t gruesome episode in American history, and
it sheds back a lurid light upon the long tale of witchcraft in the
past." (_Fiske's New France and New England_, 195.)

"The sainted minister in the church; the woman of the scarlet letter in
the market place! What imagination would have been irreverent enough to
surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them both." (_Scarlet
Letter_, HAWTHORNE.)

"We are made partners in parish and village feuds. We share in the
chimney corner gossip, and learn for the first time how many mean and
merely human motives, whether consciously or unconsciously, gave impulse
and intensity to the passions of the actors in that memorable tragedy
which dealt the death blow in this country to the belief in Satanic
compacts." (_Among my Books--Witchcraft_, p. 142, LOWELL.)

"The tragedy was at an end. It lasted about six months, from the first
accusations in March until the last executions in September.... It was
an epidemic of mad superstitious fear, bitterly to be regretted, and a
stain upon the high civilization of the Bay Colony." (_Historic Towns of
New England, Salem_, p. 148, LATIMER.)

What was done at Salem, when the tempest of unreason broke loose? Who
were the chief actors in it? This was done. From the first accusation in
March, 1692, to the last execution in September, 1692, nineteen persons
were hanged and one man was pressed to death[D] (_no witch was ever
burned in New England_), hundreds of innocent men and women were
imprisoned, or fled into exile or hiding places, their homes were broken
up, their estates were ruined, and their families and friends were left
in sorrow, anxiety, and desolation; and all this terrorism was wrought
at the instance of the chief men in the communities, the magistrates,
and the ministers.

[Footnote D: Fifty-five persons suffered torture, and twenty were
executed before the delusion ended. _Ency. Americana_ (Vol. 16,
"Witchcraft").]

Upham in his _Salem Witchcraft_ (Vol. II. pp. 249-250) thus pictures
the situation.

"The prisons in Salem, Ipswich, Boston, and Cambridge, were crowded. All
the securities of society were dissolved. Every man's life was at the
mercy of every man. Fear sat on every countenance, terror and distress
were in all hearts, silence pervaded the streets; all who could, quit
the country; business was at a stand; a conviction sunk into the minds
of men, that a dark and infernal confederacy had got foot-hold in the
land, thre