Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/74

 *stroke of the policy—as her having been one of their own number would disarm suspicion, while it could be so arranged at the examination as to confirm their power.

Warrants were immediately made out and issued against the persons thus named, for by this time a conviction of the reality of the sufferings of the girls, and that they were the result of witchcraft, was nearly universal among the people.

Great pains were taken to give notoriety and scenic effect to these first examinations; possibly it was thought that by taking up the matter with a high hand they should strike terror to the Evil One and his confederates, and stamp out the power of Satan at once and forever.

A special court was therefore at once convened to meet and hold its first session at Salem village on the first of March, for the trial of the persons thus accused of this strange and monstrous crime; and in the mean time the unhappy prisoners were lodged in jail, loaded with fetters and chains (it being the commonly received opinion that mere mortal hemp had not sufficient