wretched insufficiency of proof, the jury brought in a
verdict of not guilty. As they brought in this verdict, all the children
began to shriek and scream, until the court committed the monstrous
wrong of causing her to be indicted anew. In order to warrant this, the
judge referred to one perfectly natural and harmless expression made
by the woman when under examination. The jury at last brought her in
guilty. She was condemned; and, having been brought into the church
heavily ironed, was solemnly excommunicated and delivered over to Satan
by the minister. Some good sense still prevailed, and the Governor
reprieved her; but ecclesiastical pressure and popular clamour were too
powerful. The Governor was induced to recall his reprieve, and she was
executed, protesting her innocence and praying for her enemies.(399)

(399) See Drake, The Witchcraft Delusion in New England, vol. iii, pp.
34 et seq.

Another typical case was presented. The Rev. Mr. Burroughs, against whom
considerable ill will had been expressed, and whose petty parish quarrel
with the powerful Putnam family had led to his dismissal from his
ministry, was named by the possessed as one of those who plagued them,
one of the most influential among the afflicted being Ann Putnam. Mr.
Burroughs had led a blameless life, the main thing charged against him
by the Putnams being that he insisted strenuously that his wife should
not go about the parish talking of her own family matters. He was
charged with afflicting the children, convicted, and executed. At the
last moment he repeated the Lord's Prayer solemnly and fully, which
it was supposed that no sorcerer could do, and this, together with his
straightforward Christian utterances at the execution, shook the faith
of many in the reality of diabolic possession. Ere long it was known
that one of the girls had acknowledged that she had belied some persons
who had been executed, and especially Mr. Burroughs, and that she had
begged forgiveness; but this for a time availed nothing. Persons who
would not confess were tied up and put to a sort of torture which was
effective in securing new revelations.

In the case of Giles Corey the horrors of the persecution culminated.
Seeing that his doom was certain, and wishing to preserve his family
from attainder and their property from confiscation, he refused to
plead. Though eighty years of age, he was therefore pressed to death,
and when, in his last agonies, his