you hurt this person?

MARTHA.
I do not.
I am not guilty of the charge against me.

MARY.
Avoid, she-devil! You may torment me now!
Avoid, avoid, Witch!

MARTHA.
I am innocent.
I never had to do with any Witchcraft
Since I was born. I am a gospel woman.

MARY.
You are a gospel Witch!

MARTHA (clasping her hands).
Ah me! ah me!
Oh, give me leave to pray!

MARY (stretching out her hands).
She hurts me now.
See, she has pinched my hands!

HATHORNE.
Who made these marks
Upon her hands?

MARTHA.
I do not know. I stand
Apart from her. I did not touch her hands.

HATHORNE.
Who hurt her then?

MARTHA.
I know not.

HATHORNE.
Do you think
She is bewitched?

MARTHA.
Indeed I do not think so.
I am no Witch, and have no faith in Witches.

HATHORNE.
Then answer me: When certain persons came
To see you yesterday, how did you know
Beforehand why they came?

MARTHA.
I had had speech;
The children said I hurt them, and I thought
These people came to question me about it.

HATHORNE.
How did you know the children had been told
To note the clothes you wore?

MARTHA.
My husband told me
What others said about it.

HATHORNE.
Goodman Corey,
Say, did you tell her?

COREY.
I must speak the truth;
I did not tell her. It was some one else.

HATHORNE.
Did you not say your husband told you so?
How dare you tell a lie in this assembly?
Who told you of the clothes? Confess the truth.

MARTHA bites her lips, and is silent.

You bite your lips, but do not answer me!

MARY.
Ah, she is biting me! Avoid, avoid!

HATHORNE.
You said your husband told you.

MARTHA.
Yes, he told me
The children said I troubled them.

HATHORNE.
Then tell me,
Why do you trouble them?

MARTHA.
I have denied it.

MARY.
She threatened me; stabbed at me with her spindle;
And, when my brother thrust her with his sword,
He tore her gown, and cut a piece away.
Here are they both, the spindle and the cloth.

Shows them.

HATHORNE.
And there are persons here who know the truth
Of what has now been said. What answer make you?

MARTHA.
I make no answer. Give me leave to pray.

HATHORNE.
Whom would