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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-26 05:21:04 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-26 05:21:04 -0800 |
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diff --git a/75212-h/75212-h.htm b/75212-h/75212-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46c9656 --- /dev/null +++ b/75212-h/75212-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6612 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + A Mirror For Witches | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; + color: #A9A9A9; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: 2px solid;} + +.bt {border-top: 2px solid;} + +.br {border-right: 2px solid;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +.fs70 {font-size: 70%} +.fs80 {font-size: 80%} +.fs120 {font-size: 120%} +.fs150 {font-size: 150%} + +.no-indent {text-indent: 0em;} +.bold {font-weight: bold;} +.wsp {word-spacing: 0.3em;} + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp45 {width: 45%;} +.illowp65 {width: 65%;} +.illowp85 {width: 85%;} + +.pageborder {width: 400px; border: 1px solid; padding: 10px; margin: auto;} + +.top-heavy { +height: 20px; +background-image: url(images/two-bar-top-heavy.jpg); +background-repeat: repeat-x; +background-position: center; +background-color: transparent; +border: none; +width: auto; +margin: auto; +margin-top: 1em; +margin-bottom: 1em; +} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75212 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 85%"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover"> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h1>A MIRROR FOR WITCHES</h1> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<figure class="figcenter illowp65" id="i_f004" style="max-width: 60.4375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_f004.jpg" alt="Demon and woman kissing"> +</figure> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter pageborder"> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%"> +<img src="images/i_f005.jpg" alt="Decoration"> +</div> +<p class="fs150 bold center no-indent wsp"> +A MIRROR FOR WITCHES</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="no-indent"> +in which is reflected the Life, Machinations,<br> +and Death of Famous DOLL BILBY, who,<br> +with a more than <em>feminine perversity</em>, preferred<br> +a Demon to a Mortal Lover. Here is<br> +also told how and why a Righteous and Most<br> +Awful JUDGEMENT befell her, destroying<br> +both Corporeal Body and Immortal Soul.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<p class="center no-indent">By<br> +<span class="fs120 bold wsp">ESTHER FORBES</span></p> + +<hr class="full"> +<p class="center no-indent"><span class="fs80">With woodcuts by</span><br> +ROBERT GIBBINGS</p> + +<hr class="full"> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="i_f005-head" style="max-width: 43.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_f005-head.jpg" alt="Decoration"> +</figure> + +<hr class="full"> + +<p class="center no-indent"> + +<span class="fs80">BOSTON AND NEW YORK</span><br> + +<span class="bold wsp">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</span><br> + +<span class="fs80 bold">The Riverside Press Cambridge</span><br> +</p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100%"> +<img src="images/i_f005.jpg" alt="Decoration"> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center no-indent fs70 wsp">COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY ESTHER FORBES HOSKINS<br> +<br> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> +<br> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent fs70 wsp"> +The Riverside Press<br> +CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS<br> +PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.<br> +</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="center no-indent fs80">TO<br> +<br> +<span class="fs150">MARY <span class="allsmcap">AND</span> GERHART JENTSCH</span></p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> +<p class="center no-indent fs150 bold">A MIRROR FOR WITCHES</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> +<p class="center no-indent fs150 bold">A MIRROR FOR WITCHES</p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Certain Examples to Show Doll Bilby not alone among Women +in her preference for Evil. The Cases of Ry, Goose, Leda, +Danaë, etc., cited.</em></p> + +<p class="no-indent">It has long been known that, on occasions, devils +in the shape of humanity or in their own shapes +(that is, with horns, hoofs, and tails) may fancy +mortal women. By dark arts, sly promises of +power, flattery, etc., they may prevail even upon +Christian women, always to the destruction of +these women’s souls and often to that of their +bodies.</p> + +<p>For in Northumberland, Meslie Ry was burned +in 1616 because she had taken a fiend to love.</p> + +<p>A few years later, Christie Goose, a single +woman upwards of forty years, suddenly flew +lunatic—and that upon the Lord’s Day. Then +she did confess that each night and every night +the Devil, wickedly assuming the shape of Mr. +Oates, God’s minister at Crumplehorn, Oxon., +came to her through her window. This fact +amazed Crumplehorn, for Goose was of all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> +women most pious, and had sat for years in +humble prayerfulness at the feet of Mr. Oates. +Some were astonished that even a devil should +find need for this same Goose, who was of +hideous aspect.</p> + +<p>There was a young jade, servant in an alderman’s +house in London, who, although she confessed +nothing and remained obdurate to the end, +was hanged and then burned because she bore +a creature with horns on its head and a six-inch +tail behind. Such a creature the just magistrates +determined no mortal man might beget, although +the saucy wench suggested that an alderman +might. Moreover, certain children in the +neighbourhood testified that they had twice or +thrice seen ‘a burly big black man’ sitting on the +ridgepole.</p> + +<p>Some assume that as the gods of antiquity were +in no way gods (being seekers after evil—not +after light), they should therefore be considered +caco-demons or devils. The Reverend Pyam +Plover, of Boston, has written learnedly on this +subject, saying, in part, ‘For is it not possible +that the Lord God of Israel, being those days +but the God of <em>Israel</em>, may have permitted +certain of his Fallen Angels to stray from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> +vitals of Hell and disport themselves through +Greece and ancient Italy? Here they revealed +themselves ... in many ways to heathen people, +who falsely worshipped them as <em>gods</em>. If this +be true Zeus might better assume his true name +of <em>Satan</em>, and let us call Apollo but <em>Apollyon</em> and +recognize in Mars, Hermes, etc., Beelzebub and +Belial. Then may the female “divinities” be true +descendants of Lilith.’ So one may learn from +antiquity (consider Leda, Io, Danaë, and others) +how great is the ardour felt by devils for mortal +women.</p> + +<p>As is not yet forgotten, in 1662, near threescore +years ago, a woman called Greensmith, +living at Hartford in New England, confessed +the Devil had carnal knowledge of her. For +this she was hanged.</p> + +<p>More strangely yet, lived, for brief space of +years, famous Doll Bilby, best known as ‘Bilby’s +Doll’. She flourished at Cowan Corners, close +by the town of Salem, but an afternoon’s journey +from my own parish of Sudbury. Of other women +devil-ridden, be it Leda or Ry, Greensmith or +Danaë, Christie Goose or La Voisin, little can be +said, for but little is known. All were witches (if +we accept as witches such women as traffic with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> +fiends), but little else is known. Yet of Bilby’s +famous Doll, in the end all things were known. +From old wives’ tales, court records, and the +diaries of certain men, from the sworn affidavits +and depositions of others, from the demonologies +of Mr. Cotton Mather, and the cipher journal +of Mr. Zacharias Zelley, we may know with a +nicety what this woman was and how she lived, +from whence she came, how she grew to witchcraft, +how she felt, thought, and at the last how +she died.</p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Mr. Bilby sails far to seek out</em> TROUBLE, <em>and, having found +Trouble, nurtures it.</em></p> + +<p>She was born of a wicked witch-woman and +begotten by one who was no better, that is, by +a warlock. These two devil-worshippers and, +they say, two hundred more were burned in one +great holocaust at Mont Hoël in Brittany. Black +smoke, screams of death, stench of flesh settled +down over town and harbour, causing sickness +and even vomiting.</p> + +<p>On that same day, by evil fortune, a brig +manned by Dawlish men stood in the Bouche de +Saint-Hoël. These men, seeing that it was fête<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> +day, and curious because of the smoke, the +screams, and the stench, went to the holocaust. +There they saw a wild child, more animal or +goblin than human being. This wild child would +have followed her mother, who burned in the +heart of the fire, if soldiers had not pushed her +back. A priest bade the soldiers let her pass to +death, for, being of witch-people, she would undoubtedly +burn sooner or later. The Englishmen +protested, and Mr. Jared Bilby, captain and +owner of the brig, caught and held the wild +child, who did not struggle against him as she +had against the soldiers. Instead she held fast to +him, for even the wicked may recognize goodness. +The priest showed his yellow fangs at the Dawlish +men. He hated and scorned them. ‘Take +the child and be gone. She was born of a +witch-woman and will grow to witchcraft and do +much harm—but in England among the heretics. +Be gone.’</p> + +<p>The child clung to Mr. Bilby and he to her. He +took her in his arms, and she lay corpse-pale and +glass-eyed like one about to die. This men remembered. +When he put her down upon the +deck of the brig, he was badly sweated as though +his burden had been more than he, a strong<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +young man, might bear. He told his men the +child weighed as though a child of stone. Some +thought that his heart mistook him, and that he +already regretted the acceptance of so dangerous +a gift.</p> + +<p>Gathering his men about him and having +prayed, he gave thanks to Jehovah, Who, although +He had never given him a child of his own +body, yet had seen fit to send this poor little +one to him. Then he bade his men keep their +tongues behind their teeth, telling no one from +whence was this child (which in the future should +be his child), nor the manner of her parents’ +death, nor the harm which the priest swore she +should live to perform. This promise his men +kept for years, but in the end, when they were +old men, they preferred to serve Gossip and +Scandal rather than a kind master, long, long dead.</p> + +<p>For days the child lay like death, only occasionally +jumping madly from her pallet, screaming +‘Le feu! Le feu! Le feu!’ then falling back, +covering her face with her hands and laughing +horribly. The captain coaxed and petted her, +urged her to eat, and quieted her with his hands. +So by love he restored her to humanity.</p> + +<p>Because of her small size he called her ‘Doll,’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +which name she well lived up to, never acquiring +the height and weight of other women. No one +ever knew her real age. She may have been seven +or perhaps six when she first came to England. +Being unable to talk English and at first unable +to serve herself, she may have seemed younger +than she was. Yet, on the other hand, Fear, +Grief, and Sickness often make their Hosts appear +older than the fact.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bilby believed that the shock of her +parents’ death (for they were burned before her +eyes, her mother crying out to her most piteously +from the midst of flame) had broken the reins +of memory. He thought she had forgotten everything +that lay back of her reawakening to life +on board his brig, which was called God’s Mercy. +Also he comforted himself with the belief that +if—as might be—she had learned any little +tricks of witchery, or if she had ever been taken +to Sabbat or Black Mass, or if she had looked +upon the Prince of Hell, or even if (being led on +by her parents) she had sworn to serve him, she +would have forgotten all these things. She was +born again and this time of God and to God, +whom Mr. Bilby piously swore she should serve—Him +and Him alone. The child had been so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> +vehemently frightened she had forgotten all good +and needful things, how to dress herself, how to +eat with knife and spoon. She had forgotten the +language of her birth.</p> + +<p>But of evil she remembered everything.</p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>He brings the Foundling to his own hearth and to the bosom of +his Goodwife. There the goblin-child rewards Kindness and +Mercy with Malediction and Evil. She overlooks the Goodwife.</em></p> + +<p>Hannah, wife of Jared Bilby, would not accept +her sterility with Christian fortitude. She railed +against the wisdom of God, saying, ‘Mrs. Such-and-Such +is but half so big and fine a woman as +I, yet she has three sons. Goody This-and-That, +the jade, can find but little favour in the eyes +of her Maker, yet, to <em>her</em> He sends more children +than she can feed; but I, a pious, godly, praying +woman, remain barren.’ Which, she wickedly +averred, showed the injustice of Divinity. However, +by curious chance or mischance, soon after +Mr. Bilby set out with his men and brig for the +coasts of France and Spain, she found herself +with child. Some say the Lord tired of her railing, +and, to punish her, first raised up her hopes and +then sent Doll to blight them for her.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> + +<p>Summer wore away. The nights grew chill. +She was four months with child. Then Mr. Bilby, +late one evening, came to Dawlish harbour. +With him was his goblin-child, now grown pretty +and playful. He arrived home in the black of +the night and through pelting rain. The child +he carried wrapped in his greatcoat to protect +her from the cruel storm. He shook the shutter +which he knew was by his wife’s bedboard.</p> + +<p>‘Woman, woman, get up and open to me.’</p> + +<p>The woman lay for warmth with her servant +wench, Susan Croker. The fury of the night +shewed forth the grandeur of God. The wind +howled above the beating of the rain. Croker +cried to her mistress not to open the door on such +a night. It could be no living man who knocked, +for it is on such vexed and angry nights as these +the sea gives up its dead.</p> + +<p>Hannah was a fearless woman. She got quickly +to the door, unbarred it, and, in a deluge of wind +and wet, Mr. Bilby entered with his burden. Her +heart mistook her. She cried out, ‘Jared, what +have you there in that great bundle?’ So he took +it to the hearth and, as the women knelt, throwing +kindling on the fire, he opened the bundle and +out popped the goblin-child. She shuddered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> +away from the fire (a thing she always feared) +and clutched her foster father with her little +hands, gazing into his face with round black eyes. +Every thread of her spikey hair was tumbled up +on end. The women cried in horror that this was +no child. This was an imp, a monkey, a pug. But +Jared Bilby on his knees protected the foundling, +both from the fire and the women’s angry +glances. He soothed her with his body and kind +words, ‘Ah, the fire would never devour her.’ +He was here, and he would never leave her. She +was his child, etc. He would always love and +cherish her—and the like. The child pushed her +tously head under his chin and froze into stillness.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p013" style="max-width: 52.125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p013.jpg" alt="Child holding man"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>Susan Croker told many that, from the beginning, +the child bewitched him. Nor did the affection +which Bilby gave his Doll ever seem like +the love which men feel to their children, but +rather the darker and often unholy passion which +is evoked by mature, or almost mature women—a +passion which witches, when young and comely, +have often engendered with ferocious intensity. +As long as he lived he was forever stroking her +shaggy black hair, looking lovingly into those +button-round eyes, and kissing a wide hobgoblin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +mouth which many a Christian would fear +to kiss. Hannah was a lusty, jealous woman who +could not abide such mean rivalry as that of a +foundling child. The woman, who had always +been a gossiping wife, now, under the baleful +influence of Doll, seemed like to become a shrew. +She was steely set in her hatred of the child, although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> +she fed her, gave her a corner to sleep in, +and taught her some small prayers. With her +the child seemed dull, indifferent, but with Mr. +Bilby she was merry, playful, and loving. So the +one thought her a knowing child and the other a +zany.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bilby would not tell his wife where he had +found Doll, but it did trouble him that the +woman so cunningly insisted that either she was +the child of a witch or the begotten of the Devil. +Even Susan Croker, who was kind to the foundling, +had horrid suspicions of her. She could not +teach Doll the noble, sonorous lines of Our +Lord’s Prayer, although the imp was quick to +learn worthless things, such as ‘This Little Pig +Goes to Market’ or ‘A Cat Comes Fiddling Out +of the Barn.’</p> + +<p>The child, having been in the house a month, +there occurred a chance to show what she could +do—that is, what evil she could do.</p> + + +<h3>4</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Doll covets a ship for a toy and the whole of her Foster Father’s +love. She nefariously gains her ends and slays a Dangerous +Rival.</em></p> + +<p>The midwife promised Hannah a great thumping<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> +boy handsome as his mother, strong as his +father. He should either wear the bands of the +clergy or walk the quarter-deck of the king’s +navy. Because her husband favoured the nautical +life for his unborn son, he made him a rattle +in the shape of a ship. In the hull were seven +balls which, when the ship was shaken, rattled. +Now Doll was forever leaning against his knees +and watching him as he carved out this bauble. +As one after another of the seven balls were +liberated in the heart of the wood, she would +laugh and gloat. It was not a toy for her, but for +him who should (according to nature) supplant +her in her foster father’s love. In her evil heart +she must have brooded on these things and come +to hate this other child that would possess the +ship and Bilby’s affection. Her hands were +always outstretched to the rattle and she cried, +‘Give, give, give.’</p> + +<p>One day as they were thus—man and child—Hannah +came in from the milk-house. The +woman was jealous—not only for her own sake, +but for the sake of the unborn. ‘For,’ she +thought, ‘what shall he, who gives all to a foundling, +have left for his own son? Not only has this +wicked girl turned him away from me, but she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> +takes the rightful place of his own child.’ Then +she said:</p> + +<p>‘It is not well that a woman in my condition +should be exposed to contrary and evil influences. +Jared, send away your “pretty pet”; give +her to the wife of your ship’s cook to keep—at +least until I am delivered. Many wiser than I, +yes, and wiser than you....’ Her jaw swung +loose as though broke. Her teeth stuck out, her +eyes bulged, for the goblin-child, through her +mat of hair and out of her wild bright eyes, was +staring at her. She stared and moved her lips in +a whisper, then she skipped across the room, +grinning in diabolical glee. Mrs. Hannah felt the +curse go through her. The babe in her womb +moved in its wretchedness, and was blasted. The +woman felt its tiny soul flutter to her lips and escape. +She knew that Doll (being of some infernal +origin) could see this same soul, and she guessed, +from the roving of her eyes, how it clung for a +moment to its mother’s lips, how it flew to the +Bible upon the stand (in which its name would +never be recorded), how it poised upon the +window-sill, then, unborn and frustrated, it +departed to whatever Paradise or Hell God +prepares for such half-formed souls. Hannah<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> +began to screech and wail, then fell back upon +the bed in a swoon.</p> + +<p>The body of the unborn child shrivelled within +her, and, when a male midwife was called from +Dawlish, he said she had been but full of air. +She never was again with child. Some said (and +Captain Bilby among them) that she never had +been—even on the ’bove-related most famous +occasion.</p> + +<p>But if, as the most informed and thoughtful +have said, the blasting of Hannah’s infant was +indeed a fact, then we have to hand, and early +in the life history of Doll Bilby, an actual case of +witchcraft. And is it likely such monstrous +power (blasting unborn life with a glance or at +most a muttered curse) should be given to any +one who had not already set her name to the +Devil’s Book, and compacted herself to Hell?</p> + + +<h3>5</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>The New Land holds greater promise than the Old. Mr. +Bilby, Ux et filia say fare-you-well to England and take up +residence close to Salem and not far from Boston, in the Bay +Colony. They prosper. The child grows an evil pace.</em></p> + +<p>In those days England offered little peace to +men (like Captain Bilby) who would worship<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +God in their own way, and in accordance with +His own holy teachings and the dictates of +their own hearts—not according to teachings of +bishops or priests. So Mr. Bilby often yearned +towards that newer land which lay far west beyond +the Atlantic. In time he sold his brig, +God’s Mercy, and his freehold. The agent of +the Bay Colony, in his office at Maiden Lane, +London, told him to get to Southampton with +his wife, child, and gear. Within the month he +should sail.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hannah protested that if the child went +she would not. Then he would humour and +praise her, so at last she went, although with +much bad grace.</p> + +<p>In the year 1663 the ship Elizabeth arrived, by +the goodness of God, to the colony at Massachusetts +Bay, and in her came an hundred souls. +There were yeomen, farmers, braziers, wainers, +pewterers, etc., indentured servants, apprentices, +etc., and certain gentlemen scholars, etc. But in +after years the most famous of all these people +was Bilby’s Doll, and it is she who has made the +name of the ship Elizabeth remembered. There +was in the hold a cargo of close to an hundred +Bibles, and to this beneficent influence many attributed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> +the quick fair passage which the Elizabeth +enjoyed. No one thought it possible that +the button-eyed foster child of Mr. Bilby could +be a weather breeder. In fact no one thought of +the child except to wonder at the foolish fondness +which her ‘father’ continually showed her. +They thought of the Bibles below and thanked +God for their sunny voyage. Rather should they +have thought of the witch-child. For good +things, such as fine weather, may spring from +evil people.</p> + +<p>Also on this ship came one Zacharias Zelley, +an Oxford man and a widower. He was no +longer young, nor was he an old man. In demeanour +he was sad and thoughtful. After some +shiftings he, too, like the Bilbys, came to settle +at Cowan Corners, and there he preached the +Word of God. But in time he fell from God, and +of him more hereafter.</p> + +<p>The new land prospered the Bilbys and they +were well content. The plantation which Mr. +Bilby was able to buy was not only of admirable +size, well-set-up with house, barns, sheds, etc., +but it was already reduced to good order and its +fertility was proved. Yet for many years, down +to this present day, Bilby’s lands can produce<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> +little if anything except that coarse yellow broom +which the vulgar call witches’ blood.</p> + +<p>The cellar hole of this house still stands upon +the skirts of Cowan Corners, and but six miles +removed from Salem. In those days there was a +good road before this house leading from Salem +to Newburyport. Beyond this road were salt +meadows and the sea. To the north of the house +lay fields of maize, English grass, corn, peelcorn, +barley, oats, pumpkins, ending only at the +waters of the River Inch (as it was called in those +days). To the south were the adjoining lands of +Deacon Thumb. But to the west, beyond the +rough pastures, and too close for a wholesome +peace of mind, was a forest of a size and terror +such as no Englishman could conceive of unless he +should actually see it. It stretched without break +farther than man could imagine, and the trees +of it were greater than the masts of an admiral +or the piers of a cathedral. Yet was it always a +green and gloomy night in this forest, and over +all was silence, unbreakable.</p> + +<p>Many thought the tawny savages who lived +within were veritable devils, and that, somewhere +within this vastness, Satan himself might +be found. To this Mr. Zacharias Zelley, having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +taken up the ministry at Cowan Corners, +would not listen. ‘For,’ he said, ‘we left the +Devil behind us in England. Seek God in the +heart of this majestic and awful forest—not the +Devil. When I was a boy in Shropshire I knew +the very niche in the rocks where old women said +the Devil lived and had his kitchen. It was there +he kept his wife. Every holiday I hid close by +the rocks, hoping to see his children.... Let us +leave him there in the Old England, but in the +New keep our eyes pure and open against the +coming of the Lord.’</p> + +<p>Atheism as the good and learned Glanvill, +in his ‘Sadducismus Triumphatus,’ has proved, +is begun in Sadducism and those that dare not +bluntly say ‘there is no God’ (for a fair step and +introduction) content themselves to deny there +are spirits or witches or devils. Yet how sad to +see one of the clergy first agree that the Devil +could be left behind in England and soon claim +there is no Devil, no witches, no spirits. For +without these awful presences, who may be sure +of God?</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>There is a small smell of</em> WITCHCRAFT <em>in and about Boston. +A straw doll taken to Meeting throws many into confusion.</em></p> + +<p class="no-indent">In the fall of 1665 two were hanged in Boston +for the bedevilment of an elderly woman, her +cousin Germain, and her swine.</p> + +<p>In that same year Mr. Saul Peterham, a godly, +decent man, refused some small rotten apples to +an ancient and malicious hag. For this the old +crone muttered at him, making an evil sign by +her thumb and her nose, and took herself off in +great bad humour. Mr. Peterham, on returning +to his house, found that his wife—an estimable +church woman—had fallen from a ladder she had +put to the loft for the purpose of observing the +conduct of her servant wench and the indentured +male servant, the exact moment the crone had +made her evil sign. The elders of the Church had +at the old woman and forced her, weeping and +on her knees, to forswear the Devil, his imps, and +his ways, and to continue more strictly in the +ways of God. It being observed that she could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> +both weep and say the Lord’s Prayer, many believed +the accusation of witchcraft to be a false +one, such as is often launched against disagreeable +and impotent old women.</p> + +<p>By spring there was yet another suspicion of +witchcraft in the Bay Colony, and this at Cowan +Corners. In a hut close by the seashore, and in +great misery, lived an old pauper called Greene +and his wife. He was a tinker, but there were +better tinkers than he, and he got little work to +do. His wife was a proud woman, born in Kent +of high rank, yet, by turn of fortune, she was so +reduced as to have become the wife of a tinker. +Her craft in herbs got her some money and more +ill fame, nor was she content to raise and sell the +honest herbs of England, but she must continually +associate herself with the heathen tawny +savages and thus learn arts—doubtless often +evil arts—from them. The Indians venerated +her, calling her ‘White Mother’ and Moon Woman.’ +She went even into the great forest +with more safety than any man. She was loving +towards these peoples and had much traffic with +them, in spite of the fact the Church elders had +warned her twice, saying it is better for a woman +to keep her own house than to go abroad through<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> +the woods alone and no one knew on what +errand.</p> + +<p>One Sabbath in the midst of the House of the +Lord a poppet contrived of straw and maize, +with a leather head and a grinning face on it, fell +from below her skirts. None at the moment +questioned her boldly as to what purpose she +contrived this poppet, yet all thought of those +dollies witches make but to destroy again, that +their enemies may dwindle with the dwindling +dolly.</p> + +<p>Later in the week three deacons called upon her +and demanded explanation. She was distrait, +cried out upon them in anger because of their +suspicions, and said she had but made a toy for +Bilby’s poor little Doll, who, she said, was beaten +and cruelly used by that shrew Hannah. The +incident was then dismissed except for a public +reprimand for a woman so depraved as to put +into the hand of a child a toy upon the Lord’s +Day and in the Lord’s House. After this the +Greenes lost what friends they had, and no one +came commonly to their hut upon the salt marsh +but Bilby’s wicked Doll.</p> + +<p>On a February night Hannah Bilby woke +overcome with retching and vomiting. In the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> +morning Mr. Kleaver, the surgeon, being called, +took away two ounces of blood from the forearm; +still she continued in wretched state three days. +By the oppression on her chest and especially +because of certain night sweatings and terrors, +she became convinced she was bewitched and +frankly accused Goodwife Greene. Mr. Zelley +roughly bade her hold her tongue (this being but +one of many times when he befriended a witch) +and declared there was no reason why Greene +should wish her harm. At which statement many +were amazed, for they thought every one knew +that Greene loved little Doll and hated the foster +mother because of her cruelty. Through all the +clustering villages—Salem, Ipswich, Cowan +Corners, etc.—it was whispered how Doll had +surrendered to Greene either parings from Mrs. +Hannah’s nails or hair from her body, and had +thus given Greene the wherewithal to work +magic.</p> + +<p>Within a year all suspicion seemed to have +passed away from Goody Greene, but in a hundred +ways more doubts gathered about the child +and she was whispered of. Mrs. Bilby told many, +here one and there two, usually with entreaties +for prayers and commands for secrecy, that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> +girl was born and bred a witch. She told how +her own unborn son (that thumping boy) had +been blasted. She told them to watch—was +not Mr. Bilby himself bewitched by her? So it +seemed to many. There were no clothes fine +enough in Boston for his dear Doll—he needs +must send to England for them. Sometimes he +held her on his knee—and she a girl of thirteen +or fourteen. Even when the elders and the minister +came to call on him, and Hannah, as befitted +her gender, withdrew from the room, Bilby +would keep his ridiculous hobgoblin squatting +at his feet. As he talked, he patted her shaggy, +spikey, hair.</p> + +<p>The child had nothing to do with children of +her own age, nor did godly parents wish their +children to play with her. For the most part she +was a silent thing, stealing about on feet as quiet +as cats’ paws. To her foster father she was +pretty and frolicsome. To Goodwife Greene she +was loving, and stole from the Bilby larder food +for the wretched paupers. With her mouth she +said little to any one, but her eyes spoke—those +round button eyes, and they spoke secret and +evil things.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Monstrous facts regarding Doll’s earliest youth which Mr. +Zelley repeated almost twenty years after her death. How she +attended Black Sabbath, etc. How she saw the Devil in Brittany +and probably swore to serve him, etc.</em></p> + +<p>When the time came late in his life that Mr. +Zelley, being old and broken, was accused of +witchcraft, he told, after long questionings, much +that he knew about Bilby’s Doll. For instance, +he said she never forgot one of those wicked +things which she had learned of her parents in +Brittany.