs have taken,
+and console yourself with the thought that you have been innocently
+riding these peaceful roads instead of being in Salem, doing
+perchance an infinite deal of mischief."</p>
+<p>"No doubt what you are saying seems to you
+very wise and edifying, Joseph Putnam, but I have a bad headache,
+and do not care to converse any further."</p>
+<p>"But you must admit that your projected visit
+has been frustrated in a very singular, if not remark<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>able
+manner?" Master Joseph knew that he had her now at an advantage;
+she was compelled to listen to everything he chose to say. His
+saddle was even better in that respect than the minister's
+pulpit&mdash;you might leave a church, but she could not leave the
+horse.</p>
+<p>"I do not see anything very miraculous,
+brother Joseph, in a young man like you having a self-willed and
+unprincipled horse. In truth, the wonder would be if you had a
+decent and well-governed animal," replied his sister-in-law
+wrathfully.</p>
+<p>The young man smiled at the retort, but she
+could not see the gleam of sunshine as it passed rapidly over his
+face; lingering a moment in the soft depths of his sweet blue eyes.
+There was no smile however in his voice, but the previous
+solemnity, as he continued:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"And yet if Balaam's ass could see the angel
+of the Lord, with his drawn-sword, standing in the way, and barring
+his further progress in wrongdoing, why might not this
+horse&mdash;who is much more intelligent than an ass&mdash;have
+seen a similar vision?"</p>
+<p>The young man had begun this speech somewhat
+in sport; but as he ended it, the assumed tone of<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>
+solemnity had passed into one of real earnestness. For, as he asked
+himself, "Why should it not be? This woman with him was bound on a
+wicked errand. Why should not the angel or the Lord stand in her
+way also&mdash;and the horse see him, even if his riders did
+not?"</p>
+<p>Mistress Putnam made no answer. Perhaps now
+that the young man was really in earnest, what he said made some
+impression upon her, but, more probably it did not.</p>
+<p>He, too, relapsed into silence. It seemed to
+him a good place to stop his preaching, and let his sister-in-law
+think over what he had said.</p>
+<p>"Thank Heaven we are here at last!" said the
+baffled woman, as they rode up to the horse-block at her own door.
+Sweetbriar stood very quiet, and she stepped on the block, Master
+Joseph keeping his seat.</p>
+<p>"Will you dismount and stay to supper,
+brother Joseph?" said Mistress Ann, in a soft purring tone. Master
+Joseph fairly started with his surprise, and looked steadily into
+her dark, inscrutable eyes&mdash;eyes like Jael's as she gazed upon
+sleeping Sisera.</p>
+<p>"No, I thank you&mdash;I expect a friend to
+supper. I hope brother Thomas heard some good news at<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
+Ipswich. Come and see us when you feel like it." And he rode
+off.</p>
+<p>As he told his wife afterwards, he would not
+have taken supper with his sister Ann that evening as he valued his
+life.</p>
+<p>And yet perhaps it was all
+imagination&mdash;and he did not see that thing lurking in the
+depths of his sister-in-law's cold, unfathomable eyes that he
+thought he did. And yet her testimony against Rebecca Nurse, reads
+to us, even at this late day, with all the charity that we are
+disposed to exercise towards things so long past, as cold-blooded,
+deliberate murder.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id=
+"Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
+<h4>The Two Plotters Congratulate Each
+Other.</h4>
+<p>When Master Joseph arrived home, he told his
+wife of what a perverse course things had taken, amid his own and
+her frequent laughter. And then he could do nothing else than walk
+up and down impatiently, glancing at frequent intervals towards the
+road, to see if anybody were coming.</p>
+<p>In the course of an hour or so, nobody
+appearing and Sweetbriar being sweetened up again by a good feed,
+he ordered the horse brought out. Then he was persuaded by his wife
+to recall the order, and wait patiently till sundown.</p>
+<p>"What impatient creatures you men are!" said
+Mistress Elizabeth with feminine superiority. "Doubtless he will be
+along. Give him sufficient time. Now, do not worry, husband mine,
+but take things patiently."</p>
+<p>So Master Joseph was induced to control his
+restlessness and just as soon as he could have been reasonably
+expected, Master Raymond was seen riding up the lane at a light
+canter.</p>
+<p>"Hurrah!" cried Master Joseph, running to
+meet him. "And is it all over?"<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+<p>"We have smitten Ammon, hip and thigh, from
+Aroer even till thou come to Minnith!" answered Master Raymond,
+laughing. "It was you that kept the she-wolf away, I know. How did
+you do it?"</p>
+<p>"Come in and I will tell you all about it.
+And I want to hear how all went off in Salem."</p>
+<p>After a couple of hours' conversation, broken
+frequently by irresponsible bursts of laughter, the young men were
+mutually enlightened; and complimented each other upon the success
+with which they had worked out their respective schemes&mdash;while
+young Mistress Elizabeth complimented them both, thinking honestly
+in her innocent heart that two such wonderful young men certainly
+had never before existed.</p>
+<p>"How I should like to have seen you
+astonishing old Squire Hathorne," said Master Joseph.</p>
+<p>"I am afraid you would have spoiled all by
+laughing," said his young wife. "You know you never can control
+your merriment, Joseph."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id=
+"Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I cannot? You should have seen me preaching
+to sister Ann this afternoon. I kept my face all the time as sober
+as a judge's. You know she had to take it all quietly&mdash;she
+could not even run away from it."</p>
+<p>"I would have given one of your five-pound
+Massachusetts notes to see it," said Master Raymond. "And five
+pounds more to see your brother Thomas stamping up and down the
+bar-room of the 'Crown and Anchor,' waiting for that Ipswich man to
+meet him."</p>
+<p>"I was very careful all through not to tell a
+direct falsehood," said Master Joseph; "it is bad enough to deceive
+people, without being guilty of downright lying."</p>
+<p>"Oh, of course," replied Master Raymond. "I
+do not know that I told a downright lie either, all day; although I
+must admit that I acted a pretty big one. But you must deal with
+fools according to their folly&mdash;you know we have Scripture for
+that."</p>
+<p>"I do not think I would have done it merely
+to save myself," said Master Joseph, evidently a little
+conscience-smitten. "But to save you, my friend, that seems to be
+different."</p>
+<p>"And Dulcibel," added Master Raymond. "If I
+were imprisoned what would become of her?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I am glad I did it," responded his
+friend, regaining his confidence. "I have really hurt neither
+brother Thomas nor Sister Ann; on the contrary, I have prevented
+them from doing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id=
+"Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> a great wrong. I am willing to
+answer for this day's work at the Last Day&mdash;and I feel certain
+that then at least, both of them will thank me for it."</p>
+<p>"I have no doubt of it," said Mistress
+Elizabeth who herself brought up in the rigid Puritan school, had
+felt the same misgivings as her husband, but whose scruples were
+also removed by this last consideration.</p>
+<p>As for Master Raymond, he, being more a man
+of the world, had felt no scruples at playing such a deceitful
+part. I am afraid, that to save Dulcibel, he would not have
+scrupled at open and downright lying. Not that he had not all the
+sensitiveness of an honorable man as to his word; but because he
+looked upon the whole affair as a piece of malicious wickedness, in
+defiance of all just law, and which every true-hearted man was
+bound to oppose and defeat by all means allowable in open or secret
+warfare.</p>
+<p>"I suppose you go back to Boston to morrow?"
+said his host, as they were about to separate for the
+night.</p>
+<p>"Yes, immediately after breakfast. This
+affair is a warning to me, to push my plans to a consummation as
+soon as possible. I think I know what their next move will
+be&mdash;a shrewd man once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334"
+id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> said, just think what is the
+wisest thing for your enemies to do, and provide against
+that."</p>
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+<p>"Remove the Governor."</p>
+<p>"Why, I understood he was a mere puppet in
+the hands of the two Mathers."</p>
+<p>"He would be perhaps; but there is a Lady
+Phips."</p>
+<p>"Ah!' the gray mare is the better horse,' is
+she, as it is over at brother Thomas's?"</p>
+<p>"Yes, I think so. Now mark my prediction,
+friend Joseph; the first blow will be struck at Lady Mary. If Sir
+William resists, as I feel certain that he will&mdash;for he is, if
+not well educated, a thoroughly manly man&mdash;then he will be
+ousted from his position. You will note that it has been the game
+all through to strike at any one, man or woman, who came between
+these vampires and their prey. I know of only one
+exception."</p>
+<p>"Ah, who is that?"</p>
+<p>"Yourself."</p>
+<p>Master Joseph smiled grimly. "They value
+their own lives very highly, friend Raymond; and know that to
+arrest me would be no child's play. Besides, Sweetbriar is never
+long unsaddled; and he is the fastest horse in Salem."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg
+335]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Yes, and to add to all that, you are a
+Putnam; and your wife is closely connected with Squire
+Hathorne."</p>
+<p>"There may be something in that," said his
+friend.</p>
+<p>"Yes, even Mistress Ann has her limits, which
+her husband&mdash;submissive in so many things&mdash;will not allow
+her to pass. But we are both a little tired, after such an eventful
+day. Good night!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id=
+"Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>
+<h4>Mistress Ann's Opinion of the
+Matter.</h4>
+<p>While the foregoing conversation was taking
+place, one of a very different kind was passing between Mistress
+Ann and her worthy husband. He had gathered up all the particulars
+he could of the examination and had brought them home to his wife
+for her instruction.</p>
+<p>After listening to all that he had to tell,
+with at least outward calmness, she said bitterly: "The whole thing
+was a trick, you see, to keep you and me away from
+Salem."</p>
+<p>"Do you think so? Do you think then, that no
+man really wanted to see me at Ipswich?"</p>
+<p>"It is as plain as the nose on your face,"
+replied his wife. "You were to be decoyed off to Ipswich, my horse
+sent out of the way, and then Joseph's madcap horse offered to me,
+they knowing well that the worthless creature would not behave
+himself with any woman on his back."</p>
+<p>"Oh, pshaw, Ann; you do not mean that my
+simple-hearted brother, Joseph Putnam, ever planned and carried out
+a subtle scheme of that kind?" said honest Thomas, with an older
+brother's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg
+337]</a></span> undervaluation of the capabilities of a mere boy
+like Joseph.</p>
+<p>"I do not say that Joseph thought it all out,
+for very probably he did not; doubtless that Master Raymond put him
+up to it&mdash;for he seems cunning and unprincipled enough for
+anything, judging, by what you have told me of his ridiculous
+doings."</p>
+<p>"You may call them ridiculous, Ann; but they
+impressed everybody very much indeed. Dr. Griggs, told me that he
+had no doubt whatever that an 'evil hand' was on him."</p>
+<p>"Dr. Griggs is an old simpleton," said his
+wife crossly.</p>
+<p>"And even Squire Hathorne says that he never
+saw a stronger case of spectral persecution. Why, when one of the
+young men thrust the point of his rapier at the yellow bird, some
+of its feathers were cut off and came fluttering to the ground.
+Squire Hathorne says he never saw anything more
+wonderful."</p>
+<p>"Nonsense&mdash;it is all
+trickery!"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id=
+"Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>"Trickery? Why, my dear wife, the
+Squire has the feathers!&mdash;and he means to send them at once to
+Master Cotton Mather by a special messenger, to confute all the
+scoffers and unbelievers in Boston and Plymouth!"</p>
+<p>A scornful reply was at the end of his wife's
+tongue but, on second thought, she did not allow it to get any
+farther. Suppose that she did convince her husband and Squire
+Hathorne that they had been grossly deceived and imposed
+upon&mdash;and that Master Raymond's apparent afflictions and
+spectral appearance were the result of skilful juggling, what then?
+Would their enlightenment stop there? How about the pins that the
+girls had concealed around their necks, and taken up with their
+mouths? How about Mary Walcot secretly biting herself, and then
+screaming out that good Rebecca Nurse had bitten her? How about the
+little prints on the arms of the "afflicted girls," which they
+allowed were made by the teeth of little Dorcas Good, that child
+not five years old; and which Mistress Ann knew were made by the
+girls themselves? How about the bites and streaks and bruises which
+she herself had shown as the visible proof that the spectre of good
+Rebecca Nurse, then lying in jail, was biting her and beating her
+with her chains? For Edward Putnam had sworn: "I saw the marks both
+of bite and chains."</p>
+<p>Perhaps it was safer to let Master Raymond's
+juggling go unexposed, considering that she herself<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> and
+the "afflicted girls" had done so very much of it.</p>
+<p>Therefore she said, "I have no faith in
+Master Raymond nevertheless; no more than Moses had in King
+Pharaoh's sorcerers, when they did the very same miracles before
+the king that he had done. I believe him now to be a cunning and a
+very bad young man, and I think if I had been on the spot, instead
+of his being at this very moment as I have very little doubt, over
+at brother's, where they are congratulating each other on the
+success of their unprincipled plans, Master Raymond would now be
+lying in Salem jail."</p>
+<p>"Probably you are correct, my dear,"
+responded her husband meekly; "and I think it not unlikely that
+Master Raymond may have thought the same, and planned to keep you
+away&mdash;but it was evident to me, that if the 'afflicted girls'
+had taken one side or the other in the matter, it would not have
+been yours. Why, even our own daughter Ann, was laughing and joking
+with him when I entered the court room."</p>
+<p>"Yes," said his wife disdainfully&mdash;"that
+is girl-nature, all over the earth! Just put a handsome young man
+before them, who has seen the world, and is full of his smiles and
+flatteries and cajole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id=
+"Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>ments, and the wisest of women can do
+nothing with them. But the cold years bring them out of that!" she
+added bitterly. "They find what they call love, is a folly and a
+snare."</p>
+<p>Her husband looked out of the window into the
+dark night, and made no reply to this outburst. He had always loved
+his wife, and he thought, when he married her, that she loved
+him&mdash;although he was an excellent match, so far as property
+and family were concerned. Still she would occasionally talk in
+this way; and he hoped and trusted that it did not mean
+much.</p>
+<p>"I think myself," he said at length, "that it
+is quite as much the pretty gifts he has made them, and has
+promised to send them from England, as his handsome face and
+pleasant manners."</p>
+<p>"Oh, of course, it all goes together. They
+are a set of mere giggling girls; and that is all you can make of
+them. And our daughter Ann is as bad as any of the lot. I wish she
+did not take so much after your family, Thomas."</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id=
+"Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>This roused her husband a little. "I
+am sure, Ann, that our family are much stronger and healthier than
+your own are. And as to Ann's being like the other girls, I wish
+she was. She is about the only delicate and nervous one among
+them."</p>
+<p>"Well, Thomas, if you have got at last upon
+that matter of the superiority of the Putnams to everybody else in
+the Province, I think I shall go to bed," retorted his wife. "That
+is the only thing that you are thoroughly unreasonable about. But I
+do not think you ever had a single minister, or any learned
+scholar, in your family, or ever owned a whole island, in the
+Merrimack river as my family, the Harmons, always have done, since
+the country was first settled&mdash;and probably always shall, for
+the next five hundred years."</p>
+<p>To this Thomas Putnam had no answer. He knew
+well that he had no minister and no island in his family&mdash;and
+those two things, in his wife's estimation, were things that no
+family of any reputation should be without. He had not brought on
+the discussion, although his wife had accused him of so doing, and
+had only asserted what he thought the truth in stating that the
+Putnams were the stronger and sturdier race.</p>
+<p>"I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Thomas,
+in reminding you of these things," continued his wife, finding he
+was not intending to reply; "I will admit that your family is a
+very reputable and worthy one, even if it is not especially gifted
+with intellect like the Harmons, else you may be sure<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> that
+I should not have married into it. But I have a headache, and do
+not wish to continue this discussion any longer, as it is
+unpleasant to me, and besides in very bad taste."</p>
+<p>And so, taking the hint, Master Putnam, like
+a dutiful husband, who really loved his somewhat peevish and
+fretful wife, acknowledged by his silence in the future that the
+Harmons were much superior to any family that could not boast of
+possessing a minister and an island; the latter for five hundred
+years!</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id=
+"Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond Visits Lady Mary.</h4>
+<p>When Master Raymond returned to Boston, he
+found that an important event had taken place in his absence.
+Captain Alden and Master Philip English and his wife, had all
+escaped from prison, and were nowhere to be found. How Captain
+Alden had managed things with the jailer the young man was not able
+to ascertain&mdash;probably however, by a liberal use of money. As
+for Master English and his wife, they were, as I have already said,
+at liberty in the day time, under heavy bonds; and had nothing to
+do but walk off sometime between sunrise and sundown. As Master
+English's ship, "The Porcupine," had been lying for a week or two
+in Boston harbor, and left with a brisk northwest wind early in the
+morning of the day when they were reported missing, it was not
+difficult for anyone to surmise as to their mode of escape. As to
+Captain Alden, he might or might not have gone with
+them.</p>
+<p>As was natural, there was a good deal of
+righteous indignation expressed by all in authority. The jailer was
+reprimanded for his carelessness in<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> the case of Captain
+Alden, and warned that if another prisoner escaped, he would
+forfeit his, of late, very profitable position. And the large
+properties of both gentlemen were attached and held as being
+subject to confiscation.</p>
+<p>But while the magistrates and officials
+usually were in earnest in these proceedings, it was generally
+believed that the Governor, influenced by Lady Mary, had secretly
+favored the escaping parties. The two ministers of South
+Church&mdash;Masters Willard and Moody&mdash;were also known to
+have frequently visited the Captain and Master English in their
+confinement, and to have expressed themselves very freely in
+public, relative to the absurdity of the charges which had been
+made against them. Master Moody had even gone so far as to preach a
+sermon on the text, 'When they persecute you in this city, flee ye
+into another,' which was supposed by many to have a direct bearing
+on the case of the accused. And it is certain that soon afterwards,
+the Reverend Master Moody found it expedient to resign his position
+in South Church and go back to his old home in
+Portsmouth.</p>
+<p>Anxious to learn the true inwardness of all
+this matter, Master Raymond called a few days after<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> his
+return to see Lady Mary. Upon sending in his name, a maid
+immediately appeared, and he was taken as before to the boudoir
+where he found her ladyship eagerly awaiting him.</p>
+<p>"And so you are safely out of the lion's den,
+Master Raymond," said she, laughing. "I heard you had passed
+through securely."</p>
+<p>The young man smiled. "Yes, thanks to
+Providence, and to a good friend of mine in Salem."</p>
+<p>"Tell me all about it," said the lady. "I
+have had the magisterial account already, and now wish to have
+yours."</p>
+<p>"Will your ladyship pardon me if I ask a
+question first? I am so anxious to hear about Mistress Dulcibel.
+Have you seen her lately&mdash;and is she well?"</p>
+<p>"As well and as blooming as ever. The keeper
+and his wife treat her very kindly&mdash;and I think would continue
+to do so&mdash;even if the supply of British gold pieces were to
+fail. By the way, she might be on the high seas now&mdash;or rather
+in New York&mdash;if she had so chosen."</p>
+<p>"I wish she had. Why did she not go with
+them?"</p>
+<p>"Because your arrest complicated things
+so.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg
+346]</a></span> She would not go and leave you in the hands of the
+Philistines."</p>
+<p>"Oh, that was foolish."</p>
+<p>"I think so, too; but I do not think that you
+are exactly the person to say so," responded the lady, a little
+offended at what seemed a want of appreciation of the sacrifice
+that Dulcibel had made on his account.</p>
+<p>But Master Raymond appeared not to notice the
+rebuke. He simply added: "If I could have been there to counsel
+her, I would have convinced her that I was in no serious
+danger&mdash;for, even if imprisoned, I do not think there is a
+jail in the Province that could hold me."</p>
+<p>"Well, there was a difficulty with the Keeper
+also&mdash;for she had given her word, you know, not to escape,
+when she was taken into his house."</p>
+<p>"But Captain Alden had also given his word.
+How did he manage it?"</p>
+<p>"I do not know," replied the lady. "But, to a
+hint dropped by Dulcibel, the jailer shook his head resolutely, and
+said that no money would tempt him."</p>
+<p>"The difficulty in her case then remains the
+same as ever," said the young man thoughtfully, and a little
+gloomily. "She might go into the<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> prison. But that would
+be to give warning that she had planned to escape. Besides, it is
+such a vile place, that I hate the idea of her passing a single
+night in one of its sickening cells."</p>
+<p>"Perhaps I can wring a pardon out of Sir
+William," said the lady musing.</p>
+<p>"Oh, Lady Mary, if you only could, we should
+both forever worship you!"</p>
+<p>The lady smiled at the young man's
+impassioned language and manner&mdash;he looked as if he would
+throw himself at her feet.</p>
+<p>"I should be too glad to do it. But Sir
+William just now is more rigid than ever. He had a call yesterday
+from his pastor, Master Cotton Mather, and a long talk from him
+about the witches. Master Mather, it seems, has had further
+evidence and of the most convincing character, of the reality of
+these spectral appearances."</p>
+<p>"Indeed!" said Master Raymond showing great
+interest for he had an idea of what was coming.</p>
+<p>"Yes, in a recent examination at Salem before
+Squire Hathorne, a young man struck with his sword at a spectral
+yellow bird which was tormenting an afflicted person; and several
+small yellow feathers were cut off by the thrust, and floated down
+to the floor. Squire Hathorne writes to<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>
+Master Mather that he would not have believed it, if he had not
+seen it; but, as it was, he would be willing to take his oath
+before any Court in Christendom, that this wonderful thing really
+occurred."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond could not help
+laughing.</p>
+<p>"I see you have no more faith in the story
+than I have," continued Lady Mary. "But it had a great effect upon
+Sir William, coming from a man of such wonderful learning and
+wisdom as Master Cotton Mather. Especially as he said that he had
+seen the yellow feathers himself; which had since been sent to him
+by Squire Hathorne, and which had a singular smell of sulphur about
+them."</p>
+<p>The young man broke into a heartier laugh
+than before. Then he said scornfully, "It seems to me that no
+amount of learning, however great, can make a sensible man out of a
+fool."</p>
+<p>"Why, you know something about this then? Did
+it happen while you were in Salem?"</p>
+<p>"I know everything about it," said Master
+Raymond, "I am the very man that worked the miracle." And he
+proceeded to give Lady Mary a detailed account of the whole affair,
+substantially as it is known to the reader.</p>
+<p>"By the way, as to the feathers smelling
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg
+349]</a></span> sulphur," concluded the young man, "I think that it
+is very probable, inasmuch as I observed the jailer's wife that
+very morning giving the younger chickens powdered brimstone to cure
+them of the pip."</p>
+<p>"I think you are a marvelously clever young
+man," was the lady's first remark as he concluded his
+account.</p>
+<p>"Thank your ladyship!" replied Master Raymond
+smiling. "I hope I shall always act so as to deserve such a good
+opinion."</p>
+<p>"I would have given my gold cup&mdash;which
+the Duke of Albemarle gave me&mdash;to have been there; especially
+when the yellow bird's feathers came floating down to Squire
+Hathorne's reverential amazement," said Lady Mary, laughing
+heartily. "You must come up here tomorrow morning at noon. Master
+Mather is to bring his feathers to show the Governor, and to
+astound the Governor's skeptical wife. You are not afraid to come,
+are you?"</p>
+<p>"I shall enjoy it very much&mdash;that is, if
+the Governor will promise that I shall not suffer for my
+disclosures. I am free now, and I do not wish to be arrested
+again."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I will see to that. The Governor will
+be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg
+350]</a></span> so curious to hear your story, that he will promise
+all that you desire as to your safety. Besides, he will not be
+sorry to take down Master Mather a little; these Puritan ministers
+presume on their vocation too much. They all think they are
+perfectly capable of governing not only Provinces, but Kingdoms;
+while the whole history of the world proves their utter incapacity
+to govern even a village wisely."</p>
+<p>"That is true as the gospel, Lady Mary. But
+one thing I have always noticed. That while every minister thinks
+this, he would himself far rather be governed even by one of the
+world's people, than by a minister of any other belief than his
+own. So you see they really do think the same as we do about it;
+only they do not always know it."</p>
+<p>"You are a bright young man," Lady Mary
+replied pleasantly, "and I think almost good enough to wear such a
+sweet rose next your heart as Mistress Dulcibel."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id=
+"Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>
+<h4>Captain Tolley's Propositions.</h4>
+<p>That evening as Master Raymond was standing
+in the bar-room of the Red Lion, Captain Tolley came in, and after
+tossing off a stout glass of rum and water, went out again, giving
+the young Englishman a nod and the agreed-upon-signal, a smoothing
+of his black beard with the left hand. After the lapse of a few
+minutes, Master Raymond followed, going towards the wharves, which
+in the evening were almost deserted. Arrived at the end of one of
+the wharves, he found the Captain of the Storm King.</p>
+<p>"So you got out of the clutches of those
+Salem rascals safely?" said the Captain. "I was afraid I should
+have to go all the way to Salem for you."</p>
+<p>"You would not have deserted me then,
+Captain?"</p>
+<p>"That is not the kind of a marlinespike I
+am," replied the Captain quaintly. "I'd have got you out of Salem
+jail, unless it is a good deal stronger than the Boston
+one."</p>
+<p>"Thank you, Captain, but I am glad there was
+no need of your trying."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352"
+id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p>
+<p>"You heard of course that Captain Alden was
+off, and Master and Mistress English?"</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;and very glad I was
+too."</p>
+<p>"Why did not your sweetheart go with the
+Englishes?"</p>
+<p>"There were several reasons&mdash;one, a
+rather foolish one, she would not leave me in prison."</p>
+<p>"She would not?"</p>
+<p>"No."</p>
+<p>"D&mdash;&mdash; me! Why that girl is fit to
+be a sailor's wife! When we get her off safely I intend to have her
+as the figure-head of the Storm King."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid that would be a very unhealthy
+position&mdash;she might catch a bad cold," replied Master
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"Oh, of course I mean in wood, painted white
+with red cheeks," said Captain Tolley. "It brings good luck to have
+a fine woman for a figure-head&mdash;pleases old Nep, you
+know."</p>
+<p>"But we must get her off first," rejoined
+Master Raymond. "Now to keep out of that hateful jail, she has
+given her word to Keeper Arnold not to escape. You know she cannot
+break her word."</p>
+<p>"Of course not," replied the Captain; "a lady
+is like a sailor, she cannot go back on her promise."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg
+353]</a></span></p>
+<p>"And there is where the trouble comes
+in."</p>
+<p>"Buy Keeper Arnold over."</p>
+<p>"I am afraid I cannot&mdash;not for a good
+while at least. They are all down upon him for Captain Alden's
+escape. They might give him a terrible whipping if another prisoner
+got off."</p>
+<p>The Captain shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, I
+saw them whip some Quakers once. It was not a good honest lash, but
+something the hangman had got up on purpose, and which cut to the
+very bone. I have seen men and women killed, down on the Spanish
+main, but I never saw a sight like that! Good, harmless men and
+women too! A little touched here, you know," and the Captain tapped
+his forehead lightly with his fore-finger.</p>
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I should not like to hear that
+Master Arnold had been tortured like that on our
+account."</p>
+<p>"Suppose we carry her off some night by
+force, she having no hand in the arrangements? She can even refuse
+to go, you know, if she pleases&mdash;we will handle her as gently
+as a little bird, and you can come up and rescue her, if you
+choose, and knock down two or three of us. How would that do?
+Half-a-dozen of the Storm King's men could easily do that. Choose a
+night with a brisk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id=
+"Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> nor'wester, and we would be past the
+castle's guns before the sleepy land-lubbers had their eyes
+open."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond shook his head dubiously. "I
+do not like it&mdash;and yet I suppose it must do, if nothing
+better can be found. Of course if we carry her off bodily, against
+her will, it would neither be a breaking of her pledge nor expose
+Keeper Arnold to any danger of after punishment, though he might
+perhaps get pretty seriously hurt in resisting us, and she would
+not like that much."</p>
+<p>"I suppose then we must wait a while longer,"
+said the Captain. "I am ready any time you say the word&mdash;only
+be careful that a good west or a nor'west wind is blowing. When
+once out on the high seas, we can take care of
+ourselves."</p>
+<p>"Many French privateers out
+there?"</p>
+<p>"Thick as blackberries. But they are of no
+account. Those we cannot fight, we can easily run away from. There
+is no craft on these seas, that can overhaul the Storm
+King!"</p>
+<p>With a hearty shake of the hand the two
+parted, the Captain for the vessel of which he was so proud; Master
+Raymond for his room in the Red Lion.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id=
+"CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id=
+"Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>
+<h4>Master Raymond Confounds Master Cotton
+Mather.</h4>
+<p>The next day, a little before noon, Master
+Raymond knocked at the door of the Governor's Mansion, and was at
+once conducted to Lady Mary's boudoir. "The Reverend Master Mather
+is already with the Governor," said her ladyship, "and I expect to
+receive a summons to join them every moment." And in fact the words
+were hardly out of her mouth, when Sir William's private secretary,
+Master Josslyn, appeared, with a request for her ladyship's
+presence.</p>
+<p>"Come with me," said she to Master Raymond;
+"but do not say anything&mdash;much less smile or laugh&mdash;until
+I call upon you for your testimony."</p>
+<p>As they entered, the courteous Governor
+handed his lady to a seat on the sofa; and Master Mather made a
+dignified obeisance.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id=
+"Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I have brought along a young friend of mine,
+who was with me, and would also like to hear of all these wonderful
+things," said her ladyship; and Master Raymond bowed very
+deferentially to both the high dignities, they returning the bow,
+while Sir William politely requested him to be seated.</p>
+<p>"I was just on the point of showing to Sir
+William the most remarkable curiosities of even this very
+remarkable era&mdash;and he suggested that you also doubtless would
+like to see them," said the minister; at this time a man of about
+thirty years of age. He was a rather comely and intelligent looking
+man, and Master Raymond wondered that one who appeared so
+intellectual, should be the victim of such absurd
+hallucinations.</p>
+<p>Lady Mary bent her head approvingly, in
+answer to the minister. "I should like very much to see them," she
+replied courteously; and Master Mather continued:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"In the work I have been preparing on the
+"Wonders of the Invisible World," several of the sheets of which I
+have already shown to Sir William, I have collected many curious
+and wonderful instances. Thus in the case of the eldest daughter of
+Master John Goodwin, whom I took to my own house, in order that I
+might more thoroughly investigate the spiritual and physical
+phenomena of witchcraft, I found that while the devils that
+tormented her were familiar with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, they
+seemed to have very little knowledge of the various Indian
+dialects."</p>
+<p>"That certainly is very curious," replied
+Sir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg
+357]</a></span> William, "inasmuch as those heathen are undeniably
+the children of the devil, as all our wisest and most godly
+ministers agree."</p>
+<p>"Yes," continued the minister, "it is true;
+and that makes me conjecture, that these devils were in fact only
+playing a part; to deceive me into thinking that the red heathen
+around us were not really the children of Satan, as they
+undoubtedly are."</p>
+<p>"I think that the most reasonable view,"
+responded the Governor.</p>
+<p>"As to the reality of this new assault by
+Satan upon this little seed of God's people in the new world,"
+continued Master Mather, fervently, "I have now no doubt whatever.
+Proof has been multiplied upon proof, and the man, or woman, who
+does not by this time believe, is simply one of those deplorable
+doubters, like Thomas, who never can be convinced. For my part, I
+consider Witchcraft the most nefandous high treason against the
+Majesty on High! And a principal design of my book is to manifest
+its hideous enormity, and to promote a pious thankfulness to God
+that Justice so far is being inflexibly executed among
+us."</p>
+<p>Lady Mary's face flushed a little, for she
+saw the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg
+358]</a></span> drift of the minister's censure. It was well known
+in all the inner circles, that she had neither faith in the reality
+of witchcraft, nor the least sympathy with the numerous
+prosecutions, and the inflexible justice which the minister lauded.
+The Governor knew his wife's temper, and hastened to
+say:&mdash;</p>
+<p>"Still we must admit, Master Mather, that
+some persons, with tender conscience, require more convincing
+proofs than do others. And therefore I was anxious that Lady Mary
+should see these feathers you spoke of, cut from the wings of one
+of those yellow birds which appear to be used so frequently as
+familiars by the Salem witches."</p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, I had forgotten them for the
+moment." And putting his hand into his breast pocket, Master Mather
+produced a small box, which he opened carefully and called their
+attention to a couple of small yellow feathers placed on a piece of
+black cloth within. "I would not take a hundred pounds for these
+spectral feathers," said the minister exultingly. "They are the
+only positive proof of the kind, now existing in the whole world.
+With these little feathers I shall dash out the brains of a host of
+unbelievers&mdash;especially of that silly Calef, or Caitiff, who
+is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg
+359]</a></span> all the time going around among the merchants,
+wagging his vile tongue against me."</p>
+<p>Sir William and Lady Mary had been looking
+upon the feathers very curiously. At last Lady Mary gave a low,
+incredulous laugh. Her husband looked at her
+inquiringly.</p>
+<p>"They are nothing but common chicken feathers
+which could be picked up in any barn yard," she said
+scornfully.</p>
+<p>"Your ladyship is very much mistaken, you
+never saw chicken feathers like those," said the minister, his face
+now also flushing.</p>
+<p>"Who was the yellow bird afflicting, when
+these feathers were cut?" the lady asked.</p>
+<p>"A young man was on his examination for
+witchcraft, Squire Hathorne writes me; but he was found to be
+himself a victim, and was released&mdash;which proves, by the way,
+how careful the worshipful magistrates are in Salem, lest any who
+are innocent should be implicated with the guilty. The young man
+began to cry out that an 'evil hand' was on him, and that a yellow
+bird was trying to peck out his eyes. Whereupon one of the
+by-standers pulled out his rapier, and smote at the spectral
+bird&mdash;when these feathers were cut off; becoming visible of
+course as soon as they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360"
+id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> detached from the bird and its
+evil influence. It is one of the most wonderful things that I ever
+heard of," and Master Mather gazed on the feathers with admiring
+and almost reverential eyes.</p>
+<p>"Sir William," said his lady, "you have, I
+hope, a little common sense left, if these Massachusetts ministers
+and magistrates have all gone crazy on this subject. You know what
+a chicken is, if they do not. Are not those simply chicken
+feathers?"</p>
+<p>"Why, my dear," replied the Governor,
+wriggling in his great arm-chair, "I grant that they certainly do
+look like chicken feathers; but then you know, the yellow bird the
+witches use, may have feathers like unto a chicken's."</p>
+<p>"Nonsense!" replied Lady Mary. "None are so
+blind as those that will not see. I suppose that if I were to bring
+that afflicted young man here, and he were to acknowledge that the
+whole thing was a trick, got up by him to save his life, you would
+not believe him?"</p>
+<p>"Indeed I should," replied Sir
+William.</p>
+<p>"Yes, Lady Mary, find the young man, and
+question him yourself," said Master Mather. "None are so certain as
+those that have never informed themselves. I have made inquiry
+into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg
+361]</a></span> these marvelous things; I even took that afflicted
+girl, as I have told you, into my own house, in order to inform
+myself of the truth. When you have investigated the matter to
+one-tenth the extent that I have, you will be prepared to give a
+reasonable opinion as to its truth or falsehood. Until then, some
+modesty of statement would become a lady who sets up her crude
+opinion against all the ministers and the magistracy of the
+land."</p>
+<p>This was a tone which the leading ministers
+of that day among the Puritans, did not hesitate to take, even
+where high dignitaries were concerned and Master Mather had the
+highest ideas of the privilege of his order.</p>
+<p>"Then I suppose, Master Mather, that if the
+afflicted young man himself should testify that these feathers were
+simply chicken feathers, that he had artfully thrown up into the
+air, you would not acknowledge that he had deceived
+you?"</p>
+<p>"If such an impossible thing could happen,
+though I know that it could not, of course I should be compelled to
+admit that Squire Hathorne and a hundred others, who all saw this
+marvelous thing plainly, in open day, were deceived by the trick of
+an unprincipled mountebank and juggler."</p>
+<p>"I shall hold both you and Sir William to
+your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg
+362]</a></span> word," replied Lady Mary emphatically. Then,
+turning to the young Englishman, who had remained entirely silent
+so far, paying evident attention to all that was spoken, but giving
+no sign of approval or disapproval, she said, "Master Raymond, what
+do you think of this matter?"</p>
+<p>Master Raymond rose from his chair and
+stepped a pace or two forward. Then he said, "If I answer your
+ladyship's question freely, it might be to my own hurt. Having had
+my head once in the lion's mouth, I am not anxious to put it there
+again."</p>
+<p>The lady looked significantly at Sir
+William.</p>
+<p>"Speak out truly, and fear nothing, young
+man," said the Governor. "Nothing that you say here shall ever work
+you injury while I am Governor of the Province."</p>
+<p>"What do you wish to know, Lady
+Mary?"</p>
+<p>"You, I believe, were the afflicted young
+man, to whom Master Mather has referred?"</p>
+<p>Master Raymond bowed.</p>
+<p>"Was there any reality in those pretended
+afflictions?"</p>
+<p>"Only a bad cold to begin with," said the
+young man smiling.</p>
+<p>"How about the yellow bird?"<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg
+363]</a></span></p>
+<p>"It was all a sham. I dealt with credulous
+and dangerous fools according to their folly."</p>
+<p>"How about those feathers?"</p>
+<p>"They are feathers I got from the wings of
+one of the Salem jailor's chickens."</p>
+<p>Sir William laughed,</p>
+<p>"How about the smell of sulphur which Squire
+Hathorne and Master Mather have detected in the
+feathers?"</p>
+<p>"I think it very probable; as I observed
+Goodwife Foster that morning giving her chickens powdered brimstone
+for the pip."</p>
+<p>Here the Governor laughed loudly and long
+until Master Mather said indignantly, "I am sorry, Sir William,
+that you can treat so lightly this infamous confession of falsehood
+and villainy. This impudent young man deserves to be set for three
+days in the pillory, and then whipped at the cart's tail out of
+town."</p>
+<p>"Of course it is a very shameful piece of
+business," replied the Governor, regaining his gravity. "But you
+know that as the confession has been made only on the promise of
+perfect immunity, I cannot, as a man of my word, suffer the least
+harm to come to the young person for making it."</p>
+<p>"Oh, of course not," said the minister,
+taking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg
+364]</a></span> up his hat, and preparing to leave the room; "but
+it is scandalous! scandalous! All respect for the Magistracy and
+authority seems to be fading out of the popular mind. I consider
+you a dangerous man, a very dangerous young man!" This last of
+course to Master Raymond.</p>
+<p>"And I consider you tenfold more dangerous
+with your clerical influence, and credulity, and superstition!"
+replied the young Englishman hotly. Being of good family, he was
+not inclined to take such insults mildly. "How dare you, with your
+hands all red with the blood of twenty innocent men and women, talk
+to me about being dangerous!"</p>
+<p>"Peace!" said Sir William with dignity. "My
+audience chamber is no place to quarrel in.</p>
+<p>"I beg your Excellency's pardon!" said Master
+Raymond, humbly.</p>
+<p>"One moment, before you go," said Lady Mary,
+stepping in front of the minister. "I suppose you will be as good
+as your word, Master Mather and admit that with all your wisdom you
+were entirely mistaken?"</p>
+<p>"I acknowledge that Squire Hathorne and
+myself have been grossly deceived by an unprincipled
+adventurer&mdash;but that proves nothing. Because<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>
+Jannes and Jambres imitated with their sorceries the miracles of
+Moses, did it prove that Moses was an impostor? There was one Judas
+among the twelve apostles, but does that invalidate the credibility
+of the eleven others, who were not liars and cheats? It is the
+great and overwhelming burden of the testimony which decides in
+this as in all other disputed matters&mdash;not mere isolated
+cases. Good afternoon, madam. I will see you soon again, Sir
+William, when we can have a quiet talk to ourselves."</p>
+<p>"Stay!" cried Lady Mary, as the offended
+minister was stalking out of the room. "You have forgotten
+something," and she pointed to the little box, containing the
+chicken's feathers which had been left lying upon the
+table.</p>
+<p>The minister gave a gesture expressive of
+mingled contempt and indignation&mdash;but did not come back for
+it. It was evident that he valued the feathers now at considerably
+less than one hundred pounds.</p>
+<p>"Young man," said the Governor, smiling, "you
+are a very bright and keen-witted person, but I would advise you
+not to linger in this province any longer than is absolutely
+necessary. Master Mather is much stronger here than I
+am."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER L.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id=
+"Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>
+<h4>Bringing Affairs to a Crisis.</h4>
+<p>The next morning a note came to Master
+Raymond from Joseph Putnam, brought by one of the
+farm-hands.</p>
+<p>It was important. Abigail Williams had called
+upon Goodwife Buckley, and told her in confidence that it was in
+contemplation, as she had learned from Ann Putnam, to bring
+Dulcibel Burton back to Salem jail again. The escape of Captain
+Alden and the Englishes from the Bridewell in Boston, had caused a
+doubt in Salem as to its security. Besides, Lady Phips had taken
+ground so openly against the witch prosecutions, that there was no
+knowing to how great an extent she might not go to aid any prisoner
+in whom she took an interest.</p>
+<p>Abigail Williams further said that Mistress
+Ann Putnam had become very bitter both against her brother-in-law
+Joseph and his friend Master Raymond. She was busy combatting the
+idea that the latter really ever had been afflicted&mdash;and was
+endeavoring to rouse Squire Hathorne's indignation against him as
+being a deceiver.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id=
+"Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p>
+<p>As the young man read this last, he wondered
+what effect would be produced upon the credulous magistrate, when
+he received word from Master Mather as to what had occurred in the
+Governor's presence. Would he be so angry as to take very arbitrary
+measures; or so ashamed as to let it all pass, rather than expose
+the extent to which he had been duped? He feared the
+former&mdash;knowing in which way Mistress Ann Putnam's great
+influence with him would be directed.</p>
+<p>Master Joseph advised immediate
+action&mdash;if peaceable means would not serve, then the use of
+violent ones. If Captain Tolley could not find among his sailors
+those who would undertake the job, he, Master Joseph, would come
+down any night with three stout men, overpower the keepers, and
+carry off Mistress Dulcibel, with the requisite amount of violence
+to keep her promise unbroken.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond wrote a note in return. He was
+much obliged for the information. It was evident that the time had
+come for action; and that it was dangerous to delay much longer. Of
+course peaceable means were to be preferred; and it was possible he
+might be able either to bribe the keeper, or to get a release from
+the Governor; but, if force had to be resorted to,<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>
+Captain Tolley could command his whole crew for such a service, as
+they were the kind of men who would like nothing better. In fact,
+they would not hesitate to open fire upon the town, if he ordered
+it&mdash;and even run up the flag of a French privateer.</p>
+<p>After dispatching this business, Master
+Raymond went out on the porch of the Red Lion, and began an
+examination of the clouds and the weather-cocks. It had been
+raining slightly for a day or two, with the wind from the
+southeast; but though the vanes still pointed to the southeast, and
+the light lower clouds were moving from the same point of the
+compass, he caught glimpses through the scud of higher clouds that
+were moving in an entirely opposite direction.</p>
+<p>"How do you make it out?" said a well-known
+voice. He had heard some one approaching, but had supposed it to be
+a stranger.</p>
+<p>"I am not much of a sailor; but I should say
+it would clear up, with a brisk wind from the west or the northwest
+by afternoon."</p>
+<p>"Aye!" said Captain Tolley, for it was he;
+"and a stiff nor'wester by night. If it isn't I'll give my head for
+a foot-ball. Were I bound out of the harbor, I would not whistle
+for a better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id=
+"Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> wind than we shall have before six
+hours are over."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond glanced around; no one was
+near them. "Are you certain of that, Captain? Would it do to bet
+upon?</p>
+<p>"You may bet all you are worth, and your
+sweetheart into the bargain," replied the Captain laughing, with a
+significant look out of his eyes.</p>
+<p>"When are you going, Captain?"</p>
+<p>"Oh, to-night, perhaps&mdash;if I can get all
+my live stock on board.</p>
+<p>"To-night then let it be," said the young man
+in a whisper; "by fair means, or by foul. I may succeed by fair
+means; have a boat waiting at the wharf for me. It will be light
+enough to get out of the harbor?"</p>
+<p>"There is a gibbous moon&mdash;plenty. Once
+past the castle, and we are safe. We can easily break open the
+keeper's house&mdash;and quiet him with a pistol at his
+head."</p>
+<p>"You must not harm him&mdash;he has been a
+good friend to her."</p>
+<p>"Of course&mdash;only scare him a little.
+Besides, he is not a good friend, if he makes a noise."</p>
+<p>"Well, I will see you by ten
+o'clock&mdash;with her or without her&mdash;Yes, I will bet you a
+gold piece,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id=
+"Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> Captain, that the wind gets around
+to the west by four o'clock." This last was in Master Raymond's
+usual tones&mdash;the previous conversation having been in
+whispers.</p>
+<p>"You will be safe enough in that, Master
+Raymond," said the landlord of the Red Lion, whose steps the young
+Englishman had heard approaching.</p>
+<p>"Do you think so? I do not want to take the
+young man's money, he is only a landsman you know, Mate; but I will
+bet you a piece of eight that the wind will not get around till a
+half hour after that time. And we will take it all out in drinks at
+your bar, at our leisure."</p>
+<p>"Done!" said the landlord. "And now let us go
+in, and take a drink all around in advance."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER LI.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id=
+"Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>
+<h4>Lady Mary's Coup D'Etat.</h4>
+<p>Master Raymond's next proceeding was to call
+on Lady Phips. Sending in his name, with a request to see her
+ladyship on very important business, he was ushered as usual into
+her boudoir.</p>
+<p>"I must be doing something, Lady Mary," he
+said, after a few words relative to the evident change of weather;
+"I have news from Salem that the Magistrates are about to send
+Mistress Dulcibel back to Salem jail."</p>
+<p>"That is sad," she answered.</p>
+<p>"And, besides, there is no knowing what new
+proceedings they may be concocting against me. I must take Sir
+William's advice, and get out of this hornet's nest as soon as
+possible."</p>
+<p>"Well what can I do for you?"</p>
+<p>"Get an order from Sir William releasing
+Dulcibel from prison."</p>
+<p>"Oh, that I could! God knows how gladly I
+would do it."</p>
+<p>"You can at least try," said Master Raymond
+desperately.</p>
+<p>The lady hesitated a moment. "Yes, as
+you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg
+372]</a></span> say, I can at least try. But you know how
+impossible it is to carry on the government of this Province
+without the support of the ministers and the magistrates. Sir
+William is naturally anxious to succeed; for, if he fails here, it
+will block his road to further preferment."</p>
+<p>"And he will allow the shedding of innocent
+blood to go on, in order to promote his own selfish ambition?" said
+the young man indignantly.</p>
+<p>"You are unjust to the Governor. He will do
+all he can to moderate this fanaticism; and, if it comes to the
+worst, he will order a general jail-delivery, and meet the
+consequences. But he hopes much from time, and from such
+developments as those of your chicken feathers"&mdash;and the lady
+smiled at the thought of the minister's discomfiture.</p>
+<p>"Some things can wait, but I cannot wait,"
+insisted Master Raymond. "You must acknowledge that."</p>
+<p>"Sir William starts this afternoon on a visit
+to Plymouth, to remain for a day or so; but I will have a talk with
+him, and see what I can do," replied the lady. "Call here again at
+six o'clock this evening."</p>
+<p>"Such beauty and spirit as yours must
+be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg
+373]</a></span> irresistible in the cause of virtue and innocence,"
+said the young man, rising to depart.</p>
+<p>"No flattery, Master Raymond; I will do all I
+can without that;" but Lady Mary being still a very comely woman,
+as she certainly was a very spirited one, was not much displeased
+at the compliment, coming from such a handsome young man as Master
+Raymond. Eulogy that the hearer hopes embodies but the simple
+truth, is always pleasant alike to men and women. It is falsehood,
+and not truth, that constitutes the essence of Flattery.</p>
+<p>The day dragged on very drearily and slowly
+to Master Raymond. The waiting for the hour of action is so
+irksome, that even the approach of danger is a relief. But patience
+will at last weary out the slowest hours; and punctually at six
+o'clock, the young man stood again at the door of the Governor's
+mansion.</p>
+<p>Lady Mary evidently was expecting
+him&mdash;for he was shown in at once. She looked up wearily as he
+entered. "I can do nothing to-day," she said.</p>
+<p>"What ground did the Governor
+take?"</p>
+<p>"That sound policy forbade him to move in the
+matter at present. The persecuting party were<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> very
+indignant at the escape of Captain Alden and the Englishes; and now
+for him to grant a pardon to another of the accused, would be to
+irritate them to madness."</p>
+<p>Master Raymond acknowledged to himself the
+soundness of the Governor's policy; but he only said: "Then it
+seems that Dulcibel must go back to Salem prison; and I run a good
+chance of going to prison also, as a self-confessed deceiver and
+impostor."</p>
+<p>"If she were released, could you both get
+away from Boston&mdash;at once?"</p>
+<p>Master Raymond's voice sank to a whisper. "I
+have all my plans arranged. By the third hour after midnight, we
+shall be where we can snap our fingers at the magistrates of
+Boston."</p>
+<p>"I have been thinking of a plan. It may
+work&mdash;or may not. But it is worth trying."</p>
+<p>The young man's face lightened.</p>
+<p>"You know that England is ruled by William
+and Mary, why should not the Province of Massachusetts also
+be?"</p>
+<p>"I do not understand you."</p>
+<p>"Upon leaving Sir William, I was somewhat
+indignant that he would not grant my request. And to pacify me, he
+said he was sorry that I had<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> not the same share in
+the government here, that Queen Mary had at home&mdash;and then I
+could do more as I pleased."</p>
+<p>Still Master Raymond's face showed that he
+was puzzled to catch her meaning.</p>
+<p>She laughed and rose from her chair; the old,
+resolute expression upon her spirited face, and, opening the door
+into the next room, which was the Governor's private office, she
+said:</p>
+<p>"Come here a moment, Master
+Josslyn."</p>
+<p>The private Secretary entered.</p>
+<p>"Prepare me," she said to the Secretary, "the
+proper paper, to be signed by the Governor, ordering Keeper Arnold
+to release at once Mistress Dulcibel Burton from confinement in the
+Boston Bridewell."</p>
+<p>"But the Governor, you know, is absent, Lady
+Mary," said the Secretary, "and his signature will be
+necessary."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I will see to that," replied the lady a
+little haughtily.</p>
+<p>Master Raymond sat quietly&mdash;waiting for
+what was to come next. He could not conceive how Lady Mary intended
+to manage it. As for the lady, she tapped the table with her
+shapely fingers impatiently.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p>
+<p>In a few minutes Master Josslyn reappeared
+with the paper. "All it now wants is the signature of the
+Governor," said he.</p>
+<p>The lady took up a pen from the table by
+which she was sitting, and filled it with ink; then with a firm
+hand she signed the paper, "William Phips, Governor, by Lady Mary
+Phips."</p>
+<p>"But, your ladyship, the keeper will not
+acknowledge the validity of that signature, or obey it," said
+Master Josslyn in some alarm.</p>
+<p>"He will not? We shall see!" responded her
+ladyship rising. "Order my carriage, Master Josslyn."</p>
+<p>In fifteen minutes, Lady Mary, accompanied by
+Master Raymond, was at Keeper Arnold's house.</p>
+<p>"I bring you good news, Master Arnold," said
+Lady Mary, "I know you will rejoice, such a tender-hearted man as
+you are at the release of Mistress Dulcibel Burton. Here is the
+official document." She flourished it at him, but still kept it in
+her hand.</p>
+<p>Dulcibel was soon informed of the good news;
+and came flying out to meet her benefactor and her
+lover.</p>
+<p>"Put on a shawl and your veil at once;
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg
+377]</a></span> make a bundle of your belongings," said Lady Mary,
+kissing her. "Master Raymond is in a great hurry to carry you
+off&mdash;at which I confess that I do not wonder." Dulcibel
+tripped off&mdash;the sooner she was out of that close place the
+better.</p>
+<p>"Well, what is it, Master Arnold?" said Lady
+Mary to the keeper, who acted as if he wished to say
+something.</p>
+<p>"It is only a form, my lady; but you have not
+shown me the Governor's warrant yet?"</p>
+<p>"Why, yes I have," said Lady Mary, fluttering
+it at him as before.</p>
+<p>But Keeper Arnold was fully aware of the
+responsibility of his position; and putting out his hand, he
+steadied the fluttering paper sufficiently to glance over its
+contents. When he came to the signature, his face paled. "Pardon
+me, my lady; but this is not the Governor's writing."</p>
+<p>"Of course it is not&mdash;why, you silly
+loon, how could it be when he has gone to Plymouth? But you will
+perceive that it is in Master Josslyn's writing&mdash;and the
+Governor ought to have signed it before he started."</p>
+<p>"This is hardly in regular form, my
+lady."</p>
+<p>"It is not? Do you not see the
+Governor's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id=
+"Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> name; and there below it is my name,
+as proof of the Governor's. Do you mean to impeach my attestation
+of Sir William's signature? There is my name, Lady Mary Phips: and
+I will take the responsibility of this paper being a legal one. If
+anybody finds fault with you, send him to me; and I will say you
+did it, in the Governor's absence from town, at my peremptory
+order." The lady's face glowed, and her eyes flashed, with her
+excitement and determination.</p>
+<p>"It would be as much as my position is worth
+to disobey it and me!" rejoined Lady Mary. "I will have you out of
+this place in three days' time, if you cast disrespect upon my
+written name."</p>
+<p>"There can be no great haste in this matter.
+Bring the release tomorrow, and I will consult authority in the
+meanwhile," said the keeper pleadingly.</p>
+<p>"Authority? The Governor's name is authority!
+I am authority! Who dare you set up beside us? You forget your
+proper respect and duty, Master Arnold."</p>
+<p>The keeper was overborne at last. "You will
+uphold me, if I do this thing, Lady Mary?" said he
+imploringly.</p>
+<p>"You know me, Master Arnold&mdash;and that
+I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg
+379]</a></span> never desert my friends! I shall accept the full
+responsibility of this deed before Sir William and the magistrates.
+And they cannot order any punishment which he cannot
+pardon."</p>
+<p>By this time it had grown quite dark. "Shall
+I take you anywhere in my carriage?" said Lady Mary, as Dulcibel
+reappeared with a bundle.</p>
+<p>"It is not necessary," replied Master Raymond
+joyfully, "I will not compromise you any further. God forever bless
+your ladyship! There is not another woman in New England with the
+spirit and courage to do what you have done this day&mdash;and the
+reader of our history a hundred years to come, as he reads this
+page, shall cry fervently, God bless the fearless and generous soul
+of Lady Mary!"</p>
+<p>"Let me know when you are safe," she
+whispered to the young man, as he stood by her carriage. "Master
+and Mistress English are now the guests of Governor Fletcher of New
+York&mdash;changing a Boston prison for a Governor's mansion. You
+will be perfectly secure in that Province&mdash;or in Pennsylvania,
+or Maryland or Virginia." And the carriage drove off.</p>
+<p>It was in that early hour of the evening,
+when the streets in town and city, are more deserted
+than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg
+380]</a></span> they are for some hours afterwards; everyone being
+indoors, and not come out for visiting or amusement. And so the
+young man and his companion walked towards the north-eastern part
+of the town, meeting only one or two persons, who took no special
+notice of them.</p>
+<p>"You do not ask where we are going,
+Dulcibel?" at last said Master Raymond.</p>
+<p>She could not see the sweet smile on his
+face; but she could feel it in his voice.</p>
+<p>"Anywhere, with you!" the maiden replied in a
+low tone.</p>
+<p>"We are going to be married."</p>
+<p>He felt the pressure of her hand upon his arm
+in response.</p>
+<p>"That is, if we can find a minister to
+perform the ceremony."</p>
+<p>"That will be difficult, I should
+think."</p>
+<p>"Yes, difficult, but not impossible. After
+getting you out of prison, as Lady Mary did, I should not like to
+call anything impossible."</p>
+<p>"Lady Mary is an angel!"</p>
+<p>"Yes, one of the kind with wings," replied
+her companion laughing. "She has kindly loaned us her wings
+though&mdash;and we are flying away on them."<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg
+381]</a></span></p>
+<p>Before long they were at one of the wharves;
+then on a small boat&mdash;then on the deck of the "Storm
+King."</p>
+<p>"I am better than my word, Captain
+Tolley."</p>
+<p>"Aye! indeed you are. And this is the birdie!
