these
witnesses from giving their testimonies? and he answered, He supposed it
was the Devil."

It must have been a reign of terror for the Puritan mother and wife.
What woman could tell whether she or her daughter might not be the next
victim of the bloody harvest? Note the ancient records again. Here are
the words of the colonist, Robert Calef, in his _More Wonders of the
Invisible World_: "September 9. Six more were tried, and received
Sentence of Death; viz., Martha Cory af Salem Village, Mary Easty of
Topsfield, Alice Parker and Ann Pudeater of Salem, Dorcas Hoar of
Beverly, and Mary Bradberry of Salisbury. September 1st, Giles Gory was
prest to Death." And Sewall in his _Diary_ thus speaks of the same
barbarous execution just mentioned: "Monday, Sept. 19, 1692. About noon,
at Salem, Giles Gory was press'd to death for standing Mute; much pains
was used with him two days, one after another, by the Court and Capt.
Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in
vain."[27a]

Those were harsh times, and many a man or woman showed heroic qualities
under the strain. The editor of Sewall's _Diary_ makes this comment upon
the silent heroism of the martyr, Giles Cory: "At first, apparently, a
firm believer in the witchcraft delusion, even to the extent of
mistrusting his saintly wife, who was executed three days after his
torturous death, his was the most tragic of all the fearful offerings.
He had made a will, while confined in Ipswich jail, conveying his
property, according to his own preferences, among his heirs; and, in the
belief that his will would be invalidated and his estate confiscated, if
he were condemned by a jury after pleading to the indictment, he
resolutely preserved silence, knowing that an acqittance was an
impossibility."[27b]

In the case of Cory doubtless the majority of the people thought the
manner of death, like that of Anne Hutchinson, was a fitting judgment of
God; for Sewall records in his ever-helpful Diary: "Sept. 20. Now I
hear from Salem that about 18 years agoe, he [Giles Cory] was suspected
to have stamp'd and press'd a man to death, but was cleared. Twas not
remembered till Ann Putnam was told of it by said Cory's Spectre the
Sabbath day night before the Execution."[28]

The Corys, Eastys, and Putnams were families exceedingly prominent
during the entire course of the mania; Ann Putnam's name appears again
and again. She evidently was a woman of unusual force and im