</p> + +<p>It is true, the shock and horror of their death +caused such mental anguish it seemed to her +a black curtain (much like the smoke of the +holocaust) dropped down upon her life. All that +was actual in her life was before the curtain—that +is, after her parents’ death; yet all that lay +behind this curtain did exist for her—only +infinitely small and infinitely far away. To see +(for she did not call it <em>remembering</em>) what lay +behind this barrier, she had to think and think +only of blackness. Soon was her industry rewarded. +Behold, the blackness disintegrated and +little by little she saw strange scenes in piercing +clarity, yet all in miniature. She saw these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> +visions as though she were above them—say +from the height of a church steeple, and she saw +her own self, a little shaggy girl, walking below.</p> + +<p>If no one disturbed her, if Mrs. Hannah did +not cuff her for idleness, she could watch the +movements of these people for hours. There were +her father and mother, other witches and warlocks, +phantom beasts, fiends, imps, goblins, +fairies, and always her own self. Sometimes these +people and creatures grew so small they were +scarcely more than shifting sands. Yet the +smaller they grew, the more intense was their +actuality. Mr. Zelley said that she observed +that when these images, visions, or what you will, +were presented to her almost as large as life, they +were vapoury and hard to see, but when they +were no larger than a grain of sand she could see +everything—the little frown on her father’s +forehead, the scales on the imps’ shoulders, her +mother’s teeth as she smiled, even the nails on +the hands of her own self; yet how small must +have been those hands when the whole body of +an adult was no more than a grain of sand!</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley, an old and broken man, was commanded +to tell further. What would she see—on +what business would these folk be about?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> +She would see naked men and women with goats’ +horns on their heads. They danced back to back. +As they danced, they cried ‘hu hu hura hu,’ in +the manner of witch-people. She would see the +sacrifice of a black kid, and the crucifixion of the +sacred wafer. Did she ever see the Devil himself? +Witch-people often select one of themselves +to be, as it were, high priest in their infernal +synagogue. Him they call devil. Such a +one she often saw. He was young and lusty and +dressed in green leaves. When they danced their +sarabands, no one jumped as high as he. He was +a pretty man and women loved him. It was only +on Black Sabbath he had such power over men +and women. At other times he was a cordwainer.</p> + +<p>This devil that she saw was but a mock devil. +Did she never see that Scriptural Devil—that +Foul Fiend Lucifer? Ah, that she could never +quite recall—not even with the powerful help +of her strange minute images. It is true that +after hours of application she would sometimes +see a woman whom she knew to be her mother +walking through great oak woods (mistletoe-infested) +and with her, clinging to her skirts, was +a child. The child was her own self. A great +light pierced the green gloom of the forest and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> +where it fell stood a man. He was an aristocrat, +carried a small rapier with the hilt of which he +toyed; he was dressed in green velvet, had a +handsome, ruddy face, and loving blue eyes. Nor +had he horns, she said, and if a tail, he kept it to +himself; but his shoes she noticed were unsightly, +as though contrived to accommodate clubbed +foot or cloven hoof.</p> + +<p>To him her mother knelt, and the child knelt +also. The mother said she had a little servant +for him, who she promised would obey him in +all things. ‘What shall I do with so little a one?’ +But he caressed her with his hands. His touch +was cold as ice. Even to remember that touch +raised the gooseflesh upon her. It was searing +as the hands of Death. She never saw this particular +scene enacted before her without experiencing +a physical shock—pleasant and yet +repellent. Then she could see the child accept +the Book the man offered her, and she always +made a mark in the Book with blood drawn +from her own arm. But the end of this particular +and much-loved vision was always the same +and always disappointing, for she saw herself +and her mother sitting by the hearth. Her +mother was stirring the pot and as she stirred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> +she talked, telling the story of a little girl who +had walked with her mother in a great wood, had +met the Devil, and had sworn to serve him. So +it was Doll Bilby never could be sure whether or +not she had actually promised to serve the Foul +Fiend and had made her blood-mark in his Book, +or whether it was but a tale told by her mother.</p> + +<p>At first she felt no terror of the strange phantasies +which, waking and sleeping, were always +before her eyes, but as she grew to young womanhood, +this uncertainty as to her true status came +greatly to worry her. If she had indeed signed +the Book of Hell, then was she utterly damned, +and there was no hope for her. If she had not, +then might she, by prayer, watchfulness, etc., +escape into Paradise. Thus she endured great +anguish of spirit. At last the Soul, which ever +turns and struggles in the heart of man, turned +uneasily within her and she tried to forget all +the evil which she remembered—even the voice +of her mother, crying out piteously to her from +the midst of flame.</p> + +<p>Then Conscience—that gift from God to man—raised +<em>its</em> head, and she lay and moaned upon +her bed, listening to the holy voice of Conscience, +asking her over and over, to her utter weariness,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +what have you done—what have you +done? So she applied herself with burning intensity +to the ways of religion, and it was then, +said Mr. Zelley, he first came to ponder upon her, +although she told him nothing of herself or of her +past until some years later. But all her pious +exercises were performed without that pleasure +which the good Christian habitually manifests, +but rather with the terror of a lost soul. Mr. +Zelley kept a diary, and in that diary he wrote +(Doll being at that time in her sixteenth or even +possibly in her seventeenth year) a wanton suggestion, +‘I mark with interest the religious +fructuations of Miss D. B. but fear she fruits +without roots, and but let a man, perhaps, Titus +Thumb, come into her life by the door, and then +shall God but pass out by the window ...’ and +more light and blasphemous talk, suggesting +slyly that there may be some resemblance between +the carnal love of body and the spirit love +of soul.</p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>A good young man is taken in a witch’s net.</em></p> + +<p>This Titus Thumb, to whom Mr. Zelley referred, +was the oldest child and only son of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> +Deacon Ephraim Thumb, whose lands lay south +of and adjoining to the lands of Mr. Bilby. There +had always been intimacy between the two +farms, for the men of one helped the men of the +other at harvesting, planting, and building. The +two women were gossips. The two men were +cronies. Titus had been much away because he +was a scholar at the new college in Cambridge. +For one year he was home again to help in the +opening-up of certain new lands. He was a +studious youth who hoped in time to prepare +himself for the ministry of God. This, however, +never came to pass, for God willed otherwise, +and, on completing his studies at Cambridge, +he remains there, known to hundreds of young +Latinists as ‘Tutor Thumb.’</p> + +<p>He was a young man of special parts and +handsome person. He would be a minister and +his father was rich. The wenches of the village +flocked to him like moths to flame, ignoring often +in the exuberance of the chase (for they were unmannerly +and bold to him) proper female conduct. +They mocked him among themselves, +saying he was his mother’s darling or cosset; that +he would never seek out a woman for himself. +They would torment him, pulling him behind<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> +doors and kissing him, pushing their bodies +against him when he could not escape them, etc., +etc. For which wanton conduct they were well +served, for he would have none of them, and, +keeping the fifth commandment well in mind, +stayed close to his parents’ house.</p> + +<p>He had two younger sisters, born at one time, +for they were twins. They were sad and puny +children, and many who saw them wondered +that God had seen fit to cut His cloth so close—that +is, it seemed to many that He had but +enough material (brains, bones, spirits, hair, +vitals, etc.) to make one proper child, yet out of +this little He had made two. In answer to this +questioning of Divine Wisdom, Mr. Zelley said +no one body could have endured as many diseases +and ills as the Thumb twins were heir to. +Perhaps it was as well to divide up the maladies +as well as the strength. Labour had a falling +sickness. She would stiffen with a horrid din, +foam, and go into convulsions. Nor was Sorrow +of much hardier stock. She was subject to nightmares +and other delusions (which Mr. Kleaver +insisted arose from a cold stomach). Their +mother vexed herself greatly over them, and +where another woman might think it well if the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> +miserable things but made a good end and returned +early to that God Who had sent them +thus poorly fortified into the world, she was always +calling upon Mr. Kleaver or Goody Greene +to dose them, or Mr. Zelley to pray over them. +They were pretty children with soft brown eyes +and yellow hair, fine and finicky, but their limbs +were miserably thin and their bellies somewhat +swollen.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thumb told them not to play with Bilby’s +Doll. She feared the girl because her foster +mother said she was a witch. Like most sickly +children, they were poorly trained in obedience. +They met Bilby’s Doll, whenever they could, by +the willow brook which separated the two farms. +Of these meetings, however, they said little or +nothing. The mother often heard them whispering +and laughing to each other, and, because she +would hear them talk of Mistress Dolly, she knew +they saw her. As they were too feeble to be +whipped or even shaken, she had little control +over them.</p> + +<p>She would have been vexed to know that often +her husband, sitting at the Black Moon Tavern +with Mr. Bilby, planned that in due time this +same girl, whom Mrs. Thumb considered too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> +dangerous even to cast an eye upon the twins, +should marry the handsome Titus. On such occasions +Mr. Bilby (although he would clap him +on the back, and protest his friendship) always +put him off—Doll was but a child, not old +enough to marry. She had the immature body of +a girl of twelve. Give her time and she would +grow. Deacon Thumb would not be put off. +Was she not sixteen at the youngest? Had not +his own mother married before that?</p> + +<p>He was most cupidous. He wanted his son to +become heir to the fine estate of Bilby. He did +not heed what his wife said of danger. He cared +more that his son should have a great property +in this world than that his soul should be saved +for the next. He was not an evil man, for he was +a deacon in the Church. He was a heedless man, +and too easily dismissed as gossip the true stories +his wife forever whispered in his ear, in regard to +this same Doll.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bilby was anxious that the girl should +marry and so be out of the house. One day she +said, ‘What shall we ever do with your Doll? +There’s not a man in the town that would marry +her.’ Mr. Bilby said that every unmarried man +in the town would be glad to get her. Mrs.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +Bilby said, ‘You mean they would be glad to get +a slice off your meadows.’ He said he would +box her ears for her. She said Doll would be +lucky if she got herself a vagabond, or a widowed +man, or an old man of eighty. Mr. Bilby boxed +her ears and went down to the tavern. Then he +told Deacon Thumb that, although it broke his +heart even to think of parting with his treasure, +yet was marriage the one and only proper state +for woman, and he would put her happiness even +before his own. Moreover, his wife still hated the +girl, even more than she had the night she first +saw her, and although a good woman (and very +handsome), yet she was hard. He said he had +just boxed her ears and suggested that he was +now willing to talk of the marriage settlement. +He would do something very handsome by Doll. +‘For God knows,’ he said, ‘she is dear to me.’</p> + + +<h3>4</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>In spite of the Warnings of his Better Nature a young man +looks covetously to Bilby’s Doll.</em></p> + +<p>On certain days the men of the two farms combined +their labours, then Doll brought to her +foster father his midday dinner. To suit his +fancy she would bring food for herself also. This<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> +food she would eat quickly and without speaking +to any one, keeping close to Mr. Bilby. On those +harvest days, when the sun was bright on the +stubble and heat shimmered in the air, the shade +beneath the oaks was grateful. Doll Bilby, in +the bright dresses her foster father bought for +her, looked as fresh within this shade as one of +those little summer flowers that go down before +the scythes of harvesters. This Titus noticed, +and he knew, although never a word had been +spoken to him, that his father wished the match +and his mother opposed it.</p> + +<p>Also he noticed that the young woman, although +so small, was made in a neat and most +pleasing manner. She was more dainty, more +finicky in her cut than the big English girls. He +often thought, as he stretched himself to rest +upon the earth, that to the eye of a man of rare +discernment such delicacy and small perfection +might give more pleasure than more opulent +charms, yet he never went so far as to say that +he himself was that discerning man. Likewise +it pleased him that she was shy before him, for +he had been over-courted. When he would +stretch his body along the ground close to where +she sat, she would gaze unsmilingly at him out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> +of her wild, troubled eyes, and something in that +gaze—some necromancy—stirred his blood, +so that at nights he felt desire for her, and often +dreamed impossible things of her.</p> + +<p>During all that year of harvest he had no +thought for another one but only of Bilby’s +wicked Doll. He knew the stories of her—for +his mother was forever at his elbow whispering +things. He knew of her foreign birth, how she +had once blasted an unborn child, how she and +Goody Greene had afflicted Mrs. Bilby some +years ago, making her vomit pins and fur (for +to such proportions had the story of the woman’s +illness already grown), and he could see for himself +how she bewitched her foster father out of his +seven senses.</p> + +<p>As he gazed upon her sometimes the marrow +grew cold in his bones. He thought if he were a +wise and Christian man, he would have none of +her in spite of his own father’s cupidity. In his +heart he, like his mother, feared her. He could +not understand the power she, without effort, had +over him, for the very sight of her coming across +the hot fields of noon threw him into a cold, +dismal, unnatural sweat. Now was his heart set +towards this marriage, but he looked with dread<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> +as well as joy to that day which should unite +her to him. He believed that whatever her secret +might be she should deliver it up to him on her +bridal. Half he was persuaded that he would +find that she, like Sara in the Book of Tobit, had +a demon lover, who would strangle any bridegroom, +nor had he an angel or a fish’s liver, with +which to protect himself.</p> + + +<h3>5</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>A malignant black Bull leads all astray. Young Thumb +fears Doll and suspects the creature is her Familiar.</em></p> + +<p>The Thumbs had a young black bull, which, +with other neat cattle and quick stock, they had +out from England on the ship Fawnley. This +bull was a wanderer, breaking stout fences, and +seeking out his own pleasure among his neighbours’ +corn fields, cabbage plots, and herds.</p> + +<p>On the last day of April, Ahab, the bull, +loosed himself, and climbing a high hedge of +stumps, which looked strong enough to hold any +creature but an angel from Heaven, he set forth. +Having crossed many pastures and trampled +down valuable rye, he came to the banks of +the River Inch, where it formed the northern +boundary of the Bilby farm. The men were far<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> +away burning brush. Mrs. Bilby was at her +churn in the milk-house. Doll, a shiftless wench, +was loitering by the river’s edge, and there she +came across the bull. He was knee-deep among +the cowslips. Seeing her, he threatened playfully +with his short horns, and set off as fast as he +could trot with a bunch of yellow flowers dangling +from his blue lips.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p041" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p041.jpg" alt="Bull eating"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>She knew the animal to be of great value, and +that she must quickly give warning of his liberty +lest he escape into the forest, and, being set upon +by savages or the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">feræ naturæ</i> of the place, become +but meat in the stomachs of those little schooled +to appreciate his worth. She ran quickly back +to the house, calling that Black Ahab was loose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> +and she had seen him head for the forest. Mrs. +Hannah, rushing from the milk-house, caught +the girl by the arm, shook her angrily because +the cows were up and ready for milking, and she +was late to her work. She would not let her run +to the upland fields where the men burned brush, +nor to the Thumbs’ farm so that the creature +might be caught. She flung her milking-stool and +her pail at her feet, and told her to be about her +own business, for if she had done as she should +have done—that is, if she had made cheese all +the afternoon, instead of loitering about the pastures—she +never would have seen Ahab or +known that he had escaped. Doll sat upon her +stool and bent herself silently to her work.</p> + +<p>On his return in the evening, Mr. Bilby was +angry to find that no word had been sent to his +neighbour in regard to the loss of his creature. +Nor did Doll tell him that it was his wife’s and +not her fault. Partly because she was ashamed +that he thought her responsible for the loss, and +partly because she was a wild girl who loved to +run about, she joined the searching party, made +up of the men of the two households.</p> + +<p>They searched the pastures and the ploughed +lands, the fields, the meadows. There was no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +place else to search but the forest, for Ahab was +utterly gone. They searched the forest until it +was black night, following the snappings of +twigs, blowings, stampings. Not once did they +see the body of the black bull. Doll kept to her +foster father’s heels. Her dress and hands were +torn. Her feet soaked with wet. She often called, +and in a lovely voice, ‘Ahab ... Ahab.’ As often +as she cried, Titus knew her whereabouts, and +took himself to her side. For on that black night +it was she and not the mischievous bull that he +was pursuing. He thought how heavy was the +night, how awful in their majesty the woods, and +how wild and small the dark goblin-child. So he +prayed at the same moment that God might +deliver his soul from her soul, and her body unto +his.</p> + +<p>Weary and disheartened at last, all turned +towards home. But Doll had lost Mr. Bilby, who +had started back with Deacon Thumb. Titus, +amazed and delighted to find her alone, walked +by her side. Doll bitterly reproached herself +that she had not given warning in time. To comfort +her Titus said it was only his and his father’s +fault because they could not keep the beast in +bonds. To his amazement he found that it was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> +not with their loss she was concerned, but only +with the fortunes or misfortunes of the wretched +bull. He thought, has this woman a familiar, +and is it that accursed Ahab? So his marrow +froze in his bones.</p> + +<p>Thinking that she was indeed no bigger than +one of those little goblins that live by the hob +and bring good fortune to those who are kind to +them, and also how there was much about her +shape to please a man of rare discernment, he +would have touched her with his hands (witch or +no witch) and supported her weariness through +the rough dark pasture lands. If she would accept +this much from him, it was possible (for the +night was May night when all young men for +hundreds of years have been allowed special +license from their sweethearts) she would permit +more and more, so that the day’s vexations might +end joyously. Many times had he felt a vital +spark pass from her to him, and he could not but +believe that she was conscious of it as well as he. +Doll seemed not to realize his intent. As in the +dark he approached his hands to her, she floated +from him. Before her home was reached he came +to fancy she had no body, or that by some charm +(strong as that charm she had worked to bind<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> +him to her) she now had made a barrier about +herself which he had not the physical strength to +break.</p> + +<p>He thought of Sara and her loving demon, +Asmodeus, and wondered if such a fiend might +not now be protecting her. And he wished he had +never heard that holy story, for Sara, according +to Sacred Writ, had seven husbands and each +young man in turn had been strangled upon his +marriage bed by the fiend Asmodeus, who loved +her.</p> + + +<h3>6</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>A young Christian witnesses an Awful Metamorphosis and +shoots a bullet, but not a silver bullet.</em></p> + +<p>The young man’s bodily fatigue was great, and +his soul tormented. It grieved him to think +that when at last he had gotten Doll Bilby by +herself (and that upon a May night) it had profited +him nothing. That night he could not +sleep, but lay hot and lustful upon his bed. When +he believed day about to dawn, he got himself +into breeches, jerkin, hose, and shoes, and, having +drunk a jorgen of ale, he went again to the +search of Ahab.</p> + +<p>Because there might be danger in the forest, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +took with him his bastard musket. He came out +of the house. It was not yet day. There was +some light from the east, but it was a specious +and unreal light, and the mists and fog from up +over the sea were heavy and blue. He misliked +the day.</p> + +<p>First he looked about his own cow-pens and +then about the cow-pens of his neighbour, for he +knew the creature loved the company of his own +kind and if alive would be like to return to them. +There was neither bull, nor sign of bull. With +his musket upon his shoulder, he took a path +through Mr. Bilby’s meadows and came down +to the smooth waters of the River Inch. He +thought, ‘This Ahab is a greedy drinker. As +soon as the sun is up he will get to the river and +gorge himself with water.’ The fogs lay heaviest +over the river, and they lay flat and white like +piled counterpanes. Steadily the watery light +grew from the east. He thought he would sit +upon a boulder under a willow tree. The sun +would soon shine out and drink up the fogs and +dews of night. He kept his bastard musket on +his knees, partly because the strangeness of the +twilight vexed him, and partly because he knew +that not far from him—no farther than he could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> +shoot with his gun—was a path from out of the +woods down which wild animals often came +early to drink from the river. It was down this +path he hoped to see Ahab, and in the meantime +he might get venison for his mother’s larder. He +sat quietly, and a doe stepped out, followed by +twin fawns. But these he would not shoot, for +their grace and smallness reminded him of Doll. +Everything reminded him of Doll—the birds +that sang, the flowers in the grasses, even the +mystery and silence of the dawn. Yet these +things should not have reminded him of a woman, +but of her Maker.</p> + +<p>In time he heard a crashing and breaking of +twigs, and laughed to himself that he had read +the bull’s thoughts so well, for nothing that lived +in the forest would make such a commotion; only +a domestic barnyard animal would carry himself +so noisily. Nor was he disappointed, for out +of the fogs and through the brush came the young +bull, looking vast and large in the unreal light +of dawn. He thought to let the creature settle +himself to his drinking and then to steal up from +behind him and catch his halter. So he sat +quietly until he saw with astonishment that +what he believed to be an Indian was astride him,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> +and, having rigged reins to the halter, was endeavouring +to turn him from the water.</p> + +<p>To see a rider on Ahab did not surprise him, for +he knew the bull had often carried even his little +sisters, the puny Labour and Sorrow. It did astonish +and anger him to see a savage in possession +of his father’s property. So he called out +roughly and forbade the man to turn the creature +away from him. What next happened he +never truly knew, for he was sure that the tawny +(which at the instant seemed a large and ferocious +brave) jumped from the bull’s back and made +at him with his tomahawk. Titus knelt upon +one knee and fired. In spite of the fogs and +bushes that partly confused his sight, he took his +aim most accurately against a bit of beadwork +above the heart of his enemy. Now he saw this +boy or man most clearly, the deerskin fringe to +his jerkin, the feathers, the dark, angry face, the +tomahawk, the patterns made by beads, and he +knew that his aim was accurate and good; yet, +even as the bullet sped to its mark, the Indian +was there no more, and instead stood Doll Bilby +with her hands clasped to her heart.</p> + +<p>He knew the bullet went through her. When +he first saw her, she was still staggering from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> +impact, but, when he reached her side and pulled +away her hands (crying out and lamenting that +he had killed her), there was no mark of blood +upon her grey gown, and she assured him in a +weak and frightened voice that she was unhurt. +This gown Doll had on that day was made of +strong fustian, and, as Mrs. Hannah always said, +it had not a hole nor tear in it. Yet the next time +Doll wore it there was discovered above the heart +a minute and perfect patch, put on, evidently, to +cover a hole no larger than a sixpence.</p> + +<p>So great and so unreasonable was Titus’s love +for Doll, he at first hardly considered the awful +metamorphosis he had witnessed. Instead he was +sick to think how close she had been to death.</p> + +<p>As this story (which has just been set down in +its true form) spread through the village, it +grew incredibly larger in the mouths of certain +people, and yet in the mouths of others it dwindled +down into nothing. For the former of these +insisted that Doll did not come alone, but was +escorted by a vast troop of infernals, witches, +etc., and that Ahab spoke to his master, making +sundry infantile observations, such as might +occur to the intelligence of a beast. Those who +would make nothing of the story (and among<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> +these was Mr. Zelley) said Titus was no solid +rock upon which to build the truth, and that his +fancy had ridden him. There never had been +an Indian upon the bull’s back, only Doll. He +never had seen the beads, fringes, tomahawk. +When he shot, his aim was confused and he had +gone wide the mark.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley, in his diary, quotes Scripture in +regard to this curious incident, saying in part +that Our Lord warns us against the putting of +new wine into old bottles, lest the new wine +prove too strong and burst the bottles. ‘So a +torrent of feeling—especially when arising from +the passions—is of the greatest danger to a +weak container, and young Mr. Thumb is that +weak container.’</p> + +<p>At that moment, however, Titus had but one +thought, and that was that at last the wench was +in his arms, for she was so weakened by fear +(or perhaps from the actual shock of the bullet) +she could hardly stand. He comforted her, stroking +her hair, kissing her, and saying over and +over that he would have died rather than hurt +a hair of her head. Concerning the fact that, but +a second before, she had been in other shape and +enjoying a different gender, he said nothing, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> +he thought that she might wish to remain mute +concerning the matter, and then he thought: ‘It +was because of kindness, at least if not towards +me, towards the bull, that made this modest +young female assume another shape. How could +she, as a white girl, have ventured to the forest +and found Ahab?’ So he said nothing. Now that +at last his arms were about her, he felt none of the +fire and anguish he had endured the night before; +rather, it seemed to him, that he was caressing +and comforting one of his own sisters. So he set +her sideways on the bull, and took her to her own +house.</p> + +<p>By the time he had reached his father’s farm, +he was once more swept by such inordinate and +passionate desire he could not believe that earlier +in the same morning he had kissed and comforted +her, thinking her only a child—not even a witch +and much less a woman.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Young Thumb dwindles. The witch torments him and her +foster father discerns that she is not nor ever can be a Christian +woman.</em></p> + +<p class="no-indent">From the day on which Ahab was lost and recovered, +Titus began a secret courting of Doll. +Witch or no witch he would have no other. On +the one side of him was his father, winking at him +and pointing out the richness of Mr. Bilby’s +fields, the weight of his cattle, the size of his +barns. On the other side of him was his fond +mother, whispering and whispering, ‘The girl’s +a witch, she’ll come to no good end, she’ll hang +yet, the girl’s a witch ... witch ... witch.’ Of +all these matrimonial plans Mrs. Hannah knew +nothing. She saw that Titus was much about the +house, but, being very proud of her beauty +(which was remarkable in a woman of her years), +she believed in her own heart that she was the +reason for the young man’s constant presence. +She could not believe so handsome and sought after +a young man could see anything to desire +in the ridiculous hobgoblin-child. Doll Bilby<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> +flouted him at every turn, yet was he always after +her, hungry as a cat for fish.</p> + +<p>Many noticed, even by June and still more by +July, that young Mr. Thumb was suffering from +some malady that sapped strength from body, +color from face, and dulled the eye. He was a +listless worker in the fields, leaning upon his +scythe, scanning the horizon, sighing, and weakly +returning to his work. He ate little and slept less, +so that his flesh fell away enormously, and, +where four months before had stood a hale young +man, now stood a haggard. He would mutter to +himself, sit out in night vapours to consider the +moon as it shone on the distant roof of Bilby’s +house.</p> + +<p>Thus things went from bad to worse. His +mother noticed his condition and guessed its +cause. She brooded over the young man, and +this made him vexatious and bilious. When his +little sisters had met (as they sometimes did, in +spite of their mother) ‘Mistress Dolly’ by the +willow brook, he would beg them to tell him +everything the young woman said to them. How +did they play? Did they build a little house of +pebbles? Had they made dolls from stones? +They would never tell him, but ran quickly away.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> +The truth came out later. Doll amused them +with stories of salamanders, elves, fairies, etc. +They feared their mother would be angry if she +knew—for she often had said that all the <em>good</em> +stories were in the Bible, and if a story could not +be found there it was proof that it was not good. +So the twins ran away and told nothing of their +visits with Doll. They often talked to each +other, however, after they were in bed, and went +on making up wicked things like those she had +told them.