ape from the
prison; trusting that, if once at large, Master Raymond would be able to
provide for her safety. But there was one great difficulty. She, with
the others, had given her word to the Keeper not to escape, as the price
of her present exemption from confinement in an exposed, unhealthy cell.
How this promise was to be managed, neither of them had been able to
think of. Keeper Arnold might be approached; but Dulcibel feared not--at
least under present circumstances. If brought to trial and convicted
then to save her life, Dulcibel thought he might be persuaded to aid
her. As to breaking her word to the Keeper, that never entered the mind
of the truthful maiden, or of her lover. Death even was more endurable
than the thought of dishonor--if they had thought of the matter at all.
But as I have said, they never even thought of a such thing. And
therefore how to manage the affair was a very perplexing question.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The First Rattle of the Rattlesnake.

One day about this time Master Raymond was sitting in the porch of the
Red Lion, thinking over a sight he had just seen;--a man had passed by
wearing on the back of his drab coat a capital I two inches long, cut
out of black cloth, and sewed upon it. On inquiry he found the man had
married his deceased wife's sister; and both he and the woman had been
first whipped, and then condemned to wear this letter for the rest of
their lives, according to the law of the colony.[3]

[Footnote 3: See Drake's History of Boston]

Master Raymond was puzzling over the matter not being able to make out
that any real offence had been committed, when who should walk up to the
porch but Master Joseph Putnam. After a hearty hand-shaking between the
two, they retired to Master Raymond's apartments.

"Well, how are things getting along at Salem?"

"Oh, about as usual!"

"Any more accusations?"

"Plenty of them, people are beginning to find out that the best way to
protect themselves is to sham being 'afflicted,' and accuse somebody
else."

"I saw that a good while ago."

"And when a girl or a woman is accused, her relatives and her friends
gather around her, and implore her to confess, to save her life. For
they have found that not one person who has been accused of being a
witch, and has admitted the fact, has been convicted.

"And yet it would seem that a confession of witchcraft ought to be a
better proof of it, than the mere assertion of possible ene