Meanwhile other charges grew up, and there was a dread everywhere
throughout the whole country, a deep fear in the hearts and a heavy
mysterious fear in the blood of men. The judges were in array against
the people, and the people against each other; and the number of the
afflicted increased every day and every hour, and they were sent for
from all parts of the Colony. Fasting and prayer preceded their steps,
and whithersoever they went, witches and wizards were sure to be
discovered. A native theologian, a very pious and very learned writer
of that day, was employed by the authorities of New England to draw up
a detailed account of what he himself was an eye witness of; and he
says of the unhappy creatures who appeared to be bewitched, all of whom
he knew, and most of whom he saw every day of his life, that when the
fit was on, they were distorted and convulsed in every limb, that they
were pinched black and blue by invisible fingers, that pins were stuck
into their flesh by invisible hands, that they were scalded in their
sleep as with boiling water and blistered as with fire, that one of the
afflicted was beset by a spectre with a spindle that nobody else could
see, till in her agony she snatched it away from the shape, when it
became instantly visible to everybody in the room with a quick flash,
that another was haunted by a shape clothed in a white sheet which
none but the afflicted herself was able to see till she tore a piece
of it away, whereupon it grew visible to others about her, (it was of
this particular story that Sarah Good spoke just before she was turned
off) that they were pursued night and day by withered hands--little
outstretched groping hands with no bodies nor arms to them, that cups
of blue fire and white smoke of a grateful smell, were offered them to
drink while they were in bed, of which, if they tasted ever so little,
as they would sometimes in their fright and hurry, their bodies would
swell up and their flesh would grow livid, much as if they had been bit
by a rattle snake, that burning rags were forced into their mouths or
under their armpits, leaving sores that no medicine would cure, that
some were branded as with a hot iron, so that very deep marks were left
upon their foreheads for life, that the spectres generally personated
such as were known to the afflicted, and that whenever they did so, if
the shape or spectre was hurt by the afflicted, the person represented
by the shape was sure to be hurt in the same way, that, for example,
one of the afflicted having charged a woman of Beverly, Dorcas Hoare,
with tormenting her, and immediately afterwards, pointing to a far
part of the room, cried out, there!--there! there she goes now! a man
who stood near, drew his rapier and struck at the wall, whereupon the
accuser told the court he had given the shape a scratch over the right
eye; and that Dorcas Hoare being apprehended a few days thereafter, it
was found that she had a mark over the right eye, which after a while
she confessed had been given her by the rapier; that if the accused
threw a look at the witnesses, the latter, though their eyes were
turned another way, would know it, and fall into a trance, out of which
they would recover only at the touch of the accused, that oftentimes
the flesh of the afflicted was bitten with a peculiar set of teeth
corresponding precisely with the teeth of the accused, whether few or
many, large or small, broken or regular, and that after a while, the
afflicted were often able to see the shapes that tormented them, and
among the rest a swarthy devil of a diminutive stature, with fierce
bright eyes, who carried a book in which he kept urging them to write,
whereby they would have submitted themselves to the power and authority
of another Black Shape, with which, if they were to be believed on
their oaths, two or three of their number had slept.
In reply to these reputed facts however, which appear in the grave
elaborate chronicles of the church, and are fortified by other facts
which were testified to about the same time, in the mother country,
we have the word of George Burroughs, a minister of God, who met the
accusers at the time, and stood up to them face to face, and denied the
truth of their charges, and braved the whole power of them that others
were so afraid of.
Man! man! away with her to the place of death! cried he to the chief
judge, on hearing a beautiful woman with a babe at her breast, a wife
and a mother acknowledge that she had lain with Beelzebub. Away with
her! why do you let her live! why permit her to profane the House of
the Lord, where the righteous are now gathered together, as ye believe?
why do ye spare the few that confess--would ye bribe them to live?
Would ye teach them to swear away the lives and characters of all whom
they are afraid of? and thus to preserve their own? Look there!--that
is her child--her only child--the babe that you see there in the lap
of that aged woman--she has no other hope in this world, nothing to
love, nothing to care for but that babe, the man-child of her beauty.