</p> + +<p>All her life Mrs. Thumb swore she knew her +son’s distress was from no ordinary cause. If +that were true, people asked her, how did she +come to give consent to her son’s marriage with +this same Doll? When she was an ancient lady, +living in her son’s house at Cambridge, she once +said: ‘I saw my son like to die, and he swore +there was but one cure for him—that is, marriage +with this young woman whom our magistrates +later judged to be a witch. Therefore I +said little to oppose the marriage. Then, too, +at that time I placed much confidence in the +wisdom of Mr. Zelley. He stood at my right +hand, saying, “The girl is innocent. It will be a +fine match.” Titus would cry out in his sleep for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> +this witch-girl. How could I deny him when I +thought it the only way to save his life?’</p> + +<p>Hannah raged when she learned that the marriage +was arranged (although nothing yet had +been said to Doll). Bilby could not fathom her +anger, for he thought she would be pleased to get +the girl out of the house. He did not know that +his wife believed herself the reason for Titus’s +mopings and pinings. Indeed she had ordered +for herself a new red riding-hood from Mr. Silas +Gore, of Boston, so that she might have finery +with which to fascinate the young man.</p> + +<p>At last Doll knew she was to marry the good +young man, for her foster father told her so. He +told her roughly, for his heart broke to think of +losing her to another. Sorrow made his tongue +unkind. She would not listen to him, but, +laughing, clung about his waist, saying she would +never leave him, that he was the only man she +could ever love. He wanted to keep her with him +forever, but he knew that she was a strange girl, +not like others, and he believed that if she were +married she would become less secret and, having +a house and children of her own, she would be +happier.</p> + +<p>Then, too, he knew that his wife was cruel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +to her, and he thought that it would be better +for her to live under a roof where there +was only love. It was in vain that he told her +that she was now a woman grown, and it was +time that she went about the business of women—that +is, the bearing and raising of children. +Did she have a deep aversion for her handsome +and godly young neighbour? Would she not be +proud some day to be a minister’s wife? No, no, +never, never—she only wanted to be his dear +foster child. He hardened his heart against her, +and unwound her arms from about his waist. +He told her to marry young Thumb, or to think +up better reasons why she should not. He would +not have such an ungrateful, stubborn woman +about his house. If she did not wish to do as he +wished, she could find another place to live. He +never meant such hard words. He acted for her +own best good. He pushed her from him, and +made off to the fields.</p> + +<p>She overtook him in a field of flax where the +flowers were even bluer than the rare summer +sky. The air was heavy with the murmur of bees. +She flung herself on her knees and caught him by +the long blue smock he wore.</p> + +<p>‘Father,’ she cried, ‘wait, wait, I beg of you.’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +She put her hands over her face and wept. He +could have wept himself to see her thus. He +hardened his heart and would have pushed by. +She cried out she had something to tell him, so +he waited silently, but without looking at her, +for he was afraid that at the sight of her his heart +would melt. She seized him by the hem of his +smock and began to talk in a hoarse voice and a +roaring voice like nothing he had ever heard out +of her before. She had something to tell him, +she said. There were reasons why she could not +marry, especially not a young man who wished to +be a minister. She feared she was not a Christian +woman. She looked up at him from the ground, +and he looked down upon her. Their eyes met, +and in one horrid instant Mr. Bilby realized what +it was she meant, why she feared she might not +be a Christian woman. Of Evil she remembered +everything, and at that moment he knew it.</p> + +<p>He did not dare question her. He did not dare +know what she knew. He essayed to comfort her +and said he did not care who her parents really +were. It mattered no more to him than who might +be the sire of the cat that caught the mice in his +barn. He also said what was not true, for he assured +her that what one may have done or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> +promised at a very tender age had no importance +in the eyes of God. So he talked vaguely, and +made off to his labours.</p> + +<p>She left him and went to a secret spot she had +among the birch trees on the hillside. She was +not comforted, and her heart was hard set +against the thought of marriage.</p> + +<p>Those things which Doll told Mr. Bilby +frightened him. He went straight to his neighbours +that same afternoon and said the time had +come when Titus, with his own tongue and in +his own body, should do a little courting. Titus +said how could he when Doll was never a flea-hop +from her foster father’s heels? Thus it was +arranged. Doll, that very night, should be left +alone in her father’s house—Bilby and wife +should go to Thumb’s. Titus would come to her, +court her, and persuade her to marriage. After +a sufficient time, all would return to Bilby’s and +celebrate the happy betrothal with sack-posset, +hymns, psalms, prayers, etc.</p> + +<p>To this Titus and all agreed. Even Doll had +nothing to say, but at her foster father’s bidding +she put on her most wanton dress—a giddy +dress of scarlet tiffany such as no pious woman +would wish to possess.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>A woman is seized by a Frenzy. And how a man may court +without profit.</em></p> + +<p>Now, when she found herself alone, she ran +back and forth, back and forth, through the +house. She locked and barred everything. She +locked the cupboards and the doors and shuttered +the windows. She went to the attic and locked +the trunks, the boxes, the cribs, and the cases. +She went to the cellar and bolted the door. +Doors she could neither bolt nor bar, she barricaded. +Even when this was done, she could not +stop her strange running round and round the +house, sometimes turning in small circles like a +dog gone mad. She said over and over to herself, +‘I must be a witch, for I can feel myself +weaving a charm.’ So she ran fast through the +house, but there was nothing more to lock.</p> + +<p>It was not yet seven o’clock and the evening +was still light. Yet so closely had she barred and +shuttered everything, the house inside was dark +as midnight. Then she got old blankets, and in +the end, in her desperation, new blankets, and +tried to stuff the gaping chimney hole in the fire-room +so that the whole house should be utterly +barred and tight. But all the time (as she afterwards<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> +told Mr. Zelley) she would ask herself, +‘Why, why do I do these things?’ In the midst +of her most desperate work with the chimney +hole, she would stop and begin to run through +the house—unable to stop herself. She thought +to herself that she was working some charm or +rather some charm worked within her. She was +powerless before her great need to run back and +forth, back and forth, through the locked and +barred house.</p> + +<p>Titus Thumb, dressed as though for a bridal +and carrying a nosegay of lad’s-love and a +turkey-leather psalm book for gifts, came proudly +to the house, knocking to be let in. Doll heard +him, for she was crouched upon the cold hearth +of the fire-room, striving to stuff the chimney +hole. She thought, ‘I will let him in, and then +he can do this thing better than I.’</p> + +<p>Titus was astonished to find the house dark +and his lady’s hair a ragged black mat on her +shoulders, her gay scarlet gown disordered and +torn open at the throat, as though she had but recently +wrestled with an enemy. And her face +astonished him, for her cheeks were bright red. +Fuller and more beautiful than ever before, her +eyes glittered indeed like a goblin’s and her wide<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> +mouth was pulled up at the corners in a wicked +but most provocative smile. She, in the dark +house, seemed more like imp or puck than human +woman. All that was human in him—that is, +intelligence, conscience, reason, and so forth—was +afraid and bade him turn back; yet all that +was animal in him—that is, the hunger and desire +of his body—urged him to enter. So he entered.</p> + +<p>Already that awful necessity that had made +her run so madly through the house was gone. +She explained the blankets by the cold hearth, +saying that they were damp, and that she had +planned to build a fire and dry them out. So he +built a fire. She explained her dishevelled condition. +She had heard a rat in the cellar and had +taken a poker and hunted for him. Could he not +at that moment hear the rat scampering in the +cellar? So he took a light and a poker and went +to the cellar, and Doll, a little ashamed and +frightened, quickly ordered her clothes and hair, +and unlocked everything she could before he +returned. Yes, he said, he found a rat and he had +killed it. This surprised her, for she had really +heard no rat, and the thought came to her that +perhaps the Devil had sent that rat to excuse her +conduct.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> + +<p>The young man sat on the settle with his head +in his hands and prayed God to deliver his soul +from the woman’s soul, and her body unto his. +At last he spoke to her, his face turned away from +her. He told her that she knew why he was come. +He wished to marry her, and that he would be to +her a true and loving husband. No, she said, +she could not marry him. He was surprised, for +Mr. Bilby had told no one of the young woman’s +aversion to marriage. He had understood that +he had only to ask and she would assent. He +told her that it was all settled—the very spot +on which their house should be built. How could +she now so coldly say no? She only said again +that she could not marry him—nor any other. +‘If that is so,’ he said, ‘I’ll take my hat and go.’ +But why, if she had no idea of marrying him, had +she so kept him at her heels? She had not kept +him at her heels. She was always trying to rid +herself of him. She knew that was not true. The +very way she drew back from him was the surest +encouragement a man could have. She said she +thought he was talking nonsense. Her eyes +glittered at him, round and bright in the firelight, +like a cat’s.</p> + +<p>He was afraid. He got up. He said again that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> +he would take his hat and go. ‘I wish you would,’ +said Doll. They could not find his hat. It seems +that, while Doll was straightening herself and +ordering the house (Titus at the moment ratting +in the cellar), she had by chance picked up his +hat, with many other things, such as the sooty +blankets, and had stuck them under her own bed. +So now they could not find his hat.</p> + +<p>The young fellow was afraid, and now, as +never before, he believed she was a witch. His +blood pumped through him as though about to +burst the veins; he knew that she wished this +hat to work further charms upon him. But if she +were so set upon charming him, making him her +slave, why would she now have none of him? +Why should she torture him, making him love +her past all human endurance, and yet now so +coldly dismiss him?</p> + +<p>Doll said she was very sorry about the hat. +‘Oh, it is not the hat,’ he cried in despair, his +head again in his two hands, ‘but, my dear Doll, +why will you so torture me? Have I ever been +anything but kind and respectful to you? Look +what you have done. A year ago I was twice the +man I now am. You have done it. You’ve +sucked the strength and manhood out of my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> +veins.’ Then he talked strangely so that she +could not at first understand him. At last she +understood him well. He believed that she had +cast a witch spell on him, and had thus made +him love her so beyond all reason. For, as he +frankly told her, she really was not so wonderful +nor half so beautiful, etc., as he had come to +think her. He said he could remember back +three years ago when he thought her a scrawny, +rather ugly, little thing with too big a mouth.</p> + +<p>All this made her very angry. She jumped up +and down in her rage—more like an imp than +ever—and screamed at him to be gone. She +ran into her own room and came back with his +hat—for she had guessed where it really was, +but had not found an opportunity to get it for +him. She jumped up and clapped the hat onto +his head, pulling it down so sharply over his ears +that she bent them, and continued to scream, +‘Go! Go! Go!’ He grabbed her roughly by the +arm, called her witch, hellcat, succubus. She +turned and bit his wrist, so that it was marked +for days. He pulled her off him, shook her with +great fury, and flung her from him so that her +head struck against the settle and she moaned +in pain. Her plight touched his heart infinitely,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> +and he knew that, witch or no witch, she was his +dear, his own girl.</p> + +<p>So the parents and foster parents, returning, +found them. The man, a valiant officer in the +militia, a scholar, and the heir to a fine estate, +was convulsed with weeping and sobbing. The +girl lay terror-stricken in the corner, as harmless +as a trapped rabbit. Mr. Bilby had no idea that +Titus had flung her into this corner. She was a +strange child, and he thought she had picked it +out for herself. He pitied the terrible (if somewhat +unmanly) grief of the young man, and +swore that, in spite of Doll’s ridiculous and, he +felt, unnatural objections, the marriage must go +ahead.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thumb took her son home, and Mr. Bilby +took Doll to bed, and he comforted her with +that more than female solicitude that a man +often shows towards children or women in distress.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hannah was in a rage when she found her +fine blankets blackened with dirty soot. Nor +would Doll offer an explanation to her foster +mother, although afterwards she told Mr. Zelley +everything.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>The voice of Hell is heard in the House of the Lord.</em></p> + +<p>Mrs. Thumb went everywhere whispering: +‘Look to my son. Is he not bewitched? Look at +my boy—so gentle he would not kick a cat, yet +you all know that once he shot at this Doll Bilby, +and but a few nights ago he struck her and flung +her upon the ground. Then he cried for hours. I +took him home. Is it according to God and +Nature for a man to love thus? Hating her, loving +her, loving her, hating her. Would God the +wench were dead, but she is not, and he will +marry her.’</p> + +<p>Every one thought the girl a witch. She went +her own way quietly, working as she always did, +a little shiftlessly, her mind on other things.</p> + +<p>The harvest was late that year and heavy. +One year Nature would starve her stepchildren +(for so the colonists felt in the new land) with +too little, and the next year break their backs +with too much. Mr. Bilby, harassed with many +things, did a wrong thing. He went to Mr. +Zelley and begged him on the next Sabbath to +publish the banns for his foster child and young +Thumb, and he led Mr. Zelley to believe that +Doll had assented to these plans.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> + +<p>It may well be that Doll, in some secret way +common to witches (that is, through some imp or +familiar used as spy), really did know that upon +a certain Sunday the banns were to be read. If +she did know, she said nothing of this thing to +any one, keeping her own dark counsel, and +working her secret spells. On a Friday Mr. Bilby +sickened slightly, and upon Saturday he could +not touch his proper food, only a cheat-loaf she +baked with her own hands for him, and a barley +gruel. Mrs. Hannah always believed—and +doubtless with reason—that the young woman +was at the bottom of this sickening and was +endeavouring to keep him from the Meeting-House, +for when she heard he was set upon going +she begged him not to go, saying he was too ill, +etc., and must be ruled by her, etc., and sit at +home in idleness.</p> + +<p>But he would not be persuaded, and he went +to church as always. She rode with him upon the +pillion. Mrs. Hannah rode the fat plough horse.</p> + +<p>By the windows and doors of the Meeting-House +were nailed the grim and grinning heads +of wolves, freshly slain. In the stocks before the +Meeting-House were two Quaker women, the one +in an extremity of despair and cold (for there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> +was some ice upon the ground) and the other +brazen, screaming out profanities and laughing +in her disgrace. Upon the roof-walk paced back +and forth Captain Buzzey, of the train-band +troop, beating his drum in great long rolls, summoning +all to come and worship.</p> + +<p>Inside the Church Mrs. Hannah and Doll sat +together on the women’s side, and Mr. Bilby, +as befitted his station in the community, sat +close to the minister. After certain psalms, +prayers, etc., Mr. Zelley held forth from the +Book of Judith for the space of two hours. +There were announcements by the clerk, etc., +and then Mr. Zelley again ascended the scaffold. +Couched in proper form, he read how Titus, son +of Deacon Ephraim Thumb, and Doll, foster +child of Jared Bilby, engaged themselves for +holy wedlock and desired the pronouncement of +these banns.</p> + +<p>His voice was drowned by a sharp and most +piteous lamentation. At first none knew from +where this infernal sound had come. Deacon +looked to deacon, wife to wife. Mr. Cuppy, the +tithing-man, ran up and down among the +wretched small boys. Mr. Zelley stopped in +astonishment, looking first up, as if he thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +the sound had come from the corn crib in the loft +of the Church—or from Heaven—and then +down, as though seeking its source from Hell. +Doll Bilby was on her feet, her arms outstretched, +addressing her foster father. Her voice rose and +died out. None there could ever repeat what it +was she said. That noon, in the noon-house, +between the two services, men and women got +together whispering, wondering, and asking +each what it was that Bilby’s saucy jade had—to +her own unending shame and to the great +indignity of the sacred service—dared to pipe +forth.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley—the least disturbed of all—saw +to it that Bilby and his beloved Doll be got to +horse and to home, without waiting for the second +service. He was perplexed and harassed by +the occurrence, and refused to discuss with his +deacons what would be a fitting punishment for +the young woman, although most were agreed +that it would be the stocks or the pillory. Instead +of listening to the discussions in the noon-house, +he went out of doors and stood before +the evil women in the stocks, exhorting them in +the name of Christ Jesus to repent and to be forgiven. +Theodate Gookin, a stout child, mocked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> +them and pelted them with small apples. This +action of the child enraged Mr. Zelley more than +had the foul blasphemies of the Quakers. He +roughly ordered Theodate to lay off his own warm +overcoat. This he spread kindly upon the back +of the most insufferable of the blasphemers. By +which act of charity, he stilled her lying tongue, +and reproved the levity of the child who would +sport about and enjoy himself on the Lord’s +Day.</p> + + +<h3>4</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Evil cursing bears bitter fruit. Mr. Bilby, though struck +down, swears to the innocency of his Destroyer and makes a +Pious End.</em></p> + +<p>Bilby went stiffly to his horse, his mouth +drawn, his face grey. His wife got on the pillion +behind him and soon left Doll (on the fat work +animal) far behind. When the girl got to the +house, she did not seem to understand why her +foster mother shook her fist, spat, and made at +her with a warming-pan. She did not seem to +know that she had cursed the man—that kind +man, whom she loved.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bilby suffered from a cruel congestion of +the lights. Mr. Kleaver said from the first there +was little chance to save him. For on one day<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +came the surgeon, with his saddle-bags stuffed +with motherwort and goldenrod, and on the +next came the minister with his big Bible, and on +the third day they were like to send for Goody +Goochey, the woman who had the laying-out of +the dead—so sick was he.</p> + +<p>But he delayed his passage into eternity, +fighting death with hardly Christian resignation; +for to your true Christian the years spent on this +world must seem but as the nine months which +the child spends in the womb. His death-day +is in fact his birthday into the kingdom of God. +Should he fight against death any more than the +infant should fight against birth?</p> + +<p>There were gathered in his sick-chamber night +and day rarely less than ten or twelve people, +praying for the departure of this fell disease, or, +if this were impossible, they prayed in the hope of +giving the shrinking soul a heavenward lift.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bilby bade them save their breath, and, +although his face was settling into lines of death +and he breathed horribly and with an animal +roaring, he still begged, as he had from the +first, for a sight of his child Doll. The room was +then cleared of the pious exhorters, who returned +to the Thumb farm and there prayed and drank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +rumbullion. Only Mr. Kleaver, Mr. Zelley, and +the wife remained. Mr. Zelley commanded +Hannah to find the child, and Hannah, frowning, +went away, but she came back soon and said she +was not about. The truth is the woman had +struck and cursed the girl so savagely that now, +when she heard her name called, she did not dare +to come.</p> + +<p>The doors of the death-chamber were shut and +sealed. Camphor was burned on the hearth; +then the wife stood by her husband’s side, and, +in the presence of Mr. Zelley and the surgeon, +asked him three times and in a loud voice +whether or not he believed he died of a curse pronounced +upon him by his foster child. Mr. Bilby +rallied his wits, and, in spite of the agony of his +breathing, he stoutly denied the charge. But +some (among them Hannah) believe that he was +already dead when he seemed to speak, and +that an evil spirit had succoured Doll by leaping +into the head of the corpse and thus making +answer. For he spoke up in a loud, clear voice, +and yet one in no way like his own, and the next +moment he was not only dead, but looked as +though he had been dead for a half-hour or hour +at the least.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p> + + +<h3>5</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Doll forswears the God of our Deliverance and embraces +Beelzebub who prepares (for her instruction) a</em> <span class="allsmcap">PROCESSION</span>.</p> + +<p>The four days Bilby was dying, Doll spent in +the hayloft—night and day. She had over-heard +the farm servants talking, and she knew +of what she was accused and why it was Hannah +would not let her into the house. She remembered +that strange time when she had run and +run through the house, working, she knew, a +spell, or rather feeling a spell work through her, +and she was sick to think that perhaps she had +some power she did not understand, and had +really put a charm upon her dear foster father +when she had not intended. Perhaps it was also +true that unknown to herself she had bewitched +Titus Thumb. None went to her or knew where +she lay but the youngest of the indentured servants, +a good and gentle lad. This boy brought +her food and water. When it was night he went +to his poor lodgings in the cow-shed and took a +blanket from his bed and gave it to her.</p> + +<p>From the loft Doll stared down at the house +and yard, and could guess, by the close attendance +of the surgeon and the clergyman and by +the multitudes gathered to pray, how sick he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> +was. Every morning she saw Hannah go early +to the dunghill and catch a fowl. This bird Doll +knew would be laid for warmth at the sick man’s +feet, for under the dark covers the creature lay +quietly and gave off a good and healing warmth, +yet was no bird imprisoned longer than twenty-four +hours lest its heat be translated into the +chill of death.</p> + +<p>On the fourth day—that is, the day on which +Mr. Bilby died—Doll determined to leave the +loft and if possible to find Goody Greene, who +would at least tell her how her father did. Perhaps +Greene might stay his sickness, for Doll had +more confidence in her and her herbs than in Mr. +Kleaver and his bleeding-cups. At this time of +year the woman often went to the Bilby river +meadows after an herb called ‘Love-lies-bleeding,’ +so Doll, finding the opportunity to slip out +unseen by any, got from the loft and decided +first to hunt for her Sister-in-Evil along the riverbanks. +She dared not pass through the town.</p> + +<p>She sat by the river until sundown, crying long +and bitterly. She remembered that time Titus +had found her there, and cried afresh—for even +those had been happier days.</p> + +<p>Wherever she went she found the flower stems<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +were broke off close to the ground, and she saw +the print of a small Indian moccasin in the mud. +She knew that Goody Greene (being a pauper) +wore these moccasins and that her feet were +small, so she followed this trail, and this led her +to the great forest. Here she paused, for she +feared it. But she feared the cruel suspicions of +her foster mother more, so she took a farewell +look about her at the pastures and fields, and, +finding a small path (still seeing here and there a +moccasin print), she entered boldly.</p> + +<p>It would seem, then, that another of those fits +of senseless weaving back and forth overtook her. +She knew the danger of being lost in this great +wood, and she had not for a long time seen a +footprint. Suddenly she began to run through +the woods on those little paths beaten out by +animals, hunters, and Indians. She could not +pause either to consider her direction or to determine +what it was she really sought, for she had +almost forgotten the idea of finding Greene. The +sun had set and the November night was coming +down fast. The gloom and overwhelming +silence weighed her down. She began to think +that she smelt smoke or saw the glimmer of a +fire. Wherever she looked she could see light<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> +smouldering in the underbrush. Sometimes she +thought there were hundreds of tiny Indian encampments, +with teepees but a few inches high, +and, because she knew of Goody Greene’s fondness +for Indians, she tried to come to these +miniature encampments. She also knew that +she was lost (although this knowledge did not +horrify her as it would a reasonable person), and +not only did she wish the goodwife’s company, +but she needed the warmth even of the smallest +fire, for the night was frosty cold.</p> + +<p>At last, after much running, sniffing, and circling, +she came to a small cleared spot, where she +always maintained she found a fire burning, and +over this fire was a great pall of black smoke. +So she gathered more twigs and fagots, and built +up the fire—not knowing that she only made +a heap of rubbish upon the cold wet ground. At +least her ‘fire’ seemed to warm and comfort her. +She lay back upon the moss and fell quickly into +deep sleep.</p> + +<p>After some time, she waked, startled, for she +heard her name called. ‘Bilby’s Doll! cried the +voice, ‘Bilby’s Doll!</p> + +<p>‘Yes,’ she answered, springing up from her +unhappy bed. There was no answer to her ‘yes.’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> +Whatever it was, she considered her ‘fire’ was +almost out. ‘Who calls?’ she cried, and her voice +echoed and the awful silence of night mocked at +her in solitude.</p> + +<p>Then at last, being wide awake, she realized +with terror and dismay that the voice that called +her was none other than that of her dear foster +father. Yet would he never have called her thus, +saying ‘Bilby’s Doll,’ but ‘Doll’ only.</p> + +<p>Then she knew that he was dead, and that she +would never see him again. It was his lonely +spirit, fresh torn from the earthly body, that had +stopped this moment on its heavenly flight to +cry out to her thus sadly. She flung herself, +moaning, upon the ground, unable to shed a tear. +Witches, she knew, have no tears, and she realized +with horror that her tears had dried up. +She began to pray to ‘Dear God in Heaven....’ +She heard a rustle in the forest, and then low and +malicious laughter. She stopped her prayer. +After a moment of writhing and moaning, she +prayed again—‘Infinite Master, Lord God of +Israel ... I never meant to hurt him. He was +the only person I have ever loved. I never meant +to kill him....’ ‘Why, then, did you curse him?’ +asked a voice, and she again heard malicious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> +laughter. She would have found relief for her +remorse in tears, but there were no tears, nor did +they ever come to her again.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p078" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p078.jpg" alt="Wild tiger"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>She felt the presence of a large and probably +dangerous animal about, so she flung more wood +on her ‘fire.’ She listened to its padded feet, and +told herself it was lynx or wolf, yet in her heart +she hoped and feared that it might be at last a +messenger from that infernal King to whom she +now was convinced her parents had promised her. +For, between the moment that she heard a voice +call ‘Bilby’s Doll’ and that moment in which she +had felt a corporeal presence in the wood, she +had become fully convinced that she was a witch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> +with all the powers that belong to such an evil +estate.</p> + +<p>Slyly she made one last appeal to Jehovah, for +she thought that He might even for so evil a one +as her own self make His awful majesty manifest. +‘O God, who seest all things, who rulest +above, O Great God of Israel, give me a sign, +give me a sign....’ Then in her impudence she +lifted up her impious voice and commanded God, +‘Put back the soul of Jared Bilby, for it is not +yet gone far and his body is yet warm. Do this +and I will serve You. Desert me now, and I +wash my hands of You and Your cruel ways!’ +The rustling and the commotion crept nearer. +No angel this thing which approached her on its +belly. She stared, expecting to see horned head +and grinning demon face. She saw nothing. +She cried once more to God. The solitude echoed +her voice with laughter. Then she cried to the +powers of Hell below and to the Prince of Lies, +‘Great King of Hell, if I serve you, you must +serve me’ (for she knew this was a stipulation in +a witch’s contract). ‘I will do anything, sign any +book, if you will but give me back the soul of +Jared Bilby.’ But this poor soul was now in the +keeping of angel hosts. Not Lucifer himself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> +could snatch it from such guardians. As she +thought thus, a windy voice cried, ‘Too late, too +late.’ ‘Satan, you shall give me a sign,’ she cried. +And there close to the ground were two great +cat’s eyes, larger than saucers. They glared at +her with a green hellish light that transpierced +the darkness and her very soul.</p> + +<p>She cried out desperately to those eyes, ‘Whoever +you are, step forth. I will do anything, sign +any book. Tell me now, in Satan’s name, is +there no way back to life for Jared Bilby? For +it was I, I, I, who slew him—with a witch’s +look. Oh, kind spirit, if you are old, I will be +your daughter; if you are young, I will be your +bride—stand forth now to me.’</p> + +<p>The yellow eyes turned from her as she struggled +with her unhallowed thoughts, and the thing +was gone. Far away, mile after mile, a voice no +bigger than a sparrow’s cried sadly to her, and +in great agony of spirit, ‘Bilby’s Doll....’ She +thought to run after the voice, to catch the naked +soul in her hands. Of what avail? Gone already +a thousand miles. In the littlest voice, no larger +than voice of flea or worm, she heard once more +her foster father cry to her, ‘Bilby’s Doll....’</p> + +<p>She knew that, as there are certain forms and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> +incantations for the destruction of life, so must +there be others for the rekindling of it. What had +Our Lord said before the tomb of Lazarus? +Could she but remember the words she herself +had said in church—perhaps by repeating +them backwards she could countermand the +curse.</p> + +<p>She fell to the ground in an ague, and lay sobbing +dryly, exhorting the powers of Hell. Twigs +snapped in blackness about her. Feet padded in +silence.