y, and she almost foams at the mouth while
talking of her."

"The examination of Mistress Nurse before the magistrate comes off
to-day. Shall we not attend it?"

"Of course, but be careful of thy language, Friend Raymond. Do not let
thy indignation run away with thy discretion."

Raymond laughed outright, as did young Mistress Putnam. "This advice
from you, Master Joseph! who art such a very model of prudence and
cold-bloodedness! If thou wilt be only half as cautious and discreet as
I am, we shall give no offence even to the craziest of them."

CHAPTER XI.

Examination of Rebecca Nurse.

When they arrived at the village, the examination was in progress.
Mistress Rebecca Nurse, the mother of a large family; aged, venerable,
and bending now a little under the weight of years, was standing as a
culprit before the magistrates, who doubtless had often met her in the
social gatherings of the neighborhood.

She was guarded by two constables, she who needed no guarding. Around,
and as near her as they were allowed to stand, stood her husband and her
grown-up sons and daughters.

One of the strangest features of the time, as it strikes the reader of
this day, was the peaceful submission to the lawful authorities
practised by the husbands and fathers, and grown-up sons and brothers of
the women accused. Reaching as the list of alleged witches did in a
short time, to between one hundred and fifty and two hundred
persons--nearly the whole of them members of the most respectable
families--it is wonderful that a determined stand in their behalf was
not the result. One hundred resolute men, resolved to sacrifice their
lives if need be, would have put a stop to the whole matter. And if
there had been even twenty men in Salem, like Joseph Putnam, the thing
no doubt would have been done.

And in the opinion of the present writer, such a course would have been
far more worthy of praise, than the slavish submission to such outrages
as were perpetrated under the names of law, justice and religion. The
sons of these men, eighty years later, showed at Lexington and Concord
and Bunker Hill, that when Law and Peace become but grotesque masks,
under which are hidden the faces of legalized injustice and tyranny,
then the time has come for armed revolt and organized resistance.

But such was the darkness and bigotry of the day in respect to religious
belief, that the great majority of the people were mentally paralyzed by
the