+Fair Mistress, the "Storm King" and his brood are ready to die to
+shield you from harm."</p>
+<p>Dulcibel looked wonder out of her clear blue
+eyes. What did it all mean? She smiled at the Captain's devoted
+speech. "I do not want any one to die for me, Captain. I would
+rather have you sing me a good sea-song, such as my father, who was
+also a sea-captain, used to delight me with at home."</p>
+<p>"Oh, we can do that too," answered the
+Captain gaily. "I hope we shall have a jolly time of it, before we
+reach our destination. Now, come down into the cabin and see the
+preparations I have made for you; a sailor's daughter must have the
+best of sailor's cheer."</p>
+<p>"One word, Captain," said Master Raymond, as
+the Captain came up on deck again, leaving Dulcibel to the privacy
+of her state-room. "It does not seem fitting that a young unmarried
+woman should be alone on a vessel like this, with no matron to bear
+her company."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id=
+"Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Sir!" said the Captain, "I would have you
+know that the maiden is as safe from aught that could offend her
+modesty on the decks of the "Storm King," as if she were in her
+father's house."</p>
+<p>"Of course she is. I know that well&mdash;and
+mean not the least offense. And she, innocent as she is, has no
+other thought. But this is a slanderous world, Captain, and we men
+who know the world, must think for her."</p>
+<p>"Oh, I admit that," said Captain Tolley,
+somewhat mollified, "we cannot expect of mere land's people, who
+put an innocent girl like that into prison for no offense, the
+gentle behavior towards women that comes naturally from a seaman;
+but what do you propose?"</p>
+<p>"To send for one of the Boston ministers, and
+marry her before we leave port."</p>
+<p>"Why, of course," replied the Captain. "It is
+the very thing. Whom shall we send for? The North Church is
+nearest&mdash;how would Master Cotton Mather do?"</p>
+<p>The young man stood thoughtfully silent for a
+moment or two. The ministers of South Church and of King's chapel
+were more heterodox in all this witchcraft business; but for that
+very reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id=
+"Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> he did not wish to compromise them
+in any way. Besides, he owed a grudge to Master Mather, for his
+general course in sustaining the persecution, and his recent
+language in particular towards himself. So his lips gradually
+settled into a stern determination, and he replied "Master Mather
+is the very man."</p>
+<p>"It may require a little ingenuity to get him
+aboard at this time of the evening," said the Captain. "But I
+reckon my first mate, Simmons, can do it, if any one
+can."</p>
+<p>"Here, Simmons," to the first mate, who was
+standing near, "you look like a pillar of the church, go ashore and
+bring off Master Cotton Mather with you. A wealthy young Englishman
+is dying&mdash;and he cannot pass away from Boston in peace without
+his ministerial services."</p>
+<p>"Dying?" ejaculated Master
+Raymond.</p>
+<p>"Yes, dying! dying to get married&mdash;and
+you cannot pass out of Boston harbor in peace, without his
+ministerial services."</p>
+<p>"Would it not do as well to ask him to come
+and marry us?"</p>
+<p>"I doubt it," replied the Captain. "Master
+Mather is honest in his faith, even if he is bigoted and
+superstitious&mdash;and death cannot be put off<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> like
+marriage till tomorrow. But take your own course,
+Simmons&mdash;only bring him."</p>
+<p>"Shall I use force, sir, if he will not come
+peaceably?" asked the mate coolly.</p>
+<p>"Not if it will make a disturbance," said his
+commander. "We do not want to run the gauntlet of the castle's guns
+as we go out of the harbor. The wind is hardly lively enough for
+that."</p>
+<p>"I will go down and tell Dulcibel," said
+Master Raymond. "It is rather sudden, but she is a maiden of great
+good sense, and will see clearly the necessity of the case. And as
+she is an orphan, she has no father or mother whose consent she
+might consider necessary. But Mate"&mdash;going to the side of the
+vessel, which the boat was just leaving, "not a word as to my name
+or that of the maiden. That would spoil all."</p>
+<p>"Aye, aye, sir! Trust me to bring him!" and
+the boat started for the shore, under the vigorous strokes of two
+oarsmen.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_LII" id=
+"CHAPTER_LII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER LII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id=
+"Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>
+<h4>An Unwilling Parson.</h4>
+<p>Not quite an hour had elapsed, when the sound
+of oars was again heard; and Captain Tolley, peering through the
+dark, saw that another form was seated opposite the mate in the
+stern-sheets of the boat.</p>
+<p>"I thought that Simmons would bring him,"
+said Captain Tolley to the second mate; "such a smooth tongue as he
+has. It is a pity he wasn't a minister himself&mdash;his genius is
+half wasted here."</p>
+<p>"Glad to see you on board the Storm King,
+Master Mather," was the greeting of the Captain, as the minister
+was helped up to the deck by the mates.</p>
+<p>"The Storm King! Why I was told that it was
+an English frigate, just come into port," said the minister in a
+surprised voice.</p>
+<p>"The messenger must have made a mistake,"
+replied the Captain coolly. "You know that landsmen always do get
+things mixed.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id=
+"Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>"Well, as I am here, no matter. Show
+me the dying man."</p>
+<p>"Walk down into the cabin," said the Captain
+politely.</p>
+<p>Entering the cabin which was well lighted,
+Master Raymond stepped forward, "I am happy to see you, Master
+Mather. You remember me, do you not?"</p>
+<p>"Master Raymond, I believe," returned the
+minister coldly. "Where is the dying man who requires my spiritual
+ministrations?"</p>
+<p>"Dying!" laughed the Captain. "How strangely
+that fellow got things mixed. I said dying to get married&mdash;did
+I not, Master Raymond?"</p>
+<p>"Of course you did&mdash;that is, after you
+had explained yourself."</p>
+<p>Master Mather's face looked blank, he did not
+know what to make of it.</p>
+<p>"In truth, Master Mather," said the young
+Englishman, "I was under the necessity of getting married this
+evening; and, thinking over the worshipful ministers of Boston
+town, I singled you out as the one I should prefer to officiate on
+the happy occasion."</p>
+<p>"I decline to have anything to do with it,"
+said Master Mather indignantly, turning on his heel, and going to
+the door of the cabin. But here a muscular sailor, with a boarding
+pike, promptly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id=
+"Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> forbade his passage by putting the
+pike across the door way.</p>
+<p>"What do you mean by barring my way in this
+manner?" said the minister in great wrath to the captain. "Have you
+no reverence for the law?"</p>
+<p>"Not a particle for Boston law," replied
+Captain Tolley. "The only law recognized on board the Storm King is
+the command of its Captain. You have been brought here to marry
+these two young friends of mine; and you will not leave the vessel
+before you do it&mdash;if I have to take you with us all the way to
+China."</p>
+<p>Master Mather pondered the matter for a
+moment. "This is too informal, there are certain preliminaries that
+are necessary in such cases."</p>
+<p>"Advisable&mdash;but I am told not absolutely
+necessary," replied Master Raymond.</p>
+<p>"Wait then for an hour or two; and we shall
+be on the high seas&mdash;and out of any jurisdiction," added
+Captain Tolley.</p>
+<p>"Who is this maiden? Who gives her away?"
+asked the minister.</p>
+<p>"This maiden is Mistress Dulcibel Burton,"
+said Master Raymond, taking her by the hand.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id=
+"Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>"She is an orphan; but I give her
+away," added the Captain.</p>
+<p>"Dulcibel Burton! the serpent witch!"
+exclaimed Master Mather. "What is that convict doing here? Has she
+broken jail?"</p>
+<p>"Master Mather," said the Captain in an
+excited tone, "if you utter another word of insult against this
+innocent and beautiful maiden, I will have you flung overboard to
+the sharks! So take care of what you say!" and the indignant seaman
+shook his finger in the minister's face warningly.</p>
+<p>"Master Mather," added Raymond, more coolly,
+"Mistress Burton has not broken jail. She was duly released from
+custody by Keeper Arnold on the presentation of an official paper
+by Lady Mary Phips. Therefore your conscience need not be uneasy on
+that score."</p>
+<p>"Why are you here then&mdash;why making this
+haste? It is evident that there is something wrong about
+it."</p>
+<p>"Boston has not treated either of us so well
+that we are very desirous of remaining," replied Master Raymond.
+"And as we are going together, it is only decorous that we should
+get married. If you however refuse to marry us, we shall be
+compelled to take you with us&mdash;for the mere presence of such a
+respected minister will be sufficient to<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>
+shield the maiden's name from all reckless
+calumniators."</p>
+<p>The second mate came to the door of the
+cabin. "Captain, there is a fine breeze blowing, it is a pity not
+to use it."</p>
+<p>"Make all ready, sir," replied the Captain.
+Then turning to the minister, "There is no particular hurry, Master
+Mather. You can take the night to think over it. To-morrow morning
+probably, if you come to your senses, we may be able to send you
+ashore somewhere, between here and the capes of the
+Delaware."</p>
+<p>"This is outrageous!" said Master Mather. "I
+will hold both of you accountable for it."</p>
+<p>"It is a bad time to threaten, when your head
+is in the lion's mouth, Master Mather," returned Captain Tolley
+fiercely. "No one knows but my own men that you ever came on board
+the 'Storm King.' How do you know that I am not Captain Kidd
+himself?"</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id=
+"Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>The minister's face grew pale. It was
+no disparagement to his manhood. Even Master Raymond's face grew
+very serious&mdash;for did even he know that this Captain Tolley
+might not be the renowned freebooter, of whose many acts of daring
+and violence the wide seas rang?</p>
+<p>"I would counsel you for your own good to do
+at once what you will have to do ultimately," said Master Raymond
+gravely. "I owe you no thanks for anything; but"&mdash;and the
+young man laughed as he turned to Dulcibel&mdash;"I never could
+trap even a fox without pitying the animal."</p>
+<p>Dulcibel went up to the minister, and put her
+hand upon his arm:&mdash;"Do I look so much like a witch?" she said
+in a playful tone.</p>
+<p>"We are told that Satan can enrobe himself
+like an angel of light," replied Master Mather severely. "I judge
+you by what I have heard of your cruel deeds."</p>
+<p>"As you judged the cruel yellow bird that
+turned out to be only a harmless little chicken," said Master
+Raymond sarcastically. "Enough of this folly. Will you marry us
+now&mdash;or not? If you will, you shall be put ashore unharmed. If
+you will not, you shall go along with us. Make up your mind at
+once, for we shall soon be out of Boston harbor."</p>
+<p>Master Mather had a strong will&mdash;and an
+equally strong won't&mdash;but the Philistines were, for this time,
+too much for him. That reference to Captain Kidd had frightened him
+badly. "Stand up&mdash;and I will marry you. Unscrupulous as
+you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg
+391]</a></span> both are, it is better that you should be married
+by legal rites, than allowed to go your own way to
+destruction."</p>
+<p>And then&mdash;the important ceremony being
+duly gone through&mdash;he pronounced Master Ellis Raymond and
+Mistress Dulcibel Burton man and wife. The Captain being allowed by
+Master Raymond to take the first kiss, as acting in the place of
+the bride's father.</p>
+<p>"No, not a penny!" said the minister, closing
+his hand against the golden pieces that the groom held out to him.
+"All I ask is, that you comply with your promise&mdash;and put me
+on shore again as soon as possible."</p>
+<p>"Better take a drink of wine first," said the
+Captain, filling up a glass and handing it to him.</p>
+<p>"I will neither break bread nor drink wine on
+this"&mdash;he was going to say <i>accursed</i> ship; but the
+fierce eyes of the possible freebooter were upon him, and he said,
+"on this unhappy vessel."</p>
+<p>Captain Tolley laughed heartily. "Oh well,
+good wine never goes begging. The anchor is not up yet, and we will
+put you off just where you came on. Come along!"</p>
+<p>Without a word of leave-taking to the two
+whom he had joined together, Master Mather followed<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> the
+Captain. In fact though, Master Raymond and Dulcibel scarcely noted
+his going, for they were now seated on a small sofa, the arm of the
+young husband around the shapely waist of his newly-made wife, and
+the minister dismissed from their minds as completely as the
+wine-glass out of which they had just drank. He had answered their
+purpose and in the deep bliss of their new relation, they thought
+no more about him.</p>
+<p>As Master Mather turned to descend to the
+boat again&mdash;not wasting any formal words of leave-taking upon
+the Captain either&mdash;the latter grasped him by the
+arm.</p>
+<p>"Wait one moment," said Captain Tolley. "You
+will speak of what has occurred here this evening Master Mather, or
+not, at your pleasure. But be careful of what you say&mdash;for
+there is no power on this coast, strong enough to protect you
+against my vengeance!" And with a scowl upon his face, that would
+not have done injustice to the dreaded Captain Kidd himself, he
+added in a hoarse, fierce tone the one impressive word
+"Beware!"</p>
+<p>The minister made no reply. It was a day of
+fierce men and wild deeds&mdash;especially on the high<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>
+seas. Prudence in some positions is far better than
+valor.</p>
+<p>"Now, my hearties! let us get out of this
+harbor as soon as possible!" cried the Captain. "I might have held
+him till we were opposite the castle, and put him ashore there; but
+it is safer as it is. We have a regular clearance, and he cannot do
+anything legally under an hour or two at least&mdash;while in
+half-an-hour we shall be outside. With a stiff breeze like this,
+once on the open seas, I fear neither man nor devil!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_LIII" id=
+"CHAPTER_LIII"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER LIII.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id=
+"Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>
+<h4>The Wedding Trip and Where Then.</h4>
+<p>Whether Master Mather did make any serious
+effort to prevent the "Storm King" from leaving the harbor, I am
+unable to say; but as I find no reference to this affair either in
+his biography or his numerous works, I am inclined to think that
+like a wise man, he held his peace as to what had occurred, and
+resolved never to go on board another vessel after
+nightfall.</p>
+<p>Certainly no cannon ball cut the waves as the
+"Storm King" sailed swiftly past the castle, and no signal was
+displayed signifying that she must come at once to
+anchor.</p>
+<p>And the little trip to New York was as
+pleasant in all respects as a young couple on a bridal tour could
+desire&mdash;even if the mere relief from the anxieties and
+threatened dangers of the previous long months had not been of
+itself a cause of happiness.</p>
+<p>Arrived at New York, Master Philip English
+and his wife received them with open arms. Master Raymond had
+brought letters from England to Governor Fletcher and others, and
+soon made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg
+395]</a></span> warm friends among the very best people. There was
+no sympathy whatever in New York at that time with the witchcraft
+persecutions in Massachusetts; and all fugitives were received, as
+in the case of the Englishes, with great sympathy and
+kindness.</p>
+<p>Much to my regret, at this point, the old
+manuscript book to which I have been so largely indebted, suddenly
+closes its record of the fortunes of Master and Mistress Raymond.
+Whether they went to England, and took up their residence there
+among Master Raymond's friends, or found a home in this new world,
+I am therefore not able with absolute certainty to say. From what I
+have been able, however, to gather from other quarters, I have come
+to the conclusion that they were so much pleased with their
+reception in New York, that Master Raymond purchased an estate on
+the east side of the Hudson River, where he and the charming
+Dulcibel lived and loved to a good old age, leaving three sons and
+three daughters. If this couple really were our hero and heroine,
+then the Raymonds became connected, through the three daughters,
+with the Smiths, the Joneses and the Browns. In one way, perhaps,
+the question might be set at rest, were it not too
+delicate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg
+396]</a></span> a one for successful handling. There is little
+doubt that among the descendants of Mistress Dulcibel, on the
+female side, the birth-mark of the serpent, more or less distinct,
+will be found occasionally occurring, even now, at the lapse of
+almost two centuries. Therefore, if among the secret traditions of
+any of the families I have mentioned, there be one relative to this
+curious birth-mark, doubtless that would be sufficient proof that
+in their veins runs the rich blood of the charming Dulcibel
+Raymond.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<a name="CHAPTER_LIV" id=
+"CHAPTER_LIV"></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER LIV.</h2>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id=
+"Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>
+<h4>Some Concluding Remarks.</h4>
+<p>Perhaps before I conclude I should state that
+the keeper of the Boston Bridewell, Master Arnold, was summarily
+dismissed for accepting the validity of the Governor's signature.
+But he did not take it very grievously to heart for Master Raymond,
+Captain Alden and others whom he had obliged saw him largely
+recompensed. Captain Alden, by the way, had fled for concealment to
+his relatives in Duxbury. Being asked when he appeared there,
+"Where he came from?" the old captain said "he was fleeing from the
+devil&mdash;who was still after him." However his relatives managed
+to keep him safely, until all danger was passed, both from the
+devil and from his imps.</p>
+<p>As for Lady Mary, the indignation of "the
+faithful" was hot against her&mdash;and finally against Sir
+William, who could not be made to see in it anything but a very
+good joke. "You know that Lady Mary will have her own way," he said
+to Master Mather.</p>
+<p>"Wives should be kept in due gospel
+subjection!" returned the minister.<span class='pagenum'><a name=
+"Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Oh, yes, rejoined the Governor smiling; but
+I wish you had a wife like Lady Mary, and would try it on her! I
+think we should hear something breaking."</p>
+<p>But when Mistress Ann Putnam and others began
+"to cry out" against Lady Mary as a witch, the Governor waxed angry
+in his turn.</p>
+<p>"It is time to put a stop to all this," he
+said indignantly. "They will denounce me as a witch next." So he
+issued a general pardon and jail delivery&mdash;alike to the ten
+persons who were then under sentence of death, to those who had
+escaped from prison, and to the one hundred and fifty lying in
+different jails, and the two hundred others who had been denounced
+for prosecution.</p>
+<p>It was a fair blow, delivered at the very
+front and forehead of the cruel persecution and it did its good
+work, though it lost Sir William his position&mdash;sending him
+back to England to answer the charges of his enemies, and to die
+there soon afterwards in his forty-fifth year.</p>
+<p>When Chief-Justice Stoughton, engaged in
+fresh trials against the reputed witches, read the Governor's
+proclamation of Pardon, he was so indignant that he left his seat
+on the bench, and could not be prevailed upon to return to
+it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg
+399]</a></span></p>
+<p>Neither could he, to the day of his death, be
+brought to see that he had done anything else than what was right
+in the whole matter.</p>
+<p>Not so the jury&mdash;which, several years
+after, confessed its great mistake, and publicly asked forgiveness.
+Nor Judge Sewall, who rose openly in church, and confessed his
+fault, and afterward kept one of the days of execution, with every
+returning year, sacred to repentance and prayer&mdash;seeing no
+person from sunrise to nightfall, mourning in the privacy of his
+own room the sin he had committed.</p>
+<p>Mistress Ann Putnam and her husband both died
+within the seven years, as Dulcibel in her moment of spiritual
+exaltation had predicted. Her daughter Ann lived to make a public
+confession, asking pardon of those whom she had (she said
+unintentionally) injured, and died at the age of
+thirty-five&mdash;her grave being one that nobody wanted their
+loved ones to lie next to.</p>
+<p>As for the majority of the "afflicted
+circle," they fell as the years went on into various evil
+ways&mdash;one authority describing them as "abandoned to open and
+shameless vice."</p>
+<p>Master Philip English, after the issue of the
+Governor's pardon, returned to Salem. Seven<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>teen
+years afterwards, he was still trying to recover his property from
+the officials of the Province. Of &pound;1500 seized, he never
+recovered more than &pound;300; while his wife died in two years,
+at the age of forty-two, in consequence of the treatment to which
+she had been subjected.</p>
+<p>Master Joseph Putnam and his fair Elizabeth
+lived on in peace at the old place; taking into his service the
+Quaker Antipas upon his release from prison. The latter was always
+quiet and peaceful, save when any allusion was made to the witches.
+But he had easy service and good treatment; and was a great
+favorite with the children, especially with that image of his
+father, who afterwards became distinguished as the Major General
+Putnam of Revolutionary fame.</p>
+<p>As for the presents that had been promised to
+the "afflicted circle," they came to them duly, and from London
+too. And they were rich gifts also; but such a collection of odd
+and grotesque articles, certainly are not often got together.
+Master Raymond had commissioned an eccentric friend of his in
+London to purchase them, and send them on; acquainting him with the
+peculiar circumstances. There were yellow birds, and red dragons,
+and other fantastic animals, birds and beasts. But<span class=
+'pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> they
+came from London and the "circle" found them just suited to their
+peculiar tastes; and they always maintained, even in defiance of
+Mistress Ann, that Master Raymond was a lovely gentleman and an
+"afflicted" person himself. It will thus be seen that these Salem
+maidens were in their day truly esthetic&mdash;having that
+sympathetic fondness for unlovely and repulsive things, which is
+the unerring indication of a daughter of Lilith.</p>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' size="6" />
+<p>And now, in conclusion, some one may ask,
+"Did the Province of Massachusetts ever make any suitable atonement
+for the great wrongs her Courts of Injustice had committed?" I
+answer Never! Massachusetts has never made any, adequate
+atonement&mdash;no, not to this day!</p>
+<p>The General Assembly, eighteen years
+afterwards, did indeed pass an act reversing the convictions and
+attainders in all but six of the cases; and ordering the
+distribution of the paltry sum of &pound;578 among the heirs of
+twenty-four persons, as a kind of compensation to the families of
+those who had suffered; but this was all&mdash;nothing, or next to
+nothing!</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id=
+"Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>Perhaps the day will some time come,
+when the cry of innocent blood from the rocky platform of Witch
+Hill, shall swell into sufficient volume to be heard across the
+chasm of two centuries. Then, on some high pedestal, where the
+world can see it, Massachusetts shall proclaim in enduring marble
+her penitence and ask a late forgiveness of the twenty innocent men
+and women whom she so terribly wronged. And as all around, and even
+the mariner far out at sea, shall behold the gleaming shaft,
+standing where stood the rude gallows of two centuries ago, they
+shall say with softening eyes and glowing cheeks: "It is never too
+late to right a great wrong; and Massachusetts now makes all the
+expiation that is possible to those whom her deluded forefathers
+dishonored and persecuted and slew!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 75%;" />
+<h4><a name="By_the_Author_of_Dulcibel" id=
+"By_the_Author_of_Dulcibel"></a><i>By the Author of
+Dulcibel</i></h4>
+<h3>PEMBERTON;</h3>
+<h6>OR,</h6>
+<h3>ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO</h3>
+<blockquote>"A well-told romance of old Philadelphia and its
+vicinity. The incidents of the story are interwoven with the
+struggle for independence. The book is intensely American in
+character and sentiment, and healthful in its stimulation of
+patriotism."&mdash;<i>New</i> <i>York Observer</i>.
+<center>Cloth. 12mo. 400 pages. $1.50</center>
+<center>THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Publishers</center>
+<center>PHILADELPHIA</center>
+</blockquote>
+<hr style="width: 75%;" />
+<h4>BOOKS BY JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE</h4>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<h3>The Bishop of Cottontown</h3>
+<h4><i>A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills</i></h4>
+<blockquote>The Philadelphia <i>Inquirer</i> says: "One cannot rise
+from reading this book without feeling that it is a notable
+contribution to current literature." ... "Thoroughly original,
+fresh, earnest, sparkling with wit and humor," says the Chicago
+<i>Record-Herald</i>, ... and the Birmingham <i>News</i> says: "The
+plot is deep, strong, graphically told and will not be forgotten as
+that of many passing novels, but will be cherished as a classic, as
+a story of right against wrong which is destined to bring about a
+great change in the child-labor question." 12mo. 600 pages.
+Illustrated by the Kinneys. Price, $1.50.</blockquote>
+<h3>A SUMMER HYMNAL</h3>
+<h4>A Romance of Tennessee</h4>
+<blockquote>This novel, by Mr. Moore, with its tender sentiment,
+shrewd philosophy, poetic feeling and exquisite humor gave the
+author his reputation as a portrayer of southern life and
+character. 12mo. 332 pages. Illustrated. Cloth extra. Price,
+$1.25.</blockquote>
+<h3>Songs and Stories from Tennessee</h3>
+<blockquote>This volume contains Mr. Moore's famous story "Old
+Mistis," and many others of equal merit, with some of the poems
+which in fugitive form have found so many admirers. 12mo. 358
+pages. Illustrated. Cloth extra. Price, $1.25.</blockquote>
+<center><b>THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Publishers</b></center>
+<center><b><big>PHILADELPHIA</big></b></center>
+<hr style="width: 75%;" />
+<h4>BOOKS BY MAX ADELER</h4>
+<h4>(<span class="smcap">Charles Heber Clark</span>)</h4>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<h3>The Quakeress: A Tale</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>"In his 'Quakeress,' Mr. Clark has achieved instant&mdash;and in
+all probability lasting&mdash;success as a writer of dignified
+fiction."&mdash;<i>The St. Louis Star</i>.</p>
+<p>"He has made of pretty Abby Woolford's heart-history a prose
+epic of Quakerdom."&mdash;<i>The North American,
+Philadelphia</i>.</p>
+<p><i>Illustrations in color by George Gibbs.</i></p>
+<p>Cloth. Popular Edition. 400 pages. $0.75.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>IN HAPPY HOLLOW</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>One of the stories which established Max Adeler's reputation as
+a humorist.</p>
+<p><i>Cloth, extra, with 58 illustrations.</i> $1.25.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>OUT OF THE HURLY-BURLY;</h3>
+<h4>OR, LIFE IN AN ODD CORNER</h4>
+<center>
+<p><i>Cloth, extra, 12mo.</i> $1.25.</p>
+</center>
+<h3>CAPTAIN BLUITT; A TALE OF OLD TURLEY</h3>
+<center>
+<p><i>Cloth, extra, 12mo.</i> $1.50.</p>
+</center>
+<center>
+<p>More than 1,000,000 copies of Max Adeler's Books Have Been
+Sold.</p>
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+<center>
+<p><b>THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Publishers</b></p>
+</center>
+<center><b><big>PHILADELPHIA</big></b></center>
+<hr style="width: 75%;" />
+<h5><i>Unabridged Favorites to Fit the Pocket</i></h5>
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+using a new style of type which has recently been made for us, we
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+published. A wonderful improvement in the art of book-making. Each
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+<center><b>Leather limp, gilt top, full gold back.</b></center>
+<center>Price per volume, $1.00.</center>
+<center>Sold separately and in sets.</center>
+</blockquote>
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<h4>LIST OF TITLES.</h4>
+<ul>
+<li><b>Adam Bede.</b> By George Eliot.</li>
+<li><b>American Notes.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Barnaby Rudge.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Bleak House.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Channings, The.</b> By Mrs. Henry Wood.</li>
+<li><b>Charles O'Malley.</b> By Charles Lever.</li>
+<li><b>Child's History of England.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Christmas Books.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Cloister and the Hearth, The.</b> By Charles Reade.</li>
+<li><b>Danesbury House.</b> By Mrs. Henry Wood.</li>
+<li><b>David Copperfield.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Dombey and Son.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>East Lynne.</b> By Mrs. Henry Wood.</li>
+<li><b>Great Expectations.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Hard Times.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Henry Esmond.</b> By W.M. Thackeray.</li>
+<li><b>House of the Seven Gables, The.</b> By Nathaniel
+Hawthorne.</li>
+<li><b>Ivanhoe.</b> By Sir Walter Scott.</li>
+<li><b>Jane Eyre.</b> By Charlotte Bront&euml;.</li>
+<li><b>John Halifax, Gentleman.</b> By Miss Muloch.</li>
+<li><b>Kenilworth.</b> By Sir Walter Scott.</li>
+<li><b>Last of the Barons.</b> By Lord Lytton.</li>
+<li><b>Little Dorrit.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Master Humphrey's Clock.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Mill on the Floss.</b> By George Eliot.</li>
+<li><b>Martin Chuzzlewit.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles.</b> By Mrs. Henry Wood.</li>
+<li><b>Never Too Late to Mend.</b> By Charles Reade.</li>
+<li><b>Nicholas Nickleby.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>No Name.</b> By Wilkie Collins.</li>
+<li><b>Old Curiosity Shop.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Oliver Twist.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Pickwick Papers.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Pilgrim's Progress.</b> By John Bunyan.</li>
+<li><b>Reprinted Pieces.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Scarlet Letter.</b> By Nathaniel Hawthorne.</li>
+<li><b>Scenes of Clerical Life.</b> By George Eliot.</li>
+<li><b>Shirley.</b> By Charlotte Bront&euml;.</li>
+<li><b>Silas Marner.</b> By George Eliot.</li>
+<li><b>Sketches by Boz.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Stories and Sketches.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Tale of Two Cities.</b> By Charles Dickens.</li>
+<li><b>Talisman.</b> By Sir Walter Scott.</li>
+<li><b>Tennyson's Poetical Works.</b></li>
+<li><b>Tom Brown's School Days.</b> By Thomas Hughes.</li>
+<li><b>Two Years Ago.</b> By Charles Kingsley.</li>
+<li><b>Westward Ho!</b> By Charles Kingsley.</li>
+<li><b>Woman in White.</b> By Wilkie Collins.</li>
+<li><b>Wuthering Heights.</b> By Emily Bront&euml;.</li>
+</ul>
+<center>
+<p><b>Other New Titles are in Preparation. A Complete List
+Furnished Upon Request.</b></p>
+</center>
+<h3>THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.</h3>
+<h5>Publishers of "International" Bibles</h5>
+<center>1006-1016 Arch Street, <span style=
+"margin-left: 2em;">Philadelphia</span></center>
+<hr style="width: 75%;" />
+<h3>STANDARD FICTION</h3>
+<p><small>Babcock (William Henry). The Tower of Wye: A Romance.
+12mo. Cloth extra</small> <span class='pagenum'>$1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>&mdash;Kent Fort Manor. 12mo. Cloth</small> <span class=
+'pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Bartlett (Mrs. J.M.D.). Until the Day Break. 12mo.
+Cloth</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Blankman (Edgar G.). Deacon Babbitt: A Tale of Fact and
+Fiction. 12mo, 350 pages, illustrated. Cloth</small> <span class=
+'pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Crowe (Catherine). The Night-Side of Nature; or, Ghosts
+and Ghost-Seers. New edition, with a critical introduction by Dr.
+Thomson Jay Hudson, LL.D. 12mo. Cloth</small> <span class=
+'pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<small>Edwards (Louise Betts). The Tu-Tze's Tower. 12mo.
+Cloth</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.00</span>
+<p><small>Foster (Charles J.). The White Horse of Wootton. 12mo.
+Cloth</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Gerard (Dorothea). Sawdust. 12mo. Cloth</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Gibbs (George). In Search of Mademoiselle. 12mo. Cloth
+Popular Edition</small> <span class='pagenum'>.75</span></p>
+<p><small>Goldsmith (Milton). A Victim of Conscience. 12mo.
+Cloth.</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Halevy (Ludovic). Abbe Constantin. With twenty-four
+illustrations by Madeline Lemair. 12mo. Cloth, gilt top</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Iliowizi (Henry). The Weird Orient. 12mo. Cloth</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>&mdash;In the Pale. 12mo. Cloth</small> <span class=
+'pagenum'>1.25</span></p>
+<p><small>&mdash;The Archierey of Samara. 12mo. Cloth</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Keary (Annie). Oldbury. A Novel. 12mo. Cloth</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>McKnight (Charles). Captain Jack, the Scout; or, Indian
+Wars About Old Fort Duquesne. 12mo. Cloth, gilt top</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Norris (W.E.). The Embarrassing Orphan. 12mo.
+Cloth</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Pendleton (Louis). A Forest Drama. 12mo. Cloth</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Quiller-Couch (A.T.) ("Q."). The Westcotes. 12mo.
+Cloth</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.00</span></p>
+<p><small>Stoddard (Elizabeth) (Mrs. Richard Henry Stoddard). Two
+Men: A Novel. 12mo. Cloth extra</small> <span class=
+'pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>&mdash;Temple House: A Novel. 12mo. Cloth extra</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>&mdash;The Morgesons: A Novel. 12mo. Cloth extra</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>The above three volumes form the "Library edition" of
+Elizabeth Stoddard's works. 12mo. Cloth extra, in box</small>
+<span class='pagenum'>4.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Schwartz (Marie Sophie).</small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Birth and
+Education.</span></small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Guilt and
+Innocence.</span></small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Two Family
+Mothers.</span></small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gold and
+Name.</span></small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Right
+One.</span></small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Wife of a Vain
+Man.</span></small></p>
+<p><small><span style="margin-left: 2em;">8vo. Cloth extra.
+Each</span></small> <span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Thompson (Garrett W.). Threads: A Novel, A Story of
+American Life. 12mo. Cloth</small> <span class=
+'pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Twells (Julia Helen, Jr.). By the Higher Law: A Novel.
+12mo. Cloth</small><span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<p><small>Wiley (Richard T.). Sim Greene. A story of the Great
+Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania. 12mo, 380 pages.
+Cloth</small> <span class='pagenum'>1.50</span></p>
+<center>
+<p><b>THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Publishers</b></p>
+</center>
+<center><b><big>PHILADELPHIA</big></b></center>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dulcibel, by Henry Peterson
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dulcibel, by Henry Peterson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dulcibel
+       A Tale of Old Salem
+
+Author: Henry Peterson
+
+Illustrator: Howard Pyle
+
+Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20569]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DULCIBEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marcia, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: She stood up serene but heroic]
+
+
+DULCIBEL
+
+A Tale of Old Salem
+
+BY
+
+HENRY PETERSON
+
+Author of
+
+"Pemberton, or One Hundred Years Ago"
+
+Illustrations by
+
+HOWARD PYLE
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+
+The John C. Winston Co.
+
+1907
+
+Copyright 1907
+
+BY
+
+Walter Peterson.
+
+
+
+
+Contents.
+
+
+Chapter.                                                     Page.
+
+      I DULCIBEL BURTON                                          1
+
+     II IN WHICH SOME NECESSARY INFORMATION IS GIVEN            12
+
+    III THE CIRCLE IN THE MINISTER'S HOUSE                      17
+
+     IV SATAN'S ESPECIAL GRUDGE AGAINST OUR PURITAN FATHERS     22
+
+      V LEAH HERRICK'S POSITION AND FEELINGS                    24
+
+     VI A DISORDERLY SCENE IN CHURCH                            27
+
+    VII A CONVERSATION WITH DULCIBEL                            32
+
+   VIII AN EXAMINATION OF REPUTED WITCHES                       47
+
+     IX ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MORE ALLEGED WITCHES              54
+
+      X BRIDGET BISHOP CONDEMNED TO DIE                         59
+
+     XI EXAMINATION OF REBECCA NURSE                            64
+
+    XII BURN ME OR HANG ME, I WILL STAND IN THE TRUTH OF CHRIST 73
+
+   XIII DULCIBEL IN DANGER                                      80
+
+    XIV BAD NEWS                                                91
+
+     XV THE ARREST OF DULCIBEL AND ANTIPAS                      94
+
+    XVI DULCIBEL IN PRISON                                     102
+
+   XVII DULCIBEL BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES                        107
+
+  XVIII WELL, WHAT NOW?                                        123
+
+    XIX ANTIPAS WORKS A MIRACLE                                128
+
+     XX MASTER RAYMOND GOES TO BOSTON                          136
+
+    XXI A NIGHT INTERVIEW                                      139
+
+   XXII THE REVEREND MASTER PARRIS EXORCISES "LITTLE WITCH"    149
+
+  XXIII MASTER RAYMOND ALSO COMPLAINS OF AN "EVIL HAND"        162
+
+   XXIV MASTER RAYMOND'S LITTLE PLAN BLOCKED                   166
+
+    XXV CAPTAIN ALDEN BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES                   172
+
+   XXVI CONSIDERING NEW PLANS                                  180
+
+  XXVII THE DISSIMULATION OF MASTER RAYMOND                    188
+
+ XXVIII THE CRUEL DOINGS OF THE SPECIAL COURT                  192
+
+   XXIX DULCIBEL'S LIFE IN PRISON                              199
+
+    XXX EIGHT LEGAL MURDERS ON WITCH HILL                      205
+
+   XXXI A NEW PLAN OF ESCAPE                                   214
+
+  XXXII WHY THE PLAN FAILED                                    221
+
+ XXXIII MISTRESS ANN PUTNAM'S FAIR WARNING                     230
+
+  XXXIV MASTER RAYMOND GOES AGAIN TO BOSTON                    237
+
+   XXXV CAPTAIN TOLLEY AND THE STORM KING                      244
+
+  XXXVI SIR WILLIAM PHIPS AND LADY MARY                        252
+
+ XXXVII THE FIRST RATTLE OF THE RATTLESNAKE                    262
+
+XXXVIII CONFLICTING CURRENTS IN BOSTON                         269
+
+  XXXIX THE RATTLESNAKE MAKES A SPRING                         273
+
+     XL AN INTERVIEW WITH LADY MARY                            280
+
+    XLI MASTER RAYMOND IS ARRESTED FOR WITCHCRAFT              287
+
+   XLII MASTER RAYMOND ASTONISHES THE MAGISTRATES              293
+
+  XLIII WHY THOMAS PUTNAM WENT TO IPSWICH                      303
+
+   XLIV HOW MASTER JOSEPH CIRCUMVENTED MISTRESS ANN            309
+
+    XLV THE TWO PLOTTERS CONGRATULATE EACH OTHER               330
+
+   XLVI MISTRESS ANN'S OPINION OF THE MATTER                   336
+
+  XLVII MASTER RAYMOND VISITS LADY MARY                        343
+
+ XLVIII CAPTAIN TOLLEY'S PROPOSITIONS                          351
+
+   XLIX MASTER RAYMOND CONFOUNDS MASTER COTTON MATHER          355
+
+      L BRINGING AFFAIRS TO A CRISIS                           366
+
+     LI LADY MARY'S COUP D'ETAT                                371
+
+    LII AN UNWILLING PARSON                                    385
+
+   LIII THE WEDDING TRIP AND WHERE THEN                        394
+
+    LIV SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS                                397
+
+
+
+
+=Illustrations.=
+
+
+                                                            Page.
+
+STOOD UP SERENE BUT HEROIC                          FRONTISPIECE.
+
+"THE LORD KNOWS THAT I HAVEN'T HURT THEM"                      68
+
+MARCHED FROM JAIL FOR THE LAST TIME                           208
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+Dulcibel Burton.
+
+
+In the afternoon of a sunny Autumn day, nearly two hundred years ago, a
+young man was walking along one of the newly opened roads which led into
+Salem village, or what is now called Danvers Centre, in the then
+Province of Massachusetts Bay.
+
+The town of Salem, that which is now the widely known city of that name,
+lay between four and five miles to the southeast, on a tongue of land
+formed by two inlets of the sea, called now as then North and South
+Rivers. Next to Plymouth it is the oldest town in New England, having
+been first settled in 1626. Not till three years after were Boston and
+Charlestown commenced by the arrival of eleven ships from England. It is
+a significant fact, as showing the hardships to which the early settlers
+were exposed, that of the fifteen hundred persons composing this Boston
+expedition, two hundred died during the first winter. Salem has also the
+honor of establishing the first New England church organization, in
+1629, with the Reverend Francis Higginson as its pastor.
+
+Salem village was an adjunct of Salem, the town taking in the adjacent
+lands for the purpose of tillage to a distance of six miles from the
+meeting-house. But in the progress of settlement, Salem village also
+became entitled to a church of its own; and it had one regularly
+established at the date of our story, with the Reverend Samuel Parris as
+presiding elder or minister.
+
+There had been many bickerings and disputes before a minister could be
+found acceptable to all in Salem village. And the present minister was
+by no means a universal favorite. The principal point of contention on
+his part was the parsonage and its adjacent two acres of ground. Master
+Parris claimed that the church had voted him a free gift of these; while
+his opponents not only denied that it had been done, but that it
+lawfully could be done. This latter view was undoubtedly correct; for
+the parsonage land was a gift to the church, for the perpetual use of
+its pastor, whosoever he might be. But Master Parris would not listen to
+reason on this subject, and was not inclined to look kindly upon the men
+who steadfastly opposed him.
+
+The inhabitants of Salem village were a goodly as well as godly people,
+but owing to these church differences about their ministers, as well as
+other disputes and lawsuits relative to the bounds of their respective
+properties, there was no little amount of ill feeling among them. Small
+causes in a village are just as effective as larger ones in a nation, in
+producing discord and strife; and the Puritans as a people were
+distinguished by all that determination to insist upon their rights, and
+that scorn of compromising difficulties, which men of earnest and honest
+but narrow natures have manifested in all ages of the world. Selfishness
+and uncharitableness are never so dangerous as when they assume the
+character of a conscientious devotion to the just and the true.
+
+But all this time the young man has been walking almost due north from
+the meeting house in Salem village.
+
+The road was not what would be called a good one in these days, for it
+was not much more than a bridle-path; the riding being generally at that
+time on horseback. But it was not the rather broken and uneven condition
+of the path which caused the frown on the young pedestrian's face, or
+the irritability shown by the sharp slashes of the maple switch in his
+hand upon the aspiring weeds along the roadside.
+
+"If ever mortal man was so bothered," he muttered at last, coming to a
+stop. "Of course she is the best match, the other is below me, and has a
+spice of Satan in her; but then she makes the blood stir in a man. Ha!"
+
+This exclamation came as he lifted his eyes from the ground, and gazed
+up the road before him. There, about half a mile distant, was a young
+woman riding toward him. Then she stopped her horse under a tree, and
+evidently was trying to break off a switch, while her horse pranced
+around in a most excited fashion. The horse at last starts in a rapid
+gallop. The young man sees that in trying to get the switch, she has
+allowed the bridle to get loose and over the horse's head, and can no
+longer control the fiery animal. Down the road towards him she comes in
+a sharp gallop, striving to stop the animal with her voice, evidently
+not the least frightened, but holding on to the pommel of the saddle
+with one hand while she makes desperate grasps at the hanging rein with
+the other.
+
+The young Puritan smiled, he took in the situation with a glance, and
+felt no fear for her but rather amusement. He was on the top of a steep
+hill, and he knew he could easily stop the horse as it came up; even if
+she did not succeed in regaining her bridle, owing to the better chances
+the hill gave her.
+
+"She is plucky, anyhow, if she is rather a tame wench," said he, as the
+girl grasped the bridle rein at last, when about half way up the hill,
+and became again mistress of the blooded creature beneath her.
+
+"Is that the way you generally ride, Dulcibel?" asked the young man
+smiling.
+
+"It all comes from starting without my riding whip," replied the girl.
+"Oh, do stop!" she continued to the horse who now on the level again,
+began sidling and curveting.
+
+"Give me that switch of yours, Jethro. Now, you shall see a miracle."
+
+No sooner was the switch in her hand, than the aspect and behavior of
+the animal changed as if by magic. You might have thought the little
+mare had been raised in the enclosure of a Quaker meeting-house, so
+sober and docile did she seem.
+
+"It is always so," said the girl laughing. "The little witch knows at
+once whether I have a whip with me or not, and acts accordingly. No, I
+will not forgive you," and she gave the horse two or three sharp cuts,
+which it took like a martyr. "Oh, I wish you would misbehave a little
+now; I should like to punish you severely."
+
+They made a very pretty picture, the little jet-black mare, and the
+mistress with her scarlet paragon bodice, even if the latter was
+entirely too pronounced for the taste of the great majority of the
+inhabitants, young and old, of Salem village.
+
+"But how do you happen to be here?" said the girl.
+
+"I called to see you, and found you had gone on a visit to Joseph
+Putnam's. So I thought I would walk up the road and meet you coming
+back."
+
+"What a sweet creature Mistress Putnam is, and both so young for man and
+wife."
+
+"Yes, Jo married early, but he is big enough and strong enough, don't
+you think so?"
+
+"He is a worshiped man indeed. Have you met the stranger yet?"
+
+"That Ellis Raymond? No, but I hear he is something of a popinjay in his
+attire, and swelled up with the conceit that he is better than any of us
+colonists."
+
+"I do not think so," and the girl's cheek colored a deeper red. "He
+seems to be a very modest young man indeed. I liked him very much."
+
+"Oh, well, I have not seen him yet. But they say his father was a son of
+Belial, and fought under the tyrant at Naseby."
+
+"But that is all over and his widowed mother is one of us."
+
+"Hang him, what does it matter!" Then, changing his tone, and looking at
+her a little suspiciously. "Did Leah Herrick say anything to you against
+me the other night at the husking?"
+
+"I do not allow people to talk to me against my friends," replied she
+earnestly.
+
+"She was talking to you a long time I saw."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It must have been an interesting subject."
+
+"It was rather an unpleasant one to me."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"She wanted me to join the 'circle' which they have just started at the
+minister's house. She says that old Tituba has promised to show them how
+the Indians of Barbados conjure and powwow, and that it will be great
+sport for the winter nights."
+
+"What did you say to it?"
+
+"I told her I would have nothing to do with such things; that I had no
+liking for them, and that I thought it was wrong to tamper with such
+matters."
+
+"That was all she said to you?" and the young man seemed to breathe more
+freely.
+
+The girl was sharp-witted--what girl is not so in all affairs of the
+heart?--and it was now her turn. "Leah is very handsome," she said.
+
+"Yes--everybody says so," he replied coolly, as if it were a fact of
+very little importance to him, and a matter which he had thought very
+little about.
+
+Dulcibel, was not one to aim all around the remark; she came at once,
+simply and directly to the point.
+
+"Did you ever pay her any attentions?"
+
+"Oh, no, not to speak of. What made you think of such an absurd thing?"
+
+"'Not to speak of'--what do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, I kept company with her for awhile--before you came to Salem--when
+we were merely boy and girl."
+
+"There never was any troth plighted between you?"
+
+"How foolish you are, Dulcibel! What has started you off on this
+track?"
+
+"Yourself. Answer me plainly. Was there ever any love compact between
+you?"
+
+"Oh, pshaw! what nonsense all this is!"
+
+"If you do not answer me, I shall ask her this very evening."
+
+"Of course there was nothing between us--nothing of any account--only a
+boy and girl affair--calling her my little wife, and that kind of
+nonsense."
+
+"I think that a great deal. Did that continue up to the time I came to
+the village?"
+
+"How seriously you take it all! Remember, I have your promise,
+Dulcibel."
+
+"A promise on a promise is no promise--every girl knows that. If you do
+not answer me fully and truly, Jethro, I shall ask Leah."
+
+"Yes," said the young man desperately "there was a kind of childish
+troth up to that time, but it was, as I said, a mere boy and girl
+affair."
+
+"Boy and girl! You were eighteen, Jethro; and she sixteen nearly as old
+as Joseph Putnam and his wife were when they married."
+
+"I do not care. I will not be bound by it; and Leah knows it."
+
+"You acted unfairly toward me, Jethro. Leah has the prior right. I
+recall my troth. I will not marry you without her consent."
+
+"You will not!" said the young man passionately--for well he knew that
+Leah's consent would never be given.
+
+"No, I will not!"
+
+"Then take your troth back in welcome. In truth, I met you here this day
+to tell you that. I love Leah Herrick's little finger better than your
+whole body with your Jezebel's bodice, and your fine lady's airs. You
+had better go now and marry that conceited popinjay up at Jo Putnam's,
+if you can get him."
+
+With that he pushed off down the hill, and up the road, that he might
+not be forced to accompany her back to the village.
+
+Dulcibel was not prepared for such a burst of wrath, and such an
+uncovering of the heart. Which of us has not been struck with wonder,
+even far more than indignation, at such times? A sudden difference
+occurs, and the man or the woman in whom you have had faith, and whom
+you have believed noble and admirable, suddenly appears what he or she
+really is, a very common and vulgar nature. It makes us sick at heart
+that we could have been so deceived.
+
+Such was the effect upon Dulcibel. What a chasm she had escaped. To
+think she had really agreed to marry such a spirit as that! But
+fortunately it was now all over.
+
+She not only had lost a lover, but a friend. And one day before, this
+also would have had its unpleasant side to her. But now she felt even a
+sensation of relief. Was it because this very day a new vision had
+entered into the charmed circle of her life? If it were so, she did not
+acknowledge the fact to herself; or even wonder in her own mind, why the
+sudden breaking of her troth-plight had not left her in a sadder humor.
+For she put "Little Witch" into a brisk canter, and with a smile upon
+her face rode into the main street of the village.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+In Which Some Necessary Information is Given.
+
+
+Dulcibel Burton was an orphan. Her father becoming a little unsound in
+doctrine, and being greatly pleased with the larger liberty of
+conscience offered by William Penn to his colonists in Pennsylvania, had
+leased his house and lands to a farmer by the name of Buckley, and
+departed for Philadelphia. This was some ten years previous to the
+opening of our story. After living happily in Philadelphia for about
+eight years he died suddenly, and his wife decided to return to her old
+home in Salem village, having arranged to board with Goodman Buckley,
+whose lease had not yet expired. But in the course of the following
+winter she also died, leaving this only child, Dulcibel, now a beautiful
+girl of eighteen years. Dulcibel, as was natural, went on living with
+the Buckleys, who had no children of their own, and were very
+good-hearted and affectionate people.
+
+Dulcibel therefore was an heiress, in a not very large way, besides
+having wealthy relatives in England, from some of whom in the course of
+years more or less might reasonably be expected. And as our Puritan
+ancestors were by no means blind to their worldly interests, believing
+that godliness had the promise of this world as well as that which is to
+come--the bereaved maiden became quite an object of interest to the
+young men of the vicinity.
+
+I have called her beautiful, and not without good reason. With the old
+manuscript volume--a family heirloom of some Quaker friends of
+mine--from which I have drawn the facts of this narrative, came also an
+old miniature, the work of a well-known English artist of that period.
+The colors have faded considerably, but the general contour and the
+features are well preserved. The face is oval, with a rather higher and
+fuller forehead than usual; the hair, which was evidently of a rather
+light brown, being parted in the center, and brought down with a little
+variation from the strict Madonna fashion. The eyes are large, and blue.
+The lips rather full. A snood or fillet of blue ribbon confined her
+luxuriant hair. In form she was rather above the usual height of women,
+and slender as became her age; though with a perceptible tendency
+towards greater fullness with increasing years.
+
+There is rather curiously a great resemblance between this miniature,
+and a picture I have in my possession of the first wife of a celebrated
+New England poet. He himself being named for one of the Judges who sat
+in the Special Court appointed for the trial of the alleged witches, it
+would be curious if the beautiful and angelic wife of his youth were
+allied by blood to one of those who had the misfortune to come under the
+ban of witchcraft.
+
+Being both beautiful and an heiress, Dulcibel naturally attracted the
+attention of her near neighbor in the village, Jethro Sands. Jethro was
+quite a handsome young man after a certain style, though, as his life
+proved, narrow minded, vindictive and avaricious. Still he had a high
+reputation as a young man with the elders of the village; for he had
+early seen how advantageous it was to have a good standing in the
+church, and was very orthodox in his faith, and very regular in his
+attendance at all the church services. Besides, he was a staunch
+champion of the Reverend Mr. Parris in all his difficulties with the
+parish, and in return was invariably spoken of by the minister as one of
+the most promising young men in that neighborhood.
+
+Jethro resided with his aunt, the widow Sands. She inherited from her
+husband the whole of his property. His deed for the land narrated that
+the boundary line ran "from an old dry stump, due south, to the
+southwest corner of his hog-pen, then east by southerly to the top of
+the hill near a little pond, then north by west to the highway side, and
+thence along the highway to the old dry stump again aforesaid." There is
+a tradition in the village that by an adroit removal of his hog-pen to
+another location, and the uprooting and transplanting of the old dry
+stump, at a time when nobody seemed to take a very active interest in
+the adjoining land, owing to its title being disputed in successive
+lawsuits, Jethro, who inherited at the death of his aunt, became the
+possessor of a large tract of land that did not originally belong to
+him. But then such stories are apt to crop up after the death of every
+man who has acquired the reputation of being crafty and close in his
+dealings.
+
+We left Jethro, after his interview with Dulcibel, walking on in order
+that he might avoid her further company. After going a short distance he
+turned and saw that she was riding rapidly homeward. Then he began to
+retrace his steps.
+
+"It was bound to come," he muttered. "I have seen she was getting cold
+and thought it was Leah's work, but it seems she was true to her promise
+after all. Well, Leah is poor, and not of so good a family, but she is
+worth a dozen of such as Dulcibel Burton."
+
+Then after some minutes' silent striding, "I hate her though for it, all
+the same. Everybody will know she has thrown me off. But nobody shall
+get ahead of Jethro Sands in the long run. I'll make her sorry for it
+before she dies, the spoiled brat of a Quaker infidel!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The Circle in the Minister's House.
+
+
+It would, perhaps be unfair to hold the Reverend Master Parris
+responsible for the wild doings that went on in the parsonage house
+during the winter evenings of 1691-2, in the face of his solemn
+assertion, made several years afterwards, that he was ignorant of them.
+And yet, how could such things have been without the knowledge either of
+himself or his wife? Mistress Parris has come down to us with the
+reputation of a kindly and discreet woman--nothing having been said to
+her discredit, so far as I am aware, even by those who had a bitter
+controversy with her husband. And yet she certainly must have known of
+the doings of the famous "circle," even if she refrained from speaking
+of them to her husband.
+
+At the very bottom of the whole thing, perhaps, were the West Indian
+slaves--"John Indias" and his wife Tituba, whom Master Parris had
+brought with him from Barbados. There were two children in the house, a
+little daughter of nine, named Elizabeth; and Abigail Williams, three
+years older. These very probably, Tituba often had sought to impress, as
+is the manner of negro servants, with tales of witchcraft, the
+"evil-eye" and "evil hand" spirits, powwowing, etc. Ann Putnam, another
+precocious child of twelve, the daughter of a near neighbor, Sergeant
+Putnam, the parish clerk, also was soon drawn into the knowledge of the
+savage mysteries. And, before very long, a regular "circle" of these and
+older girls was formed for the purpose of amusing and startling
+themselves with the investigation and performance of forbidden things.
+
+At the present day this would not be so reprehensible. We are
+comparatively an unbelieving generation; and what are called "spiritual
+circles" are common, though not always unattended with mischievous
+results. But at that time when it was considered a deadly sin to seek
+intercourse with those who claimed to have "a familiar spirit," that
+such practices should be allowed to go on for a whole winter, in the
+house of a Puritan minister, seems unaccountable. But the fact itself is
+undoubted, and the consequences are written in mingled tears and blood
+upon the saddest pages of the history of New England.
+
+Among the members of this "circle" were Mary Walcott, aged seventeen,
+the daughter of Captain Walcott; Elizabeth Hubbard and Mercy Lewis, also
+seventeen; Elizabeth Booth and Susannah Sheldon, aged eighteen; and Mary
+Warren, Sarah Churchhill and Leah Herrick, aged twenty; these latter
+being the oldest of the party. They were all the daughters of
+respectable and even leading men, with the exception of Mercy Lewis,
+Mary Warren, Leah Herrick and Sarah Churchhill, who were living out as
+domestics, but who seem to have visited as friends and equals the other
+girls in the village. In fact, it was not considered at that time
+degrading in country neighborhoods--perhaps it is not so now in many
+places--for the sons and daughters of men of respectability, and even of
+property, to occupy the position of "help" or servant, eating at the
+same table with, and being considered members of the family. In the case
+before us, Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren and Sarah Churchhill seem to have
+been among the most active and influential members of the party. Though
+Abigail Williams, the minister's niece, and Ann Putnam, only eleven and
+twelve years of age respectively, proved themselves capable of an
+immense deal of mischief.
+
+What the proceedings of these young women actually were, neither
+tradition nor any records that I have met with, informs us; but the
+result was even worse than could have been expected. By the close of the
+winter they had managed to get their nervous systems, their
+imaginations, and their minds and hearts, into a most dreadful
+condition. If they had regularly sold themselves to be the servants of
+the Evil One, as was then universally believed to be possible--and which
+may really be possible, for anything I know to the contrary--their
+condition could hardly have been worse than it was. They were liable to
+sudden faintings of an unnatural character, to spasmodic movements and
+jerkings of the head and limbs, to trances, to the seeing of witches and
+devils, to deafness, to dumbness, to alarming outcries, to impudent and
+lying speeches and statements, and to almost everything else that was
+false, irregular and unnatural.
+
+Some of these things were doubtless involuntary but the voluntary and
+involuntary seemed to be so mingled in their behavior, that it was
+difficult sometimes to determine which was one and which the other. The
+moral sense seemed to have become confused, if not utterly lost for the
+time.
+
+They were full of tricks. They stuck concealed pins into their bodies,
+and accused others of doing it--their contortions and trances were to a
+great extent mere shams--they lied without scruple--they bore false
+witness, and what in many, if not most, cases they knew was false
+witness, against not only those to whom they bore ill will but against
+the most virtuous and kindly women of the neighborhood; and if the
+religious delusion had taken another shape, and we see no reason why it
+should not have done so, and put the whole of them on trial as seekers
+after "familiar spirits" and condemned the older girls to death, there
+would at least have been some show of justice in the proceedings; while,
+as it is, there is not a single ray of light to illuminate the judicial
+gloom.
+
+When at last Mr. Parris and Thomas Putnam became aware of the condition
+of their children, they called in the village physician, Dr. Griggs. The
+latter, finding he could do nothing with his medicines, gave it as his
+opinion that they were "under an evil hand"--the polite medical phrase
+of that day, for being bewitched.
+
+That important point being settled, the next followed of course, "Who
+has bewitched them?" The children being asked said, "Tituba."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Satan's Especial Grudge against Our Puritan Fathers.
+
+
+"Tituba!" And who else? Why need there have been anybody else? Why could
+not the whole thing have stopped just there? No doubt Tituba was guilty,
+if any one was. But Tituba escaped, by shrewdly also becoming an
+accuser.
+
+"Who else?" This set the children's imagination roving. Their first
+charges were not so unreasonable. Why, the vagrant Sarah Good, a social
+outcast, wandering about without any settled habitation; and Sarah
+Osburn, a bed-ridden woman, half distracted by family troubles who had
+seen better days. There the truth was out. Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah
+Osburn were the agents of the devil in this foul attempt against the
+peace of the godly inhabitants of Salem village.
+
+For it was a common belief even amongst the wisest and best of our
+Puritan fathers, that the devil had a special spite against the New
+England colonies. They looked at it in this way. He had conquered in
+the fight against the Lord in the old world. He was the supreme and
+undoubted lord of the "heathen salvages" in the new. Now that the
+Puritan forces had commenced an onslaught upon him in the western
+hemisphere, to which he had an immemorial right as it were, could it be
+wondered at that he was incensed beyond all calculation? Was he, after
+having Europe, Asia and Africa, to be driven out of North America by a
+small body of steeple-hatted, psalm-singing, and conceited Puritans? No
+wonder his satanic ire was aroused; and that he was up to all manner of
+devices to harass, disorganize and afflict the camp of his enemies.
+
+I am afraid this seems a little ridiculous to readers nowadays; but to
+the men and women of two hundred years ago it was grim and sober
+earnest, honestly and earnestly believed in.
+
+Who, in the face of such wonderful changes in our religious views, can
+venture to predict what will be the belief of our descendants two
+hundred years hence?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Leah Herrick's Position and Feelings.
+
+
+I have classed Leah Herrick among the domestics; but her position was
+rather above that. She had lived with the Widow Sands, Jethro's aunt,
+since she had been twelve years old, assisting in the housework, and
+receiving her board and clothing in return. Now, at the age of twenty,
+she was worth more than that recompense; but she still remained on the
+old terms, as if she were a daughter instead of a servant.
+
+She remained, asking nothing more, because she had made up her mind to
+be Jethro's wife. She had a passion for Jethro, and she knew that Jethro
+reciprocated it. But his aunt, who was ambitious, wished him to look
+higher; and therefore did not encourage such an alliance. Leah was
+however too valuable and too cheap an assistant to be dispensed with,
+and thus removed from such a dangerous proximity, besides the widow
+really had no objection to her, save on account of her poverty.
+
+Leah said nothing when she saw that Jethro's attentions were directed in
+another direction; but without saying anything directly to Dulcibel,
+she contrived to impress her with the fact that she had trespassed upon
+her rightful domain. For Leah was a cat; and amidst her soft purrings,
+she would occasionally put out her velvety paw, and give a wicked little
+scratch that made the blood come, and so softly and innocently too, that
+the sufferer could hardly take offence at it.
+
+Between these sharp intimations of Leah, and the unpleasant revelations
+of the innate hardness of the young man's character, which resulted from
+the closer intimacy of a betrothal, Dulcibel's affection had been
+gradually cooling for several months. But although the longed-for
+estrangement between the two had at length taken place, Leah did not
+feel quite safe yet; for the Widow Sands was very much put out about it,
+and censured her nephew for his want of wisdom in not holding Dulcibel
+to her engagement. "She has a good house and farm already, and she will
+be certain to receive much more on the death of her bachelor uncle in
+England," said the aunt sharply. "You must strive to undo that foolish
+hour's work. It was only a tiff on her part, and you should have cried
+your eyes out if necessary."
+
+And so Leah, thinking in her own heart that Jethro was a prize for any
+girl, was in constant dread of a renewal of the engagement, and ready to
+go to any length to prevent it.
+
+Although a member of the "circle" that met at the minister's house, Leah
+was not so regular an attendant as the others; for there were no men
+there and she never liked to miss the opportunity of a private
+conversation with Jethro, opportunities which were somewhat limited,
+owing to the continual watchfulness of her mistress. Still she went
+frequently enough to be fully imbued with the spirit of their doings,
+while not becoming such a victim as most of them were to disordered
+nerves, and an impaired and confused mental and moral constitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A Disorderly Scene in Church.
+
+
+If anything were needed to add to the excitement which the condition of
+the "afflicted children," as they were generally termed, naturally
+produced in Salem village and the adjoining neighborhood, it was a scene
+in the village church one Sunday morning.
+
+The church was a low, small structure, with rough, unplastered roof and
+walls, and wooden benches instead of pews. The sexes were divided, the
+men sitting on one side and the women on the other, but each person in
+his or her regular and appointed seat.
+
+It was the custom at that time to select a seating committee of
+judicious and careful men, whose very important duty it was to seat the
+congregation. In doing this they proceeded on certain well-defined
+principles.
+
+The front seats were to be filled with the older members of the
+congregation, a due reverence for age, as well as for the fact that
+these were more apt to be weak of sight and infirm of hearing,
+necessitated this. Then came the elders and deacons of the church; then
+the wealthier citizens of the parish; then the younger people and the
+children.
+
+The Puritan fathers had their faults; but they never would have
+tolerated the fashionable custom of these days, whereby the wealthy,
+without regard to their age, occupy the front pews; and the poorer
+members, no matter how aged, or infirm of sight or hearing are often
+forced back where they can neither see the minister nor hear the sermon.
+And one can imagine in what forcible terms they would have denounced
+some city meeting-houses of the present era where the church is regarded
+somewhat in the light of an opera house, and the doors of the pews kept
+locked and closed until those who have purchased the right to reserved
+seats shall have had the first chance to enter.
