Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/108



CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST EXAMINATIONS.

"Oh! what were we, If the All Merciful should mete to us With the same rigorous measure wherewithal Sinner to sinner metes? But God beholds The secrets of the heart—therefore His name Is—Merciful."

As this does not purport to be definitely a work upon Witchcraft, it is not our intention to weary the patience or harrow up the feelings of the reader unnecessarily by portraying the painful details of the several trials, except in so far as they have a connection with or a bearing upon the several personages of our story.

The terrible episode of poor Giles Corey we have therefore intentionally omitted—his brave "contumacy" as it was then called—the constancy with which he maintained his pertinacious silence, steadfastly refusing to