Ye are fathers!--look at her streaming eyes, at her locked hands, at
her pale quivering mouth, at her dishevelled hair--can you wonder now
at anything she says to save her boy--for if she dies, he dies? A wife
and a mother! a broken-hearted wife and a young mother accused of what,
if she did not speak as you have now made her speak, would separate her
and her baby forever and ever!
Would you have us put her to death? asked one of the judges. You appear
to argue in a strange way. What is your motive?--What your hope?--What
would you have us do? suffer them to escape who will not confess, and
put all to death who do?
Even so.
Why--if you were in league with the Evil One yourself brother George, I
do not well see how you could hit upon a method more advantageous for
him.
Hear me--I would rather die myself, unfitted as I am for death, die by
the rope, while striving to stay the mischief-makers in their headlong
career, than be the cause of death to such a woman as that, pleading
before you though she be, with perjury; because of a truth she is
pleading, not so much _against_ life as _for_ life, not so much against
the poor old creature whom she accuses of leading her astray, as for
the babe that you see there; for that boy and for its mother who is
quite sure that if she die, the boy will die--I say that which is true,
fathers! and yet I swear to you by the--
Thirteen-pence to you, brother B. for that!
--By the God of Abraham, that if her life--
Thirteen-pence more--faith!
The same to you--said the outlandishman. Sharp work, hey?
Fool--fool--if it depended upon me I say, her life and that of her
boy, I would order them both to the scaffold! Ye are amazed at what
you hear; ye look at each other in dismay; ye wonder how it is that a
mortal man hath courage to speak as I speak. And yet--hear me! Fathers
of New-England, hear me! beautiful as the boy is, and beautiful as
the mother is, I would put the mark of death upon her forehead, even
though his death were certain to follow, because if I did so, I should
be sure that a stop would be put forever to such horrible stories.
I thought so, said major Gidney--I thought so, by my troth, leaning
over the seat and speaking in a whisper to judge Saltanstall, who shook
his head with a mysterious air, and said--nothing.
Ye would save by her death, O, ye know not how much of human life!
Brother Burroughs!
Brother Willard!--what is there to shock you in what I say? These poor
people who are driven by you to perjury, made to confess by your absurd
law, will they stop with confession? Their lives are at stake--will
they not be driven to accuse? Will they not endeavor to make all
sure?--to fortify their stories by charging the innocent, or those of
whom they are afraid? Will they stop where you would have them stop?
Will they not rather come to believe that which they hear, and that of
which they are afraid?--to believe each other, even while they know
that what they themselves do swear is untrue?--May they not strive to
anticipate each other, to show their zeal or the sincerity of their
faith?--And may they not, by and by--I pray you to consider this--may
they not hereafter charge the living and the mighty as they have
hitherto charged the dead, and the poor, and the weak?
Well--
Well!
Yes--well!--what more have you to say?
What more! why, if need be, much more! You drive people to confession,
I say--you drive them to it, step by step, as with a scourge of iron.
Their lives are at stake, I _will_ say--yet more--I mean to say
much more now; now that you will provoke me to it. I say now that
you--you--ye judges of the land!--_you_ are the cause of all that we
suffer! The accused are obliged to accuse. They have no other hope.
They lie--and you know it, or should know it--and you know, as well
as I do, that they have no other hope, no other chance of escape. All
that have hitherto confessed are alive now. All that have denied your
charges, all that have withstood your mighty temptation--they are all
in the grave--all--all--
Brother--we have read in the Scriptures of Truth, or at least I have,
that of old, a woman had power to raise the dead. If she was upon her
trial now, would you not receive her confession? I wait your reply.
Receive it, governor Phips! no--no--not without proof that she had such
power.
Proof--how?
How! Ye should command her to raise the dead for proof--to raise the
dead in your presence. You are consulting together; I see that you
pity me. Nevertheless, I say again, that if these people are what
they say they are, they should be made to prove it by such awful and
irresistible proof--ah!--what are ye afraid of, judges?
We are not afraid.
Ye are afraid--ye are--and of that wretched old woman there!
What if we call for the proof now--will you endure it?
