in the height of his power. He had journeyed thither, he said, especially to be present at this trial, inasmuch as he had heard that some doubters had protested that the prisoner being young and a maiden, it was a cruel deed to bring her to trial, as if it had not been proven unto the people, yea, unto these very doubters, that the Devil, in his serpent cunning, o en takes possession of seemingly innocent persons. "Atheism," he said, tapping his Bible, "is begun in Sadduceeism, and those that dare not openly say, 'There is no God,' content themselves for a fair step and introduction thereto by denying there are witches. You have seen how this poor child had his grievous torment relieved as soon as the prisoner touched him. Yet you are wrought upon in your weak hearts by her round cheek and tender years, whereas if the prisoner had been an hag, you would have cried out upon her. Have you not been told this present assault of evil spirits is a particular defiance unto you and your ministers? Especially against New England is Satan waging war, because of its greater godliness. For the same reason it has been observed that demons, having much spite against God's house, do seek to demolish churches during thunderstorms. Of this you have had terrible experience in the incident of this prisoner. You know how hundreds of poor people have been seized with supernatural torture, many scalded with invisible brimstone, some with pins stuck in them, which have been withdrawn and placed in a bottle, that you all may have witness thereof. Yea, with mine own eyes have I seen poor children made to fly like geese, but just their toes touching now and then upon the ground, sometimes not once in twenty feet, their arms flapping like wings!" The courthouse was very warm this June morning. Cotton Mather paused to wipe the perspiration from his brow. As he returned his kerchief to his pocket his glance rested momentarily on the prisoner. 66 For the first time he realized her youth. He noted her hair had a golden and innocent shining like the hair of a little child. Surely," he spoke aloud, yet more to himself than to the people, "the Devil does indeed take on at times the appearance of a very angel of light!" He felt a sudden stirring of sympathy for those weak natures wrought upon by "a round cheek and tender years." The consciousness of this leaning in himself inspired him to greater vehemence. "The conviction is most earnestly forced upon me that C has made of this especial case a very trial of faith, lest we brace Satan when he appears to us in goodly disguise, and p secute him only when he puts on the semblance of an old or a middle-aged person. Yet, while God has thus far accor the most exquisite success to our endeavor to defeat these hor witchcrafts, there is need of much caution lest the Devil out us, so that we most miserably convict the innocent and set guilty free. Now, the prisoner being young, meseemeth was, perchance, more foolish than wicked. And when I ref that men of much strength and hearty women have confes that the Black man did tender a book unto them, solicit them to enter into a league with his Master, and when t refused this abominable specter did summon his demons torture these poor people, until by reason of their weak fl but against their real desires, they signed themselves to be servants of the Devil forever, — and, I repeat, that whe reflect on this, that they who were hearty and of mature could not withstand the torture of being twisted and pric and pulled, and scalded with burning brimstone, how much could a weak, tender maid resist their evil assaults? An trust that my poor prayers for her salvation will not be refu but that she will confess and save her soul.” He turned his earnest gaze upon Deliverance, and, perceiv she was in great fear, he spoke to her gently, bidding her off all dread of the Devil, abiding rather in the love of and thus strong in the armor of light, make her confession. But the little maid was too stupefied by terror to ga much intelligent meaning from his words, and she stared h lessly at him as if stricken dumb. At her continued, and to him, stubborn, silence, his patie vanished. “Then you are indeed obstinate and of hard heart, and Lord has cast you off," he cried. He turned to the judges an impassioned gesture. "What better proof could you l that the Devil would indeed beguile the court itself by a outward show? Behold a very Sadducee! See in what need we stand to permit no false compassion to move us, by not proceeding with unwavering justice in this witc business we work against the very cause of Christ. Still, w I would thus caution you not to let one witch go free, meseen it is yet worth while to consider other punishment than by ha or burning. I have lately been impressed by a Vision from the Invisible World, that it would be pleasing to the Lord to have the lesser criminals punished in a mortifying public fashion until they renounce the Devil. I am apt to think there is some substantial merit in this peculiar recommendation." A ray of hope was in these last words for the prisoner. Deliverance raised her head eagerly. A lesser punishment! Then she would not be hanged. Oh, what a blessed salvation that she would be placed only in the stocks, or made to stand in a public place until she should confess! And it flashed through her mind that she could delay her confession from day to day until the Cavalier should return. Cotton Mather caught her sudden changed expression. The wan little face with its wide, uplifted eyes and halfparted lips acquired a fearful significance. That transfiguring illumination of hope upon her