to aught that
is hidden and secret.'

'As you will, cowardly girl, full of terrors, which, if you had
listened to me, might have been lessened, if not entirely done away
with.' And Faith would not utter another word, though Lois tried meekly
to entice her into conversation on some other subject.

The rumour of witchcraft was like the echo of thunder among the hills.
It had broken out in Mr. Tappau's house, and his two little daughters
were the first supposed to be bewitched; but round about, from every
quarter of the town, came in accounts of sufferers by witchcraft. There
was hardly a family without one of these supposed victims. Then arose a
growl and menaces of vengeance from many a household--menaces deepened,
not daunted by the terror and mystery of the suffering that gave rise
to them.

At length a day was appointed when, after solemn fasting and prayer,
Mr. Tappau invited the neighbouring ministers and all godly people to
assemble at his house, and unite with him in devoting a day to solemn
religious services, and to supplication for the deliverance of his
children, and those similarly afflicted, from the power of the Evil
One. All Salem poured out towards the house of the minister. There was
a look of excitement on all their faces; eagerness and horror were
depicted on many, while stern resolution, amounting to determined
cruelty, if the occasion arose, was seen on others.

In the midst of the prayer, Hester Tappau, the younger girl, fell into
convulsions; fit after fit came on, and her screams mingled with the
shrieks and cries of the assembled congregation. In the first pause,
when the child was partially recovered, when the people stood around
exhausted and breathless, her father, the Pastor Tappau, lifted his
right hand, and adjured her, in the name of the Trinity, to say who
tormented her. There was a dead silence; not a creature stirred of all
those hundreds. Hester turned wearily and uneasily, and moaned out the
name of Hota, her father's Indian servant. Hota was present, apparently
as much interested as any one; indeed, she had been busying herself
much in bringing remedies to the suffering child. But now she stood
aghast, transfixed, while her name was caught up and shouted out in
tones of reprobation and hatred by all the crowd around her. Another
moment and they would have fallen upon the trembling creature and torn
her limb from limb--pale, dusky, shivering Hota, half guilty-looking
from her ve