+
+The Reverend Master Lawson, a visiting elder, was the officiating
+minister on the Sunday to which we have referred. The psalm had been
+sung after the opening prayer and the minister was about to come forward
+to give his sermon, when, before he could rise from his seat, Abigail
+Williams, the niece of the Reverend Master Parris, only twelve years
+old, and one of the "circle" cried out loudly:--"Now stand up and name
+your text!"
+
+When he had read the text, she exclaimed insolently, "It's a long text."
+And then when he was referring to his doctrine, she said:--"I know no
+doctrine you mentioned. If you named any, I have forgotten it."
+
+And then when he had concluded, she cried out, "Look! there sits Goody
+Osburn upon the beam, suckling her yellow-bird betwixt her fingers."
+
+Then Ann Putnam, that other child of twelve, joined in; "There flies the
+yellow-bird to the minister's hat, hanging on the pin in the pulpit."
+
+Of course such disorderly proceedings produced a great excitement in the
+congregation; but the two children do not appear to have been rebuked by
+either of the ministers, or by any of the officers of the church; it
+seeming to have been the general conclusion that they were not
+responsible for what they said, but were constrained by an irresistible
+and diabolical influence. In truth, the children were regarded with awe
+and pity instead of reproof and blame, and therefore naturally felt
+encouraged to further efforts in the same direction.
+
+I have said that this was the general feeling, but that feeling was not
+universal. Several of the members, notably young Joseph Putnam, Francis
+Nurse and Peter Cloyse were very much displeased at the toleration shown
+to such disorderly doings, and began to absent themselves from public
+worship, with the result of incurring the anger of the children, who
+were rapidly assuming the role of destroying angels to the people of
+Salem village and its vicinity.
+
+As fasting and prayer were the usual resources of our Puritan fathers in
+difficulties, these were naturally resorted to at once upon this
+occasion. The families to which the "afflicted children" belonged
+assembled the neighbors--who had also fasted--and, under the guidance of
+the Reverend Master Parris, besought the Lord to deliver them from the
+power of the Evil One. These were exciting occasions, for, whenever
+there was a pause in the proceedings, such of the "afflicted" as were
+present would break out into demoniac howlings, followed by contortions
+and rigid trances, which, in the words of our manuscript, were "enough
+to make the devil himself weep."
+
+These village prayers, however, seeming to be insufficient, Master
+Parris called a meeting of the neighboring ministers; but the prayers of
+these also had no effect. The "children" even surpassed themselves on
+this occasion. The ministers could not doubt the evidence of their own
+reverend eyes and ears, and united in the declaration of their belief
+that Satan had been let loose in this little Massachusetts village, to
+confound and annoy the godly, to a greater extent than they had ever
+before known or heard of. And now that the ministers had spoken, it was
+almost irreligious and atheistical for others to express any doubt. For
+if the ministers could not speak with authority in a case of this kind,
+which seemed to be within their peculiar field and province, what was
+their judgment worth upon any matter?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A Conversation with Dulcibel.
+
+
+As Dulcibel sat in the little room which she had furnished in a pretty
+but simple way for a parlor, some days after the meeting of the
+ministers, her thoughts naturally dwelt upon all these exciting events
+which were occurring around her. It was an April day, and the snow had
+melted earlier than usual, and it seemed as if the spring might be an
+exceptionally forward one. The sun was pleasantly warm, and the wind
+blowing soft and gently from the south; and a canary bird in the rustic
+cage that hung on the wall was singing at intervals a hymn of rejoicing
+at the coming of the spring. The bird was one that had been given her by
+a distinguished sea-captain of Boston town, who had brought it home from
+the West Indies. Dulcibel had tamed and petted it, until she could let
+it out from the cage and allow it to fly around the room; then, at the
+words, "Come Cherry," as she opened the little door of the cage, the
+bird would fly in again, knowing that he would be rewarded for his good
+conduct with a little piece of sweet cake.
+
+Cherry would perch on her finger and sing his prettiest strains on some
+occasions; and at others eat out of her hand. But his prettiest feat was
+to kiss his mistress by putting his little beak to her lips, when she
+would say in a caressing tone, "Kiss me, pretty Cherry."
+
+After playing with the canary for a little while, Dulcibel sighed and
+put him back in his cage, hearing a knock at the front door of the
+cottage. And she had just turned from the cage to take a seat, when the
+door opened and two persons entered.
+
+"I am glad to see you, friends," she said calmly, inviting them to be
+seated.
+
+It was Joseph Putnam, accompanied by his friend and visitor, Ellis
+Raymond, the young man of whom Dulcibel had spoken to Jethro Sands.
+
+Joseph Putnam was one of that somewhat distinguished family from whom
+came the Putnams of Revolutionary fame; Major-General Israel Putnam, the
+wolf-slayer, being one of his younger children. He, the father I mean,
+was a man of fine, athletic frame, not only of body but of mind. He was
+one of the very few in Salem village who despised the whole
+witch-delusion from the beginning. He did not disbelieve in the
+existence of witches--or that the devil was tormenting the "afflicted
+children"--but that faith should be put in their wild stories was quite
+another matter.
+
+Of his companion, Master Ellis Raymond, I find no other certain account
+anywhere than in my Quaker friend's manuscript. From the little that is
+there given of personal description I have only the three phrases "a
+comelie young man," "a very quick-witted person," "a very determined and
+courageous man," out of which to build a physical and spiritual
+description. And so I think it rather safer to leave the portraiture to
+the imagination of my readers.
+
+"Do you expect to remain long in Salem?" asked Dulcibel.
+
+"I do not know yet," was the reply. "I came that I might see what
+prospects the new world holds out to young men."
+
+"I want Master Raymond to purchase the Orchard Farm, and settle down
+among us," said Joseph Putnam. "It can be bought I think."
+
+"I have heard people say the price is a very high one," said Dulcibel.
+
+"It is high but the land is worth the money. In twenty years it will
+seem very low. My father saw the time when a good cow was worth as much
+as a fifty-acre farm, but land is continually rising in value."
+
+"I shall look farther south before deciding," said Raymond. "I am told
+the land is better there; besides there are too many witches here," and
+he smiled.
+
+"We have been up to see my brother Thomas," continued Joseph Putnam. "He
+always has had the reputation of being a sober-headed man, but he is all
+off his balance now."
+
+"What does Mistress Putnam say?" asked Dulcibel.
+
+"Oh, she is at the bottom of all his craziness, she and that elfish
+daughter. Sister Ann is a very intelligent woman in some respects, but
+she is wild upon this question."
+
+"I am told by the neighbors that the child is greatly afflicted."
+
+"She came in the room while we were there," responded Master Raymond. "I
+knew not what to make of it. She flung herself down on the floor, she
+crept under the table, she shrieked, she said Goody Osburn was sticking
+pins in her, and wound up by going into convulsions."
+
+"What can it all mean?--it is terrible," said Dulcibel.
+
+"Well, the Doctor says she is suffering under an 'evil hand,' and the
+ministers have given their solemn opinion that she is bewitched; and
+brother Thomas and Sister Ann, and about all the rest of the family
+agree with them."
+
+"I am afraid it will go hard with those two old women," interposed Ellis
+Raymond.
+
+"They will hang them as sure as they are tried," answered Joseph Putnam.
+"Not that it makes much difference, for neither of them is much to speak
+of; but they have a right to a fair trial nevertheless, and they cannot
+get such a thing just now in Salem village.
+
+"I can hardly believe there are such things as witches," said Dulcibel,
+"and if there are, I do not believe the good Lord would allow them to
+torment innocent children."
+
+"Oh, I don't know that it will do to say there are no witches," replied
+Joseph Putnam gravely. "It seems to me we must give up the Bible if we
+say that. For the Old Testament expressly commands that we must not
+suffer a witch to live; and it would be absurd to give such a command if
+there were no such persons as witches."
+
+"I suppose it must be so," admitted Dulcibel, with a deep sigh.
+
+"And then again in the New Testament we have continual references to
+persons possessed with devils, and others who had familiar spirits, and
+if such persons existed then, why not now?"
+
+"Oh, of course, it is so," again admitted Dulcibel with even a deeper
+sigh than before.
+
+But even in that day, outside of the Puritan and other religious bodies,
+there were unbelievers; and Ellis Raymond had allowed himself to smile
+once or twice, unperceived by the others, during their conversation.
+Thus we read in the life of that eminent jurist, the Honorable Francis
+North, who presided at a trial for witchcraft about ten years before the
+period of which we are writing, that he looked upon the whole thing as a
+vulgar delusion, though he said it was necessary to be very careful to
+conceal such opinions from the juries of the time, or else they would
+set down the judges at once as irreligious persons, and bring in the
+prisoners guilty.
+
+"I am not so certain of it," said Ellis Raymond.
+
+"How! What do you mean, Master Raymond?" exclaimed Joseph Putnam; like
+all his family, he was orthodox to the bone in his opinions.
+
+"My idea is that in the old times they supposed all distracted and
+insane people--especially the violent ones, the maniacs--to be possessed
+with devils."
+
+"Do you think so?" queried Dulcibel in a glad voice, a light seeming to
+break in upon her.
+
+"Well, I take it for granted that there were plenty of insane people in
+the old times as there are now; and yet I see no mention of them as
+such, in either the Old or the New Testament."
+
+"I never thought of that before; it seems to me a very reasonable
+explanation, does it not strike you so, Master Putnam?"
+
+"So reasonable, that it reasons away all our faith in the absolute
+truthfulness of every word of the holy scriptures," replied Joseph
+Putnam sternly. "Do you suppose the Evangelists, when they spoke of
+persons having 'familiar spirits,' and being 'possessed of devils,' did
+not know what they were talking about? I would rather believe that every
+insane person now is possessed with a devil, and that such is the true
+explanation of his or her insanity, than to fly in the face of the holy
+scriptures as you do, Master Raymond."
+
+Dulcibel's countenance fell. "Yes," she responded in reverential tones,
+"the holy Evangelists must know best. If they said so, it must be so."
+
+"You little orthodox darling!" thought young Master Raymond, gazing upon
+her beautiful sad face. But of course he did not express himself to such
+an effect, except by his gaze; and Dulcibel happening to look up and
+catch the admiring expression of two clear brown eyes, turned her own
+instantly down again, while a faint blush mantled her cheeks.
+
+The young Englishman knew that in arousing such heterodox opinions he
+was getting on dangerous ground. For expressing not a greater degree of
+heresy than he had uttered, other men and even women had been turned
+neck and heels out of the Puritan settlements. And as he had no desire
+to leave Salem just at present, he began to "hedge" a little, as betting
+men sometimes say.
+
+"Insane people, maniacs especially, do sometimes act as if they were
+possessed of the devil," he said frankly. "And no doubt their insanity
+is often the result of the sinful indulgence of their wicked
+propensities and passions."
+
+"Yes, that seems to be very reasonable," said Dulcibel. "Every sinful
+act seems to me a yielding to the evil one, and such yielding becoming
+common, he may at least be able to enter into the soul, and take
+absolute possession of it. Oh, it is very fearful!" and she shuddered.
+
+"But I find one opinion almost universal in Salem," continued Raymond,
+"and that is one which I think has no ground to sustain it in the
+scriptures, and is very mischievous. It is that the devil cannot act
+directly upon human beings to afflict and torment them; but that he is
+forced to have recourse to the agency of other human beings, who have
+become his worshipers and agents. Thus in the cases of these children
+and young girls, instead of admitting that the devil and his imps are
+directly afflicting them, they begin to look around for witches and
+wizards as the sources of the trouble."
+
+"Yes," responded Joseph Putnam earnestly, "that false and unscriptural
+doctrine is the source of all the trouble. That little Ann Putnam,
+Abigail Williams and the others are bewitched, may perhaps be true--a
+number of godly ministers say so, and they ought to know. But, if they
+are bewitched, it is the devil and his imps that have done it. If they
+are 'possessed with devils'--and does not that scripture mean that the
+devils directly take possession of them--what is their testimony worth
+against others? It is nearly the testimony of Satan and his imps,
+speaking through them. While they are in that state, their evidence
+should not be allowed credence by any magistrate, any more than the
+devil's should."
+
+It seems very curious to those of the present day who have investigated
+this matter of witch persecutions, that such a sound and orthodox view
+as this of Joseph Putnam's should have had such little weight with the
+judges and ministers and other leading men of the seventeenth century.
+While a few urged it, even as Joseph Putnam did, at the risk of his own
+life, the great majority not only of the common people but of the
+leading classes, regarded it as unsound and irreligious. But the whole
+history of the world proves that the _vox populi_ is very seldom the
+_vox Dei_. The light shines down from the rising sun in the heavens, and
+the mountain tops first receive the rays. The last new truth is always
+first perceived by the small minority of superior minds and souls. How
+indeed could it be otherwise, so long as truth like light always shines
+down from above?
+
+"Have you communicated this view to your brother and sister?" asked
+Dulcibel.
+
+"I have talked with them for a whole evening, but I do think Sister Ann
+is possessed too," replied Joseph Putnam. "She fairly raves sometimes.
+You know how bitterly she feels about that old church quarrel, when a
+small minority of the Parish succeeded in preventing the permanent
+settlement of her sister's husband as minister. She seems to have the
+idea that all that party are emissaries of Satan. I do not wonder her
+little girl should be so nervous and excitable, being the child of such
+a nervous, high-strung woman. But I am going to see them again this
+afternoon; will you go too, Master Raymond?'
+
+"I think not," replied the latter with a smile, "I should do harm, I
+fear, instead of good. I will stay here and talk with Mistress Dulcibel
+a little while longer."
+
+Master Putnam departed, and then the conversation became of a lighter
+character. The young Englishman told Dulcibel of his home in the old
+world, and of his travels in France and Switzerland. And they talked of
+all those little things which young people will--little things, but
+which afford constant peeps into each other's mind and heart. Dulcibel
+thought she had never met such a cultivated young man, although she had
+read of such; and he felt very certain that he never met with such a
+lovely young woman. Not that she was over intelligent--one of those
+precociously "smart" young women that, thanks to the female colleges and
+the "higher culture" are being "developed" in such alarming numbers
+nowadays. If she had been such a being, I fancy Master Raymond would
+have found her less attractive. Ah, well, after a time perhaps, we of
+the present day shall have another craze--that of barbarism--in which
+the "coming woman" shall pride herself mainly upon possessing a strong,
+healthy and vigorous physical organization, developed within the
+feminine lines of beauty, and only a reasonable degree of intelligence
+and "culture." And then I hope we shall see the last of walking female
+encyclopedias, with thin waists, and sickly and enfeebled bodies; fit to
+be the mothers only of a rapidly dwindling race, even if they have the
+wish and power to become mothers at all.
+
+I am not much of a believer in love at first sight, but certainly
+persons may become very much interested in each other after a few hours'
+conversation; and so it was in the case before us. When Ellis Raymond
+took up his hat, and then lingered minute after minute, as if he could
+not bring himself to the point of departure, he simply manifested anew
+to the maiden what his tones and looks had been telling her for an hour,
+that he admired her very greatly.
+
+"Come soon again," Dulcibel said softly, as the young man managed to
+open the door at last, and make his final adieu. "And indeed I shall if
+you will permit me," was his earnest response.
+
+But some fair reader may ask, "What were these two doing during all the
+winter, that they had not seen each other?"
+
+I answer that Dulcibel had withdrawn from the village gatherings since
+the breaking of the engagement with Jethro. At the best, it was an
+acknowledgment that she had been too hasty in a matter that she should
+not have allowed herself to fail in; and she felt humbled under the
+thought. Besides, it seemed to her refined and sensitive nature only
+decorous that she should withdraw for a time into the seclusion of her
+own home under such circumstances.
+
+As for the village gossips, they entirely misinterpreted her conduct.
+Inasmuch as Jethro went around as usual, and put a bold face upon the
+matter, they came to the conclusion that he had thrown her off, and that
+she was moping at home, because she felt the blow so keenly.
+
+Thus it was that while the young Englishman had attended many social
+gatherings during the winter he had never met the one person whom he was
+especially desirous of again meeting.
+
+One little passage of the conversation between the two it may be well
+however to refer to expressly for its bearing upon a very serious
+matter. Raymond had mentioned that he had not seen her recently flying
+around on that little jet black horse, and had asked whether she still
+owned it.
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Dulcibel; "I doubt that I should be able to sell
+Little Witch if I wished to do so."
+
+"Ah, how is that? She seems to be a very fine riding beast."
+
+"She is, very! But you have not heard that I am the only one that has
+ever ridden her or that can ride her."
+
+"Indeed! that is curious."
+
+I have owned her from a little colt. She was never broken to harness;
+and no one, as I said, has ever ridden her but me. So that now if any
+other person, man or woman, attempts to do so, she will not allow it.
+She rears, she plunges, and finally as a last resort, if necessary, lies
+down on the ground and refuses to stir. "Why, that is very flattering
+to you, Dulcibel," said Raymond smiling. "I never knew an animal of
+better taste."
+
+"That may be," replied the maiden blushing; "but you see how it is that
+I shall never be able to sell Little Witch if I desire to do so. She is
+not worth her keep to any one but me."
+
+"Little Witch! Why did you ever give her a name like that?"
+
+"Oh, I was a mere child--and my father, who had been a sea-captain, and
+all over the world, did not believe in witches. He named her "Little
+Witch" because she was so black, and so bent on her own way. But I must
+change her name now that people are talking so about witches. In truth
+my mother never liked it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+An Examination of Reputed Witches.
+
+
+Warrants had been duly issued against Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and the
+Indian woman Tituba, and they were now to be tried for the very serious
+offence of bewitching the "afflicted children."
+
+One way that the witches of that day were supposed to work, was to make
+images out of rags, like dolls, which they named for the persons they
+meant to torment. Then, by sticking pins and needles into the dolls,
+tightening cords around their throats, and similar doings, the witches
+caused the same amount of pain as if they had done it to the living
+objects of their enmity.
+
+In these cases, the officers who executed the warrants of arrest, stated
+"that they had made diligent search for images and such like, but could
+find none."
+
+On the day appointed for the examination of these poor women, the two
+leading magistrates of the neighborhood, John Hathorne and Jonathan
+Corwin, rode up the principal street of the village attended by the
+marshal and constables, in quite an imposing array. The crowd was so
+great that they had to hold the session in the meeting-house The
+magistrates belonged to the highest legislative and judicial body in the
+colony. Hathorne, as the name was then spelt, was the ancestor of the
+gifted author, Nathaniel Hawthorne--the alteration in the spelling of
+the name probably being made to make it conform more nearly to the
+pronunciation. Hathorne was a man of force and ability--though evidently
+also as narrow-minded and unfair as only a bigot can be. All through the
+examination that ensued he took a leading part, and with him, to be
+accused was to be set down at once as guilty. Never, among either
+Christian or heathen people, was there a greater travesty of justice
+than these examinations and trials for witchcraft, conducted by the very
+foremost men of the Massachusetts colony.
+
+The accounts of the examination of these three women in the manuscript
+book I have alluded to, are substantially the same as in the official
+records, which are among those that have been preserved. I will give
+some quotations to show how the examinations were conducted:--
+
+"Sarah Good, what evil spirit are you familiar with?"
+
+She answered sharply, "None!"
+
+"Have you made no contracts with the Devil?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Why then do you hurt these children?"
+
+"I do not hurt them. I would scorn to do it."
+
+"Here the children who were facing her, began to be dreadfully
+tormented; and then when their torments were over for the time, again
+accused her, and also Sarah Osburn.
+
+"Sarah Good, why do you not tell us the truth? Why do you thus torment
+them?"
+
+"I do not torment them."
+
+"Who then does torment them?"
+
+"It may be that Sarah Osburn does, for I do not."
+
+"Her answers," says the official report, "were very quick, sharp and
+malignant."
+
+It must be remembered in reading these reports, that the accused were
+not allowed any counsel, either at the preliminary examinations, or on
+the trials; that the apparent sufferings of the children were very
+great, producing almost a frenzied state of feeling in the crowd who
+looked on; and that they themselves were often as much puzzled as their
+accusers, to account for what was taking place before their eyes.
+
+In the examination of Sarah Osburn, we have similar questions and
+similar answers. In addition, however, three witnesses alleged that she
+had said that very morning, that she was "more like to be bewitched
+herself." Mr. Hathorne asked why she said that. She answered that either
+she saw at one time, or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian,
+all black, which did pinch her in the neck, and pulled her by the back
+part of the head to the door of the house. And there was also a lying
+spirit.
+
+"What lying spirit was this?"
+
+"It was a voice that I thought I heard."
+
+"What did it say to you?"
+
+"That I should go no more to meeting; but I said I would, and did go the
+next Sabbath day."
+
+"Were you ever tempted further?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why did you yield then to the Devil, not to go to meeting for the last
+three years?"
+
+"Alas! I have been sick all that time, and not able to go."
+
+Then Tituba was brought in. Tituba was in the "circle" or an attendant
+and inspirer of the "circle" from the first; and had marvelous things to
+tell. How it was that the "children" turned against her and accused her,
+I do not know; but probably she had practised so much upon them in
+various ways, that she really was guilty of trying to do the things she
+was charged with.
+
+"Tituba, why do you hurt these children?"
+
+"Tituba does not hurt 'em."
+
+"Who does hurt them then?"
+
+"The debbil, for all I knows.'
+
+"Did you ever see the Devil?" Tituba gave a low laugh. "Of course I've
+seen the debbil. The debbil came an' said, 'Serb me, Tituba.' But I
+would not hurt the child'en."
+
+"Who else have you seen?"
+
+"Four women. Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and two other women. Dey all
+hurt de child'en."
+
+"How does the Devil appear to you?"
+
+"Sometimes he is like a dog, and sometimes like a hog. The black dog
+always goes with a yellow bird."
+
+"Has the Devil any other shapes?"
+
+"Yes, he sometimes comes as a red cat, and then a black cat."
+
+"And they all tell you to hurt the children?"
+
+"Yes, but I said I would not."
+
+"Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning?"
+
+"The black man brought me to her, and made me pinch her."
+
+"Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night and hurt his daughter
+Ann?"
+
+"He made me go."
+
+"How did you go?"
+
+"We rode on sticks; we soon got there."
+
+"Has Sarah Good any familiar?"
+
+"Yes, a yeller bird. It sucks her between her fingers. And Sarah Osburn
+has a thing with a head like a woman, and it has two wings."
+
+("Abigail Williams, who lives with her uncle, the Rev. Master Parris,
+here testified that she did see the same creature, and it turned into
+the shape of Goody Osburn.")
+
+"Tituba further said that she had also seen a hairy animal with Goody
+Osburn, that had only two legs, and walked like a man. And that she saw
+Sarah Good, last Saturday, set a wolf upon Elizabeth Hubbard."
+
+("The friends of Elizabeth Hubbard here said that she did complain of
+being torn by a wolf on that day.")
+
+"Tituba being asked further to describe her ride to Thomas Putnam's, for
+the purpose of tormenting his daughter Ann, said that she rode upon a
+stick or pole, and Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn behind her, all taking
+hold of one another. Did not know how it was done, for she saw no trees
+nor path, but was presently there."
+
+These examinations were continued for several days, each of the accused
+being brought at various times before the magistrates, who seem to have
+taken great interest in the absurd stories with which the "afflicted
+children" and Tituba regaled them. Finally, all three of the accused
+were committed to Boston jail, there to await their trial for practising
+witchcraft; being heavily ironed, as, being witches, it was supposed to
+be very difficult to keep them from escaping; and as their ability to
+torment people with their spectres, was considered lessened in
+proportion to the weight and tightness of the chains with which they
+were fettered. It is not to be wondered at, that under these
+inflictions, at the end of two months, the invalid, Sarah Osburn, died.
+Tituba, however, lay in jail until, finally, at the expiration of a year
+and a month, she was sold in payment of her jail fees. One account
+saying that her owner, the Rev. Master Parris, refused to pay her jail
+fees, unless she would still adhere to what she had testified on her
+examination, instead of alleging that he whipped and otherwise abused
+her, to make her confess that she was a witch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged Witches.
+
+
+Ah this was bad enough, but it was but the beginning of trouble. Tituba
+had spoken of two other women, but had given no names. The "afflicted
+children" were still afflicted, and growing worse, instead of better.
+The Rev. Master Noyes of Salem town, the Rev. Master Parris of Salem
+village, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, and his wife,--which last also was
+becoming bewitched, and had many old enmities--and many other
+influential people and church members, were growing more excited, and
+vindictive against the troubles of their peace, with every passing day.
+
+"Who are they that still torment you in this horrible manner?" was the
+question asked of the children and young women, and they had their
+answers ready.
+
+There had been an old quarrel between the Endicotts and the Nurses, a
+family which owned the Bishop Farm, about the eastern boundary of said
+farm. There had been the quarrel about who should be minister, in which
+the Nurses had sided with the determined opponents of Mistress Ann
+Putnam's reverend brother-in-law. The Nurses and other families were
+staunch opposers of Master Parris's claim to ownership of the Parsonage
+and its grounds. And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusations
+should be made against opponents rather than against friends.
+
+Besides, there were those who had very little faith in the children
+themselves, and had taken a kind of stand against them; and these too,
+were in a dangerous position.
+
+"Who torments you now?" The answer was ready: Martha Corey, and Rebecca
+Nurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the charges being made now against
+the members, often the heads, of the most reputable families in Salem
+town and village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Before the coming of
+the winter snows probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prison
+at Salem and Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge. Two-thirds of these were
+women; many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highest
+reputation for behavior and piety. Yet, they were bound with chains, and
+exposed to all the hardships that attended incarceration in small and
+badly constructed prisons.
+
+A special court composed of the leading judges in the province being
+appointed by the Governor for the trial of these accused persons, a mass
+of what would be now styled "utter nonsense" was brought against them.
+No wonder that the official record of this co-called court of justice is
+now nowhere to be found. The partial accounts that have come down to us
+are sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy. Let us
+recur to the charges against some of these persons:
+
+The Rev. Cotton Mather, speaking of the trial of Bridget Bishop, says:
+"There was one strange thing with which the Court was _newly
+entertained_. As this woman was passing by the meeting-house, she gave a
+look towards the house; and immediately a demon, invisibly entering the
+house, tore down a part of it; so that, though there was no person to be
+seen there, yet the people, at the noise, running in, found a board,
+which was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into another
+quarter of the house."
+
+A court of very ignorant men would be "entertained" now with such a
+story, in a very different sense from that in which the Rev. Cotton
+Mather used the word. The Court of 1692, doubtless swallowed the story
+whole, for it was no more absurd than the bulk of the evidence upon
+which they condemned the reputed witches.
+
+One of the charges against the Rev. Master Burroughs, who had himself
+been a minister for a short time in the village, was, that though a
+small, slender man, he was a giant in strength. Several persons
+witnessed that "he had held out a gun of seven foot barrel with one
+hand; and had carried a barrel full of cider from a canoe to the shore."
+Burroughs said that an Indian present at the time did the same, but the
+answer was ready. "That was the black man, or the Devil, who looks like
+an Indian."
+
+Another charge against Master Burroughs was, that he went on a certain
+occasion between two places in a shorter time than was possible, if the
+Devil had not assisted him. Both Increase Mather, the father, and his
+son Cotton, two of the most prominent and influential of the Boston
+ministers, said that the testimony as to Mr. Burroughs' giant strength
+was alone sufficient rightfully to convict him. It is not improbable
+that the real animus of the feeling against Master Burroughs was the
+belief that he was not sound in the faith; for Master Cotton Mather,
+after his execution, declared to the people that he was "no ordained
+minister," and called their attention to the fact that Satan often
+appeared as an angel of light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Bridget Bishop Condemned to Die.
+
+
+Salem, the habitation of peace, had become, by this time a pandemonium.
+The "afflicted children" were making accusations in every direction, and
+Mistress Ann Putnam, and many others, were imitating their example.
+
+To doubt was to be accused; but very few managed to keep their heads
+sufficiently in the whirlwind of excitement, even to be able to doubt.
+With the exception of Joseph Putnam, and his visitor, Ellis Raymond,
+there were very few, if any, open and outspoken doubters, and indignant
+censurers of the whole affair. Dulcibel Burton also, though in a gentler
+and less emphatic way, sided naturally with them, but, although she was
+much less violent in her condemnation, she provoked even more anger from
+the orthodox believers in the delusion.
+
+For Joseph Putnam, as belonging to one of the most influential and
+wealthy families in Salem, seemed to have some right to have an opinion.
+And Master Raymond was visiting at his house, and naturally would be
+influenced by him.
+
+Besides, he was only a stranger at the best; and therefore, not entirely
+responsible to them for his views. But Dulcibel was a woman, and it was
+outrageous that she, at her years, should set up her crude opinions
+against the authority of the ministers and the elders.
+
+Besides, Joseph Putnam was known to be a determined and even rather
+desperate young man when his passions were aroused, as they seldom were
+though, save in some just cause; and he had let it be known that it
+would be worth any person's life to attempt to arrest him. It was almost
+the universal habit of that day, to wear the belt and sword; and Messrs.
+Putnam and Raymond went thus constantly armed. Master Putnam also kept
+two horses constantly saddled in his stable, day and night, to escape
+with if necessary, into the forest, through which they might make their
+way to New York. For the people of that province, who did not admire
+their Puritan neighbors very much, received all such fugitives gladly,
+and gave them full protection.
+
+As for Master Raymond, although he saw that his position was becoming
+dangerous, he determined to remain, notwithstanding the period which he
+had fixed for his departure had long before arrived. His avowed reason
+given to Joseph Putnam, was that he was resolved to see the crazy affair
+through. His avowed reason, which Master Putnam perfectly understood,
+was to prosecute his suit to Dulcibel, and see her safely through the
+dangerous excitement also.
+
+"They have condemned Bridget Bishop to death," said Master Putnam,
+coming into the house one morning from a conversation with a neighbor.
+
+"I supposed they would," replied Master Raymond. "But how nobly she bore
+herself against such a mass of stupid and senseless testimony. Did you
+know her?"
+
+"I have often stopped at her Inn. A fine, free-spoken woman; a little
+bold in her manners, but nothing wrong about her."
+
+"Did you ever hear such nonsense as that about her tearing down a part
+of the meeting-house simply by looking at it? And yet there sat the best
+lawyers in the colony on the bench as her judges, and swallowed it all
+down as if it had been gospel."
+
+"And then those other stories of her appearing in people's bed-rooms,
+and vanishing away suddenly; and of her being responsible for the
+illness and death of her neighbors' children; what could be more
+absurd?"
+
+"And of the finding of puppets, made of rags and hogs' bristles, in the
+walls and crevices of her cellar! Really, it would be utterly
+contemptible if it were not so horrible."
+
+"Yes, she is to be executed on Gallows Hill; and next week! I can
+scarcely believe it, Master Raymond. If I could muster a score or two of
+other stout fellows, I would carry her off from the very foot of the
+gallows."
+
+"Oh, the frenzy has only begun, my friend," replied Raymond. "You know
+whose trial comes on next?"
+
+"How any one can say a word against Mistress Nurse--that lovely and
+venerable woman--passeth my comprehension," said Joseph Putnam's young
+wife, who had been a listener to the conversation, while engaged in some
+household duties.
+
+"My sister-in-law, Ann Putnam, seems to have a spite against that woman.
+I went to see her yesterday, and she almost foams at the mouth while
+talking of her."
+
+"The examination of Mistress Nurse before the magistrate comes off
+to-day. Shall we not attend it?"
+
+"Of course, but be careful of thy language, Friend Raymond. Do not let
+thy indignation run away with thy discretion."
+
+Raymond laughed outright, as did young Mistress Putnam. "This advice
+from you, Master Joseph! who art such a very model of prudence and
+cold-bloodedness! If thou wilt be only half as cautious and discreet as
+I am, we shall give no offence even to the craziest of them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Examination of Rebecca Nurse.
+
+
+When they arrived at the village, the examination was in progress.
+Mistress Rebecca Nurse, the mother of a large family; aged, venerable,
+and bending now a little under the weight of years, was standing as a
+culprit before the magistrates, who doubtless had often met her in the
+social gatherings of the neighborhood.
+
+She was guarded by two constables, she who needed no guarding. Around,
+and as near her as they were allowed to stand, stood her husband and her
+grown-up sons and daughters.
+
+One of the strangest features of the time, as it strikes the reader of
+this day, was the peaceful submission to the lawful authorities
+practised by the husbands and fathers, and grown-up sons and brothers of
+the women accused. Reaching as the list of alleged witches did in a
+short time, to between one hundred and fifty and two hundred
+persons--nearly the whole of them members of the most respectable
+families--it is wonderful that a determined stand in their behalf was
+not the result. One hundred resolute men, resolved to sacrifice their
+lives if need be, would have put a stop to the whole matter. And if
+there had been even twenty men in Salem, like Joseph Putnam, the thing
+no doubt would have been done.
+
+And in the opinion of the present writer, such a course would have been
+far more worthy of praise, than the slavish submission to such outrages
+as were perpetrated under the names of law, justice and religion. The
+sons of these men, eighty years later, showed at Lexington and Concord
+and Bunker Hill, that when Law and Peace become but grotesque masks,
+under which are hidden the faces of legalized injustice and tyranny,
+then the time has come for armed revolt and organized resistance.
+
+But such was the darkness and bigotry of the day in respect to religious
+belief, that the great majority of the people were mentally paralyzed by
+the accepted faith, so that they were not able in many respects to
+distinguish light from darkness. When an estimable man or woman was
+accused of being a witch, for the term was indifferently applied to both
+sexes, even their own married partners, their own children, had a more
+or less strong conviction that it might possibly be so. And this made
+the peculiar horror of it.
+
+In at least fifty cases, the accused confessed that they were witches,
+and sometimes accused others in turn. This was owing generally to the
+influence of their relatives, who implored them to confess; for to
+confess was invariably to be acquitted, or to be let off with simple
+imprisonment.
+
+But to return to poor Rebecca Nurse, haled without warning from her
+prosperous, happy home at the Bishop Farm, carried to jail, loaded with
+chains, and now brought up for the tragic farce of a judicial
+examination. In this case also, the account given in my friend's little
+book is amply confirmed by other records. Mistress Ann Putnam, Abigail
+Williams (the minister's niece), Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott,
+were the accusers.
+
+"Abigail Williams, have you been hurt by this woman?" said magistrate
+Hathorne.
+
+"Yes," replied Abigail. And then Mistress Ann Putnam fell to the floor
+in a fit; crying out between her violent spasms, that it was Rebecca
+Nurse who was then afflicting her.
+
+"What do you say to those charges?" The accused replied: "I can say
+before the eternal Father that I am innocent of any such wicked doings,
+and God will clear my innocence."
+
+Then a man named Henry Kenney rose, and said that Mistress Nurse
+frequently tormented him also; and that even since he had been there
+that day, he had been seized twice with an amazed condition.
+
+"The villain!" muttered Joseph Putnam to those around him, "if I had him
+left to me for a time, I would have him in an amazed condition!"
+
+"You are an unbeliever, and everybody knows it, Master Putnam," said one
+near him. "But we who are of the godly, know that Satan goes about like
+a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
+
+"Quiet there!" said one of the magistrates.
+
+Edward Putnam (another of the brothers) then gave in his evidence,
+saying that he had seen Mistress Ann Putnam, and the other accusers,
+grievously tormented again and again, and declaring that Rebecca Nurse
+was the person who did it.
+
+"These are serious charges, Mistress Nurse," said Squire Hathorne, "are
+they true?"
+
+"I have told you that they are false. Why, I was confined to my sick bed
+at the time it is said they occurred."
+
+"But did you not send your spectre to torment them?"
+
+"How could I? And I would not if I could."
+
+Here Mistress Putnam was taken with another fit. Worse than the other,
+which greatly affected the whole people. Coming to a little, she cried
+out: "Did you not bring the black man with you? Did you not tell me to
+tempt God and die? Did you not eat and drink the red blood to your own
+damnation?"
+
+These words were shrieked out so wildly, that all the people were
+greatly agitated and murmured against such wickedness. But the prisoner
+releasing her hand for a moment cried out, "Oh, Lord, help me!"
+
+"Hold her hands," some cried then, for the afflicted persons seemed to
+be grievously tormented by her. But her hands being again firmly held by
+the guards, they seemed comforted.
+
+Then the worthy magistrate Hathorne said, "Do you not see that when your
+hands are loosed these people are afflicted?"
+
+"The Lord knows," she answered, "that I have not hurt them."
+
+"You would do well if you are guilty to confess it; and give glory to
+God."
+
+"I have nothing to confess. I am as innocent as an unborn child."
+
+"Is it not strange that when you are examined, these persons should be
+afflicted thus?"
+
+"Yes, it is very strange."
+
+[Illustration: "The Lord knows that I haven't hurt them"]
+
+"Do you believe these afflicted persons are bewitched?"
+
+"I surely do think they must be."
+
+Weary of the proceedings and the excitement, the aged lady allowed her
+head to droop on one side. Instantly the heads of the accusers were bent
+the same way.
+
+Abigail Williams cried out, "Set up Mistress Nurse's neck, our necks
+will all be broken." The jailers held up the prisoner's neck; and the
+necks of all the accused were instantly made straight again. This was
+considered a marvelous proof; and produced a wonderful effect upon the
+magistrates and the people. Mistress Ann Putnam went into such great
+bodily agony at this time, charging it all upon the prisoner, that the
+magistrates gave her husband permission to carry her out of the house.
+Only then, when no longer in the sight of the prisoner, could she regain
+her peace.
+
+"Mistress Nurse was then recommitted to the jail in Salem, in order to
+further examination."
+
+"What deviltry is coming next?" said Joseph Putnam to his friend.
+
+Many of those around glared on the speaker, but he was well known to all
+of them as a daring--and when angered even a desperate young man--and
+they allowed him to say with impunity, freely what no one else could
+even have whispered. His son in after years, looked not into the wolf's
+eyes in the dark den with a sterner gaze, than he looked into the
+superstitious and vengeful wolves' eyes around him.
+
+"To think that a godly old woman like Mistress Nurse, should be
+tormented by this Devil's brood of witches, led on by that she-devil
+sister of mine, Ann Putnam."
+
+Many around heard him, but none cared to meet the young man's fierce
+eyes, as they blazed upon those that were nearest.
+
+"Do control yourself, my friend," whispered Master Raymond. "Preserve
+yourself for a time when your indignation may do some good."
+
+Then the constable brought in a little girl of about five years of age,
+Dorcas Good, a daughter of Sarah Good, who had been arrested on the
+complaint of Edward and Jonathan Putnam.
+
+The evidence against this little girl of five was overwhelming. Mistress
+Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott were the accusers--charging
+the innocent and pretty little creature with biting, pinching and
+choking them--the little girl smiling while they were giving their
+testimony. She was not old enough to understand what it was all about,
+and that even her life was in danger from these demoniacs. They
+absolutely pretended to show the marks of her little teeth in their
+arms. Then, after going through the usual convulsions, they shrieked out
+that she was running pins into them; and the pins were found on
+examination sticking into their bodies.
+
+The little girl was, as I have said, at first inclined to laugh at all
+the curious proceedings, and the spasms and contortions of the
+witnesses, but at last, seeing everyone so solemn and looking so
+wickedly at her, she began to cry; until Joseph Putnam went up to her
+and gave her some sweet cake to eat, which he had provided for his own
+luncheon and then, looking into his kind face, she began to smile again.
+
+The Magistrates frowned upon Master Putnam, as he did this, but he paid
+no attention to their frowns. And when the little girl was ordered back
+to jail as a prisoner to await her trial, he bent down and kissed her
+before she was led away by the constable.
+
+This was the end of the proceedings for that day and the crowd began to
+disperse.
+
+"This is a pretty day's work you have made of it, sister-in-law," said
+Joseph Putnam, striding up to his brother's wife. "You say that you are
+tormented by many devils, and I believe it. Now I want to give you, and
+all the Devil's brood around you, fair warning that if you dare to touch
+with your foul lies any one belonging to my house including the stranger
+within my gates, you shall answer it with your lives, in spite of all
+your judges and prisons."
+
+So saying, he glared at his two brothers, who made no reply, and walked
+out of the meeting-house in which this ungodly business had been
+transacted.
+
+"Oh, it is only Joe," said Thomas Putnam; "he always was the spoiled
+child of the family."
+
+His wife said nothing, but soon a hard, bitter smile took the place of
+the angry flush that the young man's words had produced. Dulcibel Burton
+was not one of his household, nor within his gates.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Burn Me, or Hang Me, I Will Stand in the Truth of Christ.
+
+
+After the trial and conviction of Bridget Bishop, the Special Court of
+seven Judges--a majority of whom were leading citizens of Boston, the
+Deputy Governor of the Province, acting as Chief-Justice--decided to
+take further counsel in this wonderful and important matter of the
+fathers of the church. So the Court took a recess, while it consulted
+the ministers of Boston and other places, respecting its duty in the
+case. The response of the ministers, while urging in general terms the
+importance of caution and circumspection, recommended the earnest and
+vigorous carrying on of the war against Satan and his disciples.
+
+Among the new victims, one of the most striking cases was that of George
+Jacobs and his grand-daughter Margaret. The former was a
+venerable-looking man, very tall, with long, thin white hair, who was
+compelled by his infirmities to support himself in walking with two
+staffs. Sarah Churchill, a chief witness, against him, was a servant in
+his family; and probably was feeding in this way some old grudge.
+
+"You accuse me of being a wizard," said the old man on his examination;
+"you might as well charge me with being a buzzard."
+
+They asked the accused to repeat the Lord's prayer. And Master Parris,
+the minister, who acted as a reporter, said "he could not repeat it
+right after many trials."
+
+"Well," said the brave old man finally, after they had badgered him with
+all kinds of nonsensical questions, "Well, burn me, or hang me, I will
+stand in the truth of Christ!"
+
+As his manly bearing was evidently producing an effect, the "afflicted
+girls" came out in full force the next day at the adjourned session.
+When he was brought in, they fell at once into the most grievous fits
+and screechings.
+
+"Who hurts you?" was asked, after they had recovered somewhat.
+
+"This man," said Abigail Williams, going off into another fit.
+
+"This is the man," averred Ann Putnam; "he hurts me, and wants me to
+write in the red book; and promises if I will do so, to make me as well
+as his grand-daughter."
+
+"Yes, this is the man," cried Mercy Lewis, "he almost kills me."
+
+"It is the one who used to come to me. I know him by his two staffs,
+with one of which he used to beat the life out of me," said Mary
+Walcott.
+
+Mercy Lewis for her part walked towards him; but as soon as she got
+near, fell into great fits.
+
+Then Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams "had each of them a pin stuck in
+their hands and they said it was done by this old Jacobs."
+
+The Magistrates took all this wicked acting in sober earnest; and asked
+the prisoner, "what he had to say to it?"
+
+"Only that it is false," he replied. "I know no more of it than the
+child that was born last night."
+
+But the honest old man's denial went of course, for nothing. Neither did
+Sarah Ingersoll's deposition made a short time afterwards; in which she
+testified that "Sarah Churchill came to her after giving her evidence,
+crying and wringing her hands, and saying that she has belied herself
+and others in saying she had set her hand to the Devil's book." She said
+that "they had threatened her that if she did not say it, they would put
+her in the dungeon along with Master Burroughs."
+
+And that, "if she told Master Noyes, the minister, but once that she had
+set her hand to the book, he would believe her; but if she told him the
+truth a hundred times, he would not believe her."
+
+The truth no doubt is that Master Noyes, Master Parris, Cotton Mather,
+and all the other ministers, with one or two exceptions, having
+committed themselves fully to the prosecution of the witches, would
+listen to nothing that tended to prove that the principal witnesses were
+deliberate and malicious liars; and that, so far as the other witnesses
+were concerned, they were grossly superstitious and deluded persons.
+
+No charity that is fairly clear-sighted, can cover over the evidence of
+the "afflicted circle" with the mantle of self-delusion. Self-delusion
+does not conceal pins, stick them into its own body, and charge the
+accused person with doing it, knowing that the accusation may be the
+prisoner's death. This was done repeatedly by Mistress Ann Putnam, and
+her Satanic brood of false accusers.
+
+Sarah Churchill was no worse than the others, judging by her remorse
+after she had helped to murder with her lying tongue her venerable
+master and we have in the deposition of Sarah Ingersoll, undoubted proof
+that she testified falsely.
+
+When Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott all united in charging
+little Dorcas Good--five years old!--with biting, pinching and almost
+choking them; "showing the marks of her little teeth on their arms, and
+the pins sticking in their bodies, where they had averred she was
+piercing them"--can any sane, clear-minded man or woman suppose it was
+an innocent delusion, and not a piece of horribly wicked lying?
+
+When in open court some of the "afflicted" came out of their fits with
+"their wrists bound together, by invisible means," with "a real cord" so
+that "it could hardly be taken off without cutting," was there not only
+deception, but undeniable collusion of two or more in deception?
+
+When an iron spindle was used by an alleged "spectre" to torture a
+"sufferer," the said iron spindle not being discernible by the
+by-standers until it became visible by being snatched by the sufferer
+from the spectre's hand, was there any self-delusion there? Was it not
+merely wicked imposture and cunning knavery?
+
+I defy any person possessing in the least a judicial and accurate mind,
+to investigate the records of this witchcraft delusion without coming to
+the conclusion that the "afflicted girls," who led off in this matter,
+and were the principal witnesses, continually testified to what they
+knew to be utterly false. There is no possible excuse for them on the
+ground of "delusion." However much we may recoil from the sad belief
+that they testified in the large majority of cases to what they knew to
+be entirely false, the facts of the case compel us with an irresistible
+force to such an unhappy conclusion. When we are positively certain that
+a witness, in a case of life or death, has testified falsely against the
+prisoner again and again, is it possible that we can give him or her the
+benefit of even a doubt as to the animus of the testimony? The
+falsehoods I have referred to were cases of palpable, unmistakable and
+deliberate lying. And the only escape from considering it _wilful_
+lying, is to make a supposition not much in accord with the temper of
+the present times, that, having tampered with evil spirits, and invoked
+the Devil continually during the long evenings of the preceding winter,
+the prince of powers of the air had at last come at their call, and
+ordered a legion of his creatures to take possession of the minds and
+bodies that they had so freely offered to him. For certainly there is no
+way of explaining the conduct of the "afflicted circle" of girls and
+women, than by supposing either that they were guilty of the most
+enormous wickedness, or else that they were "possessed with devils."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+Dulcibel in Danger.
+
+
+The terrible excitement of these days was enough to drive the more
+excitable portion of the inhabitants of Salem almost crazy. The work of
+the house and of the farm was neglected; a large number of suspected
+persons and their relatives were sunk in the deepest grief, the families
+of some of the imprisoned knew not where to get their daily food; for
+their property was generally taken possession of by the officers of the
+law at the time of the arrest, the accused being considered guilty until
+they were proved to be innocent. Upon conviction of a capital offence
+the property of the condemned was attainted, being confiscated by the
+state; and the constables took possession at once, in order that it
+might not be spirited away.
+
+And no one outside of the circle of the accusers knew whose turn might
+come next. Neither sex, nor age, nor high character, as we have seen,
+was a bar against the malice, or the wantonness of the "afflicted." The
+man or woman who had lived a righteous life for over eighty years, the
+little child who wondered what it all meant, the maiden whose only
+fault might be to have a jealous rival, all were alike in danger.
+
+Especially were those in peril, however, who dared to take the side of
+any of the accused, and express even the faintest disbelief in the
+justice of the legal proceedings, or the honesty of the witnesses. These
+would be surely singled out for punishment. Again and again, had this
+been done until the voices of all but the very boldest were effectually
+silenced. Those arrested now, as a general thing, would confess at once
+to the truthfulness of all the charges brought against them, and even
+invent still more improbable stories of their own, as this mollified the
+accusers, and they often would be let off with a solemn reprimand by the
+magistrates.
+
+Joseph Putnam and his male servants went constantly armed; and two
+horses were kept saddled day and night, in his stable. He never went to
+the village unaccompanied; and made no secret of his determination to
+resist the arrest of himself or, as he had phrased it, "any one within
+his gates," to the last drop of his blood.
+
+Living with the Goodman Buckley who had leased the Burton property, was
+a hired man named Antipas Newton. He was a good worker though now
+getting old, and had in one sense been leased with the place by
+Dulcibel's father.
+
+Antipas's history had been a sad one. Adopted when left an orphan by a
+benevolent farmer who had no children, he managed by diligence and
+strict economy to acquire by the age of thirty, quite a comfortable
+property of his own. Then the old couple that he called Father and
+Mother became converts to Quakerism. Fined and imprisoned, deprived of
+their property, and, after the expiration of their term of imprisonment,
+ordered to leave the colony, they had been "harbored" by the man for
+whom they had done so much in his early years.
+
+Antipas was a person of limited intelligence, but of strong affections
+and wide sympathies. Again and again, he harbored these persecuted ones,
+who despite their whippings and banishment would persist in returning to
+Salem. Finally, Antipas himself was heavily fined, and his property sold
+to pay the fines. His wife had died early, but a young daughter who kept
+his house in order, and who had failed in her attendance at the church
+which was engaged in persecuting her father, was also fined heavily. As
+her father's property was all gone, and she had no money of her own,
+she could not pay the fine, and was put in prison, to be sent to
+Barbados, and sold as a slave, that thus the fine might be collected.
+But the anguish, and the exposure of her prison, were too much for the
+young girl; and she died before means of transportation could be found.
+
+As a result of these persecutions, Antipas became demented. As his
+insanity grew evident, the prosecutions ceased; but he was still in
+danger of starvation, so few would give him employment, both on account
+of his impaired mind, and of the odium which attached to any friend of
+the abhorred Quakers.
+
+Captain Burton, Dulcibel's father, came to the village at this time. He
+had been one of the sea-captains who had indignantly refused to take the
+Southwick children, or any other of the Salem children, to Barbados;
+and he pitied the poor insane man, and gave him employment. Not only did
+he do this, but, as we have said, made it an article of the lease of his
+property, that the Buckleys should also keep Antipas as a farm servant.
+
+Antipas, to the general surprise of the villagers had proved to be an
+excellent servant, notwithstanding his insanity. Only on training days
+and other periods of excitement, did his insanity obtrude itself. At
+all other times he seemed to be a cheerful, simple-hearted, and very
+capable and industrious "hand."
+
+To Dulcibel, as was natural, Antipas always manifested the greatest
+devotion. Her little black mare was always groomed to perfection, he
+never being satisfied until he took a white linen handkerchief that he
+kept for the purpose, and, passing it over the mare's shining coat, saw
+that no stain or loose black hair remained on it.
+
+"You think that Mistress Dulcibel is an angel, do you not?" said one of
+the female servants to him about this time, a little scornfully.
+
+"No, I know what she is," he replied. "Shall I tell you--but if I do,
+you will not believe"--and he looked at the girl a little doubtfully.
+
+"Oh, yes, I will," said the girl.
+
+"Come here then and I will whisper it to you. I heard the minister read
+about her once, she is the woman that is 'clothed with the sun and has
+the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.'"
+
+"That is wicked, Antipas. If Master Parris heard that you said things
+like that, he would have you whipped and put in the stocks."
+
+"Master Parris? you mean Beelzebub! I know Beelzebub when I see him."
+And Antipas gave one of his unnatural, insane laughs, which were getting
+very frequent of late.
+
+For the general excitement was proving too much for Antipas. Fie stopped
+frequently in his work, and muttered to himself; and then laughed
+wildly, or shed tears. He talked about the witches and the Devil and
+evil spirits, and the strange things that he saw at night, in the insane
+fashion that characterized the "afflicted children."
+
+As for Dulcibel in these times, she kept pretty much to herself, going
+out very little. As she could not sympathize with the general gossip of
+the neighborhood, she remained at home, and consequently had very few
+visitors. Joseph Putnam called whenever he came to the village, which,
+as I have stated, was but seldom; and Ellis Raymond came every few days.
+
+Yes, it was a courtship, I suppose; but one of a very grave and serious
+character. The conversation generally turned upon the exciting events
+continually occurring, some new arrest, some new confession, some new
+and outrageously absurd charges.
+
+Master Raymond's hand, if anyone accosted him suddenly, instinctively
+sought the hilt of his rapier. He was better skilled in the use of that
+weapon than was usual, and had no fear that he should be unable to
+escape from the constables, if not taken at a disadvantage. Still, as
+that would compel him to fly into the woods, and as it would separate
+him from Dulcibel, he had been very careful not to express in public his
+abhorrence of all the recent proceedings. I am afraid that he was guilty
+of considerable dissimulation, even paying his court to some of the
+"afflicted" maidens when he had the opportunity, with soft words and
+handsome presents; and trying in this way to enlist a party in his
+behalf, in case he or any of his friends should need supporters.
+
+Joseph Putnam censured him one day for his double dealing, which was a
+thing not only out of Master Joseph's line, but one which his frank and
+outspoken nature rendered it very difficult for him to practise. But
+Raymond with his references to King David's behavior towards Achish,
+King of Gath, and to certain other scripture, especially Paul's being
+"all things to all men that he might save all," was rather too weighty
+for Joseph, whose forte was sensible assertion rather than ingenious
+argument. And so Master Raymond persevered in his course, feeling no
+more compunction in deceiving the Salemites, as he said to himself, than
+he would in deceiving and cheating a pack of savage wolves, who were
+themselves arrayed in sheep's clothing.
+
+Jethro Sands had of late shown a disposition to renew his attentions to
+Dulcibel; but, after two or three visits, in the last of which he had
+given the maiden the desired opportunity, she had plainly intimated to
+him that the old state of affairs between them could never be restored.
+
+"I know the reason too," said Jethro, angrily "it is all owing to that
+English popinjay, who rides about as if we colonists were not fit to
+dust his pretty coat for him."
+
+"He is a gentleman, and a friend of mine," replied Dulcibel warmly.
+
+"Why do you not say a lover of yours, at once?"
+
+"You have no right to talk to me in that manner. I will not endure it."
+
+"You will not--how will you help it?" He was now thoroughly angry, and
+all his native coarseness came to the surface.
+
+"I will show you," said Dulcibel, the Norse blood of her father glowing
+in her face. "Good evening, Sir!" and she left the room.
+
+Jethro had not expected such a quiet, but effective answer. He sat
+twirling his thumbs, for awhile, hoping that she would return. But
+realizing at last that she would not, he took his departure in a
+towering anger. Of course this was the last of his visits. But Dulcibel
+had made a deadly enemy.
+
+It was unfortunate, for the maiden already had many who disliked her
+among the young people of the village. She was a superior person for one
+thing, and "gave herself airs," as some said. To be superior, without
+having wealth or an acknowledged high social position, is always to be
+envied, and often to be hated. Then again, Dulcibel dressed with more
+richness and variety of costume than was usual in the Puritan villages.
+This set many of the women, both young and old, against her. Her scarlet
+bodice, especially, was a favorite theme for animadversion; some even
+going so far as to call her ironically "the scarlet woman." It is
+curious how unpopular a perfectly amiable, sweet-tempered and
+sweet-tongued maiden may often become, especially with her own sex,
+because of their innate feeling that she is not, in spite of all her
+courteous endeavors, really one of them. It is an evil day for the swan
+when she finds herself the only swan among a large flock of geese.
+
+Dulcibel's antecedents also were not as orthodox as they might be. Her
+mother, it was granted, was "pious," and of a "godly" connection; but
+her father, as he had himself once said, "had no religion to speak of."
+He had further replied to the question, asked him when he first came to
+Salem, as to whether he was "a professor of religion," that he was "only
+a sea captain, and had no other profession." And a certain freedom of
+thought characterized Dulcibel, that she could scarcely have derived
+from her pious mother. In fact, it was something like the freedom of the
+winds and of the clouds, blowing where they liked; and had been probably
+caught up by her father in his many voyages over the untrammeled seas.
+
+At first Dulcibel had been rather impressed by the sermons of Master
+Parris and Master Noyes and the other ministers, to the effect that
+Satan was making a deadly assault upon the "saints," in revenge for
+their interference with his hitherto undisputed domination of the new
+world. But the longer she thought about it, the more she was inclined to
+adopt Joseph Putnam's theory, that his sister-in-law and niece and the
+other "afflicted" persons were possessed by devils.
+
+She inclined to this view in preference even to what she knew was Ellis
+Raymond's real conviction, that they were a set of hysterical and
+vicious girls and women who had rendered themselves half-insane by
+tampering for a whole winter with their nervous and spiritual
+organizations; until they could scarcely now distinguish the true from
+the untrue, the real from the unreal, good from evil, or light from
+darkness.
+
+"They have become reprobates and given over to an evil mind," said
+Master Raymond to her one day; clothing his thought as nearly as he
+could in scriptural language, in order to commend it to her.
+
+"Yes, this seems to be a reasonable explanation of their wicked
+conduct," replied Dulcibel. "But I think after all, that it amounts to
+about the same thing as Joseph Putnam says, only that his is the
+stronger and more satisfactory statement."
+
+And thinking of it, Master Raymond had to come to the same conclusion.
+His own view and that of his friends were about the same, only they had
+expressed themselves in different phrases.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Bad News.
+
+
+The blow fell at last, and where they might have expected it. As Joseph
+Putnam said afterwards, "Why did I not bring them out to my house? They
+would not have dared to take them from under my roof, and they could not
+have done it if they had dared."
+
+One of his servants had been sent to the village on an errand; he had
+not performed his errand, but he had hurried back at once with the news.
+Dulcibel Burton had been arrested the previous evening, about nine
+o'clock, on the charge of being a witch. Antipas Newton had also been
+arrested. Both had been taken to prison, and put in irons.
+
+A desperate, determined look came into the faces of the two men as they
+gathered every word the servant had to tell. Young Mistress Putnam burst
+into tears. But the men dashed a tear or two from their eyes, and began
+to collect their thoughts. It was not weeping but stern daring, that
+would be needed before this thing was through.
+
+The prisoners were to be brought up that afternoon for examination. "I
+have my two men, who will follow wherever I lead them," said Master
+Putnam. "That makes four of us. Shall we carry her off from under their
+very eyes?" And his face glowed--the fighting instinct of his race was
+very strong within him.
+
+"It might not succeed, those men are neither cowards nor babies,"
+answered his guest. "Besides, it would lead probably to your banishment
+and the confiscation of your property. No, we must have the wisdom of
+the serpent, as well as the boldness of the lion."
+
+"The result of the examination may be favorable, so young and good and
+beautiful as she is," said Mistress Putnam.
+
+"They lap their tongues in the blood of lambs, and say it is sweet as
+honey," replied her husband, shaking his head. "No, they will show no
+mercy; but we must try to match them."
+
+"Yes, and with as little hazard and cost to you, my noble friend, as
+possible," said Master Raymond. "Let me act, and take all the risk. They
+cannot get hold of my property; and I would just as lief live in New
+York or Philadelphia or England as among this brood of crazy vipers."
+
+"That is wise counsel, Joseph," said his wife.
+
+"Oh, I suppose it is," he answered emphatically. "But I hate wise
+counsel."
+
+"Still, my good friend, you must admit that, as Dulcibel betrothed
+herself to me only two days ago, I am the one to take the greatest risk
+in this matter."
+
+"Indeed!" said Mistress Putnam. "I knew it would be so; and I told
+Joseph it would be, only yesterday."
+
+"I give you joy of such a mistress!" cried Master Putnam, grasping his
+friend's hand. "Yes, I grant now your right of precedence in this
+danger, and I will follow your lead--yes, to the death!"
