Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem
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Title: Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem
Author: Henry Peterson
Illustrator: Howard Pyle
Release date: February 11, 2007 [eBook #20569]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20569
Credits: Produced by Marcia, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: She stood up serene but heroic]
DULCIBEL
A Tale of Old Salem
BY
HENRY PETERSON
Author of
"Pemberton, or One Hundred Years Ago"
Illustrations by
HOWARD PYLE
PHILADELPHIA
The John C. Winston Co.
1907
Copyright 1907
BY
Walter Peterson.
Contents.
Chapter. Page.
I DULCIBEL BURTON 1
II IN WHICH SOME NECESSARY INFORMATION IS GIVEN 12
III THE CIRCLE IN THE MINISTER'S HOUSE 17
IV SATAN'S ESPECIAL GRUDGE AGAINST OUR PURITAN FATHERS 22
V LEAH HERRICK'S POSITION AND FEELINGS 24
VI A DISORDERLY SCENE IN CHURCH 27
VII A CONVERSATION WITH DULCIBEL 32
VIII AN EXAMINATION OF REPUTED WITCHES 47
IX ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MORE ALLEGED WITCHES 54
X BRIDGET BISHOP CONDEMNED TO DIE 59
XI EXAMINATION OF REBECCA NURSE 64
XII BURN ME OR HANG ME, I WILL STAND IN THE TRUTH OF CHRIST 73
XIII DULCIBEL IN DANGER 80
XIV BAD NEWS 91
XV THE ARREST OF DULCIBEL AND ANTIPAS 94
XVI DULCIBEL IN PRISON 102
XVII DULCIBEL BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES 107
XVIII WELL, WHAT NOW? 123
XIX ANTIPAS WORKS A MIRACLE 128
XX MASTER RAYMOND GOES TO BOSTON 136
XXI A NIGHT INTERVIEW 139
XXII THE REVEREND MASTER PARRIS EXORCISES "LITTLE WITCH" 149
XXIII MASTER RAYMOND ALSO COMPLAINS OF AN "EVIL HAND" 162
XXIV MASTER RAYMOND'S LITTLE PLAN BLOCKED 166
XXV CAPTAIN ALDEN BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES 172
XXVI CONSIDERING NEW PLANS 180
XXVII THE DISSIMULATION OF MASTER RAYMOND 188
XXVIII THE CRUEL DOINGS OF THE SPECIAL COURT 192
XXIX DULCIBEL'S LIFE IN PRISON 199
XXX EIGHT LEGAL MURDERS ON WITCH HILL 205
XXXI A NEW PLAN OF ESCAPE 214
XXXII WHY THE PLAN FAILED 221
XXXIII MISTRESS ANN PUTNAM'S FAIR WARNING 230
XXXIV MASTER RAYMOND GOES AGAIN TO BOSTON 237
XXXV CAPTAIN TOLLEY AND THE STORM KING 244
XXXVI SIR WILLIAM PHIPS AND LADY MARY 252
XXXVII THE FIRST RATTLE OF THE RATTLESNAKE 262
XXXVIII CONFLICTING CURRENTS IN BOSTON 269
XXXIX THE RATTLESNAKE MAKES A SPRING 273
XL AN INTERVIEW WITH LADY MARY 280
XLI MASTER RAYMOND IS ARRESTED FOR WITCHCRAFT 287
XLII MASTER RAYMOND ASTONISHES THE MAGISTRATES 293
XLIII WHY THOMAS PUTNAM WENT TO IPSWICH 303
XLIV HOW MASTER JOSEPH CIRCUMVENTED MISTRESS ANN 309
XLV THE TWO PLOTTERS CONGRATULATE EACH OTHER 330
XLVI MISTRESS ANN'S OPINION OF THE MATTER 336
XLVII MASTER RAYMOND VISITS LADY MARY 343
XLVIII CAPTAIN TOLLEY'S PROPOSITIONS 351
XLIX MASTER RAYMOND CONFOUNDS MASTER COTTON MATHER 355
L BRINGING AFFAIRS TO A CRISIS 366
LI LADY MARY'S COUP D'ETAT 371
LII AN UNWILLING PARSON 385
LIII THE WEDDING TRIP AND WHERE THEN 394
LIV SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS 397
=Illustrations.=
Page.
STOOD UP SERENE BUT HEROIC FRONTISPIECE.
"THE LORD KNOWS THAT I HAVEN'T HURT THEM" 68
MARCHED FROM JAIL FOR THE LAST TIME 208
CHAPTER I.
Dulcibel Burton.
In the afternoon of a sunny Autumn day, nearly two hundred years ago, a
young man was walking along one of the newly opened roads which led into
Salem village, or what is now called Danvers Centre, in the then
Province of Massachusetts Bay.
The town of Salem, that which is now the widely known city of that name,
lay between four and five miles to the southeast, on a tongue of land
formed by two inlets of the sea, called now as then North and South
Rivers. Next to Plymouth it is the oldest town in New England, having
been first settled in 1626. Not till three years after were Boston and
Charlestown commenced by the arrival of eleven ships from England. It is
a significant fact, as showing the hardships to which the early settlers
were exposed, that of the fifteen hundred persons composing this Boston
expedition, two hundred died during the first winter. Salem has also the
honor of establishing the first New England church organization, in
1629, with the Reverend Francis Higginson as its pastor.
Salem village was an adjunct of Salem, the town taking in the adjacent
lands for the purpose of tillage to a distance of six miles from the
meeting-house. But in the progress of settlement, Salem village also
became entitled to a church of its own; and it had one regularly
established at the date of our story, with the Reverend Samuel Parris as
presiding elder or minister.
There had been many bickerings and disputes before a minister could be
found acceptable to all in Salem village. And the present minister was
by no means a universal favorite. The principal point of contention on
his part was the parsonage and its adjacent two acres of ground. Master
Parris claimed that the church had voted him a free gift of these; while
his opponents not only denied that it had been done, but that it
lawfully could be done. This latter view was undoubtedly correct; for
the parsonage land was a gift to the church, for the perpetual use of
its pastor, whosoever he might be. But Master Parris would not listen to
reason on this subject, and was not inclined to look kindly upon the men
who steadfastly opposed him.
The inhabitants of Salem village were a goodly as well as godly people,
but owing to these church differences about their ministers, as well as
other disputes and lawsuits relative to the bounds of their respective
properties, there was no little amount of ill feeling among them. Small
causes in a village are just as effective as larger ones in a nation, in
producing discord and strife; and the Puritans as a people were
distinguished by all that determination to insist upon their rights, and
that scorn of compromising difficulties, which men of earnest and honest
but narrow natures have manifested in all ages of the world. Selfishness
and uncharitableness are never so dangerous as when they assume the
character of a conscientious devotion to the just and the true.
But all this time the young man has been walking almost due north from
the meeting house in Salem village.
The road was not what would be called a good one in these days, for it
was not much more than a bridle-path; the riding being generally at that
time on horseback. But it was not the rather broken and uneven condition
of the path which caused the frown on the young pedestrian's face, or
the irritability shown by the sharp slashes of the maple switch in his
hand upon the aspiring weeds along the roadside.
"If ever mortal man was so bothered," he muttered at last, coming to a
stop. "Of course she is the best match, the other is below me, and has a
spice of Satan in her; but then she makes the blood stir in a man. Ha!"
This exclamation came as he lifted his eyes from the ground, and gazed
up the road before him. There, about half a mile distant, was a young
woman riding toward him. Then she stopped her horse under a tree, and
evidently was trying to break off a switch, while her horse pranced
around in a most excited fashion. The horse at last starts in a rapid
gallop. The young man sees that in trying to get the switch, she has
allowed the bridle to get loose and over the horse's head, and can no
longer control the fiery animal. Down the road towards him she comes in
a sharp gallop, striving to stop the animal with her voice, evidently
not the least frightened, but holding on to the pommel of the saddle
with one hand while she makes desperate grasps at the hanging rein with
the other.
The young Puritan smiled, he took in the situation with a glance, and
felt no fear for her but rather amusement. He was on the top of a steep
hill, and he knew he could easily stop the horse as it came up; even if
she did not succeed in regaining her bridle, owing to the better chances
the hill gave her.
"She is plucky, anyhow, if she is rather a tame wench," said he, as the
girl grasped the bridle rein at last, when about half way up the hill,
and became again mistress of the blooded creature beneath her.
"Is that the way you generally ride, Dulcibel?" asked the young man
smiling.
"It all comes from starting without my riding whip," replied the girl.
"Oh, do stop!" she continued to the horse who now on the level again,
began sidling and curveting.
"Give me that switch of yours, Jethro. Now, you shall see a miracle."
No sooner was the switch in her hand, than the aspect and behavior of
the animal changed as if by magic. You might have thought the little
mare had been raised in the enclosure of a Quaker meeting-house, so
sober and docile did she seem.
"It is always so," said the girl laughing. "The little witch knows at
once whether I have a whip with me or not, and acts accordingly. No, I
will not forgive you," and she gave the horse two or three sharp cuts,
which it took like a martyr. "Oh, I wish you would misbehave a little
now; I should like to punish you severely."
They made a very pretty picture, the little jet-black mare, and the
mistress with her scarlet paragon bodice, even if the latter was
entirely too pronounced for the taste of the great majority of the
inhabitants, young and old, of Salem village.
"But how do you happen to be here?" said the girl.
"I called to see you, and found you had gone on a visit to Joseph
Putnam's. So I thought I would walk up the road and meet you coming
back."
"What a sweet creature Mistress Putnam is, and both so young for man and
wife."
"Yes, Jo married early, but he is big enough and strong enough, don't
you think so?"
"He is a worshiped man indeed. Have you met the stranger yet?"
"That Ellis Raymond? No, but I hear he is something of a popinjay in his
attire, and swelled up with the conceit that he is better than any of us
colonists."
"I do not think so," and the girl's cheek colored a deeper red. "He
seems to be a very modest young man indeed. I liked him very much."
"Oh, well, I have not seen him yet. But they say his father was a son of
Belial, and fought under the tyrant at Naseby."
"But that is all over and his widowed mother is one of us."
"Hang him, what does it matter!" Then, changing his tone, and looking at
her a little suspiciously. "Did Leah Herrick say anything to you against
me the other night at the husking?"
"I do not allow people to talk to me against my friends," replied she
earnestly.
"She was talking to you a long time I saw."
"Yes."
"It must have been an interesting subject."
"It was rather an unpleasant one to me."
"Ah!"
"She wanted me to join the 'circle' which they have just started at the
minister's house. She says that old Tituba has promised to show them how
the Indians of Barbados conjure and powwow, and that it will be great
sport for the winter nights."
"What did you say to it?"
"I told her I would have nothing to do with such things; that I had no
liking for them, and that I thought it was wrong to tamper with such
matters."
"That was all she said to you?" and the young man seemed to breathe more
freely.
The girl was sharp-witted--what girl is not so in all affairs of the
heart?--and it was now her turn. "Leah is very handsome," she said.
"Yes--everybody says so," he replied coolly, as if it were a fact of
very little importance to him, and a matter which he had thought very
little about.
Dulcibel, was not one to aim all around the remark; she came at once,
simply and directly to the point.
"Did you ever pay her any attentions?"
"Oh, no, not to speak of. What made you think of such an absurd thing?"
"'Not to speak of'--what do you mean?"
"Oh, I kept company with her for awhile--before you came to Salem--when
we were merely boy and girl."
"There never was any troth plighted between you?"
"How foolish you are, Dulcibel! What has started you off on this
track?"
"Yourself. Answer me plainly. Was there ever any love compact between
you?"
"Oh, pshaw! what nonsense all this is!"
"If you do not answer me, I shall ask her this very evening."
"Of course there was nothing between us--nothing of any account--only a
boy and girl affair--calling her my little wife, and that kind of
nonsense."
"I think that a great deal. Did that continue up to the time I came to
the village?"
"How seriously you take it all! Remember, I have your promise,
Dulcibel."
"A promise on a promise is no promise--every girl knows that. If you do
not answer me fully and truly, Jethro, I shall ask Leah."
"Yes," said the young man desperately "there was a kind of childish
troth up to that time, but it was, as I said, a mere boy and girl
affair."
"Boy and girl! You were eighteen, Jethro; and she sixteen nearly as old
as Joseph Putnam and his wife were when they married."
"I do not care. I will not be bound by it; and Leah knows it."
"You acted unfairly toward me, Jethro. Leah has the prior right. I
recall my troth. I will not marry you without her consent."
"You will not!" said the young man passionately--for well he knew that
Leah's consent would never be given.
"No, I will not!"
"Then take your troth back in welcome. In truth, I met you here this day
to tell you that. I love Leah Herrick's little finger better than your
whole body with your Jezebel's bodice, and your fine lady's airs. You
had better go now and marry that conceited popinjay up at Jo Putnam's,
if you can get him."
With that he pushed off down the hill, and up the road, that he might
not be forced to accompany her back to the village.
Dulcibel was not prepared for such a burst of wrath, and such an
uncovering of the heart. Which of us has not been struck with wonder,
even far more than indignation, at such times? A sudden difference
occurs, and the man or the woman in whom you have had faith, and whom
you have believed noble and admirable, suddenly appears what he or she
really is, a very common and vulgar nature. It makes us sick at heart
that we could have been so deceived.
Such was the effect upon Dulcibel. What a chasm she had escaped. To
think she had really agreed to marry such a spirit as that! But
fortunately it was now all over.
She not only had lost a lover, but a friend. And one day before, this
also would have had its unpleasant side to her. But now she felt even a
sensation of relief. Was it because this very day a new vision had
entered into the charmed circle of her life? If it were so, she did not
acknowledge the fact to herself; or even wonder in her own mind, why the
sudden breaking of her troth-plight had not left her in a sadder humor.
For she put "Little Witch" into a brisk canter, and with a smile upon
her face rode into the main street of the village.
CHAPTER II.
In Which Some Necessary Information is Given.
Dulcibel Burton was an orphan. Her father becoming a little unsound in
doctrine, and being greatly pleased with the larger liberty of
conscience offered by William Penn to his colonists in Pennsylvania, had
leased his house and lands to a farmer by the name of Buckley, and
departed for Philadelphia. This was some ten years previous to the
opening of our story. After living happily in Philadelphia for about
eight years he died suddenly, and his wife decided to return to her old
home in Salem village, having arranged to board with Goodman Buckley,
whose lease had not yet expired. But in the course of the following
winter she also died, leaving this only child, Dulcibel, now a beautiful
girl of eighteen years. Dulcibel, as was natural, went on living with
the Buckleys, who had no children of their own, and were very
good-hearted and affectionate people.
Dulcibel therefore was an heiress, in a not very large way, besides
having wealthy relatives in England, from some of whom in the course of
years more or less might reasonably be expected. And as our Puritan
ancestors were by no means blind to their worldly interests, believing
that godliness had the promise of this world as well as that which is to
come--the bereaved maiden became quite an object of interest to the
young men of the vicinity.
I have called her beautiful, and not without good reason. With the old
manuscript volume--a family heirloom of some Quaker friends of
mine--from which I have drawn the facts of this narrative, came also an
old miniature, the work of a well-known English artist of that period.
The colors have faded considerably, but the general contour and the
features are well preserved. The face is oval, with a rather higher and
fuller forehead than usual; the hair, which was evidently of a rather
light brown, being parted in the center, and brought down with a little
variation from the strict Madonna fashion. The eyes are large, and blue.
The lips rather full. A snood or fillet of blue ribbon confined her
luxuriant hair. In form she was rather above the usual height of women,
and slender as became her age; though with a perceptible tendency
towards greater fullness with increasing years.
There is rather curiously a great resemblance between this miniature,
and a picture I have in my possession of the first wife of a celebrated
New England poet. He himself being named for one of the Judges who sat
in the Special Court appointed for the trial of the alleged witches, it
would be curious if the beautiful and angelic wife of his youth were
allied by blood to one of those who had the misfortune to come under the
ban of witchcraft.
Being both beautiful and an heiress, Dulcibel naturally attracted the
attention of her near neighbor in the village, Jethro Sands. Jethro was
quite a handsome young man after a certain style, though, as his life
proved, narrow minded, vindictive and avaricious. Still he had a high
reputation as a young man with the elders of the village; for he had
early seen how advantageous it was to have a good standing in the
church, and was very orthodox in his faith, and very regular in his
attendance at all the church services. Besides, he was a staunch
champion of the Reverend Mr. Parris in all his difficulties with the
parish, and in return was invariably spoken of by the minister as one of
the most promising young men in that neighborhood.
Jethro resided with his aunt, the widow Sands. She inherited from her
husband the whole of his property. His deed for the land narrated that
the boundary line ran "from an old dry stump, due south, to the
southwest corner of his hog-pen, then east by southerly to the top of
the hill near a little pond, then north by west to the highway side, and
thence along the highway to the old dry stump again aforesaid." There is
a tradition in the village that by an adroit removal of his hog-pen to
another location, and the uprooting and transplanting of the old dry
stump, at a time when nobody seemed to take a very active interest in
the adjoining land, owing to its title being disputed in successive
lawsuits, Jethro, who inherited at the death of his aunt, became the
possessor of a large tract of land that did not originally belong to
him. But then such stories are apt to crop up after the death of every
man who has acquired the reputation of being crafty and close in his
dealings.
We left Jethro, after his interview with Dulcibel, walking on in order
that he might avoid her further company. After going a short distance he
turned and saw that she was riding rapidly homeward. Then he began to
retrace his steps.
"It was bound to come," he muttered. "I have seen she was getting cold
and thought it was Leah's work, but it seems she was true to her promise
after all. Well, Leah is poor, and not of so good a family, but she is
worth a dozen of such as Dulcibel Burton."
Then after some minutes' silent striding, "I hate her though for it, all
the same. Everybody will know she has thrown me off. But nobody shall
get ahead of Jethro Sands in the long run. I'll make her sorry for it
before she dies, the spoiled brat of a Quaker infidel!"
CHAPTER III.
The Circle in the Minister's House.
It would, perhaps be unfair to hold the Reverend Master Parris
responsible for the wild doings that went on in the parsonage house
during the winter evenings of 1691-2, in the face of his solemn
assertion, made several years afterwards, that he was ignorant of them.
And yet, how could such things have been without the knowledge either of
himself or his wife? Mistress Parris has come down to us with the
reputation of a kindly and discreet woman--nothing having been said to
her discredit, so far as I am aware, even by those who had a bitter
controversy with her husband. And yet she certainly must have known of
the doings of the famous "circle," even if she refrained from speaking
of them to her husband.
At the very bottom of the whole thing, perhaps, were the West Indian
slaves--"John Indias" and his wife Tituba, whom Master Parris had
brought with him from Barbados. There were two children in the house, a
little daughter of nine, named Elizabeth; and Abigail Williams, three
years older. These very probably, Tituba often had sought to impress, as
is the manner of negro servants, with tales of witchcraft, the
"evil-eye" and "evil hand" spirits, powwowing, etc. Ann Putnam, another
precocious child of twelve, the daughter of a near neighbor, Sergeant
Putnam, the parish clerk, also was soon drawn into the knowledge of the
savage mysteries. And, before very long, a regular "circle" of these and
older girls was formed for the purpose of amusing and startling
themselves with the investigation and performance of forbidden things.
At the present day this would not be so reprehensible. We are
comparatively an unbelieving generation; and what are called "spiritual
circles" are common, though not always unattended with mischievous
results. But at that time when it was considered a deadly sin to seek
intercourse with those who claimed to have "a familiar spirit," that
such practices should be allowed to go on for a whole winter, in the
house of a Puritan minister, seems unaccountable. But the fact itself is
undoubted, and the consequences are written in mingled tears and blood
upon the saddest pages of the history of New England.
Among the members of this "circle" were Mary Walcott, aged seventeen,
the daughter of Captain Walcott; Elizabeth Hubbard and Mercy Lewis, also
seventeen; Elizabeth Booth and Susannah Sheldon, aged eighteen; and Mary
Warren, Sarah Churchhill and Leah Herrick, aged twenty; these latter
being the oldest of the party. They were all the daughters of
respectable and even leading men, with the exception of Mercy Lewis,
Mary Warren, Leah Herrick and Sarah Churchhill, who were living out as
domestics, but who seem to have visited as friends and equals the other
girls in the village. In fact, it was not considered at that time
degrading in country neighborhoods--perhaps it is not so now in many
places--for the sons and daughters of men of respectability, and even of
property, to occupy the position of "help" or servant, eating at the
same table with, and being considered members of the family. In the case
before us, Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren and Sarah Churchhill seem to have
been among the most active and influential members of the party. Though
Abigail Williams, the minister's niece, and Ann Putnam, only eleven and
twelve years of age respectively, proved themselves capable of an
immense deal of mischief.