</p> + +<p>The cold of the night, the terror of her soul, +the dearth of food, the sorrow of her heart struck +her into a stupor from which she could not move. +Through this stupor, in steady procession, and +with much pomp and circumstance, a long parade +of figures, fiends, witches, warlocks, imps, beasts, +familiars, satyrs, and even the beautiful chaste +Diana herself, moved in fleshly form: a wicked, +most fantastic procession. Goblins were there +with faces of cats and owls, salamanders but +lately crawled from fire. Basilisks were there, +serpents, vampires with bats’ wings and horrid +mouths swollen with blood. The pretty pink +bodies of innocent babes were there, who had +died unbaptized, and therefore must stand as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +servants in the halls of Hell, and with them were +pucks and pugs.</p> + +<p>After them rolled through the forest a great +orange cloud—like an old and tarnished fire—no +longer heat-giving. At first her eye could +make nothing of it. Then she saw projecting +through the dun vapours were naked legs and +arms, bits of bodies, and drawn and skull-like +heads with tortured eyes. These were they the +French burned at Mont Hoël in Brittany. Although +she might not know them, her parents +were among them. A group came slowly after +these, shrouded and shuffling through the woods. +In the midst of these she saw Goody Greene. +This woman, alone of all the passers-by, turned +and looked towards Doll. But her eyes were +blind.</p> + +<p>Last of all came Ahab shaking his black head, +a cowslip hanging from his blue lips. She would +sleep and wake, but the procession would still be +passing by, and every so often Ahab would pass +by. The woods were humming-full with an +infinity of unearthly things. There was continuous +lovely singing—or rather a rhythmic +humming that rose and fell and rose again.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span></p> + + +<h3>6</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>With daylight the tides of Hell recede. Doll wakes but to a +more determined Evil.</em></p> + +<p>At last she awoke to see, not the procession of +Hell, but bright day. The humming, however, +still continued in her head, rising and falling, but +not going away. She was frozen cold to her marrow. +Now the loss of her foster father had become +a tiny thing infinitely far away and long, long +ago. All her previous existence seemed removed +from her as if again a barrier had come down +upon her, shutting one part of her life from the +next. So, although she thought sadly of the kind +man’s death, it already seemed one with the +destruction of her parents—that is, a thing +which has happened long back in childhood.</p> + +<p>She recalled to herself the story of a girl who +had slept in a fairy-wood for a hundred years, +and she looked fearfully at her hands, expecting +them to be gnarled with a century. But they +were as they always had been. Her hair about +her shoulders was black. She thought that it was +possible (and at that time it even seemed most +probable) that, although her body might have +retained its youthful form, a great flight of time +had passed. She would go back to Cowan Corners<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> +to find the dark forest had swallowed it. +There would be cellar holes lost in thickets, +where Boston, Salem, Cowan Corners, Ipswich, +etc., had stood. She felt herself alone upon a +whole continent. Her body had grown so light +and so unreal, she scarce could stand, nor was +she wholly convinced of her own reality until she +observed she still could cast a shadow.</p> + +<p>Doll Bilby had always longed for the comforts +of religion, so it was natural that she, having as +she believed just witnessed a manifestation of +her ‘god,’ should now reverently stand and give +thanks. She called upon her Father in Hell, +thanking him that he had made manifest to her +visible proof of his greatness. She called upon +her father and mother, blessed them in the great +name of Hell, and promised to serve them. She +called upon all that vast host of evil things, +blessed them, and promised to serve them.</p> + +<p>So she floated lightly forth, intent to see the +place where Cowan Corners once had stood. +Voices called her through the wood, and these +she knew were true voices of men, not the eerie +cries of ghosts or demons. She answered, ‘Here +am I.’</p> + +<p>Four men came to her, nor was one of them a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> +minute older than he had seemed last Sabbath +at Meeting. Mr. Zelley cried out in pity, for her +five days of despair, suffering, and even the astounding +pleasures of the night before, had +marked the face of Doll Bilby, altering its pretty +childish shape.</p> + +<p>‘My child,’ he said, ‘you need not have run +away. There is no reason to believe Mr. Bilby’s +death due to anything but nature. Such a congestion +of the lights is not uncommon and often +results in death. Doll, as he lay dying, we questioned +him if he was worked upon by any witchcraft, +and he cried in a loud voice, “I die spirit +free.”’</p> + +<p>Doll wept with her hands over her face. None +saw that she shed no tears. But she knew that +the springs of her tears had dried in the night. +Mr. Zelley kissed her gently upon the forehead, +and with that kiss he entered into pact with her, +for after that he cherished her and became at +last her confidant in all things, even in all evil +things. And he had once been a minister of God.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley walked by her side. The three +other men looked at her doubtfully, thinking +each to himself, ‘This young woman is a murderess +and a witch.’ They soon outdistanced the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> +minister and the woman, so it was he alone who +took her back to her own home.</p> + +<p>He told her that from now on, for a little space +of time, life would be hard for her. She must live +peaceably in the house with Hannah (there was +no other place for her to go). She must, by a +godly, upright, and virtuous life, and by the +goodness of her conversation and dignity of her +demeanour, give the lie (he said) to all those who +would with tedious rustic simplicity believe her +a witch. Both he and Mr. Kleaver knew Mr. +Bilby died by nature and not by art. She was, +moreover, in all things to trust him. He would +clear her name (he said). He had power among +these people (he hoped). She was to be of good +heart, and the Lord God would be with her. +Also he promised to come to her often, praying +with her, and strengthening her.</p> + +<p>So he took her to her door. In the yard they +saw the two indentured servants nailing together +a wooden coffin. A group of serious men stood, +watching them, and discussed the mutabilities +of life, etc. Now and again one helped himself +at the barrel of cider that had been rolled out to +accommodate their thirst (for thirst is like to rise +from serious discourse and ponderous thought).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley took her within the house. The +ovens were fired and pots boiled on the hearth. +There was the leg of a great ox on a spit over the +coals. The little turnspit dog, which ordinarily +served at the tavern, had been brought over to +serve for the sad yet pleasing occasion. He +turned the spit, as he had been trained to do. +His eyes were red and rheumy. The hair was +burned away from his hind quarters, and they +were red and scorched. Doll remembered how +often her foster father at the tavern had given +scraps of food to this same miserable small dog, +and how he called it ‘Old Father Time’ even +when it was a pup, for it had always seemed +bent, wizen, and full of many cares. She turned +away her head.</p> + +<p>The house was full of neighbour women who +had come to help prepare the funeral meats. +Doll entered. All found reason they must go to +the milk-house, the cellar, the barn, the pantry, +or to the best room where the corpse lay and the +widow sat in black. Doll and Mr. Zelley were +left alone except for a squat and horrid form, +who stood its own and feared no woman nor +man nor witch. This was the form of Goochey, +she who had the laying-out of the dead. She had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> +a face and voice like a man’s. Indeed many believed +that she was a man who, perhaps having +committed offence in the Old World, had fled, +thus disguised, to the New. She came from the +Welsh borders, and would never touch a corpse +unless she had first set upon her hands ten iron +rings—one to each finger; for she feared that, +without this protection, the spirit of the corpse +might enter her veins and thus havoc her body.</p> + +<p>When Doll saw this dwarfish man-woman +standing in the fire-room, fitting iron rings to her +fingers, she shrank from her in horror. Goody +Goochey muttered at her, and Mr. Zelley was +distressed because he believed she was calling the +distrait young woman a witch. However, such +was the hoarseness of Goochey’s voice and such +was the coarseness of her nature, he could not +be sure. She might have been calling her another, +no more flattering, but surely less dangerous, +epithet. Mr. Zelley sincerely hoped so, for +he was far more concerned with the reputation +of Doll than he was with the good or bad language +of Goochey.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<hr class="full"> +</div> + + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Two Women sleep in the House of Hate. Doll Bilby, having +ruined the fortunes of a Student of Divinity, now turns her +powers upon a</em> <span class="allsmcap">DIVINE</span>.</p> + +<p class="no-indent">As soon as the harvest was in and the grave of +Jared Bilby was filled, winter came raging in +with unwonted ferocity. It came in foot after +foot of dazzling snow, at first snowing only in the +night, the sun sparkling out brightly in the daytime. +But by the New Year (the snow already +standing up to the window-sills and over the +fences) the winter grew black. There was no +sun, and such storms blew from out the north +and northeast as none had ever seen or heard +of before. There was no ceasing of wind, snow, +and black days. The sea roared continuously, +like a thousand lions seeking food from a false +god.</p> + +<p>The dead could not be buried. The cattle +froze. The wolves went to the barnyards killing +sheep, pigs, cattle, horses. A woman found a +lynx among her ducks. The deer came out of the +forest, joining the dairy herds, seeming to ask<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> +food of man and shelter in his barns. Such was +the cruel winter that settled down on the dead +man’s house, where lived his widow and adopted +child.</p> + +<p>These two women lived alone, shut off together +from the world in solitude. They lived +almost without speaking and in hate. The two +farm servants slept in the cow-sheds, and often +afterwards said they dreaded even to enter that +gloomy house, where the two women sat watching +each other, hating and being hated.</p> + +<p>As was his duty, Mr. Zelley came often to see +them. The snows were so deep he could not +travel by horse, so he came on snowshoes with +his Bible under his arm. Each woman he saw +separately, praying with her and trying to comfort +her. What he said to Mrs. Hannah all heard +as soon as the roads were broken out and she was +out among her gossips, but what he said to Doll +no one knew, although in after years much that +she said to him was known. Mrs. Bilby said that +once he came out of Doll’s chamber like a soul +spewed out of Hell. He looked roundabout him +wildly as if he had seen a most frightful sight or +heard most frightful things. Without as much +as a word for the woman (who hoped he would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> +pause and elucidate for her certain problems she +had found in Leviticus), he seized upon a bottle +of rumbullion, swallowed half of that, and made +out of the house as though the devils were after +him. The truth is on that day Doll had confessed +to him that she was a witch.</p> + +<p>Up to this time he had always praised the +Christian fortitude, the piety, the humbleness, +and sobriety of Bilby’s Doll. But after that he +came to be much agitated at the mere mention of +her name, shaking his head, exclaiming, ‘Dear +me,’ or mentioning the fact that we are all miserable +sinners. He was about the Bilby house +more than ever, seeing Doll always alone and in +her own chamber.</p> + +<p>When it was said that Doll was a witch, he +would reprove the speaker, sadly bidding him +keep such light thoughts on serious matters to +himself. Of course the Bible proves to us that +there were witches in the days of Leviticus and +Kings—but to-day ... now, he was not sure +such things exist.</p> + +<p>‘Then you do not believe that Jonet Greene...?’</p> + +<p>‘There does not live a more excellent Christian. +Fools call her a witch because she begins<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> +to lean upon her staff and she has a wandering +eye. Many do so and have such.’</p> + +<p>‘Nor yet in the justice done upon the bodies of +certain witches in Boston?’</p> + +<p>‘I will not judge of Boston. I speak only of +Cowan Corners.’</p> + +<p>By these beliefs he gained some friends and +lost others. If one does not believe in witches, +how can one believe in devils, and if not in +devils, how then in Hell?—and Hell is, as all +know, the fundamental principle on which good +conduct and Christian faith are built.</p> + +<p>The women in the Bilby house rarely spoke. +Each knew her own duty and did it. The indentured +servants kept to the barn, so there was +no noise but the swish of the women’s skirts or +brooms, the rattle of cooking ware, the slam of a +door. Even the house dog, grown old and deaf, +never barked. The cats, five in all, partook of +the silence. They slipped from room to room, +eyeing the women suspiciously, but without half +the suspicion with which Hannah eyed them.</p> + +<p>On a cold night, Gideon, a big malty tom, +being chill, sought animal warmth. He jumped +upon Widow Bilby’s bed. She woke gagged +with fear. She seized Gideon and, in spite of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> +the clawing that shredded her arms, strangled +him.</p> + +<p>The next day with an axe she killed every cat +in the house. This brutal slaughter of innocent +and pretty pets dismayed Doll almost beyond +endurance. She had loved and fed every one, +and they often slept upon her bed at night. Filled +with abomination towards the woman, she +thought at least to give her a headache, or in +some way work her a small harm. She looked +about for nail paring or wisp of hair with which +she might fortify a poppet and work magic +against the woman. She found to her astonishment +that Hannah evidently suspected her, for +any combing from her hair was instantly burned, +and she never pared her nails except over a dark +cloth which she shook out into the fire. While +she did these things, she would look slyly at +Doll, as if to say she understood her game, and +would take every precaution against her. So she +had done ever since her husband died, but Doll +did not notice this precaution until February.</p> + +<p>Much of the time Doll lay in her own room +upon her own narrow bed, and prayed to the +Prince of Hell that he send some instructor or +messenger to her ... but thus far only Mr. Zelley<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> +came to instruct her. She looked forward to the +spring with longing, and because of a dream she +had three times concerning a young man asleep +in a bed of violets (yet the man she knew, even as +she gazed at him, was infernal), she came to believe +that in spring, when the violets blossom, a +messenger would come.</p> + +<p>By February, the roads being broken, Widow +Bilby was again about, but Doll in her discontent +walked solitary. She saw no one except perhaps +once in a long time Goody Greene, and once +a week Mr. Zelley (whom she filled full of the +phantasies of her childhood). She did not go to +Church, and this shocked and angered the whole +community, although Mr. Zelley himself insisted +that she was too weak and sick to take the +hard trip on horseback. Of her neighbours, the +Thumbs, she saw nothing. Titus (because of the +stories which Widow Bilby told his mother, and +she, in turn, told him) went in daily terror of his +life. He believed Doll had a poppet of him. If +his head ached, it was because she pinched or +pricked the head of the poppet. Were it his +stomach, lights, bowels, that hurt him, he +thought she was rubbing poison on the belly and +body of this same poppet. When a black sow he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> +had raised up by hand suddenly jumped into the +air and fell dead, he thought she had in passing +glanced at it.</p> + +<p>Of all things, however, Titus most feared +Ahab, the black bull, who had, from the day +Doll found him in the forest, changed his gentle +nature to one most ferocious and perverse. He +urged his father to butcher the animal before it +took human life. The deacon said it would be +gluttonous to put into the stomach such costly +steaks, roasts, etc., and any man who did so deserved +to have his bowels rot.</p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Showing that the Sun will always shine again, no matter how +black the Winter.</em></p> + +<p>The winter had come early, but (contrary +to country superstition) it remained late. For +April was full of the racketing of wind, and May +was drenched and all but drowned in rain. Not +until the end of that month did the earth rally +from adversity, and there come still and sunny +days. The skies were of heavenly blueness, +crossed only by herds of fleecy clouds, as sweet +and innocent as wandering lambs. The grass +grew green and was prettily pied with multitudes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> +of little flowers. The fruit trees glanced but once +at sun and sky, then burst into rapturous blooming. +The beauty of these trees is not idle and +barren. Their deeds (that is, their fructuation) +is as good as their promise (or blossoming). +Man may enjoy the loveliness of these flowers, +knowing that their loveliness is one of accomplishment.</p> + +<p>Special lectures were held at the Meeting-House, +giving thanks (where thanks were due) +for the beneficent weather, the fertility of all +things, the abundance of fish, game, wild foods, +and good health of the community. In his praying +Mr. Zelley (so it was observed) twice asked +with particular passion that the old hatreds, the +old jealousies, and the old cruel superstitions +might be left behind, and that, in the new land, +the spirit of man might break forth as a chick +breaks the egg.</p> + +<p>The widow’s house had stood fast-shuttered +for six months. Now it was open to sun and +gentle breeze. Doll had been pale, sad, all +winter; now she felt the gladness of the earth +singing about her in the sweetest voice, calling +her to set aside the dark mantle of the soul to +take on joy, hope, and even pleasure. She felt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> +frolicsome (as she had often felt with her foster +father) and played with the calves and colts, +secretly met the Thumb twins by the boundary +brook, and filled them full of devilish lies.</p> + +<p>She went again to the Meeting-House, and +even wantonly enjoyed herself during service, for +she found that (such were her latent powers for +harm), by merely twisting her fingers together +and staring hard at Deacon Pentwhistle as he +led the psalm singing, she could twist his throat +so that he broke off into a coughing fit. Once, +on seeing Titus enter the pasture where Ahab +grazed, she slyly and only by thought ordered +the creature to have at the young man. Behold! +She had the inimitable pleasure of seeing Ahab +make at him, and Titus barely reached a tree in +time to save his limbs. If Ahab had gained too +much on this swift and willing runner, she would +have crossed her legs and this would have +stopped the bull, for she wanted her old lover +frightened, but neither maimed nor slain.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley continued to wrestle with her in +prayer, begging her to believe that she could not +be a witch because he (being little better than an +atheist) thought such things could not exist. He +always claimed that he strove to save her soul.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> +She rewarded him by destroying his. She went +often to his house and read in his library, especially +of all such books as the ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ +and ‘Sadducismus Triumphatus,’ etc., +which treat of witches and witchcraft, for she +was unskilled and wished to learn proper charms +and methods for working evil. She also questioned +Goodwife Greene. Still she never could +learn (except by accident) how to do any of the +things she wished. She could not even summon +the Devil, who, when he came, came as pleased +him—not to her order.</p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>An Intimation comes to Doll that some Infernal is about. +She believes that he whom she (in wicked abomination) worships +will soon send sign to her.</em></p> + +<p>On a morning she awoke, knowing she must go +to Greene’s house. ‘I must see Goody Greene,’ +she thought. ‘I must talk to Goody Greene.’ +She left the pots unwashed, the room unswept. +She put on neither coat nor hat, but went as she +was, for the day was warm. Now the new year +seemed to promise great things, and she felt confident +these things she would find. There was +every happiness close to her, hiding, waiting to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> +be found. Through these pleasant and cheerful +thoughts came racketing the clangour of a brass +bell and the terrible blasting of a fish horn, and +the voice of man (in this case the voice of the +town crier) tolled out to her and to all the world +those things that were lost.</p> + +<p>Mr. Minchon, the crier, put the fish horn +under his arm and took the brass bell by the +clapper.</p> + +<p>‘Gone away!’ he cried. ‘Gone away! Gone +away! Four pirates from the Boston Jail, one +day before their trial. Calico Jack and Black Pig +Murch, Ben Bottle and the Bloody Shad. Likewise, +from the pasture of Deacon Thumb, one +priceless bull known to you all, the young bull +Ahab.’ (Ding-dong! Ding-dong!)</p> + +<p>‘Lost or stole, lost or stole, a wallet and the +money in it of Captain Tom Buzzey, for he put +it on the tavern step, turned, and it was gone. +Lost or stole, the wallet of Tom Buzzey—a +wallet with the money in it.’ (Ding-dong!) +Mr. Minchon, blowing again upon his fish horn, +took himself and his sad news of things lost or +things stolen to the next street corner; there, +having gathered a crowd about him, he proclaimed +again. He moved again and yet again.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> +Knowing the matter of which he spoke, Doll +could even at a long way recognize the names of +the four pirates, for he always began with full +lungs, so she heard four times the crying out of +these names, Calico Jack and Black Pig Murch, +Ben Bottle and the Bloody Shad, but of Captain +Buzzey’s loss she heard but once, for Mr. Minchon +arrived at it with spent ardour and small +voice. Doll continued on her way to Greene’s +hut.</p> + +<p>Between the house of Mr. Zelley and the +House of God, she met seven Indians who walked +the one after the other, with feet silent as +panther paws. They were dressed in the paint +and regalia affected by their chief men, in the +hope of giving to their persons, by external and +childish methods, that true dignity which never +can come from without but arises only from the +soul. The Indians passed (as they always do) +without so much as glancing at the white woman, +but she gazed hard upon them, thinking that +perhaps they really were devils—as many ignorant +people then believed—and that the sign +or messenger which she had come to look for +constantly would be from them. As she watched, +a feather floated or rather seemed to be lifted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> +from the headgear of one of these, and, after +wavering a second, it came to rest at her feet. +This was a scarlet feather with a yellow tip to it. +She stooped to it, and hid it in her bosom, looking +longingly after the seven chief men, thinking +that having vouchsafed her this favour they +might sign her to follow them. They did not.</p> + +<p>She went her way, but she went exulting, with +red cheeks and smiling mouth. The young men +she passed at the tavern drew back that she +might not cast a roving eye upon them and desire +them, for they all knew of the bewitchment +by which she had afflicted Thumb. They +guessed, by the unaccustomed red of her cheek +and the sparkle of her eye, that (spring having +come again) she was wandering about looking +for a new young man to devour. The young men +stood back; Doll went her way.</p> + +<p>She came to the waste marshes by the sea on +which sat the tinker’s hut. She rapped on the +door and cried out her own name. The woman +did not call ‘Come in,’ as was usual, and Doll +heard rustlings, whisperings, tramplings, within. +She thought how this woman, like herself, was a +witch. Her heart beat quicker with the (to her) +delightful thought that perhaps at that very<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> +moment she had discovered Greene in confab +with some fiend spirit or familiar, and that was +why the door was not opened to her, that was +why there were rustlings from within. Then +Goody Greene opened the door and with her +usual affection drew the girl into her miserable +house, kissed her, and put out the stool, a jointstool, +for her to sit on. Greene went on with her +own business which was concerned with sorting +out into heaps dried toadstools and mushrooms.</p> + +<p>Doll stared at her and saw how hard the pulse +throbbed in the old woman’s neck, how her +hands shook at her work, how again and again +she swallowed as if choked by an oppressive +secret. But the girl could not tell the woman she +thought her a witch and say, ‘I would like to see +the familiar I know must be close by,’ for the +moment she stopped upon the threshold she was +aware that she and the goodwife were not alone. +She could feel the air tremble about her; she +could almost hear it, all but see it. It was there, +close in the one room of the hut, with them. It +had not flown at her coming; it had hid itself. +She saw that the hangings upon the bed were +drawn. ‘It is yonder,’ she thought; ‘the fiend +hides in the bed behind drawn curtains.’ She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> +was sick with fear, but her hopes rode high. She +took from her bosom the feather the Indian had +dropped. What did Goody Greene think of the +feather? Greene said it was a bright and pretty +feather, and proved the Indians to be more skillful +than we in dyeing. But did it mean nothing +more to her than that? No, nothing more. She +put it back into her bosom. What would Goody +do with so many fungi? She would mix them +with snake fat and cure rheumatics. She said +she did not know snakes had any fat. Greene +said that any distillation from flesh was called +‘fat.’ Then they sat for a long time without +speaking.</p> + +<p>Doll helped with the sorting.</p> + +<p>Doll thought to herself, ‘Be my friend, Goody +Greene; confess you are a witch, show me your +familiar, and we will work magic together, for I +cannot bear to be so lonely.’ The woman set a +pot on the fire to make a gruel for dinner. She +put three handfuls of maize into the pot. Doll +asked her, ‘Does the goodman come back for +dinner?’ ‘No,’ said Greene, ‘I put in the extra +handful by mistake.’ This was very strange, +thought Doll, but in her mind made note of the +fact that a familiar will condescend to eat maize<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> +gruel like a poor man. It distressed Doll that the +woman would not trust her and produce her +familiar.</p> + +<p>The woman squatted before the pot, Doll +knelt beside her, and, because she was sick with +bitter loneliness, she pressed her face against +the woman’s sleeve and said, ‘You are the only +mother I have ever had since I was a tiny child, +and I, Goody Greene, I am the only child you +ever had.’ The woman let the wooden spoon +slip from her fingers so that it was lost in the +gruel, and Doll, who jumped up to fetch her another +one, saw from the corner of her eye that +she glanced at the bed. ‘Ah,’ thought Doll, +‘perhaps she has made herself a popinjay from +broom or rags or scarecrow, and calls this thing +“son.” Perhaps that is what she has about her +in this room—and in the bed most likely.’</p> + +<p>As they ate their dinner (of which there was +far too much for the two women), Doll asked +Greene to tell her again some of those old +stories by which she had enchanted her as a child. +Greene told her of the unfortunate earl’s +daughter, who consented to a boat ride with a +handsome stranger-man. (The masts were of +gold, but did not bend before the wind. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> +sails were of taffety, and did not fill with the +breeze.) They sailed three leagues and then she +spied his cloven hoof and wept most bitterly, +knowing it was no man but a devil with whom +she must cope.</p> + +<p>Greene told her other ungodly stories from an +ungodly antiquity. Doll questioned her at every +turn. She must know how each magic trick was +worked; she must hear how it was Fair Jennifer +of Bageley Wood called her demon to her. +Greene told her the true story of how a lycanthropic +man, believing himself to be a wolf, +killed fifteen in the Midlands before the soldiers +got him. She told her of Queen Mab and her +tiny tinsel court. At last Doll got to her feet to +go. She heard the bed creak, and saw a moving +lump bulge out the drawn curtains. But the +familiar did not make itself manifest. As Greene +stared at the hearth, Doll slyly drew the red and +yellow feather from her bosom and, brushing by +the bed, she slipped the feather within. Calling +a hasty good-bye, she left abruptly, and began +to run, for she (in spite of hopes) half feared a +great, scaly, black fiend would leap from the bed +and on the instant shoulder her, and march off +down to Hell.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> + + +<h3>4</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Doll finds an Imp in a cellar. It proves unfriendly to her.</em></p> + +<p>On the next day Doll returned to the marsh +hut. Again she found Goody Greene seemingly +alone, yet the one room was mysteriously filled +with a Presence. That day Greene was making +teas, infusions, etc. She had four pots on the +coals, and was much confined, in her thoughts +and in her words, by watching them.</p> + +<p>Beside the hut was a cold-cellar dug into the +ground, and in this Greene stored her herbs, her +drugs, fats, oils, bottles, pans—all the matter +for her trade. She wanted organy, dittany, and +galingale root. Doll ran quickly to the cellar. +She knew where these things were laid.</p> + +<p>She opened the door, which was in the shape +of a bulkhead, and ran down the short flight of +stairs. Here she had played in childhood, and +the strong odours of herbs, roots, and meat oils +were fragrant to her. So she paused a moment, +sniffing about. There was a rattle on a dark +shelf behind a clay crock, and a snake skin shook. +She thought she had left the familiar behind her +in the good woman’s bed, yet she cried out in her +horror, calling by mistake to the <em>true</em> God—not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> +to the Satan she had sworn to serve; for there, +peeking about the clay crock, was a ball of tawny +fur and from out the fur glared a little man’s +face. His features were like an Ethiop’s, and his +head no bigger than an orange. She noticed, even +in the brief moment she paused to look at him, +that hands and even nails were perfect. Behind +dangled a long ringed tail—a pretty tail of +black and dun.</p> + +<p>This imp was much offended by her, for it +scolded her in strange languages, and its eyes +were red with hate. So in terror she, who +thought herself brave enough to stand up before +Lucifer, fled from the littlest of his servants. +This servant she saw again, and the next time +without fear.</p> + +<p>She ran to Goody Greene, crying she had seen +a terrible thing.</p> + +<p>‘Hush,’ said Greene; ‘you saw a skull or two, +or a snake skin....’</p> + +<p>‘No, no, no, it was alive. It was a little imp.’</p> + +<p>‘You dreamed it—or it may have been a cat. +Cats get into my cellar for the sake of the fats.’</p> + +<p>‘It was not a cat.’</p> + +<p>But Greene knew it was not an imp.</p> + +<p>At the end Doll was cast down because Greene<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> +trusted her so little she would not confess the +truth, even when she had seen the actual fact of +the imp’s body, had heard it chatter. She was +distressed, picked up her bonnet and put it on her +head. There was much work to do, she said. +Mrs. Hannah was plucking geese, and she must +be back in time to rub ointment on them where +they bled.</p> + +<p>‘Doll,’ said Greene, ‘I heard you cry out to +God for help when you saw the cat in the cellar.’</p> + +<p>‘I forgot myself,’ murmured Doll, and was +ashamed that in her extremity she had called +upon God and not upon the Foul Fiend she had +sworn to worship. She guessed this was the +reason both for the imp’s rage and Greene’s mistrust. +‘I will not forget again,’ she said.</p> + +<p>Goody Greene assumed an attitude which +seemed indeed to the girl one of mock piety. She +rolled her eyes and said, ‘Always give thanks +where thanks are due.’