+
+"I hold you to that," said Master Raymond. "Remember you are pledged to
+follow my lead. Now, whatever I do, do not wonder, much less express any
+wonder. For this is war, and I have a right to meet craft with craft,
+and guile with guile. Depend upon it, I will save her, or perish with
+her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The Arrest of Dulcibel and Antipas.
+
+
+The arrest of Dulcibel had been entirely unexpected to herself and the
+Buckleys. Dulcibel indeed had wondered, when walking through the village
+in the morning, that several persons she knew had seemed to avoid
+meeting her. But she was too full of happiness in her recent betrothal
+to take umbrage or alarm at such an unimportant circumstance. A few
+months now, and Salem, she hoped, would see her no more forever. She
+knew, for Master Raymond had told her, that there were plenty of places
+in the world where life was reasonably gay and sunny and hopeful; not
+like this dull valley of the shadow of death in which she was now
+living. Raymond's plan was to get married; sell her property, which
+might take a few months, more or less; and then sail for England, to
+introduce his charming wife to a large circle of relatives.
+
+Dulcibel had been reading a book that Raymond had brought to her--a
+volume of Shakespeare's plays--a prohibited book among the Puritan
+fathers, and which would have been made the text for one of Master
+Parris's most denunciatory sermons if he had known that it was in the
+village. Having finished "Macbeth" she laid the book down upon the table
+and began playing with her canary, holding it to her cheek, putting its
+bill to her lips, and otherwise fondling it. While she was thus engaged,
+she began to have the uncomfortable feeling which sensitive persons
+often have when some one is watching them; and turning involuntarily to
+the window which looked out on a garden at the side of the house, she
+saw in the dim light that dark faces, with curious eyes, seemed nearly
+to fill up the lower half of the casement. In great surprise, and with a
+sudden tremor, she rose quickly from the seat; and, as she did so, the
+weird faces and glistening eyes disappeared, and two constables,
+attended by a crowd of the villagers, entered the room. One of these
+walked at once to her side, and seizing her by the arm said, "I arrest
+you, Dulcibel Burton, by the authority of Magistrate Hathorne. Come
+along with me."
+
+"What does all this mean, friend Herrick?" said Goodman Buckley, coming
+into the room.
+
+"It means," said the constable, "that this young woman is no better than
+the other witches, who have been joining hand with Satan against the
+peace and dignity of this province." Then, turning to Dame Buckley, "Get
+her a shawl and bonnet, goodwife; if you do not wish her to go out
+unprotected in the night's cold."
+
+"A witch--what nonsense!" said Dame Buckley.
+
+"Nonsense, is it?" said the other constable. "What is this?" taking up
+the book from the table. "A book of plays! profane and wicked stage
+plays, in Salem village! You had better hold your peace, goodwife; or
+you may go to prison yourself for harboring such licentious devices of
+Satan in your house."
+
+Goodwife Buckley started and grew pale. A book of wicked stage-plays
+under her roof! She could make no reply, but went off without speaking
+to pack up a bundle of the accused maiden's clothing.
+
+"See here!" continued the constable, opening the book, "All about
+witches, as I thought! He-cat and three other witches!
+
+   'Round about the cauldron go:
+   In the poisoned entrails throw.'
+
+It is horrible!"
+
+"Put the accursed book in the fire, Master Taunton," said Herrick.
+
+There was a small fire burning on the hearth, for the evening was a
+little cool, and the other constable threw the book amidst the live
+coals; but was surprised to see that it did not flame up rapidly.
+
+"That is witchcraft, if there ever was witchcraft!" said Jethro Sands,
+who was at the front of the crowd. "See, it will not burn. The Devil
+looks out for his own."
+
+"Yes, we shall have to stay here all night, if we wait for that book to
+burn up," said Master Herrick. "Now if it had been a Bible, or a
+Psalm-book, it would have been consumed by this time."
+
+"My father told me," said one of the crowd, "that they were once six
+weeks trying to burn up some witch's book in Holland, and then had to
+tear each leaf separately before they could burn it."
+
+"Where is the yellow bird--her familiar--that she was sending on some
+witch's errand when we were watching at the window?" said another of the
+crowd.
+
+"Oh, it's not likely you will find the yellow bird," replied Herrick.
+"It is halfway down to hell by this time."
+
+"No, there it is!" cried Jethro Sands, pointing to a ledge over the
+door, where the canary-bird had flown in its fright.
+
+"Kill it! kill the familiar! Kill the devil's imp!" came in various
+voices, the angry tones being not without an inflection of fear.
+
+Several pulled out their rapiers. Jethro was the quickest. He made a
+desperate lunge at the little creature, and impaled it on the point of
+his weapon.
+
+Dulcibel shook off the hold of the constable and sprang forward. "Oh, my
+pretty Cherry," she cried, taking the dead bird from the point of the
+rapier. "You wretch! to harm an innocent little creature like that!" and
+she smoothed the feathers of the bird and kissed its little head.
+
+"Take it from her! kill the witch!" cried some rude women in the outer
+circles of the crowd.
+
+"Yes, mistress, this is more than good Christian people can be expected
+to endure," said constable Herrick, sternly, snatching the bird from her
+and tossing it into the fire. "Let us see if the imp will burn any
+quicker than the book."
+
+"Ah, she forgot to charm it," said the other constable, as the little
+feathers blazed up in a blue flame.
+
+"Yes, but note the color," said Jethro. "No Christian bird ever blazed
+in that color."
+
+"Neither they ever did!" echoed another, and they looked into each
+other's faces and shook their heads solemnly.
+
+At this moment Antipas Newton was led to the door of the room, in the
+custody of another officer. The old man seemed to be taking the whole
+proceeding very quietly and patiently, as the Quakers always did. But
+the moment he saw Dulcibel weeping, with Herrick's grasp upon her arm,
+his whole demeanor changed.
+
+"What devil's mischief is this?" cried the demented man; and springing
+like an enraged lion upon Master Herrick, he dashed him against the
+opposite wall, tore his constable's staff from his hands and laying the
+staff around him wildly and ferociously cleared the room of everybody
+save Dulcibel and himself in less time than I have taken to tell it.
+
+Jethro stepped forward with his drawn rapier to cover the retreat of the
+constables; but shouting, "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" the
+deranged man, with the stout oaken staff, dashed the rapier from
+Jethro's hand, and administered to him a sounding whack over the head,
+which made the blood come. Then he picked up the rapier and throwing the
+staff behind him, laughed wildly as he saw the crowd, constable and
+all, tumbling out of the door of the next room into the front garden of
+the house as if Satan himself in very deed, were after them.
+
+"I will teach them how they abuse my pretty little Dulcibel," said the
+now thoroughly demented man, laughing grimly. "Come on, ye imps of
+Satan, and I will toast you at the end of my fork," he cried,
+flourishing Jethro's rapier, whose red point, crimson with the blood of
+the canary-bird, seemed to act upon the mind of the old man as a spark
+of fire upon tow.
+
+"Antipas," said Dulcibel, coming forward and gazing sadly into the eyes
+of her faithful follower, "is it not written, 'Put up thy sword; for he
+that takes the sword shall perish by the sword'? Give me the weapon!"
+
+The old man gazed into her face, at first wonderingly; then, with the
+instinct of old reverence and obedience, he handed the rapier to her,
+crossed his muscular arms over his broad breast, bowed his grisly head,
+and stood submissively before her.
+
+"You can return now safely," Dulcibel called out to the constables. They
+came in, at first a little warily. "He is insane; but the spell is over
+now for the present. But treat him tenderly, I pray you. When he is in
+one of these fits, he has the strength of ten men."
+
+The constables could not help being impressed favorably by the maiden's
+conduct; and they treated her with a certain respect and tenderness
+which they had not previously shown, until they had delivered her, and
+the afterwards entirely humble and peaceful Antipas, to the keeper of
+Salem prison.
+
+But the crowd said to one another as they sought their houses: "What a
+powerful witch she must be, to calm down that maniac with one word."
+While others replied, "But he is possessed with a devil; and she does it
+because her power is of the devil."
+
+They did not remember that this was the very course of reasoning used on
+a somewhat similar occasion against the Savior himself in Galilee!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+Dulcibel in Prison.
+
+
+In the previous cases of alleged witchcraft to which I have alluded, the
+details given in my manuscript volume were fully corroborated, even
+almost to the minutest particulars, by official records now in
+existence. But in what I have related, and am about to relate, relative
+to Dulcibel Burton, I shall have to rely entirely upon the manuscript
+volume. Still, as there is nothing there averred more unreasonable and
+absurd than what is found in the existing official records, I see no
+reason to doubt the entire truthfulness of the story. In fact, it would
+be difficult to imagine grosser and more ridiculous accusations than
+were made by Mistress Ann Putnam against that venerable and truly devout
+and Christian matron, Rebecca Nurse.
+
+When Dulcibel and Antipas, in the custody of four constables, reached
+the Salem jail, it was about eleven o'clock at night. The jailor,
+evidently had expected them; for he threw open the door at once. He was
+a stout, strong-built man, with not a bad countenance for a jailer; but
+seemed thoroughly imbued with the prevailing superstition, judging by
+the harsh manner in which he received the prisoners.
+
+"I've got two strong holes for these imps of Satan; bring 'em along!"
+
+The jail was built of logs, and divided inside into a number of small
+rooms or cells. In each of these cells was a narrow bedstead and a stone
+jug and slop bucket. Antipas was hustled into one cell, and, after being
+chained, the door was bolted upon him. Then Dulcibel was taken into
+another, though rather larger cell, and the jailor said, "Now she will
+not trouble other people for a while, my masters."
+
+"Are you not going to put irons on her, Master Foster?" said Herrick.
+
+"Of course I am. But I must get heavier chains than those to hold such a
+powerful witch as she is. Trust her to me, Master Herrick. She'll be too
+heavy to fly about on her broomsticks by the time I have done with her."
+
+Then they all went out and Dulcibel heard the heavy bolt shoot into its
+socket, and the voices dying away as the men went down the stairs.
+
+She groped her way to the bed in the darkness, sat down upon it and
+burst into tears. It was like a change from Paradise into the infernal
+regions. A few hours before and she had been musing in an ecstasy of joy
+over her betrothal, and dreaming bright dreams of the future, such
+perhaps as only a maiden can dream in the rapture of her first love. Now
+she was sitting in a prison cell, accused of a deadly crime, and her
+life and good reputation in the most imminent danger. One thing alone
+buoyed her up--the knowledge that her lover was fully aware of her
+innocence; and that he and Joseph Putnam would do all that they could do
+in her behalf. But then the sad thought came, that to aid her in any way
+might be only to bring upon themselves a similar accusation. And then,
+with a noble woman's spirit of self-sacrifice, she thought: "No, let
+them not be brought into danger. Better, far better, that I should
+suffer alone, than drag down my friends with me."
+
+Here she heard the noise of the bolt being withdrawn, and saw the dim
+light of the jailer's candle.
+
+As the jailer entered he threw down some heavy irons in the corner of
+the room. Then, he closed the door behind him, and came up to the
+unhappy girl. He laid his hand upon her shoulder and said:
+
+"You little witch!"
+
+Something in the tone seemed to strike upon the maiden's ear as if it
+were not unfamiliar to her; and she looked up hastily.
+
+"Do you not remember me, little Dulcy? Why I rocked you on my foot in
+the old Captain's house in Boston many a day."
+
+"Is it not uncle Robie?" said the girl. She had not seen him since she
+was four years old.
+
+The jailer smiled. "Of course it is," he replied, "just uncle Robie. The
+old captain never went to sea that Robie Foster did not go as first
+mate. And a blessed day it was when I came to be first mate of this
+jail-ship; though I never thought to see the old captain's bonnie bird
+among my boarders."
+
+"And do you think I really am a witch, uncle Robie?"
+
+"Of course ye are. A witch of the worst kind," replied Robie, with a
+chuckle. "Now, when I come in here tomorrow morning nae doobt I will
+find all your chains off. It is just sae with pretty much all the
+others. I cannot keep them chained, try my best and prettiest."
+
+"And Antipas?"
+
+"Oh, he will just be like all the rest of them, doobtless. He is a
+powerful witch, and half a Quaker, besides."
+
+"But do you really believe in witches, uncle Robie?"
+
+"What do these deuced Barebones Puritans know about witches, or the
+devil, or anything else? There is only one true church, Mistress
+Dulcibel. I have sa mooch respect for the clergy as any man; but I don't
+take my sailing orders from a set of sourfaced old pirates."
+
+Then, leaving her a candle and telling her to keep up a stout heart, the
+jailer left the cell; and Dulcibel heard the heavy bolt again drawn upon
+her, with a much lighter heart, than before. Examining the bundle of
+clothes that Goodwife Buckley had made up, she found that nothing
+essential to her comfort had been forgotten, and she soon was sleeping
+as peacefully in her prison cell as if she were in her own pretty little
+chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Dulcibel before the Magistrates.
+
+
+The next afternoon the meeting-house at Salem village was crowded to its
+utmost capacity; for Dulcibel Burton and Antipas Newton were to be
+brought before the worshipful magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan
+Corwin. These worthies were not only magistrates, but persons of great
+note and influence, being members of the highest legislative and
+judicial body in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
+
+Among the audience were Joseph Putnam and Ellis Raymond; the former
+looking stern and indignant, the latter wearing an apparently cheerful
+countenance, genial to all that he knew, and they were many; and
+especially courteous and agreeable to Mistress Ann Putnam, and the
+"afflicted" maidens. It was evident that Master Raymond was determined
+to preserve for himself the freedom of the village, if complimentary and
+pleasant speeches would effect it. It would not do to be arrested or
+banished, now that Dulcibel was in prison.
+
+When the constable, Joseph Herrick, brought in Dulcibel, he stated that
+having made "diligent search for images and such like," they had found a
+"yellow bird," of the kind that witches were known to affect; a wicked
+book of stage-plays, which seemed to be about witches, especially one
+called "he-cat"; and a couple of rag dolls with pins stuck into them.
+
+"Have you brought them?" said Squire Hathorne.
+
+"We killed the yellow bird and threw it and the wicked book into the
+fire."
+
+"You should not have done that; you should have produced them here."
+
+"We can get the book yet; for it was lying only partly burned near the
+back-log. It would not burn, all we could do to it."
+
+"Of course not. Witches' books never burn," said Squire Hathorne.
+
+"Here are the images," said a constable, producing two little
+rag-babies, that Dulcibel was making for a neighbor's children.
+
+The crowd looked breathlessly on as "these diabolical instruments of
+torture" were placed upon the table before the magistrates.
+
+"Dulcibel Burton, stand up and look upon your accusers," said Squire
+Hathorne.
+
+Dulcibel had sunk upon a bench while the above conversation was going
+on--she felt overpowered by the curious and malignant eyes turned upon
+her from all parts of the room. Now she rose and faced the audience,
+glancing around to see one loved face. At last her eyes met his; he was
+standing erect, even proudly; his arms crossed over his breast, his face
+composed and firm, his dark eyes glowing and determined. He dared not
+utter a word, but he spoke to her from the inmost depths of his soul:
+"Be firm, be courageous, be resolute!"
+
+This was what Raymond meant to say; and this is what Dulcibel, with her
+sensitive and impassioned nature, understood him to mean. And from that
+moment a marked change came over her whole appearance. The shrinking,
+timid girl of a moment before stood up serene but heroic, fearless and
+undaunted; prepared to assert the truth, and to defy all the malice of
+her enemies, if need be, to the martyr's death.
+
+And she had need of all her courage. For, before three minutes had
+passed--Squire Hathorne pausing to look over the deposition on which
+the arrest had been made--Mistress Ann Putnam shrieked out, "Turn her
+head away, she is tormenting us! See, her yellow-bird is whispering to
+her!" And with that, she and her little daughter Ann, and Abigail
+Williams and Sarah Churchill and Leah Herrick and several others, flung
+themselves down on the floor in apparent convulsions.
+
+"Oh, a snake is stinging me!" cried Leah Herrick.
+
+"Her black horse is trampling on my breast!" groaned Sarah Churchill.
+
+"Make her look away; turn her head!" cried several in the crowd. And one
+of the constables caught Dulcibel by the arm, and turned her around
+roughly.
+
+"This is horrible!" cried Thomas Putnam--"and so young and fair-looking,
+too!"
+
+"Ah, they are the worst ones, Master Putnam," said his sympathetic
+friend, the Rev. Master Parris.
+
+"She looks young and pretty, but she may really be a hundred years old,"
+said deacon Snuffles.
+
+Quiet at last being restored, Magistrate Hathorne said:
+
+"Dulcibel Burton, why do you torment Mistress Putnam and these others in
+this grievous fashion?"
+
+"I do not torment them," replied Dulcibel calmly, but a little
+scornfully.
+
+"Who does torment them, then?"
+
+"How should I know--perhaps Satan."
+
+"What makes you suppose that Satan torments them?"
+
+"Because they tell lies."
+
+"Do you know that Satan cannot torment these people except through the
+agency of other human beings?"
+
+"No, I do not."
+
+"Well, he cannot--our wisest ministers are united upon that. Is it not
+so, Master Parris?"
+
+"That is God's solemn truth," was the reply.
+
+"Who is it that torments you, Mistress Putnam?" continued Squire
+Hathorne, addressing Mistress Ann Putnam, who had sent so many already
+to prison and on the way to death.
+
+Mistress Putnam was angered beyond measure at Dulcibel's intimation that
+she and her party were instigated and tormented directly by the devil.
+And yet she could not, if she would, bear falser witness than she
+already had done against Rebecca Nurse and other women of equally good
+family and reputation. But at this appeal of the Magistrate, she flung
+her arms into the air, and spoke with the vehemence and excitement of a
+half-crazy woman.
+
+"It is she, Dulcibel Burton. She was a witch from her very birth. Her
+father sold her to Satan before she was born, that he might prosper in
+houses and lands. She has the witch's mark--a snake--on her breast, just
+over her heart. I know it, because goodwife Bartley, the midwife, told
+me so three years ago last March. Midwife Bartley is dead; but have a
+jury of women examine her, and you will see that it is true."
+
+At this, as all thought it, horrible charge, a cold thrill ran through
+the crowd. They all had heard of witch-marks, but never of one like
+this--the very serpent, perhaps, which had deluded Eve. Joseph Putnam
+smiled disdainfully. "A set of stupid, superstitious fools!" he muttered
+through his teeth. "Half the De Bellevilles had that mark."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: "Most part of this noble lineage carried upon their body
+for a natural birth-mark, from their mother's womb, a snake."--_North_.]
+
+"I will have that looked into," said Squire Hathorne. "In what shape
+does the spectre come, Mistress Putnam?"
+
+"In the shape of a yellow-bird. She whispers to it who it is that she
+wants tormented, and it comes and pecks at my eyes."
+
+Here she screamed out wildly, and began as if defending her eyes from an
+invisible assailant.
+
+"It is coming to me now," cried Leah Herrick, striking out fiercely.
+"Oh, do drive it away!" shrieked Sarah Churchill, "it will put out our
+eyes."
+
+There was a scene of great excitement, several men drawing their swords
+and pushing and slashing at the places where they supposed the spectral
+bird might be.
+
+Leah Herrick said the spectre that hurt her came oftenest in the shape
+of a small black horse, like that which Dulcibel Burton was known to
+keep and ride. Everybody supposed, she said, that the horse was itself a
+witch, for it was perfectly black, with not a white hair on it, and
+nobody could ride it but its mistress.
+
+Here Sarah Churchill said she had seen Dulcibel Burton riding about
+twelve o'clock one night, on her black horse, to a witches' meeting.
+
+Ann Putnam, the child, said she had seen the same thing. One curious
+thing about it was that Dulcibel had neither a saddle nor a bridle to
+ride with. She thought this was very strange; but her mother told her
+that witches always rode in that manner.
+
+Here the two ministers of Salem, Rev. Master Parris and Rev. Master
+Noyes, said that this was undeniably true, that it was a curious fact
+that witches never used saddles nor bridles. Master Noyes explaining
+further that there was no necessity for such articles, as the familiar
+was instantly cognizant of every slightest wish or command of the witch
+to whom he was subject, and going thus through the air, there being no
+rocks or gullies or other rough places, there was no necessity of a
+saddle. Both the magistrates and the people seemed to be very much
+instructed by the remarks of these two godly ministers.
+
+That "pious and excellent young man," Jethro Sands, here came forward
+and testified as follows: He had been at one time on very intimate terms
+with the accused; but her conduct on one occasion was so very singular
+that he declined thereafter to keep company with her. Hearing one day
+that she had gone to Master Joseph Putnam's, he had walked up the road
+to meet her on her return to the village. He looked up after walking
+about a mile, and saw her coming towards him on a furious gallop. There
+seemed to have been a quarrel of some kind between her and her familiar,
+for it would not stop all she could do to it. As she came up to him she
+snatched a rod that he had cut in the woods, out of his hand, and that
+moment the familiar stopped and became as submissive as a pet dog. He
+could not understand what it meant, until it suddenly occurred to him
+that the rod was a branch of witch-hazel!
+
+Here the audience drew a long breath, the whole thing was satisfactorily
+explained. Every one knew the magical power of witch-hazel.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: This and many other passages, as the reader will notice,
+are quoted verbatim from the manuscript volume.]
+
+Jethro further testified that Mistress Dulcibel freely admitted to him
+that her horse was a witch; never speaking of the mare in fact but as a
+"little witch." As might be expected, the horse was a most vicious
+animal, worth nothing to anybody save one who was a witch himself. He
+thought it ought to be stoned, or otherwise killed, at once.
+
+The Rev. Master Noyes suggested that if it were handed over to his
+reverend brother Parris, he might be able, by a course of religious
+exercises, to cast out the evil spirit and render the animal
+serviceable. The apostles and disciples, it would be remembered, often
+succeeded in casting out evil spirits; though sometimes, we are told,
+they lamentably failed.
+
+The magistrates here consulted a few minutes, and Squire Hathorne then
+ordered that the black mare should be handed over to the Rev. Master
+Parris for his use, and that he might endeavor to exorcise the evil
+spirit that possessed it.
+
+Dulcibel had regarded with calm and serious eyes the concourse around
+her while this wild evidence was being given. Notwithstanding the peril
+of her position, she could not avoid smiling occasionally at the
+absurdity of the charges made against her; while at other times her brow
+and cheeks glowed with indignation at the maliciousness of her accusers.
+Then she thought, how could I ever have injured these neighbors so
+seriously that they have been led to conspire together to take my life?
+Oh, if I had never come to Salem, to a place so overflowing with malice,
+evil-speaking and all uncharitableness! Where there was so much
+sanctimonious talk about religion, and such an utter absence of it in
+those that prated the most of its possession. Down among the despised
+Quakers of Pennsylvania there was not one-half as much talking about
+religion but three times as much of that kindly charity which is its
+essential life.
+
+"Dulcibel Burton," said Squire Hathorne, "you have heard what these
+evidence against you; what answer can you make to them?"
+
+Blood will assert itself. The daughter of the old sea-captain, himself
+of Norse descent on the mother's side, felt her father's spirit glowing
+in her full veins.
+
+"The charges that have been made are too absurd and ridiculous for
+serious denial. The 'yellow bird' is my canary bird, Cherry, given me by
+Captain Alden when we lived in Boston. He brought it home with him from
+the West Indies. Ask him whether it is a familiar. My black horse
+misbehaved on that afternoon Jethro Sands tells of, as I told him at the
+time; simply because I had no whip. When he gave me his switch, the
+vixenish animal came at once into subjection to save herself a good
+whipping. It was not a hazel switch, his statement is false, and he
+knows it, it was a maple one."
+
+"And you mean to say, I suppose," shrieked out Mistress Ann Putnam,
+"that you have no witch-mark either; that you do not carry the devil's
+brand of a snake over your heart?"
+
+"I have some such mark, but it is a birth-mark, and not a witch-mark. It
+is a simple curving line of red," and the girl blushed crimson at being
+compelled to such a reference to a personal peculiarity. But she
+faltered not in her speech, though her tones were more indignant than
+before. "It is not a peculiarity of mine, but of my mother's family.
+Some say that a distant ancestor was once frightened by a large snake
+coming into her chamber; and her child was born with this mark upon her
+breast. That is all of it. There is no necessity of any examination, for
+I admit the charge."
+
+"Yes," screamed Mistress Putnam again, "your ancestress too was a noted
+witch. It runs in the family. Go away with you!" she cried striking
+apparently at something with her clenched hand. "It is her old great
+grandmother! See, there she is! Off! Off! She is trying to choke me!"
+endeavoring seemingly to unclasp invisible hands from her throat.
+
+The other "afflicted" ones joined in the tumult. With one it was the
+"yellow bird" pecking at her eyes, with another the black horse rearing
+up and striking her with its hoofs. Leah Herrick cried that Dulcibel's
+"spectre" was choking her.
+
+"Hold her hands still!" ordered Squire Hathorne, and a constable sprang
+to each side of the accused maiden and held her arms and hands in a
+grasp of iron.
+
+Joseph Putnam made an exclamation that almost sounded like an oath, and
+made a step forward; but a firm hand was laid upon his shoulder. "Be
+patient!" whispered Ellis Raymond, though his own mouth was twitching
+considerably. "We are the anvil now; wait till our turn comes to be
+sledgehammer!"
+
+Such a din and babel as the "afflicted" kept up! By the curious power of
+sympathy it affected the crowd almost to madness. If Dulcibel looked at
+them, they cried she was tormenting them. If she looked upward in
+resignation to Heaven, they also stared upwards with fixed, stiff necks.
+If she leaned her head one side they did the same, until it seemed as if
+their necks would be broken; and the jailers forced up Dulcibel's neck
+with their coarse, dirty hands.
+
+Dulcibel had not attended any of the other examinations, but similar
+demonstrations on the part of the "afflicted" had been described to her.
+It was very different, however, to hear of such things and to experience
+them in her own person. And if she had been at all a nervous and less
+healthy young woman, she might have been overcome by them, and even led
+to admit, as so many others had admitted under similar influences, that
+she really was a witch, and compelled by her master, the devil, could
+not help tormenting these poor victims.
+
+"Why do you not cease this?" at last cried Squire Hathorne, sternly and
+wrathfully.
+
+"Cease what?" she replied indignantly.
+
+"Tormenting these poor, suffering children and women!"
+
+"You see I am not tormenting them. Bid these men unloose my hands, they
+are hurting me."
+
+"They say your spectre and your familiar are tormenting them."
+
+"They are bearing false witness against me."
+
+"Who does hurt them then?"
+
+"Their master, the devil, I suppose and his imps."
+
+"Why should he hurt them?"
+
+"Because they are liars, and bear false witness; being hungry for
+innocent blood."
+
+The spirit of the free-thinking, free-spoken old sea-captain--nurtured
+by the free winds and the free waves for forty years--was fully alive
+now in his daughter. A righteous, holy indignation at the abominable
+farce that was going on with all its gross lying and injustice had taken
+possession of her, and she cared no longer for the opinions of any one
+around her, and thought not even of her lover looking on, but only of
+truth and justice. "Yes, they are possessed with devils--being children
+of their father, the devil!" she continued scornfully. "And they shall
+have their reward. As for you, Ann Putnam, in seven years from this day
+I summon you to meet those you have slain with your wicked, lying
+tongue, at the bar of Almighty God! It shall be a long dying for you!"
+Then, seeing Thomas Putnam by his wife's side, "And you, Thomas Putnam,
+you puppet in a bad woman's hands, chief aider and abettor of her wicked
+ways, you shall die two weeks before her, to make ready for her coming!
+And you," turning to the constables on each side of her, "for your cruel
+treatment of innocent women, shall die by this time next year!"
+
+The constables loosened their grasp of her hands and shrank back in
+dismay. The "afflicted" suddenly hushed their cries and regained their
+composure, as they saw the accused maiden's eyes, lit up with the
+wildness of inspiration, glancing around their circle with lightning
+flashes that might strike at any moment.
+
+Even Squire Hathorne's wine-crimsoned face paled, lest she would turn
+around and denounce him too. Even if she were a witch, witches it was
+known sometimes spoke truly. And when she slowly turned and looked upon
+him, the haughty judge was ready to sink to the floor.
+
+"As for you, John Hathorne, for your part in these wicked doings," here
+she paused as if waiting to hear a supernatural voice, while the crowded
+meeting-house was quiet as a tomb--"No! you are only grossly deluded;
+you shall not die. But a curse shall be upon you and your descendants
+for a hundred years. They shall not prosper. Then a Hathorne shall arise
+who shall repudiate you and all your wicked works, and the curse shall
+pass away!"
+
+Squire Hathorne regained his courage the instant she said he should not
+die, little he cared for misfortunes that might come upon his
+descendants.
+
+"Off with the witch to prison--we have heard enough!" he cried hoarsely.
+"Tell the jailer to load her well with irons, hands and feet; and give
+her nothing to eat but bread and water of repentance. She is committed
+for trial before the special court, in her turn, and at the worshipful
+judges' convenience."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+Well, What Now?
+
+
+The crowd drew long breaths as they emerged from the meeting-house. This
+was the first time that the accused had fully turned upon the accusers.
+It was a pity that it had not been done before; because such was the
+superstition of the day, that to have your death predicted by one who
+was considered a witch was no laughing matter. The blood ran cold even
+in Mistress Ann Putnam's veins, as she thought of Dulcibel's prediction;
+and the rest of the "afflicted" inwardly congratulated themselves that
+they had escaped her malediction, and resolved that they would not be
+present at her trial as witnesses against her, if they could possibly
+avoid it. But then that might not be so easy.
+
+Even the crowd of beholders were a little more careful in the utterance
+of their opinions about Dulcibel than they had been relative to the
+other accused persons. Not that they had much doubt as to the maiden's
+being a born witch--the serpent-mark seemed to most of them a conclusive
+proof of that--but what if one of those "spectres," the "yellow bird"
+or the uncontrollable "black mare" should be near and listening to what
+they were even then saying?
+
+"What do I think about it?" said one of the crowd to his companion. "Why
+I think that if he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon, he
+who abuses a witch should be certain her yellow bird is not listening
+above his left shoulder," and he gave a quick glance in the direction
+alluded to, while half of those near him, as they heard his warning
+words, did the same. And there was not much talking against Dulcibel
+after this, among that portion of the villagers.
+
+Ellis Raymond had heard this speech as he walked silently out of the
+meeting-house with Joseph Putnam, and a grim smile flitted over his
+face. He felt prouder than ever of his beautiful betrothed. He was not a
+man who admired amazons or other masculine women, such, as in these
+days, we call "strong-minded;" he liked a woman to keep in her woman's
+sphere, such as the Creator had marked out for her by making her a
+woman; but circumstances may rightly overrule social conventions, and
+demand action suitable to the emergency. Standing at bay, among a pack
+of howling wolves, the heroic is a womanly as well as manly quality;
+and the gun and the knife as feminine implements, as the needle and the
+scissors. Dulcibel had never reasoned about such things; she was a
+maiden who naturally shrank from masculine self-assertion and publicity;
+but, called to confront a great peril, she was true to the noble
+instincts of her family and her race, and could meet falsehood with
+indignant denial and contempt. How she had been led to utter those
+predictions she never fully understood--not at the time nor afterwards.
+She seemed to herself to be a mere reed through which some indignant
+angel was speaking.
+
+"Well," said Joseph Putnam, as they got clear of the crowd, "brother
+Thomas and sister Ann have wakened up the tiger at last. They will be
+"afflicted" now in dead earnest. Did you see how sister Ann, with all
+her assurance, grew pale and almost fainted? It serves her right; she
+deserves it; and Thomas too, for being such a dupe and fool."
+
+"Do you think it will come true?" said Master Raymond.
+
+"Of course it will; the prediction will fulfill itself. Thomas is
+superstitious beyond all reasonableness; and good Mistress Ann, my
+pious sister-in-law, is almost as bad as he is, notwithstanding her
+lies and trickery. Do you know what I saw that Leah Herrick doing?"
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"In her pretended spasms, when bending nearly double, she was taking a
+lot of pins out of the upper edge of her stomacher with her mouth,
+preparatory of course, to making the accusation that it was Dulcibel's
+doings."
+
+"But she did not?"
+
+"No, it was just before the time that Dulcibel scared them so with the
+predictions; and Leah was so frightened, lest she also should be
+predicted against, that she quietly spit all the pins into her hand
+again."
+
+"Ah, that was the game played by a girl about ten years ago at
+Taunton-Dean, in England. Judge North told my father about it. One of
+the magistrates saw her do it."
+
+"Well, now, what shall we do? They will convict her just as surely as
+they try her."
+
+"Undoubtedly!"
+
+"Shall we attack and break open the jail some dark night, sword in hand?
+I can raise a party of young men, friends of the imprisoned, to do it;
+they only want a leader."
+
+"And all of you go off into perpetual banishment and have all your
+property confiscated?"
+
+"I do not care. I am ready to do it."
+
+"If you choose to encounter such a risk for others, I have no objection.
+I believe myself that if the friends and relatives of the accused
+persons would take up arms in defense of them, and demand their release,
+it would be the very manliest and most sensible thing they could do. But
+the consciences of the people here make cowards of them. They are all in
+bondage to a blind and conceited set of ministers, and to a narrow and
+bigoted creed."
+
+"Then what do you plan?"
+
+"Dulcibel's escape. You know that I managed to see her for a few minutes
+early this morning. She has a friend within the prison. Wait till we get
+on our horses, and I will explain it all to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Antipas Works a Miracle.
+
+
+The next morning Antipas Newton was brought before the Magistrates for
+examination. Antipas seemed so quiet and peaceful in his demeanor, that
+Squire Hathorne could hardly credit the story told by the constables of
+his violent behavior on the night of the arrest.
+
+"I thought you were a Quaker," said he to the prisoner.
+
+"No, only half Quaker; the other half gospeller," replied the old man
+meekly.
+
+Mistress Ann was not present; her husband brought report that she was
+sick in bed. Probably she did not care to come, the game being too
+insignificant. Perhaps she had not quite recovered from the stunning
+effect of Dulcibel's prediction. Though it was not likely that a doom
+that was to be seven years in coming, would, after the first impression
+was past, be felt very keenly. There was time for so much to happen
+during seven years.
+
+But the Rev. Master Parris's little niece, Abigail Williams, was
+present, and several other older members of the "circle," prepared to
+witness against the old man to any extent that seemed to be necessary.
+
+After these had made their customary charges, and had gone through some
+of their usual paroxysms, Joseph Putnam, accompanied by Goodman Buckley,
+came forward.
+
+"This is all folly," said Joseph Putnam stoutly. "We all know Antipas
+Newton; and that he has been deranged in his intellects, and of unsound
+mind for the last twenty years. He is generally peaceful and quiet;
+though in times of excitement like the present, liable to be driven into
+outbreaks of violent madness. Here is his employer, Goodman Buckley, who
+of course knows him best, and who will testify to all this even more
+conclusively than I can."
+
+Then Goodman Buckley took the oath with uplifted hand, and gave similar
+evidence. No one had even doubted for twenty years past, that Antipas
+was simple-minded. He often said and did strange things; but only when
+everybody around him was greatly excited, was he at all liable to
+violent outbreaks of passion.
+
+Squire Hathorne seemed half-convinced; but the Reverend Master Parris
+rose from the bench where he had been sitting, and said he would like
+to be heard for a few moments. Permission being accorded: "What is
+insanity?" said he. "What is the scriptural view of it? Is it anything
+but a judgment of the Lord for sin, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar; or
+a possession by a devil, or devils, as in the Case of the Gadarene who
+made his dwelling among the tombs as told in the fifth chapter of Mark
+and the eighth of Luke? That these were real devils is evident--for when
+permission was given them to enter into the herd of swine, they entered
+into them, and the swine ran down a steep place into the sea and were
+drowned. And as there were about two thousand swine, there must have
+been at least two thousand devils in that one so-called insane man;
+which no doubt accounted for his excessive violence. After the devils
+had left him, we are told that his countrymen came and saw him sitting
+at the feet of Jesus, no longer naked, but clothed and in his right
+mind. Therefore it follows as a logical deduction, that his not being
+before in his right mind was because he was possessed with devils."
+
+The magistrates and people evidently were greatly impressed with what
+Master Parris had said. And, as he sat down, Master Noyes, who was
+sitting beside his reverend brother, rose and said that he considered
+the argument they had just heard unanswerable. It could only be refuted
+by doubting the infallibility of the Scripture itself. And he would
+further add, as to the case before them, that this so-called insanity of
+the prisoner had not manifested itself until he had been repeatedly
+guilty of harboring two of that heretical and abominable sect called
+Quakers and had incurred imprisonment and heavy fines for so doing; to
+pay which fines his property had been rightfully sold. This punishment,
+and the death of his daughter by the decree of a just God, apparently
+not being sufficient to persuade him of the error of his ways, no doubt
+he had been given over to the devil, that he might become a sign and a
+warning to evil-doers. But, instead of repenting of his evil ways, he
+seems to have entered the service of Captain Burton, who was always
+known to be very loose in his religious views and observances; and who
+it now seems was himself a witch, or, as he might be rather more
+correctly termed, a wizard, and the father of the dangerous girl who was
+properly committed for trial yesterday. Going thus downward from bad to
+worse, this Antipas had at last become a witch himself; roaming around
+tormenting godly and unoffending people to please his mistress and her
+Satanic master. In conclusion he said that he fully agreed with his
+reverend brother, that what some of the world's people, who thought
+themselves wise above that which was written, called insanity, was
+simply, as taught in the holy scriptures, a possession by the devil.
+
+Magistrate Hathorne nodded to Magistrate Corwin, and Magistrate Corwin
+nodded in turn decidedly to his learned brother. They evidently
+considered that the ministers had settled that point.
+
+"Well, then," said Joseph Putnam, a little roughly to the ministers,
+"why do you not do as the Savior did, cast out the devils, that Antipas
+may sit down here in his right mind? We do not read that any of these
+afflicted people in Judea were cast into prison. In all cases they were
+pitied, not punished."
+
+"This is an unseemly interruption, Master Putnam," said Squire Hathorne
+sternly. "We all know that the early disciples were given the power to
+cast out devils and that they exercised the power continually, but that
+in later times the power has been withdrawn. If it were not so, our
+faithful elders would cast out the spectres that are continually
+tormenting these poor afflicted persons."
+
+While this discussion had been going on, Antipas had been listening to
+all that was said with the greatest attention. Once only had he
+manifested any emotion; that was when the reference had been made to the
+death of his daughter, who had died from her exposure to the severity of
+the winter season in Salem jail. At this time he put his hand to his
+eyes and wiped away a few tears. Before and after this, the expression
+of his face was rather as of one who was pleased and amused at the idea
+of being the center of attraction to such a large and goodly company. At
+the conclusion of Squire Hathorne's last remark, a new idea seemed to
+enter the old man's confused brain. He looked steadily at the line of
+the "afflicted" before him, who were now beginning a new display of
+paroxysms and contortions, and putting his right hand into one of his
+pockets, he drew forth a coil of stout leather strap. Grasping one end
+of it, he shouted, "I can heal them! I know what will cure them!" and
+springing from between the two constables that guarded him, began
+belaboring the "afflicted" with his strap over their backs and shoulders
+in a very energetic fashion.
+
+Dividing his energies between keeping off the constable and "healing the
+afflicted," and aided rather than hindered by Joseph Putnam's
+intentionally ill-directed efforts to restrain him, the insane man
+managed to administer in a short time no small amount of very exemplary
+punishment. And, as Masters Putnam and Raymond agreed in talking over
+the scene afterwards, he certainly did seem to effect an instantaneous
+cure of the "afflicted," for they came to their sober senses at the
+first cut of the leather strap, and rushed pell-mell down the passage as
+rapidly as they could regardless of the other tormenting "spectres."
+
+"This is outrageous!" said Squire Hathorne hotly to the constables as
+Antipas was at last overpowered by a host of assailants, and stood now
+firmly secured and panting between the two officers. "How dared you
+bring him here without being handcuffed?"
+
+"We had no idea of his breaking out anew, he seemed as meek as a lamb,"
+said constable Herrick.
+
+"Why, we thought he was a Quaker!" added his assistant.
+
+"I am a Quaker!" said Antipas, looking a little dangerous again.
+
+"You are not."
+
+"Thou liest!" said the insane man. "This is one of my off days."
+
+Joseph Putnam laughed outright; and a few others, who were not
+church-members, laughed with him.
+
+"Silence!" thundered Squire Hathorne. "Is this a time for idle levity?"
+and he glared around the room.
+
+"We have heard enough," continued the Squire, after a few words with his
+colleague. "This is a dangerous man. Take him off again to prison; and
+see that his chains are strong enough to keep him out of mischief."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Master Raymond Goes to Boston.
+
+
+Whatever the immediate effect of Dulcibel's prediction had been,
+Mistress Ann Putnam was now about again, as full of wicked plans, and as
+dangerous as ever. She knew, for everybody knew, that Master Ellis
+Raymond had gone to Boston. In a village like Salem at that time, such
+fact could hardly be concealed.
+
+"What had he gone for?
+
+"To see a friend," Joseph Putnam had said.
+
+"What friend?" queried Mistress Ann. That seemed important for her to
+know.
+
+She had accused Dulcibel in the first place as a means of hurting Joseph
+Putnam. But now since the trial, she hated her for herself. It was not
+so much on account of the prediction, as on account of Dulcibel's
+terrific arraignment of her. The accusation that her husband was her
+dupe and tool was, on account of its palpable truth, that which gave her
+perhaps the greatest offence. The charge being once made, others might
+see its truth also. Thus all the anger of her cunning, revengeful nature
+was directed against Dulcibel.
+
+And just at this time she heard from a friend in Boston, who sent her a
+budget of news, that Master Raymond had taken dinner with Captain Alden.
+"Ah," she thought, "I see it now." The name was a clue to her. Captain
+Alden was an old friend of Captain Burton. He it was, so Dulcibel had
+said, from whom she had the gift of the "yellow bird."
+
+She knew Captain Alden by reputation. Like the other seamen of the time
+he was superstitious in some directions, but not at all in others. He
+would not for the world leave port on a Friday--or kill a mother Carey's
+chicken--or whistle at sea; but as to seeing witches in pretty young
+girls, or sweet old ladies, that was entirely outside of the average
+seaman's thoughts. Toward all women in fact, young or old, pretty or
+ugly, every sailor's heart at that day, as in this, warmed
+involuntarily.
+
+She also knew that the seamen as a class were rather inclined to what
+the godly called license in their religious opinions. Had not the
+sea-captains in Boston Harbor, some years before, unanimously refused to
+carry the young Quakeress, Cassandra Southwick, and her brother, to the
+West Indies and sell them there for slaves, to pay the fines incurred by
+their refusal to attend church regularly? Had not one answered for the
+rest, as paraphrased by a gifted descendant of the Quakers?--
+
+   "Pile my ship with bars of silver--pack with coins of Spanish gold,
+   From keelpiece up to deck-plank the roomage of her hold,
+   By the living God who made me! I would sooner in your bay
+   Sink ship and crew and cargo, than bear this child away!"
+
+And so Master Raymond, who it was rumored had been a great admirer of
+Dulcibel Burton, was on a visit to Boston, to see her father's old
+friend, Captain John Alden! Mistress Putnam thought she could put two
+and two together, if any woman could. She would check-mate that game--and
+with one of her boldest strokes, too--that should strike fear into the
+soul of even Joseph Putnam himself, and teach him that no one was too
+high to be above the reach of her indignation.
+
+The woman was so fierce in this matter, that I sometimes have
+questioned, could she ever have loved and been scorned by Joseph Putnam?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+A Night Interview.
+
+
+A few days passed and Master Raymond was back again; with a pleasant
+word and smile for all he met, as he rode through the village. Mistress
+Ann Putnam herself met him on the street and he pulled up his horse at
+the side-path as she stopped, and greeted her.
+
+"So you have been to Boston?" she said.
+
+"Yes, I thought I would take a little turn and hear what was going on up
+there."
+
+"Who did you see--any of our people?"
+
+"Oh, yes--the Nortons and the Mathers and the Higginsons and the
+Sewalls--I don't know all.
+
+"Good day; remember me to my kind brother Joseph and his wife," said
+she, and Raymond rode on.
+
+"What did that crafty creature wish to find out by stopping me?" he
+thought to himself.
+
+"He did not mention Captain Alden. Yes, he went to consult him," thought
+Mistress Putnam.
+
+Master Joseph Putnam was so anxious to meet his friend, that he was
+standing at the turning in the lane that led up to his house.
+
+"Well, what did the Captain say?"
+
+"He was astounded. Then he gave utterance to some emphatic expressions
+about hell-fire and damnation which he had probably heard in church."
+
+"I know no more appropriate occasion to use them," commented young
+Master Joseph drily. "If it were not for certain portions of the psalms
+and the prophets, I could hardly get through the time comfortably
+nowadays."
+
+"If we can get her safely to Boston, he will see that a fast vessel is
+ready to take us to New York; and he will further see that his own
+vessel--the Colony's rather, which he commands--never catches us."
+
+"That looks well. I managed to see Dulcibel for a few minutes to-day,
+and"--
+
+"How is she?" inquired Raymond eagerly. "Does she suffer much?"
+
+"Not very much I think. No more than is necessary to save appearances.
+She told me that the jailer was devoted to her. He will meet you
+to-night after dark on the hill, to arrange matters."
+
+"Say that we get from the prison by midnight. Then it will take at least
+three hours riding to reach Boston--though we shall not enter the
+town."
+
+"Three hours! Yes, four," commented his friend; "or even five if the
+night be dark and stormy; and such a night has manifest advantages.
+Still, as I suppose you must wait for a northwest wind, that is pretty
+sure to be a clear one."
+
+"Yes, the main thing is to get out into the open sea. Captain Alden
+plans to procure a Danish vessel, whose skipper once out of sight of
+land, will oppose any recapture by force."
+
+"I suppose however you will sail for New York?"
+
+"Yes, that is the nearest port and we shall be perfectly safe there.
+Still Jamestown would do. The Delaware is nearer than the James, but I
+am afraid the Quakers would not be able to protect us, as they are too
+good to oppose force by force."
+
+"Too good! too cranky!" said Master Putnam. "A pretty world the rascals
+would make of it, if the honest men were too good to fight. It seems to
+me there is something absolutely wicked in their non-resistant notions."
+
+"Yes, it is no worse to kill a two-legged tiger or wolf than a
+four-legged one; one has just as good a right to live as the other."
+
+"A better, I think," replied Master Putnam. "The tiger or wolf is
+following out his proper nature; the human tiger or wolf is violating
+his."
+
+"You know I rather like the Quakers," rejoined Master Raymond. "I like
+their general idea of considering the vital spirit of the Scripture more
+than the mere outward letter. But in this case, it seems to me, they are
+in bondage to the mere letter 'thou shalt not kill;' not seeing that to
+kill, in many cases, is really to save, not only life, but all that
+makes life valuable."
+
+That evening just about dusk, the two young men mounted their horses,
+and rode down one of the roads that led to Salem town, leaving Salem
+village on the right--thinking best not to pass through the village.
+Within a mile or so of the town, Master Putnam said, "here is the place"
+and led the way into a bridle path that ran into the woods. In about
+five minutes he halted again, gave a low whistle, and a voice said, a
+short distance from them, "Who are you, strangers?"
+
+"Friends in need," replied Master Putnam.
+
+"Then ye are friends indeed," said the voice; and Robert Foster, the
+jailer, stepped from behind the trunk of a tree into the path.
+
+"Well, Robie, how's the little girl?" said Master Joseph.
+
+"Bonnie as could be expected," was the answer.
+
+"She sends word to you, sir," addressing Master Raymond, "that you had
+better not come to see her. She knows well all you could say--just as
+well as if she heard it, the brave, bonnie lassie!"
+
+"I know it," replied Master Raymond. "Tell her I think of her every
+moment--and that things look bright."
+
+"Let us get out of this glooming, and where we can see a rod around us,"
+suggested the jailer. "I like to see at least as far as my elbow, when I
+am talking confidentially."
+
+"I will go--you stay here with the horses," said Raymond to Master
+Putnam. "I do not want you mixed up with this thing any more than is
+absolutely necessary."
+
+"Oh, I do not care for the risk--I like it," replied his friend.
+
+"Stay, nevertheless," insisted Master Raymond. And getting down from his
+horse, and handing the bridle rein to Master Putnam, he followed the
+jailer out into an open space, where the rocks coming to the surface,
+had prevented the growth of the forest. Here it was a little lighter
+than it had been in the wood-path; but, the clouds having gathered over
+the sky since they started, it was not possible to see very far around
+them.
+
+"Hold up there!" cried Robie, catching Raymond by the arm--"why, man,
+do you mean to walk straight over the cliff?"
+
+"I did not know any chasm was there," said Raymond. "I never saw this
+place before. Master Putnam said it was a spot where we should not be
+likely to be molested. And it does look desolate enough." He leaned back
+against one of two upright planks which seemed to have been placed there
+for some purpose, and looked at a little pile of dirt and stones not far
+from his feet.
+
+"No," said the jailer. "I opine we shall not be disturbed here. I do not
+believe there is more than three persons in Salem that would be willing
+to come to this hill at this time of day,--and they are here already."
+And the jailer smiled audibly.
+
+"Why, how is that?"
+
+"Because they are all so damnably sooperstitious!" replied Robie, with
+an air of vast superiority.
+
+"Ah! is this place then said to be haunted?"
+
+"Yes,--poor Goodwife Bishop's speerit is said to haunt it. But as she
+never did anybody any harm while she was living, I see not why she
+should harm any one now that she is dead."
+
+"And so brave Bridget was executed near this place? Where was the foul
+murder done?"
+
+"You are leaning against the gallows," said Robie quietly. "And that
+pile of stones at your feet is over her grave."
+
+Raymond was a brave man, physically and morally, and not at all
+superstitious; but he recoiled involuntarily from the plank against
+which he had been leaning, and no longer allowed his right foot to rest
+upon the top stones of the little heap that marked the grave.
+
+"Oh, I thought you knew it," said the jailer calmly. "I say, let them
+fear goodwife Bishop's ghost who did her wrong. As for me, I favored her
+all I dared; and her last word to me was a blessing. But now for your
+honor's business, I have not long to stay."
+
+"I have planned all but the getting out of jail. Can it be easily done?"
+
+"As easy as walking out of a room."
+
+"Will you not be suspected?"
+
+"Not at all, I think--they are so mightily sooperstitious. I shall lock
+everything tight after her; and make up a good story about my wakening
+up in the middle of the night, just in time to see her flying out of the
+top o' the house, on her black mare, and thrashing the animal with a
+broom-handle. The bigger the lie the quicker they will believe it."
+
+"If they should suspect you, let Master Putnam know, and he will get you
+off, if wit and money together can do it."
+
+"Oh, I believe that," said the jailer. "Master Putnam is well known in
+all these parts, as a man that never deserts a friend; and I'll warrant
+you are one of the same grit."
+
+"My hand on it, Robie!" and he shook the jailer's hand warmly. "I shall
+never forget this service."
+
+"I am a rough, ignorant man," replied Robie quietly; "but I know gentle
+blood when I see it."
+
+"What time of night will suit you best?"
+
+"Just about twelve o'clock at night. That is the time all the ghosts and
+goblins and weetches choose; and when all honest people are in their
+beds, and in their first and soundest sleep."
+
+"We shall not be able to give you much warning, for we must wait a
+favorable wind and tide."
+
+"So you let me know by nightfall, it will do."
+
+"And now for the last point--what do I pay you? I know we are asking you
+to run a great risk. The men that whip gentlewomen, at the cart's tail,
+and put little children into jail, and sell them as slaves, will not
+spare you, if they find out what you have done. Thank God, I am rich
+enough to pay you well for taking such a fearful risk and shall be only
+too glad to reward your unselfish deed."
+
+"Not a shilling!" replied Robie proudly. "I am not doing this thing for
+pay. It is for the old Captain's little girl, that I have held in these
+arms many a day--and for the old Captain himself. While these bloody
+landsmen," continued the old sailor, "plague and persecute each other,
+Master Raymond, what is that to us, we men of the sea, who have a creed
+and a belief of our own, and who never even think of hurting a woman or
+a child? But as for these landsmen, sticking at home all the time, how
+can they be expected to know anything--compared to men that have doubled
+both Capes, and seen people living all sorts of ways, and believing all
+sorts of things? No, no," and Robie laughed disdainfully, "let these
+land-lubbers attend to their own affairs; but let them keep their hands
+off us seamen and our families."
+
+"So be it then, Robie; I honor your feelings! But nevertheless I shall
+not forget you. And one of these days, if we get off safely, you shall
+hear from me again about this matter."
+
+And then, their plans settled, Robie trudged down to the town; while the
+young men rode back the way they had come, to Master Putnam's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+The Reverend Master Parris Exorcises "Little Witch."
+
+
+It will be remembered that Squire Hathorne had directed that Dulcibel's
+little horse should be handed over to the Reverend Master Parris, in
+order that it might be brought into due subjection.
+
+This had pleased Master Parris very much. In the first place he was of a
+decidedly acquisitive turn--as had been shown in his scheming to obtain
+a gift of the minister's house and orchard--and moreover, if he was able
+to cast out the devil that evidently possessed this horse, and make it a
+sober and docile riding animal, it would not only be the gain of a very
+pretty beast, but would prove that something of the power of casting out
+devils, which had been given to the disciples of old, had come down unto
+him. In such a case, his fame probably would equal, if not surpass, that
+of the great Boston ministers, Increase and Cotton Mather.
+
+Goodman Buckley had brought down the little mare, the next morning after
+the examination. The mare would lead very well, if the person leading
+her was on horseback--very badly, if he were not, except under peculiar
+circumstances. She was safely housed in the minister's stable, and gazed
+at with mingled fear and admiration by the family and their immediate
+neighbors. Master Parris liked horses, had some knowledge of the right
+way to handle them, and showed more wisdom in his treatment of this
+rather perverse animal of Dulcibel's than he had ever manifested in his
+church difficulties.
+
+He began by what he called a course of conciliation--to placate the
+devil, as it were. How he could bring his conscience to allow of this, I
+am not able to understand. But then the mare, if the devil were once
+cast out, would be, on account of her rare beauty, a very valuable
+animal. And so the minister, twice a day, made a point of going into the
+little passage, at the head of the stall, speaking kindly to the animal,
+and giving her a small lump of maple sugar.
+
+Like most of her sex, Susannah--as Master Parris had renamed her,
+knowing the great importance of a good name--was very fond of sugar; and
+her first apparent aversion to the minister seemed gradually to change
+into a kind of tacit respect and toleration, under the influence of his
+daily medications. Finally, the wary animal would allow him to pat her
+neck without striking at him with one of her front feet, or trying to
+bite him; and even to stroke her glossy flanks without lunging at him
+with her hind heels, in an exceedingly dangerous fashion.
+
+But spiritual means also were not neglected. The meeting-house was very
+near, and the mare was brought over regularly when there were religious
+services, and fastened in the near vicinity of the other more sober and
+orthodox horses, that she might learn how to behave and perhaps the evil
+spirit be thus induced to abandon one so constantly exposed to the
+doubtless unpleasant sounds (to it) of psalm and prayer and sermon.
+
+A horse is an imitative animal, and very susceptible to
+impressions,--both of a material and a mental character--and I must
+confess that these proceedings of the minister's were very well adapted
+to the object he had in view.
+
+The minister also had gone farther--but of this no one at the time knew
+but himself. He had gone into the stable on a certain evening, when his
+servant John Indian was off on an errand; and had pronounced a prayer
+over the possessed animal winding up with an exorcism which ought to
+have been sufficient to banish any reasonable devil, not only from the
+mare, but from the neighborhood. As he concluded, what seemed to be a
+huge creature, with outstretched wings, had buffeted him over the ears,
+and then disappeared through the open window of the stable. The creature
+was in the form of a big bat; but then it was well known that this was
+one of the forms which evil spirits were most fond of assuming.
+
+The minister therefore had strong reasons for supposing that the good
+work was now accomplished; and that he should find the mare hereafter a
+Susannah not only in name but in nature--a black lily, as it were. But
+of course this could not be certainly told, unless some one should
+attempt to ride her; and he suggested it one day to John Indian. But
+John Indian--unknown to anybody but himself--had already tried the
+experiment; and after a fierce contest, was satisfied with his share of
+the glory. His answer was:--
+
+"No, no, master--debbil hab no 'spect for Indian man. Master he good
+man! gospel man! debbil 'fraid of him--him too much for debbil!"
+
+This seemed very reasonable for a poor, untutored Indian. Mistress
+Parris, too, said that she was certain he could succeed if any one
+could. The evil spirits would be careful how they conducted themselves
+towards such a highly respected and godly minister as her revered
+husband. Several of her acquaintances, pious and orthodox goodwives of
+the village, said the same thing. Master Parris thought he was a very
+good horseman besides; and began to take the same view. There was the
+horse, and he was the man!
+
+So one afternoon John Indian saddled and bridled the mare, and brought
+her up to the horse-block. Susannah had allowed herself to be saddled
+without the slightest manifestation of ill-humor; probably the idea of
+stretching her limbs a little, was decidedly pleasant in view of the
+small amount of exercise she had taken lately.
+
+But the wisest plan was not thought of. The minister's niece, Abigail
+Williams--one of the "afflicted"--had looked upon the black mare with
+longing eyes; and if she had made the experiment, it probably would have
+been successful. But they did not surmise that it might be the man's
+saddle and mode of riding, to which the animal was entirely
+unaccustomed, that were at the bottom of the difficulty. And, besides,
+Master Parris wanted the mare for his own riding, not for the women
+folks of his household.
+
+Detained by various matters, it was not until quite late in the
+afternoon, that the minister found time to try the experiment of riding
+the now unbewitched animal. It was getting too near night to ride very
+far, but he could at least try a short ride of a mile or so; which
+perhaps would be better for the first attempt than a longer one. So he
+came out to the horse-block, attended by his wife and Abigail Williams,
+and a couple of parishioners who had been holding a consultation with
+him, but had stopped a moment to see him ride off upon the animal of
+which so many marvelous stories had been told.
+
+"Yes," said the minister, as he came out to the horse-block, in answer
+to a remark made by one of his visitors, "I think I have been able with
+the Lord's help, to redeem this animal and make her a useful member of
+society. You will observe that she now manifests none of that
+viciousness for which formerly she was so noted."
+
+The mare did stand as composedly and peacefully as the most dignified
+minister could desire.
+
+"You will remember that she has never been ridden by any one, man or
+woman, save her witch mistress Dulcibel--Jezebel, I think would be a
+more fitting name for her, considering her wicked doings."
+
+Here Master Parris took the bridle rein from John Indian and threw his
+right leg over the animal. As the foot and leg came down on that side,
+and the stirrup gave her a smart crack, the mare's ears, which had been
+pricked up, went backwards and she began to prance around, John Indian
+still holding her by the mouth.
+
+"Let her go, John," said the minister; "she does not like to be held,"
+and he tightened the rein.
+
+John, by his master's orders, had put on a curbbit; in place of the
+easy snaffle to which the mare had always been accustomed. And now as
+the minister tightened the rein, and the chain of the curb began to
+press upon and pain the mouth of the sensitive creature, she began to
+back and rear in a most excited fashion.
+
+"Loose de rein!" cried John Indian.
+
+The minister did so. But the animal now was fully alarmed; and no
+loosening or tightening would avail much. She was her old self again--as
+bewitched as ever. She reared, she plunged, she kicked, she sidled, and
+went through all the motions, which, on previous occasions, she had
+always found eventually successful in ridding her back of its undesired
+burden.
+
+"Oh, do get off of the wild beast," cried Mistress Parris, in great
+alarm.
