Читать книгу Ye Lyttle Salem Maide. A Story of Witchcraft онлайн

43 страница из 52

Master Wentworth and his family arrived early. The watchman paced the platform above the great door, beating a drum to call the people to service. Several horses were tied to the hitching-post. Some of the people were wandering in the churchyard which stretched down the hill-slope.

Others of the sad-eyed Puritans gathered in little groups, discussing a new and terrible doctrine which had obtained currency. It was said that the gallows had been set up, not only for the guilty but for those who rebuked the superstition of witchery. The unbelievers would be made to suffer to the fullest extent of the law.

And another fearful rumour was being circulated to the effect that a renowned witch-finder of England had been sent for. He was said to discover a witch by some mark on the body, and then cause the victim to be bound hand and foot and cast into a pond. If the person floated he was pronounced guilty and straightway drawn out and hanged. But he who was innocent sank at once.

Soldiers brought from Boston Town to quell any riots that might arise, added an unusual animation to the scene. Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton and the six other judges conducting the trials, were the centre of a group of the gentry.