“Do you believe these afflicted persons do not say
     true?—­They may lie, for aught I know.

     “May not you lie?—­I dare not tell a lie, if it would save
     my life.”

At this point, the marshal declared that “she pinched her hands, and Elizabeth Hubbard was immediately afflicted.  Several of the afflicted cried out that they saw her upon the beam” of the meeting-house over their heads; and there was, no doubt, a scene of frightful excitement.  The magistrate, in the depth of his awe and distress, earnestly appealed to the accused, “Pray God discover you, if you be guilty.”  Nothing daunted, she replied, “Amen, amen.  A false tongue will never make a guilty person.”  A great uproar then arose.  The accusers fell into dreadful convulsions, among the rest John Indian, who cried out, “She bites, she bites!” The magistrate, overcome by the sight of these sufferings, again appealed to her, “Have not you compassion for these afflicted?” She calmly and firmly answered, “No:  I have none.”  The uproar rose higher.  The accusers all declared that they saw the “black man,” Satan himself, standing by her side.  They pretended to try to approach her, but were suddenly deprived of the power of locomotion.  John Indian attempted to rush upon her, but fell sprawling upon the floor.  The magistrate again appealed to her:  “What is the reason these cannot come near you?”—­“I cannot tell.  It may be the Devil bears me more malice than another.”—­“Do you not see God evidently discovering you?”—­“No, not a bit for that.”—­“All the congregation besides think so.”—­“Let them think what they will.”—­“What is the reason these cannot come to you?”—­“I do not know but they can, if they will; or else, if you please, I will come to them.”—­“What was that the black man whispered to you?”—­“There was none whispered to me.”  She was committed to prison.

In the mean while, preparations had been going on to bring upon the stage a more striking character, and give to the excited public mind a greater shock than had yet been experienced.  Intimations had been thrown out that higher culprits than had been so far brought to light were in reserve, and would, in due time, be unmasked.  It was hinted that a minister had joined the standard of the Arch-enemy, and was leading the devilish confederacy.  In the accounts given of the diabolical sacraments, a man in black had been described, but no name yet given.  As Charles the Second, while they were hanging the regicides, at the Restoration, was looking about for a preacher to hang, and used Hugh Peters for the occasion; so the “afflicted children,” or those acting behind them, wanted a minister to complete the dramatis personae of their tragedy.  His connection with the society and its controversies, and the animosities which had thus become attached to him, naturally suggested Mr. Burroughs.  He was then pursuing, as usual, a laborious, humble, self-sacrificing ministry, in the midst of perils and privations, away down in the frontier settlements on the coast of Maine, and little dreamed of what was brewing, for his ruin and destruction, in his former parish at the village.  This is what Thomas Putnam had in his mind when he spoke of a “wheel within a wheel,” and “the high and dreadful” things not then disclosed that were to make “ears tingle.”