he was better informed in a whisper by a man who
was holding her up. And then she cried out that it was "Alden! Alden!"
who was afflicting her.

At length one of the magistrates ordering Captain Alden to stand upon a
chair, there was no further trouble upon that point; and the usual
demonstrations began. As the accused naturally looked upon the
"afflicted" girls, they went off into spasms, shrieks and convulsions.
This was nearly always the first proceeding, as it created a profound
sympathy for them, and was almost sufficient of itself to condemn the
accused.

"The tall man is pinching me!"

"Oh, he is choking me!"

"He is choking me! do hold his hands!"

"He stabs me with his sword--oh, take it away from him!"

Such were the exclamations that came from the writhing and convulsed
girls.

"Turn away his head! and hold his hands!" cried Squire Hathorne. "Take
away his sword!" said Squire Gedney while the old Captain grew red and
wrathful at the babel around him, and at the indignities to which he was
subject.

"Captain Alden, why do you torment these poor girls who never injured
you?"

"Torment them!--you see I am not touching them. I do not even know them;
I never saw them before in my life," growled the indignant old seaman.

"See! there is the little yellow bird kissing his lips!" cried Abigail
Williams. "Now it is whispering into his ear. It is bringing him a
message from the other witch Dulcibel Burton. See! see! there it goes
back again to her--through the window!"

So well was this done, that probably half of the people present would
have been willing to swear the next day, that they actually saw the
yellow bird as she described it.

"Ask him if he did not give her the yellow bird," said Leah Herrick.
"But probably he will lie about it."

"Did you not give the witch, Dulcibel Burton, a yellow bird, which is
one of her familiars?" said Squire Hathorne sternly.

"I gave her a canary bird that I brought from the West Indies, if that
is what you mean," replied the Captain. "But what harm was there in
that?"

"I knew it! The yellow bird told me so, when it came to peck out my
eyes," cried Mercy Lewis. "Oh! there it is again!" and she struck wildly
into the air before her face. "Drive it away! Do drive it away, some
one!"

Here a young man pulled out his rapier, and began thrusting at the
invisible bird in a furious manner.

"Now it comes to me!" cried Sarah Churchill. And then the other girls
a