What the proceedings of these young women actually were, neither
tradition nor any records that I have met with, informs us; but the
result was even worse than could have been expected. By the close of the
winter they had managed to get their nervous systems, their
imaginations, and their minds and hearts, into a most dreadful
condition. If they had regularly sold themselves to be the servants of
the Evil One, as was then universally believed to be possible--and which
may really be possible, for anything I know to the contrary--their
condition could hardly have been worse than it was. They were liable to
sudden faintings of an unnatural character, to spasmodic movements and
jerkings of the head and limbs, to trances, to the seeing of witches and
devils, to deafness, to dumbness, to alarming outcries, to impudent and
lying speeches and statements, and to almost everything else that was
false, irregular and unnatural.
Some of these things were doubtless involuntary but the voluntary and
involuntary seemed to be so mingled in their behavior, that it was
difficult sometimes to determine which was one and which the other. The
moral sense seemed to have become confused, if not utterly lost for the
time.
They were full of tricks. They stuck concealed pins into their bodies,
and accused others of doing it--their contortions and trances were to a
great extent mere shams--they lied without scruple--they bore false
witness, and what in many, if not most, cases they knew was false
witness, against not only those to whom they bore ill will but against
the most virtuous and kindly women of the neighborhood; and if the
religious delusion had taken another shape, and we see no reason why it
should not have done so, and put the whole of them on trial as seekers
after "familiar spirits" and condemned the older girls to death, there
would at least have been some show of justice in the proceedings; while,
as it is, there is not a single ray of light to illuminate the judicial
gloom.
When at last Mr. Parris and Thomas Putnam became aware of the condition
of their children, they called in the village physician, Dr. Griggs. The
latter, finding he could do nothing with his medicines, gave it as his
opinion that they were "under an evil hand"--the polite medical phrase
of that day, for being bewitched.
That important point being settled, the next followed of course, "Who
has bewitched them?" The children being asked said, "Tituba."
CHAPTER IV.
Satan's Especial Grudge against Our Puritan Fathers.
"Tituba!" And who else? Why need there have been anybody else? Why could
not the whole thing have stopped just there? No doubt Tituba was guilty,
if any one was. But Tituba escaped, by shrewdly also becoming an
accuser.
"Who else?" This set the children's imagination roving. Their first
charges were not so unreasonable. Why, the vagrant Sarah Good, a social
outcast, wandering about without any settled habitation; and Sarah
Osburn, a bed-ridden woman, half distracted by family troubles who had
seen better days. There the truth was out. Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah
Osburn were the agents of the devil in this foul attempt against the
peace of the godly inhabitants of Salem village.
For it was a common belief even amongst the wisest and best of our
Puritan fathers, that the devil had a special spite against the New
England colonies. They looked at it in this way. He had conquered in
the fight against the Lord in the old world. He was the supreme and
undoubted lord of the "heathen salvages" in the new. Now that the
Puritan forces had commenced an onslaught upon him in the western
hemisphere, to which he had an immemorial right as it were, could it be
wondered at that he was incensed beyond all calculation? Was he, after
having Europe, Asia and Africa, to be driven out of North America by a
small body of steeple-hatted, psalm-singing, and conceited Puritans? No
wonder his satanic ire was aroused; and that he was up to all manner of
devices to harass, disorganize and afflict the camp of his enemies.
I am afraid this seems a little ridiculous to readers nowadays; but to
the men and women of two hundred years ago it was grim and sober
earnest, honestly and earnestly believed in.
Who, in the face of such wonderful changes in our religious views, can
venture to predict what will be the belief of our descendants two
hundred years hence?
CHAPTER V.
Leah Herrick's Position and Feelings.
I have classed Leah Herrick among the domestics; but her position was
rather above that. She had lived with the Widow Sands, Jethro's aunt,
since she had been twelve years old, assisting in the housework, and
receiving her board and clothing in return. Now, at the age of twenty,
she was worth more than that recompense; but she still remained on the
old terms, as if she were a daughter instead of a servant.
She remained, asking nothing more, because she had made up her mind to
be Jethro's wife. She had a passion for Jethro, and she knew that Jethro
reciprocated it. But his aunt, who was ambitious, wished him to look
higher; and therefore did not encourage such an alliance. Leah was
however too valuable and too cheap an assistant to be dispensed with,
and thus removed from such a dangerous proximity, besides the widow
really had no objection to her, save on account of her poverty.
Leah said nothing when she saw that Jethro's attentions were directed in
another direction; but without saying anything directly to Dulcibel,
she contrived to impress her with the fact that she had trespassed upon
her rightful domain. For Leah was a cat; and amidst her soft purrings,
she would occasionally put out her velvety paw, and give a wicked little
scratch that made the blood come, and so softly and innocently too, that
the sufferer could hardly take offence at it.
Between these sharp intimations of Leah, and the unpleasant revelations
of the innate hardness of the young man's character, which resulted from
the closer intimacy of a betrothal, Dulcibel's affection had been
gradually cooling for several months. But although the longed-for
estrangement between the two had at length taken place, Leah did not
feel quite safe yet; for the Widow Sands was very much put out about it,
and censured her nephew for his want of wisdom in not holding Dulcibel
to her engagement. "She has a good house and farm already, and she will
be certain to receive much more on the death of her bachelor uncle in
England," said the aunt sharply. "You must strive to undo that foolish
hour's work. It was only a tiff on her part, and you should have cried
your eyes out if necessary."
And so Leah, thinking in her own heart that Jethro was a prize for any
girl, was in constant dread of a renewal of the engagement, and ready to
go to any length to prevent it.
Although a member of the "circle" that met at the minister's house, Leah
was not so regular an attendant as the others; for there were no men
there and she never liked to miss the opportunity of a private
conversation with Jethro, opportunities which were somewhat limited,
owing to the continual watchfulness of her mistress. Still she went
frequently enough to be fully imbued with the spirit of their doings,
while not becoming such a victim as most of them were to disordered
nerves, and an impaired and confused mental and moral constitution.
CHAPTER VI.
A Disorderly Scene in Church.
If anything were needed to add to the excitement which the condition of
the "afflicted children," as they were generally termed, naturally
produced in Salem village and the adjoining neighborhood, it was a scene
in the village church one Sunday morning.
The church was a low, small structure, with rough, unplastered roof and
walls, and wooden benches instead of pews. The sexes were divided, the
men sitting on one side and the women on the other, but each person in
his or her regular and appointed seat.
It was the custom at that time to select a seating committee of
judicious and careful men, whose very important duty it was to seat the
congregation. In doing this they proceeded on certain well-defined
principles.
The front seats were to be filled with the older members of the
congregation, a due reverence for age, as well as for the fact that
these were more apt to be weak of sight and infirm of hearing,
necessitated this. Then came the elders and deacons of the church; then
the wealthier citizens of the parish; then the younger people and the
children.
The Puritan fathers had their faults; but they never would have
tolerated the fashionable custom of these days, whereby the wealthy,
without regard to their age, occupy the front pews; and the poorer
members, no matter how aged, or infirm of sight or hearing are often
forced back where they can neither see the minister nor hear the sermon.
And one can imagine in what forcible terms they would have denounced
some city meeting-houses of the present era where the church is regarded
somewhat in the light of an opera house, and the doors of the pews kept
locked and closed until those who have purchased the right to reserved
seats shall have had the first chance to enter.
The Reverend Master Lawson, a visiting elder, was the officiating
minister on the Sunday to which we have referred. The psalm had been
sung after the opening prayer and the minister was about to come forward
to give his sermon, when, before he could rise from his seat, Abigail
Williams, the niece of the Reverend Master Parris, only twelve years
old, and one of the "circle" cried out loudly:--"Now stand up and name
your text!"
When he had read the text, she exclaimed insolently, "It's a long text."
And then when he was referring to his doctrine, she said:--"I know no
doctrine you mentioned. If you named any, I have forgotten it."
And then when he had concluded, she cried out, "Look! there sits Goody
Osburn upon the beam, suckling her yellow-bird betwixt her fingers."
Then Ann Putnam, that other child of twelve, joined in; "There flies the
yellow-bird to the minister's hat, hanging on the pin in the pulpit."
Of course such disorderly proceedings produced a great excitement in the
congregation; but the two children do not appear to have been rebuked by
either of the ministers, or by any of the officers of the church; it
seeming to have been the general conclusion that they were not
responsible for what they said, but were constrained by an irresistible
and diabolical influence. In truth, the children were regarded with awe
and pity instead of reproof and blame, and therefore naturally felt
encouraged to further efforts in the same direction.
I have said that this was the general feeling, but that feeling was not
universal. Several of the members, notably young Joseph Putnam, Francis
Nurse and Peter Cloyse were very much displeased at the toleration shown
to such disorderly doings, and began to absent themselves from public
worship, with the result of incurring the anger of the children, who
were rapidly assuming the role of destroying angels to the people of
Salem village and its vicinity.
As fasting and prayer were the usual resources of our Puritan fathers in
difficulties, these were naturally resorted to at once upon this
occasion. The families to which the "afflicted children" belonged
assembled the neighbors--who had also fasted--and, under the guidance of
the Reverend Master Parris, besought the Lord to deliver them from the
power of the Evil One. These were exciting occasions, for, whenever
there was a pause in the proceedings, such of the "afflicted" as were
present would break out into demoniac howlings, followed by contortions
and rigid trances, which, in the words of our manuscript, were "enough
to make the devil himself weep."
These village prayers, however, seeming to be insufficient, Master
Parris called a meeting of the neighboring ministers; but the prayers of
these also had no effect. The "children" even surpassed themselves on
this occasion. The ministers could not doubt the evidence of their own
reverend eyes and ears, and united in the declaration of their belief
that Satan had been let loose in this little Massachusetts village, to
confound and annoy the godly, to a greater extent than they had ever
before known or heard of. And now that the ministers had spoken, it was
almost irreligious and atheistical for others to express any doubt. For
if the ministers could not speak with authority in a case of this kind,
which seemed to be within their peculiar field and province, what was
their judgment worth upon any matter?
CHAPTER VII.
A Conversation with Dulcibel.
As Dulcibel sat in the little room which she had furnished in a pretty
but simple way for a parlor, some days after the meeting of the
ministers, her thoughts naturally dwelt upon all these exciting events
which were occurring around her. It was an April day, and the snow had
melted earlier than usual, and it seemed as if the spring might be an
exceptionally forward one. The sun was pleasantly warm, and the wind
blowing soft and gently from the south; and a canary bird in the rustic
cage that hung on the wall was singing at intervals a hymn of rejoicing
at the coming of the spring. The bird was one that had been given her by
a distinguished sea-captain of Boston town, who had brought it home from
the West Indies. Dulcibel had tamed and petted it, until she could let
it out from the cage and allow it to fly around the room; then, at the
words, "Come Cherry," as she opened the little door of the cage, the
bird would fly in again, knowing that he would be rewarded for his good
conduct with a little piece of sweet cake.
Cherry would perch on her finger and sing his prettiest strains on some
occasions; and at others eat out of her hand. But his prettiest feat was
to kiss his mistress by putting his little beak to her lips, when she
would say in a caressing tone, "Kiss me, pretty Cherry."
After playing with the canary for a little while, Dulcibel sighed and
put him back in his cage, hearing a knock at the front door of the
cottage. And she had just turned from the cage to take a seat, when the
door opened and two persons entered.
"I am glad to see you, friends," she said calmly, inviting them to be
seated.
It was Joseph Putnam, accompanied by his friend and visitor, Ellis
Raymond, the young man of whom Dulcibel had spoken to Jethro Sands.
Joseph Putnam was one of that somewhat distinguished family from whom
came the Putnams of Revolutionary fame; Major-General Israel Putnam, the
wolf-slayer, being one of his younger children. He, the father I mean,
was a man of fine, athletic frame, not only of body but of mind. He was
one of the very few in Salem village who despised the whole
witch-delusion from the beginning. He did not disbelieve in the
existence of witches--or that the devil was tormenting the "afflicted
children"--but that faith should be put in their wild stories was quite
another matter.
Of his companion, Master Ellis Raymond, I find no other certain account
anywhere than in my Quaker friend's manuscript. From the little that is
there given of personal description I have only the three phrases "a
comelie young man," "a very quick-witted person," "a very determined and
courageous man," out of which to build a physical and spiritual
description. And so I think it rather safer to leave the portraiture to
the imagination of my readers.
"Do you expect to remain long in Salem?" asked Dulcibel.
"I do not know yet," was the reply. "I came that I might see what
prospects the new world holds out to young men."
"I want Master Raymond to purchase the Orchard Farm, and settle down
among us," said Joseph Putnam. "It can be bought I think."
"I have heard people say the price is a very high one," said Dulcibel.
"It is high but the land is worth the money. In twenty years it will
seem very low. My father saw the time when a good cow was worth as much
as a fifty-acre farm, but land is continually rising in value."
"I shall look farther south before deciding," said Raymond. "I am told
the land is better there; besides there are too many witches here," and
he smiled.
"We have been up to see my brother Thomas," continued Joseph Putnam. "He
always has had the reputation of being a sober-headed man, but he is all
off his balance now."
"What does Mistress Putnam say?" asked Dulcibel.
"Oh, she is at the bottom of all his craziness, she and that elfish
daughter. Sister Ann is a very intelligent woman in some respects, but
she is wild upon this question."
"I am told by the neighbors that the child is greatly afflicted."
"She came in the room while we were there," responded Master Raymond. "I
knew not what to make of it. She flung herself down on the floor, she
crept under the table, she shrieked, she said Goody Osburn was sticking
pins in her, and wound up by going into convulsions."
"What can it all mean?--it is terrible," said Dulcibel.
"Well, the Doctor says she is suffering under an 'evil hand,' and the
ministers have given their solemn opinion that she is bewitched; and
brother Thomas and Sister Ann, and about all the rest of the family
agree with them."
"I am afraid it will go hard with those two old women," interposed Ellis
Raymond.
"They will hang them as sure as they are tried," answered Joseph Putnam.
"Not that it makes much difference, for neither of them is much to speak
of; but they have a right to a fair trial nevertheless, and they cannot
get such a thing just now in Salem village.
"I can hardly believe there are such things as witches," said Dulcibel,
"and if there are, I do not believe the good Lord would allow them to
torment innocent children."
"Oh, I don't know that it will do to say there are no witches," replied
Joseph Putnam gravely. "It seems to me we must give up the Bible if we
say that. For the Old Testament expressly commands that we must not
suffer a witch to live; and it would be absurd to give such a command if
there were no such persons as witches."
"I suppose it must be so," admitted Dulcibel, with a deep sigh.
"And then again in the New Testament we have continual references to
persons possessed with devils, and others who had familiar spirits, and
if such persons existed then, why not now?"
"Oh, of course, it is so," again admitted Dulcibel with even a deeper
sigh than before.
But even in that day, outside of the Puritan and other religious bodies,
there were unbelievers; and Ellis Raymond had allowed himself to smile
once or twice, unperceived by the others, during their conversation.
Thus we read in the life of that eminent jurist, the Honorable Francis
North, who presided at a trial for witchcraft about ten years before the
period of which we are writing, that he looked upon the whole thing as a
vulgar delusion, though he said it was necessary to be very careful to
conceal such opinions from the juries of the time, or else they would
set down the judges at once as irreligious persons, and bring in the
prisoners guilty.
"I am not so certain of it," said Ellis Raymond.
"How! What do you mean, Master Raymond?" exclaimed Joseph Putnam; like
all his family, he was orthodox to the bone in his opinions.
"My idea is that in the old times they supposed all distracted and
insane people--especially the violent ones, the maniacs--to be possessed
with devils."
"Do you think so?" queried Dulcibel in a glad voice, a light seeming to
break in upon her.
"Well, I take it for granted that there were plenty of insane people in
the old times as there are now; and yet I see no mention of them as
such, in either the Old or the New Testament."
"I never thought of that before; it seems to me a very reasonable
explanation, does it not strike you so, Master Putnam?"
"So reasonable, that it reasons away all our faith in the absolute
truthfulness of every word of the holy scriptures," replied Joseph
Putnam sternly. "Do you suppose the Evangelists, when they spoke of
persons having 'familiar spirits,' and being 'possessed of devils,' did
not know what they were talking about? I would rather believe that every
insane person now is possessed with a devil, and that such is the true
explanation of his or her insanity, than to fly in the face of the holy
scriptures as you do, Master Raymond."
Dulcibel's countenance fell. "Yes," she responded in reverential tones,
"the holy Evangelists must know best. If they said so, it must be so."
"You little orthodox darling!" thought young Master Raymond, gazing upon
her beautiful sad face. But of course he did not express himself to such
an effect, except by his gaze; and Dulcibel happening to look up and
catch the admiring expression of two clear brown eyes, turned her own
instantly down again, while a faint blush mantled her cheeks.
The young Englishman knew that in arousing such heterodox opinions he
was getting on dangerous ground. For expressing not a greater degree of
heresy than he had uttered, other men and even women had been turned
neck and heels out of the Puritan settlements. And as he had no desire
to leave Salem just at present, he began to "hedge" a little, as betting
men sometimes say.
"Insane people, maniacs especially, do sometimes act as if they were
possessed of the devil," he said frankly. "And no doubt their insanity
is often the result of the sinful indulgence of their wicked
propensities and passions."
"Yes, that seems to be very reasonable," said Dulcibel. "Every sinful
act seems to me a yielding to the evil one, and such yielding becoming
common, he may at least be able to enter into the soul, and take
absolute possession of it. Oh, it is very fearful!" and she shuddered.
"But I find one opinion almost universal in Salem," continued Raymond,
"and that is one which I think has no ground to sustain it in the
scriptures, and is very mischievous. It is that the devil cannot act
directly upon human beings to afflict and torment them; but that he is
forced to have recourse to the agency of other human beings, who have
become his worshipers and agents. Thus in the cases of these children
and young girls, instead of admitting that the devil and his imps are
directly afflicting them, they begin to look around for witches and
wizards as the sources of the trouble."
"Yes," responded Joseph Putnam earnestly, "that false and unscriptural
doctrine is the source of all the trouble. That little Ann Putnam,
Abigail Williams and the others are bewitched, may perhaps be true--a
number of godly ministers say so, and they ought to know. But, if they
are bewitched, it is the devil and his imps that have done it. If they
are 'possessed with devils'--and does not that scripture mean that the
devils directly take possession of them--what is their testimony worth
against others? It is nearly the testimony of Satan and his imps,
speaking through them. While they are in that state, their evidence
should not be allowed credence by any magistrate, any more than the
devil's should."
It seems very curious to those of the present day who have investigated
this matter of witch persecutions, that such a sound and orthodox view
as this of Joseph Putnam's should have had such little weight with the
judges and ministers and other leading men of the seventeenth century.
While a few urged it, even as Joseph Putnam did, at the risk of his own
life, the great majority not only of the common people but of the
leading classes, regarded it as unsound and irreligious. But the whole
history of the world proves that the _vox populi_ is very seldom the
_vox Dei_. The light shines down from the rising sun in the heavens, and
the mountain tops first receive the rays. The last new truth is always
first perceived by the small minority of superior minds and souls. How
indeed could it be otherwise, so long as truth like light always shines
down from above?
"Have you communicated this view to your brother and sister?" asked
Dulcibel.
"I have talked with them for a whole evening, but I do think Sister Ann
is possessed too," replied Joseph Putnam. "She fairly raves sometimes.
You know how bitterly she feels about that old church quarrel, when a
small minority of the Parish succeeded in preventing the permanent
settlement of her sister's husband as minister. She seems to have the
idea that all that party are emissaries of Satan. I do not wonder her
little girl should be so nervous and excitable, being the child of such
a nervous, high-strung woman. But I am going to see them again this
afternoon; will you go too, Master Raymond?'
"I think not," replied the latter with a smile, "I should do harm, I
fear, instead of good. I will stay here and talk with Mistress Dulcibel
a little while longer."