+
+"She is still bewitched," cried Abigail Williams. "I see a spectre now,
+tormenting her with a pitchfork."
+
+"Oh, Samuel, you will be killed!--do get off that crazy beast!" again
+cried weeping Mistress Parris.
+
+"'Get off!' yes!" thought the minister; "but how am I going to do it,
+with the beast plunging and tearing in this fashion?" The animal
+evidently wanted him off, and he was very anxious to get off; but she
+would not hold still long enough for him to dismount peaceably.
+
+"Hold her while I dismount!" he cried to John Indian. But when John
+Indian came near to take hold of the rein by her mouth, the mare snapped
+at him viciously with her teeth; and then wheeled around and flung out
+her heels at his head, in the most embarrassing manner.
+
+Finally, as with a new idea, the mare started down the lane at a quick
+gallop, turned to the left, where a rivulet had been damned up into a
+little pond not more than two feet deep, and plunged into the water,
+splashing it up around her like a many jetted fountain.
+
+By this time, the minister, being only human, naturally was very angry;
+and commenced lashing her sides with his riding whip to get her into the
+lane again. This made the fiery little creature perfectly desperate, and
+she reared up and backwards, until she came down plump into the water;
+so that, if the saddle girth had not broken, and the saddle come off,
+and the minister with it, she might have tumbled upon him and perhaps
+seriously hurt him. But, as it was, no great damage was done; and the
+bridle also breaking, the mare spit the bit out of her mouth, and went
+down the lane in a run to the road, and thence on into the now
+fast-gathering night, no one could see whither.
+
+Mistress Parris, John Indian and the rest were by this time at the side
+of the pond, and ready to receive the chapfallen minister as he emerged
+with the saddle and the broken bridle from the water.
+
+"You are a sight, Samuel Parris!" said his wife, in that pleasant tone
+with which many wives are apt to receive their liege lords upon such
+unpleasant occasions. "Do get into the house at once. You will catch
+your death of cold, I know. And such a mess your clothes will be! But I
+only wonder you are not killed--trying to ride a mad witch's horse like
+that is."
+
+The minister made no reply. The situation transcended words. And did not
+allow even of sympathy, as his visitors evidently thought--not at least
+until he got on some clean and dry clothes. So they simply shook their
+heads, and took their course homewards. While the bedraggled and
+dripping Master Parris made his way to the house wiping the water and
+mud from his face with his wife's handkerchief, and stopping to shake
+himself well, before he entered the door, lest, as his wife said, "he
+should spoil everything in his chamber."
+
+Abigail Williams, when she went to see Mistress Ann Putnam that night,
+had a marvelous tale to tell; which in the course of the next day, went
+like wildfire through the village, growing still more and more marvelous
+as it went.
+
+Abigail had seen, as I have already said, the spectre of a witch goading
+the furious animal with a pitchfork. When the horse tore down the lane,
+it came to the little brook and of course could not cross it--for a
+witch cannot cross running water. Therefore, in its new access of fury,
+it sprang into the pond--and threw off the minister. Abigail further
+declared that then, dashing down the lane it came to the gate which shut
+it off from the road, and took the gate in a flying leap. But the animal
+never came down again. It was getting quite dark then, but she could
+still plainly see that a witch was upon its back, belaboring it with a
+broomstick. And she knew very well who that witch was. It was the
+"spectre" of Dulcibel Burton--for it had a scarlet bodice on, just such
+as Dulcibel nearly always wore. They two--the mare and its rider--went
+off sailing up into the sky, and disappeared behind a black cloud. And
+Abigail was almost certain that just as they reached the cloud, there
+was a low rumbling like thunder.
+
+It was noticeable that every time Abigail told this story, she
+remembered something that she had not before thought of; until in the
+course of a week or two, there were very few stories in the "Arabian
+Nights" that could surpass it in marvelousness.
+
+As the mare had not returned to her old stable at Goodman Buckley's, and
+could not be heard of in any other direction, Abigail's story began to
+commend itself even to the older and cooler heads of the village. For if
+the elfish creature had not vanished in the black cloud, to the sound
+of thunder, where was she?
+
+Joseph Putnam, and his household however held a different view of the
+subject, but they wisely kept their own counsel; though they had many a
+sly joke among themselves at the credulity of their neighbors. They knew
+that a little while after dark, a strange noise had been heard at the
+barn, and that one of the hired men going out, had found Dulcibel's
+horse, without saddle or bridle, pawing at the door of the stable for
+admission. As this was a place the animal had been in the habit of
+coming to, and where she was always well treated and even petted, it was
+very natural that she should fly here from her persecutors, as she
+doubtless considered them.
+
+Upon being told of it, and not knowing what had occurred Master Joseph
+thought it most prudent not to put the animal into his stable, but
+ordered the man to get half-a-peck of oats, and some hay, and take the
+mare to a small cow-pen, in the woods in an out of the way place, where
+she might be for years, and no one outside his own people be any the
+wiser for it. The mare seemed quite docile, and was easily led, being in
+company with the oats, of which a handful occasionally was given to
+her; and so, being watered at a stream near by and fed daily, she was
+no doubt far more comfortable than she would have been in the black
+cloud that Abigail Williams was perfectly ready to swear she had seen
+her enter and where though there might be plenty of water, oats
+doubtless were not often meet with.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+Master Raymond Also Complains of an "Evil Hand."
+
+
+Master Raymond had everything now prepared upon his part, and was
+awaiting a message from Captain Alden, to the effect that he had made a
+positive engagement with the Danish captain.
+
+He had caught a serious cold on his return from Boston and, turning the
+matter over in his mind--for it is a wise thing to try to get some good
+result out of even apparently evil occurrences--he had called in the
+village doctor.
+
+But the good Doctor's medicine did not seem to work as it ought to--for
+one reason, Master Raymond regularly emptied the doses out of the
+window; thinking as he told Master Joseph, to put them where they would
+do the most good. And when the Doctor came, and found that neither
+purging nor vomiting had been produced, these with bleeding and sweating
+being the great panaceas of that day--as perhaps of this--he was
+naturally astonished. In a case where neither castor oil, senna and
+manna, nor large doses of Glauber's salts would work, a medical man was
+certainly justified in thinking that something must be wrong.
+
+Master Raymond suggested whether "an evil hand" might not be upon him.
+This was the common explanation at that time in Salem and its
+neighborhood. The doctors and the druggists nowadays miss a great deal
+in not having such an excuse made ready to their hands--it would account
+alike for adulterated drugs and ill-judged remedies.
+
+Master Raymond had the reputation of being rich, and the Doctor had been
+mortified by the bad behavior of his medicines--for if a patient be not
+cured, if he is at least vigorously handled, there seems to be something
+that can with propriety be heavily charged for. But if a doctor does
+nothing--neither cures, nor anything else--with what face can he bring
+in a weighty bill?
+
+And so good Doctor Griggs readily acquiesced in his patient's
+supposition that "an evil hand," was at work, and even suggested that he
+should bring Abigail Williams or some other "afflicted" girl with him
+the next time he came, to see with her sharpened eyes who it was that
+was bewitching him.
+
+But Master Raymond declined the offer--at least for the present. If the
+thing continued, and grew worse, he might be able himself to see who it
+was. Why should he not be as able to do it as Abigail Williams, or any
+other of the "afflicted" circle? Of course the doctor was not able to
+answer why; there seemed to be no good reason why one set of "afflicted"
+people should have a monopoly of the accusing business.
+
+Of course this came very quickly from the Doctor to Mistress Ann
+Putnam--for he was a regular attendant of that lady, whose nervous
+system indeed was in a fearful state by this time. And she puzzled a
+good deal over it. Did Master Raymond intend to accuse anyone? Who was
+it? Or was it merely a hint thrown out, that it was a game that two
+parties could play at?
+
+But then she smiled--she had the two ministers, and through them all the
+other ministers of the colony--the magistrates and judges--and the
+advantages of the original position. Imitators always failed. Still she
+rather liked the young man's craft and boldness--Joseph Putnam would
+never have thought of such a thing. But still let him beware how he
+attempted to thwart her plans. He would soon find that she was the
+stronger.
+
+Joseph Putnam then began to answer inquiries as to the health of his
+guest,--that he was not much better, and thought somewhat of going up to
+Boston for further medical advice--as the medicines given him so far did
+not seem to work as well as they should do.
+
+"Could he bear the ride?"
+
+"Oh, very well indeed--his illness had not so far affected his strength
+much."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+Master Raymond's Little Plan Blocked.
+
+
+"Our game is blocked!" said Joseph Putnam to Master Raymond as he rode
+up one afternoon soon after, and dismounted at the garden gate, where
+his guest was awaiting him, impatient to hear if anything had yet come
+from Captain Alden.
+
+"What do you mean?" said his guest.
+
+"Mean? Why, that yon she-wolf is too much for us. Captain Alden is
+arrested!"
+
+"What! Captain John Alden!"
+
+"Yes, Captain John Alden!"
+
+"On what charge?"
+
+Master Joseph smiled grimly, "For witchcraft!"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Yes, devilish nonsense! but true as gospel, nevertheless."
+
+"And he submits to it?"
+
+"With all around him crazy, he cannot help it. Besides, as an officer of
+the government, he must submit to the laws."
+
+"On whose complaint?"
+
+"Oh, the she-wolf's of course--that delectable smooth-spoken wife of my
+brother Thomas. How any man can love a catty creature like that, beats
+me out."
+
+"I suppose she found out that I went frequently to see the Captain, when
+in Boston?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Who could have informed her?"
+
+"Her master, the devil, I suppose."
+
+"Where is the Captain to be examined?"
+
+"Oh, here in Salem, where his accusers are. It comes off tomorrow. They
+lose no time you see."
+
+"Well, I would not have believed it possible. Whom will they attack
+next?"
+
+"The Governor, I suppose," replied Master Joseph satirically.
+
+"Or you?"
+
+"If she does, I'll run my sword through her--not as being a woman, but
+as a foul fiend. I told her so. Let her dare to touch me, or any one
+under this roof!"
+
+"What did she say when you threatened her?"
+
+"She put on an injured expression; and said she could never believe
+anything wrong of her dear husband's family, if all the 'spectres' in
+the world told her so."
+
+"Well, I hope you are safe, but as for me--"
+
+"Oh, you are, too. You are within my gates. To touch you, is to touch
+me. She fully realizes that. Besides brother Thomas is her abject tool
+in most things; but some things even he would not allow."
+
+Yes, Captain John Alden, son of that John Alden who was told by the
+pretty Puritan maiden, "Speak for yourself John," when he went pleading
+the love-suit of his friend Captain Miles Standish; John Alden, captain
+of the only vessel of war belonging to the colony, a man of large
+property, and occupying a place in the very front rank of Boston
+society, had been arrested for witchcraft! What a state of insanity the
+religious delusion had reached, can be seen by this high-handed
+proceeding.
+
+Here again we come on to ground in which the details given in the old
+manuscript book, are fully confirmed, in every essential particular by
+existing public records. Mr. Upham, whose admirable account of "Salem
+Witchcraft" has been of great aid to me in the preparation of this
+volume, is evidently puzzled to account for Captain Alden's arrest. He
+is not able to see how the gallant Captain could have excited the ire of
+the "afflicted circle." He seems to have been entirely ignorant of this
+case of Dulcibel Burton--hers doubtless being one of the many cases in
+which the official records were purposely destroyed. If he had known of
+this case, he would have seen the connection between it and Captain
+Alden. It also might have explained the continual allusions to the
+"yellow bird" in so many of the trials--based possibly on Dulcibel's
+canary, which had been given to her by the Captain, and whose habit of
+kissing her lips with its little bill had appeared so mysterious and
+diabolical to the superstitious inhabitants of Salem village.
+
+Master Raymond's health, as is not to be wondered at, had improved
+sufficiently by the next day, to allow of his accompanying Joseph Putnam
+to the village, to attend Captain Alden's examination. The meeting-house
+was even more crowded than usual, such was the absorbing interest taken
+in the case, owing to the Captain's high standing in the province.
+
+The veteran Captain's own brief account of this matter, which has come
+down to us, does not go into many details, and is valuable mainly as
+showing that he regarded it very much in the same light that it is
+regarded now--owing probably to the fact that while a church member in
+good standing, he doubtless was a good deal better seaman than church
+member. For he says he was "sent for by the Magistrates of Salem, upon
+the accusation of a company of poor distracted or possessed creatures or
+witches." And he speaks further of them as "wenches who played their
+juggling tricks, falling down, crying out, and staring in people's
+faces."
+
+The worthy Captain's account is however, as I have said, very brief--and
+has the tone of one who had been a participant, however unwillingly, in
+a grossly shameful affair, alike disgraceful to the colony and to
+everybody concerned in it. For some additional details, I am indebted to
+the manuscript volume.
+
+Captain Alden had not been arrested in Boston. He says himself in his
+statement, that "he was sent to Salem by Mr. Stoughton"--the Deputy
+Governor, and Chief-Justice of the Special Court that had condemned and
+executed Bridget Bishop, and which was now about to meet again.
+
+Before the meeting of the magistrates, Master Raymond had managed to
+have a few words with him in private, and found that no arrangements
+with any skipper had yet been made. The first negotiations had fallen
+through, and there was no other foreign vessel at that time in port
+whose master possessed what Captain Alden considered the requisite
+trustworthiness and daring. For he wanted a skipper that would show
+fight if he was pursued and overtaken; not that any actual fighting
+would probably be necessary, for a simple show of resistance would
+doubtless be all that was needed.
+
+"When I get back to Boston, I think I shall be able to arrange matters
+in the course of a week or two."
+
+"What--in Boston jail?" queried Master Raymond.
+
+"You do not suppose the magistrates will commit me on such a trumped-up
+nonsensical charge as this?" said the stout old captain indignantly.
+
+"Indeed I do," was the reply.
+
+"Why, there is not a particle of truth in it. I never saw these girls. I
+never even heard of their being in existence."
+
+"Oh, that makes no difference."
+
+"The devil it doesn't!" said the old man, hotly. My readers must
+remember that he was a seaman.
+
+Here the sheriff came up and told the Captain he was wanted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+Captain Alden before the Magistrates.
+
+
+There was an additional magistrate sitting on this occasion, Master
+Bartholomew Gedney--making three in all.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam, the she-wolf, as her young brother-in-law had
+called her, was not present among the accusers--leaving the part of the
+"afflicted" to be played by the other and younger members of the circle.
+
+There was another Captain present, also a stranger, a Captain Hill; and
+he being also a tall man, perplexed some of the girls at first. One even
+pointed at him, until she was better informed in a whisper by a man who
+was holding her up. And then she cried out that it was "Alden! Alden!"
+who was afflicting her.
+
+At length one of the magistrates ordering Captain Alden to stand upon a
+chair, there was no further trouble upon that point; and the usual
+demonstrations began. As the accused naturally looked upon the
+"afflicted" girls, they went off into spasms, shrieks and convulsions.
+This was nearly always the first proceeding, as it created a profound
+sympathy for them, and was almost sufficient of itself to condemn the
+accused.
+
+"The tall man is pinching me!"
+
+"Oh, he is choking me!"
+
+"He is choking me! do hold his hands!"
+
+"He stabs me with his sword--oh, take it away from him!"
+
+Such were the exclamations that came from the writhing and convulsed
+girls.
+
+"Turn away his head! and hold his hands!" cried Squire Hathorne. "Take
+away his sword!" said Squire Gedney while the old Captain grew red and
+wrathful at the babel around him, and at the indignities to which he was
+subject.
+
+"Captain Alden, why do you torment these poor girls who never injured
+you?"
+
+"Torment them!--you see I am not touching them. I do not even know them;
+I never saw them before in my life," growled the indignant old seaman.
+
+"See! there is the little yellow bird kissing his lips!" cried Abigail
+Williams. "Now it is whispering into his ear. It is bringing him a
+message from the other witch Dulcibel Burton. See! see! there it goes
+back again to her--through the window!"
+
+So well was this done, that probably half of the people present would
+have been willing to swear the next day, that they actually saw the
+yellow bird as she described it.
+
+"Ask him if he did not give her the yellow bird," said Leah Herrick.
+"But probably he will lie about it."
+
+"Did you not give the witch, Dulcibel Burton, a yellow bird, which is
+one of her familiars?" said Squire Hathorne sternly.
+
+"I gave her a canary bird that I brought from the West Indies, if that
+is what you mean," replied the Captain. "But what harm was there in
+that?"
+
+"I knew it! The yellow bird told me so, when it came to peck out my
+eyes," cried Mercy Lewis. "Oh! there it is again!" and she struck wildly
+into the air before her face. "Drive it away! Do drive it away, some
+one!"
+
+Here a young man pulled out his rapier, and began thrusting at the
+invisible bird in a furious manner.
+
+"Now it comes to me!" cried Sarah Churchill. And then the other girls
+also cried out, and began striking into the air before their faces, till
+there was anew a perfect babel of cries, shrieks and sympathizing
+voices.
+
+Master Raymond, amid all his indignation at such barefaced and wicked
+and yet successful imposture, could hardly avoid smiling at the
+expression of the old seaman's face as he stood on the chair, and
+fronted all this tempest of absurd and villainous accusation. At first
+there had been a deep crimson glow of the hottest wrath upon the old
+man's cheeks and brow; but now he seemed to have been shocked into a
+kind of stupor, so unexpected and weighty were the charges against him,
+and made with such vindictive fierceness; and yet so utterly absurd,
+while at the same time, so impossible of being refuted.
+
+"He bought the yellow bird from Tituba's mother--her spectre told me
+so!" cried Abigail Williams.
+
+"What do you say to that, Master Alden?" said Squire Gedney. "That is a
+serious charge."
+
+"I never saw any Tituba or her mother," exclaimed the Captain, again
+growing indignant.
+
+"Who then did you buy the witch's familiar of?" asked Squire Hathorne.
+
+"I do not know--some old negro wench!"
+
+Here the magistrates looked at each other sagely, and nodded their
+wooden heads. It was a fatal admission. "You had better confess all,
+and give glory to God!" said Squire Gedney solemnly.
+
+"I trust I shall always be ready to give glory to God," answered the old
+man stoutly; "but I do not see that it would glorify Him to confess to a
+pack of lies. You have known me for many years, Master Gedney, but did
+you ever know me to speak an untruth, or seek to injure any innocent
+persons, much less women and children?"
+
+Squire Gedney said that he had known the accused many years, and had
+even been at sea with him, and had always supposed him to be an honest
+man; but now he saw good cause to alter that judgment.
+
+"Turn and look now again upon those afflicted persons," concluded Squire
+Gedney.
+
+As the accused turned and again looked upon them, all of the "afflicted"
+fell down on the floor as if he had struck them a heavy blow--moaning
+and crying out against him.
+
+"I judge you by your works; and believe you now to be a wicked man and a
+witch," said Squire Gedney in a very severe tone.
+
+Captain Alden turned then and looked directly at the magistrate for
+several moments. "Why does not my look knock you down too?" he said
+indignantly. "If it hurts them so much, would it not hurt you a little?"
+
+"He wills it not to hurt you," cried Leah Herrick. "He is looking at
+you, but his spectre has its back towards you."
+
+There was quite a roar of applause through the crowded house at such an
+exposure of the old Captain's trickery. He was very cunning to be sure;
+but the "afflicted" girls could see through his knavery.
+
+"Make him touch the poor girls," said the Reverend Master Noyes. For it
+was the accepted theory that by doing this, the witch, in spite of
+himself, reabsorbed into his own body the devilish energy that had gone
+out of him, and the afflicted were healed. This was repeatedly done
+through the progress of these examinations and the after trials; and was
+always found to be successful, both as a cure of the sufferers, and an
+undeniable proof that the person accused was really a witch.
+
+In this case the "afflicted" girls were brought up to Captain Alden, one
+after the other and upon his being made to touch them with his hand,
+they invariably drew a deep breath of relief, and said they felt
+entirely well again.
+
+"You see Captain Alden," said Squire Gedney solemnly, "none of the
+tests fail in your case. If there were only one proof, we might doubt;
+but as the Scripture says, by the mouths of two or three witnesses shall
+the truth be established. If you were innocent a just God would not
+allow you to be overcome in this manner."
+
+"I know that there is a just God, and I know that I am entirely
+innocent" replied the noble old seaman in a firm voice. "But it is not
+for an uninspired man like me, to attempt to reconcile the mysteries of
+His providence. Far better men than I am, even prophets and apostles,
+have been brought before magistrates and judges, and their good names
+lied away, and they condemned to the prison and the scaffold and the
+cross. Why then, should I expect to fare better than they did? All I can
+do, like Job of old, is to maintain my integrity--even though Satan and
+all his imps be let loose for a time against me."
+
+Here the Reverend Master Noyes rose excitedly, and said that the
+decisions of heathen courts and judges were one thing; and the decisions
+of godly magistrates, who were all members of the church of the true
+God, and therefore inspired by his spirit, was a very different thing.
+He said it was simply but another proof of the guilt of the accused,
+that he should compare himself with the apostles and the martyrs; and
+these worshipful Christian magistrates with heathen magistrates and
+judges. Hearing him talk in this ribald way, he could no longer doubt
+the accusation brought against him; for there was no surer proof of a
+man or woman having dealings with Satan, than to defame and calumniate
+God's chosen people.
+
+As Mr. Noyes took his seat, the magistrates said they had heard
+sufficient, and ordered the committal of the accused to Boston prison to
+await trial.
+
+"I will give bail for Captain Alden's appearance, to the whole amount of
+my estate," said Joseph Putnam coming forward. "A man of his age, who
+has served the colony in so many important positions, should be treated
+with some leniency."
+
+"We are very sorry for the Captain," answered Squire Gedney, "but as
+this is a capital offence, no bail can be taken."
+
+"Thank you, Master Putnam, but I want no bail," said the old seaman
+proudly. "If the colony of Massachusetts Bay, which my father helped to
+build up, and for which I have labored so long and faithfully, chooses
+to requite my services in this ungrateful fashion, let it be so. The
+shame is on Massachusetts not on me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+Considering New Plans.
+
+
+"Well, what now?" said Master Joseph Putnam to his guest, as they rode
+homeward. "You might give up the sea-route and try a push through the
+wilderness to the Hudson River."
+
+"Rather dangerous that."
+
+"Yes, unless you could secure the services of some heathen savages to
+pilot you through."
+
+"Could we trust them?"
+
+"Twenty years ago, according to my father's old stories, we could; but
+they are very bitter now--they do not keep much faith with white men.
+
+"Perhaps the white men have not kept much faith with them."
+
+"Of course not. You know they are the heathen; and we have a Bible
+communion to exterminate them, and drive them out of our promised land."
+
+"Do you believe that?"
+
+"Well, not exactly," and Master Joseph laughed. "Besides, I think the
+Quaker plan both cheaper in the end and a great deal safer. Not that I
+believe they have any more right to the land than we have."
+
+"Penn and the Quakers think differently."
+
+"I know they do--but they are a set of crazy enthusiasts."
+
+"What is your view? That of your ministers? The earth is the Lord's. He
+has given it to His saints. We are the saints."
+
+Master Joseph laughed again. "Well, something like that. The earth is
+the Lord's. He has intended it for the use of His children. We are His
+children quite as much as the savages. Therefore we have as much right
+to it as they have."
+
+"Only they happen to be in possession," replied Master Raymond, drily.
+
+"Are they in possession? So far as they are actually in possession, I
+admit their right. But do you seriously mean that a few hundred or
+thousand of wild heathen, have a right to prior occupancy to the whole
+North American continent? It seems to me absurd?"
+
+"A relative of mine has ten square miles in Scotland that he never
+occupies, in your sense of the word any more than your red-men do; and
+yet he is held to have a valid right to it, against the hundreds of
+peasants who would like to enter in and take possession."
+
+"Oh, plenty of things are done wrong in the old world," replied Master
+Putnam; "that is why we Puritans are over here. But still the fact
+remains that the earth is the Lord's and that He intended it for His
+children's use; and no merely legal or personal right can be above that.
+If ever the time comes that your relative's land is really needed by the
+people at large, why then some way will have to be contrived to get hold
+of it for them."
+
+"The Putnam family have a good many broad acres too," said Master
+Raymond, with a smile, looking around him.
+
+"Oh, you cannot scare me," replied his friend, also smiling. "What is
+sauce for the Campbell goose is sauce for the Putnam gander. If the time
+ever comes when the public good requires that the broad lands of the
+Putnams--if there be any Putnams at that time--have to be appropriated
+to meet the wants of their fellow men, then the broad Putnam lands will
+have to go like the rest, I imagine. We have taken them from the
+Indians, just as the Normans took them from the Saxons--and as the
+Saxons took them from the Danes and the ancient inhabitants--by the
+strong hand. But the sword can give no right--save as the claim of the
+public good is behind it. Show me that the public good requires it, and
+I am willing that the title-deeds for my own share of the broad Putnam
+lands shall be burnt up tomorrow."
+
+"I believe you, my dear friend," said Master Raymond, gazing with
+admiration upon the manly, glowing face of this nature's nobleman. "And
+I am inclined to think that your whole view of the matter is correct.
+But, coming back to our first point, do you know of any savage that we
+could trust to guide us safely to the settlements on the Hudson?"
+
+"If old king Philip, whose head has been savagely exposed to all
+weathers on the gibbet at Plymouth for the last sixteen years, were
+alive, something perhaps might be done. His safeguard would have carried
+you through."
+
+"Is there not another chief, called Nucas?"
+
+"Oh, old Nucas, of the Mohegans. He was a character! But he died ten
+years ago. Lassacus, too, was killed. There are a couple of Pequod
+settlements down near New Haven I believe; but they are too far off."
+
+"And then you could not tell me where to put my hand on some dozen or so
+of the Indians, whom I might engage as a convoy."
+
+"Not now. A roving party may pass in the woods at any time. But they
+would not be very reliable. If they could make more by selling your
+scalps than by keeping them safely on your heads, they would be pretty
+sure to sell them."
+
+"Then I see nothing to do, but to go again to Boston, and arrange
+another scheme on the old plan."
+
+"You ought not to travel long in Dulcibel's company without being
+married," said Master Putnam bluntly.
+
+"Very true--but we can not well be married without giving our names to
+the minister; and to do that, would be to deliver ourselves up to the
+authorities."
+
+"Mistress Putnam and myself might accompany you to New York--we should
+not mind a little trip."
+
+"And thus make yourselves parties to Dulcibel's escape? No, no, my good
+friend--that would be to put you both in prison in her place."
+
+"It is not likely there would be any other woman on board the
+vessel--that is of any reputation. You must try to get some one to go
+with you."
+
+"And incur the certainty of punishment when she returns?"
+
+"Perhaps you could find some one who would like to settle permanently in
+New York. I should like to go myself if I could, and get out of this
+den of wild beasts."
+
+"Yes, I may be able to do that--though I shall not dare to try that
+until the last day almost--for the women always have some man to
+consult, and thus our secret plan would get blown about, to our great
+peril."
+
+"I have a scheme!" cried Master Joseph in exultation. "It is the very
+thing," and he burst out laughing. "Kidnap Cotton Mather, or one of the
+other Boston ministers, and take him with you."
+
+"That would be a bold stroke," replied Master Raymond, also laughing
+heartily. "But, like belling the cat, it is easier said than done.
+Ministers are apt to be cautious and wary. They are timid folk."
+
+"Not when a wedding is to be solemnized, and a purse of gold-pieces is
+shaken before them," returned Master Putnam. "Have everything ready to
+sail. Then decoy the minister on board, to marry a wealthy foreign
+gentleman, a friend of the skipper's--and do not let him go again. Pay
+him enough and the skipper will think it a first rate joke."
+
+"But he might be so angry that he would refuse to marry us after all our
+trouble."
+
+"Oh, do not you believe that--if you make the fee large enough. Treat
+him kindly, represent to him the absolute necessity of the case, say
+that you never would have thought of such a thing if it could in any way
+have been avoided, and I'll warrant he will do the job before you reach
+New York."
+
+"I wish I felt as certain as you do."
+
+"Well, suppose he will not be mollified. What then? Your end is
+attained. He has acted as chaperon, and involuntary master of propriety
+whether he would or not. A minister is just as good as a matron to
+chaperon the maiden. Of course he will have his action for damages
+against you, and you will be willing to pay him fairly, but if he brings
+you before a jury of New Yorkers, and you simply relate the facts, and
+the necessity of the case, little will he get of damages beyond a
+plentiful supply of jokes and laughter. You know there is very little
+love lost between the people of the two colonies; and that the Manhattan
+people have no more respect for all the witchcraft business, than you
+and I have."
+
+Master Raymond made no reply. He did not want to kidnap a minister, if
+it could be in any way avoided. With Master Putnam, however, that
+seemed to be one of the most desirable features of the proposed plan,
+only he was tenfold more sorry now than ever, that such weighty
+prudential reasons prevented his taking any active share in the
+enterprise. To kidnap a minister--especially if it could be the Reverend
+Cotton Mather--seemed to him something which was worth almost the
+risking of his liberty and property in which to take a hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+The Dissimulation of Master Raymond.
+
+
+About this time the gossips of Salem village began to remark upon the
+attentions that were being paid by the wealthy young Englishman, Master
+Ellis Raymond, to various members of the "afflicted circle." He petted
+those bright and terribly precocious children of twelve, Ann Putnam and
+Abigail Williams; he almost courted the older girls, Mary Walcot, Mercy
+Lewis and Leah Herrick and had a kindly word for Mary Warren, Sarah
+Churchill and others, whenever he saw them. As for Mistress Ann Putnam,
+the mother, he always had been very respectful to her. While in Boston
+he had purchased quite an assortment of those little articles which the
+Puritan elders usually denominated "gew-gaws" and "vain adornments" and
+it was observed that Abigail Williams especially had been given a number
+of these, while the other girls had one or more of them, which they were
+very careful in not displaying except at those times when no grave elder
+or deacon was present to be shocked by them.
+
+I will acknowledge that there was some dissimulation in this conduct of
+Master Raymond's, and Joseph Putnam by no means approved of it.
+
+"How you can go smiling around that den of big and little she-wolves,
+patting the head of one, and playing with the paw of another, I cannot
+understand, friend Raymond. I would not do it to save my life."
+
+"Nor I," answered Master Raymond gravely. "But I would do it to save
+your life, friend Joseph, or that of your sweet young wife there--or
+that of the baby which she holds upon her knee."
+
+"Or that of Mistress Dulcibel Burton!" added sweet Mistress Putnam
+kindly.
+
+"Yes, or that of Dulcibel Burton."
+
+"You know, my dear friends, the plan I have in view may fail. If that
+should fail, I am laying the foundation of another--so that if Dulcibel
+should be brought to trial, the witnesses that are relied upon may fail
+to testify so wantonly against her. Even little Abigail Williams has the
+assurance and ingenuity to save her, if she will."
+
+"Yes, that precocious child is a very imp of Satan," said Joseph Putnam.
+"What a terrible woman she will make."
+
+"Oh, no, she may sink down into a very tame and commonplace woman, after
+this tremendous excitement is over," rejoined his friend. "I think at
+times I see symptoms of it now. The strain is too great for her childish
+brain."
+
+"Well, I suppose your dissimulation is allowable if it is to save the
+life of your betrothed," said Master Putnam, "but I would not do it if I
+could and I could not if I would."
+
+"Do you remember Junius Brutus playing idiot--and King David playing
+imbecile?"
+
+"Oh, I know you have plenty of authority for your dissimulation."
+
+"It seems to me," joined in young Mistress Putnam, "that the difference
+between you is simply this. Joseph could not conscientiously do it; and
+you can."
+
+"Yes, that is about the gist of it," said her young husband. "And now
+that I have relieved my conscience by protesting against your course, I
+am satisfied you should go on in your own way just the same."
+
+"And yet you feel no conscientious scruples against abducting the
+minister," rejoined Raymond laughing; "a thing which I am rather loath
+to do."
+
+"I see," replied Joseph, also laughing. "I scruple at taking mustard,
+and you at cayenne pepper. It is a matter of mental organization
+probably."
+
+"Yes--and if a few or many doses of mustard will prevent my being
+arrested as a witch, which would put it entirely out of my power to aid
+Dulcibel in her affliction--and perhaps turn some of the "afflicted"
+girls over to her side, in case she has to stand a trial for her life--I
+shall certainly swallow them with as much grace as if they were so many
+spoonfuls of honey. There is a time to be over-scrupulous, friend
+Joseph, but not when my beloved one is in the cage of the tigers. Yes, I
+shall not hesitate to meet craft with craft."
+
+And Mistress Putnam, sweet, good woman as she was, nodded her head,
+woman-like, approvingly, carried away perhaps by the young man's
+earnestness, and by the strength of his love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+The Cruel Doings of the Special Court.
+
+
+Meanwhile the Special Court of seven Judges--a majority of whom were
+from Boston, with the Deputy Governor of the Colony, William Stoughten,
+as Chief-Justice--was by no means indolent. Of the proceedings of this
+court, which embodied apparently the best legal intellect of the colony,
+no official record is in existence. Its shameful pages, smeared all over
+with bigotry and blood, no doubt were purposely destroyed. So far as we
+are acquainted with the evidence given before it, it was substantially
+the same as had been given at the previous examinations before the
+committing magistrates.
+
+That nothing was too extravagant and absurd to be received as evidence
+by this learned court, is proven by the statement of the Reverend Cotton
+Mather, already alluded to, relative to a demon entering the
+meeting-house and tearing down a part of it, in obedience to a look from
+Mistress Bridget Bishop--of which diabolical outrage the Court was duly
+informed. Besides, there could have been no other kind of evidence
+forthcoming, that would apply to the crime of which all the accused
+were charged, Witchcraft. Many of the prisoners indeed were accused of
+murdering children and others, whose illness had been beyond the
+physician's power to cure; but the murders were all committed, it was
+alleged, by the use of "spectres," "familiars," "puppets," and other
+supernatural means. Against such accusations it was impossible for men
+and women of the highest character and reputation to make any effectual
+defence, before a court and jury given over so completely to religious
+fanaticism and superstitious fancies. To be accused was therefore to be
+condemned.
+
+Yes, this Special Court, having had all its misgivings, if it ever
+really had any, quieted by the answer of the council of ministers, was
+doing quick and fearful work.
+
+Meeting again in the latter part of June, it speedily tried, convicted
+and sentenced to death five persons:--Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes,
+Elizabeth How, Susanna Martin and Rebecca Nurse.
+
+Then, adjourning till August 5th, it tried and convicted George
+Burroughs, John Procter, Elizabeth Procter, George Jacobs, John Willard
+and Martha Carrier.
+
+Then meeting on September 9th, it tried and condemned Martha Corey, Mary
+Easty, Alice Parker and Ann Pudcator; and on September 17th, Margaret
+Scott, Wilmot Reed, Samuel Wardwell and Mary Parker.
+
+It will be noticed that of the above nineteen persons, only five were
+men. As the greater number of the accusers were also of the female sex,
+it was natural, I suppose, that this should be so. And thus we find that
+the word witch is applied indifferently in the old records, to men and
+women; the masculine term wizard being seldom used.
+
+That the learned Judges were fully as superstitious as the people at
+large, is conclusively proved by certain facts that have come down to
+us. In the case of that lovely and venerable matron, Rebecca Nurse, the
+jury at first brought in the verdict "Not guilty."
+
+But immediately all the accusers in the Court, and all the "afflicted"
+out of it, made a hideous outcry. Two of the Judges said they were not
+satisfied. The Chief-Justice intimated that there was one admission of
+the prisoner that the jury had not properly considered. These things
+induced the jurors to go out again, and come back with a verdict of
+"Guilty."
+
+One of the charges against Rebecca Nurse, testified to by Edward Putnam,
+was that, after the said Rebecca Nurse had been committed to jail, and
+was thus several miles distant in the town of Salem, "she, the said
+Nurse, struck Mistress Ann Putnam with her spectral chain, leaving a
+mark, being a kind of round ring, and three streaks across the ring. She
+had six blows with a chain in the space of half-an-hour; and she had one
+remarkable one, with six streaks across her arm. Ann Putnam, Jr., also
+was bitten by the spectre of the said Rebecca Nurse about two o'clock of
+the day. I, Edward Putnam, saw the marks, both of bite and chains."
+
+It was a great hardship in all these trials, that the prisoners were not
+allowed any counsel; while on the other hand, the members of the Court
+seemed to take it for granted from the first, that they were guilty. The
+only favor allowed them was the right of objecting to a certain extent
+to those jurors whose fairness they mistrusted.
+
+One of the accused, a reputable and aged farmer named Giles Corey,
+refused to plead. His wife, Martha Corey, was among the convicted. At
+her examination, some time previous, he had allowed himself to testify
+in certain respects against her; involved as he was for a time in the
+prevailing delusion. But he was a man of strong mind and character; and
+though not entirely able to throw off the chains which superstition had
+woven around him, he repented very sorely the part he had taken against
+his wife. This was enough to procure his own accusation. The "afflicted
+girls" brought their usual complaints that his spectre tormented them.
+They fell down and shrieked so wildly at his examination, that Squire
+Hathorne asked him with great indignation, "Is it not enough that you
+should afflict these girls at other times without doing it now in our
+presence?"
+
+The honest and sturdy man was visibly affected. He knew he was not
+consciously doing anything; but what could it all mean? If he turned his
+head, the girls said he was hurting them and turned their heads the same
+way. The Court ordered his hands tied--and then the girls said they were
+easier. But he drew in his cheeks, after a habit he had, and the cheeks
+of the girls were sucked in also, giving them great pain. The old man
+was fairly dumfounded. When however one of the girls testified that
+Goodman Corey had told her that he saw the devil in the shape of a black
+hog in the cow-house, and was very much frightened by it, the spirited
+old man said that he never was frightened by man or devil in his life.
+
+But he had a fair property, and two sons-in-law to whom he wished to
+leave it. He knew well that if he were tried he would be convicted, and
+that would carry with it the confiscation of his property. So, as other
+noble-hearted men had done in that and the previous age, he refused when
+brought before the Special Court, to plead either "guilty" or "not
+guilty." In these later times the presiding Judge would simply order a
+plea of "not guilty" to be entered, and the trial would proceed. But
+then it was otherwise--the accused himself must plead, or the trial
+could not go on. Therefore he must be made to plead--by placing heavy
+weights upon his breast, and adding to them until the accused either
+agreed to plead, or died under the torture. In which last case, the
+prisoner lost his life as contumacious; but gained his point of
+preserving his estate, and title of nobility if he had any, to his
+family.
+
+So, manly old Giles Corey, remorseful for the fate he had helped to
+bring upon his wife, and determined that his children should inherit the
+property he had acquired, maintained a determined silence when brought
+before the Special Court. Being warned, again and again, he simply
+smiled. He could bear all that they in their cruel mockery of justice
+could inflict upon him.
+
+Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond rode down to Salem that day--to the
+orchard where the brave old man was led out of jail to meet his doom.
+They saw him, tied hand and foot, and heavy flat stones and iron weights
+laid one by one upon him.
+
+"More! More!" pleaded the old man at last. "I shall never yield. But, if
+ye be men, make the time short!"
+
+"I cannot stand this," said Master Raymond.
+
+"We are powerless to help him--let us go."
+
+"To torture an old man of eighty years in this way! What a sight for
+this new world!" exclaimed Master Putnam, as they turned their horses'
+heads and rode off.
+
+His executioners took Giles Corey at his word. They knew the old man
+would never yield. So they mercifully heaped the heavy weights upon him
+until they had crushed out his life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Dulcibel's Life in Prison.
+
+
+Dulcibel's life in prison was of course a very monotonous one. She did
+not suffer however as did many other women of equally gentle nature. In
+the jails of Ipswich, Boston and Cambridge, there were keepers who
+conformed in most cases strictly to the law. In many instances delicate
+and weakly women, often of advanced years, were chained, hands and feet,
+with heavy irons, night and day.
+
+But Robert Foster and his son, who assisted him as under-keeper, while
+indulging before the marshal and the constables in the utmost violence
+and severity of language, and who were supposed to be strict enforcers
+of all the instructions received from the magistrates, were as we have
+seen, at heart, very liberal and kind-hearted men. And the only fear the
+prisoners had, was that they would throw up their positions some day in
+disgust. Uncle Robie often declared to Dulcibel that he would, when she
+was once fairly out of the clutches of her enemies.
+
+Every now and then instructions would come to jailer Foster from one of
+the magistrates--generally Squire Hathorne--to put heavier irons on some
+one of the prisoners, whose spectre was still tormenting the "afflicted
+girls." It being generally held that the more heavily you chained a
+witch, the less able she was to afflict her victims. And at these times
+Master Foster would get out his heaviest irons, parade them before the
+eyes of the constables, declare in a fierce tone what he was about to
+do, get the constable off on one pretext or another--and do nothing.
+
+It was thought best and wisest for neither Master Joseph Putnam nor
+Master Raymond to seek many interviews with Dulcibel; the means of
+intercourse between the two lovers being restricted to little notes,
+which goodwife Buckley, who frequently visited the maiden, transmitted
+from one to the other through the agency of either her husband or of
+Joseph Putnam. This kept them both in heart; and Dulcibel being
+sustained by the frequent assurances of her lover's devotion, and by the
+hope of escape, kept the roses of her cheeks in marvelous bloom during
+her close confinement.
+
+One of the constables, who managed to get sight of her one day through
+the half-opened door of her cell, expressed surprise to the jailer that
+she should still look so blooming, considering the weight of the heavy
+chains to which she was continually subjected.
+
+"And why should not the young witch look so?" replied the jailer. "Is
+not her spectre riding around on that devil's mare half the night, and
+having a good time of it?"
+
+The constable assented to this view of the case; and his suspicions, if
+he had any, were quieted. In fact even Squire Hathorne himself probably
+would have been perfectly satisfied with an explanation of so undeniable
+a character.
+
+Of course it was not considered prudent by Uncle Robie, that the
+furniture or general appearance of Dulcibel's cell should be changed in
+the least for the better. Not even a bunch of flowers that Goodwife
+Buckley once brought to Dulcibel, could be allowed to remain there.
+While in a corner of the cell, lay the heavy chains which, if the
+marshal or one of the magistrates, should insist upon seeing the
+prisoner, could be slipped on her wrists and ankles in a few minutes.
+Fortunately, however, for Dulcibel, the interest of all these was now
+centered upon the trials that were in progress, the contumacious
+obstinacy of Giles Corey, the host of new accusations at Ipswich and
+other neighboring places, and the preparations for the execution of
+those already condemned to death.
+
+If they had a passing thought of the young witch Dulcibel Burton, it was
+that her time would come rapidly around in its turn, when speedy justice
+no doubt would be done to her.
+
+As to Antipas, her faithful servitor, he had relapsed again into his old
+staidness and sobriety in the comparative quietude of the prison. Only
+on the day of Giles Corey's execution had the prevailing excitement
+attending that event, and which naturally affected the constables and
+jailers, made him raging. To pass the constable's inspection, as well as
+for his own safety, the jailer had chained him; but his voice could be
+heard ringing through the closed door of his cell at intervals from
+morning till evening.
+
+The burden of his thoughts seemed to be a blending of denunciation and
+exultation. The predictions of the four Quakers executed many years
+before on Boston common, and those of men and women who had been whipped
+at the cart's tail through the towns of the colony, evidently seemed to
+him in progress of fulfillment:--
+
+"They have torn the righteous to pieces; now the judgment is upon them,
+and they are tearing each other! Woe to the bloody towns of Boston and
+Salem and Ipswich! Satan is let loose by the Lord upon them! They have
+slain the saints, they have supped full of innocent blood; now the blood
+of their own sons, their own daughters, is filling the cup of God's
+vengeance! They have tortured the innocent women, the innocent
+children--and banished them and sold them to the Philistines as slaves.
+But the Lord will avenge His own elect! They are given up to believe a
+lie! The persecutors are persecuting each other! They are pressing each
+other to death beneath heavy stones! They are hanging each other on the
+gallows of Haman! Where they hung the innocent, they are hanging
+themselves! Oh, God! avenge now the blood of thy Saints! As they have
+done, let it be done unto them! Whip and kill! Whip and kill! Ha! ha!
+ha!"--and with a blood-curdling laugh that rang through the narrow
+passages of the prison, the insane old man would fall down for a time on
+his bed exhausted.
+
+That was an awful day, both outside and inside the prison--for all the
+prisoners knew what a savage death old Giles Corey was meeting. It
+seemed to Dulcibel afterwards, that if she had not been sustained by the
+power of love, and a hopeful looking forward to other scenes, she must
+have herself gone crazy during that and the other evil days that were
+upon them. To some of the prisoners, the most fragile and sensitive
+ones, even the hour of their execution seemed to come as a relief.
+Anything, to get outside of those close dark cells--and to make an end
+of it!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+Eight Legal Murders on Witch Hill.
+
+
+A mile or so outside of the town of Salem, the ground rises into a rocky
+ledge, from the top of which, to the south and the east and the west, a
+vast expanse of land and sea is visible. You overlook the town; the two
+rivers, or branches of the sea, between which the town lies; the thickly
+wooded country, as it was then, to the south and west; and the wide,
+open sea to the eastward.
+
+Such a magnificent prospect of widespread land and water is seldom seen
+away from the mountain regions; and, as one stands on the naked brow of
+the hill, on a clear summer day, as the sunset begins to dye the west,
+and gazes on the scene before and around him, he feels that the heavens
+are not so very far distant, and as if he could almost touch with these
+mortal hands the radiance and the glory.
+
+The natural sublimity of this spot seems to have struck the Puritan
+fathers of Salem, and looking around on its capabilities, they appear to
+have come to the conclusion that of all places it was the one expressly
+designed by the loving Father of mankind for--a gallows!
+
+"Yes, the very spot for a gallows!" said the first settlers. "The very
+spot!" echoed their descendants. "See, the wild "Heathen Salvages" can
+behold it from far and near; the free spoken, law-abiding sailors can
+descry it, far out at sea; and both know by this sign that they are
+approaching a land of Christian civilization and of godly law!"
+
+I think if I were puzzled for an emblem to denote the harsher and more
+uncharitable side of the Puritan character, I should pick out this
+gallows on Witch Hill near Salem, as being a most befitting one.
+
+This was the spot where, as we have already related, approaching it from
+the north, Master Raymond had his interview with jailer Foster. But that
+was night, and it was so dark that Master Raymond had no idea of its
+commanding so fine a view of both land and water. He had been in Boston
+during the execution of poor Bridget Bishop; and though he had often
+seen the gallows from below, and wondered at the grim taste which had
+reared it in such a conspicuous spot, he had never felt the least
+desire, but rather a natural aversion, to approach the place where such
+an unrighteous deed had been enacted.
+
+But now the carpenters had been again at work and supplanted the old
+scaffolding by another and larger one. Now the uprights had been added
+too--and on the beam which they supported there was room for at least
+ten persons. This seemed to be enough space to Marshall Herrick and
+Squire Hathorne; though at the rate the arrests and convictions were
+going on, it might be that one-half of the people in the two Salems and
+in Ipswich, would be hung in the course of a year or so by the other
+half.
+
+But for this special hanging, only eight ropes and nooses were prepared.
+The workmen had been employed the preceding afternoon; and now in the
+fresh morning light, everything was ready; and eight of those who had
+been condemned were to be executed.
+
+The town, and village, and country around turned out, as was natural, in
+a mass, to see the terrible sight. And yet the crowd was comparatively a
+small one, the colony then being so thinly settled. But this, to Master
+Raymond's eyes, gave a new horror to the scene. If there had been a
+crowd like that when London brought together its thousands at Tyburn, it
+would have seemed less appalling. But here were a few people--not
+alienated from each other by ancestral differences in creed or politics,
+and who had never seen each other's faces before--but members of the
+same little band which had fled together from their old home, holding
+the same political views, the same religious faith; who had sat on the
+same benches at church, eaten at the same table of the Lord's supper,
+near neighbors on their farms, or in the town and village streets; now
+hunting each other down like wolves, and hanging each other up in cold
+blood! This it was that set apart the Salem persecution from all other
+persecutions of those old days against witches and heretics; and which
+has given it a painful pre-eminence in horror. It was neighbor hanging
+neighbor; and brother and sister persecuting to death with the foulest
+lies and juggling tricks their spiritual brothers and sisters. And the
+plea of "delusion" will not excuse it, except to those who have not
+investigated its studied cruelty and malice. Sheer, unadulterated
+wickedness had its full share in the persecution; and that wickedness
+can only be partly extenuated by the plea of possible insanity or of
+demoniacal possession.
+
+[Illustration: Marched from jail for the last time]
+
+The route to the gallows hill was a rough and difficult one; but the
+condemned were marched from the jail for the last time, one by one, and
+compelled to walk attended by a small guard and a rude and jeering
+company. There was Rebecca Nurse, infirm but venerable and lovely, the
+beloved mother of a large family; there was the Reverend George
+Burroughs, a small dark man, whose great physical strength was enough,
+as the Reverend Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College,
+said, to prove he was a witch; but who did not believe in infant
+baptism, and probably was not up to the orthodox standard of the day in
+other respects, though in conduct a very correct and exemplary man;
+there was old John Procter, with his two staffs, and long thin white
+hair; there was John Willard, a good, innocent young man, lied to death
+by Susanna Sheldon, aged eighteen; there was unhappy Martha Carrier four
+of whose children, one a girl of eight, had been frightened into
+testifying before the Special Court against her; saying that their
+mother had taken them to a witch meeting, and that the Devil had
+promised her that she should be queen of hell; there was gentle, patient
+and saintlike Elizabeth How, with "Father, forgive them!" on her mild
+lips; and two others of whom we now know little, save that they were
+most falsely and wickedly accused.
+
+There also were the circle of the "afflicted," gazing with hard dry eyes
+on the murder they had done and with jeers and scoffs on their thin and
+cruel lips.
+
+There, too, were the reverend ministers, Master Parris of Salem village,
+and Master Noyes of Salem town, and Master Cotton Mather, who had come
+down from Boston in his black clothes, like a buzzard that scents death
+and blood a long way off, to lend his spiritual countenance to the
+terrible occasion.
+
+Master Noyes, however, the most of the time, seemed rather quiet and
+subdued. He was thinking perhaps of Sarah Good's fierce prediction, when
+he urged her, as she came up to the gallows to confess, saying to her
+that, "she was a witch, and she knew it!" Outraged beyond all endurance
+at this last insult at such a moment, Sarah Good cried out: "It is a
+lie! I am no more a witch than you are. God will yet give you blood to
+drink for this day's cruel work!" Which prediction it is said in Salem,
+came true--Master Noyes dying of an internal hemorrhage bleeding
+profusely at the mouth.
+
+It was not a scene that men of sound and kindly hearts would wish to
+witness; and yet Joseph Putnam and Ellis Raymond felt drawn to it by an
+irresistible sense of duty. Hard, indeed, it was for Master Raymond; for
+the necessity of the case compelled him to suppress all show of sympathy
+with the sufferer, in order that he might more effectually carry out his
+plans for Dulcibel's escape from the similar penalty that menaced her.
+And he, therefore, could not even ride around like Master Putnam, with a
+frowning face, uttering occasional emphatic expressions of his
+indignation and horror, that the crowd would probably not have endured
+from any one else.
+
+There were some incidents that were especially noticeable. Samuel
+Wardwell had "confessed" in his fear, but subsequently taken back his
+false confession, and met his death. While he was speaking at the foot
+of the gallows declaring his innocence, the tobacco smoke from the pipe
+of the executioner, blew into his face and interrupted him.
+
+Then one of the accusing girls laughed out, and said that "the Devil did
+hinder him," but Joseph Putnam cried, "If the Devil does hinder him,
+then it is good proof that he is not one of his." At which some few of
+the crowd applauded; while others said that Master Putnam himself was no
+better than he ought to be.
+
+The Reverend Master Burroughs, when upon the ladder, addressing the
+crowd, asserted earnestly his entire innocence. Such was the effect of
+his words that Master Raymond even hoped that an effort would be made to
+rescue him. But one of the "afflicted girls" cried out, "See! there
+stands the black man in the air at his side."
+
+Then another said, "The black man is telling him what to say."
+
+But Master Burroughs answered: "Then I will repeat the Lord's prayer.
+Would the Devil tell me to say that?"
+
+But when he had ended, Master Cotton Mather, who was riding around on
+his horse, said to the people that "the Devil often transformed himself
+into an angel of light; and that Master Burroughs was not a rightly
+ordained minister;" and the executioner at a sign from the official, cut
+the matter short by turning off the condemned man.
+
+Rebecca Nurse and the other women, with the exception of their last
+short prayers, said nothing--submitting quietly and composedly to their
+legal murder. And before the close of one short hour eight lifeless
+bodies hung dangling beneath the summer sun.
+
+Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond, and a few others upon whom the solemn
+words of the condemned had made an evident impression, turned away from
+the sad sight, and wiped their tearful eyes. But Master Parris and
+Master Noyes, and Master Cotton Mather seemed rather exultant than
+otherwise; though Master Noyes did say; "What a sad thing it is to see
+eight firebrands of hell hanging there!" But, as Master Cotton Mather
+more consistently answered: "Why should godly ministers be sad to see
+the firebrands of hell in the burning."
+
+Then, as the hours went on, the bodies were cut down, and stuck into
+short and shallow graves, dug out with difficulty between the rocks--in
+some instances, the ground not covering them entirely. There some
+remained without further attention; but, in the case of others, whose
+relatives were still true to them, there came loving hands by night, and
+bore the remains away to find a secret sepulcher, where none could
+molest them.
+
+But the gallows remained on the Hill, where it could be seen from a
+great distance; causing a thrill of wonder in the bosom of the wandering
+savage, as of the wandering sailor, gazing at its skeleton outline
+against the sunset sky from far out at sea--waiting for ten more
+victims!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A New Plan of Escape.
+
+
+About this time a new plan of escape was suggested to Master Raymond;
+coming to him in a note from Dulcibel.
+
+Master Philip English, one of the wealthiest inhabitants of Salem town,
+and his wife Mary, had been arrested--the latter a short time previous
+to her husband. He was a merchant managing a large business, owning
+fourteen houses in the town, a wharf, and twenty-one vessels. He had one
+of the best dwellings in Salem--situated at its eastern end, and having
+a fine outlook over the adjacent seas. He had probably offended some one
+in his business transactions; or, supposing that he was safely
+entrenched in his wealth and high social position, he might have
+expressed some decided opinions, relative to Mistress Ann Putnam and the
+"afflicted children."
+
+As for his wife, she was a lady of exalted character who had been an
+only child and had inherited a large property from her father. The
+deputy-marshall, Manning, came to arrest her in the night time, during
+her husband's absence. She had retired to her bed; but he was admitted
+to her chamber, where he read the warrant for her apprehension. He
+allowed her till morning, however, placing guards around the house that
+she might not escape. Knowing that such an accusation generally meant
+conviction and death, "she arose calmly in the morning, attended the
+family prayers, spoke to a near relative of the best plan for the
+education of her children, kissed them with great composure, amid their
+agony of cries and tears, and then told the officer that she was ready
+to die."
+
+On her examination the usual scene ensued, and the usual falsehoods were
+told. Perhaps the "afflicted girls" were a little more bitter than they
+would have been, had she not laughed outright at a portion of their
+testimony. She was a very nice person in her habits, and it was
+testified against her, that being out one day in the streets of Salem
+walking around on visits to her friends during a whole morning,
+notwithstanding the streets were exceedingly sloppy and muddy, it could
+not be perceived that her shoes and white stockings were soiled in the
+least. As we have said, at this singular proof of her being a witch, the
+intelligent lady had laughed outright. And this of course brought out
+the additional statement, that she had been carried along on the back of
+an invisible "familiar"--a spectral blue boar--the whole way. Of
+course this was sufficient, and she was committed for trial.
+
+And now wealthy Master Philip English and his wife were both in prison;
+and he daily concocting plans by which he might find himself on the deck
+of the fastest sailer of all those twenty-one vessels of his.
+
+Uncle Robie had thought this might be also a good opportunity for
+Dulcibel. And it struck Master Raymond the same way; while Master
+English had no objection, especially as it was mainly for Dulcibel that
+the jailer would open the prison doors. And this was better than the
+violence he had at first contemplated; for, as his vessels gradually
+began to accumulate in port, owing to the interruption to his business
+caused by his arrest, he had only to give the word, and a party of his
+sailors would have broken open the prison some dark night, and released
+him from captivity.
+
+The "Albatross," Master English's fastest sailer at length came into
+port; and the arrangements were speedily made. The first north-westerly
+wind, whether the night were clear or stormy--though of course with such
+a wind it would probably be clear--the attempt was to be made,
+immediately after midnight. Uncle Robie was to unlock the jail-doors,
+let them out, lock the doors again behind them, and have a plentiful
+supply of witch stories to account for the escape. And Master Raymond
+had some hopes also, that Abigail Williams would come to the jailer's
+support in anything that seemed to compromise him in the least; for he
+had promised to send her a beautiful gift from England, when he returned
+home again. And with such a sharpener to the vision, the precocious
+child would be able to see even more wonderful things than any she had
+already testified to.
+
+The favorable wind came at length, and with it an exceedingly propitious
+night; there being a moon just large enough to enable them to see their
+way, with not enough light to disclose anything sharply. Master Raymond
+had planned all along to take Dulcibel's horse also with them; and if he
+could ride the animal, it would obviate the necessity of taking another
+horse also, and being plagued what to do with it when they arrived at
+the prison. For he was very desirous that Master Putnam should not be
+in the least involved in the matter.
+
+Master Raymond therefore had been practising up in the woods for about a
+week, at what the minister had failed so deplorably in, the riding of
+the little black mare. At first he could absolutely do nothing with her;
+she would not be ridden by any male biped. But finally he adopted a
+suggestion of quick-witted Mistress Putnam. He put on a side saddle and
+a skirt, and rode the animal woman fashion--and all without the least
+difficulty. The little mare seeming to say by her behavior, "Ah, now,
+that is sensible. Why did you not do it before?"
+
+So, late on the evening appointed for the attempted escape, after taking
+an affectionate leave of his host and hostess, and putting a few
+necessary articles of apparel into a portmanteau strapped behind the
+saddle, Master Raymond started for Salem town.
+
+Leaving the village to the right, he made good time to the town, meeting
+no one at that late hour. He had covered the mare with a large
+horse-blanket, so that she should not easily be recognized by any one
+who might happen to meet them. There was a night watchman in Salem town;
+but a party of sailors had undertaken to get him off the principal
+street at the appointed hour, by the offer of refreshments at one of
+their haunts; and by this time he was too full of Jamaica spirits to
+walk very steadily or see very clearly.
+
+Arrived at the prison, Master Raymond found the Captain and mate of the
+"Albatross" impatiently awaiting him. It was not full time yet, but they
+concluded to give the signal, three hoots of an owl; which the mate gave
+with great force and precision. Still all seemed dark and quiet as
+before.
+
+Then they waited, walking up and down to keep the blood in their veins
+in motion, as the nights were a little cool.
+
+"It is full time now," said the Captain, "give the signal again, Brady."
+
+Brady gave it--if anything with greater force and precision than before.
+
+But not a sign from within.
+
+Had the jailer's courage given away at the last moment? Or could he have
+betrayed them? They paced up and down for an hour longer. It was evident
+that, for some reason or other, the plan had miscarried.
+
+"Well, there is no use awaiting here," exclaimed the Captain of the
+"Albatross" with an oath; "I am going back to the ship."
+
+Master Raymond acquiesced. There was no use in waiting longer. And so he
+re-donned his petticoat--much to the amusement of the seamen and started
+back to Master Putnam's arriving there in the darkest hours of the
+night, just before the breaking of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+Why the Plan Failed.
