Ye Lyttle Salem Maide: A Story of WitchcraftMackie, Pauline Bradford
History
Ye Lyttle Salem Maide: A Story of Witchcraft
Mackie, Pauline Bradford
Salem (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction; Trials (Witchcraft) -- Fiction
Weeping, the good dame related the episode of finding the prisoner’s bed
empty one morning, and the yellow bird on the window-ledge. Groans and
hisses greeted her testimony. There was no reason to doubt her word. It
was plainly observed that she was suffering, and that she walked over her
own heart in telling the truth. It was not simply terror and superstition
that actuated Goodwife Higgins, but rather the stern determination bred
in the very bone and blood of all Puritans to meet Satan face to face and
drive him from the land, even though those dearest and best beloved were
sacrificed.
The next witness was the prisoner’s father. The heart-broken man had
nothing to say which would lead to her conviction. Save the childish
naughtiness with which all parents were obliged to contend, the prisoner
had been his dear and dutiful daughter, and God would force them to judge
her righteously.
“She has bewitched him. She has not even spared her father. See how blind
he is to her sinfulness,” the whisper passed from mouth to mouth. And
hearts hardened still more toward the prisoner.
Master Wentworth was then dismissed. While on the stand he had not
glanced at his daughter. Doubtless the sight of her wan little face would
have been more than he could have endured.
Sir Jonathan Jamieson was then called upon to give his testimony. As his
name was cried by the constable, Deliverance showed the first signs of
animation since she had been taken from the jail. Surely, she thought,
he who understood better than she the meaning of her words to him,
would explain them and save her from hanging. Her eyes brightened, and
she watched him intently as he advanced up the aisle. A general stir
and greater attention on the part of the people was apparent at his
appearance. A chair was placed for him in the witness-box, for he was
allowed to sit, being of the gentry. As usual he was clothed in sombre
velvet. He seated himself, took off his hat and laid it on the floor
beside his chair. Deliverance then saw that the hair on his head was
quite as red as his beard, and that he wore it cropped short, uncovered
by a wig. Deliberately, while the judges and people waited, he drew off
his leathern gauntlets that he might lay his bare hand upon the Bible
when he took the oath.
Deliverance for once forgot her fear of him. She leant forward eagerly.
So near was he that she could almost have touched him with her hand.
“Oh, sir,” she cried, using strong old Puritan language, “tell the truth
and mortify Satan and his members, for he has gotten me in sore straits.”
“Hush,” said one of the judges, sternly, “let the prisoner keep silent.”
“Methinks that I be the only one not allowed to speak,” said Deliverance
to herself, “which be not right, seeing I be most concerned.” And she
shook her head, very greatly perplexed and troubled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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