Master Putnam departed, and then the conversation became of a lighter
character. The young Englishman told Dulcibel of his home in the old
world, and of his travels in France and Switzerland. And they talked of
all those little things which young people will--little things, but
which afford constant peeps into each other's mind and heart. Dulcibel
thought she had never met such a cultivated young man, although she had
read of such; and he felt very certain that he never met with such a
lovely young woman. Not that she was over intelligent--one of those
precociously "smart" young women that, thanks to the female colleges and
the "higher culture" are being "developed" in such alarming numbers
nowadays. If she had been such a being, I fancy Master Raymond would
have found her less attractive. Ah, well, after a time perhaps, we of
the present day shall have another craze--that of barbarism--in which
the "coming woman" shall pride herself mainly upon possessing a strong,
healthy and vigorous physical organization, developed within the
feminine lines of beauty, and only a reasonable degree of intelligence
and "culture." And then I hope we shall see the last of walking female
encyclopedias, with thin waists, and sickly and enfeebled bodies; fit to
be the mothers only of a rapidly dwindling race, even if they have the
wish and power to become mothers at all.
I am not much of a believer in love at first sight, but certainly
persons may become very much interested in each other after a few hours'
conversation; and so it was in the case before us. When Ellis Raymond
took up his hat, and then lingered minute after minute, as if he could
not bring himself to the point of departure, he simply manifested anew
to the maiden what his tones and looks had been telling her for an hour,
that he admired her very greatly.
"Come soon again," Dulcibel said softly, as the young man managed to
open the door at last, and make his final adieu. "And indeed I shall if
you will permit me," was his earnest response.
But some fair reader may ask, "What were these two doing during all the
winter, that they had not seen each other?"
I answer that Dulcibel had withdrawn from the village gatherings since
the breaking of the engagement with Jethro. At the best, it was an
acknowledgment that she had been too hasty in a matter that she should
not have allowed herself to fail in; and she felt humbled under the
thought. Besides, it seemed to her refined and sensitive nature only
decorous that she should withdraw for a time into the seclusion of her
own home under such circumstances.
As for the village gossips, they entirely misinterpreted her conduct.
Inasmuch as Jethro went around as usual, and put a bold face upon the
matter, they came to the conclusion that he had thrown her off, and that
she was moping at home, because she felt the blow so keenly.
Thus it was that while the young Englishman had attended many social
gatherings during the winter he had never met the one person whom he was
especially desirous of again meeting.
One little passage of the conversation between the two it may be well
however to refer to expressly for its bearing upon a very serious
matter. Raymond had mentioned that he had not seen her recently flying
around on that little jet black horse, and had asked whether she still
owned it.
"Oh, yes," replied Dulcibel; "I doubt that I should be able to sell
Little Witch if I wished to do so."
"Ah, how is that? She seems to be a very fine riding beast."
"She is, very! But you have not heard that I am the only one that has
ever ridden her or that can ride her."
"Indeed! that is curious."
I have owned her from a little colt. She was never broken to harness;
and no one, as I said, has ever ridden her but me. So that now if any
other person, man or woman, attempts to do so, she will not allow it.
She rears, she plunges, and finally as a last resort, if necessary, lies
down on the ground and refuses to stir. "Why, that is very flattering
to you, Dulcibel," said Raymond smiling. "I never knew an animal of
better taste."
"That may be," replied the maiden blushing; "but you see how it is that
I shall never be able to sell Little Witch if I desire to do so. She is
not worth her keep to any one but me."
"Little Witch! Why did you ever give her a name like that?"
"Oh, I was a mere child--and my father, who had been a sea-captain, and
all over the world, did not believe in witches. He named her "Little
Witch" because she was so black, and so bent on her own way. But I must
change her name now that people are talking so about witches. In truth
my mother never liked it."
CHAPTER VIII.
An Examination of Reputed Witches.
Warrants had been duly issued against Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn, and the
Indian woman Tituba, and they were now to be tried for the very serious
offence of bewitching the "afflicted children."
One way that the witches of that day were supposed to work, was to make
images out of rags, like dolls, which they named for the persons they
meant to torment. Then, by sticking pins and needles into the dolls,
tightening cords around their throats, and similar doings, the witches
caused the same amount of pain as if they had done it to the living
objects of their enmity.
In these cases, the officers who executed the warrants of arrest, stated
"that they had made diligent search for images and such like, but could
find none."
On the day appointed for the examination of these poor women, the two
leading magistrates of the neighborhood, John Hathorne and Jonathan
Corwin, rode up the principal street of the village attended by the
marshal and constables, in quite an imposing array. The crowd was so
great that they had to hold the session in the meeting-house The
magistrates belonged to the highest legislative and judicial body in the
colony. Hathorne, as the name was then spelt, was the ancestor of the
gifted author, Nathaniel Hawthorne--the alteration in the spelling of
the name probably being made to make it conform more nearly to the
pronunciation. Hathorne was a man of force and ability--though evidently
also as narrow-minded and unfair as only a bigot can be. All through the
examination that ensued he took a leading part, and with him, to be
accused was to be set down at once as guilty. Never, among either
Christian or heathen people, was there a greater travesty of justice
than these examinations and trials for witchcraft, conducted by the very
foremost men of the Massachusetts colony.
The accounts of the examination of these three women in the manuscript
book I have alluded to, are substantially the same as in the official
records, which are among those that have been preserved. I will give
some quotations to show how the examinations were conducted:--
"Sarah Good, what evil spirit are you familiar with?"
She answered sharply, "None!"
"Have you made no contracts with the Devil?"
"No!"
"Why then do you hurt these children?"
"I do not hurt them. I would scorn to do it."
"Here the children who were facing her, began to be dreadfully
tormented; and then when their torments were over for the time, again
accused her, and also Sarah Osburn.
"Sarah Good, why do you not tell us the truth? Why do you thus torment
them?"
"I do not torment them."
"Who then does torment them?"
"It may be that Sarah Osburn does, for I do not."
"Her answers," says the official report, "were very quick, sharp and
malignant."
It must be remembered in reading these reports, that the accused were
not allowed any counsel, either at the preliminary examinations, or on
the trials; that the apparent sufferings of the children were very
great, producing almost a frenzied state of feeling in the crowd who
looked on; and that they themselves were often as much puzzled as their
accusers, to account for what was taking place before their eyes.
In the examination of Sarah Osburn, we have similar questions and
similar answers. In addition, however, three witnesses alleged that she
had said that very morning, that she was "more like to be bewitched
herself." Mr. Hathorne asked why she said that. She answered that either
she saw at one time, or dreamed that she saw, a thing like an Indian,
all black, which did pinch her in the neck, and pulled her by the back
part of the head to the door of the house. And there was also a lying
spirit.
"What lying spirit was this?"
"It was a voice that I thought I heard."
"What did it say to you?"
"That I should go no more to meeting; but I said I would, and did go the
next Sabbath day."
"Were you ever tempted further?"
"No."
"Why did you yield then to the Devil, not to go to meeting for the last
three years?"
"Alas! I have been sick all that time, and not able to go."
Then Tituba was brought in. Tituba was in the "circle" or an attendant
and inspirer of the "circle" from the first; and had marvelous things to
tell. How it was that the "children" turned against her and accused her,
I do not know; but probably she had practised so much upon them in
various ways, that she really was guilty of trying to do the things she
was charged with.
"Tituba, why do you hurt these children?"
"Tituba does not hurt 'em."
"Who does hurt them then?"
"The debbil, for all I knows.'
"Did you ever see the Devil?" Tituba gave a low laugh. "Of course I've
seen the debbil. The debbil came an' said, 'Serb me, Tituba.' But I
would not hurt the child'en."
"Who else have you seen?"
"Four women. Goody Osburn and Sarah Good, and two other women. Dey all
hurt de child'en."
"How does the Devil appear to you?"
"Sometimes he is like a dog, and sometimes like a hog. The black dog
always goes with a yellow bird."
"Has the Devil any other shapes?"
"Yes, he sometimes comes as a red cat, and then a black cat."
"And they all tell you to hurt the children?"
"Yes, but I said I would not."
"Did you not pinch Elizabeth Hubbard this morning?"
"The black man brought me to her, and made me pinch her."
"Why did you go to Thomas Putnam's last night and hurt his daughter
Ann?"
"He made me go."
"How did you go?"
"We rode on sticks; we soon got there."
"Has Sarah Good any familiar?"
"Yes, a yeller bird. It sucks her between her fingers. And Sarah Osburn
has a thing with a head like a woman, and it has two wings."
("Abigail Williams, who lives with her uncle, the Rev. Master Parris,
here testified that she did see the same creature, and it turned into
the shape of Goody Osburn.")
"Tituba further said that she had also seen a hairy animal with Goody
Osburn, that had only two legs, and walked like a man. And that she saw
Sarah Good, last Saturday, set a wolf upon Elizabeth Hubbard."
("The friends of Elizabeth Hubbard here said that she did complain of
being torn by a wolf on that day.")
"Tituba being asked further to describe her ride to Thomas Putnam's, for
the purpose of tormenting his daughter Ann, said that she rode upon a
stick or pole, and Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn behind her, all taking
hold of one another. Did not know how it was done, for she saw no trees
nor path, but was presently there."
These examinations were continued for several days, each of the accused
being brought at various times before the magistrates, who seem to have
taken great interest in the absurd stories with which the "afflicted
children" and Tituba regaled them. Finally, all three of the accused
were committed to Boston jail, there to await their trial for practising
witchcraft; being heavily ironed, as, being witches, it was supposed to
be very difficult to keep them from escaping; and as their ability to
torment people with their spectres, was considered lessened in
proportion to the weight and tightness of the chains with which they
were fettered. It is not to be wondered at, that under these
inflictions, at the end of two months, the invalid, Sarah Osburn, died.
Tituba, however, lay in jail until, finally, at the expiration of a year
and a month, she was sold in payment of her jail fees. One account
saying that her owner, the Rev. Master Parris, refused to pay her jail
fees, unless she would still adhere to what she had testified on her
examination, instead of alleging that he whipped and otherwise abused
her, to make her confess that she was a witch.
CHAPTER IX.
One Hundred and Fifty More Alleged Witches.
Ah this was bad enough, but it was but the beginning of trouble. Tituba
had spoken of two other women, but had given no names. The "afflicted
children" were still afflicted, and growing worse, instead of better.
The Rev. Master Noyes of Salem town, the Rev. Master Parris of Salem
village, Sergeant Thomas Putnam, and his wife,--which last also was
becoming bewitched, and had many old enmities--and many other
influential people and church members, were growing more excited, and
vindictive against the troubles of their peace, with every passing day.
"Who are they that still torment you in this horrible manner?" was the
question asked of the children and young women, and they had their
answers ready.
There had been an old quarrel between the Endicotts and the Nurses, a
family which owned the Bishop Farm, about the eastern boundary of said
farm. There had been the quarrel about who should be minister, in which
the Nurses had sided with the determined opponents of Mistress Ann
Putnam's reverend brother-in-law. The Nurses and other families were
staunch opposers of Master Parris's claim to ownership of the Parsonage
and its grounds. And it was not to be wondered at, that the accusations
should be made against opponents rather than against friends.
Besides, there were those who had very little faith in the children
themselves, and had taken a kind of stand against them; and these too,
were in a dangerous position.
"Who torments you now?" The answer was ready: Martha Corey, and Rebecca
Nurse, and Bridget Bishop, and so on; the charges being made now against
the members, often the heads, of the most reputable families in Salem
town and village and the surrounding neighborhoods. Before the coming of
the winter snows probably one hundred and fifty persons were in prison
at Salem and Ipswich and Boston and Cambridge. Two-thirds of these were
women; many of them were aged and venerable men and women of the highest
reputation for behavior and piety. Yet, they were bound with chains, and
exposed to all the hardships that attended incarceration in small and
badly constructed prisons.
A special court composed of the leading judges in the province being
appointed by the Governor for the trial of these accused persons, a mass
of what would be now styled "utter nonsense" was brought against them.
No wonder that the official record of this co-called court of justice is
now nowhere to be found. The partial accounts that have come down to us
are sufficient to brand its proceeding with everlasting infamy. Let us
recur to the charges against some of these persons:
The Rev. Cotton Mather, speaking of the trial of Bridget Bishop, says:
"There was one strange thing with which the Court was _newly
entertained_. As this woman was passing by the meeting-house, she gave a
look towards the house; and immediately a demon, invisibly entering the
house, tore down a part of it; so that, though there was no person to be
seen there, yet the people, at the noise, running in, found a board,
which was strongly fastened with several nails, transported into another
quarter of the house."
A court of very ignorant men would be "entertained" now with such a
story, in a very different sense from that in which the Rev. Cotton
Mather used the word. The Court of 1692, doubtless swallowed the story
whole, for it was no more absurd than the bulk of the evidence upon
which they condemned the reputed witches.
One of the charges against the Rev. Master Burroughs, who had himself
been a minister for a short time in the village, was, that though a
small, slender man, he was a giant in strength. Several persons
witnessed that "he had held out a gun of seven foot barrel with one
hand; and had carried a barrel full of cider from a canoe to the shore."
Burroughs said that an Indian present at the time did the same, but the
answer was ready. "That was the black man, or the Devil, who looks like
an Indian."
Another charge against Master Burroughs was, that he went on a certain
occasion between two places in a shorter time than was possible, if the
Devil had not assisted him. Both Increase Mather, the father, and his
son Cotton, two of the most prominent and influential of the Boston
ministers, said that the testimony as to Mr. Burroughs' giant strength
was alone sufficient rightfully to convict him. It is not improbable
that the real animus of the feeling against Master Burroughs was the
belief that he was not sound in the faith; for Master Cotton Mather,
after his execution, declared to the people that he was "no ordained
minister," and called their attention to the fact that Satan often
appeared as an angel of light.
CHAPTER X.
Bridget Bishop Condemned to Die.
Salem, the habitation of peace, had become, by this time a pandemonium.
The "afflicted children" were making accusations in every direction, and
Mistress Ann Putnam, and many others, were imitating their example.
To doubt was to be accused; but very few managed to keep their heads
sufficiently in the whirlwind of excitement, even to be able to doubt.
With the exception of Joseph Putnam, and his visitor, Ellis Raymond,
there were very few, if any, open and outspoken doubters, and indignant
censurers of the whole affair. Dulcibel Burton also, though in a gentler
and less emphatic way, sided naturally with them, but, although she was
much less violent in her condemnation, she provoked even more anger from
the orthodox believers in the delusion.
For Joseph Putnam, as belonging to one of the most influential and
wealthy families in Salem, seemed to have some right to have an opinion.
And Master Raymond was visiting at his house, and naturally would be
influenced by him.
Besides, he was only a stranger at the best; and therefore, not entirely
responsible to them for his views. But Dulcibel was a woman, and it was
outrageous that she, at her years, should set up her crude opinions
against the authority of the ministers and the elders.
Besides, Joseph Putnam was known to be a determined and even rather
desperate young man when his passions were aroused, as they seldom were
though, save in some just cause; and he had let it be known that it
would be worth any person's life to attempt to arrest him. It was almost
the universal habit of that day, to wear the belt and sword; and Messrs.
Putnam and Raymond went thus constantly armed. Master Putnam also kept
two horses constantly saddled in his stable, day and night, to escape
with if necessary, into the forest, through which they might make their
way to New York. For the people of that province, who did not admire
their Puritan neighbors very much, received all such fugitives gladly,
and gave them full protection.
As for Master Raymond, although he saw that his position was becoming
dangerous, he determined to remain, notwithstanding the period which he
had fixed for his departure had long before arrived. His avowed reason
given to Joseph Putnam, was that he was resolved to see the crazy affair
through. His avowed reason, which Master Putnam perfectly understood,
was to prosecute his suit to Dulcibel, and see her safely through the
dangerous excitement also.
"They have condemned Bridget Bishop to death," said Master Putnam,
coming into the house one morning from a conversation with a neighbor.
"I supposed they would," replied Master Raymond. "But how nobly she bore
herself against such a mass of stupid and senseless testimony. Did you
know her?"
"I have often stopped at her Inn. A fine, free-spoken woman; a little
bold in her manners, but nothing wrong about her."
"Did you ever hear such nonsense as that about her tearing down a part
of the meeting-house simply by looking at it? And yet there sat the best
lawyers in the colony on the bench as her judges, and swallowed it all
down as if it had been gospel."
"And then those other stories of her appearing in people's bed-rooms,
and vanishing away suddenly; and of her being responsible for the
illness and death of her neighbors' children; what could be more
absurd?"
"And of the finding of puppets, made of rags and hogs' bristles, in the
walls and crevices of her cellar! Really, it would be utterly
contemptible if it were not so horrible."
"Yes, she is to be executed on Gallows Hill; and next week! I can
scarcely believe it, Master Raymond. If I could muster a score or two of
other stout fellows, I would carry her off from the very foot of the
gallows."
"Oh, the frenzy has only begun, my friend," replied Raymond. "You know
whose trial comes on next?"
"How any one can say a word against Mistress Nurse--that lovely and
venerable woman--passeth my comprehension," said Joseph Putnam's young
wife, who had been a listener to the conversation, while engaged in some
household duties.
"My sister-in-law, Ann Putnam, seems to have a spite against that woman.
I went to see her yesterday, and she almost foams at the mouth while
talking of her."
"The examination of Mistress Nurse before the magistrate comes off
to-day. Shall we not attend it?"
"Of course, but be careful of thy language, Friend Raymond. Do not let
thy indignation run away with thy discretion."
Raymond laughed outright, as did young Mistress Putnam. "This advice
from you, Master Joseph! who art such a very model of prudence and
cold-bloodedness! If thou wilt be only half as cautious and discreet as
I am, we shall give no offence even to the craziest of them."
CHAPTER XI.
Examination of Rebecca Nurse.
When they arrived at the village, the examination was in progress.
Mistress Rebecca Nurse, the mother of a large family; aged, venerable,
and bending now a little under the weight of years, was standing as a
culprit before the magistrates, who doubtless had often met her in the
social gatherings of the neighborhood.
She was guarded by two constables, she who needed no guarding. Around,
and as near her as they were allowed to stand, stood her husband and her
grown-up sons and daughters.
One of the strangest features of the time, as it strikes the reader of
this day, was the peaceful submission to the lawful authorities
practised by the husbands and fathers, and grown-up sons and brothers of
the women accused. Reaching as the list of alleged witches did in a
short time, to between one hundred and fifty and two hundred
persons--nearly the whole of them members of the most respectable
families--it is wonderful that a determined stand in their behalf was
not the result. One hundred resolute men, resolved to sacrifice their
lives if need be, would have put a stop to the whole matter. And if
there had been even twenty men in Salem, like Joseph Putnam, the thing
no doubt would have been done.
And in the opinion of the present writer, such a course would have been
far more worthy of praise, than the slavish submission to such outrages
as were perpetrated under the names of law, justice and religion. The
sons of these men, eighty years later, showed at Lexington and Concord
and Bunker Hill, that when Law and Peace become but grotesque masks,
under which are hidden the faces of legalized injustice and tyranny,
then the time has come for armed revolt and organized resistance.
But such was the darkness and bigotry of the day in respect to religious
belief, that the great majority of the people were mentally paralyzed by
the accepted faith, so that they were not able in many respects to
distinguish light from darkness. When an estimable man or woman was
accused of being a witch, for the term was indifferently applied to both
sexes, even their own married partners, their own children, had a more
or less strong conviction that it might possibly be so. And this made
the peculiar horror of it.
In at least fifty cases, the accused confessed that they were witches,
and sometimes accused others in turn. This was owing generally to the
influence of their relatives, who implored them to confess; for to
confess was invariably to be acquitted, or to be let off with simple
imprisonment.
But to return to poor Rebecca Nurse, haled without warning from her
prosperous, happy home at the Bishop Farm, carried to jail, loaded with
chains, and now brought up for the tragic farce of a judicial
examination. In this case also, the account given in my friend's little
book is amply confirmed by other records. Mistress Ann Putnam, Abigail
Williams (the minister's niece), Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Walcott,
were the accusers.
"Abigail Williams, have you been hurt by this woman?" said magistrate
Hathorne.
"Yes," replied Abigail. And then Mistress Ann Putnam fell to the floor
in a fit; crying out between her violent spasms, that it was Rebecca
Nurse who was then afflicting her.
"What do you say to those charges?" The accused replied: "I can say
before the eternal Father that I am innocent of any such wicked doings,
and God will clear my innocence."
Then a man named Henry Kenney rose, and said that Mistress Nurse
frequently tormented him also; and that even since he had been there
that day, he had been seized twice with an amazed condition.
"The villain!" muttered Joseph Putnam to those around him, "if I had him
left to me for a time, I would have him in an amazed condition!"
"You are an unbeliever, and everybody knows it, Master Putnam," said one
near him. "But we who are of the godly, know that Satan goes about like
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
"Quiet there!" said one of the magistrates.
