Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/287

 But then it must be remembered that Rebecca Nurse had made many personal enemies by the part she had taken in the former Church controversy, and to their malicious revenge many persons attributed her condemnation; while she herself was wholly uncompromised in these matters, and was not aware of an enemy.

At length, when worn with her confinement and irritated with delay, she was arraigned for trial, and the same formulas were gone through with that had marked the trials of her unfortunate predecessors; but Elsie Campbell, with her heart full of anxiety for her child, and bitter contempt and hatred of her judges, was a sharp match for the sharpest of her opponents.

Reckless of all possible consequences—fearless by nature—sure that a trial must make her innocence clear to all—and stung to madness by the uncalled-for malice of her accusers and the injustice of her confinement, her sharp Scottish shrewdness and quick mother wit flashed back upon them in angry, scornful words.

When she was placed at the bar, Justice