</p> + +<p>Doll thought she was reproving her. ‘I will +next time,’ she promised.</p> + +<p>Then she went away.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2> + +<hr class="full"> +</div> + + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>The night crackles with Fire. Hell laughs and a Witch meets +that which she long has sought.</em></p> + +<p class="no-indent">Still in the month of May, catastrophe came +to Cowan Corners. On three nights, consecutively, +great fires broke out. The first took the +noon-house of the Church. The second the ropewalk +of Deacon Pentwhistle. The third took the +barns, sheds, outhouses of Deacon Ephraim +Thumb. This last fire was upon the thirty-first +day of May and the morrow would be June.</p> + +<p>The farm servants of Widow Bilby came up +from the cow-sheds. They called to the window +in the attic where Hannah slept (for since the +nights were warm she preferred the desolation of +an attic to the proximity of her detested companion), +‘Widow Bilby, Widow Bilby, there’s a +great fire at our neighbour’s. Shall we not go to +help?’ The widow told them to go and do their +best, and God go with them. She, too, would +follow soon. She got into her clothes, and Doll +heard her stamping down the stairs and out of +the house. Doll looked from her window and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> +sky was orange. She clutched her throat, for +fire terrified her (because of her parents’ death), +yet it fascinated her (because of her unnatural +yearning for Hell).</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp65" id="i_p110" style="max-width: 48.3125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p110.jpg" alt="Building on fire"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>Will she, nill she, the young woman dressed +and, much perturbed, she reached the outskirts +of the onlookers. With them she could not +mingle, for they feared her, and she dreaded this +same fear. She withdrew to a big straw stack, +and beneath its overhanging top (for the cattle +had rubbed against it) she found herself a +hiding-place.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> + +<p>Every able man in the village was there, and +half of the women. She saw Titus passing +buckets and getting out gear, nor could she have +looked at him without some slight regret, for he +was a goodly, comely man and a young witch has +an amorous eye. She heard the shouting, the +running about, the snap and rustle of the flames. +Sometimes other idle watchers came close to +where she hid, and from their talk she learned +that these three fires had all been started by a +cat breathing fire. Widow Bilby had said that +this same cat could be no other than her old tom, +Gideon, now dead a three-month, thus maliciously +returned from Hell. Doll heard her own +name spoken and saw heads shaken. She also +heard that Ahab was still within the vehemently +burning barn. Because of his ferocity as well as +because of his wanderings, he had lately been +closely penned. So far no one had been able to +loose him, although several had essayed to do so. +The horses, savage with fear, had been moved +far from the fire lest they, with the fondness of +their kind, return to their accustomed stalls and +perish. The cattle were running about the barnyard, +where they interfered with the work, upsetting +buckets, etc. Such swine as the Thumbs<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> +possessed burned to their deaths, their stench +polluting the air. Doll sickened at the smell, for +she never could forget the holocaust of Mont +Hoël. Until the fire burst the ridgepole, the +doves flew constantly from their cotes under the +eaves. Some were so singed they fell to the muck +of the yard and, trampled under foot, perished.</p> + +<p>Just before the fall of the barn floor, Ahab +was loosed. With sparks upon his coat, his eyes +rolling most horribly, he came out of danger at a +gallop. Seeing the crowd, he charged furiously, +passing over the bodies of three, yet not staying +to gore them, so intent was he on the men who +ran. Wherever he went, the crowd melted and +the shouting rose. Many believed it was this +wicked bull, and not the Hell cat, that had set +these fires, for now he seemed intent on guarding +the fire and would let no one near it. Doll +thought the creature was her friend—perhaps +sometime he would become her familiar; but +when she saw him coming for her on a brisk and +determined trot she ran up the short ladder leaning +against the straw stack, not relying unduly +on either charms or friendship.</p> + +<p>The same moment the roof fell and sparks flew +up, rising into the night air an hundred feet and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> +more, until the sky seemed filled with departing +souls flying up and up to the Throne of God.</p> + +<p>Doll, panting from her vexatious exercise +upon the ladder and sweating from her recent +fear, found herself upon the top of the straw +stack. She was sprawled upon hands and knees. +In the fury of the orange light (which with the +fall of the roof suddenly was most horrible) she +gazed about her. Then she saw she was not +alone, for with her was a luggard fiend who +stretched his length upon the straw. His eyes +were red as though filled with blood. He wore +(she said) a costume like a seaman’s, except that, +where a seaman’s clothes are coarse, his were fine +and dainty. For instance, the hoops in his ears +were not of brass but jewels. She said he had a +silk kerchief tied about his head. Upon his breast +he bare—as if in mockery of that virgin whose +worship the Catholics prefer to the worship of +God—the very imp, the little servant, whom +she had seen in Greene’s cold-cellar. She guessed +he was her god, or a messenger from her god, so, +crying out, ‘Master, master, you have come for +me,’ she further prostrated herself before him. +Now she was no more alone, for this fiend had +come for her.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span></p> + +<p>At first the demon made no response; then, +after a little and with a few high but kindly +words, he permitted her to approach. She said +she could scarce believe that, after such long +waiting and such unanswered prayers, he had +at last come. ‘Oh, I have been lonely, lonely; I +have had no one,’ and she sobbed (no tears came).</p> + +<p>‘Why do you sob, Bilby’s Doll?’</p> + +<p>‘Because I am happy at last.’</p> + +<p>He reproved her gently because she had ever +doubted his advent, which he said he had announced +to her by the lighting of these three great +fires. It was his will that turned her steps to the +ladder and, as she became too intent upon the +fire to notice the summons of his will, he loosed a +fierce black bull who urged her up the humble +ladder and into his presence.</p> + +<p>‘And you really are from....’</p> + +<p>‘From Hell,’ he said, and showed her his teeth +that were white and strong as an animal’s. She +shrank a little from him. He told her not to fear +to approach and touch him, for he was in human +guise. There was no sulphur on his person, no +blasting fire in his hands. To prove his wholesome +humanity he touched her wrist, and she experienced +a shock of joy such as she had formerly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> +experienced when her mother had led her to +Satan in the heart of the oak wood. This joy she +accounted a religious joy—such (so she explained +to Mr. Zelley) as a Christian would experience +at receiving the visitations of an angel.</p> + +<p>Now was she no longer alone in this sad world, +for her god (that is, Satan) had come to succour +her, or had at least sent her a messenger. She +asked him which he was, Satan or lesser demon. +At the mention of Satan’s name, he bowed his +head reverently. He admitted that he was but +one of many fallen angels who had left Paradise +with the Awful Prince. At first she was cast +down, for she had hoped to hear that it was the +Prince himself. But she looked again, and +marked how handsome a man he was and of what +a fine ruddy complexion. She saw how strong +were his shoulders, and how arched and strong +his chest. She was thankful then that Satan had +not seen fit to send her merely some ancient hag +or talking cat, ram, or little green bird, but this +stalwart demon. She thought, ‘He can protect +me even from the hate of Mrs. Hannah.’ She +thought, in her utter and damnable folly, ‘He +can protect me from the Wrath of God.’</p> + +<p>The whole barn fell into the cellar hole. As she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> +looked towards this glowing pit, she thought of +that vaster and crueller bonfire in which her soul +would burn forever. She thought well to ask him +a little concerning those pains which she later +must suffer. He laughed at her. There would be, +he said, no pain. Those who served Satan faithfully +in this world were never burned in Hell. +Was not Satan King of Hell? Why should he +burn those who loved and obeyed him? She was +stuffed full of lunatic theology. The only souls +that suffered in Hell were such of God’s subjects +as had angered Him and yet had made no pact +of service with Satan. These the devils burned—even +as God ordered. It gave them a thing to +do. He pointed out there were no angels in Hell +watching out that God’s orders be fulfilled, so +naturally the devils did not carry out the cruel +sentences God meted out to true subjects of +Satan. Again he said, ‘Why should they?’</p> + +<p>She asked him of news concerning her father +and mother—good witches whom the French +had burned in Brittany. These he assured her +roamed happily and at free will, finding cooling +breezes even in Hell. When it pleased them, they +sat and conversed with antiquity or with the +greatest kings, princes, etc., who had ever lived<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> +in this world. But her mother was a kindly +woman and got more pleasure out of good deeds +than from idle conversation. Therefore Satan +permitted her to go about among those who burn +and give them water or fan away the smoke. +Doll was convinced that the messenger had indeed +seen her mother, whom she always remembered +as a gentle and loving woman.</p> + +<p>Was this kind mother aware of her daughter’s +sufferings? Was it she who had thought to send +him to comfort her? No, no. A mortal who is +dead cannot see back into life. It was Satan himself +who had pitied her and ordered him to her +side. Him he bade her worship, ‘Truth in and +humbly.’ At first she could not understand this +reversal of many sacred phrases. Later she came +to know this blasphemous jargon well. For every +night she said Our Lord’s most holy prayer backwards—thereby +addressing herself to Satan; but +what came to her as punishment for this wicked +practice we shall see.</p> + +<p>He had about him a bottle of grog, and from +this he baptized her, ‘Ghost holy and son, Father +of name the in.’ Now he said she was no longer +Bilby’s Doll. Now she was the Devil’s Doll. +And he kissed her reverently upon the forehead.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> +His pretty imp peeked out from within his blue +blouse where he kept it. He bade her stroke it. +This she did. She said it was a warm and gentle +imp, with tired and thoughtful (but not malicious, +as she had at first thought) eyes. It was +well furred and, if it were not for its wise, sad +face and minute black hands, she might have +thought it indeed but an animal. She came to +love this imp, playing with it and petting it. +Its name, he said, was Bloody Shad. ‘Why,’ she +said, ‘that is the name of one of the pirates that +escaped.’ The fiend said he knew that fine fellow +well. He had taken his nickname from the imp +the young woman now held in her pretty little +hands.</p> + +<p>The fire was laid and the dawn gave more +light than the embers. Birds shook the thin, +watery air with their calling. A few men still +stood about the fire. The one called to the other +that Ahab was in a village garden devouring +new-set cabbage plants and terrifying women. +Doll leaned towards these men, listening to their +news. As she turned back to inquire of her instructor +the true status of Ahab in the community +and in the Hierarchy of Hell, she found +to her great sorrow that he was gone.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p> + +<p>At the same time one of the barnyard fowls +who the night before had suffered bitterly, being +as he was a cock, struck a gallant attitude upon +a heap of dung, and, lifting his head, greeted the +coming day with a triumphant cock-a-doodle-doo. +She heard the cocks on her own farm answer this +challenge with distant fairy cries.</p> + +<p>This was a new day, and with it came great +hopes.</p> + +<p>Later she was asked if she did not know that +cocks crow at an earlier hour—for they generally +begin before the light. Yes, this she knew. +But her demon must have had the power to stay +the crowing of the cocks, for he never remained +later than the first cry from such a bird, yet often +he stayed until the day was almost light—for +instance, on that first meeting. It was light when +he left, and yet no cock cried until he was gone.</p> + +<p>Where did he go to?</p> + +<p>He went back to Hell.</p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>How Doll became a Servant to the Servant of Hell.</em></p> + +<p>This fiend—this caco-demon—came to her +again and yet again. But after his first visit +there was a pause and it seemed likely that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> +might not come again. She thought daily to get +his summons, either to Black Sabbath or to class +of more instruction. Would he bid her mount a +broom and fly to him? Against this emergency +she went to Dame Cosset’s, a broom-maker, and +paid sixpence ha’penny for a new red broom that +she might appear handsomely mounted before +her lord. This broom she hid in her chamber. +Likewise she hid rushes and clay for the devising +of poppets, and glass, knives, pins, and needles, +for the working of her master’s will.</p> + +<p>On the eighth night from the time of the +Thumb fire, she heard close by the house the +hooting of an owl—which she knew was no owl. +And Hannah, too, recognized the falsity of that +cry, for she started up, saying that Indians were +about. That was at eight o’clock. At nine they +heard again the crying of an owl, and the dog at +the barn began to howl dismally. Hannah swore +that it was the bonded boys playing tricks. By +ten again the hooting of the owl, but Hannah +slept. Doll Bilby got to her room, and, taking +clothes and a pillow, made a dummy of herself +which she thrust into the bed, thus to deceive +Hannah if the woman should look about for her. +Grasping her red broom, but not essaying to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> +mount it, she ran joyously from the house, +anxious to meet her god or the accredited messenger +of that god.</p> + +<p>She came out of the house and found the moon +to be rising and the night to be of a dainty, delicate, +springtime beauty. Birches twinkled in +the moonlight; their slender trunks seemed to be +the white limbs of nymphs. The grasses that her +broom brushed were sweet with flowers. She ran +up and down the pastures, along the fences, over +the fields. She ran until she was like to drop, and +then found him where hereafter she always was +to find him—in an opening in birch woods, enthroned +upon a tussock. In the flowery pasture +land this spot which he had selected for himself +was a darling fairy bower. The exact spot is +known to this day, for Doll, on seeing the fiend, +threw her red broom into the birch trees, thus +marking the spot, for she never took it back with +her. Five years later boys found it and, on being +taken to Dame Cosset, the woman said yes, it was +one of her own brooms, and indeed the very one +she had once sold to wicked Bilby for sixpence +ha’penny. It is noticeable to this day that cattle +will not graze there, and that dogs coursing for +rabbits will stop frozen at this place and howl;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> +yet so inferior is the good sense and righteousness +of man to that of beasts, it has become a common +tryst for lovers, who, in each other’s arms, repeat +with foolish laughter (and yet, it may be hoped, +with some sensible fear) the story of how Bilby’s +wicked Doll there met and loved a demon. Then +they will go by moonlight to the cellar hole of +the Bilby house, and pick a little of the yellow +broom which country people call witch’s blood.</p> + +<p>The demon Prince permitted the witch to +kneel to him and let her kiss his feet (which were +not cloven). She noticed how cold to touch he +was—like the fiends and devils in old tales. But +the big hands he put upon her head (she reverently +kneeling) were warm as any man’s, and +this heartened her. So he welcomed her ‘Fellowship +Christian in.’ Then he seated himself and +permitted her to sit. At first the talk was of +great dignity, but soon it was much like that of +one gossip to another. He told her how his work +had prospered him in Salem, in Boston, and now +in Hartford. And how another fiend (but this +one in shape of woman) worked in New York +among the silly Dutch, as far north as Albany, +and yet another (this fiend in the shape of a +great tawny dog) in Virginia and the Carolinas.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> +‘Ah,’ cried Doll, ‘how thankful I, or rather all of +us witches roundabout the Bay Colony should be +that you have deigned to appear to us in the +shape of a true proper man.’ The fiend laughed +horribly, saying there had been much complaining +among the wizards and the warlocks because +he was but a man—not a wild free wanton +wench like she of the Dutch country.</p> + +<p>Then he asked her if she could come with ease +to him on such nights as he should call her, and +she answered yes, she could come to him, but she +must always wait her foster mother’s sleeping +and then leave secretly by her own window. She +begged him to cry no more as hooting owl, for +this aroused suspicion—the woman guessing it +to be a man’s voice. At this he seemed angry, +and said the cries she had heard were in truth no +man’s cries, for he had bade an owl to go about +the house and hoot. He explained to her that, +as man may not laugh convincingly upon command, +neither may owl hoot. Still, for such +clumsiness the owl must die. So they argued for +a while, Doll pleading with him to spare the unfortunate +owl, and in the end, going back on her +early statements, she said the cry had not +sounded like a man, but exactly like an owl, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> +that the creature had hooted amazing well. He +agreed, therefore, to spare the owl and to send +him often to call her out.</p> + +<p>She was rejoiced and humbled to think that +he, so great and busy a fiend, would find time to +send for her again and again, and she confessed +to him the unendurable loneliness, desolation, +and despair of her life—especially since her +foster father had died; how even Titus, who had +once professed to love her, now fled in terror +from her glance, fearing her witchcraft; how +Mrs. Hannah dreaded her so she would not leave +a combing of hair nor a paring of nail about the +house, and also how this woman had butchered +Gideon and her other creatures.</p> + +<p>As she talked the fiend came close to her, +soothing her with his hands upon her body. Then +she suddenly stopped her rehearsal of sorrow, +and for a moment she went in deathly fear, for +she guessed what the fiend intended. Still, such +was her wickedness, she also felt uplifted and +glorified, and in the end, it were these feelings +that conquered in her, for she entirely forgot or +set aside Christian fears and Christian modesty. +The fiend kissed her and told her to be of good +heart, for of all the many witches he had met in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> +his recent travels through New England, it was +she he most fancied and she should be his paramour. +So she consented, and thus came to be the +servant of the servant of Hell.</p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>A thought for a Wise Man. Is Beauty of Flesh a good or evil +thing? And the opinions of pagan Antiquity as contrasted to +our own</em> <span class="allsmcap">THEOLOGY</span>.</p> + +<p>There is one quality in this world which men +call goodness. This is the beauty of the spirit, +and is from God and of God. There is another +quality, which is beauty of the body, and from +whence comes it?</p> + +<p>The heathen Greeks, whom the Reverend +Pyam Plover has suggested were but devil worshippers, +believed these two things to be identical; +that is, what is good is beautiful, what is +ugly is evil. Yet need the thoughtful Christian +but read history, or look about him to-day, to +see that rather than identical these two beauties +should be considered non-congruent or mutually +antagonistic. All must have observed how often +the most virtuous women have been of no great +bodily beauty, and yet certain famous wantons +have been blessed (or cursed) with bounteous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span> +fleshly charms. One should but consider the +lives of Cleopatra, that Helen known as Helen +of Troy, Dido, etc.</p> + +<p>Beauty of the body, in that it excites to lust +and evil thoughts, is wicked, but the sick, ugly, +maimed body, in that it excites the sweet and +gentle passion of pity, is from God. For this +reason modesty in the young, blooming, comely +female is of greater necessity than in the sick and +ancient.</p> + +<p>But it is not alone in a consideration of the +needful and (in its proper place) decent female +body that one may observe how often Evil has +wormed its way into the hearts of humanity +under specious guise of Beauty. For when the +Devil would steal the soul of Bilby’s Doll, he +showed her lavishly and in wanton profusion +such sights of pagan beauty no Christian, godly +woman may ever expect to see.</p> + +<p>For her this seemly ordered earth, on which +we set our houses, in which we humbly plough +and delve—this quiet earth for her brake open +into a rare flowering. She saw the satyrs (close +by the salt marshes) gambolling upon mud flats. +In the morning she saw the goatprints of their +hooves. She heard nymphs sing all night in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> +trees. She saw birch trees in the moonlight spun +out of solid silver, and those common flowers, +which by day (and in the sight of God) are but +buttercups, turned into glittering jewels which +by their very brilliance frightened her. Even +that fiend the Devil sent to her was handsomer +far than any mortal man might be. He was +lovely to the eye, and his touch was as the touch +of fire. The strength of his arms was beyond +that of mortal men (who are born but to praise +God and die). So was every moment that she +spent with him a moment of ecstasy. How can +mortal man contend with fiends in the love of +woman? Have they such unholy power to +arouse passion?</p> + +<p>It is well known that no woman who has ever +accepted an infernal lover may content herself +with the ruck of men—such seeming, after the +love of Hell, but pale, unsubstantial shadows. +And the same may be said the other way over, +for men, it is said, who have known nymphs, +elves, or succubi, will long for them all their +lives, eschewing the feeble impuissant arms of +women.</p> + +<p>So it is an established fact that Beauty that +delights the eye is more often a curse from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> +Lucifer than a blessing from God. Let the +reasonable and righteous man content himself +with that which is plain and seemly—whether +it is a church or wife or horse or land that he +considers. Let him not yield to the delights of +the eye, but rather to the beauty of goodness, +piety, etc., which burns from within.</p> + + +<h3>4</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Some remarkable Wonders of an Invisible Kingdom.</em></p> + +<p>For fairy women came to her by night, whispering.... +‘Get up ... get up ... get up....’</p> + +<p>Strange hands plucked at her bedclothes, +pinched or patted her.</p> + +<p>Although her window was fast shut, once a +great scaled and hairy arm came in by that same +window, and she trembled. Now the arm grew +to three times, four times, the length of human +arm. She saw it sweep the room with a blind +and scythe-like motion. It searched for her. She +remained still. Then it was gone as miraculously +as it had come.</p> + +<p>There was a vast animal that rubbed nightly +against the house, sniffing and blowing.</p> + +<p>A monster (she thought it a demon) treaded +the roof-tree by night.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p> + +<p>Such was her appreciation of these awful and +yet to her (coming from him she chose to accept +as God) pleasing sights, she scarcely slept, being +more awake by night than day, for at night she +could hardly lie upon her bed nor close her eyes. +She was forever staring and listening, listening +and staring. With the crowing of the cock these +disturbing visions retreated to that same Hell +in which they had their geneses.</p> + +<p>Sometimes she floated forth without volition, +as on a certain night when she cried out, ‘Master, +command me and I will come.’ Then far away +and from the midst of the moonlight, she heard +fairy women cry, ‘Get up ... get up ... get +up....’</p> + +<p>‘Then I will,’ she said. Of a sudden her body +was filled with lightness and (at first maintaining +her horizontal position) she was elevated from +off her bed. Thrice around the room she floated +and, looking down, she saw her own vacant body +as it lay still and flat as any corpse. ‘If I am going +out to walk wet fields,’ she thought, ‘I should +put on slippers.’ Then the red slippers Mr. Bilby +once had bought her in Boston appeared upon +her feet. She floated through the window, but +once this was cleared she was set in vertical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> +position. However, she felt no contact with +the grass, and she took no steps. She floated +on.</p> + +<p>The moon was big upon the hills. The night +air shook ravishing perfumes from the flowers +and new leaves. The air was full of birds’ songs +(although it was dead of night), of voices, strange +music, laughter. She floated on. The silver +birches twinkled and bowed to her. Her name +was called by a thousand little voices. A million +gleaming eyes watched her. At last she was thus +conveyed to the fiend, who was seated upon a +hillock, as on a throne. He raised her up when +she would prostrate herself to him. He bade her +have no fear, for, although in Hell he was indeed +a great prince, upon earth he was as mortal man +and her true love.</p> + +<p>In the morning, when she awoke in her own +bed, she believed that the adventure of the night +had been but another dream. She drew her body +from between the sheets, and set her feet upon +the floor. Upon her feet were the red slippers, +and they were wet. Upon the sheets were green +stains from the grass crushed beneath her feet.</p> + +<p>Now could she know truth from dreams and +dreams from truth.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p> + + +<h3>5</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>We are informed that there is no marriage nor giving in marriage +in Heaven, but in Hell it well may be otherwise.</em></p> + +<p>She never saw her fiend by day. He came at +dead of night. He went by cock crow (yet, as +already pointed out, sometimes delaying this +same crowing). He ruled by love and not by +terror. She gave him soul and body, both as act +of impious homage, and of true love. So a month +wore away—the month of June.</p> + +<p>At every turn and in every way he comforted +and charmed her. She confessed to him how +greatly she dreaded that day, which he said +must now soon come, when he would be summoned +back to Hell. She begged him to take her +with him—for without him she had no use for +this dull earth. She begged him to slay her now, +and thus, her spirit released, she would take her +way with him to Hell, and there live with him, +once more with her parents—whom the French +burned in Brittany. So she fitted his hands to +her throat. He would not. He only promised +her again and again that when she lay dying he +himself would come to her once more, and stand +at her bed’s head. He promised her a short life, +and life everlasting.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p> + +<p>So this young woman, who had often shown +a need for true religion, found great comfort in a +false one. It was a fiend that fed, it would seem, +her soul’s hunger. By him and by the hopes of +Hell she was comforted, as the true Christian is +by his Lord and the hopes of Paradise. She became +reconciled to life, to death, to adversity, +loneliness, and despair.</p> + +<p>There was no problem that he could not answer +for her, no doubt he did not lay. For instance, +she was distressed to think that when her true +life should begin (that is, when she died and entered +Hell) she would not see the kind foster father, +but would undoubtedly encounter his disagreeable +wife. No, explained the demon, she +was wrong, for he knew that Jared Bilby was +already there, well and at peace. He had committed +mortal sin by saving her when a child, for +she was already a witch, and it is mortal sin to +save a witch. ‘But at the time he did not know +I was a witch. I do not think he ever believed it.’ +The demon said that made no difference. Mortal +sin was mortal sin, but Satan, grateful to him for +saving the life of Doll, had never carried out the +cruel sentence which had been meted out to him +at the Awful Judgement Seat. Doll wanted to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> +know what this sentence was. He said it was of +so revolting a nature he could not tell her. His +words made her hate Jehovah, and she felt Satan +was a kinder ‘god.’</p> + +<p>The demon went on to assure her that Mrs. +Hannah would undoubtedly be given place in +Heaven. She was a pious woman, always at +meeting, lecture, and prayer. There were already +millions of just such vixens singing miserable +psalms, badly out of tune, about the golden +streets. If she did in some way get sent down to +Hell, he promised they would all get together +and make it hot for her. They couldn’t endure +such ugly scolds in Hell. Doll was surprised. +‘She is not ugly. She is remarkably handsome.’ +The devil was surprised. He said he had supposed +from what he heard that she must be very +ugly.</p> + +<p>There was now only one thing with which she +could vex herself, for her demon comforted her +at every turn. Sometimes as he held her in his +arms she moaned a little and pulled away. He +begged her to tell him. He was her true love. +Let her tell him and he would help. Then she +told him that she knew that upon occasions +fiends do actually marry mortal women. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> +laughed at her, and tried to turn her fancy from +such homely thoughts. She would not be +turned. He said witches and women talked alike, +and yet he did not refuse to marry her.</p> + +<p>With the commendable and proper thought of +marriage in her head, she sought out Goody +Greene (whom she had seen but little of late). +She walked with her through the woods, helping +her gather that bitter flower which the Indians +call the jug-woman’s-baby. The old woman was +tired and the two sat upon a stone. From where +they sat Doll could see the birch woods, the rough +pastures, where by night she met her devil.</p> + +<p>‘Dear Goody, tell me as you used to tell the +story of the goblin or infernal who came to a +maid’s window on a May eve and wed her in a +respectful and seemly manner. Why cannot +devils always do so? It is sad to think that a +loving wench—betrayed by love—may become +but the doxy of the devil.’ She was near +tears—although now she never had tears to +shed.</p> + +<p>The old woman told the story of Fair Jennifer +of Bageley Wood. She had a demon lover—a +black and scaly fellow, cold to touch as serpent +or any ice or iron. He came to her window three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> +times, calling her to get up and come to him. She +lay disobedient upon her bed. Then on the third +occasion he entered her chamber by the chimney +hole, bearing in his hands green branches, and +he was dressed in green leaves. Jennifer and the +demon walked around and around the bed. He +promised to be her loving husband until death, +to avenge her of her enemies, and she promised +to be his obedient wife until death and after +death, and to deny God and Christ Jesus. Then +upon the hearth she made him a cake, and in the +cake they put blood drawn from the veins of both +their arms. They ate this cake and were man +and wife. His name was Karlycuke. But Fair +Jennifer of Bageley Wood has been dead three +hundred years. Such a thing cannot happen to-day. +Doll thought otherwise, but kept her own +counsel. Nor was she wrong.</p> + +<p>On the way back to the hut on the waste land, +Doll asked her how it was she could always remember +these old stories. The woman said she +had told them many, many times. ‘To other +children, as once you told them to me?’ ‘Yes,’ she +said, ‘to other children.’ Then she set down her +basket and put her arms about Doll. She said +once she had a son, but she would say no more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> +of him and Doll guessed he was a long time dead.</p> + +<p>One night, a night of full moon, Doll woke and +found the fiend there in the room beside her bed. +He signed her to silence, but Doll, who had many +times by night stolen out of the house, knew that +Hannah in her attic room slept soundly. All that +the black and scaly fiend did for Jennifer, he now +did for his love, and more. He set his imp upon +the bedpost for a witness, and on the whole +nothing could have been more seemly. There +was no hearth in Doll’s chamber. They could +bake no cake. He pricked his wrist and her +wrist, and each drank a little from the other’s +veins. This slight cut upon her wrist never +healed, as would a normal cut. It was red and +angry to the day she died. Thus does Nature +(which usually essays to heal) shrink from the +lips of Hell.</p> + +<p>It was the last of June, and the summer solstice +(for on that day he married her) was passed. +The leaves broadened into summer and the night +air no longer held the rhapsody of spring. Now +Doll had always known that he must leave her, +but it hurt her to find that he could go without +farewell. She comforted herself with the memory +of his sweet love and her hopes for the future.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span></p> + + +<h3>6</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>The Quenching of three Evil Firebrands.</em></p> + +<p>There were hanged upon a spit of mud in the +tidal waters of the Charles at Boston, on the +tenth day of July, 1671, three pirates, long +wanted for their unparalleled offences. These +three, Black Pig Murch, Ben Bottle, and the +Bloody Shad, had been taken into custody some +two months earlier, but, having escaped their +guardians, separated each to his own hiding. +By agreement they came together again upon the +second of July, thinking the hunt to be up and +that they could get a pinnace and sail south to +safety. So all three were taken together, but the +fourth, Calico Jack, was never taken. Being +duly indicted and tried, these fine rogues were +found guilty of many homicides, robberies, and +cruel acts of mayhem upon the high seas, so were +condemned to hang.</p> + +<p>Justice was done upon their bodies, and in due +time (after the corpses had hung in chains some +weeks, serving as due warning to others, especially +to seamen) these bodies were buried in +mud, close to the place where they had died.</p> + +<p><i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Sic transeunt maleficii mundi!</i></p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<hr class="full"> + +</div> + + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>A Trap is set for two Tender Souls.</em></p> + +<p class="no-indent">Doll never thought the demon would wait until +her death-bed to come to her. Every moonlight +night and every sunny day she looked for +him and thought, ‘Perhaps this day or this night +he will come to me.’ She always wore even quite +commonly her prettiest, most worldly clothes, +and she kept her shaggy black hair as neat as she +was able. She thought, ‘He sees me always, +everything I do, everything I wear,’ and she kept +herself comely for him. She guessed he even +knew her thoughts, and so she dedicated them to +him.</p> + +<p>In her own chamber she daily worshipped and +prayed to Satan, as the fiend had taught her; +that is, by foul blasphemies, such as the reversal +of the Lord’s Prayer, etc. She even wrote little +hymns to Satan and entuned them for him. She +felt that she should be about some harm, such, +for instance, as the bewitchment of the godly, +but she received no command, so she did, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> +some time at least, no devilment. She was happy +and grew sleek.</p> + +<p>The widow was already courted by three men, +all reputable widowers and church members. +Now that the windows were opened and Doll +sang as she worked, and her own mind was +taken up with her suitors, she did not fear her +so much. Each went her own way.</p> + +<p>Doll had always shown a dawdling and +trifling attitude towards honest labour. And in +this offence Bilby had encouraged her. For he +had had her out in the woods and the fields +(where there was nothing a young female could +do) with himself, instead of leaving her at home +to serve Hannah, as would have been more +proper.</p> + +<p>Now that he was gone, Doll still continued +in her childish and frivolous wanderings. She +often sat herself on the stone fence by the +willow brook which divided the lands of the +Bilbys and the Thumbs. The bonded boys upon +the farm said they often saw her sitting upon the +stone fence and feeding small rotten apples to +Ahab (whose ferocity now had grown hideous). +Yet this girl patted him freely, talking to him, +laying her face against his cheek, and all these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> +attentions Ahab accepted of. She wished him for +her familiar, but the creature (so she told Mr. +Zelley) would never do one of the things she +asked of him, except to pursue and render ridiculous +young Thumb.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thumb heard that her black bull was +often down on the boundary with Bilby’s Doll. +She asked that he be penned, for she guessed +that Doll was at the bottom of Ahab’s remarkable +dissatisfaction in Titus. She wished the +bull withdrawn from the young woman’s influence. +By so doing and thus making these fields +by the willow brook safe to cross, she did great +harm to her own household, for now it was +Labour and Sorrow who came daily (if they +could) to see Doll. Undoubtedly she had been +waiting for the twins to come and play with her. +She must have seen in these weak and disobedient +little girls fit matter for her to work upon to +the further enlargement of the Kingdom of Hell. +For she lay in wait there, and finally they came +to her. They came slyly. No one at first knew +they came, and they played at ungodly games, +furtively, where no one of either house could +know. Thus passed September, and October, +and the half of November.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>The Horrible Example of the Thumb Twins, or to what a Pass +Disobedience may bring a Child.</em></p> + +<p>Doubtless some who read these words will +recall how in childhood they were brought to +obedience and wholesome respect for authority +by hearing a mother, or grannie, or aunt, or servant +tell them the awful story of the Thumb +twins, and to what their disobedience brought +them. It is true that these children had never +been well, and for them to fall from health to +point of death was not a long fall. Nor when one +considers what good use has been made of their +example, and how many other children have +learned decent docility from their story, can one +wholly regret the incident which occurred as +follows.</p> + +<p>On the twentieth day of November (the day +had been a mellow, warm, yellow day) the disobedient +Labour and Sorrow went to the willow +brook, and there found, as they hoped to find, +the witch-woman awaiting them. She was all in +fine scarlet as her fancy was. The children said +they dared not stay and play—their mother +had sent them to Goody Greene’s to buy mints. +She would wonder if they did not return within<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> +the hour. They said (a long time later) that +Doll smiled at them in a terrible fashion and suggested +to them that what their mother wanted +was of no importance. But the twins for once +were mindful of their good mother’s wishes. +They said again they could not stay. They had +only come to tell her that they could not stay. +‘Well, take that then,’ said the witch, and +angrily tossed across the brook and to their feet +two dolls that she had contrived out of corn +husks and pumpkin seeds. So she went away, +and the twins went to Greene’s.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp65" id="i_p142" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p142.jpg" alt="Woman with two kids and a cow"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>They came home again and they were late as +usual, or rather as always, for they were dawdling, +mischievous children. Their mother was +angry with them. She could not whip nor even<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> +shake them. She dared not, they were too feeble. +She put them to bed without their dinner and +there they lay to supper-time, talking and +whispering, laughing to each other. She bade +them get up for supper. They would not, but +lay in their bed. No one thought further of them +until morning. The truth is that, having no +dinner and no supper, they grew hungry and so +they ate the dollies, which were made mostly of +pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin in all its parts, +even the seeds of it, is wholesome food. It could +not be this that sickened the children, yet from +that day they sickened.</p> + +<p>For forty-eight hours they were afflicted in +their stomachs. This passing a little, an even +more grievous malady seized their bowels, which +seemed to rot away. Their very bones gave out +from within them, refusing to support their +weight, etc. They pined, would not eat because +of the pain they were in. First it was ‘My belly, +mamma, oh, my belly!’ and the next, ‘My +throat, mamma!’ or ‘My head, mamma, my +miserable bowels! My vitals are decaying within +me.’ These frightful pains were the result of their +disobedience, for if they had done as bidden—that +is, if they had eschewed the young woman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> +and received no presents from her—they never +would have so suffered.</p> + +<p>They had thus sickened and suffered for a +week, and then Mrs. Thumb, putting fresh linen +upon their bed, found, between bed and wall, all +that remained of the pumpkin-seed poppets. It +was plain that these two poppets were intended +to represent the twins. They were all but +identical, yet was the one (Sorrow) plumper than +the other (Labour). They had dark eyes, made +from little buttons, and light hair fashioned from +corn silk. In this respect they simulated the +brown eyes and yellow hair of the twins. The +one was tied about the waist with a red rag, and +the other with a blue, and it was thus in these +two colours Mrs. Thumb habitually dressed +them.</p> + +<p>The twins gaped at their mother as she found +these things, and their eyes were guilty eyes. +She asked them from whence came these dollies. +They swore they did not know. Perhaps a cat +had brought them in. They were sure a cat had +brought them in. Their mother told them they +were lying and they said nothing. She said she +would shake them, and they said that they were +far too sick, and Labour offered to fall into a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> +spasm. Well, if they would not tell from whence +these things were, would they tell who it was that +had eaten out the pumpkin seeds that had made +their vitals. The twins responded heartily, yes, +it was they themselves who had eaten up the +vitals. The woman cried out in anguish, ‘My +children, oh, my poor children, it is your own +vitals that you have eaten, God help us all!’ +And she rushed from the sick-room, weeping, +wringing her hands, screaming to her husband, +her son.</p> + +<p>For three days the twins would not say from +whence were these poppets. Their mother +fancied it was old Goody Greene had given them, +because she knew that the girls had been to her +evil hut on the very day they sickened. Now +Greene, as well as Mr. Kleaver, had been called +in every few days to advise in the care of the +twins. Mrs. Thumb was enraged to think that +she had thus allowed the woman access to her +darlings. But Widow Bilby told her to look to +Doll, for she knew that she had in her own room +pumpkin seeds with red and blue rags, and corn +silk. She warned her, ‘Look to Doll.’</p> + +<p>In her heart the woman was convinced that +her little ones suffered from witchcraft. Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> +Zelley, who showed at that time a most stubborn +disbelief in such infernal manifestations, or +perhaps wishing to protect the wicked, pooh-poohed +the idea. Mr. Kleaver also said that such +wasting fevers were indeed far from rare. By +the New Year he promised the twins would be +well or in their coffins. He himself had seen no +signs of demoniacal possession.</p> + +<p>The woman asked the children—for who +should know as well as they? At first they +stoutly denied the idea and then weakened, +admitting that it was possible. When their +mother pressed them further, they put their +heads under the bedclothing and remained mute. +The mother decided to spy upon them to see if +between themselves they might not prove more +honest.</p> + +<p>She told them she was going abroad. And she +left the door of the chamber open into the fire-room. +Having bid them farewell and slammed +the front door, she returned on tiptoe to the stool +she had set herself behind the chamber door. +There she listened. They talked little and but +casually. And then at last Labour said, ‘I wish +we had not eaten the pretty poppets Mistress +Dolly made us. I wish we had them to play<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> +with.’ So she knew that in truth the poppets +were from Doll. Nothing more of consequence +was said.</p> + +<p>That very night, however, they woke up the +whole house, screaming that a great tawny cat +had come down the chimney and had sat upon +their chests, kneading its paws and purring most +hideous. Father, mother, and brother flew to +them. They saw no cat, but there were two red +fresh scratches on the face of Labour. Their +father reproved them for their fancies, reminding +his wife how since early childhood they had +been subject to night fears. The children were +ashamed. They put their heads under the bedclothing. +From then on, however (when their +father was not present), they often spoke of this +cat, and suggested even more horrible visions +that came to torment them. Every day their +plight was more piteous.</p> + +<p>Almost in the middle of December, close to the +shortest day of the year, the woman sat by her +hearth, pondering these things. She was determined +to find the truth for herself. Husband, +doctor, and minister were all wilfully blind.</p> + +<p>The children lay sick in the next room, and +often seemed like to die. The one said to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> +other, ‘She will come again to-night.’ At the +word ‘she’ the woman pricked her ears. It was +only of the cat they had spoken before, and this +cat they called ‘he.’ The child said, ‘She will +bring her baby and let us play with it.’ The +other said, ‘Oh, I hope she will not come. +Although she seems kind to us, I am afraid that +it is she who hurts us, for God knows we are +bewitched.’ (She vomited a little.)</p> + +<p>The woman went to the door, saying, ‘Pretty +pets, who comes to you, and of whom is this +baby?’ She spoke quietly. They hid their heads +and would not answer. The woman went again +to the fireplace and listened. ‘I think,’ said one, +‘it is her cat that comes to hurt us,’ and the +children whispered together. The woman trembled +with excitement. She did not go immediately +to the children! Instead she sat close by the +fire and listened. Sorrow said, ‘And the little +black man with the little black hat....’ She +could hear no more. But later Sorrow was saying, +‘Little people came, no bigger than my +finger. They ate a little feast of honey and suet, +served out to them in acorn cups—like those +Mistress Dolly makes for us....’ And later, +‘There was a tiny queen. She looked just like<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> +Mistress Dolly, only smaller, a Mistress Dolly +you could put away in a teacup, and her baby +was no bigger than a thumb nail....’ The +mother now felt she had proof. She hurried to +her children, begging them to tell her all. Could +Mistress Dolly, then, shrink no bigger than a +poppet? And who was the little black man? At +first the children would not speak, but, as was +usual, stubbornly hid their heads.</p> + +<p>She wept and prayed over them, begging them +to be frank with her, for, if it were only known +who bewitched them and how, they might be +cured. As it was they would grow sicker and +weaker, and finally languish and die. They protested +they did not want to die, and began to +weep and cast themselves about. And at last +they confessed to everything (but in the midst, +Labour was thrown into a grievous fit). They +told how it was Bilby’s Doll had given them the +poppets; how she came to them every night—not +cruelly using them, but amusing and diverting +them. ‘And she had with her a book ...’ +said Sorrow. ‘My children, my poor miserable +children ... was it a black book, and have you +signed?’ Yes, it was a black book. No, they had +not signed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p> + +<p>Then the pious woman got out the Bible, and +she made them kiss it and swear that no matter +how ill-used they were, or how delicately they +were tempted by the witch, they would remain +fast-sealed to God and not sign away their souls +to Hell—no matter if devils did come and pull +their vitals up by the roots and run needles +through their eyeballs and brain-pans. The +children, lamenting, shrieking, and yet for once +obedient, promised and swore as they were bid.</p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>A Hideous Malady and a Bridle for it.</em></p> + +<p>From the day mentioned above Doll made no +further pretence at kindness, for she began to +come to these twins in hideous and cruel aspect. +The deacons of the Church, the elders, the constables, +the neighbours, took turn and turn +about, in praying with them. These good words +would often frighten away the witch, with her +black book and infernal troop, and the little ones +would rest a little or even sleep.</p> + +<p>At last was the godly father of the haunted +children convinced that this was witchcraft. He +or his son Titus sat night and day with a bastard +musket in the hand and a silver bullet in it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span></p> + +<p>At last was Mr. Kleaver convinced, and the +doctor from Salem was convinced, and Mr. Increase +Mather from Boston was convinced, that +here at Cowan Corners was being enacted the +most heinous and wicked witchcraft ever practised +by any one in the New World. Here was +indeed a witchcraft. Where was the witch?</p> + +<p>Doll Bilby claimed that at this time she knew +the children to be sick, but because week in and +week out no one spoke to her (she went no more +to Meeting) she had not guessed they were bewitched +nor that she was talked about. She said +she was sorry for what she mockingly called +‘her little friends.’ So she made a junket, and a +fowl being killed she made a broth and put expensive +cloves and nutmegs in this broth. She +laid these things in a basket and asked the +youngest of the farm servants to go present this +basket to the Thumb twins, but not to say from +whom it was.</p> + +<p>When the mother saw the basket she cried out. +Upon the handle of the basket in pretty Indian +fashion were strung blue beads, identical with +those the poor little wretches had but lately +spewed forth. The children set up a great +clamour at the sight of this food, for, although so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> +hard to tempt, this particular food they would +eat. She consulted Mr. Zelley (it was the last +time she ever consulted him). He said it was +good food and let the children eat. So they ate +and quickly fell to sleep. That night they woke +in horrid writhing fits, and almost died. Not +only did they see Doll Bilby as she floated about +over their bed, but Deacon Pentwhistle saw her +and three others. Also Mr. Minchon, on going to +the horse barn to get out his horse and ride home +(for it was late), was bitten mysteriously in the +arm. Lot Charty, a poor boy, that same night +saw a fiery rat, and he said to this same rat, +‘Who are you?’ The rat said, ‘I am who I am.’ +And he said, ‘Whom serve you?’ And the +creature replied, ‘I serve Hell and the will of +Bilby’s Doll.’ Then with a clap like thunder he +was up the fire hole.</p> + +<p>A woman by the Ipswich Road that selfsame +night sat nursing a feeble babe. She said the +room grew light and there before her stood an +awful female form. She never had set an eye +upon Bilby’s Doll, but by description she knew +that this was she or her apparition. The child in +her arms gave a great screech and the female +form made off. Then (although it was midwinter)<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> +to the mother’s apprehension, lightning +came and struck the babe, squeezing it flat as a +plank so it died.</p> + +<p>Doubtless there were many devils abroad. +The blessed God permitted their escapement +from Hell that they might give bodily confutation +to all atheists who should say ‘there is no +God.’ So must ever the Prince of Lies and his +servants serve the will of God. Because of the +powers of an invisible Kingdom manifested in +the years 1671-72, the churches were gorged with +the pious and the entire community awoke to an +awful realization of the potency of God.</p> + +<p><i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Non est religio ubi omnia patent.</i> (Which might +be translated, Where there is no mystery there +is no religion.)</p> + +<p>All in all there seemed no proof lacking that +Cowan Corners and more particularly the Thumb +twins were suffering from a cruel demoniacal +tormentation. Mr. Kleaver and the Salem doctor, +the deacons, the elders, Captain Buzzey, the +marshal, and others gave affidavit in writing +to the magistrates that the woman Bilby was a +witch of provable perversity and that she should +be set in jail. Mr. Zelley alone among all the men +of standing had nothing to do with the signing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> +and drawing-up of this paper. In fact, such was +his strange, distrait, and heretical attitude, no +one asked him to assist. Already it was bruited +abroad that he was a man to be looked at, for, +after all, have not some of the most potent wizards +done their blasphemies under a cloak of +piety?</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp65" id="i_p154" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p154.jpg" alt="People on horseback"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>So Captain Tom Buzzey, of the Train-Band +troop (and he was also sheriff), taking two constables +with him, rode to the house of Widow +Bilby and there served warrant upon the young +woman. She showed neither surprise nor terror, +but looked up at her captors fearlessly. She +wanted to know of what she was accused. She +was primarily accused of afflicting the Thumb<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> +twins. Why, then she was as innocent as a babe +unborn. She would have explained to the sheriff +that she had been the friend of these little ones +ever since they could toddle. The sheriff told her +that all were agreed that they were bewitched. +If not she, who was it? Then she became confused +and in the end said, ‘It was the work of <em>another +witch</em>,’ thereby denying all and confessing all.</p> + +<p>Captain Buzzey, as he had been instructed, +searched her chamber and the house. He did not +find the pumpkin seeds, corn husks, etc., etc., +that Widow Bilby said the girl kept under her +bed to work evil out of. It is likely the young +woman really did know that her name was +talked about and had rid herself of them.</p> + +<p>She rode upon a pillion back of Captain Buzzey. +A great jeering crowd had gathered to see +her off to Salem jail. Widow Bilby laughed +loudly from where she stood in the crowd between +two of her suitors, ‘You’ve got it now, you +jade, you jade!’ she cried.</p> + +<p>Captain Buzzey said the girl bowed her head +and he heard her whisper, ‘He has not abandoned +me. My god, my god, protect me and save me.’ +Thinking that she was referring to our Lord +Jesus Christ and to the true God, he, in his heart,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> +pitied her. She begged Captain Buzzey to hurry. +‘Oh, for pity’s sake take me out of this crowd.’ +He clapped spurs to his stallion, and the young +horse, in spite of his double load, put off at a +gallop. The day was a winter day, crisp and cold, +and the snow was fresh and spotless under the +horses’ hooves. So at a tremendous pace the +cavalcade of armed men and the one prisoner +passed through dark woods and by a winter sea. +They rode for six miles and came to Salem, +where again they encountered angry faces, hoots, +gibes, and threats of instant death.</p> + +<p>That night she lay upon straw and without +a mattress. The dungeon was so cold the water +froze in the jug. She could not sleep for cold, but +spent hours upon her knees in prayer (as the +jailor later reported), yet now it is known it was +to her demon or to Satan that she prayed. At +last a heavenly quiet descended upon her and she +slept.</p> + +<p>Concurrent to her jailing, the Thumb twins +were a little eased in their misery. It would +seem that the witch had been put to fright at the +fear of bodily incarceration and pain, and that +she had diminished the force and malignancy +of her spells.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<hr class="top-heavy"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<hr class="full"> + +</div> + + +<h3>1</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><span class="allsmcap">JUSTICE</span> <em>arrives. She will not be stayed nor thrown from +her scent, although the morning wears slowly and some fear</em> +<span class="allsmcap">JUSTICE</span> <em>will be balked.</em></p> + +<p class="no-indent">On the twenty-seventh day of December, 1672, +Judge Lollimour and Judge Bride, of the Court +of Assistants, Boston, entered with pomp into +Salem. They were escorted by the Boston marshal, +by constables, aides, etc., in full regalia. +This pretty cavalcade drew rein by the horse-block +of the Black Moon, where ordinarily preliminary +hearings were conducted.</p> + +<p>Judge Bride (this was the great Judge Bride) +said to Judge Lollimour, his colleague, ‘Sir, what +will we do with this great crowd gathered +hereabout, waiting to hear the findings of Justice?’</p> + +<p>‘Sir,’ said Judge Lollimour, ‘the tap-room of +the Black Moon could not accommodate one +fifth of this great multitude. Let us move on to +the Meeting-House.’</p> + +<p>After them straggled the populace of some five +villages—yes, and learned men, elders, doctors,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> +jurists, etc., out from Boston. The crowd was +black with the gowns of the clergy.</p> + +<p>Every seat in the Meeting-House was quickly +taken. The aisles were filled. Body pressed close +to body, rendering breathing difficult. In this +way a stale heat was engendered, and a fear, and +an expectation. One said to another it was a +fatal day. Some would have left if it had been +allowed them, but the room being filled the +Judges ordered the constables to permit neither +egress nor entry. They feared a milling about +and a turmoil that would be a detriment to the +dignity of the Court.</p> + +<p>The magistrates were set in great chairs before +the pulpit. At their feet were pallets whereon the +sick children should be laid when their time came +to testify. The constables pulled a table (a +heavy oak table) close to the magistrates. Upon +this the accused should stand in the sight of all +men—yes, and in the sight of God.</p> + +<p>Certain men cried out, ‘Make way! Make +way!’ and in came Captain Buzzey and the +prisoner. She looked most wild and shaggy and +of a touchingly small size. Captain Buzzey lifted +her to the table set for her, and then, addressing +the Court, showed true warrant for her arrest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> +and swore that as commanded he had diligently +searched the house for poppets, images, etc.; +having found what he found, he now produced +these things in the bundle which he laid at their +honours’ feet.</p> + +<p>Judge Bride, looking about him at the many +black-robed clergy, said, ‘Gentlemen of the +ministry, who among you officiating in these +parts is senior?’ He was told Mr. Zelley was senior +in these parts, but that the famous Mr. Increase +Mather was present. ‘Sir,’ said Judge +Bride, ‘will you, Mr. Zelley, offer up a prayer?’ +Mr. Zelley prayed, begging God to discover evil +where there was evil and innocency where there +was innocency. He prayed that the prisoner +confess if she might be guilty, but if she were +innocent, God strengthen her not to confess +merely to save her life. To this prayer the magistrates +gave fervent amen.</p> + +<p>Judge Lollimour thus addressed the prisoner +at the bar: ‘You understand, Doll Bilby, whereof +you are now charged, that is, to be guilty of +sundry acts of witchcraft, more specifically the +wasting and afflicting of twin sisters, Labour and +Sorrow Thumb. What say you to it?’</p> + +<p>‘I am as innocent as the babe unborn.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p> + +<p>‘You are now in the hands of authority and, +God helping, you shall have justice, and the +afflicted shall have justice. May God help us all.’</p> + +<p>Then Judge Lollimour called on many witnesses. +He called on Mr. Kleaver the surgeon, +and the older doctor from Salem whose name was +Bunion. He called upon the Thumbs and upon +Widow Bilby. This latter woman showed such +spite and malice in her testimony that Judge +Bride frowned upon her and reproved her. Thus, +instead of hurting the accused, she helped her, +for the Judges felt some pity for the tousled, wild +child (she seemed but a child) perched upon the +table in the sight of all men—yes, and in the +sight of God.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley was called. He was a bony man of +fifty years, and his hair was white. In contrast to +the big fine presence of Mr. Mather and many another +clergyman then present, he seemed a poor +thing; that is, uncertain, ill at ease. He spoke in +a low voice, saying how good had been this +young woman as a child. How in earliest womanhood +she had shown a most exemplary piety. +How she was often at her prayers, and came to +him for religious comfort, etc. As he spoke, he +twisted his hands in his sleeves as a boy might.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> +Then he said in a defiant voice that the girl had +since childhood endured the most cruel abuse +from her foster mother—that is, from this same +Widow Bilby, who had but lately been heard. +This last statement had much weight with the +Judges, who thereafter did not permit Widow +Bilby to testify, or, if they did, they took her +words with knowing glance. By this dismissal +of Hannah they also dismissed the earlier tales +of Doll’s witchcraft. Although they heard how +the green fruit of Hannah’s womb was blasted, +how she had suffered a wretched and unaccountable +illness, it was evident they were not impressed—rather +were they bored. To the +death of Mr. Bilby they listened with more attention, +questioning a number (especially Mr. +Kleaver and Mr. Zelley) with some pains. +When they heard that the dying man with his +last breath denied any witchcraft, they would not +permit Hannah to explain how it may be that an +evil spirit enter a corpse and then cry out.</p> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp85" id="i_p162" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p162.jpg" alt="Two men talking"> +</figure> +<br> + +<p>At noon, while they ate their bloaters and +drank their rum punch at the Black Moon, the +barmaid heard Judge Bride say to Judge Lollimour +that it was easy to see through the whole +miserable affair. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">In primo</i>: This rustic town was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> +so tedious they had to patch up an excitement—he +would begin seeing devils himself if he lived +there. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Secundo</i>: This jealous, scolding widow +was at the bottom of it. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Tertio</i>: The wench indeed +looked like a goblin, and, no matter how +pious a life she might lead, village gossips would +always speak ill of her—especially, as in her own +ungodly way she was a pretty mouse. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Quarto</i>: +They would both of them be back in Boston +within the three-day, the case being dismissed +and the local people reproved for their gullibility. +Said Judge Lollimour, ‘Sir, we have not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> +as yet seen these afflicted children.’ Judge Bride +said, ‘Blah,’ draining the last of his rum punch.</p> + + +<h3>2</h3> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>From Noon to Sundown rages a famous battle, with Righteousness +and Justice on the one hand and Witchcraft and +Evil upon the other.</em></p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the same day, Doll Bilby +was set again upon the table. The crowd within +the Meeting-House was even greater than it had +been in the morning. Many had not even gone +out for dinner, so ravenous was their hunger to +hear the findings of Justice and to observe the +conduct of a witch.