Edward Putnam (another of the brothers) then gave in his evidence,
saying that he had seen Mistress Ann Putnam, and the other accusers,
grievously tormented again and again, and declaring that Rebecca Nurse
was the person who did it.
"These are serious charges, Mistress Nurse," said Squire Hathorne, "are
they true?"
"I have told you that they are false. Why, I was confined to my sick bed
at the time it is said they occurred."
"But did you not send your spectre to torment them?"
"How could I? And I would not if I could."
Here Mistress Putnam was taken with another fit. Worse than the other,
which greatly affected the whole people. Coming to a little, she cried
out: "Did you not bring the black man with you? Did you not tell me to
tempt God and die? Did you not eat and drink the red blood to your own
damnation?"
These words were shrieked out so wildly, that all the people were
greatly agitated and murmured against such wickedness. But the prisoner
releasing her hand for a moment cried out, "Oh, Lord, help me!"
"Hold her hands," some cried then, for the afflicted persons seemed to
be grievously tormented by her. But her hands being again firmly held by
the guards, they seemed comforted.
Then the worthy magistrate Hathorne said, "Do you not see that when your
hands are loosed these people are afflicted?"
"The Lord knows," she answered, "that I have not hurt them."
"You would do well if you are guilty to confess it; and give glory to
God."
"I have nothing to confess. I am as innocent as an unborn child."
"Is it not strange that when you are examined, these persons should be
afflicted thus?"
"Yes, it is very strange."
[Illustration: "The Lord knows that I haven't hurt them"]
"Do you believe these afflicted persons are bewitched?"
"I surely do think they must be."
Weary of the proceedings and the excitement, the aged lady allowed her
head to droop on one side. Instantly the heads of the accusers were bent
the same way.
Abigail Williams cried out, "Set up Mistress Nurse's neck, our necks
will all be broken." The jailers held up the prisoner's neck; and the
necks of all the accused were instantly made straight again. This was
considered a marvelous proof; and produced a wonderful effect upon the
magistrates and the people. Mistress Ann Putnam went into such great
bodily agony at this time, charging it all upon the prisoner, that the
magistrates gave her husband permission to carry her out of the house.
Only then, when no longer in the sight of the prisoner, could she regain
her peace.
"Mistress Nurse was then recommitted to the jail in Salem, in order to
further examination."
"What deviltry is coming next?" said Joseph Putnam to his friend.
Many of those around glared on the speaker, but he was well known to all
of them as a daring--and when angered even a desperate young man--and
they allowed him to say with impunity, freely what no one else could
even have whispered. His son in after years, looked not into the wolf's
eyes in the dark den with a sterner gaze, than he looked into the
superstitious and vengeful wolves' eyes around him.
"To think that a godly old woman like Mistress Nurse, should be
tormented by this Devil's brood of witches, led on by that she-devil
sister of mine, Ann Putnam."
Many around heard him, but none cared to meet the young man's fierce
eyes, as they blazed upon those that were nearest.
"Do control yourself, my friend," whispered Master Raymond. "Preserve
yourself for a time when your indignation may do some good."
Then the constable brought in a little girl of about five years of age,
Dorcas Good, a daughter of Sarah Good, who had been arrested on the
complaint of Edward and Jonathan Putnam.
The evidence against this little girl of five was overwhelming. Mistress
Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott were the accusers--charging
the innocent and pretty little creature with biting, pinching and
choking them--the little girl smiling while they were giving their
testimony. She was not old enough to understand what it was all about,
and that even her life was in danger from these demoniacs. They
absolutely pretended to show the marks of her little teeth in their
arms. Then, after going through the usual convulsions, they shrieked out
that she was running pins into them; and the pins were found on
examination sticking into their bodies.
The little girl was, as I have said, at first inclined to laugh at all
the curious proceedings, and the spasms and contortions of the
witnesses, but at last, seeing everyone so solemn and looking so
wickedly at her, she began to cry; until Joseph Putnam went up to her
and gave her some sweet cake to eat, which he had provided for his own
luncheon and then, looking into his kind face, she began to smile again.
The Magistrates frowned upon Master Putnam, as he did this, but he paid
no attention to their frowns. And when the little girl was ordered back
to jail as a prisoner to await her trial, he bent down and kissed her
before she was led away by the constable.
This was the end of the proceedings for that day and the crowd began to
disperse.
"This is a pretty day's work you have made of it, sister-in-law," said
Joseph Putnam, striding up to his brother's wife. "You say that you are
tormented by many devils, and I believe it. Now I want to give you, and
all the Devil's brood around you, fair warning that if you dare to touch
with your foul lies any one belonging to my house including the stranger
within my gates, you shall answer it with your lives, in spite of all
your judges and prisons."
So saying, he glared at his two brothers, who made no reply, and walked
out of the meeting-house in which this ungodly business had been
transacted.
"Oh, it is only Joe," said Thomas Putnam; "he always was the spoiled
child of the family."
His wife said nothing, but soon a hard, bitter smile took the place of
the angry flush that the young man's words had produced. Dulcibel Burton
was not one of his household, nor within his gates.
CHAPTER XII.
Burn Me, or Hang Me, I Will Stand in the Truth of Christ.
After the trial and conviction of Bridget Bishop, the Special Court of
seven Judges--a majority of whom were leading citizens of Boston, the
Deputy Governor of the Province, acting as Chief-Justice--decided to
take further counsel in this wonderful and important matter of the
fathers of the church. So the Court took a recess, while it consulted
the ministers of Boston and other places, respecting its duty in the
case. The response of the ministers, while urging in general terms the
importance of caution and circumspection, recommended the earnest and
vigorous carrying on of the war against Satan and his disciples.
Among the new victims, one of the most striking cases was that of George
Jacobs and his grand-daughter Margaret. The former was a
venerable-looking man, very tall, with long, thin white hair, who was
compelled by his infirmities to support himself in walking with two
staffs. Sarah Churchill, a chief witness, against him, was a servant in
his family; and probably was feeding in this way some old grudge.
"You accuse me of being a wizard," said the old man on his examination;
"you might as well charge me with being a buzzard."
They asked the accused to repeat the Lord's prayer. And Master Parris,
the minister, who acted as a reporter, said "he could not repeat it
right after many trials."
"Well," said the brave old man finally, after they had badgered him with
all kinds of nonsensical questions, "Well, burn me, or hang me, I will
stand in the truth of Christ!"
As his manly bearing was evidently producing an effect, the "afflicted
girls" came out in full force the next day at the adjourned session.
When he was brought in, they fell at once into the most grievous fits
and screechings.
"Who hurts you?" was asked, after they had recovered somewhat.
"This man," said Abigail Williams, going off into another fit.
"This is the man," averred Ann Putnam; "he hurts me, and wants me to
write in the red book; and promises if I will do so, to make me as well
as his grand-daughter."
"Yes, this is the man," cried Mercy Lewis, "he almost kills me."
"It is the one who used to come to me. I know him by his two staffs,
with one of which he used to beat the life out of me," said Mary
Walcott.
Mercy Lewis for her part walked towards him; but as soon as she got
near, fell into great fits.
Then Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams "had each of them a pin stuck in
their hands and they said it was done by this old Jacobs."
The Magistrates took all this wicked acting in sober earnest; and asked
the prisoner, "what he had to say to it?"
"Only that it is false," he replied. "I know no more of it than the
child that was born last night."
But the honest old man's denial went of course, for nothing. Neither did
Sarah Ingersoll's deposition made a short time afterwards; in which she
testified that "Sarah Churchill came to her after giving her evidence,
crying and wringing her hands, and saying that she has belied herself
and others in saying she had set her hand to the Devil's book." She said
that "they had threatened her that if she did not say it, they would put
her in the dungeon along with Master Burroughs."
And that, "if she told Master Noyes, the minister, but once that she had
set her hand to the book, he would believe her; but if she told him the
truth a hundred times, he would not believe her."
The truth no doubt is that Master Noyes, Master Parris, Cotton Mather,
and all the other ministers, with one or two exceptions, having
committed themselves fully to the prosecution of the witches, would
listen to nothing that tended to prove that the principal witnesses were
deliberate and malicious liars; and that, so far as the other witnesses
were concerned, they were grossly superstitious and deluded persons.
No charity that is fairly clear-sighted, can cover over the evidence of
the "afflicted circle" with the mantle of self-delusion. Self-delusion
does not conceal pins, stick them into its own body, and charge the
accused person with doing it, knowing that the accusation may be the
prisoner's death. This was done repeatedly by Mistress Ann Putnam, and
her Satanic brood of false accusers.
Sarah Churchill was no worse than the others, judging by her remorse
after she had helped to murder with her lying tongue her venerable
master and we have in the deposition of Sarah Ingersoll, undoubted proof
that she testified falsely.
When Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott all united in charging
little Dorcas Good--five years old!--with biting, pinching and almost
choking them; "showing the marks of her little teeth on their arms, and
the pins sticking in their bodies, where they had averred she was
piercing them"--can any sane, clear-minded man or woman suppose it was
an innocent delusion, and not a piece of horribly wicked lying?
When in open court some of the "afflicted" came out of their fits with
"their wrists bound together, by invisible means," with "a real cord" so
that "it could hardly be taken off without cutting," was there not only
deception, but undeniable collusion of two or more in deception?
When an iron spindle was used by an alleged "spectre" to torture a
"sufferer," the said iron spindle not being discernible by the
by-standers until it became visible by being snatched by the sufferer
from the spectre's hand, was there any self-delusion there? Was it not
merely wicked imposture and cunning knavery?
I defy any person possessing in the least a judicial and accurate mind,
to investigate the records of this witchcraft delusion without coming to
the conclusion that the "afflicted girls," who led off in this matter,
and were the principal witnesses, continually testified to what they
knew to be utterly false. There is no possible excuse for them on the
ground of "delusion." However much we may recoil from the sad belief
that they testified in the large majority of cases to what they knew to
be entirely false, the facts of the case compel us with an irresistible
force to such an unhappy conclusion. When we are positively certain that
a witness, in a case of life or death, has testified falsely against the
prisoner again and again, is it possible that we can give him or her the
benefit of even a doubt as to the animus of the testimony? The
falsehoods I have referred to were cases of palpable, unmistakable and
deliberate lying. And the only escape from considering it _wilful_
lying, is to make a supposition not much in accord with the temper of
the present times, that, having tampered with evil spirits, and invoked
the Devil continually during the long evenings of the preceding winter,
the prince of powers of the air had at last come at their call, and
ordered a legion of his creatures to take possession of the minds and
bodies that they had so freely offered to him. For certainly there is no
way of explaining the conduct of the "afflicted circle" of girls and
women, than by supposing either that they were guilty of the most
enormous wickedness, or else that they were "possessed with devils."
CHAPTER XIII.
Dulcibel in Danger.
The terrible excitement of these days was enough to drive the more
excitable portion of the inhabitants of Salem almost crazy. The work of
the house and of the farm was neglected; a large number of suspected
persons and their relatives were sunk in the deepest grief, the families
of some of the imprisoned knew not where to get their daily food; for
their property was generally taken possession of by the officers of the
law at the time of the arrest, the accused being considered guilty until
they were proved to be innocent. Upon conviction of a capital offence
the property of the condemned was attainted, being confiscated by the
state; and the constables took possession at once, in order that it
might not be spirited away.
And no one outside of the circle of the accusers knew whose turn might
come next. Neither sex, nor age, nor high character, as we have seen,
was a bar against the malice, or the wantonness of the "afflicted." The
man or woman who had lived a righteous life for over eighty years, the
little child who wondered what it all meant, the maiden whose only
fault might be to have a jealous rival, all were alike in danger.
Especially were those in peril, however, who dared to take the side of
any of the accused, and express even the faintest disbelief in the
justice of the legal proceedings, or the honesty of the witnesses. These
would be surely singled out for punishment. Again and again, had this
been done until the voices of all but the very boldest were effectually
silenced. Those arrested now, as a general thing, would confess at once
to the truthfulness of all the charges brought against them, and even
invent still more improbable stories of their own, as this mollified the
accusers, and they often would be let off with a solemn reprimand by the
magistrates.
Joseph Putnam and his male servants went constantly armed; and two
horses were kept saddled day and night, in his stable. He never went to
the village unaccompanied; and made no secret of his determination to
resist the arrest of himself or, as he had phrased it, "any one within
his gates," to the last drop of his blood.
Living with the Goodman Buckley who had leased the Burton property, was
a hired man named Antipas Newton. He was a good worker though now
getting old, and had in one sense been leased with the place by
Dulcibel's father.
Antipas's history had been a sad one. Adopted when left an orphan by a
benevolent farmer who had no children, he managed by diligence and
strict economy to acquire by the age of thirty, quite a comfortable
property of his own. Then the old couple that he called Father and
Mother became converts to Quakerism. Fined and imprisoned, deprived of
their property, and, after the expiration of their term of imprisonment,
ordered to leave the colony, they had been "harbored" by the man for
whom they had done so much in his early years.
Antipas was a person of limited intelligence, but of strong affections
and wide sympathies. Again and again, he harbored these persecuted ones,
who despite their whippings and banishment would persist in returning to
Salem. Finally, Antipas himself was heavily fined, and his property sold
to pay the fines. His wife had died early, but a young daughter who kept
his house in order, and who had failed in her attendance at the church
which was engaged in persecuting her father, was also fined heavily. As
her father's property was all gone, and she had no money of her own,
she could not pay the fine, and was put in prison, to be sent to
Barbados, and sold as a slave, that thus the fine might be collected.
But the anguish, and the exposure of her prison, were too much for the
young girl; and she died before means of transportation could be found.
As a result of these persecutions, Antipas became demented. As his
insanity grew evident, the prosecutions ceased; but he was still in
danger of starvation, so few would give him employment, both on account
of his impaired mind, and of the odium which attached to any friend of
the abhorred Quakers.
Captain Burton, Dulcibel's father, came to the village at this time. He
had been one of the sea-captains who had indignantly refused to take the
Southwick children, or any other of the Salem children, to Barbados;
and he pitied the poor insane man, and gave him employment. Not only did
he do this, but, as we have said, made it an article of the lease of his
property, that the Buckleys should also keep Antipas as a farm servant.
Antipas, to the general surprise of the villagers had proved to be an
excellent servant, notwithstanding his insanity. Only on training days
and other periods of excitement, did his insanity obtrude itself. At
all other times he seemed to be a cheerful, simple-hearted, and very
capable and industrious "hand."
To Dulcibel, as was natural, Antipas always manifested the greatest
devotion. Her little black mare was always groomed to perfection, he
never being satisfied until he took a white linen handkerchief that he
kept for the purpose, and, passing it over the mare's shining coat, saw
that no stain or loose black hair remained on it.
"You think that Mistress Dulcibel is an angel, do you not?" said one of
the female servants to him about this time, a little scornfully.
"No, I know what she is," he replied. "Shall I tell you--but if I do,
you will not believe"--and he looked at the girl a little doubtfully.
"Oh, yes, I will," said the girl.
"Come here then and I will whisper it to you. I heard the minister read
about her once, she is the woman that is 'clothed with the sun and has
the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.'"
"That is wicked, Antipas. If Master Parris heard that you said things
like that, he would have you whipped and put in the stocks."
"Master Parris? you mean Beelzebub! I know Beelzebub when I see him."
And Antipas gave one of his unnatural, insane laughs, which were getting
very frequent of late.
For the general excitement was proving too much for Antipas. Fie stopped
frequently in his work, and muttered to himself; and then laughed
wildly, or shed tears. He talked about the witches and the Devil and
evil spirits, and the strange things that he saw at night, in the insane
fashion that characterized the "afflicted children."
As for Dulcibel in these times, she kept pretty much to herself, going
out very little. As she could not sympathize with the general gossip of
the neighborhood, she remained at home, and consequently had very few
visitors. Joseph Putnam called whenever he came to the village, which,
as I have stated, was but seldom; and Ellis Raymond came every few days.
Yes, it was a courtship, I suppose; but one of a very grave and serious
character. The conversation generally turned upon the exciting events
continually occurring, some new arrest, some new confession, some new
and outrageously absurd charges.
Master Raymond's hand, if anyone accosted him suddenly, instinctively
sought the hilt of his rapier. He was better skilled in the use of that
weapon than was usual, and had no fear that he should be unable to
escape from the constables, if not taken at a disadvantage. Still, as
that would compel him to fly into the woods, and as it would separate
him from Dulcibel, he had been very careful not to express in public his
abhorrence of all the recent proceedings. I am afraid that he was guilty
of considerable dissimulation, even paying his court to some of the
"afflicted" maidens when he had the opportunity, with soft words and
handsome presents; and trying in this way to enlist a party in his
behalf, in case he or any of his friends should need supporters.
Joseph Putnam censured him one day for his double dealing, which was a
thing not only out of Master Joseph's line, but one which his frank and
outspoken nature rendered it very difficult for him to practise. But
Raymond with his references to King David's behavior towards Achish,
King of Gath, and to certain other scripture, especially Paul's being
"all things to all men that he might save all," was rather too weighty
for Joseph, whose forte was sensible assertion rather than ingenious
argument. And so Master Raymond persevered in his course, feeling no
more compunction in deceiving the Salemites, as he said to himself, than
he would in deceiving and cheating a pack of savage wolves, who were
themselves arrayed in sheep's clothing.
Jethro Sands had of late shown a disposition to renew his attentions to
Dulcibel; but, after two or three visits, in the last of which he had
given the maiden the desired opportunity, she had plainly intimated to
him that the old state of affairs between them could never be restored.
"I know the reason too," said Jethro, angrily "it is all owing to that
English popinjay, who rides about as if we colonists were not fit to
dust his pretty coat for him."
"He is a gentleman, and a friend of mine," replied Dulcibel warmly.
"Why do you not say a lover of yours, at once?"
"You have no right to talk to me in that manner. I will not endure it."
"You will not--how will you help it?" He was now thoroughly angry, and
all his native coarseness came to the surface.
"I will show you," said Dulcibel, the Norse blood of her father glowing
in her face. "Good evening, Sir!" and she left the room.
Jethro had not expected such a quiet, but effective answer. He sat
twirling his thumbs, for awhile, hoping that she would return. But
realizing at last that she would not, he took his departure in a
towering anger. Of course this was the last of his visits. But Dulcibel
had made a deadly enemy.
It was unfortunate, for the maiden already had many who disliked her
among the young people of the village. She was a superior person for one
thing, and "gave herself airs," as some said. To be superior, without
having wealth or an acknowledged high social position, is always to be
envied, and often to be hated. Then again, Dulcibel dressed with more
richness and variety of costume than was usual in the Puritan villages.
This set many of the women, both young and old, against her. Her scarlet
bodice, especially, was a favorite theme for animadversion; some even
going so far as to call her ironically "the scarlet woman." It is
curious how unpopular a perfectly amiable, sweet-tempered and
sweet-tongued maiden may often become, especially with her own sex,
because of their innate feeling that she is not, in spite of all her
courteous endeavors, really one of them. It is an evil day for the swan
when she finds herself the only swan among a large flock of geese.
Dulcibel's antecedents also were not as orthodox as they might be. Her
mother, it was granted, was "pious," and of a "godly" connection; but
her father, as he had himself once said, "had no religion to speak of."
He had further replied to the question, asked him when he first came to
Salem, as to whether he was "a professor of religion," that he was "only
a sea captain, and had no other profession." And a certain freedom of
thought characterized Dulcibel, that she could scarcely have derived
from her pious mother. In fact, it was something like the freedom of the
winds and of the clouds, blowing where they liked; and had been probably
caught up by her father in his many voyages over the untrammeled seas.
At first Dulcibel had been rather impressed by the sermons of Master
Parris and Master Noyes and the other ministers, to the effect that
Satan was making a deadly assault upon the "saints," in revenge for
their interference with his hitherto undisputed domination of the new
world. But the longer she thought about it, the more she was inclined to
adopt Joseph Putnam's theory, that his sister-in-law and niece and the
other "afflicted" persons were possessed by devils.
She inclined to this view in preference even to what she knew was Ellis
Raymond's real conviction, that they were a set of hysterical and
vicious girls and women who had rendered themselves half-insane by
tampering for a whole winter with their nervous and spiritual
organizations; until they could scarcely now distinguish the true from
the untrue, the real from the unreal, good from evil, or light from
darkness.
"They have become reprobates and given over to an evil mind," said
Master Raymond to her one day; clothing his thought as nearly as he
could in scriptural language, in order to commend it to her.
