Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/290

 "I hear you have said that you would open our eyes for us."

"Na'—na', I ne'er said the word; I wad na' be that presumptuous."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That I think it is far abune me. It wad tak' the power o' Him who opened blind Bartimeus his eyes."

This allusion to the supposed professional blindness of the court which the prisoner at the bar was accused of having made, seems to have rankled in the breast of Justice Hathorne with peculiar bitterness; and her spirited answer, although it might silence, was certainly not calculated to conciliate him—indeed, the whole conduct and bearing of the prisoner, both in confinement and upon trial, was rasping and irritating in the extreme, and such as to increase the prejudice already existing against her.

But it must be remembered in her extenuation that, believing the charge brought against her had originated in some absurd ignorance, which would be brought to light in the course of events, and would triumphantly vindicate her good name, she could