Endure it! Yes--whatever it may be. Speak to her. Bid her do her
worst--I have no fear--you are quaking with fear. I defy the Power of
Darkness; you would appear to tremble before it. And here I set my
foot--and here I call for the proof! Are they indeed witches?--what can
be easier than to overthrow such an adversary as I am? Why do ye look
at me as if I were mad--you are prepared to see me drop down perhaps,
or to cry out, or to give up the ghost? Why do ye shake your heads at
me? What have I to fear? And why is it I beseech you, that _you_ are
not moved by the evil-eye of that poor woman? Why is it, I pray you,
fathers and judges, that they alone who bear witness against her are
troubled by her look?
Brother Sewall, said one of the judges who had been brought up to the
law; Master Burroughs, I take it, is not of counsel for the prisoner at
the bar?
Assuredly not, brother.
Nor is he himself under the charge?
The remark is proper, said Burroughs. I am aware of all you would say.
I have no right perhaps to open my mouth--
No right, perhaps?--no _right_ brother B., said Winthrop--no right, we
believe?--but--if the prosecutors will suffer it?--why, why--we have no
objection, I suppose--I am sure--have we brother G.?
None at all. What say you Mr. Attorney-general?
Say Sir! What do I say Sir! why Sir, I say Sir, that such a thing was
never heard of before! and I say Sir, that it is against all rule Sir!
If the accused require counsel, the court have power to assign her
suitable counsel--such counsel to be of the law, Sir!--and being of
the law Sir, he would have no right Sir, you understand Sir,--no right
Sir--to address the jury, Sir--as you did the other day Sir--in Rex
versus Good, Sir,--none at all Sir!
Indeed--what may such counsel do then?
Do Sir! do!--why Sir, he may cross-examine the witnesses.
Really!
To be sure he may Sir! and what is more, he may argue points of law to
the court if need be.
Indeed!
Yes--but only points of law.
The court have power to grant such leave, hey?
Yes, that we have, said a judge. You may speak us a speech now, if you
will; but I would have you confine yourself to the charge.--
Here the prosecutor stood up, and saying he had made out his case,
prayed the direction of the court--
No, no, excuse me, said Burroughs; no, no, you have taught me how to
proceed Sir, and I shall undertake for the wretched woman, whatever may
be thought or said by the man of the law.
Proceed Mr. Burroughs--you are at liberty to proceed.
Well Martha, said Burroughs--I am to be your counsel now. What have you
to say for yourself?
The lawyers interchanged a sneer with each other.
Me--nothin’ at all, Sir.
Have you nobody here to speak for you?
For me!--Lord bless you, no! Nobody cares for poor Martha.
No witnesses?
Witnesses!--no indeed, but if you want witnesses, there’s a power of
witnesses.
Where?--
There--there by the box there--
Poor Martha! You do not understand me; the witnesses you see there
belong to the other side.
Well, what if they do?
Have you no witnesses of your own, pray?
Of my own! Lord you--there now--don’t be cross with me. How should poor
Martha know--they never told me;--what are they good for?
But is there nobody here acquainted with you?
And if there was, what would that prove? said a man of the law.
My stars, no! them that know’d me know’d enough to keep away, when they
lugged me off to jail.
And so there’s nobody here to say a kind word for you, if your life
depended on it?
No Sir--nobody at all--nobody cares for Martha. Gracious God--what
unspeakable simplicity!
O, I forgot Sir, I forgot! cried Martha, leaning over the bar and
clapping her hands with a cry of childish joy. I did see neighbor Joe
Trip, t’other day, and I told him he ought to stick by me--
Well where is he--what did he say?
Why he said he’d rather not, if ’twas all the same to me.
He’d rather not--where does he live?
And I spoke to three more, said a bystander, but they wouldn’t come so
fur, some was afeared, and some wouldn’t take the trouble.
Ah! is that you, Jeremiah?--how d’ye do, how d’ye do?--all well I hope
at your house?--an’ so they wouldn’t come, would they?--I wish they
would though, for I’m tired o’ stayin’ here; I’d do as much for them--
Hear you that judges! They would not come to testify in a matter of
life and death. What are their names?--where do they live?--they shall
be made to come.
You’ll excuse me, said the prosecutor. You are the day after the fair;
it’s too late now.