"Yes, this seems to be a reasonable explanation of their wicked
conduct," replied Dulcibel. "But I think after all, that it amounts to
about the same thing as Joseph Putnam says, only that his is the
stronger and more satisfactory statement."
And thinking of it, Master Raymond had to come to the same conclusion.
His own view and that of his friends were about the same, only they had
expressed themselves in different phrases.
CHAPTER XIV.
Bad News.
The blow fell at last, and where they might have expected it. As Joseph
Putnam said afterwards, "Why did I not bring them out to my house? They
would not have dared to take them from under my roof, and they could not
have done it if they had dared."
One of his servants had been sent to the village on an errand; he had
not performed his errand, but he had hurried back at once with the news.
Dulcibel Burton had been arrested the previous evening, about nine
o'clock, on the charge of being a witch. Antipas Newton had also been
arrested. Both had been taken to prison, and put in irons.
A desperate, determined look came into the faces of the two men as they
gathered every word the servant had to tell. Young Mistress Putnam burst
into tears. But the men dashed a tear or two from their eyes, and began
to collect their thoughts. It was not weeping but stern daring, that
would be needed before this thing was through.
The prisoners were to be brought up that afternoon for examination. "I
have my two men, who will follow wherever I lead them," said Master
Putnam. "That makes four of us. Shall we carry her off from under their
very eyes?" And his face glowed--the fighting instinct of his race was
very strong within him.
"It might not succeed, those men are neither cowards nor babies,"
answered his guest. "Besides, it would lead probably to your banishment
and the confiscation of your property. No, we must have the wisdom of
the serpent, as well as the boldness of the lion."
"The result of the examination may be favorable, so young and good and
beautiful as she is," said Mistress Putnam.
"They lap their tongues in the blood of lambs, and say it is sweet as
honey," replied her husband, shaking his head. "No, they will show no
mercy; but we must try to match them."
"Yes, and with as little hazard and cost to you, my noble friend, as
possible," said Master Raymond. "Let me act, and take all the risk. They
cannot get hold of my property; and I would just as lief live in New
York or Philadelphia or England as among this brood of crazy vipers."
"That is wise counsel, Joseph," said his wife.
"Oh, I suppose it is," he answered emphatically. "But I hate wise
counsel."
"Still, my good friend, you must admit that, as Dulcibel betrothed
herself to me only two days ago, I am the one to take the greatest risk
in this matter."
"Indeed!" said Mistress Putnam. "I knew it would be so; and I told
Joseph it would be, only yesterday."
"I give you joy of such a mistress!" cried Master Putnam, grasping his
friend's hand. "Yes, I grant now your right of precedence in this
danger, and I will follow your lead--yes, to the death!"
"I hold you to that," said Master Raymond. "Remember you are pledged to
follow my lead. Now, whatever I do, do not wonder, much less express any
wonder. For this is war, and I have a right to meet craft with craft,
and guile with guile. Depend upon it, I will save her, or perish with
her."
CHAPTER XV.
The Arrest of Dulcibel and Antipas.
The arrest of Dulcibel had been entirely unexpected to herself and the
Buckleys. Dulcibel indeed had wondered, when walking through the village
in the morning, that several persons she knew had seemed to avoid
meeting her. But she was too full of happiness in her recent betrothal
to take umbrage or alarm at such an unimportant circumstance. A few
months now, and Salem, she hoped, would see her no more forever. She
knew, for Master Raymond had told her, that there were plenty of places
in the world where life was reasonably gay and sunny and hopeful; not
like this dull valley of the shadow of death in which she was now
living. Raymond's plan was to get married; sell her property, which
might take a few months, more or less; and then sail for England, to
introduce his charming wife to a large circle of relatives.
Dulcibel had been reading a book that Raymond had brought to her--a
volume of Shakespeare's plays--a prohibited book among the Puritan
fathers, and which would have been made the text for one of Master
Parris's most denunciatory sermons if he had known that it was in the
village. Having finished "Macbeth" she laid the book down upon the table
and began playing with her canary, holding it to her cheek, putting its
bill to her lips, and otherwise fondling it. While she was thus engaged,
she began to have the uncomfortable feeling which sensitive persons
often have when some one is watching them; and turning involuntarily to
the window which looked out on a garden at the side of the house, she
saw in the dim light that dark faces, with curious eyes, seemed nearly
to fill up the lower half of the casement. In great surprise, and with a
sudden tremor, she rose quickly from the seat; and, as she did so, the
weird faces and glistening eyes disappeared, and two constables,
attended by a crowd of the villagers, entered the room. One of these
walked at once to her side, and seizing her by the arm said, "I arrest
you, Dulcibel Burton, by the authority of Magistrate Hathorne. Come
along with me."
"What does all this mean, friend Herrick?" said Goodman Buckley, coming
into the room.
"It means," said the constable, "that this young woman is no better than
the other witches, who have been joining hand with Satan against the
peace and dignity of this province." Then, turning to Dame Buckley, "Get
her a shawl and bonnet, goodwife; if you do not wish her to go out
unprotected in the night's cold."
"A witch--what nonsense!" said Dame Buckley.
"Nonsense, is it?" said the other constable. "What is this?" taking up
the book from the table. "A book of plays! profane and wicked stage
plays, in Salem village! You had better hold your peace, goodwife; or
you may go to prison yourself for harboring such licentious devices of
Satan in your house."
Goodwife Buckley started and grew pale. A book of wicked stage-plays
under her roof! She could make no reply, but went off without speaking
to pack up a bundle of the accused maiden's clothing.
"See here!" continued the constable, opening the book, "All about
witches, as I thought! He-cat and three other witches!
'Round about the cauldron go:
In the poisoned entrails throw.'
It is horrible!"
"Put the accursed book in the fire, Master Taunton," said Herrick.
There was a small fire burning on the hearth, for the evening was a
little cool, and the other constable threw the book amidst the live
coals; but was surprised to see that it did not flame up rapidly.
"That is witchcraft, if there ever was witchcraft!" said Jethro Sands,
who was at the front of the crowd. "See, it will not burn. The Devil
looks out for his own."
"Yes, we shall have to stay here all night, if we wait for that book to
burn up," said Master Herrick. "Now if it had been a Bible, or a
Psalm-book, it would have been consumed by this time."
"My father told me," said one of the crowd, "that they were once six
weeks trying to burn up some witch's book in Holland, and then had to
tear each leaf separately before they could burn it."
"Where is the yellow bird--her familiar--that she was sending on some
witch's errand when we were watching at the window?" said another of the
crowd.
"Oh, it's not likely you will find the yellow bird," replied Herrick.
"It is halfway down to hell by this time."
"No, there it is!" cried Jethro Sands, pointing to a ledge over the
door, where the canary-bird had flown in its fright.
"Kill it! kill the familiar! Kill the devil's imp!" came in various
voices, the angry tones being not without an inflection of fear.
Several pulled out their rapiers. Jethro was the quickest. He made a
desperate lunge at the little creature, and impaled it on the point of
his weapon.
Dulcibel shook off the hold of the constable and sprang forward. "Oh, my
pretty Cherry," she cried, taking the dead bird from the point of the
rapier. "You wretch! to harm an innocent little creature like that!" and
she smoothed the feathers of the bird and kissed its little head.
"Take it from her! kill the witch!" cried some rude women in the outer
circles of the crowd.
"Yes, mistress, this is more than good Christian people can be expected
to endure," said constable Herrick, sternly, snatching the bird from her
and tossing it into the fire. "Let us see if the imp will burn any
quicker than the book."
"Ah, she forgot to charm it," said the other constable, as the little
feathers blazed up in a blue flame.
"Yes, but note the color," said Jethro. "No Christian bird ever blazed
in that color."
"Neither they ever did!" echoed another, and they looked into each
other's faces and shook their heads solemnly.
At this moment Antipas Newton was led to the door of the room, in the
custody of another officer. The old man seemed to be taking the whole
proceeding very quietly and patiently, as the Quakers always did. But
the moment he saw Dulcibel weeping, with Herrick's grasp upon her arm,
his whole demeanor changed.
"What devil's mischief is this?" cried the demented man; and springing
like an enraged lion upon Master Herrick, he dashed him against the
opposite wall, tore his constable's staff from his hands and laying the
staff around him wildly and ferociously cleared the room of everybody
save Dulcibel and himself in less time than I have taken to tell it.
Jethro stepped forward with his drawn rapier to cover the retreat of the
constables; but shouting, "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" the
deranged man, with the stout oaken staff, dashed the rapier from
Jethro's hand, and administered to him a sounding whack over the head,
which made the blood come. Then he picked up the rapier and throwing the
staff behind him, laughed wildly as he saw the crowd, constable and
all, tumbling out of the door of the next room into the front garden of
the house as if Satan himself in very deed, were after them.
"I will teach them how they abuse my pretty little Dulcibel," said the
now thoroughly demented man, laughing grimly. "Come on, ye imps of
Satan, and I will toast you at the end of my fork," he cried,
flourishing Jethro's rapier, whose red point, crimson with the blood of
the canary-bird, seemed to act upon the mind of the old man as a spark
of fire upon tow.
"Antipas," said Dulcibel, coming forward and gazing sadly into the eyes
of her faithful follower, "is it not written, 'Put up thy sword; for he
that takes the sword shall perish by the sword'? Give me the weapon!"
The old man gazed into her face, at first wonderingly; then, with the
instinct of old reverence and obedience, he handed the rapier to her,
crossed his muscular arms over his broad breast, bowed his grisly head,
and stood submissively before her.
"You can return now safely," Dulcibel called out to the constables. They
came in, at first a little warily. "He is insane; but the spell is over
now for the present. But treat him tenderly, I pray you. When he is in
one of these fits, he has the strength of ten men."
The constables could not help being impressed favorably by the maiden's
conduct; and they treated her with a certain respect and tenderness
which they had not previously shown, until they had delivered her, and
the afterwards entirely humble and peaceful Antipas, to the keeper of
Salem prison.
But the crowd said to one another as they sought their houses: "What a
powerful witch she must be, to calm down that maniac with one word."
While others replied, "But he is possessed with a devil; and she does it
because her power is of the devil."
They did not remember that this was the very course of reasoning used on
a somewhat similar occasion against the Savior himself in Galilee!
CHAPTER XVI.
Dulcibel in Prison.
In the previous cases of alleged witchcraft to which I have alluded, the
details given in my manuscript volume were fully corroborated, even
almost to the minutest particulars, by official records now in
existence. But in what I have related, and am about to relate, relative
to Dulcibel Burton, I shall have to rely entirely upon the manuscript
volume. Still, as there is nothing there averred more unreasonable and
absurd than what is found in the existing official records, I see no
reason to doubt the entire truthfulness of the story. In fact, it would
be difficult to imagine grosser and more ridiculous accusations than
were made by Mistress Ann Putnam against that venerable and truly devout
and Christian matron, Rebecca Nurse.
When Dulcibel and Antipas, in the custody of four constables, reached
the Salem jail, it was about eleven o'clock at night. The jailor,
evidently had expected them; for he threw open the door at once. He was
a stout, strong-built man, with not a bad countenance for a jailer; but
seemed thoroughly imbued with the prevailing superstition, judging by
the harsh manner in which he received the prisoners.
"I've got two strong holes for these imps of Satan; bring 'em along!"
The jail was built of logs, and divided inside into a number of small
rooms or cells. In each of these cells was a narrow bedstead and a stone
jug and slop bucket. Antipas was hustled into one cell, and, after being
chained, the door was bolted upon him. Then Dulcibel was taken into
another, though rather larger cell, and the jailor said, "Now she will
not trouble other people for a while, my masters."
"Are you not going to put irons on her, Master Foster?" said Herrick.
"Of course I am. But I must get heavier chains than those to hold such a
powerful witch as she is. Trust her to me, Master Herrick. She'll be too
heavy to fly about on her broomsticks by the time I have done with her."
Then they all went out and Dulcibel heard the heavy bolt shoot into its
socket, and the voices dying away as the men went down the stairs.
She groped her way to the bed in the darkness, sat down upon it and
burst into tears. It was like a change from Paradise into the infernal
regions. A few hours before and she had been musing in an ecstasy of joy
over her betrothal, and dreaming bright dreams of the future, such
perhaps as only a maiden can dream in the rapture of her first love. Now
she was sitting in a prison cell, accused of a deadly crime, and her
life and good reputation in the most imminent danger. One thing alone
buoyed her up--the knowledge that her lover was fully aware of her
innocence; and that he and Joseph Putnam would do all that they could do
in her behalf. But then the sad thought came, that to aid her in any way
might be only to bring upon themselves a similar accusation. And then,
with a noble woman's spirit of self-sacrifice, she thought: "No, let
them not be brought into danger. Better, far better, that I should
suffer alone, than drag down my friends with me."
Here she heard the noise of the bolt being withdrawn, and saw the dim
light of the jailer's candle.
As the jailer entered he threw down some heavy irons in the corner of
the room. Then, he closed the door behind him, and came up to the
unhappy girl. He laid his hand upon her shoulder and said:
"You little witch!"
Something in the tone seemed to strike upon the maiden's ear as if it
were not unfamiliar to her; and she looked up hastily.
"Do you not remember me, little Dulcy? Why I rocked you on my foot in
the old Captain's house in Boston many a day."
"Is it not uncle Robie?" said the girl. She had not seen him since she
was four years old.
The jailer smiled. "Of course it is," he replied, "just uncle Robie. The
old captain never went to sea that Robie Foster did not go as first
mate. And a blessed day it was when I came to be first mate of this
jail-ship; though I never thought to see the old captain's bonnie bird
among my boarders."
"And do you think I really am a witch, uncle Robie?"
"Of course ye are. A witch of the worst kind," replied Robie, with a
chuckle. "Now, when I come in here tomorrow morning nae doobt I will
find all your chains off. It is just sae with pretty much all the
others. I cannot keep them chained, try my best and prettiest."
"And Antipas?"
"Oh, he will just be like all the rest of them, doobtless. He is a
powerful witch, and half a Quaker, besides."
"But do you really believe in witches, uncle Robie?"
"What do these deuced Barebones Puritans know about witches, or the
devil, or anything else? There is only one true church, Mistress
Dulcibel. I have sa mooch respect for the clergy as any man; but I don't
take my sailing orders from a set of sourfaced old pirates."
Then, leaving her a candle and telling her to keep up a stout heart, the
jailer left the cell; and Dulcibel heard the heavy bolt again drawn upon
her, with a much lighter heart, than before. Examining the bundle of
clothes that Goodwife Buckley had made up, she found that nothing
essential to her comfort had been forgotten, and she soon was sleeping
as peacefully in her prison cell as if she were in her own pretty little
chamber.
CHAPTER XVII.
Dulcibel before the Magistrates.
The next afternoon the meeting-house at Salem village was crowded to its
utmost capacity; for Dulcibel Burton and Antipas Newton were to be
brought before the worshipful magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan
Corwin. These worthies were not only magistrates, but persons of great
note and influence, being members of the highest legislative and
judicial body in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Among the audience were Joseph Putnam and Ellis Raymond; the former
looking stern and indignant, the latter wearing an apparently cheerful
countenance, genial to all that he knew, and they were many; and
especially courteous and agreeable to Mistress Ann Putnam, and the
"afflicted" maidens. It was evident that Master Raymond was determined
to preserve for himself the freedom of the village, if complimentary and
pleasant speeches would effect it. It would not do to be arrested or
banished, now that Dulcibel was in prison.
When the constable, Joseph Herrick, brought in Dulcibel, he stated that
having made "diligent search for images and such like," they had found a
"yellow bird," of the kind that witches were known to affect; a wicked
book of stage-plays, which seemed to be about witches, especially one
called "he-cat"; and a couple of rag dolls with pins stuck into them.
"Have you brought them?" said Squire Hathorne.
"We killed the yellow bird and threw it and the wicked book into the
fire."
"You should not have done that; you should have produced them here."
"We can get the book yet; for it was lying only partly burned near the
back-log. It would not burn, all we could do to it."
"Of course not. Witches' books never burn," said Squire Hathorne.
"Here are the images," said a constable, producing two little
rag-babies, that Dulcibel was making for a neighbor's children.
The crowd looked breathlessly on as "these diabolical instruments of
torture" were placed upon the table before the magistrates.
"Dulcibel Burton, stand up and look upon your accusers," said Squire
Hathorne.
Dulcibel had sunk upon a bench while the above conversation was going
on--she felt overpowered by the curious and malignant eyes turned upon
her from all parts of the room. Now she rose and faced the audience,
glancing around to see one loved face. At last her eyes met his; he was
standing erect, even proudly; his arms crossed over his breast, his face
composed and firm, his dark eyes glowing and determined. He dared not
utter a word, but he spoke to her from the inmost depths of his soul:
"Be firm, be courageous, be resolute!"
This was what Raymond meant to say; and this is what Dulcibel, with her
sensitive and impassioned nature, understood him to mean. And from that
moment a marked change came over her whole appearance. The shrinking,
timid girl of a moment before stood up serene but heroic, fearless and
undaunted; prepared to assert the truth, and to defy all the malice of
her enemies, if need be, to the martyr's death.
And she had need of all her courage. For, before three minutes had
passed--Squire Hathorne pausing to look over the deposition on which
the arrest had been made--Mistress Ann Putnam shrieked out, "Turn her
head away, she is tormenting us! See, her yellow-bird is whispering to
her!" And with that, she and her little daughter Ann, and Abigail
Williams and Sarah Churchill and Leah Herrick and several others, flung
themselves down on the floor in apparent convulsions.
"Oh, a snake is stinging me!" cried Leah Herrick.
"Her black horse is trampling on my breast!" groaned Sarah Churchill.
"Make her look away; turn her head!" cried several in the crowd. And one
of the constables caught Dulcibel by the arm, and turned her around
roughly.
"This is horrible!" cried Thomas Putnam--"and so young and fair-looking,
too!"
"Ah, they are the worst ones, Master Putnam," said his sympathetic
friend, the Rev. Master Parris.
"She looks young and pretty, but she may really be a hundred years old,"
said deacon Snuffles.
Quiet at last being restored, Magistrate Hathorne said:
"Dulcibel Burton, why do you torment Mistress Putnam and these others in
this grievous fashion?"
"I do not torment them," replied Dulcibel calmly, but a little
scornfully.
"Who does torment them, then?"
"How should I know--perhaps Satan."
"What makes you suppose that Satan torments them?"
"Because they tell lies."
"Do you know that Satan cannot torment these people except through the
agency of other human beings?"
"No, I do not."
"Well, he cannot--our wisest ministers are united upon that. Is it not
so, Master Parris?"
"That is God's solemn truth," was the reply.
"Who is it that torments you, Mistress Putnam?" continued Squire
Hathorne, addressing Mistress Ann Putnam, who had sent so many already
to prison and on the way to death.
Mistress Putnam was angered beyond measure at Dulcibel's intimation that
she and her party were instigated and tormented directly by the devil.
And yet she could not, if she would, bear falser witness than she
already had done against Rebecca Nurse and other women of equally good
family and reputation. But at this appeal of the Magistrate, she flung
her arms into the air, and spoke with the vehemence and excitement of a
half-crazy woman.
"It is she, Dulcibel Burton. She was a witch from her very birth. Her
father sold her to Satan before she was born, that he might prosper in
houses and lands. She has the witch's mark--a snake--on her breast, just
over her heart. I know it, because goodwife Bartley, the midwife, told
me so three years ago last March. Midwife Bartley is dead; but have a
jury of women examine her, and you will see that it is true."
At this, as all thought it, horrible charge, a cold thrill ran through
the crowd. They all had heard of witch-marks, but never of one like
this--the very serpent, perhaps, which had deluded Eve. Joseph Putnam
smiled disdainfully. "A set of stupid, superstitious fools!" he muttered
through his teeth. "Half the De Bellevilles had that mark."[1]
[Footnote 1: "Most part of this noble lineage carried upon their body
for a natural birth-mark, from their mother's womb, a snake."--_North_.]
"I will have that looked into," said Squire Hathorne. "In what shape
does the spectre come, Mistress Putnam?"
"In the shape of a yellow-bird. She whispers to it who it is that she
wants tormented, and it comes and pecks at my eyes."
Here she screamed out wildly, and began as if defending her eyes from an
invisible assailant.
"It is coming to me now," cried Leah Herrick, striking out fiercely.
"Oh, do drive it away!" shrieked Sarah Churchill, "it will put out our
eyes."