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Once again are we assembled in +the eyes of all men and in the eyes of God to +administer justice as well as mortal man +(a puny, weak, and miserable creation) is +able. Mr. Mather, of Boston, sir, we beg +your blessing and your prayers.</p> +</div> + +<p>Then Mr. Mather prayed most decently, and +as if in sight of God’s most awful throne. To +this prayer the Judges gave amen and bade the +sheriff go and fetch the bodies of the Thumb +twins, who should next be questioned. Out of +the mouths of babes and sucklings wise men may +be instructed, and an innocent child may speak<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> +with greater knowledge than is given to the +cloudy heart of maturity. Mrs. Thumb was +asked to tell all she might concerning the health +and humour of these twins since birth. These +things she told. She told of the past-nature love +her son Titus bore this woman now accused, and +at the moment the sheriff entered and the cry +‘Make way!’ went up. After him was Deacon +Thumb, and he bore Sorrow Thumb, and after +him was Titus. He bore Labour Thumb. It +was explained that the children were taken in +fits at the threshold of the courtroom. They lay +in a swoon as though dead, their faces green with +pallor, their eyes closed. The bearers laid them +on the pallets.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Titus Thumb, stand up and +answer me. You see this woman who stands +thus before and above you all. Now is she +charged with crimes which, if proven, shall +cost her her life, yet a year and a little more +and she was your dear heart and you were +about to wed with her. You have heard your +mother say that this Bilby won you by +wicked spells, that once she assumed the +shape of an Indian and you shot her through +the heart—yet she did not suffer for it.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> +That again she perversely set upon you, +tempting and staying you beyond the puny +endurance of our sex, and you struck her a +blow that would have killed an ox, yet <em>she</em> +rose up unharmed. We have listened to +some length of how violent and beyond the +usual wants of nature was your desire for +her. Your flesh fell away, etc. What do you +now say? Are these things true?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: Sir, as God hears me, these things are +true.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: There has been no enlargement +upon fact?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: None.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: It does not seem to you that you +mistook for enchantment what another +would call lust? Possibly you are a young +man of gross sensual nature, who might +strike what he loved?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: God knows I am the least sensual of all +men. I have never sought out women. Ask +any here.</p> +</div> + +<p>At that a girl was possessed and now a demon +began manifestly to speak in her. The demon +belched forth most horrid and nefarious blasphemies. +The constable took her out. A dozen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> +cried to the Judges, begging to vouch for the +young man’s purity. All were silenced.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Thumb, I see your eyes avoid to +look towards this young woman. Perhaps +your heart regrets that you give testimony +most like to lead her in the halter. Look +upon her now. Is she not your enemy? Tell +her she is a witch and that you wish her +hanged for it.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em> (after a most tedious pause, looked to +her feet): You are a witch.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Better than that, louder and +firmer. Come, you shall look upon her face. +You shall not mock this Court.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: Sir, I cannot.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: What, are you still bewitched, or +is it that you still love her and will not harm +her?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: I love her. (He put his arm across his +eyes. He wept.)</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Get to your chair again. How +can you who love her give good and valid +testimony? Get to your chair again. Your +mother, she is made of sterner stuff. I see +the children stir. They are about to be recovered +to consciousness. Sheriff, cover the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> +face and body of the accused so that they +may not see her until the time comes.</p> +</div> + +<p>Captain Buzzey took off his scarlet cape. It +was a good new cape that had cost him two +pounds. Within the month it rotted mysteriously, +and the Assistants bought him another +one. With this scarlet cape he now covered +Bilby’s Doll from head to foot.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Labour</em>: Oh, for Christ’s dear sake, sister, +where are we now? Oh, for God’s sake....</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: Oh, my back, oh, my bowels!</p> +</div> + +<p>The children aroused themselves a little, sat +up, and gazed about the court. Now it is noticeable +that Judge Lollimour took to himself the +questioning of the children. The reason is he +had seven such at home, while the great Judge +Bride had none.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: Children, do not be afraid, +for is there none among us but wish you +well. You are only to speak the truth as +your good mother has taught you—the +whole truth, and nothing but the truth.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em> (in loud, bold voice): There is one here +who does not wish us well. I can feel her +presence.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Judge gave no heed, although many were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> +amazed that the child had not seen Doll, yet +knew there was one there who did not wish her +well.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: You have been strangely +sick, and I see you are not well. What, +think you, caused this sickness?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: Oh, sir, have you not heard? We are +bewitched. She gave us our own vitals to +eat, and she comes at night and torments us.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: You say ‘she,’ yet half the +world are ‘she.’ To whom do you refer?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: I can’t say her name, oh-oh-oh....</p> +</div> + +<p>She gagged and went purple in the face, she +clawed at her windpipe.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Labour</em>: Oh, don’t you see, don’t you see, the +witch has her by the throat? She won’t let +her answer. Oh, sir, she’ll die. (The puny +child struck the air above her sister’s head.) +Go away, you wicked witch, go away!</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: Now that you are restored, +I shall name some to you, and when you +reach the name of her whom you think +torments you, you shall make a sign. Abigail +Stone, Sarah Black, Obedience Lovejoy, +Alice May, Delilah Broadbent, Doll +Bilby....</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p> + +<p>Then the afflicted did cry out, and fell back +weak and dumb.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: So you accuse Doll Bilby, +that she bewitches you, causing your sickness? +What else does she do to you?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: She will have us sign in the Black +Book.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: Come, you contrive a fancy. +I do not believe she comes with a black book. +Tell me how.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: She comes with devils and imps and +hideous animals, and they torment us, +pressing out our lives, sticking pins and +knives into us, and while they torment us +she presses close to us, bidding us sign her +book. But we will none of her, and God +helps us and will save us.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: You claim that this woman +comes to you by night, bringing such with +her as prick and torment you. How does +she come, in her own proper form?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: At first she would come as a great +tawny cat, and then again as a pig, or as +a mouse, and once I remember she came as +a black dog. And she brings fiends with +her, hairy little black men, and these torment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> +us. Of late I think she comes only in +her own proper form. Sometimes it is hard +to tell, for she can at will assume any shape. +And sometimes a hand puts into the bed +amongst us and pulls at our vitals.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: When this woman came to +you and offered you a book to sign (as you +claim), what would she say?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: She would say, ‘Sign.’</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: And no other word?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: Sometimes she would say, ‘Sign, or +I’ll squeeze your vitals for you.’</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: But you, being good and +Christian girls, would not sign?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Labour</em>: Oh, sir, once a most awful and majestic +voice spoke out, and I do believe it +was the voice of God, and He bade us not +to sign. Then the fiend flew away in a clap +and did not return for a three-day.</p> +</div> + +<p>Their mother said, yes, this was true. She +herself heard the clap and it was three days before +the affliction again commenced.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: And if you sign, what does +she promise you?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: Prettiest things to play with—little +goats, no larger than a cat and a cat as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> +small as a kit, and brooms to ride on through +the sky—and her own pretty babe to play +with.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: And when you refuse to sign?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: Oh, she pinches and torments us, or +lets her fiends and familiars torment us. +They but do her bidding and I do not think +are as wicked as she. Once she set my +father’s great black bull Ahab upon us. He +tramples us like to break our bones.</p> +</div> + +<p>The mother interrupted to say, yes, this was +true. The bull was a witch’s familiar beyond +good doubt, and they but waited the finding of +the Court before they butchered him.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em>: Sometimes the witch shakes us cruelly.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: Sir, it is true. Those small and puny +girls were so shaken two strong men could +not hold them in their beds.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: What, young Thumb, is this +girl, even though proved a witch, so strong, +she can best two strong men—how think +you?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: Sir, I think the Devil helps her and +he gives her strength.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You who were once her lover—you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> +should know her strength. Was she +then so brawny-strong those times you +bundled her?</p> +</div> + +<p>Titus was confused. He believed the Court to +be against him. The congregation was angry, +for bundling is a pleasantry for yokels, and no +more likely to occur in Salem than in Boston, +nor in the Thumb house than in the house of +Bride or Lollimour. It was felt the Judge intended +an insult. Some feared the magistrates +might dismiss the whole case but from caprice. +But Judge Bride was a godly man, who would +not lift his nose from a scent until Justice herself +was satisfied, although those who knew him best +said he often seemed to pause and idly bay the +moon.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: I never got such favour from her.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: One more thing you shall tell +us, although you are not a likely witness. +Is it true, as your mother has said, that you +shot silver bullets up the fire hole, and that +upon occasion you think you struck the +accused?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Thumb</em>: It is true, sir, but I shot only three +silver bullets—these were buttons from my +coat. My sisters cried, ‘There she goes up the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> +flue.’ I fired where they pointed and they +exclaimed that I had struck her on the wrist. +Some here will tell you that there was indeed +the next day a bullet-gouge on her +wrist, nor has it yet healed—to this day. +I saw it when you bade me look at her. +You may see this mark yourself. Her apparition +came commonly to afflict my sisters +in an old black riding-hood.</p> +</div> + +<p>Captain Buzzey said he had the very one with +him in the bundle at their honours’ feet. He took +it out, and Labour and Sorrow both said, yes, +it was the very one. Captain Buzzey held it up +before the magistrates. It was riddled with +bullet holes.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Captain Buzzey</em>: Widow Bilby gave me this +coat. See, it is burnt with fire, shot full of +holes as a sieve, and still smells of soot from +the Thumb chimney, and gunpowder from +Thumb’s musket.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>A boy</em> (crying out from the back of the court): +I know that coat, sir, well.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: And who may you be?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>The boy</em>: Jake Tulley, bonded man to Widow +Bilby, and I know that coat for the one our +scarecrow has worn these three years, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> +but yesterday I saw the coat gone and the +scarecrow naked. Mate and I (that is the +other farmhand) often shot at it for practice. +Why, it means nothing that it is full of holes.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: And are you and Mate such +miserable poor shots you must press your +pieces into the very belly of the scarecrow +to be assured of your aim? Look, how the +powder has burned the cloth.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Judges took the coat up between them +and discussed in low voices. Jake sat down in +confusion.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Mr. Kleaver, you have already +given generously of your knowledge. You +have told us in what way the maladies arising +from witchcraft differ from those arising +from the proper body—in other words, +what are the differences between diseases +inflicted by the Devil for wicked ends, and +those by Jehovah for our own good. And +you have told us how you came to recognize +the case in hand as one provoked by art. +Will you tell us further?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Kleaver</em>: Invisible hands often clutched +the twins by the throat. I have seen them.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: The invisible hands?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Kleaver</em>: No. I have seen the throats. +And I have also taken the needles, pins, +and such from their flesh. These children +have vomited strange things—fur, insects, +glass, long hanks of hair—blue beads.... +(He stooped to the bundle at their honours’ +feet.) Sirs, here is the basket in which the +young woman sent poisoned or possessed +food to the afflicted—mark the blue beads +on the handle. Three days earlier, the one +of them spewed forth these blue beads I now +take from my pocket—mark, gentlemen—they +are identical.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mrs. Thumb</em>: There was never a bead like +that before in my house.</p> +</div> + +<p>She wept. The children screamed out in gibberish +at sight of the beads, and fell back upon +their pallets.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Mark the children, Mr. Kleaver, +are they now, in your opinion, possessed?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Kleaver</em>: Not exactly possessed. (He whispered +to the magistrates.) They are conscious +of a malignant presence. They know +the witch is in the room.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>The twins</em>: Oh, oh, oh, God help us, oh, oh, +oh!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Sheriff, uncover to us the accused. +Now, children, stand up, if able, and +look there at the table above you.</p> +</div> + +<p>The room was filled with their piercing din. +Labour fell in a fit, foaming, rolling her eyes. +She was stretched out stark and dead. Sorrow +flung herself in hideous terror upon the feet of +the Judges, crying out piteously that they save +her. Then she fell back stark and dumb. Judge +Lollimour was touched by her plight, her fear, +and the appeal she made to him. He raised her +up, felt of her hands and face. They were dank +with a cold sweat which both Judges knew no +art could imitate. Her pulse scarce moved. Her +tongue was tied in her throat. She could not +speak. She looked up out of tortured eyes.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Mather</em>: Here, sir, if ever, is demoniacal +possession.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Here is witchcraft—now to find +the witch.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Mather</em>: It has been proved an hundred +times in English courts that a spell cast by +a witch’s eye must return to the witch’s +body—if the witch touch the afflicted.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Sheriff, carry the body of this +Labour Thumb to the prisoner. She shall<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> +touch her. We shall see. Observe. The +child is utterly lifeless now.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Captain Buzzey</em>: She has no pulse, sir.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mrs. Thumb</em>: Sir, sir, you have let her slay +my child before my eyes. Oh, God, oh, +God!...</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: No one can say that this child +knows who touches her. Sheriff, take her, +alive or dead, to the prisoner.</p> +</div> + +<p>Captain Buzzey took her up. The witch +readily assented. She reached down and touched +the child. The colour returned to the child’s +face. Captain Buzzey felt her pulse leap in her +wrist. He felt her heart stir under her hand. The +child turned in his arms, smiling prettily, as +though in sleep. With a smile she woke. She +glanced to the Judges, noted her sister (still in +semi-trance). She smiled at her mother. Her +eyes went up, and there on the table beside and +above her was the awful vision of Bilby’s Doll. +With a wail of terror no art could simulate, she +clung to Captain Buzzey. At that moment all +in the courtroom realized how hideous had been +her weeks of anguish. No one could so fear a +person who had never done her harm.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p><div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Lay the child upon her pallet—and +you, Sorrow, go you now and lie upon +your pallet.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Sorrow</em> (her tongue still tied): Gar, gar, gah, +gah, gah.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Labour and Sorrow, as you fell +into these fits, tell me what occurred. Did +a fiend or familiar come to torment you? +Did the accused send her apparition to you, +there before your very eyes—leaving her +body, as it were, vacant upon the table? +Tell us.</p> +</div> + +<p>Now was Labour also taken with dumbness. +All saw how the lower lips of the afflicted were +sucked in, and the teeth were clamped down upon +them. Mr. Kleaver essayed to break the lock on +their teeth. He could not.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Widow Bilby</em>: Look to the witch, look, look!</p> +</div> + +<p>It was seen the witch bit her lip—thus locking +the jaws of the children. Captain Buzzey +struck her slightly, and bade her loose her lip. +Then the children were released. They said it +was her own devil came to them.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Doll Bilby, I have asked several +the meaning of the manifestation of evil, so +recent among us. Mr. Kleaver and Mr. +Mather have both explained it to the satisfaction<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> +of many—is it to your satisfaction?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I am an ignorant woman. I cannot +explain.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Now you are to talk freely, deny +the truth of the statements which you have +heard made, explain and elucidate for us—or, +if you wish, you may confess.</p> +</div> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: At least you can concur with the +judgement of those wiser than yourself. At +least say this, Was it or was it not a devil +who tied the children’s tongues for them?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: That I do know—it was not.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: How do you know? No one else +can claim to be so wise.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: If it were a demon, I would have +seen him.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You have, then, so nice a sight +you can see devils?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Zelley</em>: May I speak?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Speak.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Zelley</em>: If this young woman could command +a devil to serve her, would he then be +so unmindful of her safety as to come into +this court and work tricks so likely to hurt +her cause?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Mr. Mather</em>: Cannot God as well as this +wretched girl or Satan command devils? +Has it not been proved often and often that +it sometimes pleases Him to suffer them to +do such things in this world as shall stop the +mouths of gainsayers and exhort a Christian +confession from those who will believe +only the most obvious of His truths?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Bilby, give us your thoughts on the +matter. These Divines have spoken wisely.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I think it was perhaps an angel—come +to do me a mischief.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Do angels come to do mischief +to good and baptized women?</p> +</div> + +<p>The defendant saw she was in difficulty. She +twisted her hands in the folds of her gown. Then +were the children afflicted.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Bilby, if these are indeed your +tricks, keep them for more seemly time. +Constable, seize her hands. And if, as you +suggest, these manifestations are the actions +of angels, I pray God to spare us His angels +until the Court is adjourned.</p> +</div> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;">A woman was taken in a fit. She fell down +laughing and sobbing, and was passed out +through a window.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Do you think those who are +afflicted suffer voluntarily or involuntarily?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I cannot tell.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: That is strange; every one may +judge for himself.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I must be silent.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You have heard this morning +two learned medici explain in what way +witchcraft is like to resemble natural ailment, +and in what ways it differs. Keep this +counsel in your mind, and tell me what you +would say of the illness of these children.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: It would seem they suffer from +witchcraft.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: So it would seem to many here. +And where there is a witchcraft there must +be a witch.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Yes.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Where is that witch?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: God knows I do not know. God +knows I never hurt a child. I know of no +witch that would afflict these children.</p> +</div> + +<p>Captain Buzzey stood up. He said that when +he and his men came to arrest this woman, now +standing trial for witchcraft, he and his men +heard her deny clearly the afflicting of the Thumb<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> +twins, and yet she had said—most meaningly—‘’Tis +the work of <em>another witch</em>.’</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You shall explain this for us, +Bilby.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: How shall I explain?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Confess now, as you did then, +that you are a witch.</p> +</div> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Confess now, and your life shall +be spared.</p> +</div> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Confess now and turn against +these other witches—for it is possible that +many are about—and I swear to you your +life will be spared.</p> +</div> + +<p>She was silent.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: Will the prisoner at the bar +recite the Lord’s Prayer?</p> +</div> + +<p>Doll began readily enough. As she spoke the +Holy Words, Mr. Zelley covered his face in his +hands, and made them with his lips as though +he would help her. She went on without chance +or mishap till she came to the last sentence, +which begins, ‘Lead us not into temptation.’ +She got no further. Mr. Zelley clenched his +hands until his knuckles went white. He turned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> +up his eyes to God. Then quickly she began and +said, to the horror and consternation of all, ‘Ever +for, glory the and, power the, kingdom the, is +thine for, evil from us deliver, but temptation +into not us lead—Amen.’ She did not know what +she had done. She looked about with assurance. +There was an incessant and horrid silence in the +court. The Judges looked to each other. Clergyman +looked to clergyman, then turned eyes to +God. So was she utterly undone, but the Court +was not yet satisfied.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You have responded to my colleague’s +request to the satisfaction of all, but +there are some small matters yet to clear. +Be of good heart, soon we will let you go. +I see you are pale and distrait. Constable, +see to it she does not fall from the table. +What did you mean when you said the bewitchment +of the Thumb twins was ‘the +work of another witch’?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Sir, how can I explain?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: There is nothing you cannot +either confess to, or explain.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Sir, I am confused and amazed.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Answer but a few minutes with +frankness, and you shall go to your own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> +cell—we are not your enemies—open your +heart to us.</p> +</div> + +<p>She was mute.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Be stubborn, and you shall +stand there all night—yes, and the next +day. Come, have you ever seen a devil?</p> +</div> + +<p>She nodded her head.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Ah, then you have seen a devil. +Do not feel ashamed of that. Did not +Christ Himself see Satan? Was not Luther +often tormented by his presence? Some of +the best of men have been the most foully +pursued. Feel no shame, Doll Bilby. Speak +out freely. When was it first?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I was a child in Brittany; my +mother took me to see him in a great wood.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: An instructive and remarkable +experience—and have you seen him since?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Last spring I saw him—he came +to me again.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: In proper human form?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: He came to me by night. Yes, he +came in form of proper man. He wore seaman’s +clothes and with him was an imp—a +black-faced imp with a long ringed tail. +He wore this imp upon his bosom.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span></p> + +<p>There was a commotion at the back of the hall.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: When did he come last spring to +you?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: The last night in May—the night +the Thumbs’ barn burned. Oh, sir, I am +sick, let me go to my cell.</p> +</div> + +<p>Captain Buzzey held her up.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>A high, wild voice from the midst of the confusion</em>: +I will speak, sirs, you shall hear me.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Who cries out?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Voice</em>: I am Jonet Greene, the tinker’s wife. +There are things I know....</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Stand back, all, from the woman. +Dame Greene, deliver yourself of these +things.</p> +</div> + +<p>The crowd drew back. Goody Greene, an old +woman and of great dignity, was revealed to the +Judges. Mr. Kleaver whispered to the Judges +that she was an evil woman.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Goody Greene</em>: This girl never saw a devil. She +saw my own son Shadrach. He was wanted +for piracy—Heaven help me, I hid him by +day, but he prowled by night. He had a +monkey, he wore seaman’s clothes. He saw<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> +in my house the girl and lusted after her. +I speak....</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>A man from back</em>: Her husband says she lies—she +never had no son.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Goody Greene</em>: Believe me, for Christ’s dear +sake, believe me. I had a son and I hid +him ... but they found him just the same +... God found out his sin. They hanged +him; he was called the Bloody Shad.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>The man</em>: The woman’s husband, sir, says +she never had no son. Time has broken her +memory.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Goody Greene</em>: Husband, you are afraid. You +coward, who will not confess to the son of +your own loins, lest you come to shame—now +is Doll indeed undone....</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Lollimour</em>: The woman is lunatic. See +how she rolls her eyes.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Could you have had a son of +which your husband knew nothing—why +did you never speak of him to your neighbours? +How can we believe your fables? +You are lunatic.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Goody Greene</em>: God help me! God help me.... +May God help Doll!</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Constable, throw out this ancient—let<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> +her learn to be a sager hag—and her +husband after her.</p> +</div> + +<p>A confusion and clamour of tongues rose from +all parts of the courtroom. Some wished to say +what they knew of the Greenes; others had +stories to tell of lunacy, devils, etc. And there +was laughing and crying among women, and +children wailed and would be taken home. +Judge Bride stood up in a noble wrath.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Clear the court! Clear the court! +What, shall Justice find her house in Bedlam? +Constables, pick up and carry out—if +they are too weak to walk—the Thumb +twins, and you, madame, who are their +mother, go with them. Every one shall now +be turned out into the snow except those who +are the witnesses and proper officers of the +law, and the six that I shall name. Mr. +Increase Mather, Mr. Seth Dinsmore, Dr. +Zerubbabel Endicott, Mr. Zacharias Zelley, +Mr. John Wilson, and you, sir, also, Colonel +Place Peabody. Gentlemen, the case shall +be continued <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">in camera</i>. I beg of you few, +however, to stay to the end.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p> + + +<h3>3</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>From Sundown to black Night the battle continues. The +Witch is thrown to confusion. Justitia triumphans. Deus +regnat.</em></p> + +<p>Now was the courtroom, empty and vast, +silent as the grave. Only twenty remained in the +room where a minute before had been many +hundreds. The day had worn to sunset and the +room was dark. Flares were lighted and candles +were set where there was need. But the light of +flare and candle made the far reaches of the room +and the dark corners behind the scaffold even +blacker. Such humanity as was present were huddled +about the platform and the great chairs +of the Judges. By candlelight Judge Bride +glanced over the notes that he had taken, and +by candlelight Titus Thumb looked to the witch +upon the table. She stood there ghastly pale and +like to swoon. Her eyes were round and struck +terror to all. She did not look again to Titus, +only to Judge Bride, whom she in her simplicity +thought to be her friend.