Here the venerable Increase Mather stood up, and after a short speech
to the people and a few words to the court, he begged to know if the
individual he saw before him was indeed the George Burroughs who had
formerly been a servant of God.
Formerly, sir! I am so now, I hope.
The other sat down, with a look of inquietude.
You appear to be much perplexed about me. You appear even to doubt the
truth of what I say. Surely ... surely ... there are some here that
know me. I know you, Doctor Mather, and you, Sir William Phips, and you
... and you ... and you; addressing himself to many that stood near--it
is but the other day that we were associated together; and some of us
in the church, and others in the ministry; it is but the other day
that--
Here the Judges began to whisper together.
--That you knew me as well as I knew you. Can I be so changed in
a few short years? They have been years of sorrow to be sure, of
uninterrupted sorrow, of trial and suffering, warfare and wo; but I did
not suppose they had so changed me, as to make it over-hard for my very
brothers in the church to know me--
It _is_ Burroughs, I do believe, said another of the judges.--But who
is that boy with you, and by what authority are you abroad again, or
alive, I might say, if you are the George Burroughs that we knew?
By what authority, Judges of Israel! By authority of the Strong Man
who broke loose when the spirit of the Lord was upon him! By authority
of one that hath plucked me up out of the sea, by the hair of my head,
breathed into my nostrils the breath of new life, and endowed me with
great power--
The people drew back.
You have betrayed me; I will be a hostage for you no longer.
Betrayed you!
Yes! and ye would have betrayed me to death, if I had not been prepared
for your treachery--
The man is mad, brother Sewall.
You have broken the treaty I stood pledged for; you have not been at
peace for a day. You do not keep your faith. We do keep ours. You are
churchmen ... we are savages; we I say, for you made me ashamed years
and years ago of my relationship to the white man; years and years ago!
and you are now in a fair way to make me the mortal and perpetual foe
of the white man. The brave Iroquois are now ready for battle with you.
War they find to be better than peace with such as you--
Who is that boy?
Ask him. Behold his beauty. Set him face to face, if you dare, with the
girl that spoke to the knife just now.
And wherefore? said one of the jury.
Wherefore, Jacob Elliot--wherefore! Stay you in that box, and watch the
boy, and hear what he has to say, and you shall be satisfied of the
wherefore.
Be quick Sir. We have no time to lose--
No time to lose--How dare ye! Is there indeed such power with you; such
mighty power ... and you not afraid in the exercise of it! No time to
lose! Hereafter, when you are upon your death-bed, when every moment
of your life is numbered as every moment of _her_ life is now ... the
poor creature that stands there, what will you say if the words of that
very speech ring in your ears? Believe me--there is no such hurry. It
will be time enough to-morrow, judges, a week hence or a whole year to
shed the blood of a miserable woman for witchcraft. For witchcraft!
alas for the credulity of man! alas for the very nature of man!
Master Burroughs! murmured a compassionate-looking old man, reaching
over to lay his hand on his arm, as if to stop him, and shaking his
head as he spoke.
Oh but I do pity you; sages though you are--continued Burroughs,
without regarding the interposition.--For witchcraft! I wonder how you
are able to keep your countenances! Do you not perceive that mother
Good, as they call her, cannot be a witch?
How so? asked the judge.
Would she abide your search, your trial, your judgment, if she had
power to escape?
Assuredly not brother, answered a man, who rose up as he spoke as if
ready to dispute before the people, if permitted by the judges ...
assuredly not, brother, if she had power to escape. We agree with you
there. But we know that a period must arrive when the power that is
paid for with the soul, the power of witchcraft and sorcery shall be
withdrawn. We read of this and we believe it; and I might say that we
see the proof now before us--
Brother, I marvel at you--
--If the woman be unexpectedly deserted by the Father of lies, and if
we pursue our advantage now, we may be able both to succeed with her
and overthrow him, and thereby (lowering his voice and stooping toward
Burroughs) and thereby deter a multitude more from entering into the
league of death.
Speak low ... lower--much lower, deacon Darby, or we shall be no match
for the Father of lies: If he should happen to overhear you, the game
is up, said another.
For shame, Elder Smith--
For shame! cried Burroughs. Why rebuke his levity, when if we are to
put faith in what you say, ye are preparing to over-reach the Evil One
himself? You must play a sure game, (for it _is_ a game) if you hope
to convict him of treachery in a case, where according to what you
believe, his character is at stake.
Brother Burroughs!
Brother Willard!
Forbear, I beseech you.
I shall not forbear. If the woman is a witch, how do you hope to
surprise her? ... to entrap her? ... to convict her? And if she is not
a witch, how can she hope to go free? None but a witch could escape
your toils.