Too late! I appeal to the judges--too late!--would you persuade me Sir,
that it is ever too late for mercy, while there is yet room for mercy?
I speak to the judges--I pray them to make use of their power, and to
have these people who keep away at such a time brought hither by force.
The court have no such power, said the Attorney-General.
How Sir! have they not power to compel a witness to attend?
To be sure they have--on the part of the crown.
On the part of the crown!
Yes.
And not on the part of a prisoner?
No.
No! can this be the law?
Even so, said a judge.
Well, well--poor Martha!
What’s the matter now?--what ails you, Mr. Burroughs?
Martha--
Sir!
There’s no hope Martha.
Hope?
No Martha, no; there’s no hope for you. They _will_ have you die.
Die!--me!--
Yes, poor Martha--you.
Me!--what for?--what have I done?
O that your accusers were not rock, Martha!
Rock!
O that your judges could feel! or any that anybody who knows you would
appear and speak to your piety and your simplicity!
Law Sir--how you talk!
Why as for that now, said Jeremiah Smith, who stood by her, wiping his
eyes and breathing very hard; here am I, Sir, an’ ready to say a good
word for the poor soul, if I die for it; fact is, you see, Mr. Judge
Sewall I’ve know’d poor Martha Cory--hai’nt I Martha?--
So you have Jerry Smith.
--Ever since our Jeptha warn’t more’n so high,--
Stop Sir, if you please, you are not sworn yet, said one of the judges.
Very true--swear him, added another.
You’ll excuse me, said the Attorney-general. I say, you--what’s your
name?
Jerry Smith.
And you appear on the side of the prisoner at the bar, I take it?
Well, what if I do?
Why in that case, you see, you are not to be sworn, that’s all.
Not sworn! cried Burroughs. And why not Sir?
Why we never allow the witnesses that appear against the crown, to take
the oath.
Against the crown Sir! what on earth has the crown to do here?--what
have we to do with such absurdity?
Have a care, brother Burroughs!
Do you know Sir--do you know that, if this man be not allowed to say
what he has to say on oath, less credit will be given to what he says?
Can’t help that Sir.--Such is the law.
Judges--judges--do ye hear that?--_can_ this be the law? Will you give
the sanction of oaths to whatever may be said here against life?--and
refuse their sanction to whatever may be said for life? Can such be the
law?
The judges consulted together and agreed that such was the law, the law
of the mother-country and therefore the law of colonies.
Of a truth, said Burroughs, in reply; of a truth, I can perceive now
why it is, if a man appear to testify in _favor_ of human life that he
is regarded as a witness against the crown.--God help such crowns, I
say!
Brother!--dear brother!
God help such crowns, I say! What an idea of kingship it gives! What a
fearful commentary on the guardianship of monarchs! How much it says in
a word or two of their fatherly care! He who is _for_ the subject, even
though a life be at stake, is therefore _against_ the king!
Beware of that Sir.--You are on the very threshold of treason.
Be it so.--If there is no other way, I will step over that threshold--.
If you do Sir, it will be into your grave.--
Sir!--
Dear brother, I beseech you!
Enough--enough--I have nothing more to do--nothing more to say,
Sir--not another word, Sir--forgive me Sir--I--I--I--the tears of the
aged I cannot bear; the sorrow of such as are about to go before God, I
am not able, I never was able to bear. I beseech you, however, to look
with pity upon the poor soul there--poor Martha!--let her gray hairs
plead with you, as your gray hairs plead with me--I--I--proceed, Mr.
Attorney-General.
I have nothing more to say?
Nothing more to say!
With submission to the court--nothing.
Do you throw up the case then? said a judge.
Throw up the case! no indeed--no!--But if Mr. Counsellor Burroughs
here, who has contrived in my humble opinion, to make the procedure of
this court appear--that is to say--with all due submission--appear to
be not much better than a laughing-stock to the--to the--to my brethren
of the bar--if Mr. Burroughs, I say, if he has nothing more to say--I
beg leave to say--that is to say--that I have nothing more to say--.
Say--say--say--whispered one of his brethren of the bar--what say you
to that Mr. Burroughs?