Part 10 (1/2)

_Corwin._ This is but levity, and hath naught to do with the trial.

_Hathorne._ We will proceed with the examination. Widow Eunice Hutchins, produce the cape.

[Widow Hutchins _comes forward, holding the cape by a corner._

_Hathorne._ Put it over your daughter's shoulders.

_Hutchins._ Oh, your wors.h.i.+ps, I pray you not! It will kill her!

_Ann._ Oh, do not! do not! It will kill me! Oh, mother, do not! Oh, your wors.h.i.+ps! Oh, Minister Parris!

_Parris._ Why put the maid to this needless agony?

_Corwin._ Put the cape over her shoulders.

[Widow Hutchins _approaches_ Ann _hesitatingly, and throws the cape over her shoulders._ Ann _sinks upon the floor, shrieking._

_Ann._ Take it off! Take it off! It burns! It burns! Take it off!

Have mercy! I shall die! I shall die!

_Hathorne._ Take off the cape; that is enough. Olive Corey, what say you to this? This is the cape you gave Ann Hutchins.

_Olive._ Oh, mother! mother!

_Martha_ (_pus.h.i.+ng forward_). Nay, I will speak again. Ye shall not keep me from it; ye shall not send me out of the meeting-house!

(_The afflicted cry out._) Peace, or I will afflict ye in earnest!

I _will_ speak! If I be a witch, as ye say, then ye have some reason to fear me, even ye most wors.h.i.+pful magistrates and ministers. It might happen to ye even to fall upon the floor in torment, and it would ill accord with your offices. Ye shall hear me. I speak no more for myself--ye may go hang me--I speak for my child. Ye shall not hang her, or judgment will come upon ye. Ye know there is no guile in her; it were monstrous to call her a witch. It were less blasphemy to call her an angel than a witch, and ye know it. Ye know it, all ye maids she hath played with and done her little kindnesses to, ye who would now go hang her. That cape--that cape, most wors.h.i.+pful magistrates, did the dear child earn with her own little hands, that she might give it to Ann, whom she loved so much.

Knowing, as she did, that Ann was poor, and able to have but little bravery of apparel, it was often on her mind to give her somewhat of her own, albeit that was but scanty; and she hath toiled overtimes at her wheel all winter, and sold the yarn in Salem, and so gained a penny at a time wherewithal to buy that cape for Ann. And now will it hang her, the dear child?

Dear Ann, dost thou not remember how thou and my Olive have spent days together, and slept together many a night, and lain awake till dawn talking? Dost thou not remember how thou couldst go nowhere without Olive, nor she without thee, and how no little junketing were complete to the one were the other not there? Dost thou not remember how Olive wept when thy father died? Mercy Lewis, dost thou not remember how my Olive came over and helped thee in thy work that time thou wert ailing, and how she lent thee her shoes to walk to Salem?

Oh, dear children, oh, maids, who have been playmates and friends with my dear child, ye will not do her this harm! Do ye not know that she hath never harmed ye, and would die first? Think of the time when this sickness, that is nigh to madness, shall have pa.s.sed over, and all is quiet again. Then will ye sit in the meeting-house of a Lord's day, and look over at the place where my poor child was wont to sit listening in her little Sabbath best, and ye will see her no more, but will say to yourselves that ye have murdered her.

And then of a week-day ye will see her no more spinning at her wheel in the doorway, nor tending the flowers in her garden. She will come smiling in at your doors no more, nor walk the village street, and ye will always see where she is not, and know that ye have murdered her. Oh, poor children, ye are in truth young, and your minds, I doubt not, sore bewildered! If I have spoken harshly to ye, I pray ye heed it not, except as concerns me. I wot well that I am now done with this world, and I feel already the wind that bloweth over Gallows Hill in my face. But consider well ere ye do any harm to my dear child, else verily the day will come when ye will be more to be pitied than she. Oh, ye will not harm her! Ye will take back your accusation! Oh, wors.h.i.+pful magistrates, oh, Minister Parris, I pray you have mercy upon this child! I pray you mercy as you will need mercy! [_Falls upon her knees._

_Hathorne._ Rise, woman; it is not now mercy, but justice that has to be considered.

_Parris._ In straits like this there is no mercy in the divine will. Shall mercy be shown Satan?

_Corwin._ Mercy Lewis, is it in truth Olive Corey who afflicts you?

_Mercy_ (_hesitating_). I am not so sure as I was.

_Other Afflicted Girls._ Nor I! nor I! nor I!

_Mercy._ Last time I was somewhat blinded and could not see her face. Methinks she was something taller than Olive.

_Ann_ (_shrieks_). Oh, Olive is upon me! The sun s.h.i.+nes on her face!

I see her, she is choking me! Oh! oh!