one put the Prayer-book into her hands it
relieved her. Yet mark you, she could never be brought to read the
Lord's Prayer, whatever book she met with it in, proving thereby
distinctly that she was in league with the devil. I took her into my
own house, that I, even as Dr. Martin Luther did, might wrestle with
the devil and have my fling at him. But when I called my household to
prayer, the devils that possessed her caused her to whistle, and sing,
and yell in a discordant and hellish fashion.'

At this very instant, a shrill, clear whistle pierced all ears. Dr.
Mather stopped for a moment:

'Satan is among you!' he cried. 'Look to yourselves!' And he prayed
with fervour, as if against a present and threatening enemy; but no one
heeded him. Whence came that ominous, unearthly whistle? Every man
watched his neighbour. Again the whistle, out of their very midst! And
then a bustle in a corner of the building, three or four people
stirring, without any cause immediately perceptible to those at a
distance, the movement spread, and, directly after, a passage even in
that dense mass of people was cleared for two men, who bore forwards
Prudence Hickson, lying rigid as a log of wood, in the convulsive
position of one who suffered from an epileptic fit. They laid her down
among the ministers who were gathered round the pulpit. Her mother came
to her, sending up a wailing cry at the sight of her distorted child.
Dr. Mather came down from the pulpit and stood over her, exorcising the
devil in possession, as one accustomed to such scenes. The crowd
pressed forward in mute horror. At length, her rigidity of form and
feature gave way, and she was terribly convulsed--torn by the devil, as
they called it. By-and-by the violence of the attack was over, and the
spectators began to breathe once more, though still the former horror
brooded over them, and they listened as if for the sudden ominous
whistle again, and glanced fearfully around, as if Satan were at their
backs picking out his next victim.

Meanwhile, Dr. Mather, Pastor Tappau, and one or two others were
exhorting Prudence to reveal, if she could, the name of the person, the
witch, who, by influence over Satan, had subjected the child to such
torture as that which they had just witnessed. They bade her speak in
the name of the Lord. She whispered a name in the low voice of
exhaustion. None of the congregation could hear what it was. But the
Pastor Tappau, when he heard it, dr