nof,
those that will make witchcraft of such things will make hanging work
apace and we are informed of no other but such as these brought against
this woman.

"These in brief are our reasons for repreueing this prisoner.
May 12th, 1693.
SAMUELL WILLIS.
WM PITKIN
NATH STANLY.

"The Court may please to consider also how farr these
proceedings do put a difficulty on any further tryal of
this woman."

All honor to Joseph Elliot, Timothy Woodbridge and their ministerial
associates; to Samuel Willis, Pitkin and Nath. Stanly, level-headed men
of affairs, all friends of the court called upon for advice and
counsel--who gave it in full scriptural measure.[H]

[Footnote H: Mercy Disborough was pardoned, as the records show that she
was living in 1707.]

CHAPTER VIII

"Old Matthew Maule was executed for the crime of witchcraft. He was one
of the martyrs to that terrible delusion, which should teach us, among
its other morals, that the influential classes, and those who take upon
themselves to be leaders of the people, are fully liable to all the
passionate error that has ever characterized the maddest mob."

"Clergymen, judges, statesmen--the wisest, calmest, holiest persons of
their day--stood in the inner circle round about the gallows, loudest to
applaud the work of blood, latest to confess themselves miserably
deceived."

"This old reprobate was one of the sufferers when Cotton Mather, and his
brother ministers, and the learned judges, and other wise men, and Sir
William Phipps, the sagacious governor, made such laudable efforts to
weaken the great enemy of souls by sending a multitude of his adherents
up the rocky pathway of Gallows Hill." _The House of the Seven Gables_
(20: 225), HAWTHORNE.

"Then, too, the belief in witchcraft was general. Striking coincidences,
personal eccentricities, unusual events and mysterious diseases seemed
to find an easy explanation in an unholy compact with the devil. A
witticism attributed to Judge Sewall, one of the judges in these trials,
may help us to understand the common panic: 'We know who's who but not
which is witch.' That was the difficulty. At a time when every one
believed in witchcraft it was easy to suspect one's neighbor. It was a
characteristic superstition of the century and should be classed with
the barbarous punishments and religious intolerance of the age." _N.E.
Hist. Towns_.--LATIMER'S--_Salem_ (150).

Multiplication of these witchcraft testimo