+
+
+The reason of the failure of the plan of escape may be gathered from a
+little conversation that took place between Squire Hathorne and Thomas
+Putnam the morning of the day fixed upon by Master Philip English.
+
+Thomas Putnam had called to see the magistrate at the suggestion of that
+not very admirable but certainly very sharp-witted wife of his. I do not
+suppose that Thomas Putnam was at all a bad man, but it is a lamentable
+sight to see, as we so often do, a good kind honest-hearted man made a
+mere tool of by some keen-witted and unscrupulous woman; in whose
+goodness he believes, in a kind of small-minded and yet not altogether
+ignoble spirit of devotion, mainly because she is a woman. Being a
+woman, she cannot be, as he foolishly supposes, the shallow-hearted,
+mischievous being that she really is.
+
+"Do you know, Squire, how Master English's sailors are talking around
+the wharves?"
+
+"No! What are the rascals saying?"
+
+"Well, Mistress Putnam has been told by a friend of hers in the town,
+that he heard a half-drunken sailor, belonging to one of Master
+English's vessels, say that they meant to tear down the jail some night,
+hang the jailers, and carry off their Master and Mistress."
+
+"Ah," said the Squire, "this must be looked into."
+
+"Another of the sailors is reported to have said, that if the
+magistrates attempted to hang Mistress English they would hang Squire
+Hathorne, and Squire Gedney, if they could catch him, by the side of
+her."
+
+"The impudent varlets!" exclaimed Squire Hathorne, his wine-red face
+growing redder. "Master English shall sweat for this. How many of his
+sailors are in port now?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose there are fifty of them; and all reckless, unprincipled
+men. To my certain knowledge, there is not a member of church among
+them."
+
+"The godless knaves!" cried the magistrate. "I should like to set the
+whole lot of them in the stocks, and then whip them out of the town at
+the cart's tail."
+
+"Yes, that is what they deserve, but then we cannot forget that they are
+necessary to the interests of the town--unless Salem is to give up all
+her shipping business--and these sailors are so clannish that if you
+strike one of them, you strike all. No, it seems to me, Squire, we had
+better take no public notice of their vaporing; but simply adopt means
+to counteract any plans they may be laying."
+
+"Well, what would you suggest, Master Putnam? Has Mistress Putnam any
+ideas upon the subject? I have always found her a very sensible woman."
+
+"Yes, my wife is a very remarkable woman if I do say it," replied Master
+Putnam. "Her plan is to send Master English and his wife off at once to
+Boston--that will save us all further trouble with them and their
+sailors."
+
+"A capital idea! It shall be carried out this very day," said the
+magistrate.
+
+"And she also suggests that the young witch woman, Dulcibel Burton,
+should be sent with them. That friend of my brother Joseph, is still
+staying around here; and Mistress Putnam does not exactly comprehend his
+motives for so long a visit."
+
+"Ah, indeed--what motive has he?" And Squire Hathorne rubbed his broad
+forehead.
+
+"There was some talk at one time of his keeping company with Mistress
+Burton."
+
+"What, the witch! that is too bad. For he seems like a rather pleasant
+young gentleman; and I hear he is the heir of a large estate in the old
+country."
+
+"Of course there may be nothing in it--but Mistress Putnam also heard
+from one of her female cronies the other day, that jailer Foster was at
+one time a mate on board Captain Burton's vessel."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"And you know how very handsome that Mistress Dulcibel is; and, being
+besides a witch of great power, it seems to Mistress Putnam that it is
+exposing jailer Foster to very great temptation."
+
+"Mistress Putnam is quite correct," said Squire Hathorne. "Mistress
+Dulcibel had better be transferred to Boston also. There the worshipful
+Master Haughton has the power and the will to see that all these imps of
+Satan are kept safely."
+
+"As the seamen may be lying around and make a disturbance if the removal
+comes to their knowledge, Mistress Putnam suggested that it had better
+not be done until evening. It would be a night ride; but then, as
+Mistress Putnam said, witches rather preferred to make their journeys in
+the night time--so that it would be a positive kindness to the
+prisoners."
+
+"Very true! very well thought of!" replied Squire Hathorne, with a grim
+smile. "And no doubt they will be very thankful that we furnish them
+with horses instead of broomsticks. Though as for Mistress Dulcibel, I
+suppose she would prefer her familiar, the black mare, to any other
+animal."
+
+"That was very marvelous. Abigail Williams says that she is certain that
+the mare, after jumping the gate, never came down to earth again, but
+flew straight on up into the thundercloud."
+
+"And it thundered when the black beast entered the cloud, did it not?"
+said the magistrate in a sobered tone. He evidently saw nothing
+unreasonable in the story.
+
+"Yes--it thundered--but not the common kind of thunder--it was enough to
+make your flesh creep. The minister says he is only too thankful that
+the Satanic beast did throw him off. He might have been carried off to
+hell with her."
+
+"Yes, it was a very foolish thing to get on the back of a witch's
+familiar," said the magistrate. "It was tempting Providence. And Master
+Parris has cause for thankfulness that only such a mild reproof as a
+slight wetting, was allowed to be inflicted upon him. These are perilous
+times, Master Putnam. Satan is truly going about like a roaring lion,
+seeking what he may devour. Against this chosen seed,--this little
+remnant of God's people left upon the whole earth--no wonder that he is
+tearing and raging."
+
+"Ah me, my Christian friend, it is too true! And no wonder that he is so
+bold, and full of joyful subtlety. For is he not prevailing, in spite of
+all our efforts? You know there are at least four hundred members of
+what rightly calls itself the Church of England--for certainly it is not
+the church of Christ--in Boston alone! When the royal Governor made the
+town authorities give up the South Church--even our own Church, built
+with our own money--to their so-called Rector to hold their idolatrous
+services in, we might have known that Satan was at our doors!"
+
+"Oh, that such horrible things should happen in the godly town of
+Boston!" responded Squire Hathorne. "But when the King interfered
+between Justice and the Quakers, and forbade the righteous discipline
+we were exercising upon them, of course a door was opened for all other
+latitudinarianism and false doctrine. Why, I am told that there are now
+quite a number of Quakers in Boston; and that they even had the
+assurance to apply to the magistrates the other day, for permission to
+erect a meeting-house!"
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Master Putnam. "They ought to have been whipped
+out of their presence."
+
+"Yes," continued the worthy Magistrate irefully; "but when the King
+ordered that the right of voting for our rulers should no longer be
+restricted to church-members; but that every man of fair estate and good
+moral character, as he phrases it, should be allowed to vote, even if he
+is not a member at all, he aimed a blow at the very Magistracy itself."
+
+"Yes, that is worse than heresy! And how can a man possess a good moral
+character, without being a member of the true church?"
+
+"Of course--that is self-evident. But it shows how the righteous seed is
+being over-flooded with iniquity, even in its last chosen house; how our
+Canaan is being given up to the Philistines. And therefore it is,
+doubtless, that Satan, in the pride of his success, is introducing his
+emissaries into the very house of the Lord itself; and promising great
+rewards to them who will bow down and sign their names in his red book,
+and worship him. Ah! we have fallen on evil times, Master Putnam."
+
+And so the two worthy Puritans condoled with each other, until, Master
+Putnam, bethinking himself that he had some worldly business to attend
+to, Squire Hathorne proceeded to give the necessary directions for the
+removal of the three prisoners from Salem to Boston jail.
+
+This was accomplished that very night, as Mistress Putnam had suggested;
+Deputy Marshall Herrick and a constable guarding the party. Dulcibel
+occupied a pillion behind jailer Foster; Master English and his wife
+rode together; while Master Herrick and the constable each had a horse
+to himself.
+
+The original plan was for Dulcibel to ride behind Master Herrick; but
+upon jailer Foster representing that there might be some danger of a
+rescue, and offering to join the party, it was arranged that he should
+have special charge of Mistress Dulcibel, whom he represented to Herrick
+as being in his opinion a most marvelous witch.
+
+Uncle Robie's true reason for going, however, was that the jailer in
+Boston was an old friend of his, and he wished to speak a secret word to
+him that might insure Dulcibel kinder treatment than was usually given
+in Boston jail to any alleged transgressor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam's Fair Warning.
+
+
+In the course of the next day the removal of the three prisoners became
+known to everybody. Master Raymond wondered when he heard it, whether it
+was a check-mate to the plan of escape, with which the magistrates, in
+some way had become acquainted; or whether it was a mere chance
+coincidence. Finally he satisfied himself that it was the latter--though
+no doubt suggested by the rather loose threats of Master English's many
+sailors.
+
+When jailer Foster returned, he found means to inform Master Raymond
+that it had been entirely impossible--so suddenly was the whole thing
+sprung upon him--to let anyone in their secret know of what was going
+on. He had not even taken the assistant jailer, his own son, into his
+confidence, because he did not wish to expose him to needless danger.
+His son was not required to afford any help, and therefore it would be
+unwise to incur any risk of punishment. Besides, while Uncle Robie had
+made up his mind to do some tall lying of his own for the sake of saving
+innocent lives, he saw no reason why his son, should be placed under a
+similar necessity. Lying seemed to be absolutely needful in the case;
+but it was well to do as little of it as possible.
+
+From his conversation with Master Herrick, Uncle Robie concluded that
+nothing had been divulged; and that the magistrates had acted only on
+the supposition that trouble of some kind might result from the sailors.
+And, looked at from that point of view, it was quite sufficient to
+account for the removal of two of the prisoners. As to why Dulcibel also
+should be sent to Boston, he could get no satisfactory explanation. It
+seemed in fact to be a matter of mere caprice, so far as uncle Robie
+could find out.
+
+They had pushed on through the night to Boston--about a four hours' slow
+ride--and delivered the three prisoners safely to the keeper of Boston
+jail. Uncle Robie adding the assurance to Goodwife Buckley--who acted as
+Master Raymond's confidential agent in the matter--that he had spoken a
+word to his old crony who believed no more in witches than he did, which
+would insure to her as kind treatment as possible. And Robie further
+said that he had been assured by the Boston jailer, that Mistress Phips,
+the wife of the Governor, had no sympathy whatever with the witchcraft
+prosecutions, but a great deal of sympathy for the victims of it.
+
+The game was therefore played out at Salem, now that Dulcibel had been
+transferred to Boston; and Master Raymond began to make arrangements at
+once to leave the place. In some respects the change of scene was for
+the worse; for he had no hold upon the Boston jailer, and had no friend
+there like Joseph Putnam, prepared to go to any length on his behalf.
+But, on the other hand, in Boston they seemed outside of the circle of
+Mistress Ann Putnam's powerful and malign influence. This of itself was
+no small gain; and, thinking over the whole matter, Master Raymond came
+to the conclusion that perhaps the chances of escape would be even
+greater in Boston than in Salem.
+
+So, in the course of the ensuing week, Master Raymond took an
+affectionate leave of his kind young host and hostess, and departed for
+Boston town, avowedly on his way back to his English home. This last was
+of course brought out prominently in all his leave-takings--he was,
+after a short stay in Boston, to embark for England. "What shall I send
+you from England?" was among his last questions to the various members
+of the "afflicted circle." And one said laughingly one thing, and one
+another; the young man taking it gravely, and making a note in his
+little notebook of each request. If things should come to the worst, he
+was putting himself in a good position to influence the character of the
+testimony. A hundred pounds in this way would be money well employed.
+
+Even to Mistress Ann Putnam he did not hesitate to put the same
+question, after a friendly leave-taking. Mistress Putnam rather liked
+the young Englishman; it was mainly against Dulcibel as the friend of
+her brother-in-law that she had warred; and if Master Raymond had not
+also been the warm friend and guest of Joseph Putnam, she might have
+relented in her persecution of Dulcibel for his sake. But her desire to
+pain and punish Master Joseph,--who had said so many things against her
+in the Putnam family--overpowered all such sentimental considerations.
+Besides, what Dulcibel had said of her when before the magistrates, had
+greatly incensed her.
+
+"What shall you send me from England? And are you really going back
+there?" And she fixed her cold green eyes upon the young man's face.
+
+"Oh, yes, I am going back again, like the bad penny," replied Master
+Raymond smiling.
+
+"How soon?"
+
+"Oh, I cannot say exactly. Perhaps the Boston gentlemen may be so
+fascinating that they will detain me longer than I have planned."
+
+"Is it because the Salem gentlewomen are so fascinating that you have
+remained here? We feel quite complimented in the village by the length
+of your visit."
+
+"Yes, I have found the Salem gentlewomen among the most charming of
+their sex. But you have not told me what I shall send you from London
+when I return?"
+
+"Oh, I leave that entirely with you, and to your own good taste. Perhaps
+by the time you get back to London, you will not wish to send me
+anything."
+
+"I cannot imagine such a case. But I shall endeavor, as you leave it all
+to me, to find something pretty and appropriate; something suited to the
+most gifted person, among men and women, that I have found in the New
+World."
+
+Mistress Putnam's face colored with evident pleasure--even she was not
+averse to a compliment of this kind; knowing, as she did, that she had
+a wonderful intellectual capacity for planning and scheming. In fact if
+she had possessed as large a heart as brain, she would have been a very
+noble and even wonderful woman. Master Raymond thought he had told no
+falsehood in calling her the "most gifted"--he considered her so in
+certain directions.
+
+And so they parted--the last words of Mistress Putnam being, the young
+man thought, very significant ones.
+
+"I would not," she said in a light, but still impressive manner, "if I
+were you, stay a very long time in Boston. There is, I think, something
+dangerous to the health of strangers in the air of that town, of late.
+It would be a very great pity for you to catch one of our deadly fevers,
+and never be able to return to your home and friends. Take my advice
+now--it is honest and well meant--and do not linger long in the
+dangerous air of Boston."
+
+Thanking her for her solicitude as to his health, Master Raymond shook
+her thin hand and departed. But all the ride back to Joseph Putnam's, he
+was thinking over those last words.
+
+What was their real meaning? What could they mean but this? "You are
+going to Boston to try to save Dulcibel Burton. I do not want to hurt
+you; but I may be compelled to do it. Leave Boston as soon as you can,
+and spare me the necessity that may arise of denouncing you also. Joseph
+Putnam, whom I hate, but whose person and household I am for family
+reasons compelled to respect, when you are in Boston is no longer your
+protector. I can just as easily, and even far more easily, reach you
+than I could reach Captain Alden. Beware how you interfere with my
+plans. Even while I pity you, I shall not spare you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+Master Raymond Goes Again to Boston.
+
+
+Master Raymond had agreed to keep his friend Joseph Putnam informed by
+letter of his movements--for there had been a postal system established
+a number of years before through the Massachusetts colony--but of course
+he had to be very careful as to what he put upon paper; the Puritan
+official mind not being over-scrupulous as to the means it took of
+attaining its ends.
+
+He had brought excellent letters to persons of the highest character in
+Boston, and had received invitations from many of them to make his home
+in their houses--for the Boston people of all classes, and especially
+the wealthy, obeyed the Scriptural injunction, and were "given to
+hospitality;" which I believe is true to the present day. But Master
+Raymond, considering the errand he was on, thought it wisest to take up
+his abode at an Inn--lest he might involve his entertainers in the peril
+attending his unlawful but righteous designs. So he took a cheery room
+at the Red Lion, in the northern part of the town, which was quite a
+reputable house, and convenient for many purposes not the least being
+its proximity to the harbor, which made it a favorite resort for the
+better class of sea-captains.
+
+Calling around upon the families to which he had presented letters on
+his first visit, immediately after his arrival in the colony, he
+speedily established very pleasant social relations with a good many
+very different circles. And he soon was able to sum up the condition of
+affairs in the town as follows:
+
+First, there was by far the most numerous and the ruling sect, the
+Puritans. The previous Governor, shut out by King James, Sir Edmund
+Andros, had been an Episcopalian; but the present one sent out on the
+accession of William and Mary, Sir William Phips, was himself a Puritan,
+sitting under the weekly teachings of the Reverend Master Cotton Mather
+at the North church.
+
+Then there was an Episcopal circle, composed of about four hundred
+people in all, meeting at King's Chapel, built about three years before,
+with the Reverend Master Robert Ratcliffe as Rector.
+
+Besides these, there was a small number of Quakers, now dwelling in
+peace, so far as personal manifestations were concerned, being protected
+by the King's mandate. These had even grown so bold of late, as to be
+seeking permission to erect a meeting-house; which almost moved the
+Puritan divines to prophesy famine, earthquakes and pestilence as the
+results of such an ungodly toleration of heresy.
+
+Then there were a number of Baptists, who also now dwelt in peace, under
+the King's protection.
+
+Adding to the foregoing the people without any religion to speak of, who
+principally belonged to or were connected with the seafaring class, and
+Master Raymond found that he had a pretty clear idea of the inhabitants
+of Boston.
+
+In relation to the Witchcraft prosecutions, the young Englishman
+ascertained that the above classes seemed to favor the prosecutions just
+in proportion to the extent of their Puritan orthodoxy. The great
+majority of the Puritans believed devoutly in witches, and in the duty
+of obeying the command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." And
+generally in proportion to a Puritan church-member's orthodoxy, was the
+extent of his belief in witchcraft, and the fierceness of his
+exterminating zeal.
+
+The Episcopalians and the Baptists were either very lukewarm, or else
+in decided opposition to the prosecutions looking upon them as simply
+additional proofs of Puritan narrowness, intolerance and bigotry.
+
+The Quakers held to the latter opinion even more firmly than the liberal
+Episcopalians and Baptists: adding to it the belief that it was a
+judgment allowed to come upon the Puritans, to punish them for their
+cruelty to God's chosen messengers.
+
+As for the seafaring class, they looked upon the whole affair as a piece
+of madness, which could only overtake people whose contracted notions
+were a result of perpetually living in one place, and that on the land.
+And since the arrest of a man so well thought of, and of their own class
+as Captain Alden, the vocabulary allowed by the law in Boston was
+entirely too limited to embrace adequately a seaman's emphatic sense of
+the iniquitous proceedings. As one of them forcibly expressed himself to
+Master Raymond:--"He would be _condemned_, if he wouldn't like to see
+the _condemned_ town of Boston, and all its _condemned_ preachers,
+buried like Port Royal, ten _condemned_ fathoms deep, under the
+_condemned_ soil upon which it was built!" He used another emphatic word
+of course, in the place of the word _condemned_; but that doubtless was
+because at that time they had not our "revised version" of the New
+Testament.
+
+The sea-captain who expressed himself in this emphatic way to Master
+Raymond, was the captain in whose vessel he had come over from England,
+and who had made another voyage back and forth since that time. The
+young man was strolling around the wharves, gazing at the vessels when
+he had been accosted by the aforesaid captain. At that particular moment
+however, he had come to a stand, earnestly regarding, as he had several
+times before, a vessel that was lying anchored out in the stream.
+
+After passing some additional words with the captain upon various
+matters, and especially upon the witches, a subject that every
+conversation at that time was apt to be very full of, he turned towards
+the water and said:--
+
+"That seems to be a good craft out there."
+
+It was a vessel of two masts, slender and raking, and with a long, low
+hull--something of the model which a good many years later, went by the
+name of the Baltimore clipper.
+
+"Yes, she is a beauty!" replied the captain.
+
+"She looks as if she might be a good sailer."
+
+"Good! I reckon she is. The Storm King can show her heels to any vessel
+that goes out of this port--or out of London either, for that matter."
+
+"What is she engaged in?"
+
+Here the captain gave a low whistle, and followed it up with a wink.
+
+"Buccaneers occasionally, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, Captain Tolley is not so very _condemned_ particular what he
+does--so that of course it is entirely lawful," and the captain winked
+again. "He owns his vessel, you see--carries her in his pocket--and has
+no _condemned_ lot of land-lubber owners on shore who cannot get away if
+there is any trouble, from the _condemned_ magistrates and constables."
+
+"That is an advantage sometimes," said the young man. He was thinking of
+his own case probably.
+
+"Of course it is. Law is a very good thing--in its place. But if I buy a
+bag of coffee in the East Indies or in South America, why should I have
+to pay a lot of money on it, before I am allowed to sell it to the
+people that like coffee in some other country? _Condemn_ it! There's no
+justice in it."
+
+Master Raymond was in no mood just then to argue great moral questions.
+So he answered by asking:--
+
+"Captain Tolley does not make too many inquiries then when a good offer
+is made him?"
+
+"Do not misunderstand me, young man," replied the captain gravely. "My
+friend, Captain Tolley, would be the last man to commit piracy, or
+anything of that kind. But just look at the case. Here Captain Tolley
+is, off at sea, attending to his proper business. Well, he comes into
+some _condemned_ port, just to get a little water perhaps, and some
+fresh provisions; and hears that while he has been away, these
+_condemned_ land-lubbers have been making some new rules and
+regulations, without even asking any of us seafaring men anything about
+it. Then, if we do not obey their foolish rules, they nab us when we
+come into port again, and fine us--perhaps put us in the bilboes. Now,
+as a fair man, do you call that justice?"
+
+Master Raymond laughed good-humoredly. "I see it has its unfair side,"
+said he. "By the way, I should like to look over that vessel of his.
+Could you give me a line of introduction to him?"
+
+"Of course I can--nothing pleases Tolley more than to have people admire
+his vessel--even though a landsman's admiration, you know, really cannot
+seem of much account to a sailor. But I cannot write here; let us
+adjourn to the Lion."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+Captain Tolley and the Storm King.
+
+
+The next day furnished with a brief note of introduction, Master
+Raymond, with the aid of a skiff, put himself on the deck of the Storm
+King. Captain Tolley received him with due courtesy, wondering who the
+stranger was. The Captain was a well-built, athletic, though not very
+large man, with a face naturally dark in hue, and bronzed by exposure to
+the southern sun. As Master Raymond ascertained afterwards, he was the
+son of an English father and a Spanish mother; and he could speak
+English, French and Spanish with equal facility. While he considered
+himself an Englishman of birth, his nationality sat very loosely upon
+him; and, if need be, he was just as willing to run up the French or
+Spanish colors on the Storm King, as the red cross of St. George.
+
+After reading the note of introduction, Captain Tolley gave a keen look
+at his visitor. "Yes, the Storm King is a bird and a beauty," said he
+proudly. "Look at her! See what great wings she has! And what a hull, to
+cut the seas! She was built after my own plans. Give me plenty of
+sea-room, and a fair start, and I will laugh at all the gun frigates of
+the royal navy."
+
+"She looks to be all you say," said his visitor admiringly--but rather
+surprised that not an oath had yet fallen from the lips of the Captain.
+He had not learned that Captain Tolley, to use his own language, "never
+washed his ammunition in port or in mild weather." When aroused by a
+severe storm or other peril, the Captain was transformed into a
+different man. Then, in the war of the elements, or of man's angry
+passions, he also lightened and thundered, and swore big guns.
+
+"Let us go down into the cabin," said the Captain. Reaching there, he
+filled a couple of glasses with wine and putting the decanter on the
+table, invited his visitor to be seated. Then, closing the door, he said
+with a smile, "nothing that is said inside this cabin ever is told
+anywhere else."
+
+There was that in the speech, bearing and looks of Captain Tolley which
+inspired Master Raymond with great confidence in him. "I feel that I may
+trust you, Captain," he said earnestly.
+
+"I have done business for a great many gentlemen, and no one ever found
+me untrue to him," replied Captain Tolley, proudly. "Some things I will
+not do for anybody, or for any price; but that ends it. I never betray
+confidence."
+
+"Do you believe in witches, Captain?"
+
+"Indeed I do."
+
+"Well I suppose that settles it," replied the young man in a
+disappointed tone, rising to his feet.
+
+"I know a little witch down in Jamaica, that has been tormenting me
+almost to death for the last three years. But I tell you she is a
+beauty--as pretty as, as--the Storm King! She doesn't carry quite as
+many petticoats though," added the Captain laughing.
+
+"Oh! That is the kind of witch you mean!" and Master Raymond sat down
+again.
+
+"It is the only kind that I ever came across--and they are bad enough
+for me," responded the Captain drily.
+
+"I know a little witch of that kind," said Master Raymond, humoring the
+Captain's fancy; "but she is now in Boston prison, and in danger of her
+life."
+
+"Ah! I think I have heard something of her--very beautiful, is she not?
+I caught a glimpse of her when I went up to see Captain Alden, who the
+bigoted fools have got in limbo there. I could not help laughing at
+Alden--the idea of calling him a witch. Alden is a religious man, you
+know!"
+
+"But it may cost him his life!"
+
+"That is what I went to see him about. I offered to come up with a party
+some night, break open the jail, and carry him off to New York in the
+Storm King."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Oh, you know the better people are not in the jail, but in the jailer's
+house--having given their promise to Keeper Arnold that they will not
+try to escape, if thus kindly treated. And besides, if he runs off, they
+will confiscate his property; of which Alden foolishly has a good deal
+in houses and lands. So he thinks it the best policy to hold on to his
+anchor, and see if the storm will not blow itself out."
+
+"And so you have no conscientious scruples against breaking the law, by
+carrying off any of these imprisoned persons?"
+
+"Conscientious scruples and the Puritan laws be d----!" exclaimed the
+Captain; thinking perhaps that this was an occasion when he might with
+propriety break his rule as to swearing while in port.
+
+"Your language expresses my sentiments exactly!" responded the young
+Englishman, who had never uttered an oath in his life. "Captain, I am
+betrothed to that young lady you saw when you went to see Captain Alden.
+If she is ever brought to trial, those Salem hell-hounds will swear away
+her life. I mean to rescue her--or die with her. I am able and willing
+to pay you any reasonable price for your aid and assistance, Will you
+help me?"
+
+The Captain sprang to his feet. "Will I help you? The great God dash the
+Storm King to pieces on her next voyage if I fail you! See here," taking
+a letter out of a drawer, "it is a profitable offer just made me. But it
+is a mere matter of merchandise; and this is a matter of a woman's life!
+You shall pay me what you can afford to, and what you think right; but,
+money or no money, I and the Storm King, and her brave crew, who will
+follow wherever I lead, are at your service!"
+
+As Captain Tolley uttered these words, in an impassioned, though low
+voice, and with a glowing face and sparkling blue eyes, Master Raymond
+thought he had never seen a handsomer man. He grasped the Captain's
+extended hand, and shook it warmly. "I shall never forget this noble
+offer," he exclaimed. And he never did forget it; for from that moment
+the two were life-long friends.
+
+"What is your plan?" said the Captain.
+
+"A peaceable escape if possible. If not, what you propose to Captain
+Alden."
+
+"I should like the last the best," said the Captain.
+
+"Why, it would expose you to penalties--and keep your vessel hereafter
+out of Boston harbor."
+
+"You see that I have an old grudge of my own," replied the Captain.
+"These Puritan rascals once arrested me for bringing some Quakers from
+Barbados--good, honest, innocent people, a little touched here, you
+know,"--and the Captain tapped his broad, brown brow with his finger.
+"They caught me on shore, fined me, and would have put me in the stocks;
+but my mate got word of it, we were lying out in the storm, trained two
+big guns to bear upon the town, and gave them just fifteen minutes to
+send me on board again. That was twenty years ago, and I have not been
+here since."
+
+"They sent you on board, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, the Saints are not fools," replied the Captain, laughing. "As for
+being shut out of Boston harbor hereafter, I do not fear that much. The
+reign of the Saints is nearly over. Do you not see that the Quakers are
+back, and the Baptists, and the prayer-book men, as they call the
+Episcopalians!--and they do not touch them, though they would whip the
+whole of them out of the Province, at the cart's tail, if they dared.
+But there are Kings in Israel again!" and the Captain laughed heartily.
+"And the Kings are always better shepherds to the flock than the
+Priests."
+
+"You may have to lie here idle for a while; but I will bear the expense
+of it," said Master Raymond. "Have the proper papers drawn up, and I
+will sign them."
+
+"No, there shall be no papers between you and me," rejoined the Captain
+stoutly. "I hate these lawyers' pledges. I never deal with a man, if I
+can help it, who needs a signed and sealed paper to keep him to his
+word. I know what you are, and you ought to be able to see by this time
+what I am. The Storm King shall lie here three months, if need be--and
+you shall pay me monthly my reasonable charges. But I will make out no
+bill, and you shall have no receipt, to cause any trouble to anybody,
+hereafter."
+
+"That will suit me," replied Master Raymond, "I shall be in the
+bar-room of the Red Lion every morning at ten. You must be there too.
+But we will only nod to each other, unless I have something to tell you.
+Then I will slip a note into your hand, making an appointment for an
+interview. I fear there may be spies upon my movements."
+
+Captain Tolley assenting to these arrangements, Master Raymond and he
+again shook hands, and the latter was put ashore in one of the Storm
+King's boats. It was a little curious that as the young man reached the
+wharf, ascending a few wooden steps from the boat, whom should he see at
+a little distance, walking briskly into the town, but one who he thought
+was Master Thomas Putnam. He could not see the man's face, for his back
+was toward him; but he felt certain that it was the loving and obedient
+husband of Mistress Ann Putnam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+Sir William Phips and Lady Mary.
+
+
+When Mistress Dulcibel Burton, in company with Master Philip English and
+his wife, arrived at Boston jail, and were delivered into the care of
+Keeper Arnold, they received far better treatment than they had
+expected.
+
+The prison itself, situated in a portion of Boston which is now
+considered the centre of fashion and elegance, was one of those cruel
+Bridewells, which were a befitting illustration of what some suppose to
+have been the superior manners and customs of the "good old times." It
+was built of stone, its walls being three feet thick. Its windows were
+barred with iron to prevent escape; but being without glazed sashes, the
+wind and rain and snow and cold of winter found ready access to the
+cells within. The doors were covered with the large heads of iron
+spikes--the cells being formed by partitions of heavy plank. And the
+passage ways of the prison were described by one who had been confined
+in this Boston Bridewell, as being "like the dark valley of the shadow
+of death."
+
+But the jailers seem to have been more humane than the builders of the
+prison; and those awaiting trial, especially, were frequently allowed
+rooms in the Keeper's house--probably always paying well, however, for
+the privilege.
+
+Thus, as Captain Tolley had said, Captain Alden was confined in Keeper
+Arnold's house; and, when the party in which the readers of this story
+are especially interested, arrived late at night from Salem, they were
+taken to comparatively comfortable apartments. The jailer knew that
+Master Philip English was a very wealthy man; and, as for Dulcibel,
+Uncle Robie did not forget to say to his old crony Arnold, among other
+favorable things, that she not only had warm friends, among the best
+people of Salem, but that in her own right, she possessed a very pretty
+little fortune, and was fully able to pay a good price for any favors
+extended to her.
+
+The magistrates in Salem had refused to take bail for Captain Alden; but
+Master English was soon able to make an arrangement, by which he and his
+wife were allowed the freedom of the town in the daytime; it being
+understood that they should return regularly, and pass the night in the
+jail--or, speaking strictly, in the Keeper's house.
+
+For things in Boston were different from what they were at Salem. In
+Salem the Puritan spirit reigned supreme in magistrates and in
+ministers. But in Boston, there was, as we have said, a strong
+anti-Puritan influence. The officials sent over from England were
+generally Episcopalians--the officers of the English men-of-war
+frequently in port, also were generally Episcopalians. And though the
+present Governor, Sir William Phips, was a member of the North Church,
+the Reverend Cotton Mather taking the place of his father, the Reverend
+Increase Mather--and though the Governor was greatly under the influence
+of that dogmatic and superstitious divine--his wife, Lady Mary, was
+utterly opposed to the whole witchcraft delusion and persecution.
+
+Sir William himself had quite a romantic career. Starting in life as one
+of the later offspring of a father and mother who had twenty-six
+children, and had come as poor emigrants to Maine, he was a simple and
+ignorant caretaker of sheep until eighteen years of age. Then he became
+a ship carpenter; and at the age of twenty-two went to Boston, working
+at his trade in the day time, and learning how to read and write at
+night. In Boston he had the good fortune to capture the heart of a fair
+widow by the name of Mistress Hull, who was a daughter of Captain
+Robert Spencer. With her hand he received a fair estate; which was the
+beginning of a large fortune. For, it enabled him to set up a ship-yard
+of his own; and by ventures to recover lost treasure, sunk in
+shipwrecked Spanish galleons, under the patronage of the Duke of
+Albemarle, he took back to England at one time the large amount of
+L300,000 in gold, silver and precious stones, of which his share was
+L16,000--and in addition a gold cup, valued at L1,000 presented to his
+wife Mary. And such was the able conduct and the strict integrity he had
+shown in the face of many difficulties and temptations, that King James
+knighted him, making him Sir William.
+
+Now, through his own deserts, and the influence of the Reverend Increase
+Mather, agent in England of the colony, he was Governor-in-Chief of the
+Province of Massachusetts Bay, and Captain General (for military
+purposes) of all New England. And he was living in that "fair brick
+house in Green lane," which, years before, he had promised his wife that
+he would some day build for her to live in.
+
+Lady Mary was a very sweet, nice woman; but she had a will of her own,
+and never could be persuaded that Sir William's rise in the world was
+not owing entirely to her having taken pity on him, and married below
+her station. And really there was considerable truth in this view of the
+matter, which she was not inclined to have him forget; and Sir William,
+being a manly and generous, though at times rather choleric gentleman,
+generally admitted the truth of her assertion that "she had made him,"
+rather than have any controversy with her about it. One of the first
+acts of Sir William on arriving to fill his position as Governor, was to
+order chains put upon all the alleged witches in the prisons. In this
+order might be very plainly traced the hand of his pastor, the Reverend
+Cotton Mather. Lady Mary was outraged by such a command. One of her
+first visits had been to the jail, to see Captain Alden, whom she knew
+well. Keeper Arnold had shown her the order. "Put on the irons," said
+Lady Mary. The jailer did so. "Now that you have obeyed Sir William,
+take them off again." The jailer smiled, but hesitated. "Do as I command
+you, and I will be accountable to Sir William." Very gladly did Keeper
+Arnold obey--he had no faith in such accusations, brought against some
+of the best behaved people he ever had in his charge.
+
+"Now, do the same to all the other prisoners!" commanded the spirited
+lady.
+
+"I may as well be hung for a cow as a calf," said the jailer
+laughing--and he went gravely with one pair of fetters all through the
+cells, complying literally with the new Governor's orders.
+
+Of course this soon got to the ears of the Rev. Cotton Mather, who went
+in high indignation to the Governor. But the latter seemed to be very
+much amused, and could not be brought to manifest any great amount of
+indignation. "You know that Lady Mary has a will of her own," said he to
+his pastor. "If you choose to go and talk to her, I will take you to her
+boudoir; but I am not anxious to get into hot water for the sake of a
+few witches." The minister thought of it a moment; but then concluded
+wisely not to go. For, as Lady Mary said to her husband afterwards, "I
+wish that you had brought him to me. I would have told him just what I
+think of him, and his superstitious, hard-hearted doings. For me, I
+never mean to enter North Church more. I shall go hereafter to South
+Church; Masters Willard and Moody have some Christian charity left in
+them."
+
+"I think you are too hard on Master Cotton Mather, my dear," replied
+Sir William mildly.
+
+"Too hard, am I? What would you say if those girl imps at Salem should
+accuse me next! Your own loving wife,--to the world."
+
+"Oh, my dear wife, that is too monstrous even to think of!"
+
+"No more monstrous than their accusation of Mistress English of Salem,
+and her husband. You know them--what do you think of that?"
+
+"Certainly, that is very singular and impossible; but Master Mather
+says--"
+
+"Master Mather ought to be hung himself," said the indignant lady; "for
+he has helped to murder better people than he is, a great deal."
+
+
+"My dear, I must remonstrate--"
+
+"And there is Captain Alden--he is a witch, too, it seems!" And Lady
+Mary laughed scornfully. "Why not you too? You are no better a man than
+Captain Alden."
+
+"Oh, the Captain shall not be hurt."
+
+"It will not be through any mercy of his judges then. But, answer my
+question: what will you do, if they dare to accuse me? Answer me that!"
+
+"You certainly are not serious, Lady Mary?"
+
+"I am perfectly serious. I have heard already a whisper from Salem that
+they are thinking of it. They even have wished me warned against the
+consequences of my high-handed proceedings. Now if they cry out against
+me, what will you do?"
+
+We have said that Sir William was naturally choleric--though he always
+put a strong constraint upon himself when talking with his wife, whom he
+really loved; but now he started to his feet.
+
+"If they dare to breathe a whisper against you, my wife, Lady Mary, I
+will blow the whole concern to perdition! Confound it, Madam, there are
+limits to everything!"
+
+She went up to him and put her arm around his neck and kissed him. "I
+thought that before they touched me, they would have to chain the lion
+that lies at my door," she said proudly and affectionately; for,
+notwithstanding these little tiffs, she really was fond of her husband,
+and proud of his romantic career.
+
+But--coming back to our sheep--Dulcibel not having the same amount of
+wealth and influence behind her as Master English had, was very well
+contented at being allowed a room in Keeper Arnold's house; and was on
+the whole getting along very comfortably. Master Raymond had seen her
+soon after his arrival, but it was in company with the jailer; the
+principal result being that he had secretly passed her a letter, and had
+assured himself that she was not in a suffering condition.
+
+But things of late were looking brighter, for Master Raymond had made
+the acquaintance of Lady Mary through a friend to whom he had letters
+from England, and Lady Mary had begun to take an interest in Dulcibel,
+whom she had seen on one of her visits to Mistress English.
+
+Through Lady Mary, in some way, Dulcibel hoped to escape from the
+prison; trusting that, if once at large, Master Raymond would be able to
+provide for her safety. But there was one great difficulty. She, with
+the others, had given her word to the Keeper not to escape, as the price
+of her present exemption from confinement in an exposed, unhealthy cell.
+How this promise was to be managed, neither of them had been able to
+think of. Keeper Arnold might be approached; but Dulcibel feared not--at
+least under present circumstances. If brought to trial and convicted
+then to save her life, Dulcibel thought he might be persuaded to aid
+her. As to breaking her word to the Keeper, that never entered the mind
+of the truthful maiden, or of her lover. Death even was more endurable
+than the thought of dishonor--if they had thought of the matter at all.
+But as I have said, they never even thought of a such thing. And
+therefore how to manage the affair was a very perplexing question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+The First Rattle of the Rattlesnake.
+
+
+One day about this time Master Raymond was sitting in the porch of the
+Red Lion, thinking over a sight he had just seen;--a man had passed by
+wearing on the back of his drab coat a capital I two inches long, cut
+out of black cloth, and sewed upon it. On inquiry he found the man had
+married his deceased wife's sister; and both he and the woman had been
+first whipped, and then condemned to wear this letter for the rest of
+their lives, according to the law of the colony.[3]
+
+[Footnote 3: See Drake's History of Boston]
+
+Master Raymond was puzzling over the matter not being able to make out
+that any real offence had been committed, when who should walk up to the
+porch but Master Joseph Putnam. After a hearty hand-shaking between the
+two, they retired to Master Raymond's apartments.
+
+"Well, how are things getting along at Salem?"
+
+"Oh, about as usual!"
+
+"Any more accusations?"
+
+"Plenty of them, people are beginning to find out that the best way to
+protect themselves is to sham being 'afflicted,' and accuse somebody
+else."
+
+"I saw that a good while ago."
+
+"And when a girl or a woman is accused, her relatives and her friends
+gather around her, and implore her to confess, to save her life. For
+they have found that not one person who has been accused of being a
+witch, and has admitted the fact, has been convicted.
+
+"And yet it would seem that a confession of witchcraft ought to be a
+better proof of it, than the mere assertion of possible enemies,"
+responded Master Raymond.
+
+"Of course--if there was any show of reason or fairness in the
+prosecutions, from first to last; but as it is all sheer malice and
+wickedness, on the part of the accusers, from the beginning to the end,
+it would be vain to expect any reasonableness or fairness from them."
+
+"We must admit, however, that there is some delusion in it. It would be
+too uncharitable to believe otherwise," said Master Raymond
+thoughtfully.
+
+"There may have been at the very first--on the part of the children,"
+replied Master Putnam. "They might have supposed that Tituba and
+friendless Sarah Good tormented them--but since then, there has not
+been more than one part of delusion to twenty parts of wickedness. Why,
+can any sane man suppose that she-wolf sister-in-law of mine does not
+know she is lying, when she brings such horrible charges against the
+best men and women in Salem?"
+
+"No, I give up Mistress Ann, she is possessed by a lying devil,"
+admitted Master Raymond.
+
+"It is well she does not hear that speech," said Joseph Putnam.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, up to this time, you seem to have managed to soften her heart
+a little."
+
+"I have tried to. I have thought myself justified in playing a part--as
+King David once did you know."
+
+"It is that which brings me here. I met her at the house of a friend
+whom I called to see on some business a day or two ago."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"She said to me, in that soft purring voice of hers, 'Brother Joseph, I
+hear that your good friend Master Raymond is still in Boston.' I
+answered that I believed he was. 'When he took leave of me,' she
+continued, 'I advised him not to stay long in that town--as it was
+often a bad climate for strangers. I am sorry he does not take wise
+counsel.' Then she passed on, and out of the house. Have you any idea
+what she meant?"
+
+Master Raymond studied a moment over it in silence. Then he said:--"It
+is the first warning of the rattlesnake, I suppose. How many do they
+usually give before they spring?"
+
+"Three, the saying goes. But I guess this rattlesnake cannot be trusted
+to give more than one."
+
+"I was convinced I saw your brother Thomas as I came ashore from the
+Storm King the other day."
+
+"Ah, that explains it then. She understands it all then. She understands
+it all now just as well as if you had told her."
+
+"But why should she pursue so fiendishly an innocent girl like Dulcibel,
+who is not conscious of ever having offended her?"
+
+"Why do tigers slay, and scorpions sting? Because it is their nature, I
+suppose," replied Master Putnam philosophically. "Because, Mistress
+Dulcibel openly ridiculed and denounced her and the whole witchcraft
+business. And you will note that there has not been a single instance
+of this being done, that the circle of accusers have not seemed
+maddened to frenzy."
+
+"Yes,--there has been one case--your own."
+
+"That is true--because I am Thomas Putnam's brother. And, dupe and tool
+as he is of that she-wolf, and though there is no great amount of love
+lost between us--still I am his brother! And that protects me. Besides
+they know that it is as much any two men's lives are worth to attempt to
+arrest me."
+
+"And then you think there is no special enmity against Dulcibel?"
+
+"I have not said so. Jethro Sands hates her because she refused him;
+Leah Herrick wants her driven away, because she herself wants to marry
+Jethro, and fears Jethro might after all, succeed in getting Dulcibel;
+and Sister Ann hates her, because--"
+
+"Well, because what?"
+
+"Oh, it seems too egotistical to say it--because she knows she is one of
+my dear friends."
+
+"She must dislike you very much then?"
+
+"She does."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Oh, there is no good reason. At the first, she was inclined to like
+me--but I always knew she was a cold-blooded snake and she-wolf, and I
+would have nothing to do with her. Then when brother Thomas began to
+sink his manhood and become the mere dupe and tool of a scheming woman,
+I remonstrated with him. I think, friend Raymond, that I am as
+chivalrous as any man ought to be. I admire a woman in her true place as
+much as any man--and would fight and die for her. But for these men that
+forget their manhood, these Marc Antonies who yield up their sound
+reason and their manly strength to the wiles and tears and charms of
+selfish and ambitious Cleopatras, I have nothing but contempt. There are
+plenty of them around in all ages of the world, and they generally glory
+in their shame. Of course brother Thomas did not enjoy very much my mean
+opinion of his conduct--and as for sister Ann, she has never forgiven
+me, and never will."
+
+"And so you think she hates Dulcibel, mainly because you love her?"
+
+"That is about the shape of it," said Master Putnam drily. "That
+Dulcibel feels for me the affection of a sister, only intensifies my
+sister-in-law's aversion to her. But then, you see, that merely on the
+general principle of denouncing all who set themselves in opposition to
+the so-called afflicted circle, Dulcibel would be accused of
+witchcraft."
+
+"Well, for my part, I think the whole affair can only be accounted for
+as being a piece of what we men of the world, who do not belong to any
+church, call devilishness," said Master Raymond hotly.
+
+"You see," responded Master Putnam, "that you men of the world have to
+come to the same conclusion that we church members do. You impute it to
+'devilishness' and we to being 'possessed by the devil.' It is about the
+same thing. And now give me an idea of your latest plans. Perhaps I can
+forward them in some way, either here or at Salem."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+Conflicting Currents in Boston.
+
+
+All this time the under-current of opposition to these criminal
+proceedings against the alleged witches, was growing stronger, at
+Boston. The Reverend Samuel Willard and Joshua Moody both ministers of
+undoubted orthodoxy from the Puritan stand-point, did not scruple to
+visit the accused in the keeping of jailer Arnold, and sympathize openly
+with them. Captain Alden and Master Philip English and his wife
+especially, were persons of too great wealth and reputation not to have
+many sympathizing friends.
+
+On the other hand, the great majority of the Puritans, under the lead of
+the Reverend Cotton Mather, and the two Salem ministers, Parris and
+Noyes were determined that the prosecution should go on, until the
+witches, those children of the Evil One, were thoroughly cast out; even
+if half of their congregations should have to be hung by the other half.
+
+At a recent trial in Salem, one of the "afflicted" had even gone so far
+as to cry out against the Rev. Master Willard. But the Court, it seemed,
+was not quite ready for that; for the girl was sent out of court, being
+told that she must have mistaken the person. When this was reported to
+Master Willard, it by no means tended to lessen his growing belief that
+the prosecutions were inspired by evil spirits.
+
+Of course in this condition of things, the position of the Governor, Sir
+William Phips, became a matter of the first importance. As he owed his
+office mainly to the influence of the Rev. Increase Mather, and sat
+under the weekly ministrations of his learned son, Cotton Mather, the
+witch prosecutors had a very great hold upon him. With a good natural
+intellect, Sir William had received a very scanty education; and was
+therefore much impressed by the prodigious attainments of such men as
+the two Mathers. To differ with them on a theological matter seemed to
+him rather presumptuous. If they did not know what was sound in
+theology, and right in practise; why was there any use in having
+ministers at all, or who could be expected to be certain of anything?
+
+Then if Sir William turned to the law, he was met by an almost unanimous
+array of lawyers and judges who endorsed the witchcraft prosecution.
+Chief-Justice Stoughton, honest and learned Judge Sewall--and nearly
+all the rest of the judiciary--were sure of the truth in this matter.
+Not one magistrate could be found in the whole province, to decide as a
+sensible English judge is reported by tradition to have done, in the
+case of an old woman who at last acknowledged in the feebleness of her
+confused intellect that she was a witch, and in the habit of riding
+about on a broomstick: "Well, as I know of no law that forbids old women
+riding about on broomsticks, if they fancy that mode of conveyance, you
+are discharged." But there was not one magistrate at that time, wise or
+learned enough to make such a sensible decision in the whole of New
+England.
+
+Thus with the almost unanimous bar, and the great preponderance of the
+clergy, advising him to pursue a certain course, Sir William undoubtedly
+would have followed it, had he not been a man whose sympathies naturally
+were with sea-captains, military officers, and other men-of-the-world;
+and, moreover, if he had not a wife, herself the daughter of a
+sea-captain, who was an utter disbeliever in her accused friends being
+witches, and who had moreover a very strong will of her own.
+
+Of course if the Governor should come to Lady Mary's opinion, the
+prosecution might as well be abandoned--for, with a stroke of his pen,
+he could remit the sentences of all the convicted persons. Left to
+himself and Lady Mary, he doubtless would have done this; but he wished
+to continue in his office, and to be a successful Governor; and he knew
+that to array himself against the prosecution and punishment of the
+alleged witches was to displease the great majority of the people of the
+province; including, as I have shown, the most influential persons. In
+fact, it was simply to retire from his government in disgrace.
+
+All this the Reverend Cotton Mather represented to Sir William, with
+much else of a less worldly, but no doubt still more effective
+character, based upon various passages of the old Testament rather than
+upon anything corresponding to them in the New.
+
+And so the prosecutions and convictions went on; but the further
+executions waited upon the Governor's decision.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+The Rattlesnake Makes a Spring.
+
+
+It was a Thursday afternoon, and the "afflicted circle" was having one
+of its informal meetings at the house of Mistress Ann Putnam. At these
+meetings the latest developments were talked over; and all the scandal
+of the neighborhood, and even of Boston and other towns, gathered and
+discussed. Thus in the examination of Captain Alden in addition to the
+material charges of witchcraft against him, which I have noted, were
+entirely irrelevant slanders of the grossest kind against his moral
+character which the "afflicted girls" must have gathered from very low
+and vulgar sources.
+
+The only man present on this occasion was Jethro Sands; and the girls,
+especially Leah Herrick, could not but wonder who now was to be "cried
+out against," that Jethro was brought into their counsels.
+
+It is a curious natural instinct which leads every faculty--even the
+basest--to crave more food in proportion to the extent in which it has
+been already gratified. In the first place, the "afflicted" girls no
+doubt had their little spites, revenges, and jealousies to indulge, but
+afterwards they seemed to "cry out" against those of whom they hardly
+knew anything, either to oblige another of the party, or to punish for
+an expressed disbelief in their sincerity, or even out of the mere
+wantonness of power to do evil.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam opened the serious business of the afternoon, after
+an hour or so had been spent in gossip and tale-bearing, by an account
+of some recent troubles of hers.
+
+"A few nights ago," said she, "I awakened in the middle of the night
+with choking and strangling. I knew at once that a new 'evil hand' was
+upon me; for the torment was different from any I had ever experienced.
+I thought the hand that grasped me around the throat would have killed
+me--and there was a heavy weight upon my breast, so that I could hardly
+breathe. I clutched at the thing that pressed upon my breast, and it
+felt hard and bony like a horse's hoof--and it was a horse. By the faint
+moonlight I saw it was the wild black 'familiar' that belongs to the
+snake-marked witch, Dulcibel Burton. But the hand that grasped my throat
+was the strong hand of a man. I caught a sight of his face. I knew it
+well. But I pity him so much that I hesitate to reveal it. I feel as if
+I would almost rather suffer myself, than accuse so fine a young man as
+he seemed to be of such wicked conduct."
+
+"But it appears to me that it is your duty to expose him, Mistress
+Putnam," said Jethro Sands. "I know the young man whose spectre you saw,
+for he and that black witch of a mare seem to be making their nightly
+rounds together. They 'afflicted' me the other night the same way. I
+flung them off; and I asked him what he meant by acting in that way? And
+he said he was a lover of the witch Dulcibel; who was one of the queens
+of Hell--I might know that by the snake-mark on her bosom. And she had
+told him that he must afflict all those who had testified against her;
+and she would lend him her 'familiar,' the black mare, to help him do
+it."
+
+By this time, even the dullest of the girls of course saw very plainly
+who was being aimed at; but Mistress Putnam added, "upon learning that
+Master Jethro had also been afflicted by this person, I had very little
+doubt that I should find the guilty young man had been doing the same to
+all of you; for we have seen heretofore that when these witches attack
+one of us, they attack all, hating all for the same reason, that we
+expose and denounce them. I may add that I have also heard that the
+young man in question is now in Boston doing all he can in aid of the
+snake-witch Dulcibel Burton; and representing all of us to Lady Mary
+Phips and other influential persons, as being untruthful and malicious
+accusers of innocent people." Here she turned to one who had always been
+her right-hand as it were, and said:--"I suppose you have been tormented
+in the same way, dear Abigail?"
+
+Ann Putnam, her daughter, however, that precocious and unmanageable girl
+of twelve, here broke in: "I think my mother is entirely mistaken. I was
+treated just the same way about a week ago; but it was not the spectre
+of Master Raymond at all--it was the spectre of another man whom I never
+saw before. It was not at all like Master Raymond; and I, for one, will
+not join in crying out against him."
+
+In those old times, parents were treated with a much greater show, at
+least, of respect and veneration than they are at present; and therefore
+Mistress Putnam was greatly shocked at her daughter's language; but her
+daughter was well known to all present as an exceptional child, being
+very forward and self-willed, and therefore her mother simply said, "I
+had not expected such unkind behavior from you, Ann."
+
+"Master Raymond has been very kind to all of us, you know--has given us
+pretty things, and has promised to send us all presents when he gets
+back from England; and I have heard you and father both say, that the
+Putnams always stand up for their friends."
+
+This reference to the promised presents from England, evidently told all
+around the circle. They had nothing to gain by "crying out" against
+Master Raymond, they had something to gain by not doing it; besides, he
+was a very handsome young man, who had tried to make himself agreeable
+to almost all of them as he had opportunity. And though Dulcibel's
+beauty went for nothing in their eyes, a young man's good looks and
+gallant bearing were something entirely different.
+
+And so Abigail Williams, and Mary Walcot, and Mercy Lewis, and Leah
+Herrick, and Sarah Churchill, and Elizabeth Hubbard all had the same
+tale to tell with suitable variations, as young Ann Putnam had. They
+were certain that the face of the "spectre" was not the face of Master
+Raymond; but of some person they had never before seen. Mercy Lewis and
+Sarah Churchill, in fact, were inclined to think it was the face of
+Satan himself; and they all wondered very much that Mistress Putnam
+could have mistaken such an old and ugly face, for that of the comely
+young Englishman.
+
+As for Leah Herrick, she did not care in her secret heart if Master
+Raymond were in love with Dulcibel--so that he would only take her out
+of the country, where there was no danger of Jethro's seeing her any
+more. All her belief that Dulcibel was a witch was based upon jealousy,
+and now that it was utterly improbable that Jethro would ever turn his
+thoughts in that direction again, she had no hard feeling towards her;
+while, as she also had reason to expect a handsome present from England,
+she did not share in the least Jethro's bitterness against the young
+Englishman.
+
+But although Mistress Putnam was thus utterly foiled in her effort to
+enlist the "afflicted circle" in her support, she was not the woman to
+give up her settled purpose on that account. She knew well that she was
+a host in herself, so far as the magistrates were concerned. And, having
+Jethro Sands to join her, it made up the two witnesses that were
+absolutely necessary by the law of Massachusetts as of Moses. The
+"afflicted circle" might not aid her, but it was not likely that they
+would openly revolt, and take part against her in public; and so she
+went the very next morning in company with that obedient tool, her
+husband and Jethro Sands, to the office of Squire Hathorne, and got him
+to issue a warrant for the arrest of Master Ellis Raymond, on the usual
+charge of practicing witchcraft.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+An Interview with Lady Mary.
+
+
+Master Raymond, having obtained an introduction to the Governor's wife,
+Lady Mary, lost no time in endeavoring to "cultivate the amenities of
+life," so far as that very influential person was concerned. He had paid
+the most deferential court to her on several occasions where he had been
+able to meet her socially; and had impressed the Governor's lady very
+favorably, as being an unusually handsome, well-bred and highly
+cultivated young man. A comely and high-spirited lady of forty, she was
+better pleased to be the recipient of the courteous and deferential
+attentions of a young Englishman of good connections like Master
+Raymond, than even to listen to the wise and weighty counsel of so
+learned a man as Master Cotton Mather.
+
+Only in the last minutes of their last meeting however, when handing her
+ladyship to her carriage, did Master Raymond feel at liberty to ask her
+if he could have a short private interview with her the next morning.
+She looked a little surprised, and then said, "Of course, Master
+Raymond."
+
+"At what hour will it suit your ladyship?"
+
+"At twelve, precisely, I have an engagement at one;" and the carriage
+drove off.
+
+A minute or two before twelve, Master Raymond was at the Governor's
+house in Green lane; and was duly admitted, as one expected, and shown
+into her ladyship's boudoir.
+
+"Now, come right to the point, Master Raymond; and tell me what I can do
+for you," said her ladyship smiling. "If I can help you, I will; if I
+cannot, or must not, I shall say so at once--and you must continue to be
+just as good a friend to me as ever."
+
+"I promise that to your ladyship," replied the young man earnestly. He
+really liked and admired Lady Mary very much.
+
+"Is it love, or money?--young men always want one of these."
+
+"Your ladyship is as quick-witted in this as in everything else."
+
+"Well, which is it?"
+
+"Love."
+
+"Ah--who?"
+
+"Mistress Dulcibel Burton."
+
+"What!--not the girl with the snake-mark?"
+
+Raymond bowed his head very low in answer.
+
+Lady Mary laughed. "She is a witch then, it seems; for she has bewitched
+you."
+
+"We were betrothed to each other only a few days before that absurd and
+lying charge was made against her."
+
+"And her horse--her black mare--that upset the Reverend Master Parris
+into the duck pond; and then went up into the clouds; and, as Master
+Cotton Mather solemnly assured me, has never been seen or heard of
+since--what of it--where is it, really?"
+
+"In an out-of-the-way place, up in Master Joseph Putnam's woods,"
+replied the young man smiling.
+
+"And you are certain of it?"
+
+"As certain as riding the mare for about ten miles will warrant."
+
+"Master Mather assured me that no man--except perhaps Satan or one of
+his imps--could ride her."
+
+"Then I must be Satan or one of his imps, I suppose."
+
+"How did you manage it?"
+
+"I put a side-saddle on the beast; and a woman's skirt on myself."
+
+The lady laughed outright. "Oh, that is too good! It reminds me of what
+Sir William often says, 'Anything can be done, if you know how to do
+it!' I must tell it to him he will enjoy it so much. And it will be a
+good thing to plague Master Mather with."
+
+"Please do not tell anyone just now," protested the young man earnestly.
+"It may bring my good friend, Joseph Putnam, into trouble. And it would
+only make them all angrier than they are with Dulcibel."
+
+"Dulcibel--that is a strange name. It is Italian--is it not."
+
+"I judge so. It is a family name. I suppose there is Italian blood in
+the family. At least Mistress Dulcibel looks it."
+
+"She does. She is very beautiful--of a kind of strange, fascinating
+beauty. I do not wonder she bewitched you. Was that serpent mark too
+from Italy?"
+
+"I think it very likely."
+
+"Perhaps she is descended from Cleopatra--and that is the mark left by
+the serpent on the famous queen's breast."
+
+"I think it exceedingly probable," said Master Raymond. My readers will
+have observed before this, that he was an exceedingly polite and
+politic young man.
+
+"Well, and so you want me to get Mistress Dulcibel, this witch
+descendant of that famous old witch, Cleopatra, out of prison?"
+
+"I hoped that, from the well-known kindness of heart of your ladyship,
+you would be able to do something for us."
+
+"You see the difficulty is simply here. I know that all these charges of
+witchcraft against such good, nice people as Captain Alden, Master and
+Mistress English, your betrothed Dulcibel, and a hundred others, are
+mere bigotry and superstition at the best, and sheer spite and
+maliciousness at the worst--but what can I do? Sir William owes his
+position to the Reverend Increase Mather--and, besides, not being a
+greatly learned man himself, is more impressed than he ought to be by
+the learning of the ministers and the lawyers. I tell him that a learned
+fool is the greatest fool alive; but still he is much puzzled. If he
+does not conform to the wishes of the ministers and the judges, who are
+able to lead the great majority of the people in any direction they
+choose, he will lose his position as Governor. Now, while this is not so
+much in itself, it will be a bar to his future advancement--for
+preferment does not often seek the men who fail, even when they fail
+from having superior wisdom and nobleness to the multitude."
+
+It was evident that Sir William and Lady Mary had talked over this
+witchcraft matter, and its bearing upon his position, a good many times.
+And Master Raymond saw very clearly the difficulties of the case.
+
+"And still, if the robe of the Governor can only continue to be worn by
+dyeing it with innocent blood, I think that a man of the natural
+greatness and nobility of Sir William, would not hesitate as to his
+decision."