There was a scene of great excitement, several men drawing their swords
and pushing and slashing at the places where they supposed the spectral
bird might be.
Leah Herrick said the spectre that hurt her came oftenest in the shape
of a small black horse, like that which Dulcibel Burton was known to
keep and ride. Everybody supposed, she said, that the horse was itself a
witch, for it was perfectly black, with not a white hair on it, and
nobody could ride it but its mistress.
Here Sarah Churchill said she had seen Dulcibel Burton riding about
twelve o'clock one night, on her black horse, to a witches' meeting.
Ann Putnam, the child, said she had seen the same thing. One curious
thing about it was that Dulcibel had neither a saddle nor a bridle to
ride with. She thought this was very strange; but her mother told her
that witches always rode in that manner.
Here the two ministers of Salem, Rev. Master Parris and Rev. Master
Noyes, said that this was undeniably true, that it was a curious fact
that witches never used saddles nor bridles. Master Noyes explaining
further that there was no necessity for such articles, as the familiar
was instantly cognizant of every slightest wish or command of the witch
to whom he was subject, and going thus through the air, there being no
rocks or gullies or other rough places, there was no necessity of a
saddle. Both the magistrates and the people seemed to be very much
instructed by the remarks of these two godly ministers.
That "pious and excellent young man," Jethro Sands, here came forward
and testified as follows: He had been at one time on very intimate terms
with the accused; but her conduct on one occasion was so very singular
that he declined thereafter to keep company with her. Hearing one day
that she had gone to Master Joseph Putnam's, he had walked up the road
to meet her on her return to the village. He looked up after walking
about a mile, and saw her coming towards him on a furious gallop. There
seemed to have been a quarrel of some kind between her and her familiar,
for it would not stop all she could do to it. As she came up to him she
snatched a rod that he had cut in the woods, out of his hand, and that
moment the familiar stopped and became as submissive as a pet dog. He
could not understand what it meant, until it suddenly occurred to him
that the rod was a branch of witch-hazel!
Here the audience drew a long breath, the whole thing was satisfactorily
explained. Every one knew the magical power of witch-hazel.[2]
[Footnote 2: This and many other passages, as the reader will notice,
are quoted verbatim from the manuscript volume.]
Jethro further testified that Mistress Dulcibel freely admitted to him
that her horse was a witch; never speaking of the mare in fact but as a
"little witch." As might be expected, the horse was a most vicious
animal, worth nothing to anybody save one who was a witch himself. He
thought it ought to be stoned, or otherwise killed, at once.
The Rev. Master Noyes suggested that if it were handed over to his
reverend brother Parris, he might be able, by a course of religious
exercises, to cast out the evil spirit and render the animal
serviceable. The apostles and disciples, it would be remembered, often
succeeded in casting out evil spirits; though sometimes, we are told,
they lamentably failed.
The magistrates here consulted a few minutes, and Squire Hathorne then
ordered that the black mare should be handed over to the Rev. Master
Parris for his use, and that he might endeavor to exorcise the evil
spirit that possessed it.
Dulcibel had regarded with calm and serious eyes the concourse around
her while this wild evidence was being given. Notwithstanding the peril
of her position, she could not avoid smiling occasionally at the
absurdity of the charges made against her; while at other times her brow
and cheeks glowed with indignation at the maliciousness of her accusers.
Then she thought, how could I ever have injured these neighbors so
seriously that they have been led to conspire together to take my life?
Oh, if I had never come to Salem, to a place so overflowing with malice,
evil-speaking and all uncharitableness! Where there was so much
sanctimonious talk about religion, and such an utter absence of it in
those that prated the most of its possession. Down among the despised
Quakers of Pennsylvania there was not one-half as much talking about
religion but three times as much of that kindly charity which is its
essential life.
"Dulcibel Burton," said Squire Hathorne, "you have heard what these
evidence against you; what answer can you make to them?"
Blood will assert itself. The daughter of the old sea-captain, himself
of Norse descent on the mother's side, felt her father's spirit glowing
in her full veins.
"The charges that have been made are too absurd and ridiculous for
serious denial. The 'yellow bird' is my canary bird, Cherry, given me by
Captain Alden when we lived in Boston. He brought it home with him from
the West Indies. Ask him whether it is a familiar. My black horse
misbehaved on that afternoon Jethro Sands tells of, as I told him at the
time; simply because I had no whip. When he gave me his switch, the
vixenish animal came at once into subjection to save herself a good
whipping. It was not a hazel switch, his statement is false, and he
knows it, it was a maple one."
"And you mean to say, I suppose," shrieked out Mistress Ann Putnam,
"that you have no witch-mark either; that you do not carry the devil's
brand of a snake over your heart?"
"I have some such mark, but it is a birth-mark, and not a witch-mark. It
is a simple curving line of red," and the girl blushed crimson at being
compelled to such a reference to a personal peculiarity. But she
faltered not in her speech, though her tones were more indignant than
before. "It is not a peculiarity of mine, but of my mother's family.
Some say that a distant ancestor was once frightened by a large snake
coming into her chamber; and her child was born with this mark upon her
breast. That is all of it. There is no necessity of any examination, for
I admit the charge."
"Yes," screamed Mistress Putnam again, "your ancestress too was a noted
witch. It runs in the family. Go away with you!" she cried striking
apparently at something with her clenched hand. "It is her old great
grandmother! See, there she is! Off! Off! She is trying to choke me!"
endeavoring seemingly to unclasp invisible hands from her throat.
The other "afflicted" ones joined in the tumult. With one it was the
"yellow bird" pecking at her eyes, with another the black horse rearing
up and striking her with its hoofs. Leah Herrick cried that Dulcibel's
"spectre" was choking her.
"Hold her hands still!" ordered Squire Hathorne, and a constable sprang
to each side of the accused maiden and held her arms and hands in a
grasp of iron.
Joseph Putnam made an exclamation that almost sounded like an oath, and
made a step forward; but a firm hand was laid upon his shoulder. "Be
patient!" whispered Ellis Raymond, though his own mouth was twitching
considerably. "We are the anvil now; wait till our turn comes to be
sledgehammer!"
Such a din and babel as the "afflicted" kept up! By the curious power of
sympathy it affected the crowd almost to madness. If Dulcibel looked at
them, they cried she was tormenting them. If she looked upward in
resignation to Heaven, they also stared upwards with fixed, stiff necks.
If she leaned her head one side they did the same, until it seemed as if
their necks would be broken; and the jailers forced up Dulcibel's neck
with their coarse, dirty hands.
Dulcibel had not attended any of the other examinations, but similar
demonstrations on the part of the "afflicted" had been described to her.
It was very different, however, to hear of such things and to experience
them in her own person. And if she had been at all a nervous and less
healthy young woman, she might have been overcome by them, and even led
to admit, as so many others had admitted under similar influences, that
she really was a witch, and compelled by her master, the devil, could
not help tormenting these poor victims.
"Why do you not cease this?" at last cried Squire Hathorne, sternly and
wrathfully.
"Cease what?" she replied indignantly.
"Tormenting these poor, suffering children and women!"
"You see I am not tormenting them. Bid these men unloose my hands, they
are hurting me."
"They say your spectre and your familiar are tormenting them."
"They are bearing false witness against me."
"Who does hurt them then?"
"Their master, the devil, I suppose and his imps."
"Why should he hurt them?"
"Because they are liars, and bear false witness; being hungry for
innocent blood."
The spirit of the free-thinking, free-spoken old sea-captain--nurtured
by the free winds and the free waves for forty years--was fully alive
now in his daughter. A righteous, holy indignation at the abominable
farce that was going on with all its gross lying and injustice had taken
possession of her, and she cared no longer for the opinions of any one
around her, and thought not even of her lover looking on, but only of
truth and justice. "Yes, they are possessed with devils--being children
of their father, the devil!" she continued scornfully. "And they shall
have their reward. As for you, Ann Putnam, in seven years from this day
I summon you to meet those you have slain with your wicked, lying
tongue, at the bar of Almighty God! It shall be a long dying for you!"
Then, seeing Thomas Putnam by his wife's side, "And you, Thomas Putnam,
you puppet in a bad woman's hands, chief aider and abettor of her wicked
ways, you shall die two weeks before her, to make ready for her coming!
And you," turning to the constables on each side of her, "for your cruel
treatment of innocent women, shall die by this time next year!"
The constables loosened their grasp of her hands and shrank back in
dismay. The "afflicted" suddenly hushed their cries and regained their
composure, as they saw the accused maiden's eyes, lit up with the
wildness of inspiration, glancing around their circle with lightning
flashes that might strike at any moment.
Even Squire Hathorne's wine-crimsoned face paled, lest she would turn
around and denounce him too. Even if she were a witch, witches it was
known sometimes spoke truly. And when she slowly turned and looked upon
him, the haughty judge was ready to sink to the floor.
"As for you, John Hathorne, for your part in these wicked doings," here
she paused as if waiting to hear a supernatural voice, while the crowded
meeting-house was quiet as a tomb--"No! you are only grossly deluded;
you shall not die. But a curse shall be upon you and your descendants
for a hundred years. They shall not prosper. Then a Hathorne shall arise
who shall repudiate you and all your wicked works, and the curse shall
pass away!"
Squire Hathorne regained his courage the instant she said he should not
die, little he cared for misfortunes that might come upon his
descendants.
"Off with the witch to prison--we have heard enough!" he cried hoarsely.
"Tell the jailer to load her well with irons, hands and feet; and give
her nothing to eat but bread and water of repentance. She is committed
for trial before the special court, in her turn, and at the worshipful
judges' convenience."
CHAPTER XVIII.
Well, What Now?
The crowd drew long breaths as they emerged from the meeting-house. This
was the first time that the accused had fully turned upon the accusers.
It was a pity that it had not been done before; because such was the
superstition of the day, that to have your death predicted by one who
was considered a witch was no laughing matter. The blood ran cold even
in Mistress Ann Putnam's veins, as she thought of Dulcibel's prediction;
and the rest of the "afflicted" inwardly congratulated themselves that
they had escaped her malediction, and resolved that they would not be
present at her trial as witnesses against her, if they could possibly
avoid it. But then that might not be so easy.
Even the crowd of beholders were a little more careful in the utterance
of their opinions about Dulcibel than they had been relative to the
other accused persons. Not that they had much doubt as to the maiden's
being a born witch--the serpent-mark seemed to most of them a conclusive
proof of that--but what if one of those "spectres," the "yellow bird"
or the uncontrollable "black mare" should be near and listening to what
they were even then saying?
"What do I think about it?" said one of the crowd to his companion. "Why
I think that if he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon, he
who abuses a witch should be certain her yellow bird is not listening
above his left shoulder," and he gave a quick glance in the direction
alluded to, while half of those near him, as they heard his warning
words, did the same. And there was not much talking against Dulcibel
after this, among that portion of the villagers.
Ellis Raymond had heard this speech as he walked silently out of the
meeting-house with Joseph Putnam, and a grim smile flitted over his
face. He felt prouder than ever of his beautiful betrothed. He was not a
man who admired amazons or other masculine women, such, as in these
days, we call "strong-minded;" he liked a woman to keep in her woman's
sphere, such as the Creator had marked out for her by making her a
woman; but circumstances may rightly overrule social conventions, and
demand action suitable to the emergency. Standing at bay, among a pack
of howling wolves, the heroic is a womanly as well as manly quality;
and the gun and the knife as feminine implements, as the needle and the
scissors. Dulcibel had never reasoned about such things; she was a
maiden who naturally shrank from masculine self-assertion and publicity;
but, called to confront a great peril, she was true to the noble
instincts of her family and her race, and could meet falsehood with
indignant denial and contempt. How she had been led to utter those
predictions she never fully understood--not at the time nor afterwards.
She seemed to herself to be a mere reed through which some indignant
angel was speaking.
"Well," said Joseph Putnam, as they got clear of the crowd, "brother
Thomas and sister Ann have wakened up the tiger at last. They will be
"afflicted" now in dead earnest. Did you see how sister Ann, with all
her assurance, grew pale and almost fainted? It serves her right; she
deserves it; and Thomas too, for being such a dupe and fool."
"Do you think it will come true?" said Master Raymond.
"Of course it will; the prediction will fulfill itself. Thomas is
superstitious beyond all reasonableness; and good Mistress Ann, my
pious sister-in-law, is almost as bad as he is, notwithstanding her
lies and trickery. Do you know what I saw that Leah Herrick doing?"
"What was it?"
"In her pretended spasms, when bending nearly double, she was taking a
lot of pins out of the upper edge of her stomacher with her mouth,
preparatory of course, to making the accusation that it was Dulcibel's
doings."
"But she did not?"
"No, it was just before the time that Dulcibel scared them so with the
predictions; and Leah was so frightened, lest she also should be
predicted against, that she quietly spit all the pins into her hand
again."
"Ah, that was the game played by a girl about ten years ago at
Taunton-Dean, in England. Judge North told my father about it. One of
the magistrates saw her do it."
"Well, now, what shall we do? They will convict her just as surely as
they try her."
"Undoubtedly!"
"Shall we attack and break open the jail some dark night, sword in hand?
I can raise a party of young men, friends of the imprisoned, to do it;
they only want a leader."
"And all of you go off into perpetual banishment and have all your
property confiscated?"
"I do not care. I am ready to do it."
"If you choose to encounter such a risk for others, I have no objection.
I believe myself that if the friends and relatives of the accused
persons would take up arms in defense of them, and demand their release,
it would be the very manliest and most sensible thing they could do. But
the consciences of the people here make cowards of them. They are all in
bondage to a blind and conceited set of ministers, and to a narrow and
bigoted creed."
"Then what do you plan?"
"Dulcibel's escape. You know that I managed to see her for a few minutes
early this morning. She has a friend within the prison. Wait till we get
on our horses, and I will explain it all to you."
CHAPTER XIX.
Antipas Works a Miracle.
The next morning Antipas Newton was brought before the Magistrates for
examination. Antipas seemed so quiet and peaceful in his demeanor, that
Squire Hathorne could hardly credit the story told by the constables of
his violent behavior on the night of the arrest.
"I thought you were a Quaker," said he to the prisoner.
"No, only half Quaker; the other half gospeller," replied the old man
meekly.
Mistress Ann was not present; her husband brought report that she was
sick in bed. Probably she did not care to come, the game being too
insignificant. Perhaps she had not quite recovered from the stunning
effect of Dulcibel's prediction. Though it was not likely that a doom
that was to be seven years in coming, would, after the first impression
was past, be felt very keenly. There was time for so much to happen
during seven years.
But the Rev. Master Parris's little niece, Abigail Williams, was
present, and several other older members of the "circle," prepared to
witness against the old man to any extent that seemed to be necessary.
After these had made their customary charges, and had gone through some
of their usual paroxysms, Joseph Putnam, accompanied by Goodman Buckley,
came forward.
"This is all folly," said Joseph Putnam stoutly. "We all know Antipas
Newton; and that he has been deranged in his intellects, and of unsound
mind for the last twenty years. He is generally peaceful and quiet;
though in times of excitement like the present, liable to be driven into
outbreaks of violent madness. Here is his employer, Goodman Buckley, who
of course knows him best, and who will testify to all this even more
conclusively than I can."
Then Goodman Buckley took the oath with uplifted hand, and gave similar
evidence. No one had even doubted for twenty years past, that Antipas
was simple-minded. He often said and did strange things; but only when
everybody around him was greatly excited, was he at all liable to
violent outbreaks of passion.
Squire Hathorne seemed half-convinced; but the Reverend Master Parris
rose from the bench where he had been sitting, and said he would like
to be heard for a few moments. Permission being accorded: "What is
insanity?" said he. "What is the scriptural view of it? Is it anything
but a judgment of the Lord for sin, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar; or
a possession by a devil, or devils, as in the Case of the Gadarene who
made his dwelling among the tombs as told in the fifth chapter of Mark
and the eighth of Luke? That these were real devils is evident--for when
permission was given them to enter into the herd of swine, they entered
into them, and the swine ran down a steep place into the sea and were
drowned. And as there were about two thousand swine, there must have
been at least two thousand devils in that one so-called insane man;
which no doubt accounted for his excessive violence. After the devils
had left him, we are told that his countrymen came and saw him sitting
at the feet of Jesus, no longer naked, but clothed and in his right
mind. Therefore it follows as a logical deduction, that his not being
before in his right mind was because he was possessed with devils."
The magistrates and people evidently were greatly impressed with what
Master Parris had said. And, as he sat down, Master Noyes, who was
sitting beside his reverend brother, rose and said that he considered
the argument they had just heard unanswerable. It could only be refuted
by doubting the infallibility of the Scripture itself. And he would
further add, as to the case before them, that this so-called insanity of
the prisoner had not manifested itself until he had been repeatedly
guilty of harboring two of that heretical and abominable sect called
Quakers and had incurred imprisonment and heavy fines for so doing; to
pay which fines his property had been rightfully sold. This punishment,
and the death of his daughter by the decree of a just God, apparently
not being sufficient to persuade him of the error of his ways, no doubt
he had been given over to the devil, that he might become a sign and a
warning to evil-doers. But, instead of repenting of his evil ways, he
seems to have entered the service of Captain Burton, who was always
known to be very loose in his religious views and observances; and who
it now seems was himself a witch, or, as he might be rather more
correctly termed, a wizard, and the father of the dangerous girl who was
properly committed for trial yesterday. Going thus downward from bad to
worse, this Antipas had at last become a witch himself; roaming around
tormenting godly and unoffending people to please his mistress and her
Satanic master. In conclusion he said that he fully agreed with his
reverend brother, that what some of the world's people, who thought
themselves wise above that which was written, called insanity, was
simply, as taught in the holy scriptures, a possession by the devil.
Magistrate Hathorne nodded to Magistrate Corwin, and Magistrate Corwin
nodded in turn decidedly to his learned brother. They evidently
considered that the ministers had settled that point.
"Well, then," said Joseph Putnam, a little roughly to the ministers,
"why do you not do as the Savior did, cast out the devils, that Antipas
may sit down here in his right mind? We do not read that any of these
afflicted people in Judea were cast into prison. In all cases they were
pitied, not punished."
"This is an unseemly interruption, Master Putnam," said Squire Hathorne
sternly. "We all know that the early disciples were given the power to
cast out devils and that they exercised the power continually, but that
in later times the power has been withdrawn. If it were not so, our
faithful elders would cast out the spectres that are continually
tormenting these poor afflicted persons."
While this discussion had been going on, Antipas had been listening to
all that was said with the greatest attention. Once only had he
manifested any emotion; that was when the reference had been made to the
death of his daughter, who had died from her exposure to the severity of
the winter season in Salem jail. At this time he put his hand to his
eyes and wiped away a few tears. Before and after this, the expression
of his face was rather as of one who was pleased and amused at the idea
of being the center of attraction to such a large and goodly company. At
the conclusion of Squire Hathorne's last remark, a new idea seemed to
enter the old man's confused brain. He looked steadily at the line of
the "afflicted" before him, who were now beginning a new display of
paroxysms and contortions, and putting his right hand into one of his
pockets, he drew forth a coil of stout leather strap. Grasping one end
of it, he shouted, "I can heal them! I know what will cure them!" and
springing from between the two constables that guarded him, began
belaboring the "afflicted" with his strap over their backs and shoulders
in a very energetic fashion.
Dividing his energies between keeping off the constable and "healing the
afflicted," and aided rather than hindered by Joseph Putnam's
intentionally ill-directed efforts to restrain him, the insane man
managed to administer in a short time no small amount of very exemplary
punishment. And, as Masters Putnam and Raymond agreed in talking over
the scene afterwards, he certainly did seem to effect an instantaneous
cure of the "afflicted," for they came to their sober senses at the
first cut of the leather strap, and rushed pell-mell down the passage as
rapidly as they could regardless of the other tormenting "spectres."
"This is outrageous!" said Squire Hathorne hotly to the constables as
Antipas was at last overpowered by a host of assailants, and stood now
firmly secured and panting between the two officers. "How dared you
bring him here without being handcuffed?"
"We had no idea of his breaking out anew, he seemed as meek as a lamb,"
said constable Herrick.
"Why, we thought he was a Quaker!" added his assistant.
"I am a Quaker!" said Antipas, looking a little dangerous again.
"You are not."
"Thou liest!" said the insane man. "This is one of my off days."
Joseph Putnam laughed outright; and a few others, who were not
church-members, laughed with him.
"Silence!" thundered Squire Hathorne. "Is this a time for idle levity?"
and he glared around the room.
