atening to overthrow and extirpate religion and morality, and
establish the kingdom of the Prince of darkness in a country which had
been dedicated, by the prayers and tears and sufferings of its pious
fathers, to the Church of Christ and the service and worship of the true
God. The feeling, dismal and horrible indeed, became general, that the
providence of God was removed from them; that Satan was let loose, and
he and his confederates had free and unrestrained power to go to and
fro, torturing and destroying whomever he willed."

The trials were held by a Special Court, consisting of William
Stoughton, Peter Sergeant, Nath. Saltonstall, Wait Winthrop, Bartho'
Gedney, John Richards, Saml. Sewall, John Hathorne, Tho. Newton, and
Jonathan Corwin,--not one of them a lawyer.

Whatever his associates may have thought of their ways of doing God's
service, after the tragedy was over, Sewall, one of the most zealous of
the justices, made a public confession of his errors before the
congregation of the Old South Church, January 14, 1697. Were the
agonizing groans of poor old Giles Corey, pressed to death under planks
weighted with stones, or the prayers of the saintly Burroughs ringing in
his ears?

"The conduct of Judge Sewall claims our particular admiration. He
observed annually in private a day of humiliation and prayer, during the
remainder of his life, to keep fresh in his mind a sense of repentance
and sorrow for the part he bore in the trials. On the day of the general
fast, he arose in the place where he was accustomed to worship, the old
South, in Boston, and in the presence of the great assembly, handed up
to the pulpit a written confession, acknowledging the error into which
he had been led, praying for the forgiveness of God and his people, and
concluding with a request, to all the congregation to unite with him in
devout supplication, that it might not bring down the displeasure of the
Most High upon his country, his family, or himself. He remained standing
during the public reading of the paper. This was an act of true
manliness and dignity of soul." (_Upham's Salem Witchcraft_, Vol. II, p.
441).

Grim, stern, narrow as he was, this man in his self-judgment commands
the respect of all true men.

The ministers stood with the magistrates in their delusion and
intemperate zeal. Two hundred and sixteen years after the last witch was
hung in Massachusetts a clearer light falls on one of the striking
personalitie