Ah Sir.... Sir! O, Mr. Burroughs! cried the poor woman. There you
have spoken the truth sir; there you have said just what I wanted to
say. I knew it.... I felt it.... I knew that if I was guilty it would
be better for me, than to be what you know me to be, and what your
dead wife knew me to be, and both of your dead wives, for I knew them
both--a broken-hearted poor old woman. God forever bless you Sir!
whatever may become of me--however this may end, God forever bless you,
Sir!
Be of good faith Sarah. He whom you serve will be nigh to you and
deliver you.
Oh Sir--Sir--Do not talk so. They misunderstand you--they are
whispering together--it will be the death of me; and hereafter, it may
perhaps be a trouble to you. Speak out, I beseech you! Say to them whom
it is that you mean, whom it is that I serve, and who it is that will
be nigh to me and deliver me.
Who it is, poor heart! why whom should it be but our Father above! our
Lord and our God, Sarah? Have thou courage, and be of good cheer, and
put all thy trust in him, for he hath power to deliver thee.
I have--I do--I am no longer afraid of death sir. If they put me to
death now--I do not wish to live--I am tired and sick of life, and I
have been so ever since dear boy and his poor father--I told them how
it would be if they went away when the moon was at the full--they were
shipwrecked on the shore just underneath the window of my chamber--if
they put me to death now, I shall die satisfied, for I shall not go to
my grave now, as I thought I should before you came, without a word or
a look of pity, nor any thing to make me comfortable.
Judges--may the boy speak?
Speak? speak? to be sure he may, muttered old Mr. Wait Winthrop,
addressing himself to a preacher who sat near with a large Bible
outspread upon his knees. What say you? what say you Brother Willard,
what says the Book?--no harm there, I hope; what can he have to say
though, (wiping his eyes) what _can_ such a lad have to say? What say
you major Gidney; what say you--(half sobbing) dreadful affair this,
dreadful affair; what can he possibly have to say?
Not much, I am afraid, replied Burroughs, not very much; but enough
I hope and believe, to shake your trust in the chief accuser. Robert
Eveleth--here--this way--shall the boy be sworn, Sir?
Sworn--sworn?--to be sure--why not? very odd
though--very--_very_--swear the boy--very odd, I confess--never saw a
likelier boy of his age--how old is he?
Thirteen Sir--
Very--very--of his height, I should say--what can he know of the matter
though? what can such a boy know of--of--however--we shall see--is the
boy sworn?--there, there--
The boy stepped forth as the kind-hearted old man--too kind-hearted
for a judge--concluded his perplexing soliloquy, one part of which was
given out with a very decided air, while another was uttered with a
look of pitiable indecision--stepped forth and lifted up his right hand
according to the law of that people, with his large grey eyes lighted
up and his fine yellow hair blowing about his head like a glory, and
swore by the Everlasting God, the Searcher of Hearts, to speak the
truth.
Every eye was riveted upon him, for he stood high upon a sort of stage,
in full view of everybody, and face to face to all who had sworn to the
spectre-knife, and his beauty was terrible.
Stand back, stand back ... what does that child do there? said another
of the judges, pointing to a poor little creature with a pale anxious
face and very black hair, who had crept close up to the side of Robert
Eveleth, and sat there with her eyes lifted to his, and her sweet lips
apart, as if she were holding her breath.
Why, what are you afeard of now, Bridgee Pope? said another voice. Get
away from the boy’s feet, will you ... why don’t you move? ... do you
hear me?
No ... I do not, she replied.
You do not! what did you answer me for, if you didn’t hear me?
Why ... why ... don’t you see the poor little thing’s bewitched?
whispered a bystander.
Very true ... very true ... let her be, therefore, let her stay where
she is.
Poor babe! she don’t hear a word you say.
O, but she dooze, though, said the boy, stooping down and smoothing
her thick hair with both hands; I know her of old, I know her better
than you do; she hears every word you say ... don’t you be afeard,
Bridgee Pope; _I’m_ not a goin’ to be afeard of the Old Boy himself....
Why Robert Eveleth! was the reply.
Well, Robert Eveleth, what have you to say? asked the chief-judge.