+
+"But a new Governor in his place might do worse."
+
+"Yes, he might easily do that."
+
+"When it comes to taking more lives by his order, then he will decide
+upon his course. So far he is temporizing," said the lady.
+
+"And Dulcibel?"
+
+"She is not suffering," was the reply. "Oh, if I only could say the same
+of the poor old women, and poor young women, now lying in those cold and
+loathsome cells--innocent of any crime whatever either against God or
+against man--I should not feel it all here so heavily," and Lady Mary
+pressed her hand against her heart. "But we are not responsible for it!
+I have taken off every chain--and do all I dare; while Sir William shuts
+his eyes to my unlawful doings."
+
+"Will you aid her to escape, should her life be in danger? You told me
+to speak out frankly and to the point."
+
+The lady hesitated only for a moment. "I will do all I can--even to
+putting my own life in peril. When something _must_ be done, come to me
+again. And now judge me and Sir William kindly; knowing that we are not
+despots, but compelled to rule somewhat in accordance with the desires
+of those whom we have been sent here to govern."
+
+Lady Mary extended her hand; the young man took it, as he might have
+taken the hand of his sovereign Queen, and pressed it with his lips.
+Then he bowed himself out of the boudoir.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+Master Raymond is Arrested for Witchcraft.
+
+
+As Master Raymond walked up the street toward the Red Lion, he felt in
+better spirits. He had secured the aid, if things should come to the
+worst of a very influential friend--and one who, woman-like, would be apt
+to go even farther than her word, as noble spirits in such cases are apt
+to do. Therefore he was comparatively light-hearted.
+
+Suddenly he felt a strong grasp upon his shoulder; and turning, he saw a
+couple of men beside him. One he knew well as deputy-marshall Herrick,
+of Salem.
+
+"You are wanted at Salem, Master Raymond," said Marshall Herrick
+gravely, producing a paper.
+
+Raymond felt a sinking of heart as he glanced over it--it was the
+warrant for his arrest, issued by Squire Hathorne.
+
+"At whose complaint?" he asked, controlling his emotions, and speaking
+quite calmly and pleasantly.
+
+"At the complaint of Mistress Ann Putnam and Master Jethro Sands,"
+replied the officer.
+
+"Of witchcraft? That is very curious. For as Dr. Griggs knows, just
+before I left Salem Farms, I was suffering from 'an evil hand' myself."
+
+"Indeed!" said the officer.
+
+"When am I to go?"
+
+"Immediately. We have provided a horse for you."
+
+"I should like to get my valise, and some clothes from the Red Lion."
+
+The officer hesitated.
+
+Master Raymond smiled pleasantly. "You must be hungry about this time of
+day, and they have some of the best wine at the Lion I ever tasted. You
+shall drink a bottle or two with me. You know that a man travels all the
+better for a good dinner and a bottle of good wine."
+
+The officers hesitated no longer. "You are a sensible man, Master
+Raymond, whether you are a witch or not," said the deputy marshall.
+
+"I think if the wine were better and plentier around Salem, there would
+be fewer witches," rejoined Master Raymond; which the other officer
+considered a very witty remark, judging by the way he laughed at it.
+
+The result of this strategic movement of Master Raymond's, was that he
+had a couple of very pleasant and good-humored officials to attend him
+all the way to Salem jail, where they arrived in the course of the
+evening. Proving that thus by the aid of a little metaphorical oil and
+sugar, even official machinery could be made to work a good deal
+smoother than it otherwise would. While the officers themselves
+expressed their utter disbelief to the people they met, of the truth of
+the charges that had been brought against Master Raymond; who in truth
+was himself "an afflicted person," and had been suffering some time from
+an "evil hand," as the wise Dr. Griggs had declared.
+
+The Salem keeper, Uncle Robie, true to his accustomed plan of action,
+received Master Raymond very gruffly; but after he had got rid of the
+other professionals, he had a good long talk, and made his cell quite
+comfortable for him. He also took him in to visit Antipas, who was
+delighted to see him, and also to hear that Mistress Dulcibel, was quite
+comfortably lodged with Keeper Arnold.
+
+Then the young man threw himself upon his bed, and slept soundly till
+morning. He did not need much study to decide upon his plans, as he had
+contemplated such a possibility as that, ever since the arrest of
+Dulcibel, and had fully made up his mind in what manner he would meet
+it. If, however, he had known the results of the conference of the
+"afflicted circle" two days previous, he would have felt more encouraged
+as to the probable success of the defence he meditated. The constable
+that had aided the deputy-marshall in making the arrest, had agreed
+however to send word to Joseph Putnam of what had occurred; and
+comforted by the thought of having at least one staunch friend to stand
+by him, Master Raymond had slept soundly even on a prison pallet.
+
+The next morning, as early as the rules of the jail would admit, Joseph
+Putnam came to see him. "I had intended to come and see you in Boston
+to-day," said Master Joseph, "but the she-wolf was too quick for me."
+
+"Why, had you heard anything?"
+
+"Yes, and I hardly understand it. Abigail Williams called to see
+Goodwife Buckley yesterday, and told her in confidence that it was
+probable you would be cried out against by Sister Ann and Jethro Sands;
+and to warn me of it."
+
+"Abigail Williams!"
+
+"Yes; and she also dropped a hint that none of the other 'afflicted
+girls' had anything to do with it--for they looked upon you as a very
+nice young man, and a friend."
+
+"Well, that is good news indeed," said Master Raymond brightening up.
+
+"And I called upon Doctor Griggs on my way here, and he says he is
+confident there was an 'evil hand' upon you when you were suffering at
+my house; and he will be on hand at the examination to give his
+testimony, if it is needed, to that effect."
+
+"But that terrible sister-in-law of yours! If she could only be kept
+away from the examination for half-an-hour; and give me time to impress
+the magistrates and the people a little."
+
+"It might be done perhaps," said Joseph Putnam musing.
+
+"Do not be too conscientious about the means, my dear friend," continued
+Master Raymond. "Do not stand so straight that you lean backward.
+Remember that this is war and a just war against false witnesses, the
+shedders of innocent blood, and wicked or deceived rulers. If I am
+imprisoned, what is to become of Dulcibel? Think of her--do not think of
+me."
+
+Joseph Putnam was greatly agitated. "I will do all I can for both of
+you. But my soul recoils from anything like deceit, as from wickedness
+itself. But I will think over it, and see if I cannot devise some way to
+keep Sister Ann away, for a time or altogether."
+
+"Give me at least fifteen minutes to work on the Magistrates, and to
+enlist the sympathies of the people in my behalf. For me, so far as my
+conscience is concerned, I should not hesitate to shoot that Jezebel.
+For the murder of the twenty innocent men and women who have now been
+put to death, she is mainly responsible. And to kill her who surely
+deserves to die, might save the lives of fifty others."
+
+Joseph Putnam shook his head. "I cannot see the matter in that light,
+Friend Raymond."
+
+"Oh," replied Raymond, "of course I do not mean you should kill Mistress
+Ann. I only put it as giving my idea of how far _my_ conscience would
+allow me to go in the matter. Draw her off in some way though--keep her
+out of the room for awhile--give me a little time to work in."
+
+"I will do all I can; you may be sure of that," responded Master Putnam
+emphatically.
+
+Here further confidential conversation was prevented by the entrance of
+the marshall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+Master Raymond Astonishes the Magistrates.
+
+
+The examination was to commence at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
+to be held in the Court House in the town, as being more convenient to
+Squire Hathorne than the meeting-house in the village.
+
+As Master Thomas Putnam's house and farm were several miles beyond the
+village, it made quite a long ride for them to attend the examination.
+He had arranged with his wife, however, to start immediately after their
+usual twelve o'clock dinner, taking her behind him on a pillion, as was
+customary at that day--his daughter Ann being already in town, where she
+was paying a visit to a friend. He had received however a message about
+ten o'clock, requesting his immediate presence at Ipswich, on a matter
+of the most urgent importance; and though he was greatly puzzled by it,
+he concluded to go at once to Ipswich and go from there direct to Salem
+town, without coming home again, as it would be very much out of his
+road to do so.
+
+According to this new arrangement, Mistress Ann would take the other
+horse, and a lady's saddle, and ride to town by herself. They had still
+a third horse, but that was already in town with her daughter.
+
+The Court House was but a short distance from the prison; and, as it was
+a good Puritan fashion to be punctual to the minute, at three o'clock
+precisely Squires Hathorne and Corwin were in their arm-chairs, and
+Master Raymond standing on the raised platform in front of them. As the
+latter looked carefully around the room, he saw that neither Thomas
+Putnam nor his mischievous wife, nor his own best friend Joseph Putnam,
+was present. Squire Hathorne also observed that Mistress Ann Putnam was
+not present; but, as she was usually very punctual, he concluded that
+she would be there in a few minutes, and after some whispered words with
+his colleague, resolved to proceed with the examination.
+
+Turning to the young Englishman, he said in his usual stern
+tones:--"Ellis Raymond, you are brought before authority, upon high
+suspicion of sundry acts of witchcraft. Now tell us the truth of this
+matter."
+
+But no answer came from the accused. Then, when all eyes were intently
+regarding him, he gave a wild shriek, and fell outstretched upon the
+platform.
+
+"Let me to him!" said Dr. Griggs, elbowing his way through the crowd. "I
+said a month ago that an 'evil hand' was upon him; and now I am certain
+of it."
+
+Master Raymond had not been an attentive observer of the recent trials
+for nothing; and he now gave the audience an exhibition which would
+compare favorably with the best, even with Mistress Ann Putnam's and
+Abigail William's. His face became shockingly contorted, and he writhed
+and twisted and turned convulsively. He tore imaginary spectral hands
+from around his neck. He pushed imaginary weights from off his breast.
+He cried, "Take them away! Pray, take them away!" until the whole
+company were very much affected; and even the magistrates were greatly
+astounded.
+
+Dr. Griggs loosened his collar and unbuttoned his doublet, and had water
+brought to sprinkle his face keeping up a running fire of words at the
+same time, to the effect that he knew, and had said, as least a month
+before, that Master Raymond had an "evil hand" upon him.
+
+"Who is it hurts you?" at length asked credulous Squire Hathorne.
+
+"See, there is the yellow bird!" cried the young man, staring into
+vacancy. "He is coming to peck my eyes out! Kill it! kill it!" dashing
+his hands out from his face violently. "Has no one a sword--pray do try
+to kill it!"
+
+Here an impetuous young villager, standing by, drew his rapier, and
+stabbed violently in the direction of the supposed spectral bird.
+
+"Oh! Oh! You almost killed it! See, there are some of its feathers!" And
+three yellow feathers were seen floating in the air; being small chicken
+feathers with which he had been provided that very morning by Uncle
+Robie, the jailer; and which the adroit Master Raymond rightly thought
+would have a prodigious effect.
+
+And the result was fully equal to his expectations. From that moment, it
+was evident that he had all the beholders with him; and Squire Hathorne,
+disposed as he had been to condemn him almost without a hearing, was
+completely staggered. He had the feathers from the "yellow bird"
+carefully placed upon his desk, with the purpose of transmitting them at
+once to Master Cotton Mather who, with these palpable proofs of the
+reality of the spectral appearance would be able utterly to demolish
+all the skeptical unbelievers.
+
+Finding that such an effect had been produced, Master Raymond allowed
+himself to regain his composure somewhat.
+
+"Mistress Ann Putnam, who is one of the two complainants, unaccountably
+is not here," said Squire Hathorne. "Master Jethro Sands, what have you
+to say against this young man? You are the other complainant."
+
+"Probably my mother has come to the conclusion that she was mistaken, as
+I told her; and therefore she has remained at home," said Ann Putnam,
+the daughter; who was delighted with the feather exhibition, and was
+secretly wondering how it was done.
+
+"Well, what have you to say,--Jethro Sands?"
+
+The audience looked around at Jethro with scornful faces, evidently
+considering him an imposter. What did he know about witches--compared to
+this rich young man from over the seas?
+
+"Tell him you find you were mistaken also," whispered Leah Herrick.
+
+"After seeing what we have seen, I withdraw my charges, Squire. I think
+that Mistress Putnam and myself must have been visited by the spectre
+of somebody else, and not by Master Raymond."
+
+"I hope that next time you will wait until you are quite certain,"
+replied Squire Hathorne gruffly. "Do you know that Master Raymond can
+have his action against you for very heavy damages, for slander and
+defamation?"
+
+"I certainly am very sorry, and humbly beg Master Raymond's pardon,"
+said Jethro, very much alarmed. He had never thought that the affair
+might take this turn--as indeed it did in many cases, some six months
+afterward; and which was a very effective damper upon the spirits of the
+prosecutors.
+
+Then the magistrates could do nothing less than discharge the prisoner;
+and Master Raymond stepped down from the platform a free man, to be
+surrounded by quite a circle of sympathizing friends. But his first
+thanks were due to Dr. Griggs for his professional services.
+
+"Doctor, those things you did for me when in the convulsions, relieved
+me greatly," and he took out his purse. "Yes, Doctor, I insist upon it.
+Skill like yours is always worth its recompense. We must not muzzle the
+ox, you know, that treads out the corn." And he put a gold piece into
+Dr. Grigg's palm--which was not often favored with anything but silver
+in Salem.
+
+Dr. Griggs was glad that he had been able to render him a little
+service; and said that, if there had been the least necessity for it, he
+would have gone on the platform, and testified as to the complete
+absurdity of the charge that that excellent woman, Mistress Ann Putnam,
+evidently in mistake, had brought against him.
+
+Then the "afflicted circle" had to be spoken to, who this afternoon did
+not appear to be in the least afflicted, but in the very best of
+spirits. They now felt more admiration for him than ever; and greeted
+him with great cordiality as he came to where they were standing. "When
+are you going back to England?" was a frequent question; and he assured
+them he now hoped to go before many weeks; and then, smiling, added that
+they would be certain to hear from him.
+
+As the crowd thinned out a little, Abigail Williams called him aside;
+"and did you really see the yellow bird, Master Raymond?" said she
+archly.
+
+"The yellow bird!" replied he dreamily. "Ah! you know that when we that
+are 'afflicted' go into trances, we are not conscious of all that we
+see."
+
+"For it seemed to me," continued the girl in a low tone, "that those
+feathers looked very much like chicken feathers." Then she laughed
+cunningly, and peered into his face.
+
+"Indeed!" replied the young man gravely; "well, a chicken's bill,
+pecking at your eyes, is not a thing to be made light of. I knew of a
+girl, one of whose eyes was put entirely out by her pet canary."
+
+And as he moved at once toward the rest of the group, the quick-witted
+and precocious child was compelled to follow.
+
+The magistrates had left the Court House, with the majority of the
+people, including Jethro Sands, when who should come in, walking
+hastily, and his face flushed with hard riding, but Thomas Putnam.
+
+"Am I too late? What was done?" he said quickly to Leah Herrick, who was
+standing near the door.
+
+"Oh, the charge broke down, and Master Raymond was discharged."
+
+"Ah! Where is my wife?"
+
+"She did not come. It was said by your daughter, that she probably
+found she was mistaken in the person, and stayed for that reason."
+
+"I do not believe it--she would have told me. What did Jethro Sands do?"
+
+"Oh, he withdrew the charges, so far as he was concerned. There was a
+great deal more danger that Master Raymond would prove him to be a
+witch, than he Master Raymond."
+
+"I see--it is a case of conspiracy!" exclaimed Master Putnam hotly. "Had
+you any hand in this, Master Raymond?" turning to the young Englishman,
+who had drawn near, on his way to the door.
+
+"Ah, Master Putnam, glad to see you. You did get here early enough
+however to witness my triumphant vindication. Here is learned Dr.
+Griggs, and young Mistress Williams, and your own gifted daughter, and
+handsome Mistress Herrick, and half-a-dozen others of my old friends who
+were ready to testify in my behalf, if any testimony had been needed.
+Make my compliments to Mistress Putnam; and give her my best thanks for
+her noble course, in confessing by her absence that she was mistaken,
+and that she had accused the wrong person."
+
+The cool assurance with which this was uttered, quite confused Thomas
+Putnam. Could his wife have stayed away purposely? Perhaps so, for she
+was accustomed to rapid changes of her plans. But why then had he been
+lured off on a wild-goose chase all the way to Ipswich?
+
+While he was standing there musing, his daughter came up. "I think,
+father, you and mother, next time, had better take my advice," said that
+incorrigible and unmanageable young lady; just about as opposite a
+character to the usual child of that period as could well be imagined.
+But these witchcraft trials, in which she figured so prominently had
+utterly demoralized her in this as in certain other respects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+Why Thomas Putnam Went to Ipswich.
+
+
+What young Master Joseph Putnam undertook to do, he was apt to do pretty
+thoroughly. When he had once made up his mind to keep both his brother's
+wife and his brother himself, away from the examination, he had rapidly
+thought over various plans, and adopted two which he felt pretty certain
+would not fail. They all involved a little deceit, or at least double
+dealing--and he hated both those things with a righteous hatred--but it
+was to prevent a great injustice, and perhaps to save life.
+
+As he rode rapidly homeward, turning over various plans, in his mind, he
+had passed through the village, when he saw some one approaching on what
+seemed to be the skeleton of an old horse. He at once recognized the
+rider as an odd character, a carpenter, whom he at one time had occasion
+to employ in doing some work on a small property he owned in Ipswich.
+Reining up his horse, Master Putnam stopped to have a chat with the
+man--whose oddity mainly consisted in his taciturnity, which was broken
+only by brief and pithy sentences.
+
+"A fine day Ezekiel--how are things in Ipswich?"
+
+"Grunty!"
+
+"Ah! I am sorry to hear it. Why, what is the matter?"
+
+"Broomsticks, chiefly."
+
+"You mean the witches. That is a bad business. But how shall we mend
+it?"
+
+The old carpenter was too shrewd to commit himself. He glanced at Master
+Putnam, and then turning his head aside, and giving a little laugh,
+said, "Burn all the broomsticks."
+
+"A good idea," replied Master Putnam, also laughing. "Oh, by the way,
+Ezekiel, I wonder if you could do a little errand for me?" and the young
+man took out his purse and began opening it. "You are not in a great
+hurry, are you?"
+
+"Hurry, is for fools!"
+
+"You know where my brother Thomas lives? Up this road?" They were just
+where two roads joined, one leading by his own house, and the other past
+his brother's.
+
+"I wish I knew the road to heaven as well."
+
+"You know how to keep silent, and how to talk also, Ezekiel--especially
+when you are well paid for it?"
+
+The old man laughed. "A little bullet sometimes makes a big hole," he
+said.
+
+"I want you to go to my brother Thomas, and say simply these
+words:--Ipswich Crown and Anchor. Very important indeed. At once. Wait
+till he comes."
+
+"All right." And he held out his hand, into which Master Joseph put as
+much silver as the old man could make in a whole week's work.
+
+"You are not to remember who sent you, or anything else than those
+words. Perhaps you have been drinking rather too much cider, you know.
+Do you understand?"
+
+The old man's face assumed at once a very dull and vacant expression,
+and he said in that impressive manner which rather too many glasses is
+apt to give, "Ipswich. Crown and Anchor. Very important indeed. At once.
+Wait till he comes."
+
+"That will do very well, Ezekiel. But not a word more, mind!"
+
+"Tight as a rat-trap," replied the old man--and he turned his skeleton's
+head, and went up the road towards Thomas Putnam's.
+
+Joseph felt certain that this would take his brother to Ipswich. Both of
+them were greatly interested in a lawsuit with certain of the Ipswich
+people, regarding the northern boundary of the Putnam farms. Thomas was
+managing the matter for the family; and was continually on the look-out
+for fresh evidence to support the Putnam claim. In fact, bright Master
+Raymond had once said that, between the Salem witches and the
+Ips-witches, Master Thomas seemed to have no peace of his life. But this
+was before the witch persecutions had assumed such a tragical aspect.
+
+When Ezekiel had found Thomas Putnam and delivered his brief message,
+without dismounting from his skeleton steed, Master Putnam asked at once
+who sent the message.
+
+"Ipswich. Crown and Anchor. Very important indeed! At once. Wait till he
+comes," repeated the old man, with a face of the most impassive
+solemnity, and emphasizing every sentence with his long fore-finger.
+
+And that was all Master Thomas could get out of him. That much came just
+as often as he wished it; but no more--not a word.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam had come out to the gate by that time. "He has been
+drinking too much cider," she said.
+
+This gave a suggestion to Ezekiel.
+
+"Yes, too much cider. Rum--steady me!"
+
+Mistress Putnam thought that it might produce an effect of that kind,
+and, going back into the house, soon reappeared with a rather stiff
+drink of West India rum; which the old man tossed off with no
+perceptible difficulty.
+
+He smiled as he handed back the tin cup which had held it. "Yes--steady
+now!" he said.
+
+"Who gave you the message?" again asked Master Putnam.
+
+Ezekiel looked solemn and thoughtful. "Who gave 'im the message,"
+replied Ezekiel slowly.
+
+"Yes--who sent you to me?"
+
+"Who sent yer--to--me?" again repeated Ezekiel. "Ipswich. Crown and
+Anchor. At once. Wait till he comes." Then the old man's countenance
+cleared up, as if everything now must be perfectly satisfactory.
+
+"Oh there is no use in trying to get any more out of him--he is too much
+fuddled," said Mistress Putnam impatiently.
+
+"More rum--steady me!" mumbled Ezekiel.
+
+"No, not a drop more," said Thomas Putnam peremptorily. "You have had
+too much already."
+
+The old man frowned--and turning the skeleton steed after considerable
+effort, he gave his parting shot--"Crown and anchor--wait till he
+comes!" and rode off in a spasmodic trot down the lane.
+
+"I shall have to go to Ipswich, and see about this, it may supply the
+missing link in our chain of evidence!"
+
+"But how about this afternoon?" queried his wife.
+
+"Oh, I can get to Salem by three o'clock, by fast riding. I will leave
+the roan horse for you."
+
+"Saddle the grey mare, Jehosaphat."
+
+And thus it was that his brother Joseph, looking out of his sitting-room
+window, about an hour after his arrival at home, saw Master Thomas
+Putnam, on his well-known grey mare, riding along the road past his
+house on the most direct route to Ipswich.
+
+"He is out of the way, for one--if he waits an hour or two for any
+person to meet him on important business at the Crown and Anchor,"
+thought the young man. "It is important indeed though that he should go,
+and keep himself out of mischief; and from helping to take any more
+innocent lives. And when he comes to his senses--in the next world, if
+not in this--he will thank me for deceiving him. Now let me see whether
+I can do as good a turn for that delectable wife of his."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+How Master Joseph Circumvented Mistress Ann.
+
+
+About an hour afterwards, Master Joseph saw one of his farm-hands coming
+over the fields from the direction of his brother's house, which was
+about two miles almost directly to the west of his own house. Going out
+to meet him, he said--
+
+"Well, Simon Peter, I see that you got the rake."
+
+"Yes, Master Joseph; but they wish me to return it as soon as we can."
+
+"That is right. Finish your job in the garden this afternoon, and take
+it back early tomorrow morning. You can go to work now."
+
+The man walked off toward the garden.
+
+"Wait a moment!" his master cried. The man stopped. "Anything new at
+brother Thomas's? Are they all at home?"
+
+"No, indeed! Master Thomas has gone off to Ipswich--and little Ann is at
+Salem town."
+
+"I could not borrow a horse, then, of them, you think?"
+
+"No, indeed, sir. There is only one left in the stable; and Mistress
+Putnam means to use that to go to the trial this afternoon."
+
+"Oh, well, I do not care much;" and his master walked off to the house,
+while Simon Peter went to his work.
+
+Then, after a somewhat earlier dinner than usual, Master Joseph ordered
+his young horse, Sweetbriar, saddled; and after kissing his wife "in a
+scandalous manner"--that is, out of doors, where some one might have
+seen him do it--he mounted, and cantered off down the lane.
+
+The young man loved a good horse and he claimed that Sweetbriar, with a
+year or two more of age and hardening, would be the fastest horse in the
+Province. As to temper, the horse was well named; for he could be as
+sweet, when properly handled, as a rose; and as sharp and briary as any
+rose-stalk under contrary conditions. A nervous, sensitive, high-mettled
+animal; Mistress Putnam, though a good rider, said it was too much work
+to manage him. While her husband always responded that Sweetbriar could
+be ridden by any one, for he was as gentle as a lamb.
+
+Just as Mistress Ann Putnam had got through her dinner, she saw her
+brother-in-law Joseph riding up the lane. The brothers, as has been
+seen, differed very widely relative to the Witchcraft prosecutions; but
+still they visited one another, as they were held together by various
+family ties, and especially by the old lawsuit against certain of the
+Ipswich men, to which I have alluded.
+
+Therefore Mistress Putnam opened the door and went out to the garden
+gate, where by this time the young man had dismounted, and fastened his
+horse.
+
+"Is brother Thomas at home, Sister Ann?"
+
+"No--he had a call to Ipswich this morning."
+
+"Ah--the lawsuit business."
+
+"I suppose so. But the messenger was so overcome with liquor, that he
+could not even remember who sent him."
+
+"Why, how could Thomas know where to go then?"
+
+"Oh, the man managed to say that his employee would be waiting for
+Thomas at the "Crown and Anchor," where he usually stops you know."
+
+"Well, I am glad that Thomas went. I stopped to see if Jehosaphat could
+do a little errand for me--I might have sent one of my own men, but I
+forget matters sometimes."
+
+"You will find him at the barn," replied Mistress
+
+Putnam, a little anxious to cut short the conversation, as she wished to
+get ready for her ride to Salem.
+
+Going to the barn, Master Joseph soon found Jehosaphat. "How do, Fatty!"
+this was the not very dignified diminutive into which Jehosaphat had
+dwindled in common use. "How are you getting along?"
+
+"Fair to middlin, sir. Not as well though as on the old place, Master
+Joseph."
+
+"I do not want to interfere with my brother, remember; but if at any
+time he should not want you any more, remember the old place is still
+open for you. It was your own fault, you know, that you went."
+
+"I did not know when I was well off, Master Joseph. I was a fool, that
+was all."
+
+"I thought so," replied Master Joseph pithily. "But no matter about that
+now--can you do an errand for me?"
+
+"Of course I can--the mistress willing."
+
+"Well, I said I wished to send you on an errand, and she told me where
+to find you."
+
+"That is all right then."
+
+"Go to Goodman Buckley's, in Salem village, and ask him for a bundle I
+left--bring it to my house, you know, you can take the roan horse
+there. And, by the way, Fatty, if you want to stop an hour or two to see
+the widow Jones's pretty daughter, I guess no great harm will be done."
+
+Jehosaphat giggled--but then his face clouded. "But Mistress Putnam
+wants to take the roan herself this afternoon. The trial comes off, you
+know."
+
+"Oh, it is not a trial--it is only an examination. And it is all
+fiddlesticks, anyhow. My sister-in-law is ruining her health by all this
+witch business. But if she insists upon going, I will lend her one of my
+horses. Therefore that need not keep you."
+
+So Jehosaphat, in high glee at having an afternoon's holiday, with the
+roan horse, threw on the saddle and mounted.
+
+As he rode at a rapid canter down the lane, Mistress Ann heard the
+noise, but supposed it was Master Joseph riding off again,--and did not
+even trouble herself to look out of the window, especially as she was
+just then changing her gown.
+
+Not long after, coming into the family room, who should she see there,
+sitting demurely, reading one of the Reverend Cotton Mather's most
+popular sermons, but the same Master Joseph Putnam whom she had thought
+she was well rid of.
+
+"I thought you had gone. I surely heard you riding down the lane," she
+said in a surprised tone.
+
+"Oh, no, I wanted to speak with you about something."
+
+"Who was it then?--I surely heard some one."
+
+"Perhaps it was one of those spectral horses, with a spectral rider. As
+Master Mather says: These are very wonderful and appalling times!" And
+the young man laughed a little scornfully.
+
+"Brother Joseph, I do not care to talk with you upon this question. I
+greatly regret, as do your brothers and your uncles, that you have gone
+over to the infidels and the scoffers."
+
+"And I regret that they are making such fools of themselves," replied
+Joseph hotly.
+
+"I have no time to discuss this question, brother Joseph," said Mistress
+Ann with dignity. "I am going to Salem town this afternoon, very much in
+the cross, to give my testimony against a young friend of yours. Would
+that I could have been spared this trial!" and his sister-in-law looked
+up to the ceiling sanctimoniously. As Joseph told his young wife that
+night, her hypocrisy hardened his heart against her; so that he could
+have kept her at home by sheer force, if it were necessary, and at all
+expedient--in fact he would have preferred that rough but sincere way.
+
+"If you testify to anything that throws doubt upon Master Raymond's
+perfect innocency and goodness, you will testify to a lie," replied
+Master Joseph severely.
+
+"As I said, I have no time for argument. Will you be good enough to tell
+Jehosaphat to saddle the roan for me."
+
+"You know that I had your permission to send Fatty off on an errand--and
+he is not back yet."
+
+Mistress Putnam started and bit her lip. She had made a mistake. "I
+suppose he will be back before long."
+
+"I doubt it. I sent him to the village."
+
+"Well, I suppose I can put on the saddle myself. Your conscience
+probably would not allow you to do it--even if common courtesy towards a
+woman, and that woman your sister, demanded it."
+
+"Without deciding the latter point, I should think it almost impossible
+for me to put a saddle on the roan just now."
+
+"Why? I do not understand you."
+
+"Because he is doubtless miles away by this time."
+
+"Jehosaphat did not take the horse!"
+
+"It is precisely what he did do."
+
+"He knew I wanted the roan to ride to Salem town this afternoon."
+
+"He told me you did; but I said that I thought you would have too much
+sense to go. Still, if you would go, that I would lend you one of my
+horses."
+
+"Well, where is your horse?"
+
+"There, at the door. You can take off my saddle, and put on your
+side-saddle, and, if you are in a hurry, Sweetbriar can do the distance
+in half the time that the roan could."
+
+Mistress Putnam could have cried with anger and vexation. Like many
+people of strong and resolute will, she was a good deal of a coward on
+horseback; and she knew that Sweetbriar was what the farmers called "a
+young and very skittish animal." Still her determined spirit rose
+against thus being outdone; besides, she knew well that in a case like
+this, where none of the "afflicted circle," not even her own daughter,
+would aid her, the whole thing might fall through if she were not
+present. So she said, "Well, I will saddle your horse myself."
+
+Here Master Joseph relented--because he now felt certain of his game. "I
+have conscientious scruples against lifting even my little finger to
+aid you in this unholy business," he said more placidly, "but under the
+circumstances, I will saddle Sweetbriar for you."
+
+So saying, he took off his saddle from the horse, and substituted the
+side-saddle which he brought from the barn. Then he led Sweetbriar to
+the horse-block, and his sister-in-law mounted.
+
+She glanced at his spurs. "You ride him with spurs, I see. Hand me my
+riding-whip," she said, pointing to where she had laid it, when she
+first came out.
+
+"I would not strike him, if I were you. He is not used to the whip--it
+might make him troublesome."
+
+Mistress Putnam made no reply; but gathered up the reins, and the horse
+started down the lane.
+
+A singular smile came across the young man's features. He went back and
+closed the door of the house, and then started in a rapid walk across
+the field towards his own home. Neither of them thought it mattered that
+the house was left for a time unprotected. Mistress Putnam knew that a
+couple of farm-hands were at work in a distant field, who would be back
+at sundown; and there were so few strollers at that time, that no
+farmer thought of bolting up his doors and windows when he went to
+meeting, or to see a neighbor.
+
+The way home across the fields was a good deal nearer than to go by the
+road, as the latter made quite an angle. And, as the young man strode
+swiftly, on he could see in many places his sister-in-law, riding
+deliberately along, and approaching the forks of the road, where anyone
+going to his own house, would turn and ride away from, instead of toward
+Salem.
+
+"When she gets to the forks of the road, look out for squalls," said
+Master Joseph to himself. For many had been his own fights with
+Sweetbriar, when the horse wanted to go towards his stable, after a long
+ride, and his young master wanted him to go in the opposite direction.
+Sweetbriar had already gone about twenty miles that day--and, besides,
+had been given only the merest mouthful for dinner, with the object of
+preparing him for this special occasion.
+
+The next swell in the ground afforded the young man an excellent view.
+Sweetbriar had arrived at the turn which led to his stable; where rest
+and oats awaited him; and it evidently seemed to Him the height of
+injustice and unreason to be asked to go all the way back to Salem
+again. Mistress Ann, however, knew nothing of these previous
+experiences of the animal, but imputed his insubordinate behavior
+entirely to self-will and obstinacy. And thus, as the great globe moves
+around the sun in a perpetual circle, as the result of the two
+conflicting forces of gravitation and fly-off-it-iveness, so Sweetbriar
+circled around and around, like a cat chasing his tail, as the result of
+the conflicting wills of himself and his rider.
+
+Master Joseph watched the progress of the whole affair with decided
+pleasure. "No woman but a witch could get Sweetbriar past that turn," he
+said to himself, laughing outright, "And no man, who had not a pair of
+spurs on."
+
+At last, getting out of all patience, Mistress Putnam raised her whip
+and brought it down sharply on her horse's shoulder. This decided the
+struggle; for, unused to such punishment, the fiery animal reared, and
+then turning, sprang up the road that led to his stable at a wild
+gallop.
+
+His rider as I have said, was not a very good horse-woman, and she now
+took hold of the horn of the saddle with her right hand, to enable her
+to keep her seat; and tried to moderate the gait of the horse with the
+reins and the voice, abandoning all further resistance to his will as
+useless.
+
+Setting off at a run, Master Joseph was able to reach home just about
+the same time as his sister-in-law did.
+
+"Ah! I am glad you changed your mind, Sister Ann, about going to Salem.
+It is a great deal more sensible to come and spend the afternoon with
+Elizabeth."
+
+"Very glad to see you, Sister Ann," said Mistress Joseph, coming out to
+the horse-block, at which Sweetbriar, from force of habit, had stopped.
+
+Mistress Ann looked offended, and replied coldly, "I had no intention of
+coming here this afternoon, Sister Elizabeth; but this vile brute, which
+Joseph lent me, after sending away my own horse, would neither obey the
+reins nor the whip."
+
+"You rascal!" said Master Joseph severely, addressing the horse. "You do
+not deserve to have a lady ride you."
+
+"Can you not lend me another horse--say the one Elizabeth always rides?"
+
+"All the other horses are out at work," replied Master Joseph; "and
+before I could get one of them in, and at all groomed up, ready for the
+saddle, I am afraid it would be too late for your purpose."
+
+"So I must be compelled to do as you wish, and stay away from the
+examination?" said Mistress Ann bitterly.
+
+"Oh, if you choose, I will put a pillion on Sweetbriar, and see how that
+works?" replied Master Joseph with a meek and patient expression of
+countenance, as of one upbraided without cause. "To be sure, Sweetbriar
+has never been asked to carry double; but he might as well learn now as
+ever."
+
+"That seems to be the only thing that can be done now," and the
+expression of Mistress Ann's face resembled that of a martyr who was
+about to be tied to the stake; for riding on a pillion brought the lady
+always into the closest proximity with the gentleman, and she was now
+cherishing towards Master Joseph a temper that could hardly be called
+sisterly.
+
+There was necessarily a great waste of time in getting the pillion on
+Sweetbriar. He never had carried double, and he evidently felt insulted
+by being asked to do it. Master Joseph glanced at the sun, and knew it
+must be now full two o'clock. Only by fast riding, would it be possible
+to get to Salem court-house by three; and the roads, as they then were,
+did not admit of fast riding except in a few places.
+
+It was no easy thing for Mistress Ann to get on Sweetbriar, for the
+horse backed and sidled off from the horse-block whenever she attempted
+it--all his sweetness seemed gone by this time, and the briars alone
+remained. At least fifteen minutes more were lost in this way. But at
+last the difficult feat was accomplished.
+
+"Hold on to me tightly," said the young man, "or you will be thrown
+off--" for the irritated animal began to curvet around in all
+directions, manifesting a strong determination to go back to his stable,
+instead of forward towards Salem.
+
+"I think we had better try the other road, and not pass the forks where
+you had so much trouble with him," said Master Joseph, as the horse went
+more quietly, going up the first hill.
+
+"As you think best," said his sister-in-law, in a sharp tone, "If I had
+a horse like this I would shoot him!"
+
+"Oh, Sweetbriar is good enough usually. I never saw him so violent and
+troublesome as he is to-day. And I think I know the reason of it."
+
+"What is the reason?"
+
+"I fear he has an 'evil hand' upon him," said Master Joseph with great
+solemnity.
+
+"Nonsense," replied Mistress Ann sharply.
+
+"He has got the wicked One in him; that is the matter with him."
+
+"That is about the same thing," said Master Joseph.
+
+Now they were at the top of the hill, and the horse broke into tantrums
+again; requiring all of Master Joseph's skill to prevent his toppling
+himself and his two riders over one of the many boulders that obstructed
+the road.
+
+"If you do not hold on to me more tightly, Sister Ann, you will be
+thrown off," said Master Joseph, putting back his right hand to steady
+her. And Mistress Ann was compelled to lock her arms around him, or take
+the chance of serious injury from being dashed to the rough highway. The
+young man would have liked to relieve his feelings by a hearty burst of
+laughter, as he felt her arms embracing him so warmly, but of course he
+dared not.
+
+They soon came near the main road, running due north and south, and
+which it was necessary to take, as it led directly down to Salem.
+Sweetbriar knew that road well--and that he never stopped when once
+turned to the south on it, short of a six mile ride. He remembered his
+recent victorious struggle at the Forks, and now resolved upon another
+battle. All of Master Putnam's efforts--or what seemed so--could not get
+him headed southward on that road. In truth, burdened as he was, the
+young man really could not do it, without incurring too much risk to the
+lady behind him. Those who have ever had such a battle with a wilful,
+mettlesome horse, know that it often requires the utmost patience and
+determination on the part of his rider, to come out victorious. The best
+plan--the writer speaks from some experience--is to pull the animal
+round in a circle until his brain becomes confused, and then start him
+off in the right direction.
+
+But Sweetbriar evidently had a better brain than usual, for when the
+whirl came to an end, it always found his pointing like the magnetic
+needle to the north. It had been Master Joseph's plan to pretend a good
+deal of earnestness in the struggle which he was certain would come in
+this place; but he was pleased to find that there was no need of any
+pretence in the matter. The horse, under the circumstances, the young
+man having a lady's safety to consult, was the master. Repeated trials
+only proved it. Whenever the fierce, final tug of war came, Mistress
+Ann's safety had to be consulted, and the horse had his own way. So, as
+the result Sweetbriar started off in a sharp canter up, instead of down,
+the road.
+
+"Take me home then," said his sister-in-law--"if you will not take me to
+Salem."
+
+"If I _will_ not," repeated Master Joseph. "I give you my honest word,
+Sister Ann, that I could not make this horse go down the road, with us
+two on his back, if I stayed here all the afternoon trying. I should
+think you must have seen that."
+
+"No matter. Take me home."
+
+"Besides, we could not get to Salem before four o'clock now, if
+Sweetbriar went his best and prettiest."
+
+"I give it up. Let us turn and go home."
+
+"If we turn and go back the way we came, I do not think I shall be able
+to get this self-willed animal past my own gate."
+
+"Well, what do you mean to do?" said the lady bitterly. "Ride on up to
+Topsfield?"
+
+Master Joseph laughed. "No--there is a road strikes off towards your
+house a short distance above here, and I think I can get you home by it,
+without any further trouble."
+
+"Very well--get me home as soon as you can. I do not feel like any
+further riding, or much more talking."
+
+"Of course it is very aggravating," replied Master Putnam soothingly,
+"but then you know as Master Parris says, that all these earthly
+disappointments are our most valuable experiences--teaching us not to
+set our hopes upon worldly things, but upon those of a more enduring and
+satisfying character."
+
+His sister-in-law's face, that he could not see, she being behind him,
+wore a look as she listened to this, which could be hardly called
+evangelical.
+
+"You wished very much I know to go this afternoon to Salem," continued
+Master Joseph, in the same sermonizing tone; "but doubtless your wish
+has been overruled for good. I think, as a member of church, you should
+be willing to acquiesce patiently in the singular turn that affairs have
+taken, and console yourself with the thought that you have been
+innocently riding these peaceful roads instead of being in Salem, doing
+perchance an infinite deal of mischief."
+
+"No doubt what you are saying seems to you very wise and edifying,
+Joseph Putnam, but I have a bad headache, and do not care to converse
+any further."
+
+"But you must admit that your projected visit has been frustrated in a
+very singular, if not remarkable manner?" Master Joseph knew that he
+had her now at an advantage; she was compelled to listen to everything
+he chose to say. His saddle was even better in that respect than the
+minister's pulpit--you might leave a church, but she could not leave the
+horse.
+
+"I do not see anything very miraculous, brother Joseph, in a young man
+like you having a self-willed and unprincipled horse. In truth, the
+wonder would be if you had a decent and well-governed animal," replied
+his sister-in-law wrathfully.
+
+The young man smiled at the retort, but she could not see the gleam of
+sunshine as it passed rapidly over his face; lingering a moment in the
+soft depths of his sweet blue eyes. There was no smile however in his
+voice, but the previous solemnity, as he continued:--
+
+"And yet if Balaam's ass could see the angel of the Lord, with his
+drawn-sword, standing in the way, and barring his further progress in
+wrongdoing, why might not this horse--who is much more intelligent than
+an ass--have seen a similar vision?"
+
+The young man had begun this speech somewhat in sport; but as he ended
+it, the assumed tone of solemnity had passed into one of real
+earnestness. For, as he asked himself, "Why should it not be? This woman
+with him was bound on a wicked errand. Why should not the angel or the
+Lord stand in her way also--and the horse see him, even if his riders
+did not?"
+
+Mistress Putnam made no answer. Perhaps now that the young man was
+really in earnest, what he said made some impression upon her, but, more
+probably it did not.
+
+He, too, relapsed into silence. It seemed to him a good place to stop
+his preaching, and let his sister-in-law think over what he had said.
+
+"Thank Heaven we are here at last!" said the baffled woman, as they rode
+up to the horse-block at her own door. Sweetbriar stood very quiet, and
+she stepped on the block, Master Joseph keeping his seat.
+
+"Will you dismount and stay to supper, brother Joseph?" said Mistress
+Ann, in a soft purring tone. Master Joseph fairly started with his
+surprise, and looked steadily into her dark, inscrutable eyes--eyes like
+Jael's as she gazed upon sleeping Sisera.
+
+"No, I thank you--I expect a friend to supper. I hope brother Thomas
+heard some good news at Ipswich. Come and see us when you feel like
+it." And he rode off.
+
+As he told his wife afterwards, he would not have taken supper with his
+sister Ann that evening as he valued his life.
+
+And yet perhaps it was all imagination--and he did not see that thing
+lurking in the depths of his sister-in-law's cold, unfathomable eyes
+that he thought he did. And yet her testimony against Rebecca Nurse,
+reads to us, even at this late day, with all the charity that we are
+disposed to exercise towards things so long past, as cold-blooded,
+deliberate murder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+The Two Plotters Congratulate Each Other.
+
+
+When Master Joseph arrived home, he told his wife of what a perverse
+course things had taken, amid his own and her frequent laughter. And
+then he could do nothing else than walk up and down impatiently,
+glancing at frequent intervals towards the road, to see if anybody were
+coming.
+
+In the course of an hour or so, nobody appearing and Sweetbriar being
+sweetened up again by a good feed, he ordered the horse brought out.
+Then he was persuaded by his wife to recall the order, and wait
+patiently till sundown.
+
+"What impatient creatures you men are!" said Mistress Elizabeth with
+feminine superiority. "Doubtless he will be along. Give him sufficient
+time. Now, do not worry, husband mine, but take things patiently."
+
+So Master Joseph was induced to control his restlessness and just as
+soon as he could have been reasonably expected, Master Raymond was seen
+riding up the lane at a light canter.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Master Joseph, running to meet him. "And is it all
+over?"
+
+"We have smitten Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer even till thou come to
+Minnith!" answered Master Raymond, laughing. "It was you that kept the
+she-wolf away, I know. How did you do it?"
+
+"Come in and I will tell you all about it. And I want to hear how all
+went off in Salem."
+
+After a couple of hours' conversation, broken frequently by
+irresponsible bursts of laughter, the young men were mutually
+enlightened; and complimented each other upon the success with which
+they had worked out their respective schemes--while young Mistress
+Elizabeth complimented them both, thinking honestly in her innocent
+heart that two such wonderful young men certainly had never before
+existed.
+
+"How I should like to have seen you astonishing old Squire Hathorne,"
+said Master Joseph.
+
+"I am afraid you would have spoiled all by laughing," said his young
+wife. "You know you never can control your merriment, Joseph."
+
+"I cannot? You should have seen me preaching to sister Ann this
+afternoon. I kept my face all the time as sober as a judge's. You know
+she had to take it all quietly--she could not even run away from it."
+
+"I would have given one of your five-pound Massachusetts notes to see
+it," said Master Raymond. "And five pounds more to see your brother
+Thomas stamping up and down the bar-room of the 'Crown and Anchor,'
+waiting for that Ipswich man to meet him."
+
+"I was very careful all through not to tell a direct falsehood," said
+Master Joseph; "it is bad enough to deceive people, without being guilty
+of downright lying."
+
+"Oh, of course," replied Master Raymond. "I do not know that I told a
+downright lie either, all day; although I must admit that I acted a
+pretty big one. But you must deal with fools according to their
+folly--you know we have Scripture for that."
+
+"I do not think I would have done it merely to save myself," said Master
+Joseph, evidently a little conscience-smitten. "But to save you, my
+friend, that seems to be different."
+
+"And Dulcibel," added Master Raymond. "If I were imprisoned what would
+become of her?"
+
+"Yes, I am glad I did it," responded his friend, regaining his
+confidence. "I have really hurt neither brother Thomas nor Sister Ann;
+on the contrary, I have prevented them from doing a great wrong. I am
+willing to answer for this day's work at the Last Day--and I feel
+certain that then at least, both of them will thank me for it."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said Mistress Elizabeth who herself brought up
+in the rigid Puritan school, had felt the same misgivings as her
+husband, but whose scruples were also removed by this last
+consideration.
+
+As for Master Raymond, he, being more a man of the world, had felt no
+scruples at playing such a deceitful part. I am afraid, that to save
+Dulcibel, he would not have scrupled at open and downright lying. Not
+that he had not all the sensitiveness of an honorable man as to his
+word; but because he looked upon the whole affair as a piece of
+malicious wickedness, in defiance of all just law, and which every
+true-hearted man was bound to oppose and defeat by all means allowable
+in open or secret warfare.
+
+"I suppose you go back to Boston to morrow?" said his host, as they were
+about to separate for the night.
+
+"Yes, immediately after breakfast. This affair is a warning to me, to
+push my plans to a consummation as soon as possible. I think I know what
+their next move will be--a shrewd man once said, just think what is the
+wisest thing for your enemies to do, and provide against that."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Remove the Governor."
+
+"Why, I understood he was a mere puppet in the hands of the two
+Mathers."
+
+"He would be perhaps; but there is a Lady Phips."
+
+"Ah!' the gray mare is the better horse,' is she, as it is over at
+brother Thomas's?"
+
+"Yes, I think so. Now mark my prediction, friend Joseph; the first blow
+will be struck at Lady Mary. If Sir William resists, as I feel certain
+that he will--for he is, if not well educated, a thoroughly manly
+man--then he will be ousted from his position. You will note that it has
+been the game all through to strike at any one, man or woman, who came
+between these vampires and their prey. I know of only one exception."
+
+"Ah, who is that?"
+
+"Yourself."
+
+Master Joseph smiled grimly. "They value their own lives very highly,
+friend Raymond; and know that to arrest me would be no child's play.
+Besides, Sweetbriar is never long unsaddled; and he is the fastest horse
+in Salem."
+
+"Yes, and to add to all that, you are a Putnam; and your wife is closely
+connected with Squire Hathorne."
+
+"There may be something in that," said his friend.
+
+"Yes, even Mistress Ann has her limits, which her husband--submissive in
+so many things--will not allow her to pass. But we are both a little
+tired, after such an eventful day. Good night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+Mistress Ann's Opinion of the Matter.
+
+
+While the foregoing conversation was taking place, one of a very
+different kind was passing between Mistress Ann and her worthy husband.
+He had gathered up all the particulars he could of the examination and
+had brought them home to his wife for her instruction.
+
+After listening to all that he had to tell, with at least outward
+calmness, she said bitterly: "The whole thing was a trick, you see, to
+keep you and me away from Salem."
+
+"Do you think so? Do you think then, that no man really wanted to see me
+at Ipswich?"
+
+"It is as plain as the nose on your face," replied his wife. "You were
+to be decoyed off to Ipswich, my horse sent out of the way, and then
+Joseph's madcap horse offered to me, they knowing well that the
+worthless creature would not behave himself with any woman on his back."
+
+"Oh, pshaw, Ann; you do not mean that my simple-hearted brother, Joseph
+Putnam, ever planned and carried out a subtle scheme of that kind?" said
+honest Thomas, with an older brother's undervaluation of the
+capabilities of a mere boy like Joseph.
+
+"I do not say that Joseph thought it all out, for very probably he did
+not; doubtless that Master Raymond put him up to it--for he seems
+cunning and unprincipled enough for anything, judging, by what you have
+told me of his ridiculous doings."
+
+"You may call them ridiculous, Ann; but they impressed everybody very
+much indeed. Dr. Griggs, told me that he had no doubt whatever that an
+'evil hand' was on him."
+
+"Dr. Griggs is an old simpleton," said his wife crossly.
+
+"And even Squire Hathorne says that he never saw a stronger case of
+spectral persecution. Why, when one of the young men thrust the point of
+his rapier at the yellow bird, some of its feathers were cut off and
+came fluttering to the ground. Squire Hathorne says he never saw
+anything more wonderful."
+
+"Nonsense--it is all trickery!"
+
+"Trickery? Why, my dear wife, the Squire has the feathers!--and he means
+to send them at once to Master Cotton Mather by a special messenger, to
+confute all the scoffers and unbelievers in Boston and Plymouth!"
+
+A scornful reply was at the end of his wife's tongue but, on second
+thought, she did not allow it to get any farther. Suppose that she did
+convince her husband and Squire Hathorne that they had been grossly
+deceived and imposed upon--and that Master Raymond's apparent
+afflictions and spectral appearance were the result of skilful juggling,
+what then? Would their enlightenment stop there? How about the pins that
+the girls had concealed around their necks, and taken up with their
+mouths? How about Mary Walcot secretly biting herself, and then
+screaming out that good Rebecca Nurse had bitten her? How about the
+little prints on the arms of the "afflicted girls," which they allowed
+were made by the teeth of little Dorcas Good, that child not five years
+old; and which Mistress Ann knew were made by the girls themselves? How
+about the bites and streaks and bruises which she herself had shown as
+the visible proof that the spectre of good Rebecca Nurse, then lying in
+jail, was biting her and beating her with her chains? For Edward Putnam
+had sworn: "I saw the marks both of bite and chains."
+
+Perhaps it was safer to let Master Raymond's juggling go unexposed,
+considering that she herself and the "afflicted girls" had done so very
+much of it.
+
+Therefore she said, "I have no faith in Master Raymond nevertheless; no
+more than Moses had in King Pharaoh's sorcerers, when they did the very
+same miracles before the king that he had done. I believe him now to be
+a cunning and a very bad young man, and I think if I had been on the
+spot, instead of his being at this very moment as I have very little
+doubt, over at brother's, where they are congratulating each other on
+the success of their unprincipled plans, Master Raymond would now be
+lying in Salem jail."
+
+"Probably you are correct, my dear," responded her husband meekly; "and
+I think it not unlikely that Master Raymond may have thought the same,
+and planned to keep you away--but it was evident to me, that if the
+'afflicted girls' had taken one side or the other in the matter, it
+would not have been yours. Why, even our own daughter Ann, was laughing
+and joking with him when I entered the court room."
+
+"Yes," said his wife disdainfully--"that is girl-nature, all over the
+earth! Just put a handsome young man before them, who has seen the
+world, and is full of his smiles and flatteries and cajolements, and
+the wisest of women can do nothing with them. But the cold years bring
+them out of that!" she added bitterly. "They find what they call love,
+is a folly and a snare."
+
+Her husband looked out of the window into the dark night, and made no
+reply to this outburst. He had always loved his wife, and he thought,
+when he married her, that she loved him--although he was an excellent
+match, so far as property and family were concerned. Still she would
+occasionally talk in this way; and he hoped and trusted that it did not
+mean much.
+
+"I think myself," he said at length, "that it is quite as much the
+pretty gifts he has made them, and has promised to send them from
+England, as his handsome face and pleasant manners."
+
+"Oh, of course, it all goes together. They are a set of mere giggling
+girls; and that is all you can make of them. And our daughter Ann is as
+bad as any of the lot. I wish she did not take so much after your
+family, Thomas."
+
+This roused her husband a little. "I am sure, Ann, that our family are
+much stronger and healthier than your own are. And as to Ann's being
+like the other girls, I wish she was. She is about the only delicate and
+nervous one among them."
+
+"Well, Thomas, if you have got at last upon that matter of the
+superiority of the Putnams to everybody else in the Province, I think I
+shall go to bed," retorted his wife. "That is the only thing that you
+are thoroughly unreasonable about. But I do not think you ever had a
+single minister, or any learned scholar, in your family, or ever owned a
+whole island, in the Merrimack river as my family, the Harmons, always
+have done, since the country was first settled--and probably always
+shall, for the next five hundred years."
+
+To this Thomas Putnam had no answer. He knew well that he had no
+minister and no island in his family--and those two things, in his
+wife's estimation, were things that no family of any reputation should
+be without. He had not brought on the discussion, although his wife had
+accused him of so doing, and had only asserted what he thought the truth
+in stating that the Putnams were the stronger and sturdier race.
+
+"I do not wish to hurt your feelings, Thomas, in reminding you of these
+things," continued his wife, finding he was not intending to reply; "I
+will admit that your family is a very reputable and worthy one, even if
+it is not especially gifted with intellect like the Harmons, else you
+may be sure that I should not have married into it. But I have a
+headache, and do not wish to continue this discussion any longer, as it
+is unpleasant to me, and besides in very bad taste."
+
+And so, taking the hint, Master Putnam, like a dutiful husband, who
+really loved his somewhat peevish and fretful wife, acknowledged by his
+silence in the future that the Harmons were much superior to any family
+that could not boast of possessing a minister and an island; the latter
+for five hundred years!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+Master Raymond Visits Lady Mary.
+
+
+When Master Raymond returned to Boston, he found that an important event
+had taken place in his absence. Captain Alden and Master Philip English
+and his wife, had all escaped from prison, and were nowhere to be found.
+How Captain Alden had managed things with the jailer the young man was
+not able to ascertain--probably however, by a liberal use of money. As
+for Master English and his wife, they were, as I have already said, at
+liberty in the day time, under heavy bonds; and had nothing to do but
+walk off sometime between sunrise and sundown. As Master English's ship,
+"The Porcupine," had been lying for a week or two in Boston harbor, and
+left with a brisk northwest wind early in the morning of the day when
+they were reported missing, it was not difficult for anyone to surmise
+as to their mode of escape. As to Captain Alden, he might or might not
+have gone with them.
+
+As was natural, there was a good deal of righteous indignation expressed
+by all in authority. The jailer was reprimanded for his carelessness in
+the case of Captain Alden, and warned that if another prisoner escaped,
+he would forfeit his, of late, very profitable position. And the large
+properties of both gentlemen were attached and held as being subject to
+confiscation.
+
+But while the magistrates and officials usually were in earnest in these
+proceedings, it was generally believed that the Governor, influenced by
+Lady Mary, had secretly favored the escaping parties. The two ministers
+of South Church--Masters Willard and Moody--were also known to have
+frequently visited the Captain and Master English in their confinement,
+and to have expressed themselves very freely in public, relative to the
+absurdity of the charges which had been made against them. Master Moody
+had even gone so far as to preach a sermon on the text, 'When they
+persecute you in this city, flee ye into another,' which was supposed by
+many to have a direct bearing on the case of the accused. And it is
+certain that soon afterwards, the Reverend Master Moody found it
+expedient to resign his position in South Church and go back to his old
+home in Portsmouth.
+
+Anxious to learn the true inwardness of all this matter, Master Raymond
+called a few days after his return to see Lady Mary. Upon sending in
+his name, a maid immediately appeared, and he was taken as before to the
+boudoir where he found her ladyship eagerly awaiting him.
+
+"And so you are safely out of the lion's den, Master Raymond," said she,
+laughing. "I heard you had passed through securely."
+
+The young man smiled. "Yes, thanks to Providence, and to a good friend
+of mine in Salem."
+
+"Tell me all about it," said the lady. "I have had the magisterial
+account already, and now wish to have yours."
+
+"Will your ladyship pardon me if I ask a question first? I am so anxious
+to hear about Mistress Dulcibel. Have you seen her lately--and is she
+well?"
+
+"As well and as blooming as ever. The keeper and his wife treat her very
+kindly--and I think would continue to do so--even if the supply of
+British gold pieces were to fail. By the way, she might be on the high
+seas now--or rather in New York--if she had so chosen."
+
+"I wish she had. Why did she not go with them?"
+
+"Because your arrest complicated things so. She would not go and leave
+you in the hands of the Philistines."
+
+"Oh, that was foolish."
+
+"I think so, too; but I do not think that you are exactly the person to
+say so," responded the lady, a little offended at what seemed a want of
+appreciation of the sacrifice that Dulcibel had made on his account.
+
+But Master Raymond appeared not to notice the rebuke. He simply added:
+"If I could have been there to counsel her, I would have convinced her
+that I was in no serious danger--for, even if imprisoned, I do not think
+there is a jail in the Province that could hold me."
+
+"Well, there was a difficulty with the Keeper also--for she had given
+her word, you know, not to escape, when she was taken into his house."
+
+"But Captain Alden had also given his word. How did he manage it?"
+
+"I do not know," replied the lady. "But, to a hint dropped by Dulcibel,
+the jailer shook his head resolutely, and said that no money would tempt
+him."
+
+"The difficulty in her case then remains the same as ever," said the
+young man thoughtfully, and a little gloomily. "She might go into the
+prison. But that would be to give warning that she had planned to
+escape. Besides, it is such a vile place, that I hate the idea of her
+passing a single night in one of its sickening cells."
+
+"Perhaps I can wring a pardon out of Sir William," said the lady musing.
+
+"Oh, Lady Mary, if you only could, we should both forever worship you!"
+
+The lady smiled at the young man's impassioned language and manner--he
+looked as if he would throw himself at her feet.
+
+"I should be too glad to do it. But Sir William just now is more rigid
+than ever. He had a call yesterday from his pastor, Master Cotton
+Mather, and a long talk from him about the witches. Master Mather, it
+seems, has had further evidence and of the most convincing character, of
+the reality of these spectral appearances."
+
+"Indeed!" said Master Raymond showing great interest for he had an idea
+of what was coming.
+
+"Yes, in a recent examination at Salem before Squire Hathorne, a young
+man struck with his sword at a spectral yellow bird which was tormenting
+an afflicted person; and several small yellow feathers were cut off by
+the thrust, and floated down to the floor. Squire Hathorne writes to
+Master Mather that he would not have believed it, if he had not seen it;
+but, as it was, he would be willing to take his oath before any Court in
+Christendom, that this wonderful thing really occurred."
+
+Master Raymond could not help laughing.
