Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem

by Henry Peterson

  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 ofseven Judges--a majority of whom were leading citizens of Boston, theDeputy Governor of the Province, acting as Chief-Justice--decided totake further counsel in this wonderful and important matter of thefathers of the church. So the Court took a recess, while it consultedthe ministers of Boston and other places, respecting its duty in thecase. The response of the ministers, while urging in general terms theimportance of caution and circumspection, recommended the earnest andvigorous carrying on of the war against Satan and his disciples.

  Among the new victims, one of the most striking cases was that of GeorgeJacobs and his grand-daughter Margaret. The former was avenerable-looking man, very tall, with long, thin white hair, who wascompelled by his infirmities to support himself in walking with twostaffs. Sarah Churchill, a chief witness, against him, was a servant inhis 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 itright after many trials."

  "Well," said the brave old man finally, after they had badgered him withall kinds of nonsensical questions, "Well, burn me, or hang me, I willstand in the truth of Christ!"

  As his manly bearing was evidently producing an effect, the "afflictedgirls" 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 fitsand 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 towrite in the red book; and promises if I will do so, to make me as wellas 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 MaryWalcott.

  Mercy Lewis for her part walked towards him; but as soon as she gotnear, fell into great fits.

  Then Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams "had each of them a pin stuck intheir hands and they said it was done by this old Jacobs."

  The Magistrates took all this wicked acting in sober earnest; and askedthe prisoner, "what he had to say to it?"

  "Only that it is false," he replied. "I know no more of it than thechild that was born last night."

  But the honest old man's denial went of course, for nothing. Neither didSarah Ingersoll's deposition made a short time afterwards; in which shetestified that "Sarah Churchill came to her after giving her evidence,crying and wringing her hands, and saying that she has belied herselfand others in saying she had set her hand to the Devil's book." She saidthat "they had threatened her that if she did not say it, they would puther in the dungeon along with Master Burroughs."

  And that, "if she told Master Noyes, the minister, but once that she hadset her hand to the book, he would believe her; but if she told him thetruth 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, havingcommitted themselves fully to the prosecution of the witches, wouldlisten to nothing that tended to prove that the principal witnesses weredeliberate and malicious liars; and that, so far as the other witnesseswere concerned, they were grossly superstitious and deluded persons.

  No charity that is fairly clear-sighted, can cover over the evidence ofthe "afflicted circle" with the mantle of self-delusion. Self-delusiondoes not conceal pins, stick them into its own body, and charge theaccused person with doing it, knowing that the accusation may be theprisoner's death. This was done repeatedly by Mistress Ann Putnam, andher Satanic brood of false accusers.

  Sarah Churchill was no worse than the others, judging by her remorseafter she had helped to murder with her lying tongue her venerablemaster and we have in the deposition of Sarah Ingersoll, undoubted proofthat she testified falsely.

  When Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis and Mary Walcott all united in charginglittle Dorcas Good--five years old!--with biting, pinching and almostchoking them; "showing the marks of her little teeth on their arms, andthe pins sticking in their bodies, where they had averred she waspiercing them"--can any sane, clear-minded man or woman suppose it wasan 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" sothat "it could hardly be taken off without cutting," was there not onlydeception, 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 theby-standers until it became visible by being snatched by the suffererfrom the spectre's hand, was there any self-delusion there? Was it notmerely 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 tothe conclusion that the "afflicted girls," who led off in this matter,and were the principal witnesses, continually testified to what theyknew to be utterly false. There is no possible excuse for them on theground of "delusion." However much we may recoil from the sad beliefthat they testified in the large majority of cases to what they knew tobe entirely false, the facts of the case compel us with an irresistibleforce to such an unhappy conclusion. When we are positively certain thata witness, in a case of life or death, has testified falsely against theprisoner again and again, is it possible that we can give him or her thebenefit of even a doubt as to the animus of the testimony? Thefalsehoods I have referred to were cases of palpable, unmistakable anddeliberate lying. And the only escape from considering it _wilful_lying, is to make a supposition not much in accord with the temper ofthe present times, that, having tampered with evil spirits, and invokedthe Devil continually during the long evenings of the preceding winter,the prince of powers of the air had at last come at their call, andordered a legion of his creatures to take possession of the minds andbodies that they had so freely offered to him. For certainly there is noway of explaining the conduct of the "afflicted circle" of girls andwomen, than by supposing either that they were guilty of the mostenormous wickedness, or else that they were "possessed with devils."