Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/339

 great body of the people were rescued from their delusion."

All the previous trials had been held by a special court, which was now superseded, and a permanent and regular tribunal, the Superior Court of Judicature, was then established. They held their first court in January, 1693, and continued their sessions until May—although no new condemnations appear to have been made by them; and in May, Sir William Phips, the governor, by a general proclamation, discharged all the prisoners.

The number thus set free is said to have been about one hundred and fifty. Twenty had been executed—some had died in prison—a considerable number had broken from jail and made their escape; and it has been estimated that the whole number of persons who had been committed on charge of this imaginary crime amounted to several hundreds.

But even after this legal acquittal, the prisoners were not set at liberty until they had paid all the charges for their board while in prison, and all the court and jailor's fees; by