+
+"I see you have no more faith in the story than I have," continued Lady
+Mary. "But it had a great effect upon Sir William, coming from a man of
+such wonderful learning and wisdom as Master Cotton Mather. Especially
+as he said that he had seen the yellow feathers himself; which had since
+been sent to him by Squire Hathorne, and which had a singular smell of
+sulphur about them."
+
+The young man broke into a heartier laugh than before. Then he said
+scornfully, "It seems to me that no amount of learning, however great,
+can make a sensible man out of a fool."
+
+"Why, you know something about this then? Did it happen while you were
+in Salem?"
+
+"I know everything about it," said Master Raymond, "I am the very man
+that worked the miracle." And he proceeded to give Lady Mary a detailed
+account of the whole affair, substantially as it is known to the reader.
+
+"By the way, as to the feathers smelling of sulphur," concluded the
+young man, "I think that it is very probable, inasmuch as I observed the
+jailer's wife that very morning giving the younger chickens powdered
+brimstone to cure them of the pip."
+
+"I think you are a marvelously clever young man," was the lady's first
+remark as he concluded his account.
+
+"Thank your ladyship!" replied Master Raymond smiling. "I hope I shall
+always act so as to deserve such a good opinion."
+
+"I would have given my gold cup--which the Duke of Albemarle gave me--to
+have been there; especially when the yellow bird's feathers came
+floating down to Squire Hathorne's reverential amazement," said Lady
+Mary, laughing heartily. "You must come up here tomorrow morning at
+noon. Master Mather is to bring his feathers to show the Governor, and
+to astound the Governor's skeptical wife. You are not afraid to come,
+are you?"
+
+"I shall enjoy it very much--that is, if the Governor will promise that
+I shall not suffer for my disclosures. I am free now, and I do not wish
+to be arrested again."
+
+"Oh, I will see to that. The Governor will be so curious to hear your
+story, that he will promise all that you desire as to your safety.
+Besides, he will not be sorry to take down Master Mather a little; these
+Puritan ministers presume on their vocation too much. They all think
+they are perfectly capable of governing not only Provinces, but
+Kingdoms; while the whole history of the world proves their utter
+incapacity to govern even a village wisely."
+
+"That is true as the gospel, Lady Mary. But one thing I have always
+noticed. That while every minister thinks this, he would himself far
+rather be governed even by one of the world's people, than by a minister
+of any other belief than his own. So you see they really do think the
+same as we do about it; only they do not always know it."
+
+"You are a bright young man," Lady Mary replied pleasantly, "and I think
+almost good enough to wear such a sweet rose next your heart as Mistress
+Dulcibel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+Captain Tolley's Propositions.
+
+
+That evening as Master Raymond was standing in the bar-room of the Red
+Lion, Captain Tolley came in, and after tossing off a stout glass of rum
+and water, went out again, giving the young Englishman a nod and the
+agreed-upon-signal, a smoothing of his black beard with the left hand.
+After the lapse of a few minutes, Master Raymond followed, going towards
+the wharves, which in the evening were almost deserted. Arrived at the
+end of one of the wharves, he found the Captain of the Storm King.
+
+"So you got out of the clutches of those Salem rascals safely?" said the
+Captain. "I was afraid I should have to go all the way to Salem for
+you."
+
+"You would not have deserted me then, Captain?"
+
+"That is not the kind of a marlinespike I am," replied the Captain
+quaintly. "I'd have got you out of Salem jail, unless it is a good deal
+stronger than the Boston one."
+
+"Thank you, Captain, but I am glad there was no need of your trying."
+
+"You heard of course that Captain Alden was off, and Master and Mistress
+English?"
+
+"Yes--and very glad I was too."
+
+"Why did not your sweetheart go with the Englishes?"
+
+"There were several reasons--one, a rather foolish one, she would not
+leave me in prison."
+
+"She would not?"
+
+"No."
+
+"D---- me! Why that girl is fit to be a sailor's wife! When we get her
+off safely I intend to have her as the figure-head of the Storm King."
+
+"I am afraid that would be a very unhealthy position--she might catch a
+bad cold," replied Master Raymond.
+
+"Oh, of course I mean in wood, painted white with red cheeks," said
+Captain Tolley. "It brings good luck to have a fine woman for a
+figure-head--pleases old Nep, you know."
+
+"But we must get her off first," rejoined Master Raymond. "Now to keep
+out of that hateful jail, she has given her word to Keeper Arnold not to
+escape. You know she cannot break her word."
+
+"Of course not," replied the Captain; "a lady is like a sailor, she
+cannot go back on her promise."
+
+"And there is where the trouble comes in."
+
+"Buy Keeper Arnold over."
+
+"I am afraid I cannot--not for a good while at least. They are all down
+upon him for Captain Alden's escape. They might give him a terrible
+whipping if another prisoner got off."
+
+The Captain shrugged his shoulders. "Yes, I saw them whip some Quakers
+once. It was not a good honest lash, but something the hangman had got
+up on purpose, and which cut to the very bone. I have seen men and women
+killed, down on the Spanish main, but I never saw a sight like that!
+Good, harmless men and women too! A little touched here, you know," and
+the Captain tapped his forehead lightly with his fore-finger.
+
+"Yes--I should not like to hear that Master Arnold had been tortured
+like that on our account."
+
+"Suppose we carry her off some night by force, she having no hand in the
+arrangements? She can even refuse to go, you know, if she pleases--we
+will handle her as gently as a little bird, and you can come up and
+rescue her, if you choose, and knock down two or three of us. How would
+that do? Half-a-dozen of the Storm King's men could easily do that.
+Choose a night with a brisk nor'wester, and we would be past the
+castle's guns before the sleepy land-lubbers had their eyes open."
+
+Master Raymond shook his head dubiously. "I do not like it--and yet I
+suppose it must do, if nothing better can be found. Of course if we
+carry her off bodily, against her will, it would neither be a breaking
+of her pledge nor expose Keeper Arnold to any danger of after
+punishment, though he might perhaps get pretty seriously hurt in
+resisting us, and she would not like that much."
+
+"I suppose then we must wait a while longer," said the Captain. "I am
+ready any time you say the word--only be careful that a good west or a
+nor'west wind is blowing. When once out on the high seas, we can take
+care of ourselves."
+
+"Many French privateers out there?"
+
+"Thick as blackberries. But they are of no account. Those we cannot
+fight, we can easily run away from. There is no craft on these seas,
+that can overhaul the Storm King!"
+
+With a hearty shake of the hand the two parted, the Captain for the
+vessel of which he was so proud; Master Raymond for his room in the Red
+Lion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+Master Raymond Confounds Master Cotton Mather.
+
+
+The next day, a little before noon, Master Raymond knocked at the door
+of the Governor's Mansion, and was at once conducted to Lady Mary's
+boudoir. "The Reverend Master Mather is already with the Governor," said
+her ladyship, "and I expect to receive a summons to join them every
+moment." And in fact the words were hardly out of her mouth, when Sir
+William's private secretary, Master Josslyn, appeared, with a request
+for her ladyship's presence.
+
+"Come with me," said she to Master Raymond; "but do not say
+anything--much less smile or laugh--until I call upon you for your
+testimony."
+
+As they entered, the courteous Governor handed his lady to a seat on the
+sofa; and Master Mather made a dignified obeisance.
+
+"I have brought along a young friend of mine, who was with me, and would
+also like to hear of all these wonderful things," said her ladyship; and
+Master Raymond bowed very deferentially to both the high dignities, they
+returning the bow, while Sir William politely requested him to be
+seated.
+
+"I was just on the point of showing to Sir William the most remarkable
+curiosities of even this very remarkable era--and he suggested that you
+also doubtless would like to see them," said the minister; at this time
+a man of about thirty years of age. He was a rather comely and
+intelligent looking man, and Master Raymond wondered that one who
+appeared so intellectual, should be the victim of such absurd
+hallucinations.
+
+Lady Mary bent her head approvingly, in answer to the minister. "I
+should like very much to see them," she replied courteously; and Master
+Mather continued:--
+
+"In the work I have been preparing on the "Wonders of the Invisible
+World," several of the sheets of which I have already shown to Sir
+William, I have collected many curious and wonderful instances. Thus in
+the case of the eldest daughter of Master John Goodwin, whom I took to
+my own house, in order that I might more thoroughly investigate the
+spiritual and physical phenomena of witchcraft, I found that while the
+devils that tormented her were familiar with Latin, Greek and Hebrew,
+they seemed to have very little knowledge of the various Indian
+dialects."
+
+"That certainly is very curious," replied Sir William, "inasmuch as
+those heathen are undeniably the children of the devil, as all our
+wisest and most godly ministers agree."
+
+"Yes," continued the minister, "it is true; and that makes me
+conjecture, that these devils were in fact only playing a part; to
+deceive me into thinking that the red heathen around us were not really
+the children of Satan, as they undoubtedly are."
+
+"I think that the most reasonable view," responded the Governor.
+
+"As to the reality of this new assault by Satan upon this little seed of
+God's people in the new world," continued Master Mather, fervently, "I
+have now no doubt whatever. Proof has been multiplied upon proof, and
+the man, or woman, who does not by this time believe, is simply one of
+those deplorable doubters, like Thomas, who never can be convinced. For
+my part, I consider Witchcraft the most nefandous high treason against
+the Majesty on High! And a principal design of my book is to manifest
+its hideous enormity, and to promote a pious thankfulness to God that
+Justice so far is being inflexibly executed among us."
+
+Lady Mary's face flushed a little, for she saw the drift of the
+minister's censure. It was well known in all the inner circles, that she
+had neither faith in the reality of witchcraft, nor the least sympathy
+with the numerous prosecutions, and the inflexible justice which the
+minister lauded. The Governor knew his wife's temper, and hastened to
+say:--
+
+"Still we must admit, Master Mather, that some persons, with tender
+conscience, require more convincing proofs than do others. And therefore
+I was anxious that Lady Mary should see these feathers you spoke of, cut
+from the wings of one of those yellow birds which appear to be used so
+frequently as familiars by the Salem witches."
+
+"Oh, yes, I had forgotten them for the moment." And putting his hand
+into his breast pocket, Master Mather produced a small box, which he
+opened carefully and called their attention to a couple of small yellow
+feathers placed on a piece of black cloth within. "I would not take a
+hundred pounds for these spectral feathers," said the minister
+exultingly. "They are the only positive proof of the kind, now existing
+in the whole world. With these little feathers I shall dash out the
+brains of a host of unbelievers--especially of that silly Calef, or
+Caitiff, who is all the time going around among the merchants, wagging
+his vile tongue against me."
+
+Sir William and Lady Mary had been looking upon the feathers very
+curiously. At last Lady Mary gave a low, incredulous laugh. Her husband
+looked at her inquiringly.
+
+"They are nothing but common chicken feathers which could be picked up
+in any barn yard," she said scornfully.
+
+"Your ladyship is very much mistaken, you never saw chicken feathers
+like those," said the minister, his face now also flushing.
+
+"Who was the yellow bird afflicting, when these feathers were cut?" the
+lady asked.
+
+"A young man was on his examination for witchcraft, Squire Hathorne
+writes me; but he was found to be himself a victim, and was
+released--which proves, by the way, how careful the worshipful
+magistrates are in Salem, lest any who are innocent should be implicated
+with the guilty. The young man began to cry out that an 'evil hand' was
+on him, and that a yellow bird was trying to peck out his eyes.
+Whereupon one of the by-standers pulled out his rapier, and smote at the
+spectral bird--when these feathers were cut off; becoming visible of
+course as soon as they were detached from the bird and its evil
+influence. It is one of the most wonderful things that I ever heard of,"
+and Master Mather gazed on the feathers with admiring and almost
+reverential eyes.
+
+"Sir William," said his lady, "you have, I hope, a little common sense
+left, if these Massachusetts ministers and magistrates have all gone
+crazy on this subject. You know what a chicken is, if they do not. Are
+not those simply chicken feathers?"
+
+"Why, my dear," replied the Governor, wriggling in his great arm-chair,
+"I grant that they certainly do look like chicken feathers; but then you
+know, the yellow bird the witches use, may have feathers like unto a
+chicken's."
+
+"Nonsense!" replied Lady Mary. "None are so blind as those that will not
+see. I suppose that if I were to bring that afflicted young man here,
+and he were to acknowledge that the whole thing was a trick, got up by
+him to save his life, you would not believe him?"
+
+"Indeed I should," replied Sir William.
+
+"Yes, Lady Mary, find the young man, and question him yourself," said
+Master Mather. "None are so certain as those that have never informed
+themselves. I have made inquiry into these marvelous things; I even
+took that afflicted girl, as I have told you, into my own house, in
+order to inform myself of the truth. When you have investigated the
+matter to one-tenth the extent that I have, you will be prepared to give
+a reasonable opinion as to its truth or falsehood. Until then, some
+modesty of statement would become a lady who sets up her crude opinion
+against all the ministers and the magistracy of the land."
+
+This was a tone which the leading ministers of that day among the
+Puritans, did not hesitate to take, even where high dignitaries were
+concerned and Master Mather had the highest ideas of the privilege of
+his order.
+
+"Then I suppose, Master Mather, that if the afflicted young man himself
+should testify that these feathers were simply chicken feathers, that he
+had artfully thrown up into the air, you would not acknowledge that he
+had deceived you?"
+
+"If such an impossible thing could happen, though I know that it could
+not, of course I should be compelled to admit that Squire Hathorne and a
+hundred others, who all saw this marvelous thing plainly, in open day,
+were deceived by the trick of an unprincipled mountebank and juggler."
+
+"I shall hold both you and Sir William to your word," replied Lady Mary
+emphatically. Then, turning to the young Englishman, who had remained
+entirely silent so far, paying evident attention to all that was spoken,
+but giving no sign of approval or disapproval, she said, "Master
+Raymond, what do you think of this matter?"
+
+Master Raymond rose from his chair and stepped a pace or two forward.
+Then he said, "If I answer your ladyship's question freely, it might be
+to my own hurt. Having had my head once in the lion's mouth, I am not
+anxious to put it there again."
+
+The lady looked significantly at Sir William.
+
+"Speak out truly, and fear nothing, young man," said the Governor.
+"Nothing that you say here shall ever work you injury while I am
+Governor of the Province."
+
+"What do you wish to know, Lady Mary?"
+
+"You, I believe, were the afflicted young man, to whom Master Mather has
+referred?"
+
+Master Raymond bowed.
+
+"Was there any reality in those pretended afflictions?"
+
+"Only a bad cold to begin with," said the young man smiling.
+
+"How about the yellow bird?"
+
+"It was all a sham. I dealt with credulous and dangerous fools according
+to their folly."
+
+"How about those feathers?"
+
+"They are feathers I got from the wings of one of the Salem jailor's
+chickens."
+
+Sir William laughed,
+
+"How about the smell of sulphur which Squire Hathorne and Master Mather
+have detected in the feathers?"
+
+"I think it very probable; as I observed Goodwife Foster that morning
+giving her chickens powdered brimstone for the pip."
+
+Here the Governor laughed loudly and long until Master Mather said
+indignantly, "I am sorry, Sir William, that you can treat so lightly
+this infamous confession of falsehood and villainy. This impudent young
+man deserves to be set for three days in the pillory, and then whipped
+at the cart's tail out of town."
+
+"Of course it is a very shameful piece of business," replied the Governor,
+regaining his gravity. "But you know that as the confession has been
+made only on the promise of perfect immunity, I cannot, as a man of my
+word, suffer the least harm to come to the young person for making it."
+
+"Oh, of course not," said the minister, taking up his hat, and
+preparing to leave the room; "but it is scandalous! scandalous! All
+respect for the Magistracy and authority seems to be fading out of the
+popular mind. I consider you a dangerous man, a very dangerous young
+man!" This last of course to Master Raymond.
+
+"And I consider you tenfold more dangerous with your clerical influence,
+and credulity, and superstition!" replied the young Englishman hotly.
+Being of good family, he was not inclined to take such insults mildly.
+"How dare you, with your hands all red with the blood of twenty innocent
+men and women, talk to me about being dangerous!"
+
+"Peace!" said Sir William with dignity. "My audience chamber is no place
+to quarrel in.
+
+"I beg your Excellency's pardon!" said Master Raymond, humbly.
+
+"One moment, before you go," said Lady Mary, stepping in front of the
+minister. "I suppose you will be as good as your word, Master Mather and
+admit that with all your wisdom you were entirely mistaken?"
+
+"I acknowledge that Squire Hathorne and myself have been grossly
+deceived by an unprincipled adventurer--but that proves nothing.
+Because Jannes and Jambres imitated with their sorceries the miracles
+of Moses, did it prove that Moses was an impostor? There was one Judas
+among the twelve apostles, but does that invalidate the credibility of
+the eleven others, who were not liars and cheats? It is the great and
+overwhelming burden of the testimony which decides in this as in all
+other disputed matters--not mere isolated cases. Good afternoon, madam.
+I will see you soon again, Sir William, when we can have a quiet talk to
+ourselves."
+
+"Stay!" cried Lady Mary, as the offended minister was stalking out of
+the room. "You have forgotten something," and she pointed to the little
+box, containing the chicken's feathers which had been left lying upon
+the table.
+
+The minister gave a gesture expressive of mingled contempt and
+indignation--but did not come back for it. It was evident that he valued
+the feathers now at considerably less than one hundred pounds.
+
+"Young man," said the Governor, smiling, "you are a very bright and
+keen-witted person, but I would advise you not to linger in this
+province any longer than is absolutely necessary. Master Mather is much
+stronger here than I am."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+Bringing Affairs to a Crisis.
+
+
+The next morning a note came to Master Raymond from Joseph Putnam,
+brought by one of the farm-hands.
+
+It was important. Abigail Williams had called upon Goodwife Buckley, and
+told her in confidence that it was in contemplation, as she had learned
+from Ann Putnam, to bring Dulcibel Burton back to Salem jail again. The
+escape of Captain Alden and the Englishes from the Bridewell in Boston,
+had caused a doubt in Salem as to its security. Besides, Lady Phips had
+taken ground so openly against the witch prosecutions, that there was no
+knowing to how great an extent she might not go to aid any prisoner in
+whom she took an interest.
+
+Abigail Williams further said that Mistress Ann Putnam had become very
+bitter both against her brother-in-law Joseph and his friend Master
+Raymond. She was busy combatting the idea that the latter really ever
+had been afflicted--and was endeavoring to rouse Squire Hathorne's
+indignation against him as being a deceiver.
+
+As the young man read this last, he wondered what effect would be
+produced upon the credulous magistrate, when he received word from
+Master Mather as to what had occurred in the Governor's presence. Would
+he be so angry as to take very arbitrary measures; or so ashamed as to
+let it all pass, rather than expose the extent to which he had been
+duped? He feared the former--knowing in which way Mistress Ann Putnam's
+great influence with him would be directed.
+
+Master Joseph advised immediate action--if peaceable means would not
+serve, then the use of violent ones. If Captain Tolley could not find
+among his sailors those who would undertake the job, he, Master Joseph,
+would come down any night with three stout men, overpower the keepers,
+and carry off Mistress Dulcibel, with the requisite amount of violence
+to keep her promise unbroken.
+
+Master Raymond wrote a note in return. He was much obliged for the
+information. It was evident that the time had come for action; and that
+it was dangerous to delay much longer. Of course peaceable means were to
+be preferred; and it was possible he might be able either to bribe the
+keeper, or to get a release from the Governor; but, if force had to be
+resorted to, Captain Tolley could command his whole crew for such a
+service, as they were the kind of men who would like nothing better. In
+fact, they would not hesitate to open fire upon the town, if he ordered
+it--and even run up the flag of a French privateer.
+
+After dispatching this business, Master Raymond went out on the porch of
+the Red Lion, and began an examination of the clouds and the
+weather-cocks. It had been raining slightly for a day or two, with the
+wind from the southeast; but though the vanes still pointed to the
+southeast, and the light lower clouds were moving from the same point
+of the compass, he caught glimpses through the scud of higher clouds
+that were moving in an entirely opposite direction.
+
+"How do you make it out?" said a well-known voice. He had heard some one
+approaching, but had supposed it to be a stranger.
+
+"I am not much of a sailor; but I should say it would clear up, with a
+brisk wind from the west or the northwest by afternoon."
+
+"Aye!" said Captain Tolley, for it was he; "and a stiff nor'wester by
+night. If it isn't I'll give my head for a foot-ball. Were I bound out
+of the harbor, I would not whistle for a better wind than we shall have
+before six hours are over."
+
+Master Raymond glanced around; no one was near them. "Are you certain of
+that, Captain? Would it do to bet upon?
+
+"You may bet all you are worth, and your sweetheart into the bargain,"
+replied the Captain laughing, with a significant look out of his eyes.
+
+"When are you going, Captain?"
+
+"Oh, to-night, perhaps--if I can get all my live stock on board.
+
+"To-night then let it be," said the young man in a whisper; "by fair
+means, or by foul. I may succeed by fair means; have a boat waiting at
+the wharf for me. It will be light enough to get out of the harbor?"
+
+"There is a gibbous moon--plenty. Once past the castle, and we are safe.
+We can easily break open the keeper's house--and quiet him with a pistol
+at his head."
+
+"You must not harm him--he has been a good friend to her."
+
+"Of course--only scare him a little. Besides, he is not a good friend,
+if he makes a noise."
+
+"Well, I will see you by ten o'clock--with her or without her--Yes, I
+will bet you a gold piece, Captain, that the wind gets around to the
+west by four o'clock." This last was in Master Raymond's usual
+tones--the previous conversation having been in whispers.
+
+"You will be safe enough in that, Master Raymond," said the landlord of
+the Red Lion, whose steps the young Englishman had heard approaching.
+
+"Do you think so? I do not want to take the young man's money, he is
+only a landsman you know, Mate; but I will bet you a piece of eight that
+the wind will not get around till a half hour after that time. And we
+will take it all out in drinks at your bar, at our leisure."
+
+"Done!" said the landlord. "And now let us go in, and take a drink all
+around in advance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+Lady Mary's Coup D'Etat.
+
+
+Master Raymond's next proceeding was to call on Lady Phips. Sending in
+his name, with a request to see her ladyship on very important business,
+he was ushered as usual into her boudoir.
+
+"I must be doing something, Lady Mary," he said, after a few words
+relative to the evident change of weather; "I have news from Salem that
+the Magistrates are about to send Mistress Dulcibel back to Salem jail."
+
+"That is sad," she answered.
+
+"And, besides, there is no knowing what new proceedings they may be
+concocting against me. I must take Sir William's advice, and get out of
+this hornet's nest as soon as possible."
+
+"Well what can I do for you?"
+
+"Get an order from Sir William releasing Dulcibel from prison."
+
+"Oh, that I could! God knows how gladly I would do it."
+
+"You can at least try," said Master Raymond desperately.
+
+The lady hesitated a moment. "Yes, as you say, I can at least try. But
+you know how impossible it is to carry on the government of this
+Province without the support of the ministers and the magistrates. Sir
+William is naturally anxious to succeed; for, if he fails here, it will
+block his road to further preferment."
+
+"And he will allow the shedding of innocent blood to go on, in order to
+promote his own selfish ambition?" said the young man indignantly.
+
+"You are unjust to the Governor. He will do all he can to moderate this
+fanaticism; and, if it comes to the worst, he will order a general
+jail-delivery, and meet the consequences. But he hopes much from time,
+and from such developments as those of your chicken feathers"--and the
+lady smiled at the thought of the minister's discomfiture.
+
+"Some things can wait, but I cannot wait," insisted Master Raymond. "You
+must acknowledge that."
+
+"Sir William starts this afternoon on a visit to Plymouth, to remain for
+a day or so; but I will have a talk with him, and see what I can do,"
+replied the lady. "Call here again at six o'clock this evening."
+
+"Such beauty and spirit as yours must be irresistible in the cause of
+virtue and innocence," said the young man, rising to depart.
+
+"No flattery, Master Raymond; I will do all I can without that;" but
+Lady Mary being still a very comely woman, as she certainly was a very
+spirited one, was not much displeased at the compliment, coming from
+such a handsome young man as Master Raymond. Eulogy that the hearer
+hopes embodies but the simple truth, is always pleasant alike to men and
+women. It is falsehood, and not truth, that constitutes the essence of
+Flattery.
+
+The day dragged on very drearily and slowly to Master Raymond. The
+waiting for the hour of action is so irksome, that even the approach of
+danger is a relief. But patience will at last weary out the slowest
+hours; and punctually at six o'clock, the young man stood again at the
+door of the Governor's mansion.
+
+Lady Mary evidently was expecting him--for he was shown in at once. She
+looked up wearily as he entered. "I can do nothing to-day," she said.
+
+"What ground did the Governor take?"
+
+"That sound policy forbade him to move in the matter at present. The
+persecuting party were very indignant at the escape of Captain Alden
+and the Englishes; and now for him to grant a pardon to another of the
+accused, would be to irritate them to madness."
+
+Master Raymond acknowledged to himself the soundness of the Governor's
+policy; but he only said: "Then it seems that Dulcibel must go back to
+Salem prison; and I run a good chance of going to prison also, as a
+self-confessed deceiver and impostor."
+
+"If she were released, could you both get away from Boston--at once?"
+
+Master Raymond's voice sank to a whisper. "I have all my plans arranged.
+By the third hour after midnight, we shall be where we can snap our
+fingers at the magistrates of Boston."
+
+"I have been thinking of a plan. It may work--or may not. But it is
+worth trying."
+
+The young man's face lightened.
+
+"You know that England is ruled by William and Mary, why should not the
+Province of Massachusetts also be?"
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"Upon leaving Sir William, I was somewhat indignant that he would not
+grant my request. And to pacify me, he said he was sorry that I had not
+the same share in the government here, that Queen Mary had at home--and
+then I could do more as I pleased."
+
+Still Master Raymond's face showed that he was puzzled to catch her
+meaning.
+
+She laughed and rose from her chair; the old, resolute expression upon
+her spirited face, and, opening the door into the next room, which was
+the Governor's private office, she said:
+
+"Come here a moment, Master Josslyn."
+
+The private Secretary entered.
+
+"Prepare me," she said to the Secretary, "the proper paper, to be signed
+by the Governor, ordering Keeper Arnold to release at once Mistress
+Dulcibel Burton from confinement in the Boston Bridewell."
+
+"But the Governor, you know, is absent, Lady Mary," said the Secretary,
+"and his signature will be necessary."
+
+"Oh, I will see to that," replied the lady a little haughtily.
+
+Master Raymond sat quietly--waiting for what was to come next. He could
+not conceive how Lady Mary intended to manage it. As for the lady, she
+tapped the table with her shapely fingers impatiently.
+
+In a few minutes Master Josslyn reappeared with the paper. "All it now
+wants is the signature of the Governor," said he.
+
+The lady took up a pen from the table by which she was sitting, and
+filled it with ink; then with a firm hand she signed the paper, "William
+Phips, Governor, by Lady Mary Phips."
+
+"But, your ladyship, the keeper will not acknowledge the validity of
+that signature, or obey it," said Master Josslyn in some alarm.
+
+"He will not? We shall see!" responded her ladyship rising. "Order my
+carriage, Master Josslyn."
+
+In fifteen minutes, Lady Mary, accompanied by Master Raymond, was at
+Keeper Arnold's house.
+
+"I bring you good news, Master Arnold," said Lady Mary, "I know you will
+rejoice, such a tender-hearted man as you are at the release of Mistress
+Dulcibel Burton. Here is the official document." She flourished it at
+him, but still kept it in her hand.
+
+Dulcibel was soon informed of the good news; and came flying out to meet
+her benefactor and her lover.
+
+"Put on a shawl and your veil at once; and make a bundle of your
+belongings," said Lady Mary, kissing her. "Master Raymond is in a great
+hurry to carry you off--at which I confess that I do not wonder."
+Dulcibel tripped off--the sooner she was out of that close place the
+better.
+
+"Well, what is it, Master Arnold?" said Lady Mary to the keeper, who
+acted as if he wished to say something.
+
+"It is only a form, my lady; but you have not shown me the Governor's
+warrant yet?"
+
+"Why, yes I have," said Lady Mary, fluttering it at him as before.
+
+But Keeper Arnold was fully aware of the responsibility of his position;
+and putting out his hand, he steadied the fluttering paper sufficiently
+to glance over its contents. When he came to the signature, his face
+paled. "Pardon me, my lady; but this is not the Governor's writing."
+
+"Of course it is not--why, you silly loon, how could it be when he has
+gone to Plymouth? But you will perceive that it is in Master Josslyn's
+writing--and the Governor ought to have signed it before he started."
+
+"This is hardly in regular form, my lady."
+
+"It is not? Do you not see the Governor's name; and there below it is
+my name, as proof of the Governor's. Do you mean to impeach my
+attestation of Sir William's signature? There is my name, Lady Mary
+Phips: and I will take the responsibility of this paper being a legal
+one. If anybody finds fault with you, send him to me; and I will say you
+did it, in the Governor's absence from town, at my peremptory order."
+The lady's face glowed, and her eyes flashed, with her excitement and
+determination.
+
+"It would be as much as my position is worth to disobey it and me!"
+rejoined Lady Mary. "I will have you out of this place in three days'
+time, if you cast disrespect upon my written name."
+
+"There can be no great haste in this matter. Bring the release tomorrow,
+and I will consult authority in the meanwhile," said the keeper
+pleadingly.
+
+"Authority? The Governor's name is authority! I am authority! Who dare
+you set up beside us? You forget your proper respect and duty, Master
+Arnold."
+
+The keeper was overborne at last. "You will uphold me, if I do this
+thing, Lady Mary?" said he imploringly.
+
+"You know me, Master Arnold--and that I never desert my friends! I
+shall accept the full responsibility of this deed before Sir William and
+the magistrates. And they cannot order any punishment which he cannot
+pardon."
+
+By this time it had grown quite dark. "Shall I take you anywhere in my
+carriage?" said Lady Mary, as Dulcibel reappeared with a bundle.
+
+"It is not necessary," replied Master Raymond joyfully, "I will not
+compromise you any further. God forever bless your ladyship! There is
+not another woman in New England with the spirit and courage to do what
+you have done this day--and the reader of our history a hundred years to
+come, as he reads this page, shall cry fervently, God bless the fearless
+and generous soul of Lady Mary!"
+
+"Let me know when you are safe," she whispered to the young man, as he
+stood by her carriage. "Master and Mistress English are now the guests
+of Governor Fletcher of New York--changing a Boston prison for a
+Governor's mansion. You will be perfectly secure in that Province--or in
+Pennsylvania, or Maryland or Virginia." And the carriage drove off.
+
+It was in that early hour of the evening, when the streets in town and
+city, are more deserted than they are for some hours afterwards;
+everyone being indoors, and not come out for visiting or amusement. And
+so the young man and his companion walked towards the north-eastern part
+of the town, meeting only one or two persons, who took no special notice
+of them.
+
+"You do not ask where we are going, Dulcibel?" at last said Master
+Raymond.
+
+She could not see the sweet smile on his face; but she could feel it in
+his voice.
+
+"Anywhere, with you!" the maiden replied in a low tone.
+
+"We are going to be married."
+
+He felt the pressure of her hand upon his arm in response.
+
+"That is, if we can find a minister to perform the ceremony."
+
+"That will be difficult, I should think."
+
+"Yes, difficult, but not impossible. After getting you out of prison, as
+Lady Mary did, I should not like to call anything impossible."
+
+"Lady Mary is an angel!"
+
+"Yes, one of the kind with wings," replied her companion laughing. "She
+has kindly loaned us her wings though--and we are flying away on them."
+
+Before long they were at one of the wharves; then on a small boat--then
+on the deck of the "Storm King."
+
+"I am better than my word, Captain Tolley."
+
+"Aye! indeed you are. And this is the birdie! Fair Mistress, the "Storm
+King" and his brood are ready to die to shield you from harm."
+
+Dulcibel looked wonder out of her clear blue eyes. What did it all mean?
+She smiled at the Captain's devoted speech. "I do not want any one to
+die for me, Captain. I would rather have you sing me a good sea-song,
+such as my father, who was also a sea-captain, used to delight me with
+at home."
+
+"Oh, we can do that too," answered the Captain gaily. "I hope we shall
+have a jolly time of it, before we reach our destination. Now, come down
+into the cabin and see the preparations I have made for you; a sailor's
+daughter must have the best of sailor's cheer."
+
+"One word, Captain," said Master Raymond, as the Captain came up on deck
+again, leaving Dulcibel to the privacy of her state-room. "It does not
+seem fitting that a young unmarried woman should be alone on a vessel
+like this, with no matron to bear her company."
+
+"Sir!" said the Captain, "I would have you know that the maiden is as
+safe from aught that could offend her modesty on the decks of the "Storm
+King," as if she were in her father's house."
+
+"Of course she is. I know that well--and mean not the least offense. And
+she, innocent as she is, has no other thought. But this is a slanderous
+world, Captain, and we men who know the world, must think for her."
+
+"Oh, I admit that," said Captain Tolley, somewhat mollified, "we cannot
+expect of mere land's people, who put an innocent girl like that into
+prison for no offense, the gentle behavior towards women that comes
+naturally from a seaman; but what do you propose?"
+
+"To send for one of the Boston ministers, and marry her before we leave
+port."
+
+"Why, of course," replied the Captain. "It is the very thing. Whom shall
+we send for? The North Church is nearest--how would Master Cotton Mather
+do?"
+
+The young man stood thoughtfully silent for a moment or two. The
+ministers of South Church and of King's chapel were more heterodox in
+all this witchcraft business; but for that very reason he did not wish
+to compromise them in any way. Besides, he owed a grudge to Master
+Mather, for his general course in sustaining the persecution, and his
+recent language in particular towards himself. So his lips gradually
+settled into a stern determination, and he replied "Master Mather is the
+very man."
+
+"It may require a little ingenuity to get him aboard at this time of the
+evening," said the Captain. "But I reckon my first mate, Simmons, can do
+it, if any one can."
+
+"Here, Simmons," to the first mate, who was standing near, "you look
+like a pillar of the church, go ashore and bring off Master Cotton
+Mather with you. A wealthy young Englishman is dying--and he cannot pass
+away from Boston in peace without his ministerial services."
+
+"Dying?" ejaculated Master Raymond.
+
+"Yes, dying! dying to get married--and you cannot pass out of Boston
+harbor in peace, without his ministerial services."
+
+"Would it not do as well to ask him to come and marry us?"
+
+"I doubt it," replied the Captain. "Master Mather is honest in his
+faith, even if he is bigoted and superstitious--and death cannot be put
+off like marriage till tomorrow. But take your own course,
+Simmons--only bring him."
+
+"Shall I use force, sir, if he will not come peaceably?" asked the mate
+coolly.
+
+"Not if it will make a disturbance," said his commander. "We do not want
+to run the gauntlet of the castle's guns as we go out of the harbor. The
+wind is hardly lively enough for that."
+
+"I will go down and tell Dulcibel," said Master Raymond. "It is rather
+sudden, but she is a maiden of great good sense, and will see clearly
+the necessity of the case. And as she is an orphan, she has no father or
+mother whose consent she might consider necessary. But Mate"--going to
+the side of the vessel, which the boat was just leaving, "not a word as
+to my name or that of the maiden. That would spoil all."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir! Trust me to bring him!" and the boat started for the
+shore, under the vigorous strokes of two oarsmen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+An Unwilling Parson.
+
+
+Not quite an hour had elapsed, when the sound of oars was again heard;
+and Captain Tolley, peering through the dark, saw that another form was
+seated opposite the mate in the stern-sheets of the boat.
+
+"I thought that Simmons would bring him," said Captain Tolley to the
+second mate; "such a smooth tongue as he has. It is a pity he wasn't a
+minister himself--his genius is half wasted here."
+
+"Glad to see you on board the Storm King, Master Mather," was the
+greeting of the Captain, as the minister was helped up to the deck by
+the mates.
+
+"The Storm King! Why I was told that it was an English frigate, just
+come into port," said the minister in a surprised voice.
+
+"The messenger must have made a mistake," replied the Captain coolly.
+"You know that landsmen always do get things mixed.
+
+"Well, as I am here, no matter. Show me the dying man."
+
+"Walk down into the cabin," said the Captain politely.
+
+Entering the cabin which was well lighted, Master Raymond stepped
+forward, "I am happy to see you, Master Mather. You remember me, do you
+not?"
+
+"Master Raymond, I believe," returned the minister coldly. "Where is the
+dying man who requires my spiritual ministrations?"
+
+"Dying!" laughed the Captain. "How strangely that fellow got things
+mixed. I said dying to get married--did I not, Master Raymond?"
+
+"Of course you did--that is, after you had explained yourself."
+
+Master Mather's face looked blank, he did not know what to make of it.
+
+"In truth, Master Mather," said the young Englishman, "I was under the
+necessity of getting married this evening; and, thinking over the
+worshipful ministers of Boston town, I singled you out as the one I
+should prefer to officiate on the happy occasion."
+
+"I decline to have anything to do with it," said Master Mather
+indignantly, turning on his heel, and going to the door of the cabin.
+But here a muscular sailor, with a boarding pike, promptly forbade his
+passage by putting the pike across the door way.
+
+"What do you mean by barring my way in this manner?" said the minister
+in great wrath to the captain. "Have you no reverence for the law?"
+
+"Not a particle for Boston law," replied Captain Tolley. "The only law
+recognized on board the Storm King is the command of its Captain. You
+have been brought here to marry these two young friends of mine; and you
+will not leave the vessel before you do it--if I have to take you with
+us all the way to China."
+
+Master Mather pondered the matter for a moment. "This is too informal,
+there are certain preliminaries that are necessary in such cases."
+
+"Advisable--but I am told not absolutely necessary," replied Master
+Raymond.
+
+"Wait then for an hour or two; and we shall be on the high seas--and out
+of any jurisdiction," added Captain Tolley.
+
+"Who is this maiden? Who gives her away?" asked the minister.
+
+"This maiden is Mistress Dulcibel Burton," said Master Raymond, taking
+her by the hand.
+
+"She is an orphan; but I give her away," added the Captain.
+
+"Dulcibel Burton! the serpent witch!" exclaimed Master Mather. "What is
+that convict doing here? Has she broken jail?"
+
+"Master Mather," said the Captain in an excited tone, "if you utter
+another word of insult against this innocent and beautiful maiden, I
+will have you flung overboard to the sharks! So take care of what you
+say!" and the indignant seaman shook his finger in the minister's face
+warningly.
+
+"Master Mather," added Raymond, more coolly, "Mistress Burton has not
+broken jail. She was duly released from custody by Keeper Arnold on the
+presentation of an official paper by Lady Mary Phips. Therefore your
+conscience need not be uneasy on that score."
+
+"Why are you here then--why making this haste? It is evident that there
+is something wrong about it."
+
+"Boston has not treated either of us so well that we are very desirous
+of remaining," replied Master Raymond. "And as we are going together, it
+is only decorous that we should get married. If you however refuse to
+marry us, we shall be compelled to take you with us--for the mere
+presence of such a respected minister will be sufficient to shield the
+maiden's name from all reckless calumniators."
+
+The second mate came to the door of the cabin. "Captain, there is a fine
+breeze blowing, it is a pity not to use it."
+
+"Make all ready, sir," replied the Captain. Then turning to the
+minister, "There is no particular hurry, Master Mather. You can take the
+night to think over it. To-morrow morning probably, if you come to your
+senses, we may be able to send you ashore somewhere, between here and
+the capes of the Delaware."
+
+"This is outrageous!" said Master Mather. "I will hold both of you
+accountable for it."
+
+"It is a bad time to threaten, when your head is in the lion's mouth,
+Master Mather," returned Captain Tolley fiercely. "No one knows but my
+own men that you ever came on board the 'Storm King.' How do you know
+that I am not Captain Kidd himself?"
+
+The minister's face grew pale. It was no disparagement to his manhood.
+Even Master Raymond's face grew very serious--for did even he know that
+this Captain Tolley might not be the renowned freebooter, of whose many
+acts of daring and violence the wide seas rang?
+
+"I would counsel you for your own good to do at once what you will have
+to do ultimately," said Master Raymond gravely. "I owe you no thanks for
+anything; but"--and the young man laughed as he turned to Dulcibel--"I
+never could trap even a fox without pitying the animal."
+
+Dulcibel went up to the minister, and put her hand upon his arm:--"Do I
+look so much like a witch?" she said in a playful tone.
+
+"We are told that Satan can enrobe himself like an angel of light,"
+replied Master Mather severely. "I judge you by what I have heard of
+your cruel deeds."
+
+"As you judged the cruel yellow bird that turned out to be only a
+harmless little chicken," said Master Raymond sarcastically. "Enough of
+this folly. Will you marry us now--or not? If you will, you shall be put
+ashore unharmed. If you will not, you shall go along with us. Make up
+your mind at once, for we shall soon be out of Boston harbor."
+
+Master Mather had a strong will--and an equally strong won't--but the
+Philistines were, for this time, too much for him. That reference to
+Captain Kidd had frightened him badly. "Stand up--and I will marry you.
+Unscrupulous as you both are, it is better that you should be married
+by legal rites, than allowed to go your own way to destruction."
+
+And then--the important ceremony being duly gone through--he pronounced
+Master Ellis Raymond and Mistress Dulcibel Burton man and wife. The
+Captain being allowed by Master Raymond to take the first kiss, as
+acting in the place of the bride's father.
+
+"No, not a penny!" said the minister, closing his hand against the
+golden pieces that the groom held out to him. "All I ask is, that you
+comply with your promise--and put me on shore again as soon as
+possible."
+
+"Better take a drink of wine first," said the Captain, filling up a
+glass and handing it to him.
+
+"I will neither break bread nor drink wine on this"--he was going to say
+_accursed_ ship; but the fierce eyes of the possible freebooter were
+upon him, and he said, "on this unhappy vessel."
+
+Captain Tolley laughed heartily. "Oh well, good wine never goes begging.
+The anchor is not up yet, and we will put you off just where you came
+on. Come along!"
+
+Without a word of leave-taking to the two whom he had joined together,
+Master Mather followed the Captain. In fact though, Master Raymond and
+Dulcibel scarcely noted his going, for they were now seated on a small
+sofa, the arm of the young husband around the shapely waist of his
+newly-made wife, and the minister dismissed from their minds as
+completely as the wine-glass out of which they had just drank. He had
+answered their purpose and in the deep bliss of their new relation, they
+thought no more about him.
+
+As Master Mather turned to descend to the boat again--not wasting any
+formal words of leave-taking upon the Captain either--the latter grasped
+him by the arm.
+
+"Wait one moment," said Captain Tolley. "You will speak of what has
+occurred here this evening Master Mather, or not, at your pleasure. But
+be careful of what you say--for there is no power on this coast, strong
+enough to protect you against my vengeance!" And with a scowl upon his
+face, that would not have done injustice to the dreaded Captain Kidd
+himself, he added in a hoarse, fierce tone the one impressive word
+"Beware!"
+
+The minister made no reply. It was a day of fierce men and wild
+deeds--especially on the high seas. Prudence in some positions is far
+better than valor.
+
+"Now, my hearties! let us get out of this harbor as soon as possible!"
+cried the Captain. "I might have held him till we were opposite the
+castle, and put him ashore there; but it is safer as it is. We have a
+regular clearance, and he cannot do anything legally under an hour or
+two at least--while in half-an-hour we shall be outside. With a stiff
+breeze like this, once on the open seas, I fear neither man nor devil!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+The Wedding Trip and Where Then.
+
+
+Whether Master Mather did make any serious effort to prevent the "Storm
+King" from leaving the harbor, I am unable to say; but as I find no
+reference to this affair either in his biography or his numerous works,
+I am inclined to think that like a wise man, he held his peace as to
+what had occurred, and resolved never to go on board another vessel
+after nightfall.
+
+Certainly no cannon ball cut the waves as the "Storm King" sailed
+swiftly past the castle, and no signal was displayed signifying that she
+must come at once to anchor.
+
+And the little trip to New York was as pleasant in all respects as a
+young couple on a bridal tour could desire--even if the mere relief from
+the anxieties and threatened dangers of the previous long months had not
+been of itself a cause of happiness.
+
+Arrived at New York, Master Philip English and his wife received them
+with open arms. Master Raymond had brought letters from England to
+Governor Fletcher and others, and soon made warm friends among the very
+best people. There was no sympathy whatever in New York at that time
+with the witchcraft persecutions in Massachusetts; and all fugitives
+were received, as in the case of the Englishes, with great sympathy and
+kindness.
+
+Much to my regret, at this point, the old manuscript book to which I
+have been so largely indebted, suddenly closes its record of the
+fortunes of Master and Mistress Raymond. Whether they went to England,
+and took up their residence there among Master Raymond's friends, or
+found a home in this new world, I am therefore not able with absolute
+certainty to say. From what I have been able, however, to gather from
+other quarters, I have come to the conclusion that they were so much
+pleased with their reception in New York, that Master Raymond purchased
+an estate on the east side of the Hudson River, where he and the
+charming Dulcibel lived and loved to a good old age, leaving three sons
+and three daughters. If this couple really were our hero and heroine,
+then the Raymonds became connected, through the three daughters, with
+the Smiths, the Joneses and the Browns. In one way, perhaps, the
+question might be set at rest, were it not too delicate a one for
+successful handling. There is little doubt that among the descendants of
+Mistress Dulcibel, on the female side, the birth-mark of the serpent,
+more or less distinct, will be found occasionally occurring, even now,
+at the lapse of almost two centuries. Therefore, if among the secret
+traditions of any of the families I have mentioned, there be one
+relative to this curious birth-mark, doubtless that would be sufficient
+proof that in their veins runs the rich blood of the charming Dulcibel
+Raymond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+Some Concluding Remarks.
+
+
+Perhaps before I conclude I should state that the keeper of the Boston
+Bridewell, Master Arnold, was summarily dismissed for accepting the
+validity of the Governor's signature. But he did not take it very
+grievously to heart for Master Raymond, Captain Alden and others whom he
+had obliged saw him largely recompensed. Captain Alden, by the way, had
+fled for concealment to his relatives in Duxbury. Being asked when he
+appeared there, "Where he came from?" the old captain said "he was
+fleeing from the devil--who was still after him." However his relatives
+managed to keep him safely, until all danger was passed, both from the
+devil and from his imps.
+
+As for Lady Mary, the indignation of "the faithful" was hot against
+her--and finally against Sir William, who could not be made to see in it
+anything but a very good joke. "You know that Lady Mary will have her
+own way," he said to Master Mather.
+
+"Wives should be kept in due gospel subjection!" returned the minister.
+
+"Oh, yes, rejoined the Governor smiling; but I wish you had a wife like
+Lady Mary, and would try it on her! I think we should hear something
+breaking."
+
+But when Mistress Ann Putnam and others began "to cry out" against Lady
+Mary as a witch, the Governor waxed angry in his turn.
+
+"It is time to put a stop to all this," he said indignantly. "They will
+denounce me as a witch next." So he issued a general pardon and jail
+delivery--alike to the ten persons who were then under sentence of
+death, to those who had escaped from prison, and to the one hundred and
+fifty lying in different jails, and the two hundred others who had been
+denounced for prosecution.
+
+It was a fair blow, delivered at the very front and forehead of the
+cruel persecution and it did its good work, though it lost Sir William
+his position--sending him back to England to answer the charges of his
+enemies, and to die there soon afterwards in his forty-fifth year.
+
+When Chief-Justice Stoughton, engaged in fresh trials against the
+reputed witches, read the Governor's proclamation of Pardon, he was so
+indignant that he left his seat on the bench, and could not be prevailed
+upon to return to it.
+
+Neither could he, to the day of his death, be brought to see that he had
+done anything else than what was right in the whole matter.
+
+Not so the jury--which, several years after, confessed its great
+mistake, and publicly asked forgiveness. Nor Judge Sewall, who rose
+openly in church, and confessed his fault, and afterward kept one of the
+days of execution, with every returning year, sacred to repentance and
+prayer--seeing no person from sunrise to nightfall, mourning in the
+privacy of his own room the sin he had committed.
+
+Mistress Ann Putnam and her husband both died within the seven years, as
+Dulcibel in her moment of spiritual exaltation had predicted. Her
+daughter Ann lived to make a public confession, asking pardon of those
+whom she had (she said unintentionally) injured, and died at the age of
+thirty-five--her grave being one that nobody wanted their loved ones to
+lie next to.
+
+As for the majority of the "afflicted circle," they fell as the years
+went on into various evil ways--one authority describing them as
+"abandoned to open and shameless vice."
+
+Master Philip English, after the issue of the Governor's pardon,
+returned to Salem. Seventeen years afterwards, he was still trying to
+recover his property from the officials of the Province. Of L1500
+seized, he never recovered more than L300; while his wife died in two
+years, at the age of forty-two, in consequence of the treatment to which
+she had been subjected.
+
+Master Joseph Putnam and his fair Elizabeth lived on in peace at the old
+place; taking into his service the Quaker Antipas upon his release from
+prison. The latter was always quiet and peaceful, save when any allusion
+was made to the witches. But he had easy service and good treatment; and
+was a great favorite with the children, especially with that image of
+his father, who afterwards became distinguished as the Major General
+Putnam of Revolutionary fame.
+
+As for the presents that had been promised to the "afflicted circle,"
+they came to them duly, and from London too. And they were rich gifts
+also; but such a collection of odd and grotesque articles, certainly are
+not often got together. Master Raymond had commissioned an eccentric
+friend of his in London to purchase them, and send them on; acquainting
+him with the peculiar circumstances. There were yellow birds, and red
+dragons, and other fantastic animals, birds and beasts. But they came
+from London and the "circle" found them just suited to their peculiar
+tastes; and they always maintained, even in defiance of Mistress Ann,
+that Master Raymond was a lovely gentleman and an "afflicted" person
+himself. It will thus be seen that these Salem maidens were in their day
+truly esthetic--having that sympathetic fondness for unlovely and
+repulsive things, which is the unerring indication of a daughter of
+Lilith.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, in conclusion, some one may ask, "Did the Province of
+Massachusetts ever make any suitable atonement for the great wrongs her
+Courts of Injustice had committed?" I answer Never! Massachusetts has
+never made any, adequate atonement--no, not to this day!
+
+The General Assembly, eighteen years afterwards, did indeed pass an act
+reversing the convictions and attainders in all but six of the cases;
+and ordering the distribution of the paltry sum of L578 among the heirs
+of twenty-four persons, as a kind of compensation to the families of
+those who had suffered; but this was all--nothing, or next to nothing!
+
+Perhaps the day will some time come, when the cry of innocent blood from
+the rocky platform of Witch Hill, shall swell into sufficient volume to
+be heard across the chasm of two centuries. Then, on some high pedestal,
+where the world can see it, Massachusetts shall proclaim in enduring
+marble her penitence and ask a late forgiveness of the twenty innocent
+men and women whom she so terribly wronged. And as all around, and even
+the mariner far out at sea, shall behold the gleaming shaft, standing
+where stood the rude gallows of two centuries ago, they shall say with
+softening eyes and glowing cheeks: "It is never too late to right a
+great wrong; and Massachusetts now makes all the expiation that is
+possible to those whom her deluded forefathers dishonored and persecuted
+and slew!"
+
+
+
+
+_By the Author of Dulcibel_
+
+PEMBERTON;
+
+OR,
+
+ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
+
+    "A well-told romance of old Philadelphia and its vicinity. The
+    incidents of the story are interwoven with the struggle for
+    independence. The book is intensely American in character and
+    sentiment, and healthful in its stimulation of patriotism."--_New
+    York Observer_.
+
+Cloth. 12mo. 400 pages. $1.50
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+=The Bishop of Cottontown=
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+    A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills
+
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+    book without feeling that it is a notable contribution to current
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+    with wit and humor," says the Chicago _Record-Herald_, ... and the
+    Birmingham _News_ says: "The plot is deep, strong, graphically told
+    and will not be forgotten as that of many passing novels, but will
+    be cherished as a classic, as a story of right against wrong which
+    is destined to bring about a great change in the child-labor
+    question." 12mo. 600 pages. Illustrated by the Kinneys. Price,
+    $1.50.
+
+
+=A SUMMER HYMNAL=
+
+A Romance of Tennessee
+
+    This novel, by Mr. Moore, with its tender sentiment, shrewd
+    philosophy, poetic feeling and exquisite humor gave the author his
+    reputation as a portrayer of southern life and character. 12mo. 332
+    pages. Illustrated. Cloth extra. Price, $1.25.
+
+
+=Songs and Stories from Tennessee=
+
+    This volume contains Mr. Moore's famous story "Old Mistis," and many
+    others of equal merit, with some of the poems which in fugitive form
+    have found so many admirers. 12mo. 358 pages. Illustrated. Cloth
+    extra. Price, $1.25.
+
+
+THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Publishers
+PHILADELPHIA
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+
+
+
+BOOKS BY MAX ADELER
+(CHARLES HEBER CLARK)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+=The Quakeress: A Tale=
+
+"In his 'Quakeress,' Mr. Clark has achieved instant--and in all
+probability lasting--success as a writer of dignified fiction."--_The
+St. Louis Star_.
+
+"He has made of pretty Abby Woolford's heart-history a prose epic of
+Quakerdom."--_The North American, Philadelphia_.
+
+_Illustrations in color by George Gibbs._
+
+Cloth. Popular Edition. 400 pages. $0.75.
+
+
+=IN HAPPY HOLLOW=
+
+One of the stories which established Max
+Adeler's reputation as a humorist.
+
+_Cloth, extra, with 58 illustrations._ $1.25.
+
+
+=OUT OF THE HURLY-BURLY;=
+OR, LIFE IN AN ODD CORNER
+
+_Cloth, extra, 12mo._ $1.25.
+
+
+=CAPTAIN BLUITT; A TALE OF OLD TURLEY=
+
+_Cloth, extra, 12mo._ $1.50.
+
+More than 1,000,000 copies of Max Adeler's Books
+Have Been Sold.
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+    wonderful improvement in the art of book-making. Each volume is
+    beautifully illustrated with from 8 to 16 pictures from original
+    drawings, made especially for these books by the most celebrated
+    artists of the day.
+
+    Leather limp, gilt top, full gold back.
+
+    Price per volume, $1.00.
+
+    Sold separately and in sets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+LIST OF TITLES.
+
+=Adam Bede.= By George Eliot.
+=American Notes.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Barnaby Rudge.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Bleak House.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Channings, The.= By Mrs. Henry Wood.
+=Charles O'Malley.= By Charles Lever.
+=Child's History of England.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Christmas Books.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Cloister and the Hearth, The.= By Charles Reade.
+=Danesbury House.= By Mrs. Henry Wood.
+=David Copperfield.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Dombey and Son.= By Charles Dickens.
+=East Lynne.= By Mrs. Henry Wood.
+=Great Expectations.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Hard Times.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Henry Esmond.= By W.M. Thackeray.
+=House of the Seven Gables, The.= By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
+=Ivanhoe.= By Sir Walter Scott.
+=Jane Eyre.= By Charlotte Bronte.
+=John Halifax, Gentleman.= By Miss Muloch.
+=Kenilworth.= By Sir Walter Scott.
+=Last of the Barons.= By Lord Lytton.
+=Little Dorrit.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Master Humphrey's Clock.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Mill on the Floss.= By George Eliot.
+=Martin Chuzzlewit.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles.= By Mrs. Henry Wood.
+=Never Too Late to Mend.= By Charles Reade.
+=Nicholas Nickleby.= By Charles Dickens.
+=No Name.= By Wilkie Collins.
+=Old Curiosity Shop.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Oliver Twist.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Pickwick Papers.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Pilgrim's Progress.= By John Bunyan.
+=Reprinted Pieces.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Scarlet Letter.= By Nathaniel Hawthorne.
+=Scenes of Clerical Life.= By George Eliot.
+=Shirley.= By Charlotte Bronte.
+=Silas Marner.= By George Eliot.
+=Sketches by Boz.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Stories and Sketches.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Tale of Two Cities.= By Charles Dickens.
+=Talisman.= By Sir Walter Scott.
+=Tennyson's Poetical Works.=
+=Tom Brown's School Days.= By Thomas Hughes.
+=Two Years Ago.= By Charles Kingsley.
+=Westward Ho!= By Charles Kingsley.
+=Woman in White.= By Wilkie Collins.
+=Wuthering Heights.= By Emily Bronte.
+
+
+Other New Titles are in Preparation. A Complete List
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+Babcock (William Henry). The Tower of Wye: A Romance.
+12mo. Cloth extra                                           $1.50
+
+--Kent Fort Manor. 12mo. Cloth                               1.00
+
+Bartlett (Mrs. J.M.D.). Until the Day Break. 12mo.
+Cloth                                                        1.50
+
+Blankman (Edgar G.). Deacon Babbitt: A Tale of Fact
+and Fiction. 12mo, 350 pages, illustrated. Cloth             1.00
+
+Crowe (Catherine). The Night-Side of Nature; or, Ghosts
+and Ghost-Seers. New edition, with a critical introduction
+by Dr. Thomson Jay Hudson, LL.D. 12mo. Cloth                 1.50
+
+Edwards (Louise Betts). The Tu-Tze's Tower. 12mo.
+Cloth                                                        1.00
+
+Foster (Charles J.). The White Horse of Wootton. 12mo.
+Cloth                                                        1.50
+
+Gerard (Dorothea). Sawdust. 12mo. Cloth                      1.00
+
+Gibbs (George). In Search of Mademoiselle. 12mo. Cloth
+Popular Edition                                               .75
+
+Goldsmith (Milton). A Victim of Conscience. 12mo. Cloth.     1.00
+
+Halevy (Ludovic). Abbe Constantin. With twenty-four illustrations
+by Madeline Lemair. 12mo. Cloth, gilt top                    1.00
+
+Iliowizi (Henry). The Weird Orient. 12mo. Cloth              1.50
+
+--In the Pale. 12mo. Cloth                                   1.25
+
+--The Archierey of Samara. 12mo. Cloth                       1.00
+
+Keary (Annie). Oldbury. A Novel. 12mo. Cloth                 1.50
+
+McKnight (Charles). Captain Jack, the Scout; or, Indian
+Wars About Old Fort Duquesne. 12mo. Cloth, gilt top          1.50
+
+Norris (W.E.). The Embarrassing Orphan. 12mo. Cloth          1.00
+
+Pendleton (Louis). A Forest Drama. 12mo. Cloth               1.00
+
+Quiller-Couch (A.T.) ("Q."). The Westcotes. 12mo. Cloth      1.00
+
+Stoddard (Elizabeth) (Mrs. Richard Henry Stoddard).
+Two Men: A Novel. 12mo. Cloth extra                          1.50
+
+--Temple House: A Novel. 12mo. Cloth extra                   1.50
+
+--The Morgesons: A Novel. 12mo. Cloth extra                  1.50
+
+The above three volumes form the "Library edition"
+of Elizabeth Stoddard's works. 12mo. Cloth extra, in
+box                                                          4.50
+
+Schwartz (Marie Sophie).
+Birth and Education.
+Guilt and Innocence.
+Two Family Mothers.
+Gold and Name.
+The Right One.
+The Wife of a Vain Man.
+8vo. Cloth extra. Each                                      1.50
+
+Thompson (Garrett W.). Threads: A Novel, A Story of
+American Life. 12mo. Cloth                                  1.50
+
+Twells (Julia Helen, Jr.). By the Higher Law: A Novel.
+12mo. Cloth                                                 1.50
+
+Wiley (Richard T.). Sim Greene. A story of the Great
+Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania. 12mo, 380 pages.
+Cloth                                                       1.50
+
+
+THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Publishers
+PHILADELPHIA
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dulcibel, by Henry Peterson
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