"We have heard enough," continued the Squire, after a few words with his
colleague. "This is a dangerous man. Take him off again to prison; and
see that his chains are strong enough to keep him out of mischief."
CHAPTER XX.
Master Raymond Goes to Boston.
Whatever the immediate effect of Dulcibel's prediction had been,
Mistress Ann Putnam was now about again, as full of wicked plans, and as
dangerous as ever. She knew, for everybody knew, that Master Ellis
Raymond had gone to Boston. In a village like Salem at that time, such
fact could hardly be concealed.
"What had he gone for?
"To see a friend," Joseph Putnam had said.
"What friend?" queried Mistress Ann. That seemed important for her to
know.
She had accused Dulcibel in the first place as a means of hurting Joseph
Putnam. But now since the trial, she hated her for herself. It was not
so much on account of the prediction, as on account of Dulcibel's
terrific arraignment of her. The accusation that her husband was her
dupe and tool was, on account of its palpable truth, that which gave her
perhaps the greatest offence. The charge being once made, others might
see its truth also. Thus all the anger of her cunning, revengeful nature
was directed against Dulcibel.
And just at this time she heard from a friend in Boston, who sent her a
budget of news, that Master Raymond had taken dinner with Captain Alden.
"Ah," she thought, "I see it now." The name was a clue to her. Captain
Alden was an old friend of Captain Burton. He it was, so Dulcibel had
said, from whom she had the gift of the "yellow bird."
She knew Captain Alden by reputation. Like the other seamen of the time
he was superstitious in some directions, but not at all in others. He
would not for the world leave port on a Friday--or kill a mother Carey's
chicken--or whistle at sea; but as to seeing witches in pretty young
girls, or sweet old ladies, that was entirely outside of the average
seaman's thoughts. Toward all women in fact, young or old, pretty or
ugly, every sailor's heart at that day, as in this, warmed
involuntarily.
She also knew that the seamen as a class were rather inclined to what
the godly called license in their religious opinions. Had not the
sea-captains in Boston Harbor, some years before, unanimously refused to
carry the young Quakeress, Cassandra Southwick, and her brother, to the
West Indies and sell them there for slaves, to pay the fines incurred by
their refusal to attend church regularly? Had not one answered for the
rest, as paraphrased by a gifted descendant of the Quakers?--
"Pile my ship with bars of silver--pack with coins of Spanish gold,
From keelpiece up to deck-plank the roomage of her hold,
By the living God who made me! I would sooner in your bay
Sink ship and crew and cargo, than bear this child away!"
And so Master Raymond, who it was rumored had been a great admirer of
Dulcibel Burton, was on a visit to Boston, to see her father's old
friend, Captain John Alden! Mistress Putnam thought she could put two
and two together, if any woman could. She would check-mate that game--and
with one of her boldest strokes, too--that should strike fear into the
soul of even Joseph Putnam himself, and teach him that no one was too
high to be above the reach of her indignation.
The woman was so fierce in this matter, that I sometimes have
questioned, could she ever have loved and been scorned by Joseph Putnam?
CHAPTER XXI.
A Night Interview.
A few days passed and Master Raymond was back again; with a pleasant
word and smile for all he met, as he rode through the village. Mistress
Ann Putnam herself met him on the street and he pulled up his horse at
the side-path as she stopped, and greeted her.
"So you have been to Boston?" she said.
"Yes, I thought I would take a little turn and hear what was going on up
there."
"Who did you see--any of our people?"
"Oh, yes--the Nortons and the Mathers and the Higginsons and the
Sewalls--I don't know all.
"Good day; remember me to my kind brother Joseph and his wife," said
she, and Raymond rode on.
"What did that crafty creature wish to find out by stopping me?" he
thought to himself.
"He did not mention Captain Alden. Yes, he went to consult him," thought
Mistress Putnam.
Master Joseph Putnam was so anxious to meet his friend, that he was
standing at the turning in the lane that led up to his house.
"Well, what did the Captain say?"
"He was astounded. Then he gave utterance to some emphatic expressions
about hell-fire and damnation which he had probably heard in church."
"I know no more appropriate occasion to use them," commented young
Master Joseph drily. "If it were not for certain portions of the psalms
and the prophets, I could hardly get through the time comfortably
nowadays."
"If we can get her safely to Boston, he will see that a fast vessel is
ready to take us to New York; and he will further see that his own
vessel--the Colony's rather, which he commands--never catches us."
"That looks well. I managed to see Dulcibel for a few minutes to-day,
and"--
"How is she?" inquired Raymond eagerly. "Does she suffer much?"
"Not very much I think. No more than is necessary to save appearances.
She told me that the jailer was devoted to her. He will meet you
to-night after dark on the hill, to arrange matters."
"Say that we get from the prison by midnight. Then it will take at least
three hours riding to reach Boston--though we shall not enter the
town."
"Three hours! Yes, four," commented his friend; "or even five if the
night be dark and stormy; and such a night has manifest advantages.
Still, as I suppose you must wait for a northwest wind, that is pretty
sure to be a clear one."
"Yes, the main thing is to get out into the open sea. Captain Alden
plans to procure a Danish vessel, whose skipper once out of sight of
land, will oppose any recapture by force."
"I suppose however you will sail for New York?"
"Yes, that is the nearest port and we shall be perfectly safe there.
Still Jamestown would do. The Delaware is nearer than the James, but I
am afraid the Quakers would not be able to protect us, as they are too
good to oppose force by force."
"Too good! too cranky!" said Master Putnam. "A pretty world the rascals
would make of it, if the honest men were too good to fight. It seems to
me there is something absolutely wicked in their non-resistant notions."
"Yes, it is no worse to kill a two-legged tiger or wolf than a
four-legged one; one has just as good a right to live as the other."
"A better, I think," replied Master Putnam. "The tiger or wolf is
following out his proper nature; the human tiger or wolf is violating
his."
"You know I rather like the Quakers," rejoined Master Raymond. "I like
their general idea of considering the vital spirit of the Scripture more
than the mere outward letter. But in this case, it seems to me, they are
in bondage to the mere letter 'thou shalt not kill;' not seeing that to
kill, in many cases, is really to save, not only life, but all that
makes life valuable."
That evening just about dusk, the two young men mounted their horses,
and rode down one of the roads that led to Salem town, leaving Salem
village on the right--thinking best not to pass through the village.
Within a mile or so of the town, Master Putnam said, "here is the place"
and led the way into a bridle path that ran into the woods. In about
five minutes he halted again, gave a low whistle, and a voice said, a
short distance from them, "Who are you, strangers?"
"Friends in need," replied Master Putnam.
"Then ye are friends indeed," said the voice; and Robert Foster, the
jailer, stepped from behind the trunk of a tree into the path.
"Well, Robie, how's the little girl?" said Master Joseph.
"Bonnie as could be expected," was the answer.
"She sends word to you, sir," addressing Master Raymond, "that you had
better not come to see her. She knows well all you could say--just as
well as if she heard it, the brave, bonnie lassie!"
"I know it," replied Master Raymond. "Tell her I think of her every
moment--and that things look bright."
"Let us get out of this glooming, and where we can see a rod around us,"
suggested the jailer. "I like to see at least as far as my elbow, when I
am talking confidentially."
"I will go--you stay here with the horses," said Raymond to Master
Putnam. "I do not want you mixed up with this thing any more than is
absolutely necessary."
"Oh, I do not care for the risk--I like it," replied his friend.
"Stay, nevertheless," insisted Master Raymond. And getting down from his
horse, and handing the bridle rein to Master Putnam, he followed the
jailer out into an open space, where the rocks coming to the surface,
had prevented the growth of the forest. Here it was a little lighter
than it had been in the wood-path; but, the clouds having gathered over
the sky since they started, it was not possible to see very far around
them.
"Hold up there!" cried Robie, catching Raymond by the arm--"why, man,
do you mean to walk straight over the cliff?"
"I did not know any chasm was there," said Raymond. "I never saw this
place before. Master Putnam said it was a spot where we should not be
likely to be molested. And it does look desolate enough." He leaned back
against one of two upright planks which seemed to have been placed there
for some purpose, and looked at a little pile of dirt and stones not far
from his feet.
"No," said the jailer. "I opine we shall not be disturbed here. I do not
believe there is more than three persons in Salem that would be willing
to come to this hill at this time of day,--and they are here already."
And the jailer smiled audibly.
"Why, how is that?"
"Because they are all so damnably sooperstitious!" replied Robie, with
an air of vast superiority.
"Ah! is this place then said to be haunted?"
"Yes,--poor Goodwife Bishop's speerit is said to haunt it. But as she
never did anybody any harm while she was living, I see not why she
should harm any one now that she is dead."
"And so brave Bridget was executed near this place? Where was the foul
murder done?"
"You are leaning against the gallows," said Robie quietly. "And that
pile of stones at your feet is over her grave."
Raymond was a brave man, physically and morally, and not at all
superstitious; but he recoiled involuntarily from the plank against
which he had been leaning, and no longer allowed his right foot to rest
upon the top stones of the little heap that marked the grave.
"Oh, I thought you knew it," said the jailer calmly. "I say, let them
fear goodwife Bishop's ghost who did her wrong. As for me, I favored her
all I dared; and her last word to me was a blessing. But now for your
honor's business, I have not long to stay."
"I have planned all but the getting out of jail. Can it be easily done?"
"As easy as walking out of a room."
"Will you not be suspected?"
"Not at all, I think--they are so mightily sooperstitious. I shall lock
everything tight after her; and make up a good story about my wakening
up in the middle of the night, just in time to see her flying out of the
top o' the house, on her black mare, and thrashing the animal with a
broom-handle. The bigger the lie the quicker they will believe it."
"If they should suspect you, let Master Putnam know, and he will get you
off, if wit and money together can do it."
"Oh, I believe that," said the jailer. "Master Putnam is well known in
all these parts, as a man that never deserts a friend; and I'll warrant
you are one of the same grit."
"My hand on it, Robie!" and he shook the jailer's hand warmly. "I shall
never forget this service."
"I am a rough, ignorant man," replied Robie quietly; "but I know gentle
blood when I see it."
"What time of night will suit you best?"
"Just about twelve o'clock at night. That is the time all the ghosts and
goblins and weetches choose; and when all honest people are in their
beds, and in their first and soundest sleep."
"We shall not be able to give you much warning, for we must wait a
favorable wind and tide."
"So you let me know by nightfall, it will do."
"And now for the last point--what do I pay you? I know we are asking you
to run a great risk. The men that whip gentlewomen, at the cart's tail,
and put little children into jail, and sell them as slaves, will not
spare you, if they find out what you have done. Thank God, I am rich
enough to pay you well for taking such a fearful risk and shall be only
too glad to reward your unselfish deed."
"Not a shilling!" replied Robie proudly. "I am not doing this thing for
pay. It is for the old Captain's little girl, that I have held in these
arms many a day--and for the old Captain himself. While these bloody
landsmen," continued the old sailor, "plague and persecute each other,
Master Raymond, what is that to us, we men of the sea, who have a creed
and a belief of our own, and who never even think of hurting a woman or
a child? But as for these landsmen, sticking at home all the time, how
can they be expected to know anything--compared to men that have doubled
both Capes, and seen people living all sorts of ways, and believing all
sorts of things? No, no," and Robie laughed disdainfully, "let these
land-lubbers attend to their own affairs; but let them keep their hands
off us seamen and our families."
"So be it then, Robie; I honor your feelings! But nevertheless I shall
not forget you. And one of these days, if we get off safely, you shall
hear from me again about this matter."
And then, their plans settled, Robie trudged down to the town; while the
young men rode back the way they had come, to Master Putnam's.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Reverend Master Parris Exorcises "Little Witch."
It will be remembered that Squire Hathorne had directed that Dulcibel's
little horse should be handed over to the Reverend Master Parris, in
order that it might be brought into due subjection.
This had pleased Master Parris very much. In the first place he was of a
decidedly acquisitive turn--as had been shown in his scheming to obtain
a gift of the minister's house and orchard--and moreover, if he was able
to cast out the devil that evidently possessed this horse, and make it a
sober and docile riding animal, it would not only be the gain of a very
pretty beast, but would prove that something of the power of casting out
devils, which had been given to the disciples of old, had come down unto
him. In such a case, his fame probably would equal, if not surpass, that
of the great Boston ministers, Increase and Cotton Mather.
Goodman Buckley had brought down the little mare, the next morning after
the examination. The mare would lead very well, if the person leading
her was on horseback--very badly, if he were not, except under peculiar
circumstances. She was safely housed in the minister's stable, and gazed
at with mingled fear and admiration by the family and their immediate
neighbors. Master Parris liked horses, had some knowledge of the right
way to handle them, and showed more wisdom in his treatment of this
rather perverse animal of Dulcibel's than he had ever manifested in his
church difficulties.
He began by what he called a course of conciliation--to placate the
devil, as it were. How he could bring his conscience to allow of this, I
am not able to understand. But then the mare, if the devil were once
cast out, would be, on account of her rare beauty, a very valuable
animal. And so the minister, twice a day, made a point of going into the
little passage, at the head of the stall, speaking kindly to the animal,
and giving her a small lump of maple sugar.
Like most of her sex, Susannah--as Master Parris had renamed her,
knowing the great importance of a good name--was very fond of sugar; and
her first apparent aversion to the minister seemed gradually to change
into a kind of tacit respect and toleration, under the influence of his
daily medications. Finally, the wary animal would allow him to pat her
neck without striking at him with one of her front feet, or trying to
bite him; and even to stroke her glossy flanks without lunging at him
with her hind heels, in an exceedingly dangerous fashion.
But spiritual means also were not neglected. The meeting-house was very
near, and the mare was brought over regularly when there were religious
services, and fastened in the near vicinity of the other more sober and
orthodox horses, that she might learn how to behave and perhaps the evil
spirit be thus induced to abandon one so constantly exposed to the
doubtless unpleasant sounds (to it) of psalm and prayer and sermon.
A horse is an imitative animal, and very susceptible to
impressions,--both of a material and a mental character--and I must
confess that these proceedings of the minister's were very well adapted
to the object he had in view.
The minister also had gone farther--but of this no one at the time knew
but himself. He had gone into the stable on a certain evening, when his
servant John Indian was off on an errand; and had pronounced a prayer
over the possessed animal winding up with an exorcism which ought to
have been sufficient to banish any reasonable devil, not only from the
mare, but from the neighborhood. As he concluded, what seemed to be a
huge creature, with outstretched wings, had buffeted him over the ears,
and then disappeared through the open window of the stable. The creature
was in the form of a big bat; but then it was well known that this was
one of the forms which evil spirits were most fond of assuming.
The minister therefore had strong reasons for supposing that the good
work was now accomplished; and that he should find the mare hereafter a
Susannah not only in name but in nature--a black lily, as it were. But
of course this could not be certainly told, unless some one should
attempt to ride her; and he suggested it one day to John Indian. But
John Indian--unknown to anybody but himself--had already tried the
experiment; and after a fierce contest, was satisfied with his share of
the glory. His answer was:--
"No, no, master--debbil hab no 'spect for Indian man. Master he good
man! gospel man! debbil 'fraid of him--him too much for debbil!"
This seemed very reasonable for a poor, untutored Indian. Mistress
Parris, too, said that she was certain he could succeed if any one
could. The evil spirits would be careful how they conducted themselves
towards such a highly respected and godly minister as her revered
husband. Several of her acquaintances, pious and orthodox goodwives of
the village, said the same thing. Master Parris thought he was a very
good horseman besides; and began to take the same view. There was the
horse, and he was the man!
So one afternoon John Indian saddled and bridled the mare, and brought
her up to the horse-block. Susannah had allowed herself to be saddled
without the slightest manifestation of ill-humor; probably the idea of
stretching her limbs a little, was decidedly pleasant in view of the
small amount of exercise she had taken lately.
But the wisest plan was not thought of. The minister's niece, Abigail
Williams--one of the "afflicted"--had looked upon the black mare with
longing eyes; and if she had made the experiment, it probably would have
been successful. But they did not surmise that it might be the man's
saddle and mode of riding, to which the animal was entirely
unaccustomed, that were at the bottom of the difficulty. And, besides,
Master Parris wanted the mare for his own riding, not for the women
folks of his household.
Detained by various matters, it was not until quite late in the
afternoon, that the minister found time to try the experiment of riding
the now unbewitched animal. It was getting too near night to ride very
far, but he could at least try a short ride of a mile or so; which
perhaps would be better for the first attempt than a longer one. So he
came out to the horse-block, attended by his wife and Abigail Williams,
and a couple of parishioners who had been holding a consultation with
him, but had stopped a moment to see him ride off upon the animal of
which so many marvelous stories had been told.
"Yes," said the minister, as he came out to the horse-block, in answer
to a remark made by one of his visitors, "I think I have been able with
the Lord's help, to redeem this animal and make her a useful member of
society. You will observe that she now manifests none of that
viciousness for which formerly she was so noted."
The mare did stand as composedly and peacefully as the most dignified
minister could desire.
"You will remember that she has never been ridden by any one, man or
woman, save her witch mistress Dulcibel--Jezebel, I think would be a
more fitting name for her, considering her wicked doings."
Here Master Parris took the bridle rein from John Indian and threw his
right leg over the animal. As the foot and leg came down on that side,
and the stirrup gave her a smart crack, the mare's ears, which had been
pricked up, went backwards and she began to prance around, John Indian
still holding her by the mouth.
"Let her go, John," said the minister; "she does not like to be held,"
and he tightened the rein.
John, by his master's orders, had put on a curbbit; in place of the
easy snaffle to which the mare had always been accustomed. And now as
the minister tightened the rein, and the chain of the curb began to
press upon and pain the mouth of the sensitive creature, she began to
back and rear in a most excited fashion.
"Loose de rein!" cried John Indian.
The minister did so. But the animal now was fully alarmed; and no
loosening or tightening would avail much. She was her old self again--as
bewitched as ever. She reared, she plunged, she kicked, she sidled, and
went through all the motions, which, on previous occasions, she had
always found eventually successful in ridding her back of its undesired
burden.
"Oh, do get off of the wild beast," cried Mistress Parris, in great
alarm.
"She is still bewitched," cried Abigail Williams. "I see a spectre now,
tormenting her with a pitchfork."
"Oh, Samuel, you will be killed!--do get off that crazy beast!" again
cried weeping Mistress Parris.
"'Get off!' yes!" thought the minister; "but how am I going to do it,
with the beast plunging and tearing in this fashion?" The animal
evidently wanted him off, and he was very anxious to get off; but she
would not hold still long enough for him to dismount peaceably.
"Hold her while I dismount!" he cried to John Indian. But when John
Indian came near to take hold of the rein by her mouth, the mare snapped
at him viciously with her teeth; and then wheeled around and flung out
her heels at his head, in the most embarrassing manner.
Finally, as with a new idea, the mare started down the lane at a quick
gallop, turned to the left, where a rivulet had been damned up into a
little pond not more than two feet deep, and plunged into the water,
splashing it up around her like a many jetted fountain.
By this time, the minister, being only human, naturally was very angry;
and commenced lashing her sides with his riding whip to get her into the
lane again. This made the fiery little creature perfectly desperate, and
she reared up and backwards, until she came down plump into the water;
so that, if the saddle girth had not broken, and the saddle come off,
and the minister with it, she might have tumbled upon him and perhaps
seriously hurt him. But, as it was, no great damage was done; and the
bridle also breaking, the mare spit the bit out of her mouth, and went
down the lane in a run to the road, and thence on into the now
fast-gathering night, no one could see whither.
Mistress Parris, John Indian and the rest were by this time at the side
of the pond, and ready to receive the chapfallen minister as he emerged
with the saddle and the broken bridle from the water.
"You are a sight, Samuel Parris!" said his wife, in that pleasant tone
with which many wives are apt to receive their liege lords upon such
unpleasant occasions. "Do get into the house at once. You will catch
your death of cold, I know. And such a mess your clothes will be! But I
only wonder you are not killed--trying to ride a mad witch's horse like
that is."
The minister made no reply. The situation transcended words. And did not
allow even of sympathy, as his visitors evidently thought--not at least
until he got on some clean and dry clothes. So they simply shook their
heads, and took their course homewards. While the bedraggled and
dripping Master Parris made his way to the house wiping the water and
mud from his face with his wife's handkerchief, and stopping to shake
himself well, before he entered the door, lest, as his wife said, "he
should spoil everything in his chamber."
Abigail Williams, when she went to see Mistress Ann Putnam that night,
had a marvelous tale to tell; which in the course of the next day, went
like wildfire through the village, growing still more and more marvelous
as it went.
