s against abducting the
minister," rejoined Raymond laughing; "a thing which I am rather loath
to do."

"I see," replied Joseph, also laughing. "I scruple at taking mustard,
and you at cayenne pepper. It is a matter of mental organization
probably."

"Yes--and if a few or many doses of mustard will prevent my being
arrested as a witch, which would put it entirely out of my power to aid
Dulcibel in her affliction--and perhaps turn some of the "afflicted"
girls over to her side, in case she has to stand a trial for her life--I
shall certainly swallow them with as much grace as if they were so many
spoonfuls of honey. There is a time to be over-scrupulous, friend
Joseph, but not when my beloved one is in the cage of the tigers. Yes, I
shall not hesitate to meet craft with craft."

And Mistress Putnam, sweet, good woman as she was, nodded her head,
woman-like, approvingly, carried away perhaps by the young man's
earnestness, and by the strength of his love.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The Cruel Doings of the Special Court.

Meanwhile the Special Court of seven Judges--a majority of whom were
from Boston, with the Deputy Governor of the Colony, William Stoughten,
as Chief-Justice--was by no means indolent. Of the proceedings of this
court, which embodied apparently the best legal intellect of the colony,
no official record is in existence. Its shameful pages, smeared all over
with bigotry and blood, no doubt were purposely destroyed. So far as we
are acquainted with the evidence given before it, it was substantially
the same as had been given at the previous examinations before the
committing magistrates.

That nothing was too extravagant and absurd to be received as evidence
by this learned court, is proven by the statement of the Reverend Cotton
Mather, already alluded to, relative to a demon entering the
meeting-house and tearing down a part of it, in obedience to a look from
Mistress Bridget Bishop--of which diabolical outrage the Court was duly
informed. Besides, there could have been no other kind of evidence
forthcoming, that would apply to the crime of which all the accused
were charged, Witchcraft. Many of the prisoners indeed were accused of
murdering children and others, whose illness had been beyond the
physician's power to cure; but the murders were all committed, it was
alleged, by the use of "spectres," "familiars," "puppets," and other
supernatural means. Against such accusations it was impossible for