ying the fact, was,
on the certificate of physicians that she was _compos mentis_,
condemned and executed.

Sir William Phipps, the governor, on his arrival from England, brought
with him opinions which could not fail to strengthen the popular
prejudice, and the lieutenant governor supported one which was well
calculated to render it sanguinary. He maintained that though the
devil might appear in the shape of a guilty person, he could never be
permitted to assume that of an innocent one. Consequently, when those
who affected to perceive the form which tormented them designated any
particular person as guilty, the guilt of that person was established,
because he could not, if innocent, be personated by an evil spirit.

The public mind being thus predisposed, four girls in Salem complained
of being afflicted in the same manner with those in Boston. The
physicians, unable to account for the disorder, attributed it to
witchcraft, and an old Indian woman in the neighbourhood was selected
as the witch. The attention bestowed on these girls gave them great
importance; and not only confirmed them in the imposture, but produced
other competitors who were ambitious of the same distinction. Several
other persons were now bewitched; and not only the old Indian, but two
other old women, the one bedridden, and the other subject to
melancholy and distraction, were accused as witches. It was necessary
to keep up the agitation already excited, by furnishing fresh subjects
for astonishment; and in a short time, the accusations extended to
persons who were in respectable situations. The manner in which these
accusations were received, evidenced such a degree of public
credulity, that the impostors seem to have been convinced of their
power to assail with impunity, all whom caprice or malignity might
select for their victims. Such was the prevailing infatuation, that in
one instance, a child of five years old was charged as an accomplice
in these pretended crimes; and if the nearest relatives of the accused
manifested either tenderness for their situation, or resentment at the
injury done their friends, they drew upon themselves the vengeance of
these profligate impostors, and were involved in the dangers from
which they were desirous of rescuing those with whom they were most
intimately connected. For going out of church when allusions were made
from the pulpit to a person of fair fame, a sister was charged as a
witch; and for accompany