the witch difficulty arose, and the young girl was much worried and grieved at what happened.  On one occasion she happened to say to a friend that she was sorry for the unfortunate witches who were to be hanged on the following day.  The friend appears to have been an enemy in disguise, and, turning to Margaret, told her that if she talked that way she would herself be tried as a witch.  As an evidence of how vindictive justice was at this time, the poor girl was arrested by the sheriff on the following day, in the name of the King and Queen, on a charge of witchcraft.  The young girl was led through the streets and jeered at by the crowd.  Arrived at the court, her alleged friend gave a variety of testimony against her.  The usual stories about aches and pains were of course told.  Some other details were added.  Thus, Margaret by looking at a number of hens had killed them.  She had also been seen running around at night in spectral attire.  The poor girl fainted in the dock, and this was regarded as a chastisement from above, and as direct evidence of her guilt.  She was removed to the jail, where she had to lie on a hard bench, only to be dragged back into court the following day, to be asked a number of outrageous questions.

With sobs she protested her innocence, but as she did so, the witnesses against her called out that they were in torment, and that the very motion of the girl’s lips caused them terrible pain.  She was sentenced to be hanged with eight other alleged witches two days later, and was carried back, fainting, to her cell.  In a few minutes the girl was delirious, and began to talk about her lover, and of her future prospects.  Even her sister was not allowed to remain with her during the night, and the frail young creature was left to the tender mercies of heartless jailors.

A few hours before the time set for execution, young Orcutt sailed into the harbor, and before daybreak he was at the house.  Here he learned for the first time the awful calamity which had befallen his sweetheart in his absence.  At 7 o’clock he was allowed to enter the jail, with the convicted girl’s sister.  At the prison door they were informed that the wicked girl had died during the night.  Knowing that there was no hope under any circumstances of the sentence being remitted, the bereaved ones regarded the news as good, and although they broke down with grief at the shipwreck of their lives, they both realized that, to use the devout words of the victim’s sister, “The Lord had delivered her from the hands of her enemies.”

The record of brutality in connection with the witch agitation might be continued almost without limit, for the number of victims was very great.  Visitors to Danvers to-day are often shown by local guides where some of the tragedies of the persecution were committed.  The superstition was finally driven away by educational enlightenment, and it seems astounding that it lasted as long as it did.  Two hundred years have nearly elapsed since the craze died out, and it is but charitable to admit, that although many of the witnesses must have been corrupt and perjured, the majority of those connected with the cases were thoroughly in earnest, and that although they rejoiced at the undoing of the ungodly, they regretted very much being made the instruments of that undoing.