has been
foreshown to me by the spirit of prophecy. Now, reverend sir, if the
event be known to the spirit, it must have been foredoomed in the
councils of God. If so, why punish her for doing that in which she had
no free will?'

'Young man,' said Dr. Mather, bending down from the pulpit and looking
very severely upon Manasseh, 'take care! you are trenching on
blasphemy.'

'I do not care. I say it again. Either Lois Barclay is a witch, or she
is not. If she is, it has been foredoomed for her, for I have seen a
vision of her death as a condemned witch for many months past--and the
voice has told me there was but one escape for her, Lois--the voice you
know--' In his excitement he began to wander a little, but it was
touching to see how conscious he was that by giving way he would lose
the thread of the logical argument by which he hoped to prove that Lois
ought not to be punished, and with what an effort he wrenched his
imagination away from the old ideas, and strove to concentrate all his
mind upon the plea that, if Lois was a witch, it had been shown him by
prophecy; and if there was prophecy there must be foreknowledge; if
foreknowledge, foredoom; if foredoom, no exercise of free will, and,
therefore, that Lois was not justly amenable to punishment.

On he went, plunging into heresy, caring not--growing more and more
passionate every instant, but directing his passion into keen argument,
desperate sarcasm, instead of allowing it to excite his imagination.
Even Dr. Mather felt himself on the point of being worsted in the very
presence of this congregation, who, but a short half-hour ago, looked
upon him as all but infallible. Keep a good heart, Cotton Mather! your
opponent's eye begins to glare and flicker with a terrible yet
uncertain light--his speech grows less coherent, and his arguments are
mixed up with wild glimpses at wilder revelations made to himself
alone. He has touched on the limits,--he has entered the borders of
blasphemy, and with an awful cry of horror and reprobation the
congregation rise up, as one man, against the blasphemer. Dr. Mather
smiled a grim smile, and the people were ready to stone Manasseh, who
went on, regardless, talking and raving.

'Stay, stay!' said Grace Hickson--all the decent family shame which
prompted her to conceal the mysterious misfortune of her only son from
public knowledge done away with by the sense of the immediate danger to
his life. 'Touch him not. He knows not