Abigail had seen, as I have already said, the spectre of a witch goading
the furious animal with a pitchfork. When the horse tore down the lane,
it came to the little brook and of course could not cross it--for a
witch cannot cross running water. Therefore, in its new access of fury,
it sprang into the pond--and threw off the minister. Abigail further
declared that then, dashing down the lane it came to the gate which shut
it off from the road, and took the gate in a flying leap. But the animal
never came down again. It was getting quite dark then, but she could
still plainly see that a witch was upon its back, belaboring it with a
broomstick. And she knew very well who that witch was. It was the
"spectre" of Dulcibel Burton--for it had a scarlet bodice on, just such
as Dulcibel nearly always wore. They two--the mare and its rider--went
off sailing up into the sky, and disappeared behind a black cloud. And
Abigail was almost certain that just as they reached the cloud, there
was a low rumbling like thunder.
It was noticeable that every time Abigail told this story, she
remembered something that she had not before thought of; until in the
course of a week or two, there were very few stories in the "Arabian
Nights" that could surpass it in marvelousness.
As the mare had not returned to her old stable at Goodman Buckley's, and
could not be heard of in any other direction, Abigail's story began to
commend itself even to the older and cooler heads of the village. For if
the elfish creature had not vanished in the black cloud, to the sound
of thunder, where was she?
Joseph Putnam, and his household however held a different view of the
subject, but they wisely kept their own counsel; though they had many a
sly joke among themselves at the credulity of their neighbors. They knew
that a little while after dark, a strange noise had been heard at the
barn, and that one of the hired men going out, had found Dulcibel's
horse, without saddle or bridle, pawing at the door of the stable for
admission. As this was a place the animal had been in the habit of
coming to, and where she was always well treated and even petted, it was
very natural that she should fly here from her persecutors, as she
doubtless considered them.
Upon being told of it, and not knowing what had occurred Master Joseph
thought it most prudent not to put the animal into his stable, but
ordered the man to get half-a-peck of oats, and some hay, and take the
mare to a small cow-pen, in the woods in an out of the way place, where
she might be for years, and no one outside his own people be any the
wiser for it. The mare seemed quite docile, and was easily led, being in
company with the oats, of which a handful occasionally was given to
her; and so, being watered at a stream near by and fed daily, she was
no doubt far more comfortable than she would have been in the black
cloud that Abigail Williams was perfectly ready to swear she had seen
her enter and where though there might be plenty of water, oats
doubtless were not often meet with.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Master Raymond Also Complains of an "Evil Hand."
Master Raymond had everything now prepared upon his part, and was
awaiting a message from Captain Alden, to the effect that he had made a
positive engagement with the Danish captain.
He had caught a serious cold on his return from Boston and, turning the
matter over in his mind--for it is a wise thing to try to get some good
result out of even apparently evil occurrences--he had called in the
village doctor.
But the good Doctor's medicine did not seem to work as it ought to--for
one reason, Master Raymond regularly emptied the doses out of the
window; thinking as he told Master Joseph, to put them where they would
do the most good. And when the Doctor came, and found that neither
purging nor vomiting had been produced, these with bleeding and sweating
being the great panaceas of that day--as perhaps of this--he was
naturally astonished. In a case where neither castor oil, senna and
manna, nor large doses of Glauber's salts would work, a medical man was
certainly justified in thinking that something must be wrong.
Master Raymond suggested whether "an evil hand" might not be upon him.
This was the common explanation at that time in Salem and its
neighborhood. The doctors and the druggists nowadays miss a great deal
in not having such an excuse made ready to their hands--it would account
alike for adulterated drugs and ill-judged remedies.
Master Raymond had the reputation of being rich, and the Doctor had been
mortified by the bad behavior of his medicines--for if a patient be not
cured, if he is at least vigorously handled, there seems to be something
that can with propriety be heavily charged for. But if a doctor does
nothing--neither cures, nor anything else--with what face can he bring
in a weighty bill?
And so good Doctor Griggs readily acquiesced in his patient's
supposition that "an evil hand," was at work, and even suggested that he
should bring Abigail Williams or some other "afflicted" girl with him
the next time he came, to see with her sharpened eyes who it was that
was bewitching him.
But Master Raymond declined the offer--at least for the present. If the
thing continued, and grew worse, he might be able himself to see who it
was. Why should he not be as able to do it as Abigail Williams, or any
other of the "afflicted" circle? Of course the doctor was not able to
answer why; there seemed to be no good reason why one set of "afflicted"
people should have a monopoly of the accusing business.
Of course this came very quickly from the Doctor to Mistress Ann
Putnam--for he was a regular attendant of that lady, whose nervous
system indeed was in a fearful state by this time. And she puzzled a
good deal over it. Did Master Raymond intend to accuse anyone? Who was
it? Or was it merely a hint thrown out, that it was a game that two
parties could play at?
But then she smiled--she had the two ministers, and through them all the
other ministers of the colony--the magistrates and judges--and the
advantages of the original position. Imitators always failed. Still she
rather liked the young man's craft and boldness--Joseph Putnam would
never have thought of such a thing. But still let him beware how he
attempted to thwart her plans. He would soon find that she was the
stronger.
Joseph Putnam then began to answer inquiries as to the health of his
guest,--that he was not much better, and thought somewhat of going up to
Boston for further medical advice--as the medicines given him so far did
not seem to work as well as they should do.
"Could he bear the ride?"
"Oh, very well indeed--his illness had not so far affected his strength
much."
CHAPTER XXIV.
Master Raymond's Little Plan Blocked.
"Our game is blocked!" said Joseph Putnam to Master Raymond as he rode
up one afternoon soon after, and dismounted at the garden gate, where
his guest was awaiting him, impatient to hear if anything had yet come
from Captain Alden.
"What do you mean?" said his guest.
"Mean? Why, that yon she-wolf is too much for us. Captain Alden is
arrested!"
"What! Captain John Alden!"
"Yes, Captain John Alden!"
"On what charge?"
Master Joseph smiled grimly, "For witchcraft!"
"Nonsense!"
"Yes, devilish nonsense! but true as gospel, nevertheless."
"And he submits to it?"
"With all around him crazy, he cannot help it. Besides, as an officer of
the government, he must submit to the laws."
"On whose complaint?"
"Oh, the she-wolf's of course--that delectable smooth-spoken wife of my
brother Thomas. How any man can love a catty creature like that, beats
me out."
"I suppose she found out that I went frequently to see the Captain, when
in Boston?"
"I suppose so."
"Who could have informed her?"
"Her master, the devil, I suppose."
"Where is the Captain to be examined?"
"Oh, here in Salem, where his accusers are. It comes off tomorrow. They
lose no time you see."
"Well, I would not have believed it possible. Whom will they attack
next?"
"The Governor, I suppose," replied Master Joseph satirically.
"Or you?"
"If she does, I'll run my sword through her--not as being a woman, but
as a foul fiend. I told her so. Let her dare to touch me, or any one
under this roof!"
"What did she say when you threatened her?"
"She put on an injured expression; and said she could never believe
anything wrong of her dear husband's family, if all the 'spectres' in
the world told her so."
"Well, I hope you are safe, but as for me--"
"Oh, you are, too. You are within my gates. To touch you, is to touch
me. She fully realizes that. Besides brother Thomas is her abject tool
in most things; but some things even he would not allow."
Yes, Captain John Alden, son of that John Alden who was told by the
pretty Puritan maiden, "Speak for yourself John," when he went pleading
the love-suit of his friend Captain Miles Standish; John Alden, captain
of the only vessel of war belonging to the colony, a man of large
property, and occupying a place in the very front rank of Boston
society, had been arrested for witchcraft! What a state of insanity the
religious delusion had reached, can be seen by this high-handed
proceeding.
Here again we come on to ground in which the details given in the old
manuscript book, are fully confirmed, in every essential particular by
existing public records. Mr. Upham, whose admirable account of "Salem
Witchcraft" has been of great aid to me in the preparation of this
volume, is evidently puzzled to account for Captain Alden's arrest. He
is not able to see how the gallant Captain could have excited the ire of
the "afflicted circle." He seems to have been entirely ignorant of this
case of Dulcibel Burton--hers doubtless being one of the many cases in
which the official records were purposely destroyed. If he had known of
this case, he would have seen the connection between it and Captain
Alden. It also might have explained the continual allusions to the
"yellow bird" in so many of the trials--based possibly on Dulcibel's
canary, which had been given to her by the Captain, and whose habit of
kissing her lips with its little bill had appeared so mysterious and
diabolical to the superstitious inhabitants of Salem village.
Master Raymond's health, as is not to be wondered at, had improved
sufficiently by the next day, to allow of his accompanying Joseph Putnam
to the village, to attend Captain Alden's examination. The meeting-house
was even more crowded than usual, such was the absorbing interest taken
in the case, owing to the Captain's high standing in the province.
The veteran Captain's own brief account of this matter, which has come
down to us, does not go into many details, and is valuable mainly as
showing that he regarded it very much in the same light that it is
regarded now--owing probably to the fact that while a church member in
good standing, he doubtless was a good deal better seaman than church
member. For he says he was "sent for by the Magistrates of Salem, upon
the accusation of a company of poor distracted or possessed creatures or
witches." And he speaks further of them as "wenches who played their
juggling tricks, falling down, crying out, and staring in people's
faces."
The worthy Captain's account is however, as I have said, very brief--and
has the tone of one who had been a participant, however unwillingly, in
a grossly shameful affair, alike disgraceful to the colony and to
everybody concerned in it. For some additional details, I am indebted to
the manuscript volume.
Captain Alden had not been arrested in Boston. He says himself in his
statement, that "he was sent to Salem by Mr. Stoughton"--the Deputy
Governor, and Chief-Justice of the Special Court that had condemned and
executed Bridget Bishop, and which was now about to meet again.
Before the meeting of the magistrates, Master Raymond had managed to
have a few words with him in private, and found that no arrangements
with any skipper had yet been made. The first negotiations had fallen
through, and there was no other foreign vessel at that time in port
whose master possessed what Captain Alden considered the requisite
trustworthiness and daring. For he wanted a skipper that would show
fight if he was pursued and overtaken; not that any actual fighting
would probably be necessary, for a simple show of resistance would
doubtless be all that was needed.
"When I get back to Boston, I think I shall be able to arrange matters
in the course of a week or two."
"What--in Boston jail?" queried Master Raymond.
"You do not suppose the magistrates will commit me on such a trumped-up
nonsensical charge as this?" said the stout old captain indignantly.
"Indeed I do," was the reply.
"Why, there is not a particle of truth in it. I never saw these girls. I
never even heard of their being in existence."
"Oh, that makes no difference."
"The devil it doesn't!" said the old man, hotly. My readers must
remember that he was a seaman.
Here the sheriff came up and told the Captain he was wanted.
CHAPTER XXV.
Captain Alden before the Magistrates.
There was an additional magistrate sitting on this occasion, Master
Bartholomew Gedney--making three in all.
Mistress Ann Putnam, the she-wolf, as her young brother-in-law had
called her, was not present among the accusers--leaving the part of the
"afflicted" to be played by the other and younger members of the circle.
There was another Captain present, also a stranger, a Captain Hill; and
he being also a tall man, perplexed some of the girls at first. One even
pointed at him, until she was better informed in a whisper by a man who
was holding her up. And then she cried out that it was "Alden! Alden!"
who was afflicting her.
At length one of the magistrates ordering Captain Alden to stand upon a
chair, there was no further trouble upon that point; and the usual
demonstrations began. As the accused naturally looked upon the
"afflicted" girls, they went off into spasms, shrieks and convulsions.
This was nearly always the first proceeding, as it created a profound
sympathy for them, and was almost sufficient of itself to condemn the
accused.
"The tall man is pinching me!"
"Oh, he is choking me!"
"He is choking me! do hold his hands!"
"He stabs me with his sword--oh, take it away from him!"
Such were the exclamations that came from the writhing and convulsed
girls.
"Turn away his head! and hold his hands!" cried Squire Hathorne. "Take
away his sword!" said Squire Gedney while the old Captain grew red and
wrathful at the babel around him, and at the indignities to which he was
subject.
"Captain Alden, why do you torment these poor girls who never injured
you?"
"Torment them!--you see I am not touching them. I do not even know them;
I never saw them before in my life," growled the indignant old seaman.
"See! there is the little yellow bird kissing his lips!" cried Abigail
Williams. "Now it is whispering into his ear. It is bringing him a
message from the other witch Dulcibel Burton. See! see! there it goes
back again to her--through the window!"
So well was this done, that probably half of the people present would
have been willing to swear the next day, that they actually saw the
yellow bird as she described it.
"Ask him if he did not give her the yellow bird," said Leah Herrick.
"But probably he will lie about it."
"Did you not give the witch, Dulcibel Burton, a yellow bird, which is
one of her familiars?" said Squire Hathorne sternly.
"I gave her a canary bird that I brought from the West Indies, if that
is what you mean," replied the Captain. "But what harm was there in
that?"
"I knew it! The yellow bird told me so, when it came to peck out my
eyes," cried Mercy Lewis. "Oh! there it is again!" and she struck wildly
into the air before her face. "Drive it away! Do drive it away, some
one!"
Here a young man pulled out his rapier, and began thrusting at the
invisible bird in a furious manner.
"Now it comes to me!" cried Sarah Churchill. And then the other girls
also cried out, and began striking into the air before their faces, till
there was anew a perfect babel of cries, shrieks and sympathizing
voices.
Master Raymond, amid all his indignation at such barefaced and wicked
and yet successful imposture, could hardly avoid smiling at the
expression of the old seaman's face as he stood on the chair, and
fronted all this tempest of absurd and villainous accusation. At first
there had been a deep crimson glow of the hottest wrath upon the old
man's cheeks and brow; but now he seemed to have been shocked into a
kind of stupor, so unexpected and weighty were the charges against him,
and made with such vindictive fierceness; and yet so utterly absurd,
while at the same time, so impossible of being refuted.
"He bought the yellow bird from Tituba's mother--her spectre told me
so!" cried Abigail Williams.
"What do you say to that, Master Alden?" said Squire Gedney. "That is a
serious charge."
"I never saw any Tituba or her mother," exclaimed the Captain, again
growing indignant.
"Who then did you buy the witch's familiar of?" asked Squire Hathorne.
"I do not know--some old negro wench!"
Here the magistrates looked at each other sagely, and nodded their
wooden heads. It was a fatal admission. "You had better confess all,
and give glory to God!" said Squire Gedney solemnly.
"I trust I shall always be ready to give glory to God," answered the old
man stoutly; "but I do not see that it would glorify Him to confess to a
pack of lies. You have known me for many years, Master Gedney, but did
you ever know me to speak an untruth, or seek to injure any innocent
persons, much less women and children?"
Squire Gedney said that he had known the accused many years, and had
even been at sea with him, and had always supposed him to be an honest
man; but now he saw good cause to alter that judgment.
"Turn and look now again upon those afflicted persons," concluded Squire
Gedney.
As the accused turned and again looked upon them, all of the "afflicted"
fell down on the floor as if he had struck them a heavy blow--moaning
and crying out against him.
"I judge you by your works; and believe you now to be a wicked man and a
witch," said Squire Gedney in a very severe tone.
Captain Alden turned then and looked directly at the magistrate for
several moments. "Why does not my look knock you down too?" he said
indignantly. "If it hurts them so much, would it not hurt you a little?"
"He wills it not to hurt you," cried Leah Herrick. "He is looking at
you, but his spectre has its back towards you."
There was quite a roar of applause through the crowded house at such an
exposure of the old Captain's trickery. He was very cunning to be sure;
but the "afflicted" girls could see through his knavery.
"Make him touch the poor girls," said the Reverend Master Noyes. For it
was the accepted theory that by doing this, the witch, in spite of
himself, reabsorbed into his own body the devilish energy that had gone
out of him, and the afflicted were healed. This was repeatedly done
through the progress of these examinations and the after trials; and was
always found to be successful, both as a cure of the sufferers, and an
undeniable proof that the person accused was really a witch.
In this case the "afflicted" girls were brought up to Captain Alden, one
after the other and upon his being made to touch them with his hand,
they invariably drew a deep breath of relief, and said they felt
entirely well again.
"You see Captain Alden," said Squire Gedney solemnly, "none of the
tests fail in your case. If there were only one proof, we might doubt;
but as the Scripture says, by the mouths of two or three witnesses shall
the truth be established. If you were innocent a just God would not
allow you to be overcome in this manner."
"I know that there is a just God, and I know that I am entirely
innocent" replied the noble old seaman in a firm voice. "But it is not
for an uninspired man like me, to attempt to reconcile the mysteries of
His providence. Far better men than I am, even prophets and apostles,
have been brought before magistrates and judges, and their good names
lied away, and they condemned to the prison and the scaffold and the
cross. Why then, should I expect to fare better than they did? All I can
do, like Job of old, is to maintain my integrity--even though Satan and
all his imps be let loose for a time against me."
Here the Reverend Master Noyes rose excitedly, and said that the
decisions of heathen courts and judges were one thing; and the decisions
of godly magistrates, who were all members of the church of the true
God, and therefore inspired by his spirit, was a very different thing.
He said it was simply but another proof of the guilt of the accused,
that he should compare himself with the apostles and the martyrs; and
these worshipful Christian magistrates with heathen magistrates and
judges. Hearing him talk in this ribald way, he could no longer doubt
the accusation brought against him; for there was no surer proof of a
man or woman having dealings with Satan, than to defame and calumniate
God's chosen people.
As Mr. Noyes took his seat, the magistrates said they had heard
sufficient, and ordered the committal of the accused to Boston prison to
await trial.
"I will give bail for Captain Alden's appearance, to the whole amount of
my estate," said Joseph Putnam coming forward. "A man of his age, who
has served the colony in so many important positions, should be treated
with some leniency."
"We are very sorry for the Captain," answered Squire Gedney, "but as
this is a capital offence, no bail can be taken."
"Thank you, Master Putnam, but I want no bail," said the old seaman
proudly. "If the colony of Massachusetts Bay, which my father helped to
build up, and for which I have labored so long and faithfully, chooses
to requite my services in this ungrateful fashion, let it be so. The
shame is on Massachusetts not on me!"
CHAPTER XXVI.
Considering New Plans.
"Well, what now?" said Master Joseph Putnam to his guest, as they rode
homeward. "You might give up the sea-route and try a push through the
wilderness to the Hudson River."
"Rather dangerous that."
"Yes, unless you could secure the services of some heathen savages to
pilot you through."
"Could we trust them?"
"Twenty years ago, according to my father's old stories, we could; but
they are very bitter now--they do not keep much faith with white men.
"Perhaps the white men have not kept much faith with them."
"Of course not. You know they are the heathen; and we have a Bible
communion to exterminate them, and drive them out of our promised land."
"Do you believe that?"
"Well, not exactly," and Master Joseph laughed. "Besides, I think the
Quaker plan both cheaper in the end and a great deal safer. Not that I
believe they have any more right to the land than we have."
"Penn and the Quakers think differently."
"I know they do--but they are a set of crazy enthusiasts."
"What is your view? That of your ministers? The earth is the Lord's. He
has given it to His saints. We are the saints."
Master Joseph laughed again. "Well, something like that. The earth is
the Lord's. He has intended it for the use of His children. We are His
children quite as much as the savages. Therefore we have as much right
to it as they have."
"Only they happen to be in possession," replied Master Raymond, drily.
"Are they in possession? So far as they are actually in possession, I
admit their right. But do you seriously mean that a few hundred or
thousand of wild heathen, have a right to prior occupancy to the whole
North American continent? It seems to me absurd?"
"A relative of mine has ten square miles in Scotland that he never
occupies, in your sense of the word any more than your red-men do; and
yet he is held to have a valid right to it, against the hundreds of
peasants who would like to enter in and take possession."
"Oh, plenty of things are done wrong in the old world," replied Master
Putnam; "that is why we Puritans are over here. But still the fact
remains that the earth is the Lord's and that He intended it for His
children's use; and no merely legal or personal right can be above that.
If ever the time comes that your relative's land is really needed by the
people at large, why then some way will have to be contrived to get hold
of it for them."
"The Putnam family have a good many broad acres too," said Master
Raymond, with a smile, looking around him.
"Oh, you cannot scare me," replied his friend, also smiling. "What is
sauce for the Campbell goose is sauce for the Putnam gander. If the time
ever comes when the public good requires that the broad lands of the
Putnams--if
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