face was to him the phosphorescent playing of diabolical lights. His compassion vanished. He now saw her only as a subtle instrument of the Devil's to defeat the ministers and the Church. He shuddered at the train of miserable consequences to which his pity might have opened the door, had not the mercy of God showed him his error in time. "But when you have catched a witch of more than ordinary devilment," he cried, striking the palm of one hand with his clinched fist, "and who, by a fair and most subtle showing, would betray the cause of Christ to her Master, let no weak pity unnerve you, but have at her and hang her, lest but one such witch left in the land acquire power to wreak untold evil and undo all we have done." Still once again did his deeply concerned gaze seek the prisoner's face, hoping to behold therein some sign of softening. Beholding it not, he sighed heavily. He would willingly have given his life to save her soul to the good of God and to the glory of his own self-immolation. "I become more and more convinced that my failure to bring this miserable maid to confession, and indeed the whole assault of the Evil Angels upon the country," he continued, using those words which have been generally accepted as a revelation of his marvelous credulity and self-righteousness, "were intended by Hell as a particular defiance unto my poor endeavors to bring the souls of men unto heaven. Yet will I wage personal war with Satan to drive him from the land." He raised his eyes, a light of exaltation sweeping over his face. "And in God's own appointed time," he cried in a voice that quivered with emotion," His Peace will again descend upon this fair and gracious land, and we shall be at rest from persecution." Whatever of overweening vanity his words expressed, none present seeing his enraptured face might have judged him harshly. No infatuated self-complacency alone prompted his words, but rather his earnest conviction that he was indeed the instrument of God, and believed himself by reason of his long fastings and prayer, more than any person he knew, in direct communion with the invisible world. And if his vanity and self-sufficiency held many from loving him, there were few who did not involuntarily do him honor. Having finished, he sat down, laid his Bible on his knee, and folded his arms across his breast as heretofore. None, looking at him then as he sat facing the people, his chest puffed out with incomparable pride, young, with every sign of piety, withal a famous scholar, and possessed of exceptional personal comeliness, saw how the shadow of the future already touched him, when for his honest zeal in persecuting witches he should be an object of insult and ridicule in Boston Town, people naming their negroes Cotton Mather after him. During his speech, Deliverance had at first listened eagerly, but, as he continued, her head sank on her breast and hope vanished. Dimly, as in a dream, she heard the judges' voices, the whispering of the people. At last, as a voice speaking a great distance off, she heard her name spoken. "Deliverance Wentworth," said Chief Justice Stoughton, "you are acquaint with the law. If any man or woman be a witch and hath a familiar spirit, or hath consulted with one, he or she shall be put to death. You have by full and fair trial been proven a witch and found guilty in the extreme. Yet the court will show mercy unto you, if you will heartily, and with a contrite heart, confess that you sinned through weakness, and repent that you did transfer allegiance from God to the Devil." "I be no witch," cried Deliverance, huskily, "I be no witch. There be another judgment." The tears dropped from her eyes into her lap and the sweat rolled down her face. But she could not wipe them away, her arms being bound behind her. The judge nearest her, he who wore his natural hair and the black cap, was moved to compassion. He leant forward, and with his kerchief wiped the tears and sweat from her face. "You poor and pitiful child," he said, "estranged from God by reason of your great sin, confess, confess, while there is yet time, lest you be hanged in sin and your soul condemned to eternal burning." Deliverance comprehended but the merciful act and not the exhortation. She looked at him with the terror and entreaty of a last appeal in her eyes, but was powerless to speak. Thus because she would not confess to the crime of which she had been proven guilty in the eyes of the law, she was sentenced to be hanged within five days, on Saturday, not later than the tenth nor earlier than the eighth hour. Also, owing to the fact of the confusion and almost ungovernable excitement among the people, it was forbidden any one to visit her, excepting of course the officers of the law, or the ministers to exhort her to confession. At noon the court adjourned. First, the judges in their velvet gowns went out of the meeting-house. With the chief justice walked Cotton Mather, conversing learnedly. Following their departure, two soldiers entered and bade Deliverance rise and go out with them. So, amidst a great silence, she passed down the aisle. THE WISE WOMAN. BY MME. DARMESTETER (MARY ROBINSON). [MARY ROBINSON: Born at Leamington, Feb. 27, 1857. An English poet. In 1888 she married M. Darmesteter, the French Orientalist. She has written: "A Handful of Honeysuckles" (1878), "The Crowned Hippolytus" (1880), a translation of Euripides (1881), "The End of the Middle Ages" (1889: a his torical work), etc.] In the last low cottage in Blackthorn Lane The broken thatch lets in the rain, And the glass is shattered in every pane With stones the boys have thrown. |