Witch Hill : a history of Salem witchcraft, including illustrative sketches of persons and places . here had been anapparent disregard of all caution. In the placeof exceeding tenderness toward the accused,they had reserved all that kind of feeling for theaccusers, even when the prisoners at the bar hadbeen persons formerly of an unblemished reputa-tion. The openness of the trials had invited thenoise and the exposure of the suspected which theministers deprecated. The specter evidence andalterations made in the sufferers by the look andtouch of the accused, by which, they declared, aninnocent
Witch Hill : a history of Salem witchcraft, including illustrative sketches of persons and places . here had been anapparent disregard of all caution. In the placeof exceeding tenderness toward the accused,they had reserved all that kind of feeling for theaccusers, even when the prisoners at the bar hadbeen persons formerly of an unblemished reputa-tion. The openness of the trials had invited thenoise and the exposure of the suspected which theministers deprecated. The specter evidence andalterations made in the sufferers by the look andtouch of the accused, by which, they declared, aninnocent person might be condemned, had beenthe staple evidence in all the trials, and in most 206 WITCH HILL. of them absolutely all that had been broughtforward. On what grounds, then, did the ministers seeoccasion for thankfulness? wherein was thereproof that success had crowned the endeavorsof the Court to detect witchcraft ? If the evidencehad not been legal a just conviction had we shall better understand this part of theletter of the ministers in the final development ofour CHAPTER XXI. fin UxtoicteD F^rlict* THE Court met again on Wednesday, June were in no wise improved by the inter-mission. The whole air was tainted by the delu-sion, and they were not proof against its infection,if indeed their presence among the people didnot give it extension and intensity. In the shortspace of three weeks five more matrons had suf-fered the death penalty on Witch Hill. Of thecircumstances attending the trial and executionof three of them, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth How,and Susanna Martin, we know nothing. Thereader will recollect the kind bearing of Mrs. Howat her trial for commitment, her tenderness towardeven her Satanic accusers, her patience with theunjust Judges, and her Christian spirit through-out. Even with the gallows before her eyes wefeel assured that her faith triumphed, and that sheprayed for her enemies, with her dying Master,Father, forgive them
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectwitchcraft, bookyear1
