'Hold thy tongue, Betsy,' said I. 'I shall go to them and speak,' and in my heart I prayed for help where Master Montgomery said it would never be denied. And then I advanced towards the roughs, who turned to look at me in amazement. In a tone and in a manner of authority, for my father always said that it was no use speaking otherwise to knaves, I bade them cease from persecuting a poor old woman who might be innocent of all offence, and passionately adjured them to refrain from violence. The effect of this was marvellous. Releasing their victim, they fell back, and she, poor soul, knelt on the grass before me, crying out for mercy and catching hold of the border of my gown. 'What has she done?' I asked. A Babel of voices answered. The old woman had brought disease on Farmer North's cattle. She had turned her evil eye on a young woman who had straightway sickened and died. She had looked on a man as he rode to market and his horse had run away, thrown him off and killed him. Last of all she had spirited away her own orphan grandson, a boy of great promise, who had been committed to her care by his deceased parents and of whom she had professed to be very fond. This young man was believed to have been sent through the earth to the abodes of the lost. 'I did not do it, lady! I did not! Saul was the darling of my old age. I know no more than they where he has gone. I am no witch. Ask the minister; he knows.' This and much more cried the poor old dame in quavering tones. 'Listen to her. She is innocent,' I said authoritatively to the rascals, who were recovering themselves and again holding out threatening hands. 'She is a poor old woman, very lame and infirm.' That did not touch them, so I seized a weightier argument. 'Have you not heard,' I said, 'of One Who laid His hands upon the sick and lame and made them whole? Jesus had compassion on the multitude. He took pity on the infirm. He laid His hands on them and blessed them. He----' 'He sent the devils into the swine, so that they ran into the sea,' interposed a man's voice grimly. 'The devils? Yes. But not the man out of whom they were driven. He sat at Jesus' feet, clothed and in his right mind.' 'True! true!' cried several voices. It really seemed as if mercy were going to win the day. But at that moment, with a tremendous noise, a number of men and boys came round a bend in the road, dragging forward a wretched object whose head was hidden in a man's jacket. 'A witch! A witch!' yelled the newcomers, brandishing their sticks. 'And we have another! Ha! ha! ha!' laughed and shrieked the men and boys beside me.