the trial would proceed. But
then it was otherwise--the accused himself must plead, or the trial
could not go on. Therefore he must be made to plead--by placing heavy
weights upon his breast, and adding to them until the accused either
agreed to plead, or died under the torture. In which last case, the
prisoner lost his life as contumacious; but gained his point of
preserving his estate, and title of nobility if he had any, to his
family.

So, manly old Giles Corey, remorseful for the fate he had helped to
bring upon his wife, and determined that his children should inherit the
property he had acquired, maintained a determined silence when brought
before the Special Court. Being warned, again and again, he simply
smiled. He could bear all that they in their cruel mockery of justice
could inflict upon him.

Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond rode down to Salem that day--to the
orchard where the brave old man was led out of jail to meet his doom.
They saw him, tied hand and foot, and heavy flat stones and iron weights
laid one by one upon him.

"More! More!" pleaded the old man at last. "I shall never yield. But, if
ye be men, make the time short!"

"I cannot stand this," said Master Raymond.

"We are powerless to help him--let us go."

"To torture an old man of eighty years in this way! What a sight for
this new world!" exclaimed Master Putnam, as they turned their horses'
heads and rode off.

His executioners took Giles Corey at his word. They knew the old man
would never yield. So they mercifully heaped the heavy weights upon him
until they had crushed out his life.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Dulcibel's Life in Prison.

Dulcibel's life in prison was of course a very monotonous one. She did
not suffer however as did many other women of equally gentle nature. In
the jails of Ipswich, Boston and Cambridge, there were keepers who
conformed in most cases strictly to the law. In many instances delicate
and weakly women, often of advanced years, were chained, hands and feet,
with heavy irons, night and day.

But Robert Foster and his son, who assisted him as under-keeper, while
indulging before the marshal and the constables in the utmost violence
and severity of language, and who were supposed to be strict enforcers
of all the instructions received from the magistrates, were as we have
seen, at heart, very liberal and kind-hearted men. And the only fear the
prisoners had, was that they would throw up their positio