</p> + +<p>Judge Bride bade the sheriff fetch a chair—a +good chair with a back to it, for he said he saw +that the accused was tired past human strength. +Captain Buzzey got a chair. It was a great chair<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> +similar to those in which the Judges sat. Judge +Bride had it placed on the platform between +himself and Judge Lollimour. The three sat +thus for a moment in silence, a judge, and next a +witch, and then a judge. So they sat in great +chairs and upon crimson damask cushions. The +witch’s feet could not reach the floor. Judge +Bride gave her wine to drink from the silver +goblet set out for his own use. She drank the +wine and was grateful to him.</p> + +<p>Little by little—tenderly—he questioned +her. And little by little she told him all. Of the +Thumb twins he asked no word, he asked her +only of her own self, and of that demon who had +but so recently gone from her. She told in so low +a voice those but a few yards away could not +hear, and Mr. Mather several times cried out, +‘Louder—an it please the wench.’ She told of +her father and mother in Brittany, and the night +that Mr. Bilby died. She told of the long winter, +and the expectations of the spring and the fulfilment +of these expectations—for the messenger +had come, a most vigorous and comely fiend. +Sometimes she reddened and turned away as +might a modest Christian woman. Sometimes +she sighed, and once or twice she smiled a small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> +and secret smile. And three times she said she +loved and did not fear the demon, and that he +had been kind and pitiful to her.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You say this devil was your +lover and that he conducted himself as +has many a shameless mortal man to many +a woman, for he loved you, and when he had +stayed himself of you he went away, whistling, +we may presume, and shrugging his +shoulders—ah, gentlemen, how shocking +is the conduct of the male, be he demon or +tomcat! And now, Doll Bilby, we are almost +to the end. Do not fear to weary us +with the length and detail of your history. +Come, tell us more. The ears of Justice +must ever be long and patient ears.</p> +</div> + +<p>She told more. There was nothing left untold, +and where she would have turned aside, Judge +Bride encouraged and helped her. Mr. Zelley +moaned and cried out, and his head was in his +hands. Titus went ghostly white and, trembling, +staggered from the room.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: But did not your conscience +hurt? Did you not know that you lived +with this strange lover of yours in sin?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I begged him to marry me. So he did.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: A most virtuous and homely +fiend. And did you find clerk or magistrate +to register your vows?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: No, we married ourselves.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Ah, the Governor of Connecticut +but recently gave you example.</p> +</div> + +<p>And he pointed out to Judge Lollimour with +much leisure how evil is bad example in high +places. He questioned Doll further. She told +him all there was to tell about the marriage, and +it humiliated her to tell that she had accepted +this fiend before marriage.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Come, come, is it then so sorry +a sin for two young people to be too hot +and previous in their love? Surely honest +marriage may be considered salve to such +misconduct.</p> +</div> + +<p>He glanced through his notes. There was not +a sound in the room, not the scamper of a mouse, +not the taking of breath, no sound except the +fiery rustle of the flares and the crackle of the +paper.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Doll Bilby, I notice that the +children spoke often of a pretty babe—which +they called yours. Now to what do +they refer?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Sir, I cannot be sure.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: You may guess, perhaps?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Oh, sir, sir....</p> +</div> + +<p>Her eyes sought Mr. Zelley, but his face was +in his hands.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Speak freely.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: I think it was to my own babe they +referred.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: And where now is this child?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: It is not yet born.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: And to whom the honour of its +paternity?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Doll Bilby</em>: Who else would it be but the fiend +who came to comfort me?</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;"><em>Judge Bride</em>: Do not hang your head, young +Bilby, for to conceive is natural to woman. +Rather should you redden and look down if +after such expenditure of infernal ardour you +had proved sterile. Conception is the glory +of woman.</p> +</div> + +<p>He stood up and dismissed the hearing. Then +Captain Buzzey in a great sweat of fear took the +witch back to her cell, and all others went home. +That night the Boston Judges lay at the Black +Moon. The barmaid heard Judge Lollimour say<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span> +to Judge Bride, as these two sat by the hearth +and drank their sack-posset: ‘Sir, this hearing is +done as quickly as ever you prophesied. We will +be back to Boston on the third day. I warrant +the finding is more than any expected. There is +enough against the wench to hang her three +times over—but that is yet for the magistrates +of the Superior Court to decide. We, at least, +shall hold her without bail or bond.’ Then he +said in wonder, ‘To think that God has vouchsafed +to our eyes the sight of a woman who has +embraced a demon....’ The Judges whispered. +The barmaid would not repeat what they said.</p> + +<p>These learned men called for ink-horn, sand, +and pens. By ten o’clock they had written thus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>Doll Bilby of Cowan Corners, (Essex +County,) being this day brought before us +upon suspicion of witchcraft and upon the +specific charge of afflicting Labour and Sorrow +Thumb, twin daughters of Deacon Ephraim +Thumb, we heard the aforesaid, and seeing +what we did see, together with hearing charges +of the persons then present, we committed +this same Doll Bilby (she denying the matter of +fact, yet confessing herself a witch, also confessing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> +having had carnal knowledge of a fiend, +also to being at this time pregnant by him, +also to being married to him by the ceremony +of Max Pax Fax) unto their majesties’ jail at +Salem, as per mittimus then given out in order +to further examination.</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Adam Bride</span></td> +<td class="tdl br bt"></td> +<td class="tdl" rowspan="2"><span style="padding-left: .5em">Magistrates</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Ralph Lollimour</span></td> +<td class="tdl br bb"></td> +</tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<p>By eleven they slept upon their beds.</p> + + +<h3>4</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Doll having cooked her goose, now must sit to eat it. And one +who later proves a warlock comes to sit by her side.</em></p> + +<p>Next day Doll rose early, thinking she would +be called again before the magistrates. Judge +Bride had talked kindly to her and at the end +nothing had been said about the Thumb twins. +She had not guessed his mind to be made up +against her.</p> + +<p>She rose early, an hour before dawn, and by +a rushlight prepared herself for court. The +jailor, John Ackes, could watch her through a +chink in the masonry. He saw her put on hat and +cloak and set out wooden pattens. He ran in fear +to the Black Moon where Mr. Zelley that night<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> +lay, and begged him—if he dared—to come +a-running, for he believed the witch was about to +fly though the roof. She was all dressed and set +to go.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley went to the dungeon and found her +waiting to be taken before the magistrates. He +sat upon her straw bed by her side, and he took +her hands. He said, ‘Poor child, lay by your hat +and riding-gear, for ’tis all done.’</p> + +<p>Done? She had thought they were but +started. The matter of the Thumb twins was not +yet proven—Judge Bride himself had confessed +as much. Mr. Zelley said that now there was +another warrant for her and another <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">mittimus</i>. +But Mr. Zelley must have heard Judge Bride +say there was no offence in having seen a devil—had +not even Christ talked with Lucifer? +And obviously the magistrates had approved her +marriage and had even forgiven her that she had +been too pliant to her lover’s desires. How, +therefore, could the Court be done with her—unless +they were about to set her free?</p> + +<p>‘You are to be held for a jury—a jury, my +poor Doll, of your own angry neighbours, and +for the February sessions of the Superior Court +of Judicature.’ He explained that Judges Bride<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> +and Lollimour could only examine her and hold +her over to a higher court. It is true they could +have dismissed her as innocent—if it had +pleased them; but they could not give sentence +of death.... He wished her to think of death +and it might be to prepare her mind and more +especially her soul (if she had a soul) against this +likely contingence.</p> + +<p>‘Death?’ she said. ‘How can I die? God, God, +oh, God! I do not want to die.’ At the first moment +she was afraid of death like any other +wicked woman. She closed her eyes and leaned +back against the masonry of her cell, remaining a +long, long time silent, but her lips moved. Mr. +Zelley sat beside her. His head was in his hands. +When next she spoke she had conquered fear of +death. She spoke bravely in a clear, strong +voice. Then she told Mr. Zelley more concerning +the fiend whom Hell had sent to love her. +She said that he had promised her that, when she +should come to die, he would stand at her bed’s +head. After death he would be with her and she +with him forever and ever. She said boldly that +she did not fear to die. But she flung herself to +her knees and laid her tousled head in Mr. Zelley’s +lap and then confessed that she had a most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> +hideous horror of gallows and halter. As he +could he comforted her. Tears streamed from +his eyes, though hers were always dry. He knelt +and seemed to pray to God.</p> + +<p>John Ackes at his chink saw him pray and +heard his prayer. He said it was an unseemly +prayer—not like those one hears in church—not +like the majestic and awful utterances of Mr. +Increase Mather. Zelley talked to God as you +might talk to a friend. So many thought that it +was not to the true God that he prayed, but to +some demon whom he privately worshipped. +When his own day came to hang, this thing was +remembered against him.</p> + +<p>The witch-woman crouched upon her straw +bed the while he prayed. She had put her hat on +her head again and was wrapped in her scarlet +riding-coat. She stared out of round cat’s eyes at +the man who prayed for her.</p> + + +<h3>5</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Abortive attempts to save a</em> <span class="allsmcap">SOUL</span> <em>and more infernal +manifestations of the Demon Lover</em>.</p> + +<p>Now was her physical body in sore plight, for +she was bound in irons heavier than a strong +man might bear. The jailors feared her, and, although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> +an eye was forever at the chink, they did +as little for her as might be. The Court permitted +only these to go to her: her jailors; the two +ministers of God, labouring in Salem, and Mr. +Increase Mather whose mind was at that time +big with a demonology. He wished to study and +examine her. It was three weeks before Mr. +Zelley got a permit from Boston to visit her. +He guessed by the cold, tardy manner in which +his request was answered that he himself had +fallen into ill-repute. This was true. His people +thought him a warlock and feared and hated him.</p> + +<p>When twenty years later, in the days of the +great witch-hunting and hanging in Salem, Mr. +Zelley himself came to be tried, John Ackes was +commanded to tell the Court (if he could remember) +of what it was the witch and the warlock had +talked through those long hours they had sat +side by side upon the witch’s straw bed. He +testified (swearing to his truth upon the Bible) +that they talked but little. Zelley’s head was +forever in his hands. He did not see the witch-woman’s +face—nor her eyes. He did not see +how constantly she gaped at empty corners; +how she smiled and nodded into space; how sometimes +she would close her eyes and raise her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> +mouth for the empty air to kiss. All this she +did behind Mr. Zelley’s back. They asked John +Ackes if Mr. Zelley made no attempt to save the +woman’s soul. No, he only sat. Sometimes he +talked a little to Doll and sometimes he talked +to one whom he designated as ‘god.’ But he did +not really pray at all—not as Mr. Mather +prayed—him you could hear through stone +walls and up and down the street. The crowd +would gather outside the jail when Mr. Mather +prayed. He was a most fearful and righteous +suppliant before the Throne of God. After his +prayers the wonder was no lightning came to +destroy the young witch where she sat—grimacing +and leering at spectres. When one considered +Mr. Mather, one could not say that Zelley prayed +at all.</p> + +<p>However, it was true that Zelley would sometimes +seem to beg Doll Bilby to turn to God before +it was too late. She would always explain to +him that she wanted no other God than Lucifer +and no Heaven, for where her parents were and +her foster father and her dear husband—there +with them was her Paradise, not in Heaven with +the cold angels singing psalms forever to an +angry and awful God; not in Heaven where<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> +doubtless Hannah Bilby would be found and all +her cruel neighbours—no, no, a thousand times +no. Hell was her true home—her Paradise.</p> + +<p>Sometimes he would read to her from a stout +big book, and John Ackes swore he thought it +was a Bible, although it was possible that the +book was a book of magic—perhaps this was +even probable. Still the stories he read to her +from this book sounded to him like Bible stories. +What would he read to her? He read to her of +Mary of Magdala, how she laid her head upon +our Saviour’s feet and wiped them with her hair. +He read to her the holy promises of John. It +was evident, said John Ackes, that Zelley was +not for a long time conscious of the fiend which +lurked forever in the witch’s cell.</p> + +<p>Towards the end no one but Mr. Zelley dared +go to her dungeon. They were all afraid. It was +remembered and marked against him that, +where other and more godly men felt fear, he felt +no fear. At last even Mr. Zelley knew that he +and the witch were never alone. There was another +and more awful presence about.</p> + +<p>Now he would look up quickly from his reading +and catch her eyes as they sought those of +some one or something close behind his own<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> +shoulder. When their eyes met, she would smile +so softly and happily he knew that the invisible +presence must be that of the one she loved. +Mr. Zelley confessed that this consciousness of +a third and unseen party in the cell sadly upset +and confused him. He sweated, he could not +read. One afternoon she gave him such close +attention he decided that the fiend had left, so +he closed his book and asked her abruptly if her +demon lover had come back again. She was surprised +that he asked this question. ‘Of course +he is back,’ she said. ‘Now he will not leave me +until the end.’ It was not he, she said, whom the +Thumb twins saw at the trial, and Doll again +wickedly said that perhaps that creature had +been an angel. ‘My fiend never came near me as +I stood all day on trial. Now he has sworn to +stay with me. If I go to Gallows Hill, he will go +with me. If I die here first, he will hold my +hands.’</p> + +<p>Zelley asked her if she could really see this +demon. For instance, was he at that very moment +in the room? Oh, yes. He sat yonder by +the cupboard. His head, she said, rested upon +his bosom. ‘Last night I had a fearful fit of terror. +I thought I could not face the gallows.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> +He held me in his arms and sang to me until +sunrise. Now he sleeps.’</p> + +<p>‘Is he now in seaman’s clothes and has he the +likeness of proper man?’ (Mr. Zelley whispered. +He feared to wake the demon.)</p> + +<p>‘No. He has returned in shape of true fiend. +For he is horned, naked, scaly, black. His feet +are cloven. He has vast leathery bat-pinions. +His tail is long and spiked.’</p> + +<p>‘How, then, can you know that this is your +own fiend and not another one?’</p> + +<p>‘By his eyes and by his loving voice. These +things have not changed.’</p> + +<p>‘How is it he returned to you? In what manner +did he make himself manifest?’</p> + +<p>‘You recall that day after the trial when you +came to me and let me know beyond a doubt +that I must die? All the next day I felt him in +the cell with me. Then little by little he took +visible form. At first he was a vapour that +seemed to rise between the flags of the dungeon +floor, and then I could see the shadow of his +great and most awful form—a transparent +shadow through which one could look, even as +one looks through smoke. But daily he gained +more and more in body and he now is as hard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> +and sturdy as mortal man. At first seeing horns, +tail, and so fearsome a scaly black body, I cried +out in my disappointment and despair. I, in my +simplicity, had imagined he would always be +to me as he had been—shaped, dressed, and +coloured like comely, mortal man. He seemed +monstrous to me—more likely to inspire fear +than love. At last I could see his eyes and they +were unchanged. And his voice (for, having +gained complete actuality, he could speak) was +the same. So I knew him as my own husband, +and now I love him more in his present infernal +majesty than I did in seaman’s form. This shape +is fairer to me.’ (Thus twenty years later Mr. +Zelley testified in court as to his conversation +with Doll Bilby.)</p> + +<p>On being pressed, Mr. Zelley confessed still +further. He said he asked her why it was that +no one—not even the jailors—dared go to her +cell. Did they fear the spectral presence? She +was amazed that he had heard no gossip. Surely +the village must by now be buzzing with the +tricks her demon had performed. Had he not +heard what had befallen her peeping jailors? +They used (to her unutterable torment and vexation) to +watch her through a chink in the masonry.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> +But the demon punished them by blowing into +their eyes. This had given them the pink-eye. +Surely he must have noticed that her jailors suffered +from pink-eye? Now that she mentioned it +he said he believed he had noticed it. And she +was to tell him further. Why did the great Mr. +Mather come no more? She clapped her hands, +laughing and purring. Her demon had hated Mr. +Mather so bitterly, and had so resented his long, +loud prayers, that he had several times been on +the point of strangling him. In his utter foolishness +the man had dared to read the story of +Tobit to her—how Sara was beloved of the +fiend Asmodeus and how this fiend strangled her +many husbands upon their marriage beds, but +how at the last this fine fiend Asmodeus had +been driven to farthest Egypt by the stench of +a burning fish’s liver. This story the wicked +witch claimed to be utterly false—it made no +jot of difference to her that it was found in Holy +Writ. She said it was a black lie that did much +to minimize that dignity of Prince Asmodeus—who +was a close friend to her own lover. She +put up her hand and whispered to Mr. Zelley +that, although her fiend had never told her his +own true name, she had reason to suspect that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> +he himself was none other than this same Asmodeus, +for he was touchy beyond all reason for +the dignity of the Prince and he had told her at +some length how dull, tedious, and complaining +a woman Sara had been, and how gladly her +lover had surrendered her in the end to the young +Jew. The burning fish’s liver had never driven +him forth—he went as it pleased himself. The +stench had almost expelled the bride from her +bridal chamber, but it had had no effect upon +the stalwart demon Prince.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mather had insisted on reading this story +thrice over to her, and on the last reading he had +also endeavoured to burn the large liver of a cod-fish. +Then her husband rushed at the fire. His +tail stood up rigid in rage; he shook his horns +like an angry bull; he rustled his vast pinions, +and, as he snuffed out the fire that made the +stench with his two horny hands, Mr. Mather +looked up and of a sudden saw him there and +was close to dying of terror. Doll begged the +fiend again to assume invisibility and not to +strangle the distinguished Divine. So Mr. +Mather went away and never came again. But +surely, surely Mr. Zelley had heard this thing +spoken of? And how her demon had served the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> +two Salem clergymen—the tricks he had put +on them—surely these things were common +gossip? No, of these things he had heard never +a word. No one gossiped with him—now.</p> + +<p>It was then at that moment he first came to +know he was under suspicion. Doll knew this too. +She told him how she had never heard that the +Thumb twins were bewitched until the very day +Captain Buzzey rode up and accused her of their +bewitchment. She said she pitied Mr. Zelley and +he said his life grew strange. Every one in all the +world was far removed, and even God had turned +His face away from him. He said (foolishly) that +all his life he had felt that if he believed in +witches, demons, etc., he could not believe in +God; for that God Whom he worshipped would +not tolerate such evil things. Yet now had he +seen the proof that such things were true—and, +if true, where, then, was that great and +good God whom he had long worshipped? ‘My +Doll,’ he said, ‘you have taken away my reason +and my God—now I have nothing. I have not +even one man I may call “friend.”’</p> + +<p>She comforted him, not by words, but by +putting her small hands (now thin as a bird’s +claws) upon his bent head. She kissed his forehead.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> +He got up and went away. He did not +stay as he should have stayed with his flock in +Cowan Corners. He slept at the Black Moon, +for such was the bewitchment that Doll had set +upon him he must see her again and that early +upon the next day.</p> + + +<h3>6</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>The Labours of a Witch and the Prayers of the Godly.</em></p> + +<p>The year was nine days old and no more. +Then was Doll Bilby taken in labour and brought +prematurely to bed.</p> + +<p>The Salem midwife—ancient Nan Hackett—would +have none of her, and it seemed that, +whatever it was she must bear, she should bear +alone. Nor did she ask for mortal aid. She was +content with that phantom which stood night +and day (as many saw) at her bed’s head. Mr. +Zelley remembered that Goody Goochey, when +first she came to Cowan Corners, had served the +beginning as well as the end of life—that is, she +had been a midwife as well as a layer-out of the +dead. He went to the woman and begged her, in +pity’s name and partly commanded her in the +name of the General Court, to get herself to +Salem jail and there give such service as might be.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span></p> + +<p>She was afraid. She did not wish to be midwife +to a witch and the first to welcome a black +imp into the world. She drank three piggins of +ale and took a leather bottle of brandy with her. +She set upon her thumbs and fingers those iron +rings with which she was accustomed to guard +herself against the ghosts of the dead. She +thought, after all, is not a live imp of greater +danger to a good Christian’s soul than the body +of a dead church elder? Mr. Zelley went with her +to the jail.</p> + +<p>The witch at the moment was not in pain. +She lay with eyes black as the pits of Hell. Her +white mouth was open. She roused herself a +little and made Mr. Zelley a brief speech in +which she said that she had, as he knew, sought +God and spiritual peace, and now, let him look +into her face and say that she had failed to find +either. It was true, said Mr. Zelley. Her face +was fulfilled of heavenly peace. He left her +without a word.</p> + +<p>Outside he found a conclave of idle men and +women who laughed and joked coarsely. One +big ruddy wench (who had already borne, to +the embarrassment of the community, three +fatherless children) was crying out loudly that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> +God knew it was enough for woman to give birth +to human child, which is round and sleek as a +melon. God help the witch now in labour with +an imp, for it would come into the world with +spiked tail and horns. Such a thing would be the +death of any mortal woman. All were afraid. +Some believed a clap of thunder would come +down from Heaven and destroy the woman. +Others that a fiend would rise up from Hell to +succour her. Some said that the witches and +warlocks for an hundred miles had gathered +together and now, mounting broomsticks, were +about to charge down upon Salem. One said, +‘Have you not heard? Judge Bride has suffered +an apoplexy. Judge Lollimour is at death’s +door.’ This was not so.</p> + +<p>Another said Captain Tom Buzzey’s hands +(those hands that had held the witch) had +withered. They had shrivelled to the size of +a child’s. This was not so.</p> + +<p>All said the witch is in labour. She’s with +child by the Devil. God will burn her soul in +Hell. This was so.</p> + +<p>The day wore on. The sun, as sometimes +may be in the midst of winter, was so warm the +snow melted and water dripped from the eaves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> +of the jail. It was tender as a day in spring. +Planks and rugs were laid in the slush, for certain +clergymen came to pray and must have dry +land to kneel upon. They prayed that God recollect +the number of good, pious Christian +people there were at Salem and not destroy all, +for they feared His wrath might blast the whole +village. God made no sign, but the water +dripped from the eaves and a sweet spring fragrance +rose from the melting snow.</p> + +<p>The multitude gaped and feared. Sometimes +they smelt sulphur, saltpeter, brimstone, and +the stench as of a sloughing serpent. They heard +the crying of a phantom voice and the swishing +of a thousand brooms. So they waited through +the day expecting every moment to see crabbed +Goody Goochey hobble out with a black imp +upon a blanket to show them.</p> + +<p>There was no sound from the cell. Not one +cry nor moan from the witch, not one word from +Goochey. The jailors would open the door. It +stuck. Their keys would not fit it. They could not +open the door, and believed devils were holding +it fast. They dared not peek in the chink because +of their pink-eye.</p> + +<p>By sundown most went home.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span></p> + + +<h3>7</h3> + +<p class="center no-indent"><em>Mr. Zelley opens a Dungeon Door, and what came of it.</em></p> + +<p>The next day dawned cold and grey over an +icy sea, and the gulls and terns came in from the +harbour crying and lamenting. There was now no +tenderness in the air, and the water that had but +yesterday melted under the rays of a genial sun +froze to glassy ice. A wind sharp as needles came +in off the sea and few if any watched the night +out on their knees beside the dungeon walls. As +soon as it was possible to see six feet ahead, the +multitude again began to assemble, but this time +they came without laughter or conversation. +They were shrouded in hoods, shawls, etc., for +warmth, and seemed a spectral band. Now and +then one or another of them would raise a pious +voice in prayer, lamentation, or thanksgiving, +but for the most part they stood bowed and mute. +All night there had been no sound from the +witch’s cell—never a sound. Who was there +so bold as to enter in to her and bring back a +report, for John Ackes’s hand shook so he could +not manage the key? Some said Mr. Zelley +would go—he had no normal, wholesome fear of +witches or demons. Others said, ‘Where does he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> +lie to-night?’ Others, ‘Go, run and fetch him’; +and a boy (it was Widow Hannah’s bonded +boy Jake Tulley) said the man lay at the Black +Moon and that he would run and fetch him. +This he did.</p> + +<p>Mr. Zelley came in a steeple hat and a greatcoat. +He spoke to no one. No one spoke to him. +He entered the jail and took the cell key from +Ackes, and, after some shaking and effort, he +turned the lock and pushed hard on the door, +which swung in so suddenly he almost fell on his +knees beside that straw bed where he had sat so +many wicked hours with the witch-girl. A hundred +had crowded down the passage and into +the doorway after Mr. Zelley. All stopped at the +threshold of the cell. They stood agape, some +filled with curiosity, some with fear, others with +pious ejaculations and elevated thoughts.</p> + +<p>Goody Goochey (who indeed proved to be no +woman, but a man) lay in a drunken fit in a +corner. His face was purple and his throat +twisted and bruised as though he had been half +strangled—which he always averred to his dying +day was the truth, for he had seen the scaly +black demon come at him with great hands outstretched +to his throat, and that was the last he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> +could really remember until certain ones tumbled +him out into the snow. He was sure, however, +that, as he lay thus almost unconscious in +a corner, a great concourse of spectrals and +infernals had filled the cell. They had danced, +sung, and made much of the witch, praising her, +encouraging her, etc. Because the man was +known to be an impostor (he had for many years +made all think him a woman) and because of his +swinish, drunken ways, many did not believe +what he said.</p> + +<p>All could see that Bilby’s Doll was dead. She +lay with her round eyes open to the ceiling, and +her expression was one of peace and content. +Whatever she might have borne was dead within +her.</p> + + +<h3>8</h3> + +<p class="no-indent"><em>Without</em> <span class="allsmcap">HELL</span> <em>where is</em> <span class="allsmcap">HEAVEN</span>? <em>And without a Devil +where is</em> <span class="allsmcap">GOD</span>? <em>Also the last of Doll Bilby and an end to these +instructions.</em></p> + +<p>There are court records, affidavits, etc.; there +are diaries, letters and such; there is the memory +of old gaffers and goodies to prove that once Doll +Bilby flourished. But of physical, inanimate objects +nothing that was associated with her evil +life and awful end now exists. The house she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> +lived in mysteriously rotted and fell into the +cellar hole. The grave they dug her is now lost +under a ploughed field (a sterile field that yields +little). Where the dungeon was now is a brick +house, a fine big house of red bricks had out from +England. No one will live there. Yet any gamin, +for a copper penny, and any courting couple, +for wanton pleasure, will show you the very spot +in the white birch thicket where Doll met her +demon lover night after night under the moonlight, +in that world of witchery which none to-day +will ever see. For in those days there were +sights and wonders that will not come again. +In those days God was nearer to man than He is +to-day, and where God is there also must be His +Evil Opponent—the Prince of Lies, for show +me Paradise, and there, around a corner, I will +show you Hell.</p> +<br> +<br> + +<p class="center no-indent"><i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Finis coronat opus</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span></p> +<br> +<br> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp65" id="i_p215" style="max-width: 61.6875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_p215.jpg" alt="Demon and woman laying down"> +</figure> +<br> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> + +<ul> +<li>pg 12 Changed: (a thing she aways feared)<br> +<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: (a thing she always feared)</span></li> + +<li>pg 59 Changed: but here was nothing more to lock<br> +<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: but there was nothing more to lock</span></li> + +<li>pg 122 Changed: and how in Hartford<br> +<span style="padding-left: 2em">to: and now in Hartford</span></li> +</ul> +</div> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75212 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |