_jumps down from the table._

_Phoebe._ Oh, Nancy, something's coming! Run, run quick, or it 'll
catch us! [_Both run out. Curtain falls._

Act II.

_Best room in the house of_ Widow Eunice Hutchins, Ann's _mother._
John Hathorne _and_ Minister Parris _enter, shown in by_ Widow
Hutchins.

_Hutchins._ I pray you, sirs, to take some cheers the while I go
for a moment's space to my poor afflicted child. I heard her cry out
but now. [_Exit._

[Hathorne _and_ Parris _seat themselves, but_ Hathorne _quickly
springs up, and begins walking._

_Hathorne._ I cannot be seated in this crisis. I would as lief be
seated in an onset of the savages. I must up and lay about me. We
have heretofore been too lax in this dreadful business; the powers
of darkness be almost over our palisades. I tell thee there must be
more action!

_Parris_ (_pounding with his cane_). Yea, Master Hathorne, I am with
thee. Verily, this last be enough to make the elect themselves quake
with fear. This Martha Corey is a woman of the covenant.

_Hathorne._ There must be no holding back. The powers of darkness
be let loose amongst us, and they that be against them must be up.
We must hang, hang, hang, till we overcome!

_Parris._ Yea, we must not falter, though all the woods of
Massachusetts Bay be cut for gallows-trees, and the country be like
Sodom. Verily, Satan hath manifested himself at the head of our
enemies; the colonies were never in such peril as now. We must
strive as never before, or all will be lost. The wilderness full of
malignant savages, who be the veritable servants of Satan, closes us
in, and the cloven footmark is in our midst. There must be no
dallying as we would save the colonies. Widow Hutchins saith her
daughter is grievously pressed. (_A scream._) There, heard you
that?

_Hathorne._ It is dreadful, dreadful, that an innocent maid should
be so tormented by acts which her guileless fancy could never
compass!

_Parris._ Verily, malignity hath ever cowardice in conjunction with
it. Satan loveth best to afflict those who can make no defence, and
fastens his talons first in the lambs.

_Enter_ Widow Hutchins _with the embroidered cape._

_Hutchins._ Here, your worships, is the cape.

_Hathorne_ (_examines it_). I have seen women folk wear its like on
the Sabbath day. I can see naught unwonted about it.

_Parris._ It looketh like any cape.

_Hutchins._ I fear it be not like any cape. Had your worships