The boy stood up in reply, and threw back his head with a brave air,
and set his foot, and fixed his eye on the judge, and related what he
knew of the knife. He had broken it a few days before, he said, while
he and the witness were playing together; he threw away a part of
the blade, which he saw her pick up, and when he asked her what she
wanted of it, she wouldn’t say ... but he knew her well, and being jest
outside o’ the door when he heard her screech, and saw her pull a piece
of the broken blade out of her flesh and hold it up to the jury, and
say how the shape of old mother Good, who was over tother side o’ the
house at the time, had stabbed her with it, he guessed how the judge
would like to see the tother part o’ the knife, and hear what he had to
say for himself, but he couldn’t get near enough to speak to nobody,
and so he thought he’d run off to the school-house, where he had left
the handle o’ the knife, an’ try to get a mouthful o’ fresh air; and so
... and so ... arter he’d got the handle, sure enough, who should he
see but that are man there (pointing to Burroughs) stavin’ away on a
great black horse with a club--that very club he had now.--“Whereupon,”
added the boy, “here’s tother part o’ the knife, judge--I say ...
you ... Mr. judge ... here’s tother part o’ the knife ... an’ so he
stopped me an’ axed me where the plague I was runnin to; an’ so I up
an’ tells him all I know about the knife, an’ so, an’ so, an’ so, that
air feller, what dooze he do, but he jounces me up on that air plaguy
crupper and fetches me back here full split, you see, and rides over
everything, and makes everybody get out o’ the way, an’ _will_ make
me tell the story whether or no ... and as for the knife now, if you
put them are two pieces together, you’ll see how they match.... O, you
needn’t be makin’ mouths at me, Anne Putnam! nor you nyther, Marey
Lewis! you are no great shakes, nyther on you, and I ain’t afeard o’
nyther on you, though the grown people be; you wont make _me_ out a
witch in a hurry, I guess.
Boy ... boy ... how came you by that knife?
How came I by that knife? Ax Bridgy Pope; she knows the knife well
enough, too--I guess--don’t you, Bridgy?
I guess I do, Robert Eveleth, whispered the child, the tears running
down her cheeks, and every breath a sob.
You’ve seen it afore, may be?
That I have, Robert Eveleth; but I never expected to see ... to see ...
to see it again ... alive ... nor you neither.
And why not, pray? said one of the judges.
Why not, Mr. Major! why, ye see ’tis a bit of a keep-sake she gin me,
jest afore we started off on that are vyage arter the goold.
The voyage when they were all cast away, sir ... after they’d fished up
the gold, sir....
Ah, but the goold was safe then, Bridgy--
But I knew how ’twould be Sir, said the poor girl turning to the judge
with a convulsive sob, and pushing away the hair from her face and
trying to get up, I never expected to see Robert Eveleth again Sir--I
said so too--nor the knife either--I said so before they went away----.
So she did Mr. Judge, that’s a fact; she told me so down by the
beach there, just by that big tree that grows over the top o’ the
new school-house there--You know the one I mean--that one what hangs
over the edge o’ the hill just as if ’twas a-goin’ to fall into the
water--she heard poor mother Good say as much when her Billy would go
to sea whether or no, at the full o’ the moon----.
Ah!
That she did, long afore we got the ship off.
Possible!
Ay, to be sure an’ why not?--She had a bit of a dream ye see--such a
dream too! such a beautiful dream you never heard--about the lumps of
goold, and the joes, and the jewels, and the women o’ the sea, and
about a--I say, Mr. Judge, what, if you ax her to tell it over now--I
dare say she would; wouldn’t you Bridgy? You know it all now, don’t you
Bridgy?
No, no Robert--no, no; it’s all gone out o’ my head now.
No matter for the dream, boy, said a judge who was comparing the
parts of the blade together--no matter for the dream--these are
undoubtedly--look here brother, look--look--most undoubtedly parts of
the same blade.
Of a truth?
Of a truth, say you?
Yea verily, of a truth; pass the knife there--pass the knife. Be of
good cheer woman of sorrow----.
Brother! brother!----.
Well brother, what’s to pay now?
Perhaps it may be well brother--_perhaps_ I say, to have the judgment
of the whole court before we bid the prisoner be of good cheer.
How wonderful are thy ways, O Lord! whispered Elder Smith, as they
took the parts of the blade for him to look at.
Very true brother--very true--but who knows how the affair may turn out
after all?
Pooh--pooh!--if you talk in that way the affair is all up; for whatever
should happen, you would believe it a trick of the father of lies--I
dare say now--.
The knife speaks for itself, said a judge.
Very true brother--very true. But he who had power to strive with Aaron
the High Priest, and power to raise the dead before Saul, and power to
work prodigies of old, may not lack power to do this--and more, much
more than this--for the help of them that serve him in our day, and for
the overthrow of the righteous----.
Pooh, pooh Nathan, pooh, pooh--there’s no escape for any body now; your
devil-at-a-pinch were enough to hang the best of us.
Thirteen pence for you, said the little man at the desk.
Here a consultation was held by the judges and the elders which
continued for half the day--the incredible issue may be told in
few words. The boy, Robert Eveleth, was treated with favor; the
witness being a large girl was rebuked for the lie instead of being
whipped; the preacher Burroughs from that day forth was regarded with
unspeakable terror, and the poor old woman--she was put to death in due
course of law.