Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/297

 feeling? You will please state it to the court."

"It wa' somewhat wi' which the coort ha' nathing to do," persisted Elsie, who would have died sooner than tell the story of her daughter's wrong in open court. "It wa' jist an auld world story, an' I am na' free to tell it here."

Insinuation, question, and cross-examination failed to draw any thing more from the wary and determined old woman, and she was remanded to jail.

Of course the impression she had made was a very unfavorable one; her sharpness had irritated her judges, and the pertinacity with which she refused to gratify the curiosity of the court was looked upon as a sure test of her guilt.

Twice more she was arraigned, and still she refused to give any further explanation of the ominous words; and her refusal to comply being regarded as contumacy and contempt of court, in addition to the primary charge against her, the verdict of the jury was "Guilty"—and she was condemned and sentenced to death.