--"Staggerings" of the jury--Contradictions--Verdict--
Elizabeth Godman--Governor Goodyear's dilemma--Strange doings--Ball's
information--Imprisonment--Discharge--Nathaniel and Rebecca Greensmith--
Character, Accusation--Rebecca's confession--Conviction--Double execution
at Hartford

CHAPTER IX
Elizabeth Clawson--The indictment--Witnesses--"Kateran" Branch--Garney--
Kecham--Abigail and Nathaniel Cross--Bates--Sargent Wescot and Abigail--
Finch--Bishop--Holly--Penoir--Slawson--Kateran's Antics--Acquittal.
Hugh Crotia--The court--Grand jury--Indictment--Testimony--Confession--
Acquittal--Gaol delivery--Elizabeth Garlick--A sick woman's fancies--"A
black thing at the bed's featte"--Burning herbs--The sick child--The ox'
broken leg--The dead ram and sow--The Tale burning

CHAPTER X
Goodwife Knapp--Her character--A notable case--Imprisonment--Harsh
treatment--The inquisitors--Their urgency--Knapp's appeal--The postmortem
desecration--Prominent people involved--Davenport and Ludlow--Staplies vs.
Ludlow--The court--Confidential gossip--Cause of the suit--Testimony--
Davenport--Sherwood--Tomson--Gould--Ward--Pell--Brewster--Lockwood--Hull--
Brundish--Whitlock--Barlow--Lyon--Mistress Staplies--Her doings aforetime--
Tashs' night ride--"A light woman"--Her character--Reparation suit--Her
later indictment--Power of the delusion--Pertinent inquiry

CHAPTER XI
Present opinions--J. Hammond Trumbull--Annie Eliot
Trumbull--Review--Authenticity--Record evidence--Controversialists--Actual
cases--Suspicions--Accusations--Acquittals--Flights--Executions--First
complete roll--Changes in belief--Contrast--Edwards--Carter--"The
Rogerenes"--Conclusion--Hathorne--Mather

THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION
IN COLONIAL CONNECTICUT

CHAPTER I

"First, because Witchcraft is a rife and common sinne in these our
daies, and very many are intangled with it, beeing either practitioners
thereof in their owne persons, or at the least, yielding to seeke for
helpe and counsell of such as practise it." _A Discovrse of the Damned
Art of Witchcraft_, PERKINS, 1610.

"And just as God has his human servants, his church on earth, so also
the Devil has his--men and women sworn to his service and true to his
bidding. To win such followers he can appear to men in any form he
pleases, can deceive them, enter into compact with them, initiate them
into his worship, make them his allies for the ruin of their fellows.
Now it is these human allies and servants of