Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/294

 *amination had failed to prove any thing; and now the accusers, seeing doubtless that the popular sympathy was on the side of the spirited old woman, and that the case was evidently going against them, fell into dreadful convulsions, and writhed in strong contortions, giving utterance to fearful groans and shrieks. When this disturbance was over, and quiet was again restored, the magistrate asked the prisoner: "Is it possible that you have no pity for these afflicted ones?" and she calmly replied, "Na'; I hae nae pity to waste on them."

"Do you not feel that God is discovering you?"

"Ne'er a bit; but if ye kin prove me guilty, I maun lie under it."

At last, after a consultation, the magistrate informed her that one of her accusers had testified that she had been known to torture and cruelly use the young maid, her own grandchild, living with her.

"Alas! that she is na' to the fore to speak for me," said poor Elsie; "she wad na' say sae; but she is lyin' deein' at hame, her lane, puir lambie." And at the thought of her