ghs; but there is reason to believe that he lived
far down in the eastern country, and subsequently came voluntarily to
Salem, from his distant home, to be present at the trial of his mother.
The deposition was obtained from him in the period between her
condemnation and execution. The motives that may have led the
prosecutors to think it important to procure, and the probable
inducement that led him to give, the deposition are explained in my book
[_ii., 298_]. Greenslitt states that "the gun was of six-foot barrel or
thereabouts." Mather reports him as saying "about six or seven foot
barrel." The account of the trial of Burroughs, throughout, is charged
with extreme prejudice against the Prisoner; and the character of the
evidence is exaggerated.

One of the witnesses, in the trial of Bridget Bishop, related a variety
of mishaps, such as the stumping of the off-wheel of his cart, the
breaking of the gears, and a general coming to pieces of the harness and
vehicle, on one occasion; and his not being able, on another, to lift a
bag of corn as easily as usual; and he ascribed it all to the witchery
of the Prisoner. Mather gives his statement, concluding thus: "Many
other pranks of this Bishop this deponent was ready to testify." He
endorses every thing, however absurd, especially if resting on spectral
evidence, as absolute, unquestionable, and demonstrated facts.

Nothing was proved against the moral character of Susannah Martin; and
nothing was brought to bear upon her, but the most ridiculous and
shameful tales of blind superstition and malignant credulity. The
extraordinary acumen and force of mind, however, exhibited in her
defence, to the discomfiture of the examining Magistrates and Judges,
excited their wrath and that of all concerned in the prosecution. Mather
finishes the account of her trial in these words: "NOTE. This woman was
one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world; and
she did now, throughout her whole trial, discover herself to be such an
one. Yet when she was asked what she had to say for herself, her chief
plea was, 'that she had led a most virtuous and holy life.'"--_Wonders,
etc._, 126.

Well might he, and all who acted in bringing this remarkable woman to
her death, have been exasperated against her. She will be remembered, in
perpetual history, as having risen superior to them all, in intellectual
capacity, and